A.M. Links: Nevada Republican Caucuses Today, Hillary vs. Bernie Town Hall Tonight, Apple vs. FBI on iPhone Privacy

• 

  CNN

  The Nevada Republican caucuses are happening today.

• Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will face off tonight in a Democratic town hall on CNN.

• Apple CEO Tim Cook: Complying with court order to unlock iPhone "too dangerous to do."

• Bill Gates: Apple should comply with the federal government and unlock the iPhone.

• Kurdish special forces have rescued a Swedish teenager from ISIS.

• "Drone users are facing the possibility of fines up to $27,500 and even jail time if they have not registered their devices with the federal government."

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Nevada Republican caucuses are happening today.

Playing their trump card!

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Hello.

"Bill Gates: Apple should comply with the federal government and unlock the iPhone."

Sounds like someone is gonna run for the Democrats one day.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

I dunno. That attitude is just as a popular in Republican circles

[Irish ?s ESB]

More popular in Republican circles. NATIONAL SECURITY, yo.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

I know but I believe he's a Democrat?

[The Last American Hero]

He is, but not as political as his dad.

[Jerryskids]

I thought Hillary already won the Nevada caucasians. How many damn Nevada caucasians are there?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will face off tonight in a Democratic town hall on CNN.

Settle the winner with an old fashioned Iowa coin toss. Heads: Hillary wins; tails: Bernie loses.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

How about jello or mud wrestling instead?

[Catatafish & Woodchips]

(retching)

[Rich]

How about "whipping them out" instead?

[Jerryskids]

Only if "whipping them out" involves actual whips and by "them" you mean Bernie and Hillary.

[Citizen X]

Hillary's is bigger, even after she got circumcised.

[DJF]

Its going to be televised, think of the children!!!!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Reading comprehension fail. It clearly says CNN.

[Swiss Servator]

THINK OF THE PEOPLE TRAPPED IN AIRPORTS!

[Timrekgrun]

OK, I laughed at this. Having spent a lot of time in airports recently, I'm not sure which is worse the TSA fondlings or the constant CNNing.

[DJF]

Oops, sorry, I thought it would be on a real network

[BearOdinson]

I am sick and tired of these mother fucking sex references to these mother fucking geriatric statist assholes.

/* Channeling my inner Sam Jackson

[Gray Ghost]

+ 6 for 6 in Iowa.

[Lord Humungus]

Highmark to cut doctors' payments for Obamacare plans

Citing an estimated $500 million loss last year on health insurance plans sold on the Affordable Care Act marketplace, Highmark Inc. said Friday it plans to reduce what it pays doctors who treat patients with the plans.

Highmark plans to reduce payments to the physicians by 4.5 percent starting April 1 as part of a broad effort to stem losses related to the federal marketplace, said Alexis Miller, Highmark's special vice president of individual and small group markets.

Miller estimated the insurer paid about $500 million more for patients' care in 2015 than it collected in premiums for the plans sold on the federal marketplace, resulting in the loss. Highmark officials have said the people who signed up through the health law's marketplace were sicker than the insurer expected.

[blighted non millenial]

Highmark experiences a shortage of available doctors in 3..2..1..

[Illocust]

Hmmm, if they pull this off right they could end up with people paying in but essentially no payments out as doctors drop them. With how the marketplace works they could theoretically exist on a constant churn of new customers who don't realize no one accepts them.

[Pope Jimbo]

The old Never Pay policy.

[SFC B]

I would bet, with Obamacare requiring you to buy insurance, an insurance company could actually come up with a product that meets the "you must have insurance or you'll be fined!" requirement, while not actually having to spend anything more than covering the costs to maintain the paperwork. Think of it as one of those cheap-o auto insurance companies who seem to exist only to allow poor/cheap people to avoid being cited for a lack of insurance. Think of it as Dr. Nick Riviera's Insurance Company with legal service by Lionel Hutz. RIP Phil Hartman.

[SoCal Deathmarch]

This is the most blatant case of false advertising since my case against "The Never-Ending Story"!

[Mock-star]

Do these sound like the actions of a man who had "all he could eat"?

[Mr. Flanders]

No, the ACA requires minimum essential coverage.

[Juice]

I signed up for a dental plan at work. When I went to look for dentists there were none within 100 miles that accepted the plan. WTF? Had to switch to the more expensive plan.

[Princess Trigger]

I'm altering the deal.
Pray I don't alter it any further.

[The Last American Hero]

Take the patients and subsidies. Pay docs poorly so there aren't enough in the network. Have coverage but excessive wait times. Profit.

[UnCivilServant]

AKA - The Canadian Method.

[Azathoth!!]

It's always amazing to me that the people who provide the actual care are the ones endlessly getting stiffed in favor of the paper pushers at the insurance and government bureaucracies.

[DJF]

Dutch man arrested at PEGIDA demonstration for wearing pink pig hat. No Muslims were at the protest but somehow the police thought they were offended

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DuoPQssKwY

[Zeb]

How is a pig hat offensive to Muslims? He wasn't trying to make them eat it.

I've heard things like this before (I think it was the Three Little Pigs being banned in some UK school) and have been utterly baffled. Muslims aren't supposed to eat pigs, but I'm not sure why that means they can't be exposed to the likeness or mention of a pig.

[Rich]

Wait just a doggone minute, there! Are you comparing You-Know-Who to a *pig*?

[Zeb]

No. A pig fucker.

[Jerryskids]

A doggone minute? That's one a them-there left-handed compliment sort of thingies you're ham-handedly shoe-horning in there, ain't it?

[Citizen X]

Yeah, dogs are haram in Islam too, so that's pretty offensive. BAD.

[Mainer2]

Left handed compliments are gyp.

[Copernicus would chip]

'And when you got your six pieces, you gotta get rid of them, because it's no good leaving it in the deep freeze for your mum to discover, now is it? Then I hear the best thing to do is feed them to pigs. You got to starve the pigs for a few days, then the sight of a chopped-up body will look like curry to a pisshead. You gotta shave the heads of your victims, and pull the teeth out for the sake of the piggies' digestion. You could do this afterwards, of course, but you don't want to go sievin' through pig shit, now do you? They will go through bone like butter. You need at least sixteen pigs to finish the job in one sitting, so be wary of any man who keeps a pig farm. They will go through a body that weighs 200 pounds in about eight minutes. That means that a single pig can consume two pounds of uncooked flesh every minute. Hence the expression, "as greedy as a pig". '

[Trigger Hippie]

+1 Brick Top

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Hindus consider cows sacred but you don't see them shit-disturbing about it.

[Copernicus would chip]

Muslims don't consider pigs sacred, rather the opposite.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Yes, but the way we treat cows here and on TV (Bovine University) you'd think they'd make a stink about it but don't.

They consider pigs filthy but don't they know they're intelligent?!

Oink, oink.

[Zeb]

They actually do a bit in India. Especially with the recent surge of Hindu nationalism.

I have never heard of an actual Muslim being offended by the depiction of a pig (not that that necessarily means it doesn't happen). Just Europeans worrying that they might.

[UnCivilServant]

Funny, at one of my previous jobs, the first thing the H1-Bs did upon arriving in the US was to go down the street for a hamburger.

Their comment was "Indian Cows are sacred, American Cows are food."

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Let me start over as I mentioned above.

Not talkin' 'bout India. That's over there.

/waves over here.

When was the last time you heard a Hindu complain on TV or radio about cows?

Anyway, it's a stupid off-the cuff remark I made just because.

[SFC B]

To be fair to the Euros, when you have a population who can escalate from "offended" to "angry" at the speed of a chemical reaction you tend to be a little cautious around them.

They really should thank their lucky stars the Christians and Jews don't take those recent lessons learned to heart.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Where do they stand on a picture of Mohammed eating a BLT sandwich?

With an inappropriate amount of mayo slathered on?

[commodious spittoon]

inappropriate amount of mayo

Come again?

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Leave Zeb and his mayo out of this.

[Tom Bombadil (fmly Copernicus)]

I've heard Sausage Pizza is halal as long as it's deep dish.

[Mainer2]

I believe we refer to that as a Pizza of Depth

[Zeb]

Hindus? I imagine they would find it amusing.

[Lord Rollingpin]

Well aside from the occasions when they kill people for eating beef.

[gaoxiaen]

*allegedly*

[BearOdinson]

I discussed this with HM the other day on a different thread. Mohammed took Jewish law and put it on steroids.
Jews aren't supposed to eat animals such as pigs. (Only kosher animals are those with cloven hooves and who chew their cud.) Obviously dogs and cats aren't kosher to eat. But plenty of religious Jews have these as pets. There is no reason why an Orthodox Jew couldn't keep a pot-bellied pig as a pet. But the Muslims took "unclean" (treyf) animals to mean can't even be near them.

[Irish ?s ESB]

Which still doesn't apply to a pig hat since it's an image of the animal and not the animal itself.

[Irish ?s ESB]

"Muslims aren't supposed to eat pigs, but I'm not sure why that means they can't be exposed to the likeness or mention of a pig."

There's no reason from their religion that they can't be. I think part of it is that people mean for the pig to be offensive to Muslims therefore people think it's offensive based on how it's used.

For example: There's no reason that the jumble of letters that spells out "nigger" is offensive other than that people used it with the intention of it being a racial slur. Things gain meaning from context.

[Zeb]

I suppose that might be what the police were thinking in this case (still ridiculous that that is considered a crime anywhere). But from some other stories I've heard, it seems like some people have convinced themselves that the mere mention of pigs is somehow offensive.

[Rhywun]

It's Europe. Don't try to make sense out of it.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

They also convinced themselves the mere likeness of Muhammad is offensive and blasphemous.

[Citizen X]

Of COURSE Irish is gonna drop the n-bomb on the morning links. Of course.

[Free Society]

How is a pig hat offensive to Muslims? He wasn't trying to make them eat it.

Even if it does offend them, fuck them. Fuck their feelings. Fuck their religion, fuck their culture. Fuck their consumption of civilized society. Fuck them. Offend them all day long and we're still not going far enough.

[Zeb]

Of course I don't think it matters if they are offended or not. The police should not be protecting anyone's feelings (though they are probably at least as concerned about violence as feelings). The absurdity of the reasoning just makes it that little bit more idiotic.

[Krabappel]

I still don't trust any religion that bans pork. Sorry Jews, Muslims, Vegans. My partner took a whole hog butchery class last night and brought back two of the most beautiful pork steaks I've ever seen.

[Enough About Pailn]

Draw Porky Day

[straffinrun]

Cops thought he was insulting them.

[Roger the Shrubber]

Is the pig slur for police cross-cultural?

[straffinrun]

Let me see. If I'm not back in 10 minutes call the embassy in Tokyo.

[Libertarian]

Oh my god. It's been 15 minutes and he's not back. Somebody call the cops! No, wait, don't call the cops!

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Call the cops and ask where he's being subdued and tased?

[straffinrun]

Well, I'm fine. The cop just pointed at the Tonkotsu Ramen shop down the street.

[Enough About Pailn]

Tonkotsu Ramen

Yummy!

[Bee Tagger]

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will face off tonight in a Democratic town hall on CNN.

I would enjoy that more than them talking at each other.

[Monty Crisco]

GOOD NEWS!!! We can use a senseless shooting to advance out political agenda!!!

http://gawker.com/the-ultimate.....1760586051

OF course, we should subscribe to the "ideal version of our deeply shitty country", as Mr Jordan Sargent says:

A man who would never be stopped from legally purchasing a gun taking his Saturday to irregularly murder people he doesn't know is America's most uniquely unstoppable and unpreventable crime. It is baked into our society, and ours alone.

YOU GOT THAT?!?!? This thing that has happened ONCE is now "BAKED INTO OUR SOCIETY"!!! Strangers murdering other strangers with guns NEVER happens in other societies with sensible gun control ? LIKE FRANCE!!

Comments are pure derp ? "THE SECOND AMENDMENT IS JUST FOR ARMING THE GOVERNMENT!!"

[Rich]

baked into our society

Shouldn't that be "woven into the fabric of society"?

[Catatafish & Woodchips]

You're both cis-hetero shitlords in service to the patriarchy for using these domesticated housewife analogies.

[Zeb]

This is a marvelous lack of awareness:

In an ideal version of our deeply shitty country, every mass shooting would be a referendum on guns.

Guess what, guy, it sort of is. And you fucking people lose every time.

[Libertarian]

Well, as we've seen the local Statists do for years and years, if a referendum doesn't go their way we'll get the same referendum on the next ballot.

[CatoTheChipper]

Indeed ... every time there's a "mass shooting" event, the hoplophobes take to the airwaves and demagogic politicians drone on and on about "common sense gun control". Between events, the MSM continuously propagandizes against private ownership of firearms.

In my ideal version of this country, every time a cop shoots an unarmed kid or launchs a grenade in a baby's crib there would be a referendum on whether cops should have guns.

The right of the people to keep and bear arms, obviously, shall not be infringed ... until the 2nd Amendment is repealed. The right of cops to do so on the job is not protected.

[Krabappel]

Just stop. Gawker is the worst. I don't go there anymore, not even to troll their idiot commenters (although it was always very easy to provoke outrage with comments that would be considered *boring* on reason).

[Lord Humungus]

White House: Robots are coming for low-wage workers' jobs

There's an 83 percent chance that low-wage workers will have their jobs taken over by robots in the years ahead, White House economists warned Monday.

Workers earning under $20 an hour are highly likely to see their jobs automated in the future, according to the Council of Economic Advisers' Economic Report of the President released Monday. But those earning more than $20 an hour are at a much-reduced risk, and those earning over $40 an hour see almost no such risk, according to the report.

beep beep beep

[Frankjasper1]

Clearly should jack up the min wage!!

[Brett L]

Get those sabots ready for the power loom, George Ludd is reborn.

[Swiss Servator]

Ned Ludd frowns.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite

[Brett L]

Goddamit! My name recall module is on the fritz. Conflating Teddy and Bobby Kennedy yesterday and now this. I think my BAC remains at zero too often these days.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

"Beep, beep, beep. Gedouddadaway!"

[DJF]

The same White House that supports importing more low wage immigrants

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

And raising the federal minimum wage will totally convince businesses not to use robots!

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

I WILL USE AN EXECUTIVE ORDER TO BAN ROBOTS BECAUSE ROBOCOP! WITHOUT COMMON SENSE RULES AGAINST THEM THEY KILL IN BOARDROOMS.

There problem solved. Smugly crosses arms.

[Zeb]

Those getting paid $15 at fast food restaurants are at the greatest risk.

[Swiss Servator]

Exactly. They will be the first to go. I imagine a handful of loaders, a couple of bright and cheery desk helpers and staffing of your average fast food place will drop at least 50%.

[Frankjasper1]

We didn't intend this to happen /prog

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

CAN'T WE CLOSE THAT LOOPHOLE WE CREATED BECAUSE OF UNINTENDED...WHAT'S THE WORD?

[Libertarian]

"Danger! Danger!"

[WTF]

"Silence, you bubble-headed booby!"

[Copernicus would chip]

Based on pure economics, it makes more sense to automate the high salary job, not the low salary job.

[Zeb]

But no robot would ever do as good a job fucking off and dicking around on the internet as a proper professional.

[Overt]

Not if it costs more to automate the high salary job. Sometimes the technology just isn't there.

But this is happening to an extent. 15 years ago, my company paid a bunch of software engineers to handle release management of software to our various serving applications. Today, one engineer automates the entire process once, and those other 14 engineers don't work here (or were transferred to feature development if they had the skills to do it).

[Illocust]

High salary jobs are generally high salaried because they require discretion and decisions made on imperfect information along with a good deal of skill. The skill can be automated, but the discretion and imperfect information decision making is harder. It can be done. It's just cheaper to keep using a human.

[Old Man With Candy]

Cool story, tulpa.

[Agammamon]

You don't automate based on the cost of any one job, you automate based on the aggregate savings of replacing a class of workers with capital.

You automate when the cost of acquiring the capital is less than the cost of continuously purchasing labor over the expected usable lifetime of the capital (before you need to replace the robots because they've worn out/there's a significantly more efficient model available).

As such it makes sense to automate the *low-paying but over priced* (due to mandatory minimum wages) positions as

a) these jobs do not require a lot of skill

and

b) These jobs are already on the edge of that cost line and it doesn't take a large efficiency increase to push them over the edge.

CEO's don't get automated because the cost of automating that job is so high, at best you would see minimal savings, at worst you would *increase* your costs.

Fast food workers get automated because even though the cost savings of replacing any one worker may be minimal, you can wipe out 10 or more jobs a shift per location - so the aggregate savings of automation far exceeds that of automating any of the manager classes.

[Akira]

"CEO's don't get automated because the cost of automating that job is so high"

But my progressive acquaintances have assured me that CEOs do absolutely no work and never make any decisions at all. Why is it so hard to automate them??

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

Huh? A high salary job is high salary because there is not a low cost replacement. It only makes sense to automate those jobs that can be automated for less money than hiring a worker. It doesn't matter whether the job was a relatively high or low salary.

[Jerryskids]

Based on pure economics, it makes more sense to automate the high salary job, not the low salary job.

How so? High salary jobs are ones most people can't do and would therefore seem to be less likely to be able to automate. Low salary jobs are not only easier to automate but there's a lot more of them and you've got the economies of scale to consider. If you're going to rebuild the pyramids you're better off automating the slave labor than the slave-driver labor.

[Monty Crisco]

"When the United States was formed in 1776, it took 19 people on the farm to produce enough food for 20 people. So most of the people had to spend their time and efforts on growing food. Today, it's down to 1% or 2% to produce that food. Now just consider the vast amount of supposed unemployment that was produced by that. But there wasn't really any unemployment produced. What happened was that people who had formerly been tied up working in agriculture were freed by technological developments and improvements to do something else. That enabled us to have a better standard of living and a more extensive range of products." Where were the hordes of unemployed would-be corn-growers roaming the countryside in packs with pitchforks?!?!?

[BearOdinson]

You are just in the bag for "Big Horseless Carriage"

/*Out of work buggy whip manufacturer

[Catatafish & Woodchips]

(golf clap)

[gaoxiaen]

Making whiskey?

[Irish ?s ESB]

" But those earning more than $20 an hour are at a much-reduced risk, and those earning over $40 an hour see almost no such risk, according to the report."

Why don't we just raise the minimum wage to $40.00 an hour so that no one loses their jobs to robots?

[Catatafish & Woodchips]

I'm actually really, really looking forward to the next ten years when this happens on a vast scale. Sure, there will be a burp in short-term unemployment but the way it will crystallize the debate over the retarded economics of the minimum wage will be fantastic.

[Akira]

I hope that your optimism is well-founded. I do think there's a large segment of the general public that will just continue blaming corporations and greedy business owners.

Honestly, I think that in the next decade or so, we'll see "progressives" floating the idea of putting the government in charge of hiring decisions for every business. I'm thinking like a "progressive", and I envision some kind of system where every job seeker signs up with a government bureau, then employers request workers from that bureau, and they get who they get and MUST hire them. They would start this program just for federal contractors, then they would gradually expand it to every business.

Think about it from their point of view: the utopian minimum wage scheme would be ruined by the fact that employers will decline to hire unskilled, inexperienced workers. In addition, discrimination against "marginalized groups" is the big "progressive" boogeyman. Both of these "problems" are rooted in the fact that employers are free to hire whoever they want. From the "progressive" point of view, federal control over hiring is a way to kill 10 birds with one stone.

I know it sounds crazy now, but Obamacare would have sounded crazy 30 years ago. I can see their rallying cries now: "Employers are throwing women, gays, and minorities in the streets to starve - this is the only way to stop them!" "The People should have a say in who gets hired!" "Corporate greed is ruining America's job market!!"

[Jerryskids]

The very fact that the statement is taken as a warning ought to tell you something about something. Automation is a threat only to those who think human beings' proper function is that of a machine.

[Catatafish & Woodchips]

+1 Idle hands are the devil's playthings

[Not a Libertarian]

But what-if the transition to automation is faster than the ability of labor to transition?

The answer you hear is always "training, education, training" but are significant portion of those made unemployable actually able to be retrained?

[Mr. Flanders]

This is a good question. I seriously doubt the abilities of some low-skilled workers to acquire better skills. I believe a significant minority of these workers have reached their upper-bound in knowledge/skill. Some people just don't have the intelligence to become the person that fixes the machine that pushed them out of their low-wage job.

[Bee Tagger]

"Drone users are facing the possibility of fines up to $27,500 and even jail time if they have not registered their devices with the federal government."

"C'mon already guys, register your drones" - Bill Gates, I assume.

[Jerryskids]

Kind of ironic that drones which have never killed a single human being are required to be registered and yet automatic weapons any kid in America can buy over the counter at Woolsworth's for a nickel aren't.

[Monty Crisco]

Why, don't you know that ITS EASIER TO BUY GUNS IN THIS COUNTRY THAN BOOKS?!?!??

THE PRESIDENT SAID SO!!!!!

http://dailycaller.com/2016/01.....ook-video/

Fucking dickbag...

[Fist of Etiquette]

"Drone users are facing the possibility of fines up to $27,500 and even jail time if they have not registered their devices with the federal government."

The air will seem cleaner now that it's hyper-regulated.

[Pope Jimbo]

Well I for one think that it is high time that we put drones under the govt thumb. I watched an excellent documentary last night called Scorpion. A DEA agent explained how drug gangs were using drones to bring heroin across the border and heroin in the US leads to the death of 8 year olds in drug wars.

Then when these fine Americans tried to stop the death of 8 year olds, the evil Mexican drug runners put a gun on a drone and shot at them.

I love those sciency shows!

[BearOdinson]

Would someone PLEASE tell me first of all,
Why are drones such a big deal in the first place (I don't get the attraction), and
How are they different from RC planes and helicopters that have been around for decades?

[Catatafish & Woodchips]

"How are they different from RC planes and helicopters that have been around for decades?"

They have a digital camera on them. Duh.

[Agammamon]

1. You can put a camera on them now.

2. Other than that - they aren't.

But because of #1, tons of yahoos get them now and then fly them like the idiots they are. Then people complain about, some even bigger idiot always comes out with the cry of 'why won't the government do something!!!!' about this tiny little menace, and then there's the line of ambulance chasers legislators to pimp in front of the camera and the legion of agency apparatchiks who scream and lie to inflate the perception of the danger (OMG SOMEONE FLEW WITHIN 50 FEET OF A HELICOPTER AND IT HAD TO VEER OFF COURSE DURING A FIRE!!!!!) in order to increase their little empires.

[Overt]

2. Other than that - they aren't.

Drones are cheaper than many model airplanes and they can be used in much smaller spaces. They don't need large runways for takeoff and landing, and don't require large airspace due to them not needing a lot of speed to stay aloft.

Drones are similar to RC Helicopters, but the design and operation of them has become simpler. Flying an RC Helo used to be about as difficult as flying a standard helicopter.

So it isn't just about the camera- it's about the drones being easier to fly, easier to find places to fly and easier to buy than traditional RC aircraft.

[Tonio]

Flying an RC Helo used to be about as difficult as flying a standard helicopter.

^This. That was a serious barrier to entry for old-school RC aircraft of all types.

Also, drones have GPS enabled auto-pilots which people find super scary because it allows them to operate at night, in fog, and out of the line of sight of the owner.

[Trshmnstr, terror of the trash]

Also, drones have GPS enabled auto-pilots which people find super scary because it allows them to operate at night, in fog, and out of the line of sight of the owner.

Yes, that's completely new to quad copters.

*nods unconvincingly while hiding the model plane I helped create in college 5 years ago that had a GPS-based waypoint navigation system I helped design*

[Jerryskids]

Drones are being used by the US military to kill terrorists at weddings - it makes them a weapon of war. Now there are these gun nuts who think that the right to keep and bear arms means they have a right to these same weapons of war, just like they think the Second Amendment gives them the right to own Stinger missiles and F-16's and atomic bombs. You don't have a Second Amendment right to own a drone you doomsday prepper racist teathuglican troglodyte, you!

[BearOdinson]

Thanks, folks. I knew I could count on the commentariat!

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

RC planes and helicopters are toys.

Drones are MURDER MACHINES.

Didn't you see that Audi commercial?

[UnCivilServant]

Trigger Warning - hornet's nest.

I pre-ordered "Total War: Warhammer" before they announced that Chaos was going to be day 1 DLC (free to pre-order folks). The standard response has been "what a dick move".

Anyway, with the lack of Skaven, I really don't know if there's a faction in the base game I care to play. (And why in the name of the Horned Rat were the Vampire Counts included in the base game? Are there actual people who played them, ever?)

So I wanted to take a survey of the commentariat (and kick the hornet's nest) about what I should do? Keep the game and pick the least uninteresting faction? Return the game in a futile protest and probably end up paying more in the long run? Nothing whatsoever?

[Brett L]

It depends. Do you think this TW is gonna be more like Rome II or more like Empire? If Rome II, hold on to it, if Empire, five it back.

[UnCivilServant]

I may be strange, but I liked Empire more than Rome II. I'm still confused at the change to "no armies without generals" rule.

[Overt]

The strategic campaign has never been TW's strong suit, and I think it has gotten progressively worse each game. For every good feature that they add, they bog it down with hyper realistic visuals and quirky mechanics. I wish they would abstract the game more at the strategic level. They don't need 3d modeled shit heading around everywhere and cluttering up the map.

[Brett L]

Its a force balancing feature. You could pile up armies in the old system without paying any attention to the politics module that they lovingly crafted.

[UnCivilServant]

You mean the politics module that didn't work, and still doesn't, where every AI character is batshit insane, forcing military victory as the only winnable condition?

Or are you talking about the in-faction politics, which are just as badly done as cross-faction politics.

Slightly OT - My favorite example of the AI being out of its gourd actually happened during a game of Empire. I was Russia, and had built up on my western border for the conflicts in Europe (Sweden and Poland at the time). So Dagestan saw a shortage of military forces on my south and declared war. Because of the size of Russia, by the time they reached the first city, I'd quick-timed a response force in from multiple garrissons and destroyed their army. When they repeated it, I conquered Dagestan to put a stop to it. Georgia then saw that I had a bordering province with low public order (the recently conquered Dagestan) and declared war, invading while I still had an army there. I destroyed them and captured Georgia. Persia saw that I had a border province with low public order...

When it was finally over I stood in Calcutta and asked "Wasn't I at war with Sweden?"

[waffles]

Some of those words you typed are not words at all.

[Illocust]

Keep it and try the various factions. If nothing else playing them will help you kick all sorts of ass when the faction you actually want to play comes out (know your enemy and all).

[UnCivilServant]

This might end up being the default, because I keep getting torn between the potential of the game, and the reality of Creative Assembly's recent track record.

[Monty Crisco]

What the fuck are you talking about? I didn't understand any of that...

[Suthenboy]

Same here.

[UnCivilServant]

*condescending tone*

There, there, you got your social signalling out. Now let the gamers who are okay with being gamers have their discussion of irrelevencies and capitalism.

[Catatafish & Woodchips]

For someone who has never played an MMO (and who also happens to be in the market for a new computer), what do you suggest? I'm more of a single player campaign Elder Scrolls/Fallout gamer but I've always been interested. Or is a sarlac-like time sink that I'm better steering clear of?

[UnCivilServant]

Well, MMOs are an entirely different topic, but I'll answer anyway.

I gave them up because they are, inherently, very boring as their fiscal model requires maximizing their time sink, so you have to keep paying.

[Agammamon]

Stay away from MMOs - at least the RPG ones. They're all pretty much time sinks with huge grinds and little payoff.

*Maaaaaybe* give The Old republic a look. Gameplay is bog standard MMORPG crap but there's the integrated class stories. Its F2P up to a certain point. Or Rift. Neither require you to buy the game first (IIRC) and you'll get a good idea of what a MMORPG is like and whether or not its for you.

If you want to just shoot things there are several MMO shooters - I play Warframe on PC (its also available now for both consoles), there's Destiny on PS4 (which is supposed to be good - finally). Counterstrike for more 'realistic' stuff, Team Fortress.

[Catatafish & Woodchips]

I enjoyed Destiny on XB1 for a while but it got a bit repetitive. I prefer more of the open world play. I've debated Elder Scrolls Online but have heard mixed reviews at best.

[Agammamon]

There's nothing open world about ESO.

Everything there is gated by level like in any other MMO.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Borderlands 2 is is outstanding for co-op.

[Marshall Gill]

I have been playing Mech Warrior online, recently. It can be totally free and there are plenty of regular games that last either 15 or 30 minutes.

I have enjoyed the Europa Universalis series. They usually patch the games several times with added free material.

Or is a sarlac-like time sink that I'm better steering clear of?

Oh, yeah, they are both all of that.

[Crusty Juggler]

Gaming died with Ms. Pac-Man.

[Jerryskids]

Gaming for me died when the game controllers got more buttons than I had thumbs. I can only play single player turn-based games.

[OneOut]

Kill yourself ?

[UnCivilServant]

Never.

[Copernicus would chip]

Nuke it from orbit

[Idle Hands]

return it and spend the time saved creating a profitable business that involves cheap child labor and cats. spend profits on cocaine, pot and mexican ass sex. Trust me you'll be a better man for it.

[UnCivilServant]

What a terrible idea, I don't have a use for cocaine, pot or mexican ass sex.

[Idle Hands]

mexican ass sex.

Probably for the best.

[Agammamon]

1. Its not a dick move. Its a bunch of whiners who don't know how VG development works who scream about D1 DLC - oh no they cut this out of the game to sell seperately. What actually happens is at some point various departments are *done*. Normally this means they'd have been cut loose to find another job. D1 DLC is usually these people being kept on the payroll to develop this stuff in between when they finish their work and the game is released.

2. You preordered? So you get Chaos anyway. Just keep it and play.

3. Fuck you Vampire Counts are awesome. https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Vlad_von_Carstein

4. Skaven weren't included because Skaven are awesome and will sell well as a DLC - *this* is going to be their dick move.

[UnCivilServant]

It's Chaos. In a Warhammer game. They have a better claim to being core content than the vampires do. This was a strategic decision made WAY before anything was coded.

[Agammamon]

Or - they realized the scope of Chaos is pretty damn large and decided to cut one of the core armies to keep in budget.

[UnCivilServant]

When the key selling point of your project is going to be the Intellectual property you've licensed for it, cutting one of the key factions to cut development costs sounds an awful lot like cutting off your leg to run faster.

[Agammamon]

Could be. OTOH, half-assing a major faction because your publisher has a deadline and won't budge doesn't help either.

[Billy Boogers]

Or half-assing an entire game.....

Hellooo .... Halo 2 .......??

[Mr. Flanders]

Your first mistake was pre-ordering. Never pre-order. Don't give these people your money until you've found out whether or not the game will be a quality product. Fuck day-1 DLC bullshit.

[Illocust]

"Bill Gates: Apple should comply with the federal government and unlock the iPhone."

Well of course Bill is for it. It would kill one of Apple's biggest selling points at the moment. Plus if Apple stands strong, Microsoft users are going to start question their relative lack of security and privacy.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Bill Gates Of Vienna.

[Swiss Servator]

Swiss *narrowed gaze* of Zurich

[Trshmnstr, terror of the trash]

Darmok and Jalad at Tinagra

[Catatafish & Woodchips]

Did Microsoft not stand up with Apple and Google and include encryption in their operating systems post-Snowden?

[Rhywun]

What about Android? I've seen nada on their stance.

[Catatafish & Woodchips]

I'm 99% sure that Lollipop has full encryption just like Apple iOS.

[Elspeth Flashman]

The Apple iphone unlocking argument wouldn't even be a thing if the county that Farook worked for had used a $4/month feature that allowed remote unlocking (since he was a county employee and the phone was provided to him that way).

http://www.abajournal.com/news.....iphone_but

My humblest apologies if this is a repost, of course.

[DJF]

I do wonder if this is a big civil right issue when the phone as you point out was own by the country government?

[Zeb]

The search of the phone wouldn't be. Breaking the encryption would still be as big a deal.

[blighted non millenial]

The issue is not the search of the phone but in forcing Apple to create a backdoor that doesn't currently exist to perform the search.

Apple has already given them everything that they had in terms of data about the phone, icloud backups, etc.

[Catatafish & Woodchips]

I think you'd be correct if this was simply about Farook's phone and it was the scenario pre-iOS 8 (where Apple had proprietary hardware to unlock individual phones, as I understand it). Now the feds want Apple to write a new iOS that they would be able to install on Farook's phone that would allow them to much more easily brute force hack it. The question isn't about Farook's phone (more to your point, San Bern's phone) but the fact that the government is forcing a private company to create a tool that could very easily be abused by both the government and criminals.

From a liability standpoint alone, if I were Apple's attorney, I'd be saying "no fucking way should we invent this."

[Catatafish & Woodchips]

"...the government and criminals."

But I repeat myself.

[Private Chipperbot]

I guess I don't understand the need to actually get into the phone. They'll have email records, text records, phone records. I'm sure they have access to anything backed up to icloud. What else would they need from the physical phone?

[WTF]

What else would they need from the physical phone?

A legal precedent.

[Mr Drew]

Exactly so!

[Jerryskids]

For when the party you're addressing doesn't find FYTW to be a persuasive enough argument.

[Catatafish & Woodchips]

Their argument? Farook switched off the iCloud backup like ten days before the shootings.

Their real goal? I think WTF says it.

[Overt]

A lot of people (like me) don't backup their phones to the cloud. Or don't backup everything.

Who knows what the case is on this specific phone, but the FBI is working for the long term here. Even if this phone's data is in the cloud where they could theoretically decrypt it, it takes time and won't apply to the future. If they can get Apple to essentially unlock any phone on demand (of a secret, sympathetic judge), then they can automate the process of slurping in phone data for their billion dollar data farms.

[CatoTheChipper]

LOTS of people don't trust the cloud.

I don't even know what the cloud is, but I know that I don't trust it.

If government wants my data, they can get a warrant and seize my computer.

[Illocust]

Yeah, but why should they do that when they can just force the company to give it to them for free. This is the government they have guns for a reason.

[WTF]

It's not about finding out what's on that particular phone. The goal is to force Apple to create a tool that they can use use to defeat iOS encryption.

[Rhywun]

Like the fat pig running the NYPD said the other day: "We got 157 iPhones waiting to be unlocked." All of law enforcement is chomping at the bit for Apple to cave here.

[Hamster of Doom]

"Drone users are facing the possibility of fines up to $27,500 and even jail time if they have not registered their devices with the federal government."

They can leave a copy of the keys to their house under the mat. It'll be safe there.

/FBI

[Lord Humungus]

The GOP Can Still Stop Trump ? But Not If They Miss This Trumpian Truth

What is more, the political culture of Americans in the "great age of immigration" (1850-1924) was fiercely self-confident. Our institutions were strong and we believed in them. We expected and demanded that newcomers from alien cultures learn our language, adopt our political philosophy and pay their own way ? or else go back where they came from.

The very idea that bigoted Muslims (or nationalistic Mexicans) would arrive in the United States, demand that our public schools accommodate them and that TV commentators avoid offending their sensibilities, while they collected public assistance, would have been inconceivable to Abraham Lincoln, William McKinley or even Franklin Roosevelt. To the credit of millions of Americans, it seems absurd to them as well these many decades later.

And now in their inchoate way, these Americans are voting to stop what they rightly see as an expensive exercise in destabilizing their country, culture and economy. Any viable alternative to Donald Trump had better get this and, more than this, be able to demonstrate that he gets it and will fight for it, or the Trump train will roll right on through the GOP convention.

[Domestic Dissident]

Yep. Trump is the inevitable reaction to the complete failure of the GOP to fight against the Saul Alinsky New Left politics that have slowly taken over and dominated America over the last forty years.

[Cytotoxic]

There is no evidence immigration is destabilizing America at all.

[Not a Libertarian]

Well it certainly is destabilizing one of its two main political parties.

And potentially leaving us with only one national party for the next 20-30 years.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

or even Franklin Roosevelt?

Sounds like somebody is suprised by this.

[Bee Tagger]

"This is a specific case where the government is asking for access to information. They are not asking for some general thing, they are asking for a particular case,"

Phew, so we're safe from the government asking Microsoft for "i don't know, whatcha got? doesn't have to be anything specific, we're just bored over here." for now.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Bill Gates: Apple should comply with the federal government and unlock the iPhone.

Regardless of how iPhones are compromised on security, no one is no one is turning to phones with a Windows OS, Bill. Give it up.

[Michael]

Gates has morphed into a supremely wealthy retiree with vanishing relevance in technology. Even Microsoft has been going all-in with encryption in their latest operating systems, even on mobile devices. I'm actually quite anxious to see how this saga will play out, as the implications of it will have a far broader reach than just on Apple products. Gates should stick to focusing on his charity work, because the tech world has passed him by a long time ago.

[Frankjasper1]

I think Gates realizes he has been sunset and is trying to stay relevant

[Jerryskids]

I don't know, I've heard good things about the BSOD security system being pretty damn tight.

[Lord Humungus]

Cruz fires top staffer for promoting false story about Rubio and the Bible

Ted Cruz on Monday asked for the resignation of top aide Rick Tyler, who he accused of a "grave error of judgment" for promoting a false story that questioned Marco Rubio's faith.

The story and accompanying transcript from The Daily Pennsylvanian, a student newspaper, said Rubio had walked by a Cruz staffer on Saturday who was reading a Bible, and told him it didn't "have many answers in it."

Tyler, Cruz's communications director, posted the story on Facebook on Sunday, but later deleted it and apologized after a Cruz staffer said Rubio didn't make any such comment. But Cruz decided greater action was needed.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Didn't Cruz also robo-call Iowans the day of the caucus telling them that Ben Carson had dropped out of the race?

Classy guy, that Ted.

[Rhywun]

Yes, he did. And Carson called him out on it at the next debate.

told him it didn't "have many answers in it."

The so-con version of "when did you stop beating your wife".

[straffinrun]

It wasn't a Bible, it was the constitution.

[Idle Hands]

He didn't force choke him to death and discard his corpse? Why can't the republicans even have proper villains?

[Lord Humungus]

Federal authorities investigating deaths of 13 bald eagles on Eastern Shore

Investigators were called Saturday afternoon to a farm in Caroline County. The farm on Laurel Grove Road in Federalsburg lies west of the 3,800-acre Idylwild Natural Area.

A man looking for shed deer antlers noticed four dead bald eagles, said Candy Thomson, spokeswoman for the Maryland Natural Resources Police.

Officers searched the grounds and discovered nine more dead eagles, she said.

Maryland officers turned evidence over to investigators with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Thomson directed questions to the agency.

[UnCivilServant]

Blood Sacrifice - one for eack of the original colonies.

[Catatafish & Woodchips]

How quickly will this lead to calls for a banning of lead bullets in Maryland?

[Rich]

Perhaps they're killing themselves to protest being the symbol of this nation?

[Hamster of Doom]

The eagles are protesting our Republican candidate line-up. The Nature Spirit will eat us all. It's like no one watched Princess Mononoke.

REPENT, SINNERS!

[Pope Jimbo]

Odds on them totally ignoring the giant wind turbine nearby?

I have no idea if there really is a wind turbine nearby, but I love the fact that the greenies won't ever admit how many birds those things kill. I'm not even saying that wind turbines should be banned because of that. I just want the eco-warriors to admit that there is a trade off and that wind power isn't pure as the driven snow.

[Catatafish & Woodchips]

The stories about the solar farms literally lasering birds out of the sky at different times of the day are morbidly hilarious as well.

[Suthenboy]

Probably died from eating poisoned critters.

[Marshall Gill]

DDT

[Jerryskids]

What the hell's a shed deer and why was this guy looking for their antlers? Sounds suspicious to me. If he's stealing antlers from shed deer he's probably the one who stole the eagles' toupees.

[Trshmnstr, terror of the trash]

It's like a barn owl.

[Bee Tagger]

Let's say the bank had tied a ribbon round the disk drive and said, 'Don't make me cut this ribbon because you'll make me cut it many times.'"

I'm learning that when you're rich you can make banks do weird things for you.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Editorial: Maybe there should be terms on the SCOTUS justices to prevent this weird nomindation thingy that happens every once in a while, because the nomination thing is really distracting.

http://www.abajournal.com/news.....s_of_nomin

[Brett L]

I agree. An 18 year term would allow them to sit through at least 3 presidencies. And allow for the Senate and President to start negotiating ahead of time.

[Catatafish & Woodchips]

I'm not opposed to it necessarily but it would also provide the campaigners and political strategists the same amount of time to play the same type of hardball we are seeing now.

[Elspeth Flashman]

True, and the terms wouldn't stop the appointment that needs to be done when a justice up and dies like Scalia did.

[Irish ?s ESB]

It would cause far fewer deaths in office though since Scalia would have been out of office years ago.

[Catatafish & Woodchips]

Maybe, maybe not. I don't know what morbidity rates look like on average for different age groups. I'd be interested to see what, if any, effect it would have on the average age of nominees though. Currently everyone freaks doubly when someone nominated from the other party is "young." Maybe this would allow for more talented jurists in their 40s to get the nod.

[Brett L]

Eh. If you look at the court, everyone appointed before Thomas would have been out. So that's four including Scalia, I believe. Someone check my math.

[Rich]

Trump: As president, I would prosecute Clinton

I look forward to this being discussed in her town hall tonight.

[Illocust]

The man knows what the people care about. Got to give him that. Hopefully other presidential hopefuls pick up on the popularity of this statement and come out in support of it as well.

[Old Man With Candy]

Tulptastic.

[Elspeth Flashman]

I listened/watched the life stream of his rally, and that was the first time I had heard him. He's fun to listen to, and he has a lot of enthusiasm.

[Lord Humungus]

shh... you don't want to be labeled as a Trumpkin...

[Elspeth Flashman]

It's nice to watch something that doesn't seem so serious, as opposed to the insistence of HRC.

[Elspeth Flashman]

I meant to say "live stream."

[Rich]

So, did he deny you his essence?

[Lord Humungus]

+1 Golden Showers

[Elspeth Flashman]

Eww! /teenage girl

[Domestic Dissident]

Excellent. I hope he'll consider prosecuting Bill as well. He's a serial rapist, and frankly it's about time that his many victims got some justice.

[Jerryskids]

Fox News' Sean Hannity asked Trump in front of a live Nevada audience if his attorney general would go after Clinton should an investigation find she broke the law while serving in the Obama administration.
"You have no choice," Trump replied. "In fairness, you have to look into that."
"She seems to be guilty," he said. "But you know what, I wouldn't even say that."
"But certainly, it has to be looked at," Trump added. "If a Republican wins, if I'm winning, certainly you will look at that as being fair to anyone else. So unfair to the people that have been prosecuted over the years for doing much less than she did."

I defy you to tell me what the fuck he just said, much less that he said he would prosecute Clinton. "You have to look into that"? "She seems to be guilty but I wouldn't even say that"? "But certainly, it has to be looked at"? It seems to me he's saying "it has to be considered but I'm not saying I'd consider it" - which doesn't even make sense.

[Lord Humungus]

U.S. refugee agency put Central American kids at risk, GAO report says

The government agency tasked with placing thousands of Central American children into communities while they await immigration court decisions has no system for tracking the children, does not keep complete case files and has allowed contractors to operate with little oversight, according to a report released Monday by the Government Accountability Office.

"Based on the findings in this report, it's no wonder that we are hearing of children being mistreated or simply falling off the grid once they are turned over to sponsors," said Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa). "The Obama administration isn't adequately monitoring the grantees or sponsors whom we are entrusting to provide basic care for unaccompanied children."

[DJF]

And there is a big question on whether some of these 'children' are actually children

[Illocust]

Well yeah, if they properly tracked the children, then the kids couldn't disappear to go live with their families.

[Lord Humungus]

Largest fireball since Chelyabinsk falls into the ocean: Nasa reports huge explosion of seven meter space rock over the Atlantic

A huge fireball crashed into the Atlantic earlier this month - and went almost unseen.

The event took place on February 6 at 14:00 UTC when a meteor exploded in the air 620 miles (1,000km) off the coast of Brazil.

It released energy equivalent to 13,000 tons of TNT, which is the same as the energy used in the first atomic weapon that leveled Hiroshima in 1945.

This was the largest event of its type since the February 2013 fireball that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, leaving more than 1,600 people injured.

[Citizen X]

Cli.... climate change?

[Brett L]

13000 tons of TNT worth of alien energy raping Gaia.

[Hamster of Doom]

The Intergalactic Council has told us to turn over Ta-Nehisi Coates, and I for one think we should do it.

[Catatafish & Woodchips]

(chortling)

(nodding aggressively)

[waffles]

Nuke the whales!

[UnCivilServant]

But wouldn't the fallout land in England?

[Citizen X]

It's a land of pasty, bitter mutants already - who'd be able to tell?

[Lord Rollingpin]

Says a guy from a land where every one plays the banjo and marries their cousins.

[Citizen X]

You're thinking of Georgia. I'm from Tidewater Virginia, where everyone is either racist or Filipino.

[Lord Rollingpin]

Ooops, sorry.

[Jerryskids]

HEY! I'm from Georgia and I can assure you we don't all play the banjo.

[Trshmnstr, terror of the trash]

Right! Some people have to fiddle so that when Satan goes down there looking for souls, they can have a competition to see who fiddles better.

[Rhywun]

Double dumb-ass on you!

[Citizen X]

Bernie Sanders is having a rally a few blocks from my office in about 20 minutes. Should i go and hand out copies of The Law and Economics in One Lesson, or should i continue being gainfully employed?

[SugarFree]

Don't do it. They don't have jobs, they've been up for hours and they are surly... that crowd of screaming old people might just tear you apart.

[straffinrun]

Get 23 brands of deodorant and starting handing them out.

[Swiss Servator]

*applause*

[SugarFree]

I imagine that crowd desperately needs deodorant.

[Frankjasper1]

I saw someone trying to spin Gerald Friedman's analysis of Bernies economic plan as only "may be off" while the republican visions are ludicrous. This person was ripping on left economists who thought it was pure fantasy because it made Bernie look good.

[Juvenile Bluster]

I have an extra copy of Milton Friedman's Capitalism and Freedom sitting on my desk if you want to hand that out.

[Old Man With Candy]

The Road To Serfdom.

[Crusty Juggler]

I think you should go get me some digits, yo.

[Bee Tagger]

Starting with iOS 8, we began encrypting data in a way that not even the iPhone itself can read without the user's passcode

WAIT A SECOND, WHY IS THE IPHONE ITSELF SO INTERESTED IN READING MY DATA?

[Agammamon]

It gets bored.

[Lord Rollingpin]

Blackmail! If you don't want the world to know your secrets, your next phone will also be an iphone.

[Lord Humungus]

The Trickle of U.S. Oil Exports Is Already Shifting Global Power

Inside the Panamax oil tanker was a cargo that some on Capitol Hill had dubbed "Liquid American Freedom" -- the first U.S. crude bound for overseas markets after Congress lifted the 40-year export ban.

It was a landmark moment for the beleaguered energy industry and one heavy with both symbolism and economic implications. The Theo T was ushering in a new era as it left the U.S. Gulf Coast bound for France.

The implications -- both financial and political -- for energy behemoths such as Saudi Arabia and Russia are staggering, according to Mark Mills, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute think tank and a former venture capitalist. "It's a game changer," he said.

"Liquid American Freedom"

*checks pants*

[Rich]

The implications ... are staggering

[Brett L]

July 1, my site starts shipping Liquified Gas American Freedom!

[Lord Rollingpin]

hat will be more significant.

[Lord Rollingpin]

Thanks edit button, I'll change hat to That....

[straffinrun]

Laying that pipeline would create a lot of jobs.

[SugarFree]

Bill Gates: Apple should comply with the federal government and unlock the iPhone.

Shorter Bill Gates: Our phone sucked and no one bought it.

[Rich]

A 3-year-old Egyptian boy has been sentenced to life in prison for a crime he allegedly committed when he was 16 months old.

Nipped in the bud!

[BearOdinson]

That Arab Spring! Libertarian moments all around the middle east and N. Africa. We are living in exciting times, indeed!

[Copernicus would chip]

I'm not your bud, pal!

[Lord Humungus]

Greek police remove migrants from Macedonian border as more land in Piraeus

The migrants had squatted on rail lines in the Idomeni area on Monday after attempting to push through the border to Macedonia, angry at delays and additional restrictions in crossing. They were expected to be taken to relocation camps inside Greece.

Greek police and empty buses had entered the area before dawn, a Reuters witness said. In one area seen from the Macedonian side of the border, about 600 people had been surrounded by Greek police, the witness said.

There were an estimated 1,200 people at Idomeni, in their vast majority Afghans or individuals without proper travel documents. A crush developed there on Monday after Macedonian authorities demanded additional travel documentation, including passports, for people crossing into their territory.

[Akira]

You know who else went down to the Piraeus?

[Frankjasper1]

http://www.ryanlouiscooper.com

I'd like to see a GTA-style open world game set in Reconstruction. You'd play a slave who escapes alone towards the end of the Civil War. He joins up with the Union Army, fights in a couple battles, finds his family, and then works to secure black rights in the South against ex-Confederate terrorism.

There are a few reasons to select this period. First, it's high historical drama with real villains and heroes. A man fighting to rescue his family from slavery and secure their liberty is a classic story, and it would be a great connective thread to motivate the plot. (Imagine a mission like this one [spoilers], but defending your house from Red Shirts.) That trajectory would also make a nice twist on GTA's typical upward mobility fixation.

Second, if you made it right, it would be doing valuable cultural work. Popular American consciousness has a totally garbled version of Reconstruction largely based on racist Confederate apologia. Most people have a vague notion (if they have anything) that Reconstruction was characterized by corruption, unfair punishment of the South by carpetbaggers and scalawags, and that it collapsed of its own accord. This is total horseshit. Reconstruction was an attempt to build a true democracy in the South. It succeeded for a time, but was violently overthrown by white supremacist terrorists who probably killed more Americans than Osama bin Laden. (Aided and abetted, one should note, by racism and apathy in the North.)

[Citizen X]

I would play that game. Bonus: if it was made by progs, they'd have to confront how necessary guns were to freed slaves, and they might learn a thing or two.

[Illocust]

My family seven generations back lived in one of the areas that the Union and Confederate army both swept through. Both armies robbed the homes they came across of food to feed their troops. The parents had to mix sawdust in with the food because they were starving and their children were getting hunger pains while they tried to sleep.

War is hell. It makes monsters out of men, and the people killed and hurt by war rarely deserve it.

[Old Man With Candy]

You have out-socked yourself, tulpa.

[Lord Rollingpin]

That was funny the first two hundred and thirty eight times.

[Riven]

So what horrible thing in your personal history made such a monster out of you?

[Catatafish & Woodchips]

I'm actually kind of shocked that Assassin's Creed hasn't done something like this.

And while the horrors visited on freedmen in the South were utterly despicable, let's slow the roll on the altruistic motivations of the Union during Reconstruction. It was corrupt and a massive amount of it was punitive. You can't say it was an attempt to build "true democracy in the South" when, as a condition of reinstatement into the Senate, the Southern states were forced to ratify the Reconstruction Amendments at the barrel of a gun (all the while maintaining the position that the war was legal because secession was illegal).

[Catatafish & Woodchips]

Having said that, I would thoroughly enjoy that game if it accurately depicted the good and bad of both sides. Great idea.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Last one I promise:
From the WaPo: black law students' association at Georgetown Law (Scalia's alma mater) "shaken, angry" over conservative response and faculty/staff emails re: response to Scalia's passing.

Trigger warning: lots of butthurt.

http://taxprof.typepad.com/tax.....peopl.html

[Rich]

Many Black students are also "traumatized, hurt, shaken, and angry" every time a classroom micro-aggression, from a professor or student, is dismissed until it escalates into something more systemic.

Say what?

[Rhywun]

I believe that gobbledygook means something like "WAH! Pay attention to me!"

[Elspeth Flashman]

So the gist of the student association response was to say "We get that you might want to mourn this dude, but we want to let you know that, all the time, we want to let you know we think you're racist."

I think.

[Jerryskids]

And at some point when people figure out if you're going to be called racist and sexist and a gay-bashing Islamophobe no matter what you do you might as well vote for the Trump/Nugent ticket where are these people going to go with their rhetoric? When you cry "Wolf!" every time you pretend to see an imaginary mouse people are going to get so damn sick of your racket they're going to cheerfully feed you to the wolves just to get you to shut the hell up.

[Lord Humungus]

Bring Back Dueling!
Dueling would provide a much-needed corrective to our increasingly vulgar and reckless politics.

People typically adjust their behavior to the level of risk they face ? or so the theory goes. Would Harry Reid falsely accuse Mitt Romney of not paying his taxes if the latter could challenge the Nevada senator to a duel to regain his good standing? Would a politician question an opponent's Christian faith if that opponent could prove his piousness by shooting the accuser dead? Probably not.

Not that most duels ever ended in bloodshed, mind you. Combatants were represented by a second ? a friend, colleague, trusted member of society, or relative ? who would diligently negotiate a resolution between the parties to avoid any real violence. People are incentivized to act decently when they are responsible for saving lives.

If it ever got to the fight ? and as a libertarian I have no problem with people voluntarily working out their difficulties at the Weehawken or Bladensburg dueling grounds ? there is a strict set of codified rules that all gentleman must follow. Today, they can't even follow debate rules.

[Hamster of Doom]

The politicians would ignore the rules, turn and shoot before they were supposed to, miss, hit their seconds and any bystanders, pay the media for a photo-op and the entire thing would be blamed on guns being violent.

[Old Man With Candy]

+1 Hamilton Felix.

[Frankjasper1]

Does anyone get the apparent contradictions with Keynesians?

1. Tax cuts to individuals in federal income tax brackets = supply side

2. Stimulus package which had a bunch of tax credits and reductions = demand side

Doesnt make sense. Why do they not like the supply side?

[Brett L]

Less opportunity for graft and favoritism.

[kbolino]

1. It was proposed and implemented by the wrong people (not them)

2. It actually works, or at least works better than demand-side "stimulus" etc.

3. It doesn't give them more power; if they do it right, they work themselves out of a job

[Lord Humungus]

Cruz changes tune on rounding up undocumented immigrants

O'Reilly offered a hypothetical example of an immigrant from Ireland with "a couple of kids and he's settled into Long Island."

"And you, President Cruz, are going to send the feds to his house, take him out, and put him on a plane back to Ireland?" O'Reilly asked.

"You better believe it," Cruz said.

Cruz's comments to O'Reilly stand in stark contrast from his previous rhetoric on the issue.

In a January interview with CNN's Jake Tapper, Cruz had said he would not deploy a "deportation force," as Trump as suggested he would do as president.

[lap83]

Maybe O'Reilly should have picked a more sympathetic nationality

[Brett L]

Those fucking lazy drunks with their nine kids and Papistry!

[lap83]

Plus they're racist!

[Citizen X]

Well, at least one of them is.

[Idle Hands]

Dick Van Dyke is still alive and feeling the Bern.

[Citizen X]

He should probably get that checked out. STDs are on the rise among seniors, you know.

[Jerryskids]

Nobody wants to know what's on the rise with seniors.

[Rich]

Would someone *kindly* rephrase that concern?

[John]

The man was married to a 20 something Mary Tyler Moore and slept in a separate bed. He clearly isn't all there.

[straffinrun]

She was a Dyke.

[John]

You leave Mary alone. She was a babe. She couldn't have been a Dyke. She was the beard not him.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Mary Tyler Moore was too a dyke! That's right, you boys. I went to her house to install two-way mirrrors, and she came to the door in a man's suit and a fale mustache.

[Rhywun]

Excuse me while I punch that smug look off Spike Lee's face.

There. OK, what about Dick van Dyke?

[Libertarian]

Nevada Republican caucuses are happening today.

Okay, Nevada Republicans. Put down that Jack and Coke, step away from the slot machines, and vote for somebody besides Trump. Thank you.

[Lord Rollingpin]

They get two votes?

[John]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ea.....f34b06e8e8

Interesting article in Forbes. It is worth reading because it lays out the problems the country faces in international trade. Before all of you people start foaming at the mouth yelling "Trade War", consider two things.

1. Every country in the world engages in some degree of protectionism, and unfair trade practices. The US just does it a lot less. Many engage in all kinds of dastardly deeds such as organized industrial espionage and manipulation of their currency. So don't tell me that the US suddenly acting like every other country in the world is going to cause an apocalyptic trade war. That is nonsense.

2. An environment where countries routinely engage in a broad range of protectionism, industrial subsidization and illegal methods to give their domestic industries an advantage, is not a system of free trade. We don't have "free trade" today with most of the world. And while practices are likely counter productive in the long run, the fact that China and India will some day feel the pain won't undo the damage done by American industries that would have been competitive in a free trade environment but died because of these policies. There is more to this question than "they took our jerbs" and anyone who doesn't understand that is lying or a half wit.

[Libertarian]

Call me crazy, but if another government wants to tax its citizens in order to subsidize the production of something that it then exports to the U.S., I'M FINE WITH THAT.

[John]

There is that argument. And it is not unreasonable. But, there is the flip side of that. We lose otherwise competitive industries and jobs as a result of this sort of nonsense. Yeah, the cheap shit is great but perhaps there is some point where the harm caused to our domestic industry starts to outweigh that.

I am very much divided on this issue. What troubles me is that we are not even having the debate. The response from the right to Trump raising this issue has been pathetic. Rather than engaging the issue and having an honest debate about the pros and cons of all of this, they have just started screaming about "but he is not a conservative and likes abortion" or from the libertarian side a Cytoxic level "free trade" foaming at the mouth. Both responses are pathetic and utterly counter productive.

[Cytotoxic]

"We lose otherwise competitive industries and jobs as a result of this sort of nonsense. Yeah, the cheap shit is great but perhaps there is some point where the harm caused to our domestic industry starts to outweigh that."

No there isn't. There is no evidence America is losing wealth due to free(ish) trade. None.

" Rather than engaging the issue and having an honest debate about the pros and cons of all of this"

The irony...the lack of awareness...

Again why the fuck do you post here? To show just what a stupid asshole you are to the world?

[John]

No there isn't. There is no evidence America is losing wealth due to free(ish) trade. None.

There is tons of evidence. If you bothered to read or pay attention or do anything but engage in confirmation bias and prideful ignorance, you would know that.

And competition against subsidized foreign industry is not free trade you fucking moron. We are not talking about free trade here.

[Cytotoxic]

1) No there isn't.

2) " competition against subsidized foreign industry is not free trade you fucking moron"

Yes it is. It's imperfect but it is better than trying to counter-act that subsidy with a tariff. It's basically subsidization of our stuff.

[Krabappel]

If you were to ask me the number one thing hurting the American economy it would not be lopsided trade policy. It would be, unequivocally, the 40% corporate income tax rate.

[Overt]

We lose otherwise competitive industries and jobs as a result of this sort of nonsense

And replace them with other industries. I don't have a problem with that.

There is almost too much in trade wars to go through here, but briefly:

1) The term "Unfair Trade" has many uses. Some are just and some are not. If you go down the path of full throated support of "Fair Trade", you end up along side the people who think it is "unfair" that another country doesn't allow monopoly unions to take over manufacturing, or that don't nationalize vast swaths of land to keep it pristine. My point is that there are lots of specific issues to discuss and libertarians will have different answers on either side of each issue.

2) I concede that there is a direct cost to a domestic producer when its foreign competitors are subsidized or protected by tariffs. But I believe there is a much greater cost to our economy when you do the same. To "protect" your domestic producer, you shouldn't inflict pain on your own populace. Raising tariffs here means syphoning money from your population to keep the domestic industry afloat. Even if some other country is making it hard for Boeing to compete, I don't see a moral case for forcing a Walmart shopper to save them.

3) (Continued)

[Overt]

3) Countries with high protectionist tendencies also tend to have other problems with their economies. Those are hard to measure for the same reasons it is hard to measure whether raising the min wage really causes employment reductions.

For example, Japan has protected its industries for decades to the point that their automobile industry enjoys wide global success. But it has also kept foreign retailers from making it into their countries. As a result, most of the excess money that Japanese make on cars is lost when they go shopping for groceries. Their retail structure has not modernized with automated and efficient distribution like here in the US. This makes cities very expensive to live in, even though in the country where distribution isn't as complicated, food and such are quite reasonable.

The same is happening in China. They have all sorts of problems with misallocation of capital. Not all of that is due to protectionism, but a great amount of it is. Companies over allocate investment because of subsidies and other protections from their government, and this leads to many problems.

Again, there are other areas where I have differing opinions, such as IP theft, Trademark infringement and government meddling. However, when the discussion comes to Protectionism (Tariffs and Subsidies) it is not only immoral for governments (even in response to other govs) to force its citizens to support their chosen industry but also carries too many other hidden costs.

[Cytotoxic]

Already making economically illiterate excuses for supporting Trump I see.

DEY TRK R JERBS

[John]

Question, have you ever taken an actual economics course? Like one at a college where they make you do equations and draw graphs and stuff? Do they offer that kind of thing at your middle school?

Seriously, there is nothing in my post which would be even remotely controversial to anyone in the field of international trade. Nothing. Not to drop credentials but I have a BS in economics. I am well aware of the issues surrounding international trade. And I can't fathom how someone could be so stupid and think that it is as simple as you apparently think it is. And then call anyone who knows anything "illiterate".

I don't mind that you don't know much. Not many people really understand economics. But my God, it is like you enjoy being stupid and ignorant. I can't fathom that. I can't understand how someone could like being stupid and have no desire to learn. And yet, you do.

[Cytotoxic]

I don't need courses. The data is clear: I am right and you are wrong. End of story.

"setting aside industrial espionage, raising domestic tariffs is not "apocalyptic" but it's not good for the consumer, either. Any increased tariff not matched by a reduction in burdens on business in this country is just going to make people's lives harder."

[John]

I don't need courses.

If there is a better way to sum up your systematic and prideful ignorance on nearly every subject, that is it.

You don't need no stinking book lernin do you? If it wasn't so sad it would be funny.

[Cytotoxic]

The irony...the lack of self-awareness...

[Lord Rollingpin]

Cytotoxic is an idiot savant in economics. At least he has one part of that covered.

[kbolino]

There's a reason why nobody with half a brain supports the so-called "free-trade agreements" like the TPP. They don't do anything of the sort.

However, setting aside industrial espionage, raising domestic tariffs is not "apocalyptic" but it's not good for the consumer, either. Any increased tariff not matched by a reduction in burdens on business in this country is just going to make people's lives harder.

[Cytotoxic]

The TPP isn't great but NAFTA is much better. It's really stellar if imperfect.

[John]

It is certainly not good for the consumer. And it is often not good for other industries since it prevents US industry from buying the best available parts and services in some cases. In an ideal world none of this shit would go on and the rule of comparative advantage and trade would solve all of it. Sadly, we don't live in an ideal world.

The policies that countries like China and India are engaging in are a fool's errand. Japan did the same thing up through the 1990s. These countries are fucking their domestic consumers so they can build up their exports and conveniently get their cronies rich. Eventually that falls apart as other countries get wise to what you are doing and counter your currency manipulation or threaten to cut off access to their markets. When that happens, and it always does, you are screwed because you don't have a domestic market to pick up the slack. The economies of these countries are out of whack and too reliant on artificially supported export markets. This is what happens to Japan and they are still recovering from it.

The problem is, how then do you undo the damage done to US industry by these practices? Once an industry leaves the US, it is not necessarily certain it will come back and even if it does, it won't help the people who lost their jobs in the first place.

It is a very tricky issue.

[Overt]

As you admit, countries that get into the Protectionist game tend to have long term consequences. But your remedy seems to be engaging in our own Protectionism. How will that work out for us? Won't it just perpetuate the same types of problems here? If not, why not?

At the end of the day, domestic industries must adapt to disadvantages all over the globe. Sometimes it is lower cost of labor. Other times they are cultural mismatches with their products. And other times, it is a foreign government using guns to stifle their product. My general answer (which may change in specific instances) is to say, "I'm sorry but life ain't fair. Either adapt or move on". Back in the Cold War, everyone insisted that our corporations were at a disadvantage compared to Soviet backed corporations. Why, we had to pay for marketing and profit and all this other stuff that the Soviets didn't have to do. And yet our industries thrived- because they HAD to be more efficient, and it drove them to be dominant.

Our industries have done amazing things when forced to adapt to foreign competition. Our factories are more efficient, and we even co-opt foreign manufacturing when it makes sense. Above all, our country has driven down pretty much the cost of everything. Trying to pick winners and losers even in the face of "unfair" practices is worse than encouraging adaptation.

[SugarFree]

Jezebel: Clinton calls for White People to Check their Priviliege

The comments start off hard:

the rain in spain
Rachel Vorona Cote
2/22/16 9:10pm
As a black women: no one cares bitch. Fuck, nothing I hate more than white people who 'check their privilege' and think that is a political statement. Like, no, that shit just makes you feel better, it's like saying you are 'praying for the victims' after a shooting. FUCKING DO SOMETHING.

[Citizen X]

Ouch. If Hillary still had a human nervous system*, i bet that'd sting.

*besides the one she's currently digesting

[John]

Assuming Hillary gets the nomination, is the DNC convention this summer going to be fun or what? These people are going to tear each other apart.

[John]

I probably don't agree with her about very many things, but Rachel Vorona Cote is awesome.

No one cares bitch. needs to be the log in banner on every computer used by the Jezebel staff.

[Catatafish & Woodchips]

I'd like to know just what Rachel wants done before I start calling her awesome. My bitter, cynical heart tells me that "fucking do something" amounts to "go steal some white people shit and give it to me."

[John]

I have no clue. But I doubt if I will ever come up with a one liner half as good as "no one cares bitch" made in response to the typical Jezebel whine. So, I can't help but like Rachel.

[Catatafish & Woodchips]

(ponders...cedes the point)

[CatoTheChipper]

"[N]o one cares bitch" is a comment by "the rain in spain" who claims she is a black woman.

Rachel Vorona Cote is a white woman who wrote the article upon which this insightful comment was made.

I'm no sure, however, that the comment is a factual statement: as the article notes, "the Washington Post reports, to signal overwhelming support from black Democrats ? [Clinton] captured 76 percent of their votes." Evidently quite a few black Democrats do care.

[Idle Hands]

FUCKING DO SOMETHING.

But they did when they checked their privilege.

[John]

They feel really bad about it. What more does this uppity negro want?

[Hamster of Doom]

We're mad as hell and we're not gonna take it any more! #dosomething

[Michael]

*checks privilege*

Hey, this is pretty sweet!

[Juice]

Last time I went to the club they wanted $5 plus tip to check my privilege. I was like, no thanks, I'll just hang on to it. I'm not staying long anyway.

[SugarFree]

I hadn't heard this one before...

juggz_turner
2/22/16 10:33pm
I have the same interpretation, it really feels like lip service to me. I was also not shocked, but very dismayed to learn that her emails revealed that one of the real reasons for invading Libya was concern around Gaddafi's work to create a gold backed currency in Africa. Imagine what that could have done for a continent that has been continuously plundered of its natural resources since colonization.

[John]

That one might be true. It is entirely possible that Clinton got the US to do the French's bidding to make sure Africa didn't compete with French interests.

But Hillary has checked her privilege and cares Sugar Free.

[SugarFree]

Has she rent her clothes in grief yet? Has she torn out her weave? Repent, white woman. Repent!

[John]

Imagine if it is Trump Hillary and it actually is true a few black people go for Trump. Forget the politics of it for a moment. Just think of the smug, condescension and lecturing from Jezebel to their black sisters about how they are selling out their race not voting for Hillary. There would be a whole lot of no one cares bitch in response.

[Zeb]

That would be pretty awesome. One good thing that could come out of that contest is some stirring up of the identity politics pot. One of the best things that could happen in US politics would be to split up minority votes a bit more and weaken racial identity politics as a political weapon.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

My French *contacts* tell me this is exactly what it was. Sarkozy asked for U.S. assistance in this *matter*. Plus not to pay some debts back.

Great. Give more to the Arabs to feed off of.

[Rhywun]

Imagine what that could have done for a continent that has been continuously plundered of its natural resources since colonization.

Enrich the kleptocrat running every single one of those countries even further?

[SugarFree]

Of course, even in the best comment section, a little barf must fall...

Ivee
2/22/16 10:12pm
I think Between the World and Me should be mailed to every home and taught in every high school freshman English class. I think we should discuss reparations in Congress, as Coates suggested.

I read that book last week and its beauty devastated me for the entire day following. As an English major in college, I took several classes centered on the black experience?from Harriet Jacobs to Pudd'nhead Wilson to Zora Neale Hurston to Hagar's Daughter and everything between?but what I read last week pretty much makes me down for whatever recommendations Ta-Nehisi has in mind . . .

[Idle Hands]

I can't even imagine feeling that guilty for something I actually did.

[John]

I don't think she actually feels guilty. I think she sees acting and feeling guilty as a sign of virtue and thus derives pleasure and self worth from it. It is like radical Catholics who whip themselves. Are they really repentant for their sins and are punishing themselves or do they derive pleasure from the satisfaction of punishing themselves for their perceived sins? It is almost always the latter. And that is certainly what is going on here.

[tarran]

When I was in high school, I frequently marvelled at how stupid and backward people were in the earlier centuries.

Every year of my adult life, I have found myself confronting people or movements in the present that are identically backward or hysterical. We really are little different the idiots shrieking "she's a witch; build a bridge out of her!"

[John]

People have not changed. It is just the way they express these things that has changed.

[Free Society]

Supposedly IQs are going up across the board. But if that is so, why does everyone around me seem to gather more vapid stupidity with each passing year? Maybe it's not stupidity, maybe it's ignorance that's on the rise along with IQ. Maybe it's just stupid ideas getting more credence than ever because more high IQ people are powering their thinking power into developing their sophistry, whether they recognize it as sophistry or not.

[UnCivilServant]

IQ tests don't measure intelligence, they measure a set of skills assumed to be correlated to intellegence.

When people are getting better training in those skills, the numbers rise but the intelligence does not change.

[John]

IQ tests don't measure intelligence, they measure a set of skills assumed to be correlated to intellegence.

Bingo. And even if it did, history is filled with objectively "smart" people who believed insane and dangerous things.

[Libertarian]

"I think Between the World and Me should be mailed to every home and taught in every high school freshman English class."

So something I learned today: English class isn't the place to learn grammar or literature, but a place to proselytize social movements.

[Suthenboy]

God knows I am no grammar nazi but even for me the awfulness of that jumped right out.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Why for the day following?

[SFC B]

I've mentioned it before, going to mention it again because it's a Jezzie link, but I find it so fascinating that they've apparently completely discarded the UVA Rape Hoax story. The judge in the dean's defamation suit case recently ordered Jackie to give a deposition for the case. No comment. You'd think, just in the name of good journalism and following a story to its conclusion (I think they teach that at the Columbia School of Journalism Ms. Merlan) they'd mention it.

The story still actually pertains to the Jezzie campaign on sexual assault. A major media property, owner by a white man, libeled a woman who is responsible for enforcing Title IX on a college campus. The judge in the case is requiring a young woman to testify about her experiences, apparently against her wishes to not do so.

Of course it gets ignored by them now because of how completely, totally, epically they botched it in the beginning and they don't want to revisit it.

[Crusty Juggler]

You'd think, just in the name of good journalism and following a story to its conclusion

There is your problem.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Yes, I fail to see what either 'good' or 'journalism' has to do with Jezzie.

[BearOdinson]

So this is the first presidential election for me living in Kansas. Apparently we are now doing caucusus instead of a primary (at least in the GOP).
For those of you who live in caucus states, can you briefly describe what the hell is supposed to happen in these? I never paid much attention to the mechanics in places like Iowa (or Nevada).

[lap83]

I'm in Kansas too and wondering the same thing

[Citizen X]

Might i recommend not being in Kansas?

[lap83]

Sure, I guess if you need to get it out of your system. I'm used to it.

[CampingInYourPark]

You should try to contact your GOP precinct chairman and ask

[Agile Cyborg]

Strange universe. Our magazine must remain relevant covering an election teaming with trickster barracudas and shady cobras combined for a sum total of zero fucking concern over the deterioration of freedom in a country designed to encompass it.

One could trip on this disconnect and spin wildly off, man.

[Citizen X]

Trickster Barracudas would be an excellent name for a ska band that's trying to rebrand itself as a swing revival.

[trigusophe]

Fantastic work-from-home opportunity for anyone... Start working for three to eight hr a day and get from $4000-$8000 each month... Regular weekly payments... You Try Must.....

--- http://www.workprospects.com

[Jordan]

Canadians Left With Questions After Being Barred From 'Jeopardy!'

A decision to bar Canadian citizens from being future contestants on TV's Jeopardy quiz show is causing a range of reactions in Canada, particularly among those who note that show host Alex Trebek has dual citizenship in the U.S. and Canada.

Media outlets in Canada recently noted that their country is singled out in Jeopardy's eligibility guidelines:

"At this time we are precluded from accepting registration information from Canadian residents. We are currently evaluating this matter."
That led the Toronto Star to note, "Trebek may be one of the only Canadians on Jeopardy! next season."

The situation is being attributed to differences in online privacy laws

Hate crime? Oh, and of course government regulation is to blame.

[SusanM]

Maplephobia

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

/motions to Swiss.

[Brett L]

I do not fear them, Mandrake, but I do deny them my Jeopardy!

[Rhywun]

Citing two legal experts, the Star says the law in question could be Canada's anti-spam legislation, which carries potential penalties of up to $10 million for abuse.

Holy shit. Yeah spam sucks but it isn't worth wrecking a huge segment of your economy over. But I guess it's in line with the overall ban anything I don't like thing they've got going.

[Idle Hands]

'No sex in the office': Billion-dollar San Francisco startup has to ban rowdy employees from drinking, smoking and having sexual liaisons on its premises:

Human-resources software company Zenefits had to send an uncomfortable HR email to their own to staff recently following a few incidents within their San Francisco office.
The startup, which launched less than three years ago but was evaluated last May at $4.5 billion, was forced to ban staff from drinking in the office after some wild parties that involved employees having sex in the stairwell of the building, according to emails obtained by The Wall Street Journal.
The emails, sent around last summer by Zenefits Director of Real Estate and Workplace Services, Emily Agin, described the situation of employees having sex at work as 'crude behavior'.
'It has been brought to our attention by building management and Security that the stairwells are being used inappropriately?.Cigarettes, plastic cups filled with beer, and several used condoms were found in the stairwell. Yes, you read that right,' the email said.

Geroge Costanza gets it.

[Idle Hands]

*George

[BearOdinson]

"Was that wrong?"

[Pope Jimbo]

They left the office to go to the stairwell for some sexy times? They should be ashamed to call themselves a start up.

I remember the old start up I worked at. Every Friday someone would bring in beer and we'd sit around shooting at bobble heads with a bb-gun pistol.

[Brett L]

When you're worth $4.5B, the potential downside of HR lawsuits gets large real quick.

But seriously, fuck in the bathroom stalls.

[Rhywun]

Real companies already ban all that shit on their premises. God, the next bubble can't burst fast enough.

[Mr Drew]

So it's time to face some hard possibilities.

Can you guys help me compile a list of least worst things about a Trump Presidency?

I need some reason to hope.

I'll start with?more hats?

[Rich]

First Lady?

[waffles]

He would have a hostile press, a hostile congress, and a hot first lady.

[Lord Humungus]

C'mon - it will be the Rodney Dangerfield of presidencies. Enjoy it 😉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=171FURqSIQc

[Mr Drew]

Like I would ever click on a link provided by Humungus ever again.

/weeps softly

[Cytotoxic]

The Great Depression his Smoot-Hawley 2.0 policy causes. And possibly WW3.

Not that it matter because he will never be president.

[John]

Yes because every trade bill is "Smoot-Hawley" and the US engaging in the same sorts of practices that every other country in the world engages in is going to cause DOOM. And of course all other countries are economically suicidal and will respond to any US provocation on trade by launching a trade war that will destroy the US economy. They would never work out a deal or anything. Nope.

Is there any subject you know have any depth of knowledge beyond buzz words? Seriously, just one. Go to junior college and take a macro economics and an international trade class or something. Just try to make yourself trainable and think about these issues beyond the micrometer deep you currently do. Or just stop thinking about them and take up video games or something.

[Cytotoxic]

Ending NAFTA and putting 45% tariffs on goods from China is basically Smoot-Hawley.

"Every other country does it herp"

Except they don't. Canada is more open to trade. Countries around the world are getting more open to trade. America has plenty of protectionism and it suffers for it.

Is there any bullshit you won't spout? Why the fuck do you post here? Are you afraid someday someone will forget you're a total fucking moron?

[John]

Ending NAFTA and putting 45% tariffs on goods from China is basically Smoot-Hawley

Not even close. And we run a huge trade deficit with China. So any resulting loss in trade is likely to hurt them much worse than it does us. And China has engaged in systematic manipulation of its currency to give itself an advantage and ton of other things. China doesn't want a trade war anymore than the US does.

All Trump is saying is that the US needs to stop rolling over and allowing other countries to take advantage of us. The only way to do that is to give them a reason to stop.

Again, you don't know anything and seem to pride yourself in that fact.

[Cytotoxic]

" we run a huge trade deficit with China. So any resulting loss in trade is likely to hurt them much worse than it does us.'

You just went full retard.

"China has engaged in systematic manipulation of its currency to give itself an advantage"

They are propping their currency up.

"All Trump is saying is that the US needs to stop rolling over and allowing other countries to take advantage of us. The only way to do that is to give them a reason to stop."

And that's completely retarded. No country is 'taking advantage' of America by trade. All trade is mutually beneficial THAT'S THE FUCKING POINT OF TRADE.

[John]

You are an idiot. You understand so little and are so happy to be that way, there is no way to have an intelligent discussion with you. There just isn't. Do you ever notice how I am the only one dumb enough to engage you on anything? There is a reason for that.

[Cytotoxic]

It's because your obsessed with me because I call your bullshit out?

[Suthenboy]

John, I assume you are sitting at a desk and that you have a pen available. Pick it up and stab yourself in the eye already.

[Free Society]

And that's completely retarded. No country is 'taking advantage' of America by trade. All trade is mutually beneficial THAT'S THE FUCKING POINT OF TRADE.

Not where there are 3rd parties financing that trade against their will. So where government subsidies, government granted monopolies, statutes of exclusive dealings, armies of IP lawyers and hyper-regulation is concerned, no trade is not always mutually beneficial. In a vacuum of state power you'd be right. But it's worth being skeptical of "free trade" treaties that are hundreds and thousands of pages long. If free trade were simply government removing it's barriers to commerce, you could write that treaty in a paragraph or two.

Where statutory arbitrariness exists, there are no free market principles and axioms to be taken for granted.

[Libertarian]

Sorry, but there is only ONE good thing about a Trump presidency: seeing his hair and Boris Johnson's hair in the same room when they meet. Awesome.

[Free Society]

Can you guys help me compile a list of least worst things about a Trump Presidency?

Fewer Muslims. That's about the only positive thing I can think of.

[Crusty Juggler]

legalized incest?

[Free Society]

go on...

[Crusty Juggler]

This people could legally act out the actions of the statue they are posing on.

[Free Society]

Gotta keep that bloodline pure.

[John]

http://www.newsbusters.org/blo.....came-power

Trump has officially become a force in Republican politics; the Washington Post has compared him to Hitler. You really haven't made it as a Republican until the Post or the Times calls you Hitler.

[SusanM]

"In the future, everyone will be Hitler for 15 minutes"

[Lord Humungus]

+1 Micropenis

[Roger the Shrubber]

That is a misrepresentation of the true story.

[John]

Pretty much Susan. On college campuses long time liberals are being called out as fascists today. So, yeah, eventually we will all be Hitler. I just hope that doesn't come with having a micro penis and one ball.

[Cytotoxic]

I posted this earlier and will post it again: Why Donald Trump will never be president.

http://thefederalist.com/2016/.....ite-house/

Educated people vote way more than non-educated people, and they hate Donald Trump.

"There is simply no way a candidate can win a presidential election now by losing the biggest turnout group by ten or more points, as polls consistently show Trump doing. College graduates cannot stand Trump, and this surely is no small factor in him having the highest negative rating of any presidential candidate Gallup has ever tested. Sixty percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of Trump. That kind of radioactivity usually requires a Geiger counter to measure."

[John]

No one cares bitch.

[Cytotoxic]

Thanks for your typically insightful, eloquent thoughts.

[John]

Every comment gets the insightful response it deserves.

[Cytotoxic]

Underneath all that snark and barely literate babble is an angry little man. An angry, mentally ill little army man.

[Crusty Juggler]

*unzips*

The sexual tension is so fucking hot.

[straffinrun]

Not helping if you get frank n beans.

[John]

It is killing me Crusty. Why does he play hard to get? What am I doing wrong?

[SusanM]

This calls for some music!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f77PLFRP3Ok

[Citizen X]

Gross, dude. Cytotoxic is 12 years old. This is seriously messed up.

[John]

Damn Citizen, you are on to me. I need help, okay? I can admit that.

[Rhywun]

OMWC to the courtesy phone, please

[Irish ?s ESB]

You know John, you sure do get awfully mad when people criticize Trump for someone who totally is not a Trump supporter but just understands their frustration...

[John]

You called me out Irish. Because everyone knows I always keep my opinions to myself. I never tell people what I think and never take an unpopular opinion or defend an unpopular person here. Never.

Clearly, I think Trump is a fantastic candidate and am just afraid to admit it, because that is how I roll. I just can't stand the thought of going against the grain on here.

You figured it out.

[Cytotoxic]

Yes we have. You're a fascist who can't help apologizing for another fascist.

[John]

You shouldn't use word the meaning of which you don't understand. And shouldn't you be out looking for the Germans who framed all of those peaceful refugees for rape in Cologne? How is that search going? You were sure none of that was true and no Muslim would ever do such a thing. Have you smoked out the perps yet?

[Cytotoxic]

Tell us how we should expel all the Muslims Mr Totally Not Fascist.

[Free Society]

Tell us how we should import all the Muslims at tax payer expense Mr Multicult

[Cytotoxic]

We shouldn't. Just let them in. I am sure they are smarter and less prone to tackling strawmen than you.

[Free Society]

"Just let them in" is not what's happening. What's happening is government supported "charities" and NGO's recruiting them, often then flying them to west and then supporting them with massive tax benefits once they're here. That's what you support.

I am sure they are smarter and less prone to tackling strawmen than you.

Actually no, they're highly inbred and have pitifully low IQs by western standards. When migrants are induced to migrate because of the welfare benefits you don't get the best and brightest.

[Banjos]

Without Obama, the Dems are struggling to get their base excited enough to show up to the primaries, I doubt it's going to change much for the General. Combine that with an inevitable econ collapse from now until then, Trump could win in a landslide.

[Cytotoxic]

"Without Obama, the Dems are struggling to get their base excited enough to show up to the primaries, I doubt it's going to change much for the General. "

They'll show up. Trump as nom guarantees that.

"inevitable econ collapse"

You should be rich with that vast predictive capability. You have no idea if a collapse will happen in the meantime. This could be 2007 again or just 2011. The latter year also had rolling instability.

You are high on meth if you think Trump is going to win.

[Banjos]

Republicans play the same game every 4 years "vote for my guy because I would never ever vote for that guy and all my buddies agree".

Post nomination "we all need to get together and defend to the death that guy, we can't let the Dems win!"

Republicans will fall in line behind whoever wins. And seriously, democrats can't get their base excited without Obama.

I don't want Trump to win. I don't want trade wars and a clamp down on immigration, it would add to the already inevitable destruction of the US economy. But I'm not going to pretend like the man doesn't have a chance. He very much does.

[Cytotoxic]

Not only are you wrong, you're double wrong. Romney lost partly because a lot of republicans stayed home. Further, I see no real evidence that the Dems won't turn up. There is plenty of ad-ammo to use to rile people up, thanks to Trump.

[Banjos]

http://m.washingtontimes.com/n.....-numbers-/

Obama has a cult following. Without him, democrats don't care.

[GILMORE?]

"I see no real evidence that the Dems won't turn up."

This just means you haven't actually looked.

The primary turnout numbers indicate 50%+ increases in GOP voters, 30% decreases in Dem participation.

While some of that can be offset by factors like the wide-range of GOP candidates, and the inevitability of Hillary, its a horrifyingly large spread.

[Irish ?s ESB]

"Sixty percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of Trump"

Man, Trump v. Hillary would be just an absolute orgy of hate voting.

[SFC B]

Seeing as how it was like 80% a few months ago I'm not sure the trend line is going the way Cytotoxic wants it to.

[Cytotoxic]

I never heard of that piece of data.

[Juice]

Educated people vote way more than non-educated people

Really? That can't be right. At least you'd never be able to tell based on the results.

[Trshmnstr, terror of the trash]

Intelligence is in no way correlated to the (highly emotionally based) voting process.

[straffinrun]

http://www.brecorder.com/world.....lande.html

How to get out of the EU.

[Brett L]

Eh. This is just Hollande trying to keep the French in line. "If you vote for Le Pen, the Germans will run the EU by themselves!"

[Free Society]

"When the freedom of the media is in danger, when constitutions and human rights are under attack, Europe must not just be a safety net. It must put in place procedures to suspend (countries) -- it can go that far," Hollande said.

The freedom of the media is not in danger when they're censored by lefties, but it is in danger when allowed to accurately report on shit that's actually happening.

[Juice]

If this is truly the case, the EU is dead. It's over.

[Sevo]

"India Sends in the Army to Quell Deadly Jat Protests"
[...]
"...The protesters want India's government to recognize the Jat community as a "backward class," a designation that would make its members eligible for civil-service and university jobs that are "reserved" for people from marginalized groups.
In an effort to correct historical injustices against lower-caste groups and end discrimination, India has an elaborate system of set-asides and quotas. Critics say the arrangement, which has expanded to include more groups despite decades of social progress, is misused by politicians for electoral gains."
http://blogs.wsj.com/indiareal.....-protests/

When everybody gets 'preferential treatment', does anybody?

[Free Society]

Kurdish special forces have rescued a Swedish teenager from ISIS.

"Swedish"

[Free Society]

Looks like she actually is Swedish, as opposed to the usual Islamist with Swedish documents that media would tell you is Swedish because diversity.

[GILMORE?]

The funny part is that no one other than you really gave a shit.

[Free Society]

Clearly, you don't give a shit and you've done some extrapolation. No need to be a dick.

[UnCivilServant]

I was going to snark about it being a case of the Swede figuring "well, they've all come up here, so their old country should be enpty now".

[Juice]

I dunno, she's quite homely. Are you sure she's actually Swedish?

[Roger the Shrubber]

Suprise!

Justice Department Seeks to Force Apple to Extract Data From About 12 Other iPhones
They are not even claiming a 'terrorism exception.'

[Brett L]

About 12? 11, 1500, all of them? What is "about 12"?

[kbolino]

They are not allowed to disclose the exact number. I wish I was making this up, but apparently if the terrorists knew how many such requests were being made, they could undermine the entire anti-terrorism effort.

[Brett L]

So all of them. Got it.

[blighted non millenial]

So slysoft.com is offline. Thank you DMCA.

[lorianderson003]

....$....Just before I looked at the paycheck that said $6914 , I didnt believe that my mom in-law really bringing in money in their spare time from their computer. . there neighbour had bean doing this for only six months and resently paid for the mortgage on there place and bourt a top of the range Saab 99 Turbo . look at this site....

Clik this link in Your Browser..

???????? http://www.Wage90.com

[Idle Hands]

But if it could save one life it would be worth it you monster, think of the children!!!!!

[Irish ?s ESB]

And that's counting suicides which it's dumb to label as 'gun deaths' since there's no way of knowing what percentage of those would occur no matter what.

Plus, America doesn't even have a suicide problem relative to other developed countries. America does have a homicide rate higher than other countries, but a 4.6 per 100,000 murder rate does not exactly make this country a killing field.

[Libertarian]

UGH! The photo used to illustrate that piece looks like a bunch of well-off women with nothing better to do; they're probably bored with playing tennis and tending the community garden and want to "make a difference."

[Rich]

BAN BATHTUBS!

[Rich]

PELLEY: In '76, Jimmy Carter famously said, " I will not lie to you."

HILLARY CLINTON: Well, I have to tell you, I have tried in every way I know how, literally from my years as a young lawyer, all the way through my time as Secretary of State to level with the American people.

PELLEY: You talk about leveling with the American people. Have you always told the truth?

HILLARY CLINTON: I have always tried to, always, always.

PELLEY: Some people are going to call that wiggle room that you just gave yourself "always tried to." I mean Jimmy Carter, "I will never lie to you."

HILLARY CLINTON: You're asking me to say, "have I ever?" I don't believe I ever have. ?" I don't believe I ever have, I don't believe I ever will. I am going to do the best I can to level with the American people.

[WTF]

And that murder rate is mostly the result of a handful of bad cities, which if you eliminate them from the stats Americans are generally safer than most Europeans.

[Zeb]

Suicide is on the list as it's own thing. Are gun suicides double counted?

[tarran]

By the way, yesterday, on my commute home, I saw an Anderson for President bumper sticker. Now *that's* old school!

[Brett L]

Four cities. Chicago, Detroit, DC and New Orleans. Take those out and the average murder rate would be the lowest in Europe. Of course, I'm sure if France could exclude Paris, their rate would drop also.

[Marshall Gill]

bad cities

I wonder which political party runs these places?

[Akira]

Those places have probably had too many Republican mayors. Yep, I bet if you checked Wikipedia, you'd find that they've just elected one Republican after another.

/sarc