Even the Drudge Report Has Finally Turned on Trump. Conservative media juggernaut Matt Drudge has long been a defender of and even a reported advisor to Donald Trump.
He’s never seen a negative story about our megalomaniac- in- chief that he couldn’t dismiss. But today, he was faced with a scandal that appears to be big trouble for the White House and all he could say was, “THE EMAIL,” typed below a photo of Saint Basil’s Cathedral. Over the last few days, the New York Times has filed multiplereports about a meeting that took place on June 9th, 2. Trump Tower between some of Donald Trump’s closest inner circle and a Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, who has close ties to the Kremlin. The meeting appeared to be one of the clearest examples of attempted coordination between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives hoping to influence the 2.
Trump’s favor. Donald Trump Jr, who along with Trump’s campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Trump’s son- in- law Jared Kushner attended the meeting, confirmed that the facts of the report were true. At first, he claimed that the meeting’s focus was mostly to discuss a Russian adoption program that was suspended by the Kremlin in retaliation for American sanctions.
The fact that he was meeting with a Russian operative to discuss the possible easing of sanctions while Russia was attempting to get his father elected would have looked bad enough. But Trump Jr decided to clarify his statement and told the Times he met with the lawyer because he was promised that she had dirt on Hillary Clinton. Trump Jr says that no compromising materials were delivered and he considered the meeting a waste of time. On Monday, the Times revealed that it had three sources with knowledge of the initial email that was sent to Donald Trump Jr to arrange the meeting with Veselnitskaya. These sources say that the email explicitly informed Trump Jr that the materials being promised were “part of a Russian government effort to aid his father’s candidacy.”The Times reports that the email was from former British tabloid reporter Rob Goldstone, who has worked with the Trump’s Miss Universe pageant. Trump Jr has previously confirmed that the meeting was arranged by an acquaintance he met at the 2. Miss Universe pageant in Moscow.
Goldstone denies any knowledge of the Russian government’s involvement with the meeting. He claims he was asked to arrange the meeting by the Russian pop star Emin Agalarov. Agalarov’s father is Aras Agalarov, an oligarch who reportedly has close connections to Vladimir Putin. President Trump himself was allegedly unaware of the meeting. Some of his aides found out a few days before he returned from his trip to Europe at the end of last week because Kushner had to revise his foreign contact disclosure form to include the meeting.
No, this is not a smoking gun. It’s just a meeting in which Trump Jr admitted to discussing sanctions with a lawyer close to the Kremlin while he was on the campaign. Then he admitted he took the meeting because he was seeking intel about Hillary Clinton. And he is alleged to have received an email saying that the Russian government was attempting to sway the election in his father’s favor. That is what this is.
Last month, I was driving down the interstate, somewhere near the southern corner of Virginia, when a thunderstorm opened up above me. Suddenly, a wall of water. Over the last few days, the New York Times has filed multiple reports about a meeting that took place on June 9th, 2016, at Trump Tower between some of Donald Trump. Gmail is email that's intuitive, efficient, and useful. 15 GB of storage, less spam, and mobile access.
We can’t help it: sometimes we just hate certain cars. It could be because of the way they look, drive or how they were made. This can happen despite the badge it.
Trump Jr retained a criminal lawyer who specializes in defending the mob today. These are ominous developments for the Trump regime. And for now, all Matt Drudge can say about it is: “THE EMAIL.”.
It’s Monday, which makes it a good day to channel your inner current-gen Mazda Miata: smiling on the outside, yet ready to give somebody a hardcore evil eye at any. Hot Poop · Dweezil ’s Live In The Moment II album is nearly ready. As per volume one, it highlights extemporaneous live guitar soli in the Shut Up 'N Play Yer.
Semi- Autonomous Cars Scare the Shit Out of Me. Last month, I was driving down the interstate, somewhere near the southern corner of Virginia, when a thunderstorm opened up above me. Suddenly, a wall of water appeared a hundred yards ahead. In a split second, I had zero visibility, a slick road, and a shitload of anxiety. So I let go of the wheel and felt the car find the lane. It was Volvo’s semi- autonomous driving technology at work, and it scared me to death. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.
The Volvo V9. 0 station wagon that the company let me test for a week is supposed to be one of the safest and most sophisticated cars you can buy. But the idea that the car could see the road when I couldn’t, that the sensors would take over when I activated the Pilot Assist mode, it frightened me.
Even though the whole point of the feature is to help the driver avoid steering off the road or plowing into another car, I found myself too anxious to fully trust the semi- autonomous technology that was keeping me safe. But I’m an anxious person. Someone braver would realize that this next step towards a fully autonomous vehicle represents a complete technological revolution, one that would save countless lives in the years to come. Intellectually, I believe this, too. Hurtling down the interstate at 7. Volvo’s computer vision and seemingly robotic steering wheel broke my brain. Let’s back up and go over the details of Pilot Assist, the semi- autonomous function I tried out on several hundred miles of highway.
Volvo has offered a version of Pilot Assist on its cars since 2. To engage feature, you just tap the cruise control button on the steering wheel and then scroll over to the Pilot Assist option. It shows up as a green steering wheel on the dash as well as the head- up display.
To disengage it, you just tap the brakes. I first tested it in a Volvo XC9. Pong with an SUV, since the technology would stop you from going off the road by bouncing you back in the other direction. Which is neat, but not necessarily mind- boggling.
In 2. 01. 6, Volvo announced the second generation of the technology, an upgrade that qualified it as a Level 2 form of autonomous driving, according to SAE International’s scale. This, I was told, was the business. The new, more advanced Pilot Assist II currently comes standard on the Volvo S9. V9. 0 and XC9. 0. That’s not bad for a station wagon that starts at $5.
Computers and sensors, my friend. Behind the Volvo V9. Download Ipod Victoria And Abdul (2017). The feature will also maintain a minimum distance between you and the car in front of you.
The new Pilot Assist II works great on the highway, but it also performs surprisingly well on windy country roads. You cannot, however, take your hands off the wheel. If you do, the car will catch you and put the feature on standby until you grab the wheel again. Even if your hand is touching the wheel and not moving, the Volvo instructs you to apply steering or Pilot Assist will turn itself off. You’d think this would be annoying, but keeping my hand on the steering wheel actually made me feel safer and more alert—which is probably the point. The Pilot Assist II feature will only work under 8. Pilot Assist I, which only worked at speeds up to 3.
It’s all fun and games until you realize that you’re not paying attention to your driving—or at least not paying attention like you used to. I found myself scrolling through playlists on Spotify through the built- in Apple Car. Play. I stared off into the distance longer than I ever would’ve if I didn’t trust that the car wouldn’t let me crash. And when I caught myself drifting, my instinctual reaction was to overcorrect, and slam myself into the center of the lane. This is what’s always worried me about the transition to autonomous driving. Watch Sisters Tina Fey (2015) Online.
For at least a few years, humans either won’t trust the cars to get them safely to their destination or they’ll trust the cars too much, believing that the semi- autonomous technology can do more than it can. This will be a real worry at least until we see an SAE Level 4 full, self- driving automation that will let a car completely control the trip. As former Gizmodo writer Alissa Walker argued last year, though, the humans in the car will still be at risk as long as they have the capability to override autonomous driving system, especially if they’re drunk. Truthfully, the Firefly fleet didn’t need a steering wheel or pedals because it was being tested as a Level 4 self- driving car.
Waymo, the company that spun off from Google’s self- driving car division, retired all 5. Firefly prototypes, however, in favor of 6. Chrysler minivans that are now conducting public testing in Phoenix.
We don’t yet know if the company will eventually ditch the steering wheel and pedals on those vehicles. We do know that more autonomous cars will appear on roads all over the world in the few years. Waymo, the new Alphabet company that grew out of the self- driving car team at Google, has been testing its self- driving cars on public roads for years now. More recently, Uber has started testing its own autonomous vehicles, and Lyft plans to offer rides in self- driving cars by the end of this year. So in the near future, expect to see a lot more Level 2 cars like the Volvo V9. I would wager, expect to see more distracted drivers. If Volvo’s succeeded, however, that won’t lead to more road casualties, since its cars’ safety features are becoming so much more sophisticated.
At the end of the day, it wasn’t Volvo’s technology that scared me. I could see myself developing bad habits and over trusting a technology that still has real limits.
This is actually why Volvo and some other companies plan on skipping Level 3 models, which offer full, self- driving capabilities but require a driver to be present. Manufacturers are eyeing a straight jump to Level 4 functionality. That way people won’t be confused about which autonomous features any given car had and which ones it lacked. I know I was confused with the Volvo V9. I don’t like to feel confused while driving at high speeds. Then again, I’ll probably die before the self- driving takeover is complete.
This technology isn’t for me. It’s for my kids and future generations of Americans. That is, if there’s even an America left by then.