Feb 04 2018

The Breakfast Club (Superb Owl Sunday)

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:30am (ET) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

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AP’s Today in History for February 4th

World War II’s Yalta Conference; O.J. Simpson found liable for the murders of his ex-wife and her friend; Patty Hearst kidnapped; the Massachusetts gay marriage ruling; aviator Charles Lindbergh born.

 

Breakfast Tune Roger Sprung & His Progressive Bluegrassers 1967 – Groundhog

This coming from the original mono pressing featuring Roger Sprung (5-string banjo), Jon Sholle (lead guitar), Jody Stecher (mandolin), Mike Ziller, Austin Gelzer (bass), Jackie Pack (dumbek drum), Gene Zimmerman (jaw harp), Richie Barron (drums), Gene Lowenger (fiddle), and Larry Dunn (guitar). Youtube embed is supposed to start at 42:57. If it doesnt work, follow the link to original, click show more and click Groundhog

 

Something to think about, Breakfast News & Blogs below

 
Joe Kennedy Talked Tough About the Opioid Crisis, But Gives Pharma Firms a Pass
Lee Fang, The Intercept

IN HIS RESPONSE to the State of the Union on Tuesday night, Rep. Joe Kennedy, D-Mass., emphasized his concern for the “parent whose heart is shattered by a daughter in the grips of an opioid addiction,” promising a health care system that focuses on the addiction crisis.

But like many bipartisan promises to solve the opioid crisis, Kennedy is the latest politician to talk tough about solving the problem while giving the pharmaceutical firms at the center of it a pass. His most consequential action as a federal legislator, meanwhile, was to push a bill that gave the opioid industry a shot at watering down prescription guidelines first implemented by the Obama administration.

Asked for comment on Kennedy’s role in fighting the drug companies responsible for the opioid crisis, Kennedy’s office sent a statement focused on other ways the congressman has addressed opioid addiction. …

 
Two dead and 70 injured in South Carolina train crash
Associated Press in Cayce, South Carolina

A crash between an Amtrak passenger train and a CSX freight train in South Carolina on Sunday killed two people and injured about 70 others, authorities said.

The Amtrak train was heading from New York to Miami with about 139 passengers on board when the crash happened around 2.45am near Cayce, authorities said.

The injuries ranged from cuts and scratches to broken bones, Lexington County spokesman Harrison Cahill said. Lexington County Coroner Margaret Fisher said the two people killed were traveling on the Amtrak train. …

 
Union-Backed Democratic Congressman Rejects $15/hr Minimum Wage
Zaid Jilani, Ryan Grim, The Intercept

LONGTIME INCUMBENT DEMOCRATIC Rep. Dan Lipinski and his primary rival, Marie Newman, revealed gaping ideological differences over key issues during an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board over the weekend.

The gap could prove pivotal in an Illinois district that went for Bernie Sanders in the 2016 presidential primary by 8 points.

In major areas, Lipinski and Newman were far apart. Newman has the backing of both women’s groups and those fighting for LGBT rights, as well as national progressive groups that argue Lipinski is out of step with his district. Lipinski, backed by the state machine, has significant labor backing — which makes his rejection during the interview of one of labor’s key priorities noteworthy. Audio of the exchange was provided to The Intercept by the Newman campaign. …

 
There Are 2 Vacant Investor-Owned Homes for Every Homeless Person in America
Carl Gibson, Grit Post

The difference between the greed of the wealthy and the precariousness of American workers is painfully stark when looking at vacant homes.

2016 figures from ATTOM Data Solutions — which publishes comprehensive housing data — show that wealthy investors are buying up more and more real estate as a moneymaking venture while housing prices and homelessness continue to skyrocket across America.

According to ATTOM, 76 percent of all vacant homes in America are owned by investors — amounting to approximately 1.1 million vacant residential investment properties. Many of these vacant homes are in economically distressed Rust Belt cities with high poverty rates, like Detroit, Michigan, neighboring Flint, and Youngstown, Ohio. The states with the highest investment property vacancy rate also have high poverty rates. Michigan leads the pack with 10.3 percent vacancy, Indiana at 9.8 percent, Alabama at 6.9 percent, and Mississippi at 6.6 percent. …

 
Six Insurgent Candidates Just Out-Raised Their Establishment Democratic Opponents
Ryan Grim, Lee Fang, The Intercept

AT LEAST SIX progressive insurgents managed to out-raise their establishment Democratic opponents in House races in the final quarter of 2017, a stunning development that threatens to upend the way the party goes about selecting candidates.

The fundraising upsets reflect a burst of progressive energy that is also powering Democrats more broadly. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-Texas, challenging Ted Cruz, once again out-raised the Texas senator. The National Journal counted some 30 Democrats out-raised incumbent Republicans this past quarter.

In House races across the country, the Democratic Party has endorsed or given support to particular candidates in competitive primaries, helping them raise big money from corporate PACs and high net-worth donors en route to amassing a war chest capable of taking on Republicans. That strategy, as The Intercept reported last week, shapes the kinds of candidates that end up representing the party, and the issues they focus on in Washington. …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Something to think about over coffee prozac

New Orleans pulls 46 tons of Mardi Gras beads from storm drains
By Gina Cherelus,Reuters•January 26, 2018

The colorful beaded necklaces that are a signature of New Orleans’ annual Mardi Gras celebration have left the city known as “The Big Easy” with a big mess.

New Orleans city officials said on Thursday that more than 46 tons – or 93,000 pounds – of Carnival beads were among 7.2 million pounds of trash pulled from clogged catch basins along a five-block stretch of a downtown parade route, the Times-Picayune newspaper reported.

“Once you hear a number like that, there’s no going back,” Dani Galloway, interim director of the city’s Department of Public Works, said during a news conference on Thursday. “So we’ve got to do better.” …

Feb 03 2018

“She wanted me to be her first, so that she would be good for her boyfriend.”

Umm… look. I’ve had what I would characterize as a fair amount of sexual experience, not Wilt Chamberlain levels (20 Thousand over 40 years for an average of 1 new woman every 17.64 hours. If you view that from the Mark Twain perspective you may find the holder willing but the candle weak so you’ll forgive me some skepticism.) but I’ve had a number of partners, somewhere in the range of more than 2 and less than 10.

What can I say? I’m chromosome damaged.

Not that I place Ladies on some untouchable pedestal and assume they are stronger in virtue or even aspire to that. I don’t pretend to understand what makes another human being tick, I have more than enough trouble with self awareness and I don’t much care about your actions unless they impact me.

Yeah, I’m selfish too. A hot mess. You should stay far, far away.

With that bit of introspection behind us let’s discuss Scott Baio.

For me, of course, his chief failings are that he is a Donald Trump supporter (one of very few celebrities that will admit that, he was even a “Big” name at the Republican National Convention- I suppose he wanted to give his moribund career a boost), and that he is a bad actor who dragged down Erin Moran in 2 seasons and inexplicably lasted 5 before Charles in Charge was given a merciful end in 1990.

Oh, and he molested Nicole Eggert, a fellow cast member, when she was 14 and he was 26. Did I mention *** Star ***? Power relationship, it’s everything.

He felt her up in his garage. You either know what that means or you don’t. When she was 17 even he admits he raped her.

“She wanted me to be her first, so that she would be good for her boyfriend.”

Folks, nobody ever says that except in a bad porn movie.

Why am I so exercised about this issue? My contention is that the way we socialize women is criminal. Culturally we raise them from birth to be submissive second (or lower) class citizens and they daily accept all kinds of behaviors (high heels? make up?) that are designed to compete for the sexual attention of males as if that is the ultimate validation of their worth.

This is wrong.

Don’t misunderstand me, women exhibit the full range of humanity from positive to negative just as men do. If you are not willing to deal with them as equals though you have a hole in your soul.

Feb 03 2018

Health and Fitness News

Welcome to the Stars Hollow Gazette‘s Health and Fitness News weekly diary. It will publish on Saturday afternoon and be open for discussion about health related issues including diet, exercise, health and health care issues, as well as, tips on what you can do when there is a medical emergency. Also an opportunity to share and exchange your favorite healthy recipes.
Beer Bratwurst
Questions are encouraged and I will answer to the best of my ability. If I can’t, I will try to steer you in the right direction. Naturally, I cannot give individual medical advice for personal health issues. I can give you information about medical conditions and the current treatments available.

You can now find past Health and Fitness News diaries here.

Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt

Super Bowl Sunday and All the Fixings

Sunday is the big game, Super Bowl LII (That’s 52 for you Latin numerical illiterates) and a big food day. Besides the main event, there is a UCon woman’s basketball game at 1 PM ET to start you off, they are still undefeated this season, followed by Puppy Bowl, and Kitty Bowl. With all that cheering for your favorites you’re going to need sustenance, so here are a few recipes that will be a hit with the crowds and make you a Super Bowl hero.

Boneless Buffalo Wings

These fried and sauced chicken breast strips have all the spicy flavor of Buffalo wings—without the hassle of bones.

Beer Bratwurst

This is a simple, classic sausage; serve it on a crunchy roll with mustard and sauerkraut.

French Bread Pepperoni Pizzas

This classic French bread pizza is as easy to make from scratch as it is to grab from the freezer. Top the toasted French bread with sliced pepperoni and mozzarella, and the whole pizza can get an even spicier kick from a sprinkling of red-pepper flakes.

Creamy Avocado Dip with Scallions

Think of this creamy dip as a textural cross between guacamole and French onion dip. A sprinkling of scallions on top adds extra sharpness and a colorful finishing touch.

Simple Spinach Dip

Because everybody—everybody!—loves buttery and cream cheese-filled spinach-artichoke dip, make a double batch of this creamy, luscious dip.

Baked Three-Cheese Onion Dip with Chive and Peperoncini

Sometimes, you’re torn between a creamy and cool scoop of French onion dip with the melty, runny goodness of a queso dip. With this baked hybrid dip, you can stop this dip dilemma now. Add chopped chives and peperoncini to bring some balance to the dip.

Nachos with All the Fixings

Making your nacho toppings from scratch really is a power play. This full-of-fixings nacho tray loads up on beer-braised carnitas, dried-chile salsa, and guacamole without overloading your kitchen to-do list.

Continue reading

Feb 03 2018

Bizarro World- This IS A Big Deal! REALLY! Wait, where are you going?

Sometimes I think it’s instructive to sit back (strong drink optional, popcorn mandatory) and point and hoot at the delusions of the 30% racists, bigots, and misogynists.

Then again I used to watch The 700 Club (Hi Jay!) for shits and giggles.

I can not emphasise enough that sharp and heavy objects can cause expensive damage to your computer and that those on medication, especially for high blood pressure or mental illness like delusions or depression, should make sure they have taken their proper dosage before viewing this material.

Also, hands inside the car at all times, I’m serious.

Tucker Carlson

Sean Hannity

Laura Ingraham

Faux and Fiends

7 am

9 am

Or don’t look at all.

Anyway, if this is the high water mark, the flood tide of PR bullshit, it’s pretty pathetic.

知彼知己，百戰不殆；不知彼而知己，一勝一負；不知彼，不知己，每戰必殆 – 孫子

Know [the] other, know [the] self, hundred battles without danger; not knowing [the] other but know [the] self, one win one loss; not knowing [the] other, not knowing [the] self, every battle must [be] lost. – Sun Tzu

Apocryphally Sun Tzu got his job by taking 100 Court Concubines, dividing them into 2 teams of 50, and pitting these teams against each other in combat. After the first battle, which they refused to take seriously, he executed the leadership of both sides.

The next battle was quite serious.

Feb 03 2018

The Breakfast Club (Thud)

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

photo stress free zone_zps7hlsflkj.jpg

This Day in History

The ‘day the music died’ during early rock ‘n roll; the Luna 9 probe lands on the Moon; the first woman to pilot a Space Shuttle; painter Norman Rockwell and composer Felix Mendelssohn born.

Breakfast Tunes

Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac

If you don’t have a good case, and you don’t have a good message, then shining a light on it is not going to get you very far.

Amal Clooney

Continue reading

Feb 02 2018

The Nunes Memo: Is That All There Is?

Earlier today Donald Trump released the controversial memo penned by House Intelligence Committee chair Devon Nunes and his staff with, possibly the assistance of the White House. It has turned out to be a huge nothing burger. It focused primarily on the FISA warrant that authorized the surveillance of former Trump foreign policy advisor Carter Page claiming that it came from the unverified Trump-Russian dossier. The memo makes a lot of claims about the legality of the warrant and the breakdown of the normal legal process without any evidence.

The Republicans and Trumpsters have bought into the lie that it was the dossier that triggered the investigation into the Trump campaign conspiring with the Russians to interfere with the 2016 election. It is not until the last sentence that the entire premise of the memo is blown out of the water.

“The Papadopoulos information triggered the opening of an FBI counterintelligence investigation in late July 2016 by FBI agent Pete Strzok,”

There are accusations that have even more serious holes. The dossier was compiled by former British MI-6 spy who was hired by Fusion GPS. There is no evidence that Steele knew who was financing the dossier. Steele was paid directly by Fusion-GPS. At the time the warrant was issued in October 2016, Fusion-GPS had not revealed the financial backing for the research. From the fact checking done by Newsweek

Claim: The FBI should have told a judge about information “favorable” to Page when requesting a warrant, such as the Democratic National Committee’s connection to the funding for the Steele Dossier. [..]

There is no legal obligation for the FBI to provide evidence that could argue against their own warrant request. Instead several layers of Justice Department officials have to approve the request based on corroborated claims.

Assessment

However the Steele Dossier was funded, it wouldn’t matter because any assertions from the dossier used in the warrant request would have to have been backed up elsewhere, according to Justice Department rules.

Claim: Steele was suspended as an informant to the FBI for leaking to the press

Assessment

The memo’s claims could be true, that Steele was in fact rejected as an informant, but at least one person directly involved with his relationship with the FBI said that it was actually Steele who cut off ties.

Claim: Steele was the source behind the September 23, 2016 Yahoo story that talked about Page’s trip to Moscow, a critical part of the evidence used for a warrant against Page.

Assessment

We don’t know how critical the Yahoo article was to the warrant request, since the request itself is classified and, unlike the partisan memo, has not been released. Regardless of what was in the Yahoo article Justice Department policy would have required that officials verify the claims before including the information in a FISA warrant request.

Claim: Steele was paid $160,000 by the DNC for the dossier.

Assessment

Steele wasn’t hired by any political organization, and Simpson testified that the source of funding for the investigation wasn’t a part of his discussion with Steele. But it is true that at least some of the money that Fusion GPS got for its investigation came from the DNC, which would have been passed along to Steele. The implication from the claim in the memo is that Steele was a DNC patsy because he was being paid by them, but that implication is never proven.

Claim: Bias from FBI agent Peter Strzok shaped the warrant application against Page.

Assessment

The investigation into Page was reportedly started because of comments Papadopoulos made in a London bar. Plus, evidence presented in the application for the Page warrant would have been otherwise validated by several layers of Justice Department officials—meaning that Strzok’s alleged bias would have had to have infected several other people.

Strzok’s criticisms of Trump also do not prove that he would be incapable of running an investigation, and given the other information required to obtain a warrant, would not be the deciding factor in whether Page was surveilled.

In addition, the full body of text exchanges between Strzok and his lover Page reveal that most communications were just idle office chatter, the Wall Street Journal reported.

“Texts critical of Mr. Trump represent a fraction of the roughly 7,000 messages, which stretch across 384 pages and show no evidence of a conspiracy against Mr. Trump,” the newspaper reported.

 

The other problem with the memo is that for all the whining and winging over Hillary Clinton’s use of a private server and alleged mishandling of classified information, the Trump and Republicans just outed two private citizens from a highly classified warrant nd may have compromised a highly sensitve investigation into Russian tampering our elections

This is not evidence. It is just an opinion that is highly partisan and full of nothing we already didn’t know. We still donn’t know if the dossier was the sole component for the FISA warrant. We don’t have the underlying FISA warrant on which this memo is based.

This will not stop the investigations into Russian tampering and the Trump campaign’s role. Trump will find that he can’t end this by firing people dedicated to the truth and the law. Thisis just another attempt by Trump and his minions to obstruct justoce.

 

Intelligence memo by The Guardian on Scribd

Feb 02 2018

The Russian Connection: File Under WTF?

While much of the news media has been transfixed by the Nunes memo, the news that the Director of the CIA, Mike Pompeo, had met with Russian spy chiefs here in the US last week. One of those chiefs, Sergei Naryshkin, head of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, the SVR, was behind the Russian interference of our 2016 election. This news comes to us from Russian state media. Naryshkin has been under US sanctions for three years after the Russian invasion of the Crimea, as reported by Spenser Ackerman at The Daily Beast.

Also at this meeting were Alexander Bortnikov, who runs the FSB, which is the main successor to the Soviet-era security service the KGB, and the head of Russia’s military intelligence, the GRU.

A senior U.S. intelligence official based in Moscow was also called back to Washington for the meeting with the CIA chief, said a person familiar with the events, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive meeting.

The meeting, which addressed the countries’ mutual interest in preventing terrorist attacks, took place amid high tensions between Russia and the United States over a Kremlin-directed campaign to interfere with the 2016 elections. The U.S. intelligence community concluded in a 2016 report Russian President Vladi­mir Putin ordered the interference operation, and three congressional committees and a special counsel are investigating any possible coordination between Trump associates and Russian agents during the campaign. [..]

Current and former U.S. intelligence officials said they could not recall so many heads of Russia’s espionage and security apparatus coming to Washington at once and meeting with a top American official. They worried the Kremlin could conclude the United States is open to forgiving Russia for its actions and was not resolved to forcefully prevent future meddling.

A description of the meeting sent to U.S. intelligence officers portrayed Russia as a partner willing to work with the United States and said the countries should look for ways to cooperate on counterterrorism issues. [..]

Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday also demanded to know why Naryshkin, who is on the sanctions list, was allowed to enter the United States. “The Trump administration must immediately come clean and answer questions. Which U.S. official did he meet with?” Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), the minority leader, told reporters.

The main job of the SVR is to spy against democracies and spread disinformation, also, recruiting Americans like, say, former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page. When the Russian interference in the election came to light, SVR was suspected as the most likely player.

Sergei Naryshkin is a veteran of the Soviet security service, the KGB, and a longtime ally of another veteran, Russian President Vladimir Putin. Born in Leningrad in 1954, Naryshkin attended the Soviet Union’s KGB Higher School in Moscow and later received a doctorate in economics. His thesis, “Foreign Investment in Russia as a Factor in Economic Development,” was later shown to have been plagiarized, but this has not damaged his highly successful career. (Putin plagiarized his dissertation as well.)

In the early 1990s Naryshkin worked with Putin in the St. Petersburg mayor’s office, where he was involved in the city’s foreign trade. After Putin became Russia’s president, Naryshkin moved to the prime minister’s office and later served in the presidential administration. In 2011 he was elected a deputy to the State Duma, or parliament, as a member of the pro-Kremlin United Russia Party and in December that year he became speaker of the Duma. He remained in that post until Putin appointed him to head the SVR in October 2016.

Judging from his public statements, Naryshkin, who reportedly speaks fluent English, views the West, and the United States in particular, with deep distrust.

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow reports on the instances of Americans learn about meetings between Donald Trump and high ranking Russian officials from reporting from the Russian media. In the case of this latest meeting violating US sanction laws.

Feb 02 2018

That’s It?

What a nothingburger! This should not surprise those who have lived through Benghazi-gate and Email-gate and other Republican hype-fests of outrage. There is literally no substance to the Nunes Memo (so called, it was really written by the White House and represents just another instance of Obstruction of Justice).

It reminds me of Joe McCarthy standing in the well of the Senate and waving a sheaf of empty paper claiming they prove X number of Communists (it’s a variable because it varied) were infesting whatever agency was the target of his alcoholic raving (oh yeah, drank like a fish, it’s what killed him) or those prop folders Trump used to illustrate his “business plan” for handing control of his Ponzi Scheme “Empire” to his sons.

The only danger is that Serious Media People will take it, uh… seriously. They already show the signs, their 24/7 spin cycle is set on overdrive for…

Well, something. Can’t admit they’ve all been had by a transparent scam. Look for phrases like “If these allegations are true…”

Let them all be true! What would that prove? Nothing.

Should you be hell bent on worrying it should be about Rob Rosenstein as this is yet another sign that Trump wants to fire him so he can get to Mueller. Not that he needed any excuse nor is this going to ameliorate the justifiable backlash if he does.

Pfui. I was hoping for some excitement.

Nunes Memo Text
Nunes Memo PDF
Nunes Memo as annotated by The New York Times

That’s it? Dishonest and misleading memo wrecked the House intel committee, destroyed trust with Intelligence Community, damaged relationship with FISA court, and inexcusably exposed classified investigation of an American citizen. For what? DOJ & FBI must keep doing their jobs. – James Comey

Feb 02 2018

Groundhog Day

What would you do if you were stuck in one place and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?

That about sums it up for me.

Ned?  Ned Ryerson?!

You like boats, but not the ocean. You go to a lake in summer with your family up in the mountains. There’s a long wooden dock and a boathouse with boards missing from the roof, and a place you used to crawl underneath to be alone. You’re a sucker for French poetry and rhinestones. You’re very generous. You’re kind to strangers and children, and when you stand in the snow you look like an angel.

How are you doing this?

I told you. I wake up every day, right here, right in Punxsutawney, and it’s always February 2nd, and there’s nothing I can do about it.

How appropriate

It’s the Mind

Feb 02 2018

The Breakfast Club (The Heat Is On)

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

photo stress free zone_zps7hlsflkj.jpg

This Day in History

World War II’s Battle of Stalingrad ends; Idi Amin seizes power in Uganda; author James Joyce born; dancer-actor-coreographer Gene Kelly dies; punk rocker Sid Vicious dies.

Breakfast Tunes

Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac

What clever man has ever needed to commit a crime? Crime is the last resort of political half-wits.

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

Continue reading

Feb 01 2018

The Russian Connection: The Nunes Memo

Since Monday, we have been haggling over the Nunes memo, a four page document which was drafted by Devon Nunus, the Republican chair of the House Intelligence Committee and his staff, that allegedly cherry picks classified intelligence without having read the all the source material which is also classified,. the committee voted on straight party lines to release the memo under an obscure House rule. Then, along the same party lines, refused the Democratic rebuttal.

Schiff said the document is full of Republican talking points, with details culled from documents that the Justice Department had agreed to release to him and Nunes, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee. The committee is conducting its own investigation into Russia’s election interference, although Nunes had recused himself from that probe last August.

The ranking Democratic member Adam Schiff, has now charged that the memo that was sent to the White House for review has been changed in some way by Nunes.

“Upon our discovery that the document sent for public review had been secretly altered, the majority belatedly offered the minority the opportunity this evening to compare the document transmitted on Monday night by the Majority to the White House with the document made available to all members on January 18th,” Schiff wrote.

He concluded, “The White House, therefore, has been reviewing a document since Monday night that the Committee never approved for public release.”

Oh. That’s not good. And the changes weren’t corrections to the things which were wrong with it, either. Schiff said the changes were “substantive” and “material.”

During Monday’s hearing, Nunes refused to answer to the committee if he, or members of his staff, worked with the White House to draft the memo.

The transcript of the meeting, released the day after this story was initially published, shows Quigley asking “with the greatest respect” if the White House aided Nunes in any way, including consulting with him on the memo.

Nunes initially replied: “I would just answer, as far as I know, no.”

He continued, “And I would just also say that we are well aware the minority has not wanted to conduct this investigation by the public opposition to the subpoenas that we issued back in August that were clearly looking into matters of FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] abuse and other matters.” Quigley asked Nunes if that meant “none of the staff members that worked for the majority had any consultation, communication at all with the White House?” Nunes shut Quigley down: “The chair is not going to entertain–” after which Quigley yielded.

Considering Nunes’ history of conspiring with the White House to distract from all the Russian inquiries that precipitated Nunes recusing himself from the investigation, those are very fair questions.

Former White House ethics counsel Norm Eisen has warned that Nunes could be leaving himself open the obstruction of justice charges if, indeed, he did conspire with the White House in creating this memo to smear the FBI Russian investigation.

“Whoa,” Eisen wrote on Wednesday. “Nunes’s speech and debate clause Congressional immunity may not protect him from liability for conduct outside Congress.”

He added: “Depending on the facts, Nunes may have put himself in middle of a conspiracy to obstruct justice. He better beware: There r no secrets in this White House.”

The Congressional Immunity law states that members of the U.S. Congress can not be prosecuted while they are “attending a session of the body to which the member belongs, excluding an arrest for treason, breach of the peace, or a felony.”

The law also provides immunity from arrest or interrogation “for any speech or debate entered into during a legislative session.”

Neither of those provisions would seem to apply to members working with another branch of government to obstruct justice.

Last night MSNBC host Rachel Maddow detailed the lengths to which FBI and DoJ officials have gone to warn Republicans against releasing a memo of classified information assembled by Devin Nunes, and a new report of Donald Trump pressuring officials with questions about loyalty, like some tinpot despot.

Ken Dilanian, national security reporter for NBC News, joined Rachel to discuss the FBI’s resistance to the Nunes memo, and new reporting from the New York Times about the Air Force One meeting to draft the cover story for Donald Trump Jr’s Trump Tower meeting with Russians.

Pundits on the left and are finding it utterly stunning that there is no concern by Republicans that the Russians meddled in ou elections and that there are indications they are continuing to interfere. They are playing right into the Russian plan to disrupt our criminal justice system and undermine our democratic processes.

As of the writing of this article, the White House has still not released the memo. Indications are that will happen some time tomorrow. Yeah Friday! Watch this space.

Feb 01 2018

Little Ball

When you can’t take the news anymore, just curl up into- a Little Ball.

Forced Arbitration

ps. It’s bad for guys too.

Uhh… We sent him to a farm. Upstate. Where he can play all day. Sure, that’s the ticket.

This, really, is the end. Completely out of options.

Not completely out of options. We can do what the Shellstrops have always done when the chips are down. Ignore our problems and drink heavily.

Tonight is The Good Place season finale, 8:30 pm on NBC. It has been renewed so we’ll have at least 13 more episodes of my favorite show about Moral Philosophy.

A parting thought from Ian Welsh-

Morally Neutral Virtues
2018 January 24

Something is moral if it is good for people you know. Something is ethical if it is good for people you don’t know.

One of the most important concepts to understand for judging oneself and others is “morally/ethically neutral virtues.”

A virtue is something that makes a person a better person.

Better is not a synonym for good.

It is a virtue, in most cultures to be generous, to keep one’s word, to be kind, to work hard, or to be courageous.

Three of those five virtues are morally and ethically neutral.

A brave person who is doing evil (many Nazi war heroes to give the most socially acceptable example) is worse than a coward doing evil. A hard-working person doing evil is worse than a lazy person doing evil (usually). A person who keeps their oath (their word) to a tyrant, is worse than someone who doesn’t keep their word to a tyrant.

We admire people who are hard working, courageous, or honorable.

But people who are all of those things, or even one, in service to a bad cause, do more harm than those without them.

I find a great deal to admire in Genghis Khan, but he left a wasteland behind him. (And note that Khan was generally moral. He took very good care of almost everyone around him. He was not, however, ethical.)

Although Dick Cheney was not a brave man (he sought and received Vietnam deferments), even those who hate him will admit he worked like a dog. That is unfortunate. One of the things I liked best about George W. Bush is that he was lazy, which, because what he wanted to do was almost all evil, was a good thing. Left-wingers whining about him (or Trump) taking holidays were fools.

The virtues of our enemies are virtues.

Note also, very carefully, the distinction between ethics and morality. A person can be moral (look after his family, friends, and other people he knows) and deeply unethical. Joe Biden is a deeply moral man: He loves his family and friends and would do anything for them.

He is also a deeply unethical man, who has supported many monstrous policies which have hurt millions and millions of people. He’s, frankly, evil, if you don’t know him. But what a friend he would be.

However, he’s not your friend, and if you vote for him because of how wonderful he is to people he knows, you will get hurt badly, and be somewhat responsible for that hurt.

It is also possible to be ethical and immoral, as in leaders who treat people they know like shit and people they don’t know well. Huey Long fell mostly into this category. To the extent that JFK did good things (his legacy is mixed), he certainly was.

A wise peon, and most of us are peons, prefers as a leader someone who is immoral but ethical, because they know that they aren’t their leader’s friend, or family, or direct servitor.

And, generally speaking, an enemy who is lazy, stupid, and so on, is preferable to one who isn’t. The only broad exception is that honorable enemies are better than dishonorable ones, because you can cut deals with them, and it is enemies, above all, with whom you must be able to negotiate.

In the small world, of small people, there are many we admire for their virtues who have turned themselves into creatures of bad leaders. Take, for example, special forces, whom many worship. In many cases they have done truly amazing things to become special forces: worked brutally hard, put up with privation, been loyal, and disciplined.

But when you let other men (or, more rarely, women) turn you into a weapon or tool, you are responsible for how they wield you. If your loyalty, skill, and discipline make you a better weapon or tool for doing evil, then your virtues have been corrupted.

(Ivy League graduates as well as military men and women should think deeply on this. But so should those who consider themselves elites in the financial industry, for example.)

Virtue in the service of a bad cause or evil master is still virtue. It is still admirable. But it turns virtue to the service of evil.

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