15 thoughts on “Friday Open Thread”

1. Donald Trump wants to bring a lie detector into the White House. Rest in Peace dramatic irony.  You had a good run. 

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2. People other than Voyageur have noticed a Trump smell.

   thenekkidtruth September 07 · 05:58:03 AM

   Will Trump smell leave a lasting taint on the GOP for generations to come? Put it this way — I’m still screaming bloody murder about Richard Nixon.

   Not me — but plenty of people. The best people.

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   1. *taint* – what a glorious use of the word in this context.  

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3. Jared Polis looks like Doug Bruce compared to this woman……

   https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/06/nyregion/cynthia-nixon-new-york-state-budget.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fnyregion&action=click&contentCollection=nyregion&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=8&pgtype=sectionfront

   Cynthia Nixon is taking the Free Stuff agenda to new heights. She really should have stayed on Sex in the City.

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4. This may be the greatest thing on the interweb today…

   The hero we've been waiting for. pic.twitter.com/saJqmtlCIH

   — Benjamin Franklin (@benFranklin2018) September 7, 2018

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5. Badly Named 14ers:
   Mount Wilson in the San Juan Mountains
   Elevation: 14,252 ft (4,344 m)
   Rank in Colorado: 16th highest

   The Bad: Calling a peak "Mount Wilson" is almost equivalent to naming a child "John Smith". In the US alone there are 30 other mountains with the same name or close variants like "Wilson Mountain" or "Wilson Peak", including a nearby one in Colorado. It is not even named for someone famous, but instead for a topographer with the Hayden Survey, A.D. Wilson.

   The Good: At least it is named for someone with a significant connection to Colorado instead of someone who never even visited Colorado.

   Possible Fixes: Total renaming.

   Major geographic features should not be named after people, generally. It is even worse when the person's achievements are not equal to the geography they are attached to. Think of the Never Summer Range. What a great name. Now imagine that some bright spark had decided to name them the William Pennington Range for the 23rd Speaker of the House of Representatives. Dreadful.

   The silver mining in the area could provide a better name. Mount Silverbell?

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   1. How about Mount Trumpstink?

      Then, Mount Trumpstink II?

      Mount Trumpstink III?

      And so forth?

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      1. "What you just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response, were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul."

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         1. So you know, both of the Wilson 14ers are named for A.D. Wilson. I've done them both; have you? Mt. Silverbell? Sounds too much like Tinker Bell.

            Yes, they are climbs, with hand-over-hand moves and exposure, not walk-up trails.

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            1. How about a wildflower, Mt. Rose Crown? I would have suggested Mt. Sky Pilot for the blue alpine flowers, but there apparently is one in British Columbia. (Damn)

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               1. How about just leaving them named as they are? 

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         2. So, Denny pedant agrees: Mount Trumpstink it is!

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6. What would Friday be without seeing what the nation's cartoonists think of the weeks events?  Here are two of my favorite from Politico:

   

    

   

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7. Who stole my strawberries?  This is a national security issue!!!

   Donald Trump wants Jeff Sessions to launch an investigation of a political enemy … again.

   Trump wants to maybe take some kind of action against the New York Times … again.

   While talking to reporters on Air Force One, Trump—in response to a question about whether the Justice Department should investigate the author of the anonymous op-ed—said, “Jeff should be investigating who the author of that piece was because I really believe it’s national security.”

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8. Oh great, Kavanaugh has a sports betting addiction.  That's not a problem, is it?

   As first reported by the Washington Post, Kavanaugh’s financial disclosure forms indicate that, as of 2016, he carried somewhere between $60,000 and $200,000 in debt on three credit cards plus a personal loan. The White House’s explanation for why a successful 53-year-old lawyer and judge would have that much credit card debt was that Kavanaugh really liked going to baseball games:

   A ProPublica piece about Kavanaugh’s tickets notes that he’s been seen at Nationals games in seats near first base. Season tickets at the “Dugout Premier” price level in that area would cost about $9,000 a year. The judge, therefore, would have had to have fronted the cost of seven such top-level season tickets just to reach the lower limit of what his debt was said to be.

   In 2017, all of Kavanaugh’s debt besides his home mortgage was gone, which the White House says was because “Kavanaugh’s friends reimbursed him for their share of the baseball tickets.” The administration wouldn’t provide any more details.

   Incidentally, in one of the previously undisclosed emails from Kavanaugh’s time in the George W. Bush White House that was released Thursday, he apologizes to several friends for “growing aggressive after blowing still another game of dice” during a weekend trip and then instructs them “to be very, very vigilant w/r/t confidentiality on all issues and all fronts, including with spouses.”

   So is he for sale, for rent, or just hoping the Russians don't ask too much from him?

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