Watching Ozark with a bobcat on my chest and chatting with ABC:
Steve is very needy when I get home from being away. He has been like this since Saturday when I got back.
by John Cole| 85 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Watching Ozark with a bobcat on my chest and chatting with ABC:
Steve is very needy when I get home from being away. He has been like this since Saturday when I got back.
by Adam L Silverman| 55 Comments
This post is in: Food, Military, Open Threads, Silverman on Security
The good folks at Task & Purpose bring us this great moment in US Navy gastronomic history:
On July 1, 1914, the U.S. Navy implemented the cruelest and most unusual punishment in its venerable history: a ban on alcohol.
Under General Order 99, drinking “alcoholic liquors on board any naval vessel, or within any navy yard or station,” became prohibited, with commanding officers “held directly responsible for the enforcement of this order,” according to a U.S. Naval Institute reflection on the 100th anniversary of the ban in 2014. Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels delivered the order; described as a “teetotaler,” Daniels was ridiculed in the press for the decision for years, only for the U.S. to constitutionally establish national Prohibition just six years later.
The Navy’s Prohibition pregame is memorable not just for its ridiculousness but also for giving American sailors (and eventually everyone else) an insatiable appetite for ice cream. Sure, ice cream’s been an American tradition since George Washington spent $200 on the treat in a single summer, but Prohibition created national cravings that persisted across military and civilian worlds even after alcohol was legalized again in 1933. If there’s nothing as American as apple pie, that apple pie tastes a billion times more patriotic with a scoop of ice cream.
With the ban on alcohol aboard ships in 1914, the US Navy sought to offset the loss of alcohol at sea and found that ice cream was popular among the sailors. It was so popular that the Navy borrowed a refrigerated concrete barge from the Army Transportation Corps in 1945 to serve as a floating ice cream parlor. At a cost of $1 million, the barge was towed around the Pacific to provide ice cream to ships smaller than a destroyer that lacked ice cream making facilities. The Navy proudly announced that the vessel could manufacture 10 gallons of ice cream every seven minutes and had storage capacity of 2000 gallons.
Back to Task & Purpose for a second scoop:
To that end, the Navy in 1945 borrowed a concrete barge from the Army Transportation Corps that, retrofitted with heavy-duty refrigeration units, functioned as a floating ice cream parlor for smaller vessels in the Pacific Ocean. Officially called a “BRL” (Barge, Refrigerated, Large, which sounds like a bureaucracy’s take on a Bond martini), the Navy’s beloved “ice cream ship” was basically a 265-foot-long ice cream factory, capable of churning out 500 gallons of the sweet stuff a day (USNI pegs output at 10 gallons every 7 minutes) and stashing another 500 in its cavernous freezers — on top of some 1,500 tons of meat and 500 tons of vegetables.
The BRL wasn’t even the wackiest ice cream scheme that service members devised during those years at war. “By 1943, American heavy-bomber crews figured out they could make ice cream over enemy territory by strapping buckets of mix to the rear gunner’s compartment before missions,” writes Siegel. “By the time they landed, the custard would have frozen at altitude and been churned smooth by engine vibrations and turbulence—if not machine-gun fire and midair explosions. Soldiers on the ground reportedmixing snow and melted chocolate bars in helmets to improvise a chocolate sorbet.”
I’ll take a chocolate dipped soft serve swirl in a waffle cone with sprinkles please!
Stay frosty!
(what?)
The USS Sprinkles: Damn The Hot Fudge Torpedos!Post + Comments (55)
by TaMara| 107 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads, Pet Rescue
Just wanted to let you know there will be a Writing Group post this Sunday. Get your pens ready.
Last week a couple of people asked me for an update on the ducks. They are still here. I’m in foster mode, so not too attached. But they did acquire names. It’s difficult when you have a ten year old for the week to NOT name them.
Mabel (the Rouen – brown with iridescent green markings) is recovering nicely. She was quite weak and wasn’t eating well for the first few days. Now she eats all the time and keeps trying to steal Bailey’s dinner. I’ve addressed that, so poor Bailey can eat in peace. The Blue Swedish is Maddie and she’s hell on wheels. And keeps an eye on me.
That’s not creepy at all, right? They are clearly hand raised – they eat out of my hand, they come running when I go outside and are unfazed by cats, dogs or 10 year olds. Funny thing, yesterday I was sitting on the steps, feeding them when Mabel mistook my nicely painted toenail for a snack. We both got a surprise.
I suppose none of us will be surprised if this turns out to be a foster fail. But I’m not there yet.
How about a happy news, politics free open thread? Have any good news to share?
ETA: Thanks to dmsilev for this
I Suppose It’s Bad I’ve Named Them: Thursday Evening Open ThreadPost + Comments (107)
This post is in: Dolt 45, Excellent Links, Republicans in Disarray!, Russiagate
Huh. https://t.co/9fnXx4OZHv pic.twitter.com/SxB14xr8S7
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) August 10, 2017
Just as the Cold War turned us all into Kremlinologists, dissecting every news release to seek out hidden agendas and changes in bureaucratic positioning, the 2016 election disaster has turned us into Trumpologists. In that murky light, this is a most dissectable article from Bloomberg Businessweek:
When news broke on Aug. 3 that Special Counsel Robert Mueller had begun using a grand jury in Washington to gather evidence related to his Russia probe, it appeared to catch the White House off guard. Although many news outlets were reporting the story, Ty Cobb, just four days on the job as the president’s lawyer, issued a statement saying he didn’t know about it, even as Jay Sekulow, another member of Trump’s legal staff, went on Fox News to say once again that the president himself wasn’t under investigation.
As Mueller adds experienced prosecutors and broadens his investigation, Trump’s legal team still appears disorganized and understaffed. An army of well-paid lawyers would help the president get in front of the investigation: preparing responses to allegations before hearing about them from prosecutors or reporters, anticipating where Mueller is going, and developing a counternarrative to stymie him. Junior staffers could spend all night researching case law or obstruction of justice and conspiracy statutes; they could be available at a moment’s notice to draft pleadings challenging Mueller’s requests to interview witnesses or gather documents.
Instead, Trump’s defense has been almost entirely reactive—responding to the latest bombshell report with uninformed statements by surrogates. The strategy adopted by those close to Trump, if not his legal team, has been to try to discredit Mueller’s investigation by pointing out potential conflicts of interest or political biases that may exist among his investigators. “I don’t get any sense that they’re trying to get ahead of anything,” says Don Goldberg, who worked in the White House Counsel’s Office during the Clinton administration. “You wonder about whether the top people at the White House really understand what they’re stepping into.”…
…[T]he legal team largely consists of three people: John Dowd, who replaced Kasowitz as Trump’s chief personal attorney; Sekulow, a Christian-rights lawyer who serves as the public face of the defense team; and, as of July 31, Cobb, who will oversee the White House response to the probe. Both Dowd and Cobb spent the bulk of their careers at top-notch D.C. firms. Dowd, 76, was a longtime partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, while Cobb, 66, spent 28 years at Hogan Lovells. Neither brings the resources of those big firms with them in their defense of the president. Dowd left Akin Gump two years ago to strike out on his own, while Cobb had to resign from Hogan Lovells to take the White House job. Dowd represented Senator John McCain in the 1989 Keating Five investigation of lawmakers improperly intervening to save a failing bank during the savings and loan crisis. More recently he defended hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam, who was convicted of insider-trading charges. “I know John Dowd, and he’s a very fine lawyer, but it’s a job that usually requires backup,” says Amy Sabrin, a retired Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom partner who worked for Bill Clinton on the Paula Jones sexual harassment case. Dowd, Cobb, and the White House declined to comment for this article…
If Mueller’s prosecutors eventually get into the president’s business dealings and start following the money, Trump would also need experts, such as forensic accountants, says Sabrin, the retired Skadden attorney. He’d have to be willing to open his files to people outside his inner circle. For a president known for keeping his financial records under wraps, some lawyers in Washington say that’s unlikely….
The whole article is well worth reading, but IMO the main message seems to be Dear WH occupants: You guys have NO IDEA what a world of hurt you’ve blundered into.
Thoughts?
Interesting Read: “Trump’s Legal Team Is No Match for Mueller’s”Post + Comments (273)
This post is in: Crazification Factor, Open Threads, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome, Blatant Liars and the Lies They Tell, Decline and Fall, General Stupidity
Many people have complained that Donald Trump hasn’t gone before the press to answer questions. After today, those complaints may stop.
It’s…hard to know where to start.
The President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, just said the following. (I. Am. Not. Making. This. Up.) pic.twitter.com/9LR9HxruAi
— Dan Murphy (@bungdan) August 10, 2017
Here’s the video:
Q: Thoughts on Putin expelling US diplomats?
Trump: “I greatly appreciate the fact that they’ve been able to cut our payroll.” (via ABC) pic.twitter.com/iR5JbHLHZj
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 10, 2017
Here’s Trump’s nuclear/missile defense statement. Someone help me out here. pic.twitter.com/oiribNFkop
— Aaron Mehta (@AaronMehta) August 10, 2017
Trump: “I would like to de-nuke the world.” (via ABC) pic.twitter.com/FO03mPGMZW
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 10, 2017
Trump said he’s “somewhat honored” by leaks “where people want to love me, and they’re all fighting for my love,” per pool
— Nolan D. McCaskill (@NolanDMcCaskill) August 10, 2017
The one thanking Putin has scrambled my brain to where it’s hard to look for more. If you’ve got more, I’ll add them. I would like to see a transcript, too. There should be one out soon.
Update: This is from earlier.
WATCH: President Trump says his "fire and fury" threat against North Korea may not have been tough enough pic.twitter.com/nZfZeqvY4m
— Axios (@axios) August 10, 2017
Also this
BREAKING: Trump tells North Korea to `get their act together' or it will be in trouble `like few nations have ever been'
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 10, 2017
More
Breaking: POTUS says explicitly #Iran "is not in compliance" with the nuclear agreement
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) August 10, 2017
Bonus (This is good news, I think)
CNN statement: “Nazi salutes are indefensible. Jeffrey Lord is no longer with the network.” https://t.co/xwFYTSF8o3
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) August 10, 2017
This post is in: Post-racial America, Republican Venality, Our Failed Political Establishment, Outrage
These motherfuckers are ruthless and shameless:
State and local Republicans have expanded early voting in GOP-dominated areas and restricted it in Democratic areas, an IndyStar investigation has found, prompting a significant change in Central Indiana voting patterns.
From 2008 to 2016, GOP officials expanded early voting stations in Republican dominated Hamilton County, IndyStar’s analysis found, and decreased them in the state’s biggest Democratic hotbed, Marion County.
That made voting more convenient in GOP areas for people with transportation issues or busy schedules. And the results were immediate.
We need to nationalize voting and spend billions on it.
How in the Ever Loving Fuck is this Legal?Post + Comments (176)
by Betty Cracker| 190 Comments
This post is in: Domestic Politics, Nature, Open Threads, General Stupidity
Here’s Lefty, who is a dwarf gourami, pictured with some neon tetra friends lurking in the background as well as a panda cory acquaintance:
He’s called “Lefty” because his political identity is based on opposition to whatever nominated or elected Democrats and their supporters do. If you took his policy wishlist and made it the party platform, he’d just keep moving the goddamned goalposts. Don’t even try to bring him into the fold — this fucking fish will never be satisfied because he doesn’t derive satisfaction from political victories but rather from feeling morally superior to the likes of grubby, compromised you.
Nah, I’m just kidding — the fish is named Lefty because I have two male dwarf gouramis (not recommended), and they dislike each another. In a manner that is remarkably mature for fish, they divide up the tank between them. One fish, Right Side Fred, lives on the starboard side of the tank, and Lefty lives on the port side.
The photo doesn’t fully capture the beauty of his colors, but trust me, he’s gorgeous. And yes, I am aware I have a snail issue. Open thread!