Good Enough For Susan Collins

Or, if not, they'll decide on another story. It is funny how out in the open it is..."well, how about this idea? No, maybe this one."

ISTANBUL — The rulers of Saudi Arabia are considering blaming a top intelligence official close to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, three people with knowledge of the Saudi plans said Thursday.

The plan to assign blame to Maj. Gen. Ahmed al-Assiri, a high-ranking adviser to the crown prince, would be an extraordinary recognition of the magnitude of international backlash to hit the kingdom since the disappearance of Mr. Khashoggi, a prominent Saudi dissident. A resident of Virginia and contributor to The Washington Post, Mr. Khashoggi was last seen entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.

"The plan to assign blame."

Morning Freshness

Overnight Thread

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They Just Lie

Democrats are going to kill Medicare and Republicans love the pre-existing conditions protections in ACA.

Every campaign (yes even Demorats) has some spin and hyperbole and shading of the truth, but these are just straight up lies about a rather important bit of policy. And you can't hide this stuff anymore like you used to. You can't stick it in sneaky mailers or run ads you think the press might not notice because anything can show up on the internet. But they just do it anyway. It's really quite astounding.

Afternoon Thread

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But President Democrat Wore A Tan Suit

Assuming we ever manage that again, we're gonna go from "lol Trump raped a teenager on the White House lawn nothing matters" to "TAN SUITS THREATEN THE PURITY OF THE OFFICE" in about 5 seconds.

Do People Know What "Pre-Existing Conditions" Are?

I woke up too early and turned on local news so I saw some political ads. I am sure some people do, but I also think this is a bit wonk talk that normies don't understand. Correct me?

Morning Bridge Post

Happy Hour Thread

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Extend

The end game is either "no deal" or just keep extending until everyone forgets about the whole thing. I'm not sure which is more likely.

The European parliament president Antonio Tajani also confirmed that an extension to the Brexit transition period was discussed by EU leaders as part of efforts to resolve the Irish border backstop disagreement.

I Would Like To Announce That This Blog Is Pivoting To Video

It was such a weird trend. Like everybody who had ever tried to use the internet knew it was dumb. Certain kinds of videos are popular and go "viral" or whatever (cats and hippos being friends, that kind of thing) but basically people use the internet at work and on their phones and neither is particularly good for video. Also trying to force me to watch their damn videos ruined a bunch of sites (competing with the already intrusive ads for screen space, following me around as I try to scroll away from it). Low production quality "news" videos aren't interesting and they are intrusive and they take time, especially when wrapped in ads that are longer than the videos themselves.

Well Then

Not even seeing the New York Times defense force defending this one.

Gavin McInnes has set himself apart from the current crop of professionally outraged right-wing pundits, not only for being able to spout aggressive rhetoric, but also for being willing to get physical at times. https://t.co/VUKGukCKGc

— NYT Metro (@NYTMetro) October 17, 2018

Dumb Politics Elsewhere

I continue to be fascinated by people in the UK who demand "extreme Brexit" and then say, effectively, "what do you mean leaving the customs union and ending freedom of movement means leaving the customs union and ending freedom of movement?"

Like the realization that they won't just be able to go work in France anymore is making them mad.

How are people so dumb.

Morning Thread

If I Did It

I'm pretty fascinated by the Saudi Arabia issue. Could one bad act reshape official Washington? Saudi money runs that town.

Afternoon Thread

I got nothin'.

Marks

It's always good news for Republicans.

This is why Republicans who were excited about the post-Kav bump were still tempered in their assessments: You just never know when Trump is going to pivot to, say, calling the porn star he once had an extra-marital affair with “Horseface”https://t.co/GGVmCCtneQ

— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) October 16, 2018

I Was Dumb

I used to naively think that at least they couldn't cut Social Security. And, hey, we did win the privatization war in 2005. Yay blogs! We helped do that (really we did). I thought, well, hey, old people vote, so don't fuck with them. But they'll go after it by cutting it for people under 55 or whatever. Boomers get very mad when you blame them, but really, Boomers, you're gonna do this. #notallboomers

Tech Bros

A bunch of people sent me this, because of course.

One day in 2011, a Google executive named Isaac Taylor learned that, while he was on paternity leave, Levandowski had modified the cars’ software so that he could take them on otherwise forbidden routes. A Google executive recalls witnessing Taylor and Levandowski shouting at each other. Levandowski told Taylor that the only way to show him why his approach was necessary was to take a ride together. The men, both still furious, jumped into a self-driving Prius and headed off.

The car went onto a freeway, where it travelled past an on-ramp. According to people with knowledge of events that day, the Prius accidentally boxed in another vehicle, a Camry. A human driver could easily have handled the situation by slowing down and letting the Camry merge into traffic, but Google’s software wasn’t prepared for this scenario. The cars continued speeding down the freeway side by side. The Camry’s driver jerked his car onto the right shoulder. Then, apparently trying to avoid a guardrail, he veered to the left; the Camry pinwheeled across the freeway and into the median. Levandowski, who was acting as the safety driver, swerved hard to avoid colliding with the Camry, causing Taylor to injure his spine so severely that he eventually required multiple surgeries.

The Prius regained control and turned a corner on the freeway, leaving the Camry behind. Levandowski and Taylor didn’t know how badly damaged the Camry was. They didn’t go back to check on the other driver or to see if anyone else had been hurt. Neither they nor other Google executives made inquiries with the authorities. The police were not informed that a self-driving algorithm had contributed to the accident.

Morning Thread

Late Night Thread

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Happy Hour Thread

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