HorsesAss.Org

Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza!

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Ari Melber: First amendment doesn’t protect Alex Jones defamation.

The Atlantic: What is “normal”, what is “different”?

Real Engineering: Can we terraform the Sahara to stop climate change?

Bill Maher: I don’t know it for a fact…I just know it’s true

The Tremendously Big and Tremendously Wet Dotard Трамп And Friends:

Rachel Maddow: Judge more annoyed than charmed by Maria Butina boyfriend duet video.

Stephen: To boldly advertise where no one has advertised before.

Minute Earth: Why malaria isn’t just a tropical disease.

Supremely Fucked:

WaPo: Ben Folds writes a song about Rod Rosenstein:

Chris Hayes: Who is being held accountable for poisoning the people of flint?.

Jimmy Dore: Vince Vaughn burns his Nike’s in protest of Kaepernick commercial.

The Atlantic: America has always been a tribal society.

The life of Bryan.

Just Neil deGrasse Tyson:

New Yorker: Do personality tests like Myers-Briggs actually work?

Michael Che demands more political speeches at the 70th Emmy awards.

Is Colin Jost fit to host the 70th Emmy awards?

Michael Che wants musical numbers over jokes at the 70th Emmy awards.

Jim Jefferies: Has Jim found God?

Vox: Why we say okay.

The Atlantic: The problem with parents, kids, and social media.

Mid-Terms Are Coming:

James Cordon with Professor Robert Winston: Science tricks.

Bill Maher: New rule—scary socialism!

Wendover: How fighting wildfires works.

Stephen: Porn wars with Tucker Carlson and Michael Avenatti.

Jimmy Kimmel: The week in unnecessary censorship.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

Comments

  1. 1

    So Manafort flipped? Will be interesting if he has anything to say. Thought he would take his chances, hoping for a pardon.

  2. 2

    The plot thickened on the ‘Kavanaugh exoneration letter.”

    “It’s 65 of his classmates.”

    “But he went to an exclusive all-boys academy? So they clearly weren’t his ‘classmates’ because well, no girls in his whole school. So how many really knew him well since they saw him at best on occasional weekends?”

    “Well his clerks just started contacting them after Feinstein forwarded the letter and then they all came forward.”

    “So around Five o’clock Eastern when news broke you tracked down 65 people who didn’t even go to his school. Got their modern contact info, found at least 65 of them home and ready to sign on, and had the letter written and signed and ready to release to the media about 14 hours later? How many clerks? That seems legit. BTW, they aren’t classmates.”

  3. 3

    2)Did this school have an all girls school they associated with? O’Dea works with Holy Names, and occasionally, the latter provided the cheerleaders. Still, got a point. The ladies supporting Kavenaugh would not have been classmates.

  5. 5

    “These honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here, gave the last full measure of devotion”

    “None of us will ever forget this day, yet we go forward to defend freedom and all that is good and just in our world.”

    “As daylight breaks there in California, I want the citizens of the San Francisco Bay area and its neighbors first to know that our hearts are with them as they face this terrible tragedy.”

    “It’s true that because of some good preparation, the loss of life was kept lower than it might have been, but for those individual families, obviously their world has been torn apart. And we need to make sure that everybody who has lost a loved one knows they’re in our thoughts and prayers — and I speak for the whole country there.”

    “Then, like magic, ‘3000 PEOPLE KILLED.’ FIFTY TIMES LAST ORIGINAL NUMBER – NO WAY!”

  6. 6

    4,
    current “wisdom” among the klownsurvaturd Republican “intelligentsia” has it that Manafort was “bluffed” into flipping.
    “Of course Mueller has nothing” and the entire enterprise remains a “massive fishing expedition at taxpayer expense”.

    Never mind that, with the “flipper” under multiple federal indictments, the court rules make any “bluffing” essentially impossible. They will believe whatever the fuck they need to believe. That has become second nature to them. Hillary killed Vince Foster, did a Stan Down™ in BENGHAAAZIII!!!, Obama was born in Kenya, and Tony Podesta eats babies in an invisible, underground Pizza Dungeon™.

    The infinite regress of “alternative facts” has undone them. Starting out with casual distortions knowingly adopted for tactical advantage has led, as it inevitably must, to an irresistible compulsion to mainline pure, uncut, weapons grade bullshit straight into their dicks. Withdrawal will kill them, just as much as the habit will. There is no return from the Derp side of the Orange Event Horizon.

    Trump won. Elections have consequences. Everything has changed.
    This is really who Republicans are now.

  7. 7

    @ 1

    So Manafort flipped? Will be interesting if he has anything to say.

    Be careful what you wish for, Railfan.

    Federal prosecutors weigh charges against Democratic powerbroker in Manafort-linked probe

    (CNN)Federal prosecutors in New York are weighing criminal charges against former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig as part of an investigation into whether he failed to register as a foreign agent in a probe that is linked to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, according to sources familiar with the matter.

    https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/14/politics/greg-craig-foreign-agent-registration-investigation/

    Emails give new detail about Mercury, Podesta role in Manafort’s lobbying

    In the 2017 letter, Hunt told Laurenza that the Justice Department had determined that Manafort and his partner, Rick Gates, should have registered under FARA for their work in Ukraine. She said that determination was based on documents provided by lawyers for two lobbying firms that worked with Manafort, Mercury and the Podesta Group, as well as emails provided by the Podesta Group.

    Several of the emails, excerpts of which were included in the letter and which previously had not been made public, raise new questions about why the Podesta Group and Mercury did not initially register with the Justice Department themselves.

    https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/13/manafort-podesta-emails-lobbying-823868

    Paul Manafort’s Plea Deal Could Be Bad News For A Bunch Of Washington Operatives

    https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/paul-manafort-plea-deal-skadden-podesta-weber_us_5b9c2e61e4b046313fbb2867

    Manafort was in the Trump campaign for a fairly short period of time. He spent far, far more time enriching himself and his cronies well before heading the campaign.

    #MeToo didn’t work out the way Democrats wanted. RussiaGate might turn out to be an own-goal instead of a nothingburger for them as well.

    Weaponizing the government probably only works the way you want it to work if you are able to maintain control of government.

    So you invoked the nuclear option and went with Hillary Clinton.

    Think on your sins.

  8. 8

    @ 2, 3

    My stepdaughter attended Holy Names. There was plenty of social interaction – and a bit of academic overlap – between that school and all-boys programs.

    If you are a boy and you are going to misbehave, are you going to do it in school, or outside of school? Your argument that the signers of that letter didn’t know Kavanaugh the student, only Kavanaugh the weekend social kid, is pretty close to moronic. At the very minimum it is counterproductive for you.

    This was touched on by one of the signers of that letter:

    To those who responded to my tweet saying “I knew Brett in high school” by asking if I had gender reassignment surgery: I went to an all-girls school in Bethesda. He went to an all-boys school in Bethesda. We were permitted upon occasion to speak to people of the opposite sex.

    https://www.weeklystandard.com/virginia-hume/about-that-letter-from-women-in-support-of-brett-kavanaugh

    The signers of that letter knew how Kavanaugh behaved when no teachers were looking.

    Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Say it with me, HA libbies.

    You’ve got nuthin’. Other than two badly damaged 2020 Dem presidential wannabes.

  9. 9

    Weaponizing the government probably only works the way you want it to work if you are able to maintain control of government.

    Democrats don’t control the government. Remember?

    #482, Reasons why he will always be known as Dumbfuck.

  10. 10

    Democrats may not control the government right now, but at least we don’t have to wake up every day faced with renewing the never ending, addictive, compulsive search for distractions from the yawning chasm of regret knowing that our entire political future rests on these twelve words:

    “…substantial assistance in the form of truthful information and, where applicable, testimony.”

    and a guy who sobs uncontrollably after three days in resort-rehab.

    #youbuiltthat

  11. 11

    @ 10

    You wake up every day faced with yet another confirmed Trump-appointed federal judge, who is not yet 45 years old.

    We’ll take it and live with the other stuff.

    A future right-leaning Ninth.

    #webuiltthat

  12. 12

    Fun fact y’all haven’t figured out yet:

    When Kavanaugh is confirmed, Trump gets to appoint his replacement on the DC Circuit.

    Think on your sins, O thou lovers of Hillary.

  13. 13

    You can’t find Jesus if you use Government run health care. The sicker you are, the closer you are to God.

    This reminds me of Mother Theresa’s operation. Her charity took in something like $2 Billion over the span of it’s lifetime, and her “clinics” all had dirt floors. The use of antibiotics, painkillers and anesthesia were banned. The entire order that she belonged to considers suffering , in and of itself to be the true penance for one’s sins, and the fact of that suffering was the proof of that suffering individuals sinning. “Your’re suffering, therefore you must have sinned, and if you want to be loved by God in spite of that sin, you must continued to suffer as God intended”.

    So where did that money go?

    And where is this clown’s money coming from?

  14. 14

    @7 ooooh Bob, that’s done really scary shit their…..who gives a fuck. Lock them all up, including you for being such a Dumbfuck traitor.

  18. 18

    #theotherstuff

    Thanks for that one, Dumbfuck!

    I expect it to come in handy. Remains to be seen if you can ever say the same about The Honorable Lying, Raping, Degenerate Gambler™. Even if you can, you may have a tough time making a decade or more of legislative setback balance with a half dozen narrowly defined anti-labor/anti-vagina court victories.
    But then again, you have a rare talent for false equivalence.

  19. 19

    My stepdaughter attended Holy Names.

    translation: a buttload of principal + interest the dumbfuck will claw back..

  20. 20

    7,
    DOJ has a fairly lenient history with regard to FARA.
    You should pay attention and read your own cites more carefully.
    “The investigation involving Craig and Skadden was referred to federal prosecutors in New York earlier this year by the office of special counsel Robert Mueller, CNN reported in August.”
    and preceding that,
    “Prosecutors are considering a civil settlement with the firm or a deferred prosecution agreement with Skadden, these sources said.”

    So SDNY, having nothing whatsoever to do with OSC (OSC is literally walled off) is considering offering big name K streeters like Mercury, Skadden, etc. doing work for domestic foreign entities who are probably backed by a foreign gov, a chance to apologize, atone and promise never ever, etc.

    The FARA prosecutions against The Republican Presidential Campaign Manager have been kept inside the OSC and treated just a bit more severely because…
    a) he’s The Republican Presidential Campaign Manager, (so authorizing memo and DUH!),
    b) he did a bunch of other crimey shit including stealing great big bags of money from just about everyone and lying to anyone he could,
    c) he can do flips real, real good!

    Too bad, really, if DOJ continues to go soft on foreign governments hiring hookers for Duncan Hunter*, etc. After all, those are our Republican Congressmen. Nobody should be allowed to bribe them but us Murkans! At least not without us knowing about it.

    *Also thanks for giving me another opportunity to mention Duncan Hunter and all his many, many, “girlfriends” that his wife didn’t know about !-)

  21. 21

    19,
    Nice. At what rate I wonder? After all, according to Dumbfuck himself, he is accustomed to a very high rate of return.

  23. 23

    @7 I don’t have a problem with any of that. Throw all the D.C. crooks in jail, without making party distinctions. Drain the swamp entirely, not selectively. Of course, this doesn’t comport with what Republicans want, but nothing else does either.

  24. 24

    @11 “We’ll take it and live with the other stuff.”

    The essence of why you’re a dumbfuck, captured in one sentence.

    Party and agenda first; the agenda is hating America, not one day at a time, but all day every day.

  25. 25

    @12 Viewed from another perspective, if Kavanaugh is confirmed, the D.C. Circuit will be rid of him. As for his replacement, it would be hard to do worse than the hack who’s there now.

  26. 26

    At what rate I wonder?

    The Joker and Vlad Putin wanted “half” – typically for ‘murkan klownservatics it’s whatever “the market” can bear..

  29. 29

    Interesting trolling by EWU in today’s game against the Cougars. Clarence Martin Stadium is named after former Mayor of Cheney and Washington Governor Clarence Martin. By the way, he went to the State Normal School at Cheney(Later called Eastern Washington State College, now EWU), and then the UW. Go Eags. This will be tougher than Northern Arizona, and we had to beat Flagtown, as well as the Lumberjacks.

  30. 30

    @27 I was wrong. It’s easy to do worse. And Trmp will. He’ll probably appoint Larry Klayman to something or other.

  31. 31

    So a suspected Texas serial killer believed responsible for 4 murders and a kidnapping turns out to be a Border Patrol supervisor.

  33. 33

    32)Heard about that, especially on the mainline between Victoria and New South Wales and the ACT. One of the worst ones to have a breakdown would be the Adelaide-Darwin line.

  34. 34

    Ohio’s a swing state, right? Takes a lot of money to campaign statewide there I’d imagine.

    After former Democratic President Barack Obama made a quiet stop in Columbus on Thursday night, the wealthiest Republican supporter in the state told a small audience at a Downtown event that he is fed up and has quit the Republican Party.

    “I just decided I’m no longer a Republican,” said L Brands CEO Leslie H. Wexner, speaking during a panel discussion about civility at Miranova’s Ivory Room billed as a “Columbus Partnership and YPO Leadership Summit.

    …
    Wexner spoke warmly about Obama and about the theme of bipartisan civility, something he has been promoting in recent months. “It’s a great moment for the community,” he said of Obama’s rather secretive visit to Columbus before his Cleveland rally for Cordray.

  37. 37

    Tough night for the Eags. Big Sky Conference play starts soon, and at least we don’t have to travel to San Luis Obispo this year. Cal Poly’s Mustangs come to the Inferno in Cheney.

  38. 38

    @34 We could practice civility on HA, too, if Republicans ever decide to give up being corrupt racist child rapers and farm animal abusers. =:D<

  39. 39

    34,
    “I was struck by the genuineness of the man; his candor, humility and empathy for others…

    …also he was surprisingly “clean” and remarkably “eloquent” for someone some people are saying was born “exotic”.
    Not that there’s anything wrong with that!

  40. 40

    @39 Well, it’s nice to see that somebody is getting fed up with the Republican Party. After all, purely as a matter of statistical probability, it’s unlikely they’re all subnormal IQ. In fact, there are plenty of reasons why (some) people who aren’t intellectually deficient (in the statistical sense) might choose to be Republicans, all of them constituting ulterior motives. Validating a personal preference for greed, dishonesty, and unethical behavior via association with a like-minded peer group, for example. Also, if you’re a pedophile or kleptomaniac, there aren’t that many groups around that make you feel like you belong, and most of those are prison gangs. So, there will always be (some) people who cling to the GOP for reasons other than severe intellectual and/or developmental dysfunction. But there are always people for whom the bonds of attachment are weaker — e.g., those who philosophically believe in smaller government, individual liberty, sound economic policies, etc. — who were initially taken in by shall we call it misleading advertising and after a little experience with the product discovered it isn’t what it was cracked up to be. Kind of like the proverbial half-empty cereal box; you know, “fiscal responsibility settles to the bottom of the box and that’s why there’s so much air in the box,” as if anyone actually thinks you’d swallow that explanation whole. Now, you take a billionaire like Wexner, I understand why he would gravitate to a group whose core belief — and virtually the only promise it keeps — is tax cuts for the superrich; but maybe he’s finally figured out it’s not all that much fun to be the richest guy on a plantation where nearly everyone else is poorer than dirt and the few who aren’t are insufferable jerks. I also understand why he can’t quite bring himself to be a Democrats; after all, when you’ve been a Republican all your life, it’s hard to suddenly get a conscience — they don’t sell those in supermarkets or at The Gap — so he’s gonna be something called an “independent” which is someone who either (a) doesn’t believe in anything, (b) can’t make up his mind about what he believes, or (c) is still a Republican and is lying about it. (If I were a Republican today, I wouldn’t admit it either.) I hope that as an “independent” Wexner eventually finds a conscience, but even if he doesn’t, at least finds something more constructive to do than paling around with people who pal around with Putin and his minions. After all, this is America, and Russian dictators, thugs, and oligarchs aren’t supposed to be our friends. That isn’t normal.

  42. 42

    40,
    An EEEN-DEEE-PEN-DUNCE is merely a Roypublican who doesn’t want to get blood on his hands, but nevertheless enjoys the carnage.

  43. 43

    I have $200 from freelancing. I want to send it to progressive democrats where it will do the most good. It can be all or smaller amounts to several. Any suggestions?
    Trolls will be ignored.

  45. 45

    40,
    Clearly competition to displace George Soros as the leading “Globalist-Atheist-Baby-Eater” bogeyman will be fierce in coming years.

    This process has actually been underway since before the 2016 election. But at least up until now, it has been a very quiet transformation. It began with big donors withholding from the unrestricted PACs following JEB!’s humiliation. A significant percentage stayed loyal to Congressional Roypublicans through the tax cut last autumn. But the series of “sudden, unexpected” retirements/sex scandals/corruption scandals gradually killed off that support.

    The interesting change now is how many of these guys are doing media since Labor Day announcing to the world the switch.* Social proof in action. Timing couldn’t be worse for the Guatemalan Toddler Torture Party™. The recent experiences with special elections in suburban swing districts demonstrated a huge asymmetry in spending required for them to stay alive. The loss of outside spending going into the final stretch when the usual ten to fifteen percent of “undecideds” become “decided” could prove catastrophic in the House. In the Senate it will force tough decisions about offense versus defense.

    That certainly was not the plan back in December of 2016.
    I guess even selling The Piviot™ has a shelf life.
    Maybe now would be a good time for them to resume talking about The 25th?

    *None of us should be fooled into believing that their sudden awakening doesn’t come with a price tag attached. Every single one of these people is demanding that their shift in spending be accompanied by some corresponding shift in Democratic politics. Fuck that. These people built this monster and turned it loose to wreck the country. They don’t get to specify how we rebuild it.

  46. 46

    43,
    Don’t miss your best chance this cycle to become a hero by pledging $20.20 to unseat Susan Collins if she votes to place a Lying, Raping, Degenerate Gambler™ on the Supreme Court.

    You can find the CrowdPac page here!

    In only a couple of weeks the campaign has raised over $1.3 million (that’s more than Collins current on-hand) from more than 45,000 small donors. They started out with a modest goal of raising only a few hundred thousand as a way to encourage a talented Democratic challenger unbound by big PAC donors. Now the campaign has transformed into a game changer.

  47. 47

    @41 Now, now. Give credit where it’s due. He and his partner pioneered the concept of paying your boss for the privilege of working for him, which clearly is the wave of the future, as more workers are replaced by robots and the old concept of employment becomes obsolete. How forward thinking was that? These guys not only anticipated the 21st century economy, they invented it.

  48. 48

    47,
    The modern variant is called the “unpaid internship”.
    Or in the electronic media industry it’s called “Production Assistant”.

  49. 49

    I read in the Seattle Times a couple days ago that median income for a couple with children in Seattle is $161,000 a year. If your household makes less than that you’re what they call “lower middle income.” And you thought you were doing well? Sorry about that.

    P.S., Doctor Dumbfuck thinks a $15 minimum wage is outrageous, and claims it’s a job killer. Clearly, he’s a dumbfuck.

  50. 50

    The Lying, Raping, Degenerate Gambler’s accuser has come forward and taken a lie detector test… and passed.

    Her account includes the involvement of Kavanaugh’s Suburban Maryland Rape Team™ partner, blackout drunk Mark Judge, who she says was present during the attempted rape. She also details retelling the traumatic episode years later during relationship therapy and that her account of it is included in the therapist’s notes which the WaPo reviewed and confirmed.

    #nothingburger
    #yumyum

  51. 51

    “BREAKING: Senate Republicans signal they plan to move ahead on Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination despite decades-old sexual misconduct allegation”

    https://tinyurl.com/ybe5mc47

    Meaning a guy could stand in the middle of Constitution Avenue and shoot some random passerby, and they would still put him on the Supreme Court if he votes for the rightwing agenda. Republicans have no character tests, only loyalty tests.

  52. 52

    It’ll be fascinating to watch Republicans dismiss this woman’s story as a categorical lie when you consider the context. In the days ahead I would encourage everyone to do just that.

    There might be ways to dismiss her story. But suggesting that a professional, highly competent, widely respected professor at a prestigious graduate institute contrived six years ago to fabricate an accusation of sexual assault against an obscure federal district court judge just in case it ever proved politically useful to The Resistance (which didn’t even exist at the time) requires the kind of DERPSTATE/BENGHAAAZII!! faith in lunatic Pizza Dungeon conspiracies that only a True Republican can be capable of.

    They will label her story an outrageous lie. They will say she made this story up in order to damage the nominee. They will not address any of the reductio ad absurdum fallacy that their claim relies on. Partisans will go along. And in doing so they will internalize the illogic of it. That process is “the becoming” unfolding before our very eyes.

    Because of the ridiculous artificial time constraints placed on this nomination, many otherwise intelligent, rationally minded partisans will have no choice but to embrace teh stoopid that is fundamentally baked into this. The stakes are high. And any one of them that concedes to even listening to her story will be instantly regarded as having turned on and betrayed the pack. So the split will be a stark one. And it will almost surely capture yet more of the “moderates” behind The Orange Event Horizon.

    This is exactly how your granddad’s GOP became Donald J. Trump’s Guatemalan Toddler Torture Party™. This process we are about to witness unfold is how the transformation took place. It is a process worth studying and learning from.

  53. 53

    Pussy Grabbers for President.

    Pussy Grabbers for Supreme Court.

    #PussyGrabberNation
    #PussiesForAll

  55. 55

    @52 I think you’re about to see their song-and-dance shift from “it’s a lie” to “it’s not a big deal; it happened years ago, when they were just kids experimenting with sex, and what teenaged boy hasn’t done that or at least wanted to do it?”

    This will have two principal effects: (1) It will now be much easier for the handful of Democratic senators who were on the fence to vote “no,” and (2) it will now be significantly harder for the two GOP women senators on the fence, Murkowski and Collins, to vote “yes.”

    If Trump and McConnell have any brains they’ll yank Kavanaugh immediately and put in their relief pitcher, before the midterms come to the batter’s box, or they may provoke a riot in the stands.

  56. 56

    This was entirely predictable. Kavanaugh is a career political operative and party hack. He worked on Starr’s witch hunt and helped facilitate Bush’s torture. If Trump and McConnell didn’t know he’s a boozer, gambler, and wannabe rapist they could have guessed he’s a slimeball, because in all other respects he’s a slimesucker coming and going. Maybe Republican senators have no moral standards anymore, but I’ll bet some of their constituents back home still do.

  57. 57

    “it’s not a big deal; it happened years ago, when they were just kids experimenting with sex, and what teenaged boy hasn’t done that or at least wanted to do it?”

    And there goes the Senate.

    #theotherstuff

  58. 58

    How Fox is playing it:

    “The woman accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault came forward with her explosive allegations on Sunday, saying the supposed attack ‘derailed me substantially for four or five years’ and claiming that the episode rendered her ‘unable to have healthy relationships with men.'”

    After another paragraph about her, the Fox story continues,

    “Republicans immediately pushed back Sunday, saying it was ‘disturbing’ that the decades-old allegations surfaced just days before the Judiciary Committee is set to vote on whether to advance Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Senate floor.”

    Fox then quotes Grassley calling the allegations “uncorroborated” and accusing Democrats of “sitting on” them since July.

    I guess that’s as good as Fox’s propagandists can spin it, and may give us a clue of how the GOP and rightwing noise machine will play the hand they’re now dealt: By whining about the Democrats to deflect attention from Kavanaugh’s misbehavior. The Fox story I’m quoting from is here:

    http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....ed-me.html

  59. 59

    Hello audience are you out there. Oh the theatre is empty again.

    I have not been on for a few days. I have been talking to David Goldstein. There apparently is not much traffic on HA. I have asked him if he plans to do anything with his blog. I have not received an answer. Maybe he is content with tings as the are. I suspect the inmates of the asylum are in control, and the inmates are driving the audience away. If there is no audience then not a lot of point on being on here. I have invited some others to participate. Though if indeed David or Goldie as some of you refer to him frankly has lost interest in his blog, and does not intend to do anything he should shut it down.

    As far as there being rules on the blog (and there are) those rules are only meaningful when enforced in a reasonable manner. RR unless RR is Goldie cannot speak for David Goldstein or substitute his opinions for those of Davide Goldstein. Even if RR is Goldie’s and Horsesass attorney he still cannot substitute his speech for those things his client must say. And if he is on the list and also the attorney that seems a little sketchy, and unseemly. No one has told me that RR is this sites attorney or represents anyone on here other than whoever he really is. For the moment he is merely a carton rabbit who may or may not be an actual attorney or retired attorney. Real attorney’s are on sites such as this as themselves with appropriate statements that they are an attorney and nothing they say should on here should be construed as advice. He has stated and others have stated that there are many professionals and intellectuals on here. Those professionals and intellectuals are as guilty as RR of being frauds. Real professionals and intellectuals are open and transparent about who they are when they speak. Certainly if they speak anonymously (which undermines their professionalism, just look at ANON or that letter sent to a Senator that the writer now feels compelled to say it’s me to give the letter some credence) they certainly do not use that as a shield and sword, and often their time on the stage is short. Again hello audience are you out there reading this. Could you like give us a sign….say something on here. Maybe whether or not you think the blog should continue or go. Or if you are interested or disinterested. You can call my writing crap even, or you love it. Not seeing much point in writing it if you are not actually out there, and it really is an empty theatre. Hard to tell these kinds of things on the internet.

    PS I actually like the Friday night multimedia but think the list of stuff to go to has gotten way too long as I don’t have time to go to even half the stuff I find interesting. Maybe keeping the list to about 10 or the total videos to maybe an hour. Guess Goldie has decided to let the Sunday school hour to go by the wayside…fine by me.

  60. 60

    Just thought I’d share with you Seattleites – you are a model for the rest of the Country. This Buds for you.

    Tunnel Transforming Seattle; Hartford Take Note
    By BOB DONEGAN, TIM BURGESS and CANDACE DAMON
    After a decade of debate and planning, a new, 2-mile-long tunnel will soon open in Seattle, replacing a noisy elevated expressway, the Alaskan Way Viaduct, that has walled downtown off from its beautiful waterfront for more than 60 years. A 20-acre park will be built over the tunnel, reconnecting the waterfront and downtown. This “once-in-a-century opportunity” will transform Seattle for generations.
    We think Hartford may have a similar opportunity along its riverfront.
    The three of us — a Seattle business owner, a former Seattle mayor and city council member and an urban economist who grew up in eastern Connecticut — were all intimately involved in Seattle’s Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement project. Several disastrous earthquakes up and down the Pacific coast, including the Nisqually earthquake just south of Seattle in 2001, which damaged the viaduct, forced the city and state to find a new transportation solution. We are enormously proud of this project and we are excited to share our experience with Greater Hartford.
    When U.S. Rep. John Larson, D-East Hartford, first contacted us, he described Hartford’s infrastructure challenges related to the I-84/I-91 interchange. The similarities to what we experienced in Seattle are striking: an aging viaduct that separates the city’s economic engine from its greatest open space asset, a highway carrying thousands of vehicles every day that contributed to poor public health and environmental injustice, and a levee system in dire need of repair (ours was an aged seawall keeping Elliott Bay out of downtown). Rep. Larson described the I-84/I-91 tunnel proposal that addresses these challenges by reconnecting neighborhoods, recapturing the riverfront, shoring up the levees, easing traffic congestion, building new open space and creating a more vibrant city.
    We don’t know if our solution will work for Hartford, but it appears to be working for Seattle:
    The tunnel has been built with minimal disruption to the existing highway system, because it was bored under all streets and highways, rather than using conventional “cut and cover” technology.
    More than 10,000 new apartments and condos have opened within blocks of the project in anticipation of a great park that isn’t yet open but has been planned with massive community input.
    Business owners along the waterfront have spent more than $250 million renovating their piers and businesses.
    By luck of geography, the cruise ship lines are racing to bring the biggest ships in America to Seattle to serve the cruise market to Alaska. More than 1.2 million passengers will board more than 200 sailings this summer.
    Properties within the shadow of the old viaduct have been renovated and expanded at a cost of more than $1 billion.
    With the luck of having Amazon and technology companies, Seattle’s downtown is one of the hottest in the country with rapid expansion of work and residences, not to mention restaurants, retail and entertainment choices.
    When the park is finished, economic and quality of life benefits are estimated in the billions of dollars, with far and away the most significant effects coming from attracting and retaining young talent.
    Deciding upon and building the tunnel and park has not been quick or easy. We considered more than 70 alternatives, and it took eight years to decide on one, and 14 more to build it.
    The tunnel was completed last year and will open to traffic this fall. Starting in weeks, we will demolish the viaduct and create a beautiful waterfront park with access to the water, a concert space on one of the piers, miles of gardens, a new Ocean Pavilion for Seattle’s Aquarium, a connection between the Pike Place Market (where we throw salmon) with the waterfront, new bikeways, pedestrian paths and a new state ferry terminal where 17 million residents and visitors glide into and out of Seattle annually.
    We are excited to share our story with Hartford and we look forward to sharing the lessons we learned to see how our experience might be a guide for Hartford.
    Bob Donegan is a Seattle business owner. Tim Burgess is a former Seattle mayor and city council member. Candace Damon is an urban economist based in New York City. They will be appearing at a forum to talk about the Seattle tunnel Monday from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Hartford Club on Prospect Street in Hartford. A second panel will discuss Rep. Larson’s proposal for two tunnels under Hartford. The event is free and open to the public but advance registration is required. To register, visit: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-seattle-tunnel-experience-a-path-forward-for-greater-hartford-tickets-49857430918

    Hartford Courant Op-Ed piece

  61. 61

    If we really want someone on the court to protect our rights, and ensure justice maybe one of our justice should be a convicted felon who has completed paying their price to society. Nothing in the US Constitution prohibits that. Nothing about a judges former behavior enters in into the equation necessarily and Congress can and should remove judges on the whole behavior thing. Guess the approximate 1000 federal judges are all such angels such action is hardly ever needed. Though George Washington picked a couple of winners. One judge impeached because he was drunk while presiding and perhaps loopy, and one Samuel Chase who was just such a meanie on the bench. Of course all the judges George picked were arguable criminals in the eyes to someone at some time. And the Declaration of Independence was written by rebels and the Constitution written by the rebels who survived. Our revolution was successful, and that in fact is very amazing as the government usually wins in such matters.
    Maybe we should go outside the mainstream for one or two of our Supreme Court justices. Might have a better court, might even manage to see the real world and politics as it really operates…yes Virginia the justices are in their own bubble, but let us not call it an Ivory Tower, just don’t try to sneak into the park by the court or gardens as they are not free speech zones by order of various Chief Justices. Yes this is the court that says other justices must retire at some age in states or from the federal bench, but a Supreme you can go until death comes, and our superior music may keep death away for years. RGB is going for immortality, and not just the kind she will have in her opinions.

  62. 62

    That shit @ 59 is so pathetic.. Reminds me of the times back in 2005 when the babbling butthole tried to get Goldy’s attention…

    Like a sad little schoolboy…

    Uh shortbus… Read the bottom bar. I’ll make it easy for you:

    © 2004–2018, All rights reserved worldwide. Except for the comment threads. Because fuck those guys. So there.

    Yes Goldy has spoken. ’nuff said.. Now go away.. Or keep babbling.. either way almost nobody is paying attention.

  63. 63

    @2 First with a campaign of several millions of dollars in the background, and both sides running campaign style adds the clerks and others would already had the names of former classmates. Probably even copies of the yearbooks. And this is a class thing. Every boys school has a sister school and vice versa. The school where the boys go over to for various official get togethers throughout the year, and vice versa. The students get very chummy and that is ok as they are of that class, except for the token kid or two who is just barely tolerated or is treated like RR treats people on here. Sometimes the association between the boys and girls school is touted, and an official part of the schools experience in preparing these ever so special kids or the world, so they can take the helm. So it is not a total misnomer for the girls or boys to say they are classmates. They may even have taken a home ec class or archery class together. It’s ok they are members of a club you are not in. (Go watch some Harry Potter and get into the whole Hogwarts thing, you muggles.

  64. 64

    @6 On the Vice Foster thing the physical evidence at the scene is clear the event did not take place there. That the body was carried to the spot. The entry wound suggests it was not a suicide, and well someone or someone carried the body there. The carriers and possible murderers have not been brought to justice. Does not mean Hilliary Clinton had any part of it, but it’s odd that staffers from the White House got into the files before the Washington police following procedure could get to the house or wherever the records were kept.
    Manafort will have to cooperate with Mueller, but it does not mean he knows anything. And the fact he has been turned does allow the defense attorney to ask: “If you were lying then, how can we know you are not lying now.” At least Manfort knows a Russian and Ukrainian oligarch or two, but without signals intel from the NSA (which if it exists why has it not been brought into the light) or Humint or financial intelligence to confirm or show a clear connection between said oligarch and the Russian government and Putin in particular, beyond they occassionally smoke cigars together or talk about saving tigers together to the Duma. Something to do with what Mueller is supposed to be investigating, and one would think he could have gone to the NSA and determined if there was anything to actually investigate and disclosed that to the American people or shut down the investigation in about a week.

  65. 65

    @7 More use of that rarely used foreign agent rule, wonder how long before Congress changes it. When Mueller goes after someone working for her majesties government or oops a US Senator or their top aide. Though this will cause serious grumblings and realizations the investigation may have unpredicted collateral damage.

  66. 66

    @20 And just regular insider corruption by an insider of the beltway. And at some point a judge will point out to the justice department and Mueller you have to use the law as written in an even handed manner, unless it really is about going after spies and the national security, and Russia is no longer the USSR so the law really only applies to spies from unfriendly countries certainly not any friendly Mosad agents who have not registered as foreign agents. (MOSAD is cool unless they misbehave. Then there is always forgiveness.)

  67. 67

    @59 “PS I actually like the Friday night multimedia but think the list of stuff to go to has gotten way too long”

    I can sympathize. I feel that way when I go into a library, but have learned to select the books I want to read and leave the rest on the shelf, although it’s hard because a part of me wants to read them all.

  68. 68

    @60 Before the tunnel any ordinary person could drive on the Alaska Way Viaduct for free and get a spectacular view of Seattle’s waterfront. Now he has to pay and all he sees is concrete. This is an improvement? Count me among those who miss the viaduct.

  69. 69

    @61 For once you’re right, nothing in the Constitution prevents Republicans from putting an ex-drunken prep school raper brat boy who has no interest in protecting anyone’s rights on the Supreme Court, and there is some amount of historical precedent available to justify a craven power play such as this one. However, before you can hope for better appointees, you need a better appointing authority.

  71. 71

    @64 Go for it. You might as well believe the Vince Foster conspiracy theories. That’s not much crazier than believing I’m Goldy.

  73. 73

    Here’s something interesting. Two GOP candidates are running for House seats in adjacent and politically similar New Jersey districts. The newbie is embracing Trump’s immigration policies; the 5-term incumbent is distancing himself from them.

    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/gop-candidates-racing-their-political-lives-split-trump-s-immigration-n907796

    Roger Rabbit Commentary: Obviously the newbie hasn’t watched enough fighter pilot movies: “Stay behind me, kid, and do what I do.”

  74. 74

    Statement issued Sunday by Sen. Lindsey Graham:

    “I agree with the concerns expressed in the Judiciary Committee’s statement about the substance and process regarding the allegations in this latest claim against Judge Kavanaugh. However, if Ms. Ford wishes to provide information to the committee, I would gladly listen to what she has to say and compare that against all the other information we have received about Judge Kavanaugh. If the committee is to hear from Ms. Ford it should be done immediately so the process can continue as scheduled.”

    https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/09/lindsey-graham-kavanaughs-christine-ford-accusations/

    Roger Rabbit Commentary: Not exactly what I would call reserving judgment until hearing what the witness has to say.

    Kinda calls to mind the plot of the Paul Newman movie “The Verdict,” but congressional hearings don’t always have movie endings, although there’s a chance she could show up the Lindsey Grahams of the world for the sanctimonious accessories they are, so she should accept his offer.

  75. 75

    59,
    You won, remember?
    Trump won, everything changed, etc, etc. Your guys are now in charge of everything that matters at the national level. You get to torture Guatemalan infants, deport anyone who smells remotely of spicy food, impose mandatory vaginal probes, cut off benefits to disabled people, run up astronomical deficits, grant enormous tax cuts for “personal jet aircraft” purchases, strip mine the National Parks, and flood the borders with untrained, deranged paramilitary mass murderers.

    This are your motherfucking salad days, bitch!

    All your dreams are coming true on a daily basis. Your tribe spent decades willing this into being and praying for it every Sunday. What the fuck is wrong with you people. If I didn’t know better, I’d suspect your were beginning to have regrets.
    What happened to your “credo”, dog? You know what I’m sayin’?

    Once again I must ask, just exactly when the fuck did Roypublicans become such a bunch of whiny pussies?

    #winningwhining

  76. 76

    74,
    Today Flake and Corker called for a delay.
    Collins was ambushed at the airport and forced to comment saying she had spoken to the nominee about the letter last week and that he reiterated his emphatic denial at that time. When asked if she believed his accuser she replied that she didn’t know enough at this time. When asked if she felt that the committee should proceed to a vote this week she said she would be talking to her colleagues about it and would have nothing more to say about the vote until then.

    One of the things they’ll want to weigh is the option of delaying the vote until after the mids. That would give them the time needed to prepare a full blown theatrical inquisition and character assassination of the accuser before calling her to testify before the committee…. for SCIENCE!

    They’ll need to know about every time she got drunk, any drug use ever, parking tickets, everyone she’s ever slept with, why she and her husband were in relationship therapy, if she ever cut the tags off her mattresses, brand of lube, DMV records, how many borshuns, credit card balances, any black dudes, etc. Right now Stephen Miller is in the WH SCF trying to figure out how he can get the NSA to pull her search and browser history. Then he’ll be trying to figure out how to plant Bigfoot porn. It’ll be a fucking circus. They’ll crucify her. But they wont want to do it until after the mids.

  77. 77

    Grassley no longer has a majority to move the nom out of committee:

    “Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) became the first Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee to suggest it delay moving forward with Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation amid allegations the judge sexually assaulted a woman as a teenager.

    “The Senate Judiciary Committee may be unable to move ahead with a Thursday vote that would send Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the full Senate after the judge’s previously unnamed accuser came forward Sunday. Flake, a member of the committee, said Sunday … ‘we need to hear from her … and I don’t think I’m alone in this.'”

    https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/grassley-kavanaugh-feinstein-hearing_us_5b9ed999e4b046313fbc37e3

    Roger Rabbit Commentary: Put them under oath, then get “she said” under oath and “he said” under oath, and go from there.

  78. 78

    @76 “They’ll crucify her.”

    Sure. But they crucified the nurse in “The Verdict,” too. Remember how that turned out? And don’t forget what happened after they crucified Jesus. Biggest religion ever. But that’s only in the movies – and Bible. We all know Kavanaugh could stand in the middle of Constitution Avenue and shoot some random passerby — a tourist, probably — and Grassley, Graham, and Hatch would confirm him anyway. However, at this point, I don’t think McConnell can count on any Democratic votes, and can afford to lose only two of his. This no longer looks like the sure thing it did last week.

    I don’t doubt Ms. Ford is telling the truth, and I believe she’ll be a rock in the witness chair. The harder they try to discredit her, the worse they’ll make themselves look. The real question is whether the public will forgive Kavanaugh for an impulsive teenage mistake. I believe many decent, ordinary Americans who – unlike the D.C. swamp creatures – have values will do so. Kavanaugh’s real problem will come if he lies about it. That’s much less likely to be overlooked or forgiven. And because he’s already on record of denying it ever happened, he’s got a real problem now even before she testifies.

  79. 79

    Wherein a constitutional scholar sees in Kavanaugh’s nom a “gendered subtext” setting up a confrontation between #MeToo against MAGA, “and now it is upon us.”

    After asking whether the 11 Republican members of the committee will “take their responsibility seriously” or “decide the accusation does not count,” he says,

    “The gendered subtext of this moment is, not to put too fine a point on it, war—war to the knife—over the future of women’s autonomy in American society. Shall women control their own reproduction, their health care, their contraception, their legal protection at work against discrimination and harassment, or shall we move backward to the chimera of past American greatness, when the role of women was—supposedly for biological reasons—subordinate to that of men? … Trump promised to restore the old system of dominion — by lawmakers, husbands, pastors, institutions, and judges — over women’s reproduction. Arguably that platform propelled Trump into the White House.”

    What’s really going on here, he says, is this: “For months, the male leaders of the administration and the GOP insisted on silence on the real issue at stake. But despite their best efforts, the monster has finally come out of the walls.”

    https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/09/kavanaugh/570406/

    What happens next may be decided by two female senators. But however this turns out, this is a historic moment.

  80. 80

    In this Sept. 14 video, David Brooks said if the sexual misconduct allegations against Kavanaugh, it true, “disqualifies him.” I interpret this not as Brooks’ personal opinion of what should happen, but rather his view as a D.C. insider of what will happen. At that time, Brooks didn’t think it would derail the nomination. But since then, the accuser has come forward, and that changes things in some unquantifiable way. Brooks’ remark, and the conviction with which he said it, implies the accuser’s credibility will make or break Kavanaugh’s nomination.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vR9ld6ye5Q

  81. 81

    In this Sept. 14 video, David Brooks said the sexual misconduct allegation against Kavanaugh, if true, “disqualifies him.” I interpret this not as Brooks’ personal opinion of what should happen, but rather his D.C. insider’s view of what will happen. At that time Brooks didn’t think it would derail the nomination, but since then the accuser has come forward, and that changes things in some unquantifiable way. Brooks’ remark, and the conviction with which he said it, implies the accuser’s credibility will make or break Kavanaugh’s nomination.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vR9ld6ye5Q

  82. 82

    Three Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee – Jeff Flake, Bob Corker, and Lisa Murkowski – now say Kavanaugh’s accuser should be heard from before the committee takes a vote. This doesn’t mean Kavanaugh won’t be confirmed. But it could mean, as CNN points out, that Republicans may pay a price in the midterms for confirming him.

  83. 83

    Elsewhere in the world, phasing out of diesel power in transport is continuing. About to enter service on regional rail lines in Lower Saxony, the Alston Coradia iLINT hydrogen fueled multiple unit. Possibly the first application of this vehicle in revenue service.

    http://railcolornews.com/2018/.....ersachsen/

    Another option for partially electrified lines is the Battery Electric Multiple Unit, which charges while the train is on the electrified lines. The Bombardier Talent 3 and Siemens Desiro ML are offering this option.
    https://www.railwaygazette.com/news/traction-rolling-stock/single-view/view/battery-emu-unveiled-at-hennigsdorf.html

  84. 84

    Listening to the republicans complain about the Ford / Kavanaugh situation and bleat that is was unfair that this allegation was made so late. “How dare you play games with this nomination?” Republicans have twisted the rules every chance they get, like Obama’s supreme court nomination, and but Democrats have to play nice. Seems that Democrats are starting to fight fire with fire.

    Democrats are angry, and tired of compromise
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/09/14/democrats-are-angry-and-tired-of-compromise/

  85. 85

    84,
    Bipartsanship is dead.
    And that’s good.

    Nobody should ever seek compromise with insanity.
    The Party of Trump, as I write these words, is collectively advancing the bizarre notion that Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser owns a time machine. It is but the latest in a long series of completely irrational craziness embraced and internalized by True Republicans for purely political purposes without a scintilla of doubt or uncertainty. As I write these words The Party of Trump that for more than a decade has abandoned and mockingly urinated en masse on every established precedent and norm of democracy and rule of law, complains daily about “incivility”.

    Trump won. Elections have consequences. Everything has changed.
    This is really who Republicans are now.

  87. 87

    PornSweat White House sent out Kellyanne Conway yesterday to declare that the Senate Judiciary Committee should hold new hearings to investigate the charges of sexual assault against The Lying Degenerate Gambler, including testimony from his victim, professor Christine Blasey Ford. But she also said the schedule of confirmation should not be delayed, especially a vote out of committee in just three days.

    It’s very unlikely that Senate Republicans can assemble a truly effective character assassination in such a short span of time, especially not one as nuanced and calculated as modern times would require. If this White House strategy is the one adopted by Senate Republicans it means they will take the votes after a very limited and cursory examination of the accusation amounting to “he said, she said”.

    That means that Senators voting to confirm The Lying Degenerate Gambler will have to dismiss the rape charges without a full inquiry and thus without the usual set of excuses. Tacitly they will be saying the believe the perpetrator over his accuser… because “who knows(?)”… “fairness”… “reasons”… “no time”… etc. And it’s a politically very high risk strategy for other reasons. Typically what we know about the kind of person who gets blackout drunk and tries to rape women is that there are often more than one victim in their past.

    If there are any such victims in The Lying Degenerate Gambler’s past who should come forward after his confirmation that could devastate re-election prospects for a bunch of Roypublicans. And yes, I am talking about Ted Cruz and Rick Scott, but also a whole lot of Class II Senators facing re-election in 2020 trying to explain a series of court decisions affecting women’s right to control their own bodies led by an Associate Justice who raped women.

    That puts enormous pressure on Yertle to bring home the confirmation of a nominee he never wanted to see in the first place. But it is fairly consistent with the White House’s attitude toward the election politics of Congress. And every single vulnerable Senate Republican will have to face this grim calculus in the next ten days.

  89. 89

    @87 The fix is in, and everyone knows it, so why waste time pretending it isn’t?

  90. 90

    @87 The fix is in, and everyone knows it, so why waste time pretending it isn’t?

  91. 91

    @88 Link assumed unsafe. Probably some asshole either trying to download malware or get one of us to say, “Speak English, you foreign piece of shit!” I’m not biting.

  92. 92

    @75 They are not my guys. I would not mind if 3/4 of politicians in congress of both parties up for election were voted out this coming November, and that goes for the statehouse as well. Unlikely to happen. The Republicans though have kept promises. Though they are doing their share of bs. Of course if you want to look at bs legislative stuff done by a legislature. When the a Republican was in office the Democratic legislature voted twice for a single payer health system. It was vetoed, but with Jerry Brown who would sign such legislation if it got to his desk, such proposals never get out of committee. This is important as when California does it guess what other state often emulates California. Ok we beat California on marijuana, though it is still illegal at the federal level. . A very anti liberal program.

  93. 93

    Looks like the theatre is very empty. No audience members have announced they are there.

    Guess RR could announce he is talking to all his pokah friends named Harvey out there. So we are al just talking to invisible rabbits who are kinder, cooler and wiser than RR, and pretty mythical.

  94. 94

    @78 She would be foolish to testify. She does not recall where and when the incident occurred.

    And when you get down to it exactly how do the allegations disqualify the nominee? Will it affect his rulings or has it? Does stuff done when a teenager disqualify anyone for serving as a Supreme? Does one need be sexually pure? Be into clean living. Guess we know who will qualify for the court. I rather doubt we want a bunch of theocrats as they will be the only ones who qualify, though they do not care for liberty nor the constitution.

    And just what do you all do if Kavanaugh goes back to testify afterwards and he will, and he says she was a great fuck, and we did it often. Might even be true.

  95. 95

    “They are not my guys.”

    Every day Shortbus wakes up, gets out of bed, greets the day’s headlines and is faced with a choice: condemn the latest Nazi attack, Guatemalan toddler torture, tax cut for billionaires, $15,000 credenza purchase, corrupt Roypublican finger raping a child, or grotesquely cruel rage-Tweet, or defend it?

    And every day Shortbus makes the same choice.

    They’re your guys, Shortbus. You really are a Republican.
    Trump won. Elections have consequences. Everything has changed. And this really is who you are now.

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