Patterico's Pontifications

5/25/2018

Your Daily Trump Open Thread

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 5:57 am



Sorry for the lack of content. Watching live golf takes precedence. But the discussion of Donald Trump must go on. My suggestion: pair off and destroy old friendships below, by expressing your bitter resentment over other people’s different opinions about an immoral con man who is worth less intrinsically than both of you put together. Me, I’ll be following Jordan Spieth.

403 Responses to “Your Daily Trump Open Thread”

  1. It’s true: the other person’s different opinion of Trump matters more than years of shared positive interaction with that person. Many people are saying this. (Really. Many people.)

    Patterico (108de2)

  2. That is unfortunate.

    BuDuh (fc15db)

  3. Well, anybody who feels animosity towards me because of my opinion of Trump was probably not much of a friend to begin with so it’s not much of a loss.

    nk (dbc370)

  4. One must come to the most apocalyptic conclusions at all times.

    narciso (95d175)

  5. Can Jordan carry the match or will Rory take it again?

    narciso (95d175)

  6. Rory is playing in the BMW thing overseas.

    Patterico (108de2)

  7. We had these sort of arguments over O’Donnell who was mauled by the irs and the Delaware combine.

    narciso (95d175)

  8. Some just can’t abide the OCD or the snippy minutiae.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  9. You’re right, Pat. This presidency has proven to be extremely destructive on a lot of levels. Spanky’s nothing if he’s not divisive. He gets his attention that way.

    Tillman (a95660)

  10. Anyways I point out 2004, because that’s when this gang, comey fitz (Now doing interference for russia and Michigan state) baker soon to join goldsmith at lawfare, Wray in reserve with dhillon, as well as caproni, st al.

    narciso (95d175)

  11. is one of Harvey’s kids a tranny?

    Weinstein has been married twice. In 1987, he married his assistant Eve Chilton. They divorced in 2004.[30][60] They had three children: Remy (previously Lily) (born 1995), Emma (born 1998), and Ruth (born 2002).[61] In 2007, he married English fashion designer and actress Georgina Chapman.[62] They have a daughter, India Pearl (born 2010),[63] and a son, Dashiell[64] (born 2013).

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  12. Like when they said Walsh and fiske are republicans, but they always play for the other team.

    I was surprised that Rumsfeld speechwritee was comeys ghost.

    narciso (95d175)

  13. I’ve lost online friends and new people here I don’t even know dislike me because of Trump. It’s sad.

    DRJ (0280d9)

  14. so his youngest is just 5

    how sad it’s just like the boxcar children except violet took a bunch of testosterone and got all hairy

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  15. But I know what matters to people here now, so that’s good.

    DRJ (0280d9)

  16. Who dislikes you, DRJ? I thought you were savvy with the notion that our discussions are separate from anything personal. I swear you mentioned that again in the last couple of days.

    Just because I have an issue with some of your debate tactics doesn’t mean I dislike you. I hope Patterico’s “let’s pair off taunt” doesn’t get too many people upset. I’m not down with fighting.

    BuDuh (fc15db)

  17. Spieth is my favorite golfer playing now. I hope he wins the Colonial.

    DRJ (0280d9)

  18. We have a difference of opinion, meanwhile the Texas democrats have gone bunji jumping with a rocket pack

    narciso (95d175)

  19. I put a quotation mark in the incorrect place.

    BuDuh (fc15db)

  20. What debate tactics do you have an issue with?

    DRJ (0280d9)

  21. I have never appreciated my blocking script more than on this thread, happyfeet. Just so you know.

    nk (dbc370)

  22. For narciso:

    President Donald Trump’s standing in Texas could affect the votes that Cruz receives in November. And right now, that’s not looking so great. In Gallup’s 2017 year-long average, 54 percent of Texas adults disapproved of Trump. And a February Texas Tribune-University of Texas poll showed that 46 percent of registered voters approved and disapproved of Trump. In fact, Gallup has changed Texas’ political rating from “leaning Republican” to “competitive.”

    DRJ (0280d9)

  23. That was in March. Let’s see what it is now.

    DRJ (0280d9)

  24. Your use of strawmen and then when called out on it you fall back on being “attacked” instead of accepting, or at least pursuing, the possibility that you did change the subject. You online persona has always impressed me as someone, at least through the concern you have shown, who wants to be seen as an impartial player. I have felt let down when I see you reject that impartiality in favor of getting the win.

    BuDuh (fc15db)

  25. Only two recent polls: Cruz +3 in April and Cruz +7 in May.

    DRJ (0280d9)

  26. That was the poll with the jacked up methodology, if I recall correctly.

    BuDuh (fc15db)

  27. I’m guessing o’rourke will go the way of the last hope they put up against ted,

    narciso (95d175)

  28. Is your strawman/getting the win analysis based solely on the Shulkin discussion or other places, too? If other places, please link them.

    DRJ (0280d9)

  29. McDonald’s customers suing for $5M over unwanted cheese

    According to the lawsuit, filed May 8 in Fort Lauderdale seeking class-action status, McDonald’s used to sell four different Quarter Pounder options, two of which came without cheese and cost between 30 to 90 cents less, the Miami Herald reports.

    But “at some point,” the lawsuit claims, the restaurant stopped “separately displaying these products for purchase on menus, and currently lists the availability of Quarter Pounder with Cheese and Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese.”

    Since this change, “customers have been forced, and continue to be overcharged for these products, by being forced to pay for two slices of cheese, which they do not want, order, or receive, to be able to purchase their desired product,” the lawsuit claims, according to the Herald.

    the silicon chip inside her head gets switched to overload

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  30. Guess away, narciso. I live here.

    DRJ (0280d9)

  31. 26.That was the poll with the jacked up methodology, if I recall correctly.

    BuDuh (fc15db) — 5/25/2018 @ 6:53 am

    Which poll and please explain why you say that.

    DRJ (0280d9)

  32. If the Lt. Gov position wasnt of such strategic importance as an actually empowered tie breaking vote in the Lege (as opposed to say the Lt. Gov in IL or CA), I wouldnt mind seeing Dan Patrick (along with George P) sent packing.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  33. It is a close race. Cruz should win because Texas’ voter base is naturally Republican but I think Beto will make it closer than anyone likes. Trump is turning Texas blue.

    DRJ (0280d9)

  34. WhY do your neighbors think, assume the polls are designed to demotivate.

    narciso (95d175)

  35. 32.If the Lt. Gov position wasnt of such strategic importance as an actually empowered tie breaking vote in the Lege (as opposed to say the Lt. Gov in IL or CA), I wouldnt mind seeing Dan Patrick (along with George P) sent packing.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb) — 5/25/2018 @ 6:55 am

    That’s interesting. Why?

    DRJ (0280d9)

  36. 34.WhY do your neighbors think, assume the polls are designed to demotivate.

    narciso (95d175) — 5/25/2018 @ 6:56 am

    No one I know cares about polls. They care about leaders who are strong when it counts.

    DRJ (0280d9)

  37. The Quinnipiac poll oversampled independents by a ton

    BuDuh (fc15db)

  38. So ignore the poll, what turns Texas blue is indoctrination and migration from blue venues

    narciso (95d175)

  39. If other places, please link them.

    Why?

    BuDuh (fc15db)

  40. I guarantee you there are more independents in Texas now than there were in 2015.

    DRJ (0280d9)

  41. You made the claim. Back it up with links.

    DRJ (0280d9)

  42. Trump 24/7. Trump. Trump. Entry after entry about ….. wait for it …. Trump. Trumpety Trump. Trump. Trump. TTTTTRUMP..
    FAt Trump. Loudmouth Trump. Blowhard Trump. Trump.

    Beau Merz (5a4596)

  43. Probably, but is it at the level, projected, the two variables are what I laid out.

    narciso (95d175)

  44. ” and currently lists the availability of Quarter Pounder with Cheese and Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese.”

    They of course mean what the Frenchies commonly refer to as the Royal with Cheese.

    Skorcher (5b282a)

  45. Trump 24/7. Trump. Trump. Entry after entry about ….. wait for it …. Trump. Trumpety Trump. Trump. Trump. TTTTTRUMP..
    FAt Trump. Loudmouth Trump. Blowhard Trump. Trump.

    Trump in the morning, Trump in the evening, Trump at supper time.

    Skorcher (5b282a)

  46. So the Kim dynast is unwilling to leave the conference table, and the chair is open if preconditions are met.

    narciso (95d175)

  47. Can we jut have a general open thread to talk about what’s going on in our lives?

    bridget (784de3)

  48. DRJ, we tried this with the Shulken link and got nowhere. Even with direct links to comments that you manipulated. If it is impossible for you to attempt to remove yourself enough from that debate to see where you clearly introduced a strawman, what is the point in dissecting another example?

    Two open threads ago, you bowed out because you thought the other comment ers didn’t have an interest. I think you are correct.

    I have told you my opinion. You have an example. If you wish to think that I dislike you, or if you are just saying that so you can be seen as the aggrieved by your friends here, it is unfortunate. I don’t dislike you.

    BuDuh (fc15db)

  49. Just, not jut.

    bridget (784de3)

  50. 38.So ignore the poll, what turns Texas blue is indoctrination and migration from blue venues

    narciso (95d175) — 5/25/2018 @ 6:59 am

    Texas has stayed red for decades and turned out to elect Republicans every election, including voting 57-41 for Romney over Obama. But they only voted 52-43 for Trump over Clinton. I think the difference was Trump, not indoctrination or migration.

    DRJ (0280d9)

  51. So it was solely about the Shulkin discussion. Thank you for confirming that.

    DRJ (0280d9)

  52. I guarantee you there are more independents in Texas now than there were in 2015.

    OK. The poll was accurate then.

    BuDuh (fc15db)

  53. That’s a great idea, Bridget!

    Colonel Haiku (e208fd)

  54. My life’s boring. What’s new and exciting with you, Bridget?

    nk (dbc370)

  55. There you go again. The challenge to produce more of the same evidence that you already have seen was merely a game that was designed for you to claim a victory. A victory that is unrelated to the opinion I expressed earlier.

    Why do you do that?

    BuDuh (fc15db)

  56. I asked you to link the places where I do the things that annoy you so we could discuss them, but we can’t discuss anything unless you show me where you think I acted badly. You have identified the Shulkin comments as the place that annoyed you, but we have discussed Shulkin to death.

    DRJ (0280d9)

  57. I am not claiming any victories when it comes to discussions with you.

    DRJ (0280d9)

  58. Yes he was a small swamp critter, but they went after a good man like admiral Jackson so the mo is the same.

    narciso (95d175)

  59. Paul singer seems to have been behind trawling trash on ted, most tecently he’s carving the company behind the spitfire fighter.

    narciso (95d175)

  60. I’m contemplating retiring a month or so after I hit the 45 year mark of my career next month. Enjoying being a husband and grandpa. Enjoying wrenching and detailing our cars and saying prayers that one of my old high school buddies will soon be permanently relieved of the pain of terminal cancer.

    And starting a 4 day weekend.

    Colonel Haiku (e208fd)

  61. I don’t think we should stop Kim Jong Un’s nuclear ICBM program, until after he has nuked the West Coast. Sorry, Californios! All I can say is “Get out!”

    nk (dbc370)

  62. Ok. I don’t want to pair off with you, DRJ. We have discussed the Shulken thread many times. Half of those times you introduces the thread to Dustin and Belder as evidence that I was a disingenuous actor. Remember?

    You hold onto that thread as well. That is probably because you realize that it is an unresolved confrontation.

    I don’t believe you want it resolved and that is why you are asking for other examples. I am sorry that this is the tactic you have chosen.

    If you want to review the Shulken thread with an open mind, that is fine. If not, that is your choice as well.

    Patterico at least gets his wish. We are fighting. I don’t want to fight anymore.

    BuDuh (fc15db)

  63. My life’s boring. What’s new and exciting with you, Bridget?
    nk (dbc370)

    I have the best cat. He just turned 17 and is still as snuggly and adorable as ever. Patterico should enable photo comments of pets.

    Got engaged and am moving to the South to be with my fiance. (He just got tenure, lives in a red state, and is quite conservative. Me moving means uprooting my life, but he gets academic freedom and can fight the indoctrination of the next generation of students.)

    Still locked in litigation with my former employer. Former manager now has a side business doing adult photos. Hashtag: me before you too.

    What’s new with everyone else?

    bridget (784de3)

  64. Yeah I’m not sanguine about potential emps either.

    How did the Gallup poll in 2016, compare to the result.

    narciso (95d175)

  65. I’m contemplating retiring a month or so after I hit the 45 year mark of my career next month. Enjoying being a husband and grandpa. Enjoying wrenching and detailing our cars and saying prayers that one of my old high school buddies will soon be permanently relieved of the pain of terminal cancer.

    And starting a 4 day weekend.
    Colonel Haiku (e208fd)

    I’m sorry to hear about your friend.

    My dad just retired and is loving it. He’s lost weight, is healthier than he’s been in decades, and is happy.

    bridget (784de3)

  66. Wonderful Bridget.

    narciso (95d175)

  67. I think Cruz will probably win but not by much. But remember Cruz’s Convention snub? And if Cruz’s opponent runs ads with that ranting against Trump he displayed when he lost to him, maybe he won’t even win. It might have seemed justified but Trump’s fans won’t see it that way.

    noel (b4d580)

  68. Congratulations on your engagement, and on your move. Young is the time to do it. What kind of law are you practicing these days?

    nk (dbc370)

  69. Jeesh people. This is a Trump open thread and you’ve got me sidetracked to Ted Cruz. Stick to one greasy politician at a time.

    noel (b4d580)

  70. Cruz will win 65-35. Texans are not going to hold Trump against him. It’s a fair bet that nine out of ten held their noses when voting for Trump in 2016.

    nk (dbc370)

  71. Congratulations on your engagement, and on your move. Young is the time to do it. What kind of law are you practicing these days?
    nk (dbc370) —

    Thank you! Not sure about young – I’m mid/late thirties (yep, time flies) – but it’s… not a bad time to do it. Little brother is in college, little sister just graduated; very sadly, my dad and stepmom are ending it after a quarter century together.

    Job hunting and temping these days, but I do contracts, mostly in-house.

    bridget (784de3)

  72. Congratulations, bridget! He’s a lucky guy to have you in his life, and I’m glad to see you here and hear your good news.

    DRJ (15874d)

  73. I should fisk 62, every single line of it.

    DRJ (15874d)

  74. “… an immoral con man who is worth less intrinsically than both of you put together.”

    For a second I thought you were referring to Obama.

    AZ Bob (9a6ada)

  75. Patrick is just aaack! in personal comportment compared to Abbott, but he will never have the biggest foot in mouth for at least 6 more years. I say Bush as a sop to those who cant stand the Bushes and LC is a relatively less high profile office you could just find a very conservative dem or DINO for, just for the flak he caught on the Alamo management changeover.

    I just think the lower than other red states TX Trump numbers just reflect the higher permeation of Hispanics and Hispanics by injection into the pre-Trump R party down there, but it might have translated to ballot blanking at the top as opposed to full-throat Dem suppport.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  76. I keep being astonished at the “Trump is an immoral con man” point repeatedly made by Patterico, as if that ended the argument and as if we Trumpalos didn’t know it.

    Of course he’s a bit of an immoral con man, maybe a lot of one. Most politicos are. But was he less immoral than Hillary? Yes. Did he have some positive features that made him a better candidate than Hillary? Yes.

    Fred Z (05d938)

  77. My life? Not much. Woke up this morning with a terrible hangover. Found the clothes I was wearing last night reeking of cigarettes, champagne, and chicken wing sauce. There was post-it note with lipstick kiss on it stuck to the bathroom mirror. Can’t read the writing. If I had to guess I’d say it was in Czech. Looks like I got another tattoo. Checked my messages. Another damn text from the pope. He never listens to me anyway. I suspect the shaved goat I found munching on my shower curtain might hold a clue to the previous eventing. More mysteries to work through. I hate it when this happens.

    Skorcher (5b282a)

  78. BuDuh,

    Instead I will link my comment in the Shulkin thread where I tried to explain my position. I did not misrepresent or misunderstand you. In fact, I agreed with some of what you said and I said that at the time.

    You are the one who continues to complain about that discussion, not me. And it is wrong of you to claim I manipulate your comments as you said in 48. I will continue to argue with you if you continue to say things like that.

    Finally, Patterico does not want people to fight. That was sarcasm.

    DRJ (15874d)

  79. Bridget,

    Feel free to use this thread for any purpose you like. The Trump thing is kind of a joke.

    Patterico (108de2)

  80. Kirikaou outright lied about haspels time in Thailand, but his a redacted traitor, I didn’t like tucker inviting that weasel, even to diss a bigger one.

    As much as Beldar states otherwise, this investigation was an utter fraud, just like the blame one, some of the same players different places on the board.

    narciso (d1f714)

  81. urbanleftbehind

    I’m not sure I understand all your points but do you realize several counties in West Texas are majority Hispanic (often 60-70%) and they vote overwhelmingly Republican? The Hispanics that live in those counties work, own homes and businesses, raise their families, and are as conservative as anyone. The border counties and South Texas are not that way, true, but Texas Hispanics are not all Democrats.

    DRJ (15874d)

  82. I don’t know if Cruz’s convention decisions will hurt him with Trump fans, noel, but it definitely hurt him with me. I want a Senator who stands up for his beliefs — not just when it is hard but especially when it is hard.

    DRJ (15874d)

  83. I want to party with you, Skorcher.

    DRJ (15874d)

  84. Actually, I’m well aware of that – got cousins mostly in Williamson Cnty (the escape hatch of Austin) as well as varying degree of Tejano friends and acquaintances, but you have to admit, the Trump-direct and Trump-inspired vitriol cuts to the quick, and I wouldnt blame people for not putting up with it in the sense of punishing the R candidate at the polls. Hispanic in TX hasnt been monolithically Mexican as Houston (and DFW to a lesser degree) is a sort of hub-gateway to South America akin to Miami and there’s always been a military-base contingent of Ricans, now augmented by recent PR arrivals.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  85. Lol

    narciso (d1f714)

  86. Yes the coverage about Puerto Rico, is abysmally ignorant or complicit down here.

    narciso (d1f714)

  87. … but you have to admit, the Trump-direct and Trump-inspired vitriol cuts to the quick, and I wouldnt blame people for not putting up with it in the sense of punishing the R candidate at the polls.

    Are you saying criticism of Trump will make Texans less willing to vote Republican? Or more willing?

    DRJ (15874d)

  88. The conservative bloc, does have this habit of going on in its own way, plus Mcdonnell and corny have kept them winnowed down.

    narciso (d1f714)

  89. But the more selective Dem primary picked the beaut of a candidate.

    narciso (d1f714)

  90. I want to party with you, Skorcher.

    Well, last night was a Wednesday…right?

    Skorcher (5b282a)

  91. Are you going to follow Spieth on the course, P? Did you go to the Pro-Am and see Murray?

    DRJ (15874d)

  92. Well, last night was a Wednesday…right?

    Skorcher (5b282a) — 5/25/2018 @ 8:33 am

    Close! You with Bill Murray would be hilarious, Skorcher.

    DRJ (15874d)

  93. Bridget… oh to be young and laying down the pavement on one’s journey! Congratulations and best wishes!

    Colonel Haiku (e208fd)

  94. That was stupid, Narciso, one wonders if it was a “move”, a sort of reverse Thad Cochran, or the crap Newsom has been accused of in the CA jungle primary (buttering up Cox so that he avoids a D on D battle in November).

    Most intelligent Texans of the conservative stripe will accept Trump as an imperfect vehicle to achieve their favored ends – he will never have the love – even with a great Wall built – that the northeastern ethnics, the rust belters, Alabamians, West Virginians and Arizonans have for him. They are not as geared to take umbrage in defense of Trump and transfer it to the polling place. The DCSCA-favored Rockefeller-ization of the R party might give a purpling Texas a chance to grab a hold of the Dem carcass and be its savior (with a lot of preconditions I would hope).

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  95. Close!

    Dammit…well that explains the text from the pope. Dmitri is gonna be very angry, though he still owes me one for getting him out of that jam in Malta. But that’s what he gets for mixing ouzo and absinthe.

    Skorcher (5b282a)

  96. 88… I have a young lady who lives in PR on one of the weekly team conference calls I host, narciso. She’s usually first on the conf bridge, so I try to make it a point to check in with her and ask how it’s going. She says things are slowly improving.

    Colonel Haiku (e208fd)

  97. ulb,

    The Texas General Land Office is not a minor office. It controls all public lands in Texas, including mineral rights that fund our public colleges. I don’t care much about George P but I do care about the mineral rights, so it’s one of the last Texas public offices I want to see in Democratic hands.

    DRJ (15874d)

  98. 78… don’t forget to check for goat cheese, skorcher.

    Colonel Haiku (e208fd)

  99. It could be worse, Skorcher. At least you aren’t partying with him.

    DRJ (15874d)

  100. At least you aren’t partying with him.

    Yeah, well the acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree, IYKWIMAITTYD.

    Skorcher (5b282a)

  101. I wonder if any newsworthy revelations will be tossed into teh scrum late today in an attempt to make ‘em disappear over the long weekend?

    Colonel Haiku (e208fd)

  102. And for teh record, that sniveling Crabby Appleton crosses with Yoda crossed with Mitch Miller-looking James Clapper is a genuine rat-bastard.

    Colonel Haiku (e208fd)

  103. Most intelligent Texans of the conservative stripe will accept Trump as an imperfect vehicle to achieve their favored ends – he will never have the love – even with a great Wall built – that the northeastern ethnics, the rust belters, Alabamians, West Virginians and Arizonans have for him. They are not as geared to take umbrage in defense of Trump and transfer it to the polling place. The DCSCA-favored Rockefeller-ization of the R party might give a purpling Texas a chance to grab a hold of the Dem carcass and be its savior (with a lot of preconditions I would hope).

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb) — 5/25/2018 @ 8:44 am

    I agree with you, especially the “Rockefeller-ization” of the GOP. However, I think many Texas conservatives will become independents and look to grassroots efforts to identify new candidates. In the meantime, IMO they will follow Cruz’s initial advice and vote their conscience for the best candidate in each race (regardless of party).

    DRJ (15874d)

  104. yes, you don’t want to trust democrats any higher than dog catcher, exhibit a; aramis ayala, who won’t go for the death penalty even in the most agregious of cases, otoh the other lizards are only marginally better,

    narciso (d1f714)

  105. yes it’s Greece, in terns of the European pecking order, with lousiana levels of corruption:

    http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/05/24/ms-13-suspect-who-allegedly-killed-man-burned-body-entered-us-as-unaccompanied-alien-child.html

    narciso (d1f714)

  106. yes it’s Greece, in terns of the European pecking order

    Greece. One of the PIGS. Never trust anyone who keeps pigs…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xUynRdzzsM

    Skorcher (5b282a)

  107. they do most everything wrong and they want to be rewarded for it,

    http://darkislandpr.blogspot.com/2018/05/22m-prepa-customers-without-light-mws.html

    narciso (d1f714)

  108. 107, A guy arrested in SC for a TX criminal warrant – so which state is it that is Greece? And Teddy Roosevelt ex-cepted the Greeks due to their contributions to Western Civilization from his calls for aggressive assimilation to turn of 20th century European immigrants.

    Another takeaway is that MS-13 is ditching the tats and going more “fresa” in appearance.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  109. I just think the lower than other red states TX Trump numbers just reflect the higher permeation of Hispanics and Hispanics by injection into the pre-Trump R party down there, but it might have translated to ballot blanking at the top as opposed to full-throat Dem suppport.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb) — 5/25/2018 @ 7:53 am

    Maybe so. Latino Decisions wants us to think that but it may not be true: Despite high expectations for 2016, no surge in Texas Hispanic voter turnout

    DRJ (15874d)

  110. In 2016, the GOP lost one race because of increased Asian turnout.

    DRJ (15874d)

  111. Legal Insurrection has been removed from Amazons money making merchandising. If one speaks the truth you will be prosecuted, commies.

    mg (9e54f8)

  112. I was remarking about their economic status, not any comment about the people:

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/tom-and-jerry-and-khamenei-1527194706

    narciso (d1f714)

  113. I think that happened here several times, mg. Maybe it is targeted but it could also be that conservative websites send more traffic to Amazon so it has to rebate more money back, and Amazon looks for ways to limit the rebates.

    DRJ (15874d)

  114. 112, was that Duckworth v. Kirk (the DAR in Thailand remark)?

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  115. If Amazon is targeting the right (it may be, may not), I would be glad the widget is gone and hope people decide not to give Amazon their money.

    DRJ (15874d)

  116. Patterico, you reap what you sow. You started it early in the GOP Primaries when you were so 4-square for Cruz that you wouldn’t vote for Trump even if he got the nomonation.

    Following an especially acrimonious Primary, you and prominent others here continued to vociferously denigrate Trump at seemingly every opportunity. So much so, so over the top, that #NeverTrumpism became ubiquitous to the point of constituting a dominent identity.

    Not content to trash Trump ad nauseam, members of the #NeverTrump clique turned their irrational ire perversely against loyal long-term commenters here for the ‘unprincipled’ sin of supporting and defending the GOP candidate they believed could accomplish the impossible and beat the pre-ordained and universally acknowledged inevitable Queen Hillary Clinton.

    Now, 14 months after Trump’s resounding victory you’re still at it, only now you’re bemoaning the bitter harvest sprung from the angry garden you planted and nurtured to maturity.

    Some old commenters have drifted away, some are lurking – waiting for the storm to pass, while many others stay involved because of their respect and admiration for you, this wonderful blog, and for Internet friends of long association.

    So, old friend, take all the time you need, get your head right, quit blaming the (fill in derogatory epithet), and lets get on with Making America Great Again.

    ropelight (5fce02)

  117. at any one moment, we’re supposed to be in eduard munsch mode

    http://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-announces-it-wants-to-resolve-issues-anytime-2018-5

    narciso (d1f714)

  118. In Texas, one consequence of the Dems’ quarter-century electoral shutout from statewide offices is that the Dems have a very shallow bench of no-names. The Dem bench shakes out into distinct groups:

    At the top of the heap, in terms of name recognition and fund-raising ability and practical political power, are the eleven Democratic members of Congress from Texas. But they’re not all the same. Least impressive, and least likely to make the leap from Congress to a state-wide office like governor or U.S. Senator, are the Democratic congresscritters who owe their continued reelection to the bulletproof status of majority-minority congressional districts drawn to include overwhelming majorities of Democrats: Al Green (TX-9, D+29), Sheila Jackson Lee (TX-18, D+27), Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX-30, D+29), and Marc Veasy (TX-33, D+23). Then there’s the vanishing Dem Old Guard, but who are long past having the energy to run statewide: Henry Cuellar (TX-28, D+9), Gene Green (retiring)(TX-29, D+19), and Lloyd “El Patron” Doggett (TX-35, D+15).

    What’s left are the up-and-comers: Vicente González (TX-15, D+15)(first-termer); Beto O’Rourke (TX-16, D+17)(first elected 2012); Joaquin Castro (TX-20, D+10)(first elected 2012); and Filemon Vela Jr. (TX-34, D+10)(first elected 2012). That’s the very small pool of realistic Dem candidates for state-wide office who might have a shot. O’Rourke is from a very safe district that the Dems won’t have to worry about losing, and he’s got the novelty gloss of being a white guy running as “Beto” from remote El Paso, so he’s this cycle’s sacrificial lamb against Cruz. (The Castro twins continue to be groomed, or to groom themselves (I think it’s both), for a better future opportunity, maybe in 2020.)

    Everyone else on the Dems’ bench can claim, at best, prior elected office either as a local or regional judge, state rep or senator, or city councilman — little fish without any statewide name recognition, organization, or money.

    I agree with DRJ that Trump has hurt the GOP base in Texas and created more independents. I don’t think that’s even arguable anymore: For all the same reasons Cruz beat Trump like a rented mule in the 2016 GOP presidential primary (1,241,118 to 758,762, or 44% to 27% in a 13-candidate field), Trump plays less well in Texas than many other red states or even purple states. It’s not that Texans are necessarily hostile to BS-artists, because we have plenty of home-grown ones who manage to keep getting reelected (e.g., Dan Patrick). But BS-artists with a Queens accent and New Yawk values still rub some Texans the wrong way on a very personal level; they’re peddling the wrong brand of BS. Nobody in Texas owes his or her election or reelection to Trump, either; if anything, it’s the other way around. That’s one reason I continue to reject arguments that this is now “Trump’s GOP”: From Texas, it doesn’t seem that way at all. We have an extremely robust and successful state party that remains genuinely independent of him.

    I continue to believe that Beto O’Rourke’s high-water mark came the day he won the 2018 Dem primary — quite unimpressively, pulling only 62% as a sitting Congressman who’d spent many millions against a retired postman and a retired nurse, neither of whom had ever held public office and both of whom collectively spent less than $2000.

    Something big — a war with North Korea, a recommendation from Mueller that Trump be impeached — could still swing Texas unpredictably in November. But absent something that momentous, in the ordinary course of politics, O’Rourke’s numbers will continue to leak away steadily as Texans from outside the relatively tiny El Paso political enclave get to know him: He’s 45 but looks and sounds like he’s about 17, can’t control his F-bombs, and votes in absolute lockstep with Nancy Pelosi. He wants the government to confiscate semi-automatic weapons. In other words, he’s a national Democrat pretending to be a Texan.

    There was a runoff election in Texas this week, in which the Dems selected their sacrificial lamb to run against Greg Abbott. Nobody seems to have noticed who won; I didn’t; it just doesn’t matter enough to do a Google search on, frankly.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  119. Hammond mayor discovers almost 30 genitalia spray-painted on bike trail ‘like directional signs’

    The mayor began walking and uncovered a crime.

    “I see a penis,” McDermott said.

    […]

    “We take a hard stance on graffiti in Hammond,” McDermott said.

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  120. halper wasn’t the first, nor Donald segretti for that matter:

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-fbi-spied-for-lbjs-campaign-1527201701

    narciso (d1f714)

  121. The lt. Gov in California can be very important because he is acting governor whenever the governor is out of state.

    aphrael (029078)

  122. Looking at the main page…..

    Trump, Trump, eggs, sausage and Trump

    harkin (9803a7)

  123. Not on this year’s ballot, but likely to be very consequential in some upcoming Texas election, depending in part on what Abbott, Cruz, and Cornyn do: Wallace B. Jefferson, retired Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court (2004-2013), who’s an impressive speaker and who’s believed to have continuing political aspirations: He’s only 54, and is now busily making the fortune in private law practice that he’d need before returning to public service in D.C. or Austin. The first black elected to the Texas Supreme Court, he’d be very much in the Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) mode.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  124. “Since Donald J. Trump began dominating American politics more than two years ago, Democrats concerned about his policies and behavior have taken solace in a group of influential Republicans who have consistently assailed the president as anathema to the values of their party, and the country more broadly.

    In the past year, however, influential liberal donors and operatives have gone from cheering these so-called Never Trump Republicans to quietly working with — and even funding — them. Through invitation-only emails and private, off-the-record meetings, they have formed a loose network of cross-partisan alliances aimed at helping neutralize President Trump, and preventing others from capitalizing on weaknesses in the political system that they say he has exploited.”

    https://www.redstate.com/streiff/2018/05/25/shocker.-never-trump-republicans-democrats-working-together/

    harkin (9803a7)

  125. Congratulations, bridget! He’s a lucky guy to have you in his life, and I’m glad to see you here and hear your good news.
    DRJ (15874d)

    Thank you. He’s a truly incredible person – brilliant, kind, truly principled, funny, and, well, tall and handsome doesn’t hurt – and I remain shocked that he wants to be with me. Shocked and overjoyed.

    (If I get mushy enough, will Patterico start begging for a Trump fight instead?)

    bridget (784de3)

  126. O’Rourke sounds more like a California Democrat pretending to be a Texan.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  127. According to the lawsuit, filed May 8 in Fort Lauderdale seeking class-action status, McDonald’s used to sell four different Quarter Pounder options, two of which came without cheese and cost between 30 to 90 cents less, the Miami Herald reports.

    Sign me up. McDonald’s is making lots of money off my food allergies.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  128. I want to party with you, Skorcher.
    DRJ (15874d)

    Ditto.

    bridget (784de3)

  129. Pro tip: Order a “quarter ham” and it comes without cheese.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  130. Re-reading my comment at #122, I conclude that I left out an important transition sentence, which ought to have come just before “Nobody in Texas owes his or her election or reelection to Trump, either.” Here’s the sentence:

    Even though Trump has created new “independents” in Texas when they’re considering the nation’s top office, he hasn’t changed the fundamentally conservative nature of most Texans, and his impact in creating new “independents” (who might consider voting for the “right” Dem against Trump in 2020, as if the Dems are going to nominate, say, Joe Manchin) isn’t going to have much, if any, impact at the polls in 2018, when neither Trump nor a presidential opponent are on the ballot.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  131. Despite high expectations for 2016, no surge in Texas Hispanic voter turnout

    Sooner or later the anchor babies grow up and vote.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  132. In 1977, my then girl-friend and I were doing the Eurailpass Europe-on-$10-a-day thing, and we got to Munich, where we’d determined, based on a recommendation from our guidebook, to seek out a modestly priced cafeteria near a local university for our evening meal. Two trams and three buses later, we were thoroughly lost, tired, and hungry. Whereupon to our mixed guilt and surprise, we spotted a pair of Golden Arches. (The guilt was over how instantly we both abandoned the idea of continuing to look for the German student cafeteria.)

    We waited in the considerable line, studying the mostly familiar menu (except for the beer), and I finally gave my order in my best pigeon German: “Zwei viertel pfunders mit käse, bitte,” I mumbled. The clerk smiled at me and asked me in perfect colloquial American-English, “Do you want fries with your Quarterpounders?”

    Beldar (fa637a)

  133. I think the difference was Trump, not indoctrination or migration.

    The Bushes coming out for Hillary didn’t help Trump any. Anyone who disliked the Bushes enough to vote against their choice already had their minds made up.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  134. Donald J. Trump‏Verified account

    @realDonaldTrump · May 24

    Clapper has now admitted that there was Spying in my campaign. Large dollars were paid to the Spy, far beyond normal. Starting to look like one of the biggest political scandals in U.S. history. SPYGATE – a terrible thing!

    Clapper says he didn’t admit that.

    Here’s the New York Times’ argument:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/23/us/politics/fact-check-trump-clapper-campaign-spy.html

    There is one problem, or two with that (but also with trump’s claim) Halper tried to get ajob with campaign but he diudn’t get it. Anotgehr problem is maybe somebody else did get inside. A third problem is that they weren’t looking for politica information. Maybe somebody was looking to startt an investigation and hoping taht fact – that mere fact would leak, but no spyinmg.

    (and the mon ey anyway came much earlier)

    38,866 replies 28,994 retweets 101,457 likes

     Reply
    39K

     Retweet
    29K

    Like 101K

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  135. I finally gave my order in my best pigeon German: “Zwei viertel pfunders mit käse, bitte,” I mumbled. The clerk smiled at me and asked me in perfect colloquial American-English, “Do you want fries with your Quarterpounders?”

    I had the exact same experience with my Hochschule Deutsch in Hamburg, 1989, except I said “mit keines käse.” And remember, this is a person who is taking orders at a fast-food restaurant.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  136. Texas is turning purple precisely as Colorado once did, and is now blue. Washington State suffered the very same fate before. It’s all about statists fleeing the State (California) and other high tax areas.

    It is also true, imo, that DJT’s popularity there was not deep to begin with. The voters were as a grand jury and would have elected a ham sandwich to avoid HRC.

    Now, I am curious…how has Pat avoided service in the RoT (Republic of Texas)? Surely there is something in his past which would give cause to such. 🙂

    Finally, I happened to watch the Medal of Honor ceremony in its entirety yesterday. I must say that DJT was marvelous. He went waaaaaay out of his way to honor Gold Star families. He praised profusely the folks who wear an American uniform. It was a stark contrast in feeling from the previous occupier of the White House. Respect for the uniform is perhaps the only thing outside of DJT that he fully appreciates outside of his own interests and ego. He has been entirely consistent in his life about this. I want to give him his due for a deeply meaningful and satisfying ceremony.

    I also give thanks to God for everyone who sacrifices that we may be free.

    I still don’t trust him.

    Ed from SFV (b95465)

  137. Yeah, Sammy. Fact checks from reliably hostile organizations like the NYT are going to carry weight. Why not just quote the DNC?

    Kevin M (752a26)

  138. @ Kevin M (#138): Yes, but for whom? Abbott carried hispanic males in beating Wendy Davis in 2016, and barely lost among hispanic females.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  139. It’s all about statists fleeing the State (California) and other high tax areas.

    Ed,

    Why would a statist flee statist heaven? Liberty-loving people are getting out in droves, though. Please turn out the lights as you leave and bring the flag.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  140. Unlike the case with what President Johnson did in 1964 with rwgartd to Barry Goldwater’s campaign. This actuallly cam,e out during Watergate, 9 years or more later, but Democrats claimed it was all irrelevant, and it was largely ignored. Then there was real spoying <b? for politically usefiul information ? done by government employees.

    A number of publications have wriotten about this in recent days, including the Wall Street Journal today:

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-fbi-spied-for-lbjs-campaign-1527201701

    By Lee Edwards [director of information for the Goldwater campaign the artivle states – SF]

    (posted online) May 24, 2018 6:41 p.m. ET

    Is it unthinkable that the Federal Bureau of Investigation would spy on a presidential campaign for political purposes? I can personally attest that it has happened before—during Barry Goldwater’s 1964 campaign….

    … The operation was run from the second floor of the West Wing by veteran Washington-based Democrats like Leonard Marks, who would become director of the U.S. Information Agency, and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then an assistant secretary of labor and later a U.S. senator from New York.

    Typical of their black-bag politics was scheduling Democratic speakers before and after Goldwater’s appearance in a city, smothering his message with pro-Johnson, anti-Goldwater rhetoric. Advance knowledge of Goldwater’s travel schedule and advance copies of his remarks were provided by a spy the Central Intelligence Agency had planted in Goldwater headquarters.

    Former intelligence officer E. Howard Hunt, best known for his role as an orchestrator of the Watergate bugging, told a Senate committee in 1973 that his CIA superior had ordered him to infiltrate the Goldwater campaign. Hunt claimed to have questioned the order, only to be told that it had been a personal request of President Johnson and that the information he recovered would be delivered to a White House aide.

    CIA Director William Colby confirmed the White House’s role in the illegal surveillance while addressing a congressional hearing in 1975. That the CIA is prohibited by law from operating within the U.S. didn’t matter to the Johnson campaign. The Goldwater people never suspected that one of them was a spy for the Democrats.

    One of the Anti-Campaign’s writers was John Roche, later president of Americans for Democratic Action. “We used to get advance copies of Senator Goldwater’s key speeches,” he admitted, enabling them to have speakers primed to reply “before Goldwater had even opened his mouth.” When Roche asked how they got the speeches, “the reply was ‘Don’t ask.’ ”

    That wasn’t all. The Anti-Campaign enlisted the FBI, even though the bureau is supposed to limit its investigations to people and institutions considered dangerous to national security…

    Nevertheless, the FBI arranged for widespread wiretapping of the Goldwater campaign. Sure enough, campaign reporters could soon be heard asking specific questions about the candidate’s travel plans that had only been discussed by Goldwater aides behind closed doors. To protect themselves, Goldwater staffers began using pay telephones outside their headquarters.

    Goldwater later revealed that two reporters had asked him about a proposal he had yet to make public—that if elected he would ask Dwight Eisenhower to go to Vietnam and report on his findings. He had discussed the possible Eisenhower visit only with his top aides. But the reporters swore they had heard about it from the White House.

    Johnson also illegally ordered the FBI to conduct security checks of Goldwater’s Senate staff… [these were file checks of 15 Senate staffers – SF]

    …In 1971 Robert Mardian, who had been a regional director in the Goldwater campaign, became assistant attorney general for internal security. During a two-hour briefing with Hoover, Mardian asked about the procedures for electronic surveillance. To Mardian’s amazement, Hoover confessed that in 1964 the FBI had wired the Goldwater campaign plane, under orders from the White House. When Mardian asked Hoover why he had complied, the director answered, “You do what the president tells you to do.”

    In a later conversation with Mardian, William C. Sullivan, the bureau’s No. 2 man, verified the FBI’s spying operation against the Goldwater campaign. In a 1992 interview, Mardian told me that Sullivan was appalled at LBJ’s partisan use of the bureau.

    Goldwater knew about this but told his people not to complain. (well, he probasbly wanted to lose anyway)

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  141. Kevin – because they are manifestly mentally ill, as all good Statists are. Tocqueville warned us all, as did Franklin. We can not, and will not, keep our Republic of liberty and we will always vote ourselves “free” benefits.

    Ed from SFV (b95465)

  142. @ Kevin M (#138): Yes, but for whom? Abbott carried hispanic males in beating Wendy Davis in 2016, and barely lost among hispanic females.

    The CA GOP did OK for a while, particularly after the Reagan amnesty; then it changed. I guess you have to wait a bit for the American Hispanics to be made aware of their “oppressors.” The Democrats are working very hard on that task.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  143. @ Ed from SFV (#144): I also watched the ceremony, and I approved of Trump’s part in it, and I’ll further agree that it didn’t contain the falseness that characterized all of Obama’s participation in such events.

    I do not share your faith in Trump’s sincerity, though. What you interpreted as sincere respect for the uniform, I interpreted as a con man’s correct and astute sizing up of his audience. If Trump had been entirely consistent about this throughout his life, he wouldn’t be known as Cadet Captain Bonespurs now: He, George W. Bush, and John Kerry are of an age, and Trump’s the only one of them who went to a “military” school, but the other two both served, however sincere and dedicated one judges their service to have been. Trump dodged.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  144. http://acecomments.mu.nu/?post=375440

    Just a reminder that NeverTrumpers will threaten the livelyhood of those who don’t get with the program. John Podhoretz has lost his darn mind. Looks like the clique is aligning with the left.

    NJRob (b00189)

  145. Texas attracts people who are focused on opportunities to work and get ahead. California attracts people who want to be on the dole as wards of the state. It’s no surprise that ethnic hispanics in each state reflect that, and it would be a surprise if they didn’t.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  146. Here also: (this is the beginning of an artivle tghat appeared on Politico and it links to the end of it)

    https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/169113

    …there is precedent for an American intelligence agency spying on a presidential campaign. It happened in the summer of 1964; the target was Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, and the perpetrator was the CIA, not the FBI.

    A CIA officer named E. Howard Hunt—later made infamous for his role in the Watergate break-in—was in charge of the operation…

    … Run by a former Associated Press reporter, Continental Press fed news and propaganda to obscure newspapers in developing countries, and provided cover for CIA operatives in Africa, India and elsewhere.

    Over a six-week period in the late summer of 1964, Hunt deployed Continental Press staff to undertake a new type of project: infiltrating the presidential campaign of Barry Goldwater on behalf of President Lyndon Johnson…

    …In 1975, then CIA Director William Colby told the House Select Committee on Intelligence that spying on Goldwater had been the brainchild of Tracy Barnes, head of the CIA’s Domestic Operations Division. According to Colby’s version of events, Barnes proposed it to Chester L. Cooper, a CIA officer working in the Johnson White House on temporary assignment to the National Security Council.

    …in 1973 Cooper told a member of the CIA Office of Inspector General ]This must be when James Schelsinger, Director of the CIA from January through April 1973, wanted to collect all the secret problems what they called the Family Jewels] that in 1964 Barnes had asked him “if he would like to have copies of [Goldwater’s] speeches and would it be useful to have them before he (Cooper) read them in the newspapers.”

    …In blaming Barnes and saying that he hadn’t informed anyone more senior about the operation, Colby created a convenient dead end: by the time the Agency pinned responsibility on Barnes, he had been dead for several years. [LBJ was dead, too]

    …Goldwater campaign staff noticed that the Johnson campaign had the unnerving habit of responding to points in their candidate’s speeches before he had delivered them. Johnson didn’t seem to care that his actions made clear to Goldwater that he was being spied on.

    One of the most glaring incidents took place on September 9, 1964, after Hunt’s operation delivered to Cooper an advance copy of a speech Goldwater was slated to deliver that evening in Seattle. The Republican planned to announce formation of a Task Force on Peace and Freedom headed by former Vice President Richard Nixon that would advise Goldwater on foreign affairs. The idea was to calm fears that Goldwater had insufficient foreign-policy experience and that he would pursue a radical international agenda.

    Johnson swung into action and called a “flash” press conference. While Goldwater was on an airplane and unable to respond, LBJ announced the formation of a task force of his own: a “panel of distinguished citizens who will consult with the president in the coming months on major international problems facing the United States.” Johnson’s ploy worked perfectly: news of his advisory panel was widely reported, including on the front page of the New York Times, while Goldwater’s announcement received little attention…

    …Hunt told Baker that he’d been disturbed by the order to spy on the Goldwater campaign. This … was because Hunt was one of the few Goldwater supporters in the agency…

    …After Hunt’s revelations were leaked to the press, Sen. Goldwater told Washington Postreporters that during the 1964 campaign, he had come to believe he was being spied on. “I just assumed it was one man or two men assigned at the direction of the President… It never bothered me,” he said. “I guess it should have, but knowing Johnson as I did, I never got upset about it.” Goldwater never suggested that the CIA’s spying had cost him the election.

    Even in the heat of the ’64 campaign, as he thought he was being spied on, Goldwater never mentioned his concerns publicly, and even insisted that his aides kept quiet. Going public with the allegations would have distracted attention from his agenda, and absent any proof that surveillance was actually happening, complaints about being spied upon would’ve likely reinforced the common perception that he was paranoid.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  147. The Bush re-election campaighn in 1992 was also spied upon – Bill Clinton had advance copies of his ads – but that was done privately. The Washington Post ran astory that claimed the leak occured downstream. My suspoicions as to the idenetity of the spy: James Lake.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  148. Texas attracts people who are focused on opportunities to work and get ahead. California attracts people who want to be on the dole as wards of the state. It’s no surprise that ethnic hispanics in each state reflect that, and it would be a surprise if they didn’t.

    Well, both of those are over-generalizations. There are lots of other reasons to move to either state. CA’s climate beats Texas hands down, for example. As for indolent immigrants, I have never seen an Hispanic person begging at an intersection. Selling fruit, maybe, but that’s like work. Most of the gardeners in Los Angeles are Hispanic, as are the non-union trades. That may be an economic problem for competing groups, but those jobs are usually not open to the indolent.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  149. Of course, if one WAS looking for a handout, L.A. would be a better bet than even Houston.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  150. If CA passes single-payer, I’d expect a lot of movement across the border in both directions. In a way it would be good to have a deadbeat magnet somewhere. Me, I leave CA for good in a month. I have mixed feelings and a great deal of anger towards the machine politics that ruined this place.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  151. @ Kevin M: Yes, I was overgeneralizing, and there are many and conspicuous counterexamples. But on a macro level, the U-Haul Differential is pretty persuasive. As of today, for a standard 20′ truck, it’s $1054 from Houston to LA, versus $2974 from LA to Houston. Wow.

    Congrats on your upcoming move, though. I think you’ve mentioned it before, but I’ve forgotten — you’re headed where?

    Beldar (fa637a)

  152. Doesn’t California have a problem with earthquakes? (not as bad as Washington Stgate where we now know the really big one will hit)

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  153. Beldar @140
    Some college friends of mine did the Eurailpass thing, as part of an (informally arranged) church youth group trip. On arriving in Munich, they checked into what they thought was a youth hostel.

    They were a little surprised at the age and immodest dress and strange behavior of some of the other guests, and how many people entered and exited, and how busy the place was into the wee hours, despite the lack of music or other features of what we call “night life”.

    It was not until the next morning that they discovered that, while the place gladly let out rooms for the night to travellers, the “hostel” was actually a brothel.

    kishnevi (aaa345)

  154. Florida has these things called hurricanes, but people still come here to live.

    kishnevi (aaa345)

  155. @ kish (#162): That’s hilarious!

    On that same trip, my gf and I rolled into the Marseilles main train station one summer weeknight at about midnight, confident that as elsewhere, we could find a hotel room somewhere if not a low-priced youth hostel or the like. Turns out Marseilles, at least at that hour in 1977, was not very accommodating. We ended up sleeping in our clothes and on top of our suitcases, in a “hotel” that offered hourly rates along with the less-frequently used overnight rates.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  156. Actually, they were backpacks, now that I visualize it again. (Shudder.)

    Beldar (fa637a)

  157. Because Spanky hogs the news, you don’t see much about things like this in the news. But they’re important.

    Former Texas congressman Steve Stockman found guilty of 23 felonies
    https://www.texastribune.org/2018/04/12/texas-congressman-steve-stockman-found-guilty-felony-charges/

    Tillman (a95660)

  158. “As for indolent immigrants, I have never seen an Hispanic person begging at an intersection…”

    Yes, or Asian, for that matter. Good luck on the move, that’s another thing my wife and I are discussing. Only malevolent politicians could ruin a beautiful state like California. I thought we’d never leave here, but it’s more likely with every day that passes.

    Colonel Haiku (e208fd)

  159. Here’s Greg Abbott’s just nominated opponent for the Texas governor’s mansion: Democrat gubernatorial candidate Valdez owes $12K in overdue property taxes:

    Valdez’s campaign officials acknowledged that she owes taxes on several properties, but said she is paying them in monthly installments because she cannot afford to pay the total amounts, which were due at the end of January.

    In a statement, she blamed Republican incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott for the fact that Texas property taxes are so high.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  160. Some men walk into a room and the room just belongs to them. The head guy in the room. The man in charge. It doesn’t matter if it’s a room of five or a room of 500, everyone looks.

    It’s not a height thing. It’s not a wealth thing. It’s not about brains or brawn or what kind of car he drives. It is simply a matter of having “it,” and “it” is a quality that few men possess.

    http://thefederalist.com/2018/05/23/foreign-policy-donald-trump-powerful-man-barack-obama-never/

    Anon Y. Mous (6cc438)

  161. here’s a nice reminder of how the sleazy slutty men and women of the corrupt fbi have lots of slutty misadventures what have nothing at all to do with their coup on President Trump

    In fact, years-long violations of the rules about the FBI’s use of secret spies have led to massive investigations across every branch of government, including a multi-volume, 3,528-pg congressional investigative report in 2003, a scathing 314-pg report from the Department of Justice inspector general in 2005, and even a scathing 228-pg, $102M ruling against the government in 2007 after a federal judge ruled that the FBI deliberately withheld evidence, leading to the wrongful convictions of four men, in order to protect a mob informant. (Three of the men were originally sentenced to death; two died in prison awaiting justice for a crime they didn’t commit.)

    The 2007 ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Gertner, which the federal government chose not to appeal, reads more like a John Grisham novel than it does a legal dictum. In her introduction, Gertner made clear that the horrific miscarriage of justice perpetrated under the guise of the FBI’s confidential spy program wasn’t the result of innocent missteps by a few bad apples, but was instead a coordinated conspiracy involving the rogue agents, their supervisors, and even the FBI director himself.

    rotten corrupt and stanky to the core that’s your fbi 🙁

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  162. Life is full of ups and downs as always.
    Just celebrated 40 yrs of marriage.
    Just learned grandchild #14 is on its way.
    One daughter/son-in-law and 4 grandchildren probably moving across the county. Sad about that but it was a pipe-dream to think we’d all stay physically close since my kids grew up moving from one end of the country to another.
    Downloading the video and photos from our week of diving in Belize. Thinking my cheap little camera did a pretty good job.
    Headed to spend the weekend with my father/in-law in New Mexico.
    Thinking that Houston is way too hot for this time of year. The feels like 112 is missing a 0 at the end of it on my weather app.
    And my cat still acts like she hates humans. Oh wait, I think she really does. She’s a stalker not a smuggler.

    Marci (031d15)

  163. That’s an interesting link, Tillman (#166), thank you for it. It’s interesting to me not least for the reference to new U.S. Attorney for the Southern District:

    Ryan Patrick, the new U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas and the son of Lt. Gov Dan Patrick, was in the courtroom for the verdict.

    “When public officials use their office to defraud donors and violate federal law, we will hold them accountable,” Patrick said in a statement Thursday afternoon. “Corrupt officials like former congressman Stockman make it harder for the honest ones to do their jobs.”

    I blush not to have known of that connection before, frankly.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  164. Many congrats, Marci!

    Beldar (fa637a)

  165. @ Mous, re your #169: But it’s not a cult, right?

    Beldar (fa637a)

  166. And the selected us fatty fir the eastern district, is the son of George terwilinger, and a deputy to rosenstein.

    narciso (d1f714)

  167. You have to be in a cult to recognize that Trump is an Alpha male, and that Obama never was? Does it require cult-status to have a discussion about what that difference might mean as far as foreign relations?

    What a silly position.

    Anon Y. Mous (6cc438)

  168. Beldar – The one, and only, virtue of DJT which I have observed for decades is a very consistent support of those who wear a uniform, military or police, or fire, or whatever. When I lived in Manhattan, there was story after story of DJT taking care of the families of fallen or wounded folks. Incredibly, DJT would deflect when a reporter would ask for a reaction. It was the sole thing for which he did not demand and crave credit.

    While he was a major screw-up as a cadet himself, and he absolutely shirked his duty, my judgment is that somehow, he gained an unwavering regard and respect for those who put themselves in harm’s way.

    Soon enough he will do something absurd and I will return to regular programming. 🙂

    Ed from SFV (b95465)

  169. Let me pick one paragraph out of that set of hosannas, Mous, to give a contrary perspective:

    The truth is Trump has spent his life in boardrooms hammering out deals. And he’s used to being in charge of that boardroom. This is not a small thing, especially when dealing with male-dominated dictatorial cultures like North Korea and Iran. Trump knows how to handle himself with other powerful men, and that is worth something tangible.

    I, too, have spent a lot of time in corporate boardrooms, advising companies on their litigation prospects. In the early 1990s, Trump was standing around a series of corporate boardrooms full of powerful men who were deciding whether they’d lose slightly less money if they went ahead and put Donnie into involuntary personal bankruptcy, or if they might find some way to slightly mitigate the massive losses they’d already sustained by virtue of their past decisions to do business with him if they allowed him to escape personal bankruptcy. They chose the latter option, but it could just as easily have been the former, because his personal net worth was way upside down. The notion that Trump’s personal magnetism had anything to do with anything (other than their original bad decisions, of which they heartily repented) is thus quite literally laughable to me: I laughed out loud, very loudly, when I read this paragraph.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  170. @ Ed: I hope you’re right, but I’ve yet to see any proof that he cares about anything but Trump (as suggested by the fact that he so often describes himself in the heroic third person). Anyway, we can certainly agree that sincere or not, he’s better for the military than Obama was, or than Hillary would have been.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  171. Was Trump an alpha male in the federal district courthouse where he won $3.00 in the USFL’s (at that point, meaning “his”) antitrust lawsuit against the NFL?

    Beldar (fa637a)

  172. You’re welcome Beldar.

    Tillman (a95660)

  173. “Anyway, we can certainly agree that sincere or not, he’s better for the military than Obama was, or than Hillary would have been.”

    Faint praise, indeed.

    Colonel Haiku (e208fd)

  174. Winning lawsuits is bad?

    Nate Ogden (223c65)

  175. It sounds better when you say the USFL won a $1 settlement which was automatically tripled to $3.

    harkin (2fa2ca)

  176. Bender, is it your position that advising the decision makers is the equivalent of being a decision maker?

    Bottom line was Trump was able to get an advantageous deal from those other men. Sure, they could have cut off their noses to spite their faces, but people don’t usually do that.

    That is why Xi made Kim back down and we are back on track with the Norks. They (the Chinese) would love to stick it to Trump, but since he is in a position to do them extreme economic harm, they will follow their own self-interests and deal with Trump.

    Anon Y. Mous (6cc438)

  177. Check that, if memory serves it was $1 punitive damages, not a settlement.

    harkin (2fa2ca)

  178. Bender, does losing a court case (or winning only a symbolic judgement) mean that one is not an alpha male?

    Anon Y. Mous (6cc438)

  179. Bender? LOL

    I laughed out loud when I read that. And then I laughed some more.

    Colonel Haiku (e208fd)

  180. I laughed two times and then I laughed some more…

    And then I laughed some more.

    Colonel Haiku (e208fd)

  181. In 1992, in Home Alone II: Lost in New York, Trump had a cameo part playing the role of an alpha male, as the supposed billionaire owner of Manhattan’s classic Plaza Hotel, which he’d paid $407.5M for in 1988 when he bought it from Texas billionaire Robert Bass:

    Opinion was split over the merits of the deal. Among the many who thought that Donald Trump had overpaid was Donald Trump. In a full-page ad he took out in New York magazine in November 1988, he called the transaction “the first time in my life I have knowingly made a deal which was not economic — for I can never justify the price I paid, no matter how successful the Plaza becomes.”

    This proved prescient. By 1990, the Plaza needed an operating profit of $40 million a year to break even, according to financial records that Mr. Trump disclosed at the time. The hotel had fallen well short of that goal, and with renovating expenses, in one year it burned through $74 million more than it brought in.

    But Mr. Trump didn’t spend a lot of time sweating over the Plaza’s finances. He was too busy with new challenges. A few months after the Plaza deal closed, he purchased the Eastern Air Shuttle for $365 million, and in 1990, he opened the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, which cost $1 billion to build. Some of the loans he took out to pay for deals were personally guaranteed.

    This was before he started using our current U.S. Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, as his bankruptcy/deal lawyer. Friedman weaned him off the personal guarantees and pointed him to name licensing agreements as his primary source of revenues — show biz, not real estate biz, essentially. By 1990, though, things were grim:

    A lack of focus was not Mr. Trump’s only problem. The updraft in the real estate market of the ’80s turned into a headwind by the early ’90s, and more than $3 billion in loans — $900 million of which were personally guaranteed — went into default. Dozens of banks came calling and, after lengthy negotiations, a meeting was held in a large conference room in the law offices of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, the firm that represented the largest lender, Citibank. There, some 50 bankers and lawyers watched Mr. Trump sign over nearly all of his properties — the Plaza, other buildings, the shuttle, the yacht, the jet — in exchange for more favorable terms on his personal guarantees.

    I was a partner in WG&M’s Houston office in 1990. We were not representing Trump, even though the firm was (and remains) the premiere debtors’ bankruptcy and reorganization firm in the U.S. I was not in the conference room described above. But I have former partners who were, so we’re talking one degree of separation here.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  182. Was Todd innocent or unfamiliar with the reporting done by every news outlet in America? That hardly seemed possible. After all, he has an entire crew of writers and producers to protect him from making such basic factual errors. Was he living in his own private fiction? Had he been asleep for the past six months?

    “Such questions were rudely answered when Todd invited his panelists to join him in the debate: Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus, former RNC chairman Michael Steele, and the Washington Bureau chief for the New York Times, Charlie Savage. This motley crew did not quibble with any part of Todd’s opening statement but, rather, cheered him on as spectacularly right.

    Marcus blathered about the President being a liar so adept that he somehow warps the world around him into agreement. She certainly wasn’t buying the idea that President Trump was actually spied on by our intelligence services. This was a remarkable thing for her to say, since it was it was her own newspaper that reported on it last Friday. In effect, Marcus was “gaslighting” the President of the United States on television by asserting that he was a liar for simply repeating on Wednesday the headline story of the Washington Post from the previous Friday.

    https://spectator.org/chuck-todds-daily-tds/

    Trump, eggs, sausage and Trump!!!

    harkin (2fa2ca)

  183. It’s the OCD, harkin. That and being anal… and i’m not talking retentive.

    Colonel Haiku (e208fd)

  184. He has the reality stone, like I say I used to thank the metaphors was platos cave but its really more like the Nina labyrinth.

    narciso (d1f714)

  185. More on the Plaza:

    In effect, the banks allowed Mr. Trump to remain solvent so that they could get the benefit of his gift for salesmanship. In exchange, the banks provided him with $450,000 a month to operate his business and cover personal expenses. It was so tight a leash that when Marla Maples, his girlfriend at the time, turned up on television waving the costly Harry Winston diamond she’d been given as an engagement ring, the paymasters wanted a word with the groom-to-be.

    “I didn’t buy it,” Mr. Trump said, according to Mr. Pomerantz. It was a three-month loaner, given in exchange for on-air mentions of Harry Winston.

    A spokeswoman for Mr. Trump called that story “completely false.”

    The banks shopped the Plaza around, without success, for a few years before finally selling it in a deal that valued it at $325 million to a partnership between Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia and CDL Hotels International of Singapore in 1995. None of the proceeds went to Mr. Trump, according to several people involved.

    Practically drips alpha male, doesn’t it?

    Beldar (fa637a)

  186. Narciso… I come in peace…

    Colonel Haiku (e208fd)

  187. It drools it.

    Colonel Haiku (e208fd)

  188. Mous, are you really going ad hominem again? I thought you’d grown out of that.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  189. And after I honored your request to stop calling you Embedded_Blank_Mous, too.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  190. Much like Conrad black who saw breeden carve up this empire hand the national post to the aspers hand the telegraph to the Barclays bros (whose on their board, who did they beg for investors?)

    narciso (d1f714)

  191. Mous asked me (#185) whether it’s my position that “advising the decision makers is the equivalent of being a decision maker.” It’s clearly not, and I’ve never so contended; my profession is that of an agent from whom principals seek advice on specialized matters requiring legal judgment and experience in litigation, and that’s a very different thing from being a principal, even though it obliges me continuously to mentally put myself in their shoes, while also trying to maintain independent judgment and objectivity that they may lack.

    I don’t claim to have been a big deal maker. I’ve been privileged to advise some of the best, however, and I believe I have a fair basis to make comparisons among them.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  192. Bender, I asked you to use my screen name to refer to me. You did so at that time, but I guess you come to feel that was unreasonable.

    What ad hominem? Either now or in the past? I tend to treat people the way they treat me.

    Like Trump!

    Anon Y. Mous (6cc438)

  193. Of course mazzetti and Co, can’t or won’t acknowledge reality

    http://.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/05/the-emerging-strategy-to-undermine-the-iranian-regime.php

    narciso (d1f714)

  194. Visa cuts off Morgan Freeman commercials after harassment report

    THAT’S WHAT YOU GET FOR TRYING TO RAPE PEOPLE MORGAN

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  195. So when you hear ‘Bender’, do you think of Jane Fonda as the Marine wife in Coming Home or Judd Nelson as the most laughable bad-a$$ ever in The Breakfast Club?

    harkin (2fa2ca)

  196. THAT’S WHAT YOU GET FOR TRYING TO RAPE PEOPLE MORGAN

    Rape? Really?

    I haven’t read much but what I did seemed to stop at him being a relentless lech.

    harkin (2fa2ca)

  197. So much for Vancouver public transit, maybe he’ll plead demential like Keith carradine in madam secretarym

    narciso (d1f714)

  198. Obama’s cult thought he was an alpha male too. Perhaps the problem is with the people who think you can divide men (or people) into alphas and non-alphas. I don’t think that’s particularly useful in the real world. Intimidation and bombast aren’t universal keys to success by any means.

    To pick three of the billionaires I’ve been privileged, long ago, to help represent: Boone Pickens is someone who could justifiably claim to be an “alpha male,” in the sense of being highly charismatic, wonderfully funny, and extraordinarily bold. At the other extreme from him, Gerald D. Hines, probably the most successful real estate developer in the world, is absolutely self-effacing and deliberately low-key; you may never have heard of him if you’re not in the business, but you can find his legacy in the skylines of cities across the U.S. and around the world. Somewhere in the middle was the late Roy Huffington, the former Exxon engineer who figured out that Indonesia had marketable natural gas. I have boundless respect for those three men, as principals, as deal-makers and wealth creators and men of vision, men of their word. The only way Trump exceeds any of the them is in ego and noise. He’s frankly not fit to shine their shoes in my opinion, and I’ve had that opinion of him since long before the turn of the millennium.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  199. I guess the difference between Ol Morg and Prof. Jacobsen is that Morg will be given due process.

    harkin (2fa2ca)

  200. @harkin

    https://youtu.be/1sNMHdaJx5c

    Anon Y. Mous (6cc438)

  201. I haven’t read much but what I did seemed to stop at him being a relentless lech.

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  202. oops that comment got away from me

    i was gonna say I haven’t read a lot either so take anything i say with a grain of salt

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  203. Obama’s cult thought he was an alpha male too.

    Surely not the ones who saw him throw a baseball, roll a bowling ball or ride a bicycle.

    http://www.thedailyrash.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/600b09201e1.jpg

    harkin (2fa2ca)

  204. Gosh, harkin, I assumed it was the “Futurama” Bender. If I’ve been compared to Jane Fonda in any respect, that’s much more serious.

    But if I were sensitive to such things, would I have chosen to blog, and then to comment on the internet, as “Beldar”?

    Beldar (fa637a)

  205. @ harkin (#214): The one-eyed man is king among the blind.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  206. @harkin

    https://youtu.be/1sNMHdaJx5c

    That’s what I get for only seeing about 10 min of only one episode.

    harkin (2fa2ca)

  207. They measure “alpha-maleness” by the sharp crease of one’s trousers.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  208. Flying straight into the worm

    http://deadline.com/2018/05/solo-a-star-wars-weekend-box-office-1202397848

    Boone pickens seems to the only one that found new oil in the perm basin

    narciso (d1f714)

  209. Speaking of texas. Every day in texas a 1000 mexican kids turn 18 voting age and nearly everyone of them hating republicans. Black kids add another 300!

    birthrate (cec3b2)

  210. Anyone who thinks all Mexicans hate republicans has not been around too many Mexicans.

    harkin (2fa2ca)

  211. @140. 1968. Paris. Several years before the first McDonald’s opened in Europe [along the Champs Élysées w/much cuisine controversy BTW] grabbed my brother, a cab and after 8 years of French, parled avec the driver to take us to the Paris Hilton [the hotel, not the yet-to-be-born-floozie] to grab a burger and a Hearld Tribune. The frog answered in perfect English.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  212. To be absolutely precise, harkin, it was a $1.00 jury verdict, which was trebled by the court under the Sherman Act, so that judgment was entered for the USFL for $3.00. The jury hated Pete Rozelle and Donald Trump in almost equal measure, and this verdict sent exactly that message.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  213. He’s frankly not fit to shine their shoes in my opinion, and I’ve had that opinion of him since long before the turn of the millennium.

    Really?

    It’s not clear exactly how Pickens, a well-known supporter of President Trump, will engage politically.

    According to Politico, the oil tycoon hosted the president’s financial backers ahead of the 2018 and 2020 elections at his Mesa Vista Ranch in October.

    Pickens in May 2016 made clear to conference attendees at the SkyBridge Alternatives conference in Las Vegas that he was backing Trump and planning to contribute to Trump and a pro-Trump super political action committee (E&E Daily, May 12, 2016).

    “Yes, I’m for Donald Trump. … I’m tired of having politicians as president of the U.S.,” Pickens said at the time. “Let’s try something different.”

    https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060070917

    BuDuh (fc15db)

  214. @ Anon Y Mous: So be it.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  215. @ Beldar, agreed.

    Anon Y. Mous (6cc438)

  216. 221, I was surprised at the vitriol a couple had toward Jimmah the house builder, but then I grew up in a black neighborhood not unlike the fictional Navin Johnson or the singer from Everclear.

    urbanleftbehind (d15944)

  217. 206.So when you hear ‘Bender’, do you think of Jane Fonda as the Marine wife in Coming Home or Judd Nelson as the most laughable bad-a$$ ever in The Breakfast Club?

    Futurama.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  218. @ BuDuh: I wasn’t purporting to speak for Pickens, but of Pickens. My assessment is of their character and qualities as businessmen. Pickens frequently picked other multi-millionaires to join him as partners in his tender offers, but Pickens didn’t ever invite Trump, nor do business or invest money with Trump to the best of my knowledge. Trump didn’t play in the same league then. Trump was never a major M&A player, although he did certainly generate interest from the SEC and USAO-SDNY, who usually sniffed around the edges of Pickens’ deals looking for hangers-on that included Trump’s buddy Carl Icahn, who ended up owning Trump’s casinos after multiple wash-and-rinses through bankruptcy.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  219. (My continuing respect for the memory and legacy of Roy Huffington makes me wince, in fact, every single time I see any reference to the Huffington Post — Ariana Huffington having been Roy’s daughter-in-law.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  220. @205- Does he get any credit for playing God, Mr. Feet?

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  221. he does not get any credit because he’s defiled himself in the eyes of God by doing bad thoughts on women

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  222. @232. Morally bankrupt, eh Mr. Feet.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  223. “Speaking of texas. Every day in texas a 1000 mexican kids turn 18 voting age and nearly everyone of them hating republicans. Black kids add another 300!”
    birthrate (cec3b2) — 5/25/2018 @ 1:18 pm

    OK. Then who is the most valued of the three…. Republicans, Black kids or Hispanic kids? And why?

    noel (b4d580)

  224. Maybe some minority kids “hate” Republicans because some in the GOP dismiss these kids as mere impediments to their political aims.

    noel (b4d580)

  225. he’s my favoritest president more and more every day in America (President Donald Trump)

    WATCH: Trump Shakes Literally Every Naval Academy Graduate’s Hand

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  226. 236, I’d say depends on the locale and the individual local apparatus. Some places, one single minority vote is not even necessary.

    urbanleftbehind (847a06)

  227. @ birthrate (#220): Gosh, that’s an exaggeration. Do you know the first hispanic First Lady of Texas, by the way?

    That would be the current one, Texas First Lady Cecilia Abbott. I’m guessing you didn’t know that, actually.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  228. Cecilia is a classical music devotee, having begun playing the piano at the age of six. Her piano training came in handy when she moved into the Castilian Dorm at UT, where she serenaded her future husband from behind the keyboard with music, the likes of which he had never heard.

    There must be more to that story! I wish I knew it. I was a resident and then a resident assistant at The Castilian, and earned my room & board in that job during my second year at UT-Austin. I’ve played that piano, and very badly, too!

    Beldar (fa637a)

  229. Did everybody catch the apology today that Donald Trump made to the FBI for defaming them? I heard that it was all over FoxNews.

    noel (b4d580)

  230. LOL at NOEL in the ‘laughing at’ sense

    Tellurian (b07080)

  231. Noel, no, but Gavin Newsom’s campaign sent me a text message telling me that Trump had endorsed John Cox and asking if I was going to stand with Trump or stand with Newsom. I said neither, explained my reasoning, told them that texting me makes me less likely to vote for a candidate, and informed them that they may be violating the TCPA.

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  232. Since North Korea already rescheduled the meeting instead of going ALL IS LOST, WORLD IS A ****, WE GO TOGETHER and pushing the big red button like most of these heroin-addicted blackpillers of the past order seemed to want, I’d recommend Patty polish up his Konservative Kreds by picking an easier target like the execrable new Solo movie to post about. Can’t let Ben Shapiro scoop you on the take!

    Tellurian (b07080)

  233. Wait a minute.

    Donald Trump doesn’t apologize. To anybody. No way. Never. What kind of p*$$y would ever do such a thing anyway, right Colonel Haiku?

    You should be laughing at me. I really got hoodwinked that time.

    noel (b4d580)

  234. “Texas attracts people who are focused on opportunities to work and get ahead. California attracts people who want to be on the dole as wards of the state. It’s no surprise that ethnic hispanics in each state reflect that, and it would be a surprise if they didn’t.”

    Sad reality is that Texas is attracting both, a far too large portion of which is ‘both at the same time’. Greg Abbott can opine all he wants but the action taken against de facto sanctuary states like Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio is negligible.

    Business leaders absolutely are shameless enough to grind down local wages by importing foreigners and then walking them through the sign-up process for government benefits that most natives wouldn’t qualify for. Texas was getting down with the California sickness for just as long as California was, it’s just taken longer for the morbidity to set in thanks to a Republican party that isn’t always totally useless.

    Tellurian (b07080)

  235. > From Texas, it doesn’t seem that way at all. We have an extremely robust and successful state party that remains genuinely independent of him.

    Texas is unusual in that regard; most of the rest of the country, the Republican party has fallen in line, and even here in California, the leading Republican candidate for Governor has had to backpedal and admit that he made a mistake in voting for Johnson in 2016.

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  236. Beldar,

    > California attracts people who want to be on the dole as wards of the state

    This is really not consistent with any of the people I know in California, and it’s a slur that I am surprised to see from you.

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  237. “Gavin Newsom’s campaign sent me a text message telling me that Trump had endorsed John Cox and asking if I was going to stand with Trump or stand with Newsom…..”

    Did they by chance mention that most undocumented felons stand w Newsom?

    harkin (2fa2ca)

  238. Harkin, no, they just tried to imply that if I don’t vote for Newsom, I’m supporting Trump.

    This is a ridiculous argument given that we’re voting to determine which two candidates go to the general election. Newsom is the runaway front-runner, so voting for him really doesn’t do anything other than increase the size of his lead.

    I replied back that my debate is between strategically voting for Villaraigosa (so as to help ensure that there are two Democrats in the general election) or voting for Chiang (my favorite Democratic politician at the state level).

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  239. “Texas attracts people who are focused on opportunities to work and get ahead. California attracts people who want to be on the dole as wards of the state.”

    Who even says things this stupid? There are millions of unique individuals in each of these states. Most, a whole lot smarter than the author of that line.

    noel (b4d580)

  240. @236. Ensign Purell meets Captain Custard, eh Mr. Feet.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  241. @ noel: I didn’t say that this was true of everyone, and it is concededly an over-generalization. But with those caveats, I stand by it. Texas and California are different places and headed in different directions. Your ad hominem is noted, for what it’s worth.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  242. @ aphrael: Do you think California and Texas attract the same people in equal measures? Do you think any generalizations can be made about either place? I don’t, and do.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  243. Note well: I did not write, nor do I believe, that everyone who lives in California wants to be on the dole, nor that everyone who’s attracted to California is attracted because of its politics and political leaders and state programs. If I had wanted to say either of those very different things, I would have.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  244. Take it from someone born in Hollywood in the late 50s and has maintained at least one home in CA since, the general view is the makers are leaving and the takers are moving in.

    To be fair though, some of the takers are leaving too. Ex-Public employees with have maxed-out retirement bennies are leaving to escape the obscene taxes they helped create.

    harkin (2fa2ca)

  245. Harkin, your 2nd para also describes a good chunk of late middle-aged Illinoisans you see moving to other states.

    urbanleftbehind (847a06)

  246. @ noel (#250): Instead of an insult, how about you make a case? Base it on data, or base it on rhetoric, or whatever combination of the two you please. Note that we are not talking about specific individuals, but about differences in the two states in the aggregate.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  247. 179

    @ Ed: I hope you’re right, but I’ve yet to see any proof that he cares about anything but Trump (as suggested by the fact that he so often describes himself in the heroic third person). Anyway, we can certainly agree that sincere or not, he’s better for the military than Obama was, or than Hillary would have been.

    Except the ceremonies like yesterday, and his going out of his way on Wed. in NY to shake hands with a line of uniformed police who were at the airport as he was heading to AF1.

    Just what “evidence” meets your high standards?

    Seems to me like your views in this regard are so set, there’s nothing he can do that won’t be the subject of “discounting” on your part of any having been the product of genuine sincerity.

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  248. If you want to go the data-oriented route, here’s a three starting places that about 60 seconds of Googling produced, noel.

    My observation presumes two different hypothetical people, mind you, with different priorities: One has as his priority opportunities to work and get ahead, the other, living on the dole as a ward of the state. My observation also presumes — counterfactually, and solely for purposes of argument; as I’ve readily agreed, there will be many individual and non-hypothetical people whose choices are based on neither of these factors — that these are the only two factors in play. Does anyone here genuinely believe that neither person would have a preference as between California and Texas? Does anyone genuinely believe that the latter would choose Texas?

    I intend no slur toward any particular Californian, existing or would-be. I do believe that both California and Texas, as states, are indeed judged by potential immigrants (from other American states or from abroad) in substantial part on their respective political, business, and public welfare environments, which are spectacularly different despite the fact that both are very populous states with large borders with Mexico.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  249. @ swc (#259): Every person in that room during the Medal of Honor ceremony who served this country in uniform certainly meets my standards. When Trump’s in the spotlight, he’s surely patriotic. When he thinks he can get away with it, not so much.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  250. 218 — the crease is unimportant when you are wearing Moms’ jeans.

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  251. Hey, Beldar… I’ve lived and worked in California my entire life, since the age of 14, full-time work even when attending college since I was 17. Unlike you, I’ve helped create and improve products and services, so you can put your aspersions up your tail pipe.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  252. I’ll also add this: The depth of Trump’s sincerity when it comes to supporting the military isn’t on the list of my top 100 concerns about Trump. Even if he’s faking it, I’m glad he is acting as if he does, as I said above.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  253. @ Haiku (#263): I didn’t every claim otherwise, but your need to pretend that I did does say something about you Haiku, alas.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  254. In the schoolyards of my youth, this quip would have earned this

    urbanleftbehind (847a06)

  255. 262 — You should vet that story a bit more.

    After the MSM’s distortions, it became known through other reporting that numerous groups who had applied for a share of the funds spent several months being vetted so that there would be assurances that the overhead/administrative expenses of the groups that received funds would put the maximum amount possible towards providing services to the intended beneficiaries.

    The event was held on January 28.

    The WaPo ran a story that kicked off all the “He hasn’t paid” hysteria on June 1.

    41 groups ended up receiving money, in amounts from $50,000 up to $1 million.

    These were PLEDGES — including Trump’s own pledge of $1 million — meaning the money had to be collected before it could be paid out.

    And the groups receiving the funds had to be vetted before they were included in the recipients.

    So, it took somewhere in the neighborhood of 120 days from the event until the payments went out. And it was reported — and mostly ignored — that some of the money went out all during that 120 day period.

    What else happened in that 120 day period that might have been significant?

    Oh yeah — he won 34 out of 51 GOP primary/caucus contests to earn the nomination for President.

    Maybe the staff’s energy and focus was elsewhere from Feb. 1 to June 1.

    But they were still getting checks out.

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  256. bridget,

    If you are still reading, I felt that way about my spouse, too, and I still do over 30 years later. I know you will be very happy.

    DRJ (15874d)

  257. oh so it was just fake news propaganda sluts not real people

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  258. Harkin, your 2nd para also describes a good chunk of late middle-aged Illinoisans you see moving to other states.

    Yeah, I heard recently the IL state govt was going to increase everyone’s property taxes by 1% of value ($5,000 extra every year for a house worth $500k, above and beyond the existing tax assessment) in an attempt to help fund the monstrous public pension obligations.

    CA would be even worse if not for Prop 13.

    harkin (2fa2ca)

  259. They didn’t get the checks out until the media spotlight was back on them, swc. You hypothesize that neither Trump nor any of his subordinates had the decency to make time to get these commitments paid. I hypothesize they were under no orders to get them paid. Regardless, it’s a long pattern — please don’t make me go find other supporting examples of Trump welshing on promises — which I find convincing.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  260. @250.“Texas attracts people who are focused on opportunities to work and get ahead. California attracts people who want to be on the dole as wards of the state.” Who even says things this stupid?

    LOL:

    “The Coneheads started out as the Pinhead Lawyers of France.” – Dan Aykroyd, source, ‘Live From New York – An Uncensored History Of Saturday Night Live’ by Tom Shales & J.A. Miller, Little, Brown & Co., 2002

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  261. I want to party with you, Skorcher.
    DRJ (15874d)

    Ditto.

    bridget (784de3) — 5/25/2018 @ 10:47 am

    My dance card is usually full up but I do have an opening next month on the 23rd, which also happens to be my mother’s birthday. Kate Hudson and Anna Kournikova are coming over. We’re gonna order chinese and play strip Parcheesi. Which kinda works best with four players. Though five would be kinda awkward. The two of you could arm wrestle for the open spot. Video the match, post it on YouTube, and send me the link.

    Skorcher (8590af)

  262. farenthold, and devlin barrett have been spoon fed for the better part of two years, did they know about halper, or the origins of the dossier, did they care:

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/after-investigating-victim-ambra-battilana-manhattan-da-cy-vance-finally-charges-harvey-weinstein

    narciso (d1f714)

  263. it’s been a long winding road, for him to come to this point:

    https://amgreatness.com/2018/05/25/andrew-mccarthy-on-the-ongoing-fbi-shenanigans/

    re the earlier link, black cube worked like fusion or haklyut, keeping stories out of the news.

    narciso (d1f714)

  264. it’s disappointing one can’t come to a definitive statement:

    https://saraacarter.com/what-happened-during-the-fbi-interview-with-flynn/

    but as with libby, these things are rarely this clear cut, this is what a fitzgerald counts on,

    narciso (d1f714)

  265. Thanks but Kate and I did that last weekend, Skorcher. Been there, done that.

    DRJ (15874d)

  266. 271 — not true. Many recipients of smaller amounts confirmed they recieved checks in March and April. The largest recipients got them later — several were dated May 24.

    Are you suggesting that 1) Trump was going to keep the money, or 2) Trump was never going to pay the $1 million pledge he made??

    What’s your support for that, other than the passage of 120 days, when there were other events taking place??

    Where is it written that 120 days is too long to collect on pledges and vet recipients?

    Is that only the case because the WaPo didn’t think he met a time frame that satisfied them?

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  267. Do I think that Trump is a huckster and a salesman, more than a businessman and a statesman? Absolutely I do.

    Do I think he’s got a lifelong habit of being happy to get the soundbite, play to the day’s headlines in order to be in tomorrow’s headlines, and then move on without attending to the details of what he left behind? Yes, he is that person.

    Do I think the media driven narrative about the 120 day period between the event and the dispersal of all the funds is accurate or relevant — no, because I don’t accept that the media gets to set the narrative about “how long” is “too long”, and without that narrative the entire episode was a non-story. To borrow the phrase — it was “fake news” because it only became “news” when the WaPo decided that it had taken too long.

    Who the fook cares if it was 90 days, 120 days, or 180 days?

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  268. swc, I’m not going to bite. Sorry. This has been hashed and re-hashed, and if you think he’s a punctual and trustworthy donor, I’m not going to convince you otherwise no matter how many examples I find. I will point out in closing, though, that not many punctual and trustworthy donors are obliged to shut down their personal charitable foundations after repeated inquiries into abuse. You can believe he’s Bill Gates if you want.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  269. Who the fook cares if it was 90 days, 120 days, or 180 days?

    In my experience, the charities — including the staffers they have to pay to do the follow-up to turn pledges into case — care a very great deal about exactly this.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  270. I believe you, Beldar. I read your remarks as insulting the individuals as well as state policies. If you did not mean it as such, my criticism is overly harsh.

    noel (b4d580)

  271. I recall that DRJ has repeatedly commented on this topic, and I’ll adopt — from memory but without reservation — each and all of her past comments.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  272. My feeling, and it’s a feeling and not something I know, is that both Texas and California have work opportunities for people who move there. California is much prettier and a much nicer place so more people may want to go there. But I think Texas has more jobs and more money for labor, especially high-paying oilfield jobs where employers typically provide the training for entry-level jobs. I bet California employers need workers, too, since the unemployment rates are similar, but do they have jobs that pay as much as oilfield jobs? And how does California vs Texas’ cost of living compare?

    DRJ (15874d)

  273. “California attracts people who want to be on the dole as wards of the state”

    265… Do you stand by what you wrote, Beldar? Or was your weak claim that you didn’t mean to cast aspersions on citizens of the state of California put you in the proper perspective?

    Let’s see… the practice of law attracts people who want to take advantage of people who are among the most vulnerable members of society and attracts and employs people who enrich themselves by making nearly every facet/aspect of life more expensive and more difficult.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  274. Now I don’t mean to say most lawyers can be tarred by this brush, but a substantial number sure can.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  275. @ noel (#283): No, I really wasn’t intending to criticize individuals — nor classes of people other than my hypothetical person considering moving to California, who in my head has neither race nor color nor sex nor national origin, etc., but merely a drive to either maximize state benefits or maximize state opportunities.

    So thanks for your comment, and moreover: With it, I now can perceive an angle that I hadn’t, but which also may have motivated my friend aphrael’s dismayed reaction. I wasn’t in any way intending to imply that, to put it at its most gross and crude, “them beaners are all lazy.” If you thought that’s what I meant to imply, your reaction was apt. Growing up in Texas I’ve always been exposed to people who so believe and even so said, and I’ve likewise always disagreed with them, precisely because I grew up in Texas and know it’s not remotely true, or fair. I live in the most culturally diverse city in America by choice, and view that as a definite feature rather than a bug.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  276. Texas is a great place with a lot of outstanding, good-hearted people.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  277. *… to either maximize state benefits or maximize employment opportunities,” I meant to write in #288, sorry!

    Beldar (fa637a)

  278. I am enjoying reading these market watch articles on Russiagate. They are not perfect (what is) and they included analysis, opinion (making inferences from limited amount we know). But in general, I find them more comprehensive and helpful than the Treeper articles (and definitely better than someone like Hannity wasting 20 minuts of screen time with 2 minutes of content and not clarifying anything, whatever “side” you are on.)

    This one is nice, especially where he talks about the effort to share Trump investigation widely within the administration.

    https://www.themarketswork.com/2018/04/26/a-story-of-intelligence-fabrication-media-collusion/

    “March 1, 2017 – A New York Times article Obama Administration Rushed to Preserve Intelligence of Russian Election Hacking by Matthew Rosenberg, Adam Goldman and Michael Schmidt.

    This article is nothing short of amazing.

    It quite literally describes the Obama Administrations efforts at disseminating illegally gained intelligence throughout the Intelligence Community.

    If one reads between the lines of this article and the February 14th article directly preceding, a rough outline of what really transpired is obtained.

    Recall the January 12, 2017 article, NSA Gets More Latitude to Share Intercepted Communications. That event heralded the shift from gathering information to sharing information. This article illustrates the fulfillment of that shift:

    In the Obama administration’s last days, some White House officials scrambled to spread information about Russian efforts to undermine the presidential election — and about possible contacts between associates of President-elect Donald J. Trump and Russians — across the government. Former American officials say they had two aims: to ensure that such meddling isn’t duplicated in future American or European elections, and to leave a clear trail of intelligence for government investigators.

    American allies, including the British and the Dutch, had provided information describing meetings in European cities between Russian officials — and others close to Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin — and associates of President-elect Trump, according to three former American officials who requested anonymity in discussing classified intelligence.

    Obama White House officials grew convinced that the intelligence was damning and that they needed to ensure that as many people as possible inside government could see it, even if people without security clearances could not. Some officials began asking specific questions at intelligence briefings, knowing the answers would be archived and could be easily unearthed by investigators.

    At intelligence agencies, there was a push to process as much raw intelligence as possible into analyses, and to keep the reports at a relatively low classification level to ensure as wide a readership as possible across the government — and, in some cases, among European allies.

    The opposite happened with the most sensitive intelligence, including the names of sources and the identities of foreigners who were regularly monitored. Officials tightened the already small number of people who could access that information.

    Damaging raw intelligence was being widely disseminated. But sources of that information were being protected and restricted…

    More than a half-dozen current and former officials described various aspects of the effort to preserve and distribute the intelligence, and some said they were speaking to draw attention to the material and ensure proper investigation by Congress. All spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were discussing classified information.

    Efforts to preserve the intelligence continued until the administration’s final hours. This was partly because intelligence was still being collected and analyzed.

    European allies were starting to pass along information about people close to Mr. Trump meeting with Russians in the Netherlands, Britain and other countries.

    In the weeks before the assessment was released in January, the intelligence community combed through databases for an array of communications and other information — some of which was months old by then – and began producing reports.”

    Anonymous (6c5e21)

  279. Yes, we have been over this before, Beldar. It’s not just charitable donations, either. His promised Inaugural donations are still missing a year later, and now even Mueller is investigating.

    You are also right that it’s not worth our time. That’s Trump’s secret. He makes us give up our principles because we get so tired of beating our heads against the brick wall of endless scandal.

    DRJ (15874d)

  280. Haiku, I cast no aspersions on the people of California.

    Except you. I now cast an aspersion on you, for pretending otherwise, in what is, once again, a hateful reaction directed at me personally because I don’t share your devotion to Donald J. Trump. As for your work or life in California, I know nothing of it and make no judgments, and have never pretended to. If you say otherwise, you lie.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  281. (My aspersion has nothing to do with California, except that it’s your excuse for attacking me.)

    Beldar (fa637a)

  282. So you’ll wimp out instead of owning up to what you’d implied about California and it’s citizens, Beldar. Okay, that’s good to know.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  283. …..the practice of law attracts people who want to take advantage of people who are among the most vulnerable members of society and attracts and employs people who enrich themselves by making nearly every facet/aspect of life more expensive and more difficult.

    Kurt Vonnegut had a nice line in one of his novels:

    “In every big transaction, … there is a magic moment during which a man has surrendered a treasure, and during which the man who is due to receive it has not yet done so. An alert lawyer will make that moment his own, possessing the treasure for a magic microsecond, taking a little of it, passing it on. If the man who is to receive the treasure is unused to wealth, has an inferiority complex and shapeless feelings of guilt, as most people do, the lawyer can often take as much as half the bundle, and still receive the recipient’s blubbering thanks.”

    harkin (2fa2ca)

  284. One more thing about California that is not data-driven and is totally subjective, but … I see the house flipping shows on TV and I do not see how anyone in manual labor can ever own a home in LA.

    DRJ (15874d)

  285. 289… still holds true, just subtract one from the total.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  286. Beldar,

    I admit that I read #153 as if you had said:

    “The people who Texas attracts are focused on opportunities to work and get ahead. The people who California attracts are people who want to be on the dole as wards of the state.”

    You are correct that you said something subtly different than that — and at the same time, I think that my reading is a pretty normal reading of what you did say (reinforced by the fact that several other people in this thread have had the same reaction), and I *know* there are people who say what you said *intending* to imply what I read.

    That said, I take your comment at 255, reiterated several times later, as quite clearly saying that you did not *intend* the meaning that I ascribed to it, and not intending that meaning is more consistent with your character as I’ve seen it over the course of many years; I believe your statement of non-intent, and I apologize for imputing to you my initial reading of it rather than reflecting and looking for a meaning more consistent with what I know of your character.

    I agree that someone seeking to be on the state dole is more likely to move to California than to Texas. I see no evidence, however, that this is anywhere close to a majority of the people who move to California.

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  287. California has decidedly taken a Ruskin turn, why deny it, maybe pat browns association with Roy huffington allowed the son to explore this level of dependency with out consequences for him.

    narciso (d1f714)

  288. If I were as intellectually honest as you, Haiku, this is the point at which I’d pretend that you’ve now endorsed every single policy of Jerry Brown, here in these comments today.

    But that would be an obvious lie. As is yours.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  289. 297… yes, and it will only get much worse.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  290. You know where to place your opinion, Beldar.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  291. > I do not see how anyone in manual labor can ever own a home in LA.

    They probably can’t.

    Quite possibly *the biggest* internal political fight right now is over housing.

    On one side you have a coalition of people including
    * wealthy people who are intolerant of ANY change to their neighborhood
    * environmentalists who oppose housing construction
    * local governments who realize that current state tax policy make housing a net financial drain on the local government while retail and offices are net financial benefits
    * community activists in poor and minority communities who believe that any easing of construction rules will result in their communities being the site for construction (while no construction will happen in the wealthy communities), thereby displacing them
    * people who are concerned about higher volume use of transit and road infrastructure

    all of whom come together to oppose measures to make it easier to build housing, on the one hand, and

    * conservative free market activists
    * the tech industry (who wants cheaper housing for its workers)
    * tech workers (who want cheaper housing for themselves)
    * people who think that the only way to prevent poor and minority communities from being driven out is to reduce the cost of housing and that the only way to do that is to build, build, build

    who support loosening housing construction rules.

    in the last year or two we’ve had some very slow halting movement towards making it easier to build. the *single biggest* change is that communities who have not been approving enough housing construction to meet their proportionate share of demand growth will temporarily lose their ability to reject development plans for discretionary reasons. it’s too early to tell how much that will help. a broader bill to automatically zone-for-higher-density anywhere near a commuter rail or high volume bus line failed to make it out of committee.

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  292. Our eldest son is returning to SoCal this evening after 4 days in Austin on a biz trip. He was very impressed with the city, as I knew he would be.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  293. @ aphrael (#299): Thanks for that thoughtful, careful, and generous comment. You & noel have both done me a service. And yes, in the real world, decisions are rarely if ever as simple as my statement presumed, and so of course I have no clue, and make no assertions, about the extent to which this factor does play into those individual decisions, either as a proportion within the basket of factors they’re considering, or in terms of the numbers of people who consider it at all.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  294. @ Haiku: And thus ends another exchange between us — again with a personal insult, after several failures on your part to come up with anything resembling a civil argument that relies on anything but ad hominem.

    Why do you insist on picking these fights, if not for your love of the Donald?

    Beldar (fa637a)

  295. Is there anything Mueller doesnt investigate, perhaps Russian contributions to the Clinton foundation, whatever he finds he decants to the local papers, ‘on what meal does this saw disr Caesar feed’

    narciso (d1f714)

  296. The guy had ‘em all set to vibrate for what he said were obvious reasons, but the authorities aren’t buying it…

    “Man ‘hid SIX phones inside his bottom before deliberately getting arrested scaling the security fence surrounding Jerusalem so he could hand them to prison inmates.’

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5768147/Man-hid-six-phones-inside-bottom-deliberately-getting-arrested-Israel.html

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  297. Two things you’ll see in CA on the increase:

    Homes with 5-8 cars parked in front because non-family groups are sharing rent.

    Entire streets being gated off and going private.

    harkin (2fa2ca)

  298. During the height of the drive till you qualify boom here in the Chicago far suburbs, I kind of envied the homeowners with 4 trocas or suburbans in a driveway..they didn’t have to shovel snow.

    urbanleftbehind (53fff1)

  299. “Homes with 5-8 cars parked in front because non-family groups are sharing rent.”

    Harkin… my wife and I have 3 cars parked outside because we only have a 2 car garage. Our next house must have a 4 car garage!

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  300. @313. With such magnificent weather pretty much year ’round, a lot of homeowners use their garages for household storage and just park on along street, too.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  301. Congrats on your upcoming move, though. I think you’ve mentioned it before, but I’ve forgotten — you’re headed where?

    Rio Rancho, NM. Or maybe Corrales. It’s a climate thing. I can’t deal with humid. Yes, Udall, etc, but Republicans aren’t pariahs like they are in L.A.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  302. Doesn’t California have a problem with earthquakes?

    Yes, but never a hurricane or tornado. The cities never even get snow, which few eastern cities (e.g. Denver) can say.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  303. 313 – this has become a big problem in honolulu. Zoning laws allow homes to be built up to 5 feet away from side yard lot lines, and 10 feet from the front lot line.

    in the past few years dozens of homes have been built which consume 80% or more of the total sq. ft. of the lot. 7,000 to 8,500 sq. ft is not unheard of. What is unheard of is that they have 1 bedrooms and 5 baths, with only one central living space and a relatively sparse kitchen area.

    What is happening? After building is complete, the interiors are modified so that each of the “bedrooms” becomes a mini-suite, with a small kitchenette. Two of the mini-suites share a common bathroom. the home is really a self-contained apartment building, with 10 rooms for rent.

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  304. “It’s a climate thing. I can’t deal with humid.”

    Likewise. I have a small ranch in the Great Basin and a place in Cali. I’ve worked from Portland (ME and OR) to Puerto Rico and I’ll never live east of the Rockies.

    Ideal would be Leucadia or Encinitas (or Cliff Dr in Laguna) but not enough scratch.

    harkin (2fa2ca)

  305. Hawaii and setback abuse: yep.

    In CA, all the homes with big back yards are getting second homes added.

    harkin (2fa2ca)

  306. Beldar — clearly he knew the cameras were there. Why else would he go to the trouble?

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  307. Way out west the land is dry
    They’re always fightin’ fires
    There ain’t no jobs, folks on teh dole
    And they call the Kev Pariah

    The UHaul trucks that cost so much
    And elbows are a-flyin’
    And Beldar calls teh people bums
    Like folks ain’t out there tryin’

    Pariah, Pariah
    They call the Kev Pariah

    Pariah, Pariah
    They call the Kev Pariah

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  308. This sounds good:

    President Trump on Friday signed three executive orders overhauling the federal bureaucracy, including an order that makes it easier to fire federal workers for misconduct.

    DRJ (15874d)

  309. @ Kevin M (#316): That sounds terrific! Best of luck to you in the Land of Enchantment. My best friend from college does e-media for his day job, but in his off time he’s the principle trumpet for the Albuquerque Symphony, and he’s lived there since the late 1980s and finds it very genial indeed. I hope you do too.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  310. *principal trumpet, he’d quickly correct me.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  311. (And it’s a community group, not to be confused with the New Mexico Philharmonic.)

    Beldar (fa637a)

  312. It was something I noticed right away:

    http://powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/05/behind-the-redactions.php

    narciso (d1f714)

  313. Leviticus is in that area, too.

    DRJ (15874d)

  314. Jack Posobiec🇺🇸
    @JackPosobiec
    Don’t worry, Alexa isn’t spying on you. She’s just confidentially informing humans of your activities

    harkin (2fa2ca)

  315. “Rio Rancho, NM. Or maybe Corrales. It’s a climate thing. I can’t deal with humid. Yes, Udall, etc, but Republicans aren’t pariahs like they are in L.A.”

    – Kevin M

    Aim for Corrales if you can, Kevin – it’s beautiful community, down in the cottonwoods by the river. The communities border each other, though – you can’t go wrong.

    If/when you move out here, let me know. I would be happy to buy you a beer sometime – talk about the community, politics, anything but politics… you name it. You’re definitely one of the good guys, in my book.

    Leviticus (ad7568)

  316. This sounds good:

    President Trump on Friday signed three executive orders overhauling the federal bureaucracy, including an order that makes it easier to fire federal workers for misconduct.

    Indeed.

    Let’s start with him.

    Dave (445e97)

  317. Doing some thinking about how the Obama administration went after Page and Papa. Really the thing that strikes me more than than being some eevul Russian spies is what total lightweights they each are. Papa with high school extracurriculars on his resume. Page underemployed and very mediocre performance in a middle-range investment bank.

    Here is an interesting article on Page at one conference in mid July.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/when-carter-page-met-stefan-halper-1527029988

    Page was invited in late May/June. And his EXPENSES PAID. (Very unusual, he was NOT A SPEAKER and is a total lightweight. I find it very hard to believe that he would have gotten that invite/ticket if not for the effort to get Trump.) So evidently they were spying (collecting, entrapping, observing, whatever you call it) as early as then. [Of course it is possible this effort was done via Fusion or some contractor, even for the Hillary campaign or some Denocrat donor…but likely CIA/Brennan pushing it via intermediaries. FBI probably not looped in yet.]

    The other strange thing is that Page has talked on TV (Google for a link, I don’t want to go into spam control) about how nice/genuine Halper was. To the extent he still does not want people to jump to conclusion Halper was playing Page. But Page says Madeleine Albright took a special interest in Page and tried to get him to talk more. That’s pretty strange for a heavy hitter like that to be taking a special interest in a loser like Page. I doubt it was a motherly instinct (we are talking a serious DC operator with different views). Page recognizes that Albright’s behavior was suspicious.

    Anonymous (d41cee)

  318. By the way if CIA was investigating Page in June (the meeting invite) rather than CIA, that is probably illegal. CIA is not supposed to do counterintel on US persons. That was not a Russian that they had invited to the conference. And it’s irrelevant if this was before the start of the named investigation, if done via intermediaries or what. bottom line would be CIA doing counterintell investigation against US persons. And the issue of timing goes to the actions not to the named investigation. If CIA played Page like this, it’s the action that matters not if a cutesy named investigation had started yet.

    Anonymous (d41cee)

  319. Yes page had a small part of the Gazprom deal, but that had been 10 years ago, Craig pierrong has the details,

    narciso (95d175)

  320. correction: “rather than FBI”

    Anonymous (d41cee)

  321. 335 — imo that’s what they are hiding. That the CIA started the targeting here, and ran operatives at Page, who by Comey’s own statements became a person of interest as soon as it was announced that he was an “Adviser” to the campaign due to the 2013 efforts by Russian intelligence agents to recruit him as a source.

    Some very good reporting I read earlier today dug up an article from early April, 2017, where British intel authorities gave over info to the CIA that Russian agents had been intercepted talking about Page, and the fact that he had been named a Trump adviser. The Brits expressed “concern” to the CIA, and the article cites to British intelligence sources that US intelligence was slow to get involved because of the restraints on the CIA’s ability to monitor US citizens.

    Eventually they overcame their fear. What the CIA started was then handed over to the FBI in mid-JUly.

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  322. Now the latest barium enema they fed to isikoff concerns a conversation two Russians had in Spain two years ago.

    narciso (95d175)

  323. Hollywood Myths vs. the Real CIA:

    Myth: The CIA spies on US citizens.
    Reality: The Federal Bureau of Investigation has the lead on intelligence matters in the United States, especially those directed against US citizens. However, the CIA and the FBI work together as needed to protect the interests of US national security. The CIA does not collect information concerning the domestic activities of US citizens, but its foreign intelligence collection mission can be conducted anywhere.

    DRJ (15874d)

  324. Oddly I recall reading about ht chaos that they ran against certain anti war protesters and there was another against cispes in the 80s

    narciso (95d175)

  325. If it is still in effect, would surveillance of a US citizen abroad require approval from the AG under EO 12333?

    2.5 Attorney General Approval. The Attorney General hereby is delegated the power to approve the use for intelligence purposes, within the United States or against a United States person abroad, of any technique for which a warrant would be required if undertaken for law enforcement purposes, provided that such techniques shall not be undertaken unless the Attorney General has determined in each case that there is probable cause to believe that the technique is directed against a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power. The authority delegated pursuant to this paragraph, including the authority to approve the use of electronic surveillance as defined in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, as amended, shall be exercised in accordance with that Act.

    NOTE: The EO defines “United States person” as a US citizen.

    DRJ (15874d)

  326. 338: Did you see my 291? The part that really bugged me the worst was that they were SPREADING information about US persons in a CI investigation widely in the administration (and since then, leaking). Interesting also that in concert with that, they were actually trying to better hide the sources/methods (possibly to cloak some weaknesses in the case along with some improprieties in the process). In other words, they weren’t trying to get more bodies to actually DO THE WORK but instead trying to spread the message.

    Anonymous (d41cee)

  327. The CIA never spies on Americans.

    Best Regards,

    The CIA

    harkin (2fa2ca)

  328. #297

    Rule #1 don’t work for the people who are flipping houses
    Rule #2 do work for people in places like Laguna, Newport Beach, La Jolla, Beverly Hills, Malibu, Montecito, Santa Ynez where the rich are spending money lavishly.

    So stop fishing for shark and barracuda in the flipping pond (where you are the prey) and do go fishing over in the trophy pond for whatever is biting… but give them clean high quality work with the best materials and craftsmanship and remember this is a catch and release pond. They’ll come back again and again and even send their friends over to feed off your hook

    steveg (a9dcab)

  329. Good advice, but I guess my ultimate point is that it’s easier to find a job in Texas that will provide a wage that lets one buy a modest house and raise a family.

    My guess is most people would rather live in California but, once they get there, I wonder how many feel like they live at or below subsistence levels.

    DRJ (15874d)

  330. Comfortably Smug
    @ComfortablySmug
    Yesterday: Trump is a moron to hold the North Korea summit and there’s no upside.

    Today: Trump is a moron to cancel the North Korea summit; it gives him zero leverage.

    Tomorrow: The summit is back on and it’s a testament to Trump’s stupidity.

    #Resistance is non-falsifiable.

    harkin (2fa2ca)

  331. I wasn’t sure what to make of yesterday’s cancellation. To me, it was one of those situations where you needed to wait to see what the next move on the board was. I did not think Beldar’s case that it was a colossal mistake was very convincing because I don’t put much value in his view that Trump game Kim something no Nork leader had ever had, which was standing in the world. To me, that’s 1960s thinking. Kim has been fat and happy since his daddy died, done pretty much whatever he wanted from a nuke and ballistic missile development standpoint, and the failure of “recognition” never seemed to slow him down much.

    The key for him has always been China wanting a well armed buffer between its border and the ROK, backed by Japan, Australia, and the US.

    It seems like the Nork’s figured out what Iran might be learning — life under a sanctions regime run by Trump is a bit different than a sanctions regime run by Obama. No pallets of cash and the keys to the Nuke kingdom after just a 10 year wait.

    I think Pence’s “Libya situation” was a gaffe by Pence, and I read some sage advice this morning that the Trump WH needs to DEMAND that there be only 2 voices on the Norks — Trump and Pompeo — Mattis should be whispering in the ears in the background.

    I think it was China that blinked here. And I think they blinked when they considered the rhetoric last week from Bolton about Euro allies being sanctioned if they do business with Iran. China has to figure that if the US will sanction Germany and France, Trump isn’t going to lose any sleep over sanctioning China for propping up the Norks in the absence of a deal on their nukes.

    It will be an interesting few weeks to see if things are back on track.

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  332. DRJ,

    I wouldn’t mind living in Texas but for two things. One is the lack of mountains. The other is the high property taxes. (By the way, I hopped the Nor Cal border, and live in Reno now. I have mountains, and my property taxes are just over $1200 a year.)

    norcal (9e72e2)

  333. Shippie:

    I think the FBI versus CIA things is more wave-particle (I’m a car, I’m a pedestrian) game-playing. If there was an inter-agency task force (doing something) than that may even give a Sicario fig leaf to cover the CIA actions as being under FBI direction. [But of course, the intent of that is that the FBI ensure legal protections are maintained for US citizens and if not done, even by CIA or contractors, FBI would be on the hook.] Now presumably these guys were doing something (some actions, some analysis, some review of intel, some searches). And the group existed since spring (probably early, not late as news leaks play it).

    So I am actually thinking more and more that Comey is the one who is on the hook, not Brennan. He was responsible to make sure that IATF maintained legality (why FBI required to be there at all). And he gave a dishonest statement recently. When he says the investigation started in end July. Fine, the NAMED Investigation started then. But activities of investigation (a lower case “investigation” still) were going on before.

    Again…”lack of candor” in OIG terms). Intent to deceive (in USNA honor code language). Sea lawyer, weasel games. Not “ethics professor”. Not “I chopped down the cherry tree, Dad”. Not “I threw your damn palm tree overboard and what is this no liberty!”

    Anonymous (6005bf)

  334. Legal Volokh-style question for the double-domes here, from teh IANAL.

    What I understand is that the massive data warehousing of all communications by NSA is justified as matching the 4th amendment because they don’t actually LOOK AT IT yet. Just collect it. I never bought that argument for the Panopticon, but that’s their justification. OK.

    So here is the question. If a law enforcement agency got wiretaps without a warrant but didn’t listen to them until after the warrant, would that be justified (just recorded them). If the listening was done later after the warrant, would things be OK? I mean even an old school THE CONVERSATION wiretap back in 1973, even just by some city police department. Could see why there would be a rationale to do this sometimes (for example, press of time). It’s a rationale of expediency, but it definitely would be helpful.

    The funny thing is we totally are starting to become Schroedingers Cat like here. If you observe it, the wave function collapses!

    The other issue of course is if the 4th Amendment really justifies the Echelon Panopticon. For one thing it could be subject to abuse (how do we know people are only listening after the warrant, since obviously recordings (or digital data) is sitting there, conveniently, temptingly. Did the founders mean to sanction that?

    Anonymous (6005bf)

  335. Come listen to a story bout a man named Ted
    Hard working engineer barely kept his family fed
    One April doing taxes put him in a nasty mood
    He looks out the widow, his neighbor’s sunbathing in the nude
    Tranny xe was. Piercings. Tattoos…

    After talking to his cousin about moving back to the east
    “We got lots of jobs, worser still Cali gonna fall into the sea”
    Get yer butt back to Georgia where you never shoulda left
    It was all a big mistake, folks back here all think yer daft
    Fruit and nuts. No place for a man.

    Well even though Ted was almost a millionaire
    Costs so much to live, their clothes were all thread bare
    Said to his family California just ain’t the place for to be
    So he sold his crappy Prius and bought an SUV
    Big Tires, Four by Four.

    Y’all come back now, ya hear?

    Skorcher (8590af)

  336. 352, beginning seems to match the meter but you lose the rhythm later on.

    Anonymous (d41cee)

  337. I take it you wazn’t much of a Hee-Haw fan, waz ya?

    Skorcher (8590af)

  338. Though I kinda agree. Doesn’t read well. Needs to be performed by someone with a good (bad?) sense of timing.

    Skorcher (8590af)

  339. Saaaa-lute!

    Anonymous (d41cee)

  340. And I hope this guy made sure to say “I got hired in February 2017”, especially so close to Mar A Lago: http://sports.yahoo.com/report-richie-incognito-paranoid-believed-nsa-agent-time-dumbbell-incident-025441744.html

    urbanleftbehind (53fff1)

  341. I like your parody, Skorcher.

    norcal, you are right about both mountains and property taxes. We need to find a better way than property taxes to finance public K-12 schools but we seem stuck for now. As for mountains, we’re stuck there, too. When we want mountains or pretty scenery, we go to New Mexico and Colorado.

    DRJ (15874d)

  342. So here is the question. If a law enforcement agency got wiretaps without a warrant but didn’t listen to them until after the warrant, would that be justified (just recorded them). If the listening was done later after the warrant, would things be OK? I mean even an old school THE CONVERSATION wiretap back in 1973, even just by some city police department. Could see why there would be a rationale to do this sometimes (for example, press of time). It’s a rationale of expediency, but it definitely would be helpful.

    I think the correct answer should be that law enforcement can access any stored information but only if the warrant states what items and time periods are covered and a judge signs off on it after being told why the items/time period are needed. Maybe that is already how it is done but we don’t know because the process is secret. My guess is it varies depending on the prosecutor, judge and jurisdiction.

    DRJ (15874d)

  343. This is why they wanted to take scl/cambridge analytica out:

    https://mobile.twitter.com/paulsperry_?p=s

    narciso (d1f714)

  344. But … I assume the recordings were originally obtained legally, such as through a third party who was not acting for the police. If the recordings were illegally obtained then I don’t think that would be “cured” by a subsequent warrant, so they could not be used. Just continuing to store them might be illegal (unless it was a counterintelligence matter?).

    DRJ (15874d)

  345. Consider the last administration went after rosen harder than the Kim dynast, subpoenaed risen and Shane, sanger for the stuixtnet the whole ap switchboard for the body bomber leak (that came from brennan) rules aren’t their concern.

    narciso (95d175)

  346. Back atcha, narciso.

    Then Charles checked on his two snitches among the subversives. There were basically two subversive groups in Blue Eye — Communists and Republicans — and Charles confirmed quickly enough that neither group had any revolutions planned.

    Hunter, Stephen. G-Man (Bob Lee Swagger) (p. 26). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

    nk (dbc370)

  347. That’s not how revolutions happen, cells don’t admit they are planning operations unless they are supremely stupid, this was around the time that hiss and Duggan were recruited by gru and mgb

    narciso (95d175)

  348. Dude, laugh!

    two subversive groups in Blue Eye — Communists and Republicans

    Will it help to know that Charles is an FDR Democrat who joins the proto-FBI?

    nk (dbc370)

  349. It’s conceivable the last two company chiefs in Havana were ex bureau attached during the war.

    narciso (95d175)

  350. I remember a novel by Dan Simmons based on when oni had Hemingway as an asset during the war.

    narciso (95d175)

  351. what’s the problem collecting voice/data from people without a warrant?

    It’s not like actual civil servants are going to unmask hundreds of names to go fishing.

    harkin (e4ec42)

  352. I don’t have a problem with accessing stored metadata and voice recordings maintained by third parties like the telecom companies, although I doubt their records go back years let alone decades.

    DRJ (15874d)

  353. i wouldn’t have a blanket prohibition, but I would put strong rules on their use,

    https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2018/05/20/can_trumps_populist-conservative_coalition_hold_137078.html

    narciso (d1f714)

  354. as it seems they copied the plot of enemy of the state, too thoroughly:

    http://dailycaller.com/2018/05/26/important-questions-about-spygate/

    narciso (d1f714)

  355. ikes when you lose even a sleazy slimy fellow pussyhatter like John Cornyn you’re pretty much running on fumes

    CORNYN: Right. Well, unfortunately, I think Director Comey helped create a culture at the FBI that they were accountable to no one. And unfortunately, that created, I believe, this situation we find ourselves with. Director Wray, I have to tell you, I think is doing an outstanding job. But it’s going to be a long time before the reputation of the FBI regains its reputation as a law enforcement organization that has integrity and is above politics.

    lol

    polish up them resumes, you hot and horny men and women of the sleazy fbi

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  356. Can’t run a police state without surveillance, although the imagined threat of the surveillance is what actually does the job. The Gestapo, for example, only followed up on less than 10% (maybe as little as 8%) of the tips it got. It simply did not have the manpower to do more. However, all Germans and occupied populations were in mortal fear of it.

    nk (dbc370)

  357. well cornyn we know he’s mostly useless in this possum congress, so are we a police state, nk, are we supposed to be,

    narciso (d1f714)

  358. Totally.

    nk (dbc370)

  359. A very interesting 4 part series documentary on Netflix “Evil Genius…” about the pizza bomber bank robbery case in 2003…

    Crazy case…

    Colonel Haiku (e208fd)

  360. Interesting turn in events on the Flynn case, and the controversy over what was meant by the agents who wrote that they did not believe Flynn was purposely attempting to deceive them.

    Sarah Carter has a story up that says the second agent in the room with Strzok for the interview is willing to testify before Congress on the issue. One of the things she says is that the agent sticks by his view that Flynn was not attempting to deceive them, even if the did say something that contradicted the transcript of his call with the Russian Ambassador. The point the agent makes is that Flynn volunteered sensitive information to them in some of his answers, when there was no way for him to know that the agents already knew the information he was providing.

    This is often a “dividing” line when prosecutors are trying to determine if someone being questioned his intending to deceive the investigators — if they volunteered information of significance, without being asked to do so, and that volunteered information is accurate, then you have to take an extra-hard look at information they provided which is inaccurate. Was the inaccurate information possible just a mis-recollection? Was it an innocent failure to recall something that resulted in a negative response to a question? Did they misunderstand the question?

    That’s why you sometimes give people like Flynn a couple chances to answer the same question — maybe in 2 or 3 interviews — just to see if they stick with the false answer.

    The agent seems to still believe that any inaccurate information given by Flynn in his interview was not done so intentionally by him.

    This is huge BRADY material in the case before Judge Sullivan.

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  361. Colonel Haiku (e208fd) — 5/26/2018 @ 10:13 am

    Thanks for the suggestion, Colonel. My bro has an account to which he grants me access, so I will check it out. Happy Saturday and Memorial week-end!

    felipe (023cc9)

  362. This is often a “dividing” line when prosecutors are trying to determine if someone being questioned his intending to deceive the investigators

    this is also a dividing line for the judge and filthmerican judges are corrupt clowns what vote their politics not the law

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  363. *Sara* Carter

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  364. 379.

    Even if Flynn is found guilty and punished, the failure to disclose this material could still be an impropriety by the prosecutor. Flynn doesn’t have to be innocent for there to be some helpful material to him that was improperly withheld.

    Then again, it might be the sort of thing that was not easily found by discovery but would have required cross-examination (thus not a Brady violation). [Who asks for a draft 302? Although maybe defense attorneys should start.]

    P.s. I wonder if the issues that Strozk talks about with withheld 302s that will upset Congress are more on the Clinton email side than this Flynn thing. I think parts of the Bu wanted to pursue that harder than what they did.

    Anonymous (d41cee)

  365. 382:

    Girls get so fussy when you mess up their names. Like Julia Julie.

    And birthdays…somehow they really care about that. 😉

    Great innovation, women, though. Thanks, God!

    Anonymous (d41cee)

  366. 374:

    It is interesting how the schemers and politically correct were getting promoted (like Strozk). Not that this doesn’t always happen some. From what we see so far, I think Andy was worse than Jim in fostering these types like Page/Strozk.* Although it is pretty funny that Bill called out Peter for being a busybody! 😉

    *There are also indications in the texts that the McCabe leak was not his only leak. Not only the lack of surprise by Page in doing it, but other specific events.

    Anonymous (d41cee)

  367. Great innovation, women, though. Thanks, God!

    Anonymous (d41cee) — 5/26/2018 @ 12:49 pm

    They make life worth living.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  368. Happy Saturday and weekend to you, felipe!!!

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  369. Interesting speculation about course of SPYGATE events:

    https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/999318435216715776.html

    Note, I don’t buy the speculation that NSA hacked the Clinton campaign. And the Boente speculations are weak–I have seen Democrats (Bill Palmer) make exact opposite. Maybe Boente is down the middle and just a normal guy. But all that said, there are some interesting ideas in other parts of the thread.

    Anonymous (d41cee)

  370. Speculative chronology about SPYGATE evolution.

    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/01/11/the-doj-and-fbi-worked-with-fusion-gps-on-operation-trump/

    1. The part about wife of the Fusion GPS company making a special trip to the White House was news to me. Extremely suspicious.

    2. The part about Fusion GPS (or even any contractor) abusing FISA about searches to go after Trump is speculative. (Sundance makes these theories sometimes and assumes they have firmed, when they are just long standing hypotheses.)

    Anonymous (d41cee)

  371. I’ve brought up Mullen and Co, before there’s also this one:
    http://spartacus-educational.com/JFKmaheu.htm

    narciso (d1f714)

  372. Two of the mini-suites share a common bathroom. the home is really a self-contained apartment building, with 10 rooms for rent.

    People build for airbnb like that, too.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  373. *principal trumpet, he’d quickly correct me.

    Yes, principle trumpets frequent blogs.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  374. If/when you move out here, let me know. I would be happy to buy you a beer sometime – talk about the community, politics, anything but politics… you name it. You’re definitely one of the good guys, in my book.

    I’ll do that, but it will be me buying you the beer, I’m afraid. My last beer was April Fool’s Day, 1988. BTW, did you know we have one degree of separation?

    Kevin M (752a26)

  375. Along the trail you’ll find me lopin’
    Where the spaces are wide open
    In the land of the old A.E.C.
    Yee-hoo!
    Where the scenery’s attractive
    And the air is radioactive
    Oh, the Wild West is where I wanna be

    ‘Mid the sagebrush and the cactus
    I’ll watch the fellows practice
    Droppin’ bombs through the clean desert breeze
    A-ha!
    I’ll have on my sombrero
    And of course I’ll wear a pair o’
    Levis over my lead B.V.D.’s

    I will leave the city’s rush
    Leave the fancy and the plush
    Leave the snow and leave the slush
    And the crowds
    I will seek the desert’s hush
    Where the scenery is lush
    How I long to see the mush-
    Room clouds

    ‘Mid the yuccas and the thistles
    I’ll watch the guided missiles
    While the old F.B.I. watches me
    Yee-hoo!
    Yes, I’ll soon make my appearance
    (Soon as I can get my clearance)
    ‘Cause the Wild West is where I wanna be

    Kevin M (752a26)

  376. Yippie yo caiwow!

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  377. Ideal would be Leucadia or Encinitas (or Cliff Dr in Laguna) but not enough scratch.

    I grew up on the Point in Balboa, back when non-millionaires could live there. Spoiled me.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  378. One more thing about California that is not data-driven and is totally subjective, but … I see the house flipping shows on TV and I do not see how anyone in manual labor can ever own a home in LA.

    There is no SoCal single-family home within 2 miles of the coast that sells for under $1 million. Many condos also sell for more. Yet the average price of a house in LA county is under $600K. This suggests that there are some houses substantially cheaper, in less favorable locations.

    Where I live, I could not buy today, even if I was at the height of my earning power. But I bought 20 years ago at the end of a long local recession (aerospace collapse after the Cold War). Recently, the FANGs have decided to open up “Silicon Beach” a mile from my house and the execs are looking for housing. Yahoo, YouTube, Microsoft, Google, etc. It’s a good time to be a seller, and my neighborhood is an oasis of calm in the middle of LA.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  379. He’s an old cowhand from the old Southland
    But he’s movin’ on, down to Heisenbergland
    Cuz the people there are all commies now
    Never voted Dem cuz he don’t know how
    And he sure ain’t fixin’ to start in now
    Yippie yi yo kayay

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  380. bridget,

    If you are still reading, I felt that way about my spouse, too, and I still do over 30 years later. I know you will be very happy.
    DRJ (15874d)

    Awww. 🙂 🙂

    bridget (9121d8)

  381. Reading the SarA Carter article, shippie referenced, now.

    One catty grammar comment. Below is an awful sentence:

    [The issues surrounding the FBI’s agents interview with Flynn] took center stage [after former Director of the FBI James Comey changed his story several times regarding whether or not the agents believed Flynn had lied to them during the interview].

    First brackets are a nominalization and act as subject (too abstract, inhuman actor). Second set of brackets are a very long and winding prepositional phrase.

    Anonymous (d41cee)

  382. So the latest hot take is some communications two Russians on a central banker and a bratva figure had about kushner in 2016, all well and good but the conversation happened in 2013, the second figure was in jail by then.

    narciso (d1f714)

  383. I had the wrong Rory, narciso.

    Rose is running away with it.

    Patterico (0f8389)

  384. Sports unlikely many fields are unpredictable

    narciso (d1f714)


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