What Would King Weiner Do? (Open Thread for The Independents' 7 p.m. Rerun)

Tonight at 7 p.m. ET, 4 p.m. PT, on Fox Business Network, Friday's special "Failed Cities" episode of The Independents will re-run, featuring Peter Suderman, Thaddeus McCotter, Steven Greenhut, John Tillman, Rich Edson, and Rusty Paul talking about places like Detroit, Chicago, Vernon (Ca.), San Bernardino, Stockton, Glendale (Ariz.), and Sandy Springs, Georgia. Consider this your open thread.

Not enough to talk about? How about this clip from our special May 9 "If I Ruled the World" episode, featuring former politician Anthony Weiner ruminating on what he would do if Weiner were king:

More past Independents segments at this link.

Comments

[Jesus H. Christ]

Stop giving King Dickhead (Weiner) any more air time. If you want a mendacious arrogant asshole to flog, choose one that's currently in power, so they may possibly be ridiculed out of office.

[Pathogen]

Carlos Danger is a goddamned comedy mastermind...

[Hyperion]

I'm not really sure how male screeching harpy could have been a worse choice for NYC than the former asshole or current asshole that they have.

It just seems like if you put enough people in the same area together, that the retard virus takes over.

[Cytotoxic]

Maybe that's confusing cause and effect but I don't know.

[Hyperion]

I don't think I'm confused, highly populated areas keep voting the worst corruptocrats into office.

[Cytotoxic]

Yes yes but they may be attracting the retards not generating them.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

"highly populated areas keep voting the worst corruptocrats into office."

Like Singapore?

[Calidissident]

Singapore may in some respects have high levels of economic freedom, but it's still in many ways authoritarian and corrupt.

[NebulousFocus]

I wouldn't call it corrupt, but the massive level of authoritarianism is enough to reject their model.

[Bill]

Don't tell me where I can spit, MF'er!

[Cytotoxic]

OT: Here are a couple interesting articles about Syria.

First, apparently Iran is paying Afghans to fight in Syria. This seems like a desperation move.

http://www.israelnationalnews......3fg8fldX7A

Second, Syria's transformation into 1980s Lebanon is continuing apace as pro-regime militias begin fighting each other. The rebels recently left Homs and the government's "National Defense Force" militia started looting Christian homes, so the Syrian Socialist Nationalist Party fought them. The SSNP is a secular 'loyalist opposition' group with many Christians that has been around in Syria for decades and was even used by Hafez Assad as a proxy in Lebanon. They are trying to carve out their own power-structure in Syria.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Ne.....z31yz48X7F

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"Syrian Socialist Nationalist Part"

At least their name isn't ominous in any way.

[Cytotoxic]

SSNP: A higher grade of evil!

[MJGreen]

At least it's an ethos.

[Drave Robber]

Some people have argued clockwise and counterclockwise swastikas are completely opposite symbols. Maybe Socialist Nationalists are completely opposite to National Socialists, too.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Kirsten Powers wrote this?

Got that? A college educator with the right opinions can attack a high school student and keep her job. A corporate executive with the wrong opinions loses his for making a campaign donation. Something is very wrong here.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

The first comment (heavily upvoted) called her a dumb bimbo and a Fox News fake-liberal that should shut her mouth. Which of course proves her point.

The lack of self-awareness is hilarious.

[Copernicus]

Kirsten is smart, but more importantly has an intellectual honesty. It is no surprise she is evolving away from the liberal dreck and I'm hoping the horrible comments she receives just speeds the process.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

I think she is an example of the difference between believing in an ideology and being beholden to one.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

"The first comment (heavily upvoted) called her a dumb bimbo and a Fox News fake-liberal that should shut her mouth. Which of course proves her point.

The lack of self-awareness is hilarious."

Er, I have been on H&R many times when regulars here have invited non-libertarians who come on here like Tony to kill themselves. I am afraid us libertarian communities have a few motes in our eyes on this. A lot of people just can not stand to hear speech they disagree with. They disinvite people, they 'filter' them, they ask them to kill themselves. Sadly, many libertarians seem to not be immune here.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

Interesting..

Please kill yourself.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Sorry, I am high on life.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

I said please.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

It was pretty civil as invites to suicide go, so I guess that's some improvement.

[Mt low rider]

Uh troll alert with Bo but being stupid is not worthy of death, shuning is not a bad idea when derp is involved.

[Slammer]

A libertarian community? Is that what this is?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Tulpa, by definition, is not part of the community. He is only here for himself.

[poloniusium]

Why don't mary and tulpa host their own reas0n.com, where they can be insane without our oppression and the intolerable moderation?

[PapayaSF]

Not really equivalent. Those comments here are generally directed at annoying, combative trolls. Kirsten Powers, on the other hand, is trying to be fair and even-handed and doing it well. She doesn't deserve to get shit for that.

On a related note, in a Facebook thread on the Eich affair of a while back, I opined that we'd all be better off if political discussions started with: "First, everybody calm down." That statement caused one person to lose their temper and call me names, which proved my point and further deepened my despair at the state of political discourse.

[DesigNate]

Considering the fact that Tony, on more than one occasion over the years, has admitted he would happy line us up and kill us for the simple sin of disagreeing with him, telling him to kill himself isn't that horrible a retort.

And it's not speech we disagree with. Most regulars never agree with a Sudderman post, but I don't think I've ever seen the kind of vitriol and hatred spewed at him that Powers received.

[Hyperion]

There isn't a liberal dark age. They aren't liberals, they're progressives(AKA statist authoritarians), so it's business as usual.

[Slammer]

This was in the comments as well:

"Ayaan Hirsi Ali was denied the honorary degree on account of being a member of the Taliban."

Huh?

[Hydra]

I don't put the commencement speech incidents in with the others, because those events are not supposed to be about free speech for all comers, it's about honoring the speaker and presenting him or her as a role model. I wouldn't be happy about an IMF bureaucrat speaking at my graduation either.

But, otherwise, spot on.

[Mt low rider]

That is your take you fucking moron.

Show up in this iteration around a graduation ceremony and see how that works, it won't end well for you.

That some fantasy that you have about college grads and your progtard bullshit , people are getting smarter about prog bullshit, wont end well for you.

[Mt low rider]

Kirsten Powers is ok in my book, she's not a progtard and once in while kicks dirt in O'Reillys face, whats not to like. As far as statist fucks, she is not on my radar, unlike people like the chubby chaser that is Marcotte I reckon one could have an intelligent conversation with Ms Powers.

I admit it, I like ms Powers.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

MSNBC host helpfully explains what tolerance is

[PapayaSF]

So, tolerance means "Agree with me"?

[Bill]

I need to remember that for future use:

Tolerance is a one-way street.

(I may have modified it slightly)

[Hyperion]

Whenever I think about politics and the intelligence of the average American voter(or any voter around the world), this song keeps popping into my head.

Ship of Fools

[Pathogen]

THE SCIENCE IS SETTLED!!11!!1

[Notorious G.K.C.]

OK, inspired by the Independents, let me take a poll on which article I should troll you with.

Do you want the story about whether there should be trigger warnings on classic literature?

Or the story about the the Romanian bishop, martyred under the Communists, who was just beatified?

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I vote trigger warnings.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

All righty then -

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014.....referrer;=

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Trigger warnings are for wimps, this is how you deal with speech going on at a college that you do not like:

"The author of the thriller "The Exorcist" has new hope he has put the fear of God in Georgetown University.

William Peter Blatty, a Georgetown graduate, submitted to the Vatican last fall a petition with some 2,000 signatures calling for the school to be stripped of the labels Catholic and Jesuit. The petition said neither the faculty nor the student body was sufficiently Catholic, and Blatty complained about "scandals," including that the school had invited then-Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, a supporter of abortion rights, to speak."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....story.html

[Fist of Etiquette]

Missed it again. Maybe I'll shoot for the Sunday night showing.

[Pathogen]

It really ties the room together

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Not for $800 it doesn't.

[Pathogen]

Yeah, the people who sell these rugs, for the princely sum of.. *ahem*.. $800.. they sorta missed the point of "The Dude", didn't they..

[poloniusium]

This item is MADE to ORDER & will be similar but not exact to the one in the photos. Please allow 8 weeks for completion.

[RishJoMo]

Sounds like some pretty serious business dude.

http://www.YourAnon.tk