I woke up this morning and expected the world to have ended. And according to MSNBC and CNN….it has. But more on that later. Right now, I want to congratulate the Washington Capitals before they, and all of their fans, are too drunk to remember that I said it. And I also want to say “PIIIIIIG SOOOOOOOOEY!” or whatever Arkansas Razorback fans say when they stomp on the Cocks and punch their ticket to Omaha. Joining them are the Texas Longhorns, Texas Tech red Raiders and the Floriduh Gators. The Yankees were off yesterday, which makes sense since they’ve played 7-8 fewer games than everyone else it seems. Rumor has it that Aaron Judge used the opportunity to sacrifice a live chicken to satisfy Jobu, who will help him eventually hit the curveball. If only he’d give his life to Jesus, it would all be easier.
No, this isn’t the deaf, dumb and blind girl.
Hey, today is George HW Bush’s birthday. Dude made it to 94!. Also born today were diarist Anne Frank, actor/singer Jim Nabors, tv announcer and convicted sexual assaulter Marv Albert, Pretender Pete Farndon, funny man and Canadian Scott Thompson, musician Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and former Liverpool star and current Barcelona benchwarmer Philippe Coutinho. Its also the day for revolting peasants in 1381’s England, Virginia adopted the Declaration of Rights in 1776, the gas mask was patented, the Philippines told Spain to fuck off, Babe Ruth was struck out three times in a row by Hub Pruett, Houdini did the straight jacket escape while hanging 40 ft in the air, Bobby Jones, one of the three greatest golfers to ever play, won the 1930 US Open, Al Capone was indicted, Germany launched its first V-1 attack on London, Cleopatra premiered in 1963…it ended sometime the next day, Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life in prison, and the “colorful” Sparky Anderson was hired by the Tigers. Also, the unforgettable “Raiders Of The Lost Ark” premiered. and Nobel laureate Alexandr Solzhenitsyn was given the State Prize of the Russian Federation by President Putin for his humanitarian work.
A little lean on birthdays there, but some significant events for sure. Feel free to discuss at your leisure. But I need to move on to…the links!
Hello Nobel Committee. I’d like to introduce my new friend…
North Korea commits to complete denuclearization while Trump declares end to “war games” on the Korean Peninsula. That’s a good thing, right? Unless you’re an idiot, that should be a good thing. (Protip: if you think its a “good thing”, don’t look at the analysis on CNN or MSNBC this morning. Apparently its a bad thing because we just legitimized a thug. Which is different than Cuba how, exactly? Still waiting on an answer for that question.)
Its shootings like this that are why Germans need strict gun control. Christ, what an asshole.
Damn, girl. Nice rack!
Somebody out there with some influence over him might want to tell Bill Clinton to just STFU. Seriously, I think there’s a lot of overblown hysteria with the #metoo movement, but he’s gonna come off as a little tone-deaf what with all of the sexual assault (read: rape) allegations against him, his many trips to Epstein’s Pedo Island and the settlements he has made for sexual harassment allegations.
This is why we all need to appreciate “Starship Troopers” (the movie) as an instruction manual rather than lighthearted entertainment.
Hey, man. Nice shot. No, seriously, this was a good shoot by the coppers. And the craziest thing is it was a Chicago cop that did the good deed. Its unknown how many of his “brothers” were out there terrorizing people for no reason at the same time, but I’ll still give credit where due.
Joe Kennedy III faces an angry mob and apologizes. What I don’t get is why a Kennedy would admit to a mistake when he could have just said he was wasted and needed a rehab stint to clean up. That’s been their go-to for a generation now. Meh, maybe he’s saving it for his first manslaughter or hit-and-run
I’m too busy to do my job, counselor. The victim will have to stay in jail even though she was raped.
And our runner-up in today’s “Christ, what an asshole” competition is former Texas Judge Stacy W. Bond. What did she do? Well, she locked up a sexual assault victim and pretty much drove her nuts. What was her excuse? Because she’s “busy”, she didn’t do her due diligence.
Well that’s it. Except for this lighthearted little ditty.
Now get out there and have a great day.
Good morning, Sloop!
Love the Pretenders. Anyone read Chrissy’s book?
I haven’t. But I have a recurring dream where I accidentally end up backstage at one of their shows and we all start talking and I end up touring with them for like a month before Banjos tracks me down at a Phoenix show because someone from her family was there and recognized me.
That might be the greatest dream ever.
Does she still want the Muslims to win?
I tried to but found it so hard to follow that I got her all wrong
I am having a hard time containing my optimism about North Korea. Work is going to be interesting tomorrow.
*Fires up popcorn machine*
“Trust, but verify”
…but I , too, am hoping this can mean an end to 7 decades of this crap. Korea should simply be a business or tourism destination, rather than a PCS posting.
.. or a massive Gulag hell hole where families are imprisoned for generations for wrong think.
Well, as far as the North goes – best outcome…swift change like Romania or Russia. Worst case…things remain the same.
Not sure a swift change like Germany would be a good idea – it’d be far, far more difficult and expensive than easing through things.
Read somewhere that the South Koreans had calculated the cost of reunification (assuming China lets that happen), and it made the German thing look like chump change. At this point even the SKs might not want to go there…
Amen…
…although I did have a great time when I was stationed there.
*slightly narrows gaze*
Racist?
Dunno. Is he narrowing his gaze by pulling back on his temples?
It there any other way?
Trump agrees, Swiss.
Gonna need to change his pants
I dont know what any of that means.
It means that this douchebag, like the majority of the other progtards, prefer an outcome that is devastating and costly to America than to let Trump-Putin get a win…
How fucked up do you have to be that you actually actively engage in actions and narrative to make Americans suffer the consequences of failure and loss, because that is what advances your political party’s interests?
Contributing to massive pointless chaos in unstable Middle East countries is a core human right model and basic value of the U.S.
Wow, those comments. What a bunch of scumbags. Yes, I 100% believe we should trade our prior North Korea policy of sanctions and saber rattling for hotels and thawing of relations. I would imagine most North Koreans and South Koreans feel the same way.
He’s really channeling Kieth Olberman there.
Don’t read the replies.
These people are fucking scum. They’d rather millions continue suffering than admit they’re wrong.
Oh wait, make that hundreds of millions and counting.
They are still making excuses to make an ideology that murdered over 120 million people and imprisoned upwards of 3 billion in misery because they are envious of what other people have and want to punish them for having it.
I was thinking about how Trump is different than most Presidents and why that might have made a difference.
Modern Democrats are ideologues, so they are embarrassed about the Korean War and how the commies in the North are dirt poor while the capitalists in the south are rich. That makes them extremely reluctant to confront the communists, the Left would rather just ignore the whole thing.
The Right’s ideology puts the Kims down as a mini-Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, etc… so while they may be right, they have trouble actually dealing with them.
Trump doesn’t have much of an ideology. He treats the guy like an obnoxious contractor on a big job (probably equally evil). He softens him up with threats, then butters him up with praise. Then finally sits down and hammers out a decent contract.
Exactly this. This is how Trump works.
Einstein of Canada should be taking notes.
And nothing is more of a threat to the political machine than someone like this showing how fucked, inept, ineffective, up and stupid the political machine is. Career credentialed top men would all be out of work if people realized they are worthless douchebags.
We are saving money on “wargames” though…
Ha! I just figured out my next troll remark to anyone complaining about this:
“Well I suppose we can go back to spending millions on war games, saber rattling, and living in fear of nuclear hellfire instead of seeking peace if that’s what you really want.”
And our runner-up in today’s “Christ, what an asshole” competition is former Texas Judge Stacy W. Bond. What did she do? Well, she locked up a sexual assault victim and pretty much drove her nuts. What was her excuse? Because she’s “busy”, she didn’t do her due diligence.
She gets a hearing before three other Judges. That’s way more than the victim got.
Maybe they should have a hearing before three random people from the Houston area.
I hope the evil bastards aren’t going to separate this child from his family
Anne Frank – didn’t she play a mean pinball?
“Hold on, what’s that you just said? Some crazy chick? Was it rape-rape? Still finding that out, huh. Well, just throw her in the clink until we need her. Yeah, no, I’ve got a lot on my plate right now. No, I won’t forget about her. Look, look, I’ll write a note about it – see, writing it right now. Yep, I’m great, hope I get re-elected!”
How in HELL can the primary voters have selected her?
It’s Texas and she has an R after her name.
Yeah, but there were other TX-R’s running against her!
Am I misreading this? She fucked up by not specifying an end date on the order, but why is nobody blaming the county for just stuffing her in a jail cell? If they weren’t sure what to do with her after she was released, couldn’t they have, you know, asked?
She also did not follow up, she crafted a crappy order that didn’t specify anything other than “make her be here”. She showed a pretty cavalier attitude too.
The County Jail screwed the pooch too. All to common an occurrence.
LOL! Anyone miss Obama’s dialing it in, super cereal style of diplomacy?
The Rockette Boys.
Trump is definitely a good businessman in that he absolutely knows how to schmooze people with whom he has to negotiate. One thing I noticed about him while watching the footage was how natural it came to him. He was in his element. I guess when you’ve had to suck up to scum-sucking Union bosses and city managers in order to get buildings built, then that sort of behavior becomes natural.
Obama would have bent the knee to the communist overlord.
Probably also acted the crack addict and offered to suck his dick?
North Korea commits to complete denuclearization while Trump declares end to “war games” on the Korean Peninsula. – and they will sell all the equipment second hand to Iran
We should give Iran several more pallets of hard currency, says I.
There is one grand slam in golf history. One.
“The chair is against the wall and John has a long mustache”
Do you know any good white basketball players?
Omar Sharif…what a cool dude he must have been. Great actor, better bridge player, horse racing enthusiast and spoke a half dozen languages fluently.
TIL Omar Sharif is dead
A flea goes into a travel agency …
Right, because being one of the few Americans that traveled to the British Open in 1930 (not to mention not having to face Sarazen, Armour or Hogan in half of the “slams”) makes it as tough as what it would be like today.
Jones was a phenom. Hell, he might have given Jack a run for his money if they were both in their prime. But he played against maybe half of the best golfers of the time at any given venue. Nicklaus or Woods never had that luxury.
Woods never had to play with Jones’ clubs, though.
Neither did any of Woods competitors.
Nicklaus and Woods won their Am titles against college kids. Not against real men.
And neither pulled off an am/open double. Much less both doubles in the same year.
Nicklaus won the freaking US Open when he was 22. And Charles Coe, one of the greatest amateurs ever, was 36 when Jack beat him in the 1959 US Amateur final at the age of 19.
Also, the unforgettable “Raiders Of The Lost Ark” premiered.
SnakesTrump. Why did it have to besnakesTrump?Tons of people on the left are asking themselves just this after that summit…
Remember their “Cowboy” comments about Reagan? They learned from that experience that just sitting back was dangerous, and that they actively needed to undermine anyone they wanted to fail so their world view would remain protected. How pissed are they going to be that orangeman still succeeded when they did participial everything they could short of murdering him to make this fail, and he still might pull it off? How are they going to explain that the mighty Nobel Peace Prize wielding statesman they spent telling us was a genius despite his community organizer creds and actions creating chaos and destruction was butt fucked by the Norks, while the blowhard Trump they despise actually pulled it off?
I think the biggest threat to these people is that it has exposed the entire political class as a bunch of nincompoops.
Clinton said, as part of his comments on Franken, that “maybe I’m just an old-fashioned person.”
As in “Caveman” old fashioned?
“North Korea commits to complete denuclearization while Trump declares end to “war games” on the Korean Peninsula. That’s a good thing, right? Unless you’re an idiot, that should be a good thing.” Well, I just saw my Twitter this morning with Shapiro retweeting several people clutching their pearls over Trump saying nice things about Kim. I guess Ben thinks Trump should’ve insulted him to his face and talked about how horrible he is. I’m sure that would’ve made negotiations work well. You know, you don’t negotiate with a dictator like Kim the way you would a soyboy like Trudeau.
Shapiro…. Goddamn he’s so autistic when it comes to understanding anything about actual business or negotiating.
Also, my opinion of him still hasn’t fully recovered from the bullshit he pulled during the Michelle Fields fiasco.
His ability to debate and to stay on point and articulate conservative/libertarian principles (he is anti War on Drugs, afterall) is second to none, and those sorts of things make for great YouTube videos, but he truly does not understand how a negotiation works.
He’s a Neocon. I didn’t expect anything less from him.
I’m convinced that he (along with a lot of NeverTrumpers) absolutely refuses to give any kind of praise for Trump, for fear of it being seen as admitting he was wrong to be a NeverTrumper. That’s the only thing I can think of to explain why he absolutely refuses to praise Trump for any clearly good thing he’s done.
I suspect that this goes beyond admitting they were wrong about Trump and is more about having to admit that the political class is a bunch of inept credentialed douchebags at best.
Shapiro has a raging war boner everywhere he goes so it’s no surprise he’d talk trash about the meeting and any resulting agreement.
North Korea commits to complete denuclearization
“I’ll believe ya when me shit turns purple and smells like rainbow sherbet.”
I watched a little clip from NBC news this morning. Some female teleprompter-reader was practically pleading with Lindsey Graham to say the Korea “deal” was a terrible thing, and Trump had been snookered and bilked and we would all be sorry later.
If you put yourself in the position of hoping the Korean War continues, rather than Cheeto Mussolini getting credit for peace….might want to check yourself.
At this point I’m looking forward to a Trump blow-out in 2020. Not saying it will happen but the schadenfreude would make 2016 look like a winner.
I seriously think this November will be a GOP blowout.
Oh good, my vials of tears are getting skunky.
I’m not so sure about a blowout, people are stupid after all. But at this point I doubt the Democrats will make significant gains.
A GOP strategist I know says the Dems will pick up at least ten seats in just Cal, NJ and PA unless Trump’s approval ratings go over 50%.
Right now the Repubs have a forty seat advantage, with seven vacant seats. So the Dems need to take twenty+ seats away to get to a majority. I haven’t been following the early prognostications, because its too fucking early, but my gestalt is that those twenty+ seats are getting harder and harder for the Dems to pick up. I’ll probably start paying attention after Labor Day.
The House’s legislative agenda has been mostly run by Nancy Pelosi anyway, as near as I can tell. About the only thing at stake is hearings (which is not a small thing, given the ongoing, albeit ineffective, investigations into DOJ/FBI antics) and, of course impeachment (which would be a shitshow of epic proportions, especially if Mueller is still in business).
November will be a GOP blowout
Blue Wave turned Crimson Tide.
If things keep up they way they are going – and that’s a big if – but if they do keep up, then Trump will win all the states he won in 2016, plus New Hampshire, Minnesota, Maine-1, Nevada, and at least one big shock state, like New Jersey.
Yeah, as things stand right now I think it’s very likely Trump will be reelected by a much larger margin than his original victory was. Can’t wait for the media 2020 election night meltdown clips. (I’m looking at you, The Young Turks)
You guys do realize that’s over two years away, right? There’s a metric shitload of stuff that can happen between now and then. We’re literally one big terrorist attack away from none of what’s happened this year mattering. And one natural disaster like a major earthquake away from the entire global economy being shaken. Or about a hundred other things that will render what’s happened this far moot. Or Trump could have a medical scare at his age and with his health
I’m optimistic that Team Blue will shit the bed, but let’s all just calm down about what’s gonna happen in 2020. It’s a political eternity away.
Hence why I said “and that’s a big if”
Nov 4 2020 Headline: NorKs/China side with Putin to steal election
Best prog media meltdown of all time. I still watch it once in a while when I need a really good laugh.
Not New Jersey, Jersey has gone full-tilt progtopia. Just look at how easily Murphy got elected governor even though he was actually promising to raise taxes and increase spending and regulation.
Again, it’s all project with the left. Obama got snookered and bilked on the Iranian deal, but they praised it to high heaven. Trump makes what looks to be actual meaningful progress with denuclearizing Korea from a position of strength, and it’s time to clutch pearls. You can’t even parody these idiots.
“projection” not “project”. Fuck
We know what you meant and you’re correct.
Obama couldn’t have cared less what was in the actual deal, as long as he had a deal to brag about. The Iranians knew it better than anyone and responded appropriately.
Working on my lectures for my summer session class. Just finished writing a lecture on the “Robber Barons” and how they were some of the greatest Americans in history. I’ve got a few kids from last semester taking this one too (they don’t even need the credit), so I think I’m making at least a couple of baby libertarians.
Have you read American Colossus? If so, do you have any thoughts?
I have not read it, but I know Dr. Brands (did my undergrad and grad at UT). He’s as even handed as you’ll get out of a typical socialist ivory tower academic. I’m not sure that’s saying much though.
Do I hear a Glibs article in the making?
They are complicated figures. While their riches are deserved for doing things like being able to finally link the major cities across the continent via rail, or produce oil, nearly every one of those mother fuckers was a rent seeker on a massive scale, and they also engaged in outright fraud. While they were neither robbers nor barons, I wouldn’t exactly call them heroes.
No one in history was unalloyed good. That’s doesn’t diminish herculean accomplishments. You’d be hard pressed to name very many people that contributed more to humanity than John D. Rockefeller…
Norman Borlaug?
Jonas Salk?
Alexander Fleming?
Astrid Lindgren. Wrote some bomb-ass books and turned an entire socialist country against taxes.
Some great people. But the single greatest factor in alleviating poverty is cheap energy. Rockefeller’s legacy IS cheap energy. Plus by being a freakin genius and monetizing his waste stream his company developed hundreds of new products that allowed other industries to flourish.
Hell even after the government broke up Standard Oil (which was bullshit) the baby standards that survive today are worth about a trillion bucks, still provide cheap energy for the world, and likely make up a chunk of most of our retirement accounts.
btw that’s not an attempt to diminish those on your list. Obviously medical and agricultural advancements are a pretty big deal. My point though is that everyone sees the medical dudes as modern saints, while the equally important energy dudes are treated as devils. A healthy and wealthy society can’t exist without both.
The fact that modern civilization would never have happened without cheap energy is basically ignored, because the communist movement is anti-energy…
A little lean on birthdays there,…
Well, it’s my dad’s birthday. 76 years old and still kicking ass. I’m sure he’s already on the back nine this morning.
Well tell him I said happy birthday. And buy him a drink on our behalf.
*drops gloves and hands Tundra’s dad a piece of cake*
My birthday yesterday. Now I’ll have to add +1 to my handle. Next week is a fly-in fish trip to Canada, no tariffs but still pay the Canadian taxes. No looking back for your Dad and hope its not raining in Mpls.
Happy birthday!
Enjoy your trip. Catch some big muskies!
Thanks, mostly walleyes and norderns, eh?
Progs in the US launch a twitter campaign to support Trudeau. I think we all know what twitter hashtags are going to get hijacked for the complete opposite of what these idiots intend for it.
Turning the old “my country right or wrong” on it’s head? #nevertrumprightorwrong
“North Korea commits to complete denuclearization”
Congrats to Obama! I’m sure something he did during his presidency brought about this process. Right? Hello?
Oh, you know perfectly well that, should anything positive emerge from this meeting, the media will bend over backwards to claim that Trump is just swooping in like a vulture to reap the rewards of Chocolate Nixon’s brilliance. It’s the same story they keep telling about the economy.
“The weight of sanctions imposed under the Obama administration finally proved too much for the regime to bear last week as North Korean President Kim Jong Un signed a denuclearization agreement with the US last week.”
There is a NYT “think piece” this morning about how we are all susceptible to charlatans “like Trump” but the guy talked about Jordan Peterson, mostly. It was so substanceless I couldn’t even find a good quote. Don’t listen to those empty nostrums from alt-right snake oil salesmen, children.
Stay on the plantation, and let your progressive betters guide you.
Working on my lectures for my summer session class. Just finished writing a lecture on the “Robber Barons” and how they were some of the greatest Americans in history.
I hope you’re going to tell them about James Hill and the Great Northern Railway.
There is a long boring section on trains and the transcontinental railroad that I could expand. I’ll admit I don’t really know much about J.J. Hill beyond “yep he build railroads.” What, in particular, should I bring to their attention?
He had a pretty nice crib in St. Paul.
He was a Boss. Actually some good information on that site.
“Give me Swedes, snuff and whiskey, and I’ll build a railroad through hell.” J.J. Hill
The famous “transcontinental railway” of golden spike fame was a gov’t run totes corruption boondogle that wasa also an economic Hill buuilt the GN on his own and it was (is) an economic success.
Ayn Rand in Capitalism the Unknown Ideal (her best work IMO) talks a lot about it.
…also an economic disaster.
don’t know if you’ll see this, but he took no government money to build his railroads.
Hill county (Havre) is named after him.
I went to HS with one of his great grand children. Nice kid.
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2018/06/12/alec-baldwin-says-would-absolutely-win-against-trump-in-2020-election.html
Please please please make this happen. I wanna see Baldwin do an entire debate against Trump in character as Trump.
That, or maybe Blake from Glengarry Glen Ross.
I’m optimistic about NK, but at the same time, Trump’s mouth is fucking with his actual accomplishments.
https://www.voanews.com/a/trump-to-voa-we-re-going-to-denuke-north-korea-/4435044.html
Once again, I’m happy for the nuke deal, but we’re kind of ignoring the massive human rights violations over decades here.
I agree. But I think it’s a mistake to press that shit the very first time you meet
If we try to get it all, we’ll get nothing.
Realpolitik is necessary.
Give them economic and military concessions for nukes (and flattery costs nothing), offer more later for human rights improvements-it isn’t ideal but you have to deal in reality.
It’s the Libya doctrine. Disarm, then kill.
See: gun-grabbing cops.
It hurts because it’s true.
But to bring somebody like this to the table you either have to ignore them in order to bring reform or you have to totally focus on them and bring them to heel. I can’t imagine the latter working out, so as distasteful as it seems, you have to give with the former for the good of the Nork people and their offspring whose lives will ultimately be better with an agreement bringing them into the 21st century and opening their borders to trade and ideas.
Let them hang Kim by a lamppost in a decade once they figure out what he and his family have done. In the meantime, if we have to ignore whatsbhappened in the past to facilitate a bright future for them, I say we do it.
Insult and call out Kim and you’re a warmonger. Try to smooth out a deal diplomatically and you’re an appeaser. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Considering that 95% of the country is completely brainwashed, it would probably be good to let it happen naturally/organically after a peaceful solution is achieved. I like the fact that nearly all the senior military leadership is positively ancient – I think new Kim has a few younger folks, but some of those jagoffs have been around since the War – definitely room for sea change once the first generation finally kicks it.
I would not even cry a single crocodile tear if Kim was deposed Mussolini- or Qaddafi-style, but that shit ain’t gonna happen. Publicly airing out the atrocities – that everyone already knows mind you – would be highly counterproductive.
Much as I think this oafish banter from Trump is idiotic, it frankly doesn’t matter as long as it helps tickle fatboy’s ego a bit. As long as Kim is given face (and this is really the important and necessary component here, face), there’s a better chance of this sliding along and hopefully evolving into a Deng Xiaoping type of opening up situation.
If public browbeating and finger-wagging at an exceptionally bizarre murderous dictator is expected to elicit meaningful change, it damn well be accompanied by a complete military overthrow of the regime.
What, you don’t think Obama’s smug, condescending attitude is the best method for improvement in this scenario?
It is time to put all of that behind us and move on. There is nothing to be gained in keeping the status quo. If ignoring massive human rights violation of the past is the price of preventing them in the future the wise thing to do is pay it. The welfare of tens of millions of people depend on it. Prosperity and massive diminution of evil, or the continuation of massive human rights violations?
It isnt really a tough choice.
As long as we don’t go back to the old M.O. of pouring bribes into the NK coffers, and continue the cycle where the Norks renege, this approach is definitely worth a shot. And certainly if NK goes back to their old bullshit, the US can just as well revert to its old posture.
It’s possible that Trump’s supposedly transactional approach many in the media were hand-wringing about could help grease the wheels in this case. There’s nothing to lose.
The US media shitting all over Trump might help him keep Kim in line. Kim is going to see that Trump is getting blasted by the media. The media is being the bad cop in this movie.
Last I checked it was not our job to fix those human rights violations. Get rid of his nukes, get a peace treaty, and remover the threat to South Korea and then out job is done.
^^^^THIS^^^^
I found Mythical Libertarian Woman’s reading list!
The media here is freaking out, too. “We won’t be under the US nuclear umbrella. OMG.” Why don’t you just build your own fucking nukes if that bugs you so much? The ridiculous doublethink the Japanese have twisted themselves into over the years since the war is coming to a head. No, you don’t get to claim you’re leading the world into nuclear disarmament AND sit blissfully under Washington’s bombs.
While protesting at the base gates.
They’re going to need those gates if they import the 500,000 immigrants they promised. They can’t handle two Chinese people talking on a train. 500k Bangladeshis and Indonesians out to be fun.
Given the number of nuclear plants in Japan and South Korea, how long would it take either of them to become serious nuclear powers? A day?
It’s like how celebrities campaign for gun control, but never go anywhere without armed bodyguards.
Pretty much, but then they couldn’t be so smug about being peaceful and non-threatening.
This is the part of Trump’s rhetoric – by design ? – I like. It’s forcing countries to see the hypocrisy of their own positions. It’s amazing how they’ve gone to sleep over this. They think because they’re not militarized nations – or spend much on it – there’s peace as a result but in fact, it’s because of U.S. protection that keeps the peace. I think.
You don’t get to hurl cards shouting insults at a country that protects the West militarily. If you hate it so much, then go develop your own militaries and do it like men.
What Canada did to its military is shameless on this front. We’re probably the worst offenders of this hypocrisy.
The Canadians and Euros have had decades to become accustomed to American military protection AND big trade surpluses with the U.S. through sucker trade deals. Well, the Cold War is over and we don’t really need you anymore so we taking away both. The reaction of course is the same as taking a bottle from a hungry baby.
I consider this a return to the pre-WWII norm. We’ll have free trade with the Europeans – if they want it.
We’ll have some military cooperation – if they pull their weight. Russia is only a threat if the Euros can’t be bothered to defend themselves. Germany alone has more than double the Russian GDP.
The big trade surpluses benefits us, and if Trump undoes them, we are going to be much worse off.
I have no problem with foreign companies operating here. But to position our trade policy in a way that makes it harder for U.S. companies to compete while American workers are employed by foreign companies enjoying unfair advantages – that’s just nuts.
How does that work?
European governments subsidize Airbus in making aircraft. Consequently, widows in France are taxed so that Americans can enjoy cheaper air travel.
European governments levy tariffs on American chickens. Consequently, widows in France pay more for chicken, and we enjoy lower chicken prices.
European companies choose to invest their profits in the U.S.. the local economy grows and we enjoy a higher standard of living. It’s probably a little lower than it would be if the profits were entirely reinvested inside the U.S. since the foreign owners do occasionally repatriate some of their profits. But it’s higher than if the investment hadn’t been made at all.
Yes, barriers to trade hurt us. But the barrier is more harmful to the polity imposing the barrier than to the polity that continues the free market path at a ‘disadvantage’.
So Trump’s trying to help them against their will?
I think it’s more pandering to the union rank and file in the Rust Belt with an eye to the midterms (and his reelection).
He’s willing to harm most americans for political gain. And the Canadian government is so pissed off at what he’s doing that they are going to hurt the Canadian people twice as hard in revenge.
“The reaction of course is the same as taking a bottle from a hungry baby. ”
That’s just a temper tantrum, it stops in an hour. The reaction is the same as telling a 16-year old they have to start paying rent when they’re 18 or they can move out of the house – they bitch and moan about having to be self-sufficient for years.
The way I understand it Japan (the government, not the empty, blathering heads of the media) has all the parts for a nuke (or 15) lying around in pre-arranged packages. So it is all but a fait accompli anyway.
I picture it like having all the parts for an M16 laid out on my workshop table – while telling everyone that I don’t own a gun.
No need for nukes, when they have Kaiju Umbrella.
My daughter was talking to me last night about her dream to one day be a professional baker and own a bakery. She also talked about how much money she’d make (she miiiight have been overestimating) and said that if she made a lot of something that not a lot of people wanted, she’d have to charge less money, but if she made a little of something a lot of people wanted, she’d charge more money.
My 9 year old understands basic supply and demand principles than most adults do.
The tricky parts are how to handle the restrooms and swastika cakes.
My kids recently got new bikes because they outgrew their old ones, and the process of selling the old ones has been a wonderful lesson in basic economics for them.
You should have heard my 15 year olds bitching about child labor and minimum wage laws last year when it prevented them from getting a job. All they wanted was a job to bring in some pocket money but thanks to big daddy government protecting them none were available and the minute they heard about the existence of those laws they hated them because then knew it was keeping them from getting what they want.
A few years ago a grand daughter at about 16 got her first job as a cashier in a grocery store. When she got her first check and realized how FICA and the IRA had done their best to make her poorer she demanded an explanation from me. Now several years later and in a higher income level she sees more of her labor being stolen and still isn’t happy.
Feminists For Liberty is a group ENB is involved with.
This doesn’t exactly seem self-aware
Something something make me a sandwich
“Feminists For Liberty.” Makes as much sense as communists for limited government. You’re either for liberty, or you’re a feminist. You can’t be both.
I’ve argued that if you’re libertarian you’re already a feminist, where feminists means women should have equal rights under the law.
Well feminism does not mean that. I have argued that if you’re libertarian you have no need to be a feminist whatever that means.
That’s my point. Feminist try to claim all they want is equal rights and I don’t think you can call yourself a libertarian if you don’t believe in equal rights, so ipso facto, according to their BS definition, libertarians are feminist.
Individualist or GTFO
Technically I’m an apathist. *pushes nerd glasses up*
I disagree. They define rights different. Also there are different schools of feminism. Not all claim the same things.
Nah. If you’re a libertarian, you’re a likely an individualist. Feminism is ultimately a collectivist ideology based on support for women as a collective. A individualist is likely to get upset if a particular woman is unfairly denied an opportunity or has her rights infringed upon because of her status as a woman. But, the status of women as a collective isn’t something that is going to keep me up at night.
The Nick Gillespie of libertarian women’s groups?
This is my least favorite twitter account
https://twitter.com/tankietakes/status/1006512914268872704
That’s got to be trolling. It just has to be. Please let it be.
Holy shit, the famine was caused by ” bad weather and kulaks”! You can’t even parody these morons.
nuclear takes right there
^ I scrolled til I hit the “world without Stalin” post. Jeezo
Very….um….yeah…..
Oh no! Trump’s presidency marks the first time in 24 years that the federal bench is becoming less diverse! Not muh diversity!
I would bet the federal bench is becoming intellectually much more diverse.
I’ll admit I don’t really know much about J.J. Hill beyond “yep he build railroads.” What, in particular, should I bring to their attention?
He built the Great Northern without government land grants, as I recall. Laid out the best route, bought the land he needed, and built the railroad efficiently. I don’t remember the details off the top of my head, but he was a good example of how you can build something great without suckling at the teat of government.
Cool. I’ll look into the financing of the Great Northern and add it to the lecture. Thanks Brooks
Corporate records at the MN Historical Society
A systematic review of the state of literature relating parental general cognitive ability and number of offspring
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886918302903
Apparently smart people have fewer children. present company excluded
Mike Judge is the Nostradamus we deserve.
How many federal dollars did they get for that Captain obvious study?
sooooo Anti-Natalists are the smartest!
/science
Negroni = Nikki.
Why didn’t I see it before?
and I would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for you meddling kids
So are you the worst now?
Also if you are going to procreate don’t neglect the little bastards
Revisiting a Criminological Classic: The Cycle of Violence
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1043986218770003
Our results indicated that although we were able to replicate her original results, the link between childhood physical abuse and violence in adulthood failed to survive the robustness checks we conducted. Instead, childhood neglect emerged as the most robust predictor of adult violence.
Here’s a fun site. What your address probably looked like in deep history
I zoomed in on Brooklyn and saw a baby screaming that he didn’t need 24 types of diapers.
That is awesome, thanks.
Like MSNBC and CNN, the BBC is also pissing all over the Korea parade. Because Trump didn’t achieve complete, verified, irreversible denuclearization before breakfast this morning.
https://nypost.com/2018/06/11/inside-city-teachers-grade-inflation-schemes/
This really pisses me off.
And there’s a link to a Bronx Assistant Principal who filled in answers for kids, and was making $111,000 a year. WTF???
From Wiki, so you know it’s true:
Between 1883 and 1889, Hill built his railroads across Minnesota, into Wisconsin, and across North Dakota to Montana.
When there was not enough industry in the areas Hill was building, Hill brought the industry in, often by buying out a company and placing plants along his railroad lines. By 1889, Hill decided that his future lay in expanding into a transcontinental railroad.
“What we want,” Hill is quoted as saying, “is the best possible line, shortest distance, lowest grades, and least curvature we can build. We do not care enough for Rocky Mountains scenery to spend a large sum of money developing it.”[6] Hill got what he wanted, and in January 1893 his Great Northern Railway, running from St. Paul, Minnesota to Seattle, Washington — a distance of more than 1,700 miles (2,700 km) — was completed. The Great Northern was the first transcontinental built without public money and just a few land grants, and was one of the few transcontinental railroads not to go bankrupt.
A Bunch of Male Models Walked the Runway With Fake Pregnant Bellies
https://www.cosmopolitan.com/style-beauty/fashion/a21272655/xander-zhou-pregnant-mens-fashion-show/?src=socialflowTW
It’s basically trolling.
Dennis Rodman: Diplomat
“I talked to Kim Jong-un and the administration over there five years ago and he asked me five years ago,” Rodman told Cuomo. “We sat down for lunch. And he sat down and asked me, ‘Hey, Dennis, I would like to ask you three things, if you go back to tell the president of the United States these three things, and I would be willing to talk to him.'”
“And this is a true story and I’ve got my people who heard the conversation,” Rodman said. “He said things like, ‘If they could move the ships back from South Korea, I would do what I have to do to listen. If you can do certain things, I will listen, my ears will be open,'” he added. “And I tried to do that to Obama. And Obama didn’t even give me the time of day. I asked him, I said, ‘I have something to say from North Korea and he just brushed me off. And that didn’t deter me. I still kept going back. Kept going back. I showed my loyalty and my trustworthy [sic] to this country. I said to everybody, the door will open.”
For some reason I find that entirely believable.
That aside, I don’t know how the Rodman-Rocket Man relationship even started. Can anyone shed light on that?
An old article on his first visit-apparently the Norms love basketball:
http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2013/02/26/dennis-rodman-on-trip-to-north-korea-for-tv-show.html
What no love for Kenny Wayne Shepard? *mumble-hums Blue on Black*
I’m with you, Bacon. I have a sad that the Pretenders got the nod over Kenny. Let’s fix that.
Blue On Black
Everything Is Broken
Meh. Bun E Carlos was also born on this day.
MEH? *Drops gloves*
*Starts signing to Cheap Trick* *Puts gloves back on*
Surrender is quite the earworm.
Awesome.
Tomorrow is another public holiday! Local Election Day! Yay!
I also got dressed down at work today. Totally deserved it. My apathetic outlook towards my job, which has been actively fueled by my employer’s words and actions (I pretty much was told that I’m a mascot for the school and less of a teacher. I didn’t take that very well, though I know that it’s true). I can’t wait to get out of here. Literally just working for the end-of-contract bonus at this point.
There was absolutely no talk of the Trump/Kim meeting at work. It’s certainly on every channel and website and paper, but it’s just so eerie how nobody talks about it. If this goes anywhere near anything productive and unifying and peace-promoting….I can’t fucking wait to see how people demonize Trump over it. Just getting to the table was a profound achievement. They won’t be able to praise him. They just won’t be able to.
It will be so much fun.
They’ll Believe it When They See It?
By the way, my family is going to be in South Korea first week of July. Anything in particular you’d recommend seeing? My dad and I want to hit the DMZ and take a bullet train from Seoul to Busan. My wife and inlaws will probably be staying put in Seoul and eat/shopping.
I’m ashamed to say that I’ve never been to the DMZ, despite living here for 6 years. I will before I leave. The tour leaves at like 6am and I’ve been working 2nd shift for over a decade and don’t live in Seoul. My parents did it and said it was rad.
In Seoul: Def go to Namsan Tower or Lotte World Tower (5th biggest building in the world) to get a nighttime view of the city. It. Doesn’t. End. If you’ve never see that it’s just baffling.
Dongdaemun is a super cool futuristico building that has interesting design/engineering/art exhibits. I’m going up on Friday with The Lady. Current main exhibit is the claymation art of Wallace and Grommit.
Def go to the War Museum. Great displays and a yard of planes and other equipment. Very cool stuff.
Busan–Casinos if you’re interested. They have a fun aquarium, too. Mostly when I go there I go to Gwangali or Haeundae beaches. (I go to Busan to party. I don’t really go there for culture.) Gwangali is much more chill–the latter is more popular but too orderly for me.
Haedong Yonggung Temple is a dope complex right on the ocean with lovely rock formations and just a fun vibe. Crowded, but for a reason.
There’s a place called Sunyudo which is a chain of islands off the west coast near the mainland town of Gunsan. You take a ferry from Gunsan and get to the islands 45 min later. It’s 100% Korean. No foreigners. No ATMs last time I was there. You rent bikes and can bike across pedestrian bridges to the different islands and stay in a little quaint ‘pension.’ Lots of seafood. Amazingly vacant beach with the sunset directly in front of you. Can buy fireworks and have fun over the night. A place to camp, if you’re into it. It’s maybe my favorite place in Korea.
Let me know what you’re into and I can help you out more if you’d like. If you come through Daejeon there might be a chance to get a drink and I can give you some more detailed instructions/areas.
Sweet, thank you for all the tips and pointers!
I believe this. When I find out that it takes an hour via train to get from Incheon Airport to Hongik University station (where we will hang our hats), and will take a further 45-60min to visit Lotte World Tower, I kind of got the point that Seoul is a true blue sprawling megalopolis.
No prob.
Hongik? I mean, I love that place. But it’s a college hangout—tons of restaurants and bars, but also very young and a bit rowdy. Lots of places won’t let US military ID-holders in the bars.
If you want to party, absolutely go there. But if you’re going with your dad I’m not sure if that’s the spot that you want to be HQd in.
We’re headquartered there because we’ll be a party of 9 people, including 3 minors, in a huge sprawling AirBnB house with a rooftop patio and 4 full bathrooms at a great price and good guest reviews.
It’s a trap.
I expect Donald to be negotiating your release in a couple of years.
Just call me Otto.
Sexual consent in Japanese: Making it crystal clear that no means no
Does this apply to nice 2D anime girls or just dirty 3D real girls?
I thought consent was given by “I want it, onii-chan!”
The norms have really changed in terms of what you can do to somebody against their will.
Is war between sexes inevitable?
That’s a man, baby
millennia of woe you have produced
Such as being maimed and killed in droves for the sake of women (and children) and being expected to continue to do so today?
The world is imperfect, it’s obviously all the fault of men.
Answer to problem, turn it all over to women.
Millennia of Woe
Band or album?
Are wr talking about rom-coms here?
ie: Capitulate! Give up already. That would make it so much easier for us. We want the power, all of it, so know your place and just hand it the fuck over.
LOL. “We hate all men and hold you individually responsible for millenia of repression. Now stop competing with us and just give us power over you.”
Hey toots, #NotWithYou #nowgetbackinthekitchen and #makemeasandwich
Virginia adopted the Declaration of Rights in 1776
#Winning
Tard Tuesday: It’s A Trap!
I love it. Starting January 20, 2017 this mothafucka instantly became a Korea expert.
And the Iran Deal?
WHATABOUTISM!!11!!!!!
LOL. Get the fuck outta here. Sure North Korea is a fucking nightmare. I would have to say that Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot all gave the ol’ Aryan butchers a run for their money in terms of repressive political regimes.
There was a guest editorial published yesterday by a “former CIA officer” that was a long rant about how disrespectful it was for a sitting President to shake the hand of a dictator in front of the American flag.
No sitting President ever met with a brutal dictator before in a diplomatic setting, ever.
I can’t find it today. I’m thinking it got nuked.
It occurs to me that if one takes this position to the logical extreme, the only solution ever should be violent regime change.
Upon hearing that, McCain just got his last boner.
Hopefully all the blood will rush to his dick from his
braintumor, and he’ll fucking drop dead.Just keep it to brutal dictators who already cooperated with Western governments. Those guys can get sodomized with a bayonet by angry rebels. If there’s Russian interest in the country, you pussyfoot around by indirectly (or directly, who cares?) arming psychopathic terrorists. And then you accuse the next president of cozying up to the Russians after your failed
overchargedreset.Obama-style smart diplomacy.
Saw one reference earlier reminding me that Nixon met with Mao while Communist China was still supporting NVA against us militarily.
So, now the left prefers an all-out war on the Korean peninsula, because Trump?
What a bunch of feckless idiots. They can’t stand the thought that Trump might be making real progress while the Lightworker achieved jack shit.
Thank You Neville Chamberlain.
This comparison would make sense if Chamberlain could wipe Hitler off the map in a couple minutes.
freedom for all the world’s citizens
As if the leftists at du believe in freedom in any fundamental way…
Trump may be a complete fuckup, but whatever you do don’t mention Chavez and Maduro,
You don’t get to hurl cards shouting insults at a country that protects the West militarily. If you hate it so much, then go develop your own militaries and do it like men.
What Canada did to its military is shameless on this front. We’re probably the worst offenders of this hypocrisy.
When you live on the same cul-de-sac as the mob boss, do you really need to worry about random street criminals?
All I know is I learned all I need to know about how Canadians view sovereignty and how the military fits into it when I took a ‘History of the Arctic’ class. Don’t ask.
In it, basically, Canada’s foreign policy amounted to: Don’t touch our Arctic, eh? Be nice. We don’t have a military to exert sovereignty but it’s still ours, eh?
They appealed to countries doing the ‘right thing’. It was (and is) immature as it is astonishingly naive.
No wonder Denmark can claim a shitty island and stick its flag in it. We can’t respond except with a stern look (and fake eyebrow). It’s not like, you know, Denmark isn’t in the area with Greenland, right?
Yet, all we hear on the CBC and other outlets is how the Arctic is ours back off and at the same time we need to cut (more of) the military budget to put into….where else?….fricken public health.
This is what keeps Canadians up at night.
When I brought this up in class, about needing a military, you could sense the ‘are you mad?’ tension. Even the nationalist professor UNDERSTOOD you needed a strong military to exert some sort of claim. You can’t just say it’s yours because. At least it’s how I remember it.
“The arctic?”
(talks for a few minutes with a few guys who have actually lived there for a while)
“Yeah, it’s yours, no problem”
All I need to know about Canadian military is that a significant portion of the country still speaks French. It’s the same reason Detroit, New Orleans, and Illinois are disasters.
Because French?
then go develop your own militaries
“And pay for it by – what – tapping into our social welfare funds? Surely, you jest, sir!”
Letter: The Libertarian lens
This guy has us figured out.
Citation needed
He wrote the words “plain” and “historical”. What more proof do you need?!?!
I was promised we’d stay off the radar.
naked self-interest improves everyone’s lives.
Letting people pursue self-interest increases the welfare of the group.
As we all know, “altruism” means confiscation by the state backed by the threat of deadly force.
Therefore, every regulation, and every tax, is a coercive measure of oppression
They’re learning!
shred what’s left of this nation’s social safety net
I see that you are under the false impression that the welfare system has been measurably scaled back.
deny that altruism exists
Altruism does exist. It is voluntary. Using the governments guns to steal from some to give to others is not altruism.
You don’t need the libertarians to help with this, Kemosabe. The social safety net is accelerating toward insolvency thanks to dismissive fuckheads like you that think we can have it all through perpetual debt spending.
fuckheads like you that think we can have it all through
perpetual debt spendingmaking the rich pay their fair shareSo, what percentage of the approximately 20 million federally-funded government employees (federal direct + federally-funded state and local + agencies and contractors funded by the fedgov + whatever) am I to assume are operating with selfless disregard for their own interests? 99.9% or 100% ? And those 20 million completely selfless individuals, they’re all looking out for what *I personally* agree is best, not for what my neighbor agrees is best, right?
MUH PENSHUN!
Your Boyfriend Will Accept You Using Sex Toys If He’s A Real Feminist
A guy who really cares about your pleasure, not his ego, will take a back seat and realize his penis will not play the primary role in pleasing you.
Good thing I’m not a real feminist.
Wait…why do you give a shit if your GF/Wife uses sex toys?
I don’t just being a smart ass
What toy did you use for that?
It’s like one of those shiatsu massage chairs with the massage point detectors, but with dildonic AI instead. You ever seen a geoduck? It’s like a plastic one with a really smaht computah instead the tip.
Real news, folks. This is the real deal. Thank you LH.
You’re welcome? I guess? ::slinks off::
Sure, and don’t bother him while he’s banging his new sex robot.
No, no, male sexuality is icky and must be denigrated, only female sexuality is empowering and must be celebrated.
I don’t think that attitude is going to fly for much longer.
Nothing makes the ladies more angry than complete indifference, but that’s whats coming on a massive scale.
Even in a long draught this is a boner killer. Not because of the toys thing. But who wants to fuck a bitchy partner?
If the s.o. uses sex toys, that’s tacit permission for you to fuck around elsewhere. What’s there to complain about?
I’m sorry but I have a really hard time believing that there are a significant number of men outside of hardcore religious fundamentalist communities (where they believe women should submit to sex, not enjoy it) who are going to take issue with their girlfriends using sex toys
Just like Auschwitz
Since Donald Trump was elected, there’s been a boom in best-selling books about the fragility of liberal democracy, including Madeleine Albright’s “Fascism: A Warning,” and Timothy Snyder’s “On Tyranny.” Many have noted that the president’s rhetoric abounds in classic fascist tropes, including the demonization of minorities and attempts to paint the press as treasonous. Trump is obviously more comfortable with despots like Russia’s Vladimir Putin than democrats like Canada’s Justin Trudeau.
We still talk about American fascism as a looming threat, something that could happen if we’re not vigilant. But for undocumented immigrants, it’s already here.
———–
But for now, what is happening is the sort of moral enormity that once seemed unthinkable in contemporary America, the kind captured in the Martin Niemöller poem that’s repeated so often it’s become a cliché: “First they came …” There is no reason to believe that undocumented immigrants will be the last group of people deemed beyond the law’s protection.
Senator Merkley told me he asked people working in the detention center if they were concerned about the impact that family separation would have on the children who had been put under their authority. The answer, he said, was, “We simply follow the orders from above.”
I think I’d like to see a little more context before I panic.
I am pretty amenable to immigration, but it has to be done legally.
undocumented immigrants
I’m an undocumented sex offender. ::stands in unity::
STEVE SMITH IS UNDOCUMENTED BOYFRIEND!!!
here is no reason to believe that undocumented immigrants will be the last group of people deemed beyond the law’s protection.
Because enforcing the actual law against illegal entry into the country is “outside the law’s protection”?
“War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength.”
Yet the fascism is somehow on the right? Yeah, sure.
You know what you don’t see in fascist dictatorships? The press calling the leader a fascist dictator.
This is just so much BS from these people. The press had the President of the United States actually having their telephones tapped. And not only did they say nothing, that President needed to move his testicles to the side in order for them to wipe their noses. Now, a different President says mean things about them and he’s Hitler v2.0.
Honestly, these people are a joke.
Nevermind that fascism was just the flip side of the socialist coin from communism. They have more in common than not.
They hate each other because:
1) They both need someone to hate in order to motivate their followers.
2) They’re competing for the same adherents.
Here’s the thing.
I really fucking hate this immigration enforcement lately. The way it’s being done, I mean. I know I’m a lot more of an open borders guy than most of you, but it bothers me.
But at the same time… this is what I tried to tell people about when Obama was in office with his fucking pen and his fucking phone. If you let the executive decide everything by fiat, then guess what — when the next guy comes in, he gets to do it too, and you might not agree with what he does.
That’s one of my pet peeves. Both parties do it. When they’re in power, the party and their supporters get the idea that they’ll hold on to that power forever. They completely ignore the fact that the pendulum always swings the other way eventually.
the president’s rhetoric abounds in classic fascist tropes
Citation?
demonization of minorities
Citation?
attempts to paint the press as treasonous
By calling them biased and dishonest? Sometimes you just have to call a spade a spade. Also, treason has an actual definition in the Constitution, so worry not.
undocumented immigrants
I believe the legal term is “illegal alien”. And they have no more a right to be here than I do to be in another country. That said, I have no problem with immigrants per say, but you need to follow the laws of the country you are entering, especially in how you enter it.
Libertarians believe there is no such thing as “the public interest” and deny that altruism exists.
Oh, okay.
Forced altruism isn’t altruism.
criminaltruism?
It’s for your own good!
“If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.”
The modern definition of altruism does not match the historical definition.
When Kant talks about altruism, he means subservience to the collective for the betterment of all.
When dipshit internet commentator talks about altruism, he means “being charitable”.
The signatures.
I hope someone makes commemorative reproductions of that. I’d love to buy one for myself and another to give to my flaming lefty in-laws.
I believe that mark on the left is the seismic reading from all the liberal heads exploding.
Heh. Consider that stolen.
Here’s a good kid from Minnesoda
Sportsmanship, there.
I really fucking hate this immigration enforcement lately. The way it’s being done, I mean. I know I’m a lot more of an open borders guy than most of you, but it bothers me.
I agree completely. I’m in favor of generous immigration opportunities, especially for productive well educated people.
Border enforcement is a giant clusterfuck. But- the sudden hysteria about border enforcement because TRUMP impairs my ability to sympathize or take the shriekers seriously.
the sudden hysteria about border enforcement because TRUMP
They act like we haven’t been enforcing the same and similar laws for decades.
Giant African baobab trees die suddenly after thousands of years
Demise of four out of 13 of the ancient landmarks linked to climate change by researchers
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/11/giant-african-baobab-trees-die-suddenly-after-thousands-of-years
Thousands of years during which it’s endured much greater climactic swings… but sure, we’ll go with the climate change knee-jerk.
climatic
In fairness, the article notes they only “speculate” that climate change may be to blame. I “speculate” that any diligent authors would tie their study to the climate change bandwagon, even if it takes bungee cords.
Even if the rate rather than the magnitude of change is what’s worrisome here… you’re telling me in the last couple thousand years our planet never suffered a cataclysmic volcanic eruption and rapid wintery onset? Not once?
The article says they CAN live up to 3,000 years.
One of the dead ones was 2,500.
Just a natural life span.
Lionel Shriver is wrong. Penguin’s push for diversity will translate into better books
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/12/lionel-shriver-penguin-diversity-books-random-house
It is easy to deride diversity as a warm and fuzzy social objective without objective substance, but without diversity the English literary world would not have Homer, Dostoevsky or García Marquez. – lol
Gee, it’s almost like those authors were talented enough to get published without the benevolent hand of a woke publisher giving them a favor.
Honestly, hearing shit that stupid, I really don’t care if publishing dies. Someone will figure out how to do it better and monetize their product on the internet. Let them publish horseshit about
disableddifferently-abled, trans black lesbians to their hearts’ content. And sell all of five copies. When they go bankrupt, maybe someone can sell the presses in India or China. Maybe make a buck. There’s no point in worrying about an industry that wants to die.One month after coming into force, Seattle’s head tax is apparently dead.
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/businesses-get-a-win-on-head-tax-but-solution-to-seattle-homelessness-crisis-still-elusive/
I never would’ve thought that making it more expensive for businesses to hire employees would result in businesses hiring fewer employees!
Turns out reality eventually does, in fact, bite you in the ass. Just ask Venezuela.
Solution to Seattle Homelessness Crisis Still Elusive
some people just like living on the edge.
You can’t help yourself from falling.
They give toothy head anyway.
Sometimes a little teeth can be good if you’re in a certain mood.
FTA: But for low-margin grocery and retail businesses in Seattle, which employ many entry-level workers and have competitors in lower-tax jurisdictions nearby, the accumulation of taxes and regulations in recent years is becoming a significant burden. They cite the $15-an-hour minimum wage and soda tax, among others.
“You can’t just pass every cost that the city creates on to your consumer when your consumer has other options,” said Terry Halverson, chairman of Metropolitan Market, which has four of its seven locations in Seattle and would be subject to the head tax. His concerns about previous taxes and regulations fell on deaf ears at City Hall, he said.
Halverson said he’s hopeful that the head tax turnabout is a sign that the council is becoming more responsive to businesses.
It sounds like tax and spend crowd finally reached the end their rope. Good luck reeling them in, though.
Ha! Not likely.
These girls are sure to make your little rocket man happy.
http://archive.is/Cqvuf
6, 7, 12, 32, 40, 42, 47, 64, 66, 70, 86, 91, 93, 95, 97, 98.
Love Island power ranking week 1
https://www.vice.com/amp/en_uk/article/qvnxeq/the-love-island-power-ranking-week-one
I prefer Love Island’s lesser known sister show “Whore Island”.
Lindsay Graham says that if Kim doesn’t deal and give up his nukes right now, Congress should authorize the use of military force.
Rand declares him a threat to the country. Seriously – has any closeted homosexuals shame and attempts to compensate been a bigger danger to national security than Grahams?
Graham is just trying to obtain a going-away gift for his buddy McCain.
Oh for fuck’s sake Lindsay. Couldn’t you just resign yourself to chugging a cock instead? This
is getting tiresomehas been tiresome for a really really long time. Please hand your Senate seat off to a “Whacko Bird” and go away.What a jerk off.
Florida Man sticks the landing at a toll booth.
And the toll booth guy ignores the body.
Wow.
I score a 6.9
Man, you even see him move around toward the end.
Did the State get the toll or not?
The guy survived.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/bizarre/WATCH-Man-survives-after-crash-sends-him-flying-out-of-windshield-on-Florida-Turnpike_169065151
That’s one lucky bastard.
The compression guardrail things in front of the concrete probably saved all of their lives.
IL finest at it again
‘roids? or just a really shitty attitude?
It’s like he took a ton of steroids but never actually worked out.
No report on whether they caught the
3 gun carrying black honor roll utessingle black phone holding utePosted last night, but what the hell.
Leader of the free world shakes hands with the dictator.
Well, my morning commute was not as hellacious as anticipated. Despite this bullshit.
https://www.facebook.com/fox5dc/videos/10156790249602494
The existential anguish of modern motherhood
I can hear the other side now: that parents denying their kids toy guns are overthinking this. That a toy is still just a toy. But if Barbies arguably possess the power to body shame little girls, and princesses can mess with their sense of independence, then can’t guns, even if just subliminally, sanction violence? “I believe we have a cultural problem with guns in this country, and I don’t want to normalize the use of them,” Kathy Healy Champion, a mother of three in Connecticut, said. She doesn’t allow her children to play with toy guns. “I see it as a step in the right direction.”
After Sandy Hook, Soto Lamb says she began to view A Christmas Story through a different lens: “I realized that America’s problem with gun violence goes deeper than any laws, there is a cultural shift that needs to happen,” she said. “We give them blocks to inspire them to be builders, we give them paint to inspire artistic expression . . . what are we feeding our children, in the metaphorical sense, when we hand them toy guys to play with?”
I’ll bet every mass murderer played with a squirt gun at some time. It’s a gateway toy. Ban them, just to be sure, says Psychologist Barbie.
“I already stole three bases working myself into a snit, I may as well steal home, too.”
Why don’t they turn it into even more of a totem than it already is?
She’s right. Change the culture and gun control will also happen for you. So will rampant criminal terrorism and gulags.
Nobody needs a large-capacity, assault squirt gun.
My son has been begging for one of these.
Pretty sweet. Spawn 1 had the Tommy Gun when he was a little tyke. Many hours of fun was had with that thing!
Those poor children.
a cultural problem with guns in this country, and I don’t want to normalize the use of them
I, too, think there is a cultural problem regarding guns. I think the use of them has been far too de-normalized and it needs to be normalized.
I think there’s a cultural problem with medieval peasants who believe in sorcery and think inanimate objects have mystical powers over the human mind.
I believe we have a cultural problem with guns in this country,
I do too. The irrational animism and anti-gun phobia of a significant portion of the country is troubling.
I’ve been house shopping and my wife stumbled on the sex offender registry map and started worrying about how there were sex offenders everywhere we wanted to live. Trying to explain how easy it is to get put on there and that most of what you hear about sex offenders, repeat offenses, and children is not true ran right up against ‘won’t you think of the children!’ Doesn’t help that i get really worked up over criminal justice issues.
I’m hoping I can channel the conflict into convincing her to live in the nice affordable suburb with everything she wants.
Does the map list the person’s offense? If so, that’s a start. At our last house, we had a registered sex offender living across the street. He was a teenage kid, who at 19 had sex with a girlfriend who he thought was 16 but was actually 14 or 15. That got him on the list. But I wasn’t worried at all that he’d do something to my kids, who were 12 or under at the time.
It does not. And the descriptions of what lands you on there in Arkansas provide zero information. Everything I was able to look up about the state’s implementation provided no information. Sexual misconduct in the third degree? What the fuck is that? More likely to reoffend? Does that mean 10% chance? 30%? The whole thing is worthless.
I did find a link through an old article from the other site with demographics of who lands on the registry. Most common age was 14.
Sounds like sexting to me
You can also get on the list for being drunk and peeing in public, which is considered exposing yourself. Again, not someone I’d worry about in my neighborhood.
Could be a serial pooper jogger.
I lived across the street from a guy on the registry. He was legally blind, and had been put on the list for dl’ing pics of underage girls. Given that he was too fat to run and legally blind, I’m not sure any of the 13 year old girls in the neighborhood had to worry about him making his fantasy real.
Is anybody into Native American artifacts? Like really rare stuff?
Because I’ve got about half of the inventory of this auction entered in and I thought it might interest a few of you. The really valuable stuff is still coming, but I had no idea arrowheads were worth this much.
You monster! Don’t you know you need to give it away for free to a kleptocratic racist organization because they’re distantly related to the original creator?
My oldest friend is the curator of Native American objects at the Museum of International Folk Art….I’ll let her know.
Please do. I’m working on a mailing list of people like her. I’m hoping they’re my big buyers.
The oddly aggressive enforcement of cultural artifact laws
AKA as Daffy Duck laws. Mine! Mine! MINE!
Can I confiscate art by Europeans?
You gonna have any art/daily life objects in there? Like pottery or clothing and such?
I want an eagle-feather war bonnet.
Raycis!
I would wear it to meetings and sit, arms folded, and refuse to speak.
I can’t sell any eagle feathers. It’s really against the law.
I will be selling a stuffed tiger though. But only someone in Texas can buy it based on some stupid addendum to the endangered species act.
I’ll find a pic. Hold tight.
Cool! My dog would lose his mind.
Hmm. Pater Dean lives in Texas . . . .
Sadly, Mrs. Dean would lose her frickin’ mind if I brought that into the house. Although I would be very interested to see how the Dean Beasts reacted. Either (a) homicidal fury, (b) craven fear, or (c) ostentatiously ignoring it.
Possibly but probably not in this go-around. I’m having two sales for all of this stuff. I’m selling a large amount of taxidermy in between for the guy. The second round of artifacts are going to be a lot more points but some pottery, axe blades and other shit.
Most of what he has predates any clothing that might be found. Hell, there’s a lot in here that predates the Clovis stuff.
If he has anything that doesn’t sell, my uncle is on the traveling exhibits team of the Smithsonian, and can probably get the correct forms for you to help him donate them from r a tax write-off, and likely a credit on museum signage.
Thanks! I’ll tell my friend. Since she’s focused on folk art, she’s more interested in objects of everyday life and art pieces, but she might find something in there!
I once knew a guy who was into collecting those. He’d go into farm fields (after asking permission) and find them. However, for soil conservation they don’t till the fields very deep anymore, so they are harder to find.
I learned a few things from him. First, what we call “arrow heads” are actually knife blades. They’d tie them to a short stick and use them for cutting. Also, you can tell the date based on the shape. For some reason, the more elaborate shapes are older, and the simpler shapes are newer.
I still have the two he gave me.
http://www.oddthingsiveseen.com/2011/02/grave-creek-mound.html
That was an interesting place to visit. We went there on our “spooky” themed vacation. Other stops included the Trans-Allegheney mental hospital and the WV state penitentiary. I recommend all three.
I’d be interested in any artifacts that produce Poltergeist-esque infestation of demonic spirits owners homes.
Looking for gifts, basically.
Bookmarked. I’d love to pick up a collection for the Casa Dean.
How much is the Glibs discount, anyway?
Several years ago, we were looking at a place in West Texas as a possible homesite. It turned out that on the property was a traditional campground for a nomadic Indian tribe, due to the small river that had freshwater oysters. There were these dirt mounds there that were packed with oyster shells and tons of flint tools. In the old house were two mason jars full of arrowheads and whatnot, and that was without systematically going through the mounds, which were still basically untouched.
I’ve seen this before. Once you have the construction crew dig the pit for the swimming pool, that’s when the zombies come at you for appropriating their culture.
And I also want to say “PIIIIIIG SOOOOOOOOEY!” or whatever Arkansas Razorback fans say when they stomp on the Cocks and punch their ticket to Omaha. Joining them are the Texas Longhorns
Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble
When you’re perfect in every way
I can’t wait to look in the mirror
I get better looking each day
To know me is to love me
I must be one hell of a fan
I Lord it’s hard to be humble
When you’re an Arkansas Razorback fan*
*Until football season.
“Weinstein accuser Rose McGowan is indicted for cocaine possession and could face 10 years in jail after she claimed the drug was ‘planted’ to discredit her
The 44-year-old actress believes her wallet was stolen from her backpack while she was in the bathroom on the flight, and that the drugs were planted in it, and left behind for the authorities to find.
In an attempt to plead her case, she said cocaine would not have been her drug of choice for the historic march.
‘I own stock in a marijuana company, so that’s my jam.
‘Imagining I’m going into sisterly solidarity, I can think of nothing more opposed to that, energetically, that I would want in my body at that moment,’ she said.”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5833189/Rose-McGowan-indicted-cocaine-possession.html
Crazy gonna crazy.
Considering some of the shady shit Weinstein was caught doing to discredit McGowan or throw reporters off her case, it’s not totally outlandish. But maybe more outlandish than to think a Hollywood C-lister wouldn’t have a little blow on her.
Blood test. simple solution
44 years old? Yikes!
She looks like she’s in her 50s in that mugshot.
Cocaine is a hell of a drug
https://twitter.com/CountDankulaTV/status/1006542815155884034
Classic.
“Why we need to close Wikipedia’s gender page gap
Sadiq Khan Mayor of London
It’s the fifth most visited website in the world, and the first port of call for those of us in search of information about a famous person or historical event. But did you know that only 17 per cent of Wikipedia’s biographies are about women? It’s a woefully inaccurate reflection of women’s achievements – and it has to change.
That’s why, during this year’s London Tech Week, which starts today, I have set up an ‘Edit-a-thon’ at Bloomberg’s office in the capital to try and help redress the balance.
Schoolgirls from across the city will be joining forces with Wikipedia’s experts and women in the tech industry to create a surge in new pages about women, and to add more detail to existing ones.
With 83 per cent of biographies on Wikipedia about men, you may not be surprised to learn that men also make up around 85 per cent of those who edit pages on the site. That is also something we want to see change – after all, anyone can be a Wikipedia editor if they want to, and this could go a huge way in leveling the playing field.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/need-close-wikipedias-gender-page-gap/
Because you have nothing better to do?
BAN ASSAULT WIKIPEDIA EDITORS
::sigh::
Fuck that douchebag. Bring back Boris. At least he was fun on Top Gear. This asshole is just tiresome.
As a crowdsourced reference, it shouldn’t be hard to run up the numbers on chick bios. I think the Glibs could even help by posting bios of porn stars. Whose with me?
I’ll do Mia Solis.
IYKWIMAITYD
Louis Farrakhan is pissed off about (((anal sex))).
http://dailycaller.com/2018/06/11/louis-farrakhan-jewish-power/
In fairness to Louie, he’s not against anal sex, he’s just against (((existing)))
There is only 1 correct take about the North Korea / USA summit:
– that it is a major diplomatic accomplishment that it even happened, and it is a significant change in direction away from a half-century of failed policy
whether it accomplishes anything major during Trump’s tenure, doesn’t change that basic fact. It changes the dynamic in a permanent way: we can meet, we can talk. It crossed a line that hadn’t been crossed in forever. first baby steps. will it eventually result in some stalemate and a return to belligerent rhetoric? probably. but the fact they DID meet means that people can meet again, and there is little to gain by slamming that door shut.
If it is only some future president who eventually talks the Norks into joining the world, they’ll still owe an enormous debt to Trump for breaking the ice in such a dramatic way.
And all the people moaning about Trump’s glowing praise for a murderous dictator, or the blue-blood journalists who suddenly pretend to be insulted by the US flag flying alongside the DPRK one…? are just trying to distract people from that reality by nitpicking about appearances. They’re trying to pretend that the sweet lies of diplomatic speech + pageantry somehow lessen the quality of the accomplishment. Its pathetic and its journalists trying to find poo in a pile of golden ponies.
I’ve been hearing for the last couple weeks that maintaining the veil of American agnosticism toward North Korea’s leadership is Serious Business, and Trump casually throwing it away means he’s already lost the summit. I guess that’s one way to inoculate against having to admit he achieves anything. (Which, in fairness, he likely won’t. And if he does he’ll probably get rooked.)
Only a few months ago the pundit class was freaking out over “Fire and Fury” and “Rocket man”-insults
Now they freak out over his fulsome praise for murderer, and interest in building condos in Pyongyang
Its almost like they don’t realize that the Bad Cop/Good Cop dynamic is intentional.
Trump is basically a geopolitical realist. By and large, the Washington Establishment is dominated by various camps of magical thinking – either that, if we’re nice enough the whole world will embrace for one long round of Kumbaya or if we kill enough people in the Third World, they’ll let us remake them as New Hampshire. And the two camps blur quite a bit. Anything resembling a realist foreign policy is going to run counter to these expectations.
How does Trump’s dick taste yokel-boy? We all know this is just a smokescreen for Trump’s secret plan to start a nuclear war with the Norks to appease his masters in Moscow. Der fuehrer Trumpitler is a KKK Nazi who is just jealous that the Norks are still the #1 Nazi-fascist dictatorship in the world instead of the Nazi States of Amerikkka so he has to destroy them so the evil imperialistic Nazi state known as the “USA” can take its place at the top. After he’s done genociding all minorities, indigenous LGBTQQ++++ people and Canadians he’ll go have a fuckathon orgy with Putin and Satan himself.
The actual criticism i’m hearing is from people in the #nevertrump conservative side more than the batshit prog-wing.
its this, “hurr durr ‘merica should never deign to treat with monstrous regime” nonsense.
They have this absurd belief that true diplomacy is about this very-fake and staged presentation of ‘dignity’, as tho if Trump paraded around like the fucking Pope, he’d somehow win concessions from an awestruck peasant-regime
Its both absurdly naive about the reality of ‘how diplomacy actually works’, and also relies on this fake-notion of ‘national greatness’ which no one has given a flying fuck about since…. before i was born, probably.
I can’t imagine that all the bitching from the increasingly irrelevant Kept Conservatives really matters.
I agree with your take, though. Getting all high-horse about human rights violations won’t change a thing. While a crony capitalist/commie hybrid state is Not Good, its still better than what they have now, so changing direction at least has the chance of improvement.
And Trump is savvy enough to know that linking China to this deal, even if its only in the background, is the key to making any change. If China has a stake and some risk, it has a good chance of working. Its what he did, I think, to make the summit happen in the first place, with all his twitterating about a trade war with China.
What’s especially amusing to me is that the basic deal here is exactly what the chin-strokers were all saying needed to be done – denuclearization with security guarantees. But when Trump does it, allofasudden teh chinstrokers are all “Appeasement! Neville Chamberlain with a bad tie!”.
What they don’t realize is that the definition of “Conservative” has been changing radically for the last 20-30 years.
not long ago it was bible-beating, focus-on-the-family, Moral Majority, Trent Lott/Tom DeLay/Tim LaHaye-reading christian conservatives who defined “Conservatism” in the US.
The National Review/Weekly Standard types have been a shrinking minority within their own party since the 1980s. the ‘Country Club’, intellectual-conservatives of the east-west coasts have always spent half their time sneering at the politics of the people who hold their tent up. They have never had much in the way of numbers behind them, but have always considered themselves shepherds of ‘essential conservative identity’. Its mostly a fantasy of their own imagination. Similar to the way Cato seems to have some imagined “Idealized Libertarian” who doesn’t really exist in the real world.
I have not seen a single editorial from the “smart” foreign-policy pundits who have linked Trumps aggressive arm-twisting on China trade with his sudden breakthrough on security w/ NK.
its like FP 101 to recognize that trade+security are basically 2 sides of a coin; but they seem oblivious and keep these issues in hermetically-sealed columns as tho they have no influence over one another.
fwiw – i hate his tariff talk, mainly because it appeals to idiots who use the term “globalist” unironically. but they seem to overlook that underlying his bluster are demands that everyone drop tariffs completely (which of course will never happen, but that he somehow considers that the ideal situation seems to be ignored by the MAGA crowd)
“The $15 minimum wage is to help spur gun violence in lower income communities so kids don’t have to resort to crime to subsidize their income help raise their family. Right now it’s right around the anniversary Pulse nightclub”
https://twitter.com/davidhogg111/status/1006029795841445888
What?
Guessing “spur” was supposed to be stop.
His Freudian Slip is showing.
I’m beginning to think that kid is some kind of deep cover mole planted by the NRA.
No way could the NRA pull of something like that
https://nypost.com/2018/03/28/david-hogg-having-trouble-getting-into-college-after-high-school/
Weird.
I actually am blissfully unaware of, well, anything about this young man. But the error here and the college rejection is story from not to long ago is funny.
“The Evils of Cultural Appropriation
How victimhood became a moral currency dependent on defining and policing the boundaries of human identity”
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/263933/cultural-appropriation
When PUA goes wrong.
Here’s a hint… If you find yourself using the noun “skank” in an affidavit in any circumstance other than quoting something someone else said… don’t…. 😀
What about if you use it as a verb?
Truly, we live in an age of wonders.
I prefer the Velociraptor launcher, myself.
Not all heroes wear capes.
Common Ground
Regarding earlier discussion of JJ Hill and the Great Northern Railroad. His chief engineer was this man:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Frank_Stevens
Stevens then went on to be chief engineer that completed the Panama Canal.