Gallup: Trump "Not A Serious Candidate" Say 75 Percent of Americans

Trump's campaign is "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing"

Fox

No. Really? Readers can go along with the name recognition poll by Suffolk University/USA Today in which Trump leads the Republican pack. From USA Today:

In the nationwide survey, Trump leads at 17% and former Florida governor Jeb Bush is second at 14%, the only competitors who reach double digits. Trump's edge, which is within the poll's margin of error, is one more sign that his ?harsh rhetoric about immigration and toward his rivals has struck a chord with some voters.

Or you can relax and realize that Gallup is surely right and that most Americans recognize the orange-haired blowhard is nothing more than an reality-TV entertainer and the Republican presidential contest is just his latest effort to up his ratings. Or, as my colleague Jesse Walker suggests, Trump is really just a "bad poet."

From Gallup:

One in four Americans consider Donald Trump a "serious candidate" for president. Americans view Trump's present bid for the Republican nomination no more seriously now than when the real estate mogul and media personality competed for the Reform Party's nomination in 1999.

Gallup

These results come from a Gallup poll conducted July 8-12, roughly a month after Trump joined the 2016 presidential race and instantly made waves in the Republican field.

Trump amounts to no more than, as the bard wrote, "a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

Comments

[SPENCER THE DESTROYER]

I am, however a serious candidate. I'm just not campaigning- and that's a promise!

[Hugh Akston]

I look forward to the first serious candidate from either team entering the race.

[SPENCER THE DESTROYER]

please see my first comment.

[Episiarch]

Serious as in qualified serious, or serious like cancer serious? Seriously, Hugh, you need to be more serious about such serious things.

[Pro Libertate]

No, what we're witnessing, yet again, is Hugh's unclean devotion to Yahoo Serious.

[Episiarch]

Oh god that's too serious.

[Hugh Akston]

I know those words, but that post makes no sense.

[Chippy Chippie ?ang Bang]

Why so spurious?

[Chipper Morning Wood]

However, we do have our first cirrus candidate. Oh, those curly locks, please let them be real.

[Jackand Ace]

But many more Republicans think he is serious. And that's the problem, isn't it?

[Episiarch]

joe finds thinking problematic. That's not surprising.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I would absolutely elect Trump mayor of Lowell, MA.

[Episiarch]

Stop thinking! It's problematic!

[R C Dean]

Well, that's a problem.

Whether its better or worse than problem posed by the majority of Democrats who want Hillary back in the White House, only this time in the Big Chair, I couldn't say.

[Jackand Ace]

Me neither.

[ant1sthenes]

About 60% don't, so according to the rules of Democracy, Republicans don't even consider him a serious candidate. But saying so would spoil the media's plans to try to secure the Hispanic vote for Team Evil.

[Jackand Ace]

That's true. But when 15 candidates split the vote, suddenly he is as serious as the next guy.

[Episiarch]

joe loves talking about horserace politics so much I think he just came in his pants a little. Possibly a lot. And sharted too, but he always does that.

[MarkLastname]

No more so than the number of Democrats lining up behind an avowed socialist who think deodorant causes poverty.

Polls are bullshit anyway. Cooler heads always prevail in elections. Like the Scotland secession vote; nationalists were supposed to just barely edge out the unionists, but out of nowhere the unionists win by a huge margin. I seriously wonder whether the average poll taker's first priority isn't fucking with the poll taker.

[Jackand Ace]

There isn't any comparison between Trump and the Senator from Vermont. None. One is an elected representative, the other is a showman.

[Episiarch]

Do some shots, joe! Chug! Chug! Chug!

JAEGER BOMBS

[Palin's Buttplug]

They're both delusional.

[Jackand Ace]

I'll put it this way...I think Ted Cruz is a blithering idiot, but there is no comparison between him and Trump.

[Episiarch]

That's fascinating, joe. Your trenchant insights into politics are only improved by your intoxication. Hey, want to do some Irish Car Bombs?

[gaoxiaen]

Recipe, please.

[MarkLastname]

Um, doesn't that make the matter worse for Sanders, not better? Aren't elected officials supposed to be held to a higher standard than showmen? So his elected official status should amplify rather than mitigate the humiliation due for his stupidity, right?

It seems more like you're confrontationally agreeing with me than rebuking me.

[Tak Kak]

Being a not serious candidate has to be incredibly liberating.

[GILMORE, Haiku Pornographer]

Poll shows Trump leads Republican candidates

Conclusion = Most Americans Not Serious

This is proven in quotes from people polled

" Buxton McGuckin, 19, of Columbia, S.C., who supports Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, expresses alarm at the potential repercussions of Trump's words. "I know he's a conservative and Republican but I mean ? the (stuff) that comes out of his mouth," the audio engineer says"

I mean, 'Buxton McGuckin'? Please. This isn't a Dr Zeuss story. Also, he's not an "Audio Engineer'. He sells speakers out a truck in parking lot.

[GILMORE, Haiku Pornographer]

Although, I confess. I think the kid's got *potential*.

His Twitter

Buxton McGuckin ?@Buxtonmcguckin May 16

I'm incredibly stinky right now and I look like shit but I don't even care.

Buxton McGuckin ?@Buxtonmcguckin May 13

Cop tail gates me so I slam on the breaks 3 times in under 60 seconds.
Eat shit.

Buxton McGuckin ?@Buxtonmcguckin Mar 9

I talk a lot of shit on the Internet but I've never stooped as low as name dropping.
You all know who you are.

Buxton McGuckin ?@Buxtonmcguckin May 17

Does anybody even follow me?

More than you know, Buxton old lad.

[R C Dean]

I kinda like this Buxton fellow.

[wareagle]

how's he polling among the candidates?

[lap83]

i hate reality tv but i would consider watching it if he starred

[Suthenboy]

He looks exactly like I expected.

[ant1sthenes]

Pluralities don't mean shit in terms of indicating what people want. If 80% of Republicans fall into camp A, and 20 % fall into camp B, and the vast majority of R candidates also fall into camp A, then they'll be splitting vote among themselves, while the one nutbag that appeals to camp B gets to have those votes all to himself*. That's why "pick one candidate out of X" is a terrible voting system when you have more than two candidates. I can understand why Republicans might favor it in the general election (as it basically makes it impossible for a third party to compete with the Big Two), but it's beyond asinine to apply in your own party's primary.

*I'm sure some clever shithead will point out that this probably accounts for some of Ron Paul's success, and they might be right.

[Agammamon]

And Walker's. All three have parts of their campaign that distinguish them from the mainstream.

But the others are basically indistinguishable at this point.

Well, Huckabee has the 'I'm the *Christian* candidate' thing going, but its not helping this time around.

[Robert]

Poll shows Trump leads Republican candidates

Conclusion = Most Americans Not Serious

And why should they be, about an election that doesn't come for 16 mos.?

[MarkLastname]

Maybe they're wising up and realizing that the elections are farces anyway, so it may as well be a entertaining farce?

[GILMORE, Haiku Pornographer]

"And why should they be, about an election that doesn't come for 16 mos.?"

Thank you.

Sort of my point about mocking Ron and the citation of polls as evidence of anything other than 'duh'.

[Robert]

Heh, I just saw a Jonathan Crick episode w a character named Balanitis (though the credits spell it "Bellanitis"). Another character even remarked about the name's unlikelihood.

[Robert]

I meant Creek.

[Homple]

See the article headline. The science is settled. Consensus!

[Jackand Ace]

By the way, if he signifies "nothing," you and Reason sure have been writing an awful lot about nothing lately.

[Episiarch]

Hey, just like you, joe!

[Wizard with a Woodchipper]

you make a good point.

[Jackand Ace]

Methinks Ronald doth protest too much!

[Meriwether3]

Ce ne est pas un commentaire.

[MarkLastname]

Isn't "writing about nothing" basically the definition of journalism? Want substance, read a book.

[gaoxiaen]

Jerry Seinfeld agrees.

[GILMORE, Haiku Pornographer]

I would have thought Ron would have passed on the Trump-Denouncing Struggle Session as being too 'unscientific'

Because, you know, 'polls'.

[Jackand Ace]

And millenials.

[Meriwether3]

"Donald Trump" is really an elaborate piece of performance art by Joaquin Phoenix. We'll all realize it when the Trump releases a Spanish rap album that wins a CMA award and he removes his rubber face, revealing a bespectacled Joaquin sporting an unstylish fu manchu.

[Crusty Juggler]

I re-watched The Master. I enjoyed it a lot, but goodness gracious on a Popsicle stick is it hard to watch because of Phoenix's character; he is so good in that movie.

[Meriwether3]

I haven't seen it! We have little kids, so if it's not produced by Pixar, I probably don't know anything about it. I will look for it. Thanks!

[Crusty Juggler]

It is not a kid's movie, that is for sure.

[Meriwether3]

I'm in luck, The Master is on Netflix. Now all I have to do is wait for my insomniac children to sleep for 120 simultaneous and consecutive minutes.

[Crusty Juggler]

Wargames is also on Netflix - if anyone else was wondering, Ally Sheedy is still supercute, and Dabney Coleman is still crotchety.

[Gojira]

Watched that on the teevee just the other day. Ally Sheedy did NOT age well.

[Crusty Juggler]

Professor Falken would.

[GILMORE, Haiku Pornographer]

+1 WOPR

[Palin's Buttplug]

What about 'Inherent Vice'?

I love PTA films but have yet to see it.

[Meriwether3]

I have it on good authority that Randy Travis and Joaquin Phoenix get drunk together on the weekends and post poetic, anonymous, and surreal comments on the H&R blog posts. Due to special accommodation, they are sometimes allowed to use handles that others have claimed, and sometimes they choose new handles as their mood strikes them.

[brec]

He gets a lot of H&R coverage for a non-serious candidate.

[brec]

...as was noted herein 11 minutes earlier.

[Jackand Ace]

Here is the funny thing... I came here last pres election to learn more about Gary Johnson. Know what I found? They complained much more about Obama AND Romney than they ever talked about the libertarian candidate. I think they like complaining about everyone else. Much easier than actually finding those they like.

[Episiarch]

No you didn't, you eristic moron. You came--as The Derider--to argue horserace politics because you literally have nothing else in your life. As always.

Tell you what, wake us up when you say something that isn't a flat out lie.

[Jackand Ace]

I love how you are obsessed with me and what I say. You do know, I hope, that unless you are responding to me, I never read your comments. Know why? They are inane, like you. But you keep reading mine. You even read this one. Go ahead, respond.

[Warty]

Have you given up on pretending you're not joe, joe? Hurry up and die already, you short divorced Mick loser.

[Jackand Ace]

Say wha'?

[MarkLastname]

I'm confused. I take offense at that, being short! But I enjoyed it too, being of Germanic ancestry and therefore having great contempt for those fucking potato-eating micks.

Btw, pretty sure there is software out there that allows you to 'fingerprint' a person's vocabulary; if you can get a large enough sample (programmatically pulling all their comments maybe) you can get a good indicator whether they are a sock puppet of someone else's. If there isn't, I might try and make a program to do that. Just to confirm that this whole site's comment sections isn't just one person with severe bipolar disorder.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Btw, pretty sure there is software out there that allows you to 'fingerprint' a person's vocabulary; if you can get a large enough sample (programmatically pulling all their comments maybe) you can get a good indicator whether they are a sock puppet of someone else's.

There are many textual analyzers out there. Using them for determining authorship is one of the more popular topics in corpus linguistics and forensic linguistics. A search on Google Scholar will turn up a fair share of papers on the topic, if you're interested.

[Episiarch]

Uh...ok. So wait, you don't read my comments, except for the ones you clearly do read. Like that one. And this one.

Please, please, tell me how a malignant narcissist like yourself doesn't read every comment directed your way or even possibly about you. Come on, I want to watch and laugh. Please.

Go ahead, don't respond. Just like you didn't above. You know you can't (or is it can?) do it, joe!

[Jackand Ace]

Can't read, eh? Like I said, unless you are responding to me, like above. Yeah, if you are obsessed with me enough to respond to my thoughts, and you do every day, I read them Good for a laugh. See if you can find once I ever read any of your stand alone comments. Keep reading. You read this too.

[Heroic Mulatto]

See if you can find once I ever read any of your stand alone comments.

Because people can read minds?

[Gojira]

Only native poor people of mysterious lands, HM. You know this.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I assume you speak of the natives of Infant Island.

Mosura, ya Mosura!
Dongan kasakuyan indoo muu
rosuto uiraadoa, hanba hanbamuyan!
Randa banunradan tounjukanraa
kasaku yaanmu!

[Gojira]

I have that song on my ipod, HM. I'm not joking.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I wouldn't expect anything less.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Oh and this better be on your ipod too.

[Gojira]

Of course it is. I put the whole album on there.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Nice...

[Episiarch]

Yup. I just realized you're drunk. Oh man, it doesn't get any better than this. The angry midget is drinking, goes online to argue horserace, and instead is getting pissed and starts swinging.

You never disappoint, joe. Your behavior is so predictable that they should just write a simple equation for it.

joe x (anything) = short, angry, stupid

[Jackand Ace]

I look forward to your reading of my next comment! See you tomorrow! I know you won't stay away!

[Heroic Mulatto]

I look forward to your reading of my next comment! See you tomorrow! I know you won't stay away!

[Episiarch]

There is nothing better than an idiot posting drunk. Nothing.

So joe, do any of the local bars still let you in them? You know, since you can't go in one without getting into a fight (which you lose horribly, of course).

[DK]

joe x (anything) = short, angry, stupid

Ooh, ooh, pick me, pick me! Let's see 1 equation, 1 unknown. Solving for anything, anything = 1. Am I correct?

[Warty]

You sound drunk, joe. Why don't you go for a nice long relaxing drive?

[Warty]

Hey joe, you sound pretty drunk and belligerent. Wanna fight? I'll buy you a Greyhound ticket and you can punch me in the face. Come on, you know you want to.

[Gojira]

You're so goddamned mean to everybody all the time.

[Gojira]

^that was directed to Epi, not the latest incarnation of you-know-who.

[Crusty Juggler]

Dr Who?

[Pro Libertate]

We don't cotton to such tomfoolery hereabouts. I'm a'thinkin' you're looking for io9, just down the Internet a spell.

[Robert]

How else are they going to slake the thirst for politics the yr. before a presidential election? (The year after there are contests in NYC, NJ, Va.)

[GILMORE, Haiku Pornographer]

That does it, I'm buying a Trump 2016 T-shirt right the fuck now.

because FYTW

[F. Whiny Comments, Jr.]

75% of the country is just saying that because they're Republicans posing as Libertarians.

-BCE

[AlmightyJB]

Surely he can't be serious?

[AlmightyJB]

"a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

So he fits right in then?

[np]

Chevy, Kid Rock in Confederate flag row with civil rights group

In an interview with Fox News' Megyn Kelly, mulleted musician Kid Rock told those protesting the Confederate Battle Flag to "kiss my ass." Now, Chevrolet, which is sponsoring Rock's summer concert tour, is under fire for its support.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Sandblast the Confederate Memorial on Stone Mountain?

http://www.ajc.com/news/news/5.....yea/nmywF/

Now the PC crowd is going too far.

[Episiarch]

That's super interesting, Tulpy-Poo. Thanks for sharing.

[cavalier973]

Lew Rockwell takes it a step further

[Gojira]

I'd love to know what Lew was up to. If only the link worked...

[Heroic Mulatto]

You John Sedgwick-ed the link.

[GILMORE, Haiku Pornographer]

Too far? I guess you support slavery then.

[Irish ?s ESB]

No, no, no. All Bo said was that you like MONUMENTS to slavery.

When he says you like monuments to slavery, in no way is he insinuating you're pro-slavery. Don't put words in his mouth.

[Pro Libertate]

Monuments to slavery, like the Parthenon?

[Irish ?s ESB]

We should destroy monuments every time our ideals evolve. That way, we would never even have to think about the past, we could just live in an Eternal Now without ever having to worry that the Bad Thoughts of past times might intrude upon our modern righteousness.

If we just destroy monuments and buildings every time we decide the people being honored were actually kind of bad by modern standards, every year can be Year Zero.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Sailing the Seas Depends on the Helmsman!

[DK]

After repainting the earth's atmosphere with CO2, we must destroy the earth.

[Migrant Log Chipper]

ISIL FTW.

[GILMORE, Haiku Pornographer]

THE PYRAMIDS MUST COME DOWN

[Heroic Mulatto]

No, this.

[Pro Libertate]

So the Taliban was right to destroy those Buddhas.

[Irish ?s ESB]

I think I speak for everyone when I say the Swiss should bomb the Remembrance Wall, the Brits should tear down all the statues of Cromwell (and Shakespeare - Merchant of Venice is some anti-semitic shit), and don't even get me started on the statue of Vlad the Impaler in Bucharest.

There are Genghis Khan statutes in Mongolia and that guy raped and murdered his way across half the planet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIO_1Ybb3vE

^ LOOK AT THIS MOTHER FUCKING STATUE. LOOK AT IT.

I am so offended. We should bomb that statue into oblivion in remembrance of slaughtered Chinese people.

[Pro Libertate]

Jesus judged a woman once. Gotta go.

[Wasteland Wanderer]

What thread was that in?

[Irish ?s ESB]

AM Links. I'm too lazy to look it up, but I said it's dumb to destroy hundred year old monuments such as those to Confederate soldiers, so Bo responded by saying I "like monuments to slavery" even though I was making a general point about the preservation of historical monuments, like those on Stone Mountain.

I then explicitly said that I have no problem with statues to other causes I don't like (such as the still existing statues of Stalin, John Calvin or Oliver Cromwell) and Bo responded to that by arguing I only oppose the destruction of monuments because I'm 'reflexively opposed to SJWs.'

It was breathtaking.

[Wasteland Wanderer]

It's not quite as bad as when he tried to insinuate that Playa Manhattan was a bad father, but close.

[MarkLastname]

I assumed every one on here was a bad father? Some day I hope to be one too.

[cavalier973]

No like a Rock, then?

[widget]

Ron Unz did a detailed analysis of The Donald's 'Mexican criminals' statements and then took the post down. I wasn't imagining this, was I? He's very meticulous, lots of charts. He might have taken it down for review.

I read this late last night, but the gist of it was that Mexicans are a bit more criminal than Whites (and Asians, of course) but when you account for the demographics of Mexican Americans being younger than White Americans the difference in criminality is too small to measure.

Unz has also debated Bryan Caplan on the immigration topic, so he's not an open borders fanatic.

The Donald really did poison the well against a rational debate about immigration, at least for a while. Thanks, Donald. xoxo, Hillary.

[Irish ?s ESB]

I somewhat agree with Unz, but one place where there is a pretty large gap is in the murder rate. I saw a graph from 538 where they said the white homicide rate is 2.5 per 100,000 and the Hispanic murder rate is 5.2 per 100,000. That's a pretty large gap, but Hispanics are quite a bit younger and also tend to be quite a bit poorer and less educated, so in their case I do think youth and poverty could be the primary cause of that difference.

African Americans have a murder rate of almost 20 per 100,000 though (which is higher than the murder rate in Uganda or Bolivia or Argentina), so in their case I think the primary problem is cultural. After all, black Americans are way richer than Bolivians or Argentinians, yet their murder rate is double what you get in Bolivia. You can't blame that on poverty, but I think the Hispanic murder rate is close enough to the white murder rate that I think being relatively poor compared to whites probably is a major driving factor.

[MarkLastname]

You can't blame that on poverty..."
It's the gunz!!!! Wanna know why Uganda is safer? I mean, have you ever seen a picture of a Ugandan with a gun?

[Chippy Chippie ?ang Bang]

I'm voting for the Battle Standard of the Army of North Virgina for president.

[Dark Lord of the wood chipper]

Someone in an earlier thread suggested that what we need is a real fuck you maverick for president. Here's my idea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miFifM43-r8

[Episiarch]

I have a better choice.

[Heroic Mulatto]

My money's on this kid.

[Episiarch]

Almost correct.

[Dark Lord of the wood chipper]

That kid's too young and Hot Rod is Canadian. I'm starting to think you guys aren't taking this seriously.

[Episiarch]

Fine. Here.

If you complain about that, I will lose all respect for you and punch you.

[Dark Lord of the wood chipper]

Only if the chainsaw is his running mate.

[Episiarch]

His running mate is obviously Bad Ash. Though which one gets the gun?

[Pro Libertate]

I checked, he's Canadian. Dammit.

[Gojira]

I wanted the Shat to run for office both here and in Canada at the same time, so he could pull double duty as Premier Shatner and President Kirk.

[Pro Libertate]

President Jackson Roykirk?

[Episiarch]

The creation of perfection is no error, ProL.

[Pro Libertate]

Nomad is American. With a little reprogramming, I think he'd make an excellent executive, eliminating error,sterilizing.

[Pro Libertate]

And Premier Kirok.

[Episiarch]

I serve none but Korrok, ProL.

[MarkLastname]

Nothing would be more 'fuck you' then electing my latest solid poo to the presidency of the United States. I'll send you some literature if you like. Problem is it doesn't meet the age requirement yet. Someday though, someday.

[Pro Libertate]

That was me, though I was thinking more the Nature Boy.

[Dark Lord of the wood chipper]

Unfortunately I think Flair would sell national secrets to the Chinese to pay off all of his ex wives.But, best White House parties since Jackson. So he's got that going for him.

[Pro Libertate]

Look, freedom has a high price.

[Gojira]

Freedom is just like cocaine.

[Episiarch]

It's just another word for nothing left to lose?

I'm sorry...I don't know what came over me. Janice Joplin quotes? I sicken myself. Just like you sicken me. Well, not that much.

[Dark Lord of the wood chipper]

I was gonna be charitable and say you were quoting Kris Kristofferson, but then you went and admitted to it.

[Dark Lord of the wood chipper]

Just like his shoes. They cost more than your house fat boy!

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I'm *so* looking forward to all the clever obituaries when Stone Cold Steve Austin dies.

/sarc

[Chippy Chippie ?ang Bang]

You think you'll outlive him? God may call you home before he calls on Steve.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Wow, that got awkward real quick.

[Chippy Chippie ?ang Bang]

Part of my keyboard has coconut oil on it, but you'll have to guess why.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Do I *have* to guess? Because I would definitely rather not.

Wait a minute, sir, have you been drinking?

[Chippy Chippie ?ang Bang]

Only the blood of a virgin. Again, you're going to have guess how. (It's a female between the ages of 18 and @50)

[Notorious G.K.C.]

There must be a high BAC in that virgin's blood.

[Chippy Chippie ?ang Bang]

*Northern

[Hyperion's Statist Chipper]

Well, he's a serious fucking clown, so it's Trump vs Biden, Clown Show 2016! Let's get it on!

[Pro Libertate]

I agree completely that Trump is a clown. A complete fuckhead. But while I could say that and a conservative could say that, the Democrats are completely screwed if they try to say that. Clinton, Biden, Comrade Sanders? It's like the fucking Onion.

The fact that the entire Democratic field, and people like Trump and Graham aren't completely dismissed as candidates speaks volumes about how far gone we really are. I'm ashamed to be an American at moments like this. Ashamed! Grow the fuck up, America!

[Hyperion's Statist Chipper]

What... what did you say... I think you said something mean and it triggered me.... I have to go get my mattress now...

There's nothing wrong with Americans, we're all grownups now!

[Pro Libertate]

We're a perfect example of arrested development. Our collective age is 12.

[Agammamon]

Look you can have clowns or you can have Tsipiras, Maduro, Renzi, and others like them - 'serious' politicians.

[Pro Libertate]

You know, the attention we pay to this election. . .it's not healthy. This much power and importance in the hands of one guy or gal, it's insane. Surely it's not just nut job libertarians who think that.

[widget]

I sorry if that been covered, but...

http://www.newsweek.com/judge-.....ing-353554

I'm picking the Newsweek take here because the article is full-Soviet.

The psychiatrists D'Souza was first ordered to see found no signs of depression, but U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman overruled their findings and ordered D'Souza see a new psychological counselor weekly.

A psychiatrists is an MD. But the court-appointed psychiatrists could not find anything wrong with him. So the judge sends the criminal to a psychologist, who is not a doctor/scientist, on the premise that there must be something wrong with him beyond the reach of science.

"A requirement for psychological counseling often comes up in my hearings in cases where I find it hard to understand why someone did what they did", says Judge Berman. "...a colossal failure of insight and introspection", he goes on. Widget sees this same flaw in himself, D'Souza, the judge, and every other human on the planet.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Thank you Newsweek, you blocked me with a paywall. Saved me from myself.

[widget]

It's free for me. They must have you on their list.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"where I find it hard to understand why someone did what they did"

This is about D'Souza bundling other people's money to make campaign contributions, isn't it?

Oh, horror, horror, horror! Heart nor tongue
Can nor conceive nor name thee!

[widget]

He was going through a divorce and wanted to impress his GF (I speculate a bit) by getting her some political campaign contributions without actually using his own money. This is totally beta, though not omega. It's illegal too, which is why he pled guilty.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I know he did something illegal.

But I'm beginning to reconsider my support of "campaign disclosure" laws.

First the government outs you politically based on your donations, then the SJW swarm drives you from your job, using the government's information.

Who *wouldn't* want to be anonymous?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

So he has to do 1,600 hours of community service on top of what he's already done.

And here's something:

""The client tends to deny problems and isn't very introspective," the psychiatrist wrote. "The client tends to deny problems and is arrogant and intolerant of others' feelings.""

How do you rebut that?

"No I'm not, you asshole!"

"Yup, he's in denial, all right, and he sure didn't respect my feelings."

http://nypost.com/2015/07/13/a.....e-thought/

[widget]

[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, in] The Gulag Archipelago, describes Nikolai Karlovich von Meck (son of Karl and Nadezhda von Meck, patroness of Tchaikovsky), an engineer who advised heavier-than-average loads being placed on freight trains for the betterment of the economy. He was accused of being a wrecker and shot, his crime being supposedly having overloaded the trains for the purpose of wearing out the rails faster.

http://www.executedtoday.com/2.....k-wrecker/

[Rhywun]

Yup, it's a complete railroading. I don't even agree with his positions on much of anything but since I am not an unhinged leftist totalitarian - I don't care.

[commodious spittoon]

"I'm not singling out Mr. D'Souza to pick on him," Judge Berman said. "A requirement for psychological counseling often comes up in my hearings in cases where I find it hard to understand why someone did what they did."

Bullshit. What else do you call speculating, from the bench rather than a psychiatrist's chair, on the mental stability of a man who deliberately and methodically committed a crime against campaign finance laws (which are horseshit, I might add). And then ignoring your own psychiatrists and referring him for further analysis. If this isn't judicial bullying, your honor, what the fuck is?

[Palin's Buttplug]

MLB is still boring even when all the players are good.

[widget]

I am not fan of watching baseball either. But sometimes it's worth a watch. He're an easy experiment: go to a batting cage and select a pitch speed of 70 mph or higher. Tell me if you can even see the ball before you hear it hit the backstop. Hitting a 100 mph ball requires that you commit to your swing before the ball fully leaves the pitcher's hand.

[Rhywun]

The sports one watches are passed down from father to son. There is no other explanation for baseball - because nobody I know who grew up without a father, myself included, gives a shit about it.

[widget]

George Will agrees with you about baseball. His thesis is that baseball requires a dad, but football does not. It's a stochastic observation. You can start playing football when you're 15 or 16 and still make a college draft and even into the pros. But to play baseball you have to start younger and there has be a 'dad' of some sorts to give you a push.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Gilmore, I went to bed last night before you responded about the costs of welfare drug testing requirements. I forgot that Reason has covered this several times previously, and it has in fact been tried before. Here's and example article, showing the costs with little gain and legal costs challenging the benefit denials I described.

[Napoleon Bonoparte]

Heh. Am I the only one who remembers when 75% of Americans said the same thing about Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton?

[Vampire]

Politics is a joke and pitiful anyway, but to see Jeb Bush, Donald Trump, Hillary and a socialist Bernie Sanders as leading candidates puts the icing on the cake.

All this talk of incrementalism is really a waste of liberty. The way things are going, with faux news ignoring the only candidate close to being liberty minded, I doubt Rand will even be the nominee. On goes another 4 or 8 years of scaling back what the previous administration did, or even expanding upon it and implementing their own version of policies meant to rob individuals of their liberty and property.

[Chippy Chippie ?ang Bang]

Is it possible that we could could hit 40 republican candidates?

[Rich]

Well, we *might* hit C.F., but that's probably about it.

[Robert]

We've already been far over that for some time, according to FEC filings.

[Marty Feldman's Eyes]

as the bard wrote, "a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

Everybody knows the bard didn't write that, duh, it was William Faulkner.

[Rich]

BACON!

[Robert]

Dogs don't know it's not bacon.

[Sevo]

Gridiocy update:
1) Tsipras now has to sell the gruel he was handed to the Greeks. He goes on the tube, tries a 'you don't want a new captain now after we're in a storm' spin, ignoring that he not only steered the ship that way but increased the storm with his rhetoric. The Greeks seem to be buying it; hey, it means they still can blame others!
2) An IMF paper leaks, opining that the Greeks are now so far in the hole, they *must* get debt relief. Which relief is specifically prohibited to any IMF debtor from the IMF, as is the possibility of the IMF loaning them more money. Gridiots see this as a *demand* that the Euros must now grant the Greeks more free money, since that wonderful organization, the IMF thinks so! Ignoring that last week the IMF was the personification of evil. And ignoring that the IMF has strong incentives for opining that process, given that Ms. Lagarde would like to keep her job. And ignoring that some 18 parliaments may well have different opinions. Straw-grasping among the gridiots is as common as cherry picking by our loyal lefty assholes.
3) Varoufakis hits the talk-show circuit, claiming he is an angel and all sorts of other people are satan, and he knows, since he's an angel. Gridiots cream their pants; sane people yawn.
4) Oh, and the entire opera bouffe has been orchestrated by:
a) the "banksters"
b) Obama (really!)
c) The Nazis running Germany!

[Sevo]

Cont'd.
Prediction: (and just in case, I'd like the hat well done, with some au jus on the side, thank you)
1) The bailout is dead. The EU won't loan without IMF participation, while the IMF is requiring the EU to get their voters to take a bath one more time to allow the Greeks to retire at 17. Or 18. Or 13; I can't remember and it doesn't matter; that's the perception and far fewer than 18 parliaments are gonna go for it.
And, no, the US is not gonna get involved; Greece? Isn't that where they hold toga parties?
2) There is going to be some sort of golden parachute offered Greece to take a hike, cheaper than the alternative; think kicking your drunken BIL out of the house with $100 to find the local liquor store and locking the door behind him.
3) (PROUD) Greeks bail from the EU, print Drachma notes, exchanged 1:1 for Zimbabwe dollars and Greece needs humanitarian assistance for the foreseeable future.

[Sevo]

And for fashionistas everywhere, here's what a Euro Finance Minister wears to a meeting to save his country from disaster!
http://www.bing.com/images/sea.....ajaxhist=0
I hope he zipped his pants.

[PapayaSF]

Greece isn't anti-American or Muslim enough for Obama to care much about them.

[Chippy Chippie ?ang Bang]

Don't know how to link to tweets but if you go to Iowahawk's blog and scroll down a bit

https://twitter.com/iowahawkblog

You'll see a tweeter pointing out that Trump used images of NAZI soldiers in a Trump is pro-America propaganda piece. Which may be unintentionally intentional by him or one of his people.

[Irish ?s ESB]

"Don't know how to link to tweets but if you go to Iowahawk's blog and scroll down a bit"

Well, you apparently think a twitter feed is a 'blog' so it's unsurprising you have difficulty linking to specific tweets, OLD MAN. /I kid

Here's the best post on Iowahawk's blog, courtesy of T. Coddington Van Vorhees VII.

"Who, you may ask, is T. Coddington Van Voorhees VII?

Simply put, a man born to the conservative saddle. The only scion of the legendary swashbuckling conservative editor / author / bon vivant T. Coddington Van Voorhees VI, I have since my earliest days honed a conservatism forged in the fires of intellectual combat, stoked by the bellows of classic education, and tempered in the cooling waters of good breeding. Even before matriculating at East Hampton Country Daycare, I was thrust headlong into heady intellectual debates of postwar American politics. Oh, how I cherish those moments, bouncing astride my father's knee, as he held postprandial court on the patio with Long Island Sound's most scrupulous Republicans - like Newport GOP chairman Z. Pilastor Fennewick, Greenwich GOP legend Boylston McInernery, and East Hampton's "hostess with the mostest," Modesty Crabwater. And although Dad had his differences with each, I admired the elegant grace with which these Republicans could command an Adirondack chair or accept electoral defeat."

[Irish ?s ESB]

"As is now public knowledge, my return to the Topsider was not without controversy. In my father's dotage his once-exclusive journal of conservatism saw its standards erode and its masthead contaminated by a growing roster of semiliterate beer swilling-oafs plucked from the ranks of D-list university football factories, who embarked on a grand scheme to purge its pages of thought-provoking discourses on Hume and the Windsor knot, replacing them instead with Vaudevillian appeals to the right wing booboisie. Beset on all sides, it was left to me the lonely task of upholding the ensign of classic Republican moderation. When I quite understandably endorsed Mr. Obama during the 2008 campaign these middlebrow McCarthyites mutinied, driving me from my birthright and into the desolate wilderness of this so-called "blogosphere."

A lesser man might have wilted in the face of such an obloquy; but, as is now obvious, that lesser man is not a Van Voorhees. Rather than shrinking from the battlefield of ideas, I have instead taken the opportunity of my exile to rally the forces of commonsense Republicanism against the mindless invading hordes of Tea Party vandals who, in utter obliviousness to realpolitik, have set about a nihilistic crusade to ransack our nation's capitol, deprive its treasuries, and lead its learned rulemakers away in bondage."

How does this man not have a column at National Review or Reason? He is a treasure.

[commodious spittoon]

When I played World of Warcraft I mained a DK I named Vaudevillain. To this day I can't see Vaudevillian without rearranging the last two letters.

[Chippy Chippie ?ang Bang]

Well at least I can use..........

blockquotes!

[PapayaSF]

That sort of thing is usually clueless graphic designers told to use a picture of "soldiers" and not knowing uniforms. E.g.

[commodious spittoon]

Maybe this saw some play in the PM links, but according to documents leaked to Huffington Post, over a quarter of backlogged VA patients are dead.

(I know they say "a third." I don't know why. It's 3% over a quarter and 5% shy of a third. Is a quarter really less shocking than a third? Anyway...)

More than 238,000 of the 847,000 veterans in the pending backlog for health care through the Department of Veterans Affairs have already died, according to an internal VA document provided to The Huffington Post.

...

"VA wants you to believe, by virtue of people being able to get health care elsewhere, it's not a big deal. But VA is turning away tens of thousands of veterans eligible for health care," he said. "VA is making it cumbersome, and then saying, 'See? They didn't want it anyway.'"

It's a shame so many died before being able to enjoy the healthcare renaissance courtesy of the ACA.

[Zaytsev]

Socialized medicine for the win.

[AFSlade]

I was just remarking at lunch to a friend that this was utterly unsurprising to me when I read it. I thought everyone knew and understood this. I was a young officer in the 90s and at some bases the VA medical care facility was co-extensive with the active duty hospital. i.e. There were 4 and 5 hour waits at some places with both veterans/retirees and active duty all trying to be seen by the same staff. Later, some places tried to segregate the care and/or functions, but if anyone had asked me I would have thought, "Of course they're not being seen and are dying while waiting. Fucking Duh. Ever live on a military base in the 90s and maybe the oughts and have to take your kids to an appointment?"

I find this utterly unsurprising. (Notice I did not say "conscionable" or "acceptable.") It's why I've always laughed about the ACA and the arguments for govt run healthcare. I mean, is there any rational mind that thinks the military medical system is all that ?

[commodious spittoon]

The comparison doesn't resonate with the socialists peopling the left because they never think about first order consequences, let along second or third. Consequences are a political question, not an economic let alone a humanitarian issue. Election and reelection, that's the sole demense of the left. And so, if the ACA (or, god forbid, single payer) harms many more people than it helps, well, who cares? As long as we've now another entitlement which, like the Brits or the Canadians, or our Medicare recipients, the masses will flock to. Because entitlements mean dependents and dependents means dependable voters. And that, rather than any principle, is what the left is after. They're altogether insidious.

[JeremyR]

And yet they will never connect the dots when they demand single payer healthcare...

[Chip Morningwood Esq]

Hurry up and wait die.

[Chippy Chippie ?ang Bang]

While the number is large -- representing nearly a third of those listed as pending -- some of the applicants may have died years ago. The VA has no mechanism to purge the list of dead applicants, and some of those applying, according to VA spokeswoman Walinda West, likely never completed the application, yet remain on the pending list anyway. West said the VA electronic health record system has been in place since 1985, suggesting some of the data may be decades old and some of those people may have gone on to use other insurance.

They cannot even manage to keep their database updated? Wow, that's some level of incompetence there.

[Homple]

Outsource the file cleanup to the Chinese; they already have the data.

[commodious spittoon]

It would be funny if not true.

[Agile Cyborg]

Jesus, but I do enjoy watching Trump the thorn ripping bloody graffiti across the heaving flanks of plodding establishment.

[thrakkorzog]

Sweet! We're getting Agile Cyborg commentary, it has been too long. My First act as president is to nominate AC as poet laureate.

[Vampire]

Where ya been A.C?

[Fist of Etiquette]

This post still being on top through Brickbats and the standard 7AM article is punishment for all you who bitched about the Trumpalanche the past few days.

[lap83]

Apparently it's also punishment for those who didn't bitch. There are no winners.

[Rhywun]

OT: Disgusting cop-sucking in (where else?) the NY Post, noting without irony:

The officers were responding to pleas of frustrated local merchants, tired of losing sales to street sellers. Indeed, in March, then-Chief of Department Philip Banks had ordered his office to look into specific complaints of loosie sales in Tompkinsville ? Garner's neighborhood.

[Crusty Juggler]

And I am out! Have a good night everyone.

[Gojira]

The Asshole Label is rejected by 88% of Assholes! I wonder why?!

[Palin's Buttplug]

Rand is now at 4%.

Pathetic considering all the flotsam leading.

[MarkLastname]

Going to other tribes' caves doesn't really constitute being 'outside the tribal cave.' And I doubt his wacky tax idea (I have no idea what you're referring to, btw) could be marginally worse than the current one, short of requiring tax to be paid in chickens or lizard skins.

[Irish ?s ESB]

"Rand has basically collapsed since his wacky tax proposal. One may have to read outside the tribal cave to know it's been totally (and properly) ridiculed all over. Perhaps crazier than his dad's. Bold but useless rhetoric excites only the goobers."

Except his plan was broadly supported on every Republican website I went to and the actual reason for his collapse in the polls is because Republicans are terrified of MEXICANS and ISIS and PUTIN and have determined Rand Paul isn't a feverish enough immigration/world policer.

If you actually read what Republicans were saying about Rand Paul, you'd see their primary complaints are related to his foreign policy, not his tax plan.

[Robert]

Can you summarize it & what makes it wacky? Are you taking it as anything other than a bargaining chip?

[Heroic Mulatto]

Wait...what? God damn you, Crusty! Damn you!

[Pro Libertate]

Paul is almost the only hope of getting our economic house back in order, at least as far as this election goes. That is more critical to our military and our foreign relations than any bullshit saber-rattling other candidates do. The biggest threat to our national security is our out of control government, especially the damage it's doing to our economic health. Need money to play world cop.

[Palin's Buttplug]

the actual reason for his collapse in the polls is because Republicans are terrified of MEXICANS and ISIS and PUTIN and have determined Rand Paul isn't a feverish enough immigration/world policer.

The truest thing you have ever said, Irish. You could add Iran though.

THEM BOYS IS NUKING UP IN TEN YEARS MAYBE CAUSE OBAMA!

[Irish ?s ESB]

I agree, Republicans are just retarded.

[Pro Libertate]

It's all retarded.