Althouse: At the Cloud-Over-Flatiron Café...

May 8, 2019

At the Cloud-Over-Flatiron Café...

... creep on in here.

61 comments:

Bob Boyd said...: There's marmot in them thar hills.; 5/8/19, 8:25 PM
narciso said...: This was from an earlier thread

http://dianawest.net/Home/tabid/36/EntryId/3874/Do-These-Items-Connect.aspx#.XNMjrzGagD4.twitter; 5/8/19, 8:30 PM
narciso said...: Before that Mueller was the dictator:

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/mark-penn-trump-nadler-dictator-barr-house-hearing?fbclid=IwAR0cJKftVKcOZNV7uGqhgwrS0TuLG6EkmtMt3BMKYJhuBdVsnXV4hAQWvB0; 5/8/19, 8:31 PM
stephen cooper said...: "la nuestra ultima esperanza esta la injusticia de Dios"

so many angry people are going to turn to the internet tonight to say something viciously bad about someone else.

Don't do it, My friends!

God loves you all.; 5/8/19, 8:39 PM
narciso said...: That phrase doesn't make sense Stephen cooper, es la justicia la Gracia la esperanza, si no para que estamos

(Its his justice, grace and hope, otherwise why are we here?; 5/8/19, 8:43 PM
traditionalguy said...: ...on little cat feet.; 5/8/19, 8:46 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: Smoke On The Mountain
The name of the musical comes from Psalm 104:32: "He who looks at the earth, and it trembles, who touches the mountains, and they smoke" (Psalm 104:32); 5/8/19, 8:47 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: where there's smoke, there's fire.
Fire On The Mountain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAhEi7W1ib0; 5/8/19, 8:52 PM
narciso said...: Honestly you say some ridiculous thing, this world behaves like injustice is supposed to be the natural state, maybe it is but it's not supposed to be; 5/8/19, 8:53 PM
stephen cooper said...: Narciso - it is Don Colacho, the celebrated South American aphorist, who first said that, I am not talented enough an aphorist to come up with that quote ---- but I have lots of friends from El Salvador and I say it all the time to them (well I have said it 5 or 6 times) and one of them said in reply

(I translate)

Yes of course our only hope is the injustice of God, the justice of God is not something any of us can live up to

(actually what she said was)

ah Esteban tienes razon nosotros hombres la justicia de Dios esta demasiado por nosotros

(you are right Steve the Justice of God is too much for us people)

I like everyone I meet, everyone I argue with, and once in a while someone says something beautiful like that to me; 5/8/19, 8:56 PM
stephen cooper said...: actually she said

Esteban tienes razón como siempre nosotros hombres la justicia de Dios esta demasiado para nosotros

i.e., we all act unjustly, the justice of God would send us into utter confusion --- but the gentle injustice of God, forgiving where forgiveness is not warranted, loving where the object of love is filthy and selfish, and refusing to judge harshly ---

that is

la nuestra ultima esparanza

our best hope

if not only for ourselves for our friends, many of them Belushi like in behavior

I remember; 5/8/19, 9:01 PM
narciso said...: Now that is the judgement which will be might y indeed, what we deserve for turning a land promised on faith into something else; 5/8/19, 9:04 PM
stephen cooper said...: like i said narciso I remember

dream tonight of the beautiful land the people who used to care for you when you were young wished that you would inherit, if only they could guarantee that joy for those they loved --- in my case, all of the people who cared for me when I was young are long dead but I remember them all --- dream tonight of that beautiful land.

Magna est veritas et praevalebit; 5/8/19, 9:09 PM
FullMoon said...: From 2016

December 29, 2016 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org – As we noted in this space yesterday, the Obama administration, still reeling in the wake of November 8’s carnage at the polls, is going to extraordinary lengths in an effort to sabotage the incoming administration while at the same time attacking in an unprecedented manner our closest Middle Eastern ally, Israel:

“Obama has proven himself to be a truly petty and vengeful man post Hillary’s November 8 fiasco. He feels [and was] personally rejected by an electorate that he must have thought adored him and is now striking out like some piteous beast being sucked ever more deeply into quicksand, incapable of avoiding the inevitable but not going down without causing as much havoc as possible.”

In another example we find that the IRS was hacked in 2014

“In January 2014, Get Transcript launched on the IRS website. The application enabled taxpayers to view and download their transcript or order previous years of tax filing information. On May 26, 2015, the IRS announced it had discovered that cyber criminals -- using taxpayer information stolen elsewhere -- accessed the Get Transcript application on IRS.gov. The IRS identified approximately 225,000 taxpayers whose transcripts had been accessed or targeted. In August 2015, the IRS announced it had identified approximately 390,000 additional taxpayer transcripts which had been access or targeted - which brought the total number of hacked accounts to 615,000.

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration conducted a nine-month long investigation looking back to the launch of the application in January 2014 for additional suspicious activity - which led to the amended reporting of approximately 700,000 hacked accounts to date.” [source, Steve Morgan,

In 2015 we find that the private emails of the Director of Central Intelligence [John Brennan] as well as the DHS secretary [Jeh Johnson] were both hacked, apparently by a U.S. teenager!

“The personal emails of two of the highest-ranking national security officials have been hacked. Those being CIA Director John Brennan and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson.; 5/8/19, 9:10 PM
stephen cooper said...: I was young in the 1950s by the way .... well, as young as I ever was; 5/8/19, 9:10 PM
Narr said...: My Spanish is pretty rusty but the aphorism was clear enough to me and reminded me of . . . maybe it reminded me of itself in another language or variant. I never tried to track it down. Thanks.

The dog we had before our current pooch was stupid, crazy, and evil, but we loved her. We called her The Luckiest Dog In The History Of Dogs--because of the distance between what she had and what she deserved . . . That's how I see the quip.

Narr
Boy I'm getting good at this capcha stuff since I had to uncloak; 5/8/19, 9:11 PM
FullMoon said...: Ah Ha!
Narciso busted. Actually can spell and punctuate.....

Nothing less will be accepted going forward.; 5/8/19, 9:12 PM
JackWayne said...: Dunno how accurate this leak is but this looks like the most realistic Mideast peace plan America has proposed.; 5/8/19, 9:12 PM
stephen cooper said...: maestro narciso i knew you could spell !; 5/8/19, 9:17 PM
Lawrence Person said...: More Tesla Troubles.; 5/8/19, 9:21 PM
narciso said...: Autocorrect screws up less in spanish.; 5/8/19, 9:21 PM
narciso said...: Counterintelligence would have to struggle to be a joke, brennan and Johnson forgot the lesson of John deutsch, Monica witte Carter ooff her secrets to Iran and we werent told for six years. Jerry chang compromised the whole network in china.; 5/8/19, 9:35 PM
narciso said...: Clair clairborne was the last to be nabbed, meanwhile our crack counterintel is going after 28 year oil analysts who spent their time prospecting for oil in the levant.; 5/8/19, 9:37 PM
StephenFearby said...: Most interesting and likely consequential Russiagate story of the week:

The Hill
Steele's stunning pre-FISA confession: Informant needed to air Trump dirt before election
BY JOHN SOLOMON 05/07/19 06:00 PM EDT

"If ever there were an admission that taints the FBI’s secret warrant to surveil Donald Trump’s campaign, it sat buried for more than 2 1/2 years in the files of a high-ranking State Department official.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kathleen Kavalec’s written account of her Oct. 11, 2016, meeting with FBI informant Christopher Steele shows the Hillary Clinton campaign-funded British intelligence operative admitted that his research was political and facing an Election Day deadline.

'...Steele’s client “is keen to see this information come to light prior to November 8,” the date of the 2016 election, Kavalec wrote in a typed summary of her meeting with Steele and Tatyana Duran, a colleague from Steele’s Orbis Security firm. The memos were unearthed a few days ago through open-records litigation by the conservative group Citizens United.

Kavalec’s notes do not appear to have been provided to the House Intelligence Committee during its Russia probe, according to former Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.). "They tried to hide a lot of documents from us during our investigation, and it usually turns out there’s a reason for it," Nunes told me. Senate and House Judiciary investigators told me they did not know about them, even though they investigated Steele’s behavior in 2017-18.

One member of Congress transmitted the memos this week to the Department of Justice’s inspector general, fearing its investigation of FISA abuses may not have had access to them.'

"...Sources told me more than a year ago that Kavalec had the most important (and memorialized) interaction with Steele before the FISA warrant was issued, but FBI and State officials refused to discuss it, or even confirm it.

The encounter, and Kavalec’s memos, were forced into public view through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation by Citizens United. Yet, all but a few lines have been redacted after the fact.'

'...“Orbis undertook the investigation into the Russia/Trump connection at the behest of an institution he declined to identify that had been hacked,” Kavalec wrote...“The institution approached them based on the recommendation of Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch (specialists in economic crime, formerly of the WSJ) and is keen to see this information come to light prior to November 8,” Kavalec wrote. “Orbis undertook the investigation in June of 2016.”

'...Everything else in the memo was redacted. The FOIA notes contain this explanation for the redactions: “Classified by FBI on 4/25/2019 — Class: SECRET.”

In other words, the FBI under Director Christopher Wray classified the document as “secret” just a few days ago. To add injury to insult, the FBI added this hopeful note: “Declassify on 12/31/2041.” That would be 25 years after the 2016 election.

"...For the first time, we have written proof the U.S. government knew well before the FBI secured the FISA warrant that Steele had a political motive and Election Day deadline to make his dossier public.

And we know that information was transmitted before the Carter Page FISA warrant to one or more people whose job is so sensitive that their identity had to be protected. That means there is little chance the FBI didn’t know about Steele’s political client, or the Election Day deadline, before requesting the FISA warrant."

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/442592-steeles-stunning-pre-fisa-confession-informant-needed-to-air-trump-dirt; 5/8/19, 9:39 PM
narciso said...: The liaison Tatiana Duran formerly worked for state, but in a previous gig worked with nigel ingster deputy director mi 6; 5/8/19, 9:42 PM
JackWayne said...: Always nice to see a deep state dick like Burr self-identify.; 5/8/19, 9:54 PM
narciso said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/8/19, 10:06 PM
DanZenner said...: GO BUCKS GO!!
First time back in the Eastern Conference Finals since 2001.; 5/8/19, 10:09 PM
narciso said...: Via Ryan saavedra, don jr declines; 5/8/19, 10:17 PM
stephen cooper said...: technically, for a few hours, on New Years Eve in 1949, while all the world was already in the 1950s, Honolulu and a few other lonely islands in the Pacific, this side of the date line, were still in the 1940s

it seemed like a long few hours back then to some of the revellers and to a few of the poor people who had not been invited to a New Years party and spent that New Years Eve in Honolulu alone or almost alone, maybe with an elderly relative or with their family, unable to hire a baby-sitter

maybe they were right

God loves those who notice what the poor notice
nobody is ever alone; 5/8/19, 10:17 PM
narciso said...: Yet too many pretend othsrwise:

https://babalublog.com/2019/05/08/venezuelan-dictatorships-ties-to-international-criminals-and-terrorists-makes-striking-a-deal-with-them-impossible/#comments; 5/8/19, 10:25 PM
FullMoon said...: They thought Clinton would lose, so started with the lies.........

Washington Post Spreads Obama Russian Election Hack False Flag

By Villem Maherstein

September 5, 2016 – San Francisco, CA – PipeLineNews.org – Building on previous coverage [see, Marxist Street Thugs Telegraphing Obama Election Putsch? , Obama’s Plan to Steal the Election,"Democracy Spring" Profiles: 99 Rise and The Fire This Summer - Revolution in America, PipeLineNews.org] we need to address a disturbing report appearing in today’s - September 5, 2016 - edition of the WashPost.

This feature piece suggests that there is an active Russian plot to hack the upcoming election to affect its outcome, the presumption here being that Putin is acting as Trump’s agent, a contention so preposterous, only the brain-dead would even consider it [see, Dana Priest, Ellen Nakashima and Tom Hamburger, U.S. investigating potential covert Russian plan to disrupt November elections ].

Regarding the lack of “meat” in the article; after a ponderous lead in, making it appear certain that the Russians are going to hack Trump into the Oval Office, comes the money quote, attributed to an “unnamed official,” stating that there is indeed not a shred of evidence backing up the absurd false claim which the Post is now gleefully spreading – of note the Fox News drones have picked the item up and are pushing it hard, indicative of a Pravda-ized American media:

“The official cautioned that the intelligence community is not saying it has “definitive proof” of such tampering, or any Russian plans to do so. “But even the hint of something impacting the security of our election system would be of significant concern,” the official said. “It’s the key to our democracy, that people have confidence in the election system.”

If there were such a threat [there isn’t] putting James Clapper in charge of “preventing” it is ludicrous, he being amongst the most foolish people in an already foolish [but extraordinarily dangerous] administration.

What is so deeply troubling is the quickly aligning planets on this matter, entirely too much is going down at the same time for worries about Obama hijacking the November election to be dismissed.

Complicating matters greatly as far as Team O’s “credibility” regarding national security issues is the fact the DHS’ Jeh Johnson has just concluded a speech to the American HAMAS/Muslim Brotherhood front group, the Islamic Society of North America …yes you read that correctly.

The mere presence of DHS’ top official at this event would in a sane world have already resulted in his ouster…along with those who approved the appearance, meaning the president and his national security team.; 5/8/19, 10:31 PM
FullMoon said...: So we have more than rumblings coming from an emboldened administration that it is poised to do whatever it takes to assure a Clinton victory in the fall and we now have the U.S. media elite - the Post and the New York Times - both feverishly throwing everything they can at the wall to see what might stick to advance the ridiculous “Russian hack” meme.

“[re Obama’s meeting with Vlad Putin]…There was no shortage of thorny subjects. The president said they had discussed computer security, though he declined to say whether he had brought up allegations that Russia breached the computer systems of the Democratic National Committee. “We’ve had trouble with cyber intrusions from Russia in the past,” he said. “We’re moving into a new era.” [see, Mark Landler, ‘Gaps in Trust’ With Russia Bar a Syrian Truce, Obama Says , New York Times]

Yeah, we know, it’s really hard to imagine “gaps” in trust between the U.S. and Russia given Obama’s full court press alleging that this same Mr. Putin is scheming to steal the election.

Bottom line?

We believe that chances are high that there is indeed a “plot” to influence the November results, but in what is a classic case of projection, the finger should be pointing to Obama as team leader of the effort, since he has the determination and the technical infrastructure [NSA and the rest of the U.S. intel community] to do exactly what he is accusing Putin of planning.

With this matter having become a subtext in the campaign we will be devoting much more space to covering developments as they roll out, which we expect in short order.

https://www.pipelinenews.org/2016/sep/05/washington-post-spreads-obama-russian-election-hack-false.html; 5/8/19, 10:31 PM
narciso said...: Now they relied on crowdstrike whose director shawn Bryce was Muellers cyberwarrior, whose other associate bagley was instructing at the link campus in 2016; 5/8/19, 10:37 PM
narciso said...: Crowdstrike debuted with the attribution of North Korea to the Sony hack, another instance where intellectual property and work product was alien to the major papers.; 5/8/19, 10:39 PM
narciso said...: Crowdstrike was funded as an arm of the Atlantic council which shared many donors from the Clinton foundation; 5/8/19, 10:53 PM
stephen cooper said...: I have an old pal - coincidentally also named Stephen - in 1981 one of his ex-girlfriends (who still lives in Honolulu) named her daughter after him (Stephanie) ... in 2001 his brother's oldest son, no relation at all to his ex-girlfriend, named his second son after him (Steven with a v, but still) ....

I called him last Friday or Saturday night, I forget which, and I said, how are you doing, he said, not good, nobody ever calls.

Think about it - each of us have (with a few exceptions which are not applicable to my friend Stephen's ex-girlfriend or to his brother's oldest son) 8 great-grandparents, so my friend Stephen (who has a couple kids, but none of them named after him) is someone who, in 1881 (the year the youngest great-grandparent of Either his ex-girlfriend Or his brother's oldest son was born) - is someone who, in 1881, if he only knew it, could have found 16 people who were the great-grandparents of someone named , in later days, specifically after him.

And in 2019 this guy, who in 1881 could have found 8 men and 8 women who would have looked on him with wonder as the namesake of one of their great-grandchildren, seemed to be 'very happy' to get a phone call from me .... and he felt alone in the world before I called him, on a whim .....

He was 'happy' that I called, anyway, maybe not 'very happy', i tend to exaggerate sometimes. People like to be remembered and cared about by other people, and that is important to them.
Not a sermon just a thought; 5/8/19, 11:12 PM
readering said...: John Yoo, an executive power guy in the Bush administration, quoted in a NY Times article on the clash between Trump and the House:

“The thing that’s unusual is the blanket refusal,” Professor Yoo said. “It would be extraordinary if the president actually were to try to stop all congressional testimony on subpoenaed issues. That would actually be unprecedented if it were a complete ban.”

“He’s treating Congress like they’re the Chinese or a local labor union working on a Trump building,” he said.; 5/8/19, 11:18 PM
stephen cooper said...: John Yoo is, for the record, a mediocre guy; 5/8/19, 11:21 PM
narciso said...: Actually he isnt he crafted the interrogation protocols for instance based on a very deep study of European court of human rights precedents but Jack goldsmith didnt care neither did the Democrats; 5/8/19, 11:24 PM
stephen cooper said...: If Mueller were an honest man - ask Peter King - Congress would not have a Democratic majority

Professor Yoo is too mediocre to understand the context; 5/8/19, 11:25 PM
stephen cooper said...: so actually he is mediocre because he does not understand the context

he doesn't know the territory; 5/8/19, 11:25 PM
narciso said...: Hes pretending that they are playing fair, when these same people 10-15 years tried to get him disbarred and fired.; 5/8/19, 11:29 PM
stephen cooper said...: after Congress subpoenas all the coup plotters then they can subpoena the victims of the coup plot

that is how good government works; 5/8/19, 11:30 PM
stephen cooper said...: that would be playing fair; 5/8/19, 11:31 PM
readering said...: Look whatayatalk, whatayatalk, whatayatalk, whatayatalk, whatayatalk?; 5/8/19, 11:31 PM
narciso said...: Diana west's insight was not new:

https://theatheistconservative.com/tag/joseph-burrow/

He just went a step or two ahead:; 5/8/19, 11:33 PM
narciso said...: She just to Edward r murrow and lawrencw duggan (he was the spy in the state department who committee suicide in 1948); 5/8/19, 11:37 PM
readering said...: Bob Woodward being interviewed:

He'then stressed the real crisis is what he called a “governing crisis” due to Trump’s poor leadership.

“All these balls in the air . . . . And they are being juggled by perhaps the most unsteady hands we’ve had in the American presidency, ever.”

'He then said given what is happening in North Korea, the trade war with China and other issues making the news, “This is a dire situation.”'; 5/8/19, 11:45 PM
narciso said...: Trump is the only govt at least since the 50s that has confronted the kin dynast and one could say the same for China since the 70s; 5/8/19, 11:48 PM
narciso said...: Never get a clue:

https://mobile.twitter.com/alimhaider/status/1126314207757131778; 5/8/19, 11:53 PM
Crazy World said...: Very nice Stephen 11:12; 5/9/19, 1:50 AM
tomaig said...: Professor, have you ever tried the Sunday Washington Post crosswords? The puzzles themselves aren't all that difficult, but figuring out the theme can be very challenging.; 5/9/19, 5:34 AM
Jaq said...: Bob Woodward doesn’t like how Trump is governing, would rather it be Hillary, oh my!

I am sure her sure and steady hand could have sent our sons and daughters to a new war somewhere! Hear the silence of the war drums? That’s a good thing Bobby! Do you think Hillary would have managed that? Based on what? She is mad she lost so she ratcheted up the tensions with a nuclear superpower in the all time snit of a woman scorned.

Another policy that Trump supports and Hillary opposes, which also hurts Russia bigly, BTW, is sourcing our energy from peace loving North America. Hillary never would have stuck a knife in Putin’s economy by approving Keystone, but it goes beyond cheap oil, it frees us from the politics of the Middle East. We don’t face economic armageddon anymore if some of that oil changes hands, which forced us to be involved in those wars.

We provided an alternative to Putin for natural gas in Europe. Hillary would have shut down fracking.

How you guys lose sight of the big things and focus on tweets, I don’t know.; 5/9/19, 5:44 AM
Jaq said...: “He’s treating Congress like they’re the Chinese or a local labor union working on a Trump building,” he said.

So the alternative was Hillary, who destroyed tens of thousands of emails under congressional subpoena, or was there another choice with a realistic chance to win that I never heard about.

And BTW, readering, you should learn to tell the difference between rhetoric and logic. Rhetoric is words that sound like logic, but aren’t. You just keep quoting inflammatory rhetoric, and never the logical basis that purportedly supports it. That’s why you mostly provide comic relief around here.

Did you go to college? Did you ever turn in a paper? If you turned in a paper, did you ever make an assertion in the paper, and then back it up with evidence? BTW, ‘evidence’ doesn’t mean that some famous person agrees with you so cut and paste of their unsupported opinion has some kind of weight.

All you really accomplish here is to increase the certainty of most of us here that you guys have nothing but a visceral dislike of Trump and anger that you lost an election.; 5/9/19, 5:55 AM
h said...: I sometimes have the urge to post some fantastically over-the-top comment for comic relief, but inevitably my efforts are bested by reality. It turns out that some experts in the Boston GLobe discovered in the Mueller report definitive evidence that Trump should be removed from office -- not for any criminal behavior but because he is mentally ill.; 5/9/19, 5:59 AM
Nichevo said...: stephen cooper drones on and on...

And in 2019 this guy, who in 1881 could have found 8 men and 8 women who would have looked on him with wonder as the namesake of one of their great-grandchildren, seemed to be 'very happy' to get a phone call from me .... and he felt alone in the world before I called him, on a whim .....

He was 'happy' that I called, anyway, maybe not 'very happy', i tend to exaggerate sometimes. People like to be remembered and cared about by other people, and that is important to them.
Not a sermon just a thought

Sounds bad. Maybe he talks too much. Like you talk too much. Just a thought.; 5/9/19, 6:45 AM
Fernandinande said...: and he felt alone in the world before I called him, on a whim .....

You should post his phone number, maybe God will see it and give him a call.

One of our dogs just figured out how to open the back screen door to get in, by banging it with his head, which bounces it open enough for him to get his nose in there. AFAIK, he's never touched the door before, no scratching to get in, etc.

The same dog also makes and uses a tool - he'll chew off a piece of stick about 1/4" diam and 1" long, then brush his belly hair by repeatedly biting the hair with the stick sideways in his mouth and pulling back.

I don't know how I'd brush my belly hair if I didn't have hands, it must be frustrating.; 5/9/19, 6:48 AM
Nichevo said...: “He’s treating Congress like they’re the Chinese or a local labor union working on a Trump building,” he said.

In other words: correctly, widely.

Blogger readering said...
Look whatayatalk, whatayatalk, whatayatalk, whatayatalk, whatayatalk?

Literally your best comment ever on this blog. You will never excel it, so best you retire now.; 5/9/19, 6:49 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: My kid just finished five years in Boulder for their PhD. They loved living there, with the views of the Flatirons close in, and Rocky Mtn Nat Park occasionally in the distance. Riding their bike to school in the snow. Etc. Beautiful. But not reality. Hasn’t been for at least a half a century, from when the place to score any drug you might want was The Hill, just west of campus. I can still remember drinking (3,2) beer at Tulagis from back then. What a dive. So, the kid now has an adult job, and moved away to a more adult location to live (their office is close enough that they can still see the Flatirons).; 5/9/19, 11:30 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: Let me add that the foothills around Boulder have always had a bitter sweat memory. My youngest brother died there in a climbing accident. He was a senior at Dartmouth, deans list the whole time there, had just come back from a graduate school recruiting trip to Stanford and Berkeley, was rock climbing with a fiend, and missed somehow. He had never failed at anything before in his lifetime. Not a good place to start. Free climbing was big at the time, or he fell on the first pitch. We never wanted to find out.; 5/9/19, 11:36 AM