By David Futrelle
Three, three indictments in one! Three former Trump campaign officials are in the hot seat today. Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort is the big name on the list (along with his pal Rick Gates), for such fun things as conspiracy against the U.S. and money laundering. But even more intriguing is the GUILTY PLEA of relatively unknown Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, whom Mueller has presumably flipped, who seems to have been doing some active COLLUDING WITH THE RUSSIANS.
So here’s an open thread to discuss the news and any other indictment fun that transpires today.
NOTE: Sorry to have gone missing for so long. I’m still dealing with a combo of health issues that have made it very difficult to work. Thanks again for your patience and support.
Re Jjs’s post: I’ve got some free time right now, so I’ve responded to this at *ahem* some length. Sorry peeps! Feel free to scroll by if you’re not interested.
Personally I’m not fussed if someone uses abbreviations or whatever; I don’t think it says anything about their legitimacy. And using emojis – well, everyone does, and it’s fraught (fraught, I tell you) with potential for miscommunication (not suggesting anyone has simply ‘failed to understand’, let me be clear).
Anyway, to break down the post:
So this bit for me = MRAs don’t like it when the gendered dimension of mass shootings is discussed i.e. the fact that the vast majority of shooters are men. But pointing out that most shooters are men is not the same as saying that all men are like this, or could be like this. That’s what I thought Jjs was saying.
Now I don’t agree with this 100%, because it obfuscates the link between (normative) masculinity and violence. But it’s not a contentious point if it’s read as “MRAs do the #notallmen thing whenever someone emphasises the fact that most mass shooters are male.”
I read this first bit as “I bet you [that] feminists don’t get upset…” rather than “you feminists” i.e. addressing us.
So, while MRAs object to “most mass shooters are men”, feminists don’t respond in this defensive manner to “most infanticides are committed by women.”
Further, even though MRAs hate the “mass shooters mostly male”, they’re quite happy to do the same thing re women and infanticide i.e. women are more likely to do this. In fact, father’s rights groups tend to weaponise this as a way to reject the “women are better parents” assumption.
The irony is that MRAs yell #notallmen in one instance, and yet will readily #allwomen in their own arguments.
That’s how I understood the post.
Gal Gadot is luminously beautiful to be sure, although I have trouble getting past her comments on the Israel/Palestine situation.
@Jenora, agree with you re Crowley’s appearance in that otherwise excellent Girl Genius link. Here’s a panel from the one I mentioned; you can see the rest here:
One of the deities that I love in Discworld is Anoia, goddess of things that get stuck in kitchen drawers. Especially when Moist makes a deal with her 😀
@ Mish, (and jjj), FWIW I read the comment the same way you did, with some of the elements being likely intended as mockery of MRA talking points and style.
Jjj, if this was an instance of Poe’s law, not just a drive-by of whatever intention, please pop back in and clarify.
ETA: seconding all the Pratchett stuff. Would have raised Monstrous Regiment if nobody else did.
Bit more on Harvey Wankstain, since he is regrettably still breathing:
Weinstein hired investigators, ex-intel agents to suppress misconduct allegations
I think we can all agree that Jjj did not do the best job of making their point, whatever it was supposed to be. (Thank you, Mish, for trying to translate.) When in doubt use s/ it makes a big difference in whether or not you are understood by your readers.
Had a pretty good day today capped off with massive engine failure in my car, so that sucks. Got stranded 30 miles outside town and it took 4 hours to get a wrecker to come get my vehicle.
Dropped the car off at the dealership after they closed and left the keys in the drop box. Hopefully tomorrow I will have an idea of what is wrong with my poor car. It seemed to suffer the vehicular equivalent of a stroke, with the dashboard indicators failing one after another and then the engine itself failing within 5 minutes.
Urgh – sorry about that PoM. Sounds like the EMS upped and died. 🙁
@PeeVee, @wwth : Comcast thing yesterday was human error.
https://www.wired.com/story/how-a-tiny-error-shut-off-the-internet-for-parts-of-the-us/
@Shadowplay
Yeah, my dad’s guess is that the computer failed. Hopefully it really is just that, and hopefully a new computer is not thousands.
Shadowplay, that’s good to know. One question though: is it Nov 7 for you already? (I don’t know where you’re at, and this happened to me today, 11/6)
PoM: I hate when crap like that happens! Hopefully it’s an easy, relatively cheap fix.
They almost never fail completely – it’s usually a failure in the power feed where the wires have chafed through. The ECU can be reprogrammed in that case and it doesn’t cost a lot.
Replacements can be pricey new, but over here (not sure if it is the same for you, but can’t see why it shouldn’t be) you can get one from the scrapyard for £120 or so. It’s worth thinking about second hand in this case because they do almost never fail.
Good luck. Not something you needed, for sure.
@PeeVee – it is the 7th here, sorry, I’m in the UK. Should have mentioned that 🙂 . Unfortunately, my “dear” old friend insomnia has decided to make a call on me tonight.
Those bastard old “K-Cars” did have frequent computer failures, but modern cars are much more likely to hit wiring or sensor issues first.
You can get pretty cheap code readers ($30-$900 depending on features and/or data collection) these days, that will tell you what the computer thinks is wrong with your car, then look them up on the net. Since your car is starting to have issues, I’d get one as cheap insurance, they can show problems exist before the check engine light starts lighting up.
Then again, I’ll admit to being a lot more of a wrenchmonkey than most car owners.
Basic code reader (<$50) is still a good idea, you can use smart phone to look up the codes with google, or call a friendly mechanic for tips.
Creepy men –
Some guy followed me around in a store today. So obvious, very creepy.
Should I report this to this store or their main office? It was extremely weird and disturbing. Yes stores can’t police all their customers, but – they do have a duty to keep their patrons safe.
I almost thought it could be one of their security people too. Those guys skulk around and pretend to be customers.
It was really weird and disturbing, I feel like I should say something, but what?
And of course people (store management or their corporate offices) will think that YOU are over reacting.
You couldn’t call me a suspected shop lifter either – I had 4 2 liter bottles of pop in my cart, what, I’m going to stuff these down a T shirt and run out of there? For $5? And how? Pretty bulky stuff.
And in the produce area, yeah the starving may shoplift but the pro’s would go to the drug and liquor side of the store. Or maybe I’m going to cram some heads of lettuce down my T shirt too?
This guy was watching me and following me. Through the entire store. It was very creepy and unnerving.
@Z&T
I’d report it. Not that the shop can/will do much about it, but you’ll feel like shit if you don’t report it and yon creepo pulls something on someone else.
Do it soon though – they can probably see the guy on video (if they bother to look) if you report it before the video gets wiped.
One hell of an issue, LOL.
The check engine light actually never appeared! The airbag light, sure. The low-fuel light, absolutely. The tachometer? Read 0 at 70 mph. Then the speedometer also went to 0! But no check engine light! Wack.
My car is vintage 1999, and has been a solid piece of machinery in general. However, I would never use the gizmo thing. I’d just never think about it. I know me.
@Z&T
Report it to the store manager. They can review the security footage and identify the dude, and put out word that he is not allowed in the store (assuming that they take you seriously, which they may not). Stores absolutely have the right to refuse service to creepers, as “creeper” is not a protected classification.
If they don’t take you seriously, you can try to go up the chain to any appropriate corporate, but start with the store manager.
Also – is David OK?
My last post here, it went through, no edit options came up. No need for me to edit, I try to check for typos before posting anything – I noticed that was missing though.
And of course I tend to worry and leap to conclusions like is someone else handling things here and is David OK?
Probably nothing. I have a tendency to worry….
ETA: edit options came up on this post, prior was likely just a glitch or something.
I worry about stuff …..
Too much.
A) My pronouns are they / them
B) I’m a suicidal trans minor.
C) can you folks be nicer???
D) nothing I say will make much sense as my mental health is shit.
E) I’m feeling very sad, I’m confused why everyone is angry with me.
F) I feel like crying
Report it to a front-end supervisor (usually near cash registers or returns desk). Many of them know who the undercover store protection are, and most will be happy to help if it isn’t.
If you can give exact time, date, and location in store, it’ll help actual store security figure out what was going on. Most big stores these days keep way more video footage than one person could ever watch, so specifics are important.
\
Cars again
Oh and if your battery is low, or a ground wire breaks, things can go weird like that.
Speedo and tach both going to 0 sounds like it could be crankshaft sensor. Inexpensive sensor, but can sometimes be in annoying location to get to. If that sensor fails, engine computer can have serious issues figuring out how to get the engine to run.
@Mish of the Catlady Ascendancy
is nice.
Oh great. Now I’m crying.
@POM
“Ah-ah, but you’re talking about people from other countries and most of them are not white.”
Honest question; aren’t people from Greece and Spain generally white? I mean, I know there’s colorism going on in the US. I personally have heard too many intrusive questions about me and fam’s ethnicity, but I’m pretty sure that Southern Europeans are generally considered white?
“You hear a lot today about companies not being able to find qualified candidates and how this is an emergency. Whenever you hear that, mentally insert for the wages I’m willing to pay into that complaint. “
Don’t want to pay, don’t want to follow labor laws, take your pick. Employers like their employees desperate, because then they know they can do whatever they want, break whatever laws they want, and they will get away with it.
Now there is a real shortage going on with skilled trades. A lot of this has to do with the emphasis that is placed on academics over shops in public schools. And the idea that blue collar work is for dumb losers, or some such shit.
” Those charts that show how much more immigrants contribute to the economy compared with what resources they use make me wonder if we’re not stealing that economic activity directly from those immigrants’ countries of origin.”
Right. Repubs are dumb because immigration usually creates jobs. (And if immigrants are creating jobs here then they’re not creating jobs elsewhere). On the other hand, a lot of immigrants remain close to family in their country of origin, and help out financially with schooling, supplies, and etc, so it’s probably a net benefit for everyone in many cases.
To the above, about this incident –
Yes I have decided to report this to their corporate offices.
And not only have I seen complaints online, – about their “security” harassing women – several friends of mine experienced exactly this.
I even saw several specific complaints about this online, for this chain of stores, that the security is known for this and tries to harass and hit on customers.
The complaint site I saw that on? Which someone else forwarded to me, – those specific complaints have been removed. Slow deli workers? Not enough parking spots? Those are still there. Harassing “security” complaints – are gone.
And I saw this – friend forwarded this to me months ago because she had issues at a different store (same chain), found the same link again, forwarded it to me again – and those complaints are gone.
Well. They must be in litigation then, over something. Or at least this is an ongoing problem for them.
I am going to send a complaint to their corporate offices.
They didn’t go at the same time. It really was like a stroke, something relatively fast and unpredictable but progressive. The tachometer was first, it fluttered for a few seconds and went to 0. The airbag light came on next, flickering a few times before coming on and staying on.
I kept driving the car because I had no idea that it was about to die. I was on the interstate well outside town and planned to take it to the dealership the next day.
The next thing that happened was the low-fuel light coming on, when I had almost 1/2 tank. Speedometer then did the same thing the tachometer had done: going to 0, coming back up, fluttering for a few seconds, then dying. Odometer died at the same time. Car kept running!
Then the engine started to splutter. I was fortunately coming up on an exit and took the exit. The turn signal was very reluctant to work. The engine then downshifted, downshifted again as I climbed the exit, and died entirely at the top of the exit. We managed to get the car pushed to a gas station about a tenth of a mile away (it was mostly downhill, and at one point a strapping young man in a pickup truck stopped to help us). The engine won’t even attempt to turn over with the key. The hazard lights are inoperable, but the headlights and cabin light will come on. The locks work, but the windows do not.
I really hope this turns out to be a shorted wire or something equally simple and cheap to fix. We’ve had terrible luck with dealerships in Louisville and this is literally the last dealership in town to try.
@JS
“Then again, I’ll admit to being a lot more of a wrenchmonkey than most car owners.”
And there lies the problem. A code reader will tell you what threw a code, but if you don’t know how to interpert that reading, then you could be spending a lot of money changing out parts until you manage to get the right part, if you ever do.
@POM
” We’ve had terrible luck with dealerships in Louisville and this is literally the last dealership in town to try.”
It’s not just Louisville. I’ve never had good luck bringing a car to any dealership and I don’t anyone else that has. Any good mechanic that I’ve known that worked for one has quit in disgust.
But hopefully this one is the charm.
What the actual fuck?
http://www.comicsbeat.com/indiana-jones-child-molester/