More Big Wins for Clinton and Trump, Abortion Could Be Felony In Oklahoma, Most People Say Primary Process Stinks: A.M. Links

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• Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump cleaned up in Tuesday's elections, with Trump beating Republican rivals in all five states—Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island—that held contests yesterday. Clinton won against Democratic challenger Sen. Bernie Sanders in all but Rhode Island. 
• Next up: Indiana. 
• Fifty-one percent of respondents in a new Reuters/Ipsos poll said they think the system for picking presidential nominees is "rigged" and more than two-thirds would like to see changes.
• Oklahoma lawmakers want to make it a felony for doctors to perform abortions unless a woman's life is in danger. 
• Salah Abdeslam, a suspect in last year's terrorist attacks in Paris, was handed over to France today so he can be charged and stand trial.
• U.K. citizens are split on whether they should remain part of the European Union; a vote is scheduled for June 23. 

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump cleaned up in Tuesday's elections...

And then mated. How many times are you going to make me say it?

[UnCivilServant]

Fist, did you spend too much time reading SugarFree pieces?

[Swiss Servator]

Haven't we all?

[UnCivilServant]

I skip them, and the accidental contact with the first line is still too much.

[Tonio]

Come over to the dark side, UCS.

[Swiss Servator]

Yes, join us...

*hisses*

[Fist of Etiquette]

I don't want to be part of a club that would have me as a member.

[Tonio]

-1 Groucho Marx

[Old Man With Candy]

Wait until his novel comes out. "Nictitating Labia: A Political Romance."

[Tonio]

+1 Nictitating

[gaoxiaen]

The Vagina Dialogues.

[Citizen X]

Chapter 1: Dishonorable Discharges

[bacon-magic]

-100 ewww

[OneOut]

Any time is too much time.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Hello.

[BigT]

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump cleaned up in Tuesday's elections

But who is going to clean up the mess they have made of the election?

[Atanarjuat]

The two have been associates for years. What if they each win their respective nomination, and then both declare the other their running mate? Americans then only get to choose which of the two is on top.

[Pat (PM)]

Americans then only get to choose which of the two is on top.

Are we not doing phrasing anymore?

[Glide]

Unlikely given the grenades they've already been lobbing at one another, but boy would that be hilarious.

[Tonio]

I'm sure the candidates could come to an arrangement, anything for power, after all. The real delicious would be the Bern Victims retconning, justifying and sulking.

[EMD]

Hillary is certainly NOT a bottom.

[Catatafish & Woodchips]

You've got the order wrong. They mated and then they cleaned up.

Yet we all are left feeling dirty...

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Fifty-one percent of respondents in a new Reuters/Ipsos poll said they think the system for picking presidential nominees is "rigged" and more than two-thirds would like to see changes.

But won't actually vote third party. Because that would be wasting their vote.

[Jerryskids]

Fifty-one percent of respondents in a new Reuters/Ipsos poll said they think the system for picking presidential nominees is "rigged" and more than two-thirds would like to see changes.

Trump and Sanders supporters. You whine and cry long enough and loud enough about how horrid and mean everybody is to you and there's a certain percentage of people that believe it despite all the evidence to the contrary. About 47%. Yeah, the system in which a lazy no-talent retard like Bernie Sanders can not only become a mayor and a congressman and a senator on his way to becoming a major contender for president in a political party to which he is not even a member but rich and treated as if he were sane and wise and a serious thinker to boot - that's a rigged system alright.

And don't even get me started on the system that allows a dick-waving egomaniacal clown-college conman who's not a member of the political party he claims to represent to get this close to being elected, either.

[straffinrun]

Jewed up rigged or n****a rigged?

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Depends on which party you're talking about.

[straffinrun]

Or if this is zero hedge or stormfront.

[Restoras]

Both of these parties sound boring. I think I'll just stay home.

[Charles Easterly]

... But won't actually vote third party. Because that would be wasting their vote.

And Grand Moff Serious Man strikes a colossal nail with a titanic hammer.

[Citizen X]

+1 Mjolnir

[DaveSs]

I think most people just don't realize that the parties are private organizations that can choose whoever they want in whatever manner they want.

The fact that so many States hold primaries (at taxpayer expense of course) certainly doesn't help in informing people of this.

[Robert]

In at least most states, if each party had the option of totally privatizing, they'd take it. However, in the legislature they each want to saddle the other party with the handicap of grass roots involvement.

[Swiss Servator]

An abortion link....how did I know it would be ENB?

[Restoras]

ENB is just trolling us with her posts.

[gaoxiaen]

NEEDZ MOAR HANDCUFFS PICS!

[Zeb]

A lot of the writers seem to be regularly trolling the commenters lately. I approve.

[Lord Humungus]

Warty?

Half of all males in Western Europe 'descended from one man'

[Swiss Servator]

It said "man" not Doomcock Bearer.

[Citizen X]

Plus, Warty is technically an australopithecene.

[SugarFree]

Warty is not a step backward, but a huge leap forward.

Let me make it plain
You gotta make way for the Homo Superior

[Elspeth Flashman]

Oh! You pretty things.

[Restoras]

Ragnar Lothbrok

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

aka Time Travelin' Warty.

[Lord Humungus]

'catly

[bacon-magic]

His boy Ivar the Boneless gives me the willies.

[BigT]

he was able to wield great power due to his control of new technologies such as wheeled transport, which led to the first examples of organised warfare.

"He was part of a new order which emerged in Europe following the Stone Age," says the paper. "Sweeping away the previous egalitarian [??]Neolithic period and replacing it with hierarchical societies which were ruled by a powerful elite.

Bill Gates?

[Tonio]

Sweeping away the previous egalitarian Neolithic period and replacing it with hierarchical societies which were ruled by a powerful elite.

Prelapsarian aggrandizement, aka mythical golden age. No, they do not actually know that paleolithic cultures were egalitarian since those were prehistoric, as in before there were any sort of written records.

[gaoxiaen]

I hates Bill Gates. If anyone ruined the free markets' image, it's that douchebag (or is he a turd sandwich?).

[Elspeth Flashman]

Or maybe he's a turd burglar?

[kbolino]

Something, something, defense of scoundrels.

Although, I did like the Bill Gates who laughed in the DOJ's face better than the one who doesn't seem to know his ass from his elbow any more.

[Crusty Juggler]

Mick Jagger

[BigT]

Mick Jagger portrayed as 'monstrous' in new book 'The Sun & the Moon & the Rolling Stones

"There's something monstrous about Mick Jagger," Cohen writes after exhuming details from the band's dark past.

"The Stones had been shedding people from the start. Use 'em up, toss 'em aside," Cohen continues. "It's a machine that runs on bodies."

[Monty Crisco]

MAN!! Mick does NOT come off well in that article.... maybe a little TOO human..

[EMD]

He killed Gram Parsons by saying "hey junkie, get lost!"

[Atanarjuat]

Although it is not known who the king was, the scientists say he must have existed because of genetic variation in today's European populations

But he was definitely a king, because sciencey reasons.

Dr Chris Tyler-Smith, who led the study, which has been published in the Nature Genetics Journal, told the Telegraph: "In Europe there was huge population expansion in just a few generations. Genetics can't tell us why it happened but we know that a tiny number of elite males were controlling reproduction and dominating the population."

Genetics told you they were dominating the population? Maybe there were more men dying so reproduction was limited to the survivors.

[Tonio]

I blame STEVE SMITH.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Maybe he had game?

[Jerryskids]

I'm not a geneticist, but I'd have to guess that if you start with a small population of course you're going to find genetic evidence of a small group of elite males - they're all fathers and sons and brothers and uncles and cousins of each other. Unless and until the population gets big enough, it's all one big family and then it becomes diverse enough to become a few distinct families and then more. If it doesn't diversify and expand it dies out. This sounds like a typical survivor's bias. Try studying the populations of societies that didn't survive and see what you find.

[Zeb]

Maybe there were more men dying so reproduction was limited to the survivors.

That's one way to dominate the population, isn't it?

[Free Society]

"He was part of a new order which emerged in Europe following the Stone Age," says the paper. "Sweeping away the previous egalitarian Neolithic period and replacing it with hierarchical societies which were ruled by a powerful elite."

Right, cavemen, hunter gatherers and the like were all communists, the most noble of all savages. Then white cisgendered elites imposed their hierarchy and gender conformism, man.

[Zeb]

Yeah, I don't know if "egalitarian" is quite the word for it. There is a certain inherent equality when everyone is a dirt poor hunter gatherer. But I'm sure different groups were happy to fight and compete for advantages.

[Free Society]

That "inherent equality" is just a lack of the existence of an extensive division of labor like we're used to seeing. But they definitely had their hierarchies. They lost out because the division of labor in agricultural societies allowed them to out-compete hunter-gatherers in every way imaginable. Agricultural societies were large teams of specialists, while the hunter-gatherers were small bands of generalists.

[Notorious UGCC]

+1 Father of his Country.

Just keep searching the prehistoric caves in Europe until you find the one with piles of Barry White records.

[gaoxiaen]

Fred Flintstone?

[ant1sthenes]

Duh, Kain.

[Fist of Etiquette]

U.K. citizens are split on whether they should remain part of the European Union; a vote is scheduled for June 23.

BUT THEY'LL NEVER TAKE OUR FREEDOM!

[Lord Humungus]

This Japanese dude built a robotic tongue to lick his favorite anime characters

YouTuber mansooon0 (Mansun on Japanese variety blog Omocoro) apparently really, really likes his favorite anime characters. So much so that he doesn't mind licking his computer screen in a show of affection.

Unfortunately, the act of licking his display was both messy and gross, so he put his DIY skills to the test and built a robot to do the licking for him. Using a fake "realistic" tongue, servo motor, and some Arduino circuitry, he designed the robot organ to be extremely simple to operate.

Let the Bombs Fall!

[Rich]

Or Chinese Hypersonic Missiles!

[Atanarjuat]

Weird, but that makes a top-notch animated gif.

[Princess Trigger]

Just click the fucking "Like" button perv!

[Notorious UGCC]

That's the Japaniest thing I've read about in quite some time.

[gaoxiaen]

Other than the match-the butt-smell-with-the-face contest.

[Rhywun]

"He did seem kind of strange."

/everyone who ever knew him, five years and some number of victims later

[bacon-magic]

"It wicks the scrween or it gets it in the sprween." - lacism at work

[Rich]

Alabama House Committee Passes Bill Eliminating Government Marriage Licensing

Libertarian Moment!

[Hamster of Doom]

"If we can't control it, then no one gets to control it!"

I'm fine with that.

[BigT]

Venezeula leads the way with the FIVE DAY weekend for government workers!!

If only we could get our public servants to serve us less.

[UnCivilServant]

I have bills to pay. If the paycheck stays the same I'll take a reduced work schedule.

[OneOut]

Do you have any sales skills ?

Roofing and Storm Restoration Companies all over the country are desperate for people who can deal with the public.

You can make more $$$$ than you ever dreamed and it comes from the insurance companies not the homeowners.

[UnCivilServant]

I am shit at selling.

Otherwise I'd be able to more books at a rate that would let me leave this job.

[Atanarjuat]

I just hope you hire an editor for said books.

[UnCivilServant]

I have to - I make to many typos.

I also hire a cover artist.

And then there's the cut that goes to the distributers when someone buys a copy...

[Charles Easterly]

I'm available.

For UnCivil my rates will be approximately* 10$ per page.

*This assumes his books are written in a manner similar to his comments here.

[UnCivilServant]

No, I write comments on the fly from whatever dreck is on my mind.

Besides, I have a lower rate editor now

[Restoras]

I'm going to need a job in a few weeks. How can I find out more about this opportunity?

[Charles Easterly]

Restoras:

Here's one.

[Restoras]

Thank you, kind sir!

[Charles Easterly]

You are welcome.

I know a man who sells windows and related fixtures for a different company and he makes a very, very comfortable living.

His customer service skills and salesmanship are both natural to him and well honed, so OneOut's original question "Do you have any sales skills ?" is quite pertinent in this regard.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Other weird jobs department: a female friend of mine sells utilities to companies. She's like a gas salesperson for small businesses. And again, she's a natural at it. It seems like she works part time and spends 1/5 of her time in Florida.

[Jerry on the rocks]

Five day weekend...sipping beers...oh, wait.

[gaoxiaen]

Not in Venezuela.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Clinton won against Democratic challenger Sen. Bernie Sanders in all but Rhode Island.

Rhode Island? More like Misogyny Island. Am I right, ladies?

[EMD]

Did you not see Me, Myself and Irene?

Rhode Island is not an island!

[Mookman]

Ya know, I watched Jonestown: Life and Death of People's Temple earlier this year. Pretty disturbing but a good documentary. Anyway, they have audio from when the punch was being poured which is mostly Jones rambling. At one point he starts encouraging people to drink (apparently right around the time some people figured out this was not a drill) by telling them "they" (the government in response to the congressman Jones ordered killed) would come in, torture the senior citizens and the sick, take the children away from them, force them back to the USA, etc.

So as I'm watching Hillary's speech last night, as she was telling the crowd to vote against Donald Trump because he will take deny rights to seniors, handicapped, women, gays, etc., I found myself wondering if Jones was a bit before his time or if lefties (or, I suppose, anyone who needs the support and adulation of a large group of useful idiots in order to be successful) have always been using the same shtick and scare tactics to achieve their ends.

[BigT]

I found myself wondering if Jones was a bit before his time or if lefties (or, I suppose, anyone who needs the support and adulation of a large group of useful idiots in order to be successful) have always been using the same shtick and scare tactics to achieve their ends.

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." - H. L. Mencken

[CatoTheChipper]

They've always used this same shtick.

[CatoTheChipper]

In 1923, V.I. Lenin chillingly declared to the Soviet Commissars of Education, "We must teach our children to hate. Hatred is the basis of communism." In his tract "Left-Wing Communism," Lenin went so far as to assert that hatred was "the basis of every socialist and Communist movement." -

[Citizen X]

I am the walrus.

[Crusty Juggler]

Shut the fuck up, Citizen!

[gaoxiaen]

Imagine all the hatred...

[Rhywun]

Why can't today's left be so honest?

[GroundTruth]

A citation would be fun to have to forward to my "progressive" associates.

[commodious spittoon]

One of Sargon of Akkad's better (and more recent) videos addressed the question of social justice cultism. He makes a pretty good case, one which generally applies to culture warriors like Clinton.

[Citizen X]

Wait a minute, didn't he die like 4000 years ago?

[UnCivilServant]

Yes, but he's putting out at least one YouTube video a week.

[Spartacus]

Is it hard understanding him? I mean, not many people speak Akkadian these days.

[UnCivilServant]

He's apparently learned to speak Limey english sometime in the past 100 years.

[Chip Woodier]

I am still a bit disconcerted to hear Sargon's voice coming out of that face. I prefer the gold mask.

[Old Man With Candy]

Fifty-one percent of respondents in a new Reuters/Ipsos poll said they think the system for picking presidential nominees is "rigged"

And 49% of people have below average intelligence.

[bacon-magic]

49% realize this is a feature, not a bug. Democracy is two wolves and one lamb voting on what's for dinner, that's why we live in a Constitutional Republic.

[Trshmnstr, terror of the trash]

A Constitutional Republic is a bunch of old white guys from like 100 years ago writing down what's for dinner, and two wolves and a lamb voting on what the old white guy menu means.

[ant1sthenes]

Median. Though it doesn't matter if you specifically mean IQ.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Huffington Post doubles down on not covering Trump like a serious candidate

As Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump tries to reinvent himself as a more moderate candidate, HuffPost editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington told CNN Tuesday why it is more important than ever for news outlets to keep showing readers what Trump really stands for.

"What we're doing is responsible journalism, pointing out the dangers of a Trump presidency while there is still time to avert it," she said.

Huffington was responding to a question about HuffPost's coverage of Trump, including the editor's note that appears at the bottom of stories about him. She explains in the video above why the other presidential candidates don't merit a similar note.

"This is our responsibility, we are proudly going to continue on the same tack" if Trump wins the nomination, Huffington said. "Donald Trump is both a buffoon and dangerous. We're going to cover him in both ways."

Editor's note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims ? 1.6 billion members of an entire religion ? from entering the U.S.

More air for the bubble.

[Irish ?s Lauren Southern]

"Editor's note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims ? 1.6 billion members of an entire religion ? from entering the U.S."

This is in stark contrast to leftists who we give favorable coverage, since they only incite political violence against the right people, lie about our enemies, and engage in hatred, racism, and sexism against politically acceptable targets.

[kbolino]

They doth protest too much. Damn near nobody wants 1.6 billion people to enter here at the same time.

[Atanarjuat]

So they're going to continue to give Trump free press coverage and attack him with the same tactics that have caused his popularity to rise.

If only there was a lesson for libertarians in here somewhere. Maybe "say more outrageous shit".

[Notorious UGCC]

That can't be it, or we'd have the Gadsden Flag flying over the White House as we speak.

[Citizen X]

If only there was a lesson for libertarians in here somewhere. Maybe "say more outrageous shit".

Unfortunately, that's the only motherfucking leg of the stool that libertarians can really grab. The other two are "name a scapegoat and pledge to hurt them" and "promise to give away free shit."

[Monty Crisco]

"Grab its mutherfucking leg!!!"

[gaoxiaen]

Or clit!

[spqr2008]

We just haven't found the right scapegoat yet..... maybe bureaucrats? Or politicians?

[Trshmnstr, terror of the trash]

+1 woodchipper

[ant1sthenes]

Scapegoat: government. Free shit: sell government property and distribute as a lump sum to voters, and stop guaranteeing student loans such that students can declare bankruptcy.

[Pat (PM)]

Lawsuit: student ousted over gay couple counseling

A former Missouri State University graduate student says in a federal lawsuit that the school kicked him out of a master's program three years after he said counseling gay couples violated his religious beliefs.[...]

According to the lawsuit, W. K. Boyce, executive director of the Christian-based counseling center where Cash interned, made a presentation to one of Cash's classes in 2011. In response to a question during that presentation, Boyce said he would counsel gay individuals separately but would refer gay couples to other counselors who did not share his religious beliefs.

About a week later, Cash's internship coordinator questioned Cash about his own views on counseling gay couples, the lawsuit said. [...]

Cash's "approach to counseling is centered on his core beliefs, values and Christian worldview and these would not be congruent with the likely values and needs of a gay couple," the lawsuit said.[...]

The university then canceled his internship and placed Cash on a remediation plan that required him to attend counseling sessions, audit two courses he had already passed and complete a self-assessment, according to the lawsuit. After appealing the matter, Cash, 46, was removed from the program in November 2014.

[CatoTheChipper]

Did any other country in history deny professional training and licenses as a first step in religious persecution?

[Brett L]

The majority of nations in Europe between about 800 and 1640? Couldn't get a Royal Commission, couldn't preach, couldn't join a guild or trade association.

[Notorious UGCC]

Ireland comes to mind.

[Notorious UGCC]

Ireland under English rule.

[Free Society]

Public accommodation laws lead to more conflict than they'll ever solve. Often times it's absurdity conflicting with reality and absurdity usually wins.

[lap83]

Why would you want to be counseled by someone who thinks your union is an abomination? At least he's being honest that it wouldn't be a good idea.

[commodious spittoon]

placed Cash on a remediation plan that required him to attend counseling sessions

What if his counselor doesn't share his homophobic beliefs?

[Stormy Dragon]

Employee of public university refuses to do job if customers are gay couples: that's his right! Freedom of association!

Other employees of same public university refuse to do their jobs if customer is a bigoted Christian: you can't do that! Freedom of religion!

Socons views are totally based on principled belief in small government and are in no way post-hoc rationalizations about why it's okay to use state power to enforce their views on everyone else.

[Pat (PM)]

Employee of public university refuses to do job if customers are gay couples

Ummm, no. Try reading again for comprehension this time.

[JD the elder]

Yeah, you're right. It should say "student refuses to agree to the code of conduct the school adheres to." News flash for Boyce: he doesn't get to decide what the requirements are, the school does. If the school says "your job includes counseling gay couples" and he says "I'm not going to do that", then yeah, they are totally within their rights to kick him out.

[Pat (PM)]

Still nope. First of all, the school can't impose such a religious test via a "code of conduct" because it is a public university that must follow the first amendment. Secondly, the ethics rules that the student is alleged to have violated are not the school's ethics rules, they are an industry association's ethics rules, and are non-binding. The school vetted and approved the facility where the student was doing his required internship hours and then decided post-hoc to not only withdraw that approval based on the views of the guest speaker from the facility that the student invited to address his class, but to zero out the internship hours that the student had already accumulated at the facility before the school decided to withdraw its approval (about 1/4 of his required hours). It should read "school fails to perform due diligence, inadvertently allows student to do internship at a counseling facility with views it doesn't like, imposes ideological and religious test on student, kicks student out for failing to pass ideological and religious test".

[Pat (PM)]

Instead of Hiring Three People, I Sent the IRS $170,000. Government, FTW

On April 13th, 2016, I wrote the federal government a check for $170,000 for the overage on my taxes. The reason for the overage? A "reverse loophole" that makes it harder for businesses to manage cash flow during tax time. [...]

The question that comes most immediately to mind is one of opportunity cost: What could a business person do with an additional $170,000? Ideally, I would like to hire more people and grow my business. That amount of money could allow me to hire three people at $55,000 per year (not including their payroll tax, of course). However, instead of going to the salaries of three qualified people who could help my business advance and start to build a future for themselves, it is going to the government. Where it goes from there is, of course, up for debate. It's unlikely, though, that three people will get employment because of that contribution to federal coffers. Instead, it will be used to fight needless wars, fund more bureaucracy, and feed bloated entitlement programs. Even if we agree that some of these expenditures are necessary, very little of the overall budget will support programs that the majority of Americans find to be beneficial.

[Idle Hands]

You didn't build that.

[Catatafish & Woodchips]

"Instead, it will be used to fight needless wars, fund more bureaucracy, and feed bloated entitlement programs."

Or just to service debt.

[kbolino]

debt which was accrued to pay for...

[Glide]

I saw this guy's viral video last week or so. He seems like a major douchebag.

That said, I'll take what I can get as far as people rejecting excessive taxation.

[straffinrun]

He was on Tom Woods today.

[Crusty Juggler]

Ryan Moran is a serial entrepreneur, investor, and the host of the Freedom Fast Lane podcast. He is also a proud father and the owner of Capitalism.com.

That is full of evil words that are evil. I count six.

[Lee G]

Or you could spend it. That works too.

I despise the whole maximum employment as a business goal bullshit.

[Stormy Dragon]

That amount of money could allow me to hire three people at $55,000 per year (not including their payroll tax, of course).

Lower taxes are great, but this is bullshit logic. The goal of a business is not to hire as many people as possible, it's to hire as few people as possible. If he thought three more people would maximize his profit, he'd do it regardless of taxes. He obviously doesn't think that's the case, so he's blaming taxes for not doing something he wasn't going to do anyways.

[Free Society]

So you literally believe that taxes don't discourage investment in the factors of production?

[Stormy Dragon]

Yes, indirectly in that if there's less money for consumers to buy stuff, there's less commerce so companys need less production. But the "I had to pay a tax bill with the money I was going to use to hire three employees I don't actually need" argument is total bullshit.

[Free Society]

Yes, indirectly in that if there's less money for consumers to buy stuff, there's less commerce so companys need less production.

Take that little thought of yours to it's logical conclusion; if you take away all the consumers money then there's less commerce "so company's need less production". That's not a good thing. It's as if you think production is good for it's own sake, instead of it being good for bettering the existence of the participants of the economy. If you burn someone's house down, then they don't need to spend money on a new roof. And yet that's not exactly a win.

You just admitted that it's true that taxation reduces production and investment in the factors of production. And still, in a fit of extreme economic and moral ignorance, you think that's a good thing? Knowing where to begin with you is the hardest part.

[Stormy Dragon]

Knowing where to begin with you is the hardest part.

How about you begin be responding to what I actually wrote instead of responding to the voices in your head? I didn't say reducing production was a good thing. I was agreeing with you that increasing taxes reduces production at the macro level.

But that's not what Moran is saying. He's making a bullshit argument based on a bullshit premise that his hiring based on how many people he can afford to hire rather than how many people he needs to hire. At the micro level, he either needs three more employees right now or he doesn't.

[Free Society]

How about you begin be responding to what I actually wrote instead of responding to the voices in your head?

I literally quoted what you wrote and made analogies regarding exactly what you wrote. I apologize if it wasn't clear to me that you think it's a bad thing.

I was agreeing with you that increasing taxes reduces production at the macro level.

It reduces production at every level, the micro-macro distinction is useless here.

At the micro level, he either needs three more employees right now or he doesn't.

If he could gain from hiring the workers, but cannot afford to do so due to the capital constraints imposed by taxation, how is that a bullshit premise? Just because there exists an opportunity for profit, doesn't mean an entrepreneur can afford the factor's of production necessary to take advantage of that opportunity.

[Stormy Dragon]

I literally quoted what you wrote

Where did I write that taxation reducing production is a good thing? Oh wait, I didn't.

[Free Society]

Where did I write that taxation reducing production is a good thing?

FS

So you literally believe that taxes don't discourage investment in the factors of production?

SD

Yes, indirectly in that if there's less money for consumers to buy stuff, there's less commerce so companys need less production.

I asked a direct question that you answered in the affirmative with a justification that certainly appeared to argue it's not a problem because the company "needs less production" now.

[Stormy Dragon]

By analogy, high gas taxes make driving more expensive, so people will forgo unnecessary trips if it gets too expensive to reduce their consumption.

But if I wrote an op ed saying "Thanks to high gas taxes, I've decided I'm not going to put gas in my car anymore as I drive to and from work each day", that would be bullshit.

[Trshmnstr, terror of the trash]

"Thanks to high gas taxes, I've decided I'm not going to put gas in my car anymore as I drive to and from work each day", that would be bullshit.

You're correct. Thankfully, nobody has said that.

You do realize that there's a difference between paying existing expenses, and taking on new expenses, right? You do also realize that taking on new employees create immediate new expenses, right? Do you also realize that ROI for new employees is not immediate? So unless this guy has extra cash laying around (which he doesn't because he had to pay it to the IRS), he's not going to be able to hire on new employees and pay them.

[Free Society]

By analogy, high gas taxes make driving more expensive, so people will forgo unnecessary trips if it gets too expensive to reduce their consumption.

But if I wrote an op ed saying "Thanks to high gas taxes, I've decided I'm not going to put gas in my car anymore as I drive to and from work each day", that would be bullshit.

Not an apt analogy. An apt analogy would read "Thanks to high gas taxes, I've decided I'm not going to drive as far to make my deliveries (less production)." Which is exactly the case. the amount the driver is taxed per mile directly diminishes his ability to drive as far and as cheaply than if there were little or no taxes on gas.

[ant1sthenes]

Then, logically, a business which shuts down is the most successful of all, as it hires 0 people. Or, wait, maybe there's anot her side to the equation. Something about the value added by hires?

[GroundTruth]

Woke up pissed off about just this sort of thing. Can't get a landscaper because they can't get workers. Can't get a painter because they can't get workers. Have to drive by low-income housing because the poor people need a nice place to live too! Can't get TO work myself because every friggin road is being torn up at the same time for work that does NOT need to be done, But I DO get to pay taxes to support those fine people who would rather collect a check for not working and stay home and get stoned, and to support the state and local government / union cabal who lobby to have the same roads torn up that they just paved, or pave a road this year that will be torn up next year to put in new (judicially mandated) sewers. I don't mind paying taxes for a bit of national defense, and our local fire department is pretty good, but aside from that, I HATE paying taxes.

And to "Idle Hands": actually, yes, I did build it. And I planted it. And I saved it.

[PBR Streetgang]

Down goes Chaka Fattah. Good riddance to my congressman

[Old Man With Candy]

I was sorry to see this. Indictment makes politics more bearable.

[Raven Nation]

So, I'm continuing to read through the basics of Modern Monetary Theory (asked a question about this earlier in the week - thanks for the responses) and I've now come to the portion of the lesson where the author explains what's wrong with free markets. Or, more precisely, what' wrong with his caricature of free markets. For example, he sarcastically argues that, according to free marketeers:

"It is better to leave people unemployed where they can help to fight inflation and inefficiency in a reserve army of the unemployed. The best use of the unemployed is to leave them unemployed."

And:

"[the role of business is to] increase efficiency by destroying jobs...And destroying jobs also destroys markets for the output of the remaining workers - so the natural market force is always destructive (Schumpeter calls it "creative destruction")."

[UnCivilServant]

This is based on the false presumption that when unemployed, the 'worker' is a passive agent.

When I got laid off I wrote a book and was looking for new employment daily.

the book didn't sell that well, but it did generate economic activity.

[Rich]

reserve army of the unemployed

Nice band name.

[Eman]

eh, I bet their music would be horrible. Im thinking gang of four ripoff with some synthesizers (ironically of course)

[Brett L]

Interesting that 85% of the jobs that exist today didn't exist 100 years ago and those that do have a radically different skillset. Where did all of these jobs come from? The benevolent Cental Banks?

[Free Society]

Top. Men.

[Monty Crisco]

You mean there aren't roving armies of unemployed farmers menacing various localities with pitchforks? But 140 years ago it took 19 people to grow enough food for 20 people. Where did all those people go for work?

[Pat (PM)]

When your entire economic philosophy is built on the twin pillars of viewing everything in the aggregate and the short-term to the exclusion of any other perspective, it's easy to construct this strawman. In this conception, the unemployed are merely exchangeable widgets in an aggregate demand curve.

[Free Society]

I find the micro-macro distinction to be a distraction that makes people forget that economics is ultimately the study of human interaction.

[Pat (PM)]

True. It's not that econometrics and macro level analysis are not useful, but some economists, especially central bankers, often rely on them too much at the expense of further insights that could be gleaned by a less tunnel-visioned approach. The idiot quoted above is a classic example. You can really only make that error by ignoring that the unemployed are individual human beings with agency and unique motivations.

[Irish ?s Lauren Southern]

""It is better to leave people unemployed where they can help to fight inflation and inefficiency in a reserve army of the unemployed. The best use of the unemployed is to leave them unemployed.""

Yeah, and when those unemployed people become meth addicts due to having nothing to occupy their time, well that's just a price they're going to have to pay.

""[the role of business is to] increase efficiency by destroying jobs...And destroying jobs also destroys markets for the output of the remaining workers - so the natural market force is always destructive (Schumpeter calls it "creative destruction").""

Jesus Christ, what book is this? Link? Because I can't imagine someone being stupid enough to misunderstand Schumpeter this badly.

[Free Society]

You apparently never took an econ course in college. Every single professor for economics I had, devoted their careers to sophist style take downs of free markets.

[Irish ?s Lauren Southern]

I majored in economics. It was at a 'fresh water' school in flyover country though, and they're generally more free market than schools on the coast (except a few schools in Virginia).

I had multiple econ professors who were Eastern Europeans that fled the Commies, so they were not fans of command economies. I also had a vehemently free market black guy, which must have made the leftists in any of my classes very uncomfortable because he was supposed to be on their side.

[Free Society]

Clearly I went to the wrong school. The Keynseian professors were the most free market members of the econ faculty at OSU at the time I went, or at least for the classes that I took. Though to be fair, the university made some room for London school and Chicago school proponents in the political science department, no Austrians though of course.

[UnCivilServant]

My first econ professor was merely a Keynsian (new school), the second was an adjunct whose day job was never really explained. His one anecdote was about how, after analysing the issue of fares and ridership, his report was for the bus agency to lower its fares to minimize the losses (being only permitted to give recommendations on fares, not other changes). They instead raised fares, lost more money and then lowered to the level originally recommended.

anyway, where was I going... oh, yeah, he did not advocate anything counter to the free market.

[Lee G]

The best use of the unemployed is to leave them unemployed.

Labor mobility is bad.

[Raven Nation]

The person who asked me to look at this stuff printed off a bunch of primer posts from this blog:

http://neweconomicperspectives.org/

The ones I'm reading are a few years old but I think they're archived under the "MMT Primer" link at the top of that web page. They've also been collected in this:

http://www.amazon.com/Modern-M.....230368891/

[Rich]

Fifty-one percent of respondents in a new Reuters/Ipsos poll said they think the system for picking presidential nominees is "rigged"

May I suggest that such people be known as "riggers"?

[Citizen X]

That's already Russian slang for a Slav who partakes of stereotypical African-American culture.

[PBR Streetgang]

And the gay members of this subset are called OutRiggers?

[Notorious UGCC]

I'm not saying he's an OutRigger
But I don't see him with any straight n_____s.

[commodious spittoon]

Naggers?

[Pat (PM)]

+1 "People Who Annoy You"

[Rhywun]

Rigga, please.

[bacon-magic]

You are treading on my profession sir. We deal in lifting heavy objects. With rope(who needs a woodchipper?).

[Idle Hands]

Trump focuses his hair piece on Clinton:

NEW YORK ? While celebrating sweeping victories in five primaries Tuesday night, Donald Trump mocked the qualifications of Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton and suggested she was playing "the women's card" to her advantage in the presidential race.

"Frankly, if Hillary Clinton were a man, I don't think she'd get 5 percent of the vote. The only thing she's got going is the women's card," Trump said during a news conference at Trump Tower. "And the beautiful thing is, women don't like her."

[Notorious UGCC]

Well, they may not be all that enthusiastic about you either, Donald.

[Tonio]

Smug. The new collective noun for progressives. Flock of sheep, herd of cattle, smug of progressives. Use it.

[Restoras]

That's brilliant.

[bacon-magic]

You win the webz today sir.

[GroundTruth]

LOL

[CatoTheChipper]

Fifty-one percent of respondents in a new Reuters/Ipsos poll said they think the system for picking presidential nominees is "rigged"

I'm surprised the percentage is so low. Most people don't understand that a primary vote is a partisan activity, not an election. It is quite proper that a political party have considerable flexibility in selecting candidates. Of course the system is "rigged" by the party with the objective of selecting a candidate with the highest probability of winning. The popularity of candidates with primary voters is important, but not nearly as important as winning in the general election. That's why Democrats have superdelegates and Republicans have Rule 40B.

[Notorious UGCC]

Bring back the smoke-filled room.

Only without the smoke, because smoking is unhealthy.

[EMD]

Did they think that before Trump?

Trump, for all of his flaws, is very adept at manipulating the narrative to his advantage.

[Crusty Juggler]

Man Sucker-Punched On LES "Because You Look Like Shia LaBeouf"

I didn't even see the guy. I just see his fist coming towards me. It knocked me, and while I was falling down the stairs, all I hear was, "This is because you look exactly like Shia LaBeouf!"

Licato says he lost consciousness when he landed at the foot of the stairs, and when he came to his face was covered in blood, his glasses broken in half. A couple rushed to his aid and asked, "Did you know that guy?"

[Brett L]

Violation of the NAP? Maybe, but I think we all have a little sympathy for the puncher.

[Citizen X]

I can't condone the attacker's action... but i understand.

[IndyEleven]

You left out the best part:

"The couple, according to Licato, described the attacker as in his mid-20s, 6 foot to 6-foot-3, and muscular, like a frat boy. "

Muscular...like a frat boy. I prefer to think of the couple staring into the middle distance, slowly uttering the last few words of that sentence with wistful longing.

[commodious spittoon]

"This is because you look exactly like Shia LaBeouf!"

when he came to his face was covered in blood, his glasses broken in half

So, less like Shia LaBeouf. Say what you will, the man gets results.

[Rhywun]

"Maybe it's time to ditch the hipster beard and glasses. But I'm not leaving Bushwick, dammit."

[Agile Cyborg]

Toothsome cosmogony explodes with lusty living juices. Breathing deep under its splashings and ringings inspires the bowels of the mind. You are the fucking organic skin traveling deftly between universes. Every often is slathered with goddamn stormy distraction while humanity continues into the becoming of constants... prey forever to its own depravities.

[Rich]

Good Morning, A C!

[Citizen X]

Precisely.

[Notorious UGCC]

It's good to see you're still with us!

[Crusty Juggler]

Emily's List's sleazy attack ad in the Pennsylvania Senate race

I'm shocked!

[LynchPin1477]

Trump beating Republican rivals in all five states

And then promptly handing Hillary a great soundbite about how she is only winning because she is a woman.

Is it true? It very well may be. But it lets her perpetuate the whole "war on women" thing. Even if that doesn't win her votes, it's going to turn the middle away from Trump.

I've been saying that I think he could beat Hillary *if* he can tone down the rhetoric against women and immigrants and direct it at Wall Street, etc. But I don't think he can help himself.

[Restoras]

I'm not sure that calling a spade a spade will alienate that many people, and it isn't an attack against women as much as pointing out an uncomfortable truth that many harbor but are afraid to say in our PC dominated culture.

[LynchPin1477]

I think that will play to a significant minority of voters, most of whom are already voting for Trump. Culturally, the middle is closer to the left than the right

[Rich]

"You know, Madame Secretary, you're *cute* when you're angry!"

[Tonio]

So, guys, I'm having a bit of a problem. There's a neighborhood FB group (yeah, I know) which seems to exist solely for two soccer moms to encourage everyone else to call the police on our neighbors for the least excuse. I'm one of the few people to push back, and they don't like that one bit. Currently, I'm just laughing at them and mocking them. I've gotten some support via private messages, but nobody else has the balls to oppose them. Advice?

[UnCivilServant]

SWAT the soccer moms until they realize how horrible it is!

/old cigarette deterrance.

[Old Man With Candy]

Paper bag, poo, front porch.

Always go with the classics.

[Restoras]

Don't forget the matches!

[Old Man With Candy]

Damn, it's my senility showing.

[LynchPin1477]

I prefer egging. Or, during rain, a bag of flour. Once it dries it's impossible to get off entirely.

[Restoras]

Sugar in the gas tank?

[Brett L]

Tampons. That way you only disable the vehicle and destroy the gas tank.

[Restoras]

I like it

[B.P.]

In our current environment that's a biological terror attack.

[Fist of Etiquette]

You could always try to reason with them, or at the very least start posting links to the myriad of stories where mundane police encounters have spiraled out of control into one-sided violence.

[Old Man With Candy]

You could always try to reason with them

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.... cough.... cough.... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[UnCivilServant]

You should cut down on the smoking.

[Old Man With Candy]

Bong Hits For Jesus

[BigT]

THIS^^. Post a few articles where the cops shot people's dogs, kids, neighbors, etc. Maybe the flash-bomb attack that damaged that toddler.

[Catatafish & Woodchips]

This. Preferably with stories that include dogs and children being shot by members of our benevolent blue protectorate.

[Charles Easterly]

I like Fist's suggestion.

I'd try to post my own comment/thoughts on a matter, a then a few concerns backed up by supportive quotes from a real life event that ended horribly for the family at the hands of law enforcement, followed by a link to the story (using a source your audience would likely trust).

[Charles Easterly]

Refreshing the screen before submitting a post can be useful....

[Tonio]

LOL. THanks, Fist, but OMWC called that.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Keep going.

[Florida Hipster]

I had a busy body neighbor. I banged on her door and confronted her directly. No more problems. People are brave when they have anonymity or talking through a computer. Not so much when you show up on their doorstep.

[Brett L]

File a complaint with the county. This is harrasment. I stopped an annoying old lady who kept blaming my cat from calling animal control on me after (a) they put out a trap and caught racoons and armadillos and (b) having two complaint notices on my door. Next time I saw her outside, I told her I had documented that animal control had never caught my cat in her yard and next time I had to deal with animal control, she would have the sherrifs out to deal with my harrasment complaint. After that, she'd just bring her dog to shit in my yard. Which was fine. It was smaller than my cat.

[EMD]

So use the power of the State for your own ends?

Hmmm.

[Lee G]

Online and in person are two different things entirely. Getting the group together would probably go a long way to tamping their behavior down.

I was on an HOA board for while in California (yeah, yeah, I know, never again). People are nuts.

[The Last American Hero]

link to the wonderful story of the cop who shot the 4 year old girl in Columbus, Ohio last year:

http://www.dispatch.com/conten.....ting.html#

[Free Society]

The officer was not injured.

Nothing to see here. I'm not sure how this even made the news. Was the girl black or something?

[SugarFree]

No, the little girl was white. We know how terrified you are of being seen caring that a black person was hurt by a cop.

[Free Society]

See I don't have to insinuate that you are bigot or racist to argue against you, because you're genuinely of a lower order of intelligence and your dumbfuckery speaks for itself, troll.

[SugarFree]

Insinuate? That's a pretty big word. Did you have an adult look it up for you?

[SugarFree]

two soccer moms to encourage everyone else to call the police on our neighbors for the least excuse

I bet they are badge bunnies. The flashing lights and truncheons really get them off.

[Tonio]

One is a definite badge bunny (thanks for the term). She's also a municipal employee so total cheerleader for statism.

[SugarFree]

Yeah, a friend of mine had an accountant for the city living down the street from him and he would call the cops on us all the time. My friend even got a ticket for running a stop sign in front of the accountants house one day. (He paid it because it was cheaper than letting his parents find out.)

We did a lot of things to the accountant I wouldn't suggest you employ.

[Tonio]

Thanks, everyone. I'm not going to do anything physical, of course, since I'd be an obvious suspect. But I wouldn't put it past those women to gin up an incident. Mostly just blowing off steam. I'll either continue to mock them and treat their posts as if intended to be humorous, or just resume lurking and keeping track.

[SFC B]

Do you live in my neighborhood? I have the same group. The current jihad target of the two dependapotimi is a guy who has made an illegal modification to his truck. The police can't cite him for it unless they catch him driving it on public roads. So the jihadists are stalking the dude, and advocating others do so, to try and catch him driving off his property. It is fucking insane.

[Tonio]

No, doesn't sound like my neighborhood.

[Trshmnstr, terror of the trash]

There's a neighborhood FB group (yeah, I know) which seems to exist solely for two soccer moms to encourage everyone else to call the police on our neighbors for the least excuse.

If it's good enough for their neighbors, it should be good enough for them. Encourage everybody to call the cops on these two soccer moms for the slightest of things. They're on vacation and the lawn didn't get mowed this week? Post it on the group. They leave a kid's toy out front? Man, what an eyesore! They have friends over for cocktails? I'm pretty sure it's illegal to park on the street like that.

They'll get the hint soon enough.

[bacon-magic]

Go full SJW on their ass, claim victim status and talk about you how you are scared to walk outside in your neighborhood because of cishetero caucasian tyranny. Soccer moms are scared of nothing else as much as being called an oppressor.

[Rich]

The Obama administration isn't vetting the social media profiles of all Syrian refugees despite promises made last year after the San Bernardino terrorist attack, which exposed holes in the U.S. immigration screening process. Concerns over refugee screening spurred Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, a Republican, on Tuesday to cancel his state's cooperation with federal authorities trying to resettle Syrians.

When you've lost "Brownback" ?.

[Free Society]

I always wondered how it was that they planned to "vet" any of these refugees. Ask the Syrian government about them? Now I know, they vet them by not looking at their Tweeter account.

[Tonio]

Spay/Neuter clinics?

[Crusty Juggler]

6 Measles Cases Reported in Memphis Area, Exceeding Rest of U.S.

Dr. Tim Jones, the state epidemiologist for the Tennessee Department of Health, said in a telephone interview that none of the six patients had been immunized. They included infants who were too young to be immunized and at least one adult who chose to forgo immunization, all in Shelby County.

[Tonio]

Shelby county...lol. But I bet the outbreaks are not in poor neighborhoods, but in the middle-class neighborhoods where anti-vax hysteria incubates.

[sohichujud]

I bought brand new white Ferrari by working ONline work. five month ago i hear from my friend that she is working some online job and making more then $85/hr i can'tt beleive. But when i start this job i have to believed her Now i am also making 85$/hr if you want to try. Check Here.......JU07

===== http://www.Buzzmax7.com

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

VA "crisis" was manufactured by GOP to privatize system

An analysis done for the VA in 2010 found that nearly all the studies comparing the quality of VA care with its counterparts in the private and public sector found that the VA provided care that was as good or better than what was available in its competitors.

Given this reality, the proponents of privatization had to invent a scandal to push their case. They found evidence of substantial waiting lists at the VA hospital in Phoenix. According to accounts promoted in the media, 40 patients died while they were waiting to see a doctor. This of course sounds horrible.

In reality, a report by the VA's Inspector General found that six, not forty patients had died while waiting for appointments. And it wasn't clear that in any of these cases the death was related to lack of treatment. But the reality didn't matter, the right had their story and they were determined to push it everywhere they could.

The Koch brothers funded a new veterans organization, Concerned Veterans of America (CVA), which made attacking the VA health care system the major goal of its work. While full-fledged privatization is clearly a step too far at this point (most veterans really value the health care they get through the VA system), their goal is to piecemeal privatization through a process of gradually outsourcing more and more services.

[Citizen X]

When all you have is 'tardation, every problem looks like cake.

And Dean Baker LOVES cake.

[Irish ?s Lauren Southern]

"An analysis done for the VA in 2010"

The VA ran a study saying the VA is awesome. I see no conflict of interest.

[Tonio]

So, progs willing to let veterans die rather than admit failure. Got it.

[Rhywun]

Even the MSM is starting to get on the VA's back.

Sorry, Huffpo's - you lose this one.

[? Aggressor]

I'm sure these huffpo assholes have never been to a VA or they'd shut their damn mouths; the VA is the dumpster fire of healthcare

[Rich]

Sugar can cause brain damage, claim scientists (but salmon reverses it)

Yum! Glazed salmon tonight!

[Mainer2]

I always picture Rich as an Argentine.

[Tonio]

Paging Sug...

[Crusty Juggler]

Wildfire at Sam's Point spreads to 2,000 acres

Kathleen Muldoon, 72, whose home affords a spectacular view of the Shawangunk Ridge, said residents had not been alerted by the Department of Environmental Conservation, which is overseeing the fire response, or by any other agency that backfires would be lit close to their homes

Cragsmoor Fire Chief Joe Monell confirmed Tuesday he had not been notified of the backfires the night before.

"As far as I know, the fire lines were all done correctly," Monell said. "What they did was safe, but they didn't notify anyone."

DEC officials could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

The state is in charge, so I am not worried.

[Idle Hands]

White man beats black women(in democratic primary):

Rep. Chris Van Hollen won a hard-fought Senate primary that exposed racial and gender divisions within the Maryland Democratic Party, defeating Rep. Donna F. Edwards for the nomination. He will compete in November for a rare open Senate seat, from which Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D) is retiring after 30 years.

African American turnout reached record levels, exceeding 2008, when Barack Obama first ran for president, and outnumbering white voters, according to exit polls. Yet the candidate who would have been Maryland's first black senator and the second black woman to ever serve in the U.S. Senate fell short.

[commodious spittoon]

African American turnout reached record levels, exceeding 2008, when Barack Obama first ran for president, and outnumbering white voters

So... enough blacks broke rank to put the white guy in office?

[Private Chipperbot]

Book Request

Can anyone suggest a book (or books) on free markets and econ that is accessible to a 9th grader? Something that explains concepts and lays foundations that won't make her eyes glaze over?

[BigT]

"How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes" by Peter D. Schiff

This straightforward story of fish, nets, saving, and lending exposes the gaping holes that lie hidden in our global economic conversation. With wit and humor, the Schiffs explain the roots of economic growth, the importance of trade, savings, and risk, the source of inflation, the effects of interest rates and government stimulus, the destructive nature of consumer credit, and many other economic principles that are so frequently discussed and so poorly understood.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Sowell's Basic Economics?

[Old Man With Candy]

^this.

[Pat (PM)]

Economics in One Lesson, maybe? Each person's eye-glazing threshold is going to be slightly different.

[Lee G]

My recommendation as well.

Or The Road to Serdom

[CatoTheChipper]

Hayek is too dense for a 9th graders. Bastiat's The Law would be better.

[CatoTheChipper]

Oh, wait ... the Readers Digest version of Road to Serfdom wouldn't be too dense.

http://www.iea.org.uk/sites/de.....k43pdf.pdf

[commodious spittoon]

*eyes glaze over*

[Lee G]

Geez, it's not like I recommended Human Action

[Hamster of Doom]

You could try giving her The Babysitter's Club. Maybe the first dozen or so. Let her get really into the series, really involved. Then explain why everything in those books would be illegal today, and why she no longer has access to the free market.

This doesn't sound like quite the educational book you may be looking for (?), but she might find it useful as a backup exercise.

[Jordan]

I, Pencil

[Jordan]

Bonus: The Black Book of Communism

[commodious spittoon]

Can anyone suggest a book (or books) on free markets and econ that is accessible to a 9th grader? Something that explains concepts and lays foundations that won't make her eyes glaze over?

Turn her lose here. It would be... educational.

[Notorious UGCC]

This is more like the advanced graduate seminar.

[Restoras]

In what? Sarcasm and Irreverence?

[Notorious UGCC]

...and in whatever Agile does.

[UnCivilServant]

But not in grammar or proper english.

[Charles Easterly]

Turn her lose here. It would be... educational.

She'll learn horrible, childhood-ending things from the internet and other sources on her own. I don't think that there's a need for her parent(s) to speed the inevitable along.

[SFC B]

I expect that recommendation from OMWC...

[SugarFree]

It's not a textbook type study, but The Rolling Stones by Heinlein does a pretty good job.

[Crusty Juggler]

Yes. Start with fiction.

[Tonio]

Any of Heinlein's YA novels, but particularly: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Red Planet and Between Planets.

[Notorious UGCC]

Just so long as it's an audiobook narrated by Justin Bieber.

/I'm so sorry

[Free Society]

Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt. It's a must. It's the econ book that all school kids would be reading if they weren't in government schools.

[Charles Easterly]

Private Chipperbot,

Does something like this seem interesting?

I don't have time to search the entire sight for the perfect suggestion.

[Tonio]

While not strictly free-market, I highly recommend Ayn Rand's novella "Anthem." It's quite accessible for HS students.

[Private Chipperbot]

Thanks, everyone!

[Domestic Dissident]

The JournoList is having a major freakout over the fact that people are having the gall to notice that Hillary is a sick, heavily drugged-up old woman who can barely handle the rigors of a campaign and probably doesn't have many years left.

Needless to say, if a republican could barely put together two sentences without going into spasmodic, pneumoniac coughing fits, the JournoList wouldn't report on anything else.

[Pat (PM)]

I seem to recall some urgency surrounding the release of McCain's health records in '08. Also, I have it on good authority that Ronny Reagan was completely in the throes of full-blown dementia for the entirety of his presidency.

[Citizen X]

And George W. Bush was medically retarded, with the IQ of a particularly slow chimp.

[Pat (PM)]

But only when he wasn't the mastermind of a perfectly-executed global conspiracy helming the New World Order.

[Notorious UGCC]

That was Karl Rove and the neocons, don't you know *anything* about politics?

[Restoras]

Well, he did go to Yale.

[Rhywun]

Man, I miss all the Chimpy McBushitler jokes. A simpler time....

*wipes tear*

[John]

Camille Paglia, you know that committed right wing lesbian socialist, thinks she has a goiter and that explains the cough and why she seems to always were high necked clothing.

Whatever it is, it is obvious the woman is not in good health and stands at best an even chance of living through four years of being President.

[Notorious UGCC]

But Vice President Bhahara will be ready to take over.

[John]

Her VP choice is going to be very important. Given her age and the state of her health, you are not voting for Hillary so much as you are voting for the VP candidate.

[SugarFree]

Assuming she would step aside even if she was so sick she couldn't hide it any longer. I could see her ego pulling a Natcher and having her rule from a hospital bed, the lickspittle press photoshopping it out of every picture they run.

[Domestic Dissident]

Sounds like a good and likely explanation. It's not as if she's playing in any of the "Alpha 8" super high roller buy-in tournaments or something.

[Tonio]

That's interesting, DeeDee. I could see someone with her ego running just to get in the history books as the first woman president if only for a few weeks or months. That makes her VP choice all the more important, particularly wrt SCOTUS nominees.

[BigT]

Redback spider bites Australian man on penis

A TRADIE has been taken to hospital after being bitten on the penis by a redback spider, while sitting on the toilet in Sydney's south.

The man was using a Portaloo on a building site on Civic Ave, Kogarah, when the spider bit him on his genitalia about 8.45am.

[]

"Going back 80 years or so when people were still using outhouse toilets it was extremely common, something like up to 80 per cent of cases of spider bites were bites on the male genitalia," he said

[Rich]

"Going back 80 years or so when people were still using outhouse toilets it was extremely common, something like up to 80 per cent of cases of spider bites were bites on the male genitalia."

The More You Know ?

[Swiss Servator]

...The More You Avoid Australia?

[Rhywun]

And I thought the creepy-crawlies avoided urban areas...

*crosses Australia off bucket list*

[commodious spittoon]

80 per cent of cases of spider bites were bites on the male genitalia

"Anything that moves" is a slur, not a dare.

[SugarFree]

TRADIE? Portaloo? Kogarah? genitalia? Can anyone translate this article into American?

[UnCivilServant]

An antipodian used a portable toilet and got bit on the dick by the native australian spiderlife.

[BigT]

Australian man got his dick cut by a cheap whore with bad teeth and blamed it on a spider.

[Rhywun]

+1 Sheila

[Notorious UGCC]

For a second I thought it said *redneck* spider.

"Hold my dead fly and watch this."

[John]

http://www.campusreform.org/?ID=7528

Check out the SJW Orca. I don't even think Crusty would. Holy cow.

[Citizen X]

You called her first?

[Pat (PM)]

According to ENB (and a plurality of the commentariat), the protesters are entirely in the right and the quasi-fascist faux-civil-libertarian provocateurs should just shut the fuck up and stop being so uppity.

[Crusty Juggler]

According to ENB (and a plurality of the commentariat), the protesters are entirely in the right and the quasi-fascist faux-civil-libertarian provocateurs should just shut the fuck up and stop being so uppity.

I didn't know we all voted on that. How did I vote? Was in in the majority? Did I win?

[John]

We just assumed you supported them since the opportunities for scamming like chicks in that video were so great.

[Irish ?s Lauren Southern]

"According to ENB (and a plurality of the commentariat), the protesters are entirely in the right and the quasi-fascist faux-civil-libertarian provocateurs should just shut the fuck up and stop being so uppity."

Yeah, a plurality of the commenters did not say that.

[John]

On campuses, the majority did not say that. When these creatures show up at Trump rallies, the answers were often very different.

[Irish ?s Lauren Southern]

I think the general consensus was that shutting down a Trump rally was a violation of his speech rights but that Trump himself also advocates violence.

I didn't see anyone arguing that you should be allowed to stifle Trump's speech rights through thug tactics. At the very least, it wasn't a plurality.

[John]

True. But they objected to Trump people doing anything about it. Somehow a good number of people managed to blame the entire affair on the people at the Trump rally rather than the trolls who showed up to start trouble.

Go back and read the panic and pants shitting over a single instance of an octogenarian hitting one protester. It might as well have been another Krystanacht to a lot of people on this board.

[Irish ?s Lauren Southern]

"Go back and read the panic and pants shitting over a single instance of an octogenarian hitting one protester. It might as well have been another Krystanacht to a lot of people on this board."

That's a good point. But people getting too worked up by that doesn't mean we blamed Trump when the protesters actually shut his rally down.

[Crusty Juggler]

Irish, evidence takes a back seat to our commentariat head movies.

John has a point about the one Trump rally comment thread, but the combination of John and Trump makes a thread get weird, so who the fuck knows what actual opinions are (and more importantly, who cares).

[Pat (PM)]

Trump and the VRWC brownshirts weren't even the subject of that particular ENB piece, it was about "cultural libertarianism" and the extent to which it was or was not a legitimate movement, to the extent that the term even has any meaning. I brought it up specifically because she name checks Yiannopoulos, who was also the subject of the kerfuffle in the piece John linked.

Subjectively evaluating 250 comments and hair splitting with you about whether they are for or against ENB's position would probably be slightly more useless than the original comment thread itself, but suffice it to say, by my tally, it was definitely a plurality of the commentariat in agreement with the author.

[Crusty Juggler]

but suffice it to say, by my tally, it was definitely a plurality of the commentariat in agreement with the author.

Stop counting thread comments.

[Pat (PM)]

Stop counting thread comments.

NEVAR!

[Irish ?s Lauren Southern]

It's not hair splitting. The overwhelming majority disagreed with ENB. I see no one unequivocally supporting ENB's position and a lot of people criticizing it.

[SugarFree]

Odd. What I saw in that thread was a lot of idiots who made no attempt to understand what ENB actually wrote and instead wove elaborate arguments against stuff they wished ENB had said.

[Pat (PM)]

It's strange, that seems to happen every single time anyone holds an opinion on a subject that differs from the general consensus of tumblr.

[Free Society]

According to ENB in that article:

Sure, "social justice" may be a heated and hated term today, but libertarians certainly aren't opposed to social justice goals offhand.

Yes, real libertarians with the wherewithal to actually understand what "social justice" means, do oppose it offhand. I read shit like this and have to wonder if the SJWs have infiltrated Reason.

[Tonio]

You've earned that "S" back, Pat.

[Pat (PM)]

Don't be such a faggot, Tonio.

[Irish ?s Lauren Southern]

"When one demonstrator complained about being treated like a child, Hoff Sommers told her to "stop acting like a child""

"Crowder also evoked the rage of the protesters, in his case by discussing the Qur'an, which inspired a female student wearing Islamic garb to demand, "Don't speak on my behalf!"

"I didn't speak on your behalf ? I talked about the Qur'an," Crowder states incredulously. "I wasn't there for the French Revolution, but I can talk about it.""

HOFF SOMMERS FROM THE TOP ROPE, STEVEN CROWDER COVERS SJW FOR THE THREE COUNT

[This Machine]

COMPLETE SAVAGERY

[GroundTruth]

Ye gods I hate those smug little "I voted" stickers!

Similar to giving to charities, voting is a private matter of conscience, not something to be paraded about to win public accolades.

[Rich]

Pour encourager les autres.

[GroundTruth]

if the others need to be encouraged to vote, then they must not have strong feeling on the matter. In that case, I'd prefer they stay home.

[Crusty Juggler]

Similar to giving to charities, voting is a private matter of conscience, not something to be paraded about to win public accolades.

Literally how quaint. Snapchat is fighting to legalize ballot selfies

This election season, flaunting your civic responsibility by wearing badges and "I Voted" stickers won't quite cut it. With social media platforms absorbed into our culture, the voting booth selfie will be more popular than ever ? even though, in some states, it's technically banned. According to The New York Times, Snapchat, a favorite among younger voters, is fighting for their right to take photos in voting booths.

The social media giant filed an amicus brief against a ban on ballot selfies in New Hampshire on Friday. The complaint comes at the heels of an August 2015 ruling by a federal judge in New Hampshire that struck down a bill banning photos and videos in voting booths. The decision is still being appealed.

[Citizen X]

OMG i can't even.

[commodious spittoon]

Of all the acts of social engagement in a participatory democracy, surely voting is the most trivial. But because it's easy and signals the virtue of the voter, and because the franchise wasn't always universal, it's the act people most revel in.

[The Last American Hero]

Yes. I plan on giving a lot of sarcastic praise to the sticker wearers. I may even go so far as to pay them compliments that would be appropriate under a dictatorship.

[Notorious UGCC]

When I get one of these stickers, I put it under the handle of my toilet as a reminded of the significance of what I did.

[GroundTruth]

Most of the time I'd agree with you, but there are local elections where a single vote really does count. I recall a one-vote difference a few years back that was the difference between moving from a town to city form of government - very glad that I did make the effort to get myself to that one!

[Mickey Rat]

How insidious that party nomination elections favor people who belong to the party.

[GroundTruth]

Why people not formally associated with a party are permitted to vote is beyond me. If you won't commit to a basic set of principals, then you shouldn't feel entitled to tell those who have how best to achieve them.

[commodious spittoon]

Fifty-one percent of respondents in a new Reuters/Ipsos poll said they think the system for picking presidential nominees is "rigged" and more than two-thirds would like to see changes.

Well, no shit. Look at the idiots you'd pick if given the choice. That's why the idiots are chosen for you, so you can choose between the two idiots the party likes.

[John]

Why would anyone have a problem with a system designed to let Iowa and New Hampshire eliminate half the candidates running from President from being an option for the rest of us?

The whole system is idiotic and based on the realities of 18th Century transportation and communication. Back when trains and telegraph were the hot new thing, it made sense to have a big convention and various elections and caucuses, whatever the hell those are, in every state. Now, that makes no sense. Why can't both parties have a single national election to determine the nominee?

[EMD]

" Why can't both parties have a single national election to determine the nominee?"

You'd never get to have fork pizza with John Kasich if that were the case!

[spqr2008]

Because that would decrease the importance of state and local party officials that are elected with the coattails of state and national politicians, and give people more choice.

[thom]

Why can't both parties have a single national election to determine the nominee?

This would work, but we'd probably need a system of state/local sub-contests to determine which candidates would qualify for the national election. I nominate New Hampshire and Iowa to lead this process every four years. Great. Now let's eliminate this wasteful national election which is just a redundant drag on taxpayers. Great. Now we're left with the perfect system to choose candidates.

[BigT]

Fear the carbon?

No, celebrate the carbon...

From a quarter to half of Earth's vegetated lands has shown significant greening over the last 35 years largely due to rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change on April 25.

An international team of 32 authors from 24 institutions in eight countries led the effort, which involved using satellite data from NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer instruments to help determine the leaf area index, or amount of leaf cover, over the planet's vegetated regions. The greening represents an increase in leaves on plants and trees equivalent in area to two times the continental United States.

[BigT]

But, being NASA, they had to weave in their religious views:

While rising carbon dioxide concentrations in the air can be beneficial for plants, it is also the chief culprit of climate change. The gas, which traps heat in Earth's atmosphere, has been increasing since the industrial age due to the burning of oil, gas, coal and wood for energy and is continuing to reach concentrations not seen in at least 500,000 years. The impacts of climate change include global warming, rising sea levels, melting glaciers and sea ice as well as more severe weather events.

The beneficial impacts of carbon dioxide on plants may also be limited, said co-author Dr. Philippe Ciais, associate director of the Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Sciences, Gif-suv-Yvette, France. "Studies have shown that plants acclimatize, or adjust, to rising carbon dioxide concentration and the fertilization effect diminishes over time."

[Free Society]

The argument that the Earth was headed for a catastrophe unlike any other because carbon has been getting locked up in the Earth and less of it released by volcanism as the Earth cooled from it's formation, has a lot of credibility behind it. We have been on a path to mass extinction as the Earth became less suitable for plant life and humans may have saved the world from the unprecedented mass extinction it was facing in a few million years.

[BigT]

Earth was headed for a catastrophe unlike any other because carbon has been getting locked up in the Earth and less of it released by volcanism as the Earth cooled from it's formation, has a lot of credibility behind it.

Earth has been cooling for 4 billion years, but I hadn't heard that this was a carbon problem or that we were headed for catastrophe (in any reasonable time period, ie 1000 yrs). Do you have a link?

[Free Society]

It's hard to search for anything related to climate change and to not find yourself in a deluge of orthodox theory on the topic. But...

http://plantsneedco2.org/defau.....itemid=252

http://www.breitbart.com/londo.....cientists/

[John]

It looks like "vote with your vagina" isn't working very well

http://heatst.com/politics/hil.....en-voters/

All is not perfect for Clinton, however. While she pulled out wins in Tuesday's most lucrative contests, Maryland and Pennsylvania, she's still seeing double-digit dips in favorability. And her core constituency, women, are slowly fading from active participation in the Democratic primary. Last night, Trump took aim at Hillary's core constituency, noting that he, too, could play the "woman card."

According to a Gallup poll released on Monday, only 31% of women are following the current presidential contest "very closely," down from almost 40% in March. And the fatigue is bipartisan: Republican men are 8% more likely to be following the election than Republican women, and Democratic men are 11% more likely to be following the election than Democratic women.

[Notorious UGCC]

"While she pulled out wins"

Hillary doesn't pull out, she just keeps on pounding the public in the...

wait a minute, why do I keep making dirty jokes, it's like I enjoy doing it.

[John]

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballo.....ndependent

Trump says Sanders should run as an Independent. This is the kind of thing that Republicans are too stupid and too gutless to ever say. And the fact that they don't and won't is one of the biggest reasons why so many Republican voters are going for Trump.

[Restoras]

I agree with this. He's playing the game strategically and ruthlessly just like the Democrats do and the Republicans haven't. If not for Ross Perot, would Clinton have won in 1992? I doubt the Democrats at the time cared and secretly hoped for it, if not encouraging it openly.

[commodious spittoon]

Trump is an authentically stupid and spineless bullshit artist who happens occasionally to be right.

[GroundTruth]

Hey, you're not supposed to notice the little man behind the curtain! And even if you do, please don't mention it to the others; they need something big to believe in.

[Je suis Woodchipper]

Too late for ballot access.

[Spartacus]

with Trump beating Republican rivals in all five states?Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island?that held contests yesterday.

So that's a total of like, what, 22 delegates?

[Restoras]

PA isn't small potatoes, is it?

[EMD]

He only won 17 of the total 71. Fifty-four are uncommitted going into the convention.

[Karinka]

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[mukupochij]

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[creech]

What are Cruz and Kasich really counting on? Speaking of Cruz, a talking hottie head on Fox this morning said it is time for Cruz to make nice with Trump and unite the GOP. How many of us could even contemplate doing so after being called "Lying Ted" by this horse's ass for the last three months? The GOP is even more screwed then it was in 1964 when Rockefeller Republicans abandoned Goldwater.

[straffinrun]

The XY man.

[Private Chipperbot]

Antonio Cromartie scoffs at ancient king...

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

At least it's tranny-free.

I haven't made my mind up about Hillary... or Donald.

[straffinrun]

A murder of progressives?

[Irish ?s Lauren Southern]

A cemetery of progressives.*

*Note to Preet Bharara, this is a joke, not a legitimate death threat

[Pat (PM)]

There but for the glaze of cod goes Rich.

[straffinrun]

Who's this Preet? Sounds like he needs his pulp mulched.

[Notorious UGCC]

I actually enjoy the excitement and ritual of voting, but my rational part tells me that this is where my vote will end up.

[Tonio]

Yeah, I've lived in the neighborhood for years, and these are all newcomers.

[Old Man With Candy]

He has resin!

Well done, sir.

[Tonio]

[narrows gaze]

[Swiss Servator]

*joins narrowed gaze*

[EMD]

[narrows glaze?]

[Tonio]

I actually enjoy the excitement and ritual...

Of that we have no doubt, Eddie.

[EMD]

These masturbation euphemisms are getting ...

[Notorious UGCC]

Bless your heart!