CitizenVectron

Someone just needs to phrase it like "Mr President, do you have the balls to talk to Mueller?"

Not surprising. Well, except that during the actual campaign they said they wouldn't touch the UBI project. But not surprising that they lied, since they are heartless.

As stated, I want to set up a Pi 3 B+ for some SNES gaming as well as general media streaming for my living room (in addition to my Roku). I am going to get an SNES controller USB 2-pack as well as a wireless keyboard/mouse. 

Does anyone have experience with one of these for emulation (or general use)? I'd be appreciative of any feedback you have, or recommendations!

What made me choose it was that I got it for 1/2 price from a friend whose step-dad passed away! He actually gave me the choice between a 2.8 w/o IS or a 4 w/ IS. I chose the IS since it's quite a bit lighter and more compact. If I bought one of them today, I'd probably go with the 2.8L IS II. Well, except that it's super expensive. But my choice was between faster aperture without IS, or slower (and lighter) with IS. At the time (6 or  years ago) I didn't know that I would eventually rather have the extra low-light capability, but oh well! Honestly, I very rarely use the lens anyway, opting instead for my 135 f2L (my favourite lens). 

If I had the chance and money, I would buy a second 5D mk iii (or mk iv) and a 70-200 f2.8L IS II. Then I'd be really good for ceremonies, with one camera 24-70 and the other 70-200. But I would also have a destroyed back from having both on me, lol.

https://variety.com/2018/film/news/guardians-of-the-galaxy-cast-james-gunn-support-1202889736/

Disney is apparently considering reinstating him. The question is, should he even accept? On the one hand they treated him like crap. On the other, he would want a chance to complete his movie series (and also make all the money).

"Hey let's use Carnage!"

"No no, that would be too obvious. Let's just give someone else a copy of Venom's suit. Everyone LOVED that in Iron Man 1, Ant-Man, Incredible Hulk, and Black Panther!!!"

My instagram account is @riley.lewis.photo, I am a wedding photographer (among other things) as a side job. I don't have an image of my current gear, but my primary stuff is:

Canon 5D mk III

24-70 f2.8L  II

70-200 f4L IS

35 f1.4L

50 f1.4

85 f1.4

135 f2L

Along with a godox lighting system (2 off-camera flash + controller, usually).

I also have a backup 7D and a few lenses, but usually only use it as a second body during the ceremony part of weddings. 

Remember when Giuliani walked back his insistence that Trump did not pressure Comey to take it easy on Flynn in the past few days? It might be because Mueller now has a WH memo and testimony indicating that that is exactly what Trump did: https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/07/31/what-trump-knew-and-when-he-knew-it/

Quote

Previously undisclosed evidence in the possession of Special Counsel Robert Mueller—including highly confidential White House records and testimony by some of President Trump’s own top aides—provides some of the strongest evidence to date implicating the president of the United States in an obstruction of justice. Several people who have reviewed a portion of this evidence say that, based on what they know, they believe it is now all but inevitable that the special counsel will complete a confidential report presenting evidence that President Trump violated the law. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the special counsel’s work, would then decide on turning over that report to Congress for the House of Representatives to consider whether to instigate impeachment proceedings.

Quote

I have learned that a confidential White House memorandum, which is in the special counsel’s possession, explicitly states that when Trump pressured Comey he had just been told by two of his top aides—his then chief of staff Reince Priebus and his White House counsel Don McGahn—that Flynn was under criminal investigation. This memo, the existence of which I first disclosed in December in Foreign Policy, was, as one source described it to me, “a timeline of events [in the White House] leading up to Flynn’s resignation.” It was dated February 15, 2017, and was prepared by McGahn two days after Flynn’s forced resignation and one day after Trump’s meeting with Comey.

Quote

During my reporting, I was allowed to read the memo in its entirety, as well as other, underlying White House records quoted in the memo, such as notes and memos written by McGahn and other senior administration officials. My reporting for this story is also based on interviews with a dozen former and current White House officials, attorneys who have interacted with Mueller’s team of investigators, and witnesses questioned by Mueller’s investigators.

Quote

The memo’s own statement that Trump was indeed told that Flynn was under FBI investigation was, in turn, based in part on contemporaneous notes written by Reince Priebus after discussing the matter with the president, as well as McGahn’s recollections to his staff about what he personally had told Trump, according to other records I was able to review. Moreover, people familiar with the matter have told me that both Priebus and McGahn have confirmed in separate interviews with the special counsel that they had told Trump that Flynn was under investigation by the FBI before he met with Comey.

Trump's lawyers have previously denied that Trump knew that Flynn was under investigation at the time that he instructed Comey to go easy on him, and that Flynn had lied to the FBI.

Okay here are my first impressions as a first-time player:

1) Some of the worst controls in a PC game I've ever used. Seriously, who thought that using X and F and Q and E together in a menu was intuitive? And sometimes you can click left-click to progress in a menu, but other times you need to hit F. It's really poorly designed.

2) Third-person looks okay, but you can tell it's tacked on. No customization for camera position, etc. Character should be near bottom of screen, but is smack dab in the middle (vertically). 

3) I haven't played a grind-fest this bad since Star Fox Adventures. The "loop" as people call it is horrible. You can summon your ship anywhere on the planet for free as many times as you want, but if you want to take off and land you need to make metal plating? This is a really poorly-designed ship!

4) Inventory system is also really bad.

It's a nice looking game, but I feel done with it after 5 or 6 hours already.

It's like, what are they even using this extra money for?!

Looks like this is coordinated: http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/conservatives-start-suggesting-colluding-russia-isnt-so-bad

Quote

How do you know when the seriousness of the Russia scandal has intensified? When Donald Trump’s allies discover it’s time to move the goal posts again.

Take, for example, National Review’s Andrew McCarthy arguing on Fox News last week that there’s nothing necessarily wrong with the president’s political operation possibly having turned to a foreign adversary to help win an American election.

 

“Look, I don’t think that it’s bad if campaigns are turning to foreign governments for dirt. It’s not collusion, it’s not something that’s impeachable, it’s icky. But that’s what this is.”

A day later, The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway wrote, “I don’t have a problem [with] getting dirt on election opponents from foreigners.” She added that relying on the Steele dossier is effectively the same thing.

 

Fox News’ Tucker Carlson quickly endorsed the line, telling his viewers, “Nobody is claiming that any information changed hands, though, even if it did, so what?” [Update: Rudy Giuliani went even further this morning. See below.]

 

This may have been inevitable, but that doesn’t make the new talking point any less pitiful.

 

First, if receiving campaign assistance from foreign adversaries is perfectly kosher, why has Trump invested so much time and energy lying about it? If the underlying accusation is effectively meaningless, why didn’t the president adopt this line months ago?

 

Second, those who constantly feel the need to move the goalposts are nearly always the folks losing an argument. The original line from Trump World and its allies was that Russia didn’t attack our elections. The evolution soon followed: OK, maybe Russia did attack, but the Trump campaign wasn’t in communication with our adversaries during their attack. OK, maybe they were in communication, but their talks had nothing to do with the campaign. OK, maybe Team Trump did talk to our adversaries about the campaign during their attack, but is that really so bad?

 

Quote

 

As for the comparison between the Steele dossier and the Russian attack, this is so embarrassingly weak, I’m a little surprised the right would take the line seriously. There’s a qualitative difference between a research firm relying on sources to put together an oppo report and a foreign government using military intelligence officers to illegally steal materials and weaponize them in the hopes of putting an ally in power.

 

Those who see these two activities as identical simply are either deeply confused or they aren’t arguing in good faith.

 

Update: Though the line from Trump World for months has been that there was “no collusion,” as the Washington Post reported, Rudy Giuliani adopteda very different posture this morning. “I don’t even know if that’s a crime — colluding with Russians,” Giuliani said on CNN. “Hacking is the crime. The president didn’t hack. He didn’t pay for the hacking.”

 

He added on Fox: “I have been sitting here looking in the federal code trying to find collusion as a crime. Collusion is not a crime.”

Pretty soon the lines will be "better a traitor than a liberal," and "I'm glad the Russians interfered and stopped Clinton!"

1 minute ago, mclumber1 said:

I would consider that over utilization unless you were old or immunocompromised.

I can see both sides of it, but I think most Americans would agree with you. But I also think that Americans' views of what 'proper' healthcare is is skewed by the crappy current system. I had a bad throat cold/infection and it turned out to be really bad strep throat, and I was given antibiotics. All of this was free. I was sick for over a week, but it would have been longer without the antibiotics. I rarely use antibiotics, but this was pretty bad. But it was all free and I am glad I did it.

That is $300 billion less than the existing system costs rate-payers, however. So even a conservative think tank admits that single-payer is cheaper.

10 minutes ago, Massdriver said:

Why does it all have to be free? Why can't it have deductibles and copays, but with a reasonable out of pocket max in place? Bernie's plan will result in over utilization which won't improve health outcomes. We can have universal care without his plan, right? 

What would you define as over-utilization? People going to their doctor when they have the flu?

Trump's defense has entered the end-game: Yeah maybe there was collusion, but there is no law against that:

Economic growth means nothing to most people anyway since all of the growth in the past few decades has gone to the rich. This chart is very depressing:

2 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

As everyone knows, I don't care about this shit in the least, but uh... are we allowing open character spoilers in thread titles for Episode IX?

It's not a spoiler if it's contained in a trailer or press release.

I really enjoyed the first season, so I'm looking forward to this. I hope that there are more episodes in this season.

https://www.starwars.com/news/star-wars-episode-ix-cast-announced

Quote

The role of Leia Organa will once again be played by Carrie Fisher, using previously unreleased footage shot for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. “We desperately loved Carrie Fisher,” says Abrams. “Finding a truly satisfying conclusion to the Skywalker saga without her eluded us. We were never going to recast, or use a CG character. With the support and blessing from her daughter, Billie, we have found a way to honor Carrie’s legacy and role as Leia in Episode IX by using unseen footage we shot together in Episode VII.”

Interesting. I know they shot a scene where Rey and Leia meet on Takodana and it wasn't used for the film, I wonder if that will be it.

Also, Luke is back:

Quote

Returning cast members include Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Kelly Marie Tran, Joonas Suotamo, and Billie Lourd. Joining the cast of Episode IX are Naomi Ackie and Richard E. Grant, who will be joined by veteran Star Wars actors Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, and Billy Dee Williams, who will reprise his role as Lando Calrissian.

Oh, and this isn't the most outrageous part (though it still is). The worst part is that he is also cancelling four elections for regional board positions in Ontario, in the middle of an active election campaign. Perhaps coincidentally, the current favourites in those four elections are on the opposite end of the political spectrum. It's a total abuse of power to simply cancel elections if your own team is going to lose. I hope this turns into a scandal and that he has to backpeddle. Completely undemocratic.

9 hours ago, SilentWorld said:

can he do that.

Yes. In Canada the provincial governments can legislate city powers and structure. The outrage is that he never mentioned it during the election, and it appears to take away power from city voters and give it to suburban voters (i.e. to conservatives).

However... 

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/398609-kremlin-russia-not-ready-to-accept-trump-invite-to-second-summit

Quote

A top Kremlin aide on Tuesday said Russia is not ready to accept President Trump's invitation to a second summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the U.S. Yuri Ushakov said Russia agrees there should be another meeting, but did not formally agree to the White House's fall invitation.

 

“After the summit, you know what kind of atmosphere there is around its outcome,” Ushakov said, according to a Reuters report. "I think it would be wise to let the dust settle and then we can discuss all these questions in a business-like way. But not now."

 

Trump and White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said last week that preparations are underway for a meeting with Putin in Washington, D.C., this fall. "I look forward to our second meeting so that we can start implementing some of the many things discussed, including stopping terrorism, security for Israel, nuclear proliferation, cyber attacks, Ukraine, Middle East peace, North Korea and more," Trump tweeted on July 19.

Honestly, I think that almost all Presidential marriages are based on lies of one sort or another. By the time you become President you a husk of the human being you once were. Some people seem to make it through, such as Obama, but even his marriage suffered as a result of his quick political climb. Now imagine having to slog through politics for 20-40 years before attaining the Presidency. I mean, I've read that JFK and Jackie were basically divorced while he was President. I think you are wrong in believing we are letting politics cloud our judgement here, Dodger.

Just now, Dodger said:

 

Hilary Clinton seems to be doing fine other than the whole not being president thing.

?

It's pretty well-known that her and Bill have a loveless marriage that exists only for political reasons. The same is true of Melanie and Trump, only for monetary reasons. Or do you actually believe they love each other and get along?