What are the odds El Cheeeto’s supporters will claim Iran’s partial withdrawal of the JCPOA totally justifies Dennison’s complete withdrawal a year previous?
@James Pearce: It’s only a matter of time before it affects someone you actually know. Luckily, I haven’t had that experience yet; there was a reported shooting here in Ann Arbor a month ago but it turned out to be popping balloons.
Anyway, I certainly hope his kids were physically unharmed and also emotionally resilient.
In Trump’s Twitter rampage this morning, he undertakes to explain how his taking a 1 billion-plus loss over a decade was actually something all smart developers did–and then concludes by saying the Times report is a “Fake News hit job.”
But I have to say, because facts beat opinion, that not even ordinary millionaires can afford to own, much less regularly operate, a private Boeing 757. Obviously Dennison has access to lots of money.
none of which menas he’s not a dismal failure at cooking real estate deals. We know that’s not where his money comes from.
The “republic not a democracy” thing comes up occasionally, generally on Dr. Taylor’s posts. LGM has a post, Political Theory Buzzwords for Dummies, linking to an entertaining and instructive essay on the subject. The essay is well worth reading, if just for entertainment.
In the end, invoking republicanism is little more than a way out for the many Americans who honestly think they support government Of, By, and For the People but are perfectly happy with undemocratic processes that produce the outcomes they want.
Even takes a dive into a couple of Federalist pieces.
LGM concludes,
I mean, say this for Madison, he was wrong about a lot of things but he was a lot smarter than his most fervent would-be admirers think he was.
I find myself less and less engaged with the news cycle. The events of the day are somehow increasingly difficult to stomach. Does this mean that the bad guys are winning?
Kathy, I think it doesn’t matter to Trump’s fans if he contradicts himself in a four-line Tweet. They’ll buy whatever horsesh!t he spouts. He lied when he maintained–after promising to release his returns a number of times–that the IRS wouldn’t allow him to do so because he was being audited.
Does Trump know he contradicts himself? I don’t know. If he does, he doesn’t care. What he does know is that his base will buy whatever he says, no matter how ludicrous.
I’d like to see the ownership papers for the Boeing.
I’d like to see the ownership papers for the Boeing.
So would I. it may be a lease. I don’t know how common that is in private aviation. But if it were a lease, you’d think it would have lapsed by now, and El Cheeto would have something newer, like a nice A321ceo
@Kathy: Not my area, but I believe leasing aircraft is very common. That would also include his biggest he could get helicopter. Almost certainly charged to his business or the campaign. This would usually be a timeshare deal. I would think other users would not be fond of having TRUMP plastered on it. But compared to lease costs, repainting is probably pocket change. And I would expect he’s dumped them now that he’s got AF1 and Marine1.
@Kathy: According to the fountain of knowledge, Wikipedia, his original plane, a 727, was part of what was left from his failed airline venture and he did actually own it. Who knows how that was actually paid for, or if he actually paid for it at all. He kept it for 14 years. He replaced it with Paul Allen’s (founder of Microsoft) 20 year old 757 in 2011.
I suspect, but have no evidence to back it up, that the investors in his various schemes are fronting a good bit of the cost. He has a history of getting gullible people involved in his schemes by giving the impression that he is investing his own money and is dedicated to the success of the project and he’s letting them in on the deal because he respects and likes them. These stooges, some very wealthy, don’t read the fine print and only later discover that Trump isn’t actually responsible for anything and collected all his very substantial fees upfront, out of the investors money. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he was generously inviting the stooge onto all sorts of trips, and using the investors own money to pay for it.
I’m more familiar with commercial aviation. There, leasing rules. When you read an announcement that a Big Airline agreed to buy 150 A320neos with an option for 100 more, what this means is a lessor will buy about 80-90% of these planes from Airbus and has a lease agreement with Big Airline, so they’ll be configured to Big Airline’s specs. The average airline owns only a few planes.
With general aviation, specifically private jets, time-share leasing is common, but relatively new. the advantage is the lessor here takes care of all maintenance, crew training, airport fees, etc.
“Former British spy Christopher Steele made a stunning admission during an October 11, 2016 meeting with Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kathleen Kavalec, just 10 days before the FBI used his now-discredited dossier to justify securing a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant to spy on Trump campaign aide Carter Page and the campaign’s ties to Russia, according to The Hill’s John Solomon.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kathleen Kavalec’s written account of her Oct. 11, 2016, meeting with FBI informant Christopher Steele shows the Hillary Clinton campaign-funded British intelligence operative admitted that his research was political and facing an Election Day deadline. -The Hill.
According a typed summary of the meeting – which sat buried for over 2 1/2 years until an open-records litigation by Citizens United – Steele said that his client “is keen to see this information come to light prior to November 8,” the date of the 2016 US election. Also in the meeting was an employee of Steele’s Orbis Security firm, Tatyana Duran.
And according to The Hill, Kavalec’s notes of the meeting – including this stunning admission – do not appear to have been provided to the House Intelligence Committee for its Russia probe, according to former Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA).
“They tried to hide a lot of documents from us during our investigation, and it usually turns out there’s a reason for it,” Nunes told The Hill’s Solomon, who notes that One member of Congress had transmitted the memos to the DOJ’s Inspector General, Michael Horowitz out of concern that the IG’s office had never seen it either.
The FBI has retroactively classified Kavalec’s notes on 4/25/2019, despite the fact that it was originally marked unclassified in 2016. It is set to “Declassify on 12/31/2041,” 25 years after the 2016 elecgnificance of Kavalec’s notes is monumental, even with redactions, as it is definitive proof that the US government had full knowledge that the foundation of their FISA warrant had a political motive and an Election Day deadline to make public. We also know, according to the report, that this information was transmitted before the Page FISA warrant to people whose job is so sensitive their identity had to be protected. In short, there’s virtually no way the FBI didn’t know what they were dealing.”
“the footnote disclosing Steele’s possible bias takes up more than a full page in the applications, so there is literally no way the FISA Court could have missed it. The FBI gave the court enough information to evaluate Steele’s credibility.”
@Guarneri: I’ve never understood Trumper’s obsession with a political campaign hiring someone to do opposition research on an opponent. Do you think this is wrong? Do you think all politicians should stop doing it? And what if, as in this case, the researcher discovers things that appear criminal or traitorous? Should they ignore it? Keep if from investigators? Remember, he didn’t go to the press, he went to governmental organizations charged with looking into such things. And he didn’t claim to have done any more than collect information he heard from his contacts in the governmental intelligence communities around the world and then pass them on. You know, “If you see something, say something”. And quite a few of those claims turned out to be true. More might have been proven true, but Trump criminally obstructed justice.
Trumpers live in some bizarro world where crimes don’t count if they are discovered by people you disagree with politically. But I guess that’s part and parcel of the general lack of ethics and principles of the Trump community.
@Stormy Dragon: Well, if they have twin girls, they can name them Betty and Veronica. And didn’t Gopher have a search engine named Veronica way back when?
@Slugger: I have increasingly difficult reactions from the news as well. So let’s talk about something else.
Does anybody actually drink Red Bull? I don’t know anybody who does. I just don’t understand how they make enough money to sponsor so many events, racing teams, etc. And they don’t even manufacture the drink themselves. It’s just a marketing organization that markets itself.
A) It’s an open forum, so post what you want. That so many of you want to post about Trump is confusing to me. Don’t you have other interests?
B) “Archie” is not just 70s-era grouch or the fun-loving teen, he’s also the fox-hunting, stiff upper-lipped, tweed wearing chap whose chums will call him “Arch.” Completely appropriate.
“Does anybody actually drink Red Bull? I don’t know anybody who does. I just don’t understand how they make enough money to sponsor so many events, racing teams, etc. And they don’t even manufacture the drink themselves. It’s just a marketing organization that markets itself.”
How many college students do you know? Graveyard shift workers? Others who need to be awake at unusual hours?
When I was in college, there was a soda called Jolt Cola, which had an advertising slogan of “All the sugar and twice the caffeine”. It was very popular among people pulling all-nighters studying for finals. They now sell energy drinks as well.
@James Pearce: I actually thought of John Cleese’s character from A Fish Called Wanda, whose name (Archie Leach) was a shout-out to the real name of Cary Grant.
Does anybody actually drink Red Bull? I don’t know anybody who does. I just don’t understand how they make enough money to sponsor so many events, racing teams, etc. And they don’t even manufacture the drink themselves. It’s just a marketing organization that markets itself.
No idea of their sales, but I have some vague idea what it costs to run a Formula One team, and they run two, Red Bull and Toro Rosso. IIRC, maybe ten years ago McLaren let it be known they had a budget around 100M$. Ferrari responded they didn’t have a budget, meaning they could spend what it took. Can’t imagine it’s anything but way more expensive now.
You do remind me that a guy I knew years ago had a son who did marketing for Pepsi. Quoted the son as talking about how good it was to work for a company whose manufacturing costs were essentially nothing.
Remember last week when I said the fact Venezuela, Iran, etc. was Russia’s ally was ultimately going to win out over Bolton’s plans and that I wished I could be there to see Bolton’s face when he gets The Tweet?
Bolton just got The Tweet:
**Big development** Trump is now questioning his administration’s hardline policy in Venezuela. He feels backed in a corner, is frustrated w/ Bolton, thinks Maduro is a “tough cookie.” Story by @agearan @jdawsey1, me & @seungminkim https://t.co/LEPVwxgn74— John Hudson (@John_Hudson) May 9, 2019
If Superman was ultra strong through some biological circumstances of his birth with regard to a different star, would he necessarily have to have big bulging muscles? That seems overdetermined.
If you want to see a humorous take on the issue, specifically involving Superman, look up Niven’s essay “Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex.”
Or consider this: assume Superman has the strength he has due to his biology and so on. How many calories does he expend by flying a few miles, tearing through a few walls, fighting off a few bad guys, and taking Luthor to prison?
I think a realistic Superman would spend most of his day eating.
@Franklin: No, but while I was in Korea, I used to drink Jaegerbombs–half a Redbull with a shot of Jagermeister added. Very nice tasting, the Jaeger and Redbull flavors blended well. Much better that Campari and soda of my past life.
Still at work at 6:50 am. Sloooooooow Internet connection.
What are the odds El Cheeeto’s supporters will claim Iran’s partial withdrawal of the JCPOA totally justifies Dennison’s complete withdrawal a year previous?
Nuggets take game 5 of their series with a score of 124-98, which wasn’t actually the biggest blow out of the night.
Also, my boss left work early in a hurry yesterday. He had to go pick his kids up from school. It was shot up by a gunman.
@James Pearce: It’s only a matter of time before it affects someone you actually know. Luckily, I haven’t had that experience yet; there was a reported shooting here in Ann Arbor a month ago but it turned out to be popping balloons.
Anyway, I certainly hope his kids were physically unharmed and also emotionally resilient.
In Trump’s Twitter rampage this morning, he undertakes to explain how his taking a 1 billion-plus loss over a decade was actually something all smart developers did–and then concludes by saying the Times report is a “Fake News hit job.”
Which is it, Don? A smart move? Or Fake News?
Just in: Trump has exerted executive privilege over the Mueller report.
@CSK:
C) Dementia?
But I have to say, because facts beat opinion, that not even ordinary millionaires can afford to own, much less regularly operate, a private Boeing 757. Obviously Dennison has access to lots of money.
none of which menas he’s not a dismal failure at cooking real estate deals. We know that’s not where his money comes from.
The “republic not a democracy” thing comes up occasionally, generally on Dr. Taylor’s posts. LGM has a post, Political Theory Buzzwords for Dummies, linking to an entertaining and instructive essay on the subject. The essay is well worth reading, if just for entertainment.
Even takes a dive into a couple of Federalist pieces.
LGM concludes,
I find myself less and less engaged with the news cycle. The events of the day are somehow increasingly difficult to stomach. Does this mean that the bad guys are winning?
@Kathy:
Kathy, I think it doesn’t matter to Trump’s fans if he contradicts himself in a four-line Tweet. They’ll buy whatever horsesh!t he spouts. He lied when he maintained–after promising to release his returns a number of times–that the IRS wouldn’t allow him to do so because he was being audited.
Does Trump know he contradicts himself? I don’t know. If he does, he doesn’t care. What he does know is that his base will buy whatever he says, no matter how ludicrous.
I’d like to see the ownership papers for the Boeing.
@CSK:
So would I. it may be a lease. I don’t know how common that is in private aviation. But if it were a lease, you’d think it would have lapsed by now, and El Cheeto would have something newer, like a nice A321ceo
@Kathy: According to the late Dominick Dunne, billionaires (real ones) have a saying: “If it flies, floats, or f*cks, rent it.”
@Kathy: Not my area, but I believe leasing aircraft is very common. That would also include his biggest he could get helicopter. Almost certainly charged to his business or the campaign. This would usually be a timeshare deal. I would think other users would not be fond of having TRUMP plastered on it. But compared to lease costs, repainting is probably pocket change. And I would expect he’s dumped them now that he’s got AF1 and Marine1.
@CSK:
But what do fake, dumb “billionaires” do?
@Kathy: According to the fountain of knowledge, Wikipedia, his original plane, a 727, was part of what was left from his failed airline venture and he did actually own it. Who knows how that was actually paid for, or if he actually paid for it at all. He kept it for 14 years. He replaced it with Paul Allen’s (founder of Microsoft) 20 year old 757 in 2011.
I suspect, but have no evidence to back it up, that the investors in his various schemes are fronting a good bit of the cost. He has a history of getting gullible people involved in his schemes by giving the impression that he is investing his own money and is dedicated to the success of the project and he’s letting them in on the deal because he respects and likes them. These stooges, some very wealthy, don’t read the fine print and only later discover that Trump isn’t actually responsible for anything and collected all his very substantial fees upfront, out of the investors money. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he was generously inviting the stooge onto all sorts of trips, and using the investors own money to pay for it.
@gVOR08:
I’m more familiar with commercial aviation. There, leasing rules. When you read an announcement that a Big Airline agreed to buy 150 A320neos with an option for 100 more, what this means is a lessor will buy about 80-90% of these planes from Airbus and has a lease agreement with Big Airline, so they’ll be configured to Big Airline’s specs. The average airline owns only a few planes.
With general aviation, specifically private jets, time-share leasing is common, but relatively new. the advantage is the lessor here takes care of all maintenance, crew training, airport fees, etc.
“Former British spy Christopher Steele made a stunning admission during an October 11, 2016 meeting with Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kathleen Kavalec, just 10 days before the FBI used his now-discredited dossier to justify securing a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant to spy on Trump campaign aide Carter Page and the campaign’s ties to Russia, according to The Hill’s John Solomon.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kathleen Kavalec’s written account of her Oct. 11, 2016, meeting with FBI informant Christopher Steele shows the Hillary Clinton campaign-funded British intelligence operative admitted that his research was political and facing an Election Day deadline. -The Hill.
According a typed summary of the meeting – which sat buried for over 2 1/2 years until an open-records litigation by Citizens United – Steele said that his client “is keen to see this information come to light prior to November 8,” the date of the 2016 US election. Also in the meeting was an employee of Steele’s Orbis Security firm, Tatyana Duran.
And according to The Hill, Kavalec’s notes of the meeting – including this stunning admission – do not appear to have been provided to the House Intelligence Committee for its Russia probe, according to former Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA).
“They tried to hide a lot of documents from us during our investigation, and it usually turns out there’s a reason for it,” Nunes told The Hill’s Solomon, who notes that One member of Congress had transmitted the memos to the DOJ’s Inspector General, Michael Horowitz out of concern that the IG’s office had never seen it either.
The FBI has retroactively classified Kavalec’s notes on 4/25/2019, despite the fact that it was originally marked unclassified in 2016. It is set to “Declassify on 12/31/2041,” 25 years after the 2016 elecgnificance of Kavalec’s notes is monumental, even with redactions, as it is definitive proof that the US government had full knowledge that the foundation of their FISA warrant had a political motive and an Election Day deadline to make public. We also know, according to the report, that this information was transmitted before the Page FISA warrant to people whose job is so sensitive their identity had to be protected. In short, there’s virtually no way the FBI didn’t know what they were dealing.”
Heh.
Trivia: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have named their son: Archie. Not my fave, but better than Jughead, one supposes.
@CSK:
Not as much cache as Moose Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor (Sax-Coburg Gotha)
@Guarneri:
Um, old news?
“the footnote disclosing Steele’s possible bias takes up more than a full page in the applications, so there is literally no way the FISA Court could have missed it. The FBI gave the court enough information to evaluate Steele’s credibility.”
Saturday, July 21, 2018
https://www.lawfareblog.com/what-make-carter-page-fisa-applications
@Guarneri: I’ve never understood Trumper’s obsession with a political campaign hiring someone to do opposition research on an opponent. Do you think this is wrong? Do you think all politicians should stop doing it? And what if, as in this case, the researcher discovers things that appear criminal or traitorous? Should they ignore it? Keep if from investigators? Remember, he didn’t go to the press, he went to governmental organizations charged with looking into such things. And he didn’t claim to have done any more than collect information he heard from his contacts in the governmental intelligence communities around the world and then pass them on. You know, “If you see something, say something”. And quite a few of those claims turned out to be true. More might have been proven true, but Trump criminally obstructed justice.
Trumpers live in some bizarro world where crimes don’t count if they are discovered by people you disagree with politically. But I guess that’s part and parcel of the general lack of ethics and principles of the Trump community.
@CSK:
Maybe they both have very fond memories of GOPHER search protocols.
@Stormy Dragon: Well, if they have twin girls, they can name them Betty and Veronica. And didn’t Gopher have a search engine named Veronica way back when?
@Franklin:
My second year of Penn State in 1996, the “HUB Lawn Shooting” occured right outside my dorm, Atherton Hall.
Twenty years later, HUB shooting still looms
The only reason I wasn’t on the HUB lawn at the time was that it was a Tuesday, the one day of the week I had to get up early for an 8am class.
@CSK:
GOPHER had three main search engines: Archie (FTP files), Jughead (single server indexing), and Veronica (multi-server indexing)
People kill people with guns in this country because they can.
@Slugger: I have increasingly difficult reactions from the news as well. So let’s talk about something else.
Does anybody actually drink Red Bull? I don’t know anybody who does. I just don’t understand how they make enough money to sponsor so many events, racing teams, etc. And they don’t even manufacture the drink themselves. It’s just a marketing organization that markets itself.
Two things:
A) It’s an open forum, so post what you want. That so many of you want to post about Trump is confusing to me. Don’t you have other interests?
B) “Archie” is not just 70s-era grouch or the fun-loving teen, he’s also the fox-hunting, stiff upper-lipped, tweed wearing chap whose chums will call him “Arch.” Completely appropriate.
@James Pearce: Yes, but I can guarantee you that the name on that individual’s birth/baptismal certificate will be “Archibald,” not “Archie.”
@Franklin:
“Does anybody actually drink Red Bull? I don’t know anybody who does. I just don’t understand how they make enough money to sponsor so many events, racing teams, etc. And they don’t even manufacture the drink themselves. It’s just a marketing organization that markets itself.”
How many college students do you know? Graveyard shift workers? Others who need to be awake at unusual hours?
When I was in college, there was a soda called Jolt Cola, which had an advertising slogan of “All the sugar and twice the caffeine”. It was very popular among people pulling all-nighters studying for finals. They now sell energy drinks as well.
Texas GOP Rep. Rails Against ‘Sorcery’ Of Vaccines In Twitter Fight With Doctors
@James Pearce: I actually thought of John Cleese’s character from A Fish Called Wanda, whose name (Archie Leach) was a shout-out to the real name of Cary Grant.
@James Pearce:..That so many of you want to post about Trump is confusing to me.
You’re just a Ball of Confusion
@Franklin:
No idea of their sales, but I have some vague idea what it costs to run a Formula One team, and they run two, Red Bull and Toro Rosso. IIRC, maybe ten years ago McLaren let it be known they had a budget around 100M$. Ferrari responded they didn’t have a budget, meaning they could spend what it took. Can’t imagine it’s anything but way more expensive now.
You do remind me that a guy I knew years ago had a son who did marketing for Pepsi. Quoted the son as talking about how good it was to work for a company whose manufacturing costs were essentially nothing.
@CSK:
That would be unfortunate, but also appropriate. “Archie” is perfect.
@Kylopod:
That’s funny, because I thought of…Cary Grant.
(And also Mark Strong in Guy Ritchie’s Rocnrolla.)
@Mister Bluster: This is my favorite version of that song. I’m into palm-muting.
Remember last week when I said the fact Venezuela, Iran, etc. was Russia’s ally was ultimately going to win out over Bolton’s plans and that I wished I could be there to see Bolton’s face when he gets The Tweet?
Bolton just got The Tweet:
Can someone free my comment from moderation please?
If Superman was ultra strong through some biological circumstances of his birth with regard to a different star, would he necessarily have to have big bulging muscles? That seems overdetermined.
@Teve:
No super hero makes logical sense.
If you want to see a humorous take on the issue, specifically involving Superman, look up Niven’s essay “Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex.”
Or consider this: assume Superman has the strength he has due to his biology and so on. How many calories does he expend by flying a few miles, tearing through a few walls, fighting off a few bad guys, and taking Luthor to prison?
I think a realistic Superman would spend most of his day eating.
@Franklin: No, but while I was in Korea, I used to drink Jaegerbombs–half a Redbull with a shot of Jagermeister added. Very nice tasting, the Jaeger and Redbull flavors blended well. Much better that Campari and soda of my past life.
@just nutha: I also used to like the tall bullet-shaped shot glasses that Jaeger was poured in. Very pleasant. Nice effect.
@James Pearce: About B–https://uk.news.yahoo.com/piers-morgan-mocks-meghan-markle-and-prince-harry-for-giving-son-archie-the-most-popular-white-middleclass-name095653402.html Piers Morgan, “the fox-hunting, stiff upper-lipped, tweed wearing chap” seems to disagree with you. Hmmmmm… How to decide…
@Kathy:
It’s well established that Superman photosynthesises. They don’t use that exact term, but his body is a solar battery, so… he’s a plant.