I doubt he changed his mind. I figured it was always in the cards, though he was probably holding out for an acquittal in the early days.
But what could he say when asked? ‘Maybe later?’ ‘I don’t know the details, I haven’t seen an application come across my desk’.
Any answer but ‘no’ would have been a problem for him and wouldn’t have done Hunter any favors either.
@Mary-Anna said in Grand Obsession:
I believe the video of Muffin and me was made at Plays88Keys' piano party. Jon was there and he's in the video. Do you recall, Jon?
She had a Steinway at the time, so you're probably right that it was a New York Steinway.
I think that was Plays and Improv’s house in Richmond. You, me, Bernard, and PD were all there. And some local friends of theirs.
I remember seeing Piano Son and Muffin interacting as awkward teens.
What a great memory.
Ask yourself this question- where are Vivek’s incentives? To work across the aisle and find strategic compromises? Or to draw up plans to cut 75% of the federal workforce in a DOA report in order to position himself as the big bad budget cutter going into 2028?
A serious and durable fix to the budget would require bipartisan consensus and severe pain to a lot of people. If one party tried to do it alone the other party would run on relieving the pain and would undo everything.
I think it would take a serious exogenous event to get the two parties to be serious about it. A few failed treasury auctions followed by a massive sell off of federal debt. That kind of thing.
I saw an article today saying that we need to cut $8T over 10 years just to avoid having the debt grow more as a percentage of GDP. And that’s the rosy scenario where there are no recessions, pandemics, etc.
https://x.com/thedemocrats/status/1859370640018403750?s=46
Silver lining, no?
I’ll be on DC the weekend before the election but I get back Monday the 4th so I’ll vote in person on the 5th. I rather like the ritual of voting on voting day.
Glad you’re ok, Daniel.
Just the latest of thousands of lives destroyed by the fragile ego of one man.
Damn. I really wanted them to shut down the government right before the election.
Another thing about international law is it doesn’t reward groups that break it. Just because a military force such as Hamas or Hezbollah uses human shields doesn’t mean it can’t be attacked. Just that care must be taken to balance risk of civilian casualties against legitimate war aims. This seems to pass that test handily.
@Daniel That guy called this a booby-trap but it doesn’t fit the definition provided in the law.
It’s hard to even conceive of a more targeted attack with less collateral damage directed at a terrorist group that embeds itself among civilians. I mean that literally, I actually can’t imagine one.
Can you?
I thought it interesting that NPR went to activists rather than the law itself to define ‘booby trap’. So I asked ChatGPT4.0 if booby trap is defined in international law. (Bold in the original)
Yes, "booby trap" is defined in international law, specifically in relation to armed conflict. The definition is found in Protocol II of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), formally known as the Protocol on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Mines, Booby-Traps and Other Devices. This protocol was adopted in 1980 and aims to limit the use of these kinds of devices to protect civilians and combatants from unnecessary harm.
According to the protocol, a booby trap is defined as:
- Any device or material designed to kill, injure, or incapacitate and which is triggered unexpectedly by someone’s presence, proximity, or contact with it.
Examples include objects that appear harmless, like everyday items (e.g., toys, tools, or household objects), but are rigged to detonate or cause harm when handled or approached. The use of booby traps is subject to certain restrictions under international humanitarian law, particularly with regard to protecting civilians and non-combatants.
As these were triggered remotely it doesn’t seem to fit.
In the event, it was pretty well targeted. Most of the people killed or maimed were legit targets. Really well played.
Friend: "How are things?"
Me: "I'm busier than a Lebanese hand surgeon."
Seems like the ideal time to use this chit would be a day or two before a major attack, no? Any bets?
Griftcoin.
How many times can you fleece the same few million sheep?
@Piano-Dad said in Happy birthday, jon-nyc!!:
Happy belated, Jon.
My wife's birthday is today. THE 9/11 was her 40th. What a downer. Birthdays are random, but geez.
My college girlfriend had that birthday (she was a day younger than me). I remember about a week after 9/11 thinking ‘this kinda sucks for her).
Thanks all!
I find that once you start volunteering the opportunities to volunteer more just pour in. I’m the board chair of our Foundation with lots of volunteer roles under that, I’m on the Public Advisory Roundtable of the American Thoracic Society, I’m co-director of a public-private partnership between Industry and the FDA advancing drug development tools in my rare disease, and I sit on the data safety monitoring boards of two different NIH studies.
All this five years after first getting involved.
But I wouldn’t call myself a ‘supercitizen’. Those seem like more local community star volunteers.
When we moved to my suburb a decade ago I had thoughts of getting involved locally. That doesn’t seem likely anymore. In my particular case my experience is better focused on beating this disease.
Jesus.
@AdagioM said in what your Facebook ads say about you.:
I’m getting lots of ads for dresses…and bras!
Yeah me too.
