Lazy8 wrote:
 

If it drags on to when the roads get open (I am already assuming the county will have to plow again), I wonder what the scene will be in Yellowstone. Normal years have enough jackholes peeing in geysers and generally being stupid. But people tend to frown on volunteer law enforcement. And of course if the .gov can avoid paying this year, then that's a precedent I expect they'll love.

 ScottFromWyoming wrote:
 
Can't speak for libertarians, but the other unspoken point of the shutdown is that we dont need it (gov bureaucracy).  Everything is fine, as long as i can still order my hamberders from this wonderful capitalist system.  

ScottFromWyoming wrote:

Lowercase-l libertarians are all over the map on it; AnCaps tend to signify "Yes! Keep it shut down! Everybody go home and get honest jobs!" Pragmatists are mostly rolling their eyes at the ultimate cost when they come back to work and collect their back pay for doing nothing and remarking on how little their absence means to most people, while denouncing the shallow partisanship involved.

Uppercase-L Libertarians have been using it as an opportunity to pitch voluntarism. State party organizations have been out cleaning National Parks.

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 

 Lazy8 wrote:
 

I missed this the first time around so may I just state for the record that I wasn't really intent on giving Buzzfeed credit for scooping anything. Should've probably said it more like, "Buzzfeed: not known for quality journalism, but hey, there's a first time for everything, this could be theirs." Or something.

==============================

Hey, in other news, does the shutdown distress Libertarians? I think Grover Norquist needs a kick in the balls but somewhere between him and Elizabeth Warren, there might be a culling going on that won't be the end of everything good. It might be the end of a Lot of Things Good, though. I'd like some editorial control.

Trump's Facebook/Insta share photos doctored to make his fingers look longer.
 

A Trump administration effort to relax new worker safety rules in shipbuilding and construction businesses may leave thousands of workers exposed to beryllium, a toxic, cancer-causing element....

Cf. to vent one's spleen...

sple·net·ic/spləˈnedik/adjective

1. 1.bad-tempered; spiteful."a splenetic outburst"

   synonyms:

   bad-tempered, ill-tempered, ill-humored, angry, wrathful, cross, peevish, petulant, pettish, irritable, irascible, cantankerous, choleric, dyspeptic, testy, tetchy, snappish, waspish, crotchety, crabby, crabbed, querulous, resentful, rancorous, bilious, sour, bitter, acid, liverish; More

2. 2.archaic term for splenic.

 R_P wrote:
 
Crybaby conservatism.  Will have to remember that one.

One thing about reading a George Will column is that ya get an opportunity to learn new vocabulary, e.g., splenetic .  

George Will: The shabbiest U.S. president ever is an inexpressibly sad specimen

Opinion | Beware the Furies, President Trump - The New York Times

 Lazy8 wrote:
 

or see

out of all the ugly crap in this video we see what was reported

1:06:45 threatening an innocent bystander with violence
1:07:40 calls the kids "incest babies"
1:12:00s where the media's narrative falls apart
1:15:20 calls the kids "future school shooters"
1:24:53 is booed when he lets loose with homophobic slurs
1:27:00 "there will be no peace until there is bloodshed"

MAGA mom to the rescue...
MAGA hat boy's mother blames 'black Muslims' for her son harassing Native American man

‘It was getting ugly’: Native American drummer speaks on the MAGA-hat-wearing teens who surrounded him

westslope wrote:

Eh, not so much.

Anyone who fell for this probably would have believed it if their barber told them. Lying clearly isn't something MAGAmemnon is afraid of, so it rings true. It's...truthy. Truthish. Well, it oughta be true.

Anyone who still supports him now has yet another reason to dismiss anything they read about him in the press.

To anyone not paying attention (most of us, that is) this is just more static on the radio. They're at it again, whatever.

For all those who were popping champagne corks (again!) to celebrate the inevitable downfall that this time was definitely about to come...what do you do with all that champagne? I mean, do you cook with it, or just get hammered over and over? Unless it's that crappy domestic stuff (you know, the fast food hamberders of wines) that's gotta get expensive.

Even if the report were true consider this: Bill Clinton not only suborned perjury he perjured himself. Under oath. In a court of law. It got him impeached and he skated, and in the process took out most of the leadership of the opposing party. You really want to go there?

 westslope wrote:
 


This WashPo piece points out a few things in Buzzfeed New's favor: 


BuzzFeed’s stumble is highest profile misstep at a time when press is under greatest scrutiny

The fact that the normally buttoned-up special counsel’s office felt compelled to issue a statement suggests that the story’s conclusions were too baldly stated and too consequential to stay unchallenged. In effect, Mueller’s office seemed to be saying that BuzzFeed went too far and got some things wrong, though it did not say how or what.

In fact, what it didn’t say was important, too. It didn’t say Mueller had no evidence that Trump had sought to influence Cohen — just that BuzzFeed’s description of such statements was inaccurate. Nor did it spell out which reported statements were inaccurate and in what way. Further, it offered no details about how BuzzFeed had mischaracterized any evidence that Mueller has collected.

This gave the online news organization a small bit of daylight and some hope of vindication. In response to Mueller’s office, editor Ben Smith issued a statement saying BuzzFeed stood by its story. He urged Mueller “to make clear what he’s disputing.”


...



Under Smith’s tenure, BuzzFeed News has split from the main BuzzFeed site and become a source of serious investigative journalism and political reporting. Its series on assassinations of people opposed to Russian President Vladimir Putin was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize last year.



The WashPo piece goes on to note that The Guardian, McClatchy News, CNN and WashPo itself have published disputed stories containing statements about Trump and the Trump campaign that other news organizations were not able to corroborate. Buzzfeed published the Steele Dossier, which contained numerous contentions about Trump without providing evidence supporting those contentions. Many of those contentions, however, have been supported or proven since then. 

 westslope wrote:
 
True. Misinformation - or often more precisely "disinformation" - has certainly been useful and influential for Trump and his loyalists, and many others throughout history.

 Lazy8 wrote:
 
LOL!    But about all the awards that BuzzFeed has won?    

When the 'news' first came out, I started to hallucinate about a lame-duck Trump who would resign in the near future.  I started to fantasize about faster rates of global economic growth and buoyant stock markets.

Here is the consolation prize:  if the news story proves to be incorrect — likely the case — the damage to the Trump presidency will still be enormous.  

One does not have to like misinformation to recognize how influential it can be.

ScottFromWyoming wrote:

You mean when a publication known for shoddy journalism reports something that you really really want to be true then suddenly it's credible?