Tonight on The Independents: Cuba Policy Libre, Ron Paul, Geraldo Rivera, Obamas on Race, Heroes of Freedom, and Two Minutes Hate!

The following items shall be broadcast tonight on The Independents (Fox Business Network, 9 p.m. ET, 6 p.m. PT, with repeats three hours later):

* Libertarian he-ro Ron Paul, on President Barack Obama's Orwellian use of the term "memoranda" to disguise executive orders as something more pleasant to the ears.

* Legendary Fox News mustache Geraldo Rivera on the president's historic opening to Cuba.

* The two final Heroes of Freedom before Friday's top-10 countdown.

* Party Panelists Rick Ungar (Forbes columnist) and Guy Benson (Townhall political editor), on Cuba, 2016 politics, the Obamas being racially profiled, and reports that 65 percent of American kids live in households receiving government assistance.

* Two Minutes Hate!

Follow The Independents on Facebook at facebook.com/IndependentsFBN, follow on Twitter @ independentsFBN, hashtag us at #TheIndependents, and click on this page for more video of past segments.

Comments

[RBS]

Sucks for that guy...

[GILMORE]

Ha!

On the upside, he could be getting lots of new business.... albeit in Syria...

[PapayaSF]

65 percent of American kids live in households receiving government assistance

I wonder what percentage of those are recent immigrants (of any legal status).

[Sidd Finch v2.01]

I'm reading the report now (spoiler: boring). Here's two sentences of interest:

A little over one in five
children (17.5 million) lived with at
least one foreign-born parent.

The largest number
of children who lived in households
that received government aid
participated in the National School
Lunch Program (35.0 million), followed
by Medicaid (26.4 million),
SNAP (17.3 million), WIC (6.4 million),
and TANF (2.3 million).

http://www.census.gov/content/.....70-139.pdf

[Sidd Finch v2.01]

This has gone from tl;dr boring to hilariously boring. There's a section titled "Elementary and high schoolaged
children living with married
parents were more likely to have
television rules than children living
with single parents."

Thanks, Census, had no clue.

[BardMetal]

But but Reason keeps telling me that immigrants don't get welfare.

[Sidd Finch v2.01]

There's a couple pages on "CHILD WELL-BEING FOR CHILDREN LIVING WITH FOREIGN-BORN PARENTS" but it's all boring stuff like

"Children with a foreign-born parent
were less likely to have ever been in
nonrelative child care."

Fin.

[RBS]

A different take on that cop t-shirt from earlier.

[BardMetal]

Wow a bunch of comments basically saying that it's ok for cops to kill someone who doesn't immediately obey them.

I just don't understand this attitude.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

The gist of that t-shirt...

"Obey Us or Die"

Which is what should go on the cop car fender, rather than "To Protect and Serve".

[trshmnster the terrible]

What's up with the eye?

He's a goa'uld!

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

I got 100 quatloos on GILMORE in the 2 Minutes H8!

[GILMORE]

I'm caught completely off guard... since the last hate, i havent' hated at all!? My hate output has plummeted.

i thought they'd gone to an 'every other month' thing. Damn you, Bernie, and your unpredictable ways

[AlmightyJB]

Yawn. That show's still on?

[Shirley Knott]

So Barack and Michelle "have been treated like help"?
Are they not aware of the phrase 'public servant'? Did they not choose that life?

Or is it more 'memoranda' to make the concept of 'public masters' more palatable?

barf.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I haven't hated since the last Hate (WHERE I HAD THREE HATES READ).

[Dr. Fronkensteen]

Have you tried to hate?

[Buddy Bizarre]

Braggart.

[BilboTeabaggins]

Fed keeping them rates low, less inflationary pressure on the dollar and the market is up. Pretty good day.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Bernie Maxsmith: If you're going to attempt to grow a beard, you should actually grow one.

You appear to have dirt on your upper lip.

Maybe some testosterone treatments would fix that for you.

/Don't hate the hater; hate the game

[GILMORE]

YOU CANT HATE THE GAME

THE GAME *IS* HATE

[SusanM]

Fun Facts about executive orders:

Gerald R. Ford 169

Jimmy Carter 320

Ronald Reagan 381

George Bush 166

William J. Clinton 364

George W. Bush 291

Barack Obama 193 (as of Nov. 20th)

Full list here of "official" orders and not memoranda and proclamations.

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu.....#orderlist

[JeremyR]

That's because Obama uses memoranda instead

http://www.usatoday.com/story/...../20191805/

[JeremyR]

WASHINGTON ? President Obama has issued a form of executive action known as the presidential memorandum more often than any other president in history ? using it to take unilateral action even as he has signed fewer executive orders.

When these two forms of directives are taken together, Obama is on track to take more high-level executive actions than any president since Harry Truman battled the "Do Nothing Congress" almost seven decades ago, according to a USA TODAY review of presidential documents.

[SusanM]

198 presidential memoranda ? all of which carry the same legal force as executive orders

Still, not the numbers you'd expect from a kenyanmuslimalinskytitestalinstislamofascist dictator. Executive orders, memoranda, signing statements have been around (and been abused) since Washington. I don't care for Obama anymore than anyone else around here but hyping this up as something unique to him doesn't help. The problem won't just go away once he's out of office.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Don't sell him short, he's still got two years to work at it.

[SusanM]

Nah, I don't see him getting fundamentally worse. If after all this time he really is this 12th level Chessmaster secretly engineering Progtopia from behind the scenes without having been found out by now, we're all so thoroughly screwed that it's not worth worrying about.

[Free Society]

Did you guys hear? Michelle Obama was a victim of vile racism in 2011 when she was treated as 'the help' (her words). While shopping at Target, a person asked her if she could reach something on the shelf for her.

I'd say the state of race relations is pretty good if race baiters like Michelle Obama have to get offended at people for asking for her help.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

All in favor of increasing 'two minutes of hate' to three minutes raise your hand.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Not for nothing, but wookie arms are good for reaching...

[SusanM]

Droids don't pull people's arms outta their sockets when they don't eat their veggies. Wookies are known to do that...

[Mike M.]

Anyone who's stupid enough to seriously believe this bullshit story would believe anything.

[Buddy Bizarre]

Interesting that she reported that interaction a bit differently at the time...

http://dailycaller.com/2014/12.....top-shelf/

[Derpetologist]

Today in my local paper:

I am sick of the opinion that the terrorists are protected by the Geneva Convention. If anyone, including our elected leaders and the news media, would bother to read Chapter 33, Rules 106, 107 and 108 of the Geneva Convention, they would at least have an understanding of just how misinformed they are.

Only a person who represents a country in armed conflict and wears the uniform of that country is protected.

Combatants who wear civilian attire and hide among the civilian population are considered mercenaries or spies and are not afforded these protections.

The fact that people are so quick to voice an opinion based on what they have heard in the news media does not say much for them. They are lemmings that will follow the pack as opposed to researching the subject themselves and finding out the real facts of the matter.

My father always said that opinions were like rear ends, and that everyone had their own and most of them stink. It is a sad statement about our society when people will believe whatever is tossed out for their consumption and not fact check it first.

"Only a person who represents a country in armed conflict and wears the uniform of that country is protected."

I'm pretty sure civilians and others are also protected.

[SusanM]

The Geneva Conventions established new protocols, namely, according to Article 4 of the Third Geneva Convention of 1949, francs-tireurs are entitled to prisoner-of-war status provided that they are commanded by a person responsible for his subordinates, have a fixed distinctive sign recognizable at a distance, carry arms openly, and conduct their operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F.....ner_status

[GILMORE]

"conduct their operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war."

This would sort of undermine Derps proposal that Terrorists are protected by the Geneva convention?

My (long ago) looking into this issue showed that there is little actual application of the Geneva convention to Non-State actors who aren't fighting under the flag of any recognized belligerent; typically, these groups have been involved in domestic insurrections and not international attacks that qualified as 'acts of war'; consequently, there is little in the Geneva framework that applies without necessarily stretching the legal definitions to breaking point. In most historical cases re: terrorists, the law of the territory they were 'captured' in would apply, and they would be treated as criminals.

The more-important issue when you consider matters of 'international law' like this is (translated) = "Who's Gonna Squawk?" -

IOW, what signatory-state is going to issue a complaint on their behalf that the treatment of these individuals is in violation of X portion of the Geneva Convention...?

International Law only 'matters' insofar as there is someone party to the law to cry foul and demand that the UN adjudicate the issue. Lacking that, its sort of a meaningless to even try and claim that it does apply.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Ferris Bueller and Rio Bravo (among others) have enter the Library of Congress registry. Always loved this scene in Rio Bravo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2ssbgThljU

[GILMORE]

That was gayer than a Sunday matinee showing of Brokeback Mountain in the Castro

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Yeah well, I like it.

[GILMORE]

Ricky Nelson does have a cute mouth

[Rufus J. Firefly]

You can't get more libertarian in that song.

[GILMORE]

if they had tried singing about Mexicans and pot, John Wayne would have shot them all dead and burned the house down

[Heroic Mulatto]

That this doesn't yet have 10 million views is a crime.

[GILMORE]

To be fair, its not really that good.

This is good

[Heroic Mulatto]

Not sure if...

[GILMORE]

Paul Anka vs. teenage girls being snarky?
(*and not even particularly sonorous)

PAUL ANKA = instant KO!

Seriously, how could you even doubt it?

[Heroic Mulatto]

Must be like the whole "Elf on a Shelf" thing.

I'll never get it.

[GILMORE]

Get it? Its PAUL ANKA

that voice could lubricate F1-engines.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

INDEPENDENTS, BRING THE HATE!

[BigT]

I think we have a hate gap. The Russkies are so much more hateful

[Fist of Etiquette]

Prediction: Bump

[BigT]

baby bump?

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Only 54 years. If we just hold on a little longer it'll work.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Welch is basically Castro.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

He should grow a beard.

[BigT]

cuba libre

[Heroic Mulatto]

I could go for one.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Poor Welch, almost choking on his own words in fear of being interrupted.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

I just want cigars.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Cuba is a grimy 3rd world country just 50 miles from the US. The policy does seem to work somewhat.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Castro STOLE their lands asshole.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Not buying the embargo as a zero-sum reason for Cuba's shittiness, pals.

Know why? Cuba trades with Canada and the EU.

The problem lies elsewhere.

I'll let you guess.

[Heroic Mulatto]

The male population is too busy banging their incredibly hot women to contribute to overall economic growth?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I don't know if she's ridiculously hot but point taken.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Watch how she moves and do the math.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

The movement is hornilicious.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Christ, Kennedy, shut the fuck up!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Get her a gag ball!

[shortviking]

terrifying harpy

[Rufus J. Firefly]

The GOP should have a sock puppet and ventriloquist as a candidate.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Giant Douche

[Francisco d'Anconia]

I think Hillary was a lock in 08, no?

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Turd Sandwich

[shortviking]

So much so that Hannity kept stroking Giuliani with the belief that only he could beat her.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Reason orange.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Time for me to provide disturbing mental images.

Hilary.

Dildo.

Alone.

[BigT]

Santorum

Warren

Debate

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Well, it would be epic.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I can't wait to find out how Geraldo feels about this so I can feel the opposite.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Geraldo, 1899 called. They want their mustache back.

[Fist of Etiquette]

"Geraldo, your self importance has the momentum of a runaway train..."

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

I can think of no better reason to support the embargo, than the fact that Geraldo Revolver is against it.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Being contrarian for its own sake is under rated.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

No, it's not.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

To bust someone's balls?

I beg to differ.

[Heroic Mulatto]

He's just thinking Capone's real vault is located in some basement in Havana.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Did Geraldo just pull out that lameass 'Cubans are better educated and have great health care' bull shit?

Please hold me back.

HOLD. ME. BACK.

[Sevo]

"Did Geraldo just pull out that lameass 'Cubans are better educated and have great health care' bull shit?"

So, he wants to end the embargo because the US can learn from Cuba?
Hmm, why didn't I think of that?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Which Cap?

[GILMORE]

The Independents Attire Review, 17 December 2014

I Spit on Your Grave-Edition

- Kennedy: "The Flying Nun" - We last saw this in October; it seems to hail from Kennedy's 'retro-collection' = a variety of late-50s-early-1960s styles that range from "Schoolmarm" to "Louche Housewife". This one produces a cuter 'Gidgety' (new adjective?) effect, hence the reference to the old "only watch if on LSD"-TV-Show

- Matt: New Light Grey Suit; light blue tie. We were shocked when the new suit first appeared. Our ecstatic impression has since mellowed. Its not a bad tie, but for the love of Flying Nuns, Matt = tighten that bitch up. We're reserving further judgement on this suit until we see its best and worst presentations.

- Kmele: After the 1-2 punches of Monday/Tuesday, we're happy to see Kmele pause in his style-assault, and fall back on the v-neck sweater. He seems to be the only seasonally-conscious member of The Independents.

The Winner is.... Geraldo. Because he wears a pink shirt well

Kamsahamnida

[Rufus J. Firefly]

'The Republic' didn't strike me as 'freedom loving'.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

One version is that it was basically satire - a sort of *Modest Proposal.*

I don't know if that's true, by the way.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Never heard that.

Anything's possible with those marble heads I guess.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

PREDICTION: WAYNE GRETZKY MAKES THE TOP 10.

[BigT]

Curt Flood maybe

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Prediction: Purple Aura

[Fist of Etiquette]

North Pole is a par 3.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Or...we could see a *real* rapping Santa Claus:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kRAKXFrYQ4

[GILMORE]

There is only one good Christmas rap

[Trouser-Pod]

Gilmore speaks Truth.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Before I clicked, I knew what it was.

[Trouser-Pod]

Yep...Well, I was pretty sure

[Francisco d'Anconia]

And a current bitch!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

PREDICTION: HILARY WILL BECOME A DILDO REP.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Of course, she's using a walker!

[Francisco d'Anconia]

I agree. People HATE Hillary.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

ARGGHHH! The Independents failed to give a trigger warning!!!

'BROWN SUGAR' is offensive to Latinos!!!!

[GILMORE]

But its about eating a black girls pussy?

what do latinos have to do with it?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

The word BROWN is racist, Gilmore.

Where have you been?

[BigT]

Have you spoken to Jim Brown? He might not like that

[Rufus J. Firefly]

It's not his place anymore to say.

/Marcotte.

[shortviking]

Megatron fought his way out of gladiator fights put on for the amusement of the oligarchy. True story.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Doesn't he play for the Lions, now?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Subconsciously racial profiling Kmele.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Of course he's mistaken for a valet - he's carrying so much baggage!

[Fist of Etiquette]

So has Welch, when he wears that red tie and vest combo.

[Fist of Etiquette]

"One time I lost the white male vote and independents, and I knew racism still existed in America."

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

I had someone leave a $1 bill in my waistband

Of course, a waistband was all she had on at the time.

[GILMORE]

Rick Ungar and Guy Benson are really not a good 'matching pair'.

One looks retired, and the other looks like an intern.

[Trouser-Pod]

Gilmore! So damn trenchant with your insights...

[BigT]

GILMORE is the master of appearances. He sees beyond the mere physical presence to find the persona.

[Trouser-Pod]

Shit! I wasn't spelling it with all caps...

/What have I done?!?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Kennedy was ready to transition, and Benson took the reins.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Kennedy is always in transition.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Ron Paul gives me the feeling he's one interview away from yelling 'get off my lawn you pesky kids!'

[GILMORE]

I think that was 3 or 4 interviews ago.

[Trouser-Pod]

Can YOU print only stamps???

[Fist of Etiquette]

The aura is gone.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

You're not drinking enough

[Fist of Etiquette]

Ron Paul set his equalizer all wrong.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

His aura is dimmer than normal...

Why don't they let him into the studio?

[shortviking]

Unsupervised?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Ron Paul appealing to the law?

[BigT]

"we should be friends with those who want honest friendship"

So, not Iran, NoKo, China, Venezuala, Cuba, and all the -Stans

[shortviking]

And not really Mexico either if we want to be honest about it

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Cuba is back on the list? Already?

[PapayaSF]

Hillary's 1993 Spy magazine cover.

[GILMORE]

why.... why..... why did i see that...

[Buddy Bizarre]

Bernie's rocking the old school pastel phone & tube pc monitor!

[Fist of Etiquette]

That doesn't sound like me.

[GILMORE]

I didn't catch it, but it sounded really intellectual.

So, yeah, nothing like you.

[Fist of Etiquette]

It was weirdly worded, so definitely mine.

[GILMORE]

"How's come Keepin' It Kmele gets twice as much time as Where It's Matt? The soft racism of inequity in air time."

well done.

though i have no idea how you tracked that particular disparity

[Heroic Mulatto]

He only faps during Where It's Matt.

[GILMORE]

"pound sign"?

Someone isn't hip to the twitters.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Don't rile the cat ladies.

[BigT]

The hateful lineup:

TIOJEFFIEESQ, Fist, @GELF_SARA, @PATDoLLARD, Penelope, ??, @PAULNH67, Marco

The commentariat is severely disrespected

[Fist of Etiquette]

I represent.

[Fist of Etiquette]

AH! Lou Dobbs.

[GILMORE]

Pat Dollard

"On April 2, 2014, after a shooting at Fort Hood, Dollard caused controversy by tweeting:

If there is even one more act of Muslim terrorism, it is then time for Americans to start slaughtering Muslims in the streets, all of them."[5]
"

[Heroic Mulatto]

Were they inferring that Bernie is a M.O.T.?

Get out of town!

[Trouser-Pod]

You know it!

[Fist of Etiquette]

I guess the other Reason message comment was mine, as well. Have I surpassed Gilmore in the area of hate?

[GILMORE]

I was @ 8 when i stopped counting. that was over the summer.

you can find all (or most?) of the Hate-sessions archived at Heaton's website.

I'm focusing on quality from here on out.

[Derpetologist]

I've gotten 6 mentions, thus making me a snark ace.

[GILMORE]

braaaaaaaaaaaaaainnnnnnssssss DOBBS

[Derpetologist]

OT:

I saw a fascinating documentary the other day about a place where everyone got free food, housing, and medical care. I think it was called "prison".

[GILMORE]

nice.

one of the many steps on the path to libertarianism was when i realized that for something to become "free" meant for the government to Control it. And that they did not stop at controlling 'things', and eventually controlled people, and the things they think and say.

They call this, 'Safe Spaces' now.