August 17, 2017

Sassy Trump

August 11, 2017

Randi Rhodes did a great segment on her show about Manafort's daughters and

the darknet website leaking of texts between them. I hadn't heard of this before but Politico did a story on it back in March

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/manaforts-ukrainian-blood-money-caused-qualms-hack-suggests-235473

Manafort’s Ukrainian ‘blood money’ caused qualms, hack suggests

Trump, Yanukovych work concerned the family of Trump’s former campaign chairman, texts appear to show.

Paul Manafort’s family expressed misgivings about the political consultant’s work for both Russia-aligned Ukrainian strongman Viktor Yanukovych and Donald Trump, according to text messages allegedly hacked from one of his daughters' phones.

The texts, posted on a darknet website run by a hacktivist collective, appear to show Manafort’s family fretting about the ethics, safety and consequences of his work for Yanukovych. And they reveal that Manafort’s two daughters regarded their father’s emergence as a key player on Trump’s presidential campaign with a mixture of pride and embarrassment.

In one exchange, daughter Jessica Manafort writes “Im not a trump supporter but i am still proud of dad tho. He is the best at what he does.” Her sister Andrea Manafort responded by referring to their father’s relationship with Trump as “The most dangerous friendship in America,” while in another exchange she called them “a perfect pair” of “power-hungry egomaniacs,” and asserted “the only reason my dad is doing this campaign is for sport. He likes the challenge. It's like an egomaniac's chess game. There's no money motivation.”

SNIP

In one March 2015 exchange that appears to be between the two sisters, Andrea Manafort seems to suggest that their father bore some responsibility for the deaths of protesters at the hands of police loyal to Yanukovych during a monthslong uprising that started in late 2013.

“Don't fool yourself,” Andrea Manafort wrote. “That money we have is blood money.”

In another hacked exchange a few months later with someone else, Andrea Manafort wrote that her father’s “work and payment in Ukraine is legally questionable.”

SNIP

In a text exchange in early April, Jessica Manafort tells her sister that her father, who maintained an apartment in Trump Tower, where the campaign is located, seemed to be thriving on the campaign.

“Dad and Trump are literally living in the same building and mom says they go up and down all day long hanging and plotting together,” Jessica Manafort wrote. “Gross,” Andrea Manafort responded, prompting Jessica Manafort to come to their father’s defense.

“Its really amazing opportunity at 67 years old. And he is basically running the campaign now He is so happy,” Jessica Manafort wrote.

When WikiLeaks released a massive tranche of hacked emails from the DNC ahead of Clinton’s nominating convention in late July, Jessica Manafort seemed to assume that it was her father’s doing, texting her sister “Dad is brilliant.” Andrea Manafort responded “Well it wasn't dads doing. It was hackers,” adding “But dad has to be thrilled about this. It's overshadowing the whole convention.”

The segment is on Randi's full Friday show, which is up on Youtube at 1:33:00

August 11, 2017

Philippe Coutinho hands in transfer request....damn

He's going then.

August 2, 2017

Ryanair's Michael O'Leary: UK is in denial over impact of Brexit on air travel - BBC Newsnight

Both O'Leary and British Airways' Willie Walsh are in rare agreement, that the UK are going to be in serious trouble if they do not start an Open Skies agreement with the EU asap. Even interviewer Kirsty Wark wanted to talk about Ryanair rather than Brexit.

Here are other interviews he has done on the subject

July 29, 2017

What is Roy Blunt reading ?

This is screengrab from the night of the ACA Repeal vote, and I just noticed this on his desk. Anyone know what it is ? It's "The Darkening .... "

http://imgur.com/t9MvLgl

July 29, 2017

Richard Engel : On Assignment : Russia's meddling in the 2016 Election and more

A really interesting show last night

July 27, 2017

Looks like Scaramucci has gone FULL Malcolm Tucker....

Series 3, Episode 2

Malcolm: Look, don't worry. The PM is not going to sack you after a week. Sacked after twelve months, looks like you've fucked up. Sacked after a week, looks like he's fucked up.

Nicola: I'm not doing terribly, am I?(beat)

Malcolm: (Looking out window) I love the way they've sandblasted everything around here. It's so clean!

Malcolm: (To his driver) Pull in here. And you can take out that cyclist on the way, I think he's Shadow Cabinet.

Robyn: Do you know, Malcolm... (Malcolm stares back, gravely) the best way to clear a paper jam?

Malcolm: I don't know... kill a kid an hour until it sorts itself out?

Ollie: (To Glenn) You can't overwrite minutes! Well, you specifically can't because you don't know how to unlock the PDF file.

Malcolm: (Nicola has accidentally revealed a DoSAC-caused catastrophe to an on-the-record journalist) ...FUCK'S SAKE! JESUS CHRIST! Well, now we've got another fuckin' adjective to add to fuckin' 'smug' and 'glum', haven't we? FUCKIN' 'RETARDED'! Jesus Chri-- Do you not think it would be germane to check who you're talking to?! IT'S A FUCKIN' NEWSPAPER OFFICE! IT'S NOT A FUCKIN' SANATORIUM FOR THE FUCKIN' DEAF, IS IT?! ARE YOU SO DENSE?! Am I gonna have to run around slapping badges on people, with a big tick on some and a big cross on others, so you know when to shut your gob and when to open it?! Jesus Christ! Oh, but that'll probably confuse you as well, won't it?! That'd be too confusing! You'd see the cross and go "Oh, fuck! 'X' marks the spot! Better tell this little person about the Prime Minister's fucking CATASTROPHIC ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION!" Oh, but not to worry, not to worry. You've sent fuckin' Ollie over there to deal with it. FUCKIN' OLLIE! HE'S A FUCKIN', HE'S A FUCKIN' KNITTED SCARF, THAT TWAT! HE'S A FUCKIN' BALACLAVA!!

(Nicola and Terri sit down in Malcolm's office)Malcolm: I just wanted to say to you, by way of introductory remarks, that I am extremely miffed about today's events and, in my quest to try and make you understand the level of my unhappiness, I'm likely to use an awful lot of what we would call "Violent Sexual Imagery", and I just wanted to check that neither of you would be terribly offended by that.

Nicola: I could actually do without the theatrics, I think Malcolm--

Malcolm: Enough. E-fucking-nough. You need to learn to shut your fucking cave, right? Today, you have laid your first, big, fat egg of solid fuck. You took the data loss media strategy and you ate with a lump of E. coli. And then you sprayed it our of your arse at 300mph.

Malcolm: The Kraken awakes!

Nicola: You said yourself that if the PM sacks me after a week, it looks like he's fucked up.

Malcolm: Yeah, but that was before, when your biggest problem was a fucking shit pun in a newspaper and a face like Dot Cotton licking piss off a nettle!

July 26, 2017

Everybody Lies by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz

Just heard him being interviewed on Ari Melber's show, The Beat. Most interesting, especially his discussion about the what Google searches tell us about the 2016 GE. Apparently there were huge amount of racist searches (jokes/memes about African Americans etc) even in areas that were thought NOT to be racist. He also spoke about the amount of searches for Abortion information in Middle America, which are uniformly anti-abortion.

I found this Google Talk he gave in June, which may be of interest.

Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are

How much sex do people really have?


•How many Americans are actually racist?


•What should you say on a first date if you want a second?


•Is America experiencing a hidden back-alley abortion crisis?


•Where is the best place to raise kids?


•Can you game the stock market?


•Do parents treat sons differently from daughters?


•How many men are gay?


•Do violent movies increase violent crime?


•How many people actually read the books they buy?


In this groundbreaking work, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, a Harvard-trained economist, former Google data scientist, and New York Times writer, argues that much of what we thought about people has been dead wrong. The reason? People lie, to friends, lovers, doctors, surveys—and themselves.

However, we no longer need to rely on what people tell us. New data from the internet—the traces of information that billions of people leave on Google, social media, dating, and even pornography sites—finally reveals the truth. By analyzing this digital goldmine, we can now learn what people really think, what they really want, and what they really do. Sometimes the new data will make you laugh out loud. Sometimes the new data will shock you. Sometimes the new data will deeply disturb you. But, always, this new data will make you think.

Everybody Lies combines the informed analysis of Nate Silver’s The Signal and the Noise, the storytelling of Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, and the wit and fun of Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner’s Freakonomics in a book that will change the way you view the world. There is almost no limit to what can be learned about human nature from Big Data—provided, that is, you ask the right questions.

July 26, 2017

Shep Smith does it again !

I am sure this will be youtubed but at the end of him being increasingly incredulous, he said "So they'll get to see a bill that affects one sixth of the economy, at 10am on Friday, vote on it before lunch and then GET outta town !" Followed by a look of utter disgust.

July 25, 2017

Has Trump just dropped the UK in it ?

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/889821674987761664

My understanding is that it is illegal for the UK to negotiate their own trade agreements while a member of the EU (collective negotiation).