Gromnir

you had us at "steak." HA! Good Fun!

through the looking glass. s'posed a bastion o' conservative american news, this story is not a headline at the main fox news site. try and imagine imagine if obama had said the same thing. what would fox news look and sound like the day after such a story broke? 2024 tucker carlson fans don't get @Gorth surprise. in fact, before 2018, tell us a significant % o' republicans would shrug off the nato comments you quote coming from the likely gop candidate for President and we would think you were chemical impaired. HA! Good Fun!

is not funny, but we couldn't help but imagine a december 1944 german tank crew viewing your clip. not just an egg, but at least three eggs being supplied to troops in the desert. pride? despair? numb indifference? am not knowing, but our typical perverse turn o' mind made us wonder. HA! Good Fun!

am having brought this up previous, but we did learn an additional fact recent so am reposting https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-13/ Thirteenth Amendment Section 1 Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Section 2 Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. in 1867, recognizing the injustice that idiots and the unlucky, through the graft o' sinister individuals could be convinced to sell their freedom, Congress abolished debt peonage. however, please note the thirteenth amendment allows slavery if it is resulting as a criminal punishment. after the civil war, the US maintained a rather robust system o' debt peonage that were legal not in spite o' the fact it were slavery but rather because it were slavery. serious. more than seven decades after the 13th amendment is ratified, when the US entered ww2, fdr realized that his moral high ground as a justification for fighting the evhul fascists was in jeopardy. sure, the japanese and germans were doing unspeakable, but the fact the US maintained chattel slavery was gonna be problematic. so, december 1941, the fed government finally gets around to making US slavery illegal... am thinking it were december 12, but we didn't double-check. juneteenth celebrates the recognition o' the end o' slavery in texas, but the last chattel slave in texas were freed in late september o' 1942... and the last known US chattel slave (again, am talking about people who were made slaves through legit & legal process, so am not referencing modern slave trade stuff. is also not about illegal chattel slavery conducted by sheriffs in a couple US counties as late as the mid 1980s) didn't gain freedom until 1963. am posting 'cause we always thought it were guy who were released in texas in 1942 who were the last chattel slave freed in the US. aside, am never having seen the laurence fishburne narrated pbs miniseries am linking. kinda discovered rando when we were looking for a link for slavery v. debt peonage. don't know how we missed. https://www.pbs.org/video/slavery-another-name-slavery-video/ HA! Good Fun!

"this is a video about how vegetarians ruined sex for everybody." more than an hour, but the history o' american vegetarians is a bit more weird and complex than we were aware. HA! Good Fun!

made nacho cheese sauce. ... hate to admit this, but our nacho cheese sauce doesn't tastes quite right unless we use some quantity o' american or velveeta. it should taste better with a combo o' cheddar(s) and something such as jack, and am having tried dozens o' combinations, but... we start with a very blond roux to which we add evaporated milk (or some other dairy, but usual evaporated milk for nacho cheese sauce) and reduce until is starting to thicken--bechamel. next we add cayene pepper and diced pickled jalapeno as well as a bit o' the brine... typical add a bit o' fire roasted salsa as well. then we stir in copious amounts o' cheese. we got a bunch o' different variations o' the 'bove process, but the resulting changes provide only minor differences in the finished product. as we ordinary start out with a bechamel, we do not need american or velveeta to keep the sauce creamy. nevertheless, we literal cannot get the taste quite right w/o cheddar and velveeta or american cheese. am not sure why it bothers us we need use american or velveeta, but it does. HA! Good Fun! ps sour cream is one o' those dairy options most folks do not consider when making a cheese sauce, but am finding it is a possibility worth exploring. sour cream is in fact our defacto dairy when making stovetop mac and cheese.

np and gl. our only additional input is to recommend looking for a dublin coddle recipe which includes at least a bit of uncovered or partial covered oven time. traditional simmer on the stovetop doesn't result in the kinda flavourful browning you want in a beef stew, beef bourguignon, dublin coddle or any other stew. brown is good for stew. HA! Good Fun! ps boxty, 'cause o' the significant dairy and mashed potatoes in the recipe, is arguable better when reheated the next day.

finally got around to watching a bit of foundation. the show rather unceremoniously flushed assimov's three laws of robotics. the whole point o' finding the zeronth law is 'cause the three laws is inviolable. perhaps is more o' the three guidelines o' robotics? thus ends our current viewing o' foundation. maybe the show is able to stand on its own w/o being beholden to assimov's writings, but am gonna wait 'til this one is over before trying to watch it again. maybe. HA! Good Fun!

as a rule of thumb, most pretrial judicial decisions is beyond the scope o' a demand for recusal, so am not knowing how far goes an attempt to remove cannon w/o a showing o' gross and intentional dereliction o' judicial duties. however, am also admitting we got extreme limited rl experience with sepa cases-- have learned more from the lawfare site and other sources in the last few months than we knew in previous decades o' practice. am not claiming expertise. reminds us. we keep making a mental distinction 'tween classified/sensitive documents and transmissions while ignoring practical aspects and legal reality. listening to biden defend self in his presser highlighted for us one such blind spot. biden seeming didn't see his notes/personal notebook as sensitive info for purposes o' possible criminal liability. hillary, based on the ig report done after comey's blunders, also had a curious issue with recognizing just what constituted sensitive info. emails sent to then secretary of state clinton which didn't have the "C" tag indicating classification could nevertheless be classified docs for purposes o' law if those emails even tangential referenced classified info. in an earlier post we marveled at how sooper secret docs could possible go missing w/o anybody noticing, but we did (and do) forget to mention how secrets may breed. the outline o' plans for invading iran trump supposed showed off to biographers o' the mark meadows book is clearly state secret material. the thing is, if trump quoted a portion o' the plan in a handwritten note to bob woodward, the handwritten note would be state secret material... and if somebody on trump's staff quoted the handwritten note and transmitted via an email, that too would be state secret and the mishandling and transmission o' such would be exposing individuals to criminal liability. as such our flippant characterization o' national secret security protocols in the context o' library books being checked out is falling far short o' capturing the real scope o' the problem. am mentioning the replicating aspect o' sensitive info data 'cause listening to biden reminded us o' hillary-- both o' those individuals were curious oblivious to the fact a classified or sensitive "document" label applied to more than documents clear marked with a big "C" or contained in a red-boarder folder. hillary, for all her faults, was not accused o' being cognitive impaired. she didn't have a personal computer or laptop and was spectacularly unsophisticated regarding technical matters, but she was not dumb. even so, she clear didn't get that rando emails sent to her from staff and white house personnel could be dangerously sensitive state secret material which had no place on her personal and unsecured home server. numerous fbi investigators interviewed hillary and they were sometimes baffled by her failure to grasp basic technical issues related to security. disconnect were too consistent and bizarre to be anything but genuine. likewise, biden still don't seem to understand that his personal notebook which included info regarding afghanistan operations were nevertheless classified info for purposes o' law. reports suggest pence also had sensitive materials at his personal residence, but am suspecting is many more individuals who made similar errors we will never know 'bout. jack smith in his case against tump ain't dealing with any ambiguities. subject matter o' the mar-a-lago case is not cc email chain material or one o' those post-its or napkins trump reported flushed down the toilet. even so am thinking there needs be a serious reexamination o' how sensitive materials is tracked and recovered, while recognizing there is limits to just how invasive tracking efforts may be given that in the US we got civilian and elected leaders, as well as their staff, routine handling the most secret o' secrets. HA! Good Fun!

am a few months from 55, so a bit older, but the linked joke content makes us feel positive ancient 'cause it so ain't the progression most o' our generation endured. HA! Good Fun!

we wouldn't trust either of 'em around a gas stove and is no way we would let 'em drive in chicaco/boston/nyc rush hour traffic if we were a passenger... 'cause they are both old and have shown cognitive impairment. why then would we be ok with 'em being President? similar, with the bat-crap crazy rfk jr routine indulges, is not as if we trust him more than trump or biden. biden is old, but he isn't indulging crazy conspiracy nutter indifference to facts and he ain't a would-be autocrat who believes a President is free to commit crimes in office... oh, and no "muslim ban," from biden. am not paralyzed by the need to make a lesser evil choice. life is full o' such hard choices, so just like the last few election cycles, we put on our big boy pants and go to the polls... or we would if CA didn't have ballots sent auto via the mail based on cadl data. so much more convenient. edit: am thinking what surprises us most about the biden mishandling docs report from today is that all the stuff james comey got in trouble for regarding the hillary email investigation were replicated by hur. robert hur, unlike what you saw from robert mueller who were taciturn to a fault, had all kinda opinions about 2023 joe biden. am getting the need for transparency, but the doj needs to change policy and explain why the change is being implemented if this kinda thing is the new norm... and am thinking comey deserves a belated apology. HA! Good Fun!

grass is always greener we s'pose. our first undergrad degree is physics from berkeley and one summer internship we had was working at lawrence livermore materials lab, so we had a bit o' interaction with the engineers. we did nothing but test the tensile strength o' tungsten wire... for months. meh. in our day, which admitted were likely a bit before your day, sociopathic indifference for stem were kinda the norm and our reaction were... indifference. professors showing for class or office hours were quite obvious a waste o' their limited time and collectively they did not hide their displeasure. however, our goal were to graduate as quick as possible and so we saw our professors as minor obstacles. undergrad indifference were no biggie, but is one reason we did not go for masters or beyond with stem. ... none o' which is relevant to the thread, so we will note how dartmouth has gone back to requiring sat scores after ending their experiment with voluntary test score submissions. such is incredible loose related since is education? one reason offered by dartmouth for the change was that the lack o' test scores were disproportionate disadvantaging minority students and students from depressed communities. everybody going to dartmouth, or near everybody, has a 4.0 and a long list o' extra curriculars. wealthy zip codes in the US has noteworthy more grade inflation. HA! Good Fun! ps the kingsfield character from paper chase is an amalgam o' three or four harvard law professors. is a story about rl "kingsfield." numerous folks has confirmed the legitimacy o' the annecdote, but... duck hunting. a couple law students is out duck hunting and as improbable as it sounds, one o' the young men were a bit o' an annie oakley, so he were using a pistol to kill birds. no joke. kingsley motors up alongside the student's craft and asks if they had managed to kill so many birds with a pistol. annie oakley assures the professor that he had indeed used a pistol. kingsley pulls out his shotgun and blows a hole in the student's boat, then leaves. the law students manage to get back to shore where they pay for the damage to the boat as it were rented. end o' story. we got loads o' weird but inane professor stories (one grad school prof did not wear pants when he were in his office... thankfully he did retain his underwear. he were on the pulitzer committee and had an international rep, so who were gonna tell him what to do, eh?) and am aware o' a few professor-doing-murder tales, but am admitting the kingsley anecdote is unique. pps given the nature o' this board, am gonna observe am aware annie oakley were famous for her accuracy with rifles and shotguns as 'posed to pistols.

no interest whatsoever. however, am gonna admit david dastmalchian is one o' those character actors we always remember even when he is in big films with actors who got substantial resumés to go along with well deserved reputations. HA! Good Fun!

grammar problem detected. even so, if you are trying to say the special counsel concluded it would be difficult to prove willful retention o' documents, we agree and such an observation is deserving more than an asterisk. is doubtful anybody wants to go back through our hillary posts. hillary also presented mind-blowing doofus levels when interviewed... which the republicans ignored as they pushed for criminal charges. shoulda' focused on her abject stoopid as 'posed to criminal liability? yeah. "In looking back at our investigations into mishandling or removal of classified information, we cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts. All the cases prosecuted involved some combination of: clearly intentional and willful mishandling of classified information; or vast quantities of materials exposed in such a way as to support an inference of intentional misconduct; or indications of disloyalty to the United States; or efforts to obstruct justice." -- comey from the original hillary investigation. you lose your security clearance and get fired if you are not an elected official and do what hillary, alberto gonzalez, biden and possible pence all did. however, has literal never been a prosecution w/o more than one o' the following: 1) willful retention and mishandling 2) large quantities o' info 3) disloyalty to the US as a motivation for having the info 4) obstruction edit: so is clear, am not making excuse for biden anymore than we did for hillary. hur says there is evidence to show biden willful retained but that convincing jurors o' willfulness would be difficult in part 'cause biden is old and confused.... and 'cause none o' the other enumerated factors is present. so not good. have said many times we believe biden is a terrible candidate. in 2020, biden was a compromise candidate. he did not expire or need be replaced w/i six months o' taking office as at least one obsidian pundit suggested were part o' the libs plan going forward, but just 'cause he managed to make it to february 2024, is not some kinda argument for reelecting him. compared to trump? sure, to keep trump out o' the oval office we would vote for biden, but such is an extremely low bar to hurdle. regardless, is so stoopid that 'cause both trump and biden had a documents issue, neither party is willing to do the obvious and make a real and concerted effort to fix the core problem o' misplaced national freaking secrets. hillary should never have had classified info (albeit far less than some describe) on a private server, and trump, pence, biden and gonzalez should never have been able to retain documents w/o anybody seeimng aware there were a problem until some intervening incident occurred. for chrissakes, the kinda info described should have more safeguards than checking out books from a local library. how can this sh!te go missing w/o somebody knowing? HA! Good Fun!

that is the stuff am certain we couldn't endure. star trek (am not having seen any trek since first episode o' discovery, so, am not certain o' the current status quo) at least tried to work real science and a smidge o' practical engineering into their designs and storylines. trek were often the first place non stem background folks mighta heard o' wormholes, dark matter and string theory when those episodes first were released. yeah, star trek took liberties, particular with transporter and holodeck technologies, but we understand folks discussing the science and tech behind trek, 'cause the science were often integral to the show. star wars, on the other hand... star wars was fantasy. lucas purposeful embraced elements o' joseph campbell's hero cycle to create what were having common thematic and plot elements o' the oldest stories ever told. setting were long ago and in a galaxy far, far away-- spaceships, laser guns and all the sci-fi trappings were indulged, yes? sci-fi were only surface. star wars included a dark knight and a merlin/gandalf figure as well as magic swords. first movie climax is the young hero slaying the dragon. is gawain, gilgamesh, and odysseus as 'posed to daneel olivaw, david bowman or valentine michael smith. aerodynamics o' pod racers? serious? bootstrapping real world physics and engineering into star wars feels just a bit silly. kinda reminds us o' the legion o' internet pundits who are serious when they try and explain the physics behind the ninja run. ... and y'know there is more than one obsidan poster who is an advocate o' the naruto run. but again, different strokes. HA! Good Fun!

had a st. brigid's day meal on monday. doesn't everybody? technical the festival day is feb 1, but it is observed on the first monday o' feb. made plenty o' boxty and dublin coddle. am mentioning 'cause is thursday am am still eating boxty and dublin coddle. we do make our coddle more like a stew-- we braise. we pretty much braise anything when is possible. is a tad more fluid in our pot than a legit stovetop-simmered-almost-dry coddle. but not overmuch. we will say that boxty is likely our favorite variety o' potato "pancake." that said, our dogs are indifferent about the boxty but they do enjoy our dublin coddle. HA! Good Fun!

based on @Bartimaeus description, am guessing we would prefer french kissing a light socket or gargling with broken glass as 'posed to enduring twelve hours on what sounds like analysis o' nothing. maybe @Azdeus is a fan o' the ludovico technique? different strokes. example: ethics in america have mentioned previous the ethics in america series. more than ten hours and am not expecting many would enjoy the way we do. am thinking it would be interesting to do a 2024 version 'cause while ethics has remained same for many disciplines since 1989, there is a few startling differences. HA! Good Fun!

grandma listened to lou reed, the animals, the zombies, etc... and she liked to sing. we always listen to a couple velvet underground albums on her birthday. HA! Good Fun!

Live Oral Argument Audio (supremecourt.gov) am gonna go out on a limb and suggest @Malcadorwould not have enjoyed law school. the Justices, even the ones who were not professors before joining the bench, all came out o' a law school tradition which has changed little in a couple hundred years. prof asks questions. student provides answers. SCOTUS which only addresses the questions o' law, is more like law school than any other court in the US. 'course all the Justices is unique. RBG were notorious for her acerbic questions.... makes alito look positive pleasant by comparison. clarence thomas, for years, never asked any questions. literal... and not how kids use "literal" nowadays. point is there is gonna be fails when generalizing. regardless, all the Justices is arrogant and none o' them were elected. would be shocking if a few didn't come across as unpleasant. HA! Good Fun!

am knowing there is a couple folks hereabouts who get their news from rush legacy talk radio, fox or other similar sources. for those who is nevertheless curious about the current US border bill kerfuffle, linda chavez offers an analysis. tangential related, in a shocking moment, chip roy o' all people admitted that trump and fellow republicans were misleading about biden's ability to close the border unilaterally. for those unaware, Congressman roy is from texas and he is ideological and temperament lockstep with jim jordan. HA! Good Fun!

Judge wants answers after report that key witness in Trump fraud trial may plead guilty to perjury “As the presiding magistrate, the trier of fact, and the judge of credibility, I of course want to know whether Mr. Weisselberg is now changing his tune, and whether he is admitting he lied under oath in my courtroom at this trial,” Engoron wrote in the email. Engoron’s email went to lawyers for Trump, Weisselberg, the Trump Organization and other defendants, as well as counsel for the New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office, which brought the civil fraud case. seeming unrelated, the weisselberg perjury has repercussions beyond the fraud trial. am on record as not being optimistic 'bout the ny hush money case. novel application o' the law? you not need to be a lawyer to recognize precedent is important when law is at issue. however, novelty is hardly the only problem for alvin bragg as he pursues a criminal conviction o' trump. the feds, who would be a more appropriate prosecutor given the facts and the s'posed crime, chose not to bring a case in part 'cause michael cohen would be an important witness and nobody thinks cohen makes for a good witness. cohen has not become a better witness since the feds did their pontius pilate impersonation and washed their hands. so... the thing is, y'know who would be a good witness against trump for bragg? weisselberg. am not holding our breath that this is the time somebody close to trump flips, but weisselberg functional did 100 days in jail for trump already. is he willing to do years of time for trump? am not knowing what is the typical sentence for perjury in ny, but keep in mind this would be weisselberg's second criminal conviction in a relative small window o' time. is doubtful things go as smooth for allen. HA! Good Fun!

ps we read the judgement from the trump immunity case and the possible timeline for appeals is looking more narrow than we expected. trump has until next monday to file for cert with SCOTUS... at which point the Court could sit on the appeal indefinitely but likely result is Court responds w/i a week. en banc appeal efforts by trump will not prevent issuing o' mandate... no delay o' criminal proceedings. therefore, deadline for trump to file appeal is next monday and we would be legit shocked if SCOTUS did not respond within a week... two at outset. IF SCOTUS takes up a trump appeal, am not seeing how they could delay given the time sensitivity involved, but again, this Court baffles us. HA! Good Fun!

likely not for the same reasons as Gromnir, but am in agreement. 'tween normalization o' relations with china, passage o' epa/clean air and water legislation, the first real Presidential advocacy o' universal health care as well as the being the guy who got the fed involved in finding treatments and cures for cancer, not to mention numerous other nixon achievements, is fair to say we got mixed feelings 'bout nixon. is impossible to overlook vietnam dishonesty as well as watergate, and his Presidential campaigns were embracing vile racist elements, but he also increased the bia budget by more than 200% and did more to support tribal sovereignty legislation than any other President... maybe john quincy adams were an exception, but adams were a one-term President in large part 'cause his position on indian relations were so unpopular. nixon did not deserve to be President and his party rightful kicked him to the curb, but nixon were an effective chief executive with a whole lotta positive accomplishments studding his resumé. am not conflicted 'bout nixon, but more than just a little positive were the result o' the nixon admin. our mixed feelings is heavily weighted negative, but that don't mean we need ignore the accomplishments. trump don't have nixon's positive qualities. HA! Good Fun!

am suspecting trump tries to draw out the appeal process as long as is possible, so am predicting he is gonna request en banc review by the dc appellate circuit before trying to get SCOTUS cert. deadline to request appeal is this coming monday. ... there is no unique and novel legal issues for the Court to resolve( edit: for those unaware, this is hardly the first time a President has attempted to claim immunity to avoid dealing with actual or potential litigation/prosecution. not ancient history neither as both nixon and clinton tried the immunity angle and were excoriated by the Court for their temerity. the only thing new 'bout the trump situation is he went further than clinton or nixon in his demand for unqualified blanket immunity,) so if SCOTUS decides to hear trump's presidential immunity argument, then we would be a smidge concerned. am also honest not sure what is the timeline for en banc appellate review with dc-- can be quick or slow depending on any number o variables and am certain trump is hoping for slow. additional edit: the request for en banc review and SCOTUS cert happens simultaneous and not sequential, but as a matter o' practicality, SCOTUS can grant an indefinite stay and while we do not expect such a result given the implications for election uncertainty, am admitting to having having been wrong 'bout this Court more than once. a spring trial remains possible. HA! Good Fun!

how positively volesque. ... would be perverse to pretend to know your specific concerns based on such a generalization. regardless, a bit more context would help unless the point were to shout into the void and then wait for echoes. HA! Good Fun!