StrangeSox

QUOTE (JUSTgottaBELIEVE @ Jun 9, 2017 -> 12:59 PM) what did he say? It was mainly whining about regulations but his props were 11x17 binders full of "unnecessary paperwork" that looked suspiciously like engineering packages for some big highway project somewhere. Maybe it's just because I'm a liberal snowflake but I think engineering designs are good for major infrastructure projects.

proof that this is really a computer simulation that we're all living in, and something's gone horribly awry.

To cap off an historic Infrastructure Week, Trump gave a press conference in which he appeared to decry the idea of engineering being involved in infrastructure projects. Infrastructure Week has been incredible, btw.

I would think that it'd be better to wait to buy a place until you're more familiar with an area and know exactly where you'd want to live. That would change if it's a city you're familiar with and you've already got friends and family and know the different neighborhoods around there. Using the tax credit to pay down your car loan would also leave you in a better place financially sooner.

No official coalition yet, just a minority government with some sort of arrangement for support on major issues. DUP is apparently a hard line social conservative party along the lines of Evangelicals here, and backed violent anti-Republicans during The Troubles. They're pro-Brexit but don't want a hard border with the Republic of Ireland. QUOTE (ptatc @ Jun 9, 2017 -> 10:57 AM) OOPs. I see the difference now. Retract those meaningless observations made by the crackpot in the corner. Too much time on his hands without courses to teach. ha ha I think this is all of us right now, except maybe Feeky McGee who lives in Ireland IIRC

Cool breakdown from NYT on how Britain voted, with this nice graphic showing the shifts. Labour picked up a bunch in England while Conservatives stopped some of the bleeding by carving up rural Scotland. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06...s-analysis.html Red is Labour, Blue is Conservatives. One of the notable Labour gains last night was Canterbury, which has gone Conservative since 1825. The closest analog would be Democrats winning Oklahoma panhandle seats unexpectedly.

https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/873156117152620544

Really highlights how important an individual vote can be, especially when you have appropriately sized constituencies. Some races were decided by 1 or 2 votes. MP's represent ~70k people though rather than ~700k that districts in the US have.

Sen. McCaskill presses Hatch, GOP on whether there will be a hearing on the health care bill that affects 1/6 of our economy: https://twitter.com/SenateDems/status/873001941521108992

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jun 9, 2017 -> 08:29 AM) I haven't really seen anyone make a solid argument or any argument at all that Comey's personal memos would be classified or privileged communication beyond the surface level conflation of "leaks!" It'll be interesting to see how this and the broader defense of "Comey is a lying liar who lies except about the parts that were not-bad for me, those are all 100% true" defense they're running with. So apparently the most that can ultimately result from this is a note in Comey's DoJ personnel file. It's also been pointed out that Trump shared information regarding his private conversations with Comey first in the firing letter, and that he has not actually claimed any executive privilege. I'm not even sure how this is supposed to work as some sort of distraction or delay tactic. I don't think his lawyers do, either.

The stories on how badly both The Intercept and Reality Winner herself messed up handling the leak and gave away her identity are pretty ridiculous. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/realit...4b0b13f2c67ce7d

Something that I've seen mentioned in recent weeks was that during the Clinton administration, a lot of staffers were wrecked by legal bills because they all had to keep legal counsel through several (faux) scandals. I think Clinton ultimately paid for it, but I really don't see notoriously cheap Trump doing that. The main effect of this might be even fewer people willing to work for an administration that's already critically understaffed. Here's a Politico article on it: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/20/t...ers-fees-238631

I haven't really seen anyone make a solid argument or any argument at all that Comey's personal memos would be classified or privileged communication beyond the surface level conflation of "leaks!" It'll be interesting to see how this and the broader defense of "Comey is a lying liar who lies except about the parts that were not-bad for me, those are all 100% true" defense they're running with.

Trump’s Meddlesome Priest

Good night for Labour so far, pretty bad night for Conservatives all things considered, and a brutal night for single-issue parties with UKIP and SNP losing tons of voters. Scottish Independence is dead dead dead, as is May as PM.

Comey went to sessions and told him to never leave him alone with Trump again after the "I hope" meeting. I don't know how you walk away from 2 1/2 hours of testimony about Trump's inappropriate behavior with maybe two minutes spent on Lynch with the idea that Comey wasn't really bothered by Trump and the whole infestation is bs and should be ended anyway but Lynch is the big story here.

New poll Ossof 50 - Handel 47 https://twitter.com/Nate_Cohn/status/872949...src=twsrc%5Etfw

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jun 8, 2017 -> 05:22 PM) From the closed session today, sessions had a third undisclosed contact with Russians. https://twitter.com/PeterAlexander/status/8...src=twsrc%5Etfw Comey hinted at this during open testimony when he implied that the FBI worried sessions was compromised prior to his recusal. If the only thing that happens out of all of this chaos is sessions being forced out, I'll take it.

Comey stating forcefully that he viewed Trump's "I hope" statements as a directive and Trump's lawyer laying out a defense that's basically accusing Comey of perjury and illegally leaking information seem to be the major takeaways. Also Comey openly calling POTUS a liar. The Lynch thing was apparently already reported on back in April, and while it was certainly dumb and scummy, it doesn't seem to have had any impact or been an attempt to stop investigation rather than euphemising it.

From the closed session today, sessions had a third undisclosed contact with Russians. https://twitter.com/PeterAlexander/status/8...src=twsrc%5Etfw Comey hinted at this during open testimony when he implied that the FBI worried sessions was compromised prior to his recusal.

These are just the exit polls, which are typically fairly reliable but Conservatives could still win a small majority here. Either way, this is a spectacular failure on their part and is going to make the Brexit negotiations that much more chaotic. Who knows if May will retain leadership even if they squeak out a majority.