Yesterday was a trying day. My computer did not update properly and gave me intermittent problems all day. My Internet connection was flaky, because of the ice storm. The HSP with PP’s servers was acting up intermittently. Nameless taught me that 467 is too many slideshows for one article. 😉 I lost an article, and by that time I was completely exhausted. I’m trying to do better today.’
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:51 (average 5:51). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From The New Yorker: Calling his action “long overdue,” President Barack Obama on Friday signed an executive order requiring that the President of the United States be a federal taxpayer.
The order, which makes a non-taxpayer ineligible to serve as President, goes into effect immediately.
“Since the President has such a large say in how federal taxes are spent, it only makes sense that he or she contribute to those taxes, too,” he said, noting that everyone who has served as President has been a taxpayer.
The President urged people “not to read too much into the timing” of his executive order. “It just seemed like the right thing to do,” he said.
Dang, Andy! I wish he would!
From NY Times: Rex W. Tillerson, the president and chief executive of Exxon Mobil, has emerged as President-elect Donald J. Trump’s top choice to become secretary of state, according to a person with direct knowledge of the search process.
The news is the latest turn in what has become the most extended drama of Mr. Trump’s transition effort, with a rotating cast of seeming front-runners to become America’s top diplomat. Choosing Mr. Tillerson would add to a long list of wealthy businesspeople in high-ranking Trump administration posts.
As Exxon’s top official, Mr. Tillerson has extensive experience working with foreign leaders. Some of his foreign relationships, especially those with Russia, could come under particular scrutiny during a Senate confirmation hearing.
It better come under scrutiny!! Tillerson is Putin’s pick for State. Tillerson recently negotiated joint ventures with Russia’s state owned oil company to drill baby drill in both the Arctic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.
From Daily Kos: There has been continuing discussion in the Kos Community on the role of the FBI in tipping the election to Trump. www.dailykos.com/… . I had previously written that the FBI intervention, ( defined as Comey’s letters, FBI anti-Clinton leaks, and other anti-Clinton FBI actions) was decisive in the election. www.dailykos.com/… Decisive means the FBI intervention changed what looked in late October like a modest Clinton victory (according to CNN Exit Polls) and a Democratic Senate majority into a split decision for Trump and a Republican Senate majority. Obviously, there were many other reasons why Clinton was only slightly ahead at the end of October.
The belief that the FBI election intervention was decisive now seems like old news ( many have come to the same conclusion including Paul Krugman and Markos "kos" Moulitsas in his legendary post-election screed and others). My FBI analysis is different. I don’t believe Comey was the only problem. I believe what happened was a deep partisan intervention in the election by a significant portion of the Agency. Further, while Comey’s removal might be called for it would not necessarily prevent partisan FBI electioneering from happening again and would in the short term impede a more thorough investigation.
When Crawford Caligula was defeated in 2008, bringing the Fourth Reich to an end, I warned that Republican "moles" were "burrowing in" to key positions in government agencies. That is temporary political appointees were being moved to permanent "nonpartisan" career jobs, based on political reliability, not qualifications. This was particularly true in the DOJ, CIA and FBI. I warned about this at the time. Those articles were lost, when we moved the site to WordPress, but I repeated my warning December 2010 that we most expose and eradicate them. Is it time for an "I told you so"?
Cartoon:
17 Responses to “Open Thread – 12/10/2016”
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4:39 Too cold for me today.
TNY – LOL!
NYT – Someone – or multiple someones – is/are feeding him the names of the people in the United States who are most violently opposed to each function of government, so he can appoint them to be in charge of each bureau, so they can systematically destroy it. I'm not convinced that Putin is the only one, but he is definitely one.
DKos – More interesting to me is this: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/obama-orders-review-of-russian-hacking-during-presidential-campaign/2016/12/09/31d6b300-be2a-11e6-94ac-3d324840106c_story.html If the CIA is now ratting out the FBI, I think that is worthy of attention. Note that this is as opposed to "just to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system," and I believe that is a YUGE difference. Not that it wasn't suspected….
Cartoon – Oh, you know, gooper, rights are what YOU have that you don't think anyone else should have.
NYer: Word.
NYT: Ugh! It get worse every.single.day.
DK: I have to agree with you on your assertion re: Comey. The FBI needs to be cleaned out, so this doesn't ever happen again. #1 and #6…"The FBI is Trumplandia.
Cartoon: They wouldn't have it any other way!
Guess who was at the Army/Navy football game? Well, it was DT himself. The announcers were cleaning/kissing his boots the whole time he spoke, (gestured). ugh.
Ice storms are dismal, and dangerous. We're cold here, and rain for tomorrow. Enjoy the rest of your evening, take care, and Thanks, Tom.
If only the players had lined up on the 50 and flipped him the bird in unison.
New Yorker: IF ONLY!
NY T: It was reorted during the last G.W.Bush years that he was appointing people to judgeships, and what not, for the sake of their being around down the road, presumably to act as moles. this is further reason for the Dems NOT to play "nice" over the next 4 years, with Drumpf, and the GOPigs, for the sake of "Taking the high road," because one can not play fair with a crew of rabid jackals, and expect to survive! The GOP has to be fought every inch of the way, with the filibuster, and any other tactic, or they will simply suck the life out of the country!
You'll be relieved to learn that my "467" slideshows from Friday have been deleted.
Why? Looks like the entire article is gone.
Thank you, my friend, but it was about to scroll off the front page, which would have ended the slowdown. You did see the wink, didn't you?
I did.
Would've appreciated some feedback/impact WRT my stopping the AutoPlay feature (which can cause problems) – but since none was forthcoming, I decided just to delete any impediments I may have created.
I'm so sorry, because having several slideshows autoscrolling at once is what more than doubled out page load time. There would have been no problem if indivciduals could click the thumbnails below the current image.. I thought about suggesting that, but I thought you said that you did not know how to do it that way. in a comment about slide shows. I must have misunderstood.
Not a big deal. My standard: "If that's the worse thing that happens to me (or you) we'll be damn lucky."
I said I didn't know how to make the slideshow full-page – but wondered if thumbnails might do that:
https://www.7thstep.org/blog/2016/12/03/dinking-with-slideshow-1/#comments
Just to be clear, for FUTURE reference, are you saying you looked at it AFTER I turned OFF the AutoPlay, and it didn't slow things down?
My experience has been AutoPlay can slow things down. But I have a permanent CPU meter running on my desktop, and when I opened the post – even w/ AutoPlay – nothing changed on the CPU graph at all. And I noticed absolutely NO slowing, as I said.
Actually I'm not a fan of ANY AutoPlay – but if the thumbnail option circumvents the problem of slowing, that'd be good.
LMK
Sorry. I skimmed because it waqsw long and technical, and I still don't see well.
The only time I noticed the slowdown was when I first commented on it. I then checked the oage load speed for the site. I think there should be no problem with autoplay disabled. What it takes for your CPU to view the page is less than what it takes for the site to run the scripts generating the shows.
Puzzle — 3:31 Seems to be a good summertime activity, but definitely not for today . . . it is -1 C (30 F) . . . although one could probably wind surf on the large puddles of slush!
The New Yorker — If only!!!!!
NY Times — Can you say CONFLICTS OF INTEREST? If I understand correctly, this weasel would have to step down from his current position at Exxon and put all his assets in a blind trust. That however, does not deal with his ability to collude with Putin or his puppets on policies or projects that will enrich the oligarchs and no one else.
Daily Kos — "This FBI activity must be investigated by an independent counsel and followed by a public report with recommendations for Agency reform. In the absence of this, Democratic members of the Intelligence Committees should ask the US Intelligence Community to investigate the FBI’s electioneering." — AMEN!!! I remember you saying this a number of times and I have been following the blog since August 2011, so consider it "I told you so!".
Cartoon — Despite signing the Declaration, many countries failed and fail miserably at extending human rights to parts of their populations — Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the US to indigenous peoples; the US to African Americans, and some felons subject to the death penalty — as examples. All people, even Republicans (and Sasquatches), are entitled to human rights.
Having a computer related snookered day sucks and can really throw a spanner in the works. Today I was out in the snow "harassing" my neighbour who was shoveling my walk way. He then went up and completely brushed my car off. When I went to hug him for doing that, he kept backing away. He said he thought I had a snowball behind my back that had his nick printed on it. No snowball though. There is supposed to be more snow and temperatures heading down to -10 C (14 F) by mid week.
In theory, he woulf have to go with a blind trust, but in a Republican Rectum Reich, who would enforce it?
The New Yorker: That would be a good solution for those of us who do not want "The Donald" in the White House.
NY Times: Tillerson has strong connections with Putin? But he is the nominee for Sec. of State? The investigation into the Russia/Trump connection needs to start now!
The FBI, DOJ, and CIA act more like rogue agencies than ever before, and it is time they were investigated and reigned in, by ending some of the ridiculous powers given them by the Patriot Act., aka, spying on US citizens at will.
Cartoon: According to current members of the GOP, this only covers a select few.
Not bad enough to have Trump to deal with, most of us have weather issues, too, and with that computer issues. Frustrating. But we are all a stubborn bunch, thank goodness!
Really sick of Trump and all the destructive miserable sods he is putting in charge of our world. Where is the outrage? Where are the pitchforks? The man isn't even Prez yet and he's causing nothing but aggravation.
Stay warm and safe, everyone.
Sorry about your computer problems, it must have been very aggravating. But I still rather hear you had troubles with a machine that have been overcome, than of troubles with your health. So try not to get too annoyed with that darn machine and its internet connections, and take a break when you do and give your health priority.
TNY: Not funny, Andy. It should have been made into law years ago.
NYT: Tell me, is there anyone in this cabinet of horrors that hasn't got any ties to either business, industry or the financial world? Or Russia?
DK: And who is going to clean out all those agencies; Drumpf or the newly appointed cabinet members? Don't make me laugh.
Cartoon: Sigh…
Thanks all! Pooped Hugs!!