Sorry Eldrick, the aura isn’t there anymore. Jack and Bobby, in no particular order since I don’t want to start a fight this morning, are safe atop golf’s Olympus. You not only didn’t intimidate the field anymore, you lost by 3 to your playing partner, who was as cool as the other side of the pillow coming down the stretch as you were hitting shots that would have been OB had it not been for a couple fortuitously and unaware patrons. I’m more concerned with Jordan Spieth blowing what was a reasonably good chance to repeat in what has been a trying year.
Baseball winners were: San Diego, Toronto, Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh, Boston, Washington, LA, KC, the Cubs, Texas, (of) Anaheim, Oakland, Arizona, Seattle and Philly. New York-New York was rained out.
And some sad news for our MINNESOOOOODA VIIIIIIKINGS fans, as their offense line coach Tony Sparano unexpectedly died yesterday at the age of 56. Condolences to our Vikes fans and the Sparano family.
Slash!
Some famous people born on this date were: baseball player Pee Wee Reese, Supreme Court justice Anthony Kennedy, hurler Don Drysdale, shock jock Don Imus, sax/oboe player Andy McKay, Dutch filmmaker and victim of a terroristic murder Theo Van Gogh, rocker Martin Gore, actor Woody Harrelson , guitarist Slash, dead junkie who left three kids without a father Philip Seymour Hoffman, funny man Marlon Wayans, cigar-holder Monica Lewinsky, and actor Daniel Radcliffe.
Its also the date on which Napoleon captured Alexandria, the first typewriter (of sorts_ was patented in America, Lou Gehrig hit his first of 23 (23?!?!?!) career grand slams, Italy’s fascist government banned foreign words, the Germans got their ass kicked at Kursk, VP Richard Nixon visited the Soviet Union, the Beatles “Help!” was released, Classy Fred Blasie won his fifth world wrestling championship, Nixon refused to release the Watergate tapes, Billy Carter admitted to being paid by Libya, and ISIS set off a bomb in Kabul killing 80 people at a protest.
Weak birthday day, that’s for sure. So let’s move on to…the links!
Rattle those sabres, boys!
Some presidents send a theocratic shithole pallets of cash in the middle of the night and some decide to go completely in the opposite direction. You decide which is more prudent. Me? I’ll take peace over either one, which I’m sure is what we will end up with. After all, the Iranians can only buy so many weapons with the $58 billion in cash and securities they were handed over, so I’m sure Rouhani is just talking shit to appease his base.
The bangs need to go. This is a better look.
You know, I thought Toronto was a much longer walk from Indiana. Huh, guess I was wrong.
The Team Blue freakout over the Russian “spy” meeting with the NRA for access will likely blow over now. Unless they want to explain why she was actually meeting with high-ranking officials from the Obama admin in 2015.
So the FISA warrant application was released with a lot of it retracted. But it sure looks to me like it completely supports the GOP claim that essentially all of the evidence used was the Steele dossier that was completely funded by the DNC and the Clinton campaign (by way of a lawyer to avoid FEC oversight), although that detail was conspicuously left out of the document. And Brennan himself even said that it was all done at Obama’s behest…although that won’t see much airplay except over at Fox. All these bastards involved should at a minimum be fired for falsifying a warrant application by claiming that all sources and sub-sources had been vetted for accuracy and identified. Because they had to know that was a lie.
Another example of the great racial tolerance of the Bay Area liberals? Or just a busybody neighbor? You decide. Although in this case, it would appear that the cops and business owner all acted the way civilized people act.
“Who doesn’t just give away $200k on a Sunday?”
Look, why would anybody possibly think this had to do with the political campaign? “Its merely a coincidence!” says man who is running for mayor and happens to hand out $200,000 in cash on a Sunday afternoon. Oh, Chicago. Never change!
It looks like the Senate is about to confirm Robert Wilkie as the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Let’s see if he can fix that dysfunctional and corrupt place.
You can criticize the song if you wish. But there was only one choice for the artist. Aw fuck it, he deserves a second one.
That’s it for me this week. I’m gonna be in Cincy the next few days and then Phoenix through next Tuesday. But I’ll be checking in from time to time. So have a great week, friends!
“You know, I thought Toronto was a much longer walk from Indiana. Huh, guess I was wrong.”
Who are they gonna blame? Trump?
You know, I thought Toronto was a much longer walk from Indiana. – Canada being civilized probably has public transport, no need to walk
Oh, no, there are ‘gun free zone’ signs on the public transport, the guns wouldn’t dare take that.
“So the FISA warrant application was released with a lot of it retracted.”
They must have been hiding all the fiction in it. The entire FISA court needs to be rethought after rubber stamping this shit. In the mean time, the real criminal got away with shit that would have put any of us in jail, again.
Jesus. Ya, let’s just keep ignoring this one. Old news and all.
FISA needs dismantled along with most of the DOJ over that warrant. It is my understanding Paige heard about info on Clinton from a Clinton friend who then told the FBI that Paige was talking about Clinton information.
“Jesus. Ya, let’s just keep ignoring this one. Old news and all.”
Unfortunately for those of us that would like to see justice served, they have to keep ignoring this. Hilary told Obama he was going down with her if he didn’t protect her, and that still stands. The left is in circle-the-wagons mode to protect the most criminal administration ever to have held court on numerous topics, and the biggest one is this one, because Hilary will burn it all down if they fuck her over.
This is why zi have postulated here before that Clinton’s server wasn’t just to avoid FOIA but to also act as a dropbox for the info inside and the payments were made in the open to the Foundation.
Clinto seems to be a pure high level independen constartor style mole.
Dod’t for get he husband also okayed the sale to China of the guidance systems sitting atop their nukes aimed back at us.
The problem with FISA courts is the secrecy. I’d bet normal courts also mostly rubber-stamp warrants, but at least you can see how bad a job they’re doing of it.
What good is a redacted report?
It’s mad libs for partisans.
+1 _______ whores
Parliamentary?
“It’s better than an unredacted one”
-James Comey, Peter Strzok, John Brennen, Andrew McCabe, Hillary Clinton, etc, etc, etc.
Ros Douthat went to Freedom Fest
In principle I am not a libertarian: The teenage nerd enters conservatism through either Atlas Shrugged or Lord of the Rings, and between Tolkienists like myself and the Randians a great gulf is often fixed. But even if libertarianism seems an insufficient philosophy of human flourishing, its defense of individuals and markets can be a crucial practical corrective to all manner of liberal and conservative mistakes.
So it was interesting to be among the libertarians in a time when, like other right-of-center faiths, they have seen their political ideals swallowed up by the rule of Donald Trump (whose own FreedomFest appearance, back in 2015, featured a question for him about Russian sanctions from a certain red-haired Russian spy).
If there was supposed to be a point to that rambling jibberjabber (other than fulfilling his contractual obligation to provide some words to fit in a space on a page) I was unable to discern it. Libertarianism is impractical. Trump is bad. Okay, Ross, we get it.
Libertarianism is impractical – unless single land tax is implemented
You stealing my bit?
hey you did not invent georgist libertarianism. Also IP is unlibertarian.
The fights I got in on the old site over this were legendary.
I heard a blurb in a Great Courses lecture I need to follow up on. Apparently, during the founding of Taiwan they implemented some sort of Georgist land tax? I was going to wikipedia it today. I just heard “based on the theories of American economist Henry George”.
Yes, they did. They didn’t do an SLT, but I think they have a land tax.
One of Sun Yat Sen’s principles.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_ideology_of_the_Kuomintang#History
Wait, he thinks all libertarians are Randians? Or that Randianism is one of two ways nerds become conservative?
Ha-…has he ever read Ayn Rand?
I would give Heinlein much more credit then Rand.
^^^THIS^^^
Yep.
Heinlein & P. J. O’Rourke
I didn’t even read Rand until my 30’s
PJ O’Rourke is the only of the authors discussed here I that I ever read. That, and Walter Williams gave a talk at my high school once and I interviewed him for the school paper. That was a pretty awesome experience.
I managed to become libertarian without ever reading Rand.
I read a lot of Rand in high school and nonetheless became a knee-jerk progressive for much of my early twenties. I associated all the stultifying statist crap she wrote about with social conservatism, and her radical individualism with progressive liberation. No, I was not a bright or very curious person, which is what made progressivism an easy fit until my mid-twenties, when I started broadening my horizons.
#metoo
I think the fact that he identifies as a Tolkeinist makes that a no.
As a Tolkeinist, he should know that some libertarians (okay, maybe just me) get there thru Lewis instead of Rand.
Of the four mentioned: Rand, Tolkein, Heinlein, Lewis, I would say that Tolkein in no way inspired my political views. What a weird place to draw inspiration from. “If only the divine forces align in my favor, I can become a toady to the actually powerful”… actually seems like a good summary of the conservative pundit’s guiding philosophy.
A lot of conservatives would really like to touch the One Ring.
Especially while it is on Sauron’s very long 11th finger?
I spent some time last night reading about Tolkien’s philosophical premises in that world, mainly wrt free will and the gift of mortality enjoyed by men. If there’s any sort of political inspiration besides general concepts of chivalry, fellowship, and the goodness of good against the baseness of evil, it’s in the distinction he gives men over the immortal races. Men are outside and separate from the song of creation, endowed by Iluvatar with a spark of will that elves lack. Elves are stewards of beauty and agelessness, whereas men usher change and self-determination. Men are not bound to return to Aman after death as are the elves and the Maiar and I suppose the Valar. It’s implied that they may even transcend the world of Arda altogether and reside in some sort of Christian afterlife, although that’s heavy speculation.
Anyway, the takeaway I got from spending a couple hours on Quora and stackexchange is that Tolkien was fairly bullish on the prospect of man as a heroic and dynamic force for good, which seems anathema to progressivism.
New Middle Earth Man?
I would give Laura Ingalls Wilder more credit than Rand, but I can’t speak to a Heinlein comparison. She sowed those oats in my soul early and thoroughly.
These are people who think that Paul Ryan is a libertarian. They don’t know what words mean.
Well, I’d say that Rand was a major influence in my shifting away from traditionally conservative to a more libertarian outlook on things. As I got older I shifted more toward conservatism and then moved back to libertarianism as I actually grew more mature.
Rand’s talent is in raising questions that popular culture and the educational system generally either gloss over or assume away. I recall having raised similar questions (“Who says housing is a right? Based on what?”) only to get looked at like I had five heads and No one seemed to be able to offer me much of an explanation beyond acting as if I had just pooped in the punch bowl. Reading Rand sort of assured me that the questions I was asking were legitimate. That “all right-thinking people think XYZ” is not a legitimate argument.
Obviously, there’s a huge amount to libertarianism beyond Ayn Rand. Heck, I’d say Rand had an overwhelming tendency to try to codify her every opinion and preference into being the logical conclusion of reason. But, I think she did get a lot of things dead right. And I’ll always be happy that I read her stuff.
I’ll buck the trend by saying that Rand’s The Virtue of Selfishness (even if at times not that well reasoned) made a big impact on my journey towards libertarianism. Her other books seem to be unreadable in whole.
Atlas Shrugged is conservative? I’m don’t think Ayn would appreciate that descriptor.
Eh. I had a teacher in HS who used excerpts from Atlas Shrugged. I would describe her as “conservative”. AS might be radically anti-government, but lots of 17-20 year olds who read it aren’t ready to jump full scale to going Galt. They might just reorient to being less pro-government and pro-authority in general.
I don’t think Atlas Shrugged has nearly as much influence on young people as The Fountainhead, honestly. For one thing The Fountainhead still makes it onto a lot of high school reading lists while Atlas Shrugged doesn’t, and for another it’s like 600 pages instead of 1200. The percentage of high school students that will actually slog through 600 pages is probably slim as it is. For every 100 additional pages you can deduct another 10% from that already-diminished cohort.
Anthem is short, clear and concise. That’s the one the kids should be reading.
We had to read that one in 10th grade. The other class was a senior elective in history. Basically all the 20th century history that doesn’t get covered in US history because they always run out of time. Call it Treaty of Versaille through Nixon. (We were only in the Clinton presidency at the time).
Meh. I’m not a fan of Anthem. It’s so exaggerated and sappy, even for Rand, that it just comes off as silly. As short stories go, Harrison Bergeron is probably a better one since nobody seems to realize that it’s actually a parody of anti-communists.
Anthem is a fairy tale / morality tale. It’s supposed to be exaggerated and sappy.
Exactly. Perfect for kids.
True, I suppose, for younger kids. It’s sub-high school level for sure though.
Shit, an accurate retelling of 20th century history alone should be more than sufficient to turn anyone into an anti-communist at the very least.
Yeah, you’re going to have a hard time getting that in a public school though, I don’t think we *ever* even got there in our history classes, except AP US History- which 90% of people don’t even take. We spent most our time reading Zinn.
Read Harrison Bergeron as a kid (~3rd grade or so), combined with a few life experiences left me ripe for libertarian thought.
My kid read it voluntarily when she was 12.
AP US History at my high school used Zinn as the textbook.
Zinn?
I hope it was an example of how to write one-sided history using anecdotes.
I think we went to the same school Gustave.
Sadly it wasn’t. Main & sole textbook. The regular US History class used some run of the mill one.
Like a bunch of my high school classes, I flunked out of both versions of US History.
It fails as a parody of anti communists because it actually matches the behavior and beliefs of actual communists far too well
WTF does Lord of The Rings have to do with conservatism?
The English brand of “foxhunt conservatism”, “green and pleasant land”. The Men want freedom but the freedom to make war on each other and concentrate power in their hands. The Elves are immortal, wise, powerful, but are a race of cowards fleeing evil. The Dwarves are greedy and grasping, focusing on digging gold and gems instead of pursuing beauty and art. Sauron is of course just pure evil and corruption. Saruman destroys the forest to make his industrial army.
The Hobbits have a green and quiet home, with plump matrons and cheery publicans, rolling hills, babbling brooks, shade trees in abundance under which to enjoy a pipe at the end of the working day. It was Tolkien’s ideal society.
It wasn’t utopian. The hobbits are often shown as being foolish, petty, jealous, greedy, and intolerant (or at least provincial). It’s just that the scale of their shortcomings (pun intended) is much smaller, so their foolishness or pettiness leads to gossipy neighbors rather than murder and theft.
The nad guys are totally collectivist. The chapter The Scouring of the Shire has describes Saruman sending “gatherers and sharers” to The Shire. Once they take over all of a sudden there is scarcity.
BAD guys. Dammit. And stop snickering.
*snicker* … sorry.
like other right-of-center faiths
Uh huh…
The Team Blue freakout over the Russian “spy” meeting with the NRA for access will likely blow over now. Unless they want to explain why she was actually meeting with high-ranking officials from the Obama admin in 2015.
29? Man, she looks like an old 29.
You’d be old (older?) too
That’s a lot of gangbangs…
That’s a Russian 29
She looks like the chick who married Harry Potter, all grown up. I’m sure there are dudes who are into that.
And today is Harry Potter’s birthday.
::mind blown::
She’s a terrible spy — I mean, doing all of this meeting out in the open?
She’s no deep throat.
Anything over 13 is old to you it seems…
Some presidents send a theocratic shithole pallets of cash in the middle of the night and some decide to go completely in the opposite direction. You decide which is more prudent. Me? I’ll take peace over either one, which I’m sure is what we will end up with. After all, the Iranians can only buy so many weapons with the $58 billion in cash and securities they were handed over, so I’m sure Rouhani is just talking shit to appease his base.
I have always wondered, if Mosaddegh was not ofverthrown the US didn’t support the shah, would Iran have become theocratic? I mean it is clear that the ayatollah supporters were numerous and fairly powerful, so that sort of revolution may have come sooner or later. But then it may not have come at all. Although if Iran would go full commie, the collapse would be inevitable and what would take it’s place?
Overall it is such a damn shame for a country with Iran’s history to be a theocratic shithole in 2018
“I have always wondered, if Mosaddegh was not ofverthrown the US didn’t support the shah, would Iran have become theocratic?”
No, it would have become another of the many shitholes under Moscow’s thumb.
And then it would have become a theocratic shithole in 1990. With nukes.
I don’t know. The Soviet states did a pretty good job expunging religion in their sphere of influence. Islamic fundamentalism might have been sufficiently suppressed by communism that it wouldn’t have had enough popular support after the iron curtain came down.
I mean, it worked on the Cechens, right?
Chechnya is a local pain in the ass rather than an international financier of Islamic terrorism with ICBMs and a viable path to nuclear weapons, so in that sense… Of course there’s other reasons for the relative success of Iran vis a vis Chechnya as well.
Azerbaijan is probably the best example of what Iran would have ended up like under Soviet rule. Azeri is the 2nd largest ethnicity in Iran and similar to Persian.
Yeah, Afghanistan?
But the Soviets never actually succeeded in subsuming Afghanistan, in large part because the US was shovelling cash there to keep the Islamic radicals armed and fed the entire time. It would be interesting to see what would have happened in the region without the US influence. Of course, without getting mired in that proxy match the iron curtain might have lasted longer as well.
Uffda. Want a good example of lots of people getting fucked because of a few loud scaremongers? I give you the sad story of LYMErix – a vaccine for Lyme’s disease.
As someone who spends time in the woods and has had a few rounds of anti-bacterials because I’ve been bitten by deer ticks, this really urinates me off.
At least it isn’t as bad as this Jimbo, and as someone that hasd had to take the antibiotics a few times for that Lyme disease, I agree with you that these people are fucking morons.
A vaccine against catching China?
New drug for recurring malaria
It’s a good thing most of the major medical breakthroughs occurred in the early 20th century before we’d fully erected the regulatory state.
It’s a good thing most of the major medical breakthroughs occurred in the early 20th century before we’d fully erected the regulatory state.
That’s just how it seems. We could be in the Golden Age of medicine now, but companies are sitting on many major medical breakthroughs rather than risk the regulatory process. Navigating these regulations is part of my job and I really can’t blame them.
What kills me is this expectation that drugs will have 100% efficiency without any possible bad side effects. In today’s world, the expectation of perfection from anyone and anything by the mob, other than for the usual marxism peddlers and their evil cult it seems, is a disastrous thing.
“It is better than unterated? Are the side effects worth it?”
An old article from the wife of Suderman regarding the FDA and drug companies.
Of course we need a malarial drug because of Rachael Carson’s Silent Spring and the demonization of DDT.
Because DDT worked great for stopping malaria.
They really wanted to make sure it was not stopped where the black and brown people lived, is what it looks like to me…
C’mon Alex. Seeing eagles in the US is far more important that a few million poor brown folks in Sri Lanka.
I don’t know how many people who have died from malaria since the ban, but it’s gotta to be somewhere between “Pol Pot deaths” and “Mao deaths”
Oh and a cursory Googling shows lots of ProgSplaining trying to argue that malaria never really went away and the DDT ban is actually a rightwing lie.
The whole study that got DDT banned being based on a pack of lies and bullshit, notwithstanding?
The data might have been fake, but the narrative was real.
Seems to always be the refuge of the people pushing marxism…
Their feelz were real, don’t deny their lived experience man.
“C’mon Alex. Seeing eagles in the US is far more important that a few million poor brown folks in Sri Lanka.”
They’re socialists. Malaria is a symptom, not a cause.
South Africa: 11 taxi drivers killed in highway ambush in KwaZulu-Natal
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/south-africa-11-taxi-drivers-killed-in-highway-ambush-in-kwazulu-natal/
“There has been a lot of taxi violence in the area but we are still investigating who the perpetrators were,” province spokesman Jay Naicker said.
Taxis are the most popular form of transport in South Africa and violence between rival associations over lucrative routes has plagued the country for years.
Honestly I usually think of Romania as a shithole but Romania is far from taxi wars… I wonder if Uber is in South Africa, I assume they would be better armed.
Comment number one on that Douthat thing:
Gustav
DurangoJuly 22
Times Pick
Human beings are simultaneously both individuals with rights and members of society with responsibilities. Libertarians like Rand Paul, George Will, and Ronald Reagan have conveniently forgotten about the second part. And no one ever lost an election campaigning for lower taxes, selfishness, and greed. They always have it easier than the responsible side.
We now live in the Libertarian Dystopia that Republicans created, where the biggest and richest bullies on the block can do whatever they want, and they always win. Trump is concrete proof of both the Libertarian’s political success, and the movement’s complete lack of moral and civil bearings.
That’s what will get you that highly coveted NYT thumbs up.
Libertarians like George Will. Good one, dude.
Reagan was a libertarian? Who knew???
Libertarians are all for massive budget increases. Everybody knows that.
Reagan did say that libertarianism is the soul of conservatism. And was a Goldwaterite.
He said that, then vastly expanded the size, scope, and power of government.
The resemblance to Goldwater ended at the color of his tie.
I think it ended in 1976.
Or when he was Governor.
Libertarians like Rand Paul, George Will, and Ronald Reagan
If this knob ever read Rothbard or Mises he’s probably go catatonic.
But snark asside, how can someone with half a brain actually claim the US is libertarian? I don’t get it. Evil, stupid, or both?
Considering he thinks George Will and Reagan are libertarian, he’s using his own definition of libertarian (even more so then most libertarians). If I had to guess at the definition, my best guess is:
Libertarian – Anyone who criticized a government program or agency.
They don’t know and don’t want to know what Libertarianism actually consists of. It’s just a bad word, like GOP or Trump or fascist. They are like children cursing; they don’t know what the words mean, they just understand that they are naughty to say.
I don’t get it. Evil, stupid, or both?
It could be that this person is a mendacious twat.
We now live in the Libertarian Dystopia that Republicans created
IF ONLY.
the movement’s complete lack of moral and civil bearings
Right. True morality involves enslaving your fellow man to subsidize your existence.
If your morality isn’t worth enforcing at the end of a gun, then it’s not much of a morality now is it?
Human beings are simultaneously both individuals with rights and members of society with responsibilities.
Anyone care to place odds that the sum total of the responsibilities that Gustav believes apply to him consists of placing demands on other people to satisfy his sense of generosity?
It’s been awhile, so here goes: “There’s no such fucking thing as Society”.
You can tell we live in a Libertarian Dystopia just by all the victimless crimes on the books.
Trump made that shooting in Toronto happen. Ask that cunt Whooppi.
I did Rufus, and she says you called it right…
Is there anyone more insufferable on TV than her and Joy Behar? Holy shit those two are reeee-tarded.
You are now insulting/disparaging decent people by comparing them to those two despicable attention hogging no-talent beings, Rufus.
::shrugs::
Morning Joe?
Dude, nothing – and I mean nothing – is more reprehensible on TV than The View.
Just to show you how much I believe this I’m willing to contest you in a game of Rebound.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQe6UbotWhc
You know, a bar without the wall length for a full size shuffleboart table could use a scaled up version of that. It would be awesome.
Islamic State ‘Beatles’ duo: UK ‘will not block death penalty’
America’s global reputation will take ‘years to repair’ from the Trump era, experts warn.
Oh, experts warn?! This must be serious! To think, we used to have a great world reputation when our leader bowed to foreign dictators and sent them pallets full of cash. That bastard Trump is destroying the US!!!
What experts? The ones still peddling marxism and pining for the death of the US/capitalism? Those experts?
“We can only hope”
— Brett L “Expert”
Considering what having such a great ‘reputation’ around the world has got us so far, I can only say “This^”.
That means he’s doing good.
Because the unhinged behaviour of the left has been sparkling in its civility and intelligence.
All the experts told me Hillary was a lock
Experts told people to kill the Jews.
You know who else told people to kill the Jews?
Mo?
Haman?
Probably the same experts.
President Donald Trump’s approach to foreign policy is having a negative impact on America’s global standing and it could take the US years to recover, experts warn.
Hm…I rather enjoy the giving of a middle-finger to our frenemies.
Except all of the experts the article actually cites say pretty much the opposite. This stuff is just fucking retarded. Geopolitics isn’t a schoolyard popularity contest. At least it isn’t if you’re playing to win. Countries make strategic decisions based on their leaders’ best rational assessment of their own interests. “Donald Trump is a jerk” is not a determining factor in any rational calculation of national interest. The truth of the matter is that the Atlantic system has been in trouble for a long time. It’s underlying strategic rationale has been obviated for some time. Ignoring the fact that a changed geopolitical situation calls for a reassessment of our alliance system because “Theys is our friends” is the sort of thing I’d expect from a six-year-old.
One more and I’ll stop, before my head cracks in half like an egg:
Common Sense
USAJuly 22
Times Pick
Let’s face reality – libertarianism in 2018 is just not a practical philosophy.
It’s just not debatable:
– Unregulated capitalism leads inevitably toward monopolies and oligarchy. Big fish always eat little fish until their are only a small number of big fish left in the pond.
– Unlimited socialism always leads to poverty and fascism because the vast majority of people will not be productive unless their personal productivity results in their personal gain.
99.999% of people on the planet cannot build their own electrical plants; hospitals, universities, high schools and grade schools; roads; police departments; jails; courthouses; airports; navies; armies; air forces; or regulate and inspect polluters; regulate and inspect food processors; regulate regulate air traffic; and on and on.
The only way to maintain any semblance of reasonable safety and security is through a mixed economy with pieces of socialism and regulated capitalism.
“Unregulated capitalism leads inevitably toward monopolies and oligarchy.” Just like those crazy wild west completely unregulated guys in the banking industry. If only we had more regulation, the big banks would not have gobbled up their competitors and captured a commanding share of the market over the last ten years. Where’s Elizabeth Warren when you need her?
Under capitalism, the rich will gain power, and some will misuse it. Under collectivism only the powerful will have riches, and they will all but be guaranteed to abuse it.
Big fish always eat little fish until their are only a small number of big fish left in the pond.
How I learned you stock a pond is that you have throw out a whole shitload of medium sized fish that are too big for the big fish and big enough to eat the little fish to get a few really big fish. Kind of like what government does. If you’re too little to be hooked or big enough to be worth catching again, you go back in the pond. Its the one’s who are big enough to be hooked but not worth being caught again who end up eaten or just tossed on the bank for scavengers.
Before government, nobody ever cooperated to achieve anything.
Umm… where does he think people learn to build electrical plants or chemical plants or hospitals? Government schools? 99.9% of the people who work on building those things haven’t seen the inside of a government school since a couple of days before they started their tradework.
It was like they read “I, Pencil” and drew the entirely wrong conclusion.
99.999% of people on the planet cannot build their own electrical plants; hospitals, universities, high schools and grade schools; roads; police departments; jails; courthouses; airports; navies; armies; air forces; or regulate and inspect polluters; regulate and inspect food processors; regulate regulate air traffic; and on and on.
That .0001% of people sure must be busy!
Imagine actually believing that the only thing holding the world together is an elite cadre of government workers. Jesus fucking Christ.
It’s the cry of the disempowered and fearful.
Actually, if you really pay attention to history and the actual facts, it is not hard to surmise that a very small minority of people are the ones directly responsible for all the great things that have produced the wealth and standards of living we enjoy today, and I would not be surprised to find out none of them were ever in government when they did any of that.
True enough, but it’s not a minority anywhere near that small, and division of labor leverages geniuses by way of idiots in a natural market. The physicists who ascertained how to split the atom would have taken 10 generations to bring their work to fruition without a bunch of 85 IQ high school graduates working in mills and factories.
The point is that someone has to have not just the big ideas, but then put them into practice, Pat. Most people show up to do mundane work, many of them working hard as hell, but in the grand scheme of things remain only a cog in a machine that is changed by a very small few.
I don’t think the few is really all that small though. You’re probably talking about the top quartile of the IQ distribution as a pretty good proxy. Radical innovation is exciting and everything, but mundane incremental improvements tend to move humanity forward just as surely. It’s right and proper that most people aren’t extraordinary, but the unexceptional are the ones that free up the capital (intellectual and material) of the exceptional to be focused where they can do the most good. And of course getting back to the original point, this sorting process has taken place since the earliest human societies with and without the intrusion of government, which is not in fact responsible for even one of the things for which the retard who made that comment gives it credit.
“I don’t think the few is really all that small though. You’re probably talking about the top quartile of the IQ distribution as a pretty good proxy”
I disagree that IQ has anything to do with this. In fact, some of the highest IQ people I have known have been complete losers if not downright destructive. Our current credentialed elite political class, the heads of most humanities and studies in academia, and our “experts” calls, are all prime example of this shit. Useless fucks the lot of them.
I am talking about the people that have good ideas that change things that then act on it (or steal it from someone and act on it). Intellectuals are not the people that make the world go. In fact, I would hazard today the self appointed intellectuals are some of the most destructive people around. They are the ones telling us capitalism is a failure and that government is what build that, without any kind of shame for their stupidity.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of those types weren’t particularly bright.
Either way top quartile of IQ does not an Intellectual make. Clearly there are useless and worse amongst all IQ groups, but a lot of advances in technology and medicine almost certainly comes from this group.
I keep getting told that our brightest and best are the morons spouting marxism. Frankly, my first instinct is someone that intelligence is low in anyone peddling marxism (that or their evil quotient is super high).
It’s definitely not a perfect correlation, but IQ does play a large role in career and financial success. Certainly it’s the case that nearly all the innovators and top producers are well above average in conventional measures of intelligence. It’s pretty close to necessary, but not sufficient. Still, it’s a pretty large talent pool to draw from. It would probably be more accurate to say that the top quartile of the IQ distribution has the ability to move the ball forward, to varying degrees, whether or not they actualize it. A Euclid or Newton or Einstein is maybe a 1 in a billion proposition. But a Gutenberg or Bell or Marconi? Probably not even 1 in a million. Go down a few rungs on the ladder to, say, a John Carmack. Perhaps not even 1 in 100,000. We all owe John Vincent Atanasoff a huge debt of gratitude for inventing the digital computer, but the 200 person design team that worked on the incremental enhancements in the last iteration of Intel chips that are powering the computer on which I’m typing this have done just as much or more to make my life better.
Thomas Sowell
And von Mises
Exactly what I was referring to Scruffy. Sowell hits it on the head.
If you simply exclude academia from the calculus (which is a mistake because a lot of the innovation and leadership you’re talking about actually comes from there, but just for the purposes of argument), I still contend that the Randian idea of this sub-1% band of ubermenschen holding society together by a gossamer thread is not a realistic picture of the way things are. It is unquestionably true that major advancements are routinely made by the extremely exceptional. Stratification of intelligence (or ability, if you prefer) is a natural phenomenon, and it’s expected that a minority of highly capable people will lead a majority of less capable people. But it’s equally true that incremental advancements occur on a daily basis that make our lives better in myriad ways, and the number of people making that happen is much larger than the one-in-a-billion true geniuses.
Notice that when I talked about the academic wasteland, I specifically state humanities and studies fields. While the other fields may have a few SJW types, they predominantly have to work in the real world, and that kind of makes the need for real logic and real facts the best way to disprove the bullshit peddlers there.
Unregulated capitalism led to the monopoly of the “gig” economy.
Team Blue in Minnesoda is starting to rethink that “you MUST believe the accuser” rule.
The background: Ex-Congressman Rick Nolan is running for Lt. Gov as the running mate with vapid ex-AG Lori Swanson (who is going for the gov chair). It came out last week that Nolan had to fire a campaign aide for sexual harassment in 2015, but then hired the same groper back to run his 2016 campaign.
This weekend Swanson and Nolan finally responded to the allegations. Pretty standard “we didn’t do anything wrong”, “but if we did we apologize” type of response. The best part though was this:
I love the “no tolerance” stance the leftists have taken on these things. Especially when it eats their own.
Bonus Rick Nolan track:
Recording of Rep. Rick Nolan on women workers: ‘There’s a lot more fragility in the professional world than there is in the industrial, hard-working world’
I think what makes Blue on Blue violence is that a) Team Blue knows how to make a good accusation and b) the victims on the Blue side are absolutely unused to having accusations like this leveled at them so they really get clobbered.
Sanders’ wing of the party terrifies moderate Dems. Here’s how they plan to stop it.
I suggest you rig the primaries.
Or, just let them talk. Don’t interrupt them. Quote them completely and accurately.
The problem is, they may win a few primaries and get destroyed in the main elections.
I get the moderate being afraid. But maybe they could try running less corrupt hacks? Maybe try running some blue dogs…you know, real moderates.
Democrats did a good job destroying their “blue dog” members by passing Obamacare. And they’ve been swinging harder to the left since their masks got ripped off during W’s days.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Do people really want more government control, or do they just want more goodies without having to pay for it?
Unfortunately for those of us that value individual liberty and responsibility, the group that wants free shit paid by others now outvotes the rest of us.
How many of you actually vote?
According to a Liberty Magazine reader survey in the 90s, 1/3 of the respondents refuse to vote because it is immoral.
Wait, wait. You think people want candidates who are basically centrist with maybe some pro-union leanings or for less-restrictive welfare? What sort of monster are you?
The real issue I have with the concept of the “moderate Left” is that right now the US has the following situation:
Massive regulatory state with protections for various discriminated against classes.
Guarantee of equal access to “public” spaces like restaurants, bars, hotels, etc.
Guarantee of medical care to: the old, the children, the indigent, and free care to anyone who comes into an ER.
Generous welfare state that includes food and housing.
Free K-12 education, and heavily subsidized college with massive student loans and grants.
Strong worker protections.
Universal old age and disability pensions.
How is that not a moderate Left state? It’s got every single feature I think a moderate scaled welfare state could possibly include. Like that’s the issue I have with the Left in this country. They act as though all the things that Wilson, FDR, and Johnson gave them were dismantled by the Right. Shit right now I hear them talking about “Obamacare getting repealed” even though it fucking wasn’t.
The Left’s victories are permanent features of American life. They’re not fleeting or transitory moments.
The left is so pissed at their old ideological travelers, the Russians, precisely because their hack exposed the shit they had been up to when they amongst a plethora of serious criminal and despicable activity, for example, rigged the primaries for Hillary.
I think overall rigging the primaries is unnecessary and can make you look bad
I think that there is a lot of similarity to the Tea Party movement. A lot of grass roots folks want to move their party in a different direction and in doing so squander a chance for big legislative gains by running a lot of kooky candidates.
Personally, I think we should call this the Free Party movement. They seem like they are much more important now than they really are. In one or two more election cycles everyone will realize that they can’t produce the votes and will be ignored.
something was causing Clinton’s server to send copies of all of her email communications outside of the country “to an unauthorized source that was a foreign entity unrelated to Russia.”
“Reply All” is a common mistake. Anybody could have done it.
One you avoid by not replying at all?
Yeah, except this was a scripted hack on that server that gave Chinese intell all the emails that Clinton received or sent, including the Yoga appointments they claim was the most classified stuff in her communications (something we now know to be one of the enormous amount of falsehoods & lies they have told us about this whole debacle)..
Hillary Clinton “I thought I was replying to the gentleman named Al who does all my email forwarding. I’d have him come to corroborate, but he has since died in a freak pistol-fishing accident. I have since updated my eyeglasses prescription and will be sure that I notice the difference in the “Reply Al” and “Reply All” buttons I had set up on my computer.”
Congressman Peter Schiff (D-CA): “Thank you for that candid answer, Secretary Clinton. I apologize for the Committee wasting your time like this again.”
What kind of lure does a guy use to catch a pistol?
Titties?
My page/shout-out to Q seems to have failed…
No, it was the strangest thing. He had a pistol on the end of his line and as he reached back to cast it, it snagged on something behind him and shot him in the back of the head.
Twice.
There is a long story about a couple guys I know that is similar. They were brothers and out muskie fishing and the younger one managed to snag the older brother in the back of the head with a lure.
Deep enough that they went to a nearby gas station to borrow some snippers to cut through all the treble hooks that were embedded in this guy’s scalp. The younger brother still laughs hysterically about how green the gas station guy was when he saw all the hooks in his brother’s head.
‘Don’t be a pr**k, don’t kiss a TORY!’: Fury after Sheffield’s new Lord Mayor displays ’10 commandments’ posters telling festival-goers not to smooch Conservative party members
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5977487/Dont-kiss-TORY-Fury-Sheffields-Lord-Mayor-displays-10-commandments-posters.html
The tolerant left…
is it racist that those pictures reminded me of president Camacho? I suppose it is but can’t help mental connections. If he was wearing some old timey outfit with the huge medal think maybe it would have been different
I don’t think it is racist, when he really does resemble Comacho due to his attire and demeanor.
If he was a white guy acting the same way, he’d still evoke the comparison.
The picture of him in a sombrero wearing a T-shirt with that gaudy medieval medal (which I’m sure is the only part of the attire that is standard for a Lord Mayor) while speaking at a podium is definitely Camacho-worthy.
I can’t decide if this guy beclowning the office is a good thing or not. I suppose it is, but he’s so insufferable.
Booooo…..
But we are in agreement about the top 2.
Just to taunt though, did any OSU alumni who are currently playing make this year’s top 10?
Are there any OSU alumni currently on tour?
I did mention to you that my comment about the World Cup to you was a case of mistaken identity, right?
These are the sort of things that keep me up at night.
I missed the comment and your response to the comment.
I have no idea what you are talking about.
Or, possibly, I knew about it at the time but have forgotten.
Yeh that’s probably it.
NYT Letter to the Editor: Today’s G.O.P.: Betraying Traditional Republican Values “My parents were immigrants and hardcore Republicans. If they were still alive today, they would be totes upset and embarrassed about Trump’s GOP.
“Disregard for the law.” You mean like our immigration laws? Or are those laws okay to disregard?
What has happened to the minds and souls of so many Democrats that has made dishonesty, lies, immoral behavior, financial chicanery, racism, inhumane treatment of others and disregard for the law by their elected leaders acceptable? Why are so many Americans apparently incapable of recognizing con artists and demagogues?
The answer is the same of both. This is what government power leads to
Also I do not buy the myth that X years ago, X being whatever, politics was significantly better. It is just a bullshit attempt to seem open to different values while you are not.
“What has happened to the minds and souls of so many Democrats that has made dishonesty, lies, immoral behavior, financial chicanery, racism, inhumane treatment of others and disregard for the law by their elected leaders acceptable? Why are so many Americans apparently incapable of recognizing con artists and demagogues?”
If it advances the marxist agenda, it is all good. The ends justify the means, after all to these people.
“Also I do not buy the myth that X years ago, X being whatever, politics was significantly better. It is just a bullshit attempt to seem open to different values while you are not.”
One of the most favorite talking points of the Democrats is that PREVIOUS REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT was a moderate statesman, a real gentleman and someone who treated the Dems with respect, but CURRENT REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT is an Evil Monster Nazi Racist. They did it with Reagan, I am now seeing them do it with W, which is truly astounding because they hated his ass, and when they do it with Trump it’s going to be hilarious.
Well, that’s because the next Republican candidate will be honest TRUE to GAIA REAL Hitler! Ignore all the other people we called Hitler, they were like half Hitler at worst. But this time WE MEAN IT!
I think people that don’t see how every defeated or out of office republican that used to be worse than Hitler suddenly becoming wise and statesmen-like to the left, so they can demonize whatever the current guy they want out of power, is bullshit at best, need their heads examined.
That’s funny shit right there.
So, what did I miss?
Bend over.
I’ll show what you missed.
STEVE SMITH LINE STOLEN. SEND CANADIAN COUSIN TO MEET WITH YOU.
No way I’m falling for that one, again.
It looks like the Hogginator has bought into the hysteria over Russia:
https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/07/22/hogg-wild-david-hogg-uses-tweetstorm-democrats/
Call me crazy but these tweets make him look like a partisan political hack rather than someone just interested in people’s welfare. Who could have seen that coming?
Sorry, his fifteen minutes expired, I forgot who he was.
A Federalist White Knight to the rescue!
https://twitter.com/gabrielmalor/status/1021199526424645640?s=21
More infantalizing of young adults of voting age. SMDH.
It’s not as if he’s some random kid. Piglet chose to allow himself to be used as the tool of gun grabbers. He enthusiastically is attempted to have my rights take away. Fuck him with a rusty butcher knife.
Good.
Someone should tell him that the internet is forever.
Women’s rights under threat after Brexit, warns EHCR report
EU protections may not apply under UK law, with workplace equality especially at risk
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2018/jul/23/womens-rights-under-threat-after-brexit-warns-ehcr-report
But only 28% of chairs of public bodies were women, while only 27.7% of board members in FTSE 100 companies were women. – and this has what to do with rights?
The report draws attention to violence against woman and girls. In the year ending December 2017, 145,397 sexual offences were recorded by police in England and Wales, an increase of 25% compared with the previous year. – yes this will totes go down in the EU
Well, if the UK slows immigration from Central Asia they might be able to achieve some improvement in those numbers.
How will that lead to more women CEOs, which is the important issue here?
Two things are needed for the UK – 1: an end to Europolicies regarding migration. 2: actual enforcement of the laws without fear of being called racist because the criminals a nonwhite.
Without those EU protections in place how will the UK ever match, say, Germany or France in the treatment of women?
an increase of 25%
I wonder why…
Great music choices Sloopy.
Thank you both. I had to go out with a bang.
Nice musical choices, Sloop!
Slash was always the coolest one in that band, and he is a really interesting dude, too.
Here he is on the state of rock and roll.
Why are so many Americans apparently incapable of recognizing con artists and demagogues?”
There’s a sucker born every minute.
“Sweet!”
/Elon Musk
The two most abundant elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity.
Belgian nude beach blocked on fears sexual activity could spook wildlife
Wildlife agency says ‘subsidiary activities’ in the dunes would scare off rare lark
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/23/belgian-naturist-beach-plan-blocked-over-subsidiary-activities
Since in my experience these nudist activities always involve the people you are least likely to want to see in the nude, I can see why this could cause massive damage to wildlife as well as to people with a low level of tolerance for ugly shit.
+ too many German tourists
+1 wrinkliest ballsack on earth
It’s a coverup. They’re really just afraid that STEVE SMITH might show up.
so I’m sure Rouhani is just talking shit to appease his base.
Do you know who else talked shit to appease his base?
(Also, they must have forgotten how, on two occasions, we completely routed the Iraqi military in like a week.)
Rouhani don’t care if we kill a few million sheeple. He will however care if they come after his ass specifically.
Do you know who else talked shit to appease his base?
Sparky Anderson?
All Team Blue has to do in order to have success in the midterms is not appear crazy, but they cannot manage that.
“So when we flip the House and flip the Senate, I think the first thing we should do is deal with the children who have been separated from their families at the border. I think we should get rid of ICE,” Gillibrand said at the New York City festival OZY Fest, where she shared a stage with left-wing actress Chelsea Handler.
“We should separate out two missions, the anti-terrorism mission, the national security mission, and then on the other side make sure you’re do, making sure you’re looking at immigration as a humanitarian issue,”
“These are civil issues, these are families, look at it as the economic engine that it is, that immigration is our strength, our diversity is what makes our country and our economy so strong,” she said.
The senator also said that Democrats should also move on “all” of the gun control issues within the first month of taking back Congress.
“I think we should pass the gun reform issues within the first month — all of them. Universal background checks, anti-trafficking, making sure people can’t buy bump stocks, large magazine clips, all that work,” she said.
It’s an interesting strategy, Cotton. Let’s see how is plays out.
Wait are magazine clips a thing or should that be an enumeration, magazines, clips…
The magazine clip goes into the shoulder thing that goes up
Gun control advocates are often ignorant of the fact that the words they use have meanings.
Either that or they don’t want people clipping teo magazines together ‘jungle style’.
This amused me
https://twitter.com/LadyJuanita83/status/1021095985513222151
Also do light skin black women fall in the same category as biracial? Is it genetic or a skin hue thing?
It;s a stupid thing.
And any person that doesn’t want to claim Halle Berry as one of their own is an certified idiot.
Would.
Lulz…..I haven’t seen this much obsessing over racial background percentages since watching the dramatization of the Wannsee Conference in the movie Conspiracy.
What’s a Nubian?
https://youtu.be/vHLJfxfXHBg
That thread is solid-gold retarded.
I read more of that feed and it’s weirdly hilarious in a sad way.
It’s like she turned having dark skin into a hobby.
It’s also a handy example for why intersectionality doesn’t work in the end – she is sadly unwoke when it comes to transgendered:
Not too fond of Mexicans either:
I beg to differ on that last point.
When it gets hard, it’s a lot easier to understand?
It’s a racist thing.
Depends. A lot of them probably are biracial (and may not know it).
I think the poster in question is aware of the parentage of the women on the right, as they are all famous people, I think. Honestly I agree with Juanita, to an extent. Such people probably shouldn’t just be considered ‘black’ alone, as it denies the contribution of one of their parents.
Also, I have to admit that she’s not wrong about the origin of the one drop rule – the entire point was to keep the white race “pure”, so that no matter how little black ancestry you had or how white you looked, you weren’t actually considered white if any of your ancestors were black – such as Homer Plessy, who had one black great-grandparent and looked completely white, but who in the state of Louisiana in 1896 was classified as black.
Was it here I heard the hilarious phrase, “No, this is Democratic Fascism”, or somewhere else?
I’m actually surprised that Team Blue hasn’t taken this tack in their attempts to explain their IT woes.
Every other solution to a problem has been “X is horribly underfunded. We need to throw money at it.” Why didn’t Hillary come out saying “I had to run my own server on my own dime because those evul ruthuglicans won’t fund govt IT properly.”? Sure it makes no sense at all and is a huge lie, but all her explanations were even sillier and bigger lies.
“Pay no attention to the fact that we wasted $90M, or the fact that we attempted to extort even more money for that shit hole. Just give us more money for other projects we want to do. Promise it will go better this time.”
UCS, I don’t know how you can live in that sort of environment.
Oh, fuck off you weasel. OMG RUSSHINZZZZ!
THIS?
They don’t spend any of it on projects I work on.
The C-suite actually managed to burn through the budget in a matter of months on their useless pet projects forcing the actual operations to run on a shoestring.
In my current undercover role amongst your species I have grown an appreciation for just how much heavy equipment can be bought and assembled for 90 million.
We’re gonna need a bigger fainting couch
Last week came the administration’s own unsettling proposals, announced by David Bernhardt, the deputy secretary of the Interior Department and one of several spear carriers for the oil and gas industry who have risen to commanding policymaking roles under Interior’s boss, Ryan Zinke. Mr. Bernhardt said the changes would streamline and clarify the regulatory process, and some of the 118 pages of daunting bureaucratic prose seem, innocently enough, to attempt to do just that. But several proposals bode ill for animals and plants and well for Mr. Trump’s overarching ambition to reduce costs and other burdens for business, particularly the energy business. Here are three.
One would introduce cost considerations that do not now exist. As written, the statute requires listing decisions to be made “solely on the basis of the best scientific and commercial data available” and “without reference to possible economic or other impacts of such determination.” The new proposal would eliminate the latter phrase, thereby opening a listing decision to cost-benefit analysis. Tom Carper of Delaware, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, fears that this could undermine science and cause federal officials to think twice about protecting a species — hardly an unfounded fear in this administration.
IT’S A MADHOUSE!
Good grief, is there nothing which does not send these people into a hysterical shrieking fit?
“without reference to possible economic or other impacts of such determination.”
Can be readily translated to “without consideration for human welfare”
“spear carriers for the oil and gas industry ”
Raycis
+ Season 1 of M*A*S*H
But several proposals bode ill for animals and plants and well for Mr. Trump’s overarching ambition to reduce costs and other burdens for business, particularly the energy business. Here are three.
Energy is the lifeblood of the modern economy. Anything that reduces energy prices is a boon for all. Moving to a costs/benefits analysis of regulations is getting on the right track.
Kuwaiti star faces backlash over Filipino worker comments
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/23/who-will-refund-me-kuwaiti-star-ignites-row-over-filipinos-days-off
“How can you have a servant at home who keeps their own passport with them? What’s worse is they have one day off every week,” she said in a video posted online, which has gone viral and attracted criticism in the Middle East and the Philippines.
Alqattan slated reforms introduced in May to protect the rights of Filipino domestic workers: “If they run away and go back to their country, who will refund me? Honestly I disagree with this law. I don’t want a Filipino maid any more.”
I don’t get the refund part. Refund for what?
She bought an indentured servant, not a maid, DUH!
A lot of those Middle Eastern countries didn’t get around to abolishing slavery until the 1960s, so it wouldn’t surprise me that an attitude like that would still persist.
“A lot of those Middle Eastern countries didn’t get around to abolishing slavery until the 1960s”
On paper maybe, because the practice is alive and well.
I’m at a resort hotel filled with geriatrics. It’s the best. All you can drink which means I have full access to pour myself what ever I want. Full bar. I’ve already got my 30K ¥ worth and now I’m all alone with the booze and an 80 year old chick that may be dead. Winning.
That actually sounds like a blast.
It’s awesome. Kid, wife and in laws asleep. I’m gonna go roust the brother in law and see if we can rustle up some cigars.
Start mixing drinks for the oldies. You can get a new nickname: Dr. Death
STEVE SMITH ALSO ACCEPT MEDICARE
Old people can be hilarious.
Neat
Cool looking Cat
Expand it to full screen, it must be in 8K or some other absurd resolution
Seconds later it was chowing on the photographer’s hand.
I had to look up jaguarundi. I thought maybe it was a jaguar cub. Turns out that’s as big as they get.
I’ve seen one in person at a zoo. They are much more powerfully built than a domesticated cat. Like, kill a German Shepherd and haul it into a tree to eat later powerful.
I don’t get the refund part. Refund for what?
Slaves cost money.
I’m all alone with the booze and an 80 year old chick that may be dead.
Find a stick to poke her with.
Actually, I don’t care. But I’m so appreciative of the media once again trying to kick-start that “conversation”.
Clearly treason. Hang them all. 😉
I was not a big fan of Guns n Roses until I scored a free ticket and ride to one of their shows. Slash live is amazeballs. Total jam.
You heard the 4 disc re-release of Appetite? There’s some cool stuff on their.
Appetite for Destruction is one of the strongest debut albums of all time.
I’ll check it out. Thanks!
30 million copies. Damn.
Great record, though.
What are you doing in Cincy, sloop? If the wife weren’t currently in labor, I’d say we should meetup somewhere do discuss libertarian politics and make fun of Michigan.
Got a meeting in Fairfield. Then gonna knock around for a day and a half. Wanna see the old neighborhoods I grew up in and go see my grandma.
If you’re free tomorrow night or Wednesday, let me know. I assume my email is commonly known.
I might be able to free up some time. Did you bring your golf clubs by any chance?
BAD LOCATIONS: Many French towns have been trapped in obsolete places for centuries
https://ehsthelongrun.net/2018/07/17/bad-locations-many-french-towns-have-been-trapped-in-obsolete-places-for-centuries/
nly three of the 20 largest cities in Britain are located near the site of Roman towns, compared with 16 in France. That is one of the findings of research by Guy Michaels (London School of Economics) and Ferdinand Rauch (University of Oxford), which uses the contrasting experiences of British and French cities after the fall of the Roman Empire as a natural experiment to explore the impact of history on economic geography – and what leads cities to get stuck in undesirable locations, a big issue for modern urban planners.
what leads cities to get stuck in undesirable locations,
Well, you know, cities aren’t exactly migratory.
Couldn’t it be related to the relative development and duration of roman occupation?
Gaul was part of Rome for much longer than Britain (of which only parts were roman, no?), and probably wasn’t as big of a backwater.
Exactly my thought. Plus, I’m not clear on how the fundamentals of “this is a good place for a city” has changed all that much.
I only skimmed it but the gist I got was that the Romans didn’t think to put their cities on water.
That would be odd. I may actually have to read the article.
The article is full of shit.
Medieval British cities == good, because of coastal access.
Medieval French cities == bad, because of reliance on road networks without coastal access.
Article ignores: Britain is a fucking island that was invaded by the ocean-going vikings and many major British cities were viking settlements.
Also ignores: France is not a fucking island and that roads and rivers are fucking important means of moving stuff from inland to the coastal areas.
Obviously what Europe needs is another world war to level the place again and start over with the Right Men in charge of planning.
“Since the incident on July 19, Stevenson has received an outpouring of support for people in the local community, with people from all over the world encouraging San Franciscans to go support his lemonade stand, even despite its high prices. A bottle of lemonade from Gourmonade, which was featured on SFGATE on July 14, costs $8 before tax.
“I work in San Francisco,” Jean P. Richardson wrote on Twitter in response to the video. “I am finding this guy and buying his Lemonade and do not care if costs $20.00 a bottle.””
Virtue signaling on Twitter? That is news.
The actual proof will be in how many overpriced bottles get sold. My bet is none of these fucks saying they would buy this shit buy any more than they would need to (if any) to get their 5 minutes of virtue signaling fame.
And there we have the real reason behind these puff pieces. Getting the cops called on his lemonade stand and running to the media is going to be the best thing that ever happened to him.
Has anyone had to deal with this shit? My doctor apologized and told me he had to ask to cover his ass and hoped I would tell him to go pound sand (which I didn’t do despite the fact I told him it was none of the government’s business), but I have heard horror stories where woke doctors have gone medieval on patients that refused to give them this info.
Nope. It would be the last visit I’d ever make if the subject ever was broached.
My doc has added something new to the computerized check-in, though – a whole bunch of questions about gender identification, what pronouns I use, etc.
Meh. Mine never asks. If he did, I’d go find another.
It’s not like there aren’t thousands of them out there.
Standar question on pediatric intake forms (in second-hand smoking section): “Is there a gun in your home?” I say no. I tell the kids to say no. Of course, they were all lost in a boating accident. My kids only go to a pediatrician when they need a specialist, however.
See, this is precisely my fear: people now will avoid the doctor because of these intrusive pro deep state questions. I know someone that actually was told by their doctor that she couldn’t see them in good faith if they wouldn’t answer the question (likely in the negative), and while I am a fan of freedom of association, and personally would never return to a doctor like that, I can see this becoming a problem for people with less choice options.
I can see it becoming a no-option-at-all for people unwilling to lie if all docs go this direction. I do not suspect that will spread much beyond a pediatrician’s office. Too much blowback. There was a news story about it many years ago and people were up in arms about it.
Me, I’m a coward and perfectly willing to own up to it. Or I just pick my battles with extreme prejudice. I’d just lie. If I hadn’t had that boating accident.
I don’t care if it’s a choice or not. The bigger issue is that it will be used down the road to line people up against a wall and then confiscate their guns or throw them in a cage.
This isn’t about medical care or safety. It’s a work-around for the state to find out who has weapons so they know who might be a threat when they decide the 2A is outdated and they need to round up the weapons and imprison the resisters.
We needn’t beat around the bush here. This is a de facto gun “registry” of sorts.
Yes.
Is this really true, or just pro-gun BS?
SLD: Obviously I am pro-gun rights, but the author’s explanation is bunk.
Even if it was true, it’s like saying that homes that have swimming pools have a higher rate of drowning deaths, that homes that clean with bleach have a higher rate of bleach poisoning, it’s like saying that homes in bear country have a higher rate of bear attacks.
Is it true or is it BS turns on exactly what “it” is. If I had a million years I’d give you a bunch of links, but you’ll have to take my word on it because I don’t have time and I include arguments against interest:
1) It is true that, statistically, there is a correlation that says someone with a gun in their home is more likely to be shot than someone with no gun in their home.
2) It is true that, statistically, there is a correlation that says someone with a gun in their home is more likely to be shot by their own gun than someone without a gun in their home (and note that it only takes 1 time for this to happen, since someone without a gun in their home can’t be shot by their non-existent gun)
3) It is true that, statically, there is a correlation that says someone with a gun in their home is more likely to be shot by someone else’s gun.
4) Statistically, for white men especially, there is a correlation that says access to firearms makes them more likely to try suicide and more likely to successfully complete the act. (Interesting note – this effect pretty much does not seem to exist for black men. A few good theories exist, but no firm answers are available for why.) This is likely more than mere correlation. This is likely causal. That is, being able to mentally construct a believable scenario in ones head where one has access to a firearm for suicide likely does lead people to try suicide who would not otherwise try.
BUT, it is also true that
1A) Statistically, there are lots of people who are engaged in Activity X, where Activity X is causally linked to owning a gun and to getting shot. This can include, for example, dealing drugs, being an argumentative and confrontational ass, engaging in honor-culture behavior (aka being a southerner.)
1B) And thus taking the gun away from this kind of gun owner doesn’t remove their increased likelihood of getting shot because they are still engaging in the behavior that is going to get them shot (e.g., dealing drugs, picking fights, being a Florida Man.)
2A) There are a number of people who get a gun because they are at risk of getting shot. Call this the armed-battered-ex-wife group.
2B) Taking their gun away actually would seem to make them more likely of getting shot, not less. Taking a battered-ex-wife’s gun makes her more likely to get shot. FBI agents pack all the time, they might get shot because they work for the FBI, no one thinks they’d be safer unarmed while grocery shopping or at church.
3) Lots of this goes away if you exclude two populations, Southerners of all races and urban dwellers of one particular race.
So yes, it is true, and it is pro-gun BS. Depending on how you define “it.”
Maybe it’s because I’m a broke bitch with no insurance and pay cash for my visits to my doctor, but he’s never asked me anything of that sort.
I think the school has asked that question, but I can’t remember a doc asking it.
The one that gets me all the time is when the nurse will ask “do you feel safe in your house?” Or even better, “do you practice safe sex”. The one nurse who asked about safe sex was flummoxed when I told her that I was flattered by her offer, but I was married and wanted to keep it that way.
I always like the, “Have you fallen twice or more in the last year?” question.
“Yes, but I was pretty fucking drunk all twelve times.”
And that was just in the last week, right?
The one that gets me all the time is when the nurse will ask “do you feel safe in your house?”
About a month before my wife gave birth to our child #2, she spent a couple weeks in the ICU getting several round of IVs during that time. Unfortunately, her veins were for shit so they must have stuck her at least 30 times, up and down her arms. Eventually, they even had to call in a ringer from a different department.
When she was released and went to an OB check-up, I’d guess around 30 weeks pregnant, her arms were covered with fist sized bruises. The intake nurse was absolutely convinced that I had beaten the ever loving shit out of her. That wasn’t pleasant.
A friend of mine was asked if a family member gave him the injury he was presenting with. “Yes, my wife punched me right in the lungs and now I have bronchitis.”
I took my wife to her weekly pre-natals because she had some minor complications and got uncontrollable stress, where I’m our families level head and could chill her out. Every week, like clockwork, this one bitchy PA looks me over and asked her if she felt safe while giving me the stink eye. After a couple weeks, I told my wife that either should could stick up for me, or should go alone. She really didn’t want to, but I made here. She told the PA to never ask that again. A few weeks ago, the PA calls to tell my wife that an ultrasound indicated she had [unimportant for this story but complicated condition that is incredibly minor] and to stay by the phone because the OB would be calling soon to say if we needed to have an early c-section. This was at 20 weeks, and my wife lost her fucking mind, as you might expect. When the OB found out, the PA was put on desk duty and no longer works there.
an early c-section. This was at 20 weeks,
Pretty much an abortion, then. That fetus ain’t gonna make it outside the womb, and if the doc yanks the fetus out knowing full well it won’t survive, well, sounds like a surgical abortion to me.
Well, the point here is that the OB didn’t tell the PA to call my wife and tell her that, and was reprimanded for doing so. The PA just saw the test results and decided that she should call my wife and say that. Fucking bitch.
Yes. I said that has no bearing on my health, you are here to take my blood pressure and shove a finger up my ass so I can get my physical signed. Get back to work. I think he checked yes and went on with the proceedings.
Since my manager has announced his retirement at the end of August, he has lost a lot of power over his minions. “What are you going to do, fire us?”
The response to thatshould be “Yes, I’m not retired yet.”
Nothing would improve things like him having a show firing…
Well, they already don’t respect him, and it’s not going to be his mess once he’s gone…
My thought exactly.
pour encourager les autres
Unless they want to explain why she was actually meeting with high-ranking officials from the Obama admin in 2015.
What to explain? Barry was making peace with the Ruskies and uniting the world under his greatness. Drumpf is a Russian agent Manchurian candidate hell-bent on watching the world burn. It is known.
thicc?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-5981885/Demi-Rose-shows-ample-assets-TINY-bikini-wears-cowgirl-inspired-outfit.html
She’s got it.
Trey Gowdy on the Russia colusion shit: BURN!
Can’t agree more. If there was anything to this bullshit it would have been leaked by the resistance by now.
This is undoubtedly true.
All these bastards involved should at a minimum be fired for falsifying a warrant application by claiming that all sources and sub-sources had been vetted for accuracy and identified. Because they had to know that was a lie.
So was Trump such a destabilizing influence on these once-respectable institutions that they couldn’t leave it to mere voters to decide whether he’d get elected, or is falsifying warrant applications to spy on American citizens (not to mention their thoroughly partisan handling of the investigations into the candidates themselves) simply SOP at the DOJ?
“So was Trump such a destabilizing influence on these once-respectable institutions that they couldn’t leave it to mere voters to decide whether he’d get elected”
Sure sounds like this is why they went to FISA court to spy on Trump…
“or is falsifying warrant applications to spy on American citizens (not to mention their thoroughly partisan handling of the investigations into the candidates themselves) simply SOP at the DOJ?”
Once you can make the case for the fact that the American voter can’t be counted on doing what our elite and deep state want them to, then this is all SOP.
My guess is that it’s SOP now. Trump is a political outlier. The closest thing to him historically (modern, anyways) is Ross Perot. And he ran third party/independent, so he was never enough of a threat to go after. Trump terrifies the permanent bureaucratic class that’s been able to entrench themselves in positions of power in a bipartisan way for the last several decades. He terrifies establishment republicans as much as democrats because he has the ability to expose the filthy, rotten system that’s developed: a system whereby elected officials have abdicated their responsibility to unelected bureaucracies that they can point fingers at and blame, this letting them get re-elected so they can continue to complain while not clawing their enumerated powers back. So the elected GOP officials and their staffs left him mostly out to dry. And the unelected bureaucrats were free to go after him in a way that would make J Edgar Hoover envious.
This is a political assassination attempt that is only failing because it’s intended victim isn’t a politician. He’s a New York real estate asshole who is used to the games. And he won’t back down. thankfully.
And yet there was the whole dropping out/getting back in thing in 1992, that might have been the deep state pressuring Perot.
or is falsifying warrant applications to spy on American citizens (not to mention their thoroughly partisan handling of the investigations into the candidates themselves) simply SOP at the DOJ?
I would bet on it being SOP. I think with the Snowden revelations it’s probably pretty safe to say this is routine. Really the only difference with Trump is that they treat him like one of the little people because they hate his guts. They wouldn’t have have used those tactics against one of their clique, but for the rest of us it’s fair game.
The giveaway that this was all just a pretext to spy on the Trump campaign is the dog that didn’t bark.
If they had really believed that the Russians were trying to infiltrate and collude with Trump minions, they would have done what they typically do – warned the Trump campaign, and maybe coordinate a sting of the Russian agents with it. Instead, we had counterespionage assets being deployed, not to catch Russian spies, but to entrap Americans. All the meetings and what-not where Russians or go-betweens were in the room with Trumpistas were engineered by third parties – British intelligence, Fusion GPS, etc.
Take a step back and look at the overall pattern here. Obama, in his inimitable way, was telling the truth when he said Russian interference in the campaign was nothing to worry about. All the investigators certainly acted that way, since they did nothing to either prevent it or try to catch the actual Russian agents. This entire thing was an op aimed squarely at Americans for supporting the wrong candidate. No other explanation accounts for the known facts. And if buried in all the redactions, evasions, and refusals to answer are other facts that support a different conclusion, well, show me and I’ll change my mind.
Brennan himself even said that it was all done at Obama’s behest
Sounds like #FakeNews. Everyone knows that Obama led a scandal-free, completely ethical and moral administration that definitely never wielded government power against political enemies.
The battle cry amongst the left is and always will be that a misogynistic nation (specifically defined as including Bernie Bros who lost it for her in key states with key electoral votes) (nobody expects better from idiot rubes than to vote against Hillary) didn’t want a woman as president. They will never accept that no, actually, it just didn’t want THAT woman.
Haley ’20! (I realize the GOP will probably not try to primary DJT, but still…)
Hopefully, she, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Nancy Pelosi, and Maxine Waters will have reached the end of their shelf lives by then. No, I am not kidding. *sticks more pins in dolls* *slaughters more chickens*
I’m sorry. I totally misread. I was thinking “Hillary” and saw “Hillary,” which means my ADHD meds haven’t kicked in yet. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
Anyway.
Yes, Haley kicks ass. I do NOT want her to kick the bucket.
LOL – was a little puzzled by that!
Y U NO can read my mind yet?
If the economy does well for 8 years I’m hoping it will be Haley ’24 – because nothing would be more hilarious than watching the left’s heads explode after DJT endorses the first woman to become president. If that happens, I’m hoping Hillary is alive to see it, because I’m a spiteful person.
“9 Feminist Books To Help You Deal With Mansplainers, Because No One Should Have To Put Up With Another “Well, Actually”
When I’m at the end of my rope, I’ve found it helpful to read the experiences of strong women who have dealt with this kind of harassment. (Because, yes, it is a form of harassment.) Books have often served as a reminder to myself that I’m not alone, and they’ve given me the tools and information to stand up for myself.
So, next time a dude sends a “Well, actually…” your way, you’re going to be prepared. Here are nine books that will help you deal with mansplainers:”
https://www.bustle.com/p/9-feminist-books-to-help-you-deal-with-mansplainers-because-no-one-should-have-to-put-up-with-another-well-actually-9038492
Well, actually they’ll just re-enforce your belief in something that doesn’t exist.
Women never do the “Well, actually”? I think not.
Well, akshually, we don’t.
Somebody needs to explain to that broad that she’s full of shit.
The whole mansplaining thing started when a woman who was actually a subject matter expert in something was talked over by some random dude at a conference.
Now it means “any time a man disagrees with a woman.” Just like how “reproductive rights” went from “You can’t stop me from buying birth control or having an abortion” to “You must pay for my birth control and abortions, and praise me while you do it.”
The goal is not to be right, the goal is to shut down all opposition.
Exactly – it’s devolved to “all women are right about everything all the time” more or less.
Well actually…
This has happened to me a million times and I’m a dude. People are assholes.
I do this all the time, to men and women, because people have a great ability to miss the point when the think it is not in their short-term self-interest to get the point.
^^^ This
Fine. I’ll refrain from saying “Well, actually,”. How about this. The next time you get your facts mercilessly wrong I’ll simply call you “an ignorant cunt who can’t be bothered to get her facts straight”. That works just fine for me.
Nine fucking books in order to “handle” this. Jeesh.
Typical, really. Just can’t say what they mean and shut up.
One of them is our old friend Lindy West’s accurately named Shrill.
Just saw this yesterday: The Am I mansplaining? flowchart.
Here are nine books that will help you deal with mansplainers:
“Stop that infernal sniveling, and make me a sammich,” he mansplained.
She might use mustard instead of mayo just to spite you, brah.
That’s not mansplaining, that’s demanding.
manmanding?
Love it. Someone get that up on Urban Dictionary.
It figures that a woman needs 9 books when a single paragraph is all that should be necessary.
I notice we haven’t had any sailors kidnapped off of the Iranian coast lately. What’s up with that?
Who is going to prison for the FISA crimes?
Russian collusion. Always projection with Dem shitweasels. Always.
So the Dems are just brazenly buying votes and registering illegals/dead people in their desperation. Nice.
I know exactly how to fix the DVA.
Hey there! Feeling better, I hope?
Hi Suthen, hope you’re Feeling good today!
I am feeling better, thank you.
I managed to crank out three articles this morning but I have not submitted yet.
Euphemism?
I know. Normally I crank out and submit simultaneously. I needed a change of pace.
You should see what I cranked out and submitted.
On the old people at your resort?
Was that you on the flight down below?
Swamp fever? Infected caiman bite? Some sort of meth and bath salt-fueled virus carried over from Florida by giant mosquitos, nature’s used syringe?
She might use mustard instead of mayo just to spite you, brah.
Just as long as it’s not miracle whip. That’s a paddlin’ for sure.
http://theoatmeal.com/blog/miracle_whip
Mayo is for most things, Miracle Whip is for a few things, Spin Blend is for bologna.
Miracle Whip is for a few things
Only if one of those things is “throwing the Miracle Whip out because it’s disgusting”.
Reminds me of the recipe I gave Mrs. Dean for kale:
(1) cover the bottom of a frying pan with olive oil.
(2) put kale in frying pan.
(3) empty frying pan into trash. The olive oil helps the kale slide right into the garbage where it belongs.
I like kale. Ever try kale and corn?
kale and corn
That’s just taking two awful things and making a multiplicity of awful.
Two things that look the same coming out as going in?
Damn, Snoop’s really mellowed out these days.
Mustard rocks. Mustard and more mustard on my sandwich. I put mustard on my french fries if there’s any available.
The internet:
https://twitter.com/An_ca_te/status/1021322941777293312
Mounds Monday.
http://archive.is/jEKDU
50 obviously has a sense of humor. Or something.
A little bit of exotic on a Monday
I’m not sure if I should be turned on or scared by 98.
#56, 79
I detect some photoshop here and there.
#84 has a good idea.
Some of those waists seemed too skinny.
“‘We’re living in a different world now. When you look at the global issues, when you look at motivations for doing these things, and you know that urban cities are much more vulnerable to these.”
Translation: TRUMPZ FAULT!
Isn’t it funny that despite how fucked up things get, when the left is in charge the world is great, and conversely no matter how great things get, if they are not in charge, it is Armageddon?
“Trevor Noah blasted over racist and sexist gag”
https://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2018/07/23/40540/trevor_noah_blasted_over_racist_and_sexist_joke
…well, he does have a point.
LOL he even self-reeducated and that didn’t keep the mobs at bay. That is instructive.
That happens every time.
The mob’s objective is not to enforce morals or even conformity, the objective is to be the loudest, shrillest denunciator of badthink as a method of social climbing. They will sell each other out for sixpence.
meh, should have used farthing instead of sixpence
England makes six cent coins? And I thought U.S. two-dollar bills were silly.
What exactly would a SJW-compliant comic routine look like?
A struggle session in which the audience screams at the performer, followed by simulated disembowelment to symbolize the ending of a career.
Well, going by what the media is hyperventilating about lately, >this, I think.
Her Shrillness is concerned.
Hillary Clinton, wearing what might be best described as a “hospital bedsheet,” told the OZYfest “political music festival” Saturday, that she believes last week’s summit between President Donald Trump and Russian president Vladmir Putin was “deeply disturbing” and “alarming on many, many levels.”
“The great mystery is why the president hasn’t spoken up for our country,” she said, suggesting that Trump had ulterior motives for meeting with the Russian leader. “We don’t know what was said in the room with just the two of them.”
Jeez. You’d think he had negotiated away 20% of the US’s uranium for a hefty donation to his “charity” foundation or something…
Could you imagine how the left would react if Trump lost and kept undermining Hillary by keeping his face in the public like this? She’s flicking popcorn at Trump.
She’s disgusting personified.
A real loser. Like I mean, a loser.
They need to Cindy Sheehan her ass.
Look how Trump was stomped when he suggested not accepting election results beforehand.
The left projects a lot. They thought they had stolen this election and wanted to put Trump-Putin on the spot. When they managed to lose an election they thought they had stolen, they showed us that they expect the other side to roll over and play dead – especially when they commit crimes – but have no intend of doing the same themselves.
I would bring up Clinton giving the Chines ballistic missile technology – as part of a totally bullshit deal they claimed was to help to get China to have a higher success rate launching satellites cheaper than the companies that had invested to come up with the more reliable and several generations ahead of what China (or Russia for that matter) had as far as rocket tech went – for a $2 million campaign donation. Then they let the Chinese steal plans on lighter nukes they promptly wedded to their new long march rockets and pointed right at the US. If that all was not a slew of acts of treason, then I remain unsure what is.
Giving a baffling press conference in which you sow doubt about your own intel community and praise a foreign leader with whom we’re now at war, I guess, or would be if Trump listened to the Dems.
wearing what might be best described as a “hospital bedsheet,”
As someone who works in a hospital, I take offense at the suggestion that we would ever inflict bedsheets (or gowns) like that on our patients.
But would you give a clearly ill patient leave to attend an ego-trip presser? Or drink heavily?
From the sidebar of the Canada shooting story.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/news/video-1731428/Instagram-video-captures-man-MASTURBATING-flight.html
“bored….so bored…..”
Try this and I’m not kidding. If you have an IPhone, take a picture of your balls. Fucking phone will store it under “selfies”. Things you learn when you’re this drunk.
“Iraqi landscape”
Those are balls…
The cloud is NOT your friend brah..
Run your facial recognition software all you want. That won’t be the facial you’re expecting.
What happens when you have a drunk 80 year old Japanese woman take it for you?
The phone will pixelate the picture?
Rand Paul in the news over the Kavanaugh confirmation.
TW: Politico
Good man.
“Anytime @Ocasio2018 speaks.”
https://twitter.com/CountDankulaTV/status/1020459164945010689
Saw your response last night. Yeh, I don’t think – that I’m aware of anyway – they throw everything and the kitchen sink into the sauce.
OK, thanks.
Now how are the prude, nanny staters gonna compete with that? That is funny. Kudos to the Count.
Didn’t some sort of libertarian muckety-muck get his panties in a twist about the helicopter memes? I remember thinking it was tiresome at the time. These people are advocating an evil ideology that, when the rhetoric is cast aside, means slavery. Yes, people get frustrated with it being discussed with a straight face. Seriously, does anyone really believe the people posting this stuff are advocating going full Pinochet?
I’m betting he won’t.
Bet it fixes him up.
It seems the VA is invulnerable to reform.
Razing it and salting the earth may be the only answer.
The easiest way to reform that agency is to buy out retirement for every worker currently eligible for retirement. You’re not fired…but you’re done.
2 things in life you can’t fix:
You can’t fix stupid.
You can’t fix single payer.
Ok, that was redundant.
“Feminism Win: New Predator Movie to Feature Lady Predators
Hillary Clinton isn’t president, but this is the next best thing.
Ladies, I have some great news for you: In the sixth installment of the Predator movie franchise, we will finally get what we’ve been asking for for so many years. That’s right, a female Predator. Will she be an in-control-of-her-sexuality-and-her-life Predator, a la Carrie Bradshaw? Will she be a take-charge executive Predator, pantsuit and all? Either way, I am #HereForIt.”
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/9kma47/feminism-win-new-predator-movie-to-feature-lady-predators
They gonna get all medieval on the male predators for mansplaining the hunt?
Either way, I #DontGiveAShit.
Shouldn’t feminists prefer a sexually monomorphic species in which no physical attribute distinguishes “male” from “female”? Why do these broads insist on sending mixed signals?
Why do these broads insist on sending mixed signals?
Chicks, man. When have they not?
Lady Predators
Today we just call them public school teachers.
its actually sort of a half n half thing.
the memo actually shows that they had plenty of evidence of contacts Page had w/ russian figures completely independent of the steele dossier; the dossier verified some of those contacts. iow, its was a secondary source.
to what degree some of that may have been ‘evidence recycling’…? where one person reads Dossier-claims, who is cited as a source to “verify” dossier claims?…. isn’t clear. other people have gone through the thing w/ a comb and it seems there was some of that too, but not “only” that.
Many claims Nunes made about the FISA application were wrong/misleading. The application was clear about who steele was and that he was working for DNC. but that, of the many various things included in his bundle of dirt on trump, it just happened to turn out that 1 or 2 scraps within it confirmed info FBI had gathered independently.
I think more important than any of this kerfuffle is the point that Page only became a real person of interest after he’d left the Trump campaign, and that little/nothing he did was in service of Trump. iow, he may have had some inappropriate/iffy foreign intel relations, but i don’t see how there can be much meat to the claim that going after him was ‘politically motivated’
iow, If they were motivated to surveil Page in order to “get Trump”, they certainly went about it in an odd way.
there’s also detail in the application suggesting FBI was cheating, evidence wise, in other areas
Basically, as far as i can tell, its not a slam-dunk win for the hyperbolic claims of either the DNC or GOP types. It does show that FBI had some reasonable cause to find Carter Page a shady character, and that the FBI wasn’t just being ordered to “dig up shit to hurt Trump”.
but it also shows, if anything, that the FBI can get warrants to surveil US citizens based on little more than “a couple of people say X person may be up to no good”. and that the process is easily manipulated, and there’s no real oversight.
Which should be the real story, of course, but won’t be. Everyone has grown accustomed to the idea of the permanent surveillance-state.
i don’t see how there can be much meat to the claim that going after him was ‘politically motivated’
There’s a lot of Americans who have contacts with Russians who are more or less shady. Hell, Podesta had exactly the same kinds of contacts with exactly the same Russians as some of Trump’s people. Yet, oddly, those other Americans aren’t investigated, entrapped, and indicted. I know there can be lots of distinctions amongst all these people who have contact with Russians, but the common thread of the ones who are investigated, entrapped, and indicted are that they are connected to Trump. Until I see something different, I’m sticking with “politically motivated”.
Why go after Page after he’d left the Trump campaign? To see if they could roll him and get him to cough up dirt on Trump.
If they were motivated to surveil Page in order to “get Trump”, they certainly went about it in an odd way.
You mean the FBI might do a shit job of investigating something? Color me shocked.
i dont think this makes any sense either.
the timing doesn’t make any sense. when, exactly were they expecting to “Roll” this guy in any way that would matter re: the election? they were just getting started poking into him at a point when election was already done (or wrapping up). the idea that their investigation might influence outcomes is… implausible.
it requires making all sorts of layered assumptions about FBI motives (iow, that their purposes were 100% political) that don’t actually line up with what they did/when they did it. If they just wanted to trash trump, there were 1000 better ways.
going after people like Page or Manafort, mainly for activities of theirs *which had nothing to do w/ the Trump campaign*, and were mostly related to their independent lobbying work in the past, seems odd ‘evidence’ that FBI’s REAL motivation was to sink this particular candidate.
and their interest in Page is hardly that he was guilty of nefarious activity himself. their rationale for surveillance wasn’t because they wanted to “catch Page”, it was because they wanted to keep tabs on Russian activity in the US. Page doesn’t come across as particularly guilty of anything other than being a boob who occasionally rubbed shoulders with russians. How you imagine anyone “rolls” that is beyond the scope of my imagination.
their interest in Page is hardly that he was guilty of nefarious activity himself. their rationale for surveillance wasn’t because they wanted to “catch Page”, it was because they wanted to keep tabs on Russian activity in the US.
Then why are they saying they believe he collaborated and conspired with Moscow? They were after him, I believe, because he was associated with Trump.
going after people like Page or Manafort, mainly for activities of theirs *which had nothing to do w/ the Trump campaign*, and were mostly related to their independent lobbying work in the past, seems odd ‘evidence’ that FBI’s REAL motivation was to sink this particular candidate.
I think they started their illegal spying on the Trump campaign because they just wanted to curry favor with Hillary, because they thought it might come up something (pre-election) that might be useful to her campaign, and continued post-election to delegitimize and undermine Trump. We know that high-level and mid-level officials in DOJ and FBI had their thumb on the scale to support Hillary; this isn’t even controversial. We know they put the Trump campaign under surveillance based on information they knew was garbage. We know that the high-profile “suspicious” meetings between Trumpistas and Russians or go-betweens were manufactured attempts at entrapment. They weren’t really trying to catch up with Russian spies at all; that explanation doesn’t account for enough facts.
Yeah, their timing is weird, but the backdrop here is the ongoing faux investigation into Hillary, which was throwing up red flags all over the place through the campaign season. I think their late surveillance of Page and other spying was driven in part by the need to counterbalance a looming disaster for their candidate. I keep coming back to, if they really thought the Trump campaign was the target of Russian attempts to subvert and conspire, why didn’t they warn them? Because they weren’t after Russians, they were after Trump.
You can throw all the “?” at me you want, all i’m saying is what i said in my first post =
– that the FISA application isn’t a slam dunk for either of the competing claims made by Nunes or DNC ppl.
claiming that its proof of a super-politicized FBI isn’t any more substantiated by that document than claims that Page is some super-secret Russian-agent.
more than that, you’re free to have whatever opinions you want about the matter. My point is solely confined to the idea that people seem to pretend that the FISA memo has ‘totally validated’ all their previous claims, when it hasn’t, really.
It is not a slam dunk for Nunes because to understand what the FISA application means you need to understand the context. Few people know enough about the matter. The media is doing its best to obfuscate the issues. So, of course, it’s not a slam dunk.
“It is not a slam dunk for Nunes”
that’s overly generous to him. it actually exposes lots of the things he claimed in his memo as being wildly overblown.
it neither relies solely on Steele memo, and the fbi did not in any way diminish or try to hide its source. they state flatly that it came from work he did for the clintons. (“Candidate #2”).
Can you point me to the page in the FISA application where they state flatly that it came from work he did for the clintons. (“Candidate #2”)? I’ve gone through the entire first version of the application and couldn’t find it there.
The claim that the FBI relied predominantly on the Steele dossier came from McCabe’s testimony in front of Congress.
there is a difference between “predominantly” and “solely”
it was not the sole source of the FISA app. the former is merely a characterization, the latter is a statement of fact.
The word “solely” doesn’t appear in the Nunes memo. The memo claimed that the Steele dossier was “an essential part” of the FISA app, which the FISA app clearly corroborates.
claiming that its proof of a super-politicized FBI isn’t any more substantiated by that document than claims that Page is some super-secret Russian-agent.
The four corners of the FISA application are never going to prove the FBI was politicized. We have other proof of that. The fact that they used garbage information to get a warrant, initially on someone who was actually an asset of theirs, but allowed them to go after other Trump people, is consistent with what we know independently about how the FBI was politicized.
Given their handling of Hillary and all the known anti-Trump sentiment at the FBI, the burden of proof is on the FBI to show that what they did wasn’t politically motivated. I just don’t think there is a credible account of all this that doesn’t boil down to the FBI and DOJ went after Trump for political reasons. Any attempted explanation so far runs into a wall of unanswered questions and inconvenient facts. If they want to dispel the stink that Hillary and that their use of unsubstantiated DNC research left on them, they are going to have to come clean.
“”someone who was actually an asset of theirs,””
you and grizzly seem to think this is just some “known thing”.
i see no evidence of this anywhere in Page’s history or in the fbi disclosures.
“Change my mind”
no thanks
So, who has the burden of proof here? Put the other way, who gets the benefit of the doubt? The FBI, with its history of anti-Trump operatives, its handling of Hillary, and its stonewalling of Congressional oversight? I should give them the benefit of the doubt, that what they redacted or otherwise refuse to disclose totally clears them, because people always withhold exculpatory information?
Was Page an informant or asset of theirs? That may be a little strong, but I don’t think there’s any doubt that he was a at a minimum a cooperating witness in a case against a couple of Russians. In context, I think the question remains – why did the FBI decide to go for a warrant to surveil Page and his associates, rather than just go to somebody who had already been a cooperating witness and ask him what he knew?
This still looks to me more like the FBI wanted to surveil the Trump campaign, and was looking for any pretext. That pretext turned out to be the Steele dossier and Carter Page. I can’t see it as anything other than a pretext, because any other explanation just runs into too many problems.
You can read about Carter Page-FBI history here and here (page 16).
“a little strong?”
yeah, maybe you could be a little more specific and give me a quote /page # or something
I gave you the page number of the document: 16. Or 19 of the pdf file.
Was Page an informant or asset of theirs? That may be a little strong,
Cooperating witness: when asked, tells the FBI what they know/saw/heard with no trouble. More of a retrospective thing.
Informant: tells the FBI things they have seen/heard without being asked. May or may not try to dig stuff up to tell the FBI or be paid. More of a prospective thing.
Which was Page? Certainly, a cooperating witness in one case. Did he cross the line into being more an informant? I don’t know.
Which he was doesn’t really matter for my purposes. It just sets up the question of why the FBI turned on a dime, and went from treating him as a witness for the prosecution to surveilling him without his knowledge a few months later. What changed in those few months? He joined the Trump team, went to Russia, and met with some Russians. If the FBI had issues with going to Russia and meeting with Russians, why not just ask him (again)? I think its because they were searching for a pretext to put the Trump campaign under surveillance. If there’s a better explanation, let’s hear it.
Carter Page was considered an undercover employee (UCE) of the FBI from 2013 until May 2016. He helped the FBI to spy on a Russian operative Evgeny Buryakov. In May 2016 he was the primary FBI witness in the Buryakov case. Yet, four months later the FBI was asserting that he was a Russian spy. The point of the FISA application was to get the Title-1 search warrant that would authorize surveillance of anyone related to Carter Page within “two hops.” That means absolutely everyone in the Trump presidential campaign. The FISA application was about getting retroactively justification of the stuff that the IC was doing to the Trump campaign in the previous months.
“ iow, he may have had some inappropriate/iffy foreign intel relations.”
That’s it right there. What were his relations with the Russians. The stuff that has been confirmed would mean an American having any contact with Russians deserves to be surveilled.
Or what RC said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/04/us/politics/carter-page-trump-russia.html
The FBI had interviewed him in 2013 because ppl in Russian intel tried reaching out to him. He was oblivious and just trying to run an energy hedge fund.
iow, he was a goof who had no idea who he was talking to. that said, these contacts persisted and the FBI continued to monitor Russian intel people who ended up dropping Page’s name
again – all of this was before he was involved w/ trump, and the subsequent further surveillance happened AFTER he was involved w/ trump.
if the argument being made is, “BUT THEY ONLY CARE ABOUT THIS GUY BECUZ TRUMP”…. you can see why i find that a hard pill to swallow
Sure, Page was a target back in the day. So why did the FBI use the garbage Steele report to put him under surveillance again? That report was about Trump, not Page. If the FBI had good cause to put Page under surveillance because of his past and continued contacts with Russians, why didn’t they just put him under surveillance for that? Page wasn’t put under surveillance for his past contacts, he was put under surveillance because he was associated with the Trump campaign. You said it yourself:
all of this was before he was involved w/ trump, and the subsequent further surveillance happened AFTER he was involved w/ trump.
To me, that supports, not refutes “the argument being made is, “BUT THEY ONLY CARE ABOUT THIS GUY BECUZ TRUMP” Why didn’t they put him under surveillance in 2015? What changed that they put him under surveillance later? Because Trump, that’s what changed.
Sure, he was mentioned in the Steele dossier as travelling to Moscow while with Trump’s campaign. But that dossier was garbage, and was only used, I believe, for more warrants because they literally had nothing else and desperately wanted surveillance on Trump associates. For political reasons, not to catch Russian spies. Why do I say they were trying to nail Trump associates and not Russian spies? Because of the manufactured meetings to try to entrap Trump associates.
The FBI cared about Carter Page because he was an FBI cooperating asset since at least 2013.
Suffice it to say – there may be perfectly legitimate reasons for what the FBI?DOJ did, but if so, they managed to redact them.
Shit. I went to Costco over the weekend and the checker had an accent and was named Tatiana.
The application was clear about who steele was and that he was working for DNC.
This is not true. This is how the FISA application described it.
There’s absolutely no mention here that Steele was working for DNC. Notice that Candidate #2 is not mentioned here.
that’s page 16 of the first application. and even your quote makes clear that it was opposition research
“dentified U.S. person was likely looking for information that could be used to discredit Candidate #1’s campaign.”
the doc is 400 pages long and has like 4 renewal applications. it was clear to the judges what the source of dossier was – and again, it was not the sole basis for the application anyway. to claim that its provenance is being obscured is to pretend that judges “Don’t actually know who “US identified person / Candidate#1 / Candidate #2″ ARE” simply because they’re not explicitly named.
thats a sort of obtuseness i don’t think is a reasonable standard.
i think people read this document wanting it to fit neatly into months-and-months of hyperbolic political frothing…. when you need to remember this is just a procedural form these guys submit to validate “shit they’re already doing” w/ force of law. Its never going to satisfy the idiotic demands created by 2 years of partisan screeching over the topic.
DNC and RNC were not the only players in the 2016 presidential election. Even Steve Bannon worked on behalf of the group trying to find dirt on Trump when he was still in the Ted Cruz camp in early 2016. Simply suggesting that perhaps Source #1 was doing opposition research in no way indicated that Hillary Clinton’s campaign paid his bills.
” when you need to remember this is just a procedural form these guys submit to validate “shit they’re already doing”
Sounds like you’re telling us to relax and trust the normal bureaucracy.
yeah, thats EXACTLY what i’m saying
(facepalm)
FROM MY FIRST POST =
-i think some of you need to relax and consider:
a) “the FBI is corrupt, politicized and full of scumbags”…
…can be entirely consistent with,
b) “This document is not the smoking gun Nunes pretended it was”
the latter is true. the former may be very true, mostly true, partly true…. and the FISA app isnt the sole-determinant of that question.
the point is simply to weigh how good evidence is for certain arguments. the FISA app isn’t as awful as it was made out to be. Nunes, in my opinion, loses a bunch of credibility.
DNC doesn’t score much bigger, because aside from the juicy-quote about what the FBI ‘suspects’ theres not much there. net-net, both come out looking a bit worse for wear.
We’re going to disagree on this. Nunes’s credibility has been confirmed by the release of the FISA application.
the only way anyone can claim that the source (and motivation) of Steele’s research was “obscured” is by pretending that the fact that “US Person #1” et al aren’t openly-named. which documents like this do not do as a matter of law.
pretending judges were ignorant of identities of the persons referred to is just politically-driven-obtuseness.
Nonsense. The identified U.S. person is Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS. The law firm is Perkins Coie. How on earth would a FISC judge know these players and their relationship to Clinton’s campaign? They are not household names. Maybe, as I previously mentioned, if the FISA app “speculated” that Source #1 was investigating Candidate #1 on behalf of Candidate #2’s campaign, then a judge could figure out the identities. 90% of the establishment wanted to destroy Trump in 2016. Lots of people could finance finding dirt on Trump. Yet, it was the work product paid by Clinton’s campaign that the FBI used to justify its FISA app.
I’m a bit surprised why you’re so much invested in attacking Nunes today.
Perkins Coie is one of the more high profile law firms in the country. Pretty sure a judge would know that. Or maybe how to use Google.
Of course, the involvement of a big-time DC law firm that is well-known to be rotten with lobbyists and do a lot of work for Dems would raise its own crop of red flags in my mind.
“Pretty sure a judge would know that”
I’m pretty sure Gilmore and grizzly spent more time going over it and thinking about it than the judge of the secret court ever did.
Perhaps because the very paragraph you quoted said that they were gathering the research for the purposes discrediting the opposing campaign?
“why you’re so much invested in attacking Nunes”
i read the doc, and it does not say what he claimed.
Any interest in an article about the spiritual side, for the lack of a better word, of Atheism?
Too philosophical, eh?
I don’t know what “spiritual” means.
I’ve read a few. Are you looking for one, or offering to write one?
Write one – had an “a-ha” moment while reading how elements are formed, entropy, and randomness; but nature still creates complex systems. Religion provides answer to the mysteries of life, but science itself can still invoke awe and provide a “spiritual” comfort to those who are not religiously inclined. An antithesis to the supposed cold, uncaring and logical atheist.
Or my idea could come off like I’m a crank 😉
Would read.
I say go ahead and write it.
Everyone comes off as a crank when discussing existentialism.
Write it. I will read it and the comments could be very interesting.
Do you mean saying “oh yeah, I’m spiritual, but not religious” to try to pick up on a hot chick who’s into astrology and crystals and all that crap, or something deeper?
More existential, man.
How much deeper do you need to go, showoff?
https://twitter.com/CassandraRules/status/987866236456439808
Quality racketivism.
“Senator Rand Paul Meeting With Trump to Request John Brennan’s Security Clearance Be Revoked
Senator Rand Paul will be meeting with President Donald Trump on Monday afternoon to request that disgraced former CIA Director John Brennan have his security clearance revoked.
Brennan has been working in the media and bashing Trump for airtime, even accusing the president of treason following the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a series of unhinged tweets.”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/07/senator-rand-paul-meeting-with-trump-to-request-john-brennans-security-clearance-be-revoked/
“Is John Brennan monetizing his security clearance? Is John Brennan making millions of dollars divulging secrets to the mainstream media with his attacks on @realDonaldTrump ?”
https://twitter.com/RandPaul/status/1021359930387902466
Is Rand Paul horning in on the good judge’s schtick?
Why the fuck does anyone keep their security clearance when they no longer work for the government?
Why do places like NYC let retired cops keep their guns?
I can think of several reasons:
1) The security clearance has an expiry date that is independent of one’s position.
2) Often people with a security clearance move on to other jobs that require a clearance, and that revoking and reestablishing it would be wasteful. (NB plenty of jobs in the private sector require access to classified documents, eg a program manager at a defense contractor).
3) For senior officers, it may be necessary for current officeholders to be able to consult with their predecessors, and them retaining their clearance permits that.
The security clearance has an expiry date that is independent of one’s position.
But not of having some position that has a need for the clearance?
Often people with a security clearance move on to other jobs that require a clearance, and that revoking and reestablishing it would be wasteful.
And if they have no job in any sector that needs the clearance, why isn’t it at least suspended if not cancelled?
For senior officers, it may be necessary for current officeholders to be able to consult with their predecessors, and them retaining their clearance permits that.
This one actually makes sense, and I could see Brennan falling into this bucket. But he hasn’t been in any position that would otherwise call for a clearance for a year and a half.
BTW, I don’t necessarily agree with any of these reasons. I’m just playing devil’s advocate.
It costs a fuck-ton of money to do a clearance investigation. Re-investigations occur every 5 years to keep them active. They will go inactive when not used, and then can be re-activated. I think Brennan is a 6 foot walking, talking turd, but his clearance shouldn’t be revoked. If being a mendacious cunt were grounds for revocation, there would be a lot of clowns looking for jobs around here.
Not sure if this thread’s dead yet, but in the contracting world having an active security clearance, particularly a TS/SCI, is more valuable than a college degree. If you look at job listings in the DC area, you’ll notice that a lot of them require candidates to have an active clearance. Getting a clearance is expensive and takes a long time, so not many companies are willing to do it; when you find one that is, that’s considered part of your compensation, more or less. So you’ll find a lot of people, especially in the contracting world, have a clearance that they got five jobs previously and just get renewed as part of their current contract. That’s also one of the reasons for the “revolving door” bit; it’s pretty common for someone to get out of college and go schlepp around for a government agency, get a clearance, and then dip out to work for a contractor in the private sector, not infrequently at the same agency they just left, making much, much more money.
I often wonder what kind of power trip that someone like Brennan must be on. I don’t care what he has to say on any subject. I’m sure the bleating sheep on the Left might… but uhmm… yeah.
The best part about working out at home in my own “weight room” is there’s nobody to give me shit about working out in flip flops and boxer shorts.
#thoughtyou’dliketoknow
Go Greek, or go home!
What the hell do sheep have to do with working out?
Ladies, I have some great news for you: In the sixth installment of the Predator movie franchise, we will finally get what we’ve been asking for for so many years. That’s right, a female Predator. Will she be an in-control-of-her-sexuality-and-her-life Predator, a la Carrie Bradshaw? Will she be a take-charge executive Predator, pantsuit and all? Either way, I am #HereForIt.”
We she have voracious sex with human men and then bite their heads off?
I mean, I know he won a few superbowls and is in Canton, but man o man does the media over-sell the 70’s Steelers or what?
Go Greek, or go home!
I am home.
“Julie and Nate Sharpe are raising their 3-year-old twins using the pronoun they, them and their to shield them from gender stereotypes. This is a new parenting technique called, “theybies.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/video/raising-theybies-letting-kids-choose-their-gender-1281053251894
This needs to stop.
This is a new parenting technique called, “how to raise victims.”
This is Munchausen by Proxy syndrome for the 21st Century.
I was browsing through the headlines of news for normies, and once again its a parade of how horribad the Trump administration is and what a horribad and loathsome person he is personally. And also another massive lay-off at another newspaper for normies. But mostly the horribad Trump stuff.
Wonder if there’s any underlying connection there? Nah, probably not. People are probably salivating at the mouth to pay to find out how Christine Todd Whitman wants people to choose between Trump and her on account of how horribad Trump is and how important and influential Christine Todd Whitman is.
Yeah, the Sunday Phila. Inquirer “Currents” section went full TDS this weekend: Democracy threatened, no president ever tried to guide the “independent” Fed, destroying the Nato alliance, cabinet corruption, ripping kids from the arms of loving parents, Putin-loving autocrat, supporting neo-fascist white supremacists, judges will undo the twentieth century. Hey, the prez is not my cup of tea, but his enemies are our enemies.
JFC, Media Matters just hired the idiot who misidentify a disabled veteran ICE worker’s tat as a Nazi symbol. They hired her an an analyst of the extreme alt-right. Can’t even make this shit up.
A chicken in every pot, and a boogeyman in every closet.