Althouse: At the Escalator Café...

March 16, 2018

At the Escalator Café...

... you can talk about whatever you want.

And remember the Althouse Portal to Amazon.

106 comments:

RMc said...: Got stuck on one for three hours once.; 3/16/18, 7:05 PM
JohnAnnArbor said...: NOAA maintains coral saltwater aquaria for the Secretary of Commerce and deputy.

Your tax dollars at work.; 3/16/18, 7:13 PM
Rob said...: How do you get stuck on an escalator for three hours? Were you going in the wrong direction?; 3/16/18, 7:14 PM
walter said...: I think Rob stole that from Steven Wright.; 3/16/18, 7:15 PM
Will Cate said...: Well that escalated quickly.; 3/16/18, 7:30 PM
walter said...: Though to make it a truly Wrighteous paraprosdokian, it would go..
"I once got trapped for three hours..on an escalator"; 3/16/18, 7:34 PM
Christopher said...: I suppose if there's one good thing that comes from Trump being president, it's the constant humiliation of the powerful.; 3/16/18, 7:37 PM
Mike Sylwester said...: Suppose Donald Trump had lost the 2016 election and then had blamed his defeat on the Russians buying ads on Facebook and Twitter.; 3/16/18, 7:51 PM
traditionalguy said...: Ups and Downs. The ATL and many airports have a flat escalator called a moving sidewalk. Life seems faster on it.

The NCAA Wrestling Tournament has been on ESPN for the past two days. They seem to move faster than we did, too.; 3/16/18, 7:52 PM
hawkeyedjb said...: I once was trapped in an elevator with the most beautiful woman I had ever seen - stunning, six feet tall, friendly, witty. I wished it could have been for three hours. Damned building technicians got us out in ten minutes.; 3/16/18, 7:57 PM
tcrosse said...: It's l'esprit de l'escalier.; 3/16/18, 8:00 PM
D 2 said...: The Youtubes has an ol timey fuzzy video of Gimme Some Lovin by Spencer Davis Group with the gang riding the escalators, going into the stores, etc.

Didnt think the song was about shopping at the mall. I always thought it was about asking for some lovin (every day). Because it was hot or something was on fire.; 3/16/18, 8:03 PM
traditionalguy said...: UGA just hired Tom Crean as its Basketball coach. He talked fast and he talked super confidently during his first speech. He sounds like a middle aged Baker Mayfield.; 3/16/18, 8:23 PM
FullMoon said...: Just fifteen seconds

Wrong way on moving walkway; 3/16/18, 8:30 PM
Michael said...: Think of all the kids growing up in small town America who have never ridden an escalator or been in an elevator.; 3/16/18, 8:37 PM
Etienne said...: Funny youtube video of a man who see's an escalator for the first time.

Escalier roulant; 3/16/18, 8:47 PM
LincolnTf said...: Just got home from covering college lacrosse, now I'm counting the hours until a corned beef and cabbage feast tomorrow.; 3/16/18, 8:51 PM
bolivar di griz said...: Seems to be in the extortion racket

https://patch.com/california/hollywood/saudi-prince-to-ask-for-damages-against-a-hollywood-producer; 3/16/18, 9:01 PM
the 4chan Guy who reads Althouse said...: I once knew a woman who had been in a tragic escalator accident.

She had gone to JCPenney to buy new pants. She liked to buy pants at JCPenney: their pants were much better than the pants at Sears.

She had grown up in a small town in Kansas. The JCPenney store was twenty-three miles away, while the Sears store was only four miles from her home. But she made the longer drive, because the pants at JCPenney were better than the pants at Sears.

Her father once worked at Sears, back when she was a small child. They had fired him over a misunderstanding in the women's bathroom, but that is not why she chose JCPenny over Sears: at JCPenny the pants were better. Than the pants at Sears.

Her sister once gave her a pair of pants from Sears as a birthday gift. Her sister meant well, so she wore those pants every once and a while, mostly if she knew she was going to be meeting up with her sister. The pants were green, but they were the color of green usually seen in pants from Sears; JCPenny used a different green. A better green.

After a lunch with her sister she went to JCPenny to buy new pants: she was wearing the Sears pants, and knew that the hems were fraying badly. Because they were Sears pants, and weren't made as well as the pants at JCPenny.

Women's pants were on the second floor, so she took the escalator that went from the first floor to the second floor, which was different than the escalator that went from the second floor to the third floor.

On the escalator to the second floor she noticed that a thread from her frayed Sears pants got caught in the steps of the escalator.

Being that they were Sears pants and of inferior quality, she was easily able to pull loose the thread.

But in doing so she leaned over too far and her long hair got tangled in the escalator steps. When the step reached the second floor it kept pulling her hair, and soon it ripped away a portion of her scalp.

Surgeons were able to repair most of the damage, but the results stretched her facial skin so tight that she could not fully close her right eye. Which made that eye very dry, red, and itchy.

Because of that dryness and redness and itchiness she used a lot of eye drops. She preferred Systane NightTime Lubricant Eye Ointment to Visine and Bausch and Lomb Opcon-A Itching and Redness Reliever Eye Drops. Which surprised her because the Bausch and Lomb eyedrops even had Itching and Redness in the name. But they weren't as good as Visine for Itching and Redness, and Visine wasn't as good as Systane NightTime Lubricant Eye Ointment.

Meanwhile, she heard that back in Kansas the local Sears store closed down. Which made her mildly sad, even though she didn't like their pants. But she never had any problems on their escalator, which maybe factors into her mild sadness: I don't know.

So that was her tragic escalator accident. This woman that I knew.

The Germans have a word for this.; 3/16/18, 9:09 PM
JohnAnnArbor said...: McCabe fired.; 3/16/18, 9:11 PM
cf said...: Love the Shot. Nothing like a museum of art whose spaces and collections you get to know over time. That is what it makes think of, but maybe it's a mall, haha.

But I got on to update my report on the magazine covers of the nation's checkstands. You may have noticed that the last couple of weeks we've had Oprah on Three, count em, at least 3 covers as you get ready to pay at the supermarket. The reasons are just as good as any to choose her, and these covers had her Up Close in ways you don't get on her monthly mag. I kind of liked it, and it reminded me of how often I got to see closeups of Michelle Obama as I went through the lines.

But it accentuated for me what has been terribly missing for a good year: our President's lovely wife and gorgeous daughter on covers most any month all across America. It is a custom, really and a show of politeNess all the way around.

It has been a shared Normalcy and I declare we are being cruelly denied it.

I do believe it is terribly unhealthful to our American nature.

Those who are resolute on what we get see and share and what we don't are a most dreadful lot.; 3/16/18, 9:16 PM
Jaq said...: Well that escalated quickly

Now if you had said that when they announced that Trump had won, that would have been something.; 3/16/18, 9:16 PM
Inga...Allie Oop said...: “The Germans have a word for this.”

Yes, it’s “Rolltreppe sind böse”.; 3/16/18, 9:19 PM
StephenFearby said...: WaPo March 16 at 10:02 PM

FBI’s Andrew McCabe is fired a little more than 24 hours before he could retire

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/fbis-andrew-mccabe-is-fired-a-little-more-than-24-hours-before-he-could-retire/2018/03/16/

As the Apprentice President is wont to say, "Sad".; 3/16/18, 9:42 PM
Big Mike said...: I see Andrew McCabe was fired just 2 days before he qualified for his government pension. I think if the pension was important to him he should have done his job instead of turning the FBI into an arm of the DNC.; 3/16/18, 9:43 PM
Kathryn51 said...: My gut tells me that McCabe was too loyal to James Comey who is the real rat in this whole escapade. Not to mention Sally Yates. He definitely wasn't the ringleader. I was hoping he would turn on the higher ups.; 3/16/18, 9:48 PM
Christopher said...: I suppose if there's a second positive development resulting from the Trump administration it's that people are once again learning why avoiding the appearance of impropriety is necessary in public life.

Anyway for all those out there who may be tempted, don't let your wife take $700K from a close political ally of the person you're tasked with investigating. It looks bad.; 3/16/18, 9:59 PM
the 4chan Guy who reads Althouse said...: In High School I knew a student whose father worked as an escalator repairman. His father had done work in many of the places in our town that were taller than one story.

I met his father once, and his father didn't seem particularly obsessed with escalators; he didn't seem to talk about them any more than a television repairman might talk about televisions, I imagine.

But television repairmen don't have many televisions to repair anymore, so being an escalator repairmen turns out to have been the better career choice. Because people still need to go up and down.

He told his son that some people were afraid of escalators, but more people were afraid of elevators. Which makes sense because of claustrophobia. People have the fear of heights, too, but maybe an escalator seems like it doesn't go THAT high. Where the elevator is pretty much a small enclosed space. That can go high.

And the elevator won't let you open the doors sometimes. Like between floors. You usually cannot open an elevator's doors when the elevator is between floors. Not being able to open doors when you want to can make claustrophobia more claustrophobic. And escalators don't have doors. Because an escalator with doors would probably instead be considered as just an elevator that goes up on an angle, rather than straight up and down.

This student's father rode a motorcycle, which was cool: a Dad that rode a motorcycle was pretty cool to the other kids. The father didn't wear a helmet either, but he wasn't being a bad-ass and breaking the law or anything: there just wasn't a law that made you wear helmets back then. I don't think you even had to use seat-belts. So people were kind of more bad-ass back then, just doing basic things.

Anyway, his Dad rode a motorcycle. Which makes sense. Because if an elevator is like a car where you can't open the doors, then an escalator is more like a motorcycle that doesn't go very fast.

I think of this student's father sometimes; usually when I am riding on an escalator. Sometimes though I think about him when I'm in an elevator, too: I figure it is actually pretty difficult to think of escalators and then not think of elevators, at least for a moment. And they both begin with an 'e', and end with '-or', so it's almost like they're the same word, almost. They are both four syllables, too: there is that.

So I think of this student's father sometimes, but I never saw this student again after we finished high school. We went to different colleges, and then he died.

The Germans have a word for this.; 3/16/18, 9:59 PM
walter said...: At 50, just don't know how he'll survive..; 3/16/18, 9:59 PM
cf said...: I want them to vacuum up the pension of Lois Lerner.; 3/16/18, 10:03 PM
walter said...: And right before St. Patrick's. Gonna be sobbing in his green beer.; 3/16/18, 10:04 PM
magamamma said...: Bye Bye Mccabe, too bad about that pension, hope you go to jail.; 3/16/18, 10:07 PM
buwaya said...: He would not rat on the others, so it seems.
I suspected that they were holding his pension hostage for some such reason.

Still, he will do well anyway, the deep states friends have deep pockets and plenty of places to give him a sinecure.

The political contribution to his wife was blatant corruption. It would be as if it was revealed that I had approved a major contract with a diversified company, while my wife shortly before had received a large money gift for no visible consideration from a different branch of the same. My employer would march me out the door that same day.; 3/16/18, 10:12 PM
JohnAnnArbor said...: The UMBC Retrievers are up 12 points on Virginia with 4 minutes to go.; 3/16/18, 10:20 PM
Etienne said...: One of the things that leads good men to hell, is instantaneous communications.; 3/16/18, 10:21 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/16/18, 10:23 PM
HT said...: It looks like life in ole Virginny is gonna suck tonight. Baltimore County is beating the cavaliers oh my.

I started watching Gtown NC from 1982. I am wrong in my earlier assessment about why bball is not as good as before. It's not the height, no way no how. Look at Ewing. It's the WEIGHT. And, it's the shot clock. Individual players were far more skilled back then than they are now, when it's so often pure SLOP.; 3/16/18, 10:29 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: McCabe's "Statement" is pure chickenshit. No remorse, doubling down, practically blames Foxnews for his demise.

G'bye sucker. More shoes are gonna drop.; 3/16/18, 10:31 PM
Churchy LaFemme: said...: One of the more interesting escalator rides I had was when I was sent to work a project in DC over halloween. The escalator at the Dupont Circle metro is steeeep, and riding it Halloween evening several steps below a bevy of Naughty Nurses and Slutty Cheerleaders was quite an inspiring experience..; 3/16/18, 10:34 PM
HT said...: What kind of project in DC?; 3/16/18, 10:36 PM
JohnAnnArbor said...: UMBC wins. First time a 16 seed beats a 1 seed in tournament history. And they won by 20 points.

Those guys are having fun!; 3/16/18, 10:37 PM
Big Mike said...: @HT, a #16 was going to beat a #1 sooner or later. The Commonwealth of Virginia have been assuming it would be later. Final score was not even close.; 3/16/18, 10:37 PM
Mark said...: Well Baltimore does have a lot of killings these days.; 3/16/18, 10:38 PM
HT said...: I was really hoping Uva would go far in this tournament (in which I have picked Mich State to win it all). Damn.; 3/16/18, 10:42 PM
mccullough said...: Mrs. Miller will take care of McCabe.

But since he lied to the FBI, he needs to be prosecuted. Rule of Law demands it.; 3/16/18, 10:47 PM
buwaya said...: There is a very common social problem on BART escalators. Seen it a hundred times. Maybe it happens on other commuter system escalators, New York maybe, I wouldnt be able to say as I have not ridden any of them anywhere near as much as BART.

The unspoken traffic rule is that if one is not walking or running up (or down) the escalator, one must stay in the right hand "slow lane" to give those feeling urgency room to move on the left.

This is well understood by the "regulars", the discipline here is near-military in the morning commute. These are the San Francisco downtown worker bees of course, and at those times there is very rarely anyone else but those orderly swarms.

In the afternoon reverse-commute though, BART also gets its share of - others. Who don't understand the rules, and the extreme urgency of some who need to catch the East Bay train waiting there, doors agape but sure to close in seconds.

Those - others - often enough just stand around on that critical left escalator lane, yakking away maybe, to their equally oblivious companion, blocking that critical route. Who are these people? Tourists probably, out of towners, or maybe humans who have never grasped the concept of situational awareness, who do not bother to look around and see the flow of things. Or who have been bred in some broad horizon-bound land and never learned the way of crowds. Well, who knows, it takes all kinds, and on BART there are indeed all kinds.

Blockages can occur through other means of course - the obviously insane, the occasional drunk, very small children, the over-large pram with twins, or the incredibly fat. These all are borne with a degree of sangfroid.

But the ordinary ignorantly static human gets yelled at, seeing as the Pleasanton train is about to be missed. This raises a frequent conundrum for the civilized man immediately behind the human obstacle. Behind him are a half-dozen or more people of urgency (united, for the moment, in their innate identity), making their need loudly obvious. The blockage, however, is almost always deaf. Of course.

So, as the implicit representative of all those impatient persons behind, what is one to do? Add to the noise? Touch, to get the attention of the oblivious? It is a dilemma. There is responsibity to speed those people through, on the other hand there is dignity, and courtesy. Never a good moment.; 3/16/18, 10:52 PM
Churchy LaFemme: said...: What kind of project in DC?

The kind where I got to eat at Pizza Paradisio in Dupont Circle after the work day was done..; 3/16/18, 11:01 PM
buwaya said...: Now, if one is not quite in the way of being a greyhound of the escalators, but has nevertheless obviously signalled flank speed on the engine telegraph, limited as one might be by bad bearings or scaled boilers, then one is seen as having maintained the social contract.; 3/16/18, 11:07 PM
eddie willers said...: I never knew escalator stories could be so long!; 3/16/18, 11:25 PM
Churchy LaFemme: said...: I never knew escalator stories could be so long!

Got a rise out of you..; 3/16/18, 11:29 PM
Mark said...: What makes no sense at all is the rule that some people apparently follow that when you step off the escalator, you just stand there and look around.; 3/16/18, 11:32 PM
Ralph L said...: I once worked with a guy who got his shoe caught in an escalator when a boy. Messed up his foot for life.

It's really daring not to use the handrail.
So I've been told.; 3/16/18, 11:54 PM
Original Mike said...: ”McCabe fired.”

I don’t know if this was the smart thing to do politically, but it was the “right” thing to do. There have to be consequences for unethical acts, especially in government.; 3/17/18, 12:03 AM
Original Mike said...: Sessions says McCabe lied “under oath”.

Sundance claims “The IG doesn’t place the internal investigative target “under oath”. An outside prosecutor who is assisting the IG does.“

Hmmm...; 3/17/18, 12:09 AM
Original Mike said...: This may be the first time I am impressed with Jeff Sessions. He could have just let it slide. This took balls. I expect an ensuing shit storm.; 3/17/18, 12:13 AM
Richard Dolan said...: Just got back from the Met, last Butterfly of the season. The last 10 minutes or so of Act 1 are wonderfully romantic, best in all of opera for evoking those feelings. And for once the production doesn't fight the music. When the rose petals start to fall like snow on the lovers, against a stark background lit by lanterns, you'd have to be stone-cold dead not to be moved.

It's not an opera I look forward to -- such a hackneyed warhorse. But then the music starts, Cio Cio San makes her entry, and it's irresistible. Life can be wonderful, and all the more so if you forget about the partisan wars at least for a little while.; 3/17/18, 12:28 AM
Yancey Ward said...: I think things with McCabe must have been really, really bad for him to get publicly fired like this. I think you can read the stories about why he was fired and probably guess that his actual misbehavior is quite a bit worse than has been reported.; 3/17/18, 12:31 AM
Yancey Ward said...: It appears we now have an answer to why Rudy Contreres was recused in December from the Michael Flynn case: Link. Peter Strzok and Lisa Page were texting about how they could use Strzok's previously undisclosed relationship with the judge to influence business they might have before him- they even plotted a way to hide this planned collusion. Also, it appears all of this was hidden from Congress for quit a long time by directly redacting exactly those texts and content. What a sewer.; 3/17/18, 12:44 AM
Original Mike said...: ”Also, it appears all of this was hidden from Congress for quit a long time by directly redacting exactly those texts and content. What a sewer.”

This is infuriating. Sure, Strzok and Page were corrupt; we’ve known that for awhile now. But who is redacting that information in materials required to be handed over to Congress? Seriously, I mean specifically WHO did that. We need names.; 3/17/18, 12:57 AM
Yancey Ward said...: I just looked at the ESPN tourney results- no perfect brackets- no one picked Virginia to lose in the first round, but there were 4 brackets that missed only that game. Here is the really odd thing- three of the four picked Xavier to win- two of those three have the exact same final four of Xavier over Cincy, Michigan St over Villanova, while the 3rd with Xavier winning the title has Xavier beating Virginia in the final four.

My only bracket out of the 25 I entered that has a chance now to win I got 24 out of the first 32 games called right. The teams I missed losing in the first round don't factor at all after this weekend since I had none of them going past this Sunday, and my final four is fairly going to be fairly unique since 2 of the 4 teams are picked to that level by less than than 0.4% of the participants- so there is at least a chance I can win if that exact final four plays out

I had two brackets in which I did better in the first round overall- 25 out of 32 and 28 out of 32, but UVA killed both of them since I had UVA winning it all in both brackets, and in one of those I had Wichita State in the final four, too.; 3/17/18, 1:14 AM
Yancey Ward said...: I also have one bracket where I got 23 out of 32, and the final four in that one is Tennessee, Michigan, West Virginia, and Michigan St, with West Virginia winning over Tennessee. That one may be my best shot at this point since that final four and champion is more unique than any other I have.; 3/17/18, 1:21 AM
Jon Ericson said...: Nancy sez, Save the Wetlands!; 3/17/18, 1:32 AM
George said...: From the WSJ:

"Elizabeth Warren’s Boomerang" -https://www.wsj.com/articles/elizabeth-warrens-boomerang-1521243165?mod=itp&mod=djemITP_h

Are they now suggesting that she might be part Australian Aboriginal?; 3/17/18, 2:52 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: "Anyway for all those out there who may be tempted, don't let your wife take $700K from a close political ally of the person you're tasked with investigating. It looks bad."

And, if she does take the money, disclose it on the required disclosure documents.

Also, as to his candor, keep in mind that McCabe personally signed, under oath, all four Carter Page FISA warrant applications for the FBI, knowing that they were substantially based on the salacious, uncorroborated, somewhat discredited, Steele Dossier that had been funded by Crooked Hillary and the DNC as opposition research, and that Steele had been caught lying to the FBI about having disclosed the Dossier to the press. None of which was disclosed to the FISC.

As the top non-political appointee leader in the FBI, it was his duty to set an example for the agency. He didn't, or the example he set was a bad one. So, he was made an example of. There are over 33k FBI employees, and most of them know that they would be canned in a heartbeat for a fraction of what McCabe did, and allowed to go on around him. Which is why, in the end, he had to be fired before he got his full pension, to show that the rules apply to everyone, even those on executive row (because taking away their pensions is the fastest way to get the attention of government workers).; 3/17/18, 3:55 AM
Trumpit said...: Up The Down Staircase comes to mind. You can rent the highly-rated movie (1967) on Amazon, for $3.99. Some of us were alive back then.; 3/17/18, 5:09 AM
David Begley said...: UMBC.; 3/17/18, 5:30 AM
Lewis Wetzel said...: Blogger Bay Area Guy said...
McCabe's "Statement" is pure chickenshit. No remorse, doubling down, practically blames Foxnews for his demise.
I believe I read somewhere that McCabe told colleauges that if he wasn't allowed to retire & get full benefits he would "burn this f*cker down."
Unconfirmed, of course.
"Let all the poison that lurks in the mud, hatch out."; 3/17/18, 5:54 AM
Jaq said...: I think if the pension was important to him he should have done his job instead of turning the FBI into an arm of the DNC.

Didn’t he once work for Eric Holder? What would make you think that he didn’t think that protecting Democrats and smearing Republicans wasn’t his job?

McCabe denied that he had ever been dishonest and charged that his firing was a politically-motivated “effort to discredit me as a witness" for the Special Counsel investigation of Trump-Russia ties and specifically of Trump's firing of Comey

Bring it Andy, let’s hear what you Strzok, Page, probably Eric Holder even, have cooked up!; 3/17/18, 6:04 AM
Jaq said...: That picture of Hillary hiding her wrist on Drudge is precious. Hillary’s big problem is that she isn’t as good at hiding stuff as she thinks.; 3/17/18, 6:14 AM
Jaq said...: Looks like McCabe is serious! He bolded stuff and even underlined it! I am sure he is holding all caps in reserve.

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/03/16/mccabe-fired/#more-147025

Write a book Andy! The more that comes out the better! Explain exactly how Hillary skated, why she was allowed to break the law so blatantly, let’s hear about why the same small band of partisans had to investigate all of the crap she got in.

Maybe your wife was able to hold onto some of the 700K that Clinton crony McAuliffe gave her political campaign? Or is your answer going to be that it is written in all caps?; 3/17/18, 6:32 AM
Bay Area Guy said...: From McCabe's "Statement"

"The OIG investigation has focused on information I chose to share with a reporter through my public affairs officer and a legal counselor. As Deputy Director, I was one of only a few people who had the authority to do that. It was not a secret, it took place over several days, and others, including the Director, were aware of the interaction with the reporter. It was the type of exchange with the media that the Deputy Director oversees several times per week. In fact, it was the same type of work that I continued to do under Director Wray, at his request. The investigation subsequently focused on who I talked to, when I talked to them, and so forth. During these inquiries, I answered questions truthfully and as accurately as I could amidst the chaos that surrounded me. And when I thought my answers were misunderstood, I contacted investigators to correct them."

Chaos!; 3/17/18, 6:57 AM
Matt Sablan said...: Wait. A Democrat is facing consequences? Trump can work miracles.; 3/17/18, 6:57 AM
Jaq said...: , I answered questions truthfully and as accurately as I could

Isn’t that what Tom Sawyer told Aunt Polly?; 3/17/18, 7:05 AM
Matt Sablan said...: I like the "looking back [at the times I lied and may not have corrected it] in isolation completely misses the big picture" part of his defense.; 3/17/18, 7:10 AM
Matt Sablan said...: Eh, I don't get why McCabe thinks Trump had anything to do with this. McCabe testified there was nothing wrong with firing Comey.; 3/17/18, 7:10 AM
Triangle Man said...: Poor McCabe. A very accomplished guy and a straight arrow. Clearly being railroaded, but it’s going to be tough going for him.; 3/17/18, 7:11 AM
Matt Sablan said...: Chaotic events are why he didn't report the money Clinton gave him. That's the ticket.; 3/17/18, 7:11 AM
Bay Area Guy said...: Memo to McCabe:

Dont try to commit regicide with a rubber knife. (I.e., if you go after the King, you better kill him); 3/17/18, 7:12 AM
Matt Sablan said...: Honestly: That failure in "candor"/honesty is enough of a reason for him to be gone.; 3/17/18, 7:12 AM
Matt Sablan said...: I'd like someone to try this line on a spouse.

"Honey, it was a chaotic time, and if I had any failures in candor, you can understand."

Or with the IRS: "It was a chaotic time this year filing taxes. Clearly, failures in candor can be forgiven."; 3/17/18, 7:14 AM
lonetown said...: Look at all the wasted space, built, no doubt, by people that complain endlessly about global warming and the need to conserve energy. Public spaces need to be reduced to the smallest possible space that will do the job. For the children!; 3/17/18, 7:17 AM
Humperdink said...: tradguy said: "The NCAA Wrestling Tournament has been on ESPN for the past two days. They seem to move faster than we did, too."

Nice comeback by PennState to take the team lead. Should be a great finish today. I love college wrestling. One-on-one against your opponent, no excuses. These guys are gladiators.

Re: McCabe firing. Sessions has at least one testicle. Hoping he finds another.; 3/17/18, 7:22 AM
Jaq said...: Comey and Mueller’s mentor is PISSED!

“We have to be ready to, you know, not do anything inappropriate, not do anything improper, certainly not do anything unlawful. But to the extent that they want to have a fight, let’s do it. You want to rumble, let’s rumble. You want to have a knife fight, we’re gonna do it.” - Eric Holder

What is holding you back Holder? Bring it on! We need some fucking sunshine here! I am getting sick of. all of these threats of “You do that, an I am going to tell the people the real truth!” Jesums, do it already!; 3/17/18, 7:32 AM
Jaq said...: [McCabe is ] Clearly being railroaded,

If it is clear you you, please explain it to me!; 3/17/18, 7:34 AM
Jaq said...: isolation completely misses the big picture” part of his defense.

The big picture was that Hillary’s candidacy was at stake and the Democrats had nobody else! The big picture was that she had a 95% chance of winning! Calculated by the same people that brought you the ice free Arctic a decade ago already!; 3/17/18, 7:38 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: "Poor McCabe. A very accomplished guy and a straight arrow. Clearly being railroaded, but it’s going to be tough going for him"

He apparently had the reputation as a straight arrow, but at some point, he went political. Straight arrows don't have meetings to discuss insurance policies in their offices, when the event being insured against is the election of the other candidate. They don't lie on FISA applications, and they report their wife's campaign contributions on their conflicts of interest filings when the source so obviously led to someone under investigation of a picked team of agents.

I think that maybe what brought McCabe, and others at the FBI, over to the dark side, was the politization and weaponization of the DoJ under AGs Holder and Lynch. Part of the problem behind the rot right now in the DoJ is that there were 8 years of left wing litmus test hiring for its professional staff. I suspect that the path to the very top of the career ranks at the FBI required quite a bit of flexing of his formerly straight arrow morals. Theoretically, the FBI is supposed to be fairly independent of the DoJ, but the reality is that they cannot be, because the prosecutors for the arrests they make work across the street at the DoJ. We see this same codependency between prosecutors and cops all the time. We see this politization with Strzok and Page texting back and forth about going easy on Crooked Hillary, because she was expected to be their boss in the near future. And, no doubt that was felt by Comey and McCabe too. As others have opined, the shenanigans at the top of the FBI (and DoJ) make perfect sense, and would never have been detected, if the queen had won, and been coronated, as they all had expected.; 3/17/18, 8:12 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: McCabe may be correct that he is being taken down via technicalities. But it is no different than what the FBI uses every day. FBI agents routinely lie, with impunity, to get confessions, but lying to them is a federal felony, which they use to get people they can't get otherwise. Just ask Martha Stewart, Scooter Libby, or General Flynn. Merely having an ambiguous story is sometimes sufficient. The reality here is that he falsely swore to 4 false FISA warrant applications to essentially wiretap the opposing candidate, then the transition team. That is fairly obvious by now, but would be hard to prove, due to the classified nature of FISA warrant applications. So, they got him on penny ante stuff that was much easier to prove. And he should quit whining, because the techniques that his agents use on a daily basis to cut corners were used against him.; 3/17/18, 8:33 AM
Ralph L said...: The bribe from McAwful ought to be enough to send him to prison, but probably won't.; 3/17/18, 8:47 AM
Robert Cook said...: Hmmm...I'm surprised Ms. Althouse didn't take the opportunity yesterday to mention it was the 50th Anniversary of one of America's NOT Shining Moments: The My Lai Massacre. Compounding the atrocity was that none of the officers involved were punished in any way, including Calley, whose "life sentence" turned into three years "incarceration" in his own home.; 3/17/18, 8:58 AM
Michael K said...: Blogger Bruce Hayden said...
McCabe may be correct that he is being taken down via technicalities.

I think there is more coming. Taking away his pension on a technicality is what the FBI does, not what someone does to the FBI.

I keep seeing suggestions that a lot more is coming.; 3/17/18, 9:00 AM
Michael K said...: Cookie should observe his favorite 50th anniversary like the Buddhist monks did.

Go for it Cookie !; 3/17/18, 9:05 AM
Lewis Wetzel said...: Blogger Robert Cook said...
Hmmm...I'm surprised Ms. Althouse didn't take the opportunity yesterday to mention it was the 50th Anniversary of one of America's NOT Shining Moments: The My Lai Massacre.
Were you even born fifty years ago, Robt. Cook?; 3/17/18, 9:07 AM
madAsHell said...: Maybe it happens on other commuter system escalators, New York maybe,

Berlin. They even post signs "Bitte rechts stehen".; 3/17/18, 10:06 AM
madAsHell said...: I believe I read somewhere that McCabe told colleauges that if he wasn't allowed to retire & get full benefits he would "burn this f*cker down."

Yes, that was reported when he stepped down, or resigned back in December. I don't think this is the time to be signaling your intentions. My money says this guy sings. and he catches a bullet in the back of the head.; 3/17/18, 10:24 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: "The bribe from McAwful ought to be enough to send him to prison, but probably won't."

Technically, probably legal, but he was legally required to report it, and didn't. Not reporting is grounds for firing, and probably not jail. If he had reported it on a timely basis, as required, he probably would have just been walled off from anything pertaining to Crooked Hillary, and maybe her opponents, including Trump.; 3/17/18, 10:51 AM
Bad Lieutenant said...: Robert Cook yada yada yada...

America's NOT Shining Moments: The My Lai Massacre.

Hey Bobby, the VC got over it, why can't you?

Blogger madAsHell said...
Maybe it happens on other commuter system escalators, New York maybe,

You bet your life! Slow traffic keep right.

Oh, and pedestrian yokels, don't stand in the middle of the sidewalk while staring at the tall buildings.

I'm a bad person for feeling a frisson of pleasure every time I think about Althouse getting shoved out of the way on a NYC (Brooklyn?) sidewalk by somebody who wasn't prepared to wait for her to close her mouth and look around her at eye level. But I own it.; 3/17/18, 11:28 AM
Drago said...: Bruce Hayden: "McCabe may be correct that he is being taken down via technicalities."

Lying under oath and obstruction of justice are not technicalities.; 3/17/18, 11:37 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: “Lying under oath and obstruction of justice are not technicalities.”

My point there is that lying to the FBI is not always black and white. Yes, at least with the FISA warrants, he lied under oath, which is worse. But that isn’t what he is going down for. I think that it is maybe somewhat similar to taking Al Capone down for income tax evasion, when everyone knew that he was guilty as heck of much worse. For McCabe, the much worse was being at the top of a conspiracy against the election of Trump, and then against his Constitutionally elected boss after Trump was inaugurated. The incidents of lack of candor could have been ignored, if they had wanted to. They didn’t. They were the gimmes. The low hanging fruit. He may still end up in prison for lying under oath. We shall see.

Still, one of the things that is interesting here is that OPM came out in favor of firing McCabe. Apparently, a number of whistle blowers at the FBI had complained about him in the past, to no avail, whatsoever. Someone has found religion.; 3/17/18, 12:30 PM
eddie willers said...: Apparently, a number of whistle blowers at the FBI had complained about him in the past

An outraged agent called into Fox last night and was really mad because "candor" was drilled into them from the first day at work. He said there was a lot of cheering going on now because they really did believe in candor and were incensed that it looked like the higher ups did not have to live by the same rules.; 3/17/18, 12:48 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: Whoops, it was OPR (Office of Professional Responsibiliy) in the FBI that recommended firing, not the OPM, and the lack of candor included lying under oath, according to the statement by AG Sessions. And it was the FBI’s OPR that apparently acted like McCabe’s lapdog when responding to allegations against him, and that now has found religion, or at least is mouthing the words now.; 3/17/18, 12:56 PM
Jim at said...: Nice comeback by PennState to take the team lead. Should be a great finish today. I love college wrestling. One-on-one against your opponent, no excuses. These guys are gladiators.

Out here on the West Coast, I really started following Big 10 wrestling this year - as an alternative to the NFL - and just got completely hooked during the duel meet season. OSU and Penn State was incredible. And the Big 10 Championships were even better.

Snyder and Coon will be epic tonight.; 3/17/18, 1:57 PM
Robert Cook said...: "Were you even born fifty years ago, Robt. Cook?"

Yes, I was in 8th grade when My Lai happened. Nixon ended the mandatory draft less than a year before I turned 18.; 3/17/18, 3:20 PM
Birkel said...: Robert Cook,

Just because you couldn't be drafted doesn't mean you couldn't have joined the side you wanted to win.

Imagine the feeling you would have had when Saigon fell.; 3/17/18, 4:08 PM
Lewis Wetzel said...: So, you are older than I am by a few years, Robert Cooke. I never would have guessed that.; 3/17/18, 5:13 PM
gpm said...: >>So, you are older than I am by a few years, Robert Cooke. I never would have guessed that.

Not that anyone cares, I think this means Robert Cooke is a year or so younger than I and 4 or 5 years younger than Althouse (who is less than a month shy of three years older than I). Along with Al Gore, I believe, I was in the last draft lottery when I was 18 in 1971, and had a very low number that meant I was cooked (so to speak) if Nixon hadn't ended the draft.

--gpm; 3/17/18, 9:13 PM
Gahrie said...: Hmmm...I'm surprised Ms. Althouse didn't take the opportunity yesterday to mention it was the 50th Anniversary of one of America's NOT Shining Moments: The My Lai Massacre.

It was also the anniversary of:

A pogrom against the Jews in York, 1190

The burning of 200 monks in France, 1244

The execution of 100 prisoners after a battle in Finland, 1918

The death of 5,000 Germans after a British bombing raid over Wurzburg Germany, 1945

Halabja, Iraq is attacked by poison gas on the orders of Saddam Hussien killing at least 5,000 people, 1988

Shijiazhuang, China...bomb blasts kill over a hundred people, 2001

Peshawar, Pakistan...a bomb on a bus kills 15 and injures more than fifty, 2016

Maiduguri, Nigeria, suicide bombers kill 22 people outside a mosque, 2016

She didn't write about any of those either.; 3/18/18, 1:30 AM