Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Well, ok.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Wow. Looks like McConnell is really breaking open the slush fund piggy bank.

Cash 'n carry day at the Capitol!

Re: Lost without him
 

Yes, this is the one way in which relying solely on government IT would have been superior.

The secretary of state would have been a decade behind the times wrt her ability to communicate, but isn't record retention waaay more important?

That's laughable.

Re: Lost without him
 

[QUOTE=Greedy,Greedy,Greedy;50879.

So how do you feel about the apparent use of gmail and various other accounts by members of the Trump White House and by some of the key Congressmen on the intelligence committees, etc.? Investigation worthy? Perhaps more of a concern today than the now historical subject you're focusing on?[/QUOTE]

I absolutely believe that every government official should use their government email for official business. Beyond Hillary, the IRS, EPA and others during the Obama administration flaunted the rules and their accountability to Americans. I don't think Trump staffers should have used their RNC email, or any other private email for government business. I think it is not so much major investigation-worthy as it is actionable. I think if there is evidence of government business being conducted outside of government channels, there should be consequences for all involved.

And, BTW, I also believe Trump and his admin are mishandling information when his staff uses the unsecured wi-fi at Mar a Lago.

Re: Lost without him
 

I'm pretty sure a BlackBerry off of Ebay is also a decade behind the times...

Re: Tilly
 

Tillerson sucks, as does Sessions. Good Lord, I read today he wants to put $ into DARE. Does anyone else remember painful Jr High DARE assemblies?

Yes. That will solve our drug problem. Good grief. And I am probably the only one on this board whose only drug exposure is second hand smoke at Rolling Stones/Bob Dylan concerts.

Re: Lost without him
 

Yup.

Info sec obviously needs to be thought about much more than it is. Unfortunately, it's become a partisan football. That isn't changing, because right now when the Republican's hear the phrase they think Russia and yell fake news.

Re: Tilly
 

Agree on all.

TM

Re: Tilly
 

You and me both, sister. Except I have never been to a Bob Dylan concert, which is pretty embarrassing 'cuz, like, Hibbing! I am pretty sure that some folks near me at the Rolling Stones concert were burning a little rope, though. ;) ;) ;) Or maybe their hair was on fire. Has the incidence of hair conflagration been increasing dramatically, because it seems like whenever Sebastian is not out grilling nothing burgers, he is trying to put out a hair fire. That guy seems like he has asbestos hair, tho, 'cuz he is unflappable, except when Thurgreed gets mean, and then he is just completely at his wit's end!!! I mean, it's had-it-up-to-here, I'm-gonna-pull-this-car-over, I-don't-need-a-reason-I'm-your-mother type stuff. Anyway, next time your hair is on fire, try listening some early Meters. That shit is so laid back groovy it'll be sure to douse the hottest of heads. Maybe stick your head in bucket of water, too, just in case. Y'know, belt and suspenders? Anyhoo, the Daily Dose is "9 Til 5" by The Meters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5QmCpityyE

Re: Tilly
 

1. See, it worked on you!

2. I'm not too far ahead of you in drug experience.

3. Are you younger than me? I always think of DARE as a thing that was subjected on kids a bit younger than me, but also always think I'm the youngest regular around here (maybe Coltrane was younger, but he's not around much). Like, I remember that it existed, just not having anything to do with it.

Sessions on drug policy is totally asinine.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Sebby, Corey Lewandowski says it's only a crime if it materially affected the outcome of the election. Even he doesn't say all's fair in politics. Congratulations on outflanking Lewandowski! I would have thought that would be harder to do, but I underestimated you.

Re: Tilly
 

Not the only one.

Re: Tilly
 

Whoa, is there like some new hip-to-be-square thing going on? Is it like a Millennial thing? Fucking Millenials. Um, 'cuz I'm totally on board of course. Body's a temple and all that. Asking for a friend . . . .

Re: Tilly
 

I'm pretty sure we are the same age. We established a couple years ago that at the time you and I were the only people still (barely) in their 30s.

DARE started in 1983. My school district got a crapload of federal money, so I think we were early adopters of this kind of nonsense. Lucky me.

Re: Tilly
 

Maybe we need to do another round of Purity Testing, 15 years later.

Re: Tilly
 

You can lick a lot of eyeballs in 15 years...

Re: Tilly
 

Maybe you can. That still seems weird and unsanitary to me.

Re: Tilly
 

Agreed. And the phrase "sex like burning" reminds me of the VD movies that my dad brought home from the Navy and used to show to his buddies from the Hibernians when the Seagram's 7 was running low.

IIRC, barely and I tied for the most pure.

Re: Tilly
 

Tillerson's not thrilled either.

Re: Tilly
 

It's so much easier when you don't have to convince anyone else of the merits of your views.

Re: Tilly
 

Some of us remain pure even without testing.

Re: Tilly
 

I have absolutely no doubt that Exxon is run much more efficiently than the Trump organization.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

New contender for when/how HRC lost the election.

reading Gibbon is more useful every day
 

This is right out of the last days of Rome -- DJT Jr. resigning as Trump's son.

Re: reading Gibbon is more useful every day
 

This is an area where the Ottomans greatly improved on Roman practice for dealing with wayward sons.

Re: reading Gibbon is more useful every day
 

And? Don't just leave the entire board hanging in suspense! Good God, man.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Hey, look, the Washington Post wrote an op-ed from a former Bushie responding to Sebby's idea that all's fair in politics.

Re: Lost without him
 

I know of at least one government agency where the archive is so corrupted that to say any e-mail is "retained" is a stretch at best and an outright falsehood if under oath.

Re: reading Gibbon is more useful every day
 

A eunuch would generally enter their chambers with a strong silk cord. Only the eunuch would leave.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Even Shep Smith of Fox News has more of a moral compass than Sebastian:

We’re still not clean on this, Chris [Wallace]. If there’s nothing there — and that’s what they tell us, they tell us there’s nothing to this and nothing came of it, there’s a nothingburger, it wasn’t even memorable, didn’t write it down, didn’t tell you about it, because it wasn’t anything so I didn’t even remember it — with a Russian interpreter in the room at Trump Tower? If all of that, why all these lies? Why is it lie after lie after lie? If you clean, come on clean, you know? My grandmother used to say when first we practice to — Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive. The deception, Chris, is mind-boggling. And there are still people who are out there who believe we’re making it up. And one day they’re gonna realize we’re not and look around and go, Where are we, and why are we getting told all these lies?

The Daily Dose is canceled today, because of the shame of Sebastian. I'm not mad, Sebastian, but I'm very disappointed in you. And I'm mad. And if you even think about saying that my hair is on fire, I am going to have you banned from this board on grounds of banality.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Is "nothingburger" something seb coined or is it everywhere?

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

It's been around lately.

caption, please
 

Re: caption, please
 

Evolution goes both ways. Jenna 2020.

Re: caption, please
 

Hey, Spicer, try hiding in these Bushes.

Two and 1/2 Presidents.

Re: caption, please
 

Rapist sandwich on white bread?

Re: caption, please
 

A bill in the hand is worth two in the bushes?

No, strike that.

Re: reading Gibbon is more useful every day
 

So he'd leave the cord.

While we're looking to other countries as examples for our democracy, just remember that it could be worse. "An Australian senator elected three times to Parliament resigned Saturday after revealing he'd learned was a citizen of New Zealand, and thus ineligible to serve."

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Economists discovering what ordinary people know, wage growth edition.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Moral judgment, particularly in this arena, is too fuzzy to hold any meaningful value.

This Stupid Watergate/Russia Debacle is an ocean away from the sort of thing that compelled Joseph Welch to take a moral stand against Joe McCarthy. It's more just another in long continuum of degraded political acts. Here are just a few recent ones (in no order):

LBJ accusing his opponent of being a pigfucker to win a seat;
Joe Kennedy attempting to steal the vote in Chicago;
Hoover's political use of the FBI;
Nixon's enemies' list;
Watergate;
Iran/Contra;
Allende overthrow;
Propping up stooges (the Shah) to racists/bigots (Saudi Arabia) around the globe;
WMD lie;
Bush's ads about McCain's children in 2000;
Clinton's racist dog whistles about Obama in 2008;
Clinton executing a mentally retarded man to look tough on crime for political purposes;
Holder's war on journalists;
Obama Admin's "interesting" use of the internal rev service;
FL Secretary of State working for Bush interests in 2000 election recount;
Willie Horton;
HRC's "superpredator" nod to the tough on crime bigots;
HRC flipping on the bankruptcy reform act (and just about everything else if it'd get her votes);
Bush's and Obama's expansion of domestic surveillance;
Bailout '08;
The Holder Doctrine

This could go on forever, but the obvious point is, Trump's meeting with Russians is uniquely awful why? It stands apart from the long list of despicable behaviors we've shrugged off as "just politics" in what huge regard?

Look, I understand this is a board of lawyers. Nobody concedes shit, and this will be attacked with a dozen arguments. Russkigate will be distinguished from every conceivable angle.

But step back, take off the advocate hat, put away the lawyer-think for a second and consider - from 10,000 feet, assessed in the context of our deeply corrupted and morally degraded system - isn't this Stupid Watergate more expected, predictable even, than surprising? We've been pushing the envelope (or searching a nadir) for a long time now.

Trump isn't a change agent or a throwback. He's what happens in a situation like the one we've got.