How are you going to get the ear buds to stay attached!

If you are keeping your ears out of the water, by doing the breaststroke maybe, then you can just tape an iPod to the top of your head

Mueller Mueller Mueller! Among other things, one of the panelists says that in a typical white-collar case the evidence assembled would be more than enough to bring an indictment for criminal conspiracy.

I have gossip that the NYS Solicitor General, who argued the citizenship case in the USSC, still has hope -- her take is that of the weighty cases the Court is dealing with, citizenship is one of Roberts' cheapest options for pretending to be independent, and it fits with his general predispositions. That is, if we ignore the constitutional issues, what this case is about is a giant, glaring violation of the Adminstrative Procedure Act (which roughly requires agency decisions to be made rationally on the basis of the record considered by the agency). A decision saying the citizenship question can stay on the census would g in the direction of allowing agencies to do any damnfool thing they wanted to without judicial oversight, and that's the reverse of what Roberts wants generally, he wants more rather than less judicial oversight.

This doesn't make it a slamdunk, but there's hope.

Hope springs internal.

(I will also note that the SG herself is pretty much the only person with hope in this regard, at least the only person I've heard from. The contents of comment 4 were related to me by someone more intimately engaged in the case than she was, who is much less optimistic.)

I have a non-political WTFery. Why do people keep falling into the Grand Canyon? Or were people always falling into the Grand Canyon in these numbers but it never made the paper?

Because it's not there?

7: "Gravity is part of the package"

I'd been hoping that the Democrats were slow walking the investigations because they had some plan I couldn't fathom but their disorganized response to the Mueller Report killed that idea. The Democratic leadership keeps mistaking timidity for strategy.

Well-put.

one of Roberts' cheapest options for pretending to be independent

I thought he'd give Republicans the citizenship question, and the pretense of independence would be maintained via ordering the release of Trump's tax returns.

12: Ha! He'll maintain the pretense of independence by giving a passionate speech condemning partisanship in the judiciary.

The argument that he really doesn't want to give agencies more freedom, and ruling for the Commerce Dep't would do that, struck me as the stronger bit of it, and hadn't occurred to me beforehand. The SG is a woman who knows a lot of stuff.

If he does it, I won't look the gift horse in the mouth.

14: Yes, but it's a pre-Bush v. Gore type argument. The new jurisprudence doesn't require consistency.

I guess if horse teeth are what gets you off, you need to but a horse.

16: That argument was made, and it's a solid one.

While we're talking the citizenship case, this little video explaining it is terrific: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7dNTkC4QaM

Dale Ho there argued the case for the ACLU in the Supreme Court, and ran the ACLU trial team. Made the Census Bureau's Chief Scientist tear up on the witness stand.

|| What's right with Kansas!

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/04/kansas-supreme-court-abortion-rights-case-roe-wade.html

||

Instead of swimming lengthwise like everyone else, swim back and forth under them at right angles to the lanes. That livens it up a little bit.

When I was a kid on swim team doing endless laps, I'd pass the time by pretending to be an airplane flying above the earth. Suddenly that weird hairball on the bottom of the pool becomes a little forest, etc. You could try that.

7: Moby, the market has anticipated your need.

The Pentagon is preparing to loosen rules that bar troops from interacting with migrants entering the United States, expanding the military's involvement in President Trump's operation along the southern border.

Great.

So none of you listen to podcasts while you swim?

None of us swim.

Has it always been this way?

23: Thanks. Probably out of date though.

7:

If you want to know why so many people die in Grand Canyon, read Over the Edge, Death in Grand Canyon. It's a fascinating story of bad judgment and bad luck.

I don't understand how headphones and swimming can work together.

29: pwned.

I do swim occasionally, but I don't listen to anything other than my rambling thoughts (and counting laps and mildly paying attention to time-per-lap). I have seen one person at the gym with a contraption that strapped to her head and presumably played music/podcasts. So I believe something like what heebie describes exists in the world.

Still no special granola bar for use in the pool.

I hesitated to comment, b/c figured somebody else would have direct experience.

Sooo ... I've seen a number of folks at my Y, swimming with an iPod Shuffle strapped to their heads (typical location is at the back of the head, over the swim cap). I asked one of them once (I swim a ton, but don't feel the need for music, b/c trying to breathe enough and maintain proper form so I don't fuck up my shoulders is already enough mental distraction) and they told me that this is a waterproof Shuffle, is available online, e.g. from Amazon (and, I'm guessing, online sports retailers). It's *damn* pricey though.

Podcast recommendations:

Bughouse Square - mashup of old Studs Terkel radio interviews with the fabulous Eve Ewing interviewing writers today. HUGE RECOMMEND.

The Stakes from WYNC (just one episode so far, but very promising)
Call Your Girlfriend (feminist, co-hosted by a Black immigrant woman and a white US-born woman)
Going Through It (only some of the episodes; it's extremely uneven. I recommend Samin Nosrat, Jessamyn Stanley, Audri Scott Williams episodes)
Uncivil (currently on hiatus, but extremely worth listening to the back catalog - tightly edited stories of the Civil War)
Code Switch (my favorite!)
Latino USA
The Guilty Feminist (sometimes a bit flabby in its editing but very endearing and funny and works very hard to be WOC, trans- and LGBT-inclusive)

I have no idea how to listen to them while swimming. I listen on the train and while walking.

I have no idea how to listen to them while swimming.

The concept still boggles. Whenever my head is underwater, I hear the noise of the water so much in that I don't know how you'd hear anything else.

But do you have earbuds in your ears?

Water carries sound so well it goes right into your skull.

You might want to see someone about that.

Whales don't even need ears.

Ears evolved when animals crawled onto land because the lower density of air meant they were required external apparatus to hear well. It happened at the same time they lost the swim bladder and the ability to control buoyancy by farting.

41: I learn so much here!

Science is great.

It happened at the same time they lost the swim bladder and the ability to control buoyancy by farting.

There was a section on this in scuba class.

I just learned you're supposed to eat the rind on brie. Maybe I'll try the outside of Babybel too?

Finis makes bone conduction swim headphones. Reviews look mixed. Report back!

Not the kind of podcast you wonks go for, but Off Book is incredibly delightful (and they happen to have great politics).

Swimbuds 100% Waterproof... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006IF7S92
NEW! Royal Blue Underwater Audio... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01316VROW

46: "Reviews look mixed."

Lordy, I read a bunch of the one-star reviews (32% !!) and wow, either somebody's got it in fpr them. or they have -serious- quality control problems, or their product suuucks.

Embrace the power of 'and'.

I'm not going to click the links. Last time I clicked an Amazon link from here, I got followed around the internet for weeks by a figuring of Wehrmacht soldiers camping.

Concentration camping or just regular camping?

Like they were just plain volks out in the woods.

I'll take that to mean concentrated.

I don't like to watch mommy and daddy fight.

There's a model called bushmaster? Are they intentionally playing up the "I need a gun to substitute for another inadequacy" angle?

You mean how all the movie stars are now Australian?

I guess North has already lost the fight mentioned in 55.

In retrospect, "I'm going to expose fraud to force a Republican leader to resign" is a fucking stupid plan.

The Wirecutter recommends the Swimbuds in 48 as a bundle with a waterproof clip-on-to-your-goggles MP3 player for $60.

For safety reasons, please don't use these, or any earbuds that create a tight seal, below 3.05 meters.

45: Depends how ripe it is & also personal preference i nearly never do but also rarely eat brie, camemberts etc here bc nearly always too ripe by time i can get it sadly. Love love love & raw milk camembert with a bit of chalky core left mmm mmm.

46: Have been tempted by bone conducting things but reviews so mixed...

Just left emergency room w broken wrist & only solace was systematically liking every single "scab" reply to comey whilst waiting to be splinted. Biz trip this week is going to suck big green donkey dicks.

We don't get the actual stuff from France. It's mostly Canadian.

62.last ouch! Take care of yourself, dq.

Right. That too.

The secret to protecting your wrist is to remember that "punching cars" is just what I say when I'm really slapping cars. You shouldn't actually punch a car unless you've hardened your hands through years spent in a remote monastery in China.

Strangely this injured wasn't the result of slapping a car, which one do when bike commuting the fuckers. Alas i was attempting the complex task of walking on the sidewalk in front of the flat, thinking pleasant thoughts.

AcK! Poor you!

Better half ordered blue camo wproof cast for me so will be able to swim thus preserving sanity, perhaps will garner sympathies of justices at upcoming oral arguments? Get to wear suit jacket on one shoulder like matador-toreador! Alas dont think there's a cool hat with pompoms on the sides in the offing, or bejewelled skin tight breeches. 😪 Presumably at some point it starts being less excruciatingly painful. Am watching Columbia noirs on criterion in between reading marcel, the guys are making strawberry shortcakes for afters tonight. Could be worse!!!

Presumably at some point it starts being less excruciatingly painful
Way back when I broke my wrist it did become much less painful after a week or so when the swelling reduced a lot (also I was able to use my fingers more and could actually fasten my bra if I brought the back around to the front). I hope this will be true for you.

It's good that you're wishing she finds support.

What was making me irate on Friday (and still is) was Rod Rosentein's going full dignity wraith in speech Thursday night.* In particular his "The rule of law is our most important principle," said Rosenstein. "As President Trump pointed out, 'we govern ourselves in accordance with the rule of law rather [than] . . . the whims of an elite few or the dictates of collective will'."

Every future mention (including his headstone) of this weaselly fuckhead needs to mention that while serving in the DOJ he approvingly quoted DOnald Trump on the importance of the rule of law.

This was meant to lead to a whole diatribe** on GOP "daddies" and the increasing corruption of the DOJ, and how Trumpism seems to have set them free, but too tired to do it now. Will be plenty of newsworthy opportunities to delve into in the coming weeks with regard to Barr and the apparently semi-imminent IG report on the "traitors" who investigated Trump.

*Even before the unflattering WaPo "land the plane" etc. article came out. (Although surely he knew its outlines and led to his speech being extra super whiny.) Lithwick on the speech.

**Short version, I am neither sanguine nor gruntled.

I'm sorry about the wrist DQ--hope you feel better soon. dressing like a matador ought to be much more common, because men look great in it, and their having to put on scarlet tights before work every morning would contribute to gender equality.

Plus, all the beading on the jackets would be job creation.

I've been starting to get angry about how chickenshit the Democratic leadership has been with respect to impeachment. Its like they just refuse to run an effective offense against Trump.

I feel 73 is unnecessarily belittling to those of us who habitually go to work dressed as luchadores.

I get like 76 is unnecessarily belittling.

Luchadores don't habitually go to work dressed as luchadores. They get changed once they get there.

Source: personal communication (n.d.)

But only so we don't get confused with London office workers.

75: Impeachment would almost certainly get Trump re-elected, but other than that it's a great plan.

81: And the roots of your certainty are exactly what?

81: Really? Do you think there's a significant number of voters that would be outraged by impeachment, that wouldn't be voting for Trump anyway?

I fear disaster on every course.

Impeachment would almost certainly get Trump re-elected

I don't believe this for a second. Donald Trump is personally unpopular and highly likely to remain so - especially as he lashes out under the pressure of investigation.

Better to force every Republican to spend their powder defending that piece of shit than the current strategy, which appears to be affirming the precedent that Republican presidents can do whatever the fuck they want and Democrats in Congress won't lift a finger against them.

It might be that a trial itself would help him, in the end. I don't see, though, that a parade of witnesses testifying about emoluments, obstruction attempts, and all the rest would help him. And you never know when you going to get some kind of Butterfield or Dean moment. The Benghazi hearings worked because they revealed the emails, which was enough to tip people vitally interested in presidential record keeping into pretending the Sec Clinton had done something wrong. The President is a lying piece of shit. Show not tell is a decent strategy.

And the notion that there is some alternative is just total bullshit. Leave him to not only tell but show exoneration?

That said, it's a process, and the Dem leadership has to appear reluctant. I don't at all share Spike's impatience.

Fortunately, there's no such thing as "The Democrats" so individual candidates can pursue their best pitches, while House chairs grind along finding this that and the other bad act/fact. It would be better if we didn't have shit-for-media . . .

Trump clearly agrees with Walt on this, and is genuinely trying to make impeachment unavoidable.

I guess this is a better re-election strategy, for untold millions, than cooking up a war with Iran would be.

That said, it's a process, and the Dem leadership has to appear reluctant. I don't at all share Spike's impatience.

You really think Steny Hoyer secretly wants an impeachment but feels obligated to feign reluctance?

I don't see it. My own interpretation is that he would prefer not to engage in a process that would reinforce the leftward drift of his own party, and for that he is willing to give Trump a pass.

As for Nancy, she's running the 2006 playbook all over again.... impeachment is not on the table, focus on the next election. Which I guess was an effective strategy for 2008, but left us in a situation where no member of the Bush administration ever faced justice for their crimes. And the failure to air out Bush-era crimes has had a massive ratcheting effect as far as what crimes are now permitted in the current administration.

Re: 73 & 74, see this lovely article - https://www.thecut.com/2019/04/millennial-women-chanel-paris-ateliers.html

V calming. The kid has a close friend who's off to Paris in the fall to study in this field, v excited for her.

Many thanks for reassurances emir, it is like 10% less unrelentingly vicious this morning! Yay!

Impeachment would almost certainly get Trump re-elected, but other than that it's a great plan.

I strongly disagree with this, both practically and ethically. To begin impeachment hearings on Trump is the only ethical course. No fucking question. This is the mechanism to deal with someone grotesquely amoral who shows flagrant disregard for the most important laws.

And then practically, I think voters would like to see a party acting in accordance with values, instead of always hazily staring at tea leaves and bullshitting pompously.

the current strategy, which appears to be affirming the precedent that Republican presidents can do whatever the fuck they want and Democrats in Congress won't lift a finger against them.

This is exactly right. "Let the voters impeach in 2020" is insane.

The truth is that there is no way to know if impeachment would be a positive or negative for Democrats in the 2020 election. So maybe err on the side of doing the right thing?

81: I'm actually not really certain, but I find certainty the other way infuriating. Impeachment made Clinton more popular. Scott Walker won a recall election because people decided that removing him out of turn was somehow "unfair". We live in an environment where the chance that the Republicans will convict is 0.0001%, and where the media will Both Sides the shit out of the issue. Just last week, they Both Sided Trump refusing a fucking subpoena.

I realized what's really giving me whiplash is that Pelosi and Schumer were so admirably steel-spined just a few months ago during the shutdown, and it worked, but they're acting like it didn't.

I think even if it gets to the point of a Senate trial (assuming McConnell doesn't just bottle up articles), getting all the crimes out in public and forcing Republican senators to vote to uphold them will be a great facet to aid the 2020 campaign against them.

Impeachment made Clinton more popular.

Counterpoint: Richard Nixon resigned from office in disgrace.

62, I'm sorry to hear it! I just broke mine in January, and heartily recommend the plate-and-pins surgery if available to you (much, much faster recovery time). Also, go shopping and buy a few cheap shirts you can fit over the cast/brace/bandage. Dressing myself was nearly impossible for the first two weeks, as was bathing without help and tying shoelaces/zipping boots. I also recommend a shawl or two if you don't already have one, since it's easier to adjust without assistance than a sweater or jacket. Mine hurt very little, luckily, and function returned very quickly. It's still not quite entirely normal, but the really unfortunate parts only lasted about a month. Good luck and rapid healing!

Do you set of metal detectors?

Off. Stupid phone.

99 Ankle is different from wrist, obviously, but my titanium does not set off airports but does set off courthouses.

You could call your ankle, Clarence Darrow.

Richard Nixon resigned from office in disgrace.

Although, now that I think about it, this isn't really comparable. Richard Nixon had a long history of shady dealings, including with some of the country's enemies, and was implicated in a cover-up to hide his involvement in operations related to the theft of private information from his opponent's camp during an election.

The difference is that Nixon wasn't so deplorable that a dog wouldn't stand next to him.

I don't really see how refraining from impeachment pays off, regardless of the miscarriage of justice.

Impeachment made Clinton more popular.

But I wouldn't exactly call it a catastrophe for the GOP, looking back 20 years. I don't know, do any of them look back at it regretfully? I am not super up-to-date on the deep thoughts of career Republicans.

I'm starting an impeachment thread! I felt like talking forcefully.

94:
I'm actually not really certain, but I find certainty the other way infuriating.

Nobody is certain that moving toward impeachment is the right move politically, but given the evidence we have, it seems necessary, politically and ethically, for reasons that have been explained.

Impeachment made Clinton more popular.

That proves the opposite of what you're going for, because it's evidence that the public and the media have a minimal ability to make intelligent distinctions about misconduct. (Of course, the '90s were a long time ago and that may not be true any more.) I don't think it's overstatement to say that siding with Clinton was tantamount to siding with the United States. Being pro-Trump, on the other hand, is anti-American.

Generally speaking, Americans are pro-American, and more often than not, Americans pick the American president. (Those things also may not be true any more.)

Scott Walker won a recall election because people decided that removing him out of turn was somehow "unfair".

What would the impact have been on SW's tenure had a recall not been attempted? (Can we attribute his reelection to the recall attempt? I don't think I've seen that argument made, but I admit it's possible.)

We live in an environment where the chance that the Republicans will convict is 0.0001%, and where the media will Both Sides the shit out of the issue. Just last week, they Both Sided Trump refusing a fucking subpoena.

This proves too much. Yes, you make a persuasive case that we are fucked if Pelosi tries to impeach Trump, but this argument is equally valid if you're arguing that we're fucked no matter what we do. See Moby's 84.

Once we concede that a Republican like Trump can't be held accountable in any way except through an election, we're pretty much giving up on viable democracy. Even if that's reasonable and appropriate, I'm not ready for that.

99: I'm not supposed to, but we'll see in early June! (It is a very small and thin plate.)

Good luck.

We're all counting on you.

107. The only "impeachment" that worked was the one that never happened: Nixon's resignation. He did that because he knew there was a very high likelihood he'd be impeached and convicted. Barring (

As for "giving up on viable democracy," we've had two unsuccessful actual impeachments, the failure of the first widely celebrated as a vindication of democracy (see "Profiles in Courage"), and the failure of the second also. Why would another failure destroy our democracy? Maybe impeachment is too blunt an instrument. What is wrong with elections as a means of holding Presidents accountable? It's been observed to work, and impeachment hasn't.

111: (Haven't read the thread.) The US today isn't the same country as it was in the 1990s or 1970s or 1870s. Each crisis is it's own thing.

The crisis of the misused apostrophe, however, is eternal.