October 6, 2019

"But that didn’t stop the New York Times, reprising their gambit with Brett Kavanaugh, from shouting that a second anonymous 'whistleblower' had been found who was just about to come forward and spew more malign anti-Trump gossip into the cloaca maxima of the effort to rid the world of Donald Trump."

There's the sentence of the day. Diagram that!

It's from Roger Kimball's "Anti-Trump Fraternity and NeverTrump Sorority Collude in Impeachment Scam/Donald Trump asked President Zelensky to help with the Justice Department’s investigation of efforts to subvert the 2016 election. Donald Trump is the president of the United States. It is part of his responsibility to see that our elections are open and fair. Bottom line: not much to work with there for the anti-Trump fraternity."

I had to look up "cloaca maxima." Wikipedia:
The Cloaca Maxima (Latin: Cloaca Maxima, lit. Greatest Sewer, i.e. Main) has constituted one of the world's earliest sewage systems. Constructed in Ancient Rome in order to drain local marshes and remove the waste of one of world's most populous cities, it carried effluent to the River Tiber, which ran beside the city.

128 comments:

rehajm said...

Latin: Cloaca Maxima, lit. Greatest Sewer, i.e. Main

Declared so by the greatest Roman engineer, Trumpicus.

Temujin said...

Well...that kinda lays it out for everyone, doesn't it?

I've read this same info from a few other sources, in different amount of detail. And it does make you wonder just how stupid the NY Times, WaPo, and the entirety of the media complex, DNC and all of it's players, think we are?

The answer is that at least half of the US population, and much of Europe is just that stupid. But the rest of us have too many sources of information these days. And while a lie can travel the world before the truth gets out of bed, the truth does, eventually get out of bed.

David Begley said...

The term “whistleblower” is a dramatic device. A virtuous person who has such great - and true! - info that he must be protected by the government. CBF and her beach friends (including the founder of LinkedIn) probably upset they didn’t think of that.

Tacitus said...

The Cloaca Maxima is actually still extant, and although it has been supplanted by a modern drainage system it still functions. It empties into the Tiber river just downstream of Tiber Island.

Talk about building something to last!

TW

rehajm said...

...there has been an effort to get rid of Donald Trump going back many years. And the first efforts failed, whether it was going after the Electoral College or the Russia hoax, which went on for a very long period of time, and then it went into an attempt to get him out by claiming that by being upset at falsely being accused of being a traitor, that he was obstructing justice.

And it is in the midst of this and seeing how the Kavanaugh fiasco played out and whatnot that people just aren't willing to believe what they are told is some huge problem, particularly when it's running in the exact same style as these other things were run. And so I think the problem for Democrats is that people aren't really buying what they are selling about it being a problem. They know enough about what happened in 2016, that our intelligence agencies were working with foreign governments to meddle in our own election. And the idea that you can't investigate that without then getting in trouble again, I don't think sells with a lot of people.


-Mollie Hemmingway

Hagar said...

I used an old sketch of the Cloaca Maxima outfall for my business card.

rhhardin said...

It's not a remarkable sentence, just subordinations. Any number of words can go into it without making it actually complicated.

Ledes tend to do that, as a journalistic device to pack stuff into the first sentence.

rhhardin said...

Cloacam maximam. Takes the accusative.

Some Seppo said...

Feinstein was and Schiff is engaging in a conspiracy to defraud the United States. Where are the Mueller-style indictments?

jaydub said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
David Begley said...

I learn something new at least once at month at the Althouse blog.

Bob Boyd said...

Beating Hillary amounts to obstruction of justice because Hillary believes that in a just world she would be President.

rehajm said...

Treaty Between the United States of America and Ukraine on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters with Annex, signed at Kiev on July 22, 1998, and with an Exchange of Notes signed on September 30, 1999, which provides for its provisional application.

The contracting states shall provide mutual assistance in accordance with the provisions of this Treaty, in connection with the investigation, prosecution, and prevention of offenses, and in proceedings related to criminal matters.

IOW, more of an obligation than an abuse.

rcocean said...

We're up to about 100 fake "Trump in finished" Wolves after almost 3 years. I've stopped caring. BTW, Kimball is a good writer, but tends to be complex and sophisticated. No doubt the New Criterion influence.

tim in vermont said...

Roman concrete is incredible. I am not sure they understood the chemistry of it, but it sure has stood the test of time. Easy to make too, as you can imagine, it didn’t take a lot of tech.

Fernandinande said...

Whistleblower = hall monitor, now probably old and fat.

David Begley said...

Is this “whistleblower” Debbie Rameriez or Julie Sweatnick (sp)?

traditionalguy said...

A perfect sentence. Maybe a little John Stuart Millish. Those guys learned to think in Latin .

David Begley said...

This “news” also timed for the Sunday shows. The walls are closing in!!

traditionalguy said...

As the war on the World Government Cabal turns. Last week the Vatican Bank was raided and the USMC was authorized by their Commander to assist civilian authorities inside the USA keep order. And Giuliani says the President is getting prepared to sue the Dems in Congress personally.

Apparently public opinion has turned in Trump's favor or those acts would not be happening.

David Begley said...

Two people must make this all true! Smoke equals fire.

Or just piling on by a bunch of Deep State partisan Dems?

James Sarver said...

"...reprising their gambit with Brett Kavanaugh..."

With the added feature of not having to present an actual person who can be researched and interrogated. Actual human liars testimony didn't work as well as they had hoped. All that can be dispensed with when you are able to hide behind legal and regulatory whistleblower protections, intel classification and attorney client privilege.

They can concoct an endless stream of IC whistleblowers who never have to be produced. It would be illegal to expose them (if they actually existed). No messy background checks or public performances. No trail left by leakers. All very tidy as long as the ICIG and House staffers don't let anything slip.

CapitalistRoader said...

I had to look up "cloaca maxima."

I have to look up word(s) nearly every time I read one of his columns. His best, IMHO:

The death of Socialism, The New Criterion, April 2002

tcrosse said...

My first encounter with cloaca was in high school biology lab, dissecting frogs. They have a part with that name which serves the same function.

Mike Sylwester said...

David Begley at 8:09 AM
This “news” also timed for the Sunday shows. The walls are closing in!!

Washington Post headline, two days ago
The walls are closing in around Trump’s staff

Charlie Eklund said...

Romanes eunt domus!

Brian said...

"Whistleblower" is additionally a status recognized by federal law. And in some cases it's necessary, in part because a small but persistent fraction of Trump's supporters are the mirror image of Antifa: Defective freaks who will respond Trump's barely veiled calls for violence against his perceived enemies.

The Godfather said...

I doubt that @Althouse had to look up cloaca maxima to know what it was. She just used wikipedia to provide more detail.

wildswan said...

I've read this is the Dem plan. (Conservative Treehouse). Pelosi calls for "impeachment inquiry" - without a House vote. Committees decide on what witnesses and what documents to send for - without Republican input. Committee sends letters it calls subpoenas requesting info. They are not court orders but some other kind of subpoena. Letter says that non-response is obstruction. Republicans in House and White House object to this procedure. Obstruction. Evident. Bring an article of impeachment that says this happened. Dems vote "yes" on this procedural crime knowing the Senate will say "no" but thus the President is quickly impeached. This is a misuse of the American House of Representatives and the Constitution sponsored by the hard left which just wants disruption of our government.

Those sent for should just send a kangaroo with ham sandwich up to the committees and go about the nation's business. It won't change anything.

Narayanan said...

I'm surprised my suggestion
* dogwhistleblower * hasn't caught on .

Assistance needed - work on it to add to our lexicon.

Michael K said...

I am astonished that Ann had not heard of the Cloaca Maxima.

Roman concrete is incredible. I am not sure they understood the chemistry of it,

The concrete in the Suez canal was made using the ash deposited on the island of Thera by the volcano that destroyed the city. That island, what is left of it , is Santorini. About 50 feet of the ash was excavated for the building of the canal. This exposed the ancient city of Akrotiri. The harbor of Santorini is the caldera of the volcano.

Maybe the Romans used similar material

Narayanan said...

rehajm points out ..?.

The contracting states shall provide mutual assistance in accordance with the provisions of this Treaty, in connection with the investigation, prosecution, and prevention of offenses, and in proceedings related to criminal matters.
_____
Can Biden be charged for Obstruction of Justice / Violation of Treaty ?

Narayanan said...

rhhardin said...
Cloacam maximam. Takes the accusative.
______
Don't know Latin.

Dative to me, in English!?

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The media template.

Hillary lost because the Russians.

Hillary's private server and deleted e-mails = nothing.

Biden Family acting like Clinton family in regard to international money grubbing = Not guilty!

Looking into or actually caring about any foreign election meddling = Not importatn unless we can frame Trump. Media shall Ignore all of Hillary's collusions with Russians, Ukrainians, and the British.

Hagar said...

The Cloaca Maxima was constructed with stone and vitrified clay brick masonry. Vitrified clay pipe was used for sanitary sewer connections to buildings.

Roman concrete dome construction or the Pantheon, etc., using pozzolan, volcanic ash with cementitious properties, is a whole different subject, and there is nothing simple about it.

Ray - SoCal said...

I hope Trump sues.

My only regret would be not buying pop corn futures.

David Begley said...

Hell, I’m a whistleblower. Joe Biden’s son got money from the ChiComs and then Joe sold out the American people on trade. Hot news!

Ray - SoCal said...

Trump, from my non msm reading sources, seems to be winning the impeachment perception wars.

It’s been a very scorched earth campaign by both the Democrats and Trump.

You can get much worse to a US President than threats of arrest, impeachment, and even treason, not to mention execution. and Trump has had all that.

I’m surprised at his response to Romney, since Trump does need his vote in the senate.

Probably to keep other GOP senators fearing Trump more, so they keep their mouths shut on anti Trump stuff. Trump did unseat sitting Democratic Senators in the mid terms, I would have thought that would have sent a message.

What a contrast on fighting back, it’s at least as hard as Clinton was fighting his impeachment, minus the character assassination the Democrats do so well.

David Begley said...

Chuck Todd arguing - and screaming! - with a US Senator now because he doesn’t like what he is saying.

Ken B said...

Red headline on Drudge.
The article is full of “might” and “could”. It is not full of specific acts with specific evidence. It isn’t news. Someone sometime might have seen something and if they did, hoo-boy!, it might be big.

David Begley said...

Since I’ve studied screenwriting and have written two scripts, the staged drama of this is so clear to me.

Big Mike said...

Roman concrete is incredible.

@Skylark, I read somewhere that the key ingredient was the volcanic sand from around Pompeii.

Ken B said...

It's really not that elaborate or complicated a sentence, as others here have noted. Certainly not if you recognize the reference. But I think simply sewer is better. A lot of people won’t get the reference, and it doesn’t add anything.

Tommy Duncan said...

Former CIA official: ‘How could this be an intelligence matter?’
NY POST / By Fred Fleitz / September 26, 2019

Fred Fleitz, president of the Center for Security Policy, served in 2018 as deputy assistant to the president and to the chief of staff of the National Security Council. He previously held national-security jobs with the CIA, the DIA, the Department of State, and the House Intelligence Committee staff. He remarks on the whistleblower complaint.

"I am troubled by the complaint and wonder how an intelligence officer could file it over something a president said to a foreign leader. How could this be an intelligence matter? It appears likely to me that this so-called whistleblower was pursuing a political agenda."

" I am very familiar with transcripts of presidential phone calls since I edited and processed dozens of them when I worked for the NSC. I also know a lot about intelligence whistleblowers from my time with the CIA. My suspicions grew this morning when I saw the declassified whistleblowing complaint. It appears to be written by a law professor and includes legal references and detailed footnotes. It also has an unusual legalistic reference on how this complaint should be classified."

" From my experience, such an extremely polished whistleblowing complaint is unheard of. This document looks as if this leaker had outside help, possibly from congressional members or staff. Moreover, it looks like more than a coincidence that this complaint surfaced and was directed to the House Intelligence Committee just after Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), an outspoken opponent of President Trump, expressed numerous complaints in August 2019 accusing President Trump of abusing aid to Ukraine to hurt Joe Biden. This includes an August 28 tweet that closely resembled the whistleblowing complaint."

" House Republicans need to ask the whistleblower under oath whether he spoke to the press or Congress about his complaint."

" Also very concerning to me is how the complaint indicates intelligence officers and possibly other federal employees are violating the rules governing presidential phone calls with foreign leaders."

"The content and transcripts of these calls are highly restricted. The whistleblower makes clear in his complaint that he did not listen to a call in question, nor did he read the transcript — he was told about the call by others. If true, intelligence officers have grossly violated the rules as well as the trust placed on them to protect this sensitive information."

" I refuse to believe that the leaking, timing and presentation of this complaint is coincidence. I don’t think the American people will buy this either. I’m more worried, however, that this latest instance of blatant politicization of intelligence by Trump haters will do long term damage to the relationship between the intelligence community and US presidents for many years to come."

SOURCE https://nypost.com/2019/09/26/former-cia-official-on-whistleblower-how-could-this-be-an-intelligence-matter/

David Begley said...

Sen Chris Murphy: Patriots will step-up and remove Trump!

daskol said...

It’s helpful to have a dictionary handy for Kimball columns, as he writes like a politically infuriated thesaurus. New Criterion and Claremont Review together comprise a uniquely non-trashy compendium of non-leftist musings—middlebrow, or depending on your brow height, highbrow journals.

David Begley said...

Anything contra to the Dem media narrative is a conspiracy theory per President Chuck Todd.

Ken B said...

There is a goodish book on Roman building. Roman Builders by Rabun Taylor. Too much bafflegab about “verticality” and so on, but a lot of interesting detail.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Every time the ABC clintonopolis press say "Whistle-blower" - I think of the young blond male Nazi in The Sound of Music.

daskol said...

There’s the trashy NYPost slapping us about the head with dirty, filthy facts. What a sewer. Mike Walker, who had a long career in tabloid journalism that culminated with the editorship of The National Enquirer, wrote a book/pamphlet on ethical journalism in the wake of the Dan Rather “fake but true” Bush memo fiasco. A takeaway: following the newsroom policies in effect at his rag, he’d never have published such calumny. His book is a short and effective tweaking of his prestige press betters. Alas Mike Walker has passed, but his farts can still be heard as sound effects on the Howard Stern show, where for years he ran a weekly segment called the gossip game.

Ken B said...

Narayanan
In English the accusative is hard to notice because it almost always looks like the nominative. Mostly complements of a verb. I am he. He there is accusative, and I is nominative (subject). Dative is related more to prepositions. I am for him. I stand by him. Him is dative.
Genitive example: Hardin's comment is amusing. Hardin's is genitive.

Wince said...

"...a second anonymous 'whistleblower' had been found who was just about to come forward and spew more malign anti-Trump gossip into the cloaca maxima of the effort to rid the world of Donald Trump."

The Cloaca Maxima has constituted one of the world's earliest sewage systems. Constructed in Ancient Rome in order to drain local marshes and remove the waste of one of world's most populous cities...

Hmm. Isn't the better metaphor to appropriate "Cloaca Maxima" for Trump, i.e., the means by which to "drain the swamp"?

Bay Area Guy said...

Fred Fleitz is a national treasure. We need more of guys like him, and less like that scumbag Brennan.

Matt Sablan said...

I routinely DO diagram sentences at work to help show people what I mean when I say they've separated their subjects and verbs.

I think with this sentence, I think I'd just cry.

bagoh20 said...

I can't believe they are running this same soap opera again, and people are falling for it all over again. Remember the Kavanaugh drama. First one victim, then another, and another until there were over 1600 women raped by the most prolific rapist in history who somehow hid it all from everyone while becoming a widely respected jurist.

The Democrat/media complex keeps playing people for fools and making money off them like a crack dealer. Their victims keep sucking it up like addicts and begging for more as they get dumber with every fix.

chickelit said...

I’m pretty much over Drudge and his schoolgirl hysterics. Anybody else? He’s not just neutral or pro-Trump anymore — he’s taken sides against. I think someone got to him.

Yancey Ward said...

A bit long, as is often the case with Kimball, that sentence, at the very least, can't easily be broken down into separate sentences like the components of an entertainment center bought at an Ikea on a sunny October day that is the last, recognizably one of a long, hot, dry late Summer- a Summer that reached its climax in the latest example of "the walls are closing in" and "You don't know what Adam Schithead knows about Trump's evil plans to declare himself dictator-for-life"- it is enough make you want to the read the NYTimes instead.

LA_Bob said...

Narayanan said, "I'm surprised my suggestion
* dogwhistleblower * hasn't caught on ."


I'm surprised Trump hasn't referred to the "whistleblowhard".

Narayanan said...

I find amusing and disheartening that *officials* use the phrase -under oath- to signify their serious concerns.

Keeping things dialed up to eleventy..
______
Why not just talk discuss and hash out details.

Remember the so called adults and kid with dreadlocks.

Narr said...

I'm surprised that you, a law prof, didn't know Cloaca Maxima!

Narr
Celebrated poopers, the Romans

Iman said...

Since the Drudge Report initially gained prominence via the run up to the Clinton Impeachment, perhaps it will lose it via this contemptible fustercluck perpetrated by the Democrats.

Gk1 said...

It's kind of frightening how liberals are reacting to how non believers see the whole scam. Just watch their reaction when you concede "O.k so while we are investigating Trump why can't we investigate influence peddling by the Bidens?" and then watch them shriek like scalded monkeys. For liberals It wasn't supposed to be this way, they should have been cruising to a bi-partisan impeachment vote by now. Even the most ardent lefties know by now they will never gain a plurality for impeachment and will always be seen as illegitimate.

gilbar said...

i was just going through my record collection (well, my mp3 collection), and i ran into a song,
by Burns and Poe, from 8 eight years ago; that Really seems to Sum It ALL Up
The song was Titled I Need a Job

Here's some of the Lyrics, for those those that don't (or Won't) remember
I need a job, not a government plan
All I wanna do is work with my two hands
Gonna fire up the truck, head up to dc
Tell them S. O. B's I need a J-O-B

Well, I make my livin' by the sweat of my brow
Give me some work, and I'll work it out
All I need is a chance, and you will see
What I want is a J-O-B

You were so concerned about my situation
That you packed up and went on vacation
When you were lyin' in the sand, did you think about me
Busted and broke without a J-O-B

That's right

I got a simple solution
To clear up this confusion
Fire 'em all, then they'll be
Screamin' like you and me


Remember? Back in 2011? Unemployment was "said" to be over 9%
[not counting 10 million+ that gave up hope, and stopped looking]
Now, unemployment is lower than it's been in more than FIFTY years
If you listen to this song, with 20-20 hindsight; it's a freaking TRUMP Commercial

daskol said...

Drudge is just building a narrative arc. Trump needs to be in jeopardy for the next act to have any punch.

Yancey Ward said...

Iman at 10:30 AM,

Yes, that would be poetic symmetry.

Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCD said...

PREDICTION: This second “whistleblower” will be...

- A woman

- Someone who has a tic or some strange speaking device making her worthy of pity (playing the victim a la CBF)

- A target of Trump’s violent maniac deplorables, requiring federal personal protection after receiving “death threats”

- A career establishment civil servant (read Deep State) who just wants to perform “public service”

- Connected through direct, close personal relationships with FBI/DOJ personnel

- Represented by a Lawfare Alliance attorney

- Someone the Big Enemedia tells us “must be believed”

Marc in Eugene said...

I imagine that anyone who took Latin classes in school knows (snicker, snicker, childish humor) cloaca maxima.

Gk1 said...

Chiklit, same. Drudge has picked the never trumper side for whatever reason. Although I do find intelligence value in assessing the latest garbage and talking points being spewed and it's still a good aggregator of agitprop and liberal hysterics.

Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCD said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bay Area Guy said...

"I'm surprised Trump hasn't referred to the "whistleblowhard".

Kammy Harris was the original "Willieblower"

Dave Begley said...

Ignatius:

You got it down perfectly.

Marc in Eugene said...

A cloaca is a privy, according to the OED, although obsolete in use (the last cite being to 1840). As sewer or drain, in that sense it's still in use although chiefly in Roman contexts ("The TV crew have finally persuaded me to overcome my fear and to penetrate the cloaca", 2012).

Megthered said...


@RonColeman
Follow

If you've noticed that DRUDGE_REPORT isn't the same any more, you're not alone.

A friend writes:

"Ron, what is going on with DRUDGE and his recently ending his decade long independent advertising agency for his website?
He recently signed on with a Google affiliated company, which purchased Matt Drudge's father's website, RefDesk, as part of the deal.

"Frankly, I'm concerned this is the sole reason Drudge went mainstream and to the left: to satisfy his new advertising agency.
The agency is called Granite Cubed. The timing of when all this went down is not a coincidence.

"I've been a reader of the site daily for 15 years. His entire message, his 'tone and timbre' shifted - full-on establishment approved at the same time the deal was made.


https://preview.tinyurl.com/y3o2fdby

Unknown said...

Ken B >> I am he. He there is accusative, and I is nominative (subject).

No, "he" there is a predicate nominative.

Ken B >> I stand by him. Him is dative.

Not exactly. Although for many years English grammar was taught using the categories of Latin grammar (which was a lot better than the current practice of not teaching grammar at all), that approach sometimes required Procrustean interpretations. English, a less inflected language, doesn't really have a dative case. It has (for most pronouns) a Subject case and an Object case. Most of the constructions which Latin accomplishes by means of a case are done in English with a preposition followed by the Object case. In Latin "by him" and "to him" would use different cases, but there's no point trying to distinguish them in English.

Marc in Eugene said...

Cloacam maximam. Takes the accusative.

When do we decline quoted Latin nouns etc according to Latin rules in English contexts? Ad Kalendas graecas is my guess but I imagine you have something up your sleeve. I change alii to alia or aliae when appropriate if I'm spelling out et al. but that's not the same thing.

cubanbob said...

So what if the Democrats produce an army of whistleblowers? It doesn't change the fact that Biden is a crook and engaged in criminal conduct while Vice President with the then president's approval.

walter said...

Cloaca Maxima had two decent albums. The turd one was absolute shit.

Le Stain du Poop said...

Apparently someone never read Durant growing up. I've known about The Supreme Sewer since I was 12 years old.

Mary Beth said...

If true, intelligence officers have grossly violated the rules as well as the trust placed on them to protect this sensitive information

This really bothers me. The first whistleblower said there were multiple sources. That means (if true) two or more of the people listening in talked about it. The intelligence people listening in should be relieved of this duty and should be investigated. Since they are not the actual whistleblower, I would assume that the whistleblower law doesn't protect them.

If the intelligence people who listen in to calls spend much time together, chatting before calls start, for example, I bet the ones that didn't talk have a good idea who did. Assuming any of them actually did talk and it wasn't just something manufactured by Schiff.

itzik basman said...

Slightly rewritten, much improved:

But that didn’t stop the New York Times from reprising its gambit with Brett Kavanaugh. It shouted that a second anonymous ‘whistleblower” had been found. The whistleblower was about to come forward to spit more malign anti Trump gossip into the cloaca maxima of the effort to rid the world of Donald Trump.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

tcrosse said...

My first encounter with cloaca was in high school biology lab, dissecting frogs. They have a part with that name which serves the same function.

In a biological sense a cloaca is a multi-purpose organ that acts as an anus as well as a genital. Excreted waste, ova, and sperm all exit the body through this organ, hence the usage of the Latin word for sewer. (Done during the earliest days of taxonomy, when people were a bit more genteel about such matters.)

The biological definition was what first popped into my head when I saw the word in the quote and I judge it's usage to be highly apt when referencing the New York Times.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

tcrosse said...

My first encounter with cloaca was in high school biology lab, dissecting frogs. They have a part with that name which serves the same function.

In a biological sense a cloaca is a multi-purpose organ that acts as an anus as well as a genital. Excreted waste, ova, and sperm all exit the body through this organ, hence the usage of the Latin word for sewer. (Done during the earliest days of taxonomy, when people were a bit more genteel about such matters.)

The biological definition was what first popped into my head when I saw the word in the quote and I judge it's usage to be highly apt when referencing the New York Times.

effinayright said...


- A target of Trump’s violent maniac deplorables, requiring federal personal protection after receiving “death threats”
***************

Funny, innit, how the purported victims of "death threats" very seldom publish the actual threat along with the email address, phone number or the like. Much more convenient to make unsupported claims. Also very telling that Facebook and Twitter won't help you, if you're a conservative.

Years ago, Michelle Malkin got a really vicious comment on her site from someone using the email domain of his employer, an LA law firm. She contacted the firm.

He was fired the next day.

Narayanan said...

wildswan said...
I've read this is the Dem plan. (Conservative Treehouse)
,,the hard left which just wants disruption of our government.,,
__________
It's more than that ...
Totally Shreds Constition

Narayanan said...

spew (accusative) more malign anti-Trump gossip into (dative) the cloaca maxima.
_______
Asking for help from grammar whistleblower!?
Don't impeach me.

Roughcoat said...

Roger Kimball is one of the good ones.

Bruce Hayden said...

“I am he. He there is accusative, and I is nominative (subject).”

At least from the point of view of Latin, “he” is a predicate nominative, not an accusative. That is because “be” verbs don’t take direct objects. “Am” here is not acting on “he”, but rather equivalencing “I” and “he”. In this case, you could as easily said “He is I”.

tim in vermont said...

"Two people must make this all true! Smoke equals fire. “

Even if it’s just the smoke coming out of their ears?

Churchy LaFemme: said...

The ancient Roman engineer Frontinus wrote a book (or books): Stratagems. Aqueducts of Rome.

It was an interesting read (I read the English translation, of course). As I recall as you would guess from the title he was more an aqueduct guy than a sewer guy. Lots of gripes about how people were always diverting his water for their own uses. (de Camp pointed out in The Ancient Engineers that the Romans never quite stumbled onto the concept of a public water utility that you could charge people for.)

Narayanan said...

For marketing purposes?! it's known that,,,

New York Times articles
have a tenth-grade reading level and romance novels have about a fifth-grade reading level.
______
So why don't conservative write to be read at deplorable level of education?

Hubris, disdain or ass sniffing?

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Spanish uses the word cloaca for sewer.

tim in vermont said...

I’m going to beat you like a drum!

Kyjo said...

I have to hand it to Kimball for describing the Times as “our fishwrap of record.”

eddie willers said...

Drudge has picked the never trumper side for whatever reason.

I'm guessing he has a new liberal boyfriend and is letting him run the page.

etbass said...

My big thing now with Drudge is how to get it off "My Favorites" list in Safari.

BJM said...

Chiklit...Drudge has forgotten that it was the right side of the blogosphere that brought him to the dance.

Quaestor said...

Charlie Eklund writes: Romanes eunt domus!

Romani ite domum, boy. Now write than 100 times before sunrise, or I'll cut your balls off. (Assuming Althouse does her homework in a timely manner, that is.)

narciso said...


http://meaninginhistory.blogspot.com/2019/10/impeachment-theater-what-its-about.html

narciso said...

not so much

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/10/those-explosive-ukraine-texts-make-zero-case-for-impeachment.php

narciso said...




good question,:

https://www.redstate.com/streiff/2019/10/03/people-like-lose/

John henry said...

Michael K,

Interesting that you mention Santorini. It is a plot point in "The Pilgrim" which I finished last night.

One of the best books of that genre that I have read since the early Tom Clancy novels before he went off the rails and started writing crap. Maybe THE best book in the genre that I have read. The Pilgrim makes Mr Clark look like a pussy.

It started pretty hot and I didn't think it could keep up the pace but it just kept getting better. Thank you for the recommendation, Narciso.

I started reading a bio of Lord Kelvin (He invented temperature) which is pretty good. What I am really waiting for is Narciso to make another reading recommendation. I think he is going to be my go-to guy for book suggestions from now on after Pilgrim.

I had somehow gotten the idea that Terry Hayes, the author, wrote the recent sequel to Road Warrior which meh. I found out that he actually wrote the second and third Mad Max movies. Brought him way up in my estimation.

John Henry

ccscientist said...

It seems that any investigation of democrats is "unnecessary", "treasonous", and "what difference, at this point, does it make?" Brennan even said on TV that investigating any real or imagined misdeeds by the CIA/FBI was dangerous--seriously, I saw it.

Nichevo said...

Tim Wolter said...
The Cloaca Maxima is actually still extant, and although it has been supplanted by a modern drainage system it still functions. It empties into the Tiber river just downstream of Tiber Island.

Talk about building something to last!

TW

Yeah, but they used up all the good cement.

narciso said...

In that genre, it really stuck out, and it really has a cinematic feel, to it, I don't think one could do it from start to finish, because the opening scene is too grisly, but it could work as a flashback scene,

narciso said...

and he started as a political correspondent for the Sydney heralds Washington bureau during Watergate, there's another I also found on the remaindered shelf, Anderson park's retribution, it's also set in Saudi arabia, in the uk and the us, the protagonist is marine special forces, now it is set in the recent past, but you will find resonances with events that would later transpire, there's a whole lot more truth in this thin volume, including events in bosnia, that shape the story,

narciso said...

correction, about the author,


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0786034211/ref=x_gr_w_bb_glide_sout?ie=UTF8&tag=x_gr_w_bb_glide_sout-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0786034211&SubscriptionId=1MGPYB6YW3HWK55XCGG2

narciso said...

so in the flurry of text messages between Volker taylor and sundland, where are the ones to the source, whom we believe to be Michael barry, he fits the description, which would be curious if he was, a decade ago, he was burned by the post, and two years ago by buzzfeed,

tim in vermont said...

"I'm guessing he has a new liberal boyfriend and is letting him run the page.”

That’s what I was thinking. Like Andrew Sullivan. Could be a CIA guy trained in this kind of stuff wouldn’t surprise me.

narciso said...

On second thought, I think only a miniseries, would do justice to all the events and locals, from Santorini, to ny, to the kingdom to Afghanistan, he researched obscure musical instruments, aspects about genetics and biology, computer technology, et al,

Michael K said...

the early Tom Clancy novels before he went off the rails and started writing crap.

That was probably when he died and the books were taken over by hacks. I think "Rainbow Six" was his last novel;

narciso said...

about what I thought had happened,


https://twitter.com/JohnWHuber/status/1180868133961289728

BUMBLE BEE said...

The most I remember from 2 years of latin were the asides from my instructor, an Augustinian Friar. aka Lord Jim.
1) Latin is a dead language, dead as one can be... first it killed the Romans, now its killing me
2) Equestrienne - def: A broad on a horse.

Roughcoat said...

Frontinus's book Strategms is also very informative on the subject of Roman Army TO&E and tactics.

tim in vermont said...

Now that Barr has talked to msfud, he has gone from nefarious Russian agent offering the Trump campaign dirt on Hillary to a hapless gadabout who was never a spy for anybody.

Mueller, of course, had no interest in him because he was being run by the very people who were running the Mueller persecution. This would be quite a story if the media could bring themselves to cover it. Imagine the ratings. With Hillary as the perfect Cruella De Ville type villain.

tim in vermont said...

One of the honest lefties asked why, if Putin wanted Trump to win the election, which would be against the economic interest of Russia, Keystone is getting built, for example, why would Putin’s agents be feeding dirt to Hillary on Trump?

tim in vermont said...

Trump orders a reduction in force, since it seems like workers their had a lot of time on their hands, and suddenly everybody wants to be a whistleblower and protect their jobs. Not to mention, if you illegally leaked info to the original “WB” and he gives you up, you need protection. But who knew gossiping with colleagues about classified info counted as being a whistleblower.

Narayanan said...

Novel by Gordon Liddy.
Fast pace, good plot.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/490240.The_Monkey_Handlers

cubanbob said...

Skylark said...
Now that Barr has talked to msfud, he has gone from nefarious Russian agent offering the Trump campaign dirt on Hillary to a hapless gadabout who was never a spy for anybody."

What Barr needs to do is Have A Come To Jesus meeting with Rod Rosenstein, Mueller and all of the Mueller prosecutors, particularly Andre Weisman.

Sam L. said...

I'm just going to cut it out and burn it.

n.n said...

who knew gossiping with colleagues about classified info counted as being a whistleblower

Democrats supported Clinton the "whistleblower" and Clinton the misogynist, Obama the diversitist and politically congruent ("="). They're notoriously Pro-Choice.

Bruce Hayden said...

“What Barr needs to do is Have A Come To Jesus meeting with Rod Rosenstein, Mueller and all of the Mueller prosecutors, particularly Andre Weisman.”

Except by name and appearance, both Rosenstein and Weissman appear to be ethnically Jewish. Maybe for them, a Come To Moses meeting?

Anonymous said...


Blogger walter said...
Cloaca Maxima had two decent albums. The turd one was absolute shit.

I saw them open for Gwar back in 88.

John henry said...

Blogger Michael K said...

That was probably when he died and the books were taken over by hacks. I think "Rainbow Six" was his last novel;

Either that or The Bear and the Dragon. I think Clancy did write red Rabbit and another horrible novel that ended almost mid sentence.

Then the whole series of Op Center dreadfuls.

John Henry

Francisco D said...

I am surprised to see comments. I thought the site was down.

Kevin said...

The Dems still haven’t made the sale?

But wait, there’s more!

Two for the price of one!

Just pay a separate shipping and handling fee.

Kevin said...

Trump orders a reduction in force, since it seems like workers their had a lot of time on their hands, and suddenly everybody wants to be a whistleblower and protect their jobs.

Soon anyone losing a government job will be “obstruction of justice” and an impeachable offense.

Andrew Johnson writ large.

Michael K said...

Either that or The Bear and the Dragon. I think Clancy did write red Rabbit and another horrible novel that ended almost mid sentence.

Good points.I had forgotten those. He was going through a divorce with his wife who was the model for Jack Ryan's wife/ophthalmologist. Maybe his diabetes was getting worse. His death was never well explained.

narciso said...

teeth of the tiger, which was his offering re 9/11, others completed the series,