How Do You Like Them Apples?

I can't wait to see the rest of the Comey effort:

Damn, Comey tried his hand at poetry too:

Trump
Sitting in his seat, a seat broad and broken
In, sprinkled with ashes,
Trump switches channels, takes another
Shot of Seagrams, neat, and asks
What to do with me, a green young man
Who fails to consider the
Flim and flam of the world, since
Things have been easy for me;
I stare hard at his face, a stare
That deflects off his brow;
I'm sure he's unaware of his
Dark, watery eyes, that
Glance in different directions,
And his slow, unwelcome twitches,
Fail to pass.
I listen, nod,
Listen, open, till I cling to his pale,
Beige T-shirt, yelling,
Yelling in his ears, that hang
With heavy lobes, but he's still telling
His joke, so I ask why
He's so unhappy, to which he replies . . .
But I don't care anymore, cause
He took too damn long, and from
Under my seat, I pull out the
Mirror I've been saving; I'm laughing,
Laughing loud, the blood rushing from his face
To mine, as he grows small,
A spot in my brain, something
That may be squeezed out, like a
Watermelon seed between
Two fingers.
Trump takes another shot, neat,
Points out the same amber
Stain on his shorts that I've got on mine and
Makes me smell his smell, coming
From me; he switches channels, recites an old poem
He wrote before his mother died,
Stands, shouts, and asks
For a hug, as I shink, my
Arms barely reaching around
His thick, oily neck, and his broad back; 'cause
I see my face, framed within
Trump's black-framed glasses
And know he's laughing too.

-- James Comey

Comments

[Robin on the iDevice]

Jane, I’m going to try that with salmon!

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Wait, when I saw this yesterday I dismissed it as a slightly humorous parody but too over the top to be really funny.
If it's real then God help us all if this is the kind of Nutjob at the helm of our bureaucracies.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Gotta be a parody.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

OK, Gabriel admits he wrote in the comments.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Think what bgates could have done with Comey's material.

[Threadkiller]

Trump
Sitting in his seat, a seat broad and broken
In, sprinkled with ashes,
Trump switches channels, takes another
Shot of Seagrams, neat, and asks
What to do with me, a green young man
Who fails to consider the
Flim and flam of the world, since
Things have been easy for me;
I stare hard at his face, a stare
That deflects off his brow;
I'm sure he's unaware of his
Dark, watery eyes, that
Glance in different directions,
And his slow, unwelcome twitches,
Fail to pass.
I listen, nod,
Listen, open, till I cling to his pale,
Beige T-shirt, yelling,
Yelling in his ears, that hang
With heavy lobes, but he's still telling
His joke, so I ask why
He's so unhappy, to which he replies . . .
But I don't care anymore, cause
He took too damn long, and from
Under my seat, I pull out the
Mirror I've been saving; I'm laughing,
Laughing loud, the blood rushing from his face
To mine, as he grows small,
A spot in my brain, something
That may be squeezed out, like a
Watermelon seed between
Two fingers.
Trump takes another shot, neat,
Points out the same amber
Stain on his shorts that I've got on mine and
Makes me smell his smell, coming
From me; he switches channels, recites an old poem
He wrote before his mother died,
Stands, shouts, and asks
For a hug, as I shink, my
Arms barely reaching around
His thick, oily neck, and his broad back; 'cause
I see my face, framed within
Trump's black-framed glasses
And know he's laughing too.
-- James Comey

[Threadkiller]

A rat done bit my sister Nell.
(with Trumpy on the moon)
Her face and arms began to swell.
(and Trumpy's on the moon)
I can't pay no doctor bill.
(but Trumpy's on the moon)
Ten years from now I'll be payin' still.
(while Trumpy's on the moon)
The man jus' upped my rent las' night.
('cause Trumpy's on the moon)
No hot water, no toilets, no lights.
(but Trumpy's on the moon)
I wonder why he's uppi' me?
('cause Trumpy's on the moon?)
I was already payin' 'im fifty a week.
(with Trumpy on the moon)
Taxes takin' my whole damn check,
Junkies makin' me a nervous wreck,
The price of food is goin' up,
An' as if all that shit wasn't enough
A rat done bit my sister Nell.
(with Trumpy on the moon)
Her face an' arm began to swell.
(but Trumpy's on the moon)
Was all that money I made las' year
(for Trumpy on the moon?)
How come there ain't no money here?
(Hm! Trumpy's on the moon)
Y'know I jus' 'bout had my fill
(of Trumpy on the moon)
I think I'll sen' these doctor bills,
Airmail special
(to Trumpy on the moon)

-- James Comey

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

This is what happens when I go back to bed. I wake up and see that there''s bad poetry everywhere. LOL!

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

Donald J. Trump
‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump
2h2 hours ago

A perfectly executed strike last night. Thank you to France and the United Kingdom for their wisdom and the power of their fine Military. Could not have had a better result. Mission Accomplished!

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

Donald J. Trump
‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump
2h2 hours ago

So proud of our great Military which will soon be, after the spending of billions of fully approved dollars, the finest that our Country has ever had. There won’t be anything, or anyone, even close!

[JimNorCal]

Tom appears to be positively effervescent today!
Piehole Needledick indeed.

Funny comparison:

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/04/pope_francis_does_for_church_attendance_what_colin_kaepernick_did_for_nfl_attendance.html

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

Melania Trump
‏Verified account @FLOTUS
4m4 minutes ago

1/2: Thank you to the strong & courageous members of our U.S. military all over the world! Your continued contributions & commitment to the safety of our great nation will never go unnoticed or unappreciated.

Melania Trump
‏Verified account @FLOTUS

2/2: And to all military families, especially the children, thank you for your sacrifice. #monthofthemilitarychild

[Sue]

The best thing about parodies is they are so absurd but have a hint of it could be true in them. If I were Comey I’d be embarrassed but he won’t be.

[PDinDetroit]

Remember, Don't talk to the police!

[Jane]

Robin,

Sometimes I add a little dijon mustard and ketchup - for reasons I don't know even tho I made up the recipe. I promise you will love it.

[Jim Eagle]

Frederick told me about the yodeling kid at Walmart. Going to Coachella this Friday. LOL.

https://www.tmz.com/2018/04/13/yodeling-walmart-kid-mason-ramsey-performing-coachella/

He's pretty good for his age.

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

Richard Grenell
‏Verified account @RichardGrenell

. @nikkihaley: “we can all see that a Russian disinformation campaign is already under way.”

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

Almanor
👠
‏ @Sunrise51052
5m5 minutes ago

Nikki Haley to UN: I spoke with a President Trump this morning, he said if the Syrian regime uses this poisonous gas again, the United States is locked and loaded. When our president draws a red line, our President enforces the red line.

[glasater]

I'd like to thank the Academy and dear leader TM for being inspired by my modest comment on apples to begin a new thread :-)

Ryan Crocker was on Cavuto's (I know..) Saturday AM show telling us that conventional weapons killed far more Syrians than chemical weapons.

Since Crocker lives in my neck of the woods, of late he generated notoriety for acquiring a DUI in his hometown of Spokane, WA. Which is NOT mentioned in his wiki page.

[Buckeye]

I suspect the term "mission accomplished" was used by Trump on purpose.

While the press is busy with their GWB comparisons........

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

Michael Cohen
‏Verified account @MichaelCohen212
8m8 minutes ago

Bad reporting, bad information and bad story by same reporter Peter Stone @McClatchyDC. No matter how many times or ways they write it, I have never been to Prague. I was in LA with my son. Proven!

[sbw]

Buckeye, Ari Fleischer tweeted: Um...I would have recommended ending this tweet with not those two words.

My reply: Really? Not so much. @realDonaldTrump used #MissionAccomplished to get in #prog heads. Cut the legs from their PC battlefield prep. Reclaim language from #postmodern BS.

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

Buckeye,

First we got the Scooter Libby pardon, then the "Mission Accomplished" (which I also believe was deliberate).

If I see one more reference to the Bush administration, I will see it as a sign that Trump knows something and is sending a message.

[Momto2]

I was curious whether blue eyes were under or over represented on JOM. . Seems over represented,

Buckeye - it *seems* - does this mean you are not keeping a tally and will not be presenting results accompanied by pie charts? Oh, well...

[-peter]

Looks like the rest of the Yankees-Tigers series may be wiped out. Today's day game postponed tomorrow, and a day night separate admission double header scheduled, except the weather in Detroit looks even worse for tomorrow; will they play in 38 degree damp weather? that can't be good for baseball.

https://www.accuweather.com/en/us/detroit-mi/48226/daily-weather-forecast/348755?day=2

[glasater]

In trying to catch up I found that Joan had posted the 'apple' page from twitter that TM found clever enough to headline this thread.

Reminds me of 'strawberries' and Humphrey Bogart from The Caine Mutiny.

[glasater]

Gen Jack Keane thinks the strike on Syria is weak.

[-peter]

Re: Brennan's use of the word, 'kakistocracy' in a tweet: I thought it was some kind of scatological term, but having looked it up, it means leadership by the worst. So, just another way to call us all deplorables.

[Jim Eagle]

-peter,

I have always thought baseball starts too early. Beside the fickled weather in April, they have to compete with NBA and NHL playoffs. Cut the 160 games back to 132 or 140. Start in May end in mid-September. Playoffs and WS in end of September and through mid-October. Stay out of the cold and rainy weather. Not good for pitchers or hitters.

BTW, since they have closed Mercy we may come down your way to check out St. Dominic's in Oyster Bay. What have you heard about the school?

[Frau Apfelkraut]

glasater - the Opal is our current favorite. The golden color and the slight russeting give it an heirloom appearance even though it is a new apple from Czechia/the Czech Republic.

Not only the color but the size is usually "Trumpian" and the flavor out of this world.

[Buckeye]

Buckeye - it *seems* - does this mean you are not keeping a tally and will not be presenting results accompanied by pie charts? Oh, well...

That would require disciplne and attention to detail....I am more a 40,000 feet guy:)

[maryrose]

Momto 2 and Buckeye:
I was told there would be no math.

[glasater]

Never have seen Opals that large around here, Frau but will now be on the hunt for them!! ;-)

Broetje Orchards is the outfit I thought owned the patent on Opals but could be wrong there.

I shop for the russet tint on the apples for those are the sweetest. Yum!

[matt - deplore me if you must]

"and then the orange demon ripped my bodice from my chest, thirstily eyeing my bosom with lust and anticipation."

J Comey

[Jim Eagle]

Shinnecock is busy, busy, busy setting up for the US Open in June. The beagles and I drove out to the hills and caught this scene of hospitality tents framing the 16th hole fairway.

[matt - deplore me if you must]

maybe it was Bernie Sanders who wrote that.

[Momto2]

Before I forget - did anyone else hear Dennis Prager yesterday? I heard only a portion (before the Happiness Hour) he was discussing the treatment of Pompeo by Booker on his beliefs concerning same sex marriage.

Dennis played clips of Booker asking, "Do you believe marriage should be between a man and a woman" and he answered yes. Then he kept pounding away asking if he believed gay sex was a perversion. Dennis said the correct question should have been, "How do you or how would you treat same sex couples?"

The point being that the left doesn't care how we treat people but only what we *believe* or think! We must think correctly or we are ineligible for anything.

It was an excellent commentary he gave with the hearing clips giving strong support for what he was saying. It no long matters what you DO it matters what you think and you MUST think like they demand that you think. Very frightening!

[Buckeye]

When I was a kid, we were taught that eye color was controlled by A recessive gene......settled science......

Well, if the following from Wikipedia is reasonably accurate, much more complicated than that.

Eye color is an inherited trait influenced by more than one gene.[13][14] These genes are sought using associations to small changes in the genes themselves and in neighboring genes. These changes are known as single-nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs. The actual number of genes that contribute to eye color is currently unknown, but there are a few likely candidates. A study in Rotterdam (2009) found that it was possible to predict eye color with more than 90% accuracy for brown and blue using just six SNPs.[15] There is evidence that as many as 16 different genes could be responsible for eye color in humans; however, the main two genes associated with eye color variation are OCA2 and HERC2, and both are localized in Chromosome 15.[9]

Another thing I learned from researchin this:

Those of you that have green eyes are the smallest population, ~2%.

So while blue eyes are rare, the green eyed JOMers are in a class by themselves.

[glasater]

Maybe this was mentioned before but two browneyed parents can have a blue-eyed child but two blue-eyed parents cannot have a browneyed child..unless something 'funny' happened.

Blue eyes here.

[rse]

Hubby's eyes are blue with a half irish and half ukrainian ancestry. Mine are brown.

My brunette, blonde, and ginger children, respectively, all have green eyes.

[narciso]

Its Bulwer lytton all the way, of course Carlos slims is busy covering the ig report with a pillow,

I took a glance at Phillip Kerr's latest, Greeks bearing gifts I didnt think that was such a critical nexus in the war. Clarice did you ever have to deal with the klarsfelds, they handled mostly south American incidences of nazis

[clarice feldman]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trust-but-verify-applies-to-the-fbi-1523658315

Should be true of all prosecutors IMO--take Greitens case or the Baltimore cops cases or the wisconsin brown shirts.

[clarice feldman]

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/04/13/the-small-group-knew-theyd-lose-the-fact-battle-so-they-began-a-propaganda-war/
Is Cohen taqrgeted to prevent disclosure of GPS sources?

[narciso]

Mccarthy can't stop imagining his confrere khuzaimi would steer him wrong

[narciso]

What could Mueller that could make politic look at him crosswise

https://althouse.blogspot.com/2018/04/prosecutors-like-mueller-generally.html

[JimNorCal]

PD, started watching the YouTube on don't-talk-to-police and couldn't stop. Very fun and educational.

[JimNorCal]

Simplified Iggy: "this is a parody? right? right? it IS a parody, correct?"

AMAZING, that the question has to be asked but OMG the Gabriel selection is not that far from quotes posted by JOMers and the troll yesterday.
Spooky!

[joan]

glasater at 1: that's what I was talking about in regard to the heterozygous and homozygous, i.e., recessive and dominant genes. Or something. :)

[narciso]

My pet theory fwiw is Matt tait (who had google zero and ghcq in his CV) was contracted to conduct the surveillance, they did a bang up job of it, like that cult hit, the man with one red shoe,

[joan]

Something else interesting about eye colors, my husband and I both have hazel eyes. His never change to the 'blue' or 'green' tinge look. They remain sort of a dark 'fatigue' (army clothing) looking hazel. My hazel goes blue or green, like others have mentioned. Our son got the recessive blue gene and his eyes are blue. Our daughter got, evidently, the recessive green and her eyes are the purest green. People comment on her eyes -- they are beautiful.

Just think all of this is interesting.

[-peter]

J-I-G, I believe that my wife's niece went to St. Dom's; will inquire.

[clarice feldman]

http://donsurber.blogspot.com/2018/04/indict-mccabe.html
McCabe should be prosecuted

[clarice feldman]

http://donsurber.blogspot.com/2018/04/mueller-is-irrelevant.html
Trump gave the dope enough rope and he strangled himself with it.

[Ralph L]

I didn't know Queasy was a Niebuhrist. My adulation of him begins now. Who's his dry cleaner?

[Captain Hate]

Mccarthy can't stop imagining his confrere khuzaimi would steer him wrong

McCarthy was incredible on Levin early in the week talking about Mueller's raid on Cohen. Ol' Yeller would ask him a question which Andy would start to answer and then, either he has ADD or an insatiable need to drop names, because he'd start talking about other stuff until Levin, with the irritation fairly evident in his voice, would ask him to address the original point and McCarthy would say "oh there's no doubt that this is terrible for the country and the rule of law".

That happened multiple times.

[JimNorCal]

~peter: Re: Brennan's use of the word, 'kakistocracy'

It's obvious to all of us, right, that this is projection? The Obama Admin, indeed, was a kakistocracy, pure and simple.

[JM Hanes]

Kept wondering why nobody had linked to Clarice's Pieces this morning. After searching Am Thinker in vain, I realized it was Saturday -- how rare to discover that I'm not as far behind as I thought I was! Still plaing catch-up though.

Miss Marple:

"And of course, targets were selected on 7 hours notice. Give me a break."

What, no aspirin factories?

Ditto for that Ari Fleischer "Mission Accomplished" tweet: "Um...I would have recommended ending this tweet with not those two words." Does he think Trump didn't have anything particular in mind when he chose that phrase? Ditto for Nikki Haley's red line statement. You have to be pretty clueless not to see a pattern here. I love that Trump forthrightly invites comparisons to previous presidents.

This amused me too:

"@nikkihaley: 'we can all see that a Russian disinformation campaign is already under way.'"

Shoot, I can see Russian disinformation from my house sofa.

[Ed]

[carried forward from Bombs Away thread}

Good morning from rural CA.

Brown eyes. Mom was brown eyed, dad blue eyed, sister hazel. Ancestry England, Scotland, and Germany on both dad and mom's sides. Will never submit to a DNA test for several reasons, among them being my genealogy is pretty well established back to England, Scotland, Germany and Middle Earth. Also I distrust a mass marketed DNA service after reading of the hash that occurs often with tracing dog genetics.

Arrived here at JOM during Libby/Plame days. Recall one quip citing confusion between Gerald Fitzpatrick v. Patrick Fitzgerald. Probably lured to this den of inequity through a Clarice post at American Thinker.

I had a little "vanity" blog at that time. I think the header note was something to the effect that this blog was the conversation I'd likely have around the kitchen table if there were more of us in the house than just me and the dog. One thing I always prided myself on was that, rather than having a high visitor count, I had one of the smallest counts, but certainly the best of commenters. Among them were Clarice, Dymphna, and Viktor Silo.

I think Clarice's comment was probably simply triggered by a statement I'd made with a link to her piece at AT, and was more of a clarification or polite correction to what I'd observed about DC arcana.

Temp here at 4500 ft in Central Sierra is about 56 and sunny, but rain and snow forecast for Sunday night.

Now back to bed to complete my 8 hours beauty sleep, and then facing the Sisyphean task of more catch up.

[Ralph L]

The few times she made it, my mother added lemon juice to the ketchup/mayo soup. She also put lemon juice on cabbage for cole slaw.

[narciso]

The niebuhrist like Obama and Herr dreyfus are much like Otto with his Belgian Aristotle. Reminds of an old snl sketch where Anthony Perkins played a philosophy prof with increasingly clueless students who for example though sartre came before kierkegaard.

[JimNorCal]

matt 12:43: "and then the orange demon ripped my bodice"

OMG, there is such a surplus today of completing circles, dotting "i's" and crossing "t's".

Bodice rippers, forsooth! :) :)

[narciso]

Wonder how many fact checkers ap will
Employ on dreyfus memoir, rhetorical.

[narciso]

Good grief, first when did Ukrainians use western fighters

https://mobile.twitter.com/trbrtc/status/985003415079211008?p=v

[joan]

Comey's poetry reminds me of obama's -- creepy poetry.

Yesterday my sister was laughing about Comey, almost in tears, and his gratitude toward obama. She said, 'my goodness, they don't sound like men, there's nothing strong or steadfast about either one's comments. You can almost visualize them, each clasping the other's forearm, almost hugging.'

One ... tall dainty precise
One ... bisexual pant-creased
Both ... clothed in longing and disguise
Two bodies ...
lost souls ...
or beasts?

My goodness, there's a reason I never tried to write poetry. :)

[JimNorCal]

JiB: "I have always thought baseball starts too early."

Maybe the early starts were OK during Global Warming but now that a mini Ice Age is launching they need to shorten the season.

[narciso]

I never had the gift of verse either, joan

https://mobile.twitter.com/YousefAlNaimi/status/984935611726467074?p=v

[Captain Hate]

McCabe should be prosecuted

He probably will but likely it will be for something in a future OIG report; this was just to get his enablers to stop whining about why he was fired.

[narciso]

As I put it last night, mi 5s story is the Russians planned the Salisbury hit five years ago, and they flubbed it still, do they want us to believe the Russians are incompetent.

[clarice feldman]

The case against Michael Cohen is clearly a desperation play by the deep state. McClatchy first took the bait re a thoroughly debunked claim that Cohen was in Prague--Here's way (from a correspondent): https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/294089/:

​Here's what's so interesting about this. This is an old story that's been completely debunked. The claim that Cohen traveled to Prague was part of the Steele "dossier" that was put out by Fusion GPS = The Hillary Campaign. It turns out that there is more than one Michael Cohen in the world--yes, imagine that! A different Michael Cohen went to Prague. And that's where things get interesting.

Have you ever tried to access the travel records of another person? Yeah, good luck with that, right?​ Well, then, how did Fusion GPS manage to do that? It turns out, via a FISA Court report, that the FBI employed "private contractors" who weren't cleared and gave them extensive access to government records. Yep. Fusion GPS was a "private contractor," meaning the FBI had given them access to just about everything in order to do oppo research for Hillary. Are you comfortable with that? Fusion GPS's big mistake in keeping this from coming out is that they didn't check to make sure they had the right Michael Cohen and went with the attempted smear.

So, what does Michael Cohen do? In very early January of this year he filed a defamation law suit against Fusion GPS! Uh oh! Imagine the stuff he's gonna be asking for in discovery! What happens next? Mueller's jackbooted FBI break down the doors to every place associated with Cohen, seize all his records, and start leaking accusations against him.

Does this sound like the whole Mueller operation is really just a coverup for Hillary and the Deep State? It does to me.

[joan]

Ah, Clarice, your comment is pure poetry:

"Trump gave the dope enough rope and he strangled himself with it."

Even if I'd thought of it, I'd have probably wanted to say 'and he hanged himself with it, no, which is it? hanged or hung?', and I'd have taken up time looking up tenses and words to rhyme and then given up -- or, happened upon something interesting that wasn't on the subject I was looking for, and gone off on another tangent. :)

[Buckeye]

Heads Up

Just read an email sent yesterday from Typepad.

More maintenance on the way Monday night ~ 8 pm Central.....

"The problem is not in your set":)

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

Thanks, Buckeye.

Now I will have to find something to do Monday evening. Rats!

[narciso]

So its much like the move against Dr swaan was about countering two of the parties challenging fusion in London, similar to concord challenging muellers charges, as much prigotin appreciated the promotion, you know how hard it is to get noticed in a city of 350 oligarchs

[JM Hanes]

narciso:

I was struck by Bruce Hayden's comment on your Althouse thread:

I think that the DoJ pretty much has to prosecute [McCabe] for lying to the FBI and lying under oath, if they ever want to prosecute anyone else for process crimes, and they need to be able to do that, in order to keep people honest with the FBI. Last thing that they want defense attorneys to have is proof that FBI agents, from the top down, lie with impunity.

I'm not at all sure McCabe will be prosecuted, because it seems to me that Trump doesn't always go the final annihilation mile with his political enemies. Prosecutors, however, really could have an uphill climb absent the default assumption that it's the FBI guys who tell the truth and defendants who lie. I should think they wouldn't want to elicit a challenge to FBI credibility. Of course, we've already had the scandal over the FBI labs fudging result, but this is the fish rotting from the head.

[joan]

Clarice, your 1:56 -- this is what is so frustrating (enraging) about our lying media. They print the rubbish and garbage. We grit our teeth. Finally a few truths emerge, but LIVs and the gullible left have absorbed the information and believe it as gospel.

"A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on ..."

or, Jonathan Swift:
"Besides, as the vilest Writer has his Readers, so the greatest Liar has his Believers; and it often happens, that if a Lie be believ’d only for an Hour, it has done its Work, and there is no farther occasion for it. Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it; so that when Men come to be undeceiv’d, it is too late; the Jest is over, and the Tale has had its Effect…"

our media has as much or more to answer for than the criminals in our Justice Department or the past administration.

[joan]

Though, I will say, I think an honest person 'knows' the truth when they see it. This is our hope and what we can rely upon.

[Jane]

Clarice,

The left was going nuts about Don Surber last night, calling him a racist every other word.

[Janet 🚬 - I wish my family had a poncho]

Clarice,
Where is your 1:56 from? I don't see it at the Instapundit link.

[anonamom]

Ig, your observation/question yesterday morning, tenish:

It's a type of personality disorder--intermittent explosive disorder.
As you note--far from the first time it's manifested itself.

Not much to do about it. As I surmise you already know from your sibling. Consideration of others is not a strength of people with personality disorders. ;-)

[JM Hanes]

clarice:

"In very early January of this year he filed a defamation law suit against Fusion GPS! Uh oh! Imagine the stuff he's gonna be asking for in discovery! What happens next? Mueller's jackbooted FBI break down the doors to every place associated with Cohen, seize all his records, and start leaking accusations against him."

Whoa. Those are pretty startling dots. The backstory on that referral to Rosenstein (which I tend to think he was pretty much obliged to pass on) must be really something.

[joan]

Here's one of obama's poems. :) The other one, entitled Pop, is dotted with watermelon seeds, and I think someone plagarized it. :)

UNDERGROUND

Under water grottos, caverns
Filled with apes
That eat figs.
Stepping on the figs
That the apes
Eat, they crunch.
The apes howl, bare
Their fangs, dance,
Tumble in the
Rushing water,
Musty, wet pelts
Glistening in the blue.

[Man Tran]

Geek Squad alert: Mrs MT always starts her morning with an email from AT that lists the fresh posts of the day. Since I foolishly updated her iPhone to 11.3 Safari completely mangles the link and leaves a corrupted site access that makes it unusable. I finally loaded Chrome for her and although the mail won’t link to that browser (probably a switch somewhere) she can cruise normally once there. WTF?

Eyes brown. Dad was full on Scandahuvian with blue eyes and almost clear hair that turned brown in his 20s. Mom was a brown eyed half Swede whose dad was old English from post Mayflower arrival ancestry.

I showed up here the summer of ‘08 during the bi-racial bi-sexual moron’s ascendancy. Left me ready to bring the tribe to the 9/12 march 15 months later.

[Buckeye]

Note to self. Skip 11.3 update.

[glasater]

Joan, your observations regarding eye color are the most significant things I remember from high school biology.
Thanks for the refresher :-)

[JimNorCal]

Clarice 1:56
Stunning! One hopes this is a snip from an upcoming column?

[JM Hanes]

Man Tran:

I'd have sworn you've been here longer than that!

[clarice feldman]

Janet--As I said I don't know what that link is or how it got into my post. Pls ignroe it.

[clarice feldman]

Janet--the backstory is from a correspondent with lots of experience in the agency.

[clarice feldman]

Him, I edited my submission to include that--it came in after I sent in my first draft making fun of the press biting on that tale.

[Man Tran]

JMH,

That luncheon with all you JOM ladies that Clarice arranged was the ‘real beginning’. :)

[narciso]

this is the main character in this last Bernie Gunther:

http://militaria-collectors.blogspot.com/2009/09/max-merten-treasure.html

[JM Hanes]

Miss Marple:

On this from Heshmat Alavi on the previous thread:

Iran's regime is reportedly scattering its missile launchers out of its bases & placing them near residential areas, activists say.

Kind of reminds me of stories about pickpocket signage warning people to "Beware of Pickpockets" because people automatically check to make sure they've still got their wallets….

[Janet 🚬 - I wish my family had a poncho]

Thanks. It is a good summary & I just wanted to attribute it correctly on FB.

[Tom Bowler]

Someone brought up Agile in the last thread.
Funny you should mention. I was a certified Agile Scrum Master right before I retired. I have to say I was mightily impressed by the technique. The Beginner's Guide that TM linked gives the basic overview of it, but there some things that deserve mention.

In Agile each development team has all of the talents necessary to move a software update from design, through development and testing, and into production. Membership includes product owner, subject matter experts, business analysts, web designers, developers, QA testers, documentarians. That way a team is rarely if ever dependent upon an outside department.

The Backlog. Tasks are kept as small as possible so that they can be completed within the timeframe of the Sprint, which can be anywhere from a week to four weeks. I led two teams. One used three week sprints the other two weeks. The tasks are listed in the backlog in priority order. The product owner sets the priorities.

"Grooming sessions" are held, usually weekly, to estimate the size of the tasks in the backlog and to assist the product owner in getting them into priority order.

The sessions can be lengthy. The team discusses what each task is, what it does, what its dependencies are, and what developing it entails.

It then votes on the "size" of the task. We had Scrump Poker Decks. The cards were numbered 0, 1, 3, 8, 13, 20, 100, and infinity to represent various sizes, the meanings of which could vary from team to team.

I was the dealer so I didn't vote. After a task was thoroughly discussed, we'd play our cards. Official Scrum rules say everybody throws down at once. We didn't. We went around the table. Usually there are team members who vote higher or lower than everybody else expects. They get the chance to explain why, sometimes convincingly sometimes not. In the end the team votes on the size of the task. The team makeup helps in providing accurate estimates because all disciplines are represented.

At the end of the sprint there is a meeting to demonstrate each completed modification for the product owner and other stake holders. The product owner accepts or rejects the finished product. Rejections are rare.

After a successful sprint, the team meets to build a new sprint, selecting and agreeing on the tasks that will come off the backlog and into the new sprint. After a few sprints teams get a pretty good idea of how big a sprint ought to be in estimated size points. That number represents what the team can complete within the timeframe of a sprint. The team keeps pulling tasks off the backlog tallying the size points until they've gotten to the size of the sprint they've decided they can handle.

Since the team agrees on what it plans to accomplish, there is strong incentive to complete all the tasks in the sprint on time.

I would sometimes be asked by customer service, when a proposed modification would be available for the clients. I could tell by where that task was on the backlog when it was likely to get into a sprint and by that, on what date it would go into production. I liked Agile a lot.

I've often speculated how Agile might be applied in areas other than software development. Not all projects lend themselves to it. Hard to estimate how long it takes to catch fish. But I can certainly imagine Trump being resourceful enough to apply some of its principles to the "projects" he has going. The rate that he has been able to get things accomplished suggests that he's done exactly that, but some of the things he's up against are like catching the fish.

[JM Hanes]

Indeed, it was, Man Tran!

[clarice feldman]

WE HAVE TO DO THAT AGAIN--MT AND JMH, JANE, JANET, FRAU..

[Momto2]

Nice comment by Herman Cain. Don't test this President!

https://twitter.com/President1Trump/status/985129595077906432

[JM Hanes]

Yes, we do Clarice. ABSOLUTELY. I'm only a short non-stop flight away. And this time, maybe I'll actually manage to give everybody my correct telephone number!

[JM Hanes]

BTW, clarice, do you ever hear anything from Soylent Red? I've found myself thinking of him lately.

[clarice feldman]

I'LL DO IT AT MY PLACE THIS TIME. IF THE WEATHER PERMITS WE CAN EVEN DO IT POOLSIDE.