Trump's Card

[Satchmo Distel]

Cooper's paid his dues in terms of reporting on dead bodies in genocides and such, plus his writing on such personal topics as his brother committing suicide. I just feel that he's losing his soul to CNN's chase downmarket and having to look like he's taking Trump trolls seriously (which to be fair, he sometimes refuses to do, or at least subverts in some way).

Where he still delivers as a journalist is his coverage of, say, the Orlando atrocity, interviewing survivors. He also called Pam Bondi out on her double standards.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

There's definitely much worse than him. This is probably the best way to react to hearing that one of your ancestors was a bit of a bastard.

[Tubby Isaacs]

http://orlando-politics.com/2018/04/...lling-results/

Good poll for Donnelly in Indiana. Republicans doing well in the House races though, and by my estimates, would hold 7 out of 9 districts.

[Tubby Isaacs]

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-polit...as-senate-poll

A new poll puts Beto O’Rourke just 3 points behind Ted Cruz in Texas

[San Bernardhinault]

*Must not get too excited*

That said, if Donnelly really is up by 10%, then lots of the supposed Republican targets in Democratic seats are going to be fairly safe. McCaskill and Heitkamp and Tester and Manchin probably can't just sit back and relax, but Stabenow and Casey and Brown and Baldwin can feel a bit better about things.

And while I don't expect Democrats to actually win Texas and Tennessee (and think there's excessive confidence in Arizona), the fact that the Republicans actually have to spend time and money in those states is great news.

[Tubby Isaacs]

@kylegriffin1
More
The parent company of the National Enquirer, American Media Inc., has agreed to let ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal out of a contract that had kept her from talking freely about her alleged affair with Trump, her lawyer tells NYT.

This'll blow all Trump's support among Christians, I'm telling ya. They will hate "the tone".

[Tubby Isaacs]

@kylegriffin1
More
A federal judge has ordered that Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach be held in contempt of court for disobeying her orders in the proof-of-citizenship voter registration case.

Does anything happen to him? Or is it the same as Amber Rudd over here?

[ursus arctos]

At least theoretically, she could send him to jail, though we are a couple of steps away from that.

[Lang Spoon]

They will have to drug him before direct North Korea talks. Could end up in an Axis type treaty if they can’t stop him agreeing with who he last talked to.

[anton pulisov]

Reginald Vanderbilt, railroad architect.

[Satchmo Distel]

North Korea wanting to fully denuclearize seems barely credible. Where's the catch?

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Reginald Vanderbilt, railroad architect.

Doesn't sound too complicated. The whole two parallel rails of metal held together by sleepers thing seems to have dominated...

[WOM]

"We need to connect two points a great distance apart, but efficiently and economically."

"What say ... a straight line?"

"I say Vanderbilt, you'll go far in this trade."

[San Bernardhinault]

North Korea wanting to fully denuclearize seems barely credible. Where's the catch?

I'd say that it is, indeed, not credible. If the Norks are offering full denuclearisation, what they're going to ask for is something that the US would be utterly unwilling to give, like complete US military withdrawal from the Korean peninsula and the dissolution of any protection treaties with South Korea.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Norks?!!!

[anton pulisov]

It struck me that Reginald Vanderbilt sounded like one of those Seinfeld pseudonyms, like H.E. Pennypacker (industrialist, philanthropist, bicyclist) and Art Vandelay (architect of... railroads).

[Janik]

Doesn't sound too complicated. The whole two parallel rails of metal held together by sleepers thing seems to have dominated...

What gauge should the rails be? How does that impact on your minimum curve radius? Where should the wheel flanges go? And how the f*ck does something with wheels that can't change angle go around corners anyway??
What gradients can you withstand? What is a suitable material for the rails? And the sleepers? And the spacing of the sleepers? Rail length? What joints?

The questions are literally* endless.
* - not literally. Not even close to it.

[Flynnie]

Latex salesman, buddy.

[ad hoc]

Trump attacked Syria in order to validate his own tweets.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer...=sharebutton-t

[Ginger Yellow]

Pretty much all White House policy is a question of validating his tweets. No reason this should be any different.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

What gauge should the rails be? How does that impact on your minimum curve radius? Where should the wheel flanges go? And how the f*ck does something with wheels that can't change angle go around corners anyway??
What gradients can you withstand? What is a suitable material for the rails? And the sleepers? And the spacing of the sleepers? Rail length? What joints?

The questions are literally* endless.
* - not literally. Not even close to it.

Those are matters for engineers, not architects. He's the man with the vision, don't bother him with the details.

[anton pulisov]

Exactly. Concrete sleepers might last longer but they don't have quite the same texture as wooden ones.

[WOM]

Exactly. Concrete sleepers might last longer but they don't have quite the same texture as wooden ones.

They're apparently planning to replace all of Toronto's wood sleepers with concrete, if the rail-side storage yard with about a million neatly stacked concrete ones is any indication.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

ah well done, you're only 15 years behind Ireland so. Probably something to to with having billions of miles of railway tracks.

[Flynnie]

Yeah, what's the deal with Ireland having shit-arse railways that miss huge portions of the country? Literally all the places my forebears come from are off limits to me, because I don't drive.

I mean, I could do bus services but that's gonna be unwieldy as fuck.