Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.
Looks like the talks are collapsing again in the U.K. for Brexit. The DUP are rejecting the cobbled-up agreement, which is causing the ERG to not get on board, which is causing the lack of a majority in the HoC.
So much for the last flurry of optimism we were seeing from everyone. Note that this has very little to do with the EU–it has to do with the lack of a final position on the part of the U.K. and their continued ding-dong squabbling among all five groups.
Moral of story: if you’re going to unpick an international extremely-close-knit agreement which governs a huge part of your legislation and your economy, don’t do it until you’ve decided what you want to do instead. “We want to leave!” isn’t a plan–it’s a political slogan.
“After I watched the president slowly and methodically squeeze the life out of my wife’s body as she gasped, futilely, for breath, he gave me his personal assurance that he was not responsible for her death, so I continue to stand by this administration,” said Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN), who along with every Republican in both the House and Senate stated that while killing off their families in cold blood might not be entirely proper, it was certainly not an impeachable offense, no matter how the media tried to spin it. “Now, this is not an action I would have taken myself. I personally would not have wrapped my hands around my 5-year-old son’s neck and crushed his windpipe. But if Donald Trump’s approach to governing is sometimes a bit outside the ordinary, that’s because Donald Trump is no ordinary president. And maybe that’s not such a bad thing.”
Friend of mine just posted this on social media, I don’t know where he got it:
More people speaking up. I just read this:
“The Trump White House told Fiona Hill that while she was allowed to show up and testify to the House impeachment inquiry today, she wasn’t allowed to discuss a number of topics, due to executive privilege. But according to NBC News, Hill told the Trump regime that because no such privilege applies when a suspected crime is involved, she was going to go ahead and tell the impeachment inquiry everything.”
It’s about time someone stood up and made this point.
@OzarkHillbilly: The only solution(s) I’ve seen put out by Brexiters concerning the RoI/Northern Ireland border have been “we don’t want a border, RoI doesn’t want a border, therefore there won’t be a border” (deliberately ignoring the whole WTO thing), or the even more brain-dead “gee, wouldn’t it be nice if RoI left the EU as well and came back under British rule”.
What happens when Eliza Doolittle “Wouldn’t it be Loverly” day-dreaming takes hold of everyone. I thought the Brits were supposed to be realistic…..
While the British have not disclosed the plan, EU sources have outlined the main details. Northern Ireland would be legally part of the UK customs area, but practically in the EU customs union, following European rules on tariffs and quotas. It would be simultaneously in and out – a model quickly called Schrödinger’s customs union, in mock homage to the physicist’s theoretical cat that was simultaneously dead and alive.
The review is being conducted by White House lawyers, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke to the Times. White House counsel reportedly wants to get clarity on why deputy White House counsel John Eisenberg placed a memo on the call into a password-protected vault– a computer system typically used for highly classified information.
trumpthump…. trumpthump….
According to people who heard about Eisenberg’s reaction to the inquiry, the White House counsel is furious that his actions are under scrutiny. Eisenberg claims he placed the document, which is a rough transcript of the Ukraine call, in the secret system in order to prevent leaks, which have been a consistent problem for the Trump administration.
I hear a new House subpeona being issued.
While it is not immediately clear who ordered the review, acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney reportedly supports the idea and has directed some of his aides to help out. The White House is also reportedly already conducting a different review, interviewing staffers about how Trump’s calls with foreign powers are typically handled.
Uh huh. I’ll just bet he does.
Many White House aides believe the probe is more of an effort to find a scapegoat for the scandal that’s erupted around the call, which has become the basis of the House’s impeachment inquiry into President Trump.
I was cooking some broccoli the other night to go with dinner, and wondering what I could do to pep it up in a different way. I had received a copy of The Flavor Bible for Christmas last year, so I flipped to the page for broccoli and ran down the list of “what goes with broccoli”. Butter, salt, garlic, parmesan, tarragon, yes, yes, I know… caraway seed… Wait, what?
Caraway seed?
So I toasted some caraway seed in a pan, semi-steamed the broccoli in the microwave, then finished it sauteed in butter with the toasted caraway.
Wow. Very nice, and totally different. Whodathunkit?
Alas, Marvin the Paranoid Android has at last been relieved of the terrible pain in all the diodes down his left side. RIP Stephen Moore. (No, not that one, the good one.)
Well, surprise, surprise. Pro Publica has gotten hold of some documents that indicate
Donald Trump committed tax fraud, undervaluing some of his buildings for tax purposes and overvaluing them for lenders.
Curious news yesterday. Swiss, an airline owned by the Lufthansa group, grounded all their A220 (formerly C-Series) aircraft, due to engine issues. They’d suffered two diversions in the last four weeks or so due to engine malfunctions, plus other minor incidents with engines. No word on what other A220 operators are doing.
Then Swiss announced they’d begun making inspections, and a few A220s were placed back in service.
Engine issues are serious. All twin engine jets can work on one engine. But the assumption there is that engine failure is rare, and the odds of both engines failing is very low. If an engine model has inherent problems, then failure may not be rare, and the odds of both engines failing are not low.
I guess we’ll see. But it’s plain weird to have a model grounded and placed back into service the same day.
Liz Cheney blames Turkish aggression on impeachment proceedings. Those terrible DemonCraps caused the problems.
I have to give Liz a lot of credit, she’s making progress here. It wasn’t all that long ago when Liz would have blamed Hillary and her private email server for this.
@grumpy realist:
I thought at the weekend that that a deal was looking more likely; but odds seem to be lengthening.
Johnson needs a sizeable number of Labour votes to pass a deal; most wavering Labour MPs will only risk defying the party if a win is certain; so DUP/ERG growls make them unwilling to break cover. And DUP/ERG are only cowed if Johnson can count on other votes.
Vicious circle for Johnson.
Also, the Labour party has been warning that MPs supporting Johnson’s deal would face dire consequences; and that attaching a confirmatory referendum amendment to a Johnson deal would not be an acceptable excuse.
Further: it appears the UK proposals have omitted all sorts of required details, some of which have nasty political “gotchas” in the small print.
e.g. the specifics of the post-Brexit tax arrangements for VAT collection and rebates, the appeals procedure for businesses re. regulation is it under the ECJ jurisdiction, how will any N.I. regulatory divergence from the rest of UK be managed legally, etc. etc.
General realistic opinion is that even if basic political agreement is there, there is simply not time to get everything worked down to the required levels of technical detail, turned into legal text, translated and approved by deadline.
Johnson will simply have to ask for an extension; which is politically dangerous for him.
Once again, the UK government is self-sabotaged by the breezy, cocky, deal-at-the-last- minute,”details are for little people” arrogance of Tory politicians.
OTOH Johnson may win through by bribing the DUP; and by reminding them that No Deal might be unpleasant for the EU, nasty for the Republic of Ireland, horrid for Britain but it would be downright horrifying for Northern Ireland. (In all logic, the DUP should be ardent Remainers, but logic and the DUP seldom walk far together.)
I fully expect Trump, and many in the GOP, to blame the impeachment inquiry for everything that goes wrong anywhere. Trump in particular could blame the now-infamous Ukraine call on the impeachment.
@JohnSF: As said, “the devil is in the details”…..which doesn’t go very well with the British habit of its politicians to “wing it”, “muddle through”, or automatically assume the other side is “bluffing” when they definitely aren’t.
The Charge of the Light Brigade epitomises what happens when you put upper-class British mentality in charge.
@JohnSF: The regulatory divergence is the thing that I always thought would be the hurdle to leaving NI in the EU sphere. Customs and even the VAT are accounting, and it’s straightforward (not the same as simple). I’ve been thinking in terms of a drug that’s part of the NHS’s formulary, but not approved for use by the EU.
@Michael Cain:
Yes, the details of things like that would make NI in SM very complex to set up and manage legally.
Interestingly enough (for an arbitrary value of interesting…) technically speaking the NHS doesn’t operate in Northern Ireland, it’s role is taken by HSC-NI, which covers social care as well as health. In practice, it uses the NICE pharma guidelines, but formally they are HSC approved; IIRC there have been some instances of drugs prescribable in Britain and not Northern Ireland.
A big difference in healthcare is that Northern Ireland has very restrictive laws on abortion.
@OzarkHillbilly: An interesting mixed metaphor problem. The staffers in question are not “rats” per se, but rather “minions.” On the other hand, minions do not desert a sinking ship…
And in other PoTUS News, how about all the work that’s going on to attempt to shield a diplomat’s wife from facing potential vehicular manslaughter charges in the UK — including trying to force the victim’s parents to meet with the woman in hopes of a photo op and getting them to drop charges:
@Kathy: Why do people add milk to meatloaf? Buttermilk? Sometimes, but only as a salt substitute (for which it is ineffective as it has at least as much sodium as the salt you would add has). Glaze is an interesting idea though. Is this like ham glaze? How much do you add?
And the brave silence of Trumps defenders here on this entire topic is frankly deafening. But hey, we’ve known that they would passively support mass killings and ethnic cleansing for tax cuts and judges from the beginning. Now they are just proving us right.
Keep in mind I didn’t grow up with it as a staple. When I first wanted to do it, I picked a recipe online. Many use milk for some reason (tradition, I should guess).
The glaze has tomato puree, ketchup (no added sugar), paprika, garlic powder, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and mustard.
Before cooking, I mix about 3/4 cup glaze in the beef mix, along with 1 cup breadcrumbs and two beaten eggs. The glaze is very liquid. And it’s more sauce than glaze, as I pour all of it on top of the loaf. Upon baking, it turns thick.
I like barbecue sauce, but they’ve gotten so sweet recently, it’s like putting icing on your entree.
BTW, I didn’t list amounts for the glaze. Warning, I won’t speak Imperial:
210 gr. tomato puree
1/4 cup ketchup
3-4 tablespoons mustard (I mix yellow and grain mustard when I have grain mustard)
1 tablespoon paprika
1-2 tablespoons garlic powder
2-3 tablespoons soy sauce
2-3 tablespoons Worcestershire
@Kathy: The milk is used to soak the breadcrumbs, which keeps the meatloaf moist and tender. Although you can use just about any liquid, not just milk. I assume that brings a little sweetness, as it does a bolognese…
Ok, but it seems odd to mix milk with beef, and not because the beef used to eat milk when it was growing up. after all, cheese goes perfectly well with some meat dishes.
Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve any recipes for entrees that use milk. Other dairy, sure, like cheese or cream. Milk I do use in many deserts, like coffee jello.
It seems that last Sunday before the game, the Steelers made a huge sacrifice of fine bulls and sheep to Zeus, who graciously granted them Aristeia for half the game.
The Cowboys, on the other hand, must have consumed the sacred cattle of the Sun god Helios.
But that’s why I add milk. The recipe is milk, instant coffee (don’t shoot me; it’s the only kind that dissolves well in milk without crating homogenization issues) and unflavored gelatin. TIP: dissolve the gelatin in 1/2 a cup of boiling water, it’s far easier. Downside: some will coagulate all over the inside of your cup. Solution: add more boiling water to the the cup, and scrub with a brush after it cools down enough for you to stand it.
What didn’t work so well was using drinkable yogurt instead of milk. Too much acidity all around. On the other hand, made for milk vanilla gelatin, or better yet flan-like gelatin, also works well with coffee.
Second TIP: either of these can stand a few ounces of Kahlua, or can be served with a drizzle of Kahlua on top.
@Teve: In fact, I will quote the letter in full to show it’s perfection:
Dear Mr. President:
Let’s work out a good deal! You don’t want to be responsible for slaughtering thousands of people, and I don’t want to be responsible for destroying the Turkish economy—and I will. I’ve already given you a little sample with respect to Pastor Brunson.
I have worked hard to resolve some of your problems. Don’t let the world down. You can make a great deal. General Mazloum is willing to negotiate with you, and he is willing to make concessions that they never would have made in the past. I am confidentially enclosing his letter to me, just received.
History will look upon you favorably if you get this the right and humane way. It will look upon you forever as the devil if good things don’t happen. Don’t be a tough guy. Don’t be a fool!
I will call you later.
He is advising Edrogan to not be a fool. I don’t know what more you could want. Do you seriously want him to tell Edrogan to be a fool? That’s crazy talk!
Intermittently interested. Though this last bout has been going on for five years…
I frequent travel blogs run by aviation enthusiasts (most of what I know about premium travel comes from reviews on such sites), as well as some straight aviation blogs, and of course the Aviation Herald, which publishes commercial aviation incidents daily.
I also read a great deal about aviation accidents and investigations. a good resource is Sylvia Spruck Wrigley’s blog Fear of Landing, as well as her books on the subject.
Charles Johnson
@Green_Footballs
·
54m
We laugh to keep from crying, but it really is unbelievably terrible that a monster like Donald Trump is squatting in the Oval Office, and it may take a generation to repair the damage he’s done.
Just a suggestion but lately I’ve been obsessed with Smoked Paprika. Whenever you use paprika try the smoked kind.
I was in Hungary about 15 years ago, and went looking for smoked paprika. I didn’t realize it was a Spanish thing, not a Hungarian thing — but! It turns out that the old folks knew all about it, and used it all the time. Our tour guide’s grandmother pointed me at a place in the Budapest farmer’s market that sold “smooked paprika” (sic) that was to die for, both sweet and hot versions.
Recipe:
Peel and dice a butternut squash.
Make a paste of olive oil, hot smoked paprika*, ground cumin, pepper, and salt.
Toss the diced squash in the paste. Bake at 400 F until browned and soft.
In a food processor, blend the squash with 4 TBSP butter. Add half and half until the puree is the desired texture. If you love puree like I do, stop there. If you prefer soup, thin the puree with chicken stock until it’s the texture you like.
Smoked paprika: excellent for piri-piri chicken sauce/marinade:
2-4 red bird’s eye chillis
2 garlic cloves
Juice of 1 lemon
1½ tsp sea salt
2 tsp sweet smoked paprika
50ml olive oil
1 tsp brown sugar (or use c. tablespoon port)
Jointed chicken, or chicken legs (with thighs).
Marinade chicken in some of the sauce for a couple of hours, bake chicken c.35 minutes, brown under the grill or on a barbecue.
Serve with remainder of sauce heated.
Looks like ERG are on the bus and DUP under it. Now depends on numbers in Commons.
If everyone votes as per 3rd vote on May Deal, except the 28 ERG holdouts now vote for (i.e. DUP still against) then Johnson needs 4 more votes from somewhere to get over the line.
@Kathy: You might want to add a little extra sugar and vanilla to the batter to balance the flavors better, too. And try a “sweet cream” batter rather than a “buttermilk” batter–the buttermilk batter might turn out to salty for the coffee flavor.
I thought about putting in some banana in the coffee pancakes as well. My Unified Theory of Coffee is that coffee combines well with every other flavor in the universe. I haven’t tested all, but thus far it’s done great with cinnamon, chocolate (mocha), mint, mint and chocolate (mint mocha), strawberries, lime, vanilla, coconut, cheesecake, and a few more.
I’m afraid the ingredients available vary between countries. Buttermilk is not easy to find down here. I use plain milk (low fat), and no sugar at all (isn’t that what the syrup is for?). I might try cinnamon and/or fruit to balance the coffee’s bitterness.
Matt O’Brien
@ObsoleteDogma
· 57m
The scariest thing about Trump is the way he’s revealing how infinitely unprincipled Republicans are. They will angrily defend him by saying he didn’t do X, then, when he admits that he did X, they’ll instantly move on to saying that there’s nothing wrong with doing X.
The only exception I have yet discovered, at least among flavors I normally enjoy, is cranberry. Oh, and garlic.
Well, now, that would be a problem. My Special Theory on Garlic holds that no entree is complete without garlic. Corollary: one clove of garlic is not enough for anything. Even if you are preparing one clove of garlic, you should use two.
now, how to combine coffee and garlic? Not in a desert or a drink. Hmm.
Coffee makes a very good steak rub. You’re going have to go into that trust space if you’ve not experienced it. It really is quite good.
Do your salt and pepper seasoning as normal, then internally calculate the total volume of both and use that amount of medium ground coffee or a slightly lesser amount of finely ground espresso. Use as a dry rub.
Sear in a cast iron pan and finish in the oven.
While resting, let some garlic compound butter melt all over that son of a gun.
About half to a third of my life, I’m mostly there. I will read the headlines and absorb the days news in five minutes, and then play a game or watch videos or tv and not really think about it again that day.
I’m not sure if it’s healthy or unhealthy, or adaptive or not.
Sometimes for a few days or a few months. Paying attention doesn’t change anything.
Somedays the quick gist is plenty. Other days the deep dive.
Everyone does mustard on pork, but mustard as a steak wet rub is surprisingly great too
Oh yeah. My current steak rub blend is dry mustard (Coleman’s), green peppercorn, kosher salt, cumin powder, ancho pepper, a little bit of powdered rosemary, and a little bit of celery salt.
That said, the coffee rub is pretty damned good too.
@de stijl: Having been born in the 70s, I was more familiar with Mr. T than Bob Dylan. I cannot hear the Bob Dylan song “I Pity The Poor Immigrant” without thinking “I Pity The Fool Immigrant.”
Reading about Mitch Mulvaney walking back his admission of a quid pro quo today leads me to believe that either he does not know Latin, or that he hopes no one else does.
@de stijl: A little faux Vietnamese stand in a high cost “gourmet” food court near my last job had a coffee rubbed pork as a protein option in their rice bowls. It was amazing.
@Ms. Cris Ericson: I don’t call for banning people often, but will someone rid me of this long-winded crazy person with terrible formatting?
It’s the terrible formatting, mostly.
And the long winded thing.
I don’t even want Paul L. banned most days (although we will put him into a FEMA re-education camp, forcibly put him through gender reassignment surgery to make a man out of him, and then force him to marry his dog and sign up for ObamaCare… but banning seems a step too far.)
I have a fool’s journey chasing fool’s gold. I want Andrew W.K. to cover Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” a la “Party Hard” just because that would be the bossest move ever and would delight me to no end.
Don’t dm or @ the man; that’d be rude. Whatever guile you can imagine that isn’t rude or pushy, do that.
It’s sorta my life goal.
Compare and contrast:
Party Hard
Bad Romance
Btw, Andrew W.K. is like the menchiest dude ever. He really is a good dude, no foolin’.
Same ratio as for beef? My rule of thumb is to add up the salt+pepper and use that amount as the rub. Essentially, the rub would be 1/4 salt, 1/4 pepper, 1/2 coffee.
@Gustopher: I 2nd banning her after a warning or 2. She’s got her own website with a blog section that could use some content. Right now it says “Posts coming soon”. That’s where she can persuade the citizens of Vermont that she deserves their vote, not here.
I think she’ll be happy if she’s banned. More evidence that the deep state or the Illuminati or whatever is out to get her. I’m all for making people happy.
Andrew W.K. routinely has auctions and giveaways benefiting agencies fighting teen suicide, depression, and anxiety related issues.
He is very upfront with his own mental health issues, and continually raises money to fund people and groups helping young people with those same issues. Dude walks the walk.
When I earlier said he was a menschy dude, that was a quarter of the story.
—-
I only know this now because of a foolish, stupid, hubristic desire for a mega-mashup. I’ve been working this for a year more or less.
AWK is perhaps one of the most decent, truly big hearted person I’ve ever encountered.
Looks like the talks are collapsing again in the U.K. for Brexit. The DUP are rejecting the cobbled-up agreement, which is causing the ERG to not get on board, which is causing the lack of a majority in the HoC.
So much for the last flurry of optimism we were seeing from everyone. Note that this has very little to do with the EU–it has to do with the lack of a final position on the part of the U.K. and their continued ding-dong squabbling among all five groups.
Moral of story: if you’re going to unpick an international extremely-close-knit agreement which governs a huge part of your legislation and your economy, don’t do it until you’ve decided what you want to do instead. “We want to leave!” isn’t a plan–it’s a political slogan.
@grumpy realist:
FTFY.
Friend of mine just posted this on social media, I don’t know where he got it:
@OzarkHillbilly: The only solution(s) I’ve seen put out by Brexiters concerning the RoI/Northern Ireland border have been “we don’t want a border, RoI doesn’t want a border, therefore there won’t be a border” (deliberately ignoring the whole WTO thing), or the even more brain-dead “gee, wouldn’t it be nice if RoI left the EU as well and came back under British rule”.
What happens when Eliza Doolittle “Wouldn’t it be Loverly” day-dreaming takes hold of everyone. I thought the Brits were supposed to be realistic…..
Liz Cheney blames Turkish aggression on impeachment proceedings. Those terrible DemonCraps caused the problems.
@grumpy realist:
The whole Brexit thing is ludicrous.
Well, now we’re gonna get to the bottom of this.
trumpthump…. trumpthump….
I hear a new House subpeona being issued.
Uh huh. I’ll just bet he does.
The rat’s are finally starting to get a clue.
Hmmmmm….. Both Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman were GHWBush’s funeral.
Jeb says they weren’t invited.
@Teve: I won’t be surprised if they blame Jimmy Carter.
https://www.axios.com/erdogan-wont-meet-pence-pompeo-turkey-syria-8c05e0bc-d309-46b9-912c-b7eabf512167.html
Now Turkey is opening mocking Trump. Erdogan knows what a weak ass coward Trump is and has his number.
Lots of noise on Guiliani and Turkey interactions. Let’s not forget that Flynn also was taking money from there.
On a lighter note…
I was cooking some broccoli the other night to go with dinner, and wondering what I could do to pep it up in a different way. I had received a copy of The Flavor Bible for Christmas last year, so I flipped to the page for broccoli and ran down the list of “what goes with broccoli”. Butter, salt, garlic, parmesan, tarragon, yes, yes, I know… caraway seed… Wait, what?
Caraway seed?
So I toasted some caraway seed in a pan, semi-steamed the broccoli in the microwave, then finished it sauteed in butter with the toasted caraway.
Wow. Very nice, and totally different. Whodathunkit?
Alas, Marvin the Paranoid Android has at last been relieved of the terrible pain in all the diodes down his left side. RIP Stephen Moore. (No, not that one, the good one.)
@DrDaveT:
I cook broccoli just about only when I make pasta primavera.
My one specific cooking tip is this: don’t add milk to meatloaf, add some glaze to the mix instead.
Well, surprise, surprise. Pro Publica has gotten hold of some documents that indicate
Donald Trump committed tax fraud, undervaluing some of his buildings for tax purposes and overvaluing them for lenders.
Curious news yesterday. Swiss, an airline owned by the Lufthansa group, grounded all their A220 (formerly C-Series) aircraft, due to engine issues. They’d suffered two diversions in the last four weeks or so due to engine malfunctions, plus other minor incidents with engines. No word on what other A220 operators are doing.
Then Swiss announced they’d begun making inspections, and a few A220s were placed back in service.
Engine issues are serious. All twin engine jets can work on one engine. But the assumption there is that engine failure is rare, and the odds of both engines failing is very low. If an engine model has inherent problems, then failure may not be rare, and the odds of both engines failing are not low.
I guess we’ll see. But it’s plain weird to have a model grounded and placed back into service the same day.
@Teve:
I have to give Liz a lot of credit, she’s making progress here. It wasn’t all that long ago when Liz would have blamed Hillary and her private email server for this.
@grumpy realist:
I thought at the weekend that that a deal was looking more likely; but odds seem to be lengthening.
Johnson needs a sizeable number of Labour votes to pass a deal; most wavering Labour MPs will only risk defying the party if a win is certain; so DUP/ERG growls make them unwilling to break cover. And DUP/ERG are only cowed if Johnson can count on other votes.
Vicious circle for Johnson.
Also, the Labour party has been warning that MPs supporting Johnson’s deal would face dire consequences; and that attaching a confirmatory referendum amendment to a Johnson deal would not be an acceptable excuse.
Further: it appears the UK proposals have omitted all sorts of required details, some of which have nasty political “gotchas” in the small print.
e.g. the specifics of the post-Brexit tax arrangements for VAT collection and rebates, the appeals procedure for businesses re. regulation is it under the ECJ jurisdiction, how will any N.I. regulatory divergence from the rest of UK be managed legally, etc. etc.
General realistic opinion is that even if basic political agreement is there, there is simply not time to get everything worked down to the required levels of technical detail, turned into legal text, translated and approved by deadline.
Johnson will simply have to ask for an extension; which is politically dangerous for him.
Once again, the UK government is self-sabotaged by the breezy, cocky, deal-at-the-last- minute,”details are for little people” arrogance of Tory politicians.
OTOH Johnson may win through by bribing the DUP; and by reminding them that No Deal might be unpleasant for the EU, nasty for the Republic of Ireland, horrid for Britain but it would be downright horrifying for Northern Ireland. (In all logic, the DUP should be ardent Remainers, but logic and the DUP seldom walk far together.)
(Memo to self: buy more alcohol.)
@Teve:
I fully expect Trump, and many in the GOP, to blame the impeachment inquiry for everything that goes wrong anywhere. Trump in particular could blame the now-infamous Ukraine call on the impeachment.
@JohnSF: As said, “the devil is in the details”…..which doesn’t go very well with the British habit of its politicians to “wing it”, “muddle through”, or automatically assume the other side is “bluffing” when they definitely aren’t.
The Charge of the Light Brigade epitomises what happens when you put upper-class British mentality in charge.
@JohnSF: The regulatory divergence is the thing that I always thought would be the hurdle to leaving NI in the EU sphere. Customs and even the VAT are accounting, and it’s straightforward (not the same as simple). I’ve been thinking in terms of a drug that’s part of the NHS’s formulary, but not approved for use by the EU.
@OzarkHillbilly: Has OJ found the real killers yet?
Trump administration says it wants to kick 1 million kids off of free school lunch.
@Teve:
If they want food, they should come up with dirt on Joe Biden.
@Michael Cain:
Yes, the details of things like that would make NI in SM very complex to set up and manage legally.
Interestingly enough (for an arbitrary value of interesting…) technically speaking the NHS doesn’t operate in Northern Ireland, it’s role is taken by HSC-NI, which covers social care as well as health. In practice, it uses the NICE pharma guidelines, but formally they are HSC approved; IIRC there have been some instances of drugs prescribable in Britain and not Northern Ireland.
A big difference in healthcare is that Northern Ireland has very restrictive laws on abortion.
@OzarkHillbilly: An interesting mixed metaphor problem. The staffers in question are not “rats” per se, but rather “minions.” On the other hand, minions do not desert a sinking ship…
And in other PoTUS News, how about all the work that’s going on to attempt to shield a diplomat’s wife from facing potential vehicular manslaughter charges in the UK — including trying to force the victim’s parents to meet with the woman in hopes of a photo op and getting them to drop charges:
https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/16/politics/harry-dunn-family-white-house-meeting-trump-intl-gbr/index.html
But man, remember how Obama disrespected Britain by giving back that bust of Churchill at the end of its loan period.
@Kathy: Why do people add milk to meatloaf? Buttermilk? Sometimes, but only as a salt substitute (for which it is ineffective as it has at least as much sodium as the salt you would add has). Glaze is an interesting idea though. Is this like ham glaze? How much do you add?
@Teve:
Hasn’t she heard, the Kurds are a greater threat than ISIS:
https://theweek.com/speedreads/872279/trump-claims-kurdish-pkk-worse-than-isis-thats-erdogan-talking-point
And the brave silence of Trumps defenders here on this entire topic is frankly deafening. But hey, we’ve known that they would passively support mass killings and ethnic cleansing for tax cuts and judges from the beginning. Now they are just proving us right.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
Keep in mind I didn’t grow up with it as a staple. When I first wanted to do it, I picked a recipe online. Many use milk for some reason (tradition, I should guess).
The glaze has tomato puree, ketchup (no added sugar), paprika, garlic powder, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and mustard.
Before cooking, I mix about 3/4 cup glaze in the beef mix, along with 1 cup breadcrumbs and two beaten eggs. The glaze is very liquid. And it’s more sauce than glaze, as I pour all of it on top of the loaf. Upon baking, it turns thick.
@Kathy:
My wife uses commercial “chili sauce” (really just thick home-style ketchup) for the same purpose. Or occasionally Heinz 57, or barbecue sauce, or…
@DrDaveT: I use the chili sauce as well. More flavor than ketchup.
@al Ameda: Well, Daddy didn’t get his yearned-for war with Iran, so no doubt that’s where the Dems’ interference started.
@DrDaveT:
I like barbecue sauce, but they’ve gotten so sweet recently, it’s like putting icing on your entree.
BTW, I didn’t list amounts for the glaze. Warning, I won’t speak Imperial:
210 gr. tomato puree
1/4 cup ketchup
3-4 tablespoons mustard (I mix yellow and grain mustard when I have grain mustard)
1 tablespoon paprika
1-2 tablespoons garlic powder
2-3 tablespoons soy sauce
2-3 tablespoons Worcestershire
@Kathy: The milk is used to soak the breadcrumbs, which keeps the meatloaf moist and tender. Although you can use just about any liquid, not just milk. I assume that brings a little sweetness, as it does a bolognese…
@wr:
Ok, but it seems odd to mix milk with beef, and not because the beef used to eat milk when it was growing up. after all, cheese goes perfectly well with some meat dishes.
Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve any recipes for entrees that use milk. Other dairy, sure, like cheese or cream. Milk I do use in many deserts, like coffee jello.
ouch 😛
It seems that last Sunday before the game, the Steelers made a huge sacrifice of fine bulls and sheep to Zeus, who graciously granted them Aristeia for half the game.
The Cowboys, on the other hand, must have consumed the sacred cattle of the Sun god Helios.
@wr: Ah! I don’t use bread crumbs, I use grated bread, so my crumbs are not dry enough to need milk. That clears it up.
ETA: Coffee Jello? Another anomaly–I would think coffee would be too acidic to add to gelatin.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
For a coffee lover…
But that’s why I add milk. The recipe is milk, instant coffee (don’t shoot me; it’s the only kind that dissolves well in milk without crating homogenization issues) and unflavored gelatin. TIP: dissolve the gelatin in 1/2 a cup of boiling water, it’s far easier. Downside: some will coagulate all over the inside of your cup. Solution: add more boiling water to the the cup, and scrub with a brush after it cools down enough for you to stand it.
What didn’t work so well was using drinkable yogurt instead of milk. Too much acidity all around. On the other hand, made for milk vanilla gelatin, or better yet flan-like gelatin, also works well with coffee.
Second TIP: either of these can stand a few ounces of Kahlua, or can be served with a drizzle of Kahlua on top.
Have you seen that goddamn letter he wrote to Erdogan.
Jesus Fuckin Christ.
@Teve: It was a perfect letter.
@Teve: Yes. Words fail me.
@Teve:
I think this is the kind of letter that used to get messengers beheaded in the old days.
@Teve: In fact, I will quote the letter in full to show it’s perfection:
He is advising Edrogan to not be a fool. I don’t know what more you could want. Do you seriously want him to tell Edrogan to be a fool? That’s crazy talk!
Apparently he passed out copies of the letter to people to show what a tough guy he was.
@Teve: Has Turkey and Syria been added to Barron’s portfolio?
If not, maybe they should be?
@CSK:
Trump failed the words first.
BTW, if you’ve seen the photo of the letter, isn’t text supposed to be justified? Word has the button for it right there.
the fantastically profitable mystery of the Trump chaos trades
@Gustopher:
“He is advising Edrogan to not be a fool.”
Well, Trump certainly has plenty of experience about what makes a fool.
@Kathy: I appreciate your insights into aviation issues and so I’m curious; are you professionally associated or just interested?
@Teve:
Was it written in crayon? I’ve seen better diplomacy from 4-year-olds.
@MarkedMan:
Intermittently interested. Though this last bout has been going on for five years…
I frequent travel blogs run by aviation enthusiasts (most of what I know about premium travel comes from reviews on such sites), as well as some straight aviation blogs, and of course the Aviation Herald, which publishes commercial aviation incidents daily.
I also read a great deal about aviation accidents and investigations. a good resource is Sylvia Spruck Wrigley’s blog Fear of Landing, as well as her books on the subject.
It can be very satisfying to pick a subject and geek out on it.
@Kathy: Just a suggestion but lately I’ve been obsessed with Smoked Paprika. Whenever you use paprika try the smoked kind.
@Scott: dude. DUDE. I didn’t discover that until like a year ago. Holy cow.
@Scott:
I was in Hungary about 15 years ago, and went looking for smoked paprika. I didn’t realize it was a Spanish thing, not a Hungarian thing — but! It turns out that the old folks knew all about it, and used it all the time. Our tour guide’s grandmother pointed me at a place in the Budapest farmer’s market that sold “smooked paprika” (sic) that was to die for, both sweet and hot versions.
Recipe:
Peel and dice a butternut squash.
Make a paste of olive oil, hot smoked paprika*, ground cumin, pepper, and salt.
Toss the diced squash in the paste. Bake at 400 F until browned and soft.
In a food processor, blend the squash with 4 TBSP butter. Add half and half until the puree is the desired texture. If you love puree like I do, stop there. If you prefer soup, thin the puree with chicken stock until it’s the texture you like.
*The Spanish call it “pimenton de la vera”.
Smoked paprika: excellent for piri-piri chicken sauce/marinade:
2-4 red bird’s eye chillis
2 garlic cloves
Juice of 1 lemon
1½ tsp sea salt
2 tsp sweet smoked paprika
50ml olive oil
1 tsp brown sugar (or use c. tablespoon port)
Jointed chicken, or chicken legs (with thighs).
Marinade chicken in some of the sauce for a couple of hours, bake chicken c.35 minutes, brown under the grill or on a barbecue.
Serve with remainder of sauce heated.
Latest Brexit hoo-hah:
Johnson and EU reach agreement despite DUP rejection
Looks like ERG are on the bus and DUP under it. Now depends on numbers in Commons.
If everyone votes as per 3rd vote on May Deal, except the 28 ERG holdouts now vote for (i.e. DUP still against) then Johnson needs 4 more votes from somewhere to get over the line.
The Trump Chumps have been remarkably quiet for the last week or so.
Trump picks Colorado Springs author of Illuminati books for education board
Umm. Aaah. What?
@Scott:
About all the paprika sold here comes from Spain. I’ll check, but I think it may be what I’m using.
On other things, I had an idea: coffee pancakes.
I used to love pancakes, but for some reason I no longer do, not even the banana nut pancakes at IHOP. So I thought maybe adding coffee may help.
The notion as of now is to add instant coffee to the batter and see what happens.
Trump just gave the 2020 G7 Summit to his failing property in FL, The Doral.
When is someone going to put an end this corruption?
@Kathy: That may work. I make a banana bread from a recipe in the Moosewood Cookbook which uses strong coffee. It’s great if not exactly low cal.
@Kathy: You might want to add a little extra sugar and vanilla to the batter to balance the flavors better, too. And try a “sweet cream” batter rather than a “buttermilk” batter–the buttermilk batter might turn out to salty for the coffee flavor.
@Scott:
I thought about putting in some banana in the coffee pancakes as well. My Unified Theory of Coffee is that coffee combines well with every other flavor in the universe. I haven’t tested all, but thus far it’s done great with cinnamon, chocolate (mocha), mint, mint and chocolate (mint mocha), strawberries, lime, vanilla, coconut, cheesecake, and a few more.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
Thanks.
I’m afraid the ingredients available vary between countries. Buttermilk is not easy to find down here. I use plain milk (low fat), and no sugar at all (isn’t that what the syrup is for?). I might try cinnamon and/or fruit to balance the coffee’s bitterness.
@Kathy: A coffee rub on pork can be quite delightful.
@Kathy:
The only exception I have yet discovered, at least among flavors I normally enjoy, is cranberry. Oh, and garlic.
But yes, there’s a reason that flavored coffees get a chapter of their own in mixology books.
@DrDaveT:
Well, now, that would be a problem. My Special Theory on Garlic holds that no entree is complete without garlic. Corollary: one clove of garlic is not enough for anything. Even if you are preparing one clove of garlic, you should use two.
now, how to combine coffee and garlic? Not in a desert or a drink. Hmm.
In the last few weeks / months, two of my friends have completely, utterly tuned out of all political news. They simply can’t take any more Trump.
@Kathy:
Coffee makes a very good steak rub. You’re going have to go into that trust space if you’ve not experienced it. It really is quite good.
Do your salt and pepper seasoning as normal, then internally calculate the total volume of both and use that amount of medium ground coffee or a slightly lesser amount of finely ground espresso. Use as a dry rub.
Sear in a cast iron pan and finish in the oven.
While resting, let some garlic compound butter melt all over that son of a gun.
Perfect combo of coffee and garlic.
@Teve:
About half to a third of my life, I’m mostly there. I will read the headlines and absorb the days news in five minutes, and then play a game or watch videos or tv and not really think about it again that day.
I’m not sure if it’s healthy or unhealthy, or adaptive or not.
Sometimes for a few days or a few months. Paying attention doesn’t change anything.
Somedays the quick gist is plenty. Other days the deep dive.
One of the first reactions I had to Trump’s letter was Mr. T.
I pity the fool.
@Gustopher:
Never tried a coffee rub on pork. I will def give that a try.
Everyone does mustard on pork, but mustard as a steak wet rub is surprisingly great too. Even the cheap yellow ballpark mustard.
@de stijl:
Oh yeah. My current steak rub blend is dry mustard (Coleman’s), green peppercorn, kosher salt, cumin powder, ancho pepper, a little bit of powdered rosemary, and a little bit of celery salt.
That said, the coffee rub is pretty damned good too.
@de stijl: Having been born in the 70s, I was more familiar with Mr. T than Bob Dylan. I cannot hear the Bob Dylan song “I Pity The Poor Immigrant” without thinking “I Pity The Fool Immigrant.”
Honestly, I think it works better that way.
Reading about Mitch Mulvaney walking back his admission of a quid pro quo today leads me to believe that either he does not know Latin, or that he hopes no one else does.
@de stijl: A little faux Vietnamese stand in a high cost “gourmet” food court near my last job had a coffee rubbed pork as a protein option in their rice bowls. It was amazing.
@Ms. Cris Ericson: I don’t call for banning people often, but will someone rid me of this long-winded crazy person with terrible formatting?
It’s the terrible formatting, mostly.
And the long winded thing.
I don’t even want Paul L. banned most days (although we will put him into a FEMA re-education camp, forcibly put him through gender reassignment surgery to make a man out of him, and then force him to marry his dog and sign up for ObamaCare… but banning seems a step too far.)
@Gustopher:
I would pay good money to see that mashup.
Actually I wouldn’t, but I would click on it.
@Gustopher:
I have a fool’s journey chasing fool’s gold. I want Andrew W.K. to cover Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” a la “Party Hard” just because that would be the bossest move ever and would delight me to no end.
Don’t dm or @ the man; that’d be rude. Whatever guile you can imagine that isn’t rude or pushy, do that.
It’s sorta my life goal.
Compare and contrast:
Party Hard
Bad Romance
Btw, Andrew W.K. is like the menchiest dude ever. He really is a good dude, no foolin’.
@Gustopher:
Okay, now I really need to try this.
Same ratio as for beef? My rule of thumb is to add up the salt+pepper and use that amount as the rub. Essentially, the rub would be 1/4 salt, 1/4 pepper, 1/2 coffee.
Would that ratio work with pork?
@Gustopher:
I tried to steer her right. It didn’t take. She seems hell-bent on pursuing her compulsions.
Banning is a big deal. I would give her one more shot. Well, maybe. I could easily be argued towards your point.
I would not object, but give it one more go. That’s my feedback, anyway.
Maybe having Lady Gaga doing Party Hard a la Bad Romance.
Whoah!
She’s a way harder get, though.
@Gustopher: I 2nd banning her after a warning or 2. She’s got her own website with a blog section that could use some content. Right now it says “Posts coming soon”. That’s where she can persuade the citizens of Vermont that she deserves their vote, not here.
I think she’ll be happy if she’s banned. More evidence that the deep state or the Illuminati or whatever is out to get her. I’m all for making people happy.
@Teve:
“It can be very satisfying to pick a subject and geek out on it.”
Best life advice ever.
Andrew W.K. routinely has auctions and giveaways benefiting agencies fighting teen suicide, depression, and anxiety related issues.
He is very upfront with his own mental health issues, and continually raises money to fund people and groups helping young people with those same issues. Dude walks the walk.
When I earlier said he was a menschy dude, that was a quarter of the story.
—-
I only know this now because of a foolish, stupid, hubristic desire for a mega-mashup. I’ve been working this for a year more or less.
AWK is perhaps one of the most decent, truly big hearted person I’ve ever encountered.
Yeah, the Party Hard guy. Who could have known?