A.M. Links: Hillary vs. Bernie Debate Tonight, Oregon Rancher Cliven Bundy Arrested by FBI

• 

  Courtesy of CNN

  Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will face off tonight in a Democratic presidential debate in Milwaukee.

• The Nation: "Why Hillary Clinton Doesn't Deserve the Black Vote."

• Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.): Bernie Sanders is not a "true friend" to blacks.

• Oregon rancher Cliven Bundy has been arrested by the FBI.

• "When student reporters at Mount St. Mary's University, a small Catholic institution in Maryland, published an article in January that quoted the university's president likening struggling freshmen to bunnies that should be drowned, they knew it might get a big reaction. It finally came this week, it appears—in the form of a pink slip for the faculty adviser of the campus newspaper."

• Can Donald Trump be stopped?

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Nation: "Why Hillary Clinton Doesn't Deserve the Black Vote."

That tune will change when she gets the nomination.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Hello.

"Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.): Bernie Sanders is not a "true friend" to blacks."

These days, according to the narrative, how many of us really are?

We're all greedy, white capitalist rapey-racist pigs. And by pigs I mean the retarded ones that don't even produce good bacon.

I have no idea what that means.

[Illocust]

It's funny to watch the various liberal factions try to argue about why they already own the black/Hispanic vote so the other guy should just quit already. I wonder if this tactic (claiming you've already won) is actually effective, or if it causes more harm in the long run?

[Princess Trigger]

From following a number of college age black activists on the twitter, I've slowly figured out what "White Supremacy" means.
It means: Everything I don't like.
Examples:
Black man shot by cop = White Supremacy
Tuition bill due next monday = White Supremacy
Cop pulled me over = White Supremacy
Lagos is not the financial capital of the world = White Supremacy
All white oscars = White Supremacy
My boyfriend was mean to me = White Supremacy
The toaster oven is broken = White Supremacy

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Hamilton Beach designed a shoddier version of its six-slice counter-top model that it sells exclusively to blacks.

[Pope Jimbo]

Well the white model of that toaster oven cooks 8 slices. Why shouldn't they be mad that the black version is only rated at 3/4ths of the white version?

[Heroic Mulatto]

Is that why mine lasted only half-way through its warranty?

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Should't it be 3/5ths? Or 4/5ths in you and Obama's case?

[Pope Jimbo]

Shut up! I went to Memphis State where we don't get bogged down in the intricacies of numbers and shit.

[Swiss Servator]

*slow clap*

[Pope Jimbo]

No, but it is why your toaster runs on 120V, while The Man's toaster runs on 220V.

Don't let anyone tell you different. The Man is keeping your voltage down.

[Medical Physics Guy]

Lagos is not the financial capital of the world

Not in your field, maybe. However I short the water market there all the time.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

LeSean McCoy blames race in 3...2...

[Chipwooder]

It's the same mindset that has made the word "racist" has become a catchall term for "bad person who leftists don't like".

[Zeb]

It means absolutely nothing. As if blacks are all interchangeable and have the same needs and desires.

[The Last American Hero]

They don't but they vote like they do.

[Raven Nation]

So, if I understand all the gossip, it's Allegri to Chelsea, Mourinho to United, and Pelligrini to Juventus.

[Rhywun]

The musical chairs is getting comical at this point.

[WTF]

Only because the Republican nominee will be a dangerous extremist racist bigot.

[Jerryskids]

I saw Kasim Reed (mayor of Atlanta) on the news this morning blasting Bernie because Sanders isn't even a Democrat and some of Sanders' main talking points totally ignore what Obama and the Democrats (including Hillary) have accomplished over the last 7 years. He actually seemed to be speaking more as a Democrat than a black man, sticking pretty much to which candidate was better for Democrats rather than which candidate was better for blacks - which I thought was pretty interesting. Now it may be that Reed has his eye on higher office and doesn't want to be playing the race card because he knows that's only going to get him so far, but then again he may actually be unwilling to play the identity politics game. He may seriously believe that people should be judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. In either case, my opinion of him shot way up. If he's not more earnest than I thought, he's at least a hell of a lot slicker. He'll be one to keep an eye on over the next few years.

[Rhywun]

Is Sanders like Democrat+?

[Rhywun]

"Isn't"

[sloopyinTEXAS]

It depends on what the meaning of the word isn't is.

[ant1sthenes]

I don't see how judging people on the color of their TEAM is much better than judging them on the color of their skin. Neither is that related to character.

[Rhywun]

I think I found the real explanation for all this buried in the Jeffries article:

But the Clinton surrogates bashed Sanders's record on guns, noting that he voted against significant gun control legislation throughout his career.

[Rhywun]

? policies Bill Clinton enacted?and Hillary Clinton supported?decimated black America

Words... meanings... I think there's no point reading beyond the subtitle. Not that I can thanks to the paywall.

[Longtorso, Johnnycakes]

Research shows chicks really dig guys who "dominate" them and "really take charge of the relationship."

[UnCivilServant]

Research shows that you can freeze and thaw a rabbit brain with no neurological damage if you use the right technique.

I'd wager that this is a more reproducable result.

[Medical Physics Guy]

I have proof. I saw a Warner Bros. cartoon where that happened.

[Rich]

Intercourse is the very means through which men oppress us, from which we are not allowed to escape

She's got it nailed.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Who came up with that sparkling gem?

[spqr2008]

Wait, I thought women did most of the talking?

[Jimbo]

Reminds me of a t-shirt I saw a woman wearing: "I have the pussy, so I make the rules."

[Zeb]

I think you've posted that before. What a sad person.

[Longtorso, Johnnycakes]

That's bullshit. You're a white suburban punk just like me.

[Zeb]

Not you, the author.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Shrimp, or plate, or plate of shrimp...

[Longtorso, Johnnycakes]

It's all part of the cosmic unconciousness. Bobarian.

[Chipwooder]

Yeah, but....it still hurts.

-You're gonna be ok, Duke.....*Duke starts convulsing*... maybe not.

[Free Society]

I've posted here before too. I read it a few years ago and I remember it so well because it might actually be one of the worst arguments I've ever seen. Both in terms of it's reasoning and the mechanical logic of it all. It's as close to peak derp as a feminist can get.

[Zeb]

It really is incredible. They've lost all touch with reality.

[The Last American Hero]

Looks like somebody's been reading Ayn Rand.

[Notorious UGCC]

Is this a joke?

Probably not, alas.

[Longtorso, Johnnycakes]

"Nine things I require in any future mate."

[Old Man With Candy]

vaginas are not fuckholes

I beg to differ.

[Longtorso, Johnnycakes]

Hey. I know you. You're the one that run into my trash.

[Princess Trigger]

Stop posting these.
Just reading the first paragraph sucked 20 points off my IQ.

[Longtorso, Johnnycakes]

The more you drive, the less intelligent you are.

[Zeb]

Yeah. In addition to a few other things, that is kind of what they are.

[Longtorso, Johnnycakes]

Let's go do some crimes, Zeb.

[Zeb]

Oh, now I see what you are doing.

[BearOdinson]

Actually, that is EXACTLY what it is. Everything else it does, is premised entirely on that one act!! (whether that act succeeded: a baby comes out of it, or that act failed: uteral lining and blood come out of it).

[Just say Nikki]

Um, I don't consider fucking a "failure" if I don't get pregnant.

[Longtorso, Johnnycakes]

It happens sometimes, Nikki. People just explode. Natural causes.

[Citizen X]

+1 Mr. Creosote

[Certified Public Asshat]

But your vagina does?

[BearOdinson]

Not meaning the people involved consider it a failure. Sometimes they do, and alot of times they don't (Hey I have three boys. I assure you that I don't consider it a "failure" if my wife doesn't get pregnant either anymore)!

Simply using the expression to indicate whether or not intercourse produced a pregnancy.

[EMD]

Nature does?

[WTF]

That's actually what they are for. Continuation of the species, and all that.

[Zeb]

I'd say they are for whatever the owner wants them to be for.

[Horatio]

Heyzeus Creesto the damned semantic parsing round here. Anyone can use their mouth for what they want but its biological purpose is to feed your fucking face. Happy?

[Horatio]

Heyzeus Creesto the damned semantic parsing round here. Anyone can use their mouth for what they want but its biological purpose is to feed your fucking face. Happy?

[Rich]

being poked and prodded physically is not inherently erotic. think about it. going to the dentist? not erotic.

"Open wider."

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

There's a "whitening" joke in there somewhere, but I haven't finished my coffee yet...

[Pope Jimbo]

Are you saying that you are saving your "whitener" for your coffee? Ewwww...

[Citizen X]

going to the dentist? not erotic.

That's only because SugarFree's senior thesis got him kicked out of dental school (and briefly imprisoned).

It would have changed the world of dentistry, man.

[SugarFree]

My findings on the erotic possibilities of gum disease would have changed the world of teeth forever.

[Citizen X]

"Oral hygiene" coulda meant so much more!

[SugarFree]

Two words: Mouth condom

[Swiss Servator]

*shudders*

[Zeb]

What a finely crafted argument.

What the fuck do they think "erotic" means if sexual intercourse doesn't count?

[Notorious UGCC]

This is what they find erotic.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.): Bernie Sanders is not a "true friend" to blacks.

Few Democrats are.

[Monty Crisco]

Yeah, I would think that if ALL economic indicators are MUCH worse for a certain demographic under a certain president, it would be abundantly clear that that president was NOT a "friend" to that demographic.

Wonder why that doesn't apply to Obama?

[Catatafish & Woodchips]

That's just because the GOP is obstructing all his well-meaning solutions. Duh.

[WTF]

Especially his first two years in office. They wouldn't let him do anything!

[spqr2008]

I know, they wouldn't even let him pass legislation he wanted in a constitutionally questionable way, that changed how a sixth of the economy operates, on a strictly party line vote, with outright bribery to certain congress critters included. What horrible people the GOP are!

[Lord Humungus]

Obama Revisits Springfield, and His Vow to Bridge a Partisan Divide

President Obama on Wednesday came to the place where he began his historic campaign for the White House nine years ago to the day, to reckon with perhaps his presidency's greatest failure: his unfulfilled promise to lift American politics above toxic partisan divisions.

Speaking to a raucous joint session of the Illinois General Assembly at the state Capitol, Mr. Obama said, "The tone of our politics hasn't gotten better since I was inaugurated; in fact, it has gotten worse."

He continued: "One of my few regrets is my inability to reduce the polarization and meanness in our politics. I was able to be part of that here, and yet I couldn't translate it the way I wanted to, to our politics in Washington."

holy maniac, batman.

[John]

If only he had been President for the last seven years and could have seen through with these ideas.

[Hamster of Doom]

A single, glistening tear.

[LynchPin1477]

He has, in fact, been a cause of a lot of the partisan divide.

[WTF]

Purposefully, in fact.

[Rich]

a raucous joint session of the Illinois General Assembly

"Good GAWD, y'all!"

[Injun, as in from India]

"I want to add a $10/barrel tax on crude oil."

"No, Mr. President. The people's representatives in the Congress don't want it."

"TeathugliKKKans! Koch Suckers! Racists! You exemplify the lack of civility!"

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

"Bitterly clinging to their oil barrels!"

[Rhywun]

reduce the polarization and meanness in our politics

I'm confused. Why is this even remotely desirable?

[See Double You]

Slaves are easier to deal with when they don't fight back.

[Steevie]

Obama to the GOP: "I won"...

Remember that gem back in 2009? He was totally not trying to polarize.

[Monty Crisco]

I know we have haters here, but Kevin Williamson is more reliably libertarian than a lot of amazing pundits that I can think of. And I really love his columns.
Here he is telling conservatives why they shouldn't be such copsuckers:

http://www.nationalreview.com/.....n-lee-baca

Money quote:

Is it really so difficult to believe that there is widespread wrongdoing, and widespread lying about it, among U.S. law-enforcement agencies, particularly those in big, Democrat-run cities infamous for the corruption of their other municipal institutions? Why do conservatives find it so plausible ? obvious, even ? that the IRS and the EPA and the Atlanta public schools are corrupt and self-serving, but somehow believe that the Baltimore police department isn't?

It isn't a few scattered misdeeds when it's the NYPD, the LAPD, the Baltimore PD, the Los Angeles sheriff's department, and more. That's not a few bad apples ? that's the orchard. And it needs pruning.

Worth a read.

[Fist of Etiquette]

That's gonna fall on deaf ears.

[Drake]

Monty beat me to it. And no it isn't falling on deaf ears. Check out the comments.

[Monty Crisco]

Sorry for my gloating below....

*sheepishly looks at floor*...

[BearOdinson]

I do think that he and Cooke and maybe a handful of others of the conservative intelligentsia get it. But I think at the individual levels, there are a significant number of folks who would consider themselves "conservative" who are starting to get it about police. Not a majority yet, but a significant number.

[Raven Nation]

Mark Steyn was decent after Ferguson. He had a good piece decrying the militarized response.

[BearOdinson]

Steyn has a libertarian streak in him. I enjoy his humor.

[Irish ?s ESB]

"Steyn has a libertarian streak in him"

Sometimes. He's also a big Trumpkin though, so he isn't exactly consistent.

[Chipwooder]

I like reading Steyn, so I'll give a charitable view - I don't know that Steyn is a Trumpkin, really. I think he enjoys the spectacle, and I think he's fairly bitter over the way NR in particular and the professional conservative movement in general started shunning him over the Michael Mann lawsuit.

[Catatafish & Woodchips]

Agreed. The sheer amount of vitriol he (and Cooke) receives in the comments section at NRO is evidence he's doing at least something right.

[Monty Crisco]

HE and Cooke are the fucking wonder-twins over there...

[Injun, as in from India]

Do you ever listen to their "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" podcast? I highly recommend it.

KDW also is a Rand Paul guy.

[Catatafish & Woodchips]

My brother keeps telling me to do the same. I just keep forgetting to try and find it on BeyondPod and schedule the download.

[Injun, as in from India]

They are not very regular. It's about once a month, maybe twice. But it is worth it.

[Raven Nation]

That's not a few bad apples ? that's the orchard. And it needs pruning.

Awesome

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Williamson is probably the only one at NR who is consistently worth reading, in my opinion.

[Citizen X]

Williamson at his best straight up channels Mencken, and even at his worst he'll throw out some awesomely vitriolic lines that'll make you be all like OOOOH SHIT.

[Injun, as in from India]

Him and Charles C.W. Cooke. They are the authors I consistently follow on NR.

Also, Cooke's Second Amendment writing is just astounding.

[Crusty Juggler]

Goldberg is pretty good as well.

[Just say Nikki]

It is possible that what is really at play here is an emotional response to protest culture. Seeing the Black Lives Matters miscreants and Baltimore rioters on one side of the line, conservatives instinctively want to be on the other side of the line. The same thing happened with the Iraq-war protests: When the dirty hippies take to the barricades, conservatives are drawn to the other side. That led to some bad thinking and poor decision-making about Iraq. Are we making the same mistake with regard to police misconduct and allegations of police misconduct?

Wouldn't want to get caught agreeing with the other TEAM.

[Warty]

FUCK HIPPIES! GO POLICE! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!

[Crusty Juggler]

Rock flag and eagle

[KDN]

I posted to last night's thread about the sad decline of the grease trucks. They haven't been worth the trip for years.

[Crusty Juggler]

I've not been down there in years, but that is sad, and begs the question as to why anybody would actually attend that school.

[KDN]

The engineering and pharmacy schools are well regarded, last I checked. It's also dirt cheap, especially since it's an easy commute for like 50% of the state's population.

[Crusty Juggler]

Facts are dumb.

[Chipwooder]

I know you're joking, but it's difficult for me to be consistent with my principles when repulsive hippies are the victims of cop brutality. We all have our crosses to bear.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Can Donald Trump be stopped?

Not even Donald has been able to stop Donald.

[Swiss Servator]

And sometimes I wonder if he isn't actually trying to stop this thing. He seems to be getting so shrill and weird, I wonder if he is amazed the train ain't left the tracks yet.

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

^This^

[Chipwooder]

Well, that depends - is he exactly what he appears to be, or is he much more self-aware and thus just a cynical manipulator?

[Longtorso, Johnnycakes]

Birth control makes chicks unattractive and fat, study says.

[LynchPin1477]

Counterpoint: my wife

[Longtorso, Johnnycakes]

Everybody could stand a hundred chest X-rays a year, Lynchpin.

[SIV]

How can they tell it was the birth control? Food and age usually do the trick all on their own.

[SIV]

How can they tell it was the birth control? Food and age usually do the trick all on their own.

[Illocust]

They take the women back off of it and they go back to normal. Birth control is known for lowering libidos and causing weight gain. It's something you need to watch for if you are on it.

[Jerryskids]

You know, I might not be arguing against this study if I were you.

"You're going to wear a condom, aren't you?"

"If you insist - but you know studies have shown birth control makes you look fat and ugly, don't you?"

[Swiss Servator]

*narrows gaze*

[WTF]

What would a women's society look like? There's never been a successful one as far as I know, but I would guess humanity would still be living in mud huts.

[UnCivilServant]

The 'DDoS protection' and my work proxy conspire to make the link not work.

[Citizen X]

The link goes to Return of Kings, and so can be safely ignored anyway.

[Longtorso, Johnnycakes]

You don't even know what's in your own trunk, Citizen X! And you know what? I think you're afraid to find out!

[Citizen X]

Wait, so you're the guy who's been breaking into cars in my neighborhood?

[WTF]

Meh, it was the first link I could find that described what happened. But just because it's posted at a stupid website doesn't change the facts, though.

[Illocust]

Hawaii, there have been successful women led societies, but they require that natural resources be so incredibly plentiful that fighting with neighbors is unnecessary. You are correct though. These societies do tend to stall out technologically. The lack of hardship that allows for women to rule also leads to a lack of innovation.

[ant1sthenes]

Have there been successful (long-lasting) matriarchal societies with patriarchal neighbors?

[Injun, as in from India]

If you're unattractive and fat, you don't need any birth control at all.

Sorry.

[Medical Physics Guy]

After 2am at a typical bar, you certainly do.

[Crusty Juggler]

It is like you've never been on an Army base.

[Citizen X]

Or a Walmart, or a state fair...

[LynchPin1477]

LIGO will be announcing a direct detection of gravitational waves in about 1 1/2 hours.

http://www.ligo.org/

[John]

Wow. If we can detect them, that means there is a chance we could control them some day.

[LynchPin1477]

Unlikely. LIGO probably detected the signature of two merging black holes. And even then, the change they are measuring is only one part in in 10000000000000000000000.

[John]

Its a start. I want my Enterprise bridge that is immune from the g forces associated with acceleration damn it.

[BearOdinson]

+1 inertial dampeners!

[Medical Physics Guy]

I was trying to research actual inertial damping (i.e. Rayleigh model solids), and it was needle in a haystack trying to find anything through search engines that was not about Star Trek. You're bringing back some nightmares from a couple of years ago.

[LynchPin1477]

End Newton's oppression! Libertarian moment!

[John]

Some day will get a real progressive Congress and they will repeal all of these oppressive natural laws.

[Citizen X]

It's worked so far with the laws of economics, right?

[WTF]

I want my anti-gravity boots!

[Limpee Wiltstock]

"Unlikely."

Idiot. If they can be measured and properties experimentally descrobe instead of just theorisen about, then guess what they will become subject to men sooner or later. The specific duration from observation to control is not going to be as heavy as the ramifications of controlling them when folks get round to it. Man control of gravitational vectors will probably be more empowering than any other innovation those douchebag science weenies have or shall have ever offered to creative people.

[Restoras]

Layman description of why this is a big deal?

[John]

It is cracking one of the great black boxes of physics. We have been able to describe how gravity works since Newton but have never been able to explain or observe the mechanism by which it works. That is a big deal.

[Restoras]

Ummm...ok, that's great and all, but so what?

[Zeb]

You can say that about most of science. It's a major discovery confirming an interesting prediction of an important theory. That's it. Either you care about that stuff or you don't. I find it very interesting and exciting.

[UnCivilServant]

I'm currently more facinated by the advances in cryogenics they made recently, and have been asking if they can do it to a living brain.

[BearOdinson]

We may never be able to travel in time, but hey if they can freeze my brain and thaw me out in a few hundred years and put me into a robot body, I could live with that.

(see Cymeks from Anderson and Herbert's Legends of Dune trilogy)

[Citizen X]

(see Cymeks from Anderson and Herbert's Legends of Dune trilogy)

Kevin J. Anderson is one of the worst hack writers in the sci-fi business. I'd rather pretend his contributions to the Dune universe don't exist.

[BearOdinson]

I am not a big fan of his writing, but I was so desperate to find out what happened after Chapterhouse Dune, and enjoyed seeing what they made of the Butlerian Jihad. But, there is definitely a lowering of the intellectual level going from Chapterhouse Dune to Hunters of Dune.

(And unless I ever read Herbert's original notes, I am not convinced that the Outside Enemy was ever intended to be what they made it. It doesn't "feel" organic.

[Overt]

Kevin J. Anderson is one of the worst hack writers in the sci-fi business.

I knew I was reading the worst shit ever when in Atreides a Fremen is in the desert and a worm is compared to an oncoming freight train. Really? From the POV of a Fremen a worm is like a freight train? Ugh.

[Trigger Hippie]

But if you could travel back in time, would you kill Hitler? Personally I wouldn't. Not because I hate Jews, mind you, but because doing so would have placed the reigns of power of the Third Reich in much more competent hands. Many people seem to believe the conditions for such a person existing are not a factor in his ascension. The Third Reich would have materialized with or without him, despite his charisma. Had the Nazis been guided by somebody who wasn't a teetotaling, vegetarian, speed freak psychopath who habitually ignored the advice of his generals in all military endeavors the Nazis very well may have won WWII. If it had to happen, thank God it happened under that fool's watch. Otherwise the world today would probably be a much darker place. *unsolicited rant ends*

[Limpee Wiltstock]

"We may never be able to travel in time, but hey if they can freeze my brain and thaw me out in a few hundred years and put me into a robot body, I could live with that."

Fate worser than death. I remember the priest telling us that it won't work because the soul gets bored after a while and wanders off.

[Zeb]

I'm just into fundamental physics more than technology and stamp collecting.

[Princess Trigger]

Boobs look bigger in zero gee.
http://www.glamour.com/fashion.....vity-sport

[Zeb]

I think I prefer her with gravity.

[Rich]

But think of the ripple effects without.

[Limpee Wiltstock]

Does it also make people look stupider, or is that how she always look?

[Limpee Wiltstock]

Modulation of gravitational effects would open the doors to limitless power.

[Limpee Wiltstock]

It's one of the problems with a lot of science fiction--that technologies to control gravitational effects frequently exist but their obvious fucking implications aren't carried through and the people who've mastered them aren't like gods.

[Overt]

This is not necessarily true. If the energy required to manipulate gravity is too high, you are not going to get a net-positive reaction.

[bacon-magic]

If you can control gravity you don't need planets...you can make space habitable.

[LynchPin1477]

Einstein described the mechanism, but this is a direct confirmation of one of the more elusive predictions of general relativity.

Although we have had incredibly strong circumstantial evidence for gravitational waves for a few decades.

[John]

True. Einstein explained it. But we have never observed it.

[Limpee Wiltstock]

He also taught us that quantum physics can't exist and a bunch of other retarded crap I can't remember right now. Guy was a nutcase. And editor for one of the first Marxist papers in USA. He pretty much browbeat the leadership into making a bomb, which turned out to not be so bad, but imagine if Roosevelt had used atomic power to live forever and got elected as president for life? The only head of state who'd've been worser with the bomb was... well... all the other heads of state in the world at the time, but still, it would've brought shame and dishonour pon us all. And for fuck's sake, imagine Roosevelt with antigravity. NOBODY WOULD EVER KNOW he was a snivelling cripple that even a ricketty black child could have prevailed against in single combat.

[LynchPin1477]

You know how people sometimes describe gravity as a sheet, and if you put a bowling ball on the sheet it makes a depression that other things fall towards?

They are detecting ripples in the sheet.

Or to be a bit more poetic: Since the dawn of human history almost everything we have learned about the distant universe has come from studying light. That's it, just light, and maybe the stray energetic proton.

For the first time ever we'll be able to study the distant universe through gravity itself. It's as if you were limited to only hearing for your whole life, and now you can suddenly see.

[Restoras]

Ah. Ok now I *see*...

[LynchPin1477]

Cute.

And just to elaborate a bit more, not everything emits light, or at light we can see. Black holes for example. So gravity gives you a way of studying things you might not be otherwise able.

And just to plug my own science a little, LIGO is one of several experiments trying to do this. They were the first, but you can radio telescopes and pulsars to detect gravitational waves from entirely different sources than LIGO is sensitive to. So this is really an exciting time for astronomy. This whole field is set to really explode in the next 5-10 years.

[Restoras]

Thank you - very helpful in understanding the importance.

[PBR Streetgang]

That was a great explanation. Thanks.
Also, other than sending you a check, how/where do I invest in this field?

[LynchPin1477]

Also, other than sending you a check, how/where do I invest in this field?

Well, it's NSF funded, so if you pay taxes you're already sending a check.

But checkout the Einstein@Home project.

[Heedless]

But I don't want it to explode. Explosions are bad.

[Catatafish & Woodchips]

That...was an incredible description.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

That wasn't very poetic. It didn't even rhyme.

[Medical Physics Guy]

Cool. So is this like CERN where the announcement will end with, "assuming the instruments were correctly calibrated"?

[LynchPin1477]

I suspect not. The LIGO people I know have been *very* tight lipped, but I have heard two rumors

1) They have multiple detections that are believable but still relatively low S/N
2) They have a whopping bright detection at something like 22-sigma

Maybe both of those are true.

Either way, LIGO is *very* careful about their detection protocols. I'd be surprised they would be making such a big announcement if they didn't have a pretty close to slam dunk detection(s).

I am guessing the paper will be in the online edition of Nature right after the press conference (otherwise they wouldn't be allowed to talk to the press), so it will all be out there. They aren't following the BICEP2 model.

[LynchPin1477]

And pretty much everything they had done with LIGO from an instrument standpoint before this past October was making sure the instrument was calibrated correctly. It's a real engineering marvel.

[LynchPin1477]

So just got done watching the press conference. It's a slam dunk. Single detection, but super high S/N and a perfect match to the GR-predicted waveforms.

[Old Man With Candy]

Oops!

[CPRM]

Funny Or Die Presents Donald Trump's The Art Of The Deal: The Movie

With Johnny Depp, Ron Howard, Alfred Molina, Robert Morse, Patton Oswalt, Jack McBrayer, Michaela Watkins, Henry Winkler, Stephen Merchant, Christopher Lloyd, Kristen Schaal, Andy Richter, Paul Scheer, Rob Huebel, Tymberlee Hill, Alf, Jordan Coleman, Joe Nu?ez, Jeremy Konner, Kenny Loggins, Funny Or Die, more ?
Donald Trump has it all. Money, power, respect, and an Eastern European bride. But all his success didn't come for nothing. First, he inherited millions of dollars from his rich father, then he grabbed New York City by the balls. Now you can learn the art of negotiation, real estate, and high-quality brass in this illuminating made-for-TV special feature, Funny Or Die Presents Donald Trump's The Art Of The Deal: The Movie.

[Monty Crisco]

ITs actually pretty hilarious.... but only because it is so true to watching the ACTUAL Donald Trump just act normally like he acts...

[CPRM]

I got a few chuckles out of it. I just wondered if it's covered by Citizen's United, or if it would have been safe before that under parody.

[Jordan]

No, it wouldn't have. I'm going to use this to get my Citizens United hating friends to paint themselves into a corner.

[Pay up, Palin's Buttplug!]

Yeah, it would have. It espouses Correct Thinking, just like Fahrenheit 9/11 which Citizen United tried to squash with campaign finance laws. When that failed, they created a movie about Hillary Clinton which espoused Wrong Thinking to see if it would be challenged in court and it was, all the way to the Supreme Court where Koch controlled Wrong Thinking judges said it was Free Speach.

[John]

That troupe is such false advertising. It is never funny and no one ever dies.

[Lord Humungus]

Black lawmakers sprint to Clinton's aid

Black Democrats are closing ranks around Hillary Clinton amid growing fears that Bernie Sanders poses a real threat to her presidential candidacy.

The Congressional Black Caucus PAC this week voted to make its endorsement of Clinton official, and "more than a dozen" CBC members will be storming South Carolina later this month to stump for her ahead of the state's Feb. 27 Democratic primary, according to CBC Chairman G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.).

Clinton leads Sanders by a wide margin in the Palmetto State, particularly among black voters. But the Vermont senator's blowout victory in New Hampshire on Tuesday ? combined with his surprisingly close finish in Iowa the week before ? has some Clinton supporters concerned that she's failing to connect with younger voters.

Black... sprinters... racist!

[Rich]

Oh, very well. "Black lawmakers *jump* to Clinton's aid"

[Hamster of Doom]

Dance, puppets, dance!

[WTF]

Doesn't matter, the DNC has rigged the super-delegates so much that they have guaranteed Hillary gets the nomination whether she wins the primaries or not.

[Injun, as in from India]

+1 Micro-aggression

[Lord Humungus]

Co-ed naked yoga picking up steam in Calgary

A handful of Calgarians looking for a different kind of zen have been ditching the lycra for a new kind of downward dog.

It's been over a year since Katherine Medina began running co-ed naked yoga classes in Calgary and she says business just keeps picking up steam. What started as classes with two or four nude yoga students has grown to packed classes of 20 to 30 ? and month after month her database keeps growing.

As of last week, over 300 Calgarians had signed up with Medina at one point in time.

"It literally is growing week by week, I get probably two to three people every week, without fail, every class I have has at least one new person in it," Medina said.

[Monty Crisco]

Soooooo, I'll ask. What is the protocol when one of the students gets a boner?

[UnCivilServant]

Probably similar to all other unclothed activities - shun them and throw them out for being human.

[Monty Crisco]

*making notes to himself*

[John]

If it is serious Yoga, they are likely in too much pain to get much of a boner, unless they are into that.

[straffinrun]

Depends. Are you talking about a female or male?

[Jerryskids]

I was wondering what the policy was on auditing the class. You know, just observing the class at first just to see if it might be something I'd be interested in paying for. For like $5.99 per month or something.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

More like 5.99 a minute.

1-900-555-YOGA

[Lee G]

The concept is better than the reality. Do you really want to be staring at the sweaty asshole 18 inches in front of you?

[Restoras]

Yeah, unless I'm the only dude and all the women are 25 and lithe, this would suck.

[Monty Crisco]

But if they are.... fucking BLISS, amirite?!?!?

[Restoras]

Well, yeah...

[Crusty Juggler]

Yes.

[SugarFree]

The pic with the articles is all dudes. No thanks.

[straffinrun]

Might be fun to watch the Newton Cradle.

[Rich]

"Joey, you ever hang around the yoga class?"

[BearOdinson]

Seriously, how is this NOT going to be a sausage fest?

[SugarFree]

Yeah, most hot girls are not into giving away free peeks of the backburger.

[Citizen X]

Counterpoint: most of the Internet. I, uh, heard.

[Certified Public Asshat]

The naked yoga classes I have seen always end up with the 3 girls in the room tearing the dude apart.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

As evidenced in the internet documentaries you watch?

[Riven]

What about all those pictures I sent you?

[SugarFree]

You are a special case. We were always fated to ogle each other.

[Riven]

It's true. I mean... dem calves, brah!

[Citizen X]

dem calves

Like a pair of shiny pink dolphins sticking out of the bottoms of his cargo shorts.

[Riven]

Hey, if you've got it, flaunt it, right?

[Elspeth Flashman]

So, there's a local place that offers this. I haven't been. But the same place also does marijuana (or since we are in Michigan, marihuana) certifications, will (probably) eventually become a dispensary, has accupuncture, etc. But I have no desire to see the average hippie dude get naked to pose in front of me. He'd be with tribal or yin-yang tattoos, a few facial piercings, lots of manscaping. No thanks.

[Brett L]

Hairy, sweaty man taint is better?

[Fist of Etiquette]

It finally came this week, it appears?in the form of a pink slip for the faculty adviser of the campus newspaper.

Excuse me, dear? For your information the Supreme Court has roundly rejected prior restraint.

[SIV]

It finally came this week, it appears?in the form of a pink slip for the faculty adviser of the campus newspaper."

Or as millenial reporters call it, CENSORSHIP.

[Hamster of Doom]

You say that like it's a bad thing.

[SIV]

Bad like if Coke fires communications staff for saying Pepsi is a superior product on the company dime.

[Hamster of Doom]

*edits*

You say that like it's a bad thing.

Better?

[Hamster of Doom]

Goddamit, the HTML.

/millennial reporters

[Jordan]

Um, yeah, that would be a textbook example. Censorship does not require government action. It's really amusing how much Robby brings out the butthurt in the yokels here.

[Citizen X]

It's because Robby's glorious hair gives the yokels... uncomfortable feelings.

In their pants.

[sarcasmic]

Cleveland SUES Tamir Rice's family over $500 unpaid ambulance bill after cops shot their 13-year-old son dead

Tamir Rice, 12, was shot by Cleveland police officer in November 2014
In December, a grand jury declined to indict the two officers involved
Now, the city is suing the family for unpaid emergency medical care bills
The claims says the family owe $450 for 'advance life support' and $50 for the ambulance ride to the hospital where Tamir died
The Rice family attorney's branded the city's callousness 'breathtaking'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....-dead.html

What's the fun of injury if you can't add insult to it?

[Old Man With Candy]

They also billed the family for the bullet.

[BearOdinson]

OK, maybe some rioting is warranted in this case.

[The Last American Hero]

Is there a kickstarter or fund me for this?

[Injun, as in from India]

They had the capacity to write it off. $500 is chump change for progressive-run government rackets.

This is bullshit.

[Mookman]

Stop Bernie Splaining to Black Voters.

Those who predicted the left would turn on itself this election are looking more prophetic by the week.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

When did we start adding "splaining" to everything as a means of dismissing views you don't want to hear? And why have those in the media so latched onto this idiotic and uncreative phrasing?

[Hamster of Doom]

As a word to encapsulate the concept of "pontificating from a self-perceived position of knowledge and authority, to someone who has equal or greater knowledge of the subject", it really does work, though.

[Medical Physics Guy]

Yes but it's long shifted to a term used to silence debate. A white person trying to persuade non-white people of anything at all is now not to be judged on the merits of the arguments but is "whitesplaining". Never mind the ideas themselves. It's a way to just ignore them.

[Hamster of Doom]

That's a pity. It's not nice to make a perfectly good word whore on the streets for you.

[Chipwooder]

For 40 years every scandal gets "-gate" welding onto it. The media is extraordinarily lazy.

[OneOut]

Do I have to 'splain it to you ?

[Citizen X]

And why have those in the media so latched onto this idiotic and uncreative phrasing?

Desi Arnaz tribute?

[EMD]

"And why have those in the media so latched onto this idiotic and uncreative phrasing?"

Right after Splaingate.

[Frankjasper1]

This guy is absolutely right for the most part. The Bernie Sanders fans are playing the paternalism role here by telling blacks he knows what their best interests are.

Whenever progs say they are looking out for my best interest, it is always their interests or they have established what my interests should be based on theirs. They dont really care what my interests are....because they get angry when it doesn't align with what they thought.

Note: When i am talking about me here...note i am talking just like in general their attitude to everyone else.

[Jerryskids]

The Bernie Sanders fans are playing the paternalism role here by telling blacks he knows what their best interests are.

But that's what the Left has always done and it's never been a problem before. Not just with blacks, with women, gays, any minority. It's why Clarence Thomas isn't "really" black or Sarah Palin "really" a woman - the Left knows these things and if you argue with them you're wrong.

[Krabappel]

It is delightful.

[Lord Humungus]

Gold Roars to One-Year High as Turmoil Drives Safe Haven Demand

Gold climbed to the highest in a year as investors sought a haven from tumbling stock markets after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen suggested the central bank may delay raising interest rates.

The metal jumped as much as 3.8 percent to $1,242.26 an ounce, the highest since February 2015. Bullion has gained 16 percent this year, making it the best-performing commodity. Shares of producers rallied on Thursday, with Gold Fields Ltd. and AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. jumping more than 12 percent.

[Lee G]

There will be a short term rise until investors have to start raising cash to pay off calls.

[Swiss Servator]

But...but Shriek has been telling us for 3 years (or more) it would be $600/oz!

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Just what the heck is going on? Tesla reports terrible earnings but...

"...Speaking of Nissan, earlier in the day, it had already started taunting Tesla by reporting $3.7 billion in net income for the nine months ending December 2015. During the same nine months, Tesla racked up losses of $734 million..."

http://seekingalpha.com/articl.....vels?ifp=0

[UnCivilServant]

I made a random comment on a dead thread about this, so I'll repeat myself here.

I recently saw a tesla in real life. I looked boring.

I mean "the kind of sedan I drive" boring.

For their price point you'd think they'd manage something other than the 'dumpy commuter car' look.

[Chipwooder]

Nothing is more irritating than the fawning of upper-class leftists over Tesla, while ignoring the massive subsidies that allow them to stay in business despite losing enormous sums of money.

[Drake]

Kevin Williamson writes a good article about police abuse in general and former Los Angeles sheriff Lee Baca in particular. When National Review gets rid of him, he will be the best writer by far at Reason.

http://www.nationalreview.com/.....lee-bacaat NRO.

[Monty Crisco]

HA!! SUCK IT, DRAKE!!!

But yeah, good article...

[John]

All of the worst examples of police misconduct have taken place in cities that are single party Democrat rules and who haven't had a Republican mayor in decades. Yet, the black lives matter idiots are convinced it its the evil Republicans who are to blame for the problem.

[Just say Nikki]

Yet, the black lives matter idiots are convinced it its the evil Republicans who are to blame for the problem.

Do they really talk about Republicans? That's not at all my experience of them.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Identity politics and cognitive dissonance are the Democratic Party's two best friends.

[The Last American Hero]

Do you honestly think a Republican mayor would clean up the police department? The only thing conservatives like more than failed nation building efforts in the Middle East is cop worship.

[Crusty Juggler]

There is no police corruption in San Diego.

[Lee G]

Now that's funny. My wife used to work for the POA's attorney.

[John]

I don't know. But even they didn't, that doesn't make them responsible for problems in places they have no political influence over.

[Lord Humungus]

The 18th Brumaire of Donald Trump

In The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon, Karl Marx famously blamed the French bourgeoisie for the dictatorship of Louis-Napoleon. The dictatorship "was contained in a finished state within the parliamentary republic," wrote Marx. "It only required a bayonet thrust for the bubble to burst and the monster to spring forth before our eyes." Marx was right about some things, and that was one of them.

It's a lesson progressives should keep in mind as they behold the rise of Donald Trump. An American dictatorship is now a realistic possibility, because 80 years of progressive politics have left us with its vital elements fully contained within our system of government. Since the administrations of Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt, progressive presidents have been loosening the Constitution's constraints on executive power, Obama most of all. We could soon find that the only things standing between us and the bubble's bursting are the forbearance and wisdom of Donald Trump.

Consider the precedent set by two Obama actions: the DAPA executive amnesty of illegal immigrants and the "suspension" of the business mandate under Obamacare.

[John]

I don't think we are quite that close, but that is dead on in the cause of us being as close as we are. The only thing it forgets is the appalling and vital role the media has played in that. The media by being so in love with power and one sided, has enabled much of that to happen. That is of course why Trump is no threat to be a dictator. Only someone the media is willing to toady to could do it.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...quoted the university's president likening struggling freshmen to bunnies that should be drowned, they knew it might get a big reaction.

The Church hasn't approved of animal sacrifice in quite some time.

[sarcasmic]

Gunman shoots two cops dead in 'ambush' at crowded Maryland Panera restaurant after targeting them because of their uniforms

David Brian Evans, 67, shot a sheriff's deputy in Panera Bread in Abingdon
The officer had responded to a report that Evans was causing a problem
The deputy had tried to talk to Evans, who shot him in the head and fled
Another deputy tracked the fleeing shooter down and a gunfight broke out
Second deputy was also severely injured before the gunman was killed
The second deputy died later in hospital
Slain officers were described as a 30-year veteran and a 16-year veteran
Police have not released a motive, but the sheriff believes first deputy was shot because 'he was wearing a uniform'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....oting.html
WAR ON COPS!

[SugarFree]

Panera Bread does not care about cop people.

[WTF]

So, they have no idea what his actual motive was, it sounds like he may have just been a nut causing trouble in Panera, but let's just assume it is WAR ON COPZ.

[Crusty Juggler]

As I said last night, it's a war on overpriced fast casual.

[Citizen X]

As long as Chipotle is a casualty, this is a war i can support.

[WTF]

Chipotle's wounds are self-inflicted.

[Citizen X]

Chipotle has also wounded me, man. And through me, the bathroom at that one Barnes and Noble.

[Jerryskids]

It says right in the headline it was an ambush, so I have to assume that the Daily Mail knows what the motive was. Are you suggesting a newspaper might lie and make shit up?

[sarcasmic]

Set the narrative early so when the facts come out the narrative will already be established.

[Mr Drew]

So I had a tough, noobie day yesterday.

I got drawn into an exchange with Michael Hihn. I didn't recognize its name until it started (giggling). Ugh.

On top of that embarrassment, when I asked a perfectly innocent question about the STEVE SMITH meme, Humungus gave me a link to SugarFree's blog, with No Warning Whatsoever!

Innocent that I am, I clicked it, and ?read?.

I wonder if Alaska still needs pipeline walkers? I feel that my usefulness to society has been rather severely diminished.

[SugarFree]

Humungus gave me a link to SugarFree's blog, with No Warning Whatsoever!

Not cool, Humungus! The blog is to be used for good, not evil.

[UnCivilServant]

There is no good there.

[Mr Drew]

the blog used the word ..."rapeating"

[UnCivilServant]

*loads shotgun*

Don't worry, this will be over quick.

[Mr Drew]

Bless you, UnCivil

[Hamster of Doom]

See? You learned a new word, so your day wasn't completely wasted.

[Swiss Servator]

Join the rest of us...

*gives vacant, haunted stare*

[WTF]

Be careful, one day you are finding entertainment in SugarFree's blog, and before you know it, you are making suicide jokes about "Black Lives Splatter".

[Lord Humungus]

good people sleep better, but bad people seem to have more fun when they're awake

[Zeb]

When you become indifferent to SugarFree's blog, you will no longer be a noob. It's the only way.

[Citizen X]

And when you've been around long enough to actually appear in one of his stories... well, by then, even in death there is no escape.

I'd cry, but when i do, the only thing emerging from my tear ducts is a horde of locusts with scorpion tails and the heads of ravening lions.

[bacon-magic]

+1 Manticore

[hound]

Not sure Visine will get that red out.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Abandon hope, all noobs who enter here.

[Lord Humungus]

When will financial markets start freaking out about Donald Trump?

Granted, stocks didn't plunge after Trump's big primary victory. Nor did the dollar collapse. Markets were actually steady. There is still probably plenty of skepticism on Wall Street that Trump could actually defeat Clinton. The former secretary of state tops the billionaire businessman in head-to-head polling match-ups, with betting markets giving her an overall 64 percent chance of beating the eventual GOP nominee. Indeed, a Goldman Sachs research report last month noted a "surprising degree of confidence" among Wall Streeters that Clinton would be the next president.

Trump's continued success, however, could create a political-economic feedback loop in his favor: He continues to win primaries, so investors get spooked and sell stocks. Weakening markets and declining 401k balances hurt consumer confidence and spending. The so-so economy slows further and job growth slips. This then strengthens the GOP argument that Obamanomics is a bust. America can't risk a de facto third Obama term with Hillary in charge. Time for a change. Time for Trump.

[Illocust]

Why would wall street get spooked about Trump? He's got nothing against them and doesn't seem to be campaigning on their destruction. He's openly part of the business world. Short of a libertarian getting elected he's the most stable candidate that could win from an investor point of view.

[DJF]

So nothing is actually happening but the author put Trump's name in the article so he could get people to read it

[OneOut]

Trump has financed his campaign with loans he obtained from several of the Too Big To Fail Banks. He has borrowed close to $500 million dollars from them in order to Self Fund His Campaign.

I don't think Wall Street is afraid of a Trump Presidency at all.

If fact I think they are looking forward to it.

[CatoTheChipper]

Trump has lots of experience in managing bankruptcy ... yuuuuuugggge bankruptcies. Nobody is better qualified to be president than Donald J. Trump.

[Illocust]

""When student reporters at Mount St. Mary's University, a small Catholic institution in Maryland, published an article in January that quoted the university's president likening struggling freshmen to bunnies that should be drowned, they knew it might get a big reaction. It finally came this week, it appears?in the form of a pink slip for the faculty adviser of the campus newspaper.""

This was one of the dumbest controversies ever. The president basically said if you realize a student isn't going to make it through college don't let them waste their money on tuition. Encourage them to go elsewhere or drop out. Oh my god, the horror, he's not interested in bilking them of funds they won't get back. Seriously wish more university presidents would take this approach.

Apparently a big part of the controversy, from what I read, is the fact that he used "violent imagery". The mere mention of a glock is just too horrible to be put in writing.

[John]

He made the mistake of telling the truth and worse telling a truth no one in higher ed wants to hear.

[Certified Public Asshat]

I may be an alumni of this school, and yeah, I do not really care about what he said.

Many of my classmates however are really freaking out. mainly due to the fact that he fired the professors involved with the paper.

[WTF]

It seems that he did fire people for having the nerve to disagree with him, which is troubling for a university. But kind of par for the course these days, I guess.

[Injun, as in from India]

Of course the imagery was violent.

He can't bring up a high-capacity fully-automatic assault-rifle Glock and get away with it.

[Jerryskids]

It was my understanding that the prez wasn't interested in saving any students time and money, he was strictly interested in boosting the schools US News and World Report (or some such) ranking in terms of how selective they were and how smart the average student was. He was culling the herd to make him look like a better shepherd, if I may mix my metaphors.

[Lord Humungus]

Something Very Disturbing Spotted In A Morgan Stanley Presentation

One of the most surprising comments this year came from a closed session on fintech where I sat next to someone in policy circles who argued that we should move quickly to a cashless economy so that we could introduce negative rates well below 1% ? as they were concerned that Larry Summers' secular stagnation was indeed playing out and we would be stuck with negative rates for a decade in Europe. They felt below (1.5)% depositors would start to hoard notes, leading to yet further complexities for monetary policy.

[Lee G]

We are in uncharted territory. They want to get rid of cash so they can digitally issue money with no limits on speed. It's all to prevent the liquidation of bad debt, but eventually that debt has to be settled, one way or another. By postponing the inevitable, they introduce more and more risk and imbalance, until the currency itself is threatened.

It isn't going to end well.

[Illocust]

If they actually get rid of physical cash, that will eliminate one of the biggest barriers to alternate currencies like Bitcoin. If everything already has to exist as nothing but digital code I might as well move to something that can't be fucked with at will.

[Lee G]

It won't be Bitcoin. Bitcoin is self-limiting. That is the last thing they want right now. What they want is the capability to instantly create currency in infinite amounts.

It's John Law and the Mississippi Bubble all over again, just with computers.

[Illocust]

Limitations for the individual not the government. Right now, there are barriers of use for the individual, but the eliminating cash will get rid or make equal a lot of those barriers. Individual will be more likely to switch over to alternate forms of cash.

[Lee G]

It will create personal incentive to use Bitcoin, yes. But I expect governments to soon start outlawing alternative currencies. It's not like they haven't outlawed owning gold in the past. The financial situation in Europe is deadly serious and they (the governments) will take extreme measures to protect themselves and the banks. It's estimated that the European banks are currently holding over 1 trillion in bad loans.

[Jerryskids]

The ability of the government to electronically control your money is more than just the macro-economic stuff. Between ubiquitous license-plate scanners and surveillance cameras with facial-recognition capabilities, GPS tracking devices everybody willing carries about on their person (or RFID chips in ID cards for those who refuse to keep their cellphones on them at all times), forcing everybody to use plastic rather than paper is a way they can instantly seize all your travelling money if hey suddenly decide they want you to stay right there until they can send somebody around to pick you up.

I'm warning you, that wall Trump wants to build ain't to keep "them" out, it's to keep you in. Someday when you wake up and see what your country's become and you decide you don't want to live here any more, you'll find it's too late to decide you'd rather be somewhere else. They've already made it where you can't just hoof it to Mexico without a passport and you damn sure aren't getting enough cash through Customs to pay off whatever federales you gotta pay for new paper to move on from Mexico. You go to Mexico and think you're going to get cash out through a bank? Not any more.

(Why, yes, I do make my own tin-foil hats. Why do you ask? You want one? They're going to be all the rage in just a few years.)

[straffinrun]

They don't need to get rid of cash. Just have a lottery for certain numbers that would void the note. An idea I've actually seen floated.

[Ken Shultz]

"A Facebook page for his ranch announced that Cliven Bundy, who came to the national spotlight in a fight with the federal Bureau of Land Management over grazing rights for his cattle in 2014, was heading to Oregon earlier Wednesday.

"It's time," the post said. "Cliven Bundy is headed to the Harney County Resource Center in Burns Oregon."

After landing in Portland, Oregon, Bundy was taken into federal custody, the FBI said.

It's not clear what he's been charged with. The FBI said authorities would make charging information available on Thursday morning."

He was using federal airspace to fly to the site of a protest, that's why!

[Lord Humungus]

EPA Goes After Low-Income Farmers

Pendleton County, West Virginia, is home to 540 farms. The average farm in the county has a net income of around $45,000 a year. On either coast, that's not an impressive income, but those farms are important to Pendleton County, where the median household income is $30,429.

...

At least some of those EPA employees have been thinking about farms in Pendleton County. The county is in the Chesapeake Bay watershed and, consequently, in the crosshairs of a massive and detailed EPA blueprint to alter the waters of the bay. The plan, an outgrowth of an executive order President Obama signed shortly after taking office, divides the Chesapeake watershed into thousands of small areas and prescribes pollution abatement goals for each of those areas.

These goals, or total maximum daily loads (TMDL), will give EPA total control over land use throughout the six states and the District of Columbia that make up the Chesapeake Watershed. For farmers in Pendleton County, the effects will be immediate and drastic. Or, to quote from a brief the county and several other nearby counties filed in the Third Circuit Court: "It is anticipated that a significant amount of Pendleton county farmland will have to be removed from production due to its proximity to waterways and the resulting impact of the Bay TMDL on local land use."

[Hamster of Doom]

We must not allow sentimentality to get in the way of the People's Will. All for the Motherland!

[Chipwooder]

The Rodina ain't gonna defend itself, tovarisch

[DJF]

They go after the little guy's who don't have the resources to fight it out in the courts to get precedent so they can then go after the middle level farmers. The rich and politically connected farms have bought enough politicians to get exemptions

[Catatafish & Woodchips]

My folks are part of the watershed in Virginia. They were considering constructing a small pond in a section of the tiny stream running through their property. Not damming it, just widening/deepening a particular area. When they started to talk to landscape outfits they were told they'd be better off renting a backhoe and doing the work themselves to keep it quiet as the EPA was taking very seriously the whole "all your standing puddles is belong to us" mentality.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

I guess the 'E' stands for evil, huh.

[Citizen X]

The funny* part about the EPA's plan is that the Chesapeake Bay right now is already cleaner than it has been in probably a century, thanks largely to the work of oyster conservationists.

*not "haha" funny, though

[Lee G]

Most of the pollution comes out of the DC/Maryland area anyway.

It is true that farmers in Shenandoah and beyond will let their cattle stand in the river and shit directly in it because it's an inconvenience to fence it off and keep the cattle from breaking it down. I don't have much sympathy for them in that respect as it fouls the river for everyone downstream.

However, the EPA has taken a broad view of what constitutes a watershed and is using that as a cudgel to harass anyone and everyone who owns property within a mile of a rivulet that connects to the Bay. The general rule for any property development up there is don't ask, don't tell.

[Jerryskids]

Jesus, the EPA is like the shock-troops for the Total Control State. No matter how many cases get taken to the Supreme Court and how many times they get slapped down, they keep coming back with more and with worse. This is a war, folks, and you aren't an innocent by-stander, you're the enemy. The EPA hates your guts and wants you to die.

[Free Society]

The EPA hates your guts and wants you to die.

The feeling is mutual.

[ant1sthenes]

That's why they're poisoning people left and right, apparently.

[Pope Jimbo]

Behold the wisdom of the govt where Tundra and I live!

A couple of bar managers are going to be rung up with felonies for selling a non-licensed beer in our town.

The Wisconsin Department of Revenue received an anonymous tip about the alcohol-related crime and contacted Minnesota's Department of Public Safety, according to the criminal complaint. Undercover officers visited the bar on April 13, ordered Spotted Cow from the tap and secretly tested the beer, which proved stronger than 3.2 percent alcohol.

I don't know about Tundra, but I know that I feel so safe knowing that these dedicated undercover agents are on the job.

[Ken Shultz]

How do you get that job--undercover beer taster?

[Jordan]

I can't find a link, but the Federal Government used to employ a wine tester until sometime in the 90s, if I recall correctly. But now we live in Somalia.

[The Last American Hero]

But in the 90's, we lived in Sommelieria?

[Sarcasmancer]

This comment deserves some kind of an award.

[Just say Nikki]

Is every Wisconsin beer story about New Glarus?

[Roger the Shrubber]

The surest way to get me drinking liquor is 3.2ABV or less beer.

[KeithC]

Didn't realize that there were any fellow Wisconsin folks here.

//tips cap, grumbles about weather

[Lord Humungus]

No Respite for S&P 500 as U.S. Stock Futures Join Global Selloff

U.S. stock futures followed oil prices lower, extending an earlier slump as investors shunned risk worldwide to spark a global selloff in equities.

Contracts on the Standard & Poor's 500 Index expiring in March fell 1.9 percent to 1,811 at 7:22 a.m. in New York. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 302 points, or 1.9 percent, while Nasdaq 100 Index contracts slumped 2.2 percent.

The S&P 500 is 13 percent below its all-time high set in May, near its cheapest level in two years. The benchmark hasn't managed to post a gain in the past four sessions -- another drop today would mark its longest no-gain streak since September.

[straffinrun]

What the hell happened to the floor?
*Does Will E. Coyote leg spin for 3 seconds*

[Lee G]

The reality is that January was the worst month for the indices in decades and it is only the beginning. The debt pyramid is coming apart. The central banks managed to stifle a lot of the liquidation in 2008/2009, but now it's coming home to roost.

[WTF]

It's all because BOOOOSHHH drove the economy onto a ditch so bad even Obama couldn't save it!

[Lee G]

It's like Obama drove the vehicle out of the ditch and into the woods.

[WTF]

Stuffed a rag in the gas tank and set that fucker on fire.

[Restoras]

TARP was profitable! It was all Bush's fault! The deficit has been cut in half! Bush squandered record surpluses! Unemployment has rarely been lower! There's no inflation! Record profits! Taxes are low!

[Rich]

At least a dozen email accounts handled the "top secret" intelligence that was found on Hillary Clinton's server and recently deemed too damaging for national security to release, a U.S. government official close to the review told Fox News. The official said the accounts include not only Clinton's but those of top aides ? including Cheryl Mills, Huma Abedin, Jake Sullivan and Philippe Reines ? as well as State Department Under Secretary for Management Patrick F. Kennedy and others. There is no public evidence they were authorized to receive the intelligence some of which was beyond Top Secret.

"See, *everybody* does it! No big deal!"

[Ken Shultz]

Something tells me the FBI's investigation of Hillary will either gain momentum or peter out depending on how well she does on Super Tuesday.

If it still looks like she might be their next boss, somehow they'll conclude that no charges should be filed.

[Rich]

Surely there is *one* conscientious person on this case, right? RIGHT?!

[John]

Her doing badly won't help her. At this point, I think her aides are likely toast. She may be too big to fail but someone is going to have to answer for this. I think DOJ is going to try and keep the dogs off her by indicting her aides. This would give the intel community some kind of satisfaction and allow Hillary to tell her brain dead supporters that she was the victim of bad advice and incompetent people around her.

[Ivan Pike]

Unfortunately I think you are right John. Goats will be scaped.

[John]

Those fuckers deserve to go to jail just as much as she does. So in one sense justice would be served. But since it would be done as a way to let her off the hook, it wouldn't be served much.

[Catatafish & Woodchips]

And none of the time will be serious enough to cause any of those aids to flip on her either.

[Ken Shultz]

Not if she's winning come Super Tuesday.

Remember when Janet Reno offered her resignation after Waco? Clinton couldn't accept it. If he accepted her resignation, that might make it look like the Clinton Administration had done something wrong.

Remember Travelgate? I bet the FBI does.

If the FBI goes too far and Hillary becomes President, the FBI is going to be in a world of hurt. And Hillary doesn't care of going after the FBI creates a scandal. She's been living with scandals everyday for more than 20 years. She eats scandal for breakfast.

[Catatafish & Woodchips]

My bitter, cynical heart agrees with you. The small sliver of humanity and basic decency that remains tells me that the major difference here is that FBI Director Comey is vastly respected in all quarters, will do what is right (up to and including very publicly quitting in protest) and that the media will be forced to conduct a raft of interviews with him.

Alas, it is a tiny, tiny sliver.

[Ken Shultz]

Comey refused to sign off on the NSA warrantless wiretapping program when Ashcroft was in the hospital. I'll give him that.

[Illocust]

That may be reason for the FBI to go to the mat on this. They are already screwed. There have been constant leaks that have hurt Hillary's creditability with swing voters (Bernie may not be where he is today without this scandal). She's already going to be out for blood if she gets elected, so their best chance at self-preservation might be to take her and her cronies down hard.

[Ken Shultz]

Even if they find what she did was illegal, it's a different case if it looks like she's going to win the nomination.

Presidents don't go to trial. They're impeached. And just because you impeach a Clinton doesn't mean they'll lose--either in Congress or the court of public opinion.

[John]

There is more at stake here than the FBI. This involves the entire intel community. And the intel community is even more powerful than the FBI.

It is not so much Hillary who is in danger, it is the rest of the Democratic party. If the FBI had to let Hillary go, it would make the entire country think they are partisan hacks. Their only choice would be to try and make up for it by taking down another high level Democrat to show that the law still applies to Democrats. And no Democrat wants the FBI taking an interest in them, especially with the support of the intel community. .

[ant1sthenes]

The FBI, sure. If the CIA thinks its people are being killed because of Herself's greed and incompetence and that she is about to take that into the White House, they have the ability to settle the matter in a more decisive fashion.

[Rich]

Fair analysis, John.

I trust the GOP will then capitalize on her admitting her own incompetHAHAHAHAHAAA!! Damn, couldn't quite get it out!

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

allow Hillary to tell her brain dead supporters that she was the victim of bad advice and incompetent people around her.

But you should all vote for her anyway, amirite?

[Pope Jimbo]

I would sign up for pay per view showing of Huma's face when Hillary throws her under the bus to save her own wrinkly ass.

I'm sure Huma believes that Clinton really does think of her as a daughter. That would make it so wonderful to see her dragged off and convicted because Hillary flipped on her.

Of course, maybe Huma is just as sociopathic and will flip on Hillary if the FBI offers a job.

[Injun, as in from India]

It's going to peter out. Obama is already trying to thumb the scales against Comrade Sanders. He called Sanders the "shiny new thing" in an interview a few weeks ago.

This administration has little regard for the rule of law. It's purely political.

[Catatafish & Woodchips]

The irony of Obama referring to any candidate as the "shiny new thing" is so thick you could choke on it.

[Griffin3]

And if you don't think every world power worth mentioning didn't have those emails cracked within a month of noticing that clintonemail.com resolved to a not-state-dept IP address, then I have a prince in Abuja I would like to introduce to you.

[Pope Jimbo]

Local police get call about loud pounding in an apartment. Respond to call, hear pounding, break into apartment and kill owner.

The fatal sin? He tried to stab the dog they released on the guy to get him out of the closet where he was hiding.

[Jerryskids]

So what did they fear the pounding was? Non-permitted bathroom remodeling?

[EMD]

I'm surprised they didn't shoot the dog as well, you know, just for good measure.

[Lord Humungus]

Trump and Sanders: The Founders' Worst Nightmare

Our Framers would despair about the winners of the nation's first presidential primaries in New Hampshire. Though polar opposites with very different ideological starting points, both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders would have set the Framers' hair ? or wigs ? on fire. They designed the Constitution to moderate the people at home while preparing a president to act quickly to counter emergencies, crises, and war abroad. Instead, the Republicans have a demagogue and the Democrats have an economic radical who promise swift, extreme change.

The men who met in Philadelphia in 1787 to write a new constitution designed it to prevent someone like Donald Trump from ever becoming president. One of their great fears was of a populist demagogue who would promise the people everything and respect nothing. As Alexander Hamilton, the key theorist of executive power during the Founding, warned in Federalist 67: "Talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity, may alone suffice to elevate a man to the first honours of a single state."

meh - I think the Founders would despair to see what their grand experiment has become.

[Hamster of Doom]

There's that old story. An eagerly waiting crowd outside where the discussions on the new founding document were ongoing, spotted Ben Franklin leaving the building and asked him what sort of government they were to have. He replied, "A republic, if you can keep it."

Possibly apocryphal, but I suspect they saw this coming. In whatever Valhalla those early founders went to, we are being jeered and given the Picard Facepalm Award..

[John]

I agree with you and LH. The Founders were fully aware of the kind of low lifes that are attracted to politics. They would have found both Sanders and Trump objectionable but not surprising. If the founders could visit 21st Century America they would despair over what we have done to our democratic institutions, specifically Congress and the Courts. The system was designed to ensure no single person could do much damages. It and really no system can withstand a sustained assault on all of its institutions.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Meh. I believe John Adams thought the republican experiment was already done in his lifetime. It's been all whatever since then!

[The Last American Hero]

Why stop at Trump and Sanders - what about Mr. secret kill list/Pen and Phone

[Lord Humungus]

Obama's budget would stop reimbursing prisons for holding illegal immigrants

Under President Obama's proposed budget for fiscal 2017, the Justice Department would abandon a program that reimburses state and local prisons for housing illegal immigrants convicted of crimes.

The move to eliminate the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) ? which would save the Justice Department $210 million ? is likely to face significant resistance in Congress and from local officials concerned about a loss of funding.

The White House has moved in the past to trim or cancel the program, and each year, it has survived, said Jessica Vaughan, the director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, which generally supports reduced immigration.

[BearOdinson]

For the sake of argument, lets say these illegal aliens have been convicted of "real" crimes (identity theft, robbery, murder, rape etc.). Obviously they shouldn't be in jail if their only crime was them being here illegally, and I don't want to get bogged down in the drug war thing.

If a local or state jurisdiction is going to incarcerate them, when the federal government (by law I thought) should deport them, then shouldn't the federal government pay them for the jailing?

[WTF]

No, because FYTW.

[Free Society]

The Nation: "Why Hillary Clinton Doesn't Deserve the Black Vote."
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.): Bernie Sanders is not a "true friend" to blacks.

But which candidate is a true friend to whites? Or is tribalism in politics only acceptable for blacks?

[The Last American Hero]

Whites don't vote as a single block.

[Zeb]

I'm going with the second one.

[Jerryskids]

I saw this morning somebody using the term "intersectionality" in a way that gave me a clue as to what it means, but maybe somebody else can tell me if I have it all wrong.

Apparently a crippled black lesbian isn't just a crippled black lesbian, she's a woman, she's black, she's gay, she's handicapped. All women think alike, all black people think alike, all gay people think alike, all handicapped people think alike - but each of the groups doesn't think alike. So our hero here, in addition to everything else, has to wrestle with the conflicting views within her own soul over whether her victimhood - and hence power - comes more in a particular case from her being a woman, being black, being gay, or being crippled. Misidentifying which victim class is the superior one in a given instance can lead to Wrongthought so it's hard for her - intersectionality is yet another burden the victimized must bear!

Me, I don't have to deal with intersectionality. I'm a middle-aged straight white guy so I only belong to one group, the Evil one. It doesn't matter whether I think the way I do in any particular instance simply because I'm white or male or straight or middle-aged - I think the way I do because I'm Wrong. It does me no more good to think about the proper way to think about a particular issue than a marmoset thinking about the proper way to build an MRI machine.

[Lord Humungus]

Migrant crisis: Nato deploys Aegean people-smuggling patrols

Nato ships are being deployed to the Aegean sea to deter people-smugglers taking migrants from Turkey to Greece, Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg says.

The announcement followed a request from Turkey, Germany and Greece at a defence ministers' meeting in Brussels.

Mr Stoltenberg said the mission would not be about "stopping or pushing back refugee boats".

Nato, he said, will contribute "critical information and surveillance to help counter human trafficking".

The decision marks the security alliance's first intervention in Europe's migrant crisis.

US defence secretary Ashton Carter earlier said that targeting the "criminal syndicate that is exploiting these poor people" would have the greatest humanitarian impact.

[John]

US defence secretary Ashton Carter earlier said that targeting the "criminal syndicate that is exploiting these poor people" would have the greatest humanitarian impact.
reply to this

If you sent the ones in Europe back and made it clear getting to Europe does you no good, there wouldn't be any demand for the syndicates to target.

[Jerryskids]

US defence secretary Ashton Carter earlier said that targeting the "criminal syndicate that is exploiting these poor people" would have the greatest humanitarian impact.

I'm pretty sure he meant the GOP there, John.

[John]

That could have been funny if it made any sense in this context.

[ant1sthenes]

I read a stat recently where there was basically close to 1 migrant for every 10 greeks. That's not immigration, that's colonization. Maybe this whole thing has been Merkel's way of punishing Greece.

[Pope Jimbo]

Once again the feds fail to stop a lone wolf attack.

[SIV]

Canine-on-canine violence cause far more dog deaths than police shootings.

[Citizen X]

We need common sense lupine control NOW.

[Rich]

Growth in the adult-diaper market is outpacing that of every other paper-based household staple in the U.S.

"We're trying to make the product more normal, and even fun, with real people in our ads saying, 'Hey, I have bladder leakage, and it's no big deal.'?"

"Indeed, many people *like* wearing diapers."

[straffinrun]

The commercials need no translation.

[Rich]

That's very nice!

[Ken Shultz]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NKvN7U5RXQ

[straffinrun]

The question to ask is: were they wearing them when they sang this duet?

[straffinrun]

Damnit.

[Free Society]

Those two are all over youtube. It looks like some relatively popular singing duo just did an adult diaper commercial.

[Jerryskids]

I would have to say that depends on how you feel about adult diapers.

[Injun, as in from India]

Why are there 23 brands of adult diapers in America while children are starving in the streets?

- Comrade S.

[Ivan Pike]

Don't know how I missed this, must have been hunting.

Of Moose and Men

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Ah, the history we all weren't taught!

[GretcheninEO]

Damon- Cliven Bundy is a rancher from NEVADA NOT OREGON. The "standoff" is in Oregon.

[EMD]

WAS in Oregon.

[Sevo]

"Delay of clean power plan stokes worries about Paris treaty"
[...]
"The Obama administration asserted Wednesday that a Supreme Court order delaying enforcement of its new clean-power rules will ultimately have little impact on meeting the nation's obligations under the recent Paris climate agreement.
But environmentalists and academic experts are more nervous."
http://www.post-gazette.com/po.....1602100184

First, it ain't a treaty; hasn't been ratified. Secondly, Obo can agree to anything that obligated him, but until Congress agrees, the nation isn't obligated to do squat.
I think the Supremes just pointed out to a world full of petty dictators that we still do have a constitution.

[Frankjasper1]

The supremes that aren't liberal that is

[Raven Nation]

It amazed me how much of the world saw the Paris Treaty. I was listening to the weekly news highlights from New Zealand just after it was signed and it was akin to how I think the WWI Armistice was greeted. They really did act like the world had just been saved - although there was more work to do. BBC was about as bad.

[Frankjasper1]

Bernie Sanders and his followers especially internet commenters are really annoying. Are they in misery? I can't figure out why they like this doom and gloom attitude.

[John]

Socialism attracts a certain kind of angry bitter person. The working and lower economic classes have never been socialists. Socialism has always attracted largely upper middle and rich people who both over estimate their intelligence and wisdom and loath the world for not recognizing their greatness. Look deep enough into a socialist and you are likely to find an embittered, narcissistic person who has failed in most things they have tried.

[Frankjasper1]

Very true. His followers do seem pretty well off versus how much they hoot and holler how terrible everything is.

[Irish ?s ESB]

It's notable that he's dominating white people (who tend to be wealthier) while getting killed among the Hispanics and African Americans who are actually living in relative poverty.

[Frankjasper1]

See that is what irks me most about his followers when they say they are "looking out for your best interests"

A couple points
1. They seem jealous that others have more than them (doesn't seem to bother them if it is the other way around however)

2. They say they/Bern are looking out for your interests and that is why you should vote for him. But if your interests doesn't align with what they thought, they get really really angry. It is as if they were full of it saying they care about your interests. It is really their interests and or their desire to control your life

[Roger the Shrubber]

'A vote for X is a vote against your economic self-interest' *BARF*

[Frankjasper1]

See that is what irks me most about his followers when they say they are "looking out for your best interests"

A couple points
1. They seem jealous that others have more than them (doesn't seem to bother them if it is the other way around however)

2. They say they/Bern are looking out for your interests and that is why you should vote for him. But if your interests doesn't align with what they thought, they get really really angry. It is as if they were full of it saying they care about your interests. It is really their interests and or their desire to control your life

[Frankjasper1]

See that is what irks me most about his followers when they say they are "looking out for your best interests"

A couple points
1. They seem jealous that others have more than them (doesn't seem to bother them if it is the other way around however)

2. They say they/Bern are looking out for your interests and that is why you should vote for him. But if your interests doesn't align with what they thought, they get really really angry. It is as if they were full of it saying they care about your interests. It is really their interests and or their desire to control your life

[bacon-magic]

There you go calling all the brown people poor...

[sofiyatelar102]

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Clik this link in Your Browser
????? http://www.Wage90.com

[annetaylor254]

til I looked at the draft which had said $8465 , I accept that my friends brother was like trully making money in their spare time on their apple labtop. . there aunt haz done this less than 1 year and recently cleard the loans on there house and bought a gorgeous Saab 99 Turbo . view ....

Clik this link in Your Browser
????? http://www.Wage90.com

[lukashik]

The technology is so developed that we can watch videos, live streaming, TV serials and any of our missed programs within our mobiles and PCs. Showbox
All we need is a mobile or PC with a very good internet connection. There are many applications by which we can enjoy videos, our missed programs, live streaming etc.

[Crusty Juggler]

Yeah, what a nerd.

[Medical Physics Guy]

The Big Tesla Short.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Here, if you open a place you need a permit for each room. For example, if you have a restaurant the government deems to have five independent spaces or locales you need to get five permits (and whatever they go for a pop) for ONE establishment.

And they say the mob are into rackets?

Thankfully, through the good work of the CFIB (Canadian Federation of Independent Business) this issue has been finally discussed.

My daycare license is $365. Then they wonder why there was a scandal a few years back with a politician handing them out for a 'price'.

[Pope Jimbo]

Thanks Tundra. It wasn't hard for me to write Summit off because I never liked their beer. It urinated me off a lot when Stetrud was trying to stop our last round of liquor law reforms.

He was pretty open about how he supports the 3 tier system now because his company is big enough to cope with the red tape nonsense.

I was looking for a quote from him when Surly was trying to build their new brewery/pub but couldn't find it. I remember it as being pretty much a knob slob for the state.

[Pope Jimbo]

Maybe New Glarus should make a batch of Lindy Infante Lager? Or Majkowski Milk Stout?

[ant1sthenes]

Steyn (being Canadian by way of the UK) is a lot more personally invested (as in, has personally faced terrorist threats and state persecution) in the free speech battles outside of the US against progs and Islamists, and is also much more concerned about the Islamization of Europe.

Trump being politically incorrect in general, and also being able (unlike most politicians) to use the word Muslim in talking about terrorism is probably appealing to him.