... talk about whatever you want.
The photos are from Arches National Park, March 11th.
March 22, 2017
At the Desert Morning Café...
... talk about whatever you want.
The photos are from Arches National Park, March 11th.
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67 comments:
The entire story about the FISA court rejecting a wire-tapping request in July and then approving a request in November 2016 might be an absolute lie.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4323848/Questions-credibility-Trump-spy-claim-originator.html
Excerpts from the article:
The blogger behind incredible claims that the FBI had a warrant to examine the Trump campaign's communications is facing serious questions about her legitimacy after making a series of conspiracy-theory claims about elaborate Russian plots that appear to have little basis in reality.
Louise Mensch is a British politician turned New York blogger who reported on the website Heat Street that the FBI was granted a FISA court warrant to access communications made by Trump's team during the presidential campaign.
On November 7, she wrote: 'Two separate sources with links to the counter-intelligence community have confirmed to Heat Street that the FBI sought, and was granted, a FISA court warrant in October, giving counter-intelligence permission to examine the activities of "U.S. persons" in Donald Trump's campaign with ties to Russia.' ....
It [Mensch's story] was not confirmed by the FBI Director James Comey, or the Director of the National Security Agency, Admiral Mike Rogers, when they appeared at the House Intelligence Committee on Monday.
Mensch, who was a 'chick-lit' novelist then spent two years as a British MP before quitting to relocate to NYC with her rock-group-managing husband, has refused to reveal her source.
But she has happily positioned herself in interviews and on TV as a fearless crusader for the truth who believes Trump's voters are 'the scum of the earth'.
She has called the president 'a tool of Vladimir Putin' and spoken of her 'patriotic and conservative duty before anything else happens to help as best I can stop a Russian spy from entering the White House'. ...
And this weekend Mensch wrote an op-ed in The New York Times which repeated her claim - only for New York Times news reporters to publicly say that they had no evidence it existed.
Now an investigation by Dailymail raises disturbing new questions about the accuracy of Mensch's reporting, with allegations that she has defamed people on Twitter and even claimed that a neighborhood florist is a front for the Kremlin.
Most damningly of all, a lengthy blog-post outlining an outlandish conspiracy theory that the 15-year-old girl who had an online relationship with Anthony Weiner does not actually exist – and was a fake persona created by Russian hackers as part of an intricate plot to sink Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, can be revealed as 'error-ridden nonsense'. ....
The Democrats are in the midst of a popular delusion similar to the Tulip Mania.
It's all this fake news stuff (see Mike's post above) that has caused me to checkout like Victor Davis Hansen was talking about a day or two ago. I'm done.
@Mike Sylwester, "layers and layers of fact checkers."
Mike S. @9:27:
Mensch is a complete loon. The lunacy has just moved from being obvious to the attentive to being painfully obvious to anybody.
Our President Trump should deport Louise Mensch's ass.
She is an English woman living here in the USA and, supposedly, revealing US Government secrets about our FISA court.
Credibility is not an infinite resource. It takes a long time to build up and can be destroyed instantly. For too many people and organizations, ideology and/or fear overwhelm a sense of preserving any sort of credibility they may have accrued over a long period of time. The problem is that their entire business model is based around being credible.
The mask slipped for an instant today in the Democrat comedy show, as Gorsuch rolled his eyes at a Franken comedy moment in the hearing.
An apparent terrorist incident near Parliament. Parliament in lockdown.
Parliament in Lockdown.
Lovely pics, Althouse.
I will cook a Chuck Roast tonight in honor of the recently deceased Chucks Berry and Barris.
Tile installers arriving at 9.
House will be rubble for the next ten days.
Wish me luck.
Michael K, why not go up to Scottsdale and stay at the Camelback Inn
Well....this doesn't fit the narrative.
I'm sure this will be dismissed with a "we will never know the motive".
madAsHell, see the link in my post above to the Telegraph. They said they are calling it a 'terror attack'. The difference between the Daily Mail and the Telegraph is huge.
I'm reposting this here because i think it is important and it might have gotten lost on the original thread:
@Althouse:
1) Do you think those who wrote and passed the Bill of Rights intended to create a right to sexual privacy? Or did judges take the Bill of Rights and twist it to mean whatever it would need to mean to allow them to create a right to sexual privacy?
2) Do you think those who wrote and passed the 14th Amendment intended to create a right to sexual privacy? Or did judges take the 14th Amendment and twist it to mean whatever it would need to mean to allow them to create a right to sexual privacy?
3) How about the 14th Amendment and birthright citizenship?
Is it not possible to make welas asih go away?
Since he seems to be using the same login for all this, people should report him for abuse on his account page. Enough people do it, Google will possibly do something.
"Referring to the dominant conventions of music publishers of the early 20th century, "Tin Pan Alley is gone," Bob Dylan proclaimed in 1985, "I put an end to it. People can record their own songs now."
In the song "Bob Dylan's Blues" from Bob Dylan's 1963 album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, he introduces the song, saying, "Unlike most of the songs nowadays that have been written up town in Tin Pan Alley, that's where most of the folk songs come from nowadays, this, this is a song, this wasn't written up there, this was written down somewhere in the United States."
It's 11 o'clock and the tile guys aren't here yet.
My wife has a theory that they took the deposit and went to Mexico or Tahiti.
Time to counsel your teenagers:
http://fortune.com/2017/03/22/twitter-epilepsy-gif/
"[The] defendant did use and exhibit a deadly weapon, to-wit: a Tweet and a Graphic Interchange Format (GIF) and an Electronic Device and Hands, during the commission of the assault," according to a Texas court indictment."
It's not yet clear whether being mean on the Internet in general will inevitably lead to being charged with assault with a deadly weapon or whether this is only a ruling limited to Eichenwald, but the indictment suggests that it need not have been the case that Eichenwald either was photosensitive or in addition actually suffered a seizure, only that Rivello intended using the GIF to do Eichenwald harm.
In addition, Rivello has been charged with a hate crime in the incident for believing that Eichenwald, an Episcopalian, is Jewish and not liking his incorrect conclusion.
You can see the potential ripples across victimland:
Muffy tweets, "Don't you ever send me a Tweet with the word "Booger!" in it. It triggers me into cutting myself!
Asshole tweets her a GIF she must activate with the message Booger! contained within.
Muffy opens it. Claims tweet caused her to cut herself (actually more evidence than currently available in Eichenwald).
FBI tracks and arrests Asshole with eager help of Twitter, AT&T and Apple.
Asshole charged with assault on Muffy with a deadly weapon:
"[The] defendant did use and exhibit a deadly weapon, to-wit: a Tweet and a Graphic Interchange Format (GIF) and an Electronic Device and Hands, during the commission of the assault,"
@ Mockturtle
I am intrigued by your lifestyle. Every now and again, my husband and I say: chuck it all. Sell the business. Sell the house. Take the equity. Rent a storage building for stuff we can't part with in case we decide to settle down someplace else. Buy a nice RV or 5th wheel, have some small transportation type vehicle for when we are 'parked' and hit the road for a few years. GTFO of California. See the country. Travel. Be free. I can see us doing this for at least 5 years or until we can't physcially deal with it anymore.
I have a relative who many years ago wrote books on RV retirement and currently see blogs about the lifestyle of RV living.
It would be very interesting to know more about the nuts and bolts of such a lifestyle from someone who is (ahem) probably our ages. What is good? What is bad? What is annoying. Tips and tricks.
Not on Althouse's blog, of course because that would be rude...... but maybe you could do your own blog. Consider it :-D
Apropos of confirmation hearings, other than just bashing the label "originalism" are there serious judges who don't consider the original public meaning of the Constitution, or a statute?
Who would say, "When I interpret (construe) a constitution/statute I don't care what the words mean"; or "I don't care what the words meant when the constitution/statute was ratified/enacted, I only care about what they mean to me, now"?
Also, because it is not intuitively obvious why interpreting or construing a statute is qualitatively different than interpreting or construing a constitution, why is that Scalia, a famous originalist, was a huge skeptic of legislative intent, while critics of originalism are often adherents of legislative intent approaches to statutes?
Looks like Trump was "tapped" after all. Life-long republicans hardest hit.
Terrorists sure get a lot of bang for the buck in the news with militarily insignificant attacks, e.g. in Britain today.
It's almost as if the news media make money off it.
It seems like it would encourage more attacks.
DBQ, Thank you for your interest but I have no desire to start my own blog. I might add that I recently bought a small winter home in AZ, so I'm no longer 'full-time' RV-ing, although my little Tiger motorhome is still my favorite 'home' and my only vehicle. I might also add that I am sorry I bought a house.
There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of RVing blogs out there. It's a very popular lifestyle here in the west. You might consider renting an RV for an extended trip just to see if you like the lifestyle. Test: If you are reluctant to return home, you just might be an RV-er. If you can't wait to get home, you're probably not. ;-)
If it bleeds, it leaks.
Terrorists sure get a lot of bang for the buck in the news with militarily insignificant attacks, e.g. in Britain today.
Militarily insignificant, maybe, but politically significant to the max. It's not the attack but where it happened.
Terror attacks are almost never "significant." in a military way. The 9/11 attacks were not going to defeat the US but the reaction led to a lot of damage. That's the point.
The Israelis have learned to live with this stuff because of geography. They did build a wall, which stopped a lot of it.
Jack Wayne: "Looks like Trump was "tapped" after all. Life-long republicans hardest hit"
Oh no. Not at all. I guarantee you that after "lifelong republican" Chucks very, VERY, spirited defense of the "Stolen Valor" Liar Richard Blumenthal this very day, when it comes to conjuring up excuses for democrats our resident "lifelong republican" will be more than up to the challenge of explaining away all of these "incidental" surveillance activities.
Thank you Mockturtle.
Good advice. Especially on renting not buying.
Nunes: ""I’m actually alarmed by it," Nunes, a California Republican, told reporters at the Capitol. "Details with little or no apparent foreign intelligence value were widely disseminated in an intelligence community report,” he said. He said he didn’t know if Trump’s “own communications were intercepted.”
So, multiple Trump associates, (DURING THE TRANSITION!) had their communications shared "widely", without their names being redacted, in "an intelligence community report".
"community report"
Well, how convenient to
1) have those names NOT redacted (in accordance with last minute Obama rule changes related to raw data handling) AS WELL AS
2) having that raw information much more widely shared amongst the intelligence community (in accordance with last minute obama rule changes related to how broadly that data can be shared) AND
3) amongst last minute obama appointees shoved into all the agencies
Which led to
4) Widespread selected and innuendo-laden leaking fromt the intelligence community to lefty MSM sources which is the basis for daily attacks on the Trump administration.
Gee, nothing to see here I guess.
I'll just say that these are beautiful pictures, Ann. Arches is very pretty.
--Vance
Michael K said... [hush][hide comment]
It's 11 o'clock and the tile guys aren't here yet.
My wife has a theory that they took the deposit and went to Mexico or Tahiti.
Unprofessional not to call and explain delay.
Anticipate up-charges and extra time to finish your job.
Even LA Times readers are commenting that this makes Trump's travel "ban" look better and better.
I wonder if the appeals courts think the same?
Nunes on Fox AFTER WH briefing: more details and a political knife to Obama. When asked if he could definitely say Obama was not implicated, he said No.
Michael K said...
Even LA Times readers are commenting that this makes Trump's travel "ban" look better and better"
Just like parents in Rockville, MD, in very Democrat Montgomery County, are suddenly having second thoughts about the wisdom of sanctuary cities and being "diverse" and welcoming to illegals. The horrific rape committed there has apparently awakened them to the fact that illegals and "Dreamers" do not all consist of poor but ambitious youths who will all end up at Harvard someday.
The attacker in London is dead. The His-motives-may-never-be-known sweepstakes begins.
They will also call this a lone wolf attack. How many lone wolf attacks will we endure before realizing they aren't??
"WHO built that wall?
(Who paid for it?)"
Are you one of the Israel haters ? Why don't you read an article on the entrepreneurial culture of Israel, that has nothing to do with US aid ?
Israel is becoming an energy power with offshore gas fields that are enormous.
For a tiny country with hostile neighbors, even the Saudis are figuring out it's better to be an Israeli ally. Especially since Obama made us so unreliable.
The tile guys are here. No Mexicans.
The dust is already starting to rise. Good excuse to eat at restaurants for a week.
"Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan gave a grim prognostication on Wednesday, just moments after a man ran over bystanders and stabbed a police officer in London.
"If Europe continues this way, no European in any part of the world can walk safely on the streets. We, as Turkey, call on Europe to respect human rights and democracy," Erdogan said at event in Ankara, according to Reuters."
Respect our "human rights and democracy" or we will kill you!
Lucien said...
...why is that Scalia, a famous originalist, was a huge skeptic of legislative intent, while critics of originalism are often adherents of legislative intent approaches to statutes?
I'll take a stab at this: Scalia was a skeptic because:
a) 538 different legislators could have 538 different intents.
b) whatever legislative intent any individual legislator had exists only within their head, forever out of our sight.
3) guessing at legislative intent is a recipe for judges to project their own intent onto the law.
Coincidentally, #3 is also why critics of originalism are often adherents of legislative intent.
"where your contracted tile workers were, Michael K. ;-)"
They are here making lots of dust and noise. Nice young guy with a good price. I didn't check about unions.
He is doing commercial work, too, so he may be or use union guys.
Nice of you to be so interested.
There is a long list of countries attached to the US teat that are far less valuable as allies than Israel.
BTW, things are getting very interesting re the FBI and Comey.
Nunes is as much as saying that Comey will be in contempt for not releasing information.
Something going down? Action by Friday?
If I Were Trump
Merkel has indicated that she would consider bringing Germany toward parity in Germany’s share of NATO funding, but her language was very vague. That’s not good enough. Trump is soon going to Europe to address NATO.
I would announce a change in America’s funding of NATO to the effect that America henceforth would fund the same percentage of NATO as the fucking Germans fund. Then we would see just how much value Germany and the other NATO members actually put on their own defense organization.
Watching the Globalist/Progressive/NeverTrumpers/Neocon/Liberal(other than some very minor ideological window dressing they are all the same) collective heads explode around the world would be one of the minor pleasures of such a move.
It would be a win/win outcome for Trump:
If Germany refuses to pay its fair share then the US saves a significant amount of treasure by trimming the USA NATO budget.
If Germany coughs up her fair share then Trump, a rank newcomer to politics, will have outmaneuvered a major international political figure and can also take credit for strengthening NATO.
I offer this idea free of charge to any Trump administration staff member who may be reading this blog.
Toyota Corollas are good. safe cars. I found out how good this morning, when I got in a wreck. The traffic in front of me slowed and stopped. The pickup truck behind me didn't stop, slamming into the rear of my 2005 Corolla and pushing it into the car in front of me. The trunk was crunched in, the hood was crumpled, the front bumper ended up embedded on the tailpipe of the car in front of me. The back window shattered. The frame was bent, but I was still able to exit out the front passenger door. Despite all of that, I walked away without a scratch. My back's a little sore, but other than that, I'm fine. The passenger compartment came through with flying colors and even someone in the back seat wouldn't have had more of a problem than flying glass. The car's totaled for sure, though.
I'm thinking my next car is probably going to be a Toyota, too.
Clyde,
I had an almost identical accident in 1998 in a 95 Corolla. I was able to actually drive the car away from the accident despite all the damage, and after it was repaired it lasted me at least another 6 years, and might still be on the road somewhere.
"And I'll tell you, NSA is being cooperative," Nunes continued, "but so far the FBI has not told us whether or not they’re going to respond to our March 15th letter, which is now a couple of weeks old.”
Well … whadayaknow … looks like Trump was right; the Obama administration DID spy on the Trump transition team. As anyone who was not blinded by their own hardened anti-Trump position would know. BTW, I predict Trump will order Comey to resign before all of this is over.
The Obama embeds worked hard but couldn’t come up with dirt on Trump. What clean-livers the Trumps must be.
So the embeds said to themselves, “Well, at least we can unmask Flynn.”
I can picture Obama saying to himself after reading the news, “No, no, no … that’s NOT what I wanted them to do! Never unmask unless there is something dirty going on! Don’t the idiots KNOW they are going to prove Trump is right?!!”
But it was too late; he had changed the rules on dissemination of classified information to ensure that the potential leakers would come from a population so large that it would be VERY difficult to ferret the leakers out, planted his embeds and he couldn’t stop them. O, what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive!
I think Comey spent too much time hiding behind the "I can't discuss that in an open hearing". When I hear things like that, it tells me that the answer to the question asked is "yes", there was electronic surveillance of Trump and/or his staff. Indeed, if you believe Comey's statement that there was an ongoing investigation since July of 2016, then the idea that there was no court approved electronic surveillance is very, very difficult to believe or understand.
As to comment at the top of the page, I wrote several weeks ago that Mensch was a lunatic, and when the story first broke, I didn't take it seriously, but having the mainstream media parrot the claim relentlessly right up until Trump made the tweets a couple of weekends ago at least told me those reporters believed the initial story. I still don't know what to make of the FISA story, but I lean towards believing it might actually be true, even if the reporter herself made it up. Comey did not categorically deny it if you read his testimony- he gave what amounts to non-denial denials. I don't think we have heard the last of this.
Schiff just made an interesting point that the names that were possibly unmasked were mentioned instead of being targets in the surveillance. He further said that the names may not have been unmasked but Nunes said that merely reading the intercept would unmask the name mentioned or the participant.
I'm in Rice Village in Houston, TX. It's an interesting area, adjacent to the Texas Medical Center and Rice University. Many of the streets are named after English Literature stars like Dryden, Shakespeare, Swift, etc. The houses are nice but not mansions by any means; it's sort of what you would see around any major university. But the prices here are crazy because of the location next to one of the major medical centers in the world.
I had blood drawn and and IV inserted, CT Scan, and the IV removed before 7:30 this morning. I had a nice breakfast at the Rotary Hotel across the street, by skywalk, from MD Anderson, then I hiked through a series of skywalks over to the Neuro-Ultrasound Center where I had an ultrasound of my thyroid performed. There was some troubling stuff in there so they did four needle biopsies of my thyroid and then I lay in the hospital bed for 45 minutes until they came back and told me that I did not have cancer in the thyroid even though there had been a 30-50% chance that I did, depending on who you talk to, going in. After that, I had a nice lunch in "The Park" and then I went and had a scope stuffed in my nose and down my throat while my Dr./Professor instructed one of his new interns(?) (MD Anderson is a Univ. of TX Institution - I didn't know that until I came here - But that's fine) on the various structures in my throat. This was follow-up for my treatment for base of tongue cancer in Aug-Sept 16 here at MD. Base of tongue is really best thought of as top of throat, I think. The result of all this is that I seem to be cancer free at the moment, the best that anyone can tell. It was kind of a harrowing day but this Irish Bar should help.
@Clyde
Glad you're okay. I have a 1996 Toyota 4-Runner that has over 370,000 miles on it and still going strong. I did do an engine change at around 240,000 (completely due to my own neglect). The "new" engine has almost 170,000 miles and I had the hood and roof repainted. If I knew how to link a picture I would post one of it. Still runs smooth and easy. Wife uses it for her work car. Oh, we drove round trip up to Sun River in Oregon in the winter once on the old engine with one valve shot.
I would highly recommend another Toyota.
I was in Fremont, and I drove by the statue of Lenin today. Someone has taken artistic license, and coated the head of Lenin with what looks like......Cheeto dust. I'm sure this is some allusion to Trump, and fascism, but I'm not hip enough to understand.
"Incidental chatter" will be this year's version of "honest bureaucratic snafu".
Mid-life Lawyer: "The result of all this is that I seem to be cancer free at the moment, the best that anyone can tell. It was kind of a harrowing day but this Irish Bar should help."
Great News! Best wishes for you and your family in continuing to keep this at bay.
That area you describe is some of my old collegiate stomping grounds and one of my brothers attended the UOfTexas Medical School in Houston so your posting brings back many fond memories.
"they came back and told me that I did not have cancer in the thyroid even though there had been a 30-50% chance that I did"
Good luck. God shot at me twice and missed. I had a stroke and heart attack at the same time about six years ago. No residual although I did have a single vessel bypass.
Fortunately, thyroid cancer is usually curable (90+%). Tongue is more worrisome but it sounds like it is under control.
Enjoy life.
The funny thing is that other than getting cancer every couple of years (Prostate 2014 and Throat 2016), I am as healthy as a horse. I ran a 50 mile race within the last year and PRed for the distance. I turned 57 this past September. I'm now taking a break from running but I do intense Yoga with a bunch of 30 year old fit women several times a week and I hang with them pretty good. Apparently, I have the gene.
On the point of, and the goals of, existence and struggle -
From George Orwell's omnibus review of Dickens - http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/dickens/english/e_chd
"The ideal to be striven after, then, appears to be something like this: a hundred thousand pounds, a quaint old house with plenty of ivy on it, a sweetly womanly wife, a horde of children, and no work. Everything is safe, soft, peaceful and, above all, domestic. In the moss-grown churchyard down the road are the graves of the loved ones who passed away before the happy ending happened. The servants are comic and feudal, the children prattle round your feet, the old friends sit at your fireside, talking of past days, there is the endless succession of enormous meals, the cold punch and sherry negus, the feather beds and warming-pans, the Christmas parties with charades and blind man's buff; but nothing ever happens, except the yearly childbirth. The curious thing is that it is a genuinely happy picture, or so Dickens is able to make it appear. The thought of that kind of existence is satisfying to him. This alone would be enough to tell one that more than a hundred years have passed since Dickens's first book was written. No modern man could combine such purposelessness with so much vitality."
And Orwell was wrong. This is the universal outcome desired by most rent seekers, I think, that is to say, most of us. This is the existence of the gentry, which can be and has been achieved by many, and is achievable today.
The real problem I think, with respect to Orwell, is that it was out of reach of Orwell, as he was disappointed in having a family and wasn't sufficiently popular for most of his lifetime (he just missed fully cashing in on what turned out to be massive bestsellers).
Dickens did, however, have ten children and achieved his financial goals in his own lifetime.
I'm saying that Nunes is either on Trump's payroll or he is in fear of losing his position as a result of Trump threats.
No one is that stupid of his own accord.
Vicki from Pasadena
Okay my signs have returned, so all is well. I just thought deeply of PP recently, within a few days. It has a Monster Mash sound, not so much surfing with the alien as painting cows on PCP.
Carry off.
PS iffin' you have the gumption to, you can start playing the song by Oasis you like the most when reading my comments. This enhanced comment-ingestion experience is brought to you by me, oh and the artists too, but I want you to applaud and PAY me, okay, not those other guys.
Their time is over, done.
Recycling Brokedown Bobby?
The jokes are stale, with the rhythm of Frank's heart attack, and the desperation grating.
;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;)
Yeah yeah, spare me. Or, continue the honor of sparing me.
Living life on wheels, dealing potholes bruising bust-ups, dreams of opsimath labels in my future: I WILL NEVER HAVE ANOTHER MAN'S BABY BECAUSE MASSIVE COCK AND BALLS ERGO NO PUSSY.
When signs are for me I demand adherence; but what of wolfsigns in sheep camo?
Well, after not seeing what has been seen before, I feel like nothing more so than J. Malkavich in Burn After Reading. Or maybe the lawyer in Jerky Boys tapes who is threatened with a lawsuit by a guy who says "sue everybody."
ME???
The things I've seen, and I am too much?
I would take it as a compliment but then it will emerge as some tech filter notquiteerror.
Midlife Lawyer: Glad to hear good news about you! Still praying for you daily.
Nunes district is solid Republican and this was long before Trump.
He's in no danger.
victoria said... [hush][hide comment]
I'm saying that Nunes is either on Trump's payroll or he is in fear of losing his position as a result of Trump threats.
No one is that stupid of his own accord.
Vicki from Pasadena
No sense of irony
mockturtle said...
Midlife Lawyer: Glad to hear good news about you! Still praying for you daily.
Thank you. I appreciate it.
"... didn't they teach recruits to aim for the heart?"
Justified, Season One Episode One
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