Wednesday, May 31, 2017

KLEM TV


I don't usually get sucked into random YouTube ads but this one made me watch all the way through.

There is more info about their true story here

"CNN Fires Kathy Griffin From New Year’s Show"


The termination comes one day after the comedienne posted a photo and video of her holding a fake severed head of President Donald Trump. She later apologized for the photo and video, saying it went too far, and removed it from her Twitter account. She had made it as part of a photo shoot with Tyler Shields, but they did not disclose what the project was.

Trump tweeted about the photo early on Wednesday, writing that Griffin “should be ashamed of herself.”

“My children, especially my 11-year-old son Barron, are having a hard time with this. Sick!”

Bartenders of reddit, what is the smoothest pick up line you've ever heard?

Top voted comments...

Bar tended in college. Guy walked up to a girl at the bar, goes "Hi my name is Ben*, and I'm going to buy you drinks until you find me attractive." Girl smiled and laughed and he asked what she would like to drink. She looked him over (he was already very attractive), turned to me and said "In that case, I'll have a water."

Buzzed gentleman extends hand to slightly more buzzed woman and asks," will you hold this while I step outside?" They cone back after sharing a cigarette. Pay the tab, take a cab together to wherever.

I'm a bartender, and so far "we're closing up, but if you want another drink, I live upstairs" has worked exactly 0% of the time.

A coworker tried to start a game of tic-tac-toe with a pretty girl by drawing an empty board on a napkin and handing her the pen. She just wrote down her phone number.

I bartend in a pub next to a college campus. I watched a guy say "that's interesting" or "Oh, man, that's crazy!" for a full hour and a half before leaving with a girl way out of his league.
Fake it till you make it, ladies and gentleman

Way late to the party but heard this one while closing down a couple weeks back.
"Come on, lets go back to my place, I'll make you a quesadilla."
This girl had been swatting guys away like flies all night but that one worked out.

Not so much a pickup line, but I bartend at a big college bar and when you wordlessly hand your friend a beer when the bar is swamped and he just got there it makes him look that much cooler to whatever girl he's talking to.

"‘Washington Post’ Reporter Frustrated Every Space In Parking Garage Taken Up By Anonymous Source"

Via Instapundit:  Circling every level multiple times with no luck whatsoever, Washington Post reporter Philip Rucker was frustrated Tuesday that every space in the parking garage was taken up by an anonymous source. “I’ve gone around and around, but I can’t find a single spot that isn’t already filled by an unidentified White House leaker,” said an exasperated Rucker, who recalled how easy it was to nab a prime parking place to clandestinely receive privileged information only a few short years ago. “It’s such a nightmare driving all the way to the very top of the whole fucking structure to hold a secret meeting with an informant and then have to squeeze into a spot reserved for compact cars that another journalist who’s meeting with a whistle-blower is halfway parked in anyway. Seriously, I have to start scheduling these rendezvous earlier, because as soon as dusk settles in, you can forget it.” At press time, Rucker was idling his car near the space occupied by a New York Times reporter who had just received a thumb drive and appeared to be wrapping things up.

"He didn’t give police his iPhone pass code, so he got 180 days in jail"

Via Drudge:  A Hollywood man must serve 180 days in jail for refusing to give up his iPhone password to police, a Broward judge ruled Tuesday — the latest salvo in intensifying legal battles over law-enforcement access to smart phones.

Christopher Wheeler, 41, was taken into custody in a Broward Circuit Court, insisting he had already provided the pass code to police investigating him for child abuse, although the number did not work.

“I swear, under oath, I’ve given them the password,” a distraught Wheeler, his hands handcuffed behind his back, told Circuit Judge Michael Rothschild, who earlier in May found the man guilty of contempt of court.

As Wheeler was jailed Tuesday, the same issue was unfolding in Miami-Dade for a man accused of extorting a social-media celebrity over stolen sex videos.

That man, Wesley Victor, and his girlfriend had been ordered by a judge to produce a pass code to phones suspected of containing text messages showing their collusion in the extortion plot.

Victor claimed he didn’t remember the number. He prevailed.

On Tuesday, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Charles Johnson ruled that there was no way to prove that Victor actually remembered his pass code, more than 10 months after his initial arrest. Johnson declined to hold the man in contempt of court.

“The judge made the right call,” said his lawyer, Zeljka Bozanic. “My client testified he did not remember. It’s been almost a year. Many people, including myself, can’t remember passwords from a year ago.”

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Trump posts tasteless picture on Twitter

Something something tasteless Republicans something. I might have this story mixed up a little bit. Pardon me, I got ADHD over here really badly. Or maybe it's ADDH, I don't know because I got dyslexia too, and besides that my pretend mind is riding a horse-mind inside my real mind and it's like totally out of control avoiding the future. There's three of my thirteen secrets let loose.

"I'm sorry. Went too far." That's what she said.

But her apology is rejected. Because it takes at least two for this malice aforethought.


My own malice is done solo. This was so fun did it twice.

I like Cathy Griffith. She's my kind of crackpot. We're actually kindred spirits.

"Psychologists say everyone is keeping 13 secrets"

Via Drudge: For the purposes of the study, a secret was any information that a person intended to conceal from one or more individuals.

The study was first published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in May, and was co-authored by Michael Slepian.

It built on his 2012 study which found that people who were distracted by a secret tended to judge tasks to be more arduous than they were in reality.

This warped perception even meant they thought a distance was further and the gradient of a hill steeper than was the case in reality.

(Link to more)

Link to video

Dr Russell Barkley ADHD (or) Intention Deficit Disorder

Link - via Reddit

Top Reddit voted comment....
I have ADHD Inattentive Type (AKA ADD).
This is part of it, but misses the main struggle I experience.

Imagine your brain is a horse, and you are it's rider. Try telling your brain to focus on something, to go somewhere, and stay there. Most people can do this decently well, at least for ~15min. When there is suddenly a loud noise, your horse may get scared, but you are able to calm him.

ADD makes it so that I am riding a disobedient and easily spooked horse. Getting my 'horse' to go where I want and stay there (concentrate on a lecture for example) takes significant concerted mental effort, and still this effort is fruitless after maybe 10 minutes, and leaves me mentally burnt out. Medication makes that horse move slower and makes him more coax-able and more sedated. It is still difficult to begin to focus on something, it takes sitting down in a (relatively) quiet environment, with a defined task, but now once I get the horse where I want him, he will stay there without nearly as much effort.

"Did Barack Obama try to hack the election?"

Via Instapundit:  In 1972, some employees of President Nixon’s re-election committee were caught when they broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters to plant a bug. This led to Nixon’s resignation and probably would have led to his felony prosecution had he not been pardoned by his successor, Gerald Ford.

But if a single bugging of the political opposition is enough to bring down a presidency — and maybe lead to an unprecedented criminal prosecution of a former president — then what are we to make of the recently unveiled Obama administration program of massively spying on political opponents in violation of clearly established law?

Because that’s what was unveiled last week. (none of the major papers are reporting it btw)

When the FBI wants to wiretap a domestic suspect, it goes to court for a warrant. But when listening in on foreigners, the National Security Agency hoovers up a vast amount of stuff in bulk: Conversations between foreigners, conversations between Americans and foreigners, conversations between Americans who mention foreigners, and sometimes just plain old conversations between Americans.

There are supposed to be strict safeguards on who can access the information, on how it can be used and on protecting American citizens’ privacy — because the NSA is forbidden by law from engaging in domestic spying. These safeguards were ignored wholesale under the Obama administration, and to many Republicans, it is no coincidence that intelligence leaks damaged Democrats' political opponents in the 2016 election.

A report from journalists John Solomon and Sara Carter last week, based on recently declassified documents, exposed what went on. As Solomon and Carter write:
More than 5%, or one out of every 20, searches seeking upstream Internet data on Americans inside the NSA’s so-called Section 702 database violated the safeguards President Obama and his intelligence chiefs vowed to follow in 2011, according to one classified internal report reviewed by Circa. ...
The normally supportive court censured administration officials, saying that the failure to disclose the extent of the violations earlier amounted to an “institutional lack of candor,” and that the improper searches constituted a “very serious Fourth Amendment issue,” according to a recently unsealed court document dated April 26.
The admitted violations undercut one of the primary defenses that the intelligence community and Obama officials have used in recent weeks to justify their snooping into incidental NSA intercepts about Americans. ... The American Civil Liberties Union said the newly disclosed violations are some of the most serious to ever be documented and strongly call into question the U.S. intelligence community’s ability to police itself and safeguard Americans' privacy as guaranteed by the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment protections against unlawful search and seizure.
(Link to more)

When narratives and leaks collide

"I called immigration authorities on Capitol protesters"

"Editor's note: This story has been updated throughout."
The normally ceremonial last day of the legislative session briefly descended into chaos on Monday, as proceedings in the House were disrupted by large protests and at least one Republican lawmaker called immigration authorities on the protesters.

State Rep. Matt Rinaldi, R-Irving, said he called U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement while hundreds of people dressed in red T-shirts unfurled banners and chanted in opposition to the state’s new sanctuary cities law. His action enraged Hispanic legislators nearby, leading to a tussle in which each side accused the other of threats and violence.

In a statement, Rinaldi said state Rep. Poncho Nevárez, D-Eagle Pass, "threatened my life on the House floor," and that Rinaldi is currently under the protection of the Department of Public Safety as a result.

“I was pushed, jostled and someone threatened to kill me,” Rinaldi said. “It was basically just bullying.”
Here is a tweet of a Facebook post Rinaldi put up explaining his version of what happened.



Nevárez said in an interview with the Tribune that he put his hands on Rinaldi and told him to take his argument outside the House chamber. "But was I going to shoot the guy? No," he said.

After the incident, Nevárez tweeted in response to Rinaldi's claims: "He's a liar and hateful man. Got no use for him. God bless him."

DPS was not available to comment Monday because of the Memorial Day holiday.

Hispanic Democratic lawmakers involved in the altercation said it wasn’t physical but indicated that Rinaldi got into people’s faces and cursed repeatedly. Video shot from the House floor shows both Republicans and Democrats pushing each other.

“He came up to us and said, ‘I’m glad I just called ICE to have all these people deported,'” said state Rep. César Blanco, D-El Paso, whose account was echoed by state Reps. Armando Walle, D-Houston, and Ramon Romero, D-Fort Worth.
Link to more

KLEM AM

A crow flies in the morning...

photo by Sixty Grit
Planes fly in the mourning...

photo by chickelit

Monday, May 29, 2017

"LA Musician Built $1,200 Tiny Houses for the Homeless. Then the City Seized Them"

American flag


Sometimes I wonder if we're worthy. 

And at agonizing length I conclude yes we are. 

While supposing in one form or another we must be in constant dispute. 

The big crunch



"Comey's FBI Broke Its Own Rules & Procedures On Spying On Americans"

Via InstapunditPelosi confessed ignorance of this week's disclosure that the National Security Agency for at least five years under the Obama administration systematically violated Americans' Fourth Amendment rights...
Civil liberties groups said the disclosures should factor into lawmakers' decision at year's end about whether to reauthorize the NSA collection program that witnessed the abuses...

The sheer scale of the 4th Amendment violations is staggering, as was the sternness of the rebuke of the Obama administration by the FISA court, which ordinarily approves 99.9% of the government's request.

As of a few minutes ago, this story had not been covered by the Washington Post, the New York Times or any of the three broadcast networks.
Of course they aren't covering it, they cant. The press is busy hunting Russians at the White House.

WKRLEM-TV: Where people ever that naive?


Liberal pieties all around with Frank's and beans for lunch.

But oh that Karen Valentine!

"8th graders refuse to take a photo with Paul Ryan because they don't "want to be associated with him""

Via Drudge:  Eighth grade students from South Orange Middle School in South Orange, New Jersey were on a school trip to Wasshington D.C. on Friday when they were given a very special opportunity: a photo-op with Speaker Paul Ryan. Under normal circumstances, many students would leap for the chance to take a photo with the third most powerful politician in the country.

Close to 100 8th graders refused to take a photo with the Speaker and instead sat in a parking lot across the street. Speaker Ryan then took a photo with the remaining class and posted it to his Instagram.

"I can’t take a picture with someone who supports a budget that would destroy public education and would leave 23 million people without healthcare,” Matthew Malespina, a student at the school, told his local newspaper, The Village Green.

Others grounded their decision in their aversion to Trump.

“I didn’t want to be in [the picture] because he believes in most of what Trump believes in,” a fellow student, Louisa Maynard-Parisi, told The Village Green.

(Link to more)

Sunday, May 28, 2017

"Guy Buys Movie Ticket, Internet Outraged"

Via Twitter:  A Brooklyn movie theater recently scheduled a special screening of Wonder Woman open only to women. Cinema/dining chain Alamo Drafthouse said on their website, “Apologies, gentlemen, but we’re embracing our girl power and saying ‘No Guys Allowed’ for several special shows at the Alamo Downtown Brooklyn. And when we say ‘Women (and people who identify as women) only,’ we mean it.”

Movie fan (and my Conservatarians podcast partner-in-crime) Stephen Miller decided he wanted to see a new superhero flick, so he bought a ticket online. Upon sharing this rather mundane act, the Internet exploded, as is its wont.
Of course, there were thousands more entertaining tweets, but their ubiquitous profanity violates Ricochet’s Code of Conduct. To each attack, Miller stressed he has no interest in making a scene; he just wants to sit down and watch Wonder Woman.
Of course, his calmness created even more outrage. A.V. Club writer William Hughes wrote the first of sure to be many think-pieces on this calumny:
As Miller has delighted in telling people irritated by his decision—in that “I am speaking calmly, so you must be the [expletive]” tone so beloved by internet trolls—there’s nothing illegal about purchasing a ticket to a screening. That argument does, though, gloss over the fact that, while barging into a space you’ve been asked to stay out of just because that request made you feel briefly tiny and weak doesn’t make you a criminal, it does make you an insecure piece of [expletive].”
After years of progressives demanding that businesses bake cakes and open bathrooms, it’s cathartic to see them reverse their position when it offends their consciences. Miller is offering them a minor, even friendly, clinic on the brave new world they have created.
And I’m sure he’ll provide a thorough review of the screening when he returns to our podcast.

(Link to the whole thing)

"This is what it’s like to be struck by lightning"

"If you’re hit by lightning, there’s a nine in ten chance you’ll survive. But what are the lasting effects of being exposed to hundreds of millions of volts? Charlotte Huff investigates."
Sometimes they’ll keep the clothing, the strips of shirt or trousers that weren’t cut away and discarded by the doctors and nurses. They’ll tell and retell their story at family gatherings and online, sharing pictures and news reports of survivals like their own or far bigger tragedies. The video of a tourist hit on a Brazilian beach or the Texan struck dead while out running. The 65 people killed during four stormy days in Bangladesh.

Only by piecing together the bystander reports, the singed clothing and the burnt skin can survivors start to construct their own picture of the possible trajectory of the electrical current, one that can approach 200 million volts and travel at one-third of the speed of light.

In this way, Jaime Santana’s family have stitched together some of what happened that Saturday afternoon in April 2016, through his injuries, burnt clothing and, most of all, his shredded broad-brimmed straw hat. “It looks like somebody threw a cannonball through it,” says Sydney Vail, a trauma surgeon in Phoenix, Arizona, who helped care for Jaime after he arrived by ambulance, his heart having been shocked several times along the way as paramedics struggled to stabilise its rhythm.

Jaime had been horse-riding with his brother-in-law and two others in the mountains behind his brother-in-law’s home outside Phoenix, a frequent weekend pastime. Dark clouds had formed, heading in their direction, so the group had started back.

They had nearly reached the house when it happened, says Alejandro Torres, Jaime’s brother-in-law. He paces out the area involved, the landscape dotted with small creosote bushes just behind his acre of property. In the distance, the desert mountains rise, rippled chocolate-brown peaks against the horizon.

The riders had witnessed quite a bit of lightning as they neared Alejandro’s house, enough that they had commented on the dramatic zigzags across the sky. But scarcely a drop of rain had fallen as they approached the horse corrals, just several hundred feet from the back of the property.

Alejandro doesn’t think he was knocked out for long. When he regained consciousness, he was lying face down on the ground, sore all over. His horse was gone.

The two other riders appeared shaken but unharmed. Alejandro went looking for Jaime, who he found on the other side of his fallen horse. Alejandro brushed against the horse’s legs as he walked passed. They felt hard, like metal, he says, punctuating his English with some Spanish.

He reached Jaime: “I see smoke coming up – that’s when I got scared.” Flames were coming off of Jaime’s chest. Three times Alejandro beat out the flames with his hands. Three times they reignited.

It wasn’t until later, after a neighbour had come running from a distant property to help and the paramedics had arrived, that they began to realise what had happened – Jaime had been struck by lightning.
(Link to more)

What's the frequency kenneth?

"Dershowitz: Russia Probe Sounds Like Stalin's Secret Police"
The professor argued that the case is being "done backwards and it raises great concerns about civil liberties.”

“Usually, you can point to a statute and say, ‘We’re investigating crime under this statute,'” Dershowitz said. “What Mueller seems to be doing is saying, ‘We don’t like what happened. Maybe there was some collaboration. But I can’t figure out what statute was being violated.’ You know, when Hillary Clinton was being investigated, at least we knew what the statute was.”

Toobin chimed in, "Here's a statute...want a statute? Aiding and abetting hacking -- it's a crime."


Maybe the point is that because they are members of an administration, all the constitutional niceties should not apply to them... which then leaves the nice treatment of Hillary by the Justice Department and the Comey FBI, when she was investigated, even more perplexing.

kid trips hard waking up from anesthesia

Saw this in the side panel on YouTube.

Simultaneously heartbreaking and funny, this video has over 900 comments to it on YouTube. Most commenters find it hilarious, it has so many truly funny lines. Most think the father is fantastic comforting his son throughout. But the dad does take his hits in comments. Several commenters think the opposite of the dad for uploading the video. They believe it is embarrassing for the child and should not have been recorded in the first place and if recorded then the video should be kept private. Still others criticize the dad for stimulating the child instead of just letting him rest and trip it out.

What do you think?

Saturday, May 27, 2017

KLEM FM

Release the video!!!

WKRLEM: RIP Greg Allman

What is the most ignorant thing someone has said to you?

Reddit to voted comments...

I'm a waiter. I had a woman ask me if we had gluten free water

I was at a cafe and heard the lady at the table next to me order eggs Benedict with extra hollandaise sauce, but asked for the toast to come without butter because she was avoiding saturated fat.
Edit: For those who don't know, hollandaise is made from almost nothing but butter.

'The baby is in a little protective sack that keeps out all the bad stuff, it's fine.'
Drunk, smoking, pregnant teenager at a wedding I was at a few years ago.

"That's not snow on top of the mountain."
"Of course it is, what else would it be?"
"White plastic sheeting."

I went through treatment for cancer. The amount of people who think it is helpful to point out that 'big pharma has the cure for cancer but are hiding it' is mind boggling.

"You have a roof over your head, you get to eat every day. You have no reason to be depressed"
I wasnt even depressed, Im just a quiet kid who doesn't smile much.

Returning to school after my house had burned down during the summer. Arguably the worst summer of my life. I was minding my own business in class and some guy blurted out, "Did you all burn your house down just for insurance money?"

Thank you, US Army



I imagine this will be a treasured photograph for all four of these Army people. It sure would be for me. A simple lovely graceful genuine thank you. 

For fun, and for sharp contrast, compare, if you like.

WKRLEM: Where are these Englishmen?

That you've only to pay 'em the Dane-geld And then you'll get rid of the Dane!


It is always a temptation to an armed and agile nation
  To call upon a neighbour and to say: --
"We invaded you last night--we are quite prepared to fight,
  Unless you pay us cash to go away."

And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
  And the people who ask it explain
That you've only to pay 'em the Dane-geld
  And then  you'll get rid of the Dane!

It is always a temptation for a rich and lazy nation,
  To puff and look important and to say: --
"Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.
  We will therefore pay you cash to go away."

And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
  But we've  proved it again and  again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
  You never get rid of the Dane.

It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
  For fear they should succumb and go astray;
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
  You will find it better policy to say: --

"We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
  No matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
  And the nation that pays it is lost!"

Friday, May 26, 2017

WKRLEM: Pay the Danegeld.



I watch a lot of English TV. American TV has just become to needlessly bloody and coarse. Every show has serial killers and burned and an eviscerated corpse in every other scene. Even a dumb fun series like Hawaii Five O has to have scenes set in the morgue where the detectives talk over the dead body that has just been autopsied and you get to see all the marks and cuts the doctor used. It is just unnecessary.

So I enjoy the English shows that are not as bloody. They have  smart detectives and historical dramas and funny comedies. Downton Abby. Lark Rise to Candleford. Vera. Silk. Grantchester. Doc Martin.  Stella. Last Tango to Halifax. Call the Midwife. Best of all are the shows set during World War 2. Folye's War. Home Fires.

Home Fires in particular is very enjoyable. It is about a village at the beginning of World War Two and how the villagers cope with the war effort. The English are shown to be plucky doughty fighters. Fighting to their last breath to resist the Nazi's. Everyone from the vicar in the church to the washerwoman were in on the fight to the knife.

That England is dead.

Now they let Muslims groom and rape their children. They let them cut the head off their soldiers on the streets of London. They let their children be murdered at pop concerts. They don't do anything about it.

"Muslim man sues Little Caesars, claiming 'halal' was a lie in Dearborn"

Via Twitter: A Muslim man is suing Little Caesars for $100 million after he says he was served and then accidentally ate pepperoni made with pork, a food prohibited by Islamic law.

The complaint says Mohamad Bazzi of Dearborn ordered halal pizza twice from the shop on Schaefer in Dearborn. The boxes were labeled "halal," but the pies inside were topped with regular pepperoni.

Majed Moughni, Bazzi's attorney, said he rushed to file the lawsuit Thursday, the eve of Ramadan, so no other Muslims would accidentally eat pork from the pizza shop during the holiday.

Montana voters unpersuaded by news accounts

Via Drudge:  Just 24 hours after being charged with assault for allegedly body-slamming a reporter in his Bozeman campaign office, Republican Greg Gianforte on Thursday defeated Democratic opponent Rob Quist to win the special election for the U.S. House seat in Montana.

The race was thrust into the national spotlight in dramatic fashion on Wednesday night after Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs described being "body-slammed" by the GOP candidate, and a Fox News crew who witnessed the incident said the former technology and software executive "grabbed Jacobs by the neck with both hands and slammed him into the ground behind him."

"I'm sick and tired of you guys," Gianforte said in audio of the event released by The Guardian. Jacobs told "Good Morning America" Thursday morning, "I went from being vertical one moment to being horizontal the next."

After the incident, the Gallatin County Sheriff cited Gianforte for misdemeanor assault, and instructed him to appear in court by June 7.

(Link to more)

"Monkey mafia steal your stuff, then sell it back for a cracker"

Via Drudge:  Long-tailed macaques living near an Indonesian temple have figured out how to run a ransom racket on visiting tourists.
The monkeys grab valuables, such as glasses, hats, cameras or, in one case, a wad of cash from the ticket booth, then wait for temple staff to offer them food before dropping their ill-gotten gains and dashing off with the tasty prize.

Although this behaviour has been reported anecdotally at Uluwatu Temple on the island of Bali for years, it had never been studied scientifically in the wild. So Fany Brotcorne, a primatologist at the University of Liège in Belgium, and her colleagues set out to discover how and why it has spread through the monkey population.

“It’s a unique behaviour. The Uluwatu Temple is the only place in Bali where it’s found,” she says, which suggests it is a learned behaviour rather than an innate ability.

Brotcorne wanted to determine whether it was indeed cultural, which could help us better understand the monkey’s cognitive abilities, and even human evolution.

(Link to more)


(h/t AllenS email)

KLEM FM


I thought first of Ted Nugent's "Stranglehold" but this won out.

Thursday, May 25, 2017

Importance of dads.

Dad pranks his young son to deliver a life lesson.



YouTube viewers died laughing at this. Then came back to life and said so. 

A different son pranks his dad. Dads teach us how to swear.



YouTube has a lot of dad pranks.  

Homing pigeon caught smuggling 170 ecstasy pills in homemade 'backpack'

Via Drudge: The bird was stopped with the sack strapped to its back as it soared between Iraq and Kuwait.

A homing pigeon has been caught smuggling more than 170 ecstasy pills in a homemade 'backpack' after police tracked its progress across the border of two countries.

The bird was stopped with the sack strapped to its back as it soared between Iraq and Kuwait.

Al Arabiya reports carrier pigeons are increasingly being used in the region as an unorthodox drug smuggling technqiue.

"Manchester attack: Police 'not sharing information with US''

Via Reddit:  UK officials were outraged when photos appearing to show debris from the attack appeared in the New York Times.

It came after the name of bomber Salman Abedi was leaked to US media just hours after the attack, which left 22 dead.

Theresa May said she would tell Donald Trump at a Nato meeting that shared intelligence "must remain secure".

The Queen is at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital visiting some of the injured as well as members of the emergency services.

(Link to more)

"Obama admin knew gang members were part of illegal immigrant surge"

Via Drudge: The Obama administration knowingly let in at least 16 admitted MS-13 gang members who arrived at the U.S. as illegal immigrant teenagers in 2014, a top senator said Wednesday, citing internal documents that showed the teens were shipped to juvenile homes throughout the country.

Sen. Ron Johnson, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said a whistleblower turned over Customs and Border Protection documents from 2014 detailing the 16 people who were caught crossing the border.

“CBP apprehended them, knew they were MS-13 gang members, and they processed and disbursed them into our communities,” Mr. Johnson, Wisconsin Republican, said.

(Link to more)

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

"The Inside Story on James B. Comey"

"Former FBI Director the Ultimate Inside Man" (h/t Michael Haz)

The following exposé was originally posted as an excellent comment on Facebook.

There is an additional exposé on James Comey which presents an ironclad case against him for dereliction of duty, obstruction of justice and official misconduct as follows:
DETAILING THE COMMISSION OF COMEY CRIMES

State of the NationMay 18, 2017

There are very few crime/mystery novels that approach this true story for compelling drama, intrigue and brinkmanship (with the nation in the balance).

Don’t believe the fake-media story that Trump made a mistake or huge gaffe by firing Comey.
Don’t believe the media narrative from the left that it was an attempt to silence Comey from some investigation into Trump.
Don’t believe the RINO narrative that Comey is a good guy just trying to do his job in terrible circumstances and the timing was bad.
Don’t believe the lie that Comey was admired and respected by career FBI investigators and agents.
Don’t believe the lie that Trump’s “tweets” are not professional and have no strategic purpose. His tweets are weaponized and deadly.

James Comey is a poisonous snake of the highest order… a deep-water Swamp Denizen who has been highly paid to deliberately provide cover for high-level corruption by the Clintons and Obama. He is has been central to trying to destroy the Trump campaign and then the Trump administration from the start. He is as dirty as they come in DC. He had highest-level cover (the FBI no less) and was deep into an effort to eliminate Trump. Trump had to move hard, fast, and at exactly the right time to cut the head off the snake without getting bitten by the snake or being finished by the other swamp denizens.

Begin by noticing how the President fired Comey when Comey was 3,000 miles away from his office, that Comey had no inkling he was being cut, that all his files, computers, and everything in his office were seized by his boss Sessions and the justice department. This was not a violation of protocol, it was tactical. Notice how Prez Trump compartmentalized the strike and did not inform any of his White House “staff” to prevent leaks. Notice how he emasculated Comey and the swamp denizens by letting them know in a tweet that the Attorney General got information (surveillance “tapes” from the seizure of Comey’s office) to let Comey and his handlers know that Trump’s DOJ has the goods on them. This was a brilliant, strategic and totally imperative move at exactly the right time against horrible, evil and corrupt powers infesting our government.

The swamp is on notice that the President is on to them, they are sweating bullets because their criminal games of corruption are being pursued and they know it. They are screaming and ranting because they are desperate denizens of the swamp who are beginning to realize they are roadkill.

THIS IS WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE COMEY SCAM.

For free, a hot dog, not a hot dog


"Obama intel agency secretly conducted illegal searches on Americans for years"

Via Drudge:  The National Security Agency under former President Barack Obama routinely violated American privacy protections while scouring through overseas intercepts and failed to disclose the extent of the problems until the final days before Donald Trump was elected president last fall, according to once top-secret documents that chronicle some of the most serious constitutional abuses to date by the U.S. intelligence community.

More than 5 percent, or one out of every 20 searches seeking upstream Internet data on Americans inside the NSA’s so-called Section 702 database violated the safeguards Obama and his intelligence chiefs vowed to follow in 2011, according to one classified internal report reviewed by Circa.

The Obama administration self-disclosed the problems at a closed-door hearing Oct. 26 before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that set off alarm. Trump was elected less than two weeks later.

The normally supportive court censured administration officials, saying the failure to disclose the extent of the violations earlier amounted to an “institutional lack of candor” and that the improper searches constituted a “very serious Fourth Amendment issue,” according to a recently unsealed court document dated April 26, 2017.

The admitted violations undercut one of the primary defenses that the intelligence community and Obama officials have used in recent weeks to justify their snooping into incidental NSA intercepts about Americans.

(Link to more)

What true fact sounds fake?

Reddit top voted comments...

There is a disease that, over time, converts your muscular tissue into bone

~9% of all humans who ever existed are still alive today.

The Soviet Union had a program in which they tried to train Dolphins to kill humans with weapons and destroy submarines with bombs.

There are more tigers in private collections in Texas than there are left in the wild.

Mike the Headless Chicken who lived without a head for two years. People think I'm making up an urban legend when I mention Miracle Mike.

There is a species of shark - the Greenland shark - that has a lifespan of up to 400 years

turkeys can spontaneously impregnate themselves through a process called Parthenogenesis

Since the current water speed record was set in 1978, everyone thats tried to beat it since has died.

"A Campus Murder Tests Facebook Clicks as Evidence of Hate"

Via Wired phone message:  Investigators say they still don’t know why Sean Urbanski, a 22-year-old University of Maryland student, walked up to 23-year-old Richard Collins III, a US Army lieutenant just days shy of college graduation, and fatally stabbed him at a campus bus stop this weekend. What they do say they know is that Collins, who was visiting a friend at UMD and did not appear to know Urbanski, was black, and that Urbanski belonged to a Facebook group called Alt-Reich: Nation, a haven of white supremacist content.

“Suffice to say that it’s despicable,” UMD police chief David Mitchell said, at a press conference, of the now deleted Alt-Reich: Nation group. “It shows extreme bias against women, Latinos, members of the Jewish faith, and especially African Americans.”

In addition to the local police department’s ongoing homicide investigation, the FBI is looking into whether Collins’ murder also amounts to a hate crime. The judges and jury of the internet have quickly reached a guilty verdict, but law enforcement is less sure. “We need something probably more than just a Facebook posting,” said Angela Alsobrooks, prosecutor for Prince George’s County, Maryland, during a press conference Monday.

Digital breadcrumbs have become key pieces of evidence for investigators in the age of social media, but they’ve also put a unique strain on the legal system, forcing courts to grapple with new questions about the relative significance of a Facebook post, a “Like,” a follow, a tweet. It’s natural for the public to want to level the harshest punishment on a person who could kill a stranger in cold blood, particularly when that killer lurked in the internet’s darkest corners and may have been motivated by racial hatred. But in Urbanski’s case, investigators, and eventually the courts, will have to carefully decide how much weight they can really put on a person’s online allegiances and whether mere membership in such a hateful online group constitutes evidence of intent to commit a hate crime.

“These are not questions the law has had to answer before,” says Neil Richards, a professor of First Amendment and privacy law at Washington University School of Law. “We don’t want to permit a system in which merely reading something or associating with other people can be used as strong evidence that you hold the views of the people you hang out with or the things you read.”

(Link to more)

Kalter: Suicide rate skyrockets among middle-aged men

Via InstapunditSuicide prevention efforts in the Bay State are targeting male-dominated industries like construction in an attempt to slow skyrocketing rates among middle-aged men — a troubling trend highlighted by the recent death of 52-year-old Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell, advocates say.

Friends and family of the prolific rock singer were stunned when he was found dead last week in a Detroit hotel room, which the medical examiner determined was a suicide.

“When someone famous kills himself, just like when someone famous dies of a heroin overdose, people say, ‘Wow, that’s amazing.’ People don’t realize how enormous of a problem suicide is for middle-aged men in America and in Massachusetts,” said Franklin Cook, director of community outreach for MassMen.org, which provides prevention resources to men struggling with suicidal thoughts.

The suicide rate in Massachusetts rose by 40 percent between 2004 and 2014, due in large part to the number of middle-aged men taking their lives.

Men 35-64 accounted for 44 percent of the total number of Bay State suicides in 2014. That toll rises to 67 percent for men 25-64.

“The increased numbers of fatalities is being driven by men in their middle years,” Cook said.

(Link to more)

Ariana Grande

If you were wondering who Ariana Grande is upon hearing the news of the explosion at her concert, the last we saw of her was on video licking donuts left in the open for customers, and remarking to her friends that she hates America and hates Americans.

You'll remember this.



I'm emotionally numb.  I do feel a bit bad for the girls but for having parents who made this situation for them and ultimately bequeath the problem to them to resolve. 

I cannot work up sympathy. Not for the entertainer, and sympathy does not occur for British who invite this and fiercely defend their insistence. They've numbed me to it. For example, the perpetrator is second generation immigrant. Just like my Dad. And my dad is American as free refills, tipping and large portions. So I emphasize with their defense.  But they apply that defense to citizens of nations with ideologies in fundamental conflict with Western values and unrelentingly unsparingly hegemonic besides. Supremacists do not assimilate. 

I saw this somewhere today in comments. It was easy to find searching [born, sweden, aquarium].

While all those little girls are beautiful. The press chose the most gorgeous among them to show us, to tweak emotionally, I suppose, but surely not to inflame us. The media is conflicted this way.

Say, a movie starts and right off a child is described as too good to be believable, no real child is this good, well behaved, kind, generous, charming, adorable always laughing, a real joy to everyone and you think to yourself, "This is fast one-dimensional character development, this character will be killed." Why else cram all that impossible goodness into a character so quickly? To get viewers to feel, to emote, when the character is killed. Then the show is based on that. So the press shows us the most gorgeous chid lost for maximum emotion while readers instruct each other in comments in certain terms not to channel that emotion down the logical lines of placing responsibility where it belongs so that national policy follows logically. 

I didn't know the donut licking America hating entertainer's audience is all little girls. And now that Britain's civilization determined that immigration is not to be criticized or checked, then these little girls will have to take in their concerts at home for now on. Their civilization must become something else. Something less. Adapt. Cover those girls and keep them at home. I read a very long string of British comments knocking down the immigrant angle, angrily defending their political position on immigration more than defending immigrants themselves, while attacking brutally in exceedingly vicious terms their fellow citizens who suggests that it must. The same arguments before and after Brexit. 

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Clown flees on scooter after slashing man man to death with bladed gloves

What a bizarre story. You must have seen this on Drudge.

The glove or gloves are in the style of Freddy Kruger. White face paint with black streaks. Not a circus clown with big shoes and red nose.

Christian Gulzow is the perp. Brian Lucero is the victim.

They argued at a gas station market. The place has a row of pumps taking most the space of the lot in the front with the back of the market set back to abut the alley. The victim left the market and walked north up the alley just one block from one end of the alley to the other, from 10th to 11th, where he was killed by Gulzow, all this in the alley now behind Torchy's restaurant.

Confusing. Why would one argue with a man wearing gloves with fixed claw fingertip knives and his face painted white with black streaks?

Several intense warning signals ignored right there. Gulzow claims that Lucero stole his scooter and told him to get out of his alley and that Lucero might have died by falling on his studded bracelet, but none of that makes any sense.

The Drudge link goes to Denver Post. Normally I'd avoid a story like this but the Torchy's mentioned in the story is half a block from my home. Other sites have this story too and it's strange seeing my apartment building in the background of some of their photographs. This is my neighborhood and I walk these sidewalks every day. That's my alley. Another 1/2 block south and it's my back door.

I never saw any clowns around here.

Video at Denver Channel

Westword newspaper is close by too, another 1/2 bock north of the gas station so their reporters came upon the scene when they showed up for work.

"Beautiful scientists not taken as seriously as less attractive colleagues"

Via Reddit:  Beautiful scientists may draw a crowd but are seen as less academically able than their less attractive colleagues, researchers in Cambridge have found.

It is thought the good looks of former musician and TV physicist Brian Cox and anatomy expert Alice Roberts may have played a big part in their roles as science communicators.

But, if the results of a study by psychologists at Cambridge University are to be believed, neither are rated as highly competent scientists by members of the public.

Lead researcher Dr Will Skylark, from the Department of Psychology, said he wanted to find out what impact good looks had on the perception of scientists.
"Given the importance of science to issues that could have a major impact on society, such as climate change, food sustainability and vaccinations, scientists are increasingly required to engage with the public.

"We know from studies showing that political success can be predicted from facial appearance, that people can be influenced by how someone looks rather than, necessarily, what they say. We wanted to see if this was true for scientists."
– Dr Will Skylark, University of Cambridge.
In the first of a series of trials, volunteers were shown photos of more than 300 British and American scientists and asked to rate them for intelligence and attractiveness.

(Link to more)

WKRLEM: Ride the high country the way we used to do

WKRLEM: Sunday Bloody Sunday




I know I promised that I would never blog about this site at Lem's ever again but I can't help myself.

You see a bunch of people who were driven out returned to this place to place comments. I remember that Sunday when so many were banned and removed. Many found other places to comment. But some have returned to this site to lend their talents where they would not be appreciated. The moderation that goes on stops the free flow of comments that made the site an interesting place to post.

It is the same problem. Blogs run in cycles. I can't resist adding my two cents. Hide and watch.

What dirty little secret does your profession hide that the consumer should know?

Reddit top voted comments...

Teacher - it's that time of year to make class placements for next year. Every year there are two or three teachers in the school (elementary) who are so awful, we cry over which students we have to 'sacrifice' to them and hope they are strong enough to survive a year with Mr. or Mrs. So-and-So.

Most everything at Applebees besides meats are microwaved

If you're sitting at a blackjack table and aren't sure what play to make, ask the dealer. No, seriously. We're trained to know the official Blackjack strategy guide and are allowed to give you that information (considered common knowledge).

Many of the books you read - especially romance - aren't written by the person who's name is on the cover. Most romance books are ghostwritten and bought by someone else (often a man, I've found) and published under a female's name with a fake bio.
How do I know this? I'm a ghostwriter.

A certain telephone company with a blue globe logo doesn't actually have a billing department. You are always routed to Sales. The job is not to fix your billing problem, it's to upsell you. If you have a legit billing problem, you will be transferred because the rep doesn't want to deal with anyone that isn't a sale.

After working in the travel industry I can tell you that hotel room rates are often not fixed prices. If guests come to the front desk and ask the price we generally start at the high end. Most people accept this as fact and pay up. However, if a customer is hesitent or threatens to walk out we can sometimes drop the price to keep them there.

Wash your fruit, we find spiders hanging out in grapes and berries all the time, your friendly neighborhood grocery store employee.

Roger Moore, James Bond Star, Dies at 89

Roger Moore, the handsome English actor who appeared in seven films as James Bond and as Simon Templar on “The SaintTV series, has died in Switzerland after a short battle with cancer. He was 89.

His family issued an announcement on Twitter: “It is the heaviest of hearts, we must share the awful news that our father, Sir Roger Moore, passed away today. We are all devastated.”

Link
Moore appeared in more official Bond pics than his friend Sean Connery over a longer period of time, and while Connery’s fans were fiercely loyal, polls showed that many others favored Moore’s lighter, more humorous take on 007.

(Link to more)

"Judge presiding over 'El Chapo's' case shot, killed while jogging outside home"

Via Drudge:  The judge who presided over Sinaloa Cartel drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s case was shot in the head while jogging outside of his home Monday near Mexico City, according to media reports.

Judge Vicente Bermudez Zacarias, 37, was the judge presiding over Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s case, according to SDP Noticias. Zacarias lived in Metepec, which is 45 miles west of Mexico City.

The Mexico City newspaper reported that the judge was not given any protection while presiding over cases of drug lords like Abigael Gonzalez Valencia, leader of Los Cuinis cartel, and Guzman.

Guzman is currently being held in a federal prison on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez, which borders El Paso, Texas.The Sinaloa Cartel druglord could be extradited to the United States by early 2017.

(Link to story)

Monday, May 22, 2017

"Nineteen people confirmed dead and 50 injured in Manchester Arena 'terrorist attack'"



'The explosion sounded like it was inside the building somewhere.'

Abby Mullen from Airdire, North Lanakshire who was at the event said: 'As we were leaving a bomb or explosion went off centimetres in front of me. People's skin and faeces where everywhere including in my hair and on my bag.

'I'm still finding bits of God knows what in my hair. You never ever expect these things to happen to you but this proves it can happen to anybody.

'That sound, the blood and those who were running around clueless with body parts and bits of skin missing will not be leaving my mind any time soon or the minds of those involved.'

Jonathan Yates, 24, from the Wirral, who attended the gig, told MailOnline: 'The concert had finished and the lights came on almost instantly. There was a bang, a weird bang. There were lots of balloons but I thought to myself that can't be a balloon, that's not normal.

'We were sat on the floor level and it came from the higher seats, people were running and screaming. Everyone stopped and I turned to my friend and said 'we need to run'. Everyone was running and screaming and then when we got out it felt a bit more OK.

'I heard five or six bangs that sounded like gunshots. When we got outside people were outside, crying and on their phones.

'You don't think it's something that's going to happen when you go...it was such a nice, fun concert.'

(link to more)

"Refusing to allow neutrality on Trump will not end well"

Via Instapundit : “Are you now, or have you ever been, a supporter of Donald J. Trump?” It would be ominous if witnesses in congressional hearings had to endure this type of McCarthyite interrogation. But what do you call it when sportswriters demand that a professional athlete answer the same question?

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, for example, calls himself a “good friend” of the new president. Consequently, the football star faced journalists’ demands to “publicly disavow Trump’s actions,” as one USA Todaycolumnist wrote. Brady, not wanting to detract from his team’s Super Bowl preparations, responded by claiming his “right to stay out of it.” But several commenters made clear that the court of public opinion honors neither the right to privacy nor one against self-incrimination. Not in the Age of Trump.

As in sports, so also in show business. Actress Nicole Kidman found it necessary to apologize for her anodyne post-election statement that “we as a country need to support whoever is president.” After he asked Trump the kind of superficial questions guests have faced for 62 years on NBC’s “Tonight Show,” critics denounced host Jimmy Fallon for aiding and abetting Trump’s election. “Now,” Slate warned, “even if celebrities [want] to opt out of the current moment, they can’t…. Doing nothing is doing something. Silence either signifies ‘I’m for Trump’ or ‘I’m for myself.’”

(More at the link)

"Isis tests chemical weapons on 'human guinea pigs'"

Via Drudge:  The extremist group has reportedly poisoned prisoners by spiking their food and water with compounds used in pesticides that are easy to obtain

Security forces now fear the terror network may hatch a twisted plot to contaminate Western food supplies with formulas that quickly dissolve in liquid.

The experiments were recorded in a stash of papers found hidden in Mosul University after Iraqi special forces recaptured the city from IS fighters.

They reveal one victim was fed thallium sulphate - a colourless, tasteless salt that can be dissolved in water - and began to suffer fever, nausea, and swelling of the stomach and brain before dying in agony ten days later.

Isis described the chemical as an "ideal lethal poison" and claimed to be in “possession of an ample amount of the solution to fill demands”, according to the documents, which were verified by British and US forces and later obtained by The Times.

Terrorists also injected a nicotine-based compound, said to have no antidote, into another victim who passed out within seconds and died hours later.

(Link to more)

The Patent Scam Intro

Via Reddit...

"Tampa Mayor Buckhorn's joke about pointing machine guns at media draws fire"

Via Drudge: “Personally, I was appalled,” wrote Susan Katz Keating, a freelance writer and organization board member who was in the conference room Tuesday for Buckhorn’s keynote address. Katz Keading had guns pointed at her while covering unrest in Northern Ireland in 1988.

Buckhorn said his critics are being overly sensitive. “I think that is a silly reaction,” he said of those upset by a story he has told “a dozen times.”

But some journalists in the room said they weren’t being thin-skinned. No skin is thick enough to stop a bullet or bomb blast, something Daily Beast national security reporter Kim Dozier knows all too well.

In 2006, she was nearly killed in a car bombing that took the life of the U.S. Army officer her team was filming Capt. James Alex Funkhouser, along with his Iraqi translator and Dozier’s CBS colleagues Paul Douglas and James Brolan.

“As someone who had been under fire once or twice, and lost two colleagues to a car bomb in Iraq that nearly killed me, I didn’t appreciate the remarks,” said Dozier, who wrote a book about her experiences and efforts to recover. “The mayor probably didn’t realize how many of the reporters in the room had risked their lives to bring Americans the story of U.S. troops in the field, including veterans-turned-journalists with prior special ops service.”

(Link to more)

WKRLEM: The way it used to be......

This was the elegant New York.

I had gone to the Carlye a few times to see Bobby Short.

It was quite expensive but worth it.

Sunday, May 21, 2017

The Tao of Cliff


"So Coach what are you making?"
"A new Cocktail. It's called the Trump."
"Really what's in it? Lots of win I suppose? A Mexican? Maybe some gold leaf?"
"Nah nothing like that Cliffy. Why would you think that. What are you stupid? All you do is talk about how great Trump is all the time. Don't you get tired of that? I mean he is not the real leader that we need like Mussolini or Huey Long."
"Little know fact. Mussolini ate a couple of cloves of garlic every night before he went to bed. Said it was good for his heart. Didn't do much for his sex life though."
"Seriously Cliffy where do you come up with this stuff."
"By my voluminous research Coach. I am on the computer every day. So tell me what's in this cocktail?"
"Vodka for his Russian connections, corn for his corny beliefs and sugar to sweeten it so you will swallow it. Oh and a dab of bull feces because you know. He is full of it."
"Sounds Delicious. Pour me one. And one for my friend Norm."
"Hey I don't want that. I only drink beer."
"It's free."
"Send it down here Coach."
"See everybody wants something for free."

Cut the cord!


Mike Cernovich discusses why Trump is having so much trouble with the media and what he should do (excepted from Vox Popoli the blog of Vox Day)

When WaPo or NY Times drops a “devastating” story on Trump, do you know who reads these stories — liberals!

Thus one can see the problem with Trump’s media team. They are spending all of their time, energy, and focus responding to news that most Trump supporters won’t even see, and if we see it, won’t believe it.

Trump was right (for the wrong reasons) when he jokingly claimed he could shoot someone on Fifth Ave. Most of his supporters would never see the story, and absent a clear video, wouldn’t believe the story if they saw it.

Want to know how out “out of touch” Trump supporters are with what liberal media is saying? I don’t even notice most of the media hit pieces on me, and even with a massive online following, people rarely ask me about anything nasty the media is saying about me. My readers, like me, aren’t reading liberal propaganda outlets.

Trump’s media team is playing defense, running around responding to stories that most of Trump’s base will never read, and if they read, would never believe.     


I think this exactly right and the Newt Gringrich has the perfect solution.

Trump speech, Arabia

Trump delivered a solid and impressive speech, in my opinion. He tells the leaders of Arab nations that terrorism is mostly their problem, it is mostly Arab citizens that are killed,  and Arab leaders cannot just leave it to United States to fix for them. Citing Iran and Iran's Hezbollah while ignoring for the moment their own contribution to global terrorism.

Amazing to conservative viewers who haven't heard the like for nearly a decade, Trump concludes his speech to these assembled billionaire Middle East leaders, "God bless America."

The room is stunning, the seating is luxurious and the snacks look nice.

At one point near the end the camera aims at the empty chair of king. He left before the speech ended. (Probably had to go to the king-potty).

Rightside news video, full speech.

Times of Israel, transcript of Trump speech.

"Key Democratic Officials Now Warning Base Not to Expect Evidence of Trump/Russia Collusion"

Via Instapundit: From MSNBC politics shows to town hall meetings across the country, the overarching issue for the Democratic Party’s base since Trump’s victory has been Russia, often suffocating attention for other issues. This fixation has persisted even though it has no chance to sink the Trump presidency unless it is proven that high levels of the Trump campaign actively colluded with the Kremlin to manipulate the outcome of the U.S. election — a claim for which absolutely no evidence has thus far been presented.

The principal problem for Democrats is that so many media figures and online charlatans are personally benefiting from feeding the base increasingly unhinged, fact-free conspiracies — just as right-wing media polemicists did after both Bill Clinton and Obama were elected — that there are now millions of partisan soldiers absolutely convinced of a Trump/Russia conspiracy for which, at least as of now, there is no evidence. And they are all waiting for the day, which they regard as inevitable and imminent, when this theory will be proven and Trump will be removed.

Key Democratic officials are clearly worried about the expectations that have been purposely stoked and are now trying to tamp them down. Many of them have tried to signal that the beliefs the base has been led to adopt have no basis in reason or evidence.

The latest official to throw cold water on the MSNBC-led circus is President Obama’s former acting CIA chief Michael Morell. What makes him particularly notable in this context is that Morell was one of Clinton’s most vocal CIA surrogates. In August, he not only endorsed Clinton in the pages of the New York Times but also became the first high official to explicitly accuse Trump of disloyalty, claiming, “In the intelligence business, we would say that Mr. Putin had recruited Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation.”

But on Wednesday night, Morell appeared at an intelligence community forum to “cast doubt” on “allegations that members of the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.” “On the question of the Trump campaign conspiring with the Russians here, there is smoke, but there is no fire at all,” he said, adding, “There’s no little campfire, there’s no little candle, there’s no spark. And there’s a lot of people looking for it.”

(Link to more)

Rex Tillerson and Wilbur Ross do Sword Dance

Live it up. This is fun as it gets. Considering they haven't had any alcohol to loosen them up. If they did, then the swords would have to go.

Oddest syncopated beat I ever heard that lasts the whole song. It has the rhythm of a five-legged elephant with a prolapsed anus.

Chip, boom, chip-chip, boom (x3)
Chip, boom-boom, boom-boom.

Kind of catchy.

This morning I learned that Arabs call their version of Asian Sword Dance,"ardah" and it's accompanied by spoken poetry for the occasion.

More on ardah: Interchangeable Cultural Heritage When Donald Trump participated in Saudi Arabian sword dance.



Where kings and clerks, administrators, soldiers and billionaires mingle. Before engaging in some grand endeavor. Like battle.

Saturday, May 20, 2017

Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun

Link

Via Wikipedia: Regarding "Black Hole Sun", Cornell stated, "It's just sort of a surreal dreamscape, a weird, play-with-the-title kind of song." He also said that "lyrically it's probably the closest to me just playing with words for words' sake, of anything I've written. I guess it worked for a lot of people who heard it, but I have no idea how you'd begin to take that one literally." In another interview he elaborated further, stating, "It's funny because hits are usually sort of congruent, sort of an identifiable lyric idea, and that song pretty much had none. The chorus lyric is kind of beautiful and easy to remember. Other than that, I sure didn't have an understanding of it after I wrote it. I was just sucked in by the music and I was painting a picture with the lyrics. There was no real idea to get across." Commenting upon how the song was misinterpreted as being positive, Cornell said, "No one seems to get this, but 'Black Hole Sun' is sad. But because the melody is really pretty, everyone thinks it's almost chipper, which is ridiculous." When asked about the line, "Times are gone for honest men", Cornell said:
It's really difficult for a person to create their own life and their own freedom. It's going to become more and more difficult, and it's going to create more and more disillusioned people who become dishonest and angry and are willing to fuck the next guy to get what they want. There's so much stepping on the backs of other people in our profession. We've been so lucky that we've never had to do that. Part of it was because of our own tenacity, and part of it was because we were lucky.