DC Tom

When you think of how truly boneheaded a mistake that was in so many different ways, it's absolutely awe-inspiring. Almost Tibstastic. Almost. The difference being, you'll say "I ***** up," and not spend the next ten years being beat up for this while you try to defend it.

Read, talk on the phone, trade favors, and boss around staffers, for the most part.

You have a significant "definition" problem.

Because the Clean Air Act includes the authority to grant states waivers from EPA standards (since air quality is ultimately local). It shouldn't...but it does. And frankly, I hope CA's challenge establishes that - federal regs are for the states to meet or exceed, not just "meet." But this isn't about the CAA, it's about CAFE. CARB uses their CAA waiver as a de facto CAFE waiver by arguing that car emissions fall under the authority of their waiver, and thus brow-beats the rest of the country in to following along. It's not uncommon - it's why extension cords in VA carry a prop 65 "causes cancer in California" warning, and textbooks in Rhode Island are written to TX and CA standards. You want to do business in all 50 states, you meet the regulatory requirements of the most strict. But Trump doesn't want the auto industry beholden to California (even though the largest auto companies have already agreed in writing to follow CARB's CAFE standards.) As is usual, he is using and abusing the precedents predecessors set in place. Imagine what Kamala Harris would do with the precedents he's setting.

"Republicans pounce."

That's bull####. States can set whatever standards they choose, just so they don't violate federal standards. And federal emissions standards are a minimum, not a maximum. This is a clear-cut violation of states' rights.

Still trying to figure out the difference between "drone" and "missile" in this context.

I love how they did nothing illegal selling pharmaceuticals, but then decided "Hey, a civil suit's not enough...let's try money laundering!"

That is a ***** punchable face if I've ever seen one.

I thought the government negotiated prices with the pharmas, and doctor's didn't have a direct relationship with them?

It's operating a vehicle under the influence. You can also be charged with DUI for operating a riding lawn mower drunk. But what's REALLY stupid is being arrested for "driving a horse while under the influence." E.g. https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-dui-on-a-horse-20171103-story.html. In most cases, it's "drunken idiot riding their horse on the interstate," which should be a criminal offense. But not a DWI offense.

Simple. They'll vote who they're told to vote for.

There's a chance we're in "But this time it's different!" territory now, though. There's a certain set of progressives that simply won't show up at the polls if the candidate swerves centrist this time - just as a set didn't show up for Hillary when the DNC ***** over Bernie in 2016. But this set is already disenchanted with the entire system, and would be happy to burn it down to get what they "deserve," so not showing up for an election they fundamentally do not believe is honest or representative of them isn't much of a stretch. The Democrats may truly have a tiger by the tail this time, and be unable to let go.

By who? By what measure?

It's awfully curious that about a week after Bolton is fired, Saudi Arabia sees a damaging attack on their oil infrastructure, which looks like it's leading to the US and Gulf states attacking Iran, which is what Bolton always pushed for. Maybe the Saudi attack is a false flag committed by Bolton to bring about war with Iran? Who was fired to give the Trump administration plausible deniability when it happened? Has the site of the so-called "attack" been checked yet for nano-thermite and micro-nukes? WAKE UP SHEEPLE!!!!!!

- Eric Holder, 2012. Oh, wait. Holder didn't even testify, he just ignored Congress completely.

Looking forward to the "Too many children have died because pedophiles killed them rather than leave a living witness. Open pedophilia saves lives!" argument. Not looking forward to Jerry Sandusky's rehabilitation, though. Toxic ageism.

That's so offal, "that's offal" is a better pun than that.

Probably. No one else would.

How much coke was on set during the filming of that video?

Read today it was still on.

Ugh. I had a neighbor in college who played DiVinyls "I Touch Myself" for about 13 straight hours on a loop - which amounts to some 200 times in a row. I haven't even listened to any songs I like two hundred times. I didn't know you could listen to a tape 200 times without wearing it out. But damn it, she did. And I'm not going to say it's the root cause of my mental illness...but damn it, I can't prove it's not.

To be fair, two of those were Timm Rosenbaugh tripping over his own feet, and Bruce was just the last to touch him. And of those 19...they were almost all clean by today's rules (one of them on Jeff George, Bruce lands on him. Doesn't drive George in to the ground, but it still probably draws a flag today.) And Bruce probably did more to ruin Jeff George's career than any other single person.

Anyone mention yet that Aramco's planning an IPO before the end of the year?