Obama Commutes Sentences of 61 Prisoners, North Korea Warns of Famines, New Features for Snapchat: P.M. Links

Ed Krayewski | 3.30.2016 4:30 PM

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President Obama commuted the sentence of 61 prisoners today, bringing his two-term total to 268.
In the case of Luis vs. United States, the Supreme Court ruled, 5-3, against the pre-trial freezing of non-tainted assets.
The Justice Department and the city of Newark, New Jersey have agreed on a settlement related to reforms of the city's police department.
Prosecutors in Minneapolis announced they would not be filing charges related to the killing of Jamar Clark by police officers in November.
Historians in Germany reveal the Associated Press entered into an arrangement with Nazi Germany in the 1930s to secure access in exchange for a promise not to undermine the regime.
French President Francois Hollande has abandoned a plan to strip individuals convicted of terrorism of their French citizenship.
While Kim Jong Un's weight has gone up, the dictator warned North Korea would be facing another famine.
Snapchat gets new features.

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Fist of Etiquette 8 years ago

Snapchat gets new features.
Better screen grabs.
1. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer 8 years ago
  
  Hello.
  Historians in Germany reveal the Associated Press entered into an arrangement with Nazi Germany in the 1930s to secure access in exchange for a promise not to undermine the regime.”
  Thus another example of what we know and knew all along. Media is state-run media by other means.
  1. Chumby 8 years ago
    
    Jawohl, herr Kommandant.
2. The Hyperbole 8 years ago
  
  Screengrabs.
3. Rhywun 8 years ago
  
  Snapchat, what is that i cant even
  1. Derp-o-Matic 5000 8 years ago
    
    Ugh, i mean, come. on.
4. Rasilio 8 years ago
  
  Isn’t it spelled Snatchchat?
  1. Derp-o-Matic 5000 8 years ago
    
    Snatchchaps? That’s catching on with the kids these days, too, i hear
Fist of Etiquette 8 years ago

While Kim Jong Un’s weight has gone up, the dictator warned North Korea would be facing another famine.
He needs that milk and those apples.
1. Pan Zagloba 8 years ago
  
  +1 doesn’t even like them, personally.
2. Doctor Whom 8 years ago
  
  The glorious people’s intelligence agency spotted Farmer Jones in South Korea.
3. Derp-o-Matic 5000 8 years ago
  
  +4 legs good, 2 legs bad
Fist of Etiquette 8 years ago

French President Francois Hollande has abandoned a plan to strip individuals convicted of terrorism of their French citizenship.
You say abandoned, I say surrendered.
1. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer 8 years ago
  
  Belgium are the new Vichy.
2. PapayaSF 8 years ago
  
  Cheese-eating surrender monkeys. In 50 years when sharia is in place in France, it’ll be the people who don’t support Islamic terror who will have their citizenship revoked… if they’re lucky.
Notorious UGCC 8 years ago

Important if true
h/t some other commenter
1. Je suis Woodchipper 8 years ago
  
  Wash Post has some details.
  Derek Hauger, the Wisconsin man who took widely shared video of the incident and posted it to YouTube, wrote that the man did not grope the girl, though.
  “I was right next to this and saw the whole thing,” he wrote. “The man never touched her like she said. She was just looking for trouble.”
  As the two argue, the older man moves his hand toward her several times, and a piece of paper in his hand appears to touch the girl’s chest.
  Sexual assault?
  1. Guestus III 8 years ago
    
    Sexual assault?
    He looked at her….so eye-rape.
    1. Chipper Morning Wood 8 years ago
      
      Phil Hartman would disagree with your definition of eye-rape.
      1. Chumby 8 years ago
        
        Hi, I’m Troy McClure. You might remember me from such self help videos such as “Smoke Yourself Thin” and “Get Confident, Stupid!”
  2. Crusty Juggler 8 years ago
    
    She was just asking for it?
    I am outraged!
2. Drake 8 years ago
  
  Looks like she took a swing. She was looking for trouble, why should we care?
  1. Je suis Woodchipper 8 years ago
    
    The man is now an “alleged groper” in the eyes of the media. And the pepper sprayer is a serial murderer.
    1. PapayaSF 8 years ago
      
      And of course, it proves that all Trump supporters are fascists. Just as the rapes and robberies and assaults at Occupy encampments proved that all Occupy supporters were… oh, wait…
3. Derp-o-Matic 5000 8 years ago
  
  Making America classy again
  Fuck these assholes for likely getting another Democrat elected
  1. JeremyR 8 years ago
    
    Thanks to Trump, the Democrats are going to get the Senate and probably the House.
    I think mission accomplished from his point of view
    1. Migrant Log Chipper 8 years ago
      
      they won’t get house…
4. Suthenboy 8 years ago
  
  Important if not true.
Fist of Etiquette 8 years ago

Historians in Germany reveal the Associated Press entered into an arrangement with Nazi Germany in the 1930s to secure access in exchange for a promise not to undermine the regime.
You know who else seemed to have had secret agreements with the press?
1. B.P. 8 years ago
  
  Saddam Hussein?
2. Episiarch 8 years ago
  
  Every government ever?
3. Rich 8 years ago
  
  Procter & Gamble?
4. Pat (PM) 8 years ago
  
  Hillary Clinton?
5. Doctor Whom 8 years ago
  
  Bishop Harry Jackson?
6. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer 8 years ago
  
  The Stonecutters?
  1. Derp-o-Matic 5000 8 years ago
    
    Who keeps Atlantis off the maps?
    Who keeps the Martians under wraps?
    We do! We do!
7. Crusty Juggler 8 years ago
  
  Jack Vincennes?
  1. Chipwooder 8 years ago
    
    I see someone is a Badge of Honor fan
8. Libertarian 8 years ago
  
  Journolist?
9. Jerryskids 8 years ago
  
  Donald Tru….
  oh.
10. Drake 8 years ago
  
  Gutenberg ?
  1. cgr2727 8 years ago
    
    If not a secret agreement with the press to print favorable reviews of Police Academy and Short Circuit, how else do you explain his career?
    1. Restoras 8 years ago
      
      Stonecutters!
11. PBR Streetgang 8 years ago
  
  Nolan Richardson?
  1. sloopyinTEXAS 8 years ago
    
    Fuck. I came here to say this.
    +40 minutes of hell
  2. Arkansaustrian Economics 8 years ago
    
    He didn’t come over on that boat.
12. Scarecrow & WoodChipper Repair 8 years ago
  
  William Randolph Hearst?
13. Chumby 8 years ago
  
  The Bat Boy Found in Cave?
Pat (PM) 8 years ago

BMX Rider Owns Cop After Being Target of Harassment
LONG BEACH CA ? Lieutenant Cobel from the Long Beach police department is quickly becoming an internet sensation after he was the subject of a video showing him attempt to harass a group of BMX bikers. The problem for the officer is one man knew the law better than him, which resulted in the officer hurling a few insults and walking away in shame.

The officer can be heard in the video below telling a group of bikers that they must walk their bikes when they ride on the boardwalk near The Rainbow Harbor Esplanade. However, 33-year-old Sean Fontenot was familiar with the law, and asked if the law was recently changed.

“16.16.502 is the civic sectional code that states you can ride your bicycles around out here,” Sean says. “So I don’t know what law you are referring to.”

After a brief banter, the officer condescendingly asked Sean if hey got his law degree on Facebook.

“So do I have to have a law degree to be an informed citizen?” Sean asks. “Is that what you’re saying? Is it wrong to know your rights? Last time I checked, when officers come and try to invalidate your rights by telling you bullshit laws and enforcing their opinions, that’s not what you are supposed to do.”
Video is worth watching.
1. B.P. 8 years ago
  
  33-year-old BMX biker? Ugh.
  1. jesse.in.mb 8 years ago
    
    I see you’re unfamiliar with the LBC.
    1. GILMORE? 8 years ago
      
      trick needs school himself
    2. 0x90 8 years ago
      
      So much drama…
2. Riven 8 years ago
  
  Cop: You wanna go that way? Ok. We can go that way.
  Yes. Let’s.
3. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer 8 years ago
  
  Where did you get your cop certificate? At the jerk store?
  1. Free Society 8 years ago
    
    ha
4. Los Doyers 8 years ago
  
  GIT OFF MUH BOARDWALK
5. Florida Hipster 8 years ago
  
  So if the BMX guy got his law degree at FB and knows the law better than the cop, does that make the cop look better or worse? Idiot.
6. Derp-o-Matic 5000 8 years ago
  
  Where did the cop get his law degree?
Irish ?s Lauren Southern 8 years ago

Comrades! I have discovered the Socialism subreddit, and would like to share some of my findings with you.
A socialist explains supply and demand.
“This is a good answer. I consider the ‘crisis of overproduction’ to be one of the most visible contradictions.
It basically means that capitalism will produce products to satisfy demand, without a larger plan in place. For example, in my city, the economy is on an upswing, and developers are building condos everywhere. None of the firms ‘work’ with eachother to decide how many condos they build. They just keep building to satisfy demand.
Eventually, demand will be met, and the last few condos will sit empty. It’s inevitable, because thats the only way these developers will know how to stop building condos: when people stop buying them.
The problem is, these few empty condos are very bad for business. They will not be able to be sold. Once demand outstrips supply, prices plummet. The condo companies will be making less money, and they may have to lay off employees. Their stock prices will go down, and salaries and dividends will be cut. These cuts will start to effect the entire market, and before you know it, this snowballs, creating a recession in my city.
Capitalism is contradictory because the quest for more and more wealth inevitably leads to waste and recession. This is the anarchy of the free market.”
1. Juvenile Bluster 8 years ago
  
  reddit.com/r/socialism
  NOOOOOOOOOOOOPE.
  There isn’t a single political subreddit worth reading. This includes /r/libertarian, which is absolute shit.
  1. You Sound Like a Prog (MJG) 8 years ago
    
    I’ll let Rothbard explain why you’re wrong…
    1. Juvenile Bluster 8 years ago
      
      /r/anarchocapitalism is also shit.
  2. bassjoe 8 years ago
    
    You clearly haven’t read /r/The_Donald
    1. Juvenile Bluster 8 years ago
      
      I specifically use RES to block anything from The_Donald, SandersForPresident, or /r/politics.
    2. Chipper Morning Wood 8 years ago
      
      Is that where they stickied Molyneux’s passionate defense of Trump?
  3. sloopyinTEXAS 8 years ago
    
    What the fuck is a “Reddit”?
    1. Restoras 8 years ago
      
      I dunno – some weird type of frog, I think.
    2. Derp-o-Matic 5000 8 years ago
      
      I believe its some sort of hovercraft
  4. EMD 8 years ago
    
    /r/squaredcircle!
2. Irish ?s Lauren Southern 8 years ago
  
  Socialists discuss what they would do with the Kulaks and wreckers in Hollywood
  “Hollywood, as an institution, needs to be wiped and restarted.”
  “I think there would be less superhero movies, action movies, horror movies, and insipid comedies. Those films are usually created for the purpose of bringing in huge profits for studios. I’d like to see more historical dramas and social commentaries. It would be cool to see biopics made about Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Marx, Engels, Debs, Kropotkin, and other famous leftists.”
  Sounds riveting.
  1. Citizen X 8 years ago
    
    You bringing those links in here is making it abundantly clear: you’re racist against Reasonable-Americans, too, and would like to see us suffer.
    1. Private Chipperbot 8 years ago
      
      Drink!
    2. OneOut 8 years ago
      
      “needs to be wiped ”
      Like, with a cloth” ?
      /hilldog prog
  2. Pat (PM) 8 years ago
    
    It would be cool to see biopics made about Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Marx, Engels, Debs, Kropotkin, and other famous leftists.
    I thought he said he wanted less horror movies.
    1. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer 8 years ago
      
      And insipid comedies.
    2. Guestus III 8 years ago
      
      That Che biopic was boring as fuck, so let’s hope not.
      1. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer 8 years ago
        
        There are so many ways you can try and romanticize a murderous moron.
        
        Bobarian (Would Chip Her) 8 years ago
        
        Agitprop was such a successful form of cinema; we should start it here.
        /ignoring the fact that we already have it; it’s just the wrong anti-capitalist message
        
        sloopyinTEXAS 8 years ago
        
        Rufus is right. One Sling Blade is enough.
      2. Crusty Juggler 8 years ago
        
        Soderburgh also did not include Che’s execution phase.
      3. Free Society 8 years ago
        
        That Che biopic was boring as fuck, so let’s hope not.
        And it left out all the scenes of him sadistically executing child “counter-revolutionaries” with glee.
        
        Guestus III 8 years ago
        
        I wouldn’t know, I saw it at a second run theater with beer. I got very drunk, very quickly and then slept through the second half. And by the way, I am talking about the Motorcycle Diaries.
        …fires up the Google Machine….
        Jesus, there were two Che biopics? And these guys are bitching about not enough leftist biopics?
    3. Chumby 8 years ago
      
      Warren Beatty’s Reds not good enough for them?
      1. EMD 8 years ago
        
        What a snoozefest that shitshow was.
  3. The Last American Hero 8 years ago
    
    Somehow I don’t think audiences want to go see non-fiction films featuring the enslaving of billions and the murder of millions under a murderous ideology.
    1. Social Contractor 8 years ago
      
      That’s the problem comrade. People aren’t wanting the right things.
    2. Hamster of Doom 8 years ago
      
      But how’s the CGI and the explosions?
      *lens flare*
    3. Mickey Rat 8 years ago
      
      That can happen.
      It is portraying the murderous ideologues as the good guys that is the problem.
    4. EMD 8 years ago
      
      cough The Matrix cough
  4. paranoid android 8 years ago
    
    I’m mostly of a mind with Juvenile Bluster on this, but wait they have actual Stalin apologists?
    *Grabs popcorn*
    1. Juvenile Bluster 8 years ago
      
      Oh, there are Stalin apologists all over Reddit.
      Most of them are 15-20 year old Americans and Europeans. The Holodomor don’t real (or it was the fault of wreckers/kulaks/Joos)
      1. Winston 8 years ago
        
        So how come German, French and British diplomatic recognition of the USSR didn’t stop Holodomor?
      2. Restoras 8 years ago
        
        Yeah but what about Hodor?
        
        Trouser-Pod (The blowhard) 8 years ago
        
        Let’s ask him…
        Hodor
        *Thanks, Hodor.*
        Well, there you have it.
    2. Doctor Whom 8 years ago
      
      I knew some Stalin and Mao apologists in Ann Arbor. I never knew any Pol Pot apologists, but just give it time.
      1. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer 8 years ago
        
        Some one has to be cool and come out with it, right?
        
        Restoras 8 years ago
        
        BAE, or whatever?
      2. EMD 8 years ago
        
        At least he recycled plastic bags?
  5. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer 8 years ago
    
    That has to be a troll.
  6. Pan Zagloba 8 years ago
    
    Shit, a good, honest biopic of Lenin, Stalin or Mao would be ass-kicking riveting period drama with more intrigue, colorful personalities and visceral horror than all the HBO/AMC zeitgeist series put together. Of course, it’d be a lesson in ‘be careful what you wish for’ for the comrade above.
    1. KDN 8 years ago
      
      Yeah, I’d watch the shit out of an honest biopic of some of the old Bolsheviks. I don’t think there’s any chance that an honest biopic would ever be made, though. Most filmmakers would likely write off any script as reactionary propaganda.
      1. Bobarian (Would Chip Her) 8 years ago
        
        All those people who supposedly died in the gulags?
        In reality, they took the oath and stood the Night’s Watch!
    2. Hamster of Doom 8 years ago
      
      The bad stuff will turn out to be historically inaccurate. They explain everything in the sequel.
      1. sloopyinTEXAS 8 years ago
        
        Lenin II: Gulag Boogaloo
        Meh, I’d pay to see it.
    3. EMD 8 years ago
      
      Actually, Trotsky would be the most interesting to me.
3. Pan Zagloba 8 years ago
  
  This man is not socialist enough! He implies that it’s possible for condo prices to go down, when we all know that condos get picked up by super-rich people (Chinese or generic super-rich, depending on your level of self-unaware racism) who just let them sit empty in order to park their money and thus fuck over the normal people forever.
  Sorry, when you live in Vancouver, “condo” becomes a trigger word…
  1. KDN 8 years ago
    
    That’s what happens after the horrors of the recession: rich people buy all the condos for cheap since they’re the only ones with any money and park their money their to restrict supply, thus achieving paper gains without ever injecting any wealth into the system.
    1. Pan Zagloba 8 years ago
      
      Almost – there was no real estate bust in Vancouver, the closest we got to it in 2008 was people refusing to sell because prices weren’t going up. Hence, there had to be an explanation of how so many condos get sold at ludicrous prices if no one can afford them, and Absent Rich Chinamen became the boogieman. To the point that the city govt. had an inquiry into the issue which said, no, there are not millions of empty condos just sitting there. It didn’t help.
      1. EMD 8 years ago
        
        We are Absent Rich Chinamen and we are here to rock you!
4. Raven Nation 8 years ago
  
  “This is the anarchy of the free market.”
  He says that like it’s a bad thing.
  1. Citizen X 8 years ago
    
    To him, it is, because if capitalism is self-limiting then it provides fewer opportunities for Top.Men. to do the limiting, and that’s important for some reason.
5. You Sound Like a Prog (MJG) 8 years ago
  
  I think I checked out that subreddit a few years back. I dipped in, read a few posts about the labor theory of value, and quickly had my fill.
  1. jarflax 8 years ago
    
    I beat and beat on rocks with my hammer and no money comes out. I don’t think the labor theory of value works.
    1. jarflax 8 years ago
      
      This euphemism game just went self referential
      1. Chumby 8 years ago
        
        If no money comes out then no money shot?
6. Irish ?s Lauren Southern 8 years ago
  
  I sometimes hear people try and compare libertarians to socialists on the grounds that we’re both allegedly ‘utopian.’ But I think the obsession socialists have with “OMG, WHAT WOULD THE MOVIE INDUSTRY LOOK LIKE IN A SOCIALIST STATE!” shows the major difference, which is that libertarians never claim that *everything would be perfect* in a free market, merely that it would be best for the most people.
  Socialists, on the other hand, think everything would be perfect in a socialist society – there would be no alienation, no depression, all art would magically be better for some reason…
  They blame everything bad on the lack of socialism, and that shows pretty clearly how childish the whole thing is.
  1. Episiarch 8 years ago
    
    They think everything would be perfect *for them*. It’s pure fantasy, basically a daydream reworking of the world to fit the way they would like it to be, as opposed to the way it really is. Not only would it not be, there is absolutely no rational reason to think “socialism” would deliver this fantasy world, even if you’re being generous.
    Basically, for a lot of people, “socialism” means “fantasyland”. It’s very strange how this concept/word got that status.
    1. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer 8 years ago
      
      Rufusland.
      Come for the hope and laughs, stay for the death.
      EH?
      1. Riven 8 years ago
        
        I’ve come for less.
        
        Hamster of Doom 8 years ago
        
        Raaawr.
    2. tarran 8 years ago
      
      That reminds me of one of my favorite South Park episodes CartmanLand!
      1. W. Chipper Dove 8 years ago
        
        That was a good one. To hear Cartman openly sobbing because he’s so happy, and then watch as he slowly loses everything, was just wonderful.
    3. Square = Circle 8 years ago
      
      To me the biggest fundamental difference is that the improvements that libertarians argue would come from libertarianism don’t require anyone to behave any differently than they currently do, whereas socialism and communism are always predicated on a universal and nearly absolute change in fundamental behavior for most of humanity.
      Socialism always seems “so simple” to socialists exactly because socialism is essentially “everybody should suddenly spontaneously realize that they shouldn’t be selfish and should work together with everyone else toward the common good, at which point everything will turn wonderful all by itself.”
      1. Horatio 8 years ago
        
        Libertopia does in fact require people to act differently than they currently do, specifically “don’t agress others via government”. This is why it will never come to pass.
      2. jarflax 8 years ago
        
        Leaving aside all the other problems with Socialism for the moment, there ain’t no such animal as the common good. We ornery humans want different things.
      3. Social Contractor 8 years ago
        
        IMO anarchism requires people to act differently. Libertarianism- at least my version is a compromise of that.
  2. Libertarian 8 years ago
    
    When it comes to discussions on libertarianism, nothing sets me off quicker than someone trying to tell me that libertarians believe in Utopia. ARGH!
  3. Jerryskids 8 years ago
    
    That’s the Big Point of libertarianism to me – and the reason it’s a hard sell – that it’s not going to solve all your problems, it’s just the best chance of not screwing things up worse. Everybody wants the quick weight loss miracle diet and the libertarians are selling eat less, exercise more and in the end you’re going to be dead anyway and maybe you’d be happier sacrificing a few more years in your eighties for a half-gallon of fudge ripple ice cream right now so what the hell do we know? diet. “As a general rule for government, leaving bad enough alone is better than trying to fix things” just doesn’t sell, no matter how much evidence there is that, in the long run, trying to fix things has cost more than not trying to fix things. It’s the same reason people buy lottery tickets – you know you’re not going to come out ahead on the deal but maybe this time you’ll get lucky.
  4. toolkien 8 years ago
    
    merely that it would be best for the most people.
    ——————-
    I usually don’t go even that far. I’m not necessarily concerned as to outcomes as I maintain disinterest. The outcome could be good, the outcome could be bad, the outcome could be good at first, but bad on second thought, The outcome could be good, but events twenty years later prove that an alternative course may have been preferred. In short, I don’t promise a utopia, nor do I make out some sort of derivation of Benthamism – most good for the most people. I simply maintain outcomes are so ephemeral and varied that Force is rarely ever justified except in the face of offensive Force defended against. Also, that even if or when a Force laden policy is proved bad by common opinion, held at that time, it is so slow to change course.
    I’ve used the euphemism that socialism is the process by which certain people promise to keep people dry by pushing raindrops up one at a time. Socialism ultimately is insanity on the face of it, an insanity that can only be born from Romanticism. The results of 100+ years of Fabian socialism in this country amply shows how insane it is.
    1. Hyperbolical 8 years ago
      
      Socialism ultimately is insanity on the face of it, an insanity that can only be born from Romanticism.
      +1 Roussonianism
    2. BigT 8 years ago
      
      I’m not necessarily concerned as to outcomes
      
      Outcomes should be secondary to methods/process. A fair process is the desiderata. After all, the end does not justify the means.
7. B.P. 8 years ago
  
  Somewhere along the line socialism switched from being a solution to rapacious capitalism’s habit of leaving everyone poor, hungry, destitute, etc., to a solution to rapacious capitalism’s habit of producing too much.
  1. Citizen X 8 years ago
    
    Well, socialism certainly limits the abundance of necessary goods, so at least it works that way.
    1. Bobarian (Would Chip Her) 8 years ago
      
      + Wiping your ass with venezuelan monies
  2. Hyperbolical 8 years ago
    
    …capitalism’s habit of leaving everyone poor, hungry, destitute…
    When did capitalism leave “everyone poor, hungry, destitute, etc.”?
    Capitalism is merely the reinvestment of surplus assets to increase/improve output. How does that leave people poor? The serfs of the Middle Ages were certainly not better off than the burghers who traded in services in the towns and villages. But they were better off than the hunter-gatherers that came before agriculture allowed for the reinvestment of seed and toil into a steadier supply of food. Innovation and trade have always made people’s lives better.
    1. kbolino 8 years ago
      
      Well, if you take the literal definition of “left”, then it makes some kind of sense. In a leftist fever dream, adjusted for some semblance of reality, capitalism results in the rich getting richer while the poor stay poor.
      … why that is a problem vis-a-vis everybody staying poor is not entirely clear to me. But “income inequality” is apparently super bad. Because, reasons.
      When you couple it with other things, like e.g. the government throwing people in prison, maybe you can wring some kind of sense out of it. But the funny thing is that damn near all of that is really “for their own good” type shit, which just turns this all into a self-licking ice cream cone. We need to do what’s best for the poor, and we’re clearly not doing it, despite the fact that what we’re doing now is the result of the last round of “we need to do what’s best for the poor”.
  3. Migrant Log Chipper 8 years ago
    
    piss off, socialism leaves everyone poor, hungry, destitute, that shit bags like you can’t tap dance around it shows what a disingenous twat you are.
8. The Last American Hero 8 years ago
  
  While supply and demand price signals are not perfectly efficient, they are orders of magnitude more efficient than centrally planned economies that try to operate without them. In Soviet Russia, the reason there were bread lines wasn’t because the bread was so damn good that people wanted to wait in line for it.
9. jesse.in.mb 8 years ago
  
  Capitalist over-production: a few too many condos
  Central planning over-production: multiple cities that will crumble to dust before they actually have residents.
  1. Riven 8 years ago
    
    Why you wanna ruin someone’s good story and feelz with your… *sneer* logic.
    1. UnCivilServant 8 years ago
      
      “sneer logic” has a nice ring to it.
      1. Riven 8 years ago
        
        That’s not the only thing with a nice…ring
        I’m sorry. I can’t stop.
        
        Horatio 8 years ago
        
        Tang or tatas?
        
        W. Chipper Dove 8 years ago
        
        Cock or bathtub?
  2. PapayaSF 8 years ago
    
    Actually, though, those Chinese ghost cities are not exactly pure examples of socialist central planning. As I understand them, they have a distinct capitalist aspect: they are investments by private (or semi-private) entities, admittedly caused in part by Chinese restrictions on investment. So they’re not quite equivalent to central planning errors by Stalin or North Korea.
    1. jesse.in.mb 8 years ago
      
      That could certainly be at play, although IIRC, they were basically funded by the Chinese govt pumping money into construction for the sake of construction in a much more massive version of our “shovel-ready jobs” funding.
      Even if the specifics of the building weren’t planned out the entire idea of “ugh, our economy is collapsing we’d better pour state money on it to keep people artificially employed in unproductive tasks” sounds exactly like what the OP would prefer.
10. Tornado16nb 8 years ago
  
  I think this has to be a troll job as well.
  Since when are socialists cool with private developers colluding and forming a monopoly to keep their stock prices high and profits running in?
  1. Square = Circle 8 years ago
    
    Should have scrolled down before commenting.
    1. Tornado16nb 8 years ago
      
      You mean in reddit or here? I thought the troll comment was in response to Hollywood socialism
      1. Square = Circle 8 years ago
        
        I meant me – I said pretty much the same thing you did.
11. Square = Circle 8 years ago
  
  “None of the firms ‘work’ with each other to decide how many condos they build.”
  Funny how this result of legislative fiat is held up as an example of market failure. Said “working together” might also be termed “price-fixing cartel,” no?
  1. Irish ?s Lauren Southern 8 years ago
    
    If we had a monopoly this would all be planned, but socialists hate monopolies for some reason.
    1. Chumby 8 years ago
      
      But monopolies only happen in capitalism. They are created by it. When there isn’t government involved. -prog
12. GILMORE? 8 years ago
  
  Jesus christ that’s painful.
13. Suthenboy 8 years ago
  
  “Not smart enough to wipe his own ass”
  You think that is just an expression? I have personally seen lots of them. I have seen people who have experience with chamber pots unable to make the connection between a bucket that you shit in and occasionally take out of the house to empty and a pot that is bolted to the floor and has built in disposal. That’s right, they shit in the toilet over and over and over and no amount of instruction will get them to flush the damned thing.
  I have seen people who commonly shit in ditches in plain sight and broad daylight unable to use a bathroom that just has a hole in the floor. Eventually someone misses the hole and leaves a pile of shit on the floor next to the hole. The next guy comes in, doesnt want to be near that so he shits on the floor next to it. This happens over and over until there is a line of turds leading out of the door into the ditch outside next to the road. Pretty soon they are all just shitting in the ditch by the road in plain sight and broad daylight.
  Most of humanity is not smart enough to figure out how to take a shit. That socialism still has adherents is really no surprise.
Citizen X 8 years ago

Is the caption on that pic a dig at Trump?
Fist of Etiquette 8 years ago

Prosecutors in Minneapolis announced they would not be filing charges related to the killing of Jamar Clark by police officers in November.
Because this case of white cops shooting an unarmed black man is different than all those others.
Rich 8 years ago

Hollande has abandoned a plan to strip individuals convicted of terrorism of their French citizenship.
But they still get stripped of their hijabs, right? RIGHT?!
Mr Drew 8 years ago

Hey guys,
I’m taking the little one to pigeon forge/Gatlinburg tomorrow for a four day weekend. Anything we shouldn’t miss? Remember, she’s seven.
Thx.
1. IndyEleven 8 years ago
  
  Aquarium in Gatlinburg is pretty good, though a little pricey from what I remember. We took the little one there about 13 months ago. And Ober Gatlinburg, though dated, can be neat for the view and the cable car ride.
  1. Arkansaustrian Economics 8 years ago
    
    Went to the Aquarium there a couple of years ago. They get all pissymoany if grab the sharks.
    1. Mr Drew 8 years ago
      
      The chance that I would ever try to pet a shark is miniscule. My one phobia.
      I did once get escorted out of yellow stone for repeatedly trying to pet a buffalo.
      Protip: Buffalo like Reese Cups more than peanut butter crackers.
2. Ted S. 8 years ago
  
  How close is that to Dollywood?
3. Private Chipperbot 8 years ago
  
  A seven year old girl will love the Dixie Stampede show & dinner. I thought it would be horrible and was pleasantly surprised. The kids really liked it.
4. Jerryskids 8 years ago
  
  Last time we were up there (at Thanksgiving) we rented cabins up in the woods and the little one’s most memorable moment was the “neighbor in a Mercedes convertible ignoring the ‘do not leave food in your car because bears’ signs show”. I don’t know if they put that particular show on on a regular basis, but it’s quite extraordinarily entertaining.
  1. PapayaSF 8 years ago
    
    LOL
  2. Mr Drew 8 years ago
    
    If that show is on, I will absolutely watch it.
5. Wizard with a Woodchipper 8 years ago
  
  Ripley’s Believe it or Not museum, but I don’t remember how age appropriate it would be. Klingman’s dome is a great vista, but you would likely need to carry her for part of the walk/hike.
6. Arkansaustrian Economics 8 years ago
  
  There’s a huge buffet owned by Western Sizzlin.
  It’s everything you just imagined.
7. Suthenboy 8 years ago
  
  “…she’s seven.” I hope you aren’t teaching her to shoot.
  A couple of days ago I took the 4 yo grandson fishing. Nothing is biting so I drew the SA Uberti .357 and asked him if he wanted to shoot it. Of course he did. (loaded with 38 spl: 3.5 grains of bullseye and 158 grain RNs)
  I knelt down behind him with my arms around him holding the gun in front of him. I aimed and held the gun, he pulled the trigger.
  First shot at a ball floating in the bayou he said “Ooooooooooooo!”
  I asked if he wanted to do that again. He shook his head very enthusiastically. “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!”
  He burned up about three cylinders worth. This morning the first thing he said to me was “Can we go down to the water and shoot the ball?” He came out of his room in his pajamas but he already had his rubber boots on.
  Of course this story is completely made up. I would never teach a child proper gun safety at an early age or foster an interest in shooting in anyone. Nope. I never would do that.
  1. Mr Drew 8 years ago
    
    Of course I’m not teaching her to shoot! What little girl would even be interested in a hot pink, hello kitty .22 rifle with a suppressor? Perish the thought.
8. EMD 8 years ago
  
  Would she enjoy hiking? I mean, that’s a pretty place.
The Late P Brooks 8 years ago

Historians in Germany reveal the Associated Press entered into an arrangement with Nazi Germany in the 1930s to secure access in exchange for a promise not to undermine the regime.
Same as it ever was.
1. Notorious UGCC 8 years ago
  
  You know who else…wait…
Fist of Etiquette 8 years ago

The Justice Department and the city of Newark, New Jersey have agreed on a settlement related to reforms of the city’s police department.
Does it at all involve nuking from orbit?
1. Unicorn Abattoir 8 years ago
  
  The whole city, or just the police department? I’m good with either, just asking.
  1. KDN 8 years ago
    
    Come on, only like 2/3 of the city should be nuked.
    1. Suthenboy 8 years ago
      
      + 1 righteous man
Fist of Etiquette 8 years ago

In the case of Luis vs. United States, the Supreme Court ruled, 5-3, against the pre-trial freezing of non-tainted assets.
Thus rewarding criminals simply because they haven’t been proven as such!
1. Episiarch 8 years ago
  
  You sure are good at thinking like an authoritarian.
  (narrows eyes, loosens knife in sheath)
  1. UnCivilServant 8 years ago
    
    Is that a swiss army knife?
  2. Fist of Etiquette 8 years ago
    
    loosens knife in sheath
    [insert Brock Samson quote here]
    1. UnCivilServant 8 years ago
      
      *stab*
      Sorry, Fisty, threats only work when they’re directed at the right target and you’re willing to carry them out.
      Make them after you’ve demonstrated that… oh you’ve bled out already.
    2. Episiarch 8 years ago
      
      Wait, does that make you The Monarch? No, of course not. You’re Dr. Girlfriend.
      1. Fist of Etiquette 8 years ago
        
        Dr. Orpheus maybe. UnCivil is Shore Leave.
        
        Episiarch 8 years ago
        
        Then who is Baron ?nderbheit?!?
        
        Fist of Etiquette 8 years ago
        
        The better question is who is Girl Hitler.
        
        Episiarch 8 years ago
        
        Your mom?
        
        Fist of Etiquette 8 years ago
        
        You’re Colonel Gentleman.
        
        UnCivilServant 8 years ago
        
        Sorry Fisty, you guessed wrong.
        You heal strangely fast.
    3. Riven 8 years ago
      
      You mess with the Brock… you get the Samson!
      1. Fist of Etiquette 8 years ago
        
        Riven is Pete White, the albino.
        
        Los Doyers 8 years ago
        
        And what about me, cinnamon bun??
        
        Episiarch 8 years ago
        
        You’re Dean.
        
        Bobarian (Would Chip Her) 8 years ago
        
        Hank and Dean’s half-brother/uncle. Dermott
        
        Fist of Etiquette 8 years ago
        
        Bobarian seems like an Augustus St. Cloud.
        
        Bobarian (Would Chip Her) 8 years ago
        
        And you are my arch, Master Billy Quizboy.
        
        Fist of Etiquette 8 years ago
        
        Molotov Cocktease.
        
        Los Doyers 8 years ago
        
        Finally on the other side of the cocktease fence, for once.
        
        Mr Drew 8 years ago
        
        Sometimes I feel like you guys have all watched eleven seasons of some tv show that I’ve never even heard of. Or, have all dropped acid from the same batch.
        
        Fist of Etiquette 8 years ago
        
        Six seasons of Venture Bros is a goldmine of ludicrous characters parodying Jonny Quest and comic books. It’s perfect for this crowd of NERDS.
    4. Slumbrew 8 years ago
      
      Go ahead, take it from me!
2. Rich 8 years ago
  
  pre-trial freezing of non-tainted assets
  Nice album name.
3. bassjoe 8 years ago
  
  How prosecutors read the decision: we have to expand the scope of “tainting”.
  1. Bobarian (Would Chip Her) 8 years ago
    
    That’s what Peyton Manning did to that female trainer, right?
    1. Chumby 8 years ago
      
      He refers to it as “Omaha-ing” her. And he drank Busweiser afterwards.
Rich 8 years ago

Alt-text
Ted S. 8 years ago

Question for Hyperion:
You wouldn’t know a good link for a brief primer on the political scandals going on in Brazil, would you?
I was just listening to a program on Radio Exterior de Espa?a that basically claimed it’s all the horrid right wing going after leftist president Rouseff, and of course the Americans’ fault too since they supported the 1964 coup.
1. Raven Nation 8 years ago
  
  Pan American Post is a conservative/libertarian opinion site that is decent.
2. Los Doyers 8 years ago
  
  I’m not Hyperion, praise jeebus, but I read this yesterday and found it informative.
  http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/29/…..withdraws/
  I’ve been following this for awhile, and it seems the noose is tightening around old Dilma’s neck. It’s corruption and bribery all the way down. Also, shame on you for listening to Radio Exterior de Espa?a.
  1. Irish ?s Lauren Southern 8 years ago
    
    My socialism subreddit has been talking about that too.
    Surprise! It’s a right-wing smear campaign to destroy the revolution!
    1. Los Doyers 8 years ago
      
      Yes, the revolution that already started with Dilma and has seen inflation levels rise to 10%. But hey, 4 reals to a dollar is great for me when I visit in June.
    2. coloraDOOM 8 years ago
      
      Duh doi
3. grrizzly 8 years ago
  
  Scroll down to the composition of the Brazilian Congress. They have way too many parties. Also, most of them are socialist or communist.
  1. PapayaSF 8 years ago
    
    How many communist and socialist parties does one country really need? Wouldn’t it be much more efficient to have one?
    1. ant1sthenes 8 years ago
      
      Especially if there are kids starving.
4. PBR Streetgang 8 years ago
  
  I just got back from Brazil and the locals, primarily middle class, are furious with Rousseff and Lula. In their mind, both of them are thieves (see, Petrobas and “car wash” scandal) and that the middle class are punitively taxed (27.5% marginal income tax rate, 11% payroll tax on employees, 19% VAT + employers pay a, sit down for this one, 37% payroll tax) to support the poor and non-working that live in the favelas.
  Nice people though, like the US dollars.
  1. Los Doyers 8 years ago
    
    What part, if I may ask? I’m heading out to Rio in June (no visa needed because of the Olympics!) for about a week, and then out to Paran? to meet someone who is likely catfishing me. Would love to hear your experience, as this will be my first time.
    1. Crusty Juggler 8 years ago
      
      who is likely catfishing me
      That model/law student is totally not me.
      1. jesse.in.mb 8 years ago
        
        You know you can just ask him for dick pics, no?
        
        Los Doyers 8 years ago
        
        This is true. My dick pics are common domain.
        
        Crusty Juggler 8 years ago
        
        I have no interest in dick pics, because I am not a sick freaky weirdo from weirdotown.
        I am into feet. So, if Los Doyers would like to send me pictures of his feet (preferably after he has spent a few hours traipsing around in the mud), then I would gladly accept them
        
        Los Doyers 8 years ago
        
        If you want feet, Playa Manhattan is absolutely your guy.
        
        Playa Manhattan. 8 years ago
        
        Oh yeah, I’m your guy. I have a friend who doesn’t like feet, and I always find a way to sneak them into pictures. By the time she looks, it’s too late.
    2. PBR Streetgang 8 years ago
      
      We were in Rio and then went to Iguazu Falls (I think that’s in Parana) for 2 days. We stayed in Leblon and the people were super nice. Lots of English speakers throughout RIo particularly at the hotels and quite a few in Copa and Ipanema. Basically every restaurant had at least 1 person competent in English, in case you don’t speak Portuguese. Everyone was really nice, but Copa apparently gets dicey after the sun goes down. We weren’t out late, travelling with kids, but the police presence notably increased at dusk. The exchange rate, as you mentioned, is incredible. Airport security struck me as kinda lax.
      Overall, LOVED It. Rio and Iguazu and both gorgeous and the people are really friendly and helpful.
      1. Los Doyers 8 years ago
        
        Awesome, sounds like a blast. Yeah, where I’ll be staying in Paran? is very close to the falls. I speak Spanish, which has give me a bit of a springboard into my Portuguese studies the last two months, but they’re of course still two different languages. Pepper in all the Brazilian slang and I have my work cut out for me. But meh, learning a language is fun, and I’d love to practice while I’m out there. Although I hear most will actually switch to English so *they* can practice, but whatevs. I’ll actually be staying with a family that leaves either on the edge of, or inside of, a favela. So it will be interesting to hear their take on this Dilma shit. Thanks for sharing. It’s funny you mentioned immigration, because I’ll likely be bringing gifts in excess of the US$500 limit, so hopefully I can sneak them through and avoid paying their ridiculous 60% import tax.
        
        PBR Streetgang 8 years ago
        
        You’ll probably be able to get the gifts through and you will definitely have a great time. Well, assuming no catfishing.
        You are right about them wanting to practice English more than they want to hear Americanos practice Portuguese.
        Where in Rio are you staying? I only learned the name of 3 or 4 of the hundreds of favelas, but got pretty familiar with the areas of the City.
        
        Los Doyers 8 years ago
        
        I believe the neighborhood is called Beco Londres. Yeah, I haz an excite. Caipirinhas for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
        
        PBR Streetgang 8 years ago
        
        OH, there is a Churrascaria place in Copa called Churrascaria Palace that serves Caipirnha made with Korean Soju. Highly recommend.
        
        Los Doyers 8 years ago
        
        Will make a note of that.
        
        gaoxiaen 8 years ago
        
        You’ll love the roast camel hump.
    3. PapayaSF 8 years ago
      
      Wow, a catfishing scammer and the Zika virus. Have fun!
      1. Los Doyers 8 years ago
        
        Hopefully I can bring it back and spread it around CA. It’s always good to catch something that isn’t too deadly and pick up those immunities.
Notorious UGCC 8 years ago

link text“Yo, I got somethin’ for your cis-normative asses right here!
“New York has joined cities such as San Francisco and Seattle in banning non-essential travel to North Carolina for city and state employees. These bans come days after the North Carolina state legislature passed an anti-LGBTQ bill that has already prompted a federal lawsuit….
“New York is one of 20 states that ban discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in the workplace, housing, or public accommodations?two more states protect just against discrimination based on sexual orientation, while the remaining 28 states have no such non-discrimination laws. Earlier this month, de Blasio ordered all city-owned buildings to let people use the bathrooms that correspond with the gender with which they identify, and the City Council is currently considering legislation that would require single-occupancy bathrooms to be usable by people of any gender.”
1. Notorious UGCC 8 years ago
  
  http://gothamist.com/2016/03/2…..ity_an.php
2. Cdr Lytton 8 years ago
  
  banning non-essential travel to North Carolina for city and state employees
  It’s a start. Just 49 states to add, along with the rest of the world to that ban on non-essential travel.
3. Private Chipperbot 8 years ago
  
  Shouldn’t all non-essential travel be banned for state employees…
4. Hamster of Doom 8 years ago
  
  the City Council is currently considering legislation that would require single-occupancy bathrooms to be usable by people of any gender.”
  Seems odd. Gents, chime in please, as I’ve clearly wasted the opportunity to loiter in men’s rooms during my ill-spent youth. But a public toilet with only a urinal? C’mon, like the sink isn’t right there.
  1. jesse.in.mb 8 years ago
    
    Sounds like the bathroom in one of my favorite bars in Daegu. The women had a sit down toilet and then men had a hole in the floor.
    I got screamed at by a woman for having vommed in (and cleaned to sparkling) the women’s loo because I didn’t want to drunkenly deal with the mechanics of vomming in a squat hole.
    The places that I’ve been to that have implemented choose your own adventure bathrooms have had varying levels of success. Free-for-all single use bathrooms combined with a room with a row of urinals or a trough seems to be the most optimal solution. Sit-down toilets are used more optimally than separate men’s and women’s toilets but men who need to take a quick piss aren’t left standing in line behind shitters.
    1. Arkansaustrian Economics 8 years ago
      
      You haven’t lived until you’ve pissed while making terrifying eye contact in the mirror with Adjima-o’er-the-cathole.
      1. jesse.in.mb 8 years ago
        
        This guy knows.
        I hated how hard it was to guess whether a bathroom in Korea would have a Western toilet or a squat. Out for a hike once and lunch was severely disagreeing with me. See a port-a-john and think “ha. serendipitous” and it’s a squat toilet.
        Never did get good at them.
        
        Arkansaustrian Economics 8 years ago
        
        That happened to me literally on my first trip to the bathroom in a bar in Korea, in Suwon back in 98. 19 year old kid from the Ozarks, and you walk in the room and see a 70-year-old woman squatting over a hole with no shame.
        Naturally, I stayed for two years.
        
        jesse.in.mb 8 years ago
        
        It wasn’t much different 10 years later when I was there. I remember seeing old guys just walk up to bushes in broad daylight and take a piss and thinking “well that’s a bit freer than home” but then saw old women hitch their skirts and pop a squat in some bushes by the sidewalk in broad daylight and had NO idea what to do.
    2. OneOut 8 years ago
      
      How did she know you had vommed if you had cleaned to sparkling ?
      vommed means vomited, right ?
      1. jesse.in.mb 8 years ago
        
        It does.
        She wasn’t upset about the vomming. She was upset that I had gone into the women’s toilet, which was a tiny stone cubicle with a single toilet and a roll of toilet paper and flimsy wooden door. It was not like I’d violated the sanctity of a shared bathroom space or something.
        The mens was the same thing with a hole in the floor and a curtain instead of a flimsy wooden door and was right next to the women’s.
5. Suthenboy 8 years ago
  
  Banning non-essential travel…I don’t know what that means.
  On the taxpayer dime? That should be banned anyway. Travel on their own dime and time? I don’t think that boat will float.
Crusty Juggler 8 years ago

Watch an Underground Nuclear Explosion Melt the Ground into a Giant Crater
1. Citizen X 8 years ago
  
  These masturbation euphemisms, i swear.
  1. Pan Zagloba 8 years ago
    
    $100 donation level 2016 – you will receive a copy of Legless Cats and Trump Levers: Dictionary of H&R Masturbation Metaphors (440 pages)
Matrix 8 years ago

Student assaulted by university employee because he dared be white while having dreadlocks
1. Notorious UGCC 8 years ago
  
  I think it was a fellow-student, not an employee.
  1. Matrix 8 years ago
    
    all the reports say the woman was employed by the University. She may also be a student, but she is employed there.
    1. kbolino 8 years ago
      
      The overlap of students and employees at colleges/universities is pretty high. But working the library desk 8 hours a week for $10/hour while you are taking classes full time doesn’t really make you a representative of the institution, even if you are technically an employee.
      1. HeteroPatriarch 8 years ago
        
        Ah yes, Work/study, which gives students a horribly fucked up idea of what is involved in “work.” There’s a reason it counts as financial aid and not just a job.
2. Citizen X 8 years ago
  
  Looks like somebody wasn’t around this morning!
  1. Riven 8 years ago
    
    Some of us work for a living, Citizen X!
    1. Citizen X 8 years ago
      
      Do you not have internet to dick around on at your job? What kind of hellhole do you work in, Riven?
      1. Riven 8 years ago
        
        Of course I do! And I also have the freedom that it doesn’t even matter that my screen doesn’t face away from the door. I’m just actually busy until 2ish every day.
  2. Matrix 8 years ago
    
    I was briefly, but didn’t see anyone post the link. And I was busy on a conference call nearly all fucking day…
    1. Citizen X 8 years ago
      
      Rico posted it at noon.
      1. lafe.long 8 years ago
        
        … …and I posted it in yesterday’s PM linx
3. Los Doyers 8 years ago
  
  Ugh, so last links.
The Late P Brooks 8 years ago

Capitalism is contradictory because the quest for more and more wealth inevitably leads to waste and recession. This is the anarchy of the free market.
Oh, HORROR.
Rich 8 years ago

What do Jesus Christ, Muhammad, Siddhartha Gautama and Moses all have in common? Besides being religious figures, they are all men. Yet looking around the world, the majority of their followers are actually women.
Ah, HA!
1. Ted S. 8 years ago
  
  I think more women worship that Gaia shit, too.
2. You Sound Like a Prog (MJG) 8 years ago
  
  Really makes you think.
3. Square = Circle 8 years ago
  
  Did not look at the link, but pray tell – how does anyone know that the majority of Moses’ followers were actually women? Did someone perfect that telescope that looks backward in time? Because last I checked, Exodus and Deuteronomy were the only versions of the Moses story, and I don’t recall either one going into many specifics on demographic trends.
  1. jesse.in.mb 8 years ago
    
    Wut?
    The article is about women tending to be more religious currently than men. Not about the direct disciples of those particular figures.
    Globally, more women than men identify with a religion, pray daily and say that religion is “very important” to them, according to data from the Pew Research Center. Around the world, 83.4 percent of women say they identify with a religion, compared with 79.9 percent of men, Pew says, meaning there are about 100 million more religiously affiliated women on the planet than men. But why?
    1. You Sound Like a Prog (MJG) 8 years ago
      
      Women are weak and need a strong sky daddy man. That’s also why they want welfare and vote socialist.
      Pretty simple.
      1. jesse.in.mb 8 years ago
        
        Which came first, the name change or the persona change?
        I’m enjoying it, but I’m curious about the narrative arc here.
      2. Suthenboy 8 years ago
        
        You forgot ‘less rational’.
Domestic Dissident 8 years ago

Historians in Germany reveal the Associated Press entered into an arrangement with Nazi Germany in the 1930s to secure access in exchange for a promise not to undermine the regime.
State-approved journalists end up at the New York Times, real journalists end up like Andrew Breitbart and Michael Hastings.
1. Crusty Juggler 8 years ago
  
  And Bob Simon.
2. Chumby 8 years ago
  
  Then what the fuck is Brian Williams?
  1. EMD 8 years ago
    
    He used the word journalist, not asshat.
Winston 8 years ago

So what’s the libertarian take on bathroom equality? Should urinals be banned for their male privilege? And how do gender neutral bathrooms fit in with safe spaces?
1. Doctor Whom 8 years ago
  
  Whatever any business chooses to do?
2. Rich 8 years ago
  
  how do gender neutral bathrooms fit in with safe spaces?
  *Nice* catch! BAN PUBLIC RESTROOMS!
3. The Last American Hero 8 years ago
  
  In the first edition of Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand said “A Penis is A Penis”. In later editions, it was edited down to “A is A” to be more ruthlessly efficient.
  1. Pan Zagloba 8 years ago
    
    Wow, that gives a new perspective on Ditko’s Mr A character!
4. Diane Reynolds (Paul.) 8 years ago
  
  And how do gender neutral bathrooms fit in with safe spaces?
  Not at all, really.
  “Safe Spaces” in the modern socio-political context are by definition places of discrimination.
5. Pat (PM) 8 years ago
  
  So what’s the libertarian take on bathroom equality?
  If it’s a government building, you can walk in, stand in the center of the room, and start urinating while helicoptering your dick and they have to accommodate you. Otherwise, up to the building owner.
  1. Winston 8 years ago
    
    You bring up a interesting point: aren’t bathrooms a system of segregating rooms by function and discriminate against the people who want to piss in jars or just shit on the floor?
    1. Square = Circle 8 years ago
      
      Yes, but contrary to popular belief, there are people in the world who in fact *deserve* to be discriminated against. We call them “assholes.”
6. Bobarian (Would Chip Her) 8 years ago
  
  Should urinals be banned for their male privilege?
  Do you mind if I piss in the sink?
Crusty Juggler 8 years ago

U.S. Allies ‘Borrowing’ Munitions To Drop On ISIS As U.S. Stockpiles Are Also In Question
The Late P Brooks 8 years ago

It would be cool to see biopics made about Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Marx, Engels, Debs, Kropotkin, and other famous leftists.
If only society would force Michael Bay to make a biography of Trotsky…
1. Notorious UGCC 8 years ago
  
  icepick, baby
  Too soon, too soon?
  1. UnCivilServant 8 years ago
    
    I thought he was done in with an ice axe – a totally different implement.
    1. Notorious UGCC 8 years ago
      
      You seem strangely familiar with the details of his death…
      /sarc
Dong of Justice 8 years ago

Captain America and Iron Man don’t agree with each other. Decide to fight.
1. Crusty Juggler 8 years ago
  
  Hawkeye is gay, right? His wife is just a beard?
  1. Riven 8 years ago
    
    Pretty elaborate beard. Don’t they have a whole herd of spawn?
    1. Juvenile Bluster 8 years ago
      
      His wife is pregnant with their third kid in Age of Ultron.
      1. Crusty Juggler 8 years ago
        
        That’s what he wants you to think.
      2. Riven 8 years ago
        
        So basically a herd.
        
        Crusty Juggler 8 years ago
        
        I’m not buying it.
        
        Riven 8 years ago
        
        Hey, man. I wouldn’t buy a whole passal of kids, either. I already pay to get a shot to prevent it.
        
        Florida Hipster 8 years ago
        
        Make sure you take enough shots to kill it or you just get fetal alcohol syndrome.
        
        Hamster of Doom 8 years ago
        
        “Litter” is also acceptable. As is “side”, but only if one has enough children to form a sports team.
        
        Riven 8 years ago
        
        If I was going to have kids, I’d have to have nine. So I could have my own baseball team.
        The Mont-Anals.
        I love it already.
        
        See Double You 8 years ago
        
        Montana Anals, huh?
      3. Diane Reynolds (Paul.) 8 years ago
        
        pregnant with their third kid in Age of Ultron.
        So what is that, like… the third trimester?
  2. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer 8 years ago
    
    His wife.
    Would.
    1. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer 8 years ago
      
      Hey, Ed. Watch. Wanna see this bunch go nuts?
      Betty or Wilma?
  3. You Sound Like a Prog (MJG) 8 years ago
    
    Can a man really be gay when married to Linda Cardellini?
    1. Crusty Juggler 8 years ago
      
      Yes, when that man is a character portrayed by Jeremy Renner.
    2. Episiarch 8 years ago
      
      (perks up)
      Did someone say Linda Cardellini?
      1. Slumbrew 8 years ago
        
        Linda Cardellini is a big part what makes Grandma’s Boy a guilty pleasure for me.
2. Juvenile Bluster 8 years ago
  
  Seriously, I’m nervously excited about this movie. The Civil War storyline is my favorite Marvel storyline of all time.
  1. Riven 8 years ago
    
    I’m not familiar with the canon, but I am super jazzed about the Civil War movie. Of all the Avengers, Captain America is my favorite, and I never thought I would say that. But he’s just so…principled I could almost swoon.
    Crying shame he’s a blond.
    1. commodious spittoon 8 years ago
      
      I liked the idea of Superman vs. Batman before RLM explained that the only way DC would do it is by toning down Superman’s douchery and making their disagreement pretty cosmetic. Can’t risk the brand.
      1. UnCivilServant 8 years ago
        
        But Superman has always been a dick – from the golden age onward…
  2. You Sound Like a Prog (MJG) 8 years ago
    
    The Russo brothers did such a bang-up job with the last CA movie that I’m already sold on this one. I am weary of the length and the broad cast of characters, because it looks to function like the third Avengers movie, but if they deliver the same kinetic action, I’ll be satisfied.
3. Dong of Justice 8 years ago
  
  Can’t wait for the porn parody of this film.
  1. Private Chipperbot 8 years ago
    
    Name checks out.
  2. Dong of Justice 8 years ago
    
    Just think of all the creative ways they can utilize Ant-Man…
    1. Riven 8 years ago
      
      Me gusta…
      1. Private Chipperbot 8 years ago
        
        /Trump’s lawyers furiously sending out cease and desist notices.
4. commodious spittoon 8 years ago
  
  “We’re still friends, right?”
  “Depends on how hard you hit me.”
  Translation: masochist.
Jerry on the rocks 8 years ago

Two police officers have been mowed down and killed by a bus hijacked by protesters at a demonstration in Venezuela, according to local officials.
Authorities say the two were killed during a protest over a hike in public transportation fares in Tachira state, in the western town of San Cristobal.
1. Pat (PM) 8 years ago
  
  Libertarian moment?
Ken Shultz 8 years ago

“While Kim Jong Un’s weight has gone up, the dictator warned North Korea would be facing another famine.”
There are two main survival mechanisms for communist economies: 1) territorial expansion 2) periodically reducing the population.
Ukraine, Cambodia, Great Leap Forward, it’s always the same. If you can’t expand your borders and you want to be communist, then periodically somebody’s gonna have to do without food.
They try to minimize the cyclical kill offs through death camps, etc. I mean, if somebody has to starve, it might as well be the critics, right? But every one in a while, due to El Nino, whatever, there isn’t going to be enough food to go around.
We’ll see one or both of the following happen: 1) North Korea will engage in saber rattling through its nuclear program or otherwise to force a crisis summit and get aid from the west without losing face. 2) China will step up aid on its own to prevent a humanitarian disaster from spilling across its borders.
1. Juvenile Bluster 8 years ago
  
  #2 is definitely going to happen. China has absolutely no desire to see a flood of hungry migrants try and cross that border.
  1. Chumby 8 years ago
    
    Europe discriminates against Muslim Middle Easteners. China discriminates against Asians.
commodious spittoon 8 years ago

No wonder you all abandoned me in the other thread. You had another party to go to. Well THANKS FOR THE INVITE.
*storms from room sobbing*
1. Rich 8 years ago
  
  *** pats commodious on, well, side ***
  There, there. You were just taken in by the late lynx yesterday, weren’t you? It’s OK ?.
__Warren__ 8 years ago

Feds step on their dicks again.
Turns out all that nonsense about making banks be responsible for monitoring “suspicious” accounts has caused them to close down the accounts instead, which forces the account holders out of the visible and monitored banking system and into the shadows.
I’m happy about this as that means more people are blazing a wider path in developing unmonitored banking which might lead to making it easier for anyone else who wishes to to escape from the state-controlled system.
The idiot fed-boys own rules are now nurturing the cash economy when they’ve just started to ramp up efforts to quash it. *golf clap*
1. Riven 8 years ago
  
  I’m not surprised–if the Feds understood incentives, they wouldn’t be, either.
2. Rich 8 years ago
  
  “*Now* we can monitor them with our *intel* systems! BWAHAHAHAHAAA!!”
3. The Last American Hero 8 years ago
  
  So the more they tighten their grip, the more that slips through their fingers?
  1. Crusty Juggler 8 years ago
    
    So the more they tighten their grip, the more that slips through their fingers?
    Goodness.
    1. Restoras 8 years ago
      
      Right? If that’s not a masturbation euphemism I don’t know what is.
      1. Bobarian (Would Chip Her) 8 years ago
        
        I think thats a line translated from a german schiesse video.
        Notice how it made someone perk up?
        
        Chumby 8 years ago
        
        Eine Neue Hoffnung
4. bassjoe 8 years ago
  
  The federal Financial Crimes Enforcement Network director a year and a half ago or so issued a statement criticizing banks for not banking smaller money services businesses (MoneyGram, PayPal, etc.) as that forces the MSBs to use more-expensive and less-secure methods to handle customer money and drives customers to gray or black market services.
  Which was ironic because it has been FinCEN-supported enforcement actions that has made banks hesitant to service MSBs; regulators regularly fine banks for not properly monitoring MSB activities. Banks’ completely reasonable reaction has been to simply stop servicing MSBs.
Diane Reynolds (Paul.) 8 years ago

Snapchat gets new features.
Stop the presses.
1. commodious spittoon 8 years ago
  
  The ability to record in real-time users reading about snapchat updates and yawning deeply?
a better chipper 8 years ago

Pardon me for doing a little personal venting, but has anyone ever had a professional reference torpedo them for a job before?
After having an offer ready to go, and having assurances from the hiring manager that I had the job, the last step was to talk to my references. Now they won’t say who it was, and I’ve used them all before, but they called me back and said there were too many red flags to ignore. This happened yesterday, so I’m still pretty blind-sided by it all. They wouldn’t say if it was just one reference or not, but I keep in touch regularly with all of them and got all of their enthusiastic permission to continue using them as a reference for this job.
I’ve talked to all of them personally since and they all assure me they gave me good marks (the hiring organization used a survey format instead of phone) and that they weren’t confused on the format of the survey. Someone is lying to me and I can’t figure out who it is or what the motive would be. It’s maddening!
Anyone else ever had something like this happen to them? I’m apoplectic about the whole thing because it’s really fucked me over professionally (they requested my current boss be a reference, so that rocked the boat) and my family (money lost, and we would have been in the same city as my wife’s parents) and I have no idea where to go since no one is budging.
1. a better chipper 8 years ago
  
  I shouldn’t have said “talk” to my references. Because they didn’t. It was just some survey submission, which in and of itself is ridiculous.
  1. Private Chipperbot 8 years ago
    
    Sounds like it’s entirely possible one of them just didn’t understand the survey. I get reference calls, even for people who don’t list me, and I’m very, very careful about my answers. I’d never answer in any way that didn’t come across worst case as neutral about a prospect.
2. Ken Shultz 8 years ago
  
  The first guy I’d suspect is your current boss. He’s the one with the most obvious motive.
  1. Ken Shultz 8 years ago
    
    P.S. As a rule, I never accepted a counter offer a current employer.
  2. a better chipper 8 years ago
    
    Of all the references, he’d probably be tied for the most surprising, but you’re right that he does. We’re friends outside of work, fantasy football leagues together, kids play dates, and all.
    He’s helped provide good references for people other than myself who he was less cool with. I’d be super bummed if that turned out to be the case for me.
    1. grrizzly 8 years ago
      
      Of all the bosses I had, the only one who tried to fire me was the one who I had thought to have the best professional/personal relationship with. At the end I wasn’t fired, but I still think that my story was crazier than the one in American Beauty.
    2. OneOut 8 years ago
      
      Get out of corporate bullshit life and develop your own life.
      It will take a while but insulate yourself from such pettiness and games.
      Find something you like to do where you are judged and paid for your production and not your political acumen.
      You’ll live a happier life.
3. Rich 8 years ago
  
  they all assure me they gave me good marks
  Perhaps you were a victim of the “I cannot praise a better chipper’s work too highly” write-up?
4. Tornado16nb 8 years ago
  
  Tell each one independently saying something along the lines of “hiring company insinuated that you gave me a bad referral and was wondering why you did that to help going forward” and see what their reaction is.
  1. a better chipper 8 years ago
    
    Its really looking like I’ll have to do that if HR can’t give me something to work off of. I hate risking seeming mistrusting to the good references that were being honest though.
    I’ve got stellar employee evals going back years, covering all but one reference from a summer internship in grad school years ago. I’ve decided what I should do is scan and forward them to the hiring manager and say “these evals working with each of these references were all extremely positive while I was working there. Is it possible a mistake has been made?”
5. jesse.in.mb 8 years ago
  
  Waterboard each of them until you get the information you need.
  1. a better chipper 8 years ago
    
    You’re hired!
    1. Cdr Lytton 8 years ago
      
      …right after you talk to his references?
      1. jesse.in.mb 8 years ago
        
        They are all…complaint, thankyouverymuch
6. toolkien 8 years ago
  
  Never underestimate that the Human Resource person wanted another candidate, so they torpedo’d you and used the references as the rationale since every other metric probably was met (positive interview notes, good overall interviews, schooling sufficient, experience sufficient, etc). I’ve run into plenty of cows in Human Resources who make sure they get the outcome they want. The “references” can be manipulated as no one in the target company will probably follow up on it.
  Did you have any notion Human Resources wasn’t enamored of you?
  It’s so damn scary how much power Human Resources has in our society today. The people who generally have no notion of production, engineering, or finance have first control over the talent the company acquires. Add in that they are now becoming more and more complicit in regulatory expansion, and its a toxic double whammy.
  1. a better chipper 8 years ago
    
    That is my only other thought and I have no idea. I didn’t meet with anyone from HR, and as far as I know, they only talked with my potential supervisor and received the survey results.
    They narrowed it down to myself and one other person before I came onsite for my interview, so perhaps someone in HR was friendly with the other candidate. Otherwise I have no idea.
    I basically outlined for one of the directors how to tackle their next project, which enamored him. That is also annoying. Nobody gets anything from me for free!
    1. OneOut 8 years ago
      
      Perhaps that’s the problem.
      That director did get something from you for free. He had your idea and decided to advise HR your competitor for the job could implement HIS idea better than you could.
      Get the fuck out of the corporate world unless you have a certain amount of psychopathy.
7. commodious spittoon 8 years ago
  
  Or perhaps they told you one of your references didn’t check out as a slimy way to get out of informing you that the boss’s grandson needed a cush job.
8. Chumby 8 years ago
  
  I’d press the potential employer hard and ask to meet with whomever you prime contact there was. Maybe an “off the record” lunch. Maybe someone there didn’t want you and deep-sixed the surveys. Shit happens.
  I was once hired then unhired because an unqualified person that was a member of a protected class contested the first time they had the job open (only one good candidate and they didn’t like the pay).
  This could be construed as slimy but get a very loyal friend to act as a potential employer and go through the same thing with your regerences. Maybe wait at least a month so if at least one of them screwed you they would reconsider. Dunno.
Notorious UGCC 8 years ago

This article came out last year, but seems timely:
“Black Magic: Hoodoo Witches Speak Out on the Appropriation of Their Craft.
“We talked to modern Hoodoo practitioners about cultural appropriation in witchcraft and keeping the African American slave folk magic alive….
“”Wihout an African ancestral link, the practice becomes something other than Hoodoo,” says Madame Omi Kongo, a rootworker who comes from a long line of female practitioners….
“”Hoodoo is the power of intention, confidence, and faith manifested,” she explains. “Hoodoo broadcasts the beauty and power of black culture at its root.” Practicing a mix of Hoodoo, Puerto Rican Spiritualism, and West African traditional religions, she incorporates different aspects of her heritage into her magic. “I do what works for me being that my ancestry is so diverse,” she continues. “I work the way my spirits move me.””
1. Rich 8 years ago
  
  rootworker
  Heh.
2. Irish ?s Lauren Southern 8 years ago
  
  “””Wihout an African ancestral link, the practice becomes something other than Hoodoo,” says Madame Omi Kongo, a rootworker who comes from a long line of female practitioners….”
  Hoodoo appropriation.
  1. commodious spittoon 8 years ago
    
    John Fogerty?
    1. __Warren__ 8 years ago
      
      This guy.
Winston 8 years ago

So Ron Bailey was talking about “Melding socially liberal businesspeople, non-warmongering Democrats, and avowed libertarians into a new party”.
Not sure how that is supposed to work. I mean he is making several large assumptions such: Socially Liberal businessman are fiscal conservatives, support the libertarian social agenda, oppose war, that there are large numbers of “non-warmongering Democrats” and that those “non-warmongering Democrats” support libertarianism in any way…
1. toolkien 8 years ago
  
  Well, as far back as 2005 I was hoping fiscally conservative, socially liberal Republicans would forge a “third road” with Blue Dog Democrats. Never even came close to happening.
  We’re going over that cliff and there’s no stopping it. The most annoying part is going to be seeing all the shocked, uncomprehending faces when it happens. And the reactionary responses in the entirely wrong direction. Hardliners will flourish, and liberty will decline precipitously
  1. Winston 8 years ago
    
    No we’ll need a strongman like Trump or a strongman to save us from Trump…
  2. Chumby 8 years ago
    
    Gary Condit was my favorite blue dog Dem.
Sevo 8 years ago

“While Kim Jong Un’s weight has gone up, the dictator warned North Korea would be facing another famine.”
I seem to recall a link to an apologist who claimed ‘Yeah, in the mean, ol’ ’90s, people starved, but this isn’t the ’90s anymore; it’s gotten far better’.
Pretty sure it was in regards to the woman who fled NK; anyone remember?
1. Winston 8 years ago
  
  Well this article did claim that things are improving in North Korea:
  https://reason.com/archives/201…..ots-capita
BigT 8 years ago

There’s too much good news here.
Nut punch time!

Man fatally shot by Ariz. police officer begged for life

PHOENIX ? A Texas man fatally shot by a Mesa police officer in January was heard begging for his life moments before his death, according to a police report released Tuesday morning.

A witness and a transcription of officer video footage describe Daniel Shaver saying “Please don’t shoot me” and “Please don’t shoot,” just before an officer later identified as Philip “Mitch” Brailsford unloaded his service weapon.

Brailsford has been charged with second-degree murder and was terminated from the Police Department.

On Tuesday, the Mesa Police Department released the police report, 911 calls and other material from its investigation of Brailsford’s shooting of Shaver, who was unarmed, at a hotel in January.

The material released did not include officers’ body camera video from the scene.
1. Juvenile Bluster 8 years ago
  
  I posted this in the morning lynx. That’s not a nut punch, it’s a nut kick with steel toed boots.
  1. commodious spittoon 8 years ago
    
    Except for the firing and charges. Apparently even cop unions have their limits.
    1. Pat (PM) 8 years ago
      
      Don’t get too excited. As we know, charges are not the same as convictions.
      1. cgr2727 8 years ago
        
        Charges are not even the same as indictments, especially when the chummy-with-cops prosecutor tanks on purpose in front of the grand jury. If they can indict a ham sandwich, why can’t they indict a pig?
    2. Juvenile Bluster 8 years ago
      
      The article I posted had the information that the cop’s been offered a sweetheart deal (negligent homicide)
      1. Guestus III 8 years ago
        
        At least that would result in him going to jail. Might be the best possible outcome given the usual outcomes.
  2. commodious spittoon 8 years ago
    
    Oh, and another case of “I thought he had a gun, so I called men I know have guns and a dispassion for human life to take care of him.” Fuck you.
  3. BigT 8 years ago
    
    Sorry, JB, I was out all morning, hiking.
2. bassjoe 8 years ago
  
  That sounds like first degree murder. Shooting somebody AFTER that person begs for his life isn’t considered premeditation? I think a normal person would have been charged with first degree on those facts.
  But I guess I should be happy he was charged at all…
  1. commodious spittoon 8 years ago
    
    Just wait till the judge dismisses the case because it should have been prosecuted as murder in the first degree. Double jeopardy is technically innocent!
    1. bassjoe 8 years ago
      
      Ugh, I forgot about that miscarriage of justice. “He was charged with a homicide charge less severe than what he should have been so he’s innocent… and double jeopardy applies… so fuck you, dead person’s family”.
3. Hamster of Doom 8 years ago
  
  Holy. Shit. The guy who worked in pest control, with the wife and kids the PD never even bothered to notify? The widow found out when she started calling around looking for him, as I recall.
4. Riven 8 years ago
  
  Super nut punch.
  On to the important question–
  The Widow: would, with prejudice.
  1. OneOut 8 years ago
    
    Uh, Riven ?
    That’s a little too soon, even for Reason.
    This is a truly sad nutpunch. This is an atrocity. A man is on his knees begging for his life and the cops shoot him to death. Joking about doing his widow is out of bounds for
    Humor isn’t an option for this.
  2. HeteroPatriarch 8 years ago
    
    TIWTANFL!
    Wait, what?
Winston 8 years ago

So people are complaining about the damage ISIS did to Palmyra. But weren’t they slave-owners?
1. Pat (PM) 8 years ago
  
  But weren’t they slave-owners?
  Unpossible. Only white people owned slaves.
Notorious UGCC 8 years ago

National Review writer indulges in schadenfreude as several Trump supporters show signs of buyer’s remorse
“Technically we’re supposed to welcome previous Trump fans-turned-foes with open arms. But barring some miraculous comeback by Ted Cruz, the Trump campaign will have cost the Republican party the presidency after eight years of Obama, and perhaps the Senate and even the House — not to mention Scalia’s replacement on the Supreme Court. Years of effort spent attempting to dispel the accusations of inherent Republican misogyny, xenophobia, hypocrisy, ignorance, and blind rage have been undone by Trump’s campaign. And every Trump advocate in front of a camera had a hand in this.
“We’re not just gonna hug it out.”
1. Libertarian 8 years ago
  
  Read that piece earlier today and enjoyed it. Especially the comments about Coulter and Newt.
2. Pat (PM) 8 years ago
  
  Well, if Trump was the Jefferson Davis of our era, I suppose there had to be a William T. Sherman.
3. Pat (PM) 8 years ago
  
  Well, if Trump was the Jefferson Davis of our era, I suppose there had to be a William T. Sherman.
  1. Pat (PM) 8 years ago
    
    The squirrels have been with us in every generation.
4. kbolino 8 years ago
  
  I don’t care if you’re pro-Trump or anti-Trump but at least wait until the fucking election is over before issuing the fatwas.
  Not called the Stupid Party for nothing…
  1. commodious spittoon 8 years ago
    
    Nope. The GOP needs to take its lumps, cut loose the Trump contingent, and wave as it floats away. They are nothing but poison and their brand of pestilential populism needs to be excised outright, full stop. Lose the election or burn the party to the ground, but don’t bother entreating with these people. Trump is the candidate of a managed decline: it’s the admission that we’re going to do nothing to bring back business or entrepreneurs, nothing to scale back the regulatory, administrative, and welfare state, nothing to loosen up the needless restrictions on human enterprise, that we’re going to embrace the progressive agenda, double-down, and bring their brand of welfarism out of their dismal cities and into the suburbs and countryside.
    1. Winston 8 years ago
      
      Trump is the candidate of a managed decline: it’s the admission that we’re going to do nothing to bring back business or entrepreneurs, nothing to scale back the regulatory, administrative, and welfare state, nothing to loosen up the needless restrictions on human enterprise, that we’re going to embrace the progressive agenda, double-down, and bring their brand of welfarism out of their dismal cities and into the suburbs and countryside.
      Except….which Republican does this not describe? Rand Paul?
      1. commodious spittoon 8 years ago
        
        Cruz would break our hearts in ways, but at least he wouldn’t fucking revel in it.
        
        commodious spittoon 8 years ago
        
        Meant to amend my point somewhat–I’m not a Cruz backer. He’s the best of the current bunch, but that’s a low bar to clear. I would have liked to see Rand clinch it, but there was no real chance of that. I will more than likely sit out election night.
        My contention is that the idiots Trump panders to wanted themselves a burn-it-to-the-ground, anti-establishment, outsider candidate, and they had that choice: Cruz would have taken them onboard gratefully. Instead they went with the insubstantial, intellectually nowhere moron who best reflected their own aimless desires.
        Cruz may not have been a libertarian’s wet dream, but he’s leagues better than Trump. Cruz would have been merely disappointing, but Trump is specifically the candidate of expansive government.
        
        Hamster of Doom 8 years ago
        
        S’ok, broheim. We’ve not yet gone so far that a milquetoast “compliment” counts as an enthusiastic endorsement. You’re good.
5. Crusty Juggler 8 years ago
  
  COULTER: Moreover, I’m a little testy with our man right now.
  
  YIANNOPOULOS: You are? Daddy’s annoyed you?
  
  [Yes, Yiannopoulos calls Trump “Daddy.” Because that’s perfectly normal.]
  
  COULTER: Our candidate is mental! Do you realize our candidate is mental? It’s like constantly having to bail out your 16-year-old son from prison. Let’s move past last night’s tweet — you know perfectly well what tweet I’m talking about.
  
  This is the worst thing he’s done. I mean the McCain thing — I would say there are only really two, liberals would say, “Oh, every day,” no, everything else I could probably defend. I could. I think. Most of that is them overreacting . . . But the McCain thing, that was a dumb joke, it didn’t work. Oh, well. Didn’t kill him. But that tweet last night . . .
  
  YIANNOPOULOS: And he’s retweeting these images that are, like, ‘I don’t need to make implications, you know, the pictures speak for themselves.’ And a picture of Cruz’s wife and a picture of Melania!
  
  COULTER: That’s exactly the tweet I’m talking about! No, you can’t defend it! This is when we’re bailing out sixteen-year-old out of jail!
  
  YIANNOPOULOS: It’s so outrageously funny!
  A lower level of political discourse commonly found on a H and R Trump thread? I think so.
  1. Notorious UGCC 8 years ago
    
    When Ann Coulter is telling you you’re being immature…
  2. commodious spittoon 8 years ago
    
    Yes, Yiannopoulos calls Trump “Daddy.” Because that’s perfectly normal the sort of thing a professional troll does.
  3. commodious spittoon 8 years ago
    
    That’s exactly the tweet I’m talking about! No, you can’t defend it! This is when we’re bailing out sixteen-year-old out of jail!
    Dear, that sort of thing is the only reason Trump enjoys any traction at all, because he’s ludicrous and knows how to generate spectacle and outrage, and above all, his mush-headed supporters want the spectacle of a man breaching the confines of the politic while indulging their persecution complex. Unfortunately for you and the rest of your party, these people will not overcome the rest of the country that finds him risible.
GILMORE? 8 years ago

Person posts shit on Twitter, goes to jail
1. Winston 8 years ago
  
  You Know Who Else posted Stupid Shit on Twitter?
  1. GILMORE? 8 years ago
    
    Everyone?
  2. Notorious UGCC 8 years ago
    
    Twitler?
  3. sloopyinTEXAS 8 years ago
    
    Bono?
2. Diane Reynolds (Paul.) 8 years ago
  
  Well, she posted something on twitter about joining ISIS then tried to board a plane to Turkey.
  Which, by the way, wouldn’t the best thing we could be to let people join ISIS in Syria right now? What’s the life expectancy over there?
  1. Hamster of Doom 8 years ago
    
    Why is that our business? Let her go. Good luck, sweetheart, may all your dreams come true.
GILMORE? 8 years ago

Diplomacy = “It Takes Two to Tango-Edition”

“Those who say the future is in negotiations, not in missiles, are either ignorant or traitors,” Khamenei, who has the final say on all matters of state, was quoted as saying by his website.
His comments may have been directed at former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the de facto leader of a more moderate political alliance, who last week tweeted “the future is in dialogue, not missiles”.
1. Notorious UGCC 8 years ago
  
  I’m sure he meant conventional missiles, not the nuclear kind.
  Why you gotta hate?
  /sarc
  1. GILMORE? 8 years ago
    
    I know you’re being facetious….
    …but for the sake of people who are stupid enough to actually posit that =
    There is absolutely zero practical strategic or tactical utility to missiles that are built to be fired at targets hundreds and hundreds of miles away….
    …that can’t hit a point target. i.e. “within a few hundred yards.”
    The missiles they test are basically useless without a payload at least *remotely equivalent* to nuclear capacity. Otherwise, you’ve just spent billions of dollars on a weapons system that is less-accurate and less-destructive than a conventional “Dumb Bomb”.
Loki 8 years ago

Historians in Germany reveal the Associated Press entered into an arrangement with Nazi Germany in the 1930s to secure access in exchange for a promise not to undermine the regime
They still do the same thing today with our government.
sloopyinTEXAS 8 years ago

Oh, just in case some of you only get your news from Reason: this is a real thing.
I know it’s not about Trump, or a Trump supporter…or a Trump rally. But it probably passes as substantial news. Or it fucking should.
1. Notorious UGCC 8 years ago
  
  Has Trump tweeted anything about this yet?
  1. Notorious UGCC 8 years ago
    
    Wait, wait, I bet Trump is going to built a *yuge* server and it’s going to be super-secure!
    1. Pan Zagloba 8 years ago
      
      And he’ll make foreign intelligence agencies pay for it?
    2. sloopyinTEXAS 8 years ago
      
      I misread that as a *yuge* sewer.
      I think it works better.
2. Crusty Juggler 8 years ago
  
  Since the email arrangement came to public knowledge a year ago, the State Department has found itself defending Clinton in scores of lawsuits from groups, individuals and news outlets who say they were wrongly denied access to Clinton’s federal records.
  Poor State Department.
3. Diane Reynolds (Paul.) 8 years ago
  
  Loretta Lynch’s law firm is heavily entwined with the Clinton political machine. There will never. be. an indictment.
  1. Winston 8 years ago
    
    We need a TOP (WO)MAN to save ourselves from Trump.
  2. Notorious UGCC 8 years ago
    
    Loretta Lynch’s defense of the Obamacare birth-control mandate is the culmination of a long crusade.
  3. Libertarian 8 years ago
    
    There will never. be. an indictment.
    True. No indictment before the election because we’ll be told that they don’t want to affect the election. And no indictment after the election because it will be old news, and we need to look to the future and not litigate the past.
    1. GILMORE? 8 years ago
      
      Do you think that includes everyone associated with hillary?
      Because i think an indictment of her underlings (a la, Huma, Mills, Sid Blumenthal) is certainly possible. Sid had NSA raw intel being circulated in an unsecure email when he wasn’t even supposed to have had access *at all*. There’s enough out there to hook people other than Hillary.
      1. __Warren__ 8 years ago
        
        It would be amusing to see the rationale if the Clinton in-group is left alone but those others who got/gave the info get prosecuted.
      2. Diane Reynolds (Paul.) 8 years ago
        
        What does that mean though? We’ve had the ‘underlings’ of presidents being thrown (and eaten) by the wolves for decades. Isn’t that the point of political loyalty?
    2. PapayaSF 8 years ago
      
      Hillary could still have her campaign mortally wounded. If the FBI recommends indictment and it doesn’t happen, then there are likely to be leaks and public resignations. Not everyone in the FBI is a Democratic Party stooge.
      1. Tornado16nb 8 years ago
        
        Since it hasn’t happened yet I don’t think it will. It was swept under the rug
        
        PapayaSF 8 years ago
        
        No, they are still working on it. Word is that Hillary and aides will shortly be interviewed. They will try to Martha Stewart her.
4. Pan Zagloba 8 years ago
  
  What difference at this Trump does it make, Sloopy?
  1. sloopyinTEXAS 8 years ago
    
    It makes no difference, apparently. There are way more important things to discuss that the presumptive nominee of one major party being under FBI investigation, her closest associates being granted immunity, federal judges compelling testimony and a whole host of pay-for-play evidence dripping out.
    That’s chickenshit compared to an arm grab by a surrogate.
    1. Diane Reynolds (Paul.) 8 years ago
      
      There’s nothing Jerry Springer about the Clinton email scandal.
      *cameras going dark*
Loki 8 years ago

While Kim Jong Un’s weight has gone up, the dictator warned North Korea would be facing another famine.
So what is Kim Jong-Un’s title? I know his old man was Dear Leader, and Kim Il Sung was Great Leader (among others). Rotund Leader? Corpulent Leader?
1. Winston 8 years ago
  
  Well according to Wikipedia:
  Supreme Leader and First Chairman of the
  National Defence Commission
  First Secretary of the
  Workers’ Party of Korea
  Supreme Commander of the
  Korean People’s Army
  Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party of Korea
  1. Notorious UGCC 8 years ago
    
    Nice titles…I wonder if he’s fat enough to feed Pyongyang for a day?
  2. Winston 8 years ago
    
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Jong-il
    After his death, he was designated as the “Eternal General Secretary” of the WPK and the “Eternal Chairman of the National Defence Commission”
    Kim-Il Sung is of course “Eternal President”.
  3. Libertarian 8 years ago
    
    Piker.
    U.S. President:
    Executioner (kill list, drones)
    Legislator (signing statements)
    Supreme General (Commander in Chief)
    Supreme Leader (executive orders)
    Judge (Giver of clemency)
    Chief Executive (Executive Branch)
    Supreme Father (hugs people after natural disasters)
    1. Winston 8 years ago
      
      How’s the internet connection in Pyongyang?
      1. Loki 8 years ago
        
        I’m sure the party leadership has great internet connections. The rest of the peasants, not so much.
      2. Libertarian 8 years ago
        
        If you’re accusing me of blatant, ridiculous hyperbole, I plead guilty.
  4. commodious spittoon 8 years ago
    
    The Turgid Tyrant.
  5. Loki 8 years ago
    
    Meh, I like my suggestion of “The Corpulent Leader” better.
    Either that or “The Ayatollah of Rock and Rolla” but Lord Humungous may not like that. He’d have to go unleash his Dogs of War on Kim’s fat ass for using that title.
2. Chumby 8 years ago
  
  He bowled a 300. Leave him alone.
Krabappel 8 years ago

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03……html?_r=0
The New York Times doesn’t understand the difference between a state mandated minimum wage of $15 an hour and a specific company in the Bronx “voluntarily phasing in” the new minimum wage. Phasing it in must mean “hiring better employees at higher wages”.
GILMORE? 8 years ago

Apple Calling FBI Bluff = Show Us How You “Cracked” Our Phone
If the U.S. Department of Justice asks a New York court to force Apple Inc to unlock an iPhone, the technology company could push the government to reveal how it accessed the phone which belonged to a shooter in San Bernardino, a source familiar with the situation said.

If the U.S. Department of Justice asks a New York court to force Apple Inc to unlock an iPhone, the technology company could push the government to reveal how it accessed the phone which belonged to a shooter in San Bernardino, a source familiar with the situation said.
If it turns out the FBI ‘has a method’ to break Apple’s consumer encryption, are they compelled to share it with the company if they ever make future demands on them in a court of law?
Also notable = mentioned in this CNBC piece, one commentator notes that the FBI had probably gotten the ability to break the phone within a ‘few days’ of the San B. shootings, suggesting that their subsequent demands to Apple were purely (surprise) for legal precedent, and had no practical need for their compliance.
1. sloopyinTEXAS 8 years ago
  
  My guess is that somebody in the FBI figured out how to swipe right. And they’ll never admit it.
  1. HeteroPatriarch 8 years ago
    
    I think they went to the morgue for a thumbprint.
2. Diane Reynolds (Paul.) 8 years ago
  
  If it turns out the FBI ‘has a method’ to break Apple’s consumer encryption, are they compelled to share it with the company if they ever make future demands on them in a court of law?
  No.
  suggesting that their subsequent demands to Apple were purely (surprise) for legal precedent, and had no practical need for their compliance.
  Absolutely. And their withdrawal was strategic. They’re going to wait for a ‘better’ case and re-assert then.
  1. GILMORE? 8 years ago
    
    “”No””
    The article suggested if they keep pursuing the NY case that this situation may in fact pop up. The EFF has this to say about it =
    this new method of accessing the phone raises questions about the government’s apparent use of security vulnerabilities in iOS and whether it will inform Apple about these vulnerabilities. As a panel of experts hand-picked by the White House recognized, any decision to withhold a security vulnerability for intelligence or law enforcement purposes leaves ordinary users at risk from malicious third parties who also may use the vulnerability. Thanks to a lawsuit by EFF, the government has released its official policy for determining when to disclose security vulnerabilities, the Vulnerabilities Equities Process (VEP).
    
    If the FBI used a vulnerability to get into the iPhone in the San Bernardino case, the VEP must apply, meaning that there should be a very strong bias in favor of informing Apple of the vulnerability. That would allow Apple to fix the flaw and protect the security of all its users. We look forward to seeing more transparency on this issue as well.
    1. Diane Reynolds (Paul.) 8 years ago
      
      As a panel of experts hand-picked by the White House recognized, any decision to withhold a security vulnerability for intelligence or law enforcement purposes leaves ordinary users at risk from malicious third parties who also may use the vulnerability.
      Wait a second though, the EFF seems to be making a purely ethical argument, not a legal one. Well, I mean they mention the VEP but does anyone believe the government abides by the VEP? When has the government discovered vulnerabilities in various systems and immediately trumpeted the hows and whys of the methodology? Isn’t everything the FBI and NSA does in the realm of “domestic spying” depend on finding vulnerabilities in consumer products, allowing them to listen to our phone calls and read our Tweets?
      1. GILMORE? 8 years ago
        
        I suspect the reality is that Apple knows that there was no actual “cracking” of the phone, and that the M.O. was simply ‘using the password which they acquired’.
        i think Apple/EFF argument here is trying to milk concessions out of govt by making them claim they “have a secret method” in court, thereby making further demands on Apple moot.
        its not a legal argument to force disclosure… but its a tactical argument to get the govt to suffer the consequences of their own bullshit claims.
        
        Chumby 8 years ago
        
        There is far more snitching than sleuthing in the FBI.
        They had the password or somebody’s buddy at NSA got it for them.
You Sound Like a Prog (MJG) 8 years ago

OK…
The Travel – State Dept Twitter account:
Not a “10” in the US? Then not a 10 overseas. Beware of being lured into buying expensive drinks or worse?being robbed. #springbreakingbadly
As ENB asks: “Why is the state department negging us?”
1. GILMORE? 8 years ago
  
  Don’t worry! They have learned how to backtrack Clinton Style =
  Travel – State Dept Verified account
  ?@TravelGov
  
  Some have been offended by our earlier tweet and we are sorry that you people are so shallow and hysterical (1/2)
  1. Diane Reynolds (Paul.) 8 years ago
    
    So, do ugly people need to worry about getting robbed or not?
2. HeteroPatriarch 8 years ago
  
  ENB is a 10 in any country.
  1. commodious spittoon 8 years ago
    
    Only to libertarians, who love smart women who love markets and hate roads. So she’s only a 10 in Somalia.
    1. GILMORE? 8 years ago
      
      So she’s only a 10 in Somalia.
      She’s at least a 12! I think you should have to spend at least 2 extra camels to buy a blonde woman.
      1. PapayaSF 8 years ago
        
        That reminds me, I had a funny anonymous conversation online with a woman who was going on about how she wanted to be a Muslim because Muslim women are treated so respectfully. I tried to talk some sense to her, to no avail. Then she said that she knew this because she had spent a month in Yemen(!). I then went into full mockery mode: “Oh yes, Yemen, that bastion of women’s rights! Just ask any woman there. Well, of course they can’t talk to you unless their man is around, and maybe not even then! But if they were allowed to speak, they’d tell you how happy they are!” She stopped responding after that….
        
        kbolino 8 years ago
        
        I think women are allowed to talk to other women, but I think the husbands/brothers/fathers/other designated male keepers can veto that in some cases.
        
        JeremyR 8 years ago
        
        Well, that’s how it went for Yvone Ridley. She was kidnapped by the Taliban and converted to Islam after being released because Islam freed her from male oppression and all that patriarchy stuff
        
        widget 8 years ago
        
        Easy does it PapayaSF. Cynthia Anne Parker. I am sure the name rings a bell, but you should her recall the her life story. Kidnapped as a child by Comanches in a Texas massacre she was later reunited with kin only to take every chance she got to back to the Comanche.
        
        W. Chipper Dove 8 years ago
        
        le Stockholm Syndrome
ashleycox0025 8 years ago

Before I saw the bank draft which had said $9426 , I didnt believe that…my… brother woz like actualy earning money part-time at there labtop. . there uncles cousin has done this 4 less than fifteen months and by now repaid the dept on there place and got a great new Mini Cooper . read the full info here …
Clik This Link inYour Browser
http://www.JobToday60.com
annytaylor00025 8 years ago

Before I saw the bank draft which had said $9426 , I didnt believe that…my… brother woz like actualy earning money part-time at there labtop. . there uncles cousin has done this 4 less than fifteen months and by now repaid the dept on there place and got a great new Mini Cooper . read the full info here …
Clik This Link inYour Browser
http://www.JobToday60.com
Uncle Jay 8 years ago

RE: North Korea warns of famines
Gee, I wonder if Dear Leader has to worry about going hungry?

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