It’s no secret that in counting from 1 to 10, the ACLU seems to always skip 2. It’s also no secret that they have a continuing habit of conflating, “You have a right to do X” with, “You have a right to demand taxpayer money to do X,” and their remarkably immoral support of Mandated Racism Affirmative Action is stunningly hypocritical. More and more, they seem to have lost sight of their purported mission, despite flashes here and there of doing something good. But this morning when I clicked over to their site to read an article about our loss of Fourth Amendment rights in the notorious 100 mile zone, I got this popup:
Remember when they used to beg, “Donate monthly to fight Obama’s attacks on people’s rights” after the arrests of journalists, the abuse of the IRS to attack his political enemies, the drone killing of Americans, record-setting deportations, expanded domestic spying, and stepped-up incarceration rates for victimless crimes? Yeah, me neither.
So at this point, it’s not a matter of the mask slipping, it’s been totally removed. The ACLU is nothing but an arm of the Democratic Party, no different than MoveOn.org or Democratic Underground, and now doesn’t even pretend otherwise.
That sound you hear is Nat Hentoff and other principled civil libertarians of yore spinning in their graves.
I don’t think the ACLU will ever get a clu
Well that clux!
Clan we stay on topic?
Ku can say that again!
“And them’s the facts.”
Fact facts or alternative facts?
Call me crazy but I kinda like punk and grunge facts
Oodles of screeching Olympians have proclaimed that Trump/Pence are attacking LGBTQ+/-%#@ and taking away their rights.
So, completely made up bullshit.
got it.
Trump? The guy who enthusiastically (and literally) waved the LGBTQ flag at one of his campaign rallies to thunderous applause? Who was in favor of gay marriage back when Obama and other prominent Democrats were still against it? That guy?
Forget it, they’re rollin’
I am sure he has a secret Nazi haircut hiding under that comb-over. You know, like Brad Pitt’s secret Nazi haircut in that WWII movie where he played an American soldier who was killing actual Nazis.
What exactly counts as a nazi haircut? is there like a swastika shaved into their scalp or something?
Also told Caitlyn Jenner “go ahead and use whatever bathroom you want at Trump Tower” (not an exact quote).
There is more evidence (and there isn’t much) that Trump is a racist than that he’s anti-gay or anti-trans.
The flag was upside down which is clearly a coded signal about how he wants to put them in camps.
The most totalitarian thing Trump has done is to not allow me to not keep more of my own money, with this unpatriotic tax scam.
The crumbs that have been scattered about by greedy fat-cat CEOs is evidence that only government can properly redistribute wealth from the hoarders to the needy.
About 9k per year of crumbs for wife and I. I’ll take it.
She just keeps digging, doesnt she? We should toss her a bigger shovel.
“they seem to have lost sight of their purported mission”
Operative word: purported. Their actual mission, tracing back to their founding, is actually socialist agitation. Its co-founders were both communists and its forerunner organization, the NCLB, was dissolved when it was discovered to be distributing communist propaganda.
Sure, distributing communist propaganda is 1A protected speech; however an organization that sprang from that and claims to be “protecting civil liberties” and the Constitution is pinko style taqiya.
Exactly this.
They also believe the Supreme Court is right to relegate the Second Amendment to disfavored-rights status, even though, you know, it’s right there, in plain English, with the other Amendments in the Bill of Rights.
As applied to the States via the Fourteenth Amendment, the doctrine of partial incorporation is a fraud, allowing the Court to pick and choose which rights benefit from strict scrutiny and which do not. Although the Court did declare the right to keep and bare arms is a fundamental right in Heller, the majority did a great disservice in McDonald v. Chicago by not clarifying the standard of review vis a vis state laws which infringe on the Second Amendment. So the lower courts, along with the ACLU, are quite content to apply rational basis scrutiny, which is no scrutiny at all.
“So at this point, it’s not a matter of the mask slipping, it’s been totally removed. The ACLU is nothing but an arm of the Democratic Party, no different than MoveOn.org or Democratic Underground, and now doesn’t even pretend otherwise.”
Unfortunately no different than the media, the education system, the entertainment industry, and now add sports.
http://reason.com/blog/2015/06/29/the-aclu-now-opposes-religious-freedom-b
This was a good article from pre-‘woke’ Reason detailing the ACLU’s convenient switch from defending religious liberty to opposing all religious liberty cases that pertain to Christians (only Christians). They stopped being a legitimate civil rights organization when they adopted the hierarchy of grievance into the Bill of Rights.
Yeah, all true, but what amazed me is that they don’t even pretend any more. “TEAM BLUE!!!!!”
Agreed. Good rant
Eh, needs more Kvetching.
Uh, duh. I thought the name was a dead giveaway. Or does it stand for something other than “Anti-Christian Lawyers Union”?
The BBB approved charity logo at the bottom right of their webpage should warn anyone off from donating in any case.
Against my better judgement, I figured I would check out what the ACLU had going on at their site for myself. Good news, for the first time the ACLU plans on getting involved in elections:
They are claiming in the article that they will be non-partisan, but I have no faith in that claim. Guess we’ll see.
“The ACLU aims to educate voters about the civil liberties and civil rights records of candidates and build a base of voters who will factor those records into how they will vote”
Translation: Vote for Democrats.
Vote for the people who instituted Jim Crow, filibustered the civil rights acts and place illegally resident foreigners as more important than natural born citizens.
Don’t forget FDR: the only president in modern history who instituted the only race-based internment of natural-born US citizens.
Honestly, I think the Democraps just have a guilty conscience about their own horrible racist history and the fact that many of their beloved ideas (minimum wage, unions, gun control, etc.) were rooted in desires to keep wypipo on top.
Hello. Everyone knows those Democrats were really Republicans!
Like This Klansman, who never left the Democrat Party?
Vote for the people who instituted Jim Crow, filibustered the civil rights acts and place illegally resident foreigners as more important than natural born citizens.
To be fair, for the first two items you list, that was the party, not any of the current members.
But only if the Koch’s say so:
Remember, always read the comments.
Yeah, because the candidate that spends the most always wins the election. OW! *pulls eye muscle from rolling too hard*
The fact is that Lefties frequently outspend their opponents, but they work hard to create this perception that they’re some kind of underdogs scraping together pennies to beat the big right-wing meanies. Just a few examples:
– Donald Trump spent very little on campaigning. Jeb Bush spent a colossal amount trying to beat him, he lost, then Hillary spent a huge amount and also lost.
– The NRA is regularly outspent by anti-gun entities like the Brady Campaign, Joyce Foundation, Michael Bloomberg, and George Soros.
– The AFSCME, SEIU, and American Federation of Teachers all spend more – individually, not combined – on political lobbying than Koch Industries. And all of their donations go to Democrats.
NRA spending:
https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000000082&cycle=2016
What’s ‘outside spending’? It’s not clear to me.
Bloomberg and Soros aren’t corporations – sheesh.
Hey, at least give Laura here some credit. She actually accurately summarized the CU decision, even if everything else she said is fallacious nonsense.
I love authentic
frontierprogtard gibberish.“The ACLU didn’t feel the need to defend civil rights while the sitting attorney general made an argument in defense of the executive being able to assassinate an American citizen overseas without oversight from Congress or the Judiciary. The ACLU also did not feel the need to defend civil rights when the previous administration wiretapped the phones of journalists. The ACLU further did not have any qualms with the IRS being used against political enemies. Some might call this hypocrisy, but clearly they are not aware of the fact that the current administration has done something much worse than these previous incidences. The current administration says mean things and rejects being ‘woke’. This is highly problematic. We at the ACLU will always defend some of the civil rights of some Americans and fiercely defend made-up rights that actually violate the religious and free speech rights of other Americans. Get woke, y’all!”
Call me a cynical bastard but I have a sneaking suspicion that the non-partisan claim is rank PR bullshit.
I’ve learned that anyone or any org. claiming to be ‘non-partisan’ are anything but.
Progs seem to honestly believe their actions are ‘non-partisan’ sometimes.
It’s retardville.
It’s just a matter of changing the meaning of “partisan” and “non-partisan”. Do you even newspeak bro?
The ACLU was founded in 1920. There are no issues on the ballot today* which are anywhere near the level of rights violations that were commonplace then. Am I seriously supposed to believe that we’re about to return to Jim Crow, or jailing war protesters? Gimme a fucking break.
* = Perhaps there are a few, but the ACLU is on the other side of them (e.g. gun rights).
I assume they’ll be campaigning to save my 2nd Amendment Rights?
OMWC, tell us more about that “magic” bookmark.
Do you make coins appear from behind someone’s ear?
He misspelled MAJIC.
I am a complete geek about close-up magic. The French Drop followed by a basic palm is perfect for fooling little kids.
Well…that is a necessary part of your repertoire, ne?
The French Drop is a sacklcloth bag lowered rapidly over the head. The basic palm is a heavy-handed push to the back, into the van.
The procedure taken as a whole is known as “the Ted Bundy”.
I laughed.
Going to be honest. Came here to check and see if there were any more pics of Evan’s Tinder Dream/Nightmare.
More seductive and leading to the dark side.
Pleasure up front, pain later on.
Yes, we need more pics. Especially butthole pics. Got any butthole pics, Evan?
Your dick going into it is optional.
am i the only one who sees that picture and thinks “nope, she does not have a baby”?
Just because she has a baby doesn’t mean it came from her womb.
Well. I’d go with Occam’s Razor on that question. If she didn’t have one, why bring it up? It’s a Tinder date after all. /shrug.
Because…crazy?
Humblebrag that she’s fertile?
OT
https://twitter.com/maxbsawicky/status/964669507372449797
“Russia fever dreams are not at all like McCarthyism, because the Soviet Union was ‘progressive’ and the current government of Russia is full of baddies”
Wasn’t Putin a KGB Colonel before the fall of the Soviet Union?
“6. Talk of Hillary, Dems, and “WWIII” is especially batty in light of the dangers currently posed by Trump, re: Korea or Iran.”
How many nukes do the Russians have again? Ah, 4500 operational warheads. These people are nuts.
The savvy idiot hot-take.
The Jews did this too?
(((They))) did everything.
Everything.
Dammit, man!
What haven’t (((they))) done?!!11!1!ELVENTY!!1ONEONEONE
dismantle Russia
What does this even mean? The USSR was not just composed of Russia, and many of the not-Russian peoples in the USSR and its “satellite” states are glad to be rid of rule from Moscow.
It means the author is a totalitarian.
I’m reading Warning to the West right now. It should be required reading in high school as a reminder of how the Soviet Union actually was and how, at one time, organized labor in the US actually opposed the communists.
The indoctrinators wouldn’t dare let malliable minds near seditious tracts like that.
Even Gerald Ford thought Solzhenitsyn went too far in his speeches, because he dared to criticize the West for kowtowing to the Soviet’s demands. Harvard was apoplectic after Alexander got done with his presentation there, because he was a moral conservative and chided Western liberalism for assuming everyone wanted to live the way they do.
The original American labor movement was also far more anti-socialist than anywhere else in the world. The first labor unions were Georgists
That does not make me like them any more.
Georgists > socialists
That’s just a fact. At least Georgists believe in property rights and a market economy
True, but that’s like saying that Robby Soave is better than Nick Gillespie because at least Soave can be cowed into shutting up by a stern gaze.
I can see socialism as being the Nick Gillespie of economic systems. So, I see your analogy. But, come on, Georgists are not that bad. At the very least, Georgists have never run gulags.
Albert Jay Nock was a Georgist before he became libertarian. But, he always had sympathy for Georgism
Since Georgists have never run anything, they never got the chance.
Nah. Just let the air out of one of his tires and walk away. Or toss some froot sooshi into a briar patch.
Meh. Georgists seem to have one unworkable fantasy about a particular thing (real property) whereas socialists have many unworkable fantasies about nearly everything and also the desire to enact violence in pursuit of those fantasies.
The hatred that runs so deep against Georgists here.
Why does anyone hate them. All they do is study rocks… Oh, I read that as geologists. What’s a Georgist? Do they study Georgia?
No hatred. Not even contempt. Derision, perhaps, though even that is pushing it. Bemused is most apt. They hold no power, nor will they ever because they hold ideas that most consider contradictory. I do enjoy tweaking their noses, partially because they make it so easy but mostly because I’m a terrible human being.
Georgists are really not that bad. Geologists, on the other hand, are monsters.
I think the problem is twofold.
First, The Georgists open with questionable assertions: “the supply of land never changes”, “nobody did anything to produce land”, “land and improvements are separable and distinct things”, “the market price of land (not real property) can be assessed”.
Then, they having failed to prove any of those assertions*, they segue right into contentious conclusions: “land tax eliminates deadweight loss”, “land tax is only collected on unearned rents”, “land tax is the only moral form of taxation”, “land tax eliminates market distortions”, “payment of land tax always falls squarely on the landlord and never on the tenant”.
* = robc has made some sincere effort, but many Georgists just repeat the assertions like self-evident facts and ignore or misrepresent the critiques
Usable land is generated all the time. That process will accelerate unless the watermelons get full control.
“nobody did anything to produce land”,
Uh, Singapore, Hong Kong, New York, Denmark, . . . . .
Georgism is somewhat like Distributism. They both present criticisms, mostly back free market economies overall, fiercely defend property rights, but would like property to be more widely held, but are not fully fleshed-out economic systems. They are more philosophical than practical. But, in the same token, they are both considerably better than socialism.
The sea floor is a type of land.
Getting rid of the water on top of it is an improvement.
The Netherlands is the best example and you missed it.
I fucked up. Swap Denmark for Netherlands. It was in my head the right way.
I am not a Georgist, I just agree with them on the single land tax (and single being the key word), but as you said, I try, so will try with these in short responses:
1. Theory says so, assuming the supply is inelastic. You can’t really make more land, you just convert it from unusable to usable (I could see some exceptions to this, but in almost all those cases, I would make the land tax $0 or damn close to it).
2. As long as the rate isn’t too high, this is true. I think somewhere around 3.5% with be the max (just rough estimate).
3. I would go with least immoral.
4. See #2. This is true, unless a different market distortion is created by taxing above the rents.
5. I am no economist, but Adam Smith says so and he has a pretty good track record on these things. Friedman and Krugman agree with him to. And Mises, IIRC.
Eastimate I see is about $23T for total value of land in the US.
Muliply by 3.5% and that is $805 billion. That would be max amount of total taxation for fed, state and local goverments.
Six trillion is the current estimate for tax revenue at all levels, so that would be between 10-15% of current levels.
Even if you don’t like the SLT, cutting government spending by 85-90% has to be a positive, right?
Eastimate I see is about $23T for total value of land in the US.
Do you mean real property? Because there is no market for land. People today buy and sell real property, not land per se.
Theory says so, assuming the supply is inelastic.
The supply is what’s for sale at a certain time on the actual market, not what exists in some hypothetical market. It is neither perfectly inelastic nor perfectly elastic. The supply responds to price signals, albeit with some time lag.
As long as the rate isn’t too high, this is true.
But the rate is just a number pulled out of a hat. Even if you could measure the value of a piece of land, you can’t measure the value of a nebulous rent allegedly but not actually accrued from it.
I am no economist, but Adam Smith says so and he has a pretty good track record on these things. Friedman and Krugman agree with him to. And Mises, IIRC.
Good for them. I have yet to be convinced.
Even if you don’t like the SLT, cutting government spending by 85-90% has to be a positive, right?
That assumes that the rate you want is the rate the government would set, and that the government wouldn’t enact policies to drive up the value of land (or at least, the assessment of the value) the same as it has done to drive up the value of property, in order to funnel more money into its coffers.
“I am a fan of the USSR”
That’s good to know.
I didn’t see that.
So he’s a tankie.
Well, maybe. That was kind of tongue in cheek. He does come off sounding like a defense of the USSR is hiding just under the surface.
give the man a com complementary helicopter ride. Although a boat ride on the bayou might also work I assume
I’m curious as to how the modern Left defines “right wing”. They would probably say war or nationalism, but that doesn’t make sense given the warlike and nationalistic tendencies of, well, pretty much every communist nation that has ever existed.
“right wing” is that which is icky.
And considering that the working class in the US and in Europe has moved to voting for the ‘right-wing party’, how can the Left still claim to be representing them and their interests? The class breakdown in the West’s politics has been the most fascinating development recently.
Those dumb hicks in flyover country don’t know what’s good for them.
“White privilege” always struck me as a way to for the upper class left to look down on the working class. Now you can loath them as much as the aristocrats of old!
^ Yes.
Or the war-like and nationalistic tendencies of the original Left in French Revolution.
Bill of Rights You Can be Trusted With.
still good on 1A though despite the 200 staffers that signed a letter decrying the ACLU’s position to defend speech they found icky.
i put the over/under at 10 years until those 200 staffers become 2000 or however many it takes to reach critical mass and they actively lobby to criminalize icky speech.
They’re already backing away from the 1 Amendment. Volokh had a post about that shortly after Charlottesville. They said that they would stop defending the free speech rights of people with guns and would be more selective of who’s rights they defended in the future
i forgot about that. damn them.
Is the VA chapter of the ACLU on board with that, or did they get forced into compliance with the national organization’s stance?
Were it a principled organization, those 200 would have been out on their arses that same day.
You guys are aware that the ACLU was formed by actual commies? As in actual fans of the USSR?
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001232506
Guess you missed comment #4, eh?
Um I got a link to Baldwin’s book on the USSR.
You Gillespie’d yourself
?
I just meant because Q already posted this.
That’s a ‘Gillespie’
I thought a “Gillespi” was when someone under thirty years old comments and then you write a barely coherent article about what Dicks old people are and how the kids nowadays are the only true scots?
To the founder’s credit, he disavowed the communists a few years after starting the organization.
The current incarnation of the ACLU doesn’t have much to do with the organization of yesteryear. They live and die by media sentiment now.
To the founder’s credit, he disavowed the communists a few years after starting the organization.
Not exactly unheard of for commie fronts. Its in their DNA. I’m glad I never gave them a nickel.
Sure, sometimes they are on the right side of an issue, but when you give money to an organization, you give money to the whole organization, not just the bit that is doing something today that you agree with.
The history of the ACLU suggests that at the national level they were fervently anti-communist during the Cold War, but not so much at the local level. Baldwin purged the communists from their national ranks during the 40’s as a response to the atrocities committed under Stalin. I don’t doubt his sincerity based on what I’ve read about him before.
The really disturbing thing about Baldwin’s love of the USSR was that he admitted that bad things were happening but the Soviets were creating a better society so they should be excused.
Early on he did that.
How about this: I’m going to walk around with a swastika t-shirt and insist that Nazism was really a great system for full employment and national security, and I’ll insist that all that death camp stuff was because Hitler deviated from true Nazi principles, and besides, the US was lynching black people so they really have no right to complain. I’ll say that we should try Nazism again and be sure to get The Right People™ in charge this time.
That’s basically what self-identified communists/socialists today are doing.
The history of the ACLU suggests that at the national level they were fervently anti-communist during the Cold War
Could be. Don’t know.
But I look at their approach to “civil liberties” now, and while I can give them a pass on prioritizing some, I can’t give them a pass on (i) picking and choosing based on which group in society will benefit from a particular case or (ii) pretending that civil liberties give rise to entitlements.
Those are consistent with how crypto-commie progressives act. If it quacks like a duck . . . .
It wasn’t a commentary on the state of the ACLU today. Just pointing out that they’ve had an up and down relationship with actual civil liberties, not all of it in bad faith.
This is why I never game money to Reason, outside of buying an occasional issue of the magazine years ago.
Attacking the ACLU like this is sort of what an alt right neoNazi would do. I’m on to you (((old man)))
So, I mean you only have 2 choices there days, be a good little prog or an alt-right neoNazi. I didn’t want to be a Nazi.
The French Drop followed by a basic palm is perfect for fooling little kids.
“That’s weird. Your piece of candy just disappeared. Don’t worry, there’s more in the van. Come on. I’ll let you pet my puppy.”
I’ll let you pet my puppy.
You’ve been taking lessons, I see.
Hey Mister, why doesn’t your puppy have any hair?
“Sure, distributing communist propaganda is 1A protected speech; however an organization that sprang from that and claims to be “protecting civil liberties” and the Constitution is pinko style taqiya.”
Bingo.
They miss 2 in their count for a simple reason. Remember the riots in Ferguson, Missouri? The CPUSA showed up to help the rioters. The commies tried to get the rioters to burn down more upscale neighborhoods and some corporate headquarters. The rioters flatly refused.
“We aint going there. Those people have guns. We will get shot.”
This is why authoritarianism has such a difficult time taking hold in this country. The agitators cant use mob violence to intimidate the population. We shoot back. This is the reason, and no other, that lefty groups like the Democratic party, Commie party, ACLU etc hate the 2nd amendment so much. They dont give a shit about crime. They dont give a shit about safety. They dont give a shit about the children. They have plans for us and if we lose our gun rights we will not like them very much. It is as simple as that.
My wife went down to parkland to counsel. The high schools in the area are staging walkouts evidently. My wife thinks it’s good that they’re using their voice, even if you don’t agree with the politics.
Me: *sits silently so as not to cause a fight*
Wants to say: I’m sure if they were walking out in support of a border wall to keep terrorist out to save one life, the school would be just fine with it too…
It’s just their marxist teachers wanting to turn them into obedient little brownshirts. Nothing to see here, or argue about. End public school. That’s the cure.
Who is supplying the students with the pre-printed, identical T-shirts “as seen on TV”?
My only thought on this is, if you don’t want your children to be indoctrinated into Marxism, don’t send them to public school. I highly advise all parents to heed this message and act accordingly. If anyone wants to ignore that, they shouldn’t complain when their kids turn out to be commies.
Every year I’m more and more happy I didn’t have kids.
You’ve planned well, bro. Mine are grown and out of the house. I wouldn’t have more, not in this environment.
You hear that- Hyperion is telling you all to send your kids to Catholic school. He’s a papist!
No way, the pope is a commie!
I want to seriously ask the man if he remembers he’s supposed to be catholic with his apologia for socialism and islamic conquest of europe. Than ask why, as a purported pope, he isn’t acting as a defender of the faith?
I’m not catholic, but it still angers me when someone gets into an office and acts contrary to the duties of that office.
He thinks he is. It’s just that he comes from S America and its embrace of Marxist liberation theology.
“He thinks he is. It’s just that he comes from S America and its embrace of Marxist liberation theology.”
I still don’t know what’s wrong with them. You would think they’d look north and figure out that someone found out a way to do it better. All I can come up with is that the voters who consider themselves ‘native American’ are still mad at whitey for what they did in the 15th century. There’s really no excuse for abusing yourself to right the wrongs of guys who have been dead for 500 years, but they can’t seem to get over it.
Having your woes be the fault of someone else means that you’re not a failure, you’re being held back!
^^the core principle of social justice
No idea. The only info I get is when my wife calls me. I shut out the world as much as possible. Glibs is my only contact with reality.
You’re really better off that way.
Carmen Yulín Cruz. (No relation.)
Harris Yulin’s daughter?
I honest thing that yes there is alt right crap, but besides that the internet may keep a lot of kids from going full commie
Also: “I’m sure they’re doing this of their own accord and not at the urging of their teachers, who are doing it at the urging of their union, who are doing it at the urging of the DNC who are doing it at the urging of whatever shell organization backed by lefty billionaires is funding it all. Teenagers are stupid and would rather walk out and fuck around than sit in class.”
Hey kids! Do you want to read this boring book or get extra credit for going on a walk?
The upside is they can spot the trouble makers who decided to stay and class and try to learn. They’ll be first against the wall.
well, in all fairness, there are full progs in high schools already, those kids don’t need much prodding.
Wants to say: I’m sure if they were walking out in support of a border wall to keep terrorist out to save one life, the school would be just fine with it too…
If they went on strike until meaningful safety measures were instituted (involving active armed self defense) what would the official story be?
They’ve been corrupted by gun nuts and evul Kochtopus money?
One: it wouldn’t be in the news
Two: they would be failed and refused a diploma.
But civil disobedience to further democrats agenda is okey silly dokey.
It’s depressing to see how effective the “march through the institutions” has been. At this point, almost every major institution of consequence has a rotten core of Marxism. Thank G-d for guns and an unregulated internet or we’d really be fucked.
It also shows why they’re so desperate to abolish 2A and take control of the internet.
Yeah, they can’t win on the internet or in any open debate environment. They’ve been getting slapped around and embarrassed for a long time now and it keeps getting worse for them. So Twitter and Facebook going on witch hunt purges for the wrong thinkers is not even in the least unexpected. It’s time Thiel keeps his promise of investing billions into libertarian/conservative media initiatives.
I completely agree.
I tend think the cultural war is over – the Marxists won where it matters. Politics trails culture, so the slide down the lubed slope to a full Total State is pretty much inevitability. What I think is somewhat of a surprise is that the Total State won’t be authoritarian; the SJWs and progressives have shown that they intend to have a full totalitarian state.
The armed populace is a variable in the equation, but tried-and-true salami slice tactics and increasing population of people with no guns or experience with guns at all makes the armed populace a brake on the slide, perhaps. But that is all.
I figure we’ve got another generation before we have gone full Total State. At my age, I doubt I’ll be around quite that long. Future generations are, as they have always been, on their own.
When I was in college there was an acting professor who was going to let class out early so students could attend a lefty rally (it got cancelled so we had class), this same professor wouldn’t give me an excused absence for jury duty.
The ACLU has gone to the mat to defend Obamacare, repeatedly…
https://www.aclu.org/blog/reproductive-freedom/worried-about-repeal-obamacare-so-are-we-heres-why
Someone will have to help me find the part in the Constitution that covers preexisting conditions, the provision of long-term services under Medicaid, etc.
How ’bout that part of the Constitution that forces me to buy a product I don’t want?
+1 Penaltax by J. Spineless Roberts
Poor Penaltax Roberts, the penaltax got repealed. Oh muh legacy. Now Maryland wants to pass a law to force people to buy health insurance, and Cali wants to confiscate their tax cuts. Nancy was so right, crumbs, these Democrats really care.
Don’t you know that the words “general welfare” mean that every single Lefty proposal for wealth redistribution and nationalized healthcare is totally Constitutional and stuff?
General welfare clause, that’s what they’re going to say.
One of my favorite things on the Tweeters is when Maggie McNeill replies to ACLU Tweets.
Have you checked today to see if she’s been purged for being a Russian bot yet?
The Purge
Yep – she’s still on
Then she needs to shitlord harder.
In case anyone thought the screencap is just an internet fundraising thing, it’s something already being done by their footsoldiers. When I was in Little Tokyo downtown last week, there were two ACLU people there shouting at people to “help stop Donald Trump!” and protect the constitution. I never heard any more specifics than that, but I was vaguely curious about what, specifically, they were bitching about.
But anyway, yes, they appear to be just another DNC arm at this point.
Kinda on topic where comments on the Internet are concerned:
“…We now have a CENTRIST government in Europe…”. This illustrates a major pet peeve of mine. I am old enough (68) to know the difference between left, right, and center. The ruling elite and the main stream media have redefined the center. They believe “We cannot possibly be extremist. Therefore, we are centrists and any one who has opposing views is far right.” They then use the term “far right” as a pejorative in order to discredit any dissenting opinions. The nationalists are in fact the centrists who are trying to return the world to sanity and who are trying to preserve their national cultures before they are destroyed. We should not allow the progressive, globalist elites get away with redefining “the center”. Words matter. Words are powerful. Down with doublespeak!”
That’s pretty accurate.
The weather here is beautiful today. 77F and sunny. It’s making me feel all laid back like. 30 minutes, finish work and beer on the deck.
77? Ugh, that’s too warm.
No way, it’s perfect!
It was 73 and sunny yesterday when I had to work. I woke up today – my day off – and it’s 43 and rainy. Fuck.
Yeah, I ventured out into the breezeway and for the first time this year, the gable fan was on which means there’s 110F air up there.
So can we do OT yet?
No, shutupahyu, stay on topic like the rest of us!
OT is for closers.
I’m not eligable for OT anymore, I’m salaried.
You just did.
The ACLU is one of those organizations that exists merely to exist. Their purpose is raising funds to pay for their executives, staff, and HQ. Civil rights is just the excuse.
I put the NRA, Susan G. Komen, and PETA in the same bucket.
PETA gives the lunatics a place to gather at least.
Don’t forget the overwhelming majority of government departments.
Since when did ‘overwhelming majority’ mean ‘all’?
When the majority literally overwhelm the minority and disempower them, ‘overwhelming majority’ DOES mean ‘all’.
Everyone shy of full anarchists agree that there are departments that must exist (courts, defence). Are you an anarchist? Have you now or ever been a member of an anarchist anti-organization? How many anarchists do you know?
You’re referring to the original limited purpose of those departments. All of them have since far exceeded their scope. Wanting them reigned back in even if they still have a core purpose, doesn’t make me an anarchist. I mean unless you think the military’s purpose is to establish a forever war for fun and profit and the purpose of a police force is to abuse civil rights and collect assets for the state?
I’m an anarchist
, just not a very good one. I haven’t burned my licenses or social security card.
My impression of Senator McCarthy missed the mark I guess.
SPLC is far and away the worst of the bunch. “The Morris Dees Personal Slush Fund.”
Forgot them. Thanks for reminding me of their existence! *angry face*
FREE BEER AT MY OFFICE TODAY!
So you tell us now? When no one can get there before you close?
Which direction do I drive in? I can’t remember where you live now.
Q’s employer
I’ve been doxxed!
*shakes fist*
but after work I’m heading to my local watering home for the burger ‘n’ beer special. Michigan craft beer along with a grass-fed burger. Yeah it’s a little hoity-toity but they have a great selection of beer ‘n’ booze.
Shitlord!
No OT allowed. Unless it’s Evan
Evan’s busy visiting his doctor for that pesky STD.
I had to go back and check to see what all the fuss is about.
I’d be conflicted too. Good Lord.
ACLU
C- on the first
F on the second
I guess the third gets an A.
B- on the fourth
B on the fifth
it gets worse after that.
C- on the first won’t last long before it drops to a D or F since they’ve explicitly allied themselves with the SocDems.
Yeah, i felt like I was rounding up out of pity.
Back when The Onion was still The Onion:
https://www.theonion.com/third-amendment-rights-group-celebrates-another-success-1819569379
https://slate.com/technology/2018/02/apple-may-buy-cobalt-directly-from-mines-fearing-a-shortage-in-the-future.html
A number of automotive companies are also trying to secure long-term cobalt deals. Volkswagen asked cobalt producers in September for proposals to furnish the company with the metal until 2029 for its pivot to EVs, and BMW is looking for a 10-year supply of cobalt and lithium to support its plans to introduce 25 new electric cars by 2025.
Fierce competition for cobalt could throttle the proliferation of electric vehicle in the next decade. With Tesla, Ford, GM, and a host of others also aiming to expand their EV production goals, experts predict that demand for cobalt from auto manufacturers will multiply eightfold by 2026. By around that time, the Scientific American reports, the electric car industry will likely require at least 330,000 metric tons of the mineral, though the available supply in 2025 will only be 290,000 metric tons according to the most optimistic estimates.
Oh No! Peak Cobalt.
Let’s start a brand new business that depends entirely on commodity that we won’t be able to buy in sufficient quantities in a mere 7 fucking years.
Better yet, let’s disincentivize or outright ban the alternative technology that has been in use for the past century.
We need to get into the Cobalt extraction business.
Australian mining companies if you’re ethical. Blood Cobalt out of Congo if you’re not too scrupulous.
If American demand is high enough, expect some moves to soften US political opposition to Cuban trade.
Midnight Oil has a sad.
often have to use hand tools to dig hundreds of feet below the earth and expose themselves to toxic metals that can result in respiration issues and birth defects.
So let an American company pay the Congo for mineral rights and use modern techniques. Oh wait. That be the same as colonialism. Also, is this the plot for Black Panther? Some African country controls the supplied of a super metal. The Congo should be a utopia then.
This is why we collect orphans, is it not?
It’s quite possible that I end my working life with a world in a very similar state to the way it was when I entered working life.
Back then, copper was in huge demand, and there was talk of finding ways to address this demand by renting, rather than purchasing the metal. Needless to say, the invisible hand, allied with the inexorable power of human ingenuity, delivered optical fiber as a means of transmitting digital data, and demand for copper fell. The remaining copper porphyry deposits which had been predicted by computer models (that worked) could be left unexploited for the benefit of future generations.
The next-most-promising source of copper once those porphyries were mined, were deep-ocean manganese nodules – the discovery of which revealed that they’re loaded with all sorts of useful metal oxide and sulfides in abundance, The challenge of course being that they’re located on the abyssal plains of large, ancient oceans like the Pacific, Indian and to a lesser degree, Atlantic Oceans. A combination of UN demobuggery and a reduction in demand for copper relegated this to promising research, but for a few brief years, PhDs and MScs were minted aplenty on the matter, research vessels and explo equipment were built and the deep ocean floor was going to be the Next Frontier.
And now we’re here again. Cobalt is just one of the metals we will need in abundance if the battery technology people orgasm over is going to succeed. Manganese nodules will be an increasingly credible source of many of the minerals we currently have to purchase from ethically challenged nation states. Time to build Son of Glomar Challenger and set sail for Inner Space.
Have y’all seen this? CNN goes to Florida and ambushes an old lady in her own front yard about sending out supposedly Russian financed memes on Facebook.
https://twitter.com/CNN/status/966134015337140229?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
She was a lot more polite than I would have been, that’s for sure.
Trump called the media “the enemy of the people” and I wagged my finger at him. And now, I admit he was correct. This is just pure evil. Trump’s opposition is intent on proving him right
His best feature is his enemies who make him look good by comparison.
Twitter use to let me look at stuff, now it wants me to open an account. HARD. PASS.
Goldfarb?
(((Goldfarb?)))
The plot thickens.
RIP Nat Hentoff. Ye Olde Hometown newspaper carried his column along with Charley Reese (RIP), Jack Anderson (RIP), Mike Royko (RIP), and a couple of others whose names escape me. A good batch of writers to consume during one’s formative years.
Billy Graham died….That’s all.
Well I guess it’s all over then.
Speaking of the ACLU, have they invited Obama to be on their board of directors, yet?
They invited Michelle.
Alex Trebek to host PA gubernatorial debate.
I’d give a fuck about that issue, but I gave it to your mother lasht night.
(Swooooon) “Europe has *real* public intellectuals!!
this is more funny when you realize that all these leadup examples were intended as *proof* of his intellectual significance, rather than some attempt to undermine it.
You, the reader are supposed to be surprised and confused when you later learn that he’s skeptical about the inevitable success of western liberal democracy, and other ‘crazy ideas’
basically, the above are supposed to be the ‘out there and crazy’ bits, not the “your car is a uterus”
sounds familiar
these ideas are so wild and unheard of. they were entirely unknown to the author until she pried them from Germany’s leading public intellectual over a glass of rose.
strange, that when libertarians say the same things in the US, people like the NY’r themselves have zero compunction making the same claims about ‘far right wing ideologies’
sorry
the original story
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/02/26/a-celebrity-philosopher-explains-the-populist-insurgency
worth reading. the key theme is basically, “Man speaks some sense (some), has generally libertarian worldview, and is consequently regarded as a far-right extremist in his German intellectual circles, because no one can distinguish “not lefty” from Far Right anymore”
While we are talking about the metaphorical death of institutions protecting civil liberties, let’s tip out a few sips of our tall-boys in memory of the Bill of Rights:
1st Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Mostly dead. “Shall make no law”…. unless you want to regulate campaign contributions. Or independent speech near elections. Or about candidates. Or political rallies, marches or other forms of protest carried out for disfavored groups or causes.
2nd: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Mostly dead.
“Shall not be infringed” covers a lot of ground. Like way more than the size of the magazine your weapon is allowed.
3rd: No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
Mostly irrelevant.
4th: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Mostly dead.
FISA courts….. really? secret courts with secret warrants that cannot be revealed, let alone reviewed? Exceptions for the search and seizure of almost everything – cell phones, cloud storage, email, text messages, phone records, ….
Dead, dead, dead…. They don’t even pretend probable cause means probable cause most of the time.
5th:
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.[92]
What’s another word for mostly dead?
Double jeopardy is pretty strictly enforced. Unless you commit an icky crime. Then the Feds get to come along for a second bite at the apple.
And you don’t even have to go to eminent domain abuse for the due process…. we have civil asset forfeiture! If there’s a more direct and bald-faced violation of the constitution, I don’t know what it would be.
6th: In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.[92]
Hmm… Mostly alive?
Federal prosecutions and mandatory minimums and giant budgets kinda make it a moot point in many cases… but we do pretty much try to keep to this. Except when we don’t.
7th:
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.[92]
Eh, mostly, kinda alive? Federal overcharging kinda violates this in a roundabout way.
Oooh…. civil asset forfeiture completely ignores this. And Tax Court. Probably lots of others.
But we do still stick to jury trials as a right for the most part, I suppose.
8th: Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
C’mon. Dead. Dead, dead, dead. Dead.
Sure, we don’t hang people by their thumbs or lock them in stockades or lop off half a foot any more. But the rest of it? Dead.
9th: The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Pinin’ for the fjords. Pushin’ up the daisies.
This is an Ex- Amendment!
Ok, they kinda found a right to privacy. But the principle of “unless the constitution says the government has a power, it doesn’t have that power” is completely lost.
10th: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people
Closely tied to the 9th. As if it were nailed there.
It is no more.
Dead. Dead. Dead.
Nobody even bothers to pretend that this one exists. See Wickard. See Raich. See everything the feds do, pretty much.