A.M. Links: Trump Gives CIA New Drone Strike Powers, Massive Snowstorm Slams Northeastern U.S.

• 

  Gage Skidmore

  President Donald Trump has reportedly given the CIA new authority to carry out drone strikes against suspected terrorists.

• "The Department of Justice asked the chairman and vice chairman of the House Intelligence Committee for 'additional time' to collect evidence to support President Donald Trump's accusation that the Obama administration wiretapped his phones at Trump Tower during the campaign."
• The European Union's highest court has ruled that employers may ban employees from wearing headscarves and other religious symbols.
• Pirates have hijacked an oil tanker off the coast of Somalia.
• A massive snowstorm is hitting the northeastern U.S. today.
• Today's snowstorm has caused over 8,000 canceled flights.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

President Donald Trump has reportedly given the CIA new authority to carry out drone strikes against suspected terrorists.

Because they never get things wrong.

[OldMexican Blankety Blank]

Hey, those wedding parties are not going to bomb themselves!

[Rufus The Monocled]

Hello.

"Pirates have hijacked an oil tanker off the coast of Somalia."

Didn't they learn from the last movie that's not a good idea?

[Cynical Asshole]

...suspected terrorists.

All suspects are guilty, period. Otherwise they wouldn't be suspects would they?

[OldMexican Blankety Blank]

Hmm, you sound suspicious to me...

[CooterBrown]

Trump can do no wrong. This will end well for everyone!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Today's snowstorm has caused over 8,000 canceled flights.

Lousy Smarch weather.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Pirates have hijacked an oil tanker off the coast of Somalia.

And their preseason was going so well.

[Bee Tagger]

Preseason? Spoken like a lowly football or hockey fan.

[Fist of Etiquette]

It's not spring yet.

[Libertarian]

+1 Men At Work

[Citizen X - #6]

President Donald Trump has reportedly given the CIA new authority to carry out drone strikes against suspected terrorists.

Just the classiest drone strikes, you won't even believe.

[Fist of Etiquette]

A massive snowstorm is hitting the northeastern U.S. today.

Have they named it yet?

[Rufus The Monocled]

Snowstorm Aunt Jemima!

[Rich]

Yeah. "New England".

[Libertarian]

The Marlon Brando memorial storm.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Snolocaust?

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

"Stay Off The Roads Everyone Because It's Actually Bad"

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

Judging from the view outside my window, it could also be called: "Don't Be That Guy In A Hooded Sweatshirt Hilariously Failing At Backing Out His Dodge Sprinter Van"

[Citizen X - #6]

Good thing you're all snuggled up with the chinchillas. Stay warm!

[Zeb]

I'm going to go drive around in it later just for laughs.

[Citizen X - #6]

38 Degrees And Raining In Virginia

[Cynical Asshole]

Currently 42 and a little cloudy in Denver, predicted high of 71 and sunny this afternoon though. /weather smugness

[C. S. P. Schofield]

18" of global warming hits east coast. Al Glore lynched.

[Fist of Etiquette]

"The Department of Justice asked the chairman and vice chairman of the House Intelligence Committee for 'additional time' to collect evidence to support President Donald Trump's accusation that the Obama administration wiretapped his phones at Trump Tower during the campaign."

It's good to know the DoJ still starts with a conclusion and works backward.

[american socialist]

The question is where did the nyt and guardian get their info for what they wrote about in January?

[DanO.]

Lyin' Don Trump provided the baseless, evidence-free accusation, leaving his Justice Dept. to clean up the mess.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The European Union's highest court has ruled that employers may ban employees from wearing headscarves and other religious symbols.

Whoa. A dress code? What's next? Allowing shorter mandatory vacations?

[DanO.]

The Trump administration dons a tinfoil hat

Time to trade in those red #MAGA caps, Trumpkins. If you want your headgear to fit in with the latest White House fashions, invest in some tinfoil.

From top to bottom, this administration has been infested with conspiracy theorists. Most appear to be true believers. Take Stephen K. Bannon and his anxieties about the "deep state," or the recently ousted Michael Flynn and his propagation of suggestions that Hillary Clinton was tied to a child sex ring run out of a D.C. pizza parlor.
Others, such as Kellyanne Conway, appear to just be paranoiacs for pay.

It's hardly just coincidence that the Trump executive branch is rife with beliefs that are wholly disconnected from reality. Such beliefs were a foundation of his campaign. Of course this would be the talent he attracts.

Lots of openings remain in this truth-challenged administration. Embellish those resumes, Trumpkins!
https://tinyurl.com/jtn4oln

[american socialist]

What about the trump is a puppet of putin theory?

[Cynical Asshole]

Surely you're not suggesting that the "party of science" peddles their own versions of factually dubious conspiracy theories? That would be crazy talk! /sarc

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

Chasing Big Sports Goals, Rutgers Stumbles Into a Vat of Red Ink

The faculty council is set to vote on a motion deploring this state of affairs. The athletic department has run an annual deficit of at least $20 million since 2006; its current deficit is slightly larger than the sum of all the deficits in every other Big Ten athletic department.

All of which brings us to the athletic department's 2016 financial report to the N.C.A.A. The Star-Ledger obtained this document recently; it showed a blood-red deficit of $28.6 million. The 64-page report had a one-line notation: "Other Operating Revenue: $10,495,912."

It turned out that the university bank quietly lent $10.5 million to the athletic department to keep it afloat and pay severance costs for expensive and failed coaches. That loan came weighted with an interest rate of 5.75 percent; the cost of repaying it will run north of $18 million, according to university documents.

Rutgers also diverted $11 million in student fees and $17.1 million from its general fund to cover the athletic shortfall. The average undergraduate now pays more than $300 in activities fees exclusively for the university's N.C.A.A. teams.

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

There's also this fun tidbit:

Gov. Chris Christie was a graduate of the Seton Hall law school and a donor to his alma mater. When he served as a federal prosecutor, he got to know Hobbs. After an investigation of Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2005, Christie's office cut a deal. It would not charge the company with securities fraud, and in exchange the company would pay a fine to fund a $5 million professorship of business ethics at the law school. (The Justice Department since has barred this practice, out of concern that prosecutors would start creating what it called "summer camps" at favored institutions.)

[american socialist]

Damn. So why not cut their ncaa teams? Would ya miss em?

[John DeWitt]

I wonder what that deficit would be like if they didn't have to support an equal number of women's teams.

[A Thinking Mind]

I wonder what the state of men's gymnastics and men's volleyball would be in this country if colleges weren't required to run an exactly equal number of women's sports.

[Bee Tagger]

Pirates have hijacked an oil tanker off the coast of Somalia.

Those who aren't busy playing in the World Baseball Classic, I assume.

[Bee Tagger]

The European Union's highest court has ruled that employers may ban employees from wearing headscarves and other religious symbols.

Brexiters are trying to Breenter now.

[DanO.]

Using Air Quotes, White House Walks Back 'Wiretap' Talk

Two senior White House officials suggested on Monday that President Trump's unsubstantiated claim that President Barack Obama had tapped his telephone was not meant to be taken literally, arguing that Mr. Trump had been referring more broadly to a variety of surveillance efforts during the 2016 campaign when he made the incendiary accusation.

"The president was very clear in his tweet that it was, you know, 'wiretapping,'" Mr. Spicer said, using his fingers to make a gesture suggesting quotation marks.

Still, several far-right websites, including Infowars, which traffics in conspiracy theories...have erroneously asserted that The Times and others had reported that the president was under surveillance. Infowars cited a Jan. 19 article in The Times....The story noted that The Times "didn't specifically mention that Trump himself, or Trump Tower, was bugged," but the caveat has not stopped Mr. Trump's supporters from insisting that The Times was a source for the president's tweet.

Infowars and Mark Levin are disreputable? Say it ain't so!
https://tinyurl.com/jxc7p97

[Citizen X - #6]

Guy hassles coyote, gets coyote'd.

Trigger warning: Canadian accent thick enough to play hockey on well into May.

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

Hey!

[John Titor]

Please, that's only like 55% Canadian, 60% tops.

These are thick Canadian accents.

[Zeb]

Thank you for reinforcing my perception that Canada is pretty much accurately represented in Trailer Park Boys.

[John Titor]

Hey now, Trailer Park Boys is Maritimer white trash, this here is rural Ontario white trash.

[Citizen X - #6]

+1 Chronicles of Sarnia

[Raven Nation]

Hey all: Sloopy has set up a Tourney pool at Yahoo sports. Group Name = Glibertarians. Password: Podesta. You can create up to three brackets.

[Bee Tagger]

President Donald Trump has reportedly given the CIA new authority to carry out drone strikes against suspected terrorists.

It's kind of cute that we still go through with some of the pageantry that gives the impression that there's much in the way of stopping this kind of continued escalation.

[Rich]

An entire southern Oregon town could be yours for $3.85 million

Libertopia! Who's in?

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

Count me in for $10.

[Citizen X - #6]

+1 Schitt's Creek

[John DeWitt]

Great show

[Free Society]

Buy the town, form an LLC, the chief officer of the company shall be dubbed something like "Lord" or "Baron" but nothing too grand, then lease the properties to prospective tenants and you'll have yourself a veritable fiefdom.

[OldMexican Blankety Blank]

The European Union's highest court has ruled that employers may ban employees from wearing headscarves and other religious symbols.

They can't fire them, yet they can ban their headscarves? And which symbols? Would that include "John 3:16" tatoos?

[american socialist]

Where did these outlets get their info?

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/20.....a-contacts

The Guardian has learned that the FBI applied for a warrant from the foreign intelligence surveillance (Fisa) court over the summer in order to monitor four members of the Trump team suspected of irregular contacts with Russian officials. The Fisa court turned down the application asking FBI counter-intelligence investigators to narrow its focus. According to one report, the FBI was finally granted a warrant in October, but that has not been confirmed, and it is not clear whether any warrant led to a full investigation."

[Rich]

BuzzFeed on Tuesday published the documents, which it said were "unverified and potentially unverifiable".

Meh. *Everything* is "potentially unverifiable'.

[american socialist]

My focus was on paragraph i showed

[Rich]

Just being snarky. 😎

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

CDC: 2 dead in Listeria outbreak tied to Catskills creamery

Six people from four states were infected with the same strain of Listeria between Sept. 1 and Jan. 31, the CDC said. One person from Connecticut and another from Vermont died, according to the CDC. Other states affected were New York, where three people were sickened, and Florida.

The investigation tied the outbreak to Vulto Creamery in Walton on the edge of the Catskill Mountains.

The CDC said: "Epidemiologic and laboratory evidence indicate that soft raw milk cheese made by Vulto Creamery of Walton, New York, is the likely source of this outbreak.

[Free Society]

That one episode of House tells me that listeria offers a truly agonizing death.

[american socialist]

This is the nyt on 1 19

"The F.B.I. is leading the investigations, aided by the National Security Agency, the C.I.A. and the Treasury Department's financial crimes unit. The investigators have accelerated their efforts in recent weeks but have found no conclusive evidence of wrongdoing, the officials said. One official said intelligence reports based on some of the wiretapped communications had been provided to the White House."
"Intercepted Russian Communications Part of Inquiry Into Trump Associates"

http://tinyurl.com/jsaud2h

[Rich]

It doesn't count, because Trump did not provide this "evidence".

[american socialist]

Now i think he should provide. But if there is none...then how have these publications pushed this notion that his associates were spied on as part of an investigation? Why? What did they find? Or was this investigation made up to push a narrative?

[Rich]

Now i think he should provide.

All he has to do is tweet your link.

[jmomls]

Yeahbut....they didn't, you know, LITERALLY TAP A WIRE...so Trump has to resign...or something.

[Rich]

The European Union's highest court has ruled that employers may ban employees from wearing headscarves and other religious symbols.

But *anything* is a symbol of atheism!

[Citizen X - #6]

I guess it is forbidden to bring spaghetti for lunch?

[Rich]

Of course! Spaghetti is a symbol of the interconnectedness of the Universe and God's love.

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

The Problem With Positive Thinking

Why doesn't positive thinking work the way you might assume? As my colleagues and I have discovered, dreaming about the future calms you down, measurably reducing systolic blood pressure, but it also can drain you of the energy you need to take action in pursuit of your goals.

Positive thinking fools our minds into perceiving that we've already attained our goal, slackening our readiness to pursue it.

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

What does work better is a hybrid approach that combines positive thinking with "realism." Here's how it works. Think of a wish. For a few minutes, imagine the wish coming true, letting your mind wander and drift where it will. Then shift gears. Spend a few more minutes imagining the obstacles that stand in the way of realizing your wish.

I just PMA all day, bros.

[Memory Hole]

Kicked to death by little boys.

Brutally killed by children as young as five who threw rocks at it then finished it off.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....ldren.html

[Citizen X - #6]

Kicked to death by little boys.

What is "How Mikey Will Eventually Go"?

[Rich]

The boys, aged five, six, and eight, attacked a flock of the American flamingos

HATE CRIME!

[sarcasmic]

"death by little boys"

Good band name

[OldMexican Blankety Blank]

One was wearing a yellow jumper. The rest were seen wearing white shirts and pants, protector cups and derby hats.

[jmomls]

Kids were probably some of Europe's newest arrivals from Syria.

[Jerryskids]

President Donald Trump has reportedly given the CIA new authority to carry out drone strikes against suspected terrorists.

Is the air-defense system at the White House really that good?

[Citizen X - #6]

It's the best air defense system. The best. Big league.

[Cynical Asshole]

The classiest, most opulent surface to air missiles ever made, believe me!

[simplybe]

The CIA has been totally out of control since the 1960s. They help overthrow duly elected governments. Support blood thirsty dictatorships. Smuggle heroin, cocaine and marijauna into this country to support their illegal operations. If Donald Trump is ignorant enough to let them have unchecked access to drones he deserves the missile they probably will put up his ass and we the American people the war that follows when the CIA points the finger at some country like Iran, N. Korea, Russia or China. I always thought Trump was really stupid now it looks like I can add insane to the list.

[OldMexican Blankety Blank]

Gosh, simplybe! Jist tell us what you really think!

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

NYPD sergeant convicted of twice raping girlfriend's daughter, 13, and forcing her to perform sex act on him at school after taking her to the father/daughter breakfast gets just THREE years in prison

n both the initial report to police and her testimony at trial, the young victim spoke about how Krull raped her on two occasions when she was 13, while also forcing her to perform oral sex on him that same year while they sat in a car outside her school.

Krull had just taken the girl to her father/daughter breakfast when he forced her to engage in the sexual act with him, according to the complaint.

The victim had just lost her father the previous year at that time, and his passing was the reason Krull had been asked to accompany her to the event.

The victim testified in court that Krull began sexually assaulting her in September of 2013 when he kissed her on the mouth just a few weeks after she turned 13 and started the eighth grade.

[Citizen X - #6]

There's something to be said for the idea of gelding certain dudes with a dull knife.

[Crunchy Dolphin]

Agreed, I feel a rusty butter knife would work best.

[Citizen X - #6]

You might need to heat it red hot to really get through the scrotal wall and the base of the penis.

[Crunchy Dolphin]

Good point, help cauterize the wound too. Don't want him to bleed out.

[Libertarian]

A child molester AND a cop. He's going to have fun in prison.

[Crunchy Dolphin]

I hope he gets plowed more than the Great Plains this spring.

[Cynical Asshole]

THREE years in prison

No double standard. If you or I or anyone else had twice raped and orally sodomized a 13 year old girl, we'd get just 3 years too. And round the clock guards to make sure no one makes us their prison bitch. Because if anything cops get harsher treatment than civilians. Now if you'll excuse me I've got a body building/ surfing competition to win, then I've got to lay down some killer tracks for my next album and then go home and bang my wife, Morgan Fairchild.

mooches, hth

[Memory Hole]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EATiocIUqFk

[OldMexican Blankety Blank]

"The Department of Justice asked the chairman and vice chairman of the House Intelligence Committee for 'additional time' to collect evidence to support President Donald Trump's accusation that the Obama administration wiretapped his phones at Trump Tower during the campaign."

They should stop wasting their time and hire the real experts in making shit up finding corroborating evidence: the climate change scientists at the NOAA.

[DanO.]

They could ask Reason's remaining Republicans. They know that Obama tapped Trump's personal phones. Evidence is for losers.

[Agile Cyborg]

If the remarkably-vile finger lightning snapping across the progressive raggy wastelands sizzling Trump had roasted his predecessor into toast as equally perhaps the readability of their Leftist muse and mumble would not have declined so fucking precipitously into interest decay.

[DanO.]

F-

[american socialist]

Yea but that wasn't my focus. It was on the paragraph i showed. Trump's tweets 2 months later reflect what Guardian said. Is the guardian based on heatst report or something else?

Then there is this on 10/31 by Hillary Clinton

twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/ 793250312119263233

sorry for bad link...remove the space

[#NotMyReason (Krabappel)]

Snowstorm was a bust in central Virginia. Sitting at work on sudafed and codeine cough syrup to get through the day.

[Memory Hole]

Drink some more and keep reporting back to us!

[OldMexican Blankety Blank]

Murray Sabrin on What A Free Market Health Care System Would Look Like

(It is unfortunate that El Trumpo and his band of merry Fascists are too hostile to markets to care)

[american socialist]

Who did you think would be providing a free market in healthcare? Do you think this is unique to Trump per your post?

There is no way that link ever gets implemented. It is pure delusion. It sounds great but it aint happening...ever

[Domestic Dissident]

We had about as close to a free market health care system as you could have before 1964. I'm all for going back to that old system, but the fake libertarian douchebags like Elizabeth Nolan Brown, Nick Gillespie, and Pete Suderman don't want that at all. And I agree that will never happen either. The political power of free shit is just too strong.

[CatoTheChipper]

Example # 102,437: The GOP is just the socialist lite party.

[Gadfly]

Would you call Thatcher a socialist because she didn't dismantle the NHS in the UK? The fact of the matter is that politicians in representative governments are bound by what the people will tolerate, and the people demand government interference in healthcare. While it is true that from a certain perspective (such as hardcore libertarian, minarchist, or anarchist, perspectives common enough around here) that the differences between what the parties want are minor, in reality they are significant, not least in that they subtly change the course in which policy direction flows. We did not get where we are in a single step, and we will not get elsewhere in that manner either, so if you want to see policy moved you have to suck it up and accept a step in the right direction, no matter how imperfect said step might be. Now, if you have a case for why an action is a step in the wrong direction, such case should be made vigorously, but all policy should be judged not against a fictional standard of the ideal but against a practical standard of what we have right now.

[Memory Hole]

Pretty fucking incredible.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....tring.html

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

...

[OldMexican Blankety Blank]

Someone give thay kid a sandwich!

[CatoTheChipper]

and a milkshake

[sarcasmic]

Alala

[Jerryskids]

"The Department of Justice asked the chairman and vice chairman of the House Intelligence Committee for 'additional time' to collect evidence to support President Donald Trump's accusation that the Obama administration wiretapped his phones at Trump Tower during the campaign."

Back in the day, J Edgar himself would have had those tapes and he wouldn't have turned over such blackmail material for all the tea in China. And there damn sure wouldn't be any record of the bugging devices having been placed or anybody with any knowledge of the operation willing to leak any info. So who's the modern-day J Edgar who has the power to use the Intel tools for his own personal ends, who's holding a trump card over Trump's head?

Or does the DoJ just need more time to back-draft the chain of evidence that doesn't lead to the dark puppetmaster?

[american socialist]

So how did the nyt and guardian write articles two months ago detailing spying on his associates which were part of the campaign?

[Memory Hole]

The Truth? The fucking Truth? Dude:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FnO3igOkOk

[Memory Hole]

You Lt. American Socialist? You!!!

[DanO.]

Call it Kellyanne.

[Memory Hole]

Can you leave laundry in the washer overnight? Martha Stewart settles the matter:

"I would say that it's perfectly all right," she assured us. "I mean, don't leave it for a long time ... don't leave it for a week. If you get up in the morning and throw it in the dryer, it should probably be OK."

http://www.msn.com/en-us/lifes.....spartandhp

[Rich]

Whew!

[DanO.]

How about false, uncorroborated, unsupported, unproven accusations of Trump Tower "wiretapping"? If Kellyanne leaves them in the spin cycle, will they be OK?

[jmomls]

Supported and corroborated by the New York Times, whom I sure you just love, love, love.