Mueller; Mueller; Mueller?
Deputy attorney general appoints special counsel to oversee probe of Russian interference in election
That was actually pretty fast.  What are we on, day 118 of the Trump Administration?
Also, if you missed it in the news today:House Majority Leader McCarthy told colleagues in 2016: ‘I think Putin pays’ Trump- and -Trump’s Team Knew of Flynn Inquiry Before He Took Office
-- ∇×V

The headline
If entered into the record, there's your evidence. Notes by law enforcement officials made immediately after an event had been entered as evidence in the past. The GOP better make up it's mind. Or come 2018, they won't have the majority. Come to think of it, they won't have it anyway.
I have been adamant since the beginning that Trump is unfit to be POTUS. I have conflicting emotions about this.
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

...that Ye Shall Not Die Alone (the Girls, Girls, Girls story set in the Teraverse) has been nominated for Best Short fic (under 5000 words) in Oxnate's Not Dead Yet Awards on Twisting the Hellmouth. 
As the saying goes, it's an honor just to be nominated, but once the voting opens up, please vote early and often! 
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

I occasionally dip in to this corner of the DW Forum, and when I do, I frequently find myself itching to comment. However, I refrain, because I strongly suspect that I and my views would be highly unwelcome here. So, what are the "boundaries", so I know just how far beyond them into the thickets of intolerable unacceptableness I am located? "Outright flaming" is kind of fuzzy, and are their political positions which it is considered here "outright flaming" to hold/state?
"If you
wish to converse with me, define your
terms."

--Voltaire

WannaCry / WannaCrypt has been in the news all weekend - it's the first malicious example of that stolen NSA code to turn up in the wild. I doubt it'll be the last.

So it's time to patch your PC. (I assume it's also time to patch your Mac/*nix system, as well.) While you're at it, update your antivirus data. NOW.

The patch for Windows 10 should be delivered automatically by Windows Update - it's been out for nearly two months now.

The patch for Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 8 is available at http://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com ... ?q=4012598

If you install a language pack after you install this patch, you'll need to install the patch again.

Relatively non-technical overview:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/1 ... ware_worm/

Technical overview (which may be of help for the Mac/*nix contingent):
http://www.cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvenam ... -2017-0143
http://www.cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvenam ... -2017-0144
http://www.cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvenam ... -2017-0145
http://www.cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvenam ... -2017-0146
http://www.cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvenam ... -2017-0147
http://www.cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvenam ... -2017-0148
http://technet.microsoft.com/library/security/MS17-010
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

...Guess what the last track is?  


That cover of Gold Dust Woman is so fantastically awesome.

Get the whole OST here on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Dishonored-2-Ori ... B01LXSESXG

Like:
1. A disease outbreak
2. A natural disaster
3. A terrorist attack - domestic or international
For me #2 would be the most terrifying right now - why? No FEMA head. That might be slightly better than the wrong FEMA head. Remember Katrina?
For #1 and #3 - No ambassadors and right now, no head of FBI. Coordination with other nations? What other nations?
Those who say well the acting heads can do the job? Small problem..most of the are civil servants. They run the day to day operations and they might be aware of the looming crisis, they don't have the authority to allocate resources to plan and initiate action.
There 's a model called he Swiss Cheese Model to illustrate why disasters/lack of preparedness to disasters happen. You got "holes"/deficiencies in every organization. Most of the time they don't align and nothing or minor things happen. It's when they do align you got major issues. When the biggest hole is at the top?
It's not a question of if. More like when.
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

Better subpoena them.
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

The relevant information

What Trump said:
Here’s what Trump told NBC News’s Lester Holt (emphasis mine):

Quote:HOLT: Did you ask for a recommendation?
TRUMP: What I did is, I was going to fire Comey. My decision. It was not . . .
HOLT: You had made the decision before they came in the room.
TRUMP: I was going to fire Comey. There’s no good time to do it, by the way.
HOLT: Because in your letter, you said, ‘I accepted their recommendation.’ So you had already made the decision.
TRUMP: Oh, I was going to fire regardless of recommendation.

Quote:As Spicer tells it, Rosenstein was confirmed about two weeks ago and independently took on this issue so the president was not aware of the probe until he received a memo from Rosenstein on Tuesday, along with a letter from Attorney General Jeff Sessions recommending that Comey be fired. The president then swiftly decided to follow the recommendation, notifying the FBI via email around 5 p.m. and in a letter delivered to the FBI by the president’s longtime bodyguard. At the same time, the president personally called congressional leaders to let them know his decision. Comey learned the news from media reports.
“It was all him,” Spicer said of Rosenstein, as a reporter repeated his answer back to him. “That’s correct — I mean, I can’t, I guess I shouldn’t say that, thank you for the help on that one. No one from the White House. That was a DOJ decision.”

I have a friend who's in the final downward spiral of Glioblastoma - pretty much the worst brain cancer you can possibly find. He's lasted over two years since his diagnosis, but at this point he's not going to see 2018, possibly not the autumn.
Last Saturday, I got asked if I want anything from his house, I rate as family, and they're having to clear the house to sell it to pay for his care, so it all has to go somewhere. In fact, this Saturday we're going over to do some of that.
The question is full of goddamned fucking sucktitude. Piled on top of the emotional acknowledgements that he's in that downward slide, that he's no longer able to live on his own, and already has his appointment to traverse the Desert booked.
Fuck.
--

"You know how parents tell you everything's going to fine, but you know they're lying to make you feel better? Everything's going to be fine." - The Doctor