Friday, March 30, 2018

Good Friday


And it's a VERY GOOD FRIDAY for Alan!!!

CONGRATULATIONS ON RETIRING THIS EVENING, ALAN!!!
(It may technically be midnight, but once your last shift is done, CELEBRATE!)


20 comments:

  1. Thank you, listener. My head is in a much better place than it was a couple of days ago. And I received my Fountain Pen Revolution pen with a stub nib--just barely tested it, but it seems very good on heavy watercolour paper. Might be about a medium on cheap copy paper; little line variation, but smooth and sturdy. Can't beat the price. Value for money.

    Alan

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  2. I just saw on The Weather Channel that there will be a Blue Moon tonight - the second one of 2018 - and that there won't be another until 2020.

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    1. So I literally will retire once in a blue moon; interesting.

      Alan

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    2. Literally!! How cool is that?!!

      Thanks for the reminder, Susan! I had plumb forgot.
      And it's raining here, so no moon to remind me tonight.

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  3. Office that Vets Trump Appointees Is a Mess
    March 30, 2018 By Taegan Goddard

    “An obscure White House office responsible for recruiting and vetting thousands of political appointees has suffered from inexperience and a shortage of staff, hobbling the Trump administration’s efforts to place qualified people in key posts across government,” the Washington Post reports.

    “At the same time, two office leaders have spotty records themselves: a college dropout with arrests for drunken driving and bad checks and a lance corporal in the Marine Corps reserves with arrests for assault, disorderly conduct, fleeing an officer and underage drinking.”
    ====================

    Sounds like it would be improved by sending in Larry, Moe and Curley--but alas, they are beyond the veil. Maybe they could take over the office by way of a spiritualist.

    --Alan

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    1. Wow. How crooked can you get.

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    2. Speaking of which, I think I will this evening watch (heck, it’s only eighteen minutes) The Three Stooges in Disorder in the Court.[Click] It’s free online! (Scroll down, click and enjoy.) Haven’t see them in a long time, and not sure I ever saw that short.

      —Alan

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  4. https://washingtonpress.com/2018/03/30/mueller-just-apprehended-a-trump-associate-at-a-boston-airport/

    "Malloch said the interrogation was intimidating, adding that the agents “seemed to know everything about me.” His phone was confiscated and taken to D.C. for a “full assessment.” He claims his role in the Trump campaign was an informal, unpaid position, that he only met with Stone three times, and that he never went to the Ecuadorian embassy to see Assange. The veracity of his claims has yet to be verified.

    The dramatic fashion in which he was apprehended seems to point to an increase in tempo for the Mueller investigation. They’re closing in on their target and more incidents like this are sure to occur in the coming months.

    Malloch has been served a subpoena compelling him to testify in front of a grand jury for Mueller in April."

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  5. https://www.rawstory.com/2018/03/republican-strategist-goes-epic-rant-assemblage-crooks-outright-weirdos-working-trump/

    "Schmidt had no sympathy for Republican operatives who work for Trump.

    “And from a personnel perspective, we’ve never quite seen the assemblage of crooks, just outright weirdos, wife beaters, drunk-drivers, complete and total incompetence that’s been assembled,” Schmidt charged. “If you took the ten greatest H.R. managers in the world and put them together and said we want to form a 1927 Yankees of incompetence, it’s not possible they would have done a better job than assembling this team and it’s not possible that this team could have let loose more chaos than they already have.”

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    1. Sounds like just what a Russian agent would do, it seems to me.

      Alan

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  6. https://washingtonpress.com/2018/03/30/military-analyst-who-quit-fox-just-blew-the-whistle-on-their-witch-hunt-against-mueller/

    “I increasingly was blocked from speaking on the issues about which I could offer real expertise: Russian affairs and our intelligence community,” he writes. “I could only rarely and briefly comment on the paramount security question of our time: whether Putin and his security services ensnared the man who would become our president.”

    “Trump’s behavior patterns and evident weaknesses (financial entanglements, lack of self-control and sense of sexual entitlement) would have made him an ideal blackmail target,” he adds, “and the Russian security apparatus plays a long game.”

    Fox viewers were denied that perspective from someone whom everyone considers an expert, in favor of Tomi Lahren’s musings.

    Finally, Colonel Peters dropped a nuke on Fox’s credibility regarding the Trump-Russia scandal, exposing their entire coverage as the cover-up it really is.

    “Listening to political hacks with no knowledge of things Russian tell the vast Fox audience that the special counsel’s investigation was a ‘witch hunt,’ while I could not respond, became too much to bear. There is indeed a witch hunt, and it’s led by Fox against Robert Mueller.”

    Welcome to the resistance, Lieutenant Colonel Peters.


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  7. What GREAT links and stories today! Thank you so much.

    I have one too.

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  8. Ready?


    YES!!!

    The Vermont Senate narrowly passed expansive gun legislation today.
    https://vtdigger.org/2018/03/30/senate-narrowly-passes-expansive-gun-legislation/

    In addition to S.55, which sets restrictions on guns, a "red flag" bill, S.221, received final approval in the House on Friday morning, and a domestic violence bill, H.422, passed a third and final reading later in the day in Senate.
    Republican Gov. Phil Scott says he will sign all three bills into law after his attorneys review the legislation for possible technical errors.

    I LOVE VERMONT!!!

    As I understand it, the one thing I really wanted wasn't included, which is an assault weapons ban. But these are huge strides for the state that had the most lax gun laws until now.

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    1. Yes, that sounds like significant progress. Ten shells in a shotgun sure sounds like a lot, though. If I remember correctly, the limit in California was five when I was a kid. And twenty rounds in a sidearm clip? Maybe for the police. Well, having got that far will make further progress easier.

      Alan

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    2. The old time New England Republicans were a good lot--as were the California Republicans. Leon Panetta is a good California example. He stayed right where he was on the political spectrum as it shifted to the right and what had been Republican became Democratic.

      Alan

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  9. For the first time in - I don't know how long - I have wasted an entire day. I emptied the dishwasher and reloaded it. Fluffed the cat's food and I've just been sitting on this computer all day long. Normally I don't do that, I work. But not today. I've always been the "busy bee" type so this has been unusual for me. Mom told me that when I was around two I used to repeatedly say, "What will I next do?" I did, however, bestir myself enough to go out to look at the blue moon to mark Alan's retirement. It is beautiful. Usually when there's something in the sky to see we have clouds or rain, but not tonight. First night all week it's been clear.

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    1. I like the sort of day and evening you had, Susan. Keep doing that next.

      You too, now, Alan!

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    2. It was kind of nice, but I always feel like I'm shirking my duty and not paying my rent on earth, so I won't make it a habit.

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  10. Boy, despite the good wishes of my coworkers (including company lunch with card and gift), it was awful hard walking out of the lab after so many years. I kept finding little things to do to get things ready for my coworkers on Monday. Going home I had to be carful to keep my mind on driving, but it seemed like I was driving into the future....

    Alan

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