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This email was submitted into evidence in the Manafort trial yesterday.

Paul Manafort emailed Trump adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner on November 30, 2016 recommending Stephen Calk for the Secretary of the Army. At the same time, Manafort had received the first part of what would be $16 million in loans from Calk's bank, the Federal Savings Bank.

Read the email from Manafort to Trump adviser Jared Kushner submitted into evidence

I bought a laptop with an AMD Ryzen 7 2700U CPU incorporating a Vega 10 GPU, an Acer Swift 3. It has 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. Unfortunately the RAM is not upgradable but when the SSD breaks I will be able to remove it and replace it with spinning rust.

I've got Slackware-current running on it with kernel 4.17.14. It came with Windows 10 but that has been removed. In fact I managed to set it up without ever booting into Windows. When you power it up, you must press F2 to get into the BIOS. Obviously, you can avoid ever starting Windows if you press F2 quickly enough on first power up.

I made a USB boot stick for installing Slackware-current, It's actually not that hard. I began by using Alien Bob's local Slackware mirror script on my main PC to get the latest Slackware-current and to create the installation DVD .iso image. It downloaded many gigabytes of data, so took quite a while even on my reasonable (80Mbit) Internet connection.

I found some useful instructions and some boot files for making a Slackware UEFI USB boot stick. Short story: use gdisk to partition the stick with two partitions, the first being 100M in size, the second being the rest of the stick. The first has to has a type of 0xEF00 and the second 0x8300. Then you put a vfat filesystem on the first. It tells you to put an ext4 FS on the second but I'm not sure that's necessary. You need to create a directory in the first partition called EFI and under it a subdirectory called something like Slackware. Copy the files as directed at the above link into the EFI/Slackware subdir and sync the disks. You can also have a subdir called Boot which the firmware recognises specially as a default, and there is a naming convention for the files that go in there. Google is your friend.

When making a USB boot stick for a pre-UEFI system you need to run isohybrid on the .iso installation image. I did that here too. (Is this necessary for UEFI? It didn't do any harm.) dd the slackware-current .iso into the second partition of the USB stick.

Plug the stick into the laptop and power cycle, pressing F2 quickly to avoid booting any existing OS.

The firmware (BIOS) is UEFI and has Secure Boot. Before you can tell it to boot something other than Windows, you have to set a master password in the firmware. When you have done that you can change the priority of the boot devices and add the new boot loaders to the menu, after deleting the existing Windows ones.

Make sure that the USB stick is the first preference of boot device in the UEFI menus and remove the hard disk if possible so you can't accidentally boot Windows.

Reboot the machine, and hit F12 for a boot menu. Hopefully, the USB stick should be there. Select it and the familiar Slackware installation should start.

At this point you can make a backup of your Windows image in case you ever need to take the machine back for a warranty repair or sell it on to someone who needs Windows. I backed up my pristine uninstalled Windows image using dd from the command line and dumping the data onto an external USB hard disk. Piped through gzip the 256GB disk image compressed down to about 12GB. (There was a stuck pixel on the screen and I was glad I did this since I had to take it back to the store for a replacement).

Installing Slackware-current was very simple. I partitioned the SSD with gdisk to have three partitions, a 100MB UEFI boot partition (vfat), a Linux swap partition (8GB) and a Linux partition (the rest of the disk ext4). The installer said "Slackware 14.1" but that's because of the root disk image on the boot disk. I installed the complete distribution and rebooted. It worked, with eight penguins at the top of the screen.

When I say "it worked" it did, keyboard, touchpad and built-in WiFi. The kernel (4.14.56) that came with Slackware-current wasn't new enough to see the Vega GPU, so X would not run.

I downloaded the latest (at the time) stable kernel (4.17.8) and did a "make oldconfig" using the kernel configuration file from the slackware-current that I had installed. There were hundreds of new options and most of them were mysterious or irrelevant, so I just selected things as modules where I was unsure. I selected the support for the new AMD GPUs. Through poking around in /sys I noted that the touchpad was an Elan something and the WiFi chip was an Atheros 10k (driver ath10k_pci). I rebuilt the kernel and modules, but the new bzImage in /boot/EFI/Slackware and put a new entry in /boot/EFI/Slackware/elilo.conf for it and did a make modules_install. On rebooting the machine, I hit TAB to get the elilo menu and selected my new kernel. I was then able to get X up and running with a UK keyboard and the touchpad.

It turns out that to do a middle button click on the touchpad you have to put the tips of three fingers down and then push down to click. It takes a bit of practise...

By the way, I've been using it for three weeks and it's never swapped yet. It also has a fingerprint reader. I believe they are useless and will not even try to get it working.

There are a couple of problems, though. It intermittently hangs on boot when the kernel tries to switch from UEFI VGA to the AMD GPU driver (the open source one) and the machine locked up hard when watching a video in Palemoon. It wasn't on the network so I couldn't try to ssh. I had to power cycle it.

Next we shall see how SETI@Home runs on it.

So, the dating world, there is a term - Catfishing. I guess that is the practice of using someone else's photos that are super hot and then basically trolling people. There is apparently a lesser form of this called kittenfishing where you use deceiving photos that are actually you, but are not exactly truthful. Last week, I was kittenfished.

I started chatting with a woman on OKC. She had only two photos (flag #1) of her, and both were from the same angle (flag #2). She looked really cute, so I messaged her. There was a pretty good exchange of messages. She eventually dropped a hint that she might be fat, so I asked for some photos that showed her body.

Now, this is where I feel bad. I'm sure it can be difficult being a fat woman. I asked for photos as nicely as I could - "Hey, so I love your pics, but I notice that you only have two photos that are practically identical to each other. Do you have any photos that show your body that you would be able to share?"

To her credit, she did share actual photos that showed a rather large woman. I've dated a larger women in the past who I got along with well, but I wasn't attracted to her and it didn't work out. I will not do that again.

So, anyways, she posts actual pictures that show her body. I said thank you, and complimented her dress. The next day, I sent a message saying that I didn't think it would work out because I felt that I had been deceived and that deception is not a good way to start a relationship.

She didn't take that well. Here are the last two messages of the exchange:

ME> So I've had some time to think and I'm sorry, but I don't think that it would work out. I really enjoyed our conversations, but ultimately I feel like I was misled.

> I Understand that everyone cherry picks some of their best photos to post to dating websites, but I believe that the photos should reflect the person that you will be meeting. Starting a relationship on deception is not a good way to begin.

> I'm sorry things had to go this way and I hope you eventually find what you are looking for.

>Take care,

>-- Snow

  -----------------

HER> I've been thinking about this as well. We would not have progressed past being frientds ...as sitting in Church on a Sunday knowing I was dating a married man would have made me a rather large hypocrite.

>But since you have brought up the subject... You asked 'my story' In it I said... 'Currently I am good enough to fuck but too fat to date.' That should have been a big fucking indicator as to what I might actually look like body wise.

> I have my reasons as to why I don't post body shots. After the 100th message of 'Hey wanna Fuck' I hope you can at least appreciate why...then again maybe you can't...hopefully one day you will. If it's imperative to see my body...fine...If it's not to you liking...fine...there is the door don't let it hit you in the ass on the way out. You are not the first...you damn well won't be the last...and make no mistake on this...the loss is never...EVER...mine

> I wish you all the best in your future endeavors...

> So Long Boyo...

> HerName

** She disabled her account **

I feel pretty bad. I'm sure it's tough being a fat woman doing online dating. I was caught between a rock and a hard place. I didn't find her body attractive at all and I'm not going to go on a date with someone I'm not somewhat excited about. I did feel mislead and I was hoping that by telling her that, she would realize that deception up front leads to disappointment later. Maybe I should have just said 'Sorry, this isn't going to work out' and left it at that. I wanted to call her out on the photos though.

Anyways, I hope I didn't break this poor woman who obviously had body issues and had had a rough time dating. I don't feel good about how that one ended. I honestly don't know if I'm the asshole in this situation or not, so I'm here asking SN.

So, SN... Am I the asshole here? Please place your judgement below.

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InfoWars TOS

Hmm....that sounds awful familiar....

Freedom of the press may be guaranteed in the Constitution. But a plurality of Republicans want to give President Trump the authority to close down certain news outlets, according to a new public opinion survey conducted by Ipsos and provided exclusively to The Daily Beast.

New Poll: 43% of Republicans Want to Give Trump the Power to Shut Down Media

I'm burnt out. Tired of work. Tired of life. The only thing that keeps me going is that I have 2 separate vacations coming up:

The first is just under 3 weeks away. I'm going to take my new (30 year old) camper van camping at Writing on Stone provincial park. I have over a week off, but I'm only going to be camping for 4 nights. I hope the sand at the beach is good. I've been watching videos on youtube on sandcastle building and I would like to try it out. *Fingers crossed for no campfire bans!!*

The other is mid-september. Most people should be back at work, so it should be quiet. I don't have anything booked yet, but I'm hoping to go to the Jasper, AB area (which is like Banff, but less busy). There are beautiful campgrounds around there that I haven't been to since I was a young kid. We want to go to Miette Hot Springs. I've also been kinda looking into random camping (camping on Crown land for free) and am looking at a place called Preacher's Point.

Tell me about your holiday plans. Anything fun coming up? Anywhere great you visited? Comment below so I can live vicariously through you.

Okay, the subject isn't what the title line is going to make you think, LOL.

I've, for now, gotten out of the PC repair business and am instead pursuing two food jobs. The new one is mid-morning to mid-afternoon at a local bakery that just opened. I went in dressed to impress, thinking it was interview time--and instead was hired on the spot and spent 6 and a half hours (8 AM to 2:30 PM) baking and (wo)manning the front counter. They pay better than anything I've done before, too, and the clientele has enough money to plunk down $3.00 for a muffin without a second thought.

And you know what? I'm *good at this.* Never having made cinnamon rolls before, my first attempt came out, according to the manager, as almost the Platonic ideal. The cheese bread (this *is* Wisconsin, you know...) was likewise my first attempt, and it just flew off the shelves. Muffins came up huge and moist, full of blueberries. It's been all of one shift and the manager already wants me to tell her some whole-wheat recipes and maybe experiment with stevia for the health-conscious crowd.

My heart is singing. This might be a kind of happiness. I don't want to jinx it, and I'd still rather be doing pharmacology, but this is...nice, for now. Maybe it's a kind of last happiness before the country implodes on itself. Whatever it is I'm going to take it gratefully, even if it's short-lived. It feels so good to use these hands to create.

I heard a fantastic story on the radio on my way to work today:

Alberta man changes gender on government IDs for cheaper car insurance

I salute you, good sir -- errr.. madam.

A man has been jailed for having sex with a horse he claimed had given him consent.

Daniel Raymond Webb-Jackson broke into the stables and was caught on CCTV abusing the animal.

However, when questioned, the 31-year-old claimed the filly had agreed to sex because she smelt his crotch and winked at him.

Man says horse gave him sexual consent by winking at him

Including Americans...

The G7 foreign ministers today issued the following statement in advance of the anniversary of the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17:

We, the G7 foreign ministers, of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and the High Representative of the European Union, are united in our condemnation, in the strongest possible terms, of the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, a civilian aircraft flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014.

MH17 was carrying 298 crew and passengers, nationals of Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, Romania, South Africa, Vietnam, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

We fully support the work of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), an independent criminal investigation led by the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine. The JIT’s findings on Russia’s role in the downing of MH17 are compelling, significant and deeply disturbing. The G7 recalls that UN Security Council Resolution 2166 demands that all states cooperate fully with efforts to establish accountability. We are united in our support of Australia and the Netherlands as they call on Russia to account for its role in this incident and to cooperate fully with the process to establish the truth and achieve justice for the victims of MH17 and their next of kin.
In a rules-based international order, those responsible for unacceptable actions, such as the firing or launching of the BUK missile of Russian origin, which intercepted and downed a civilian aircraft, must be held accountable. To this end, we call on Russia to immediately engage with Australia and the Netherlands in good faith to explain and to address all relevant questions regarding any potential breaches of international law.

We express once again our deepest condolences to the families of the victims of MH17. We stand together against the impunity of those who engage in aggressive actions that threaten the rules-based international order, anywhere, anytime, and under any circumstances.

Joint Statement From G7 Foreign Ministers on MH17

Ok Trump/Russia supporters, how do you rationalize this one?