Morning Thread

Good grief. Unplug for a few hours and all hell breaks loose.

Tuesday Massacre

I had to go out so I am still catching up, but this really is a thing of beauty.


Also, this:



also, too:

Cryin' Chuck Schumer stated recently, "I do not have confidence in him (James Comey) any longer." Then acts so indignant. #draintheswamp

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 10, 2017

A Comey Thread

Comey Fired

One problem with Democrats putting Republicans in charge of our military and law enforcement is that it's hard for them to fire them.

Not the only problem, obviously.

Happy Hour Thread

Rock on.

CBP

Just shut it all down.

The Department of Homeland Security is investigating allegations that U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency officers at Newark Airport have been subjected to sexually abusive hazing by veteran officers, including the duct-taping of victims to a "rape table."
"I’m afraid for my life, my safety," CBP officer Diana Cifuentes told the NBC 4 New York I-Team in an exclusive interview about the abuse she says she suffered at the hands of fellow officers. "This is terrorizing. How is it that officers believe they’re free to do whatever they want to do?"

Never Fear, Ricky Perry Is Here

Awesome.

The Department of Energy has declared an emergency at a nuclear-contaminated site in Washington state, after the collapse of a tunnel containing rail cars contaminated with nuclear waste.

Workers have been evacuated from the area or told to seek shelter; there have been no reports of injuries.

The Hanford Site, about 150 miles southeast of Seattle, is a former nuclear production complex and home to a long-running, challenging and sometimes troubled cleanup operation

Bothsidesism

I think that finally liberals are getting sick of it coming from the press, especially at outlets like the New York Times which just sold a lot of subscriptions based on an advertising campaign about fighting "alternative facts." Once upon a time people accepted the reality of bullshit anti-abortion screeds or deceptive climate change advertorials from Exxon in the opinion section, but this is a product that you are asking people to pay for and why should they expect a kick in the face with their Sunday paper? Outlets like the Times aren't required to be any specific way. They choose to be that way.

Transportainment

I'm not necessarily even anti-gondola-as-transportation, but this is just an amusement park ride.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Jon Stahl has invested four years and hundreds of thousands of dollars into the Cleveland Skylift, a lakefront "transport-ainment" project that aims to remake tourism in Cleveland.

The Skylift would give gondola rides along the coast of Lake Erie, with the bonus of "mixed reality" -- facts or videos that would pop up along the glass.

It sounds crazy, especially when you find out he'd need to construct six buildings on the lakefront as stops for his 30-50 gondola cars. But Stahl stands by the idea as a high-tech attraction that would catapult Cleveland in front of tourism competitors like Chicago and Austin.

People who know nothing about mass transit always applaud some sort of "different" mass transit because it's nicer, more individual (PRT!), or cool (ferries). God just go spend a few weeks getting around London on the tube and bus and then think about this. How about building something to make your city a nice place to live, instead of a nice place to visit?

Tripping Over The Finish Line

This is my concern about 2018, that Dems will just try to ride a perceived Trump backlash into office. "Vote for the Dems because they are not Trump." I hope I am wrong, and that the health care votes at least give them an opening they're willing to be aggressive about, but even then it isn't enough to say "Republicans did a bad thing." "Vote for us and we will do a good thing" is what's needed.

America's Worst Humans

James Comey.

Morning Thread

For anyone who missed it over the weekend, Tim Bosquet (owner, editor, and investigative reporter of the Halifax Examiner) won an award for the first three parts of his series, Dead Wrong: A botched police investigation and a probable wrongful conviction shed light on the murders of dozens of women in Nova Scotia. He's taken those three parts out from behind the pay wall.

If I’ve succeeded, the articles give some insight into a neglected and marginalized segment of our society, and raise important questions about access to justice and failed policing.

snip

I don’t know how else to say it: All this requires money. And right now would be a good time to subscribe to the Examiner, as we’ve spent a lot of money recently on ongoing investigations.

To keep the Examiner going, to sustain the variety of voices, to fund important work in the pipeline, to help us grow.

Go to the link. Read the series. Subscribe to keep this kind of reporting continuing.  

Does Whatever A Spider Can

Strange Days

Sometimes I just pause and think, "am I stoned?" And I don't ever indulge.

Happy Hour Thread

busy with stuff

Afternoon Thread

enjoy

If Only There Was Some Way To Attract People To A Career

I have a Ph.D in economics and I just can't think of one.

School district and bus company officials responsible for the bus problem say the mess that plagues Emma and a number of other children is not isolated, that other children across the city -- and the country -- are struggling because of a national shortage of qualified school bus drivers. One called it an “epidemic.”

Tribal

It's the distant past now, but back when Bush took the presidency, his people would openly boast to the press that their policy on everything was guided by "ABC" - anything but Clinton. If Clinton did it, it was Bad, so they would do Something Else. What was "funny" was not only did they think this was the way serious adults think about the world, but the press ate it up, too. I mean, of course! Ha ha.

I don't think self-identified liberals and professional democratic centrists are always good. Some have politics and policy preferences I disagree with, and some are just bad people, but I don't think most Democrats really think that way, and had Obama come into office bragging about his Anything But Bush policy, the press would have pilloried him, even though in 2009 everything had gone to shit and it would have been perfectly reasonable.

Parking People

It must be stressed that people can have a legitimate need for a handicapped parking placard even if their disabilities are not obvious, but that it seems like so many people abuse them system so casually (either by using placards despite not having a disability or just parking in the spots completely illegally) shows we are a nation of lazy assholes.

And, like countless California motorists with severe disabilities, particularly in congested Los Angeles, Kovic often has trouble finding a handicapped parking space. After he does, some thoughtless driver just might park illegally in the adjacent restricted space, despite the painted crosshatched lines, and block his reentry.

“I cannot tell you how many times we have seen people illegally parking in the ‘Van Handicapped’ space,” Kovic’s girlfriend, TerriAnn Ferren, emailed me. She wrote after reading my May 1 column reporting on State Auditor Elaine Howle’s investigation into disabled parking placard abuse.

Perfect

Probably should pair him with the liberal Pat Buchanan, Crossfire style.

George Will joins MSNBC https://t.co/AfZirXLG94 via @Hadas_Gold pic.twitter.com/GgPO2isM9q

— POLITICO (@politico) May 8, 2017