Caturday

As my grandmother would have said: "Chip has sat his ass in butter."

Manafort News

Paul Manafort’s request to suppress evidence taken by the FBI from a storage locker in Virginia was rejected by a federal judge in Washington.

Reading between the lines, Manafort tried to be a little too cute for words. It would seem that he had one of his employees personally rent a storage locker in which to store some of Manafort's records. I'm guessing that he assumed that the FBI wouldn't find out that his employee(s) rented storage lockers for Manafort.

But either somebody tipped off the FBI or the Feds figured that out. So they went to the employee(s) and asked to look around inside. Since the employees had personally rented the storage locker(s), they could consent. Which they did, because those guys aren't going to catch a bullet for Manafort.

So it would seem that Joe Schmo let the Feds in. They ask "whose stuff is this?" Joe says "it's my boss's shit."

And off go the agents to get a search warrant.

Dollars to donuts that Rudy the Rat has gotten word to Manafort to sit tight, that he'll be out by Nov 7th.

Heh. Heh. Heh.

http://www.trumphotels.org

Where the walls are made of the finest chain-link fencing.

And you may not be fed for a few days.

Go Get a Warrant, Barn'.

The Supreme Court [today] said the government generally needs a warrant if it wants to track an individual's location through cell phone records over an extended period of time.

The ruling is a major victory for advocates of increased privacy rights who argued more protections were needed when it comes to the government obtaining information from a third party such as a cell phone company.

More later, of course, as this just broke.

To the pro-police state folks, a Full Lewandowski:

Because It's Friday

Moving a steam locomotive:

The locomotive is apparently going to be overhauled and returned to steam in a few years.

Reading Gun Reviews is Like Kremlinology

You have to read carefully in order to find the stuff that matters.

Case in point: Let's take a look at the July, 2018 issue of Shooting Illustrated.

This is the cover:

This is the two-page center:

These are the money paragraphs:

That, to my mind, damns the gun, regardless of all of the paragraphs about how cool it looks or all of the different choices of colors for the gun. This thing is a self-defense gun and the very last thing it should be is "very difficult to shoot well". It's a gun that, for the most part, will be bought by people who are neither gun professionals, hobbyists, nor competitive shooters. Because, to be frank, nobody who is well versed in firearms will likely care that the gun comes in a range of pretty colors. It's a gun that's supposedly made for concealed carry, for the love of Dog.

The Spectrum is being marketed to people who are not gunnies. The gun's being marketed to people who may, at the very best, put a box of ammo through it every three years. For those folks, a gun with a horrible trigger and piss-poor sights will be more of a woobie than a serious tool. For unless they are shooting at contact range, with such a lousy gun, they're just as likely to miss.

All other things being equal, a sweet trigger is the berries when it comes to accurate shooting. I'd rather have sub-optimal sights and a sweet trigger than the other way around. A horrible trigger leads to spraying-and-praying.

In short, this is Taurus's latest derp gun.

Some shit doesn't ever seem to change.

Trump = Feck < 0

2A guys, if Trump keeps on his course, he could lose one or both houses of Congress. If he ends up being turfed out f office, whether early or in two years, there's going to be payback. Care to guess who is firs in line?

Another Time Magazine Cover That You Won't See on the Walls of Trump's Golf Clubs

The earlier one and why this is a thing.

Oh, and as for Melania, she's as much of a monster as he is.

Trump Lies About Everything

"Had a great meeting with the House GOP last night at the Capitol. They applauded and laughed loudly when I mentioned my experience with Mark Sanford. I have never been a fan of his!" Trump tweeted.
...
The comments were met with boos and and grumbles, according to sources in the room.

“I was very upset. It was very unnecessary and as far as I’m concerned, it was very rude,” Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) said. “To make light of Mark Sanford is very unacceptable."

House Republicans had front row seats to @POTUS’s dazzling display of pettiness and insecurity. Nobody applauded or laughed. People were disgusted. https://t.co/FvmDCxElgv

— Justin Amash (@justinamash) June 20, 2018

He's just a petty and vindictive wannabee tyrant. Possibly even his caucus is figuring it out.

Around the World

(More Deb's thing, but oh, well.)

The Long Route, 2018.

One sailor, one boat, no stops along the way. No prizes, either.

How hard is it? Other than not having to bring your own water and air, it's the sailing equivalent of flying around the Moon.

(H/T)

Space Force

The Commander in Chief:

He'd be happy to go into space, himself, but he can't get into a pressure suit with his bone spurs.

Trump Boils the Frog and the Good Little Americans Say Nothing

We are a nation that puts children into concentration camps.

There are plenty of Good Little Americans who are just fine with that. To the extent that this nation once held the moral high ground, Trump has surrendered that without a shot being fired.

The Administration of George W. Bush did some awful things, but they were reacting, in part to a large-scale terrorist attack.

Trump only has his fascist tendencies, and those of his inner circle, to blame.

First the children of undocumented immigrants go into the camps.

Who's next?

‘90s Flashback

Remember when the Right lost their collective minds about one kid being taken from his family? Now, thousands are, and all we hear are crickets.

Starting Off the Work Week

Kidnappin' Trump would probably call it "The Failing Washington Post March".

Fun fact: In the midst of the Watergate Scandal, Nixon made a visit to the Middle East. When he got off Air Force One in Israel, the band played this march.

President Psychopath

This is immoral as fuck:

President Donald Trump suggested Saturday that he is using his administration's separation of families at the US border as a negotiating tool to get Democrats to cave on his immigration demands, which include funding for a border wall, curbing legal immigration into the US, and tightening the rules for border enforcement.

He proclaims that he "hates" to do it, but he's going to continue to rip families apart until he gets his way.

That is reprensible at best. Trump is an inhuman monster. Those who are "only following orders" are proving that in this century, "good little Americans" will be a long-standing epithet.

This is from the Book of Face:

“Through all the adversities we faced last evening with computer outages, cancellations and delays, nothing prepared me or my crew for 16 passengers. Sixteen. All dressed in black and gray cheap Walmart sweat suits, quietly boarding the 12:30am flight.

Children! Thirty-two scared eyes looking straight forward dazed. We try to speak, yet none speak English.

During the beverage service, one of the crew comes to me in tears. They can’t face these children that have been ripped from their families with a smile.

These children were probably ranging in age from 11, to the most adorable little girl maybe 6 years old. At 2:30 in the morning, deplaned here in Miami not knowing if they will ever see their loved ones again that they were separated from in Phoenix.

Those sweet innocent children, dressed as criminals silently deplaned with the same fear as our initial meeting. Except for the little girl. She looked up at me as she turned left for the main cabin door, with tears of fear streaming down her face. I’m not sure the protocol, but I leaned over hoping to offer some hope, she hugged me, which was returned - much to the scowl and comments from the adult escort.

I pray that these 16 scared little souls, as well as all the other thousands, find their way to reuniting with their loved ones.

We are trained yearly in hundreds of possible scenarios as attendants. Something like this isn’t remotely one of those. I had only met one of my crew a few years earlier, the rest never. Thank God, we had one another to lean on to not only get through the flight, but also maybe some glimmer of hope for those babies.”

This cartoon got Rob Rodgers fired from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

This is on point:

As is this:

Republicans, this is your guy. You are the ones who are best placed to voice disapproval and to vote for people who are not going to slavishly fall in line behind Caudillo Trumpo.

Republicans: Are you going to continue to be good little Americans, or are you going to take a stand?

If you don't, then this is on you. You will not be able to truthfully claim that you did not know the horrors that were being done in your name.

Your Sunday Morning Jet Noise

A F-15: