Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Now *We* Have “the Bigger Half”

Under the radar story – observatories abandoned.

In new victory for protesters, police back away from Mauna Kea for second straight day

The directors of existing telescopes atop the mountain have evacuated their employees over safety concerns. Source

There’s delicate precision equipment there. One doesn’t just shut the lights off, shut the door and expect no ramifications (and expense) upon return.

“Without guaranteed reliable access to the telescopes, the Maunakea Observatories will suspend all summit activities,” said Dr. Jessica Dempsey, the Deputy Director of the East Asian Observatory. “The Maunakea Observatories have millions of dollars of instrumentation. This is a risk for us to have to step away at this point.”

@OzarkHillbilly: 😘
@NotMax: Why did they leave?
@eclare: Good! Edited: we got some decent rain, but now we’re heading into an “excessive heat watch” for the next four days.

@satby

Native Hawaiians and their supporters protesting the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project, construction of which was set to begin this week, and blocking access to and from the peak.

Police in Tennessee are warning residents to stop flushing methamphetamine, the drug more commonly known as “meth”, down the toilet for fear that alligators in the sewage system could ingest the drug to create hyped-up “meth-gators”.

You read it here first.

@OzarkHillbilly: nah, it’s already been on FB via Fox news. As if their senile old viewers aren’t afraid of enough mythical bullshit.

@OzarkHillbilly: Why would people flush perfectly fine meth down the toilet?

@eclare:

In a round-up of recent drug seizures, the Loretto Police Department in the state recently reported on Facebook that it had served a search warrant at a home only to find suspect Andy Perry “attempting to flush methamphetamine along with several items of paraphernalia”.

They reported that Perry was unsuccessful, arrested and charged with schedule two drug possession, possession of drug paraphernalia, and tampering with evidence.

@JPL: I guess the meth in TN is better than the meth in Floriduh.

@OzarkHillbilly:

You laugh, but if gators get good at math, we are all at risk.

@NotMax

Suppose, for the uninitiated, I should have identified that as a Being There reference.

@BillinGlendaleCA

“Meth is hard.”
  – Trailer park Barbie

:)

@Baud: Would Ms. Litella be more more appropriate?

@OzarkHillbilly: Yeah, but at NotMax pointed out they’d lose their teeth.

@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: I can think of no worse fate than being gummed to death by an octogenarian gator.

@OzarkHillbilly:

I can think of no worse fate than being gummed to death by an octogenarian gator.

You’re not very imaginative. I can envision the Ludovico Technique done with:

Having to watch and listen to the Racist-in-Chief
Having to watch and listen to Hannity
Having to watch and listen to Fox and Fiends
Having to watch and listen to Traitor Turtle

[BRAIN BLE(A)CH ALERT!]
Having to watch the Racist-in-Chief prance around in the buff

and that’s without thinking about it too much.

Good Morning, Everyone 😄 😄😄

@rikyrah: Good morning.

@OzarkHillbilly:

possums on Angel dust

I like it as a band name.

@rikyrah: Hi rikyrah🙋!

I’ve decided it’s a wild goose chase trying to figure out the relationship of George and Kellyanne Conway.

@Soprano2: Caffeine is water-soluble. Part of me isn’t kidding when I wonder about that sometimes. Caffeinated gators wouldn’t be as dangerous, but certainly more widespread.

CNN got video of Trump and Epstein hanging out at a model party. Lots of Trump telling Epstein shit like “She’s hot!”. Gonna be an entertaining day, methinks.

@germy: holy crap!

@OzarkHillbilly: I am just unawake enough for my brain to start humming “The mushrooms in Russia belong to everyone, the best things in life are free…”

I can’t believe I’m not seeing major coverage of this!

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/453412-new-trump-rules-prompt-planned-parenthood-to-forgo-federal-funds

They just blew a $60 million hole in Planned Parenthood! This could send PP the way of ACORN. Can someone here do a front page post about it? This is HUGE, right?

@Steeplejack: I learned about Drive-By Truckers from a fascinating cartoon I can’t stop recommending to everyone.

@Keith P.:

I was wondering why the intertubes was bringing up Bill Clinton again.

@NotMax:

Given the awful history of how Hawaiians have been treated, is it not reasonable for them to protest commercial development on land they consider to be sacred?

Is it any different than the Native Americans protesting a pipeline being built on their sacred lands?

If anyone has a right to say “go back to where you came from”, it’s these people.

@Baud: Maybe it won’t bankrupt them but the capacity to help poor women with health issues including abortion just dropped 40%. How many multiples of $60M do they have in their emergency fund? I’m guessing well under 1.

@bemused:

I don’t think George has tweeted on Hatch Act in connection with his wife.

Yes, it’s interesting to see the topics he remains silent on.

I agree with others here who believe they’re positioning themselves to be the Carville/Matalin of the new, deplorable era. They should be shunned but they’ll probably end up on MSNBC or CNN as regulars, telling the rest of us what we should think.

@Keith P.:

It’s so bad. This is the state case:

On Nov. 14, the Herald asked the sheriff’s office for a full accounting of Epstein’s check-ins for 2018. The record the office supplied two days later showed he registered in January and in July — as required. But PBSO also inexplicably had him registering on Nov. 14 — the very same day that the Herald asked for the records from the sheriff’s office.
When asked about this sudden registration, Barbera replied: “The information we provided you was a snapshot from the FDLE website. Perhaps, someone from FDLE can provide a reason for you.’’
Said FDLE spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger in an email: “The screenshot is not on the public registry. This is information inputted by the local agency when the offender comes into the local sheriff’s office to register.’’
So it’s not clear why he would have suddenly registered a third time on Nov. 14.

Someone inside was working for him. Their records aren’t reliable.

@OzarkHillbilly:

Occams Razor says some people have too much money.

Yes, yes, they do.

@Gin & Tonic:

Good Christ.

How do you manage to find stuff like that? Also, I expect you saw this one, if you REALLY need to splunge.

@SFAW: Jaybus save me…

A Turkish court has acquitted two journalists and a human rights activist of terrorism charges.

The three defendants had been accused of spreading terrorist propaganda for their work with a Kurdish newspaper, which has since been closed down.

But the three maintained they were defending free speech amid a clampdown by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Applause erupted in the courtroom as the verdict was read out, the BBC’s Mark Lowen reported from Istanbul.

Erol Onderoglu, the Turkey representative for press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF), journalist Ahmet Nesin, and Sebnem Korur Fincanci, chairwoman of Turkey’s Human Rights Foundation, were arrested in June 2016.

RSF’s annual press freedom index ranks Turkey 157th out of 180 countries, in part because Turkey is the world’s largest jailer of journalists.

Last year, Turkey imprisoned 68 journalists in total – the highest of any country in the world. Most of the imprisoned or accused are of Kurdish origin.

@ThresherK:

I like Squidbillies, but a little bit goes a long way.

@Keith P.:

The idea that the records were corrupted is just profound, because everyone relies on them. They’re the last word.
Now, they wouldn’t rely on a screen shot- it would have to be a certified record, but if they inputted something after the fact or false in that one instance, what about everything else we’re all relying on out of that office?
This is what corruption does. It doesn’t just destroy trust and credibility in an abstract way. It destroys the whole system – the ordinary everyday process that everyone relies on in a real way.

@Keith P.:

TRUMP WAS SETTING HIM UP
FOLLOW THE Q CRUMBS
(sarcasm)

julie k. brown (@jkbjournalist) Tweeted:
Jeffrey Epstein’s former bookkeeper, in a deposition, said she arranged for underage girls to be sent to his parties, and others were sent to modeling assignments with wealthy clients where they would only be paid if they agreed to have sex. https://t.co/shCg3y0DLk https://twitter.com/jkbjournalist/status/1151332579213283334?s=17

Lots and lots of Docs today. I just wanted to tell you all how much your kindness and comments meant to me during my dark night of the soul on Saturday. And if Eric is out there, I hope the chemo ended and your daughter is getting to feeling better.

@Immanentize: I’d say “Good Luck” but the way things have been going for you I think I’ll just wish you a clarifying day.

@Immanentize:

Yep. But that type of upheaval is still not good.

Best wishes for the Imms today.

@OzarkHillbilly: On clarity — I don’t know if I wrote this before, but I spent part of a day dazed thinking, “What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do?” Over and over. Then, I realized, what a stupid question that is. The path is set. I’ll do everything I can. Fini.

It was a very clarifying and calming thought.

@OzarkHillbilly: Thorsten Veblen says what?

@Steeplejack: Okay, here are my sources. I hope that restores my damaged credibility:

After spotting the DC pollster Kellyanne Fitzpatrick on the cover of a magazine in the late 1990s, George called his friend Ann Coulter to introduce him to her.

https://www.businessinsider.com/kellyanne-george-conway-marriage-love-story-2018-8

[I]t took time for George — pudgy, soft-spoken and borderline shy — to find love. Not that he didn’t have a type. He became friends with Laura Ingraham, often inviting her to the ski slopes or the beach.

https://abovethelaw.com/2017/05/a-closer-look-at-george-conway-wachtell-lipton-partner-and-husband-of-kellyanne-conway/

@Steeplejack: I read them all, friend, and I go back and re-read them occasionally just because….

@Immanentize:

It was a very clarifying and calming thought.

Yes, acceptance is difficult but there is a peace of mind that follows that is liberating of doubt..

@Immanentize: Hope there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

@Kay: I hope they find the perp, or perps. Like termites …, so destructive, and part of the problem with making shameless daily lying presidential. Rots from the inside and destroys the whole society.

@eric:

Sending prayers 🙏🙏 your way too😪

@Steeplejack: I thought it was an odd way to say “stalked”.

@rikyrah:

There’s always some kind of scam being played by anyone connected to trump, WH and R party.

@Immanentize: we are just a walkway away….perhaps one of the front pagers will help us get our information to one another for direct contact…

@Immanentize:

I’m thinking of you and your son and praying hard.

@rikyrah: Jeff? Take your time in figuring it out. We aren’t in a hurry, no kind of hurry at all.

@Quinerly: that sounds lovely. Thanks!

@eric: will do. We are there this afternoon.

Tomorrow (maybe tonight) I will get in touch with AL to hopefully send me each of your email addys.

Thanks

@rikyrah: @OzarkHillbilly:
My favorite part of the Epstein bond hearing was, after his attorneys described the extraordinary measures he would take to stay in his man-shun (guards, ankle bracelet, surrender his passport, etc.) The Government said, “Anyone who requires such precautions should be in custody.”

We’ll find out tomorrow

@Immanentize: good luck….good thoughts to you and your son!

@Immanentize: I am so sorry that you and the Immp have to go through this. Fuck cancer.

@Neldob:

What birtherism said was no one can rely on state records. We have to bring the individuals involved in and, I don’t know, depose them. Which completely destroys the whole reason we have records. You show me your driver’s license. You don’t bring in the driving instructor and your mom and another witness to back up your mom’s account. This is fucking crazytown. It’s not a functioning state. Trump does this every day. He says “don’t believe anyone or anything except me“. It’s terrifying and profoundly damaging. There will be consequences. We will pay and pay and pay for this.

The White House Office of Management and Budget has projected in its that the federal deficit will surpass $1 trillion this year.It's the first time the U.S. deficit has exceeded the $1 trillion level since the period following the Great Recession. https://t.co/Fr8oHZzUiO— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 17, 2019

My President 😪😪😪
Miss you, 44

https://twitter.com/UrbanAlliance/status/1151272256997396480

Kamala Harris on Trump's racist tweets: Trump "needs to go back where he came from and leave that office."

"I think it defiles the office of the U.S. … It is irresponsible. It is hateful. It is hurtful. And he has taken the presidency to a new low." https://t.co/67G96YVf10— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 17, 2019

@zhena gogolia: He dated her too.

Carla Provost, chief of the agency, was quick to respond. “These posts are completely inappropriate and contrary to the honor and integrity I see — and expect — from our agents day in and day out,” Provost said in a statement. “Any employees found to have violated our standards of conduct will be held accountable.”
For Provost, a veteran of the Border Patrol who was named head of the agency in August 2018, the group’s existence and content should have come as no surprise. Three months after her appointment to chief, Provost herself had posted in the group, then known as “I’m 10-15,” now archived as “America First X 2.” Provost’s comment was innocuous — a friendly clapback against a group member who questioned her rise to the top of the Border Patrol — but her participation in the group, which she has since left, raises serious questions.

She omitted this in her statement to the public. Nothing she says is reliable. How much of this can a system stand before it just collapses? Trump is making his view of the United States TRUE. He believes (and says) everyone is corrupt and self interested and he is making that TRUE.

@eric: I missed the thread about your daughter, but sending all the best wishes for her complete recovery. 💜

@Immanentize: and all the same best wishes to you and the Immp today. 💜

Love to both of you dads dealing with your children’s illness. Shit just isn’t fair 😢

@Kay:
Uh huh 😒
Uh huh 😒

Just rotten to the core😠

Accomplices everywhere

@eric:

Sending healing thoughts for your daughter.

Sam Spital (@SamSpital) Tweeted:
Mitch McConnell literally censored Elizabeth Warren for reading a letter from Coretta Scott King critical of a fellow senator. Yet he has nothing to say when the President launches a racist tirade against congresswomen of color. https://t.co/Ou689NKuit https://twitter.com/SamSpital/status/1150941448478580736?s=17

@eric: Chemo is tough. I’m so impressed by kids who weather it with more cheer than I could manage. I’m glad the end is in sight for the worst of it. Strength to you all.

@Kay:

Amen!

My gob is slightly smacked: I find myself in agreement with conservative talking head S.E. Cupp, who has a good op-ed piece in the Daily News: “The Republican Party owns all of Trump, not just the parts they like.”

The Faustian bargain made by Republican lawmakers and many Trump voters was never sustainable, nor was it defensible. [. . .]

It was worth it for a good economy, many said earnestly. It was worth it for more jobs, less regulation, conservative judges, a border wall. Whatever the particular chits, the Republican leaders and voters who made these cosmic compacts were only thinking about cashing out, not the consequences of selling out.

[. . .]

Of course, the people who made these bargains, who tricked themselves into thinking about Trump like a buffet where they could take what they want and leave what they didn’t, arbitrarily decided to imbue one group of things—policies, in most cases—with more significance than another group of things, like innate character.

[. . .]

Here’s the problem: Trump’s corrosive agenda to divide America is the policy. Bigotry and otherism are both the ideas and the merits for Trump. The racist rhetoric is the agenda. Pretending they are separate or disconnected was, is and always will be a cop-out and a lie.

Is normalization of disgusting low-life grifters a thing now? I just had to scream at the TeeVee Box’s otherwise impeccable coverage of the Tour de France for having the scumball Lance Armstrong on for interview and commentary. They didn’t do this last year. Also, the commentator loved by all recently died, so maybe there’s less control and judgment operating now. Still it is an outrage to sully my Tour and LaBelleFrance and my arms are folded.

@plato:

Strange the Tea Party and what the Village Courtiers called deficit hawks aren’t screaming about this.

@Gin & Tonic:

Armstrong was just on live approximately while your comment was being posted.

@Kay: My theory is that people are rewarded for their corruption, many ceos (Wells Fargo, Countrywide, etc), rewarded for their “risk taking” same as the occupant of the oval office. Practically every giant company I’ve dealt with has cheated me in some way. Is it late stage capitalism? It feels like a carnival cups game and continues to get worse. Does not bode well. I apologize for the morning negaverse. Guess I’ll go tend my garden.

@ThresherK: Thanks for the link. I saw them in a hell of a show in Lincoln Nebraska just a few days before the inauguration in 2016 and it felt like a big communal we’re not going to go quietly. And then I saw the two main songwriters, Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley get interviewed in a nearly empty auditorium at Princeton (It was a blizzard and all events but that one were cancelled) along with a few students who had been advised to go and some fanatics who had braved the storm to get there from parts far away. They remembered the Lincoln show when it came up before the event began. And they did four acoustic versions of their songs.

And looky here (from the rwnyt). Fraud in the “justice dept.”
“Critics who sued to block the Trump administration from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census asked a federal judge on Tuesday to punish administration officials, saying the officials had deliberately delayed the lawsuit in order to hide damning evidence — conduct they called “nothing less than a fraud on the court.”

@Gin & Tonic:

Inorite. And he had nothing useful to say. They were asking him about some intramural squabble on a team, and I tuned it out.

ETA: If you want to see Armstrong in the replay, he’s around the time when the “distance to finish” number is about 65 km.

@bluefoot:

Would we bulldoze the Vatican to build an observatory or other scientific installation if it were the “best” site for one?

Is this a trick question? I wouldn’t have a problem with this at all.

@SFAW:
A bargain-bin item, compared to what’s in this listicle.

@Uncle Cosmo:
Pi ‘what?’ squared, Longjohn?

@germy: I think George and Kellyanne have exactly the same feelings about Trump. Neither of them like him personally, but George would have taken the money too if he had been given the job he wanted. They’re both mercenaries.

@Dorothy A. Winsor: In an earlier scene when the sister tearfully admits to her family that she’s lesbian, her dad is depicted as comforting & supportive. Shocked me out of my Rockports. But in the end, when Liz’s daddy advised her to shiv her sister for political gain, I thought, Now that’s more like it, that’s the Dick we all know & loathe.

@Steeplejack:

If you want to see Armstrong in the replay

Thanks, but I think I’ll pass.

@Amir Khalid:

A bargain-bin item, compared to what’s in this listicle.

When I was in college, lo these many years ago, one of the local papers — maybe it was the college rag — ran a story about a guy in one of the dorms who had this stereo system with primo, A-number-one, top-of-the-line components. He was trying to get down to negative THD or something. (This is in the mid-1970s). The best part about the article was that his system was so superior, with so little hiss, etc., that he found he could no longer listen to the music that anybody else was listening to, because the sound from the vinyl was not as good as his system — so all he could stand to listen to was things like bird calls from the Amazonian rain forest, because that particular recording had no hiss (or whatever).

There’s a lesson there. but I’m not sure what it is.

@rikyrah: If he works hard at improving his game, the SillyZilla might have a chance to attain mediocrity someday. But I doubt he’d be able to sustain it.

@John S.:

Given the awful history of how Hawaiians have been treated, is it not reasonable for them to protest commercial development [my emphasis] on land they consider to be sacred?

Can I just say there is nothing commercial about a scientific observatory…

And many of us believe knowledge is sacred. So this seems to me like unscientific people being used as part of a political movement shooting us all in the foot.

@Immanentize: Arrrr! Must be Calculate Like A Pirate Day! :^D

(Best to Immp & his dad – fingers, toes, eyes crossed….)

@SFAW: For me the lesson is one I learned many years ago: “Do not cultivate a taste for rare & expensive products & services without the willingness & wherewithal to pay for them & continue to pay for them into the foreseeable future.” YMMV.

@Kay: There are times when I want you to be a frontpager. Well, that’s basically all the time.

Seriously though, the amount of times I’ve read you here and thought “I’d really like this same explanation to show up in news articles or on TV” is pretty staggering.

@MisterForkbeard: yeah, me too.