Obama Meets with Castro, Trump Reveals Foreign Policy Team, Clinton Attacks Trump on Israel: P.M. Links

• President Barack Obama's visit to Cuba kicked off with a face-to-face meeting with President Raul Castro. Castro demanded Guantanamo Bay returned and claimed that there are no political prisoners in Cuba.

• The Supreme Court today declined to limit border patrol stops, rejected the idea that stun guns are not protected by the Second Amendment, and declined to let nearby states attempt to interfere with Colorado's marijuana legalization. The Court has also agreed to hear a patent case between Apple and Samsung.
• Donald Trump revealed today some of the members of his foreign policy team and according to the Washington Post "outlined an unabashedly non-interventionist approach to world affairs."
• Hillary Clinton attacked Trump at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference today for being "neutral" on the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Trump will be speaking this evening.
• There's a manhunt on now in Europe for a newly identified suspect in the deadly Paris terrorist attacks.
• Last week I noted how the Department of Justice was attempting to use (and misuse) antitrust laws to block Tribune Publishing from purchase bankrupt Freedom Communications newspapers in California. Even without having to prove the case, the DOJ succeeded in thwarting the effort. Because Freedom Communications was set to run out of money by the end of the month, there was no time to fight the DOJ's restraining order, so they went with the second-highest bidder instead, Digital First Media, which is the second largest newspaper chain in the U.S. and is Tribune's direct competitor in Southern California. Apparently this somehow avoids a monopoly.
• Apple is announcing some new products today.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

President Barack Obama's visit to Cuba kicked off with a face-to-face meeting with President Raul Castro.

Che t-shirt: Which wore it better?

[The Hyperbole (?'s r 2D)]

Whom.

[Shirley Knott]

Only for human persons.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Your nose or your kisser: Whom wore my knuckle sandwich better?

[Juvenile Bluster]

Dammit, Stannis. Nobody likes you any more.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Less and less people like Stannis.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Well played.

[commodious spittoon]

Nikki sadface.

[Crusty Juggler]

Fist should of been a comedy writer.

[EMD]

Apparently, Stannis didn't like GoT.

[jesse.in.mb]

The apostrophe in your handle is incorrect. You're either saying "triangles is are 2D" or "r 2D belongs to triangles"

Pedant better, bro.

[Agammamon]

Uh - you're missing the standard usage of adding *'s* to indicate plurality for symbols, abbreviations, etc.

'the '90's' - for example.

[commodious spittoon]

It's a bad habit.

[jesse.in.mb]

Lynn Truss just died.

My predecessor at my current job had gotten so confused by apostrophe use in denoting years that he was writing things like 98'.

1998, '98, the '90s

I still have to check for it when reviewing old reports.

[R C Dean]

you're missing the standard usage of adding *'s* to indicate plurality for symbols, abbreviations, etc.

Its a stupid usage, which confuses plural with possessive. Exactly what apostrophes are supposed to distinguish.

[The Hyperbole (? B r 2D)]

thx's Fixxed's

[The Hyperbole (? B 2D)]

Dammit.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Now that it is clear that you're writing in African American Vernacular English, it should be noted that in statements employing the coupla "be", the verb is usually dropped; i.e., "? 2D"

[The Hyperbole (? S 2D)]

In thought I was using Esperanto.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Hello.

With Che in the background?

Lovely. Just lovely.

[Rich]

Just curious: Does that Che sign light up at night?

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Does anything light up at night?

[Rich]

*** scratches chin ***

Agile Cyborg!

Oh, did you mean in *Cuba*?

[Domestic Dissident]

Again, why wouldn't any person want to be photgraphed in front of their personal icon and hero?

I promise you, they didn't have to twist his arm one bit.

[BigT]

Yeah, no right-thinking, commie-hating 'Merican would be caught dead like that.

Oh, wait...

[Fist of Etiquette]

Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this bust of Ming the Merciless!

[Mustang]

It really is inspiring. What progress!

[NittanyCougar]

I want to believe this is just a coincidental photograph, but I'd be really naive, wouldn't I?

[Drake]

Matt swears this totally isn't appeasement.

[rts]

Millionaires urge New York governor: Please raise our taxes

A group of more than 40 millionaires in New York state has written to Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo and top lawmakers calling on them to consider raising taxes on the state's wealthiest residents to help address poverty and rebuild failing infrastructure.

[Rich]

What a touching gesture!

[Libertarian]

You misspelled doucheing.

[Tornado16nb]

Wonder why they don't pony up voluntarily?

[Certified Public Asshat]

They're just trying to get the millionaires they don't like to move out of state.

[Doctor Whom]

That's no way to force everyone to go along with the goodthink.

[Mustang]

Am I wrong in thinking they can just choose to pay more in taxes, or is that a myth? Because if they can make that choice...they can go fuck themselves if they think it's okay to force others to do so as well.

[Juvenile Bluster]

You can indeed make extra voluntary payments to the IRS if you like.

In some blue states, like Massachusetts, higher income earners have the option to pay a higher tax rate. Unsurprisingly, some (like Elizabeth Warren) who think taxes should be higher choose not to pay the higher rate themselves.

[some guy]

Paying higher taxes yourself is a rounding error to the state's bottom line. Forcing everyone to pay higher taxes is a protected bike lane on every street and a Big Mac certified organic kale salad in every stomach!

[Stormy Dragon]

Gifts to the United States Government

Simply make a check or money order payable to "United States Treasury" and mail it to:

Gifts to the United States
U.S. Department of the Treasury
Credit Accounting Branch
3700 East-West Highway, Room 622D
Hyattsville, MD 20782

[MarkLastname]

Uhuh, you expect me to believe you didn't just put you're own address down there?

[juris imprudent]

Not only could they pay more - they could pay more than the paltry max 1.1% of additional taxes as per their proposal!

[Playa Manhattan.]

I have a suggestion.

[Tornado16nb]

The rate increases are less than 1 pct point except over 100 million. Really sticking it to themselves

[Ted S.]

New York could solve its budget problems with the revenue from fantasy sports wagering.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

How many millionaires are in New York State-- what percentage of the total does the 'more than 40' consist?

[Farm to Toilet]

368,388; 1.08%

[HeteroPatriarch]

MANDATE!

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Front page news then. It all makes so much sense.

[Libertarian]

I find the term "millionaires" a bit anachronistic. A net worth of a million dollars? A couple GS-13 bureaucrats can amass that much wealth well before they retire. (Thanks Federal Reserve!) Either we need a new term or we need to start using "billionaires when we're talking "real" money.

[R C Dean]

I believe the term originally meant "someone with more than a million in income." And this was way back, when there really weren't more than a small handful of those.

[Tonio]

But I guaran-fucking-tee you that "millionaire" today, as understood by progs, is anyone with more than a million net worth.. And they confuse those people with the canonical "One Percent." And if you are a millionaire by that definition you are rich and your wealth subject to confiscation.

[Trshmnstr, terror of the trash]

But I guaran-fucking-tee you that "millionaire" today, as understood by progs, is anyone with more than a million net worth.

Yes, absolutely true. By that definition, I know a few "millionaires" who have never made more than $60k/yr in their life.

[MarkLastname]

Yeah, I'd almost say a lot of typical middle class families (or couple) that are merely fiscally prudent will have a net worth over a million by the time they retire. Working 40-50 years and saving on average 10-15k per year plus interest. That's how you become "the super rich."

[What's that smell?]

By this definition anyone who owns property in prog-enclaves is a millionaire.

[Migrant Log Chipper]

Any bets this goes to underfunded pensions.....infrastructure, bwahahahaha...the unions are the "infrastructure".

So certain segment of rich New Yorker's are economically illiterate, funny that two inherited their dough.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Court has also agreed to hear a patent case between Apple and Samsung.

ANDROID VS IPHONE WAR

[some guy]

Patents are bad and shouldn't exist. Software patents are downright evil. There, I said it.

[Trshmnstr, terror of the trash]

Software patents are downright evil.

The problem is deeper than software v. other patents. It's an issue of what is "novel," what is "obvious," and the length of the patent term.

Nobody writes pure software patents anymore, especially post Alice. The bigger question is still there, though. When inventor X combines well known algorithm A with well known algorithm B in a way that nobody else has done before, have they invented something??? Perhaps they've just improved something?? Should we protect that improvement?? What scope should we protect??

A million questions and zero answers.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

President Barack Obama's visit to Cuba kicked off with a face-to-face meeting with President Raul Castro. Castro demanded Guantanamo Bay returned and claimed that there are no political prisoners in Cuba.

The Tom Brady method.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Does Castro have soft balls, too?

[R C Dean]

Let's ask amsoc. If anyone is familiar with Castro's balls, it would be him.

[W. Chipper Dove]

Their flavor, anyway.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...outlined an unabashedly non-interventionist approach to world affairs.

The only wars he plans to start are of the trade variety.

[some guy]

He's playing to his strengths, which is better than him trying to get rich off Halliburton like some Republican officials...

[rts]

At creating new businesses, immigrants outpace Canadian-born people, StatsCan finds

By the time they'd been in Canada nine years, about 5.3 per cent of immigrants owned a private company, meaning they formed new businesses more quickly than the Canadian-born population, where the rate is 4.8 per cent.

[John]

Isn't that the result of being a newcomer and not some genetic superiority of immigrants? Natives have more connections and better access to stable jobs. They don't have to form their own business while immigrants often do.

[rts]

"It may also be that some immigrants are 'pushed' into self-employment because of difficulties finding an appropriate paid job."

From the report.

[John]

That makes perfect sense. yet, those "immigrants are superior because they form more businesses" arguments are so often made.

[rts]

I wouldn't say that ("immigrants are superior because they form more businesses"). I'm just sharing some data y'all might find interesting.

[John]

I am not saying you did.

[Rhywun]

You can use statistics to "prove" anything you want - film at 11.

[Akira]

74 percent of statistics are just made up on the spot, anyway.

[juris imprudent]

And 4% are unsubstantiated!

[Ted S.]

I'd guess that immigrants to the US outpace native-born Americans in creating businesses, too.

[BigT]

immigrants to the US outpace native-born Americans in creating businesses anchor babies, too

[HeteroPatriarch]

To be fair, by the time most Canadian-born people have been in Canada 9 years, they're only 9 years old.

[R C Dean]

Plus, at least in the US, we have a fast track for immigrants who bring enough money to start a business.

I wouldn't be surprised if Canadian immigration also selects, at some level, for people with the money and desire to start a business.

[JeremyR]

That's because most Canadian immigrants are middle class or better.

I don't think anyone would complain if we got that sort of immigrants (who also speak English), as opposed to no skill, no money, no English types that suck up welfare

[Playa Manhattan.]

Obama is in Cuba?

[Rich]

You're thinking of Havana.

Havana is in Cuba.

[Playa Manhattan.]

No, it's right down the street. I eat there twice a week.

[Trouser-Pod (The blowhard)]

Baby, he is not from Havana!

[Anomalous]

I was gambling in Havana, I took a little risk.

[blighted non millenial]

+1 hold the lawyers and send lots of guns and money

[John]

Donald Trump revealed today some of the members of his foreign policy team and according to the Washington Post "outlined an unabashedly non-interventionist approach to world affairs."

Sheldon Richman hit hardest.

[Winston]

Interesting to compare Welch and Gillespie's articles on Cuba to Dalmia's articles on Modi:

http://reason.com/archives/201.....g-a-libert
President Obama, who has emboldened Modi's bad behavior by his unabashed feting of him

http://reason.com/blog/2015/10.....-for-asylu
But if Modi thinks he can get away by giving Hindu zealots free rein to persecute and kill others in the name of his religion, it is because he thinks folks like Zuckerberg have his back. These CEOs engage in selective diplomacy, naively lapping up Modi's happy talk about "inclusive development," allowing Modi to bury the rest of his odious agenda in international glory.

[Playa Manhattan.]

It's not whine at all! It's just grape juice and antifreeze!

[Winston]

I think it says more about Dalmia's Modi obsession that anything else...

[Heroic Mulatto]

I'm with Winston; as I've pointed out before, anything Modi makes Dalmia go cuckoo for Coco Puffs.

[Los Doyers]

Didn't whine about this in the first Cuba thread?

*pours another glass*

[Los Doyers]

Didn't you*

[MarkLastname]

Kind of nitpicking, but I liked this Cato article anyway: http://www.cato.org/blog/presi.....ent-castro

Isn't it curious that Pinochet and the like are reported in the US media as 'dictators' but communist dictator Castro is always President Castro?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Apple is announcing some new products today.

iSwoon!

[gaoxiaen]

Stop with the Spanish already.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

Apple is announcing some new products today.

C'mon Robby...

[Crusty Juggler]

Fuckin' Soave.

[You Sound Like a Prog (MJG)]

Don't mind if I do.

[Migrant Log Chipper]

Shackford, Crusty.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Obama: I just came back and all I got was this lousy (Che) t-shirt.

[GILMORE?]

Donald Trump revealed today some of the members of his foreign policy team and according to the Washington Post "outlined an unabashedly non-interventionist approach to world affairs."

I eagerly await the forthcoming article explaining how this is actually the worst possible outcome

[John]

Reason suddenly discovers the value of foreign intervention.

[MetalBard]

They will just say he's not serious, because Trump or some such nonsense, even though he's been pretty consistent on this issue at least.

I know it's not as fun but some people might want to consider that Trump might not be the horrible apocalyptic disaster they make him out to be.

[Just say Nikki]

Consistent? LOLZ

Pretty sure it was only last week I heard him talk about stealing ISIS' oil.

[John]

Some people have too much of their personal identity and self worth invested in the Trump monster meme.

[MetalBard]

Yeah and one just posted 4 minutes before you did. Nikki the Virtuous

[HeteroPatriarch]

Did she say something inaccurate? Other than the timing?

http://www.vice.com/read/donal.....ideo-vgtrn

But yeah, he's a totally consistent and principled non-interventionist. This week.

[Heroic Mulatto]

*looks at HP's post*

Jinx.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Example of Ad Hominem

Nikki: 'Anyone who makes stump speeches on the topic of 'I'm gonna bomb the SHIT out ISIS' is by definition not an non-interventionist"
MetalBard: "Of course you'd say that, you dumb broad"
Nikki: "What about the evidence I gave to support my argument?"
MetalBard "That doesn't count. Like I said, you're a dumb broad, so you have to say that Trump is bad. Also, Your position is different than mine, so you have to be morally posturing as I am never wrong. "

[MetalBard]

I don't know about Ad Hominem, but your post was a great example of a Starwman.

[Heroic Mulatto]

No, this is a great example of a Star(w)man.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I'm just going to leave this here.

[Yusef Adama]

Like Confused Bowie?

[HeteroPatriarch]

How? It validated what Nikki said, for which you attacked her as having too much of her identity tied up in hating Trump. You don't seem to understand fallacies.

[Heroic Mulatto]

You don't seem to understand fallacies.

He understands them quite well. Having been caught, he is now just being disingenuous about his implicature.

[SIV]

I gotta go with MetalBard on this: TRUTHOMETER 110%

[Heroic Mulatto]

Did Trump stutter, motherfucker?

[lap83]

He doesn't mean any of the non-interventionism stuff, but he'll do everything he says about anti-trade and anti-illegal immigration

[MarkLastname]

So you're saying schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder are good things in a candidate, then?

[Migrant Log Chipper]

Well, we have two at the moment.

[MarkLastname]

Well, Noah Smith recently decided he actually wasn't too fond of the ongoing neo-protectionist movement in the US (despite detesting free trade himself) because Trump was such a protectionist. This of course is how I imagined Smith thought, but now he admits it openly: if someone who he doesn't like (or happens to be a Republican) holds an opinion, he must hold the opposite.

This made me realize we can use Trump. Someone get him on the phone and convince him to start criticizing free markets and white privilege and maybe progs will all abandon their ideology out of spite.

[GILMORE?]

Surprise! = US Still Bombing Iraq

[HeteroPatriarch]

I don't see any evidence that that was the US.

[GILMORE?]

The narration to the video says that pentagon officials announced that "coalition forces" carried out 16 airstrikes on Mosul on Friday and Saturday.

this piece here specifies "US warplanes"

Further = US forces now have a base in northern Iraq which recently came under attack today

A fledgling U.S. base in northern Iraq came under attack again on Monday from Islamic State and even drew a threat from an Iran-backed Shi'ite militia, two days after a U.S. Marine there was killed in a rocket attack.

Firebase Bell, as the artillery outpost is called, is the first independent U.S. base of its kind in Iraq since the return of American forces to the country in 2014 and is the latest sign of deepening U.S. military involvement in the conflict.

Bell's existence was meant to be kept secret until it was deemed operational, the U.S. military said, but Islamic State appeared to learn of the U.S. presence before the American public did.

The reason i highlighted the above was to note that the US press has mostly ignoring the fact that "we're still at war" - treating all these incidents as so many 'one offs'

[Unicorn Abattoir]

Castro demanded Guantanamo Bay returned and claimed that there are no political prisoners in Cuba.

No political prisoners. Ideological detainees however...

[BiMonSciFiCon]

I was a political prisoner once. I kicked a giant mouse in the butt.

[Juvenile Bluster]

It was a protest against the lack of Bort license plates.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

"Remember, kids, we're in the 'Itchy' lot."

[Juvenile Bluster]

Sometimes I wonder how much more I could do in life if half my brain wasn't taken up by "Simpsons" and "Futurama" quotes.

[Trouser-Pod (The blowhard)]

But, who would remember good ol' Ku Klux Klam?

/certainly not Irish! 🙂

[GILMORE?]

Anti-Trump Rally = Shockingly, Still Violent Without Any Trump Supporters Around

[Playa Manhattan.]

A police horse was slapped in the face by a protestor recently. Smart

[John]

Why hate the poor horse?

[Playa Manhattan.]

From my understanding of the protesters, this is to be expected

[John]

I wish the horse had stomped them.

[Brett L]

"Mongo just pawn in this great big world"

[HeteroPatriarch]

*Narrows gaze*

[MarkLastname]

Well, the horse was aiding the oppressors, was he not? False consciousness cannot be forgiven. Revolution is not a dinner party! Even for horses.

[Illocust]

What were they even trying to do by pushing at the cops? It's just random violence for the sake of it.

[some guy]

You answered your own question.

[Rhywun]

"Smash the system".

[Tonio]

Yeah, this weekend my derpbook lit up with "police always side with facists" because the police were trying to clear a public roadway being blocked by protesters.

Equally disgusting, the knee-jerk copsuckers who camped on to this with mindless "I support our police."

[Ted S.]

David Thompson, whom I normally enjoy, posted some more cop-fellating shit from Heather McDonald today. 🙁

[Pay up, Palin's Buttplug!]

this weekend my derpbook lit up with "police always side with facists"

I bet they'd fall into line behind a politician who proposes restructuring our regulatory bodies with representatives of workers and customers like the British Union of Fascists did:

Hitherto all attempts at industrial planning have broken down because of the difficulty of compelling an industry to fulfil agreements. In the Corporate system decisions arrived at by the corporation will be legally binding, and any breach will be punishable at law.

Within the Corporate State every great industry, and groups of smaller industries and professions, will be controlled by such a Corporation giving the industry powers of economic self-government.

These Corporations would, in their turn, be split up into smaller groups functioning in single industries within the main category, but would represent the whole industrial section in relation to the central government.

We now turn to the typical Corporation, and see in what manner it is organized and how it will function. There will be represented on the Corporation employers, workers and consumers. Each group will be given equal representation and equal power, and may not be outvoted by the other two.

[Pay up, Palin's Buttplug!]

Wait, they have!

To ensure the safety and soundness of our banking system, we need to fundamentally restructure the Fed's governance system to eliminate conflicts of interest. Board members should be nominated by the president and chosen by the Senate. Banking industry executives must no longer be allowed to serve on the Fed's boards and to handpick its members and staff. Board positions should instead include representatives from all walks of life ? including labor, consumers, homeowners, urban residents, farmers and small businesses.

[MetalBard]

So who are the real fascists?

[Jerryskids]

It's fascists all the way down. When you realize the fasces is a bundle of sticks and the symbolism of this is that the group is stronger than the individual, you understand the appeal of identity politics and you start seeing the appeal to identity politics everywhere. The wants of the many outweigh the rights of the few and all that, and the many is the biggest group there is in identity politics.

Like if some loser old lady selfishly is hoarding an ugly old house to herself and lots of limo drivers and passengers would be better off having a nice place to park limos, it's only fair that a casino owner who needs a limo parking lot should be able to make the old lady turn over the property, for the greater good. Or if lots of people are offended by some evil plutocrat spreading nasty vicious lies about the nice lady candidate these people support, these people should be able to make the one malcontent shut up and quit bothering everybody with his misinformation campaign, for the greater good.

[Pay up, Palin's Buttplug!]

When you realize the fasces is a bundle of sticks and the symbolism of this is that the group is stronger than the individual

+1 Common good before individual good!

[Rich]

"[W]e, for some reason, expect total purity from a woman candidate."

I'd consider voting for a woman candidate who was *partially* pure.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Hillary, like Ivory Soap, is 99 and 44/100% pure.

Ivory is soap.

Hillary is evil.

[B.P.]

You know who else tried to achieve a level of purity by making soap?

[Anomalous]

The Narrator/Tyler Durden?

[juris imprudent]

Boraxo?

[Robert]

Me? http://users.bestweb.net/~robgood/lather.htm

[MarkLastname]

Hillary Clinton would likely be in prison if she were a man. She is enjoying her female privilege, which will enable her to bush off all criticism all the way through November as mere 'misogyny.'

And shame on you for tempting into giving politico a click.

[Irish ?s Lauren Southern]

Australian film crew drives into Muslim part of Stockholm, immediately rammed by car then assaulted by men wearing ski masks.

Integration is going swimmingly. Also, no-go areas totally don't exist, right-wing bigot:

"Lead correspondent Liz Hayes called the police, but even they were hesitant to follow them into the district. "I think it would be better if you go in without us," a policeman bluntly tells Hayes."

[Irish ?s Lauren Southern]

In fairness, another Muslim Swede helped them escape. This still seems to indicate some worrisome tendencies in the Muslim ghettos in Sweden.

[rts]

The best part of that whole thing is the mobility scooter ramming at the end.

[Rich]

young men masking their faces ran up and began harassing them. One of the men begins by throwing a large rock at the cameraman. The same man then kicks and throws a punch at the boom operator. A second man tries to rip a still photographer's camera out of his hands.

Ah, yes. "Harassing".

[Irish ?s Lauren Southern]

It's just like catcalling, yo

[HeteroPatriarch]

You can take the refugee out of the hellhole...

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Lord, Sweden just ceded territory like that?

[Tonio]

They don't want to be seen as racist or islamophobic.

[MetalBard]

Sadly this is more important to the European elites then stopping rapists.

[Libertarian]

War on Women = BAD
War on Women AND Men = MEH

[grrizzly]

Being a moral superpower is hard.

[bacon-magic]

OPEN BOARDERZ!!!

Nice pick on Lauren Southern, Irish, I googled her.

[John]

She is cute. She is like a homeless man's version of that Le Pen Chick in France.

[MarkLastname]

Southern is way hotter than La Pen. Even when she's covered in urine. No. Especially when she's covered in urine 😉

(that was a reference to the fact that someone recently poured urine on her at an event, to those with more important things to do than keep abreast of obscure news)

[Irish ?s Lauren Southern]

Yeah, feels weird having that as my name when it's not 100% ironic and insulting like it was with ESB. Like it's actually kind of creepy. I'm probably going to change it.

[bacon-magic]

Irish loves diversity?
Irish loves Ann Coultere(sic/sick)?
Irish loves potatoes? (I'm half Irish so it's still racist)
Irish loves Reasonoids?
Irish loves Rosebud?
Irish loves whiskey?(nah, that's redundant)
Irish loves Brianna Wu?
Irish loves Socialism?
Irish loves the Bern?
Irish loves bae?

[Crusty Juggler]

Irish IS Bae.

[bacon-magic]

Winner right there.

[HeteroPatriarch]

I still don't know what the fuck that word means. I thought it was a (for some reason) contraction for "babe," but how did it become an adjective?

[Crusty Juggler]

U gais! Bae haz a confuse 🙁

[lap83]

I thought Bae was an adjective

[Gene]

I thought it was a Korean golf professional.

[OneOut]

Herto is your google broke ?

[Jerryskids]

I keep hearing open borders can't co-exist with a welfare state, I'd suggest that this episode demonstrates open borders can't co-exist with a state that doesn't have a healthy respect for the right to keep and bear arms. A group of masked men starts throwing rocks at your head, I'm pretty sure you're allowed to start shooting. Sure, the Palestinians are going to bitch about it and if you're an Israeli you might show some restraint, but most of us here I think aren't prejudiced about either the Arabs or the Jews and would just rather indiscriminately shoot anybody throwing rocks. Ain't my damn fault you brought a rock to a gun fight.

[kbolino]

Ultimately, the welfare state can't co-exist with reality. It's just a matter of where the cracks start to appear.

[kbolino]

Ultimately, the welfare state can't co-exist with reality. It's just a matter of where the cracks start to appear.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Clearly, the right of Swedes to keep and bear Rascals has proven itself an important right of Swedish self defense.

[The Late P Brooks]

Donald Trump revealed today some of the members of his foreign policy team

In addition to the voices in his head?

[Playa Manhattan.]

Guantanamo Bay is one of the most heavily land mined places on the planet. Is Castro going to clean that shit up?

[B.P.]

If you dump land mines into a bay don't they just sink to the bottom?

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Why don't they just leave them safely buried in the ground?

[Playa Manhattan.]

I see what you did there.

[lap83]

Better to see it than step on it

[Playa Manhattan.]

This is in the demarcation between the base and Cuban territory. LAND mines.

[B.P.]

Damn. People used to laugh at my stupid jokes around here. *Sniff*

[ernieyeball]

It is all Cuban territory. The US leases it.

[HeteroPatriarch]

We do? For how much?

[kbolino]

$4085/month (ca. 2007)

[HeteroPatriarch]

Damn, that's probably the best deal our government has gotten on anything since Alaska.

[ernieyeball]

Per WikiP:
"One rent check was cashed after the Cuban Revolution, but the Government of Cuba has declined all further payments."

[ernieyeball]

Shitty landlord too. They cut off the water.
"The U.S. first imported water from Jamaica by barge, then relocated a desalination plant from San Diego (Point Loma). WP"

[Brett L]

The Navy doesn't have a spare nuke carrier with operating desalination tech? That's how you swing your dick. "Sure, we've got a spare carrier with nothing better to do than provide water to our naval base leased from a hostile country."

[Gray Ghost]

I guess they could drag Enterprise out of mothballing/decommissioning, but no, the USN really doesn't have the decks to spare. There are 10 Nimitz-class CVNs. If you look at the preceding cite, between drydock periods, refueling, refitting after cruises, etc...it doesn't leave a lot of carrier decks available for carrying a big stick. Maybe there's 5-6 decks available? Not a lot for three oceans, never mind if you want them to both scare China and bomb huts in either Iraq/Syria or Afghanistan. Three more are under construction (Kennedy, Ford and the new Enterprise, I think) God only knows when they'll get to the Fleet.

The Gator Navy brings a few more decks (six, IIRC) and they'll augment the force considerably once the F-35 enters IOC, but the cupboard ship wise is awfully bare.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

This would be a shovel-ready work project for those political dissidents that don't exsist.

[Old Mexican Mighty Aggressor]

Re: Playa Manhattan,

Is Castro going to clean that shit up?

Not him. It's going to be all those political prisoners Ra?l Castro told nuestro querid?simo y bien amado se?or presidente don't exist. They'll be poking the earth with sticks to find them all....

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Are you stealing my ideas?

[Crusty Juggler]

The Behind-the-Scenes Fight Between Apple and the FBI

[Los Doyers]

President Barack Obama's visit to Cuba kicked off with a face-to-face meeting with President Raul Castro.

And this entire meeting was cocksucking all the way down, apparently.

[John]

GOP donors pissed away $520 million dollars on loser candidates

http://time.com/4266176/campai.....-congress/

Wow.

[Illocust]

Yep, but the problem is still money in politics.

[John]

Big money buys an election, except when it doesn't, which is most of the time.

[HeteroPatriarch]

To be fair, how much have CNN, NBC, Fox and CBS spent on airtime donations to Trump's campaign?

[Irish ?s Lauren Southern]

It's economic stimulus.

[Rich]

"We prefer to think of it as an *investment*."

[MarkLastname]

in Enron, right before it tanked.

[Brett L]

Fools and their money deserve to be parted.

[some guy]

Why do we need to have 15 different candidates when children are hungry in this country?

[Juvenile Bluster]

Newest fun from my prog friends: Comparing the people who blocked roads this past weekend in Arizona (protesting Trump's speech) to the civil rights marchers in Alabama in the 1960s. My brain hurts.

[Illocust]

Compare them to Chris Christie. That should make them gag.

[Anomalous]

No proof that he had anything to do with closing those lanes on the George Washington Bridge.

[HeteroPatriarch]

I assume the proof will come out shortly. Why else would he so completely humiliate himself sucking up to Trump if it wasn't for a future pardon?

[You Sound Like a Prog (MJG)]

Newest from my Bernie 'friends' on facebook: an Elizabeth Warren post calling Trump a loser with a record of professional failures.

Ahem...

[Ted S.]

Compare them to the people who blocked entry into that Oregon national forest.

[Tonio]

^This.

[Juvenile Bluster]

That's a good one, but I know what their response would be.

[MetalBard]

^^this^^

Watch their heads explode while they do the mental contortions necessary to defend one group and condemn another.

[Juvenile Bluster]

First response I got was "They [the Oregon occupiers] were heavily armed and threatening to shoot people." My response was that there was more violence in one day from the Trump protesters than in weeks of the Oregon protestors doing their thing.

[Tornado16nb]

Lol

[OneOut]

Their heads will not explode.

They will do no mental contortions.

They feel, they do not think.

[MetalBard]

Except the 1960s civil rights marchers didn't make segregation more popular in the polls.

[paranoid android]

After he finishes ruining comic books, Zack Snyder plans to presumably do the same to The Fountainhead.

Via Hollywood Reporter:

Given all your involvements, do you have time to develop anything outside of this?

ZACK We have The Last Photograph that I've been working on for a long time. It's a small, sort of weird project about a war photogra?pher in Afghanistan. I have been working on The Fountainhead. I've always felt like The Fountainhead was such a thesis on the creative process and what it is to create something. Warner Bros. owns [Ayn Rand's] script and I've just been working on that a little bit.

But the big question is, where will he add all of the ridiculous over-produced slow-motion fight scenes?

[GILMORE?]

Has that guy made anything since 300 that wasn't awful?

[paranoid android]

I'll grant him the first two or three minutes of Watchmen (through the opening credits sequence). Sucker Punch demonstrates pretty forcefully that quality is inversely related to his level of creative control.

[some guy]

I thought the Watchmen was pretty good. The ending was certainly better than the comic.

[mr simple]

You didn't like Sucker Punch?

[Juvenile Bluster]

The end of the movie will be a furious battle between Howard Roark and Ellsworth Toohey, complete with Roark's building exploding.

[Rich]

"BUT I DON'T THINK OF YOOOOOOOOOOUU!!!"

[blighted non millenial]

Is this another euphemism?

[Irish ?s Lauren Southern]

"I have been working on The Fountainhead. I've always felt like The Fountainhead was such a thesis on the creative process and what it is to create something."

"Unfortunately, I wouldn't know what that's like since my best work was based on a frame-by-frame recreation of a Frank Miller comic book and everything else I've done has sucked.

Toodiloo! Now I'm off to ruin Batman!"

[Brett L]

You make him sound like JJ Abrams, who has forced me to revise my opinion of Michael Bay.

[GILMORE?]

Memories of the 1980s = When off-duty crooked-cops would get shot in mall parking-lots all the time.

Usually you'd never ever hear another word about them, either because it was some guy the mafia had decided had gotten too greedy, and everyone knew he had to go... or he was selling drugs out of the evidence-room locker, and his buddies decided maybe it was best to let sleeping dogs lie. Still, very 1980s New Jersey.

[Irish ?s Lauren Southern]

The New Yorker befuddled by Hispanic Trump supporter.

"He's bothered by the arrival of "rich," young professionals to Lincoln Heights, where he grew up, and Highland Park, where he lives now. "I'm going to be honest," he told me suddenly. "I hate the hipsters moving into our town. They're pushing Latinos out of the area. I love my town. I love my people.""

Bernie Sanders supporters drive Hispanics into the arms of Trump! Gadzooks!

[Illocust]

Huh, you know, despite the media being overwhelmingly D, I haven't heard what the prevailing opinion of non-college going minority groups is on progressives. Unlike the Republicans they don't really have a far reaching alternate media to get their world view out. Their pretty much stuck filtering their message through progs. Who obviously aren't going to talk about anything that paints themselves in a bad light.

[OneOut]

lllocust the media isn't overwhelmingly D.

They are overwhelmingly Progressive.

I understand there isn't much difference but it is a difference worth pointing out. IMHO.

What is the origin of your handle f one may ask ?

[Illocust]

Stands for ILoveLocust. Originates way back in my childhood and I've held onto ever since.

[GILMORE?]

Oh, if the New Yorker only had comments. they'd be such a riot.

[Rhywun]

"I hate when people think for themselves."

[jesse.in.mb]

San Francisco's first automated restaurant is 'pure magic'

Business Insider is apparently unaware of how big Automats for 75 years in the US. And even though the new automat in SF is an iPad veneer on 125-year-old technology, there is hand wringing about robots taking our jobs (even though this restaurant just has people putting prepared meals in a cubby for the consumer to retrieve).

[Illocust]

Automating the food prep is a technical problem. It will be solved given time. Automating the ordering process is a social problem. You've got to get the customers willing, capable, and comfortable with not talking to another human being while ordering food. Plus you've got to make the device user friendly.

[John]

The more it happens, the more people will get used to it.

[CatoTheChipper]

Kind of like the ATM. I don't know anyone under 75 who doesn't routinely use an ATM to get cash. It used to be a pain to wait in line at the bank during banking hours to get $50 out of the checking account.

[Pay up, Palin's Buttplug!]

Do you mean a Tillie? 😀

[Rhywun]

You've got to get the customers willing, capable, and comfortable with not talking to another human being while ordering food.

I'm already there.

[Clich? Bandit]

I've heard that about you. NTTAWWT

[R C Dean]

Me, too.

I find that my desire to avoid contact with people is usually reciprocated by the people I fail to avoid contact with.

[Rhywun]

I'm not a "people person" so yeah... less is more.

[HeteroPatriarch]

Wait, people actually prefer repeating their order 3 times to the slobbering interpretive-dance major behind the counter to putting it into a machine that will actually get it right? What's wrong with people?

[Heroic Mulatto]

She has a nice rack.

[HeteroPatriarch]

We must go to very different fast food places.

[GILMORE?]

Read this story, then realize = a large number of people think "The Gun" is the source of their problems.

the side note = the person there who provided the gun has been sentenced to 100 years in prison

[Gray Ghost]

FWIW, according to your cited article, it looks like he also accompanied the shooter (his niece) to the shooting. I don't know, but I imagine evidence was entered that his role was greater than merely selling/giving the weapon to the shooter.

To your first sentence, it is really frustrating trying to convince otherwise intelligent people that gun control laws do very little other than restrict guns from the law-abiding.

[GILMORE?]

it looks like he also accompanied the shooter (his niece) to the shooting

Yes, as did a mob, apparently. Which was my point about the problem not just being 'guns'.

Reynolds said she confronted the girl with a combination lock tied to a rope after the girl tried to hit her on the head with the gun.

Reynolds and Endia initially had run inside their friend's house when they saw the girl coming down the street with a swelling crowd behind her.

But when the girl motioned that she wanted to fight, Reynolds came out. Endia had come out to support her friend when the shots were fired in an incident caught on cellphone video.

Flora had accompanied his niece to the fight and admitted he brought a gun for back up. But he testified during the five-day trial that said he told the girl to give the gun to his cousin, Vandetta Redwood.

Redwood, according to defense attorneys, encouraged the girl's deadly acts by telling her, "Shoot the bitch"

Basically, everyone involved in this story is just awful. I doubt 100 years in jail or "making guns harder to own legally" is going to change any of that.

[HeteroPatriarch]

"Vandetta Redwood" sounds like a character from Red Dead Revolver.

[GILMORE?]

i laffed

[Gray Ghost]

Basically, everyone involved in this story is just awful.

Couldn't agree more. Welcome to criminal justice.

It just struck me as strange that someone selling to a prohibited person would rack up 100 years; that's normally something you hit a co-conspirator or other party to the crime with. The seller of the Columbine weapons got, IIRC, something like 8-10 years, and that was greater than the norm.

Do you know if Flora was eligible to own firearms in the first place? In my cursory understanding of the subject, most people who get involved in things like this have prior records that prohibit them from legally owning firearms. Doesn't stop them of course.

And, for the sake of argument, because I really care very little about these people, did Flora get from "carrying the gun for protection" to "telling the girl to give the gun to his cousin Vandetta," to the fatal shots being fired? Just keep the damned gun already, if you're worried about everyone's safety. Why was it leaving his possession?

Agreed on the videogame resemblance.

[Migrant Log Chipper]

Yeah, Chicago is on it's way to Detroit status. Really sad.

[Farm to Toilet]

President Barack Obama's visit to Cuba kicked off with a face-to-face meeting with President Raul Castro. Castro demanded Guantanamo Bay returned and claimed that there are no political prisoners in Cuba except in Gitmo.

[Playa Manhattan.]

My power has been out for almost an hour.

Turns out it's because of a plane crash.

Why do bad things always happen to me? It's not fair!

[Brett L]

Amateur pilot or pro?

[Playa Manhattan.]

Hawthorne Airport, so most likely civil.

[Pay up, Palin's Buttplug!]

ultralight pilot

[GILMORE?]

better call saul

[bacon-magic]

You just celebrated Earth Hour, rejoice.

[B. Woodrow Chippenhaus]

Why does this always happen to me?

[Irish ?s Lauren Southern]

Chicago Cops: Still terrible

"Chicago has paid a staggering sum ? about $662 million ? on police misconduct since 2004, including judgments, settlements and outside legal fees, according to city records. The payouts, for everything from petty harassment to police torture, have brought more financial misery to a city already drowning in billions of dollars of pension debt."

"Lawyer Jon Loevy noticed the same pattern while winning more than a dozen seven-figure misconduct verdicts over the last decade. Jurors, he says, concluded "police did reprehensible things" ? including framing people and shooting them without justification ? but he knows of no case where those officers were punished. "Not only was nobody disciplined, nobody was asked any questions," he says. "It was just back to work.""

[Rich]

he knows of no case where those officers were punished.

Hey! Their taxes went up!

[dschwar]

Only if they don't live in the suburbs.

[Rhywun]

Which most of them do & is another reason they behave like an occupying army.

[Brett L]

Think of all the night basketball and buke lanes you could pay for by resucing that by even 20%. Jesus. Fuck. At what point soes RICO apply?

[BiMonSciFiCon]

buke lanes

I don't want to know.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

pay for by resucing?

Are you sure you don't want to know?

[Brett L]

Fuck my phone. Bike lanes by reducing.

[R C Dean]

I liked it better the first way. Kinda hentai.

[Winston]

If only the Democrats were in...Oh wait!

Well if only Chuy Garcia had defeated Rahm Emanuel...oh wait!

http://reason.com/blog/2015/03.....nde-blasio
We're spending $100 million on [police] overtime at present. Because we're understaffed in the Chicago Police Department, we begin by taking a portion of that overtime to hire additional police officers to begin getting us to the 1,000 additional police officers that we need on streets.

[HeteroPatriarch]

Why since 2004? Did something change that year? It seems odd to report on a random 11 year period.

[John]

http://www.damninteresting.com/colonels-of-truth/

I put this on another thread but it is worth reposting. Colonel Sanders was a bad ass. He shot two people once.

[Brett L]

He's like the real Raylan Givens.

[Crusty Juggler]

If you pull on the Colonel he'll put you down.

[John]

One night, in the wee hours, Sanders was jolted awake by multiple gunshots outside. Two rival alcohol bootleggers were exchanging bullets and insults in the road in front of Sanders' place. The shootout was interrupted by the sound of a door crashing open from the nearby service station. A middle-aged man stood just outside the door wearing nothing but his underwear, aiming a large shotgun in their direction. "Line up, both of you sons of bitches and throw down your guns!" Sanders ordered. Being called a son of a bitch was no trifling insult to fellows from those parts in those days, but the shotgun convinced them to comply.

When the sheriff arrived to collect the suspects, he asked Sanders to come back to the county seat with him to serve as a witness. As they sped away, Sanders' daughter Margaret ran after the car clutching a wad of fabric. "Father!" she shouted, "you forgot your pants!"

I want to stop at KFC tonight.

[Brett L]

That was after he shot the sonofabitch who kept painting over his sign when he ran a gas station.

[John]

Yes. Who knew?

[Gray Ghost]

Weird story. In a prior life, I advised people on tax credits. One of my clients was a company that, before they switched their business to metal building fabrication, made the spinning white metal bucket signs that used to be on poles in front of every Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant. Coolest client I ever had.

As a little kid, I used to sit in the car on interminable road trips to one relative or another, pass by a KFC on the highway, and imagine what the view would be like, sitting in that crows nest-looking white bucket of chicken. Never thought that thirty years later, I'd get to meet the guys that made them.

[OneOut]

That's better than shooting two people twice.

[jesse.in.mb]

Bay Area/SF Reasonoids: If you're a lawyer or know a lawyer who can spare a bit of time to do a good work

Proposition 47 changes some low-level, nonviolent crimes from felonies to misdemeanors, lifting the burden and stigma of a felony conviction for millions of Californians. It's fully retroactive, but only until November 2017 and requires the potential beneficiaries to complete a complicated and exacting process. (Look at the attached infographic to see how complicated it is!)

Episcopal Charities and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights have created a system of workshops, underwritten by Episcopal Charities, to walk the beneficiaries through the process. We need volunteer lawyers to be trained and supervised by the Lawyers' Committee to staff these workshops. Would you be interested being one of those crucial volunteer lawyers?

The first date is April 16 starting at 10am. Information flier with contact info HERE (sorry, it's a pdf linked on dropbox).

Reposted from Friday because Friday links are the saddest links.

[OneOut]

I don't see many volunteers Jesse.

I wonder where all the Reasoniod lawyers ran off to ?

I guess they were just busy elsewhere.

[Just say Nikki]

The accusations against Corey Lewandowski just keep coming:

In recent interviews with more than half a dozen sources who have worked with Trump's top aide, Corey Lewandowski, the strategist was accused of pushing a CNN reporter who tried to ask the candidate a question; physically confronting an aide for a rival campaign in a post-debate spin room; publicly shouting threats over the phone at a restaurant; making sexual comments about female journalists; and calling up women in the campaign press corps late at night to make unwanted romantic advances.
Asked Monday for comment on these allegations, Lewandowski emailed, "Your story is factually inaccurate." When BuzzFeed news asked him to clarify which portions of the story he was challenging, he wrote, "Be sure before you accuse me of something it's accurate. And, in these instances you are wrong."

Just imagine what he was like when he was a cop.

[John]

Probably exactly the same shit. I can't imagine his demeanor changed one bit. And some needs to kick his ass and put a stop to this nonsense.

[Just say Nikki]

In conversations with reporters, he has expressed frustration with female journalists covering the campaign while also voicing a wish to have sex with them. And sources told BuzzFeed News that more than once, he has called female reporters late at night to come on to them, often not sounding entirely sober. Some in the press corps joke that if Lewandowski is calling after a certain hour, women are better off not answering.

Yeah, that doesn't sound like a Trumpet at all. Or like a cop. Unpossible.

[Crusty Juggler]

All of these reporters are trying to discredit Trump in order to further their own careers. Sad, really.

[Winston]

Well I'm sure this is supposed to mock Trump apologists, that statement isn't wrong though...

[Crusty Juggler]

I know. Reporters only started to report presidential campaign hi-jinx after Trump started to run.

[Winston]

No the point is the reporters are mostly Democrats so of course they want to discredit Trump to advance their careers. Doesn't mean that Trump isn't terrible of course.

[MarkLastname]

Let's just agree to hate everyone. I think that's the unofficial libertarian motto actually.

[You Sound Like a Prog (MJG)]

It's not sad. It's sad!

[HeteroPatriarch]

Don't reporters report on everything in order to further their own careers?

[John]

Maybe he should run for mayor of Chicago.

http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....-care.html

[B.P.]

When these guys hold a campaign meeting, it must be just an hour of uncontrollable laughter and high-fiving.

[R C Dean]

He sounds like a real asshole. An ex-cop, you say?

That would explain a lot.

[GILMORE?]

People respond to Ben Affleck = "We're Serious Too. Don't"

[Crusty Juggler]

Debriefing Mike Murphy

[John]

The website seems to be down. That is a shame. I bet that is a great read.

[Crusty Juggler]

Labash is always a good read.

[Raven Nation]

Among many excellent lines:

Murphy has a special contempt for Christie these days, since Christie broke early for Donald Trump, becoming his Franz von Papen, the former Weimar chancellor who thought Hitler could be civilized once in office: "They made him ambassador to Turkey, next thing you know, he's in Nuremberg."

[CatoTheChipper]

It's up ... and it is a great read.

[Jerryskids]

Who is Mike Murphy and why would I want to see him de-briefed? Is that link SFW?

[juris imprudent]

Is that link SFW?

J meet CJ; now you might want to go wash your hands.

[Old Mexican Mighty Aggressor]

Donald Trump revealed today some of the members of his foreign policy team and according to the Washington Post "outlined an unabashedly non-interventionist approach to world affairs."

Sure, because only libertarians get to be called "isolationist" when proposing an 'unabashedly non-interventionist approach to world affairs.'

By the way, someone please tell the WaPo that Protectionism is NOT an "unabashedly non-interventionist approach to world affairs."

[John]

You seem really angry Mexican.

[Free Society]

Donald Trump revealed today some of the members of his foreign policy team and according to the Washington Post "outlined an unabashedly non-interventionist approach to world affairs."

The horror.

[GILMORE?]

I think its funny that Apple's latest "Innovation" is actually making a phone 'normal sized' again.

I got a new phone last summer, and finding one that wasn't retarded-large was kind of a struggle. Even the guy at the store was like, "Why wouldn't you want [holds up giganto samsung]??""

[BiMonSciFiCon]

I got the 6S+. I like it. Different strokes.

[GILMORE?]

this is why the market produces "choices" for people.

But! what's notable in this case is that they fucked themselves by growing away from the original product. Their "new" model is approximately the same size as the 2007-2010 original, which had been (stupidly) abandoned in favor of these cafeteria-tray-sized-phones.

Its a sign that they made a mistake.

[Pan Zagloba]

Good, I can finally upgrade my 4S!

And yeah, they done fucked up. Good thing they are fixing it.

[Los Doyers]

4S? Jesus

[Yusef Adama]

3S Jeesus christ! /Mr. Slave

[Rhywun]

I have the 5S, not sure which one in the photo it is but it fits my hand perfectly. Can't imagine dealing with a bigger one.

[GILMORE?]

its the middle '2013' ones... which is only a tad taller than the original form-factor, same width

[Rhywun]

Yeah that sounds about right. It's a work model so I take what they give me.

[Libertarian]

No one needs TWO sizes of phone.

/Bernie

[Not a Libertarian]

Are we to infer anything about the GILMORE?- hands or perhaps the GILMORE?-suits have smaller pockets?

[GILMORE?]

i actually liked the original iphone because it slipped neatly into the front (or inside) lapel pocket of a sportcoat.

i also remember back in 2007 critiquing the iphone design because it required "2 hands" to do a range of things. The lack of external buttons like the bberry i had at the time meant you were always fiddling with it to perform simple tasks.

I still wish there were something like an updated 2009 BBY Curve phone available. I don't watch videos - i want to be able to scroll through webpages with a roller near my finger (not touching the screen with second hand), and actually have a keyboard to type when needed.

[Tornado16nb]

There is the new bb classic but software sucks

[GILMORE?]

i'd never own an *actual* blackberry product

after 2009, they've been on a perpetual death-watch. I mean more like "if only someone would design something like this" but with greater functionality. the ergos is what i preferred - particularly the keyboard, and upper-right side scroll buttons

[Ken Shultz]

"Donald Trump revealed today some of the members of his foreign policy team and according to the Washington Post "outlined an unabashedly non-interventionist approach to world affairs."

If the news isn't terrible about Trump, doncha know you're not supposed to report it?

You can make up for it by posting a link showing that he's racist against rapists and terrorists.

[tarran]

Retired state trooper tries to rob takings from a toll booth. Guns down two in cold blood.

Is gunned down himself by troopers called to the scene by one of his victims.

Check out the fucking T shirt he's wearing in hhis photo at the top of the article.

Asshole.

[John]

I think he watched too many heist movies.

[Crusty Juggler]

Would, but just because of his rack.

[You Sound Like a Prog (MJG)]

Cripes.

And make sure to check out the comments, where a few geniuses are sure that the shooter is black.

[Rich]

security guard Ronald Heist

Well, at least he wasn't Robert Heist. RIP

[Raven Nation]

Apparently Hulk Hogan just got awarded $25m against Gawker.

[GILMORE?]

those would be the punitive damages additional to the $115million already awarded.

A Florida jury awarded punitive damages totaling $25 million on Monday in a second blow to Gawker, coming on top of the $115 million the online news outlet must pay for posting a sex tape of the former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan.

The six-person jury assessed Gawker $15 million in punitive damages. The media company's publisher and CEO, Nick Denton, was slapped with an additional $10 million

'slapped'? technically i believe it was "Mongolian-Chopped"

[Crusty Juggler]

I still do not fully understand why this is a free speech travesty. I know that makes me a big dumb dummyhead, from dummytown, but I just don't get it.

[GILMORE?]

Who said it was a "free speech travesty"?

This is about Hulk Hogan versus "One of the Biggest Douchebags in America"-Nick Denton

I feel Hulk Hogan deserves America's loyalty, because.... that time there was only one set of footprints in the sand? that was when those 24inch Pythons were carrying us.

If someone else feels that there's some important 'free speech' angle here, they've failed to adequately explain themselves.

[GILMORE?]

**noted = Ed suggested something along those lines the other day in a completely incoherent sentence. but again - no one else has since clarified why there's any "free speech" concerns raised by surreptitious recordings of pro-westlers fucking other people's wives.

[Crusty Juggler]

I read this post by Scott Greenfield (who is an awesome lawyer, and totally handsome and stuff, and I am not saying that just in case I require his pro-bono representation).

It's not just that the question of First Amendment newsworthiness was, in fact, decided by a petit jury, but that it went to trial at all. This is called the "chilling effect," that editorial decisions that are close to the edge of offense, because they involve a video of a president having what might be called sex with an intern in a blue dress, for example, are censored out of concern that the press could be put on trial, put to the expense and risk of a crippling damage award, and left to the whims of a dozen people whose grasp of newsworthiness is based on whether to watch Laugh-In or Hee Haw.

Faced with the potential of there being someplace in America that a jury could be empaneled that would take offense to the editorial determination that something is newsworthy, decisions will be influenced. News will go unreported. Pictures will get buried. Information will never be revealed. You (and I) won't know. And we won't know what we won't know.

I get what he is saying, but it seems like a stretch. I could be wrong, of course.

[GILMORE?]

That first paragraph is pretty insanely condescending and nothing to do with any particular legal-philosophy.

He's just saying, "juries are all ignorant yokels who failed to appreciate the great service Gawker provides mankind"

What the jury decided is whether damage was caused by the release of the video, and whether that damage was justified because the material was in the Public Interest.

His example of the president fucking an intern is *exactly the point* - when the president has an affair, and he's the leader of the country... yes, that is no doubt "newsworthy" and in the public interest.

That Denton et al could not present any justification for releasing the video *at all* is exactly why they lost the suit. As I mentioned the other day = they should have come up with *something* before the published it in the first place. they didn't even try.

if the material has zero public worth, but also causes zero damages, no one can make any case against them.

However, if someone can prove damages... then i fail to see why anyone should be suggesting they don't have the right to then sue.

[paranoid android]

However, if someone can prove damages... then i fail to see why anyone should be suggesting they don't have the right to then sue.

The thing is that journalists or anyone else interested in publishing scandalous revelation for whatever reason have no way to determine in advance whether a jury will decide that their scoop was not "in the public interest" and completely clean them out. "Just don't be an asshole about it and you'll probably be fine" is not a sufficiently rigorous guideline for someone to take that kind of risk, even if they personally believe their information to be newsworthy.

[GILMORE?]

ournalists or anyone else interested in publishing scandalous revelation for whatever reason have no way to determine in advance whether a jury will decide that their scoop was not "in the public interest" and completely clean them out.

Yes. and this has been true for over 100+ years. And there have been hundreds and hundreds of cases brought against publications for making "Scandalous revelations". Its why they have insurance, and lawyers, and why journalists prepare their case justifying the public-interest of stories to the editors before running them. its why the buck stops with the editor's call.

this isn't a new issue, and people are pretending this is some major test of 1st amendment law when it isn't even a footnote in the history of gossip-column lawsuits.

[Jerryskids]

That Denton et al could not present any justification for releasing the video *at all* is exactly why they lost the suit.

Because it had Hulk Hogan in it - what more reason do you need than that? If I go down to the IHOP tomorrow morning and have blueberry pancakes for breakfast nobody's going to know or care, but if Tom Cruise and Johnny Depp show up and have blueberry pancakes for breakfast in the booth next to me, you can bet that's going to be the front page of the paper along with half-a-dozen pics of the two of them eating their blueberry pancakes. For no other reason than those two are famous people and people want to know what famous people are doing all the damn time. Should they want to know this, is it something worth knowing? I'd say not and I'd be the first to make fun of idiots who give a rat's ass about it, but that's the way things are.

And you do realize that once upon a time - not that long ago, it was only as far back as JFK - the press didn't report on Presidential affairs, or the fact that the President had some very damn serious health issues, or that the President had some second-hand mob associations, right?

[GILMORE?]

if Tom Cruise and Johnny Depp show up and have blueberry pancakes for breakfast in the booth next to me, you can bet that's going to be the front page of the paper along with half-a-dozen pics of the two of them eating their blueberry pancakes.

I would offer to you that Tom Cruise eating pancakes may be treated somewhat differently by a jury than a surreptitious video of someone fucking someone else's wife.

this "public interest" thing is a little more complex than you make out

and its always taken in consideration of the relative 'public benefit' versus the potential damage caused to subjects. If there appears to be zero consideration given to either in the process of 'investigation and publishing', i would expect that counselors would explain this to a jury, and they would subsequently view defendant's grandiose arguments about the "principles of the matter" with a fish-eye

[GILMORE?]

The alternative is that newsworthiness is left to Ma and Pa Kettle to decide. While journalists have no magic, the Kettles have none either. So are we better off constraining your right to know by their feelings of ickiness? Would you really want disclosure of the Pentagon Papers decided by whether it offended some folks in Tampa that Daniel Ellsberg stole them? Should the scope of a free press be determined by the guts of some yokels from the hinterlands?

Again - this idea of "constraining your right to know"... what is the "right to know", again, and why do we all have one? It seems something he made up on the spot to justify the "Right To Publish Anything That Can Make a Nickel" no matter how prurient or damaging to people.

And its not the yokels in the hinterlands that present some grave threat to the integrity of these Great Servants, the journalists = its people with the money and the wherewithal to sue.

Is this lawyer really making a point about "free speech", or is he making a point about Tort Reform?

[R C Dean]

This is called the "chilling effect," that editorial decisions that are close to the edge of offense,

This wasn't really a case about "offense" and it didn't turn (as it shouldn't) on whether the story was "newsworthy".

It was a case about invasion of privacy. Way to miss the point, Scott (I assume intentionally).

[Jerryskids]

I believe I raised the question as to why this was not a clear free press issue a la the Pentagon Papers. (Somebody stole some info, handed it to the paper and they printed it and SCOTUS said that was fine - it was a public interest matter and the press was free to report it.)

Hulk Hogan is a public figure and therefore anything he does is newsworthy and has a limited expectation of privacy, his alter-ego Terry Bollan is not a public figure and is entitled to his privacy. If Terry Bollan's privacy was invaded, what was the damage to his reputation worth? Squat, as far as I can tell - nobody gives a crap about hearing anything about Terry Bollan, he's a nobody. Now Hulk Hogan's reputation? Yeah, that's worth a fortune if it's damaged, but Hulk's whole argument for being able to sue as a non-public figure is that the tape involved Terry Bollan and not Hulk Hogan. If Hulk/Terry wanted to sue the guy who made the tape, sure, that's a good suit. But Gawker has the free press argument on its side, the only way they're liable is if they paid the guy ahead of time, if they contracted for the invasion of privacy. Freedom of the press doesn't mean the NYT can break into the Pentagon and steal stuff, nor can they hire a thief to do it, but they can publish what somebody else stole for some other reason.

[GILMORE?]

The contortions you seem to be involved in trying to make this "stolen sex tape" a matter of press-freedom is absurd.

If the case were a simple matter of legal principle, the lawyers for the defendants could have made their simple case for a jury and this wouldn't have been a problem.

Instead, they made idiotic comments in depositions suggesting that "a sex tape of any celebrity over the age of 4" was "newsworthy".

Gawker fucked themselves six ways to sunday. And they deserve to have lost.

If you suddenly think that these 'press freedom' issues are too important to let juries decide, well, that's a different argument. But arguing that the case was 'decided wrongly' is just monday morning quarterbacking. They made a terrible case.

[R C Dean]

Its not a free speech travesty, so you're good, Crusty.

[HeteroPatriarch]

Is Gawker worth that much?

[GILMORE?]

The article says they pulled about $40something-million in annual revenue from which they made about $6m in profit last year

""The jury was told that Gawker Media is worth $83 million.""

That seems a fairly low, and is probably their "net liquid assets". If they were sold to a larger media outfit - which i think is the inevitable outcome of this whole thing - they would probably bring in twice that. a 4-5X revenue multiple.

[MarkLastname]

I hope not. I hope they're buried for good, and the owner(s) go into debt. My schadenfreude could not be more pure.

[Brett L]

Anyone else watching Hap & Leonard? I'm liking the show. I mean, its a little over the top, and also, Leonard is just Omar from The Wite playing the same character in cowboy drag. But still, good fun.

[The Hyperbole (? S 2D)]

I haven't seen it but I read most of the books, if it's only a little over the top then they really toned it down. Looking forward to it making it to netflix or Amazon Prime.

[Brett L]

Eh... Maybe my standards are low. I'd say the first 10 minutes is word-for-word from the first book. But the characters are awesome. Man do they have to work hard on the camera angles to make Christina Hendricks look like a 20 year old version of herself in the flashbacks. Definitely employed a body stand in.

[GILMORE?]

Madonna = Not Okay, say Aussie Feminists

the whole, "crassly sexual" thing that made Madonna such an icon for strong women in the 1990s seems to now seem like "creepy old drunk woman" to younger people

[Rhywun]

seem like "creepy old drunk woman" to younger people everybody

FTFY

[Crusty Juggler]

Allow me to post the daily mail link that includes pictures of the young (17 year old) lass, who said she is okay with Madonna having a grab at her.

[HeteroPatriarch]

She has a huge head.

[GILMORE?]

I am okay with all of that. I am also Okay with the daily mail making their news stories into montages of cute women in sexy outfits.

[SIV]

In her other pics she's styleded up all 1960s and 70s. If Nick Gillespie is the Worlds Oldest Millennial that teenage Aussie model/Madonna fan is the worlds' youngest Boomer.

[Migrant Log Chipper]

Her mom has a large tit tat....oozes class.

[saudihoome]

https://www.bayt-saudi.com

[daborrelli]

A friend of mine, using this principle, anecdotally related that when he came to the end of the line after two long hours, he saw that they were selling coffins firefly box
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