CIA Director Defends Trump's Mental Abilities, MGM Resorts Says Hotel Staff Interacted 10 Times With Vegas Shooter, 117 Degrees in Sydney: A.M. Links

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  • Kevin Dietsch/SIPA/Newscom

    CIA Director Mike Pompeo defended President Trump's mental abilities from characterizations in Michael Wolff's new book about Trump's first year.

  • Steve Bannon said he regretted not releasing a statement to respond to comments critical of Donald Trump, Jr. attributed to him in the Wolff book sooner.
  • Oprah Winfrey won the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes.
  • MGM Resorts released a statement saying Mandalay Bay hotel staff interacted with Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock 10 times in two or three days, entering his room at least once.
  • The American Friends Service Committee and leaders of about 20 other organization will be banned from entering Israel for supporting the boycott-divest-sanctions effort.
  • 32 people are missing after an Iranian oil tanker collided with a freight ship off the coast of China.
  • The temperature hit 117 degrees in Sydney, an 80 year high.

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Ed Krayewski is a former associate editor at Reason.

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  1. CIA Director Mike Pompeo defended President Trump’s mental abilities…

    And the deep state would know!

    1. Rufus The Monocled

      Hello.

      I hear the hypocrisy was at eleventy last night at some award show.

      1. mad.casual

        Hypocrisy at an 11 is surprisingly easy on the eyes.

        1. Tom Bombadil

          I wonder if she is angry if people look at her as a sex object.

    2. Mike Laursen

      I found the CIA says his mental abilities are good, I’m worried about his mental abilities.

      1. Mike Laursen

        If … thanks, spell correction!

  2. Oprah Winfrey won the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes.

    I think audiences got MeToo’d having to witness that circle jerk.

    1. Tom Bombadil

      Seems analogous to Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

      1. Bee Tagger

        Or nothing at all like it?

    2. DJF

      She is a cast of thousands.

  3. Bee Tagger

    The temperature hit 117 degrees in Sydney, an 80 year high.

    Is this a real corker? What’s a corker?

    1. A corker is when the beer bottles explode and it’s so hot on Bondi Beach that the sharks freeze solid in Boston

      https://tinyurl.com/y76nwpzo

    2. Sydney is on the metric system, so 117 degrees is what the shrimp on the barbie feels.

  4. The temperature hit 117 degrees in Sydney, an 80 year high.

    IN THE MIDDLE OF WINTER? Freaks.

    1. Tom Bombadil

      So stoopid. Its there summer their now.

      1. Conchfritters

        Their sweating they’re asses off down their.

        1. loveconstitution1789

          Butt does the sweat move counter-clockwise?

      2. THAT’S EVEN WORSE.

        1. Rhywun

          I heard players were passing out at the annual tennis tournament. For the life of me I don’t understand why these events are so frequently scheduled for the hottest most disgusting month of the year. I know they all live in Florida but FFS give them a break and let some enjoy some pleasant weather somewhere once in a while.

          1. Tom Bombadil

            Truth. The Aussie Open is always brutal.

  5. Bee Tagger

    The American Friends Service Committee and leaders of about 20 other organization will be banned from entering Israel for supporting the boycott-divest-sanctions effort.

    I guess I’ll be having word salad for lunch today.

    1. damikesc

      Funny how the ONLY country on Earth they find worthy of divestment is Israel. Everybody else is fine.

      Interesting morality there.

      1. DiegoF

        I have always admired the Quakers for their peacefulness and principle, their emphasis on good works, their lack of bigotry, and so forth. I’m wondering how much any of that really applies since apparently it’s cool to climb into bed with a bunch of Jew killing terrorists.

        1. The AFSC has let too much progressivism intrude into the organization, and the progressive tenet that the feelz justifies the means is often at odds with the Quaker tenets of individualism and pacifism.

          1. DiegoF

            Yes, apparently they are a people who acknowledge the moral significance of no nations except the Jewish one. Hmm.

            I don’t think they are racists per se at the heart of who they are, but as you say they are being led there–clearly so, let’s not kid ourselves–through socialization.

  6. Libertarian

    Kiwi libertarians?

    http://www.foxnews.com/food-dr…..years.html

    1. “That’s creative thinking ? if I had known [about it] I probably would have joined them,” said local Police Commander Inspector John Kelly to BBC.

      But that’s, that’s … unAmerican!

  7. The American Friends Service Committee and leaders of about 20 other organization will be banned from entering Israel for supporting the boycott-divest-sanctions effort.

    This sounds worse than Trump’s Muslim Ban!

    1. SIV

      IDK, as High Noon taught us, those Quakers will shoot you in the back.

  8. Steve Bannon said he regretted not releasing a statement to respond to comments critical of Donald Trump, Jr. attributed to him in the Wolff book sooner.

    But in his defense, who would have thought a tell-all book that fed into the belief system of every journalist in the country wasn’t going to go away quietly?

  9. Bee Tagger

    Steve Bannon said he regretted not releasing a statement to respond to comments critical of Donald Trump, Jr. attributed to him in the Wolff book sooner.

    I hope you enjoyed your run as maverick truth teller, Steve. Like McCain, just know that you’ll always be welcome back if you follow the right script.

  10. Bee Tagger

    CIA Director Mike Pompeo defended President Trump’s mental abilities from characterizations in Michael Wolff’s new book about Trump’s first year.

    Oh, so he’s a certified intellect assessment director now?

    1. Tom Bombadil

      In this case, it’s Certified Insanity Assessment director

  11. Libertarian

    “Oprah Winfrey won the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes.”

    Why?

    1. Bee Tagger

      because of this, probably?
      The Cecil B. DeMille Award is an honorary Golden Globe Award bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for “outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment”.

      Are we seriously going to destroy Oprah because annoying people want her to be president?

      1. Tom Bombadil

        I admit, I’m snarking at her because I reckon I’ve watched her for a total of about 10 minutes in the 40 years she’s been on TV, and in that 10 minutes, I wasn’t entertained.

        I think “destroy” is a bit strong, though.

        1. Bee Tagger

          Yeah, I’m probably getting ahead of myself. She’s an incredible American success story and it feels like she’s about to become a casualty of the culture war through what would seem like no fault of her own but simply because the wrong people are hoisting their political and cultural hopes and dreams onto her. So, seeing multiple people compare this seemingly well-deserved award to Obama and the nobel peace prize which had the chief criticism of “wait, what has he actually done?” triggered me.

          1. Domestic Dissident

            She is an incredible American success story, and I wish I could like and respect her a lot more than I do. But I can’t because:

            1) She’s one of America’s biggest individual proponents of the cult of victimhood and general misery, if not THE biggest, and

            2) She’s also a proponent of the false idea that America is still a virulently racist nation, when she’s one of the biggest pieces of proof against it. If she were more moral and responsible, she would be telling folks in the ghetto to quit blaming whitey for everything in their life and to take education far more seriously.

            1. Philadelphia Collins

              A black 1%’re screaming ‘racism’?
              Jonathan Gruber was right.

            2. Isaac Bartram

              I’m not fan of Oprah’s pablum but the fact is that neither points 1) nor 2) are true in any sense at all.

          2. loveconstitution1789

            When Oprah tells those lefty nuts “No” as to her running for president then it will be a different story.

            If she continues to entertain the political and culture fantasies of lefties, then she can expect people to blast her in the face with how ridiculous she would be as president.

            The fact the left thinks that any businessman and entertainer can be president is very telling. That’s like saying every veteran makes a great politician because they know how the military works.

            1. CatoTheChipper

              I kind of like the idea of Oprah vs The Rock (or is it Kid Rock?) in 2020.

              It would finally drive home the truth of the statement that “politics is the entertainment division of the military-industrial complex”. If both would wear their sponsorship logos NASCAR-style, it would demonstrate that the US has already attained idiocracy.

      2. damikesc

        When has she ever been entertaining?

        1. Bee Tagger

          Pick any day in the last 30 years.

          1. Zeb

            Nope, doesn’t matter if she’s one of the most popular personalities on TV. If some weird internet libertarians don’t find her entertaining, then she’s not.

          2. loveconstitution1789

            Oprah is only entertaining to a very select group of people. These people buy her crap and listen to her nonsense. Its made Oprah a billionaire. About 15.84 million people watch her.

            111M average viewers watched the 2017 Superbowl.

            In 2004, Trump’s The Apprentice has viewership of about 17.5M viewers.

        2. Bearded Spock

          She has made billions of dollars by catering to the tastes of a large.

          But since we are men it wasn’t us who were watching her. She is quite popular with the double-XX chromosome crowd, though.

          1. Bearded Spock

            “Large audience”.

            Sorry, I was distracted by using the words ” catering” “taste” and “large” in the same sentence as “Oprah”.

          2. loveconstitution1789

            I thought you were distracted by the Double XX which could also be XXXX or super great porn.

            1. Bearded Spock

              I’m not even sure what XXXX porn would entail, but Rule 34 states it could be anything.

              Perhaps BUCS can enlighten us.

              1. loveconstitution1789

                I realized I fucked up with mentioning porn because that is a beacon for you know who.

        3. Leader Desslok

          Oh her bank account is extremely entertained.

  12. …Mandalay Bay hotel staff interacted with Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock 10 times in two or three days, entering his room at least once.

    Okay.

    1. creech

      I’m sure if I told an FBI investigator “two or three days” there would be a perjury charge in there somewhere when it was exactly established (after how many weeks now?).

  13. Rufus The Monocled

    “Oprah Winfrey won the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes.”

    I’m not as informed or well-read about bull shit award ceremonies but DeMille was a film director, no?

    Is this award for work in film or just a ‘feel good let’s just hand these out to whoever we like a-la Obama peace prize’ kind of deal?

    I WANT TO KNOW.

    1. Tom Bombadil

      Wiki:

      “The Cecil B. DeMille Award is an honorary Golden Globe Award bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for “outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment”. It was first presented on February 21, 1952 at the 9th Annual Golden Globe Awards ceremony and is named in honor of its first recipient, director Cecil B. DeMille. ”

      So, nothing directorial about the award.

      1. Rufus The Monocled

        Ah.

        Back to pretending speaking truth to power then.

        Isn’t there a picture of Oprah kissing Weinstein on the Internet?

        Wooo! #metoo!

        1. Isn’t there a picture of Trump and the Clintons hobnobbing at some prestige gala?

          Drain the swamp!

          1. Ascendancy

            “Hi I’m MJGreen. Call me if you need someone to miss, the point”

          2. loveconstitution1789

            MJGreen thinks Trump playing nice with political thugs like the Clintons to get further in business means Trump is like the Clintons.

            Clearly after 1 year as President, Trump is like the Clintons.

            Even Hillary saying how bad Trump is does not dissuade MJ. He doubles down sometimes.

    2. Zeb

      Seems like an appropriate award to give Oprah. Sort of a lifetime achievement thing. Whatever you think of Oprah, she is a significant figure in the world of daytime TV bullshit. Not much like Obama who realyl did nothing to deserve the Nobel prize.

      1. But it’s such a good opportunity to bitch about Obama one more time. Stop being such a killjoy.

      2. Tom Bombadil

        I guess if you think “….Oprah, she is a significant figure in the world of daytime TV bullshit.” equals “outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment”.

        If the Golden Globes thinks it, it’s their award to give.

        1. Zeb

          She made billions entertaining housewives and the unemployed. I’d say that’s outstanding (in an aesthetically neutral, objective kind of way).

          1. Ascendancy

            “She made billions entertaining housewives and the unemployed”

            So has cheap wine but you don’t see it getting any awards.

            1. Stormy Dragon

              https://www.google.com/search?q=cheap+wine+awards

              1. Ascendancy

                That was on the Golden Globes?

        2. damikesc

          I also love when Meryl Streep whined that she was the only female to win a Globe or something.

          You know who controls that ENTIRELY?

          The entertainment industry.

          They cannot blame THEIR sexism et al on anybody but themselves.

          But, as always, they want to chastise the country for doing what they do.

        3. Rhywun

          I’m giving it better than even odds that she called them up and said “give it to me this year, I need to get in front of another camera”.

  14. Rebel Scum

    MGM Resorts released a statement saying Mandalay Bay hotel staff interacted with Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock 10 times in two or three days, entering his room at least once.

    Interacted? That’s it? Why do we still know nothing useful about this incident?

    1. Libertarian

      “The ice machines are on odd-numbered floors, Mr. Paddock.”

    2. Zeb

      It could be that there is nothing useful to know about it.

      1. Tom Bombadil

        “Do you have a sniper suite?” isn’t noteworthy?

        1. EscherEnigma

          The much more likely “do you have a room with a view?” certainly isn’t.

          1. mad.casual

            Do you people live in an E.M. Forster novel?

            He booked online and even before the incident, it’s pretty easy to find the hotel layout and the layout of the venue and The Strip online.

            1. loveconstitution1789

              Did anyone see the trip advisor review that lasted a day about the shooter’s hotel room review?

              #Too Soon

    3. Episteme

      At this point, we still can’t rule out aliens or time travel playing a role.

  15. Vernon Depner

    I’m not at all interested in reading any of those stories. OK, maybe the ship collision is a little fishy…

    1. Bearded Spock

      It’s a whale of a story.

      1. DiegoF

        Now we’re blaming Oprah for the Iranian oil tank disaster? Jesus, you libertarians are a bunch of black-helicopter nutjobs.

    2. Leader Desslok

      I was swamped by that news story.

    3. loveconstitution1789

      The comedy level on Reason is sinking fast.

    4. loveconstitution1789

      Leave it to Reason to torpedo that story.

  16. CIA Director Mike Pompeo defended President Trump’s mental abilities

    The Dotard will allow you to kiss his ring now.

    1. But the real question is: how awesome can he pick stocks?

      1. Sevo

        I also here he pays off his bets.

        1. When he loses, which is never. Because, awesome!

    2. Domestic Dissident

      I would make a snarky comment like “Go Alabama”, except I know you don’t really live anywhere in Georgia and aren’t from there. You’re from Delaware, and you live at 1435 Euclid Street Apartment 2 in Northwest D.C.

      1. loveconstitution1789

        Isn’t Butt actually Tony the Swede or “Tony” on here?

        1. Ascendancy

          Yes.

      2. DiegoF

        Why you doxxing motherfuckers up in this piece?

  17. Israel is turning into a thugocracy. Of course we have only ourselves to blame. If you send a country $4b/year to ‘fight terrorism’ they will find enemies.

    1. Rhywun

      Yawn. Countries have borders, and the right to let in – or not – whomever they wish.

      1. Tony

        Countries have rights?

        1. Tom Bombadil

          Stand by everybody.. Tony is about to stipulate that only individuals have rights.

          1. No, he’s calling out the hypocrisy of self-described ‘libertarians’ who speak using collectivist terms only because they want so hard to justify the p…y-grabber-in-chief’s absurd deacription of Mexican immigrants which hateful white supremacists applauded so hard to.

            I, of course, am a libertarian and thus do not speak in those terms. Countries do not exist except on a map, with lines placed there by conquerors. The only beings of will who step on this Good Earth are individual humans. Not ‘countries’. Not ‘white people’ or ‘black people’ or ‘native born’. Human beings. Only human beings.

            1. loveconstitution1789

              “I, of course, am a libertarian and thus do not speak in those terms.”
              You misspelled Anarchist.

              Anarchists don’t want government nor state boundaries because there are no states.

            2. Kivlor

              OM, I’m not a libertarian, and neither are you. At least be an honest guy about it. You are arguing that people don’t have the right to form states. Libertarians believe in having a state, and limiting that state to certain functions.

      2. Isaac Bartram

        Yes, and the complaint that the Palestinian Arabs have is that they didn’t get the country that the British (Lawrence of Arabia and all that) promised them (well, because at the same time another bunch of Limeys (Lord Balfour) was promising the same land to the Jews (because, well, we’d really like those people lived somewhere else, wouldn’t we?).

        Who gets to control the borders seems mostly to depend on who has the most powerful allies.

    2. mad.casual

      So a vote for Trump wasn’t anti-Semitic enough?

      1. Sevo

        From the link:
        “It’s not just the BDS blacklist. In Israel, the basic rights and values underlying democracy itself are being repealed”
        read more: https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.833634

        Yep, just like every ‘Trump is a poopyhead, ’cause he might do this or that some time in the future!!!!!’ article.
        You sure can pick ’em, Dip.

        1. Sevo

          Not you, m.c.

    3. DiegoF

      Oh he’s not even a fucking Israeli. Just an American Jew (not even someone who’s bothered to visit the fucking country once, despite the fact that he could have taken an all-expenses-paid tour at any time for years–this is the engaged, community active, loving Jew whose company they will be missing because of their obstinacy in the face of a loving but principled brother’s heavyhearted misgivings) waving around his Jewishness all over the place (along with his dead relatives) into the Israelis’ faces. (As Podhoretz fils has pointed out, there really isn’t any such thing as Jewish intellectual culture per se any more in this country. Its left has assimilated into general white progdom but likes to remember their Jewish ancestry every once in a while when convenient.)

      There are many ways an Israeli could criticize their dysfunctional, obnoxious government for its thuggishness. I though this was actually going to be something productive. Instead, apparently Israel likes Trump and hates the people he is told are “good,” over the petty fact that they have singled the Jewish state out for worldwide opprobrium. That must be leading to some awkward moments at his prog cocktail parties as a Jew, huh? Fuck those Israelis.

    4. Kivlor

      I’m not a fan of Israel. But I find it quite amusing that they at least have the sense to realize that they should not let a 5th column establish itself inside of their country.

      Now, if only the Israelis would stop opposing the rights of Western nations to do the same…

  18. Quakers banned from Israel.

    Quakers are the most sincere Christian denomination I have ever encountered. They are also true pacifists, and are against all forms of physical violence, even that for the purpose of self defense. So are Quakers going to be naturally against the activities of Israel? Of course! Quakers will naturally be against against the military actions of most nations. There does seem to be a higher percentage of libertarians an anarchists among them for just that reason.

    But Besides this boycott being one sided, the very act of the boycott seems to go against their faith. The actions of Israel are the actions of a nation state, not the actions of its individual citizens. Boycotting, divesting, and sanctions are all political actions against the individual residents of Israel. The AFSC is once again letting their progressivism overshadow their faith.

    1. loveconstitution1789

      People need to wake up that Israel is not a Democracy nor a true friend of the USA.

      Its in Israel’s best interests to keep Palestinians from voting and keep America on their side.

      Remember the USS Liberty and Israel’s attack on it!

      1. Isaac Bartram

        I’m amused by the fact that if they viewed the mideast through the lens of American politics Trumpists would sympathize with the Palestinians since the Palestinians are the ones who had their land and their jobs taken away by a bunch of illegal immigrants, some of whom claimed that they owned the country because of a dubious story that their ancestors had owned it many centuries before.

        Migration stories all over the world a strikingly similar: The Welsh resent the fact that the Anglo-Saxons stole their land and pushed them into a barren corner of the land they once ruled. The Anglo-Saxons resent the fact that that the Normans invaded and made them all into feudal serfs. And so it goes to the Natives of the Americas and the Aborigines of Australia etc.

        1. loveconstitution1789

          To be fair, Palestinians and Jews both have shared Semitic people’s DNA. Both peoples have massive collections of other racial DNA mixed in.

          Religion and language seems to be the most different characteristic now.

          1. Isaac Bartram

            Religion[or culture] and language are the most different characteristics everywhere.

            American blacks who have adopted Anglo-Saxon* religion[or culture] and language are not subject to the same levels of exclusion and exploitation that those who have not adopted those things are. This has not always been true.

            *It is interesting that in spite of centuries of subjugation and serfdom it is the Anglo-Saxon “race” (the trading and working class) that dominates in the English speaking world today rather than the Norman-French ruling class (“race”).

        2. Kivlor

          Meh. Zionism is pretty well entrenched in the Christian right. Trump / MAGA / Kick out the invaders isn’t going to change that.

          In my neck of the woods even saying “hey I’m all for Israel’s existence, but they need to pay their own damn way and not suck off our teat” is considered antisemitic. I’ve lost friends for saying it. The real issue isn’t merely that Americans (Trump supporters or otherwise) aren’t looking at the situation from the lens of American politics, it’s that discussing the criticisms you are talking about is taboo.

          1. Isaac Bartram

            Yes, but part of my point is that taboo comes from the unwillingness to see another point of view.

            It is interesting that the Armageddon/Book of Revelations narrative coupled with the “Yahweh gave this land to His Chosen People” myth has given way to an otherwise sympathy for the replanted Anglo-Saxon and Irish underdog class that goes with the Scots-Irish borderers that are the antecedents of the Tumpists.

    2. Isaac Bartram

      The AFSC is once again letting their progressivism overshadow their faith.

      This is one of the reasons that this birthright Quaker has lapsed.

  19. Jerryskids

    CIA Director Mike Pompeo defended President Trump’s mental abilities from characterizations in Michael Wolff’s new book about Trump’s first year.

    “You’re lucid enough, Donald.”

  20. Just the Tip

    32 people are missing after an Iranian oil tanker collided with a freight ship off the coast of China.
    Putting on my tinfoil hat for a moment…

    Does anyone else find it convenient that two of our biggest adversaries (especially from a cyber warfare standpoint) suffered a shipping collision a few short months after the US Navy had two such incidents in regional waters? Perhaps jamming signals in a tit-for-tat?

    …removes tinfoil hat

    1. loveconstitution1789

      The difference between US Navy warships and commercial vessels is that US Navy ships should have lookouts on deck at all times to prevent such collisions.

      I think a vessel supplying oil to North Korea is more of a clandestine target to starve North Korea of oil to fuel their military vehicles before armed conflict.

      If China was serious about supplying North Korea with oil, they would just build a pipeline and send it in that way. Shipping oil via ship is supposedly less vulnerable to attack than a known pipeline but US Navy submarines has been training for decades to sink all enemy ships in case of war. The USA has been the only country that actually isolated a nation via marine trade during WWII.

  21. Isaac Bartram

    The difference between US Navy warships and commercial vessels is that US Navy ships should have lookouts on deck at all times to prevent such collisions.

    I’m not sure that difference exists. All ships regardless of nationality or status (merchant or military) are expected to maintain round the clock watches for all hazards.

    It may be true that in this age of radar, gps and self steering technologies “we” have gotten lax about keeping watch none of these standards have changed since the age of sail.

  22. Let’s be honest, if a diagnosis can be made from these criteria, we could pretty much empty both houses of Congress.

    Re-read the list, and instead of seeing Trump, which Ms. Lee has prepped us to do, try picturing Al Gore, sighing, eye-rolling, and interrupting his way through a debate with GW Bush, to “prove” he was Bush’s intellectual superior.

    Or, Sheila Jackson Lee, taking that first class seat the airlines procured by bumping a DC teacher to coach, and then claiming that the real reason the teacher was upset is because Rep.Lee is black. Or, when Rep. Lee threw a tantrum over the meal on another flight, reportedly demanding “Do you know who I am?” (Talk about entitled!)

    Or, how about all male politicians recently revealed to be sexual harassers, if not predators. Would these men even attempt that crap if they didn’t see themselves as “entitled”, or “lack empathy” or weren’t “interpersonally exploitative”, etc. (It looks like all the criteria could apply to these jerks.)

    And, let’s not forget HRC, lying, pandering, parsing, and flip-flopping and then lying about lying, pandering, parsing, and flip-flopping when challenged. (Benghazi, email scandal, “basket of deplorables,”etc.) Anyone suppose she doesn’t see herself as superior and entitled?

    To be fair, it isn’t just D politicians who display these personality traits. But, right now it seems the Ds need reminding of the fate that befalls those who start throwing stones in glass houses.

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