Lying under oath is now a `process crime'?

Twenty years ago, when Bill Clinton lied under oath about a matter that was not itself illegal, a Republican Congress considered the lie to be a "high crime and misdemeanor" serious enough to warrant impeachment and removal of the president from office.

Now that a number of Mr. Trump's associates have pleaded guilty to lying to Congress and to the FBI about matters that have national security implications, we are told by the president's spokespersons and surrogates that lying under oath and under penalty of perjury is a mere "process crime," unworthy of public attention.

Because Brexit from its very inception has been such an ill-defined concept, it's really no surprise that its arch-conservative proponents have been unable to agree on either the stated intent, corresponding logistics or desired outcomes of an actual proposal. The devil was always going to be in Brexit's details, which has exposed its nascent appeal to the British public -- mostly in England -- as superficial at best. And the more that general public learns about Brexit's potential consequences, the less people tend to like it.

Much like Trump's proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, Brexit has never really been anything more than a political temper tantrum masquerading as a public policy. And as id the case for our Republican Party, it will be to the Tories' eternal discredit that the far right's irresponsible kabuki was ever allowed to enter mainstream consciousness and public discussion, where it eventually metastasized as a major government crisis of the first rank.

The May government has now been substantially weakened by the Tories' very public spat over Brexit, as well as the resounding rejections of her government's Brexit proposal by the respective national assemblies of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Westminster's relations with the neighboring Republic of Ireland are also at their lowest ebb since both countries ratified the Good Friday peace accords in 1998. With the now-looming Article 50 deadline for British withdrawal from the European Union set to take effect on March 29, 2019, the only practical escape route from this mess is likely a second public referendum on Brexit.

When the story of Brexit is finally examined in full, future historians will likely conclude that it was an avoidable self-inflicted wound that otherwise should never have occurred. And it probably wouldn't have, were it not for the most extraordinarily myopic and incompetent political leadership seen in London since Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain first embarked on his ill-fated Sept. 1938 pilgrimmage to Der Führer's Alpine retreat in Berchtesgaden, where the fate of Czechoslovakia was ultimately sealed in exchange for a vague promise of "peace in our time."

Baklava

2 1/2 pounds walnuts, chopped fine
3/4 cup plain bread crumbs, finely crushed
2 tsp. ground cloves
1 1/2 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg (freshly grated is better)
1/2 cup sugar
One pound sweet, unsalted butter, melted
1 lb. phyllo sheets, thawed overnight in refrigerator, if frozen (you may need part of a second package)

Syrup

4 cups white sugar
½ lemon, juiced and peeled (add juice and the peels to syrup mixture)
½ orange, juiced and peeled (add juice and peels to syrup mixture)
2 tsps. whole cloves
1 or 2 cinnamon sticks
½ of a whole nutmeg
3/4 cup honey
5 cups water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Prepare syrup: Put all syrup ingredients except honey together, bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer gently for 10-20 minutes until slightly thickened. Remove the lemon and orange rinds and the spices. Add the honey and stir well. Set aside.

For the baklava: thoroughly mix the nuts, bread crumbs, spices and sugar in a bowl; taste and adjust sugar, spices to your taste. Brush butter on bottom of pan. Layer 8 sheets phyllo, brushing each with butter. Sprinkle with an even layer of the nut mixture. Cover with two or three more phyllo sheets, buttering each. Keep layering until you get close to the top of the pan. Use remaining phyllo sheets, layered, brushed with butter, on top. If your package of phyllo happens to have a lot of sheets in it (and they do vary by number somewhat), don't put any more than 8 sheets on top. Turn the edges under around the sides (use a dull butter knife to gently poke the pastry neatly down around the edges). Using a sharp knife, cut the baklava (most of the way down) into diamond-shaped pieces. Bake 45 minutes to an hour, until golden brown. After the baklava has cooled, reheat the syrup and drizzle the hot syrup over it.  (Alternatively, you can put the cooled off syrup on hot-from-the-oven baklava.)

The baklava is made with pecans, as well, instead of walnuts, because I had so many pecans.  It's all good, though.

Lots of nominations for Bohemian Rapsody, Favorite and a Star is Born.

I hope Rami and Gaga win at least.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) --
The state of Tennessee executed a death row inmate by electrocution Thursday night.

David Miller, 61, was set to die at 7 p.m. at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, but was pronounced dead at 7:25 p.m. Miller spent 36 years on death row.

John Kelly to me has always been the walking, talking example of the worst kind of old-school Bostonian, and I for one, can't wait until he falls into obscurity and we can continue to make people like him less and less relevant.  Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Progressives, some frustrated with O'Rourke's policy stances and what they see as an alarming rush to coalesce support for O'Rourke from establishment Democrats, have voiced those concerns over the last several days on Twitter, including under a #NeverBeto hashtag.

God forbid we should unite around a candidate who could win

One of Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D-Mass.) closest advisers is reportedly planning to meet with Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-Texas) as the rising Democratic star mulls a possible 2020 presidential run, The Washington Post reported Friday.

Mindy Myers, who ran Warren's successful 2012 U.S. Senate campaign before becoming the senator's chief of staff, is expected to meet with O'Rourke "soon," according to The Post.

News of the possible meeting comes as both prominent Democrats are reportedly considering campaigns for the White House against President Trump in 2020.

That this is something best "left to the voters".

Yeah

Maybe, not definitely but maybe, house democrats should fill their time exposing all the crime and graft of Trump world while allowing the Muller report to sink in and leave it to the voters in 2020.

I may need one of these some day and I was stunned how much they cost.  Seriously, when every kind of electronic "thing" gets cheaper by the day they get 2,500 for a tiny piece of plastic. WTF

I see no good reason they should cost more than a decent set of ear buds.

So of course I googled

"One reason the prices remain high is that a fairly small group of companies controls the market," says Dan G. Blazer, the J.P. Gibbons professor of psychiatry emeritus at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., who chaired the NASEM committee. Six global manufacturers control 90 percent of the market. Consumer choice is also limited because hearing aid providers typically contract with only two or three selected manufacturers, says Carole Rogin, president of the Hearing Industries Association (HIA). Not all models are available at all dispensers. "This is problematic," says Blazer.

Another problem, he adds, is lack of transparency, "including transparency of the cost of production of hearing aids compared to the cost to distributors." Many hearing care professionals bundle all their costs into the final retail price. This includes not only manufacturer's costs like materials and research and development, but also the expenses incurred by the provider: rent, salaries, training, licenses, diagnostic machines, marketing and ongoing patient support.

Why is this legal?

The article goes on to explain it's getting better and online sales are lowering prices but it seems even worse that the people who need them are likely to be less skillful at net navigation.  Plus medicare does not pay a penny.

Women value time away from work and flexibility more than men, taking more unpaid time off using the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and working fewer overtime hours than men.  

more...

Mechanically, the earnings gap can be explained in our setting by the fact that men take 48% fewer unpaid hours off and work 83% more overtime hours per year than women.  The reason for these differences is not that men and women face different choice sets in this job. Rather, it is that women have greater demand for workplace flexibility and lower demand for overtime work hours than men.  These gender differences are consistent with women taking on more of the household and childcare duties than men, limiting their work availability in the process (Parker et al., 2015; Bertrand et al., 2015).

I forgot about it but that's ok.  It's being done the same as the CHANNEL ZERO series which is all on consecutive days and streaming at premier.

I have been streaming it.  You can do that free from the SYFY channel site or the app.  Broadcast is up to episode 8 I think.  Do not start at episode 8.