10k Troops Will Stay in Afghanistan After Official Pullout, White House Supports Hong Kong Protests, Judge Says Detroit Water Shutoffs to Continue: P.M. Links

• 

  cizauskas-CC-BY-NC-SA

  Nearly 10,000 American troops will remain in Afghanistan after 2014, promises the country's newly elected president Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai. The U.S. will also likely keep its secret prisoners when the war "ends."

• State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki says that when President Barack Obama said his administration "underestimated" the threat of ISIS he didn't really mean it. We've "long been tracking this," she insists. So, we knew what was happening and just dropped the ball?
• Grab your popcorn: The White House gave a thumbs up to the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, which are still growing in spite of tear gas and officials' demands.
• The bankruptcy judge overseeing Detroit's woes said that shutting off water to non-paying customers can continue, because he has no jurisdiction to act otherwise.
• Elizabeth Warren wants a congressional investigation of the New York Federal Reserve after recently secret recordings suggest some foul play by the financial authority.
• American consumer spending rose 0.5 percent last month. The housing sector remained an exception, and not in a good way. 
• Top Obama adviser Valarie Jarrett apparently isn't busy. She made her debut on a television drama this weekend, and it was pretty ugly.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Top Obama adviser Valarie Jarrett apparently isn't busy. She made her debut on a television drama this weekend, and it was pretty ugly.

It would almost have to be.

[Ted S.]

I would have guessed the show about the lady Secretary of State, not The Good Wife.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

I would have guessed any media involving actually looking at Jarrett would, by definition, be 'ugly'.

The 'pretty' adjective is the part I have trouble with.

Absolutely? Shockingly? Jarringly?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

To the left, this is the most successful society in world history.

http://www.theguardian.com/pol.....eignpolicy

An oldie but a goodie.

[Cytotoxic]

Sweden's been leaving socialism since it exploded in 1990 at a gradual but inexorable clip. She's in denial to protect her heart from breakage.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The bankruptcy judge overseeing Detroit's woes said that shutting off water to non-paying customers can continue, because he has no jurisdiction to act otherwise.

The city can avoid creditors. Its citizens? Not so much.

[db]

Maybe they can sell the extra water to California.

[C. Anacreon]

Good idea. A Lake Erie to Sacramento pipeline would probably save both Detroit and California.

[rts]

Higher debt with lower growth a 'poisonous combination,' Geneva Report says

The 16th annual Geneva Report, an influential paper published by a panel of economists including three former central bankers, said Monday that interest rates will have to stay low for a "very, very long" time to let people, companies and governments pay down their ballooning debt loads, or the world could be thrown into another financial crisis.

TOP. MEN.

[Brett L]

"Systemic default would threaten our investments, so, fuck you middle class."

[Cytotoxic]

Low interest rates always motivate people to pay off debts. Of course.

[Sevo]

Lefty 'business columnist' (who seems not to care too much about profits) questions Elison's choice of replacement:

"Is Mark Hurd fit to lead Oracle?"
[?]
"Since Hurd joined Oracle, the company's stock has risen about 75 percent, but "I don't know if I want to give him that much credit," Kreher said.
[?]
The deeper question, however, is not necessarily whether Hurd is qualified to be Oracle CEO, but rather if he deserves to be."
http://www.sfgate.com/business.....hc-bustech
Uh, the real question is whether Lee is qualified to write a police blotter.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

The real question is: Define Hurd's assholishness as a percentage of Ellison's personality. Is it high enough to run Oracle?

[Sevo]

Might be equal to Jobsian; not quite Ellisonian, but close.

[C. Anacreon]

More importantly, is he good enough to sail in the America's Cup?

[Sevo]

C. Anacreon|9.29.14 @ 5:12PM|#
"More importantly, is he good enough to sail in the America's Cup?"

Ha! The real test is whether he can dazzle the SF mayor into footing the bill for his rubber-ducky race.

[Fist of Etiquette]

We've "long been tracking this," she insists. So, we knew what was happening and just dropped the ball?

STOP PAYING ATTENTION TO OUR WORDS.

[Fist of Etiquette]

And, come to think of it, our deeds.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

Or lack of deeds

[Pro Libertate]

Wait, what was that JV thing about? Does it stand for Juggy Vamp or something else?

[ant1sthenes]

He meant to say they were jaycees. Like, they're performing community service (volunteer military and sharia law enforcement work, wealth redistribution, etc) as training for taking on leadership roles.

[Hyperion]

I bet he's still counting those big ol sacks full of dollars. Probably papered his bathroom with 100 dollar bills and having custom cigars wrapped in them made.

[Hyperion]

Geez, that reply was to FOE post below about Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai.

[Fist of Etiquette]

APPARENTLY NOT.

[Hyperion]

Can you trade both of your first post links privileges for an edit feature?

[Fist of Etiquette]

NEVER. Stand by your words.

[Hyperion]

See, you don't love us, you greedy Koch Brother controlled fucker!

[Andrew S.]

Also sounds like Dunphy in that "Shoot him in the penis" thread. He still doesn't like that we bring up his own words.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

In their defense, it's been SOP since when the CIA didn't predict the collapse of the USSR.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Nearly 10,000 American troops will remain in Afghanistan after 2014, promises the country's newly elected president Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai.

How do you think he got the job?

[Sevo]

Did you get your 'thank you' note for paying for them? Mine seems to have gotten lost.

[Rich]

The U.S. will also likely keep its secret prisoners when the war "ends."

Shut up!

[Fist of Etiquette]

The White House gave a thumbs up to the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong...

Jesus. Does this mean those Hong Kong protesters are going to turn out to be Al Qaeda?

[John Titor (Formerly Jensen)]

Wait til they arm the protesters with Stinger missiles.

[Pro Libertate]

Good luck to those protestors. China isn't known for its restraint.

[Hyperion]

Yeah, tanks will probably be rolling over them soon enough. Obama will be watching in a fit of jealousy that he can't do that to the teabaggers.

[Brett L]

We know what Tom Friedmen will be fapping to.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Well Krugman should be fapping to the central bankers' comments today. And David Brooks is probably fapping to our further involvement in the Middle East. The NYT editorial page is a fapfest today.

[CatoTheElder]

The Chinese protesters are teabaggers.

They just want to retain their traditional liberties.

[Andrew S.]

Yeah! They might show up to the protests in military gear, pointing military assault rifles at the protesters while firing tear gas! That kind of thing would certainly never happen in this proud nation.

[Pro Libertate]

Well, we don't usually disappear large numbers of people after protests.

[Winston]

You Know Who Else engaged in Moral Equivalence the US and Communist Countries?

[Pro Libertate]

Wait, I know this one! Ho Chi Minh!

[B.P.]

Sting?

[C. Anacreon]

Jane Fonda?

[Almanian!]

Castro?

[A Frayed Knot]

Wait, I thought Hong Kong was a bastion of freedom. That's what St. Snowden told us!

[Cytotoxic]

No he didn't.

[CatoTheElder]

Hong Kong is different from the mainland with respect to freedoms of assembly, speech and press. This could change, but I doubt it.

[John Titor (Formerly Jensen)]

Camille Paglia: The Modern Campus Cannot Comprehend Evil:

"Too many young middleclass women, raised far from the urban streets, seem to expect adult life to be an extension of their comfortable, overprotected homes. But the world remains a wilderness. The price of women's modern freedoms is personal responsibility for vigilance and self-defense."

I'm not much of a fan of Paglia but she's usually a fun read and a great shit-disturber.

[PBR Streetgang]

Whoa, is she saying having freedom means taking responsibility? My head is spinnin'...

[kinnath]

Amazing article.

[F. Stupidity, Jr.]

Personal responsibility? Why yes, the state is responsible for all its persons.

[PapayaSF]

I'm a big fan of hers. That article is also interesting because of strong challenge to the heart of leftist ideology. She's always considered herself a liberal, so such a strong statement is rather striking.

The basic Leftist premise, descending from Marxism, is that all problems in human life stem from an unjust society and that corrections and fine-tunings of that social mechanism will eventually bring utopia. Progressives have unquestioned faith in the perfectibility of mankind.

The horrors and atrocities of history have been edited out of primary and secondary education except where they can be blamed on racism, sexism, and imperialism ? toxins embedded in oppressive outside structures that must be smashed and remade. But the real problem resides in human nature, which religion as well as great art sees as eternally torn by a war between the forces of darkness and light.

[lap83]

I totally agree with her conclusions, but not the causation.

"Misled by the naive optimism and "You go, girl!" boosterism of their upbringing"

She's grasping at straws here. Also where she mentions "comfortable, overprotective" homes. These are vague, subjective generalities and they don't address the more likely cause, which is apathetic or overly-indulgent parents who didn't make their kids see the consequences of their actions while raising them.

[db]

This Administration is basically begging to be convicted of international rape by jamming the national dick into every bit of crazy the world over. My God they have an opinion and a press release and a walk back and a kinetic action for every Damn thing that happens the.world over, and practically none of.it.is our business at all.

[Rich]

She suggested the president was saying that the U.S. misjudged Iraq's ability to respond to ISIS, rather than the danger posed by the group.

I suggest Jen has no reading comprehension.

[Ted S.]

Do you think Jen or Barack has read about ISIS in the newspaper yet?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Elizabeth Warren wants a congressional investigation of the New York Federal Reserve after recently secret recordings suggest some foul play by the financial authority.

You're not going to be on any ticket in 2016, Liz. Give it up.

[ant1sthenes]

She could have Ron Paul as VP.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

10k Troops Will Stay in Afghanistan After Official Pullout

Next up, shotgun wedding

[Aloysious]

Top Obama adviser Valarie Jarrett apparently isn't busy. She made her debut on a television drama this weekend, and it was pretty buttfucking ugly.

Better.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Valerie probably has a running bet with Michelle over who gets the most cameos.

[CatoTheElder]

She made her debut on a television drama this weekend, and once again demonstrated that politics is show business for ugly people.

[Winston]

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki says that when President Barack Obama said his administration "underestimated" the threat of ISIS he didn't really mean it. We've "long been tracking this," she insists. So, we knew what was happening and just dropped the ball?

So Obama isn't even using real words anymore, color me shocked.

[Aloysious]

Jen contradicted BHO. How long before she's fired?

[Pro Libertate]

Underestimated isn't a word? Since when?

[Winston]

Apparently it means whatever Obama wants it to mean.

[Pro Libertate]

He's using real words. He just doesn't use reality.

[Winston]

I didn't mean to say that "underestimate" is not a real word but that apparently no words he uses have any real meaning.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

He's thinking in terms and modes far beyond your puny capabilities. It's your fault if you don't understand.

[Pro Libertate]

Oh, I buy that. Has any American politician ever seemed more Lord Dorwin-like than Obama?

[CatoTheElder]

Obama's words mean precisely what he intends them to mean; nothing more and nothing less. That is why he is always right and he never lies.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Since it was replaced by misunderestimated.

[Pro Libertate]

I was thinking about that. Both of these guys are Ivy League-educated, which is mildly distressing somehow, given all of the extra credentially good those schools are supposed to offer the world.

[Carl ?s his ? for ?s]

I said this earlier, wrt the Hong Kong protests, but no one was around:

Just FYI, since people in some other threads mentioning the topic have seemed to be confused: (official) goals-wise, Occupy Central has relatively little to do with the vaguely or explicitly socialist Occupiers we've seen in the States and elsewhere. As you can see on OCLP's manifesto (archived, because their site is being hammered), they are narrowly focused on democratic issues.

[Doghouse Riley Jr.]

Georgia woman files bogus $94 million tax return, gets arrested.

Brigitte Jackson's bogus state tax return claimed $99 million in income as the basis for a $94 million refund. Georgia revenue officials arrested her for theft when she tried cash the fake check.

Georgia authorities went to a great deal of trouble to nab a woman who filed a state income tax return for a whopping $94 million.

"It doesn't matter if it's $94 or $94 million," Special Investigations Chief Josh Waites told the station. "We're going to go after you and hold you accountable."

State revenue agents actually cut a check for $94,323,148 and told Brigitte Jackson to come on down to a Cobb County bank inside a supermarket to cash it.

[Doghouse Riley Jr.]

I suspect if you try for $94, you probably have a bigger chance of succeeding.

[Brett L]

Remember, most criminals get caught because they are stupid.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

Remember, most criminals get caught because they are stupid after they're elected.

[Andrew S.]

Remember, most criminals get caught because they are stupid after they're elected when it doesn't matter since they're then above the law.

[F. Stupidity, Jr.]

"It doesn't matter if it's $94 or $94 million," Special Investigations Chief Josh Waites told the station.

ALL SINS ARE THE SAME BEFORE THE LORD THY GOD.

[Cytotoxic]

The product, which has been in an invite-only beta for several months, is meant to be accessible to people just beginning to use Bitcoin....Circle provides a near real-time payments system using Bitcoin. It offers 100% insurance coverage of users' bitcoin account balances from theft through Marsh, a large insurance broker. Since May, when the company announced the insurance, it's been adding underwriters for both online and offline storage.

http://www.paymentssource.com/.....268-1.html

[Cytotoxic]

Something awesome-nay, glorious-happened in Canada today: Google and NetFlix defied the CRTC. Successfully.

http://business.financialpost......ederated=1

Short version: CRTC asks for viewer info, NF refuses, CRTC literally strikes the request from the record to pretend it never happened.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

That's gnarly.

[Coeus]

SJWs and words

Everyone is a little bit racist. We know this because there is a song called "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist" and it is very cute. Also because most people score poorly on implicit association tests, because a lot of white people will get anxious if they see a black man on a deserted street late at night, and because if you prime people with traditionally white versus traditionally black names they will answer questions differently in psychology experiments. It is no shame to be racist as long as you admit that you are racist and you try your best to resist your racism. Everyone knows this.

Donald Sterling is racist. We know this because he made a racist comment in the privacy of his own home. As a result, he was fined $2.5 million, banned for life from an industry he's been in for thirty-five years, banned from ever going to basketball games, forced to sell his property against his will, publicly condmened by everyone from the President of the United States on down, denounced in every media outlet from the national news to the Podunk Herald-Tribune, and got people all over the Internet gloating about how pleased they are that he will die soon. We know he deserved this, because people who argue he didn't deserve this were also fired from their jobs. He deserved it because he was racist. Everyone knows this.

[Coeus]

So.

Everybody is racist.

And racist people deserve to lose everything they have and be hated by everyone.

This seems like it might present a problem. Unless of course you plan to be the person who gets to decide which racists lose everything and get hated by everyone, and which racists are okay for now as long as they never cross you in any way.

Sorry, there's that paranoia again.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I wonder if someone could mix together statements from SJWs and statements from mental patients and see if readers recognize which if which.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

That's probably my lizard-people privilege speaking.

[PapayaSF]

Sometimes they are hard to tell apart.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Moby wants you Save the Humans:

A few years ago, I was talking with Al Gore (yes, I'm name dropping). I asked him a very simple and pointed question: "Animal agriculture contributes about 18 percent of the gases that cause climate change. Why didn't you mention this in your book or movie?"

His answer was disconcertingly honest. I'm paraphrasing, but he said: "For most people, the role of animal agriculture in climate change is too inconvenient of a truth."

[Certified Public Asskicker]

I know, that sounds like left wing hyperbole. "It's killing our planet!" But sometimes hyperbole isn't hyperbole. Sometimes hyperbole is just the clear-eyed truth. I'll start with climate change.

The U.N. released a conservative report wherein they stated that animal agriculture causes about 18 percent of current greenhouse gas emissions.

To put it in perspective: animal agriculture is responsible for producing more climate change gases than every car, boat, bus, truck, motorcycle and airplane on the planet. Combined.

Moby makes up 19% of current emissions.

[Pro Libertate]

You know, what if we froze the entire planet until a worthy species comes along?

[Certified Public Asskicker]

A commenter has an even better idea:

you skipped over a few facts, Moby. Our burgeoning population of women producing Trophy Children (who are now more likely to be shot at a gas station buying candy or stealing cigars) is what creates the Demand for all these grubby icky animal products.

[MJGreen]

In other words, living creatures output more gases than

Moby hates animals. He'd rather kill animals than give up his cars, boat and airplane.

But here's a painfully simple idea: stop feeding human food to livestock.

What a sick fuck!

[MJGreen]

Whoa, I didn't finish that first line. Give me an edit button. But whatever, y'know what I mean.

[Coeus]

Guess why she doesn't like the consent app...Go ahead, guess.

From the hess article:

In fact, Good2Go could contribute a dangerous new element to those he-said she-said rape cases. What Good2Go doesn't tell users is that it keeps a private record of every "I'm Good2Go" agreement logged in its system, tied to both users' personal phone numbers and Good2Go accounts. (Records of interactions where users say "No" or just want to talk are not logged in this way.) Allman says that regular users aren't permitted access to those records, but a government official with a subpoena could. "It wouldn't be released except under legal circumstances," Allman told me. "But it does create a data point that there was an occasion where one party asked the other for affirmative consent, that could be useful in the future ? there are cases, of course, as we know, where the accused is an innocent party, so in that case, it could be beneficial to him."

[Coeus]

Amanduh's response:

So, in other words, if you're a rapist, all you need to do is convince your victim that you're having a legitimate hook-up. Get her to log in her "consent" on this app. Once the record of her saying she wants sex is created, you then rape her, by say, forcing her to do a bunch of stuff she didn't want to do. If she says no, who cares? You created a record of her saying yes. It's basically a way for rapists to give themselves blanket permission to rape someone by creating a point in time she said "yes", and then saying everything that happened after that was covered by it. Sure, the app says that you can withdraw consent at any time, but if you're going to court with this and she says, "Well, yes, I said yes to sex on the app, but I didn't think he meant he would hold me down and anally rape me," odds are that little disclaimer will not offer much protection to the victim. It's already hard enough for victims of rape who were tricked into thinking they were on a real date only to have rape sprung on them to convince juries they weren't consenting. This would make it a nightmare.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Just have a feature on the app where each party checks off what they want done to them. If they have injuries elsewhere on their bodies other than where they wanted stuff done to them, it's rape.

Do I have to think of *everything*?

[Certified Public Asskicker]

The premium version of the app (for $4.99) will have someone watch and listen to your sex on video to ensure consent is never voided.

[trshmnster the terrible]

Not good enough for the SJWs. In order for the app to meet their seal of approval, all consenting parties must be issued breathalyzers to be worn at all times during sex. Further, the consent expires every 3 seconds (that's just the maximum, the girl can adjust it down to 15 milliseconds), so both parties have to click the consent button every time it expires. Beyond that, and shift in weight (as detected by the phone gyro) must be preceeded by a new consent decree that highlights the change in sexual activity. If the consent isn't received from both parties prior to the change, the app phones school police.

That is only to meet their minimum standards. There are plenty of holes still left to fill.

[C. Anacreon]

Or, of course, you ladies can avoid the whole process by giving up sex with men completely and only having sex with other women.

Somehow I have this gnawing feeling that the feminists don't have nearly the concerns over consent if it's lesbian sex we're talking about. Some actually believe that all sex with men is rape, so perhaps that's the ultimate goal.

[Coeus]

Somehow I have this gnawing feeling that the feminists don't have nearly the concerns over consent if it's lesbian sex we're talking about.

yupp.

Kelsey Henry '15 dis?cussed queer vis?i?bil?ity in "The Vagina Mono?logues." Henry stated that since the per?for?mance only con?tains two mono?logues fea?tur?ing women who have sex with other women, nei?ther of whom iden?tify as les?bians, the show is prob?lem?atic in and of it?self. "The Lit?tle Coochie Snorcher that Could" is fur?ther crit?i?cized for its ap?par?ent con?don?ing of a sex?ual act be?tween an in?tox?i?cated 13-year-old girl and a woman in her twen?ties. Henry stated that the ac?cep?tance of this sex?ual as?sault as a "good rape," as it was called in En?sler's first ver?sion, de?nies the ex?is?tence of sex?ual as?sault in the queer com?mu?nity. Henry also de?con?structed why the focus on the vagina in the con?struc?tion of wom?an?hood was dan?ger?ous and alien?at?ing for the trans-com?mu?nity.

[d3x / dt3]

That last sentence was just ... Wrong.

[Brett L]

I don't understand... is Amanda actually a MRA troll? Who would believe that women are too stupid to use an app?

[Coeus]

is Amanda actually a MRA troll?

If she didn't exist, they'd have to invent her. Something that brings more evidence into the kangaroo courts of college is "dangerous".

[Iucundus (ex Damned Fool)]

You can't be the enlightened vanguard if you think the common people are your intellectual equals.

[PapayaSF]

So, in effect she's saying that no possible form of consent means anything, because someone could always be forced to do more than they consented to?

[MJGreen]

And I'm pretty sure merely "pressuring" your partner to do something else counts as assault, so there really are no boundaries to protect an accused.

"Sure, I let him put his dick in there, but he was really excited about it and made me feel like I couldn't say no."

[PapayaSF]

True. Her complaint amounts to "It's terrible because it won't be perfect." Yeah, well, nothing is.

[trshmnster the terrible]

I really don't know how to respond to this. Typically I can empathise enough to make some witticisms, but this drivel is so off the wall insane (literally, not hyperbolically) that I am speechless.

if you're a rapist, all you need to do is convince your victim that you're having a legitimate hook-up.

So, if you convince your "victim" to consent to sex, it's still non-consenting rape, because you're a rapist, and rapists can't have consensual sex? What sort of bullshit fairy land does she live in where a "legitimate hook-up" is rape? It seems both parties are on the same page.

[Brett L]

There is probably some sociopath, somewhere who gets his jollies by pushing women much further than they consented to. But so what? That's not what this is intended to cure. Its like putting breathalyzers in cars to prevent first degree murder with a vehicle.

[ant1sthenes]

Duh, you just put a button on her wrist which is remotely connected to a cock ring which starts shocking you in the junk once she withdraws consent. No failures in communication, but I guess you have to be careful with those hands.

[Iucundus (ex Damned Fool)]

I wonder if Gandhi thought about Indian independence as much as Marcotte thinks about rape.

[PapayaSF]

It's too bad, because she's obviously pretty smart and good-looking. If she wasn't an insane feminist and dolled herself up a bit, she'd be hot.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

It's too bad, because she's obviously pretty smart and good-looking.

I hope this is sarcasm.

[PapayaSF]

She's about a 6, I'd say. Not bad. And she is pretty smart: it takes a lot of brains to twist reality into a shape acceptable to a modern-day leftist. Just because her politics are idiotic doesn't mean that she is. Politics is the mind-killer.

[Keegan]

" it takes a lot of brains to twist reality into a shape acceptable to a modern-day leftist."

I'd say practice more than brains, it's a simple matter of finding edge cases that support your view and then hammering them.

I had a very annoying friend who developed those traits over time.

[PapayaSF]

Well, it's true that it can be done without brains, but she's clearly more articulate than most, just somewhat deranged.

[Iucundus (ex Damned Fool)]

She's functionally literate and could win a beauty contest against Quasimodo. What more do you want?

[Coeus]

China removes more than 100,000 government officials who do no work.

The punchline is:

They have less than half of the bureaucrats per capita that we do.

[PapayaSF]

LOL

[Carl ?s his ? for ?s]

IDK, I looked at the second one yesterday and it's fishy. For China it's "government and party employees" but for the others it's "civil servants".

Not to mention the SOE issue Tyler mentions.

[Almanian!]

Oh, come on - GO with it!

[Pro Libertate]

Is this like us having more prisoners than China? Because that's such bullshit that I'm amazed anyone even repeats it.

[Jayburd]

The Gov. hates competition from a Genie who lives in a carbon fiber bottle. http://www.fbi.gov/washingtond.....pyware-app

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Nice sentiment, Moby.

/goes back to jacking off on your mom.