6074

When you think back, is there a specific moment in time where your life went wrong?

6075

Malathor didn’t used to be like this.

6076

Wonder if you hold, say, Fox News,(to use your prose, the ‘contard media’) to the same rigorous standards? ‘Two huge mistakes in the last week’ would be their best week ever.

6077

Yeah, but it is a problem. I brought this up well before the election, but with the advent of social media, and the desire to get “scoops”, news media fell into the trap of falling all over themselves to report garbage. It destroys their credibility and plays into the “fake news” stuff.

I keep going back to this letter from January from Steve Adler (EIC at Reuters) to staff:

This is our mission, in the U.S. and everywhere. We make a difference in the world because we practice professional journalism that is both intrepid and unbiased. When we make mistakes, which we do, we correct them quickly and fully. When we don’t know something, we say so. When we hear rumors, we track them down and report them only when we are confident that they are factual. We value speed but not haste: When something needs more checking, we take the time to check it. We try to avoid “permanent exclusives” – first but wrong. We operate with calm integrity not just because it’s in our rulebook but because – over 165 years – it has enabled us to do the best work and the most good.

In particular, I like the line about “permanent exclusives”

6078

Malathor’s tribe used to not put forward the scum of the Earth as presidential candidates.

6079

Trump corrodes everything.

Had an engineer today tell me at work that Trump never lies, he’s going to be a greater president than Reagan, the tax reform will grow the economy so much revenues will increase, etc. Really my fault, because he’s an officer in some local Tea Party group and I asked him when they’re going to break our their colonial larping gear to take the country back from these rising deficits. But god almighty, the alt reality, the sheer craziness. . . .

6080

It’s so weird when they are faced with a list of literally like 1400+ lies that Trump has told since taking office.

Not like… Weird opinions. Just straight up, probably false lies.

6081

I challenged him on the lies stuff and he hand-waved it away as master-class political strategy. So I asked exactly what strat is revolving around lying about the Hollywood Access tape after having apologized for those comments last year? No answer.

6082

He should apply some of the rigor he learned in his engineering education to his thinking about politics

6083

He should do the opposite and apply his political doublethink to his engineering. It should make for some fun times.

6084

I don’t want to generalize, but in my experience there seem to be a lot of people (mostly white men) in the engineering field with an FYGM mentality, who often assume that everyone has had the same breaks as they’ve had in life. Maybe nowadays that so many of their jobs are being outsourced to India, more of them are getting a different perspective.

6085

He could be a modern day Bloody Stupid Johnson!

In the palace grounds is also a maze so small that people get lost looking for it. Another notable feature is the ornamental trout lake, built long, but, sadly, only one inch wide. It currently houses one trout that is quite content provided it doesn’t want to turn around. “Perfect for the dieting fish”. At one point there was also an ornate fountain which, upon being turned on, did nothing but groan ominously for several minutes before firing a small stone cherub a thousand feet into the air.

6086

Sure. They sweated through engineering classes and worked 60 hour weeks and did well, but maybe so did some engineers in India who are willing to work for half their wages. Oops. Hey government, protect my job! Looks like my corporate overlords really only care about what they have to pay engineers rather than where they live.

Still, people displaced by outsourcing probably still support Trump. He made noise about that stuff he will never follow through on, but what have the Democrats done for them? Democrats were behind NAFTA!

6087

I don’t… I mean, neither one of them are… huh?

6088

The fact that Congressional Republicans would allow such an obviously absurd claim of privilege demonstrates how utterly without ethics they have become.

6089

There was “an attorney in the room”. Republican chair of the committee Conaway was fine with it, so why aren’t you?

6090
6091

If Mike Pence wants to be a boy scout, I’m all for it. His brand of crazy is something people can at least watch from afar and sort of brush aside, and most people tire of it quickly enough that I doubt he could get re-elected. (They don’t like him in Indiana anymore…) I hope he knows more than he has ever let on and spills his guts about the whole business.

6092

PLEASE PLEASE interview him with a female-only team.

6093

Where’s the damn like button!

Or a pay per view of that. I’d pony up to watch female lawyers grill Pence.