Today's major winter storm started very slowly, I must admit. But by now - almost noon - I see a steady flow of snowflakes coming down, so the prudent judgment of the Office of Personnel Management (FEDERAL OFFICES in the Washington, DC, area are CLOSED) has been amply justified.
42 comments:
James: I bet TSB showed up anyway even if he had to hook up the dog and sleigh. gwb
As a matter of fact, I really did drive in to an office annex this morning just to verify that I wasn't expected to be an 'emergency employee' today. Been home slackin' since around 9 AM.
Gwb: "I bet TSB showed up anyway even if he had to hook up the dog and sleigh." Funny you would mention that, for I have found unusual footage of D.C. workers making their way into the city and their posts of duty. See if you can spot TSB in the line!
TSB: This is also in honor of your valiant effort on ascertaining your work status.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=JSt0NEESrUA
TSB: James: Your tax dollars at work!Stasi corporate fascists seize old movie collector and wife..except he wasn't. gwb
http://betabeat.com/2014/01/feds-interrogate-man-wearing-google-glass-in-movie-theater/
James, that's very good of you, thanks! A dog sled could work for me tomorrow, unless I'd get in trouble with PETA.
Some gov employees have used skis to get around downtown during serious snow, and many years ago there was a guy who used to commute by kayak from his home in Maryland across the Potomac River to the CIA HQ in Langley.
"many years ago there was a guy who used to commute by kayak from his home in Maryland across the Potomac River to the CIA HQ in Langley."
That method proved unfortunate for William Colby.
James: I hadn't thought about that!
Hey you guys are enjoying this snowmadeddon too much!! I told you Erdogan's prosperity was a mirage of cheap borrowed money loaned out to friends and family. Now they are comparing the lira to VORTEX .2 Now to youtube to see if I can spot TSB. gwb
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-01-21/here-are-350-billion-reasons-why-banks-want-you-ignore-turkeys-turbulence
Thanks James! I spotted a couple of great mustaches but I think TSB's dog is a labrador mix. Great video though. gwb
GWB: Through sources who shall remain undisclosed I have obtained possibly the only known video of the shadowy TSB. Efforts are being made to confirm this, but there are great difficulties involved. For your perusal:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcD7C1pj4hE
Wow James, that really captures the contemporary essence and subtle hilarity of TSB..good research! I was pretty broke up to hear about The Captain and Tenille getting a divorce
until I realized it is probably to keep from going broke from medical expenses related to his Parkinsons.gwb
http://www.tmz.com/2014/01/22/captain-and-tennille-divorce/
TSB: http://www.juancole.com/2014/01/rushing-syrian-issue.html
It's not easy being the spokesperson for Obama's foreign policy on Syria. You get a lot of egg on your botox!
At this late date we at least know that the nerve gas attack didn't come from where we said it did. gwb
A service to the public GWB, a civic duty. Someone must pursue the truth!
James: That video looked pretty accurate to the frigid conditions I'm experiencing. Walking around in single digit temperatures?!
GWB: Re the Cpt'n and Tenille, you suspect this is a tactical divorce where they'll put all the joint assets in her name so he might qualify for long-term care under Medicaid? Interesting. She gets the money and he gets the muskrat?
" he gets the muskrat" heh. He has for quite a while..
TSB: All I'm sure of is that 'love will keep them together!' I read the wikipedia and was surprised at all the serious music Tennille has engaged in over the years, never caring about publicity.I love those 40 year love stories.
He could be looking at some advanced brain surgery and those brain surgeons don't take medicaid. gwb
TSB: Here is some news! Hot of the Presses!! gwb
Hacked CNN Reports "China Dumps All US Bonds"
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/23/2014 - 20:20
TSB: at 18 deg's how is that office thermostat working? (78 I hope!) Juan
Cole reports that Baghdad traffic police are still using those worthless car bomb detectors and detecting no car bombs. They open a few trunks but I bet those are only the ones where they know there is no bomb. Maybe time for an update? gwb
James: Bet you 5 pesos Putin arranges for Snowden to show up at a big game in Sochi to root for the USA. That would draw a record tv audience and put a little pressure on the Prez who will be watching at home with Janet Napolitano, Kerry and Holder. gwb
TSB: The embassy in Kiev is surrounded by (you said thugs I think)
but with McCain and Biden both making threats to Ukraine I am instinctively on the side of the oppressed youth.
Are McCain and Biden just shooting their mouths off because we have no policy? gwb
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-01-24/ukrainian-protesters-chant-yankees-go-home-klitschko-warns-more-deaths
GWB: I re-tweeted a comment calling them pro-government thugs, and that's probably a fair description. The people who circled the U.S. Embassy are demo'ing against the anti-regime demonstrators in Maidan Square. Public opinion is not all ant-regime, but that's the side I would favor, since they want to align Ukraine with the European Union, and not with Russia. The regime favors Russia over the EU.
I'm not sure what motivates McCain and Biden, but I suppose they are just automatically enthusiastic about any movement that looks like a 'color revolution' or the Arab Spring.
Snowden at the Olympics? Like, in Putin's private luxury skybox? Sweet!
TSB: I don't think he will be sitting with Putin (not 'diplomatique') but sitting next to his lawyer, his buddy from Brazil among a bunch of regular russkies would be great.. and a sign that says
'THIS BEATS GITMO' gwb
GWB: I think I'll decline that bet. Vlad does love the personal touch in his PR. My guess is Obama is going to make ANOTHER speech/pitch for probably Obamacare. So Putin puts Snowden in his box and televises it an hour before O's appearance. What do you think everybody will be talking about for days afterwards?
Putin has been running rings around O with Syria and Iran and spotlighting what fools O and that man who is his SOS really are.
TSB: Bad things are going to happen in the Ukraine after Sochi. The country is too evenly divided between pro Russian and pro West, and too close to Russia. After Sochi attempted massive crack down and probably civil war.
TSB: I've got a feeling your line of work is about to get very busy and very interesting. If you have to pull foreign travel doing it you watch out for yourself.
James: That is a serious thought about Ukraine. Puti just made a big move with the Palestinians to torpedo Kerry's peace efforts and set up a nat gas confrontation with the Isrealis. gwb
http://www.debka.com/article/23625/Palestinian-leader-turns-to-Putin-for-Palestinian-state-dumps-US-and-Israel-as-peace-partners-
GWB: Russia already has an off-shore gas development deal with Syria, plus Rusia is very friendly with Cyprus, which means it might get part of some future gas transportation deal that Cyprus strikes with the Eastern Med developers. I suppose the Russians could play along with the PA's Abu Abbas by pretending that some of that business is leased from the PA.
This talk of a Russian-PA deal seems like just talk coming from the PA side, part of the pretense that the PA is a state even though it has no such recognition by the UN. Neither the PA nor Gaza (which is still run by HAMAS in defiance of the PA) has any legal rights to sell anything off-shore, because they aren't a state, and because the off-shore zone near Gaza is already leased to British Gas. I don't see how a non-existent Palestinian Coast Guard could chase the British out of a non-existent economic exclusion zone.
BTW, the authorities in Gaza have already signed a deal with an Israeli company to buy natural gas for electric power production. It looks like HAMAS is a lot more realistic than Abu Abbas.
James: I appreciate your concern. Business has been pretty interesting for the last ten-plus years, so it's now the norm. When traveling in disrupted areas, I try to be like Blanche DuBois and always rely upon the kindness of strangers; if that doesn't work, we can always try superior firepower.
Thanks TSB! Now we have the complete personal papers Heinrich Himmler. This is great because they can be turned into training materials for parts of NSA and Homeland Security. Much cheaper than trying to reinvent the wheel. gwb
http://rt.com/news/himmler-nazi-archive-israel-186/
Those Himmler papers are going to be really interesting to historians of Nazi Germany because they are almost the only personal correspondence left by any Nazi leader of importance. Hitler left nothing - total blank slate - and the rest of his top tier left almost nothing of a personal nature.
NSA and DHS would be better off with the Stasi records if they're looking for a German role model.
A master class taught by Herr Marcus Wolf.
GWB: That's interesting!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markus_Wolf
James: TSB That is really interesting but why wasn't anyone interested in really punishing this guy? And the US offered him a fortune to defect? gwb
GWB: He said he was offered a deal in the USA, and Ithat seems likely. He would have made for a great debriefing.
I don't think any state could have punished him for anything, legally speaking, because it wasn't a crime to commit espionage or counter-espionage for East Germany. Reunified German doesn't do political trials of ex-enemies, and if it did, there would be a lot of people in line ahead of Wolf. I guess the Cold War is like other wars - when it's over, ex-enemies live with each other again.
James: In thinking of TSB's work heating up there are lots of possibilities but I think Isreal, Egypt,Jordan,Turkey,Kuwait,Iraq might top the list since Isreal is starting to look at waging their own GWOT against AQ. Of course he keeps pointing out the trouble brewing on small Caribbean islands gwb
http://www.debka.com/article/23627/Israeli-officer-With-30-000-Al-Qaeda-fighters-in-Syria-Israel-re-evaluates-its-neutrality-in-civil-war
TSB: I always wondered why Jane Harman left the House to start her little 'Institute' in California. Now it looks like she was blackmailed with the help of some NSA SNOOPING! gwb
http://www.juancole.com/2014/01/interrupted-spying-bulletin.html
GWB: The Jane Harmon thing was an interesting scandal, but I don't see how it could be called blackmail by NSA. Harmon had reportedly - there is no public transcript, so far as I know, although she called for Attorney-General Holder to release it - discussed with an Israel lobbyist an exchange of favors in which she would intervene against his prosecution for espionage, and his lobby would support her bid for a committee chairmanship.
I don't see who was blackmailing Harmon, or what she is supposed to have done as a result. The then-head of counterintelligence for the FBI publicly stated that Harmon never intervened in the case against the lobbyist. She never became Chairwoman. The prosecution of the lobbyists fell apart, partly due to the judges' admission of a document that showed the USG officially exchanged with Israel the same information the defendants were accused of obtaining by espionage. It was probably DOJ that leaked the phone call story itself as a way to distract attention from the train wreak it made of the case.
Be careful with Debka GWB, they've spectacularly right and spectacularly wrong.
"so it's now the norm" yeah, well I think it's going to get a lot worse pretty quick.
Thanks TSB! Those additional facts about Harmon's situation are persuasive. And James; If Isreal has 30,000 new AQ like fighters right over the border it makes sense that they would consider what to do about it.
Sure they are often barely plausible but so are Alexander and ('not willingly') Clapper!
gwb
James: Here is another example of places where you can't find out what's happening... you know, NEWS!
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/jeffrey-meyer/2014/01/26/face-nation-edits-out-senator-cruz-condemning-obama-s-abuse-power#ixzz2rZ167RcB
Schieffer has complained for over a year that the WH dictates who comes on his show... so he finally gets someone who disagrees with the WH. After not being able to shut Cruz up The edit out the most important thing he had to say. gwb
GWB: I read Debka also, just be careful of their predictions. Otherwise they're a pretty good source.
As far as the traditional media goes, if the topics weren't so serious their contortions to keep a lid on things is pretty funny.
“It flies in the face of logic and morality to think that we would aid the enemy we’re trying to defeat,” said Cunningham, Absolutely TSB! The US would never try to create instability in the name of 'trying to help our friends! Just look at Libya, Syria, Pakistan, Mexico, Ecuador, Chile, Iraq. And I love this old clip from FP expert Harmon when she was running for CIA Chief:
http://www.juancole.com/2012/11/candidate-for-cia-chief-jane-harman-advocated-ethnic-breakup-of-iran.html gwb
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