Russian Spy Ship 30 Miles From Connecticut, FBI Raids Friar's Club, Rand Paul Opposes Flynn Investigation: A.M. Links

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Elizabeth Nolan Brown is a senior editor at Reason.

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  1. A Russian spy ship is apparently chilling out in the international waters just 30 miles south of Connecticut, near a U.S. Navy submarine base.

    Thank God Fred Thompson isn’t alive to see this.

    1. DEG

      Moose and squirrel.

    2. What’s their plan?!?!?!?!?!?

    3. Rufus The Monocled

      Hello.

      “A Russian spy ship is apparently chilling out in the international waters just 30 miles south of Connecticut, near a U.S. Navy submarine base.”

      WOLVERINES!

      …and Beavers.

      1. Sexist.

    4. DJF

      So Russia supports the free movement of ships in international waters

      Will the US State Department send them a thank you note?

  2. Bee Tagger

    The infamous Friar’s Club was raided by the FBI yesterday over potential financial missteps.

    Take my financial records, please don’t.

  3. Somalian Road Corporation

    It’s OK to punch nazis AND white male libertarians who wanna talk about free speech.

    Will the cosmos finally understand when their cocktails get smacked out of their hands? Perhaps we’ll find out.

    1. WTF

      Say when!

    2. Bee Tagger

      I refuse to believe a single person said something that violates the non-aggression principle. I just refuse to believe it.

    3. John

      I am going to go out on a limb and say that Mike Montero, the guy who tweeted that, has never punched anyone in his life. None of these dumb ass black block clowns are even remotely intimidating. They are at most good for sucker punching or macing someone. They wouldn’t last two seconds in a actual physical confrontation with anyone short of a preteen girl.

      1. Cash me outside.

        1. How bout dat?

      2. Karen24

        He seems very concerned about people who do not accept that the Father and the Son are coequal. (For those of you who are not nerdy about theology disputes from the time of Emperor Constantine I, he referred someone as an “Arian” white male. Bishop Arius was condemned at the Council of Ephesus in the 300’s AD for arguing that Jesus was subordinate to God.)

    4. ‘when their cocktails get smacked out of their hands’

      That’s a bridge too far for them. They may not support everyone’s right to free speech, but they definitely support their own right to attend cocktail parties.

    5. John Titor

      What the ‘cosmo’ side of the libertarian equation doesn’t get is that if they ever want to succeed they’ll inevitably have to alienate their left-wing ‘allies’. Some might be more tolerant of libertarian views articulated by individuals, but that’s just because those individuals have no power or ability to enforce those policies. If there ever was a groundswell of libertarian support that resulted in libertarians actually having a chance at power you’d better believe they’d end up in the ‘fascist’ column pretty quickly.

    6. Anomalous

      Does it ever occur to them that people that get punched often punch back?

    7. It’s time for another libertarian purity test:

      Do you think it’s okay to punch people in the face for what you think they believe, or don’t you think it’s okay to punch people in the face for what you think they believe?

      THE COSMO/YOKEL DIVIDE IS GOING TO BECOME EVEN MORE DIVIDER

      1. Treebeardtarian, the new vogue.

        Quote: “Side? I am on nobody’s side, because nobody is on my side, little orc.”

      2. So cosmos don’t accept the non-aggression principle? Then what the hell even makes them ‘libertarian’? Uber?

        1. So cosmos don’t accept the non-aggression principle?

          I don’t know, but all I know is that they are bad. All of them!

          1. Yeah, you’re a funny guy. Don’t worry, Uber is totally more important than speech, sellout

            1. I know! Fuck you, freedom and liberty!

              That’s the cosmo way.

        2. CatoTheChipper

          Uber, and weed and Mexican butt sex.

      3. Somalian Road Corporation

        Nobody ever accused me of being a yokel (and I’d laugh at such), but I’d gladly wear the label of purist… which I would refer to as principled. And, personally, I’d like to see less stuff from “the party of principle” telling me I have to bake a cake at gunpoint or 11th-hour campaign sabotage to endorse Hillary Clinton.

        1. What does some douchebag’s Twitter feed have to do with the Libertarian Party?

          1. Somalian Road Corporation

            Nothing directly, it was just a tangent off the cosmo/yokel/purist thing.

      4. lap83

        The only appropriate time to punch someone is if they have a punchable face, regardless of their beliefs

        1. So…if it were Crusty or Ted Cruz? Would you, lap? I would not, one scratch and it’s Crustazuma’s revenge.

        2. Chris Cuomo hardest hit.

      5. jack sprat

        As much as I would LIKE to punch folks sometimes it is not alright. One of the signs of being a fully functioning adult is being able to control your base instincts.
        I do believe strongly in the right to defend oneself though. I’ve even taught self defense classes but the first rule is to not seek out trouble. And always walk away if you can. A big ego leads to more trouble than you want in your life.

    8. Ceci n'est pas un woodchipper

      I still cannot quite understand Twitter. Something about the structure of the…threads?…doesn’t quite fit past my eyeballs. Tweets may as well be in hieroglyphics.

      Anyway, I think it’s hilarious that that guy refers to himself as “The Last Liberal” and gave an interview on the Tucker Carlson show saying that he’s apparently just noticed that the left no longer stands for things like individual liberty, freedom from government intrusion, etc..

      Seriously, guy? You’re just now getting this?

      IF, and this is a big IF, there’s ever a real “libertarian moment” in this country, it will be despite of, not thanks to, the cosmos.

      1. Rufus The Monocled

        Seriously. It’s only been unfolding before our fricken eyes for the last, what, 80-90 years or so?

        Liberals are always the last to know.

      2. dan'o en barrel

        He noticed a couple of years ago and his youtube channel has since centered on the topic. His shift in thought seemed to start when he interviewed Larry Elder, who challenged his assumptions about “systemic racism”. To Rubin’s credit he said he was moved by Elder’s arguments.

        Bear in mind that his show used to be part of TYT, and its important (and also very sad) that his voice as a married gay person will be heard by many who wouldn’t otherwise listen.

        His 4 minute PragerU video from last week is definitely worth a watch imo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiVQ8vrGA_8&t=1s

        1. CatoTheChipper

          Not bad as “outreach” to progressives who are just following the crowd.

          However, “progressive” never meant what Rubin thought it meant.

      3. Invisible Handjob

        I like Dave Rubin, his YouTube channel is pretty good. He didn’t just notice this about the left, he’s been talking about it for over a year. He’s one of the guys who helped popularize the term #RegressiveLeft. He does long form interviews and he’s had a lot of libertarian-types on in the past year and it’s been fascinating to watch his political beliefs evolve over time from being a progressive liberal to more of a classic liberal.

        It’s hard to break out of your bubble and abandon beliefs that you’ve held all your life (he’s gay married and has been a Dem most of this life). He should be commended for it and we should be hoping more start to learn about and spread ideas of liberty.

        1. Emmerson Biggins

          Ya. He deserves the carrot for this, not the stick.

          1. AlexInCT

            gay bashing!

    9. Michael

      Some of the replies to the original tweet are excellent.

      Alan D. Miller ?@AlanDMiller1

      @monteiro How about black male libertarians?

  4. The infamous Friar’s Club was raided by the FBI yesterday over potential financial missteps.

    Out of the Friar’s pan and into the Friar’s finances!

  5. Slammer

    There were no rioting migrant sex mobs that besieged Frankfurt, Germany, on New Year’s Eve

    These aren’t the mobs you’re looking for

  6. Bee Tagger

    The FBI is now investigating Donald Trump’s disgraced national security adviser Michael Flynn in the hopes of finding out what he said to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak

    Oh, so we all have to pretend for a few weeks they don’t already have access to this? What major American corporation needs to put backdoors into their products this time?

    1. AlexInCT

      I bet he was asking how he could schedule himself some golden shower time…

  7. There were no rioting migrant sex mobs that besieged Frankfurt, Germany, on New Year’s Eve.

    But there were plenty of yobs besieging Britain on NYE!

  8. Slammer

    Harrison Ford ‘in near-miss’ at US airport

    Never tell me the odds.

    1. I’m with George Carlin on this – A collision is a near-miss. “Look, they nearly missed, but not quite.”

  9. DJF

    Diane Abbot, the British Labour Party Shadow Home Secretary has this to say about Bretix

    “”””there is a danger that Brexit could give some people permission to express sentiments that are anything but progressive and internationalist.””””””

    For those who don’t know the Home Secretary is in charge of the police and national security. Luckily the Labour Party is unpopular now and won’t be in power, unluckily the Conservative Party which is in power also does not believe in free speech

    http://tiny.cc/vgu8iy

    1. DJF

      Can Reason please get rid of their fifty character limit since most URL are above fifty characters. Its no longer the 20th century

      1. Juvenile Bluster

        You can put it in href tags to get around that.

        1. Shut up, nerd.

        2. Gadfly

          For those who don’t want to Google:
          < a href="link goes here"> text goes here < /a>

          1. Gadfly

            Delete the space after the opening brackets ( < ) to get it to work.

    2. Rhywun

      I can’t imagine living in an entire country run by NYC council rejects. *shudder*

    3. “”””there is a danger that Brexit could give some people permission to express sentiments that are anything but progressive and internationalist.””””””

      That’s the entire European left in a nutshell. Ask the police chief why they won’t publicly disclose the severity of the migrant rape epidemic in his city, “because it would embolden the far right”, ask the (male) Swedish member of parliament who literally got butt raped by a migrant why he lied about his assailant being white, “because it would embolden the far right”, ask the Swedish newspaper editor why he suppresses stories on the widespread migrant crime, same fucking answer. Opposing “the right” is apparently a moral good in and of itself and apparently letting child rapists and terrorist plotters roam free is important because arresting them would “embolden the right”.

      The left is will to sacrifice your child’s virgin asshole, or their own heavily worn asshole for that matter, on the alter of multiculturalism if it means they get to keep their power. There is literally nothing worse for these lefties than losing their power and they will do anything, up to and including destroying entire societies, to make it happen.

      1. AlexInCT

        It’s a bit more than just losing power. having to rethink your dogmatic approach and beliefs based on real life evidence, is a hard thing to do, and something I surmise imposiblle for progs to do without it causing mental problems.

  10. Bee Tagger

    A Russian spy ship is apparently chilling out in the international waters just 30 miles south of Connecticut, near a U.S. Navy submarine base.

    I hear it’s nice there this time of year

    1. ” I never used to go to the beach, ’cause I come from Brooklyn, we only had Coney Island, which was an awful beach, though there was rumours during the war, that enemy submarines, German subs came into the bathing area at Coney Island, and they were destroyed by the pollution. ” – Woody Allen

    2. MikeT1986

      Perhaps they’re seal watching? or you know, Casinos.

      Take a tender to shore, change, call an uber up to Mohegan. See a show, play some games, have a few drinks.

      I can think of worse things to do.

  11. Slammer

    Judge orders drug-addicted mom of four not to get pregnant

    A New York judge has ordered a drug-addicted mother of four who has worked as a prostitute not to get pregnant again until she has gained custody of her infant son.

    “Society and its problems are changing, especially with the incredible rise in the use of heroin, and this court needs to adjust in response instead of doing the same tired routine which does not solve the obvious problems in so many cases,” the Rochester judge wrote in the December order.

    Fordham University sociology professor Jeanne Flavin said the order “reflects a profound disregard for the human rights and dignity of pregnant and parenting women.”

    “If the courts and our child welfare systems were truly committed to the health and well-being of families, they would ensure people have the supports they need in order to feed, shelter, educate and care for their children in safe environments,” said Flavin, who is on the board of directors of the National Advocates for Pregnant Women, a reproductive justice organization.

    1. WTF

      I like how “the human rights and dignity of pregnant and parenting women” always involves forcing other people to pay for their bad choices.

    2. Judge Orders the Number 6 with a Large Diet; wife laughs at Judge’s waistline.

      1. Bobarian (Would Chip Her)

        She’ll get her’s at the Number 6 dance, later on…

    3. I care about the reproductive rights of single moms so much that upon my rise as God Emperor, I will obliterate every welfare program that gives them money. If they want charity, they’ll have to settle for actual charity by qualifying for it. Charities are not the enablers that welfare bureaucrats are. If the single mom can’t afford to have her children because of some egregiously bad life choices, the God Emperor is merciful towards children so he would remove them from their unfortunate circumstance of being raised by an irresponsible woman who thinks herself entitled to other people’s property because of her poor choices.

      She will then be free to die under a bridge, at her leisure.

  12. John Titor

    Arkansas mulls a ban on sex-selective abortions.

    “Ok, so I’m not having my abortion for other reason then.”

    1. John Titor

      *Ok, so I’m having my abortion for other reason then

      Goddammit, sweet caffeine, enlighten me.

      1. gaoxiaen

        “I want to have your abortion.”
        Marla Singer

        1. Bobarian (Would Chip Her)

          “I want you to have his abortion.”
          Margret Sanger

  13. The Late P Brooks

    I guess we all need to learn Russian. Based on my reading of the NYT, our transformation to a Russian puppet state will be complete in a matter of days.

    1. Yea they had an article yesterday where they admitted nothing has been found so far….but hey let’s continue to speculate Trump is secretly a puppet of the russians

      1. AlexInCT

        Ain’t it funny that the very people that cheered for the reds and wagged fingers at anyone pointing out that communism was dangerous back in the Cold War days today are screaming and pants shitting about the coming red scare? it’s almost as if they have some other agenda b

    2. Rhywun

      my reading of the NYT

      Why on earth would you do that to yourself?

  14. Bee Tagger

    Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) called the investigation into Flynn “excessive.”

    Justin Amash, a libertarian nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

    1. Who the hell to root for. The CIA for taking him down? Not likely.

      1. Deven

        This. Deep State leaking that an incoming administration was talking to other countries, which every incoming administration ever has done, but since it is “illegal” just like a million other things we all do every day, it is an excuse to take down someone in the Trump administration.

        Rand Paul is right on this one. The FBI should be investigating the leakers, not trying to put fear into any incoming president about setting up his office properly.

      2. Deven

        This. Deep State leaking that an incoming administration was talking to other countries, which every incoming administration ever has done, but since it is “illegal” just like a million other things we all do every day, it is an excuse to take down someone in the Trump administration.

        Rand Paul is right on this one. The FBI should be investigating the leakers, not trying to put fear into any incoming president about setting up his office properly.

      3. Eternal Blue Sky

        Root for the intelligence community I say!! They’re doing good things!!

        Well, no, they’re doing bad things, but I’m pretty sure the best hope for getting some of their over-intrusive powers scaled back is for them to continue pissing off Trump.

  15. Rich

    rioting migrant sex mobs

    Nice band name.

  16. Juvenile Bluster

    Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) called the investigation into Flynn “excessive.”

    It’s amazing how an election can turn a Senator from “libertarian-ish Republican” to “partisan GOP hack”.

    1. I’m not sure that he is the one behaving like a partisan. CNN keeps stating that he said “they should not investigate a Republican”, which is false based upon his quote. What he stated was that this is an internal White House issue and the FBI is investigating.

    2. WTF

      Or maybe he thinks that a potential coup by the deep state against a duly elected administration is not necessarily a good thing. The illegal spying and leaking against Flynn is only the beginning of this.

      1. There was no “illegal” spying. Flynn was not the subject/target of the operation, the Russian was and SIGINT against foreign intel/military/diplomats is within bounds for our intel agencies. If you want to cry about the premature leak of why Flynn got the boot, you should probably go look at the Trumptourage itself which has been a leak fest for over a year.

        1. Actually, the law dictates that the identity of American citizens on the phone with someone under investigated be kept secret. The WSJ has asked this question: was Flynn under investigation?

          I get that you don’t like Trump, but the extent that people will go to defend deep state, because it fits their politics is beyond pathetic

        2. kbolino

          The identify of United States persons, regardless of how or why it is collected, must be minimized and cannot be disclosed with consent (50 U.S.C. ? 1801(h), 50 U.S.C. ? 1806(a)), the penalty for violation is a $10,000 and/or up to 5 years in jail (50 U.S.C. ? 1809).

  17. The Late P Brooks

    Fordham University sociology professor Jeanne Flavin said the order “reflects a profound disregard for the human rights and dignity of pregnant and parenting women.”

    “If the courts and our child welfare systems were truly committed to the health and well-being of families, they would ensure people have the supports they need in order to feed, shelter, educate and care for their children in safe environments,” said Flavin, who is on the board of directors of the National Advocates for Pregnant Women, a reproductive justice organization.

    Something something generations of imbeciles.

    1. John

      Yeah, lets make women bear no financial responsibility for having children. What could possibly go wrong?

  18. Arkansas mulls a ban on sex-selective abortions.

    People do that? Sure, no one wants to have to deal with raising a daughter, but I mean really.

    1. John Titor

      I am perfectly willing to have a daughter if I’m also allowed to shoot any boy age 14-20 who gets close to her when she’s a teenager.

      That’s not a NAP violation, right?

      1. MikeT1986

        Personally I’d be more weirded out if someone well above 20 was after my teenage daughter.

        On the other hand a shooting might be too kind.

    2. Rhywun

      I guess they heard it was a thing in China and leapt at the chance to pass another law.

    3. We’re just trying to fix our athletic programs, haters.

      #WooPig

  19. DEG

    For anyone interested, especially those who are considering stepping away from the Reason comments, whether temporarily or permanently, I co-admin a private email group strictly for the Reason commentariat. We’ve currently got about 40 members. It’s Tulpa-free (with verification) and anonymous (unless you wish to voluntarily self-identify). For an invitation, email me at dgroves140 AT gmail DOT com with your handle, and we’ll get you verified and added to the group.

    We’ll post this on the AM and PM links every day this week to give everyone a chance to see it.

    JATNAS, yesterday you asked about rate of migration. We have about 9 people per day right now. I expect that will drop off as the week goes on.

    1. ^this
      Come to the dark lark side. – Darth Bacon

    2. We have about 9 people per day right now. I expect that will drop off as the week goes on.

      Don’t underestimate Robby and Shikha’s ability to drive people away. It would only take one really bad article to push some more people over the edge.

    3. If I’m interested in stepping away from the Reason comments, why would I want to join a group of Reason commenters?

      1. Of the recent commentarian exodus, I don’t think a single one of them left to get away from the commenters as much as the shit heel journalists whose articles they don’t want to give their clicks to.

        1. ^This
          And some of us want to keep in touch.

        2. I know a couple did, but I’m snarking about the way he phrased it. I’d revise it to say, “considering stepping away from Reason.” Or are the commenters who left still reading the articles?

  20. colorblindkid

    “There were no rioting migrant sex mobs that besieged Frankfurt, Germany, on New Year’s Eve.”

    This year, there weren’t. Last year there absolutely were mobs of migrants sexually assaulting women in several cities in Europe.

    1. WTF

      No, no, this story is meant to cast doubt on that, so everyone returns to welcoming masses of unvetted “refugees”.

  21. LynchPin1477

    called the investigation into Flynn “excessive.”

    I don’t know much about the Logan Act (would be interested to know its history), but based on what I have read it sounds like there is good reason to believe Flynn broke it. The investigation into Clinton was/is justified. An investigation into Flynn seems justified. And if he did break it he should face the music (like Clinton should have).

    1. John

      If Flynn broke the law, he should be prosecuted. I am fine with that. But if they are going to do that, then lets talk about why Clapper was never indicted despite lying under oath to Congress multiple times. I fully support enforcing the law. I do not, however, support selectively enforcing the law for political purposes. And that appears to be what is going on here.

      1. I’m late to the game. What law did he potentially break? That he mentioned “sanctions” in a conversation with a Russian? That he either lied or forgot to mention that to Pence? So much lunacy thrown out there, I don’t know which scandulz are fake or real anymore.

        1. LynchPin1477

          I believe he is accused of breaking something called the Logan Act because he was not authorized to discuss sanctions with the Russian ambassador.

          Frankly, apart from anything Flynn did, it seems like a silly and not terribly important law. But it is the law and Flynn was in a position to know that. I am sure there are legal arguments for why he didn’t break it and why he did. I don’t know enough to get into that. It seems like an investigation is warranted.

          To John’s point above, yeah, selectively enforcing the law for political reasons is dangerous. At the same time, selectively *not* enforcing the law in an attempt to balance or make up for past failures is also dangerous.

          The whole situation seems fucked from multiple directions.

          1. Did he say something like, “We’ll talk about sanctions once we take over”? I’m busy these days so I may have missed actual proof that he said something that undermined the Obama administration policy. Seriously, is there any transcript on what he said or is the damage control by Trump enough to convict?

            1. LynchPin1477

              Don’t know. Presumably there is a transcript produced by some three-letter agency (NSA would be my guess) based on a wiretap, which I guess is SOP for calls to foreign officials.

  22. The infamous Friar’s Club was raided by the FBI yesterday over potential financial missteps.

    I wouldn’t raid the Friar’s Club with Bea Arthur’s dick.

  23. Juvenile Bluster

    I tortured the PM lynx and a certain group with this, but I need to torture the AM lynx crew with it as well.

    I present to you, the absolute dumbest article posted in any medium in the history of media

    A teaser paragraph:

    The national Democratic Party has moved so far to the right in an attempt to curry favor that it abandoned all of its traditional bases and relied on holding them hostage by exploiting fears of Republican government. This backfired.

    1. I think that has to be parody. When were they ever far left as now they have been taken a hard progressive left.

      We never had singlepayer, free college, free daycare, free whatever. They forget that democrat congress passed tax reform with reagan

      We were never really a socialist nation (closest being FDR –> which was technically more fascist). And the dems gutted a lot of the new deal right after the war

    2. Deven

      The author cries about the Democrats becoming too far right, then proceeds to list off dozens of far right authoritarian policies to fix it.

      The cognitive dissonance of the left is ridiculous. These people have no idea how the world works. It can only be explained by the idea that they have been brainwashed their entire life by the public school systems and the media.

    3. Who would let roads and schools rot away just to make a buck replacing them?

      Is there some sense in this sentence that I’m missing? So the bad man is letting roads and schools rot away, so he can make a buck replacing them. If he replaces them, how is that letting them rot away? If he lets them rot and doesn’t replace them, that would be better?

      We on the Left, the ones who want to keep gains like “no fingers in hamburger meat” and “no owning people like property” alive

      It’s a good thing we have leftists inspecting every restaurant meal to make sure that no fingers are in food. Without laws banning human fingers in food, we’d all be eating human fingers. And of course the left are the only one’s willing to stand up to the baker’s dozen of people advocating for a return to slavery.

      Shouldn’t the richest nation on Earth look like it? Shouldn’t we have a thousand millionaires rather than one billionaire?

      There are an estimated 10.4 million millionaires in the United States. There are about 536 billionaires in the United States.

  24. Wait for frankfurt thing (fake news thing?)…was this different than the one a year ago?

  25. The Late P Brooks

    At this point, I’m so fucking sick and tired of the establishmentarians’ hysteria and incessant cries of “WOLF!” that I dismiss everything they say.

    Trump can invite Putin for lunch at the War Room, for all I care.

    1. BUT HE’LL SEE THE BIG BOARD!

      1. John

        Maybe him and Mattis can get in a fist fight.

        1. Slammer

          Knife hand versus tiny hand

          1. John

            If I am ever President I would so want to just once be able to say “Gentleman, there is no fighting in the war room.”

            1. Slammer

              I just realized you meant Putin instead of Trump haha

        2. Personal Liberty

          You ever been in a fight? It’s almost like having sex with a man. Fighting is extremely gay.

          1. John

            Lots when i was young. Then I got older and bigger and realized that the stakes of being so were not quite worth it. Once you become an adult, you realize that a fight can only have two results; either he kicks your ass or if you are unlucky kills you or you kick his ass and you end up in jail. There is no positive result from a fight as an adult.

            1. Fascist loofa-faced shitgibbon

              Those are not the only two possible results.

          2. Jumbie

            Wrestling in the schoolyard is how I realized I was gay.

  26. A Russian spy ship is apparently chilling out in the international waters just 30 miles south of Connecticut, near a U.S. Navy submarine base.

    In other words – ‘for me it was Tuesday’.

    In any case – can anyone in the US really get worked up when the Russians are just doing to us what we do to everyone else, including our own people?

    1. In any case – can anyone in the US really get worked up when the Russians are just doing to us what we do to everyone else, including our own people?

      Yes.

      1. Rhywun

        There’s a fascist president to take down, after all.

  27. The Grinch

    A Russian spy ship off our coast and I don’t give one half of three fifths of one fuck. I guess I’m just jaded.

  28. pagal

    Why always Boris?

  29. Kauzig Kristen

    Seems like Rand has been fully assimilated into the Borg collective.

    1. John

      No one ever is elected to office and gets better once they are in Washington. They only get worse. It is just a question of how much worse and how fast it happens. But they never come to Jesus and decide that government isn’t the answer. Washington is the great seducer.

      1. Kauzig Kristen

        No wai! Having lived here for 27 years, I had no idea!

      2. The more time I spend in Government, the more I am opposed to government.

        What’s different between Albany and Washington?

        1. One’s in a fucked upstate?

        2. John

          I am the same way. But I think the difference is you and I work in it and were not elected. There is something about being elected that seduces people.

          1. Kauzig Kristen

            Agreed. People who seek elected office are power-hungry. Bureaucrats are, for the most part, just trying to make a living.

    2. Principles versus pocketbook. You’re rational. What wins in your eyes?

      1. Kauzig Kristen

        That’s an interesting question. I try to find a balance. I don’t always succeed.

        I think the balance has tipped for Rand to the “pocketbook” side of things. He was already leaning that way during the primaries. I think it’s one reason he lost so badly.

  30. 1 Dead, 2 Sickened in Disease Linked to Rat Urine: NYC Health Officials

    A New York City resident has died of a bacterial disease commonly spread by contact with rat urine, and two more were recently diagnosed with the disease, city health officials say.

    The cluster of leptospirosis infections has been identified on the 700 block of Grand Concourse in the Bronx, officials say. The health department is working with the housing preservation and the building departments to reduce the rat population there and is in touch with tenants there.

    Send in the terriers!

  31. 20th Century Fox Used Fake News to Publicize ‘A Cure for Wellness’

    Making the most of the fractured political and media landscape, 20th Century Fox created a group of fake news sites as part of a viral marketing campaign for its new film “A Cure for Wellness.” The sites displayed ads for the movie and slipped references to its plot alongside made-up stories about divisive topics like abortion, vaccines and President Trump.

    Fox used at least five fake news sites designed to look like local news media ? The Sacramento Dispatch, Salt Lake City Guardian, Houston Leader, NY Morning Post and Indianapolis Gazette ? to stir online outrage and drum up interest in the movie, which was produced by New Regency Productions and is to come out this week.

    1. And yet, this is still the first time I’ve ever heard of it.

      Some publicity.

    2. Rhywun

      So now they’ve retconned “marketing campaign” to be “fake news”? Next: fiction.

      “Stephen King’s new book is nothing but fake news! Vampires are not, I repeat not, attacking a Maine town.”

  32. There were no rioting migrant sex mobs that besieged Frankfurt, Germany, on New Year’s Eve.

    It would be helpful to give dates. I’m going to assume they’re talking about New Years Eve 2016 not 2015. But since I’ve never heard of this Frankfurt incident I’m also going to assume that dates were left out of the article so it might lead some people to believe that the mass sex assaults from the previous year didn’t actually happen, which they did.

  33. Slammer

    Why is the commenting system always broken?

    1. I love the white space that appears when I preview a comment. Quit judging me!

    2. Rhywun

      The intern who cobbled it together ten or twelve years ago is long gone and nobody can untangle the code.

    3. Kauzig Kristen

      I’ve been having all kinds of squirrel problems this morning.

  34. The Late P Brooks

    Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) called the investigation into Flynn “excessive.”

    Which investigation? I heard something this morning which led me to believe he was referring to a bunch of grandstanding sanctimonious blowhards beating their breasts for the teevee cameras separate Senate investigation.

  35. The Late P Brooks

    Skwerlz are rather uppity this morning.

  36. A Russian spy ship is apparently chilling out in the international waters just 30 miles south of Connecticut, near a U.S. Navy submarine base.

    From the linked article:

    The Russian spy ship was last seen off the East Coast of the U.S. about two years ago, spending time near another U.S. submarine base in Kings Bay, Ga.

    [Emphasis added] This seems like much ado about nothing. They did this same thing 2 years ago, and have probably been doing it for a very long time. We probably do similar things around their naval bases all the damned time too. It’s called “intelligence gathering” and its something every country with the naval resources to do does. Why is this a big deal? Rhetorical question, I know why: “because Trump.”

    1. Mollie the mare

      Agreed, seems like normal operations. Just like the Tu-95 flights near the US coast or US destroyers patrolling the Black Sea. It’s mostly to see the configuration and capability of the response.

    2. Democrat Senator Chris Murphy has a different take on it:

      Russia is acting like it has a permission slip to expand influence, test limits of reach. Questions are obvious: does it, and if so, why?

      Because no country would have dared to put a boat in international waters off the coast of the US while Obama was in charge! Nope. Never. Ever. Didn’t happen.

  37. The Late P Brooks

    What’s different between Albany and Washington?

    The price of the suits.

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