Tuesday Morning Links

It is that time of day again, where you open your computer or mobile device and skip over all the boring writing and click “comments”.

 

 

That’s our Joe!

 

Today is birthdays we got Bobby Kennedy, Creepy Uncle Joe Biden, mustachioed John Bolton, Beastie Boy Mike D, and comedian Joel McHale.

 

 

Speaking of creepy, an actress filed a petition for a restraining order against Michael Avenetti.  I’m sure that dastardly fellow Jacob Wohl is behind of this.  Damn you Wohl!

 

 

Chipotle Manager who was fired and had her name smeared all over the internet has been offered her job back.

 

Now who wants a mustache ride?

 

Shooter kills doctor ex-fiance and two others including a police office after confronting her at a hospital.

 

 

Federal Judge issues temporary restraining order against the Trump administration for refusing asylum to anyone in the caravan heading towards the border.

 

 

The National Science Foundation (who I know from experience can’t even keep up with enforcing current basic invention reporting regulations) wants institutions accepting grant money to report sexual assault allegations.

 

 

That’s it for me kiddos, this should help get you moving this fine ass morning.

Comments

538 responses to “Tuesday Morning Links”

  1. BakedPenguin

    Monday Morning Links

    Wait, what?

    1. I know….from Technogeddon to Links…. all in a short span. It is hard to keep up, at least for me.

      1. We called a do-over for monday.

        1. straffinrun

          I get those when I fly home on a Monday.

  2. Pat

    Chipotle Manager who was fired and had her name smeared all over the internet has been offered her job back.

    I’d tell them to blow it out their ass personally.

    1. commodious spittoon

      My favorite part: @Chipotle is not, in fact, Chipotle HQ.

      Chip Clark
      ‏ @Chipotle
      8 Dec 2015

      I want to remind everybody that I’m just a random dude who tweets dad jokes. Direct your ecoli tweets to @chipotletweets

    2. Slammer

      Chipotle and blowing it out one’s ass go together quite often

      1. Chipwooder

        *golf clap*

    3. PieInTheSky

      No you accept the job and then quit in a spectacular fashion

      1. Nephilium

        No, then you’re the asshole. Let the company’s HR/PR department stay as the asshole.

        1. WTF

          And sue the fuckers for defamation.

          1. Stinky Wizzleteats

            Bingo…

    4. prolefeed

      “Chipotle Manager who was fired and had her name smeared all over the internet has been offered her job back.”

      Her problem was word choice — instead of demanding proof of employment, she should have refused service altogether on the basis that at least one of the “customers” had previously stolen from that restaurant via a dine and dash.

      If they hadn’t stolen from that restaurant, then she was in the wrong.

      1. Gadfly

        If they hadn’t stolen from that restaurant, then she was in the wrong.

        The article indicates that some in the group who were refused service had stolen from the exact same store only two days prior.

  3. commodious spittoon

    Joke’s on you, the comments load automatically.

    1. Banjos

      So you admit you read something I wrote!

      1. Of course we did.

        Whether or not we respond to it is in question.

      2. leon

        How do you you ‘write someone’ other than in the sense of writing them a letter…

        1. commodious spittoon

          Someone’s abusing her edit privileges. I’m not pointing fingers, I wouldn’t want to accuse her.

          1. leon

            An anonymous act of the Edit Fairy?

          2. Banjos

            If I have to wake up at 6am to entertain y’all, I get to fix my fuckups.

          3. I’m up at 4:00 every morning.

    2. I KNEW IT! COMMODIOUS IS A BOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      1. leon

        But is he a Russian bot (the bad kind) or a Chinese bot (the good kind)? / NYT

        1. commodious spittoon

          Lies, tovarich. I make the American good speak like you all Englanders.

  4. leon

    “Speaking of creepy, an actress filed a petition for a restraining order against Michael Avenetti. I’m sure that dastardly fellow Jacob Wohl is behind of this. Damn you Wohl!”

    Even that bastard deserves due process. So i won’t say that I think he’s guilty, especially since there is sparse details, but i will say: Who’s believing all women now Avenatti? Enjoy that Boot on your face, i have no sympathy for you, you slimy piece of human filth. Me today, you tomorrow came around pretty quickly huh?

    1. There are some important factors that need to be addressed. First being the accuser more or less immediately engaged the authorities. While this doesn’t prove anything as false accusations happen, it has a better chance of getting accurate information, and is less of a strain to credulity than thirty years.

    2. westernsloper

      “SHE HIT ME FIRST!!”

  5. leon

    “Shooter kills doctor ex-fiance and two others including a police office after confronting her at a hospital.”

    And predictably Right wing FB/Social Media is a buzz with “Hero Down”. I mean lets not forget taht the Ex-fiance is also dead, the only real important people who die are cops.

    1. Banjos

      Some poor pharmacy worker died as well.

      1. The pharmacy worker is the hero!

    2. straffinrun

      Ex fiance. Kind of a weird thing to label someone that just died.

      1. How much of a factor is the “No, I’m no longer willing to marry you” in the motivation for the shooting?

        1. Stinky Wizzleteats

          Sounds like the guy made the right move, it just didn’t work out too well.

    3. Civilian-involved shooting.

    4. Homple

      450 fatal shootings in Chicago year to date and finally one makes national news. Cops and medical professional lives matter.

  6. The Late P Brooks

    Is t just me, or is that “shooter” article so poorly written as to be nearly incomprehensible?

    1. Banjos

      I had to draw a diagram.

    2. leon

      That’s the standard of Journalism these days. The other day i was reading an article and i realized something that i have seen fairly common in most ‘journalism’ now: randomly inserting a tenuously related fact that has nothing to do with the rest of the article. e.g : “A shooter was arrested on the University of Utah Campus. The Campus is known for having claimed to have found cold fusion in the late 1980’s. Police have not release any information regarding the motive of the individual…”

      Most articles read like the poorly written essays that i would have to peer review in High School, or as a freshman in college. It’s quite embarrassing for the ‘profession’ of journalism. I mean i had little respect for them because they lie out their asses, but that’s always been the case. At least in the past they were good writers.

      1. Slammer

        The chyrons that fill the bottom of the TV news are filled with constant errors. They can’t even text newspeak well.

        1. hayeksplosives

          My fave harbinger of news doom was many years ago when CNN ran s text runner at the bottom proclaiming “Alan Greenspan hospitalized with an enlarged prostitute.” Someone later jokingly asked his wife about CNNs claim, and she quipped “He should be so lucky.”

          Ah, the good old days.

      2. commodious spittoon

        I don’t know, DM seems to excel at it. It’s like “filter through Google Translate six times” is in their style guide.

      3. Tejicano

        Having grown up with, and lived most of my life with people for whom English is a second language I note a lot of “news feed” errors as not just poor English skill but non-native speakers on the keyboard.

  7. PieInTheSky

    The National Science Foundation (who I know from experience can’t even keep up with enforcing current basic invention reporting regulations) wants institutions accepting grant money to report sexual assault allegations. – the founding fathers of America made a mistake with this one…

    1. PieInTheSky

      Also I see a contradiction

      The National Science Foundation (NSF) is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering.

      In some fields, such as mathematics, computer science, economics, and the social sciences, the NSF is the major source of federal backing.

      There is something distinctly not science in there.

      1. Well…economics is “The Dismal Science”… the “social sciences” …aren’t.

        1. Pat

          Meh, economics is no less a social science than sociology or anthropology.

          1. leon

            It’s early, and i’m having a hard time parsing that. Are you saying Economics is a social science or not. I think you are saying the former, but like i said, it’s early.

          2. Scruffy Nerfherder

            Economics is a social science. It’s just a little more measurable than intersectional twitter studies.

          3. Pat

            I’m saying it is a social science. Possibly the definitive social science.

          4. leon

            I have no disagreement there. Though… i think trying to classify everything as a science (if you take science to mean studies that relate to the predictive effects of the scientific method (make predictions from theories, etc.) as futile. For example Anthropology and History don’t quite fit that mold. You aren’t trying to make predictions, as much as you are just trying to explain the past. I guess you could argue that they are making predictions about unknown features of the past and then looking to see if those predictions were true…

          5. Pat

            Yeah, no argument there. I generally feel that any variety of science requiring a prefix probably isn’t science. But the way the terms are commonly used, economics would definitely fall within the social sciences as opposed to the hard sciences.

          6. robc

            Econ is a subset of psychology.

          7. Jarflax

            I say we bring back the Natural Philosophy / Moral Philosophy division of learned disciplines and ditch the word science. It had a good run, but has become bastardized.

          8. Philosophy hasn’t shed its taint yet. And there are plenty of doctors of philosophy with no love of wisdom.

          9. Jarflax

            The idea is to deny the social scientists the authority that accompanies the word science. Everyone knows philosophy is squishy.

      2. Gadfly

        In some fields, such as mathematics, computer science, economics, and the social sciences, the NSF is the major source of federal backing.

        There is something distinctly not science in there.

        Literally none of those are science.

        OK, some of them might do some science some of the time, but in the main they are not properly sciences.

        1. leon

          But It’s like IN THE WORD “Computer Science”!!

    2. Old Man With Candy

      To be fair, they have asked for sexual harassment determinations, not allegations. But also to be fair, they said that aggrieved students or researchers can bypass the university harassment tribunals and go directly to NSF with allegations. It’s unclear what NSF will do with allegations absent even the figleaf of a university kangaroo court.

      1. PieInTheSky

        I did not read the article as I do not click on New York Times links.

        1. Old Man With Candy

          Generally a wise policy.

      2. hayeksplosives

        It’ a crime has been committed, go to police and report it.

        Why the freaking Uni is involved baffles me.

  8. Slammer


    Give Alex Jones press credentials and sit him next to Jim Acosta

    Alex Jones’ first amendment rights are being violated everyday he does not have White House press credentials.

    THIS IS AMERICA!

    Let Alex Jones have press credentials and a permanent seat next to Jim Acosta!

    1. Pat

      What you don’t understand is that the first amendment applies only to credentialed, certified organic, blue check marked members of The Press.

      1. leon

        Sounds legit, When it says Freedom of the press it means Freedom of the state sanctioned press. Who else could think of it differently. Just like the 2a expressly gives the right to government to form a militia, and not for any swinging Richard to own a weapon.

        1. ChipsnSalsa

          “Swinging Richard”

          band name

          1. Nephilium

            Everyone should go see Richard Cheese if they get the chance. When I saw them, they had iPod on a Chair as the opening act.

          2. robc

            Last time I looked he was taking a break from doing it, but the hire Richard Cheese for your corporate party website was pretty funny…the requirements were cool.

          3. Scruffy Nerfherder

            Now I’m going to have to dig out that album.

          4. JaimeRoberto, Public Intellectual

            Sounds like a ripoff of Joey Cheezhee and the Velveeta Underground.

    2. commodious spittoon

      violated everyday

      Plenty good American speak like. I am proud Englander speaker.

  9. Cy

    “Federal Judge issues temporary restraining order against the Trump administration for refusing asylum to anyone in the caravan heading towards the border.”

    This isn’t going to end well. Our judicial system is getting awfully activist.

    1. Ignore the Commiefornia judge. Make a public statement to the effect that “Regional judges cannot set national poilicy by diktat”

      1. Pat

        “… now let him enforce it.”

      2. Nephilium

        I’m surprised none of these cases have been taken up by the Supreme Court yet.

        1. WTF

          I believe the “Muslim Travel Ban” case was, and the Supremes slapped down the Hawaiian judge in favor of the President.

          1. Nephilium

            You are correct. Now could one of our lawyers lawsplain what legal reasons (other then FYTW) were there for the split decision?

          2. IMO the split decisions hinge on a few factors.

            1) Sotomayor’s dissent focuses much more on Trump’s anti-muslim campaign rhetoric than on the text of the order. Essentially, she says that even though the text itself isn’t blatantly anti-muslim, it’s clearly anti-muslim when you scratch away the surface.

            2) The Roberts majority opinion frames the case as an immigration case, which would be evaluated under the “rational basis” test when testing for discrimination (against immigrants). The Sotomayor dissent frames the case as a religious establishment case, which would be evaluated under the “strict scrutiny” test for discrimination (against Muslims)

            3) Roberts has undertones of “separation of powers” throughout his opinion. He’s making clear that this (immigration) is an area of law where the President has far reaching power, as granted to him by Congress. Sotomayor’s framing of the issue as a religious establishment issue obviates the separation of powers concern, not that she has any principled belief in the separation of powers.

          3. Nephilium

            Thanks for enacting my labor. I appreciate it.

    2. leon

      I’d be interested to see a comparative analysis of how many cases Trump has won/lost at the supreme court level vs Obama and see what influence the Activist leftists judges have had on that.

      1. It was telling that even after appointing multiple justices, Barry was repeatedly losing cases 9-0

        1. The Last American Hero

          And he was allegedly a constitutional law scholar who may have graduated from Harvard.

          1. A Leap at the Wheel

            Barry’s record looks middle of the pack or it looks bad, depending on the metric you use. He didn’t lose more cases than the norm, but when he lost he lost 9-0 more often. His admin took a lot of pushing-the-envelope positions, which resulted in the 9-0 losses. But he also pushed for, and got, new precedent in a number of areas that I’m sure he’s happy with (see the WOTUS cases.) After all, you never get what you don’t ask for (or in the EPA clean air case, it takes so long to get SG review that even a loss takes so long that he got what he wanted.)

          2. Rasilio

            And Occasional Cortex has a degree in economics. Pretty sure we can conclude from these 2 cases that College degrees aren’t worth the paper they are printed on.

          3. Don Escaped Texas

            there are other data points, ya know ?

    3. Tonio

      The judge is an Obama appointee and the Ninth Circuit is unlikely to overturn, being very heavy with Dem appointees. Even if Trump fills the four vacancies on the court the Dem appointees will still be in the majority.

    4. prolefeed

      To be fair: there is a non-zero chance that 1 or more of the people in the caravan have a legitimate case for seeking asylum.

      Saying, we will deny you the same opportunity to make your case for asylum that anyone else could make, because you were part of a caravan that has taken on partisan gamesmanship, is collectivism.

      1. CampingInYourPark

        If they can navigate from Honduras to the U.S. border they can navigate to a port of entry just like a U.S. citizen would have to do.

        1. Or, or, you know, they could have applied at that embassy where they were burning american flags.

      2. Bobarian LMD

        Saying anyone who doesn’t follow the appropriate procedure for applying for asylum will be turned down is not, though.

        Rushing the border en masse is not the procedure.

      3. Azathoth

        A person with a legitimate case for asylum would have applied for that asylum at the first nation that accepts asylum seekers that they came to–as asylum protocols dictate.

        1. Mexico offered them asylum and work. This was spat on, despite the advantage of speaking the predominant language of the country.

    5. Drake

      U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar issued a temporary restraining order after hearing arguments in San Francisco.

      Shocker

  10. PieInTheSky

    Statement from FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D., on a new qualified health claim for consuming oils with high levels of oleic acid to reduce coronary heart disease risk

    https://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm626210.htm

    Today, the FDA responded to a petition for a new qualified health claim for edible oils containing high levels of oleic acid, a monounsaturated fat that’s been shown to have cardiovascular benefits when it replaces heart-damaging saturated fat.

    Manufacturers of these oils can choose to include a qualified health claim on their label stating that “supportive but not conclusive scientific evidence suggests that daily consumption of about 1½ tablespoons (20 grams) of oils containing high levels of oleic acid, may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease.” The claim will also need to make it clear that to achieve this benefit, these oils “should replace fats and oils higher in saturated fat and not increase the total number of calories you eat in a day.”

    This is utter bullshit there is not enough evidence even for a qualified claim of this. The American founding fathers should also have left this FDA thing out of the constitution.

  11. straffinrun

    ‘Snowflake’ student leader who vowed to paint over tribute mural to the ‘white men’ who fought in World War One RESIGNS as union president

    A student union president who sparked fury when she threatened to paint over an historic war mural has resigned from her role.

    Emily Dawes caused fury when she tweeted the Rothenstein Mural at Southampton University should be ‘taken down’ because it contained only white men, ‘even if I have to paint over it myself’.

    1. leon

      Now i’m curious about the segregation policy of the army during WWI

      1. Tonio

        Cooks and truck drivers.

      2. Jarflax

        In England? Since they used a regional regiment structure the segregation was well nigh complete.

      3. Charlie Suet

        I don’t think there was a clear segregation policy as such (because Britain was mostly white). There was presumably a fair division between British and ‘native’ regiments. You would have got occasional ethnic minorities scattered around in various branches of the armed forces, particularly the navy. The friezes on Nelson’s Column have black men in them.

        There was a regulation against non-whites becoming commissioned officers, though this was broken in Walter Tull’s case.

        1. Drake

          She’s bitching that England was a white country until very recently.

        2. I was watching a recent BBC drama called The Crimson Field which is set in WW1 and concerns a field hospital near the front line.

          One episode had a wounded black soldier who was being cared for among all the other soldiers. His father visits too. It just struck a wrong chord with me but I’m not up on the British Army segregation policy circa 1915.

          Oh and how one of the nurse reacts – with a shrug – when she finds out one of her male co-workers is gay struck me as trying to put more modern political correctness on history.

          1. Yeah, that was still a hanging offence during that time, and certainly not socially acceptable.

          2. Tundra

            Well, since Turing was chemically castrated in 1952 for the awful crime of being gay, Imma call bullshit on that story.

          3. Chipwooder

            My wife had the same reaction when one of the characters on Downton Abbey was publicly outed and no one really cared: “But….that’s not the way people were in the ’20s! His life would have been ruined.”

          4. Gadfly

            It just struck a wrong chord with me but I’m not up on the British Army segregation policy circa 1915.

            I don’t know the specifics, but it should be noted that historically segregation was more popular in diverse areas than in more homogeneous areas so it is possible that it wasn’t really a thing in the UK, at least as far as government policy.

            Oh and how one of the nurse reacts – with a shrug – when she finds out one of her male co-workers is gay struck me as trying to put more modern political correctness on history.

            If it’s played off as a response specific to that character, it could work, but if it is played off as a reflection of society that seems P.C. In addition to the mention by Tundra of Turing in the 1950s, it should also be noted that the Oscar Wilde trials occurred in the 1890s, and he was jailed for a few years, so while there was definitely an underground scene with some people accepting, society strongly disapproved.

          5. It was her own reaction, and there was some mention of the consequences of his homosexuality. But I would expect a bit more horror or wariness of him (given her background) instead of them becoming friends. But it was just fiction so I’m not going to overthink it that much.

        3. Drake

          The Brits used lots of Indian troops in WWI. Would have been more realistic than throwing in a random black guy.

          1. but would they have been segregated from the white troops or even put in a completely different hospital? or receive inferior treatment? That I don’t know.

          2. Drake

            The units were distinct. No idea if they went to different field hospitals after a battle.

  12. I can’t believe my work stalled while I sit here thinking about the prevailing winds and precipitation amounts in a region of a fictional world.

    1. Evan from Evansville

      Yo. Almost done with a chunk. Expect an email within 15 or so.

      I’m going to get blamed for not even euphemisming very shortly.

      1. Nephilium

        Dude… if it’s chunky, you should see a doctor.

    2. PieInTheSky

      It is a desert. there is no precipitation

      1. No, that’s the problem. The region has to get rain, but they’re still in an area where it’s questionable where the water is coming from.

        1. Pat

          The region has to get rain, but they’re still in an area where it’s questionable where the water is coming from.

          Sounds pretty much like where I live, just head over to weather.com and search “pahrump, nv”

          1. Jarflax

            Art? Art Bell? I knew they were lying when they said you died!

        2. PieInTheSky

          Usually it comes from the sky but that world may be different

        3. The Last American Hero

          It’s coming from inside the house!!!!

          Oops, wrong genre.

    3. straffinrun

      You’re working on the UN Climate panel now?

      1. I have to earn a paycheck somehow.

        1. straffinrun

          Just remember to write the conclusion first.

          1. That’s already done “More funding is required for continued study.”

            We’re classical, not apocalyptic, here.

  13. The Late P Brooks

    Our judicial system is getting awfully activist.

    How many divisions does the Ninth Circuit Court have?

    1. Plenty, I don’t think they have a single unanimous decis… oh, not the kind of division you meant.

    2. Tonio

      One, just like the rest of them. Try rephrasing your question.

      1. Tonio

        Oh, never mind.

  14. Scruffy Nerfherder

    I interpreted that Chipotle article as “Somali dipshit decides to ride the racism train”. Asshole probably set a GoFundMe up for himself while he was at it.

  15. The Late P Brooks

    The National Science Foundation (who I know from experience can’t even keep up with enforcing current basic invention reporting regulations) wants institutions accepting grant money to report sexual assault allegations.

    It’s a ploy by the Trump Administration to delegitimize science.

  16. Rebel Scum

    Speaking of creepy, an actress filed a petition for a restraining order against Michael Avenetti.

    So what you are saying is Biden/Avenetti 2020?

    1. SugarFree

      I’ve got the perfect campaign song…

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo0uTu2uLtI

  17. PieInTheSky

    Lecturers asked to stop using capital letters to avoid upsetting students

    Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2018/11/19/lecturers-banned-from-using-capital-letters-to-avoid-upsetting-students-8154365

    A memo sent out to staff at Leeds Trinity journalism department suggested using uppercase letters may ‘scare them into failure’

    Lol

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      While at the University of Manchester, the student union replaced clapping with jazz hands in a bid to prevent people suffering from anxiety or sensory issues.

      GET OVER YOURSELF

      1. Nephilium

        If I were a student there, I would so have a pair of fake robot hands just to wave them around.

      2. Gillespie

        Weren’t Jazz hands cultural appropriation? I don’t know where we’re at now.

        1. Tonio

          So, how long do you have to keep this handle?

          1. Gillespie

            According to the terms of the Gillespie Challenge, it’s for a month so until about December 4th for me. I am a Jacket-wearing man of his word after all.

    2. Pat

      F U C K Y O U

    3. straffinrun

      A spokesperson for Leeds Trinity said the memo was guidance on how to explain tasks to students so they achieve their full potential.

      “you get on your knees and start sucking. understand?”

  18. Pat

    Tumblr booted from App Store due to child porn

    Tumblr’s app was booted out of the iOS App Store a few days ago due to an issue with child pornography getting its way past the app’s filtering technology, according to a report from CNET, which Tumblr then confirmed.

    The app’s disappearance was first spotted on November 16, and Tumblr’s help documentation had also confirmed the company was “working to resolve an issue with its iOS app.” The statement said Tumblr hoped to have it fully functional again soon.

    However, Tumblr nor Apple had said what the issue was until CNET confirmed through sources it was related to child pornography.

    Tumblr then released a statement which explained that it discovered content during an audit that wasn’t included in the industry database it was using to filter out child sex abuse material from appearing in its app.

    1. Rasilio

      What kind of a moron do you have to be to post child porn on Tumbler? That is like putting a “I have a bomb” sticker on your back and walking into an airport. Either way you are going to get arrested and the shit beaten out of you (not necessarily in that order)

  19. Nephilium

    The Democrats believe in the next empty suit. TW: Politico.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Greeeeeaaaaat…..

      Guess they’re figuring out that it’s harder to argue against a cypher than someone with a well-established history of dipshittery.

      1. Rebel Scum

        It’ll be all too easy to make the lack of experience argument against him,not that it will likely matter.

        1. prolefeed

          Yeah, that kept Obama out of the White House.

          Twice.

    2. Some people love ’em a savior

      1. Tundra

        Brian: I am NOT the Messiah!

        Arthur: I say you are Lord, and I should know. I’ve followed a few.

    3. PieInTheSky

      ha I called it

    4. straffinrun

      White guy? I don’t think so.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        The only good part about this is I get to imagine the Chardonnay-soaked bitchfests with Harris, Hillary, and Warren.

        1. Nephilium

          Get to imagine? That’s something you want in your brain?

      2. PieInTheSky

        He still has time to transition to black woman.

    5. prolefeed

      He’s basically an Irish Obama — makes inspiring sounding speeches that if you analyze the transcript, are either empty platitudes or calls to expand the federal government.

      Him giving Cruz a run for his money in Texas might make him one of the more electable Democrats in 2020, now that Florida is likely to go Blue because ex-felons can now vote, just as Virginia went Blue after the governor mass pardoned ex-felons in that state.

      1. Drake

        I do like the nickname – Irish Bobby.

        And sure, his head is just as empty as Obama’s.

      2. Gadfly

        At least he can be called out for being an empty suit without anyone crying “racist”.

        Also,

        now that Florida is likely to go Blue because ex-felons can now vote, just as Virginia went Blue after the governor mass pardoned ex-felons in that state

        While the enfranchisement is likely to shift Florida towards the Blue column, it should be noted that Virginia was already shifted Blue when the governor (D) issued the pardons. In Virginia’s case, it was the “pre-felons” from the DC area who affected things far more than the ex-felons from the rest of the state.

    6. Psycho Effer

      This guy is completely manufactured by the DemOp machine. Pure astroturf.

  20. What the socialist Kama Sutra tells us about sex in the U.S.S.R.

    From our present perspective, the book contains many flaws, including its almost exclusive focus on heterosexual sex and its disregard for the wider social and political context of the one-party state in East Germany. Reflecting on why the Politburo allowed his book to be printed so widely, Schnabl suggested, “When people are happy with each other and in bed, they don’t come up with dumb political thoughts.” He speculated that sex was a cheap way for the Politburo to keep the masses placated.

    Communist leaders perhaps also hoped that an officially approved sex manual would quash the black market for smuggled Western erotica. Most socialist states believed pornography was demeaning to women. They considered the commodification of sexuality a symptom of bourgeois decadence. In the Bulgarian version of “Man and Woman Intimately,” an awkward preface by the director of the Institute for Health Education explains that the government published the book because it had a duty to “socially model” appropriate sexual behaviors lest the youth collect “incompetent information” through “illegal channels.”

    But the motivations of the state did not undermine the social importance of the book in the lives of ordinary people. Schnabl not only affirmed recreational sex; he also taught men and women (but mostly men) how to be more generous and technically capable lovers.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Only slightly less creepy than our current practice of introducing kindergartners to the 57 genders.

      1. The Last American Hero

        62 bigot

    2. Pat

      From our present perspective, the book contains many flaws, including its almost exclusive focus on heterosexual sex

      Yeah, that’s the anachronistic part about communist erotica.

      1. leon

        you get the partner the commissar issues you, comrade.

      2. Luther Baldwin

        Considering that the official line was that the gay was a Western phenomenon, yeah. But I’m not a WaPo journalist® so what do I know.

        1. Gadfly

          In fairness to the Commies, that system has such a high casualty rate that it only makes sense they would go to great lengths to promote the procreation of replacement workers.

    3. PieInTheSky

      All these articles about great sex in communism are starting to piss me off. They are stupid and transparent propaganda at the same time.

    4. ChipsnSalsa

      In communist Russia, the state fuck you!

    5. Der Geschlechtsverkehr der Anderen….

  21. Rebel Scum

    Juan Lopez, 32, gunned down his ex-fiancee Tamara O’Neal, 38

    This will be swept under the rug faster than a jackrabbit on a griddle. On that note, wait, what was I talking about?

    1. Tejicano

      Not if they can establish that he was a “white Hispanic” and she was a person of color.

  22. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Tard Tuesday: If Chris Cantwell Didn’t Exist They’d Have to Invent Him

    You might remember avowed white supremacist asshat Christopher Cantwell. He’s the neo-Nazi who videotaped himself sobbing about being connected with the hate rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. He has a new project, promoting a primitive-style mass shooter video game called Angry Goy II. Get it? It’s the sequel to the equally terrible Angry Goy. The earlier video game featured action that included throwing Jews into ovens. According to LGBTQ Nation, Cantwell got himself a brand new version of the hate-filled game, in which you walk around mass-murdering LGBT people and people of color.

    1. PieInTheSky

      It must be good for them to actually find one of these guys

      1. An attention seeker trying to throw as much ‘shock’ value into drll works in hopes of catching fifteen minutes of fame?

        Sounds like they’re made for each other.

    2. leon

      False Flag. He must secretly be a closseted Transgender gay guy doing this to gin up anger against … I don’t know. But hey the official story doesn’t make sense either. Would someone who wants to promote an idea hold such horrible stances??? / just-plain-old-crazy-person.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        Cantwell is real, unfortunately. He’s the prime example of the libertarian to alt-right Nazi pipeline.

        Someone here used to interface with him when he was an an-cap, maybe straffinrun?

        1. straffinrun

          NOOOO. Just heard of him before.

          1. Scruffy Nerfherder

            We know you’re a closeted Nazi-weeper, just admit it.

          2. leon

            To late, your name has been sullied. I can’t believe the Glib Staff allows someone like you to grace our hallowed halls. By having simple been suggested to have been somehow in contact in someway with this horrible person you have become unclean.

          3. straffinrun

            Guess I’ll have to embrace my new role. At least I’m in an Axis country.

          4. Gillespie

            天皇陛下万歳?

          5. straffinrun

            I like this emperor. He talks like he’s huffing helium.

          6. Gadfly

            I can’t believe the Glib Staff allows someone like you to grace our hallowed halls.

            We must now burn it down and salt the earth. You can never be too careful.

        2. leon

          Oh I know he’s the real deal. It’s just funny to me that there are people out there who are so far up their own asses that they don’t realize that their actions only discredit their ideas. See Chris, Farakhen, etc.

    3. straffinrun

      “All White men should hunt down and mercilessly kill as many t—nies, f—-ts, n—–s, k—s, and cucks as they possibly can, in the new hit game Angry Goy 2!”

      I can’t go kill anyone with those instructions.

      1. I’m sure there are some [REDACTED] in Japan.

      2. leon

        How DARE HE claim that this is some “new hit game”. I want to see the metacritic score.

      3. Luther Baldwin

        Oh no – not the T word!

        *faints*

    4. SugarFree

      Is there a game where I can put grown men who film themselves sobbing into ovens?

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        Dude, you should totally kickstart that.

  23. PieInTheSky

    Baby boys and girls receive different nutrients in breast milk

    https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/feb/14/baby-boys-girls-sex-formula-milk

    Baby formula should be tailored for boys and girls to reflect the differences in milk that mothers produce depending on their baby’s sex, researchers say.

    Tests on mothers’ milk in both monkeys and humans have showed that levels of fat, protein, vitamins, sugars, minerals and hormones vary enormously, but there is evidence that milk made for female and male babies is consistently different.

    I blame implicit bias and unconscious discrimination on the part of the mothers due to having internalized the effects of patriarchy on a subconscious level over many generations

    1. Pat

      So it’s the formula making the frogs gay?

    2. commodious spittoon

      internalized the effects of patriarchy

      And not just subconsciously. HEYOOOOOOOO

    3. Certified Public Asshat

      2014 was so unwoke.

      1. PieInTheSky

        well I though maybe someone linked in in 2014 but I did not remember anyone doing it

    4. robc

      So what happens with fraternal twins that are different sexes?

      1. They have designated mammaries. Or have a bad mother.

    5. Chipwooder

      How dare you assume the baby’s gender!

    6. Gadfly

      Nature is sexist. We should punish it.

  24. The Late P Brooks

    It’s from Newsweek, so you know it has been meticulously researched and fact-checked:

    U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar issued a temporary restraining order on Monday, preventing the Trump administration from following through with its latest efforts to crack down on immigration at the southern border.

    On November 9, just days after the midterm elections, President Donald Trump issued a proclamation announcing the rule that anyone caught crossing into the U.S. outside legal points of entry could be rendered ineligible for asylum.

    ———

    “Whatever the scope of the president’s authority may be, he may not rewrite the immigration laws to impose a condition that Congress has expressly forbidden,” Tigar said.

    The judge said that the Trump administration’s ban went against “basic separation of powers principles” in the U.S., which “dictate that an agency may not promulgate a rule or regulation that renders Congress’s words a nullity.”

    And, in order to preserve the separation of powers, the judiciary is prepared to assume complete authority for immigration policy.

    Also-

    “There is no justifiable reason to flatly deny people the right to apply for asylum, and we cannot send them back to danger based on the manner of their entry,” he said. “Congress has been clear on this point for decades.”

    This may be applicable to a Cuban refugee who has drifted north on an inner tube and washed up on the Florida coast, but less so for a group of people travelling by land, in no great rush or danger, toward an established border crossing. If they want to come to Tijuana or some other established border crossing and make an appointment, that’s okay with me. If they propose to swarm the border and then apply for asylum at some unspecified later date, they should be deported.

    1. Pat

      The judge said that the Trump administration’s ban went against “basic separation of powers principles” in the U.S., which “dictate that an agency may not promulgate a rule or regulation that renders Congress’s words a nullity.”

      Like when the Obama administration decided that when congress used the word “sex” in the 1964 Civil Rights Act they actually meant “gender identity” and “sexual preference”.

    2. Rebel Scum

      If they propose to swarm the border and then apply for asylum at some unspecified later date, they should be deported.

      This. Fuck that activist judge.

    3. The Last American Hero

      Deported to Canada. Plenty of room in Calgary and Manitoba, plus free healthcare and not rascist like the US.

      1. Deport the Judge to Tijuana to live amongst the Caravan.

        1. Gadfly

          Given the protests against the migrants in Tijuana, I don’t think Mexico would appreciate us sending them more people.

          1. That was kind of the point. sheesh. It’s as if you don’t know how to exploit unrest and the people who hate you.

    4. CPRM

      Funny you should mention Cubans.

      WASHINGTON — President Obama said Thursday that he was terminating the 22-year-old policy that has allowed Cubans who arrived on United States soil without visas to remain in the country and gain legal residency, an unexpected move long sought by the Cuban government.

      “Effective immediately, Cuban nationals who attempt to enter the United States illegally and do not qualify for humanitarian relief will be subject to removal, consistent with U.S. law and enforcement priorities,” Mr. Obama said in a statement. “By taking this step, we are treating Cuban migrants the same way we treat migrants from other countries.”

      1. Jarflax

        The Cubans are not refugees. They are kulaks and wreckers coming here to interfere with the historical march toward communism.

        1. CPRM

          This is the best part of the flipflop they’ve done:

          Benjamin J. Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser, who led clandestine negotiations that produced the 2014 opening, said most Cubans who came to the United States in the past “absolutely had to leave” Cuba “for political purposes.” Now, he said, the flow is largely of people seeking greater economic opportunity. Ending the policy, he added, is a reflection of Mr. Obama’s view that, ultimately, the rise of a new generation of Cubans pressing for change in their own country is vital to bringing about change there.

          Now economic prosperity is totes a reason to be a refugee.

          1. Chipwooder

            Ben Rhodes is an incompetent, vile sack of shit.

    5. On considering the image of thousands of Honduran “migrants” bearing arms, carrying Honduran flags, and demanding entry to the country the phrase “whiff of grapeshot” comes to mind.

  25. Rebel Scum

    Federal Judge issues temporary restraining order against the Trump administration for refusing asylum to anyone in the caravan heading towards the border.

    It seems to me that this violates the actual legal process for receiving asylum seekers.

    1. R C Dean

      Of course, that’s not what Trump actually said. He said that to be eligible to apply for asylum, you need to do so immediately upon entry at an established border crossing.

      Outrageous!

  26. Pat

    Chicago lift fall: Six survive 875 North Michigan Avenue drama

    People trapped in a falling lift in the US city of Chicago thought they were going to die as they plummeted 84 floors to the ground.

    Six people, including a pregnant woman, fell from the 95th to the 11th floor in a skyscraper formerly known as the John Hancock Center early on Friday morning.

    They then texted friends who called the emergency services and they were freed after a three-hour ordeal.

    It is believed at least one cable holding the cabin broke.

    The group had left a bar on the 95th floor of the building to go down to the lobby.

    1. I’m going to guess that the elevator shaft acted like an air piston, with the car’s fall increasing the pressure under it and slowing the eventual stop.

      I want to know why the emergency brakes that are supposed to kick in when the car starts to fall failed. I mean that’s what Otis added to the elevator to make it viable for people, it’s not exactly something elevators should be lacking.

      1. robc

        My understanding was the emergency brakes “worked”, just slower than you would expect.

        1. If the article is to be believed we’re both wrong.

          Cables still attached to the cabin prevented it from hitting the ground.

          It was the ‘buffer spring’ effect with the cable.

  27. TW: Autostart Video

    Sex kitten to activist: Is it time to stop mocking Pamela Anderson?

    “My first boyfriend in grade nine decided it would be funny to gang rape me with six of his friends. Needless to say I had a hard time trusting humans and I just wanted off this earth.”

    Anderson has said that despite what she endured, she found her modelling career and work with Playboy helped liberate her.

    “I was painfully shy as a child. As a young girl, Playboy empowered me. It really saved my life,” she said earlier this year.

    “It’s sometimes assumed that I should want to renounce those years as decadent or foolish,” she wrote. “This is not the case. In hindsight I am very proud of the independent, unorthodox path I took: a path that allowed me to develop on my own terms.”

    1. Count Potato

      “Anderson was a victim of child sex abuse, in multiple incidents that occurring between the ages of six and 12 years old.

      Giving an impassioned speech at age 46, Anderson spoke of being molested from the ages of six to 10 by her female babysitter while her parents were out.

      “Despite loving parents, I was molested from age 6 to 10 by my female babysitter,” she said.

      Anderson also told of her first “heterosexual” sexual experience, which was a rape when she was 12. Her rapist was 25 years old.

      “I went to a friend’s boyfriend’s house and when she was busy the boyfriend’s older brother decided he would teach me backgammon which led in to a back massage, which led in to rape. My first heterosexual experience.

      “He was 25 years old, I was 12.”

      Anderson spoke of a harrowing third experience in high school with her then boyfriend.

      “My first boyfriend in grade nine decided it would be funny to gang rape me with six of his friends. Needless to say I had a hard time trusting humans and I just wanted off this earth.””

      Did she know anyone who wasn’t a rapist?

      1. Does she know Brett Kavanaugh?

  28. straffinrun

    He then shot at a second police officer who escaped injury when the bullet lodged in the barrel of his handgun while it was holstered on his belt.

    Um, am I the only one thinking maybe the gun shouldn’t have been holstered?

    1. “I got a donut in one hand and my coffee in the other. I’m not superhuman!”

    2. westernsloper

      Nope. First thing that crossed my mind.

      1. straffinrun

        Obviously, I wasn’t there, but considering they draw at the drop of pin it’s questionable to say the least.

    1. He’d only be facing one count of bestiality if it were a quarterhorse.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        SWISSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!

    2. leon

      “Horse-fucker” just doesn’t roll of the tongue like “Welshman”

    3. Brett L

      “Well, the full-sized horses are too tall”

    4. straffinrun

      Avenatti has a new client.

      1. leon

        But will the horse let an accused abuser represent her?

        1. SugarFree

          The horse will do as it’s told or get a beating.

    5. JaimeRoberto, Public Intellectual

      Neigh. Say it isn’t so.

  29. westernsloper

    Ivanka sends work emails through private account, the only similarity to Hillary’s email scandal being the word “private”, and progs call to “lock her up”.

    1. How many classified documents did she store on her bathroom server and have the maid print out?

    2. The Progs absolutely hate her. I think she’s getting the First Lady hate that most other actual First Ladies get.

      1. Psycho Effer

        It’s funny because she was one of them up until Trump got elected.

  30. Rufus the Monocled

    ‘I don’t have any family in Minnesota so my family really was my Chipotle family. That was my life honestly. I worked a lot but I was very passionate about it and wanted to grow the store.’

    They offered her job back. How nice. How about you PAY OFF HER FUCKEN STUDENT LOANS then assholes. Heck, if not, just sue them. This behaviour by companies over reacting (Starbucks, Roseanne etc.) is going to have a boomerang effect of some kind I reckon.

    This sentence alone should gut the manager and CEO of Chipotle.

  31. Libertarian Populism is Still Relevant in the Age of Trump

    But it is the unexpectedly strong victory of Denver Riggleman of “Bigfoot erotica” fame in Virginia’s Fifth Congressional District that shows how libertarian populism can still be a force in American politics. Riggleman is described by National Review’s Jibran Khan as “a libertarian outsider with a knack for free-market populism.” Riggleman, who owns a whiskey distillery, ran a positive, policy-focused race against crony capitalism and for reforms in the H2A guest worker program in order help farmers get the labor they need.

    Riggleman’s path to Congress was unique. He ran briefly for Virginia governor in 2017 before dropping out to focus on his business. The incumbent, Republican Congressman Tom Garrett, was forced to abandon his reelection bid as a result of his battle with alcoholism. Riggleman, with the support of younger voters, won a contentious nominating convention against a leading social conservative. His victory shows that a libertarian populist message can still resonate, even in a battleground district.

    Why is libertarian populism still relevant? The latest answer is Amazon’s decision to place its HQ2 facility in Arlington, Virginia, and New York City (along with another project in Nashville). Amazon collected over $2.2 billion in government subsidies from the three states. The only congressional opposition to this act of blatant cronyism came from libertarians and self-described socialist Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

    1. Why is libertarian populism still relevant?

      Assumes facts not in evidence, namely that it was ever relevent.

    2. PieInTheSky

      Libertarian populist moment!

    3. Gillespie

      You mean to tell me it’s always been #TheLibertarianMoment? Pass me that peyote, friend.

    4. Rebel Scum

      Riggleman’s path

      Sounds like an adventure novel.

      Unfortunately freedom in a fundamental sense is not terribly popular.

  32. Juvenile Bluster

    I’ll pay for a pay-per-view fight to the death between Avenatti and Wohl, where the winner is then also killed at the end in a shocking twist.

    1. leon

      “where the winner is then also killed at the end in a shocking twist.”

      Geeze, Spoiler alert.

    2. PieInTheSky

      with spoons as weapons

      1. Chipwooder

        “Why a spoon, cousin? Why not an axe?”

        “Because it’s dull, you twit! It will hurt more!”

        1. I hear they couldn’t get their deposit back on the scenerey for that film due to all the teeth marks the actors put in it.

          1. Chipwooder

            Not a good movie, but a fun movie nevertheless.

          2. It was fun to watch. I’ll give it that.

  33. Brett L

    Microsoft solves MFA errors in cloud by turning it off and turning it back on.

    Engineers cycling of impacted servers is complete and initial telemetry and customer reports indicates issue is majority mitigated. telemetry will continue until mitigation confirmed. Engineers will continue to monitor any updates or changes made from the work-streams currently being explored.

    1. Wha? Microsoft didn’t realize that microsoft products need a regular reboot?

    2. Pat

      Luckily there’s absolutely no down sides to hosting everything in the cloud. Local machines are for dinosaurs and paranoiacs!

      1. That’s what you think!

        We’re still using mainframes.

      2. robc

        There is a downside to azure. It being azure.

        Other cloud services…I am still somewhat skeptical, but the financials look good for those who have made it work.

        1. leon

          I Enjoy working with AWS a lot, and have only run into very few complaints along the way.

        2. Brett L

          Azure isn’t bad. Now that they have SSIS in the cloud, you can transition everything worth having* in your database pipeline to the cloud and it mostly works. Its early stages yet, but I’m doing the math on ROI, and it isn’t huge. Depends. If you have bursts, auto-scaling will save you a fuckton of money versus trying to have enough pipe/CPU for Black Friday. For steady loads like my client, Insourcing a server with a 4 year lifetime is about the same as running a similar DB in the cloud.

          *No SSRS, and that can go away and never return for all I care. Not that I like Power BI better, but anything that makes it less likely someone asks me to write an SSRS report is good with me.

          1. Luther Baldwin

            Ha my company didn’t work with anything so fancy. It was lowest-common-denominator SSRS or nothing. Well, until the bright-light DBAs decide to upgrade it only in production. “You have to keep two codebases now.” “Gee, thanks!”

      3. Rasilio

        I don’t see the attraction of cloud hosting. The company I work at has started turning off our QA environment in the “off hours”, a difficult thing to accomplish as we have QA teams here in the US and in Cape Town South Africa, so it amounts to just 4 hours a night and weekends but doing that is saving us $40,000 a month on AWS fees.

        So that means our QA environment is costing us somewhere north of $120k a month and we are by no means a large company ($80 million ish a year in revenue) .

        I find myself having a hard time believing we couldn’t buy a dozen or so physical servers in a co-hosting location and hire 2 or 3 more ops guys to maintain them and achieve the same result for half that cost.

        1. Some of the new systems out there would only require 1 ops guy.

          /definitely doesn’t work for a company that sells that hardware

    3. R C Dean

      majority mitigated

      Meaning, I suppose, “not really fixed”.

  34. Rebel Scum

    Well, that’s mighty dammed inconvenient.

    “Tijuana residents waved Mexican flags, sang the Mexican national anthem and chanted ‘Out! Out!’ in front of a statue of the Aztec ruler Cuauhtemoc … they accused the migrants of being messy, ungrateful and a danger to Tijuana,” The Associated Press reported. “They also complained about how the caravan forced its way into Mexico, calling it an ‘invasion.’ And they voiced worries that their taxes might be spent to care for the group.”

    Alden Rivera, the Honduran ambassador in Mexico, told AP that Honduras wants the migrants to “return to Honduras.”

    The news comes as hundreds of migrants reached the border fence that separates Tijuana, Mexico, and San Diego, California, early last week and “some of them began illegally entering the U.S. after climbing the fence,” The Daily Wire reported.

    The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a report in early November that stated there are “hundreds of convicted criminals or known gang members traveling in the migrant caravan that is traveling through Mexico to the U.S. southern border.”

    “In fact, over 270 individuals along the caravan route have criminal histories, including known gang membership,” DHS reported. “Those include a number of violent criminals – examples include aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, armed robbery, sexual assault on a child, and assault on a female.”

    I didn’t know Mexican’s were so racist.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Alden Rivera, the Honduran ambassador in Mexico, told AP that Honduras wants the migrants to “return to Honduras.”

      This is a key point. My understanding is they’re being promoted and supported by the Zelaya, the Maduro proxy that got ousted back in 2009 and is still agitating to destabilize the country so he can return to power.

  35. Slammer

    BREAKING NEWS: Federal Judge has ruled a temporary restraining order on the Trump Administration’s Thanksgiving Turkey Pardon. The slaughter must proceed as planned.

    1. Pat

      Lol. Upvoted :^)

      1. westernsloper

        ^

    2. Rebel Scum

      Stolen.

  36. prolefeed

    Titty Tuesday — bathroom selfies edition:

    https://thesexier.com/hot-bathroom-selfies-pics/

    1 and 6 for me

  37. Pat

    Airbnb will remove guest home listings in the West Bank

    To date, Airbnb has argued that it would allow home listings in disputed areas in the name of connecting people. Now, it’s changing its mind. The company plans to remove roughly 200 listings in Israeli settlements in the West Bank after rethinking its policies for contested regions. Airbnb didn’t provide a detailed explanation of its rationale in this specific instance, but noted that the listings are “at the core of the dispute between Israelis and Palestinians.”

    The firm said it was now considering issues like this on a “case-by-case” basis with help from both experts and its stakeholder community. The process would look for possible safety concerns, determine whether listings add to “existing human suffering” or have a “direct connection” to the dispute in question.

    1. Riddle me this – why did Air B&B pick a pair of truck nutz for their logo?

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder

      I’m going to refer to them as AirBDS from now on.

  38. SoberPhobic

    He then shot at a second police officer who escaped injury when the bullet lodged in the barrel of his handgun while it was holstered on his belt.

    WTF is this sentence?

    1. Poorly phrased.

      It is written as though it wend down the bore, when it more probably struck the side of the pistol and lodged there.

      1. SoberPhobic

        Ok, but it was still holstered. After at least three shots?

        1. There may have been some literal pants-wetting going on from officer unresponsive.

  39. Scruffy Nerfherder

    I expect you all to show up at my funeral and honor me accordingly.

    1. PieInTheSky

      I preferred the strippers in China

    2. Pat

      Will the estate be providing the MDMA or do we bring our own?

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        I’m taking it all with me.

        That reminds me of the old woman I met whose husband had descended into dementia and was demanding that he be buried with all his money. She agreed to do so to keep him quiet. On the day of his funeral she wrote him a check for everything they had and stuck it in his coffin.

        1. Pat

          I’m way too classy to ever consider desecrating a grave site, but…

          1. Scruffy Nerfherder

            Twenty dollars is twenty dollars

        2. PieInTheSky

          I heard that one as a lawyer joke

  40. PieInTheSky

    How many husbands control the votes of their wives? We’ll never know

    Progressive organizer Annabel Park told the story that made me start to wonder. “I can’t stop thinking about this woman I met while doorknocking for Beto in Dallas,” Annabel wrote on social media a few days before the midterm elections.

    “She lived in a sprawling low-income apartment complex. After I knocked a couple of times, she answered the door with her husband just behind her. She looked petrified and her husband looked menacing behind her. When I made my pitch about Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke, her husband yelled, ‘We’re not interested.’ She looked at me and silently mouthed, ‘I support Beto.’ Before I could respond, she quickly closed the door.”

    Annabel told me afterwards, “It’s been on my mind. Did she get beaten? That was my fear.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/19/voter-intimidation-republicans-democrats-midterm-elections

    Reading this I understand that Banjos wanted to vote Beto but sloopy would not allow it. Blink twice if true.

    1. How many husbands control the votes of their wives

      Fewer than the number of fraudulent votes cast.

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder

      The only way to remedy this is to perform an intervention on every married couple. Let’s do it.

    3. Pat

      What do you tell a woman with two black eyes?

      Nothing, you already told her twice!

      1. Pope Jimbo

        A husband told his wife that if she kept nagging him, she wouldn’t see him for 3 days. She kept nagging.

        The first day passed and she didn’t see him.

        The second day went by and she didn’t see him.

        By the very end of the third day the swelling had gone down enough that she could finally see him.

    4. prolefeed

      “How many husbands control the votes of their wives?”

      How many wives/girlfriends * think * they control the votes of their husbands/byfriends, threatening to cut off sex if they don’t spout approved platitudes?

      None if this makes a bit of difference if the person being intimidated gets into a private voting booth and hands their ballot over without it being scrutinized by the offending spouse.

      And, if you’re in a relationship where the other person is being that controlling, and don’t GTFO, you’ve got bigger problems than maybe being disenfranchised.

    5. Banjos

      The ratio of Hollywood caricatures of abusive husbands to harpy controlling wives telling their husbands how to vote is probably about 1:20. Feminists are quite comfortable with writing articles telling women to divorce their conservative husbands. Haven’t seen anything in the opposite direction, alothough it’s generally good advice. Those women are horrible and will suck away your soul.

    6. R C Dean

      She looked at me and silently mouthed, ‘I support Beto.’

      I’m filing that one under “Shit that never happened”.

    7. JaimeRoberto, Public Intellectual

      Good thing the voting booth is private then. This actually is an issue in other countries. A buddy of mine was an election observer in Bosnia and other similar paradises and he said a number of times they saw incidents where the head of household who was pissed that he couldn’t vote for the whole family. In another country he said people would line up for one specific booth because that’s where the town boss was checking to make sure everyone voted “properly”.

  41. The Late P Brooks

    Tragedy!

    For the past two and a half years, James O’Brien, a popular London talk-radio host, has been arguing that the “Leave” vote in the 2016 Brexit referendum was a tragic mistake. On Thursday morning, as the British Prime Minister, Theresa May, was preparing to defend in Parliament the controversial withdrawal deal her government has made with the European Union, O’Brien’s show received a call from a Leave voter named Bill, who said he owed the host an apology. “I was wrong, I was wrong, I was wrong, I was wrong,” the man began to say, in an accent that placed him firmly outside the British élite. “I’m an old-fashioned git, really, I suppose . . . For some reason, I thought we were better off, but, clearly, I was wrong.” As Bill made this admission, his voice broke and he started crying. O’Brien pointed out that 17.4 million Britons made the same choice, and told him not to blame himself. Bill was inconsolable. “I was wrong, I am so sorry,” he blubbered. “What have I done to my country?”

    How will we ever get our One World Government if those illiterate boobs in England can’t even be trusted not to destroy the European experiment?

    1. I find it bizarre that the DUP may have more ability to break remainer May than her own party does.

    2. Charlie Suet

      “James O’Brien, a popular London talk-radio host”

      Fake news, right there. Nothing popular about (the aptly named) O’Brien. I can’t imagine why “man phones into radio programme” is news in any event. I voted Remain and have decided that I was wrong – is that news, too?

      It’s fascinating how so many people think that the EU being difficult to get out of is evidence that trying is a mistake. The better conclusion is that we should have been a great deal more cautious about going in.

      1. Luther Baldwin

        Yep. And my understanding is that Brussels is doing everything in its power to fuck with the UK lest any others get it into their silly little heads to leave.

        1. Charlie Suet

          Which in turn isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement of the European ideal itself.

          1. Democratic Hitler

            I don’t disagree with your point, but I’m not sure the US has the moral high ground on the subject of peaceful secession.

          2. That’s just silly, we let the Phillipines go.

          3. Charlie Suet

            The main difference being that the countries in the EU are at least notionally sovereign nations, freely taking part in a joint initiative. If at some point we’ve all made the leap to being the equivalent of US states then something has gone badly (and possibly catastrophically) wrong.

        2. BigT

          And my understanding is that Berlin is doing everything in its power to fuck with the People that try to jump the wall lest any others get it into their silly little heads to leave.

  42. PieInTheSky

    And for the simple fact that Robert Reich writing in the Guardian in in want of linking here it is

    Break up Facebook (and while we’re at it, Google, Apple and Amazon)
    Robert Reich

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/20/facebook-google-antitrust-laws-gilded-age

    America’s Gilded Age of the late 19th century began with a raft of innovations – railroads, steel production, oil extraction – but culminated in mammoth trusts owned by “robber barons” who used their wealth and power to drive out competitors and corrupt American politics.

    I am convinced.

    1. Pat

      He’s not wrong. I mean he is, but he isn’t. If you’re the type who thinks trust busting was useful then, there’s certainly an argument that the current tech climate is similar enough to warrant similar intervention. The question is whether trust busting was ever useful (to say nothing of constitutional).

      1. PieInTheSky

        I don’t get why apple would be in there either way it has plenty of competition. For me at most Google could be counted as a trust by the gilded age definition…

      2. Trust busting took so long that Standard oil had already lost a huge chunk of market share by the time the ruling came down.

    2. R C Dean

      Break up Facebook (and while we’re at it, Google, Apple and Amazon)

      What an idiot. Other than being bundled up as “Big Tech”, those four firms are in three completely different businesses. Apple, in particular, is short of having the kind of dominant market share that raises any kind of anti-trust concerns. Apple has just under 40% of US market share for phones (I think). The FTC has zero interest in anyone with less than 40% of market share, absent some violation of other anti-trust law like collusion, etc. You generally need north of 50% for the FTC to show interest based on market share alone.

      1. But, but, they’re big! and Famous! And have a lot of monies!

        1. Democratic Hitler

          Everyone I know has an iPhone!

  43. Pat

    Americans Disagree About What Racism Is, And It’s A Big Problem

    There are two basic definitions of racism in the United States, one roughly associated with progressives and one roughly associated with conservatives. The former describes racism as the failure to acknowledge and seek to redress systemic discrimination against select disadvantaged minority groups. It is very broad and captures everything from unconscious bias to white supremacy. The latter views racism as making assumptions about, or taking action towards, an individual or group on the sole basis of their race. It is narrow and generally requires belief, intent, and animosity.

    These definitions don’t simply differ; to a great extent they actually contradict each other. Much of the contradiction stems from the fact that the progressive definition of racism requires that an advantaged individual or group must be attacking the less privileged. The more conservative and narrow definition of racism requires no appeal to power structures, only to bias, and can be committed by anyone towards anyone.[…]

    There is a double standard here that progressives don’t actually deny. It is, in fact, baked into their definition of racism. Under their rubric, the definition of racist has a double standard precisely because society has double standards that they argue overwhelmingly disadvantage the less privileged. It is internally logical and consistent in a way a lot of conservatives don’t quite understand.

    On the other hand, those on the left are often shocked when polls show that majorities of white people believe that they are discriminated against in the United States. They will point to economic data, political power, and cultural representation and say, “You people are crazy.” But under the narrower definition of racism, it makes perfect sense. These white people are reacting to the fact that they can be attacked on the basis of their race in ways others can’t. In addition, whites — and increasingly Asians — look at programs like affirmative action as inherently racist.

    1. PieInTheSky

      The latter views racism as making assumptions about, or taking action towards, an individual or group on the sole basis of their race. – the latter is the correct one. The first one is to vague to be of any use

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        The first one is to vague to be of any use

        Oh, it’s useful, it’s definitely useful

        1. If your goal is to attack people with the accusation.

        2. Drake

          Repeated use has made it less effective – and probably made people more racist.

          1. I suspect there are people who have decided that if they’re going to be called racist anyway then why not call the woman who just cut you off a nigger?

      2. Jarflax

        The vagueness is the use. To really control people you have to put them in the wrong first. That is much easier if you define sin in vague easily expanded terms.

        1. Scruffy Nerfherder

          Bingo

          Racism is the new original sin.

          The SJWs are the priest caste.

    2. leon

      “These definitions don’t simply differ; to a great extent they actually contradict each other. Much of the contradiction stems from the fact that the progressive definition of racism requires that an advantaged individual or group must be attacking the less privileged. The more conservative and narrow definition of racism requires no appeal to power structures, only to bias, and can be committed by anyone towards anyone.[…]”

      So if i follow The “Broad” definition of a racist can only be narrowly applied to a subset of a population, usually defined (though not necessarily) by their membership in a racial group. The Narrow definition of a racist can apply to any individual who does or acts on a perceived superiority to another individual due to that individuals membership in a racial group…

      “It is internally logical and consistent in a way a lot of conservatives don’t quite understand.”

      I think a system whose policy prescriptions is “Lets fix systematic racism by creating more systematic racism” stretches the limits of “Logical and Consistent”

    3. The Progressive definition is only internally logical if you accept the foundational premise, i.e. that there is an original sin associated with being a white person of western European descent. To be more charitable, it requires that you accept as a given that having superficial physical similarities to the majority of politically powerful people in a given society confers inherent advantages. Thus the argument that a white, homeless, meth-addicted orphan from Appalachia is privileged in a way that Russell Simmons’ kids are not.

      But this is a little like saying that everything in the Harry Potter series makes perfect sense provided you accept that magic is a real thing and there are genetically-different humans who are capable of casting spells to manipulate it. Maybe everything after that bit makes total sense, but the problem is that magic isn’t real.

    4. Nephilium

      You mean when you try to use words in a different way, people disagree on the meaning? See: Rights, Freedom, Fair Wage, etc…

      1. BigT

        Damned fascist!

    5. prolefeed

      “Perhaps one potential point of agreement is that individuals should never be attacked or criticized on the basis of their race.”

      AND

      “Many progressives have argued that white women voted in a racist manner in order to uphold their privileged place in the white male patriarchy.”

      Not really seeing much room for agreement when it’s considered acceptable in prog circles to call white women racist because they disagree with you about a particular political candidate.

      Or when those prog circles can’t wrap their heads around the counter argument that black women voting almost lockstep for Democrats because some of them think they will receive unearned advantages because of their ethnicity is also racist by the progs’ own logic.

  44. Drake

    Since our comments are just being hurled into the void, I’ll leave this link.

    Kritocracy Then Chaos

    We now live in an age in which the Federal court says the White House cannot decide who gets a press pass, but it is perfectly OK for the banks to collude to shut you out of the financial system, because they don’t like how you voted. The law says a business can fire an employee, because he does not accept the company values, but the same business must hire a mentally unstable man in a sundress and let him watch the female employees undress. This is a revolt against rationality and reason and it can end only one way.

    1. PieInTheSky

      Wiser judges are needed. Wiser kings will not come by.

    2. commodious spittoon

      What is “FTN”?

      1. Drake

        A podcast that I have never listened to.

        https://therightstuff.biz/category/ftn/

  45. The Late P Brooks

    Oh, no. Race to the Bottom!

    Early on, Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, warned that this was a fantasy. “Buy a cake, eat it, and see if it is still there on the plate,” he told the advocates of “cakeism.” Not without reason, Tusk and his colleagues feared that the real goal of the Brexiteers was to convert Britain into a deregulated, low-wage, low-tax competitor to the E.U. So the Europeans made it clear: if Britain wanted to retain full access to the E.U. market, it would have to continue to abide by the union’s standards on taxation, employment, competition, and the environment, as well as accepting some rulings from the European Court of Justice. (This is roughly the position held by Norway, which isn’t a member of the E.U. but engages in a great deal of commerce with the bloc.) Failure to accept these terms would relegate Britain to the status of Canada and other far-off trading partners.

    Yeah, why should those dastardly limeys be allowed to assert political and economic independence? Let them wriggle out of the Common Fisheries Policy, and before long they’ll be asking why the European Court of Justice gets to set tax rates.

    1. The one upside to this whole mess is that the chances of a clean break grow the more the remainers squish about failing to deliver a deal.

    2. PieInTheSky

      So the EU is the only thing keeping wages high in England?

      1. Data says… no. Wages and employment figures went up after brexit was announced.

  46. Michael

    Shooter kills doctor ex-fiance and two others including a police office after confronting her at a hospital.

    Our intrepid local news media is on the case working to get the important facts out.

    https://twitter.com/BillWest5/status/1064630965916631040

    1. PieInTheSky

      The important details were there

    2. Count Potato

      “He is armed with an assault rifle.”

      Bullshit.

    1. It started with the EU being dicks. And the refusal to do anything to protect the residents from the horde of rapefugees exacerbated it.

      1. Charlie Suet

        “Populism” is just a handy way for the political establishment to pretend there are no consequences to their bungling. Their single currency has put southern Europe into a thirties style economic straitjacket. Merkel’s 1 million refugee gesture almost certainly encouraged immigration in the Med. But people who vote for parties that claim they’ll address these points are influenced by this external factor called “populism”, like children following the Pied Piper.

        1. If Hamelin had imply paid the piper, none of the children would have been led astray.

          Likewise, had the actual concerns of the electorate been addressed, none of these parties would be emergant.

  47. Rebel Scum

    DeBlasio admits his ‘socialist impulse’ and lust for control

    “I think there’s a socialistic impulse, which I hear every day, in every kind of community that they would like things to be planned in accordance to their needs.”

    “Look, if I had my druthers, the city government would determine every single plot of land, how development would proceed,” he said. “And there would be very stringent requirements around income levels and rents.”

    Later in the interview, de Blasio admitted that this type of governmental control is not possible right now – saying it causes “friction” and “anger” – but said that there are many people in New York City who would like to have a government that better addresses their daily needs.

    “That’s a world I’d love to see, and I think what we have, in this city at least, are people who would love to have the New Deal back, on one level,” he said. “They’d love to have a very, very powerful government, including a federal government, involved in directly addressing their day-to-day reality.”

    Fuck. The hell. Off.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Jesus

    2. leon

      “They’d love to have a very, very powerful government, including a federal government, involved in directly addressing their day-to-day reality.”

      I don’t doubt that he’s right.

      1. commodious spittoon

        Good and hard.

    3. >>that they would like things to be planned in accordance to their needs.”

      And for those who don’t want that? Prison, torture, starvation, gulags, and firing squads.

      1. Pat

        I never tired of hearing Tony explain to us how neglecting to intervene in people’s lives was just as much an act of violence as intervening in people’s lives against their will.

        1. robc

          There is a reason I had him blocked. I don’t know why anyone argued with him.

          1. Some of us hold that by exposing the faults in the beliefs of people who cannot themselves be convinced of their wrongness, others will see the truth.

            That, and it was darn amusing.

          2. robc

            I went years without blocking MNG or joe. Tony was an entirely different level.

          3. I never saw either of those as far as I remember, so I can’t speak to their entertainment value.

      2. B.P.

        So, the poll question would read: “Are you in favor of the government taking resources away from other people to meet your needs?”

    4. Jarflax

      It causes friction and anger because we have kulaks and wreckers comrade! If we simply remove the counter revolutionary elements we can have true communism in our time.

    5. Pat

      It’s disheartening that there are so many people concentrated into such colossal voting blocs that accept this.

    6. R C Dean

      people who would love to have the New Deal back, on one level

      What part of the New Deal ever really went away?

      1. MikeS

        The CCC.

        1. R C Dean

          Fair point. Somehow, I don’t think a jobs program that requires hard manual labor outdoors is really what these people are demanding.

          1. Tundra

            Oh really?

            The CCC is alive and well. They just renamed it and use slave labor from the universities.

        2. Drake

          And the NRA (the bad one).

      2. Gadfly

        What part of the New Deal ever really went away?

        The rule against private gold ownership.

        Price controls.

        There were also some anti-business regulations that were repealed to help the war effort.

        1. R C Dean

          There were also some anti-business regulations that were repealed to help the war effort.

          I wonder how they stack up against our current massive trove of anti-business regulations.

  48. Pope Jimbo

    You want science! You got science.

    Minnesoda is woke central when talking about renewable power.

    Minnesota is on its way to hitting its renewable energy goals—and it won’t cost taxpayers any extra.

    A study released Thursday by MN Solar Pathways found that solar could make up 10 percent of the state’s electricity by 2025. In addition, the report predicts that as renewable energy costs decrease, Minnesota will be able to produce 70 percent of its power from solar and wind by 2050 at costs comparable to natural gas generation.

    For some reason though, all the pols quoted in the article say that this shows that we need even more mandates and regulations to force the power company to keep doing good. Maybe I’m just a simple kid from the prairie, but if solar is going to be cheaper than natural gas, why do power companies need to be forced to use it? Wouldn’t they voluntarily use it?

    Also funny to the locals is the fact that the main pol quoted in this story – John Marty – is great when it comes to trying to block subsidies for sports stadiums, but as this shows he loves govt money for the utilities company.

    1. Look, it’s not the subsidies, but who gets them that matters in these sorts of cases.

      /Pol

    2. Tundra

      Fuck that. A couple more nuke plants and we are good to go for 500 years.

      1. Homple

        What’s happening with Prairie Island and Monticello? They went online in the early 1970s. Can Xcel afford to keep them running much longer?

        1. Tundra

          They aren’t going anywhere.

          Lots of blah blah blah renewable blah carbon, but at the end of the day, there is no good reason to abandon them. Besides, they get government help too.

          I would like to see more plants. The technology has come a long way since the ’70s and there is no sound reason not to use it.

          1. “Because Chernobyl!”

            Even though no western nuclear incident has killed even one person since likely the 1950s.

          2. robc

            Chappaquiddick 1
            Three Mile Island 0

    3. Pat

      Here in Nevada we just got done amending our state constitution to stipulate that 50% of all electrical power sold by the electrical utility monopoly (which we also voted to retain instead of opening the retail energy market to competition) to retail consumers be derived from renewable sources by 2030.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        It’s like you hate yourselves.

      2. I was under the impression that it was just the first of two required votes, and it would have to pass again in 2020 to actually take effect.

        1. Pat

          Yep (although there was no mention of it in the text of the ballot question or the voter guide, FWIW). It passed pretty overwhelmingly though, so I wouldn’t be too surprised if makes it again.

          1. Presidential election years get different voter sets from off-years. So I’m not betting either way.

      3. R C Dean

        Here in Nevada we just got done amending our state constitution

        Somehow, despite an outbreak of idiocy earlier this month, we voted that down in AZ. By a lot.

        solar could make up 10 percent of the state’s electricity by 2025

        I wonder what the worst state for solar is. It could well be Minnesota, due to the (very) short winter days and cloud cover.

        1. Lies! If you build it, the sunlight will come!

          /warmist

        2. Tundra

          Here you go!

          Not the worst, but definitely not the place to bet the farm on solar.

          1. robc

            We are #1749!!!

        3. Pope Jimbo

          Solar sucks for sure. The wind potential isn’t bad. There is a ridge on the west side of the state that funnels the wind off the prairies and is pretty rural so it doesn’t even impact many people.

          At least it should be good. Unless you bought wind turbines from CA and they freeze up in the winter. (This actually happened to the one wind turbine built in the suburb Tundra and I live in)

      4. Democratic Hitler

        Here in Nevada we just got done amending our state constitution to stipulate that 50% of all electrical power sold by the electrical utility monopoly

        That sure sounds like something that should be embedded in the fucking state constitution. Right up there with union “rights”.

        God dammit people are fucking morons.

        1. Pat

          That sure sounds like something that should be embedded in the fucking state constitution. Right up there with union “rights”.

          We also added the Marsy’s Law “victims bill of rights” to the state constitution this election cycle…

          1. Nephilium

            Don’t worry, Ohio drank some Flavor Aid over a decade ago. The gods damned minimum wage is set in the state constitution, and indexed to inflation.

          2. Democratic Hitler

            headdesk.gif

          3. Luther Baldwin

            Not to mention how many states have a built-in, non-negotiable path to bankruptcy via special protections for their public-sector workers.

  49. Nephilium

    There was no way to predict something like this. Who could have predicted that someone who just got out of jail for beating his wife would have violent tendencies?

    1. Rufus the Monocled

      He’s so fricken full of shit. The body of evidence shows that kind of behaviour is predicative in many cases. That asshole knows that.

      They just were protecting one of their own and it exploded in their faces.

      #believeher is all bull shit when push comes to shove.

      1. Nephilium

        At least the local news is running with it. And this is from the lefty alt-weekly rag.

  50. Titty Tuesday blonde edition!

    http://archive.is/4cseH

    13, 16, 18, 19, 33, 39, 44.

    1. prolefeed

      Maybe 13, though she looks like jailbait.

      The Behr white paint swatch array of titty links.

    2. Pat

      11, 20 and 40

    3. Count Potato

      #20

  51. The Late P Brooks

    There is a double standard here that progressives don’t actually deny. It is, in fact, baked into their definition of racism. Under their rubric, the definition of racist has a double standard precisely because society has double standards that they argue overwhelmingly disadvantage the less privileged. It is internally logical and consistent in a way a lot of conservatives don’t quite understand.

    If “racism” is being used as a cover for vengeance and retribution, it makes sense.

  52. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Gee, no one saw this coming….

    Doug Gray, executive director of the Virginia Association of Health Plans, said the new managed care program launched in 2017 with the Medicaid agency’s target of 3.5 percent savings.

    That was a benchmark the agency cut from its original promise of 7 percent savings after health plans pointed out no other state launching managed care programs for the elderly saw any savings at all for the first three years.

    “I think they were trying to keep the program budget-neutral,” said Mike Tweedy, a fiscal analyst with the state Senate Finance Committee. He noted the Medicaid agency also underestimated overall growth in costs, forecasting that they would rise by 2.5 percent this year, less than half the recent average, and 3.4 percent in fiscal year 2020.

    The revised forecast calls for a 6.2 percent increase this year and 3.5 percent next year, excluding those who are signing up under the Medicaid expansion program.

    “They shouldn’t have missed it by that much,” Tweedy said.

    They didn’t miss, they lied.

    1. Pat

      They didn’t miss, they lied.

      Potato, potahto.

  53. Rufus the Monocled

    “We’ve moved well beyond the vortex of ignorance where college freshman don’t know basic civics. “Progressive darling and Democratic Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York didn’t accurately name the three branches of government on Sunday despite her upcoming role as a congresswoman,” Molly Prince writes on the Daily Caller. “‘If we work our butts off to make sure that we take back all three chambers of Congress, uh, rather, all three chambers of government — the presidency, the Senate and the House — in 2020,’ Ocasio-Cortez said. ‘We can’t start working in 2020.’”

    “The self-proclaimed Democratic socialist seemed to be confusing the two chambers of Congress, the House of Representatives and the Senate, with the three branches of American government, the Executive, Legislative and Judicial. Ocasio-Cortez graduated cum laude from Boston University in 2011 with a bachelors degree in economics and international relations.”

    Awesome education system there.

    https://www.academia.org/freshmen-representative-flunks-basic-civics/?utm_source=AIA%20Email%20List&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=AIA%20Email%2020-Nov-2018

    1. Tundra

      Well, it’s on the citizenship test. Maybe we should make any incoming pol take the test. Fail and someone at random from your state is selected to serve your term.

    2. commodious spittoon

      Ignorant, or imprecise? She’s not wrong about the “chambers” that politicians can “work” to “take back.”

      She’s a moron either way, but flubs like this rate far beneath her love of socialism in terms of jaw-dropping stupidity.

      1. Pat

        Technically the presidency isn’t a “chamber” – we have two “chambers” of congress that constitute the legislative branch, while the president oversees the executive branch, with the judiciary constituting the third branch. Whether she meant “branch” or “chamber”, she’s still not quite right. However, as you say, that’s probably the least embarrassing thing she’s ever said as a politician.

        1. SugarFree

          And “they” have already taken back one of those chambers.

        2. commodious spittoon

          Playing cat and mouse with a senile dingbat fifty years her senior is sure to sharpen her intellect.

          1. commodious spittoon

            Maybe she and Maxine can match wits.

          2. A few more minds and they’ll be up to a half-wit.

        3. Rufus the Monocled

          Pretty embarrassing to me if you can’t get the basics right.

          You won’t move on if you fail phonics, amirite?

          1. Nephilium

            I’m pretty sure they stopped teaching phonics a while ago.

          2. Rufus the Monocled

            WELL TAT EXPAINS EVRYTING!

      2. RAHeinlein

        She graduated cum laude – understand – she is a genius and we need her mind!

    3. Don Escaped Texas

      bitch should move to Pleasure, California

  54. Welcome to the witch capital of Norway
    Vardø, Norway, makes Salem look like a walk in the park.

    There are only four ways to Vardø — none are good, and all originate at Kirkenes, a shithole in the way that only towns that are waystations to other places can be.

    For me, that reason was the Steilneset Memorial, a monument to witches that makes Salem look like a Disney ride. Today’s Vardø may be trying to reinvent itself as a tourist attraction (bird-watching is its other big draw), but three centuries ago, it was the beating, psychotic heart of a major witch panic. Co-designed by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor and French-American artist Louise Bourgeois, the Steilneset Memorial honors the 91 people who died, most burned at the stake, in the witch persecution that started in 1600 and ended in 1692.

    To put Vardø’s witchy body count in perspective: Finnmark’s current population is about 75,000 people spread across a landmass that’s roughly equal to Maryland’s. In the 17th century, Finnmark held fewer than 3,000 souls, so prosecuting 135 people for witchcraft and killing 91 was a lot. Stacked against Vardø’s dead (14 men; 77 women; about one-third Sami, the remainder white Norwegians), Salem’s 19 hanged witches (200 accused, gleaned from at least four townships with a combined population of about 2,000) makes its magistrates look like slackers.

    1. Pope Jimbo

      Color me skeptical. If these witches actually had any real powers, you would think that the Vikings would have won a Super Bowl by now. Or at least beat the Bears in Chicago once.

      1. commodious spittoon

        Too busy hexing Trump.

  55. The Late P Brooks

    Big win. Really big.

    For the past fifty years, Arizona has been a redoubt of the Sun Belt conservatism—pro-business, anti-taxes—that Barry Goldwater pioneered. Occasionally, moderate Democrats like Bruce Babbitt and Janet Napolitano have held statewide office. But Sinema is the first Democrat to be elected to the Senate from Arizona since 1988, and the first Democrat to win an open Senate seat in the state since Dennis DeConcini was elected, in 1976. The firsts don’t stop there. Sinema, a forty-two-year-old congresswoman for Arizona’s Ninth District, will also be the first female senator from Arizona, and the first openly bisexual senator from anywhere.

    Who gives a shit?

    1. RAHeinlein

      I’m still incredulous that Sinema won.

      1. Drake

        The wishy-washy moderate RINO campaign the other lady ran is a blueprint for Republican failure.

      2. Scruffy Nerfherder

        She’s an idiot. I don’t get it either.

        1. Pat

          Idiots get elected all the time, so that’s not all that astonishing. Idiots that are openly hostile to their own constituents getting elected though… that’s something.

          1. R C Dean

            She has a nice rack. That’s the only explanation I can think of for people to vote for her.

    2. R C Dean

      Sinema, a forty-two-year-old congresswoman for Arizona’s Ninth District, will also be the first female senator from Arizona, and the first openly bisexual senator from anywhere.

      They’re really grasping, what with Tammy Baldwin already claiming the first lesbian Senator crown.

      Also, are we allowed to use “female” to refer to a bisexual person?

      1. Pat

        Also, are we allowed to use “female” to refer to a bisexual person?

        Are we allowed to use “bisexual” if there are more than 2 genders?

    3. “pro-business, anti-taxes”

      HORROR OF HORRORS

    4. Luther Baldwin

      “Thanks for electing me, stupid rubes. I hate all of you!”

      *cheers and applause*

  56. MikeS

    I thought some may find this interesting. I did.

    Before Envelopes, People Protected Messages With Letterlocking

    To seal a modern-day envelope (on the off chance you’re sealing an envelope at all), it takes a lick or two, at most. Not so for Mary or for Machiavelli. In those days, letters were folded in such a way that they served as their own envelope. Depending on your desired level of security, you might opt for the simple, triangular fold and tuck; if you were particularly ambitious, you might attempt the dagger-trap, a heavily booby-trapped technique disguised as another, less secure, type of lock.

    1. A Leap at the Wheel

      And yet they never thing to shave someone head and tattoo their message on the scalp. SAD!

  57. Juvenile Bluster

    Via TOS: Capitalized words are scary!

    apitalised words should not be used when setting assignments because it can worry students, university lecturers have been told.

    Academics at Leeds Trinity were sent advised to “write in a helpful, warm tone, avoiding officious language and negative instructions”.

    According to a staff memo aimed at “enhancing student understanding, engagement and achievement”, capitalising a word could emphasise “the difficulty or high-stakes nature of the task”.

    The memo says: “Despite our best attempts to explain assessment tasks, any lack of clarity can generate anxiety and even discourage students from attempting the assessment at all. Generally, avoid using capital letters for emphasis and “the overuse of ‘do’, and, especially, ‘don’t’.”

    e e cummings becomes only appropriate author to be studied in literature courses.

      1. pistoffnick

        +1 oiled universal joint

    1. PieInTheSky

      hmmmmm

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder

      In a normal world, whoever wrote the memo would be summarily fired for being a moron.

  58. Pat

    The Debate Over Nationalism Is A Debate Over The West’s Future

    Since the end of the first world war, and especially after the second world war, there has been a consistent attempt to move past nation-states as the primary unit of global politics, because liberals believe that nations and powers are the primary cause of conflict in the world. The reality, however, is of course much more complex.

    Balance of power maintained the century-long peace since the fall of Napoleon, one that broke only after Imperial Germany started wars of aggression. But it is the false myths of the first world war that have led to a periodic push to obliterate borders and nation-states in the cause of global governance and perpetual peace. Liberalism, as Robert Kagan wrote, was an “act of defiance against both history and human nature.”

    This is, after all, the crux of the debate, and the prime paradox of liberal internationalism. As John Mearsheimer wrote, “A purely liberal state is soulless: it creates few emotional bonds between citizens and their government, which is why it is sometimes said that getting people to fight and die for a liberal state is especially difficult.”

    One can see this in Europe, where the percentage of people who are willing to fight and die for their country varies extremely between the conservative East and the liberal West. Mearsheimer argues that in the clash of national sentiments and liberalism, nationalism will always win, which will, in turn, lead to hardcore liberals behaving like imperialists.

    Because liberalism is radically individualist on the domestic front, humans as social animals find that destructive. That either leads to either ethnic or racial tribalism, or supranational empires, like the EU or the Soviet Union. So, in a curious twist of fate, it leads to the same old clash between liberal, or Marxist, imperialism and nation-states that wants to break free of a borderless ideology.

    1. Charlie Suet

      I wish people would try to understand that there’s middle ground between being a nineteenth century style nationalist and being an internationalist. One can be a liberal, in the traditional sense, without wanting world government. In the same way I can be reasonably friendly to my neighbours, and collaborate with them on key things, without creating a contradiction by not wanting to move into a commune with them.

      1. wdalasio

        I wish people would try to understand that there’s middle ground between being a nineteenth century style nationalist and being an internationalist.

        Well, at risk of getting some people around here to hate me (heh), one can also be an individualist. As far as I’m concerned governments only have legitimacy to the extent that they protect individual rights. Neither traditional nationalism nor internationalism, in and of themselves. necessarily serve that end. Relative to the international consensus, the U.S. tends to be pretty good on that front. As such, moves to internationalism tend to be antithetical to individualism. In the U.S. I suppose, on the other hand, that if I were a resident of Venezuela or North Korea, I’d be a champion of enhanced internationalism.

        1. Charlie Suet

          That’s certainly true. If I were generalising I’d say that the risk of the tyranny of the majority lessens as government becomes more regional, but it never disappears completely. Though one of the better arguments for the EEC, and by inheritance the EU, has been that it stops the socialists screwing everything up just because they’ve managed to win an election.

    2. Mojeaux

      Because liberalism is radically individualist

      “What have you done for me lately?

      1. I still haven’t hurt you or taken your stuff.

        1. Mojeaux

          Not taking is giving.

    3. R C Dean

      Balance of power maintained the century-long peace since the fall of Napoleon,

      Well, not counting the Crimean War, misc. wars of national “unification”, the Franco-Prussian War, the Russo-Turkish War, the Serbo-Turkish War, and a couple of Balkan Wars. And that’s just wars fought in Europe.

      1. But those weren’t continent-spanning wars! See, Peace!

        1. Pat

          There’s probably an argument to be made that wars among small, independent nation states are self-limiting in a way that wars among empires aren’t. With the post-WWII order we’re probably less likely to have full scale wars, but when we eventually do they’re probably bound to be more severe.

  59. DOOMco

    Occupy dems had the “are they in their lane now, @nra?!!! Huh??”
    Class acts.

    Chipotle is looking at some serious coin for the payout that employee is gonna get.

    1. Getting shot does not make one an expert on firearms any more than having an appendix out makes someone an expert on resectioning a bowel.

      1. commodious spittoon

        STEVE SMITH EXPERT AT REARRANGING BOWELS

        1. Bobarian LMD

          So’s Chipotle.

  60. Chipwooder

    Sometimes,YouTube randomly brings you something wonderful”

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      I can hear my wife now.

      “Honey, why do your recommended videos consist mostly of adolescent Russian contortionists?”

      1. R C Dean

        “Uhh, my account was hacked by the Russians?”

        1. ..several times…

      2. Pat

        “Because I’m a man of culture. Isn’t that why you married me?”

    2. commodious spittoon

      Translated from Russian:

      The video is beautiful, the girl is beautiful, but why is it filmed? It smells of merchandise for sale to adult uncles.

      Heh.

    1. Count Potato

      Many of them aren’t even white.

      1. Chipwooder

        Those are the most insidious of white nationalists, man, don’t you get it?

    2. Pat

      This the same FBI that decided Juggalos were a terrorist group?

    3. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Give me a break.

      Have the Proud Boys threatened violence against anyone?

      1. commodious spittoon

        As if explicitly threatening violence is necessary to be called either threatening or violent.

        1. Psycho Effer

          Lack of submission is violence.

    4. wdalasio

      extremist group with ties to white nationalism

      Skeevie little bit of wordsmithing there. They didn’t out-and-out call them white nationalists. Only that they had ties (and how the hell do you prove otherwise). I’m increasingly of the opinion that the FBI needs to just be shut down. Leave their forensics lab as an independent entity with direct oversight.

      1. “I’m increasingly of the opinion that the FBI needs to just be shut down”

        Absolutely. They serve no purpose whatsoever under the best of circumstances and more typically fuck things up/practice major corruption.

      2. Pat

        Leave their forensics lab as an independent entity with direct oversight.

        Given their contribution to bite mark and comparative bullet-lead analysis, I’d say you could pretty safely shutter their forensics lab as well.

  61. The Late P Brooks

    I wish people would try to understand that there’s middle ground between being a nineteenth century style nationalist and being an internationalist.

    Crazy talk!

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      I don’t know, but he’s pegging my sexy meter.

      *retch*

      1. Some people wear their poor life choices like a facial tattoo.

      2. Pope Jimbo

        Doesn’t he technically have to be a woman wearing a strap on to peg your sexy meter? Or is this another of those gender fluid things?

    2. R C Dean

      Don’t know. Don’t care.

    3. wdalasio

      The funny part is that, even with the picture, I couldn’t figure out what sex he was until the forth paragraph.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        That is one ugly SOB

    4. SugarFree

      SoundCloud rapper. Which is about as prestigious as being a “sandwich artist” at Subway.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        Is that like “Instagram Model”?

        1. SugarFree

          Yes. Not a contradiction in terms, just a modifier that makes the designation a dubious assertion as opposed to objective fact.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      If only the first ten are true, then the agreement is a textbook case of how not to negotiate.

      They’d be better off just cutting ties altogether and immediately.

      1. May is and always was a Remainer. Her attempts to negotiate a remain under guise of exit have gotten her into enough parlimentary trouble they may trigger an election.

        1. Charlie Suet

          We’ve painted ourselves into an awful corner at this point – no outcome is particularly good. Perhaps my judgement isn’t very brilliant (as a former Remain voter), but we’ve basically created a situation where our short term and our long term interest have diverged massively.

          Unfortunately over the past 25 years we’ve predicated an enormous amount on continued involvement in the EU, so that walking away isn’t a palatable option. But continued involvement in the EU entails deepened involvement, which we’re really not prepared for and (if people would be a bit more honest) we don’t want.

          People vote for short term reasons. There are millions of people here who don’t care about what sovereignty we seem to have permanently given away, or what more we might give away in the future. They care about their jobs, house prices and holidays. These people are numerous and influential – we can’t just pack them off like Loyalists to Canada. So if we are allowed to leave at all, we’ll end up with a shitty compromise that no one really wants.

          1. Gadfly

            So if we are allowed to leave at all, we’ll end up with a shitty compromise that no one really wants.

            From an outsider’s perspective, I don’t see why the Brexiteers don’t acquiesce to this to get the official exit over and done with. Once out, can’t they later go back and, one by one, slowly pry loose of the bad portions of the compromise? What could the EU do as punishment if that were the strategy, once the UK is no longer under their thumb?

          2. With the logistics of their government, it would be harder to fix a bad agreement than to just chop off the gangrenous tentacle holding them to the EU and bandage the wound once they’ve escaped.

          3. Charlie Suet

            I think that’s the only way we can Brexit, to be honest (though what do I know?). If we even got a hard Brexit through the short term consequences could lead to Corbyn, and that would be a real disaster. I really don’t see how Rees-Mogg et al can think they’d win an election under such conditions.

            It’s a thoroughly miserable situation. A hard Brexit is a hell of a gamble – given the margins involved it could end with us back in under worse terms. A soft Brexit risks us being a vassal state (though I guess that could be temporary). We can’t stay in (whatever chattering class idiots think) because we’d be permanently trapped.

            The only comfort is that every other country in the EU is in the same boat (it’s maybe worse for the Eurozone, maybe better for those who are newer in). The choices at the moment are: a) Grasp the nettle and take the short term pain; or (b) Stay in until the bitter end.

          4. >>as a former Remain voter

            I’m obviously not a Brit but why?

    2. >>The UK will still be bound by any future changes to EU law in which it will have no say, not to mention having to comply with current law.

      So by Brexit we mean vassal state.

      1. R C Dean

        Its a hollow threat. The EU can’t afford to cut off trade with Britain. Call their bluff, you pussies.

  62. The Late P Brooks

    Palace coup?

    The activity under investigation involves alleged under-reporting of income in securities filings and personal use of company assets and expenses. Ghosn and Kelly haven’t had a chance to comment yet.

    ———–

    After grudgingly admitting some good came from Ghosn’s early years with Nissan, in recent years he’d been having a negative impact on the day-to-day operations of the company, Saikawa said. Given an opportunity to make a compliment when asked whether Ghosn was a “tyrant” or a “charismatic leader,” he demurred.

    Saikawa denied that the revelation of the conduct by an internal whistleblower was a “coup d’etat,” but that he had to do so is a clue to how much it looks like one. In this extraordinary performance, the tensions bubbling under the surface of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance in recent years have finally burst to the surface in brutal fashion.

    Curiouser and curiouser.

    I wonder if that little thing about “securities filings” has to do with valuation of stock options.

    1. Just rebrand as Datsun again.

      1. Tundra

        And bring back the 280Z.

        Nissans are a mixed bag. I don’t care for their scary CVTs, but I rented a Frontier recently that was quite nice.

        1. kinnath

          I am perfectly happy with my 12 yo 350Z. And the newer 370Z is an attractive car as well.

      2. commodious spittoon

        Datsun is dead to the family since Harvard rejected him.

  63. The Late P Brooks

    Apple, in particular, is short of having the kind of dominant market share that raises any kind of anti-trust concerns. Apple has just under 40% of US market share for phones (I think). The FTC has zero interest in anyone with less than 40% of market share, absent some violation of other anti-trust law like collusion, etc. You generally need north of 50% for the FTC to show interest based on market share alone.

    I think the object6ion to Apple is their vertical integration. But- if you don’t want a computer you can’t tinker with, don’t buy an Apple. How fucking hard is that?

    1. R C Dean

      I am not an antitrust specialist, so things may have changed, but traditionally vertical integration wasn’t a problem. Horizontal integration was.

    2. Pope Jimbo

      Meh, Apple is on a gradual decline. Without Jobs to sprinkle his faerie dust around to convince all the fan bois that trivial new features are revolutionary and that there is a valid reason why you should pay more for a different colored case Apple is going to gradually lose the hipster crowd.

      I was looking hard at a Macbook pro last time I was buying a computer. I passed because they decided that soldering in hard drives and memory sticks to prevent cheap DIY upgrades was the way to maximize revenue. Even having OSX be based on BSD isn’t the differentiator it used to be. I can get unix-like OS on windows now by using VirtualBox.

      I keep getting closer and closer to fully ditching Windows too. I probably use my Mint workstation as much at home as anything else.

      1. Tundra

        I have a four year old MacBook Air. I like that it’s light and compact, since I carry it everywhere. I keep almost nothing resident on the drive, my work stuff is all in the cloud and the damn thing just works. When it stops working I’ll throw it away and get something else.

        Like Brooksie says, just buy what works.

        No fucking iPhone, though. The goddamn batteries stop working in the cold.

        1. I went jogging in 28 degree weather. Two miles in I pulled out iphone to check for a message, battery showed waay lower than when I started and then clonked out right there. Phone was in breast (oh yeah!) pocket.

        2. Pope Jimbo

          That is why I wanted a macbook again. My old one ran for years and years. And like you said, it just worked.

      2. wdalasio

        Agreed. Apple’s business model has always been the “walled garden”. It’s a great business model if you can convince people that inside the wall is so much better than outside that they’ll pay your premiums. That increasingly hasn’t been the case for a long time. Right now, the only thing they have going for them is switching costs.

      3. Pat

        I keep getting closer and closer to fully ditching Windows too. I probably use my Mint workstation as much at home as anything else.

        I keep a Windows install for gaming, but my daily OS has been a linux distro for probably 8 years (and a secondary OS since 2005 or so). With things moving more and more into the cloud and mobile arenas there’s less and less reason to use Windows anymore. It’s a whole lot different than it was when I first started dabbling with linux and everyone was vendor locked to MS Office and device drivers were unavailable.

        1. Pope Jimbo

          MS-SQL is still the number one reason I can’t completely dump Windows (or at least a VM of Windows). I have some old stuff out there that I still support and I need to use the tools to manage them.

          I’ve goofed around with a few linux tools that claim that they can work with MS-SQL, but none of them really worked.

        2. The world would stop turning on its axis if I were to switch to Linux. The sun would stop shining and gravity would cease to exist.

          There are still intranet sites that are IE only on our network. We use SharePoint extensively (to my chagrin), and much of our day to day work is transacted via Outlook and Skype for business. Any hiccup in the MS workflow, and people start flipping out.

          I’d love to go to a linux/openoffice/slack model, but it ain’t gonna happen.

      4. Mojeaux

        I needed a Mac for my work, but very rarely. My husband built me a Hackintosh. Then a client gave me his old MacBook Air to do something for him that could only be done on a Mac, so I have a very old one. My husband had to jump through a lot of hoops to get everything so I could actually use it as myself.

        I wouldn’t have one. I have too many clients who can’t self-publish digitally because their version of Word does weird stuff. Of course, that is good for my bottom line, but still.

        1. Mojeaux

          I wouldn’t buy* one.

      5. Juvenile Bluster

        The iPhone has actually done better, features-wise, in the past couple of years. It went from lagging behind Android flagship phones to innovating ahead of them.

        The MacBook, however, has seen a decline. Been using them for a decade and a half, but my next laptop (probably around this time next year) will be a PC.

      6. CampingInYourPark

        I have not yet had something not work like it was supposed to on my Iphone X and I can’t say the same for my Galaxy S8.

        If the salesman hadn’t demonstrated the Airpods I would have never bought one. It’s a pretty trivial thing, but then again, so is a TV remote.

        1. If the salesman hadn’t demonstrated the Airpods I would have never bought one. It’s a pretty trivial thing, but then again, so is a TV remote.

          Both are very easy to lose.

          My work iPhone is a source of frustration, and an inability to get it to work the way I want it to.

          1. Sure, it might work the way Apple wants it to, but that is unsuited to my usage patterns.

          2. CampingInYourPark

            The Airpod charging case is indeed a pretty stupid design and easy to lose. At least put a damn hook on it somewhere to tether it to a key ring or a belt loop.

          3. “I didn’t find your airpods, but I think this is the remote for, like, four TVs ago.”

  64. The Late P Brooks

    traditionally vertical integration wasn’t a problem.

    I don’t think it is, at the DoJ. People like Robert Reich are perturbed by it, for some reason. You know, the same sort of people who despise monopolism economically, while desperately yearning for a monopoly on political power, controlled by them.

  65. The Late P Brooks

    And bring back the 280Z.

    Bah. 240Z ot GTFO.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Humbug. 239.5Z was the best.

    2. The ’81 280ZX I test drove was about as exciting as watching paint dry. It certainly lost that sports car feel and was more of a tourer. Of course in general 1981 was not a good year for performance cars.

      1. non-turbo one that is.

    3. Chipwooder

      First generation RX-7 > any Z

      1. Tundra

        Well, of course.

        *misses 1984 GLS-SE*

        1. Tundra

          GSL.

    4. Bobarian LMD

      I had a ’73 570Z. (A 350 chevy actually fit better than the original I6)

      It was glorious to drive, but was impossible to keep running properly.

  66. Count Potato

    “The picture Avenatti claims proves he did not strike Ocean’s 8 actress: Stormy Daniels’ lawyer reveals deleted Instagram post taken hours after alleged assault with no sign of bruises or swelling after she files restraining order against him”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6408371/Actress-accused-Stormy-Daniels-lawyer-domestic-violence-files-restraining-order.html

    1. I don’t know these apps, but is there anything stopping someone from uploading an existing image to instagram?

      1. DOOMco

        No. It’s possible she posted a photo from a decade ago.

    2. commodious spittoon

      But a woman wouldn’t lie about being hit, any more than she’d lie about being raped witnessing a rape seeing men lined up to run a rape train on a drugged woman seeing a man drugging the rape bowl seeing a man standing near the rape bowl.

      1. Bobarian LMD

        I had a big bowl of rape nuts cereal this morning

    3. Juvenile Bluster

      Video of Avenatti’s denial

      Your honor, my client saw Mr. Avenatti in a group of men at a hitting women party in the 1980s.

  67. wdalasio

    A bit OT this will probably get Crenshaw labeled a Trump stooge. But, it seems to me he’s only arguing for non-insane language.

    1. Tundra

      Yeah, he’s not getting invited back.

      Well played, though. Calmly ask for specifics. It’s proggie kryptonite.

    2. Luther Baldwin

      At this point my dog could probably outwit a roomful of Democrats.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        This. They’ve been working within a set of assumptions for so long, that when they are directly and specifically challenged they don’t know how to respond.

      2. grrizzly

        I thought you had cats.

        1. Rebel Scum

          Well my cats could certainly outwit Democrats.

        2. Luther Baldwin

          That’s the funny part!

    3. Raston Bot

      i’m surprised that segment was aired.

  68. Raston Bot

    https://hienalouca.com/2018/11/20/pictured-gunman-32-who-shot-dead-his-er-doctor-ex-fiancee/

    further down in this article there’s a picture of one cop’s OWB holster and firearm with the shooter’s bullet lodged in it.

    sounds like the chubby-chaser snapped when she didn’t give back the ring.

    1. DOOMco

      That’s a crazy shot to end up in the slide of the cops gun.

  69. Just Say’n

    This may be old news, but it’s infuriating.

    https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/when-the-good-guy-with-a-gun-is-a-black-man/

    “When The ‘Good Guy With A Gun’ Is A Black Man”

    FTA:

    “So too is the relative silence of gun rights groups when these situations entail law-abiding black gun owners’ interactions with law enforcement. The most prominent example is Philando Castile, a valid gun permit holder who was slain despite informing police officers he was armed. The National Rifle Association faced questions about its handling of the incident—not least from its own members.”

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      I felt an obligation to support the NRA in the wake of the Parkland murders, but their blatant cop-sucking drives me up the wall.

      1. DOOMco

        Yeah. It’s pretty awful how they can’t seem to get past the blind cop love.

      2. Don Escaped Texas

        I proudly quit NRA over 20 years ago.

        At one point I was considering a life-time membership, but then they started making political friends and forgot to consistently oppose gun control laws.

        1. Just Say’n

          The NRA is a standard Catch-22. It’s the largest, and therefore most influential, gun rights organization in the country. But, they also suck on so many matters (least of which is their willingness to go along with gun control measured pushed by Trump that they would have never accepted under Obama).

          If the NRA were to lose its influence the 2nd Amendment would no doubt be impacted. But, having the NRA as the primary focus of 2nd Amendment activism is counterproductive in a lot of ways.

    2. Raston Bot

      would the NRA have condemned local law enforcement if Philando Castile was just an ordinary white dude named Phil Castle?

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        Probably not. They’re pretty consistent on advocating for the police to have the freedom to murder with impunity.

      2. Just Say’n

        They probably would have still sided with the cops, but I bet they would have at least paused to consider the question. The NRA eventually got around to taking the right position with regards to Castile, but I think race plays a part in this.

        Identity politics is rather dumb, but the actions of the NRA begs the question

  70. The Late P Brooks

    Take that, you troglodytes

    The real hero of the story is probably the Federal Reserve. When the crisis hit, Chairman Ben Bernanke didn’t hesitate. Motivated by his own research on the financial roots of recessions, he abandoned the Fed’s traditional cautious approach. He dropped interest rates to just about zero immediately. He helped save the banking system, using unconventional monetary policy to take huge amounts of toxic mortgage-backed assets off of banks’ balance sheets — assets that eventually turned a profit for the taxpayer.

    But unlike fiscal policy, monetary policy didn’t let up. Despite frantic calls to raise rates to avoid creating inflation or financial instability — neither of which materialized — the Fed stayed the course, keeping rates at zero until late 2015 when it became clear a real recovery was underway. It also engaged in repeated rounds of quantitative easing, again in defiance of the skeptics; some of this probably did have the effect of boosting lending and the real economy.

    So if you want someone to thank for America’s early exit from the economic hole it dug itself into in the 2000s, thank the Fed. Thank Ben Bernanke for swift and decisive action, and thank his successors, Janet Yellen and Jerome Powell, for maintaining a steady course. Without them, the U.S. might still be mired in a lost decade.

    I find this slobbery reverence for the men behind the curtain distasteful, to say the least. I saw something not long ago by Pethokoukis about how wonderful it is that we have masterful Top Men twiddling the knobs and closely monitoring the dials in order to keep the economy humming along smoothly. Those Top Men guiding the economy are geniuses, until they aren’t.

    And, of course, as with any data set, carefully picking your Day Zero can make or break the hypothesis.

    1. Just Say’n

      “So if you want someone to thank for America’s early exit from the economic hole it dug itself into in the 2000s, thank the Fed. Thank Ben Bernanke for swift and decisive action, and thank his successors, Janet Yellen and Jerome Powell, for maintaining a steady course. Without them, the U.S. might still be mired in a lost decade.”

      This is fitting, because it could also be said that if you want to thank someone for the original housing bubble that led to the downturn you should also thank the Fed

    2. Raston Bot

      assets that eventually turned a profit for the taxpayer.

      that absolute bullshit does not pass the basic smell test. you can’t aggregate a bunch of failed mortgages and then claim profit.

  71. DOOMco

    Co-workers are currently saying it’s ridiculously dumb for Trump to blame Cali for it’s lack of Forrest management. Things just get wild. How dare he compare it to Norway, or something.

    I have my head down.

    1. Just Say’n

      https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2017/12/a-century-of-fire-suppression-is-why-california-is-in-flames/

      Check out this right-wing rag, Mother Jones, that said the same thing about CA a year ago. So outrageous.

      1. OneOut

        Cali should be ostracized by all right thinking people for their contributions to carbon emissions.

        Just think how much harder the poor oceans now have to work to hide all that extra heat.