A.M. Links: Top Democrats Urge Bernie to Drop Out, Hezbollah Commander Killed in Syria, GOP Leaders Starting to Rally Around Trump?

• 

  U.S. Senate

  Democratic leaders want Bernie Sanders to drop out of the presidential race and they are turning up the pressure in the hopes of getting the Vermont socialist to quit and thereby clear the path for Hillary Clinton. But Sanders is refusing to budge. "Please do not moan to me about Hillary Clinton's problems," Sanders told MSNBC.

• "The Obama administration is planning to issue a sweeping directive telling every public school district in the country to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity."

• Are Republican leaders starting to rally around Donald Trump?

• Mustafa Badreddine, Hezbollah's top military commander in Syria, has been killed.

• The world's oldest person, 116-year-old Susannah Mushatt Jones, has died.

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Comments

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

"The Obama administration is planning to issue a sweeping directive telling every public school district in the country to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity."

L'etat c'est moi.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Hello.

"The Obama administration is planning to issue a sweeping directive telling every public school district in the country to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity."

Wow.

It's good to be King.

[Crusty Juggler]

And yet cannabis is still a schedule one drug.

[Zeb]

He wants to keep all that top secret government weed to himself.

[Rhywun]

Addressing that doesn't score any brownie points with the left.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

I see what you did there.

[Free Society]

And yet cannabis is still a schedule one drug.

Well you see, rescheduling cannabis on an arbitrary list created by an executive department requires congressional action. Whereas sweeping directives to every local school district in the country requires only a pen and a phone.

[Elspeth Flashman]

I thought the phone and the pen were all-powerful!

[Free Society]

The pen is mightier than the phone....or something.

[Citizen X]

"I'll take the Penis Mightier for $400."

[CE]

Seems like Obama bought into Biden's claim that Joe would be the best president, and is trying to get himself impeached. Soccer moms across the Bible Belt are calling their Congress-people all day today.

[Zeb]

Title IX is the new commerce clause. Or, I suppose, an extension of it. Or do they claim a different justification for federal mucking with state educational institutions?

[DJF]

The federal government takes money from taxpayers in the name of education and then can refuse giving the money to state and local government who depend on it if the states and localities don't do what the federal government says.

Similar to road spending and forcing states to increase the drinking age to 21

Its stealing followed by bribery.

[Zeb]

So is loss of funding the only recourse for Title IX violations? I thought there were other penalties.

[Free Society]

Damn near everyday I find another reason that the federal government should be abolished. Every last cancerous piece of it.

[Zeb]

There may be a few proper functions for the federal government. But 99% of it is pure parasite at this point.
So, yeah, kill it good. The states can go their own way, or form some new confederation.

This will probably happen sometime after heroin is legalized and highways are all privatized.

[Free Society]

There may be a few proper functions for the federal government.

Extortion, kidnapping, theft and murder. Maybe a few other injustices that I'm leaving out.

So, yeah, kill it good. The states can go their own way, or form some new confederation.

Secession would be a great first step.

This will probably happen sometime after heroin is legalized and highways are all privatized.

It might happen sooner than you think. Math has a way of taking people unawares.

[Zeb]

If it does, great. I'm not holding my breath.

[thom]

The states would probably find it necessary to form some sort of entity allotted a limited amount of sovereignty purely for the purposes of administering common defense, coinage, foreign policy, etc. Maybe next time they can create a detailed document, written in plain English, directing specifically what this new entity is and is not allowed to do to avoid all of the confusion that has led to the current situation...

[CE]

No, the states going independent will happen first.

[CatoTheChipper]

Back in 1972, feminists celebrated Title IX because it meant that women's sports activities would be funded on par with men's. Now they get to share their locker rooms with trannies.

[CE]

Out of an abundance of caution, and to avoid anyone (pro or con) getting their feelings hurt, we should shut down all public schools until we can be sure no one will ever be made uncomfortable.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

177) Obama administration to instruct schools to accommodate transgender students

This is the very definition of a local issue. How can the Obama administration possibly justify this? How can they even enforce it?
"It will put state and local officials and higher-education institutions on notice that they risk losing federal education aid?"

Oh, I guess that's how. You know, the Department of Education really needs to be abolished. Today would not be too soon.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

I think their going to claim that the Civil Rights Act requires it, even though that is categorically false.

[spqr2008]

Hey now, Obama knows his Star Wars, not his Constitution. He has altered the deal, pray that he does not alter it any further.

[Demoted Comment (Slammer)]

NPR said the administration was offering 'guidance'

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

"Guidance" backed by the dual threats of the National Guard and the loss of millions of dollars in funding can be quite persuasive.

[Rhywun]

Well, it's going to be interesting summer.

[CatoTheChipper]

The Clinton-Trump debates may lack the intellectual heft of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, but they will be entertaining.

[Libertarian]

And Harry Reid said income taxes were voluntary.

[Free Society]

So that's why Peter Schiff's dad died in prison. Harry Reid is so smart.

[Libertymike]

Irwin Schiff was a great man. He walked the walk. He was not a slave.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

NPR is sticking to the 'Obama is the wise one' narrative, eh?

Fucking putzes.

All of them.

[Injun, as in from India]

They're on the government dole. So they will support the side that keeps their dole going.

It's pay to play.

[Injun, as in from India]

It's not about trans rights. It's new agitprop for the masses for the 2016 election.

[Tonio]

Hi, Buddy. You got my reply that we're cool, right?

[Injun, as in from India]

Yeah Tonio. Thanks bro! 🙂

[Good Chipper]

You queers keep it down.

[John]

Mickey Rat posted this quote from the letter this morning

""A school may not require transgender students to use facilities inconsistent with their gender identity or to use individual-user facilities when other students are not required to do so," according to the letter

So so much for letting them use separate facilities. Everyone is going to have to accept them or else. Yet somehow that has become the libertarian cause de jour.

[lap83]

I like the "when other students are not required to do so". We won't mention the fact that trans people are not required to use them either, that way people will just assume it's discrimination.

[John]

And if you say schools must accommodate transgender, that means the teachers and administrators have to preach the Gospel of the transgendered. You could no more have a teacher who called a male tranny "he" or said that your biological sex is what matters than you could have a teacher who told back students they were inferior,.

This whole thing is about government enforced acceptance and banishing any dissent from the public square. Yet somehow Scott Shackelford and a good number of the members of this board think that anything less is discrimination and just like Jim Crow.

[JWW]

I firmly believe that within five years people who do not correctly use the pronoun xe will be shunned and ostracized from society.

[John]

That sounds crazy. But then consider that as recently as 2008 gay marriage was such a controversial issue that Obama had to claim he didn't support it. Now it is a constitutional right and anyone who objects is called a bigot. The CEO of Mozilla was fired for the crime of donating to an anti- gay marriage cause.

So, I think your prediction is sadly pretty accurate. And I have no doubt Scott Schackelford will be saying how it is just too bad that this is happening but that is just how it is.

[CatoTheChipper]

It doesn't sound crazy to me. When I was a kid, the neuter pronouns in the English language were the same as the masculine pronouns, and every reasonably intelligent person knew that. Sometime around 1970, the politically correct people now know as progressives successfully changed the English language such that masculine pronouns only described persons of the male sex, and imposed, for example, awkward constructions such as "his/her", and the absurdity of "their", for the 3rd person singular possessive.

[UnCivilServant]

'Their' was a generic pronoun for one or more person or persons of sex unknown prior to the proscriptivist crusade of the 19th century. It is simply returning to its proper usage.

[Crusty Juggler]

John, I don't think you have spent enough time discussing this topic, so please tell us more.

[John]

I know. I really haven't. I just don't poke people on here about these issues enough.

[Col. Chestbridge]

*taps sarcometer*

Is this thing on?

[John]

Most of the sarcasm on here isn't that funny. That one however was. Even I had to laugh.

[Clich? Bandit]

I am unclear on who on this board is supporting private bathroom owners must be forced to accommodate certain groups.

The libertarian answer hasn't changed. You want to take taxpayer money then you are subject the the jackasery of government control. You want to be 100% private then you will win in court most of the time.

Yes it is a shit deal, especially considering that we are forced to pay taxes. But if you desire to be principled and consistent then you should support privatizing as much as humanly possible.

That's not unlibertarian.

[lap83]

Also, I know I'm horribly trans-phobic for saying this..but when I see "gender identity" I think "gender feelings"

[John]

And their feelings are the only thing that matters. Your views or feelings do not matter. The government is going to force you to suck it up so their feelings are not hurt.

[Demoted Comment (Slammer)]

They can never imagine the boot on the other foot.

[John]

No they can't. It is unsurprising but still disappointing that reason can't see that. They think it is totally okay as long as it is only at government schools. They cannot seem to grasp that it is possible for anyone but some Prog designated group to be discriminated against.

[Libertymike]

Suppose a catholic high school is looking for a new Food Services Director.

Let's assume that the hiring committee, which consists of Sister Mary Margaret, Father Brody, and Patrick Buchanan, interview and decide to hire "Frances". Unbeknownst to the hiring committee, "Frances" used to be Francis. The employment is at-will.

On her very first day of work, "Frances", goes into the ladies room and bumps into Father Newman who recognizes that his old lover, Francis, has become "Frances". Father Newman, still smarting several years later after having been jilted by Francis, decides to out his old flame.

Just hours later, the school fires "Frances" without informing him of its reason(s). Several weeks later, the school is served with a lawsuit drafted by counsel for "Frances" the gravamen of which is that the catholic high school had impermissibly fired her upon the basis of gender identity discrimination.

Assume the school does not receive any federal funding, what result?

[CatoTheChipper]

In Libertopia, or in the real world?

In the Libertopia, Frances never finds a lawyer who will take her case on contingency, or as a pro bono, shove-it-in-their-faces, anti-Catholic, pro-trannie advocacy, since it is pointless. She gets a new job and moves on with her life.

In the real world, the diocese cuts a check to Frances, and raises tuition rates on parents accordingly.

[Libertymike]

Cato, I think you are right.

[Clich? Bandit]

RE:Lm
One would hope at-will would stand up.

I would like to point out though that the me today you tomorrow is EXACTLY what happened in the gay marriage scenario. The religious segment of society (granted that is a huge segment) made a private, religious ceremony the sole dominion of government. They DROVE to have the state not only sanction a religious ceremony but to require it for certain benefits from the state. This results in a "License" to get married. Well, if you want the state to drive the bus you better be prepared for it to take you somewhere you don't want to go. Had the religions vehemently defended the sanctity of marriage and kept it out of the hands of government there would be NO gay marriage issue.

This issue is similar. I want the government to fund jrs. education (paid for by my childless neighbors) but I don't want them taught that silly creationism stuff, or that evolution weirdness, or that pluto is a planet (fuckers). Well, too damn bad, you made the deal with the devil.

The solution of course is fight the problem not the symptom. STOP USING GOVERNMENT for all your petty bullshit. Argue that point. Point out that trans black women can form their own schools and teach themselves and their kids whatever the hell they want. Tell them if they stop taking the stolen goods of others that this will be just fine.

[Libertymike]

CB, you would hope that the at-will would stand up, but I fear that in today's environment, the diocese would be cutting a check.

Otherwise, I agree with your analysis.

[OneOut]

What is Father Newman doing in the ladies room in the first place ?

[Bill Dalasio]

Of course, it inevitably will be. Fashions change. But precedents have a nasty habit of sticking around.

[CatoTheChipper]

Yep, the Obama Administration was determined to impose a solution even more absurd than the satire of a South Park episode.

[mfckr]

This is the very definition of a local issue. How can the Obama administration possibly justify this? How can they even enforce it?

Well, you see, Obama wields powers to operate in 4D Federalism. It only appears local to you from your peasant frame of reference, while he's on a level you can't comprehend.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

"he's on a level you can't comprehend."

He certainly is.

[CE]

Easy. TSA agents outside every restroom.

[UnCivilServant]

I find the lack of interesting links disturbing

[Hamster of Doom]

Concur.

Boo, Damon Root.

[Crusty Juggler]

Positively Soavian.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Here, try this:

http://www.badassoftheweek.com.....2548528618

[UnCivilServant]

🙁

Sorry, you don't have permission to visit this site.
Please check our internet use policy.
You tried to visit:
http://www.badassoftheweek.com.....2548528618
Not allowed to browse Profanity category

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Too bad, that's a good one. Also, the language isn't any worse than what appears in this comment section on any given day.

[Zeb]

But you can visit this site?? Your "fuck" filter doens't work too well.

[Mr Lizard]

You know who else had a faulty fuck filter?...

[Zeb]

Your mom?

[Mr Lizard]

I guess I left that pitch hanging right over the plate

[Citizen X]

These euphemisms, etc.

[Steve G]

My work network includes a 'tasteless' filter. I thank my govt for helping me develop my good taste.

[Zeb]

Yeah, now that's a bad-ass woman.

[Notorious UGCC]

Very interesting.

[Bill Dalasio]

Well, yeah, but did she ever have to deal with gender-insensitive pronouns? Huh? I didn't think so!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Are Republican leaders starting to rally around Donald Trump?

Who doesn't want to be part of the winning team?

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Lucy van Pelt?

[Clich? Bandit]

DONT TALK ABOUT LUCY

...

ANY OF THEM!

[Mr Lizard]

Barry Sanders?

[Citizen X]

Bernie Sanders?

[Fist of Etiquette]

The world's oldest person, 116-year-old Susannah Mushatt Jones, has died.

THAT TITLE IS LIKE A DEATH SENTENCE.

[Demoted Comment (Slammer)]

LATE!

[Libertarian]

Something inside me always winces at this type of headline. Shouldn't it be "World's Previous Oldest Person Dies"?

[Zeb]

No. She was still the oldest person at the moment of death. "World's Previous Oldest Person Dies" is much more awkward and confusing.

[straffinrun]

Table opens at Perkin's early bird dinner?

[CE]

Should be past tense though. Putting things in present tense is an old newspaper trick to make you think they are reporting events as they happen.

[lap83]

It's more of a fragment, the rest of that line is a sentence.

I'll go.

[Roger the Shrubber]

THAT TITLE IS LIKE A DEATH SENTENCE.

Second only to 'Al-Queda #2.'

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

The world's oldest person, 116-year-old Susannah Mushatt Jones, has died.

Is someone ever going to stop this deranged serial killer that keeps offing the world's oldest person?

[Jerryskids]

You just know the cops are right now interrogating the world's second-oldest person as the most likely suspect.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I think that might have actually been an episode of Monk.

[Lord Humungus]

On Crime, Will the Party of Reagan Become the Party of Bill Ayers?

In 1997, as crime was plummeting thanks to an intelligence-based revolution in policing and Reagan-era reforms, including enhanced sentencing for drug-trafficking and other serious felonies, Ayers wrote a book called A Kind and Just Parent. As Stanley Kurtz explains, Ayers' polemic focused on Chicago's juvenile courts but broadly blamed American society for higher crime rates in major cities, comparing our criminal justice system to the mass detention of blacks under South African apartheid. A young Illinois state senator gushed that Ayers had provided "a searing and timely account." That senator's name was Barack Obama.

The bill that GOP leadership is currently joining with Democrats to try to ram through Congress is being masqueraded as sentencing "reform." In fact, it should be called the "Early Release for Sociopaths Certain to Recidivate Act." And there is no rational reason for the support it has gotten from top Republicans ? except its appeal to libertarian donors, who believe we should not have laws against narcotics trafficking. Hence, one of the two major falsehoods behind the anti-incarceration push: The nation's jails overflow with "non-violent drug offenders."

...

[Juvenile Bluster]

::headdesk::

[John]

Hyperbole aside, even though drug laws are idiotic, not all of the people caught up in them are nice law abiding people. Libertarians need to be realistic about that. One of the effects of the drug war has no doubt been to give police an excuse to lock up a lot of people who would otherwise be out committing real crimes. That doesn't make it right but it is what it is. If we end the drug war or let its victims out of prison, no doubt some of those victims will turn out to be actual criminals and will go back to being such. I think it is a good bet that ending the drug war will at least at first raise crime rates.

[Zeb]

That's probably true. Especially for the federal prisons. I'm sure a lot of the people in there are career criminals and likely recidivists. And there really aren't many regular people picked up for simple possession in federal prisons. There is no point pretending that isn't the case.
But of course, that doesn't justify unjust laws. People should be punished for the actual harm they do. If you can't prove in court that they are violent criminals, you shouldn't get to lock them up anyway on some bullshit drug charge because you think they probably are violent criminals. The system shouldn't be set up to make it easy to convict anyone of something if you really want to get them.

[John]

I agree that it is unjust. But if people over sell it and claim that only good things are going to happen, they run the risk of there being a serious backlash when that turns out not to be true.

We have a real criminality problem in this society. I am not sure what the solution to that is.

[Zeb]

Ending the war on drugs should help in the long term. But even then, the people who don't know any life but criminality aren't going to stop being violent criminals because their main business is no longer viable. I think given time, there will be fewer career criminals like that if the drug war ends. But it will take time. Any big transition like that is going to be a bit difficult to begin with.

[Long Woodchippers]

Also, if drugs are sold legally in the US, presumably obtained from sources other than the current cartels, don't expect those cartels to take the new competition to their business very kindly.. Marijuana isn't an issue because it can be grown domestically and almost anywhere. Cocaine would be quite a different situation. Will we continue to buy from the Colombian cartels, hoping that they will settle into being peaceful business men who pay their taxes on time?

[spqr2008]

And no doubt some of the minor drug offenders that were locked up picked up very bad habits in prison and will therefore be more likely to commit further crimes. It's a case of the law is an ass meeting a chicken and egg conundrum, and each case of "recidivism" (since if they're released, would the charges be dropped?) will have to be looked at in its own individual context to understand it.

[Notorious UGCC]

"each case of "recidivism" (since if they're released, would the charges be dropped?) will have to be looked at in its own individual context to understand it."

I don't think that's how politics works.

Yes, the illegal drug trade attracts people who are predisposed to lawlessness, so if drugs become legal they'll find something else to do that remains illegal. And prisons can (I'm told) provide a graduate education in crime.

The pendulum on sentencing has swung from one extreme to the other - the leniency of the 1970s replaced by the excessive punitive policies of today, and if we're not careful the reaction will take us back to the 1970s again, with the same kind of backlash if the crime rate goes up again.

But I thought these new laws were more focused than simply cutting sentences across the board - I thought they took the defendant's violent propensities or lack of them into account. Am I missing something?

[CatoTheChipper]

I think it is a good bet that ending the drug war will at least at first raise crime rates.

Depends on how you define "crime rates".

If you mean the annual number of violations of criminal laws per capita, ending the WoD will instantly cut crime rates by an order of magnitude. Consider that every time a person strikes up a joint and hands that joint to another person, he is committing a felony in many states. Every possession, transport, distribution, and sale is another violation of a criminal law. Many transactions with the proceeds from sales are violations of criminal law. Etc., etc. These all disappear with the end of WoD.

On the other hand, if you mean real crimes that are not really just vices, I imagine that you're right. But I'm not at all sure. The bad guys who get released, or who don't get caught, because of the end of the WoD will certainly increase the crime rate. However, there may be an offset by the reduction in crimes committed by drug addicts when the monetary cost of their addiction is cut by the end in the WoD.

[CE]

Alcohol prohibition led to gangland warfare and police corruption and a federal government power grab.
The war on drugs did the same thing. Ending it will cause a massive drop in crime rates. Sure, some or most drug dealers are bad people, but the war on drugs gives them a lucrative criminal enterprise to fight over.

[Rhywun]

Because those thousands of jailed dope smokers are all serial-killing narco-terrorists. Duh.

[straffinrun]

When Portugal decriminalized drugs I flew there and jammed needles in my eyeballs. I blame you guys.

[UnCivilServant]

It's your own damn fault you used knitting needles instead of proper syringes.

[Free Society]

I learned from watching you, grandma.

[Zeb]

Which somehow makes it OK to have ridiculously disproportionate sentences.

[BigT]

Um, no.

Ayers participated in planting a bomb at a statue dedicated to police casualties in the 1886 Haymarket affair confrontation between labor supporters and the Chicago police.[13] The blast broke almost 100 windows and blew pieces of the statue onto the nearby Kennedy Expressway.[14] (The statue was rebuilt and unveiled on May 4, 1970, and blown up again by other Weathermen on October 6, 1970.[14][15] Rebuilding it yet again, the city posted a 24-hour police guard to prevent another blast, and in January 1972 it was moved to Chicago police headquarters).[16]

Ayers participated in the Days of Rage riot in Chicago in October 1969, and in December was at the "War Council" meeting in Flint, Michigan. Two major decisions came out of the "War Council". The first was to immediately begin a violent, armed struggle (e.g., bombings and armed robberies) against the state without attempting to organize or mobilize a broad swath of the public. The second was to create underground collectives in major cities throughout the country.[17] Larry Grathwohl, a Federal Bureau of Investigation informant in the Weathermen group from the fall of 1969 to the spring of 1970, stated that "Ayers, along with Bernardine Dohrn, probably had the most authority within the Weathermen".

[Jerryskids]

But only Republicans could pick the height of a heroin epidemic as the perfect moment to join the jihad against the federal narcotics laws......Hence, one of the two major falsehoods behind the anti-incarceration push: The nation's jails overflow with "non-violent drug offenders."

So, you're saying it's simply not true that we send tons of non-violent drug offenders to jail and it's especially stupid to say that now, right at a time when we so desperately need to be sending tons of non-violent drug offenders to jail.

A young Illinois state senator gushed that Ayers had provided "a searing and timely account." That senator's name was Barack Obama.

Yeah, but both Hillary Clinton and Adolph Hitler supported sending drug users to jail, so neener, neener, I win that round of cogent, rational, intelligent debate.

By an unfortunate quirk of fate, Ayers, who should have been sentenced to decades in prison, emerged unscathed ? to borrow his words, "guilty as sin, free as a bird" ? because of law-enforcement violations that caused his case to be dismissed.

Ah, the "unfortunate quirk of fate" that caused the government officials entrusted to enforce the laws to turn out to be lawbreakers themselves. My yes, fate sure is quirky that way, so frequently randomly causing the people least to be trusted with power to somehow wind up being the ones with power. Just bad luck I guess and no lessons to be drawn from it.

[CE]

Thousands of people die from the heroin epidemic because the heroin is dangerous and has poor quality control and there is no recourse to sue your supplier for bad product because it is all illegal. Ending the war on drugs now is more imperative than ever.

[Free Society]

"Early Release for Sociopaths Certain to Recidivate Act."

So people who violate prohibition and presumably any other victimless crimes, are sociopaths? I don't think this guy understands what words mean.

[Demoted Comment (Slammer)]

Clinton charity gave $2M to company owned by Bill's 'friend'

Bill Clinton's foundation doled out $2 million to a power company partly owned by a wealthy blond divorc?e about whom questions have been raised as to whether she is the frequent visitor to his home nicknamed "Energizer."

The "commitment" to Julie Tauber McMahon's firm from the Clinton Global Initiative was placed on its 2010 conference agenda at Clinton's urging, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

The initiative "commits $2?million to support the work of Energy Pioneer Solutions, a company founded to deliver energy savings to communities in rural America," said a 2010 statement from the charity.

Clinton's home in Chappaqua, West?chester, is the daughter of Joel Tauber, a millionaire donor to the Democratic Party.

McMahon, 54, is rumored to be the woman dubbed "Energizer" by the Secret Service at the Clinton home because of her frequent visits, according to RadarOnline.

[Tonio]

How is her hair color or marital status in any way relevant? Oh, right, NYP. Lulz.

[Elspeth Flashman]

That fourth paragraph - I have read it a few times now - makes no sense.

[Demoted Comment (Slammer)]

haha the home is the daughter. isn't it obvious??

The fit, blond mother of three, who lives just minutes from Bill and Hillary Clinton's home in Chappaqua, West?chester, is the daughter of Joel Tauber, a millionaire donor to the Democratic Party.

[Elspeth Flashman]

I can infer that, but only after reading the rest, fer crissakes.

[Lord Humungus]

True Confessions Of A White Supremacist

How am I a white supremacist? Well, I was born and raised in the United States of America, a country built by slave labor on stolen land, and every privilege I've ever enjoyed has come at the expense of someone else's oppression. The education I received was white supremacist education, from its demand that I learn to write and speak "proper English" to its reliance on a literary, scientific, and artistic canon comprised of and curated almost exclusively by white men. My aesthetic tastes are permeated with subtle coding that extends subconscious preference to those who look like me and communicate themselves in a way I can identify with. I have interjected my unwanted, unwarranted opinion into conversations that are out of my lane, and I have chosen to look the other way rather than confront instances of racism because of cowardice, complacency, and a misplaced sense of politeness. The very foundations of my way of life are in white supremacy, and the list of microaggressions I have committed, and will no doubt continue to commit in spite of my "good intentions" for as long as I'm alive, is virtually endless.

[UnCivilServant]

Another one of these fake "confessions" articles?

They don't even bother to emulate the style of language used by the group they're pretending to impersonate.

[Hamster of Doom]

None of this excoriating one's self online. Use a flail and post the pics of one's bloody back, or GTFO.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Seriously. Posting a look-at-me online article isn't penance. Slaves used to be whipped--those whippings are why you live in comfort today, white supremacist. Let's see some blood.

[straffinrun]

I read that with this as my scroll music.

[MetalBard]

I would prefer the ramblings of a mentally ill black racists over this disgusting pathetic craven self-loathing bullshit. This man should do himself and the world a favor and kill himself, that or maybe he can pay some black dominatrix to help him work out his little issues.

[Free Society]

The bigger and more vociferous these SJWs get, the less opposed I am to rounding them up and putting them in some sort camp system where they can be... concentrated.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

its demand that I learn to write and speak "proper English"

What the fuck? When did attempting to teach clear and effective communication become "racist"? He's not talking about this "demand" in casual conversation, but in fucking English class.

Jesus, these people are morons.

[Tonio]

When did attempting to teach clear and effective communication become "racist"?

I've been hearing that since the seventies.

[Drake]

Yes. What country wasn't conquered at some point and wasn't built by slaves? It's just self-loathing for the sake of feeling superior to those who don't profess to hate themselves.

[Free Society]

The United States was built by slaves like the McDonald's brand was built by cashiers and janitors.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

to its reliance on a . . . scientific . . . canon comprised of and curated almost exclusively by white men.

+1 feminist glaciology

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Exclusively white men? Required reading at my high school in the late 80s and early 90s included Jane Austen, Carson McCullers,Charlotte Bronte, Toni Morrison, and Harriet Beacher Stowe. This was in a small Southern city, hardly Progressive-ville.

[Zeb]

Wasn't the feminist glaciology study also done by a white man?

[Zeb]

And if you are talking about the English language literary canon, of course it's going to be a lot of white men. There's plenty of diversity in the 20th century, a good number of 19th century female writers. But before that, it's going to be mostly white men. Because people were racist and sexist in the past. That doesn't mean it's not important literature. Do they just think we should ignore the whole basis of the English language literary tradition?

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Seriously. There aren't many canonical black or women authors from the sixteenth century because there actually weren't many blacks or women able to read and write in England during that period.

Do they just think we should ignore the whole basis of the English language literary tradition?

As far as I can tell, yes, unless it is to point out how racist and sexist it is.

[The Last American Hero]

I had the same argument in history class in college 20 years ago.

[Free Society]

Because people were racist and sexist in the past.

And yet in this racist past, those European people were the least racist and the least sexist people on the planet BY FAR. Even as slavers, which was abolished world-wide by European peoples by the way, the Europeans had moral wherewithal in the practice of slavery that no other civilization had ever managed to acquire BY FAR. There's a reason that there are no modern descendants of the African slaves that were sent to the middle east in far greater numbers than the Europeans ever took.

[Zeb]

Yes, I know that. That doesn't make historical Europeans and less sexist or racist. Not everything has to be a comparison of the relative merits of different civilizations. Though I do agree it's often worth pointing out that other civilizations were as bad and often much worse when it came to colonialism, slavery and oppressive violence.

[Free Society]

es, I know that. That doesn't make historical Europeans and less sexist or racist. Not everything has to be a comparison of the relative merits of different civilizations.

That's simply not true. When discussing history, that relativity matters. When you discuss a society's level of technological advancement, level of knowledge, or their level of moral advancement et cetera, it's always relative to other times and places.

Insofar as European civilization has historical crimes to atone for, the rest of the world has many times more crimes to atone for. The only difference is that the West takes it's moral fabric more seriously than most others and often takes it too far, which is why European peoples seem to be riding alone on the guilt train. I got off that train long ago when I realized we're the only ones riding it.

[Long Woodchippers]

Europeans and slavery: Last in, first out, but get all the blame

[Long Woodchippers]

Europeans and slavery: Last in, first out, but get all the blame

[Drake]

Too crazy to bother fisking. And that site seems like the motherload of crazy self-hating SJWs.

[Libertarian]

"I have interjected my unwanted, unwarranted opinion into conversations that are out of my lane..."

The progressivism of the 21st century: STAY IN YOUR OWN LANE!

[Zeb]

Is that supposed to be something that only white people do?

[Good Chipper]

Yes. And it's called "mansplaining" because no woman ever interrupts or talks down to a man.

[spqr2008]

The true beauty of these screeds is that I can remember the highlights, so when Hillary or Bernie takes away our right to free speech, I will be able to perform publicly for the Left's speech standards, all while making sarcastic fun of their idiocy with my bowing down.

[Free Society]

and every privilege I've ever enjoyed has come at the expense of someone else's oppression.

Hello there Marxist propaganda.

The education I received was white supremacist education, from its demand that I learn to write and speak "proper English" to its reliance on a literary, scientific, and artistic canon comprised of and curated almost exclusively by white men.

Maybe there's a reason that some West African clicking language isn't the language of science and literature in a European originating society. Just maybe...

My aesthetic tastes are permeated with subtle coding that extends subconscious preference

That's called "culture", and white people are allowed to have one or two of them like anybody else.

and communicate themselves in a way I can identify with.

So it would be socially just if no one spoke the same language?

I have interjected my unwanted, unwarranted opinion into conversations that are out of my lane

One's race has no bearing on the validity of an argument. I can't continue to respond to anymore of this garbage. Absolute garbage. I lost some IQ points for having tried. Jesus fucking Christ the social justice crowd is stupid beyond all measure.

[Suell]

Stay in your lane dammit! You people should know your place! - Proggie 2016

[Notorious UGCC]

"The education I received was white supremacist education, from its demand that I learn to write and speak "proper English" to its reliance on a literary, scientific, and artistic canon comprised of and curated almost exclusively by white men."

Oh, get over yourself, and also, if it's any consolation, I doubt that you learned a lot about literature, science and art, so you probably weren't tainted too badly by white supremacism.

[Rich]

"Please do not moan to me about Hillary Clinton's problems," Sanders told MSNBC.

"The American People are sick and tired of hearing about Hillary's damn problems!"

[MetalBard]

I identify as a cat, I demand litter boxes in every public restroom or I will sue you all into oblivion, after I scratch the shit out of your furniture.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Are you neutered?

[Rich]

One wise member of the commentariat last night raised the scenario of a kid claiming he felt clothes strangled him and demanding to attend school in the nude.

This stuff will get truly interesting.

[Tonio]

^This.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

See, that's the problem with this "gender identity" nonsense. I'm willing to concede that gender dysmorphia is indeed a real issue, and I'm sympathetic to anyone who truly feels trapped and out of place within their own body. If a man/woman chooses to live his/her life as the opposite gender, it's none of my damn business and basic etiquette dictates that I address that person as he or she prefers.

But humoring these delusions and requiring the entire world to go along with their pretend acts helps no one. It is the ultimate instance of feelings trumping reality.

Gender dysmorphia is recognized as a psychological issue because it is one. The government probably can use the Americans with Disabilities Act to require public schools to make reasonable accommodations, such the separate bathroom in that Virginia case, but demanding that the world buy into your delusions helps no one. Using the Justice Department to force schools to do so will only hurt people actually suffering from this disorder who just want to go about their lives without being a martyr for the latest SJW fad.

[Zeb]

That's pretty much where I'm at, I think. There do seem to be people who genuinely feel a need to live as the other sex and possibly modify their bodies as well. I don't know what the best way to deal with that issue, but if people think that what they need is to transition to living as the other sex, I'm not going to argue with them.
But this real, serious gender dysphoria thing seems to be conflated lately with much more common teenage confusion. Someone who might have identified as queer, or just been kind of a freak or weirdo (which I don't consider a negative or pejorative, I love freaks and weirdos) now have "non-binary gender identity" to identify with. Which doesn't seem to be very helpful if you want better acceptance and accommodation of trangender people.

[John]

I agree with Derp as well. I don't think we should be cruel to people. And I don't have a problem giving such people some accommodation. But that is not what is going on here.

[Free Society]

some accommodation

It never stops with "some". The left is incapable of stopping short of anything other than total conquest of every aspect of human existence.

[John]

You are right. They are just totalitarian assholes, they use any sign of reasonability on your part against you.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

"Some accommodation" because it's a recognized medical issue, was the point, I think.

[Free Society]

"Some accommodation" because it's a recognized medical issue, was the point, I think.

Less and less as this medical issue becomes a trendy fashion statement.

[Tonio]

But you people who insist that this is bona fide mental illness keep painting yourselves into a corner with that. Let me know how that works out for you!

[Free Society]

Let me know how that's an argument.

[Long Woodchippers]

Obama ruled out separate bathrooms, as that just stigmatizes the poor child. Those who are made uncomfortable by the transgendered child's presence are the bigots who need to be removed to alternate accommodations (reading from the Charlotte law)

Speaking of identifying, I saw an AP article about George Zimmerman's gun auction that stated, "Zimmerman, who identifies as Hispanic."

Is that like, "Former Democratic New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, who identifies as Hispanic" or "U.S. president Barack Obama, who identifies as black"

For all three of those people, they're half and half. It's not in their imagination, as the AP seems to suggest of Zimmerman.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Or Senator Warren, who identifies as Native American?

[Long Woodchippers]

She's on the correct team, so she's free to do what she wants.

[Rich]

I am a cat.

This is a great song. Seriously.

[Zeb]

OK, but I'm going to squirt you in the face with a water gun.

[Krabappel]

We reserve the right to have your claws removed or just put you down.

[Fist of Etiquette]

"The Obama administration is planning to issue a sweeping directive telling every public school district in the country to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity."

Of course the reactionary Obama administration would consider only a binary distinction of genders. I demand the construction of new shitters to handle all the genders under the sun.

[Hamster of Doom]

Court Denies Immunity To Cop Who Arrested Crew Sent To Clean Out His Foreclosed House

Defendant-Appellant Timothy Filbeck was a lieutenant with the Butts County Sheriff's Office. When his house was foreclosed upon, he, like anyone else who has been through foreclosure, had certain options available to him. But arresting the new owner's agents, Plaintiffs-Appellees David Carter, Clayton Graham, Jr., and Mitchell Webster (collectively, "Plaintiffs"), who were lawfully performing their jobs, was not one of them. And neither was ordering Plaintiffs handcuffed and thrown in jail overnight. We think that should go without saying. Yet Filbeck did these things, anyway. Now Filbeck tries to convince us that he is immune from suit. We are not persuaded. Being a law-enforcement officer is not a license to break the law. And it is certainly not a shield behind which Filbeck may abuse his power with impunity.

[Rhywun]

Being a law-enforcement officer is not a license to break the law.

LOL

[Juvenile Bluster]

He should've just shot them all. He'd probably still be employed as a cop.

[Hamster of Doom]

He is. Actually, he's angling for a promotion.

That being said, this lawsuit seems to be doing nothing to hold back Filbeck's run for Sheriff of Benton County, AR, where he promises to "bring ethics and integrity back to the Sheriff's Office." (I assume he's having some shipped in...) Not only that, but there's no mention of this debacle in former Butts County Sheriff Gene Pope's letter of recommendation.

[BigT]

Being a law-enforcement officer is not a license to break the law. And it is certainly not a shield behind which Filbeck may abuse his power with impunity.

Someone actually wrote this sentence! Amazing what things happen in today's America!

[The Last American Hero]

Actually, in the State of Washington, a cop has a license to kill and can only be convicted of murder if they can show the cop acted with malicious intent. So cop walks into convenience store, mistakes you for a perp, you get dead, cop keeps job, city pays settlement. Cop chasing perp think's he's a movie cop and runs you over because of reckless behavior? Nope. Cop tries to shoot perp, puts bullets in the head of your children? Pass.

[Jerryskids]

Well, she's only been there for less than two years. She's still learning. And she did only say "law enforcement officer", she didn't try to make some general case of government officials as a whole not being above the law.

[Free Society]

Being a law-enforcement officer is not a license to break the law. And it is certainly not a shield behind which Filbeck may abuse his power with impunity.

That's funny. It's nothing short of miraculous that the court didn't accept his demands of immunity.

[Jerryskids]

I could definitely see an argument being made after the SCOTUS decision in Heien - the one where they ruled that the cop who busted a guy for a "crime" that turned out to not be a crime had still made a righteous bust because ignorance of the law is a perfectly reasonable excuse for a cop. If a cop is acting under the assumption that he is stopping someone from committing an illegal act and that excuses everything that happens afterward, why would a cop acting under the asssumption that what he is doing is not a prosecutable offense not fall under the same rule? The cop thought he had immunity, why should he not be excused for his ignorance of the law? What's the difference between this case and Heien?

[Lord Humungus]

A Sad Video Highlights the Contradictions and Tragedy of the Transgender Moment

The video below is one of the sadder short clips I've seen. In it, a teenage boy who calls himself Claire dons a bikini top, adopts exaggerated feminine mannerism, and hits the beach with friends to show the challenges of transgender dating. He apparently fools two straight guys into believing he's a girl and he gets their phone number. Later, he laments that they lose interest when they find out he's male. Watch:

...

Claire says that "straight guys just can't get over you having the male parts" and expresses hope that when he "gets the surgery," his life will be better. Until then, he can't "get physical" with straight guys.

The video is a promo for a BBC Three documentary called "Young, Trans, and Looking for Love" that aired in Britain late last year. It's designed to highlight the struggle of transgender dating. Instead, the clip highlights the tragedy and contradictions inherent in the transgender movement itself.

[Tonio]

Until then, he can't "get physical" with straight guys.

More like they choose to not get physical with him because they are looking for different equipment than is currently available. But there might be straight guys out there who don't have a problem with that individual's current equipment.

[Florida Hipster]

I saw a catfish about that. The guy was disappointed that the M to F was in reality born female. I think he was a conflicted gay man looking to ease into it.

[Free Society]

Even after he modifies his equipment, I'd want no part of that. Failing to inform me of your modifications before I dive into the crater where your dick used to be constitutes some kind of transgression in my book. Get it? TRANSgression? Ehhh? Ehhh?

[Jerryskids]

But there might be straight guys out there who don't have a problem with that individual's current equipment.

You know, there's another term besides "straight" for guys who don't mind what physical equipment their sex partner has. It's not "heterosexual", either. Or "differently-abled" or "backwards-compatible" or "Raymond Luxury Yacht". Words do have meanings.

[straffinrun]

Later, he laments that they lose interest when they find out he's male. Watch:

Well? Where's the link for that video?

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

How unfair straight dudes don't want to make it with Lola!

Racist! Or something, something.

There oughta be a law.

[Krabappel]

I get it, as a gay man I am also frequently disappointed that some straight guys aren't available. Just like they arent available to unattractive women, etc.

You don't always get what you want.

[Michael]

Would.

[Lord Humungus]

+1 Crying Game

[Demoted Comment (Slammer)]

U2's The Edge and his decade-long fight to build on a pristine Malibu hillside

Since buying the land more than a decade ago and proposing to build a residential compound, Evans and his partners have employed more than 60 lawyers, lobbyists and environmental consultants to get the required permits, public records shows.

They filed more than 70 technical reports, filling 26 bankers boxes, from all manner of experts ? geologists, biologists, hydrologists, archaeologists, arborists, structural engineers, transportation engineers ? to persuade the California Coastal Commission that the houses wouldn't unduly stress the plants and animals living on the hillside, or create an eyesore for neighbors and surfers riding waves off the beaches far below.

There's no public accounting of how much the massive lobbying effort has cost, and Evans declined to be interviewed for this story. But his struggle has become a symbol of, depending on your perspective, the absurd thicket of regulation facing those who want to build along California's 1,100 miles of coast or the ability of the rich and politically connected to get their way.

[MetalBard]

So who is more confused this guy, or the two guys who gave him their phone number?

[Libertarian]

What to you have against the Edge?

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

The Edge is definitely more confused, thinking that his property is his property.

[Not an Economist]

Silly libertarians, thinking people own things. You are only renting it until someone else needs it more. Who needs it more will be decided by an impartial group of concerned citizens from properly vetted groups.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

And this is the Edge. If he can't do it, imagine if you're a regular person who owns some land in California and wants to build something.

[Jerryskids]

But his struggle has become a symbol of, depending on your perspective, the absurd thicket of regulation facing those who want to build along California's 1,100 miles of coast or the ability of the rich and politically connected to get their way.

I sure would like to see a list of who sees it from the first perspective and who from the second. That second might be a good list to keep on hand in case we ever needed a reference for who would make a good woodchipper performance test subject or something. A decade of work involving 26 boxes of documents generated by 60 hired experts just to try and get permission to build a house on your own property - and your first thought is it's a shame that regular old poor people are shut out of that option? Not, that if the state wants to control the property that damn bad they should be forced to pay for it the way regular people have to actually buy stuff if they want to control the use of it?

[Stevecsd]

Having lived in coastal California for over 50 years, I could have told him this would be a fool's errand. He'll get his permits when hell freezes over.

[Rich]

*That's* security!

[Demoted Comment (Slammer)]

I feel so much safer.

[straffinrun]

So is this.

[straffinrun]

Should've put this link somewhere else, but I wasn't sure if Reason had covered this latest cop beat down.

[Pope Jimbo]

I fly out of Midway a lot. I've seen lines that long several times. Usually the wrap it back down the stairs you see at the beginning and back into the ticketing area.

Never any explanation from the airport folk either about how it got that bad. I always figured someone made a stupid joke and the TSA shut the line down to shit its pants.

[Lord Humungus]

When I flew out of San Juan I had an hour and a half wait through TSA. A single long line that was eventually split into three separate queues. For ID checking... and then new lines for the Rapy-scan. It was frustrating slow - I was just glad that we had left extra early.

[CatoTheChipper]

Are you kidding me TSA? What the fuck?

The TSA is killing people.

Literally killing people ... because of intermodal substitution.

Many years ago, a baby was the sole fatality in a plane crash because she was in her mom's arms instead of in a child seat buckled into her own passenger seat. Government rushed to correct this obvious oversight in air travel safety, and required the airlines to provide a seat for all passengers, even infants. Faced with the cost of purchasing an additional ticket, many passengers elected to drive rather than fly. Later studies on the effect of this regulation revealed that it was killing about 12 passengers in car accidents for every life saved in air travel accidents. It's a textbook case of bad regulation.

As it stands now, you've gotta be crazy to fly for any trip that takes less than three hours on the road one-way. This tradeoff affects all passengers, not just those with infants. I now hate air travel so much that my tradeoff is at five hours, and I know the relative risk of driving.

[Emmerson Biggins]

I'd say even if the dollar costs are exactly the same, my psychic-utility break even point is about 8 hours.

[Lord Humungus]

Wendy's Serves Up Big Kiosk Expansion As Wage Hikes Hit Fast Food

Wendy's said that self-service ordering kiosks will be made available across its 6,000-plus restaurants in the second half of the year as minimum wage hikes and a tight labor market push up wages.

It will be up to franchisees whether to deploy the labor-saving technology, but Wendy's President Todd Penegor did note that some franchise locations have been raising prices to offset wage hikes.

McDonald's (MCD) has been testing self-service kiosks. But Wendy's, which has been vocal about embracing labor-saving technology, is launching the biggest potential expansion.

[Juvenile Bluster]

I'm waiting for the push to ban automation. You know it's coming.

[sarcasmic]

I doubt it will be a ban. More like requiring permits, and then refusing to issue them. Which is totally different than a ban.

[Rasilio]

No, probably more like a requirement of a minimum number of employees per customer or some such bs

[thom]

It'll be like the auto-plant I toured once that had a robot doing a perfect job installing windshields on an assembly line, and a unionized worker sitting at a desk in front of a red button watching the robot and ready to shut it down should it malfunction.

[Tonio]

I think they will try something a bit more subtle, such as requiring that order-entry systems be operated by restaurant employees. It will be interesting to see how they try to fuck with smartphone apps which allow you to order; will probably require that those orders be processed in some fashion by employees - like rekeying the order and introducing the possibility of errors.

[Long Woodchippers]

This is where you order food at Sheetz

It has the added advantage of not having to decipher the clerk's accent when she asks if you want onions on that.

[Jerryskids]

I've mentioned before how when I worked in Marietta (Atlanta) I ate lunch every day at the Taco Bell (may have been a Del Taco, I don't remember) because it was the one place you could get in and out of fast when there's 20,000 people all trying to get lunch at the same time. They had a serpentine queue with touch-screen kiosks along the way where you placed your own order and got a ticket. By the time you got to the head of the line in a couple of minutes you just handed your ticket and your money to the one cashier, moved to the left and picked up the order that the 20 people in the back had made before you even gave the cashier your money. The system was a prototype made by a local company and that particular restaurant was where they were testing it. I don't know what happened to that idea but it sure worked well. No jerk holding everybody up trying to decide what they want, nobody arguing over whether their order was rung up right, the queue was wide enough that you could move past people who were slow on the kiosk, (the real line was just handing your money to the cashier and moving on) so once you figured out the system you didn't even break stride walking in one side with your money and out the other side with a bag of grub. And you didn't have to say one word to another human being if you didn't want to.

[CatoTheChipper]

That's the upside of minimum wage: we'll be using an interface with a smart machine to place orders and make payments instead of a stupid human.

[GamerFromJump]

McDonald's has these in Beijing. Which is odd, because usually China mandates more labor-intensive methods to increase employment. Guess that shows how powerful McDonald's is.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Soccer plus vale tudo? I'd love to play this game!

[Crusty Juggler]

Whoa.

[Rhywun]

Must be for millenials only with all that tattage 🙁

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

That game has been around for centuries.

Millenials would need massive amounts of trigger warnings because that game is nothing but one gigantic microaggression.

It's splendid.

[The Last American Hero]

You just broke the first 2 rules of calcio storico.

Also, guys like that are the only guys that should be allowed to have tattoos.

[Citizen X]

Eh. It's no buzkashi.

[BigT]

This country is obviously ripe for nation building and constitutional democratic republican government!

[Citizen X]

I first read about buzkashi in 2004, and my immediate thought was WHY WOULD ANYONE THINK IT'S A GOOD IDEA TO INVADE A COUNTRY WHERE BUZKASHI IS PLAYED.

[Lord Humungus]

Canadian punched in Times Square after refusing to pay for a 'free hug'

A man offering "free hugs" in New York's Times Square is accused of punching a Canadian tourist in the face after she refused to tip him for his hug and a photo.

Jermaine Himmelstein was arrested on robbery and fraudulent accosting charges shortly after the Thursday afternoon incident.

Police say Himmelstein demanded a cash tip from the 22-year-old woman, who was visiting from Ottawa, after she took a photo with him. When the woman refused to pay, police say Himmelstein punched her in the face and then ran off. The victim was left with a black eye, cuts and bruises.

[UnCivilServant]

There's no such thing as a free hug?

[Juvenile Bluster]

I'm starting to think Times Square was a better place when it was a wretched hive of scum, villainy, and porn.

[Juice]

Strangely enough I was there a few days ago. I hadn't been there since 1993 and it's entirely different. For one, the streets were all blocked off. I remember back in 93 asking what's the big deal? It's just a couple of cross streets and some billboards. Now the streets are all blocked off and it's a valley of jumbotrons. I mean, do you think you have enough fucking jumbotrons? Also there are relentless assholes with shitty costumes harassing you for money. And then I had some foreign people asking me where the theater district is. I'm like, uh...

But then I noticed that there is a plethora of jumbotrons all across Manhattan. I'm like, enough with the jumbotrons, people.

NYC in general is very different from what it was back then. VERY hipster everything. Disappointing. It was a bitch to find a kosher deli and when you did find one they wanted $20 for a pastrami sandwich. No shit. $20. Anyway, it seemed like Manhattan has turned into a theme park.

[Clich? Bandit]

Second Ave. Deli closed and that had the SINGLE BEST HOT PASTRAMI ON RYE in the whole world. I cried. I heard it or some other deli in the same location has reopened but I have not been to it. I weep for its loss.

[Jerryskids]

You're not the first to think of Manhattan as a playground for the rich.

Some Democrats like California Rep. Henry Waxman have another explanation for the vote: greed. "They want to protect their wealth," he explained, "which is why a lot of well-off voters vote for Republicans." You almost have to admire the chutzpah of such views from a man who represents Beverly Hills.

Waxman, of course, is wrong. This election was driven not by desertions of the rich but by the shift to the GOP among largely middle or working class voters. In many ways this election followed the pattern established by Sen. Scott Brown's stunning 2009 Massachusetts victory, which came largely from middle-income voters. The ninth district's new representative, Bob Turner, won big in modest Middle Village and South Brooklyn, while losing decisively in the wealthiest precincts such as Forest Hills and some minority, immigrant-oriented enclaves.

The big story here, as Bornstein suggests, lies in the growing unease about the national and New York economies among large sections of the city's beleaguered middle class. Despite the enormous wealth generated on Wall Street, New York's middle class has been fleeing the city at breakneck speed for decades.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

No, it wasn't me. Yes, I'm gonna marry a carrot.

[Crusty Juggler]

It's the concrete jungle where dreams are made of, and those dreams are not free. Pay up, canuck.

[Libertymike]

Would you hug Cytotoxic even if agreed to tip you?

[Libertarian]

Don't keep us in suspense, Humungus. Did the Canadian apologize or not?

[Demoted Comment (Slammer)]

Sorry

[Tonio]

False advertising, then. Hope she sues and gets a big award.

[Rhywun]

Something tells me that sketchy randos panhandling in Times Square don't have a lot of assets.

[Fist of Etiquette]

"The Obama administration is planning to issue a sweeping directive telling every public school district in the country to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity."

It looks like this school district...

[dons sunglasses]

...doesn't care to ac-commode-ate transgendered students.

[Rich]

It looks like the administration

[dons sunglasses]

is stirring the pot.
is kicking the can.
really stepped in it.

[BigT]

Hillary campaign pays $1 million for trolling of Bernie.

Can this witch stoop any lower?

Is Cytotoxic on the payroll? Anyone else from the commieteriat?

[Tonio]

commieteriat Commie-tariat? LOL

[Agent Cooper]

ORRECT
HE
ECORD

[Lord Humungus]

It's all part of her act...

Florida stripper tries to eat shirt during Key West drunken driving arrest

Police said they put McCausland into a patrol car against her will, but she later agreed to a breathalyzer test at the Monroe County Detention Center. She would not submit a breath sample when cops offered her the breath test device's mouthpiece, though.

"McCausland begged for another chance to submit to the breath test and since she was acting somewhat rational I removed the handcuffs," the arresting officer wrote. "I told McCausland not to place anything in her mouth and she then stuffed a large portion of her shirt into her mouth and began chewing at the fabric."

[AlmightyJB]

Would

[sarcasmic]

You misspelled "wood."

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

You had me at 'Florida stripper'.

[Citizen X]

+3 entirely new types of hepatitis

[PBR Streetgang]

Totally misread "shirt" at a first glance.

[Lord Humungus]

short?

[Lord Humungus]

'70s High School Art Project Mistakenly Valued At $50K On 'Antiques Roadshow'

"It's bizarre and wonderful. You even see a little bit of, like, Pablo Picasso going on here. It's a little difficult to identify precisely when this was made, but I think it's probably late 19th or early 20th century. ...

"Probably its origin ? it's coast of the United States, maybe Middle Atlantic states headed southward. Estimating its value is a little difficult. I think in a retail setting, somebody might well ask in the area of between $30,000 and $50,000 for this."

The owner, astonished, said, "What!?"

And also, "No!"

Which, as it turns out, was the right reaction. The "Grotesque Face Jug" wasn't a 100-year-old artifact, but the work of a creative high school student circa 1973.

[Rich]

"I feel the value at auction, based on its quality and artistic merit, is in the $3,000-$5,000 range."

Then you won't mind taking it off my hands for $2500.

[Pope Jimbo]

The last year or two have seen several teachers get assaulted in St. Paul schools. One of the big points in the recent contract discussions was how to increase teacher safety. So what do we decide to do?

Why spend $4.4M on a new program for restorative practices in the school. Way better than simply suspending the miscreants.

Often characterized by a circular seating arrangement, the conversations at the heart of restorative practices offer everyone involved the chance to speak. In some cases, a facilitator may use a talking stick, or some other object, to help designate whose turn it is, and to ensure that there are no interruptions.

While such activities tend to strike outsiders as an odd or impractical way of holding students accountable (at least compared to more traditional disciplinary measures, like suspension), restorative practices are increasingly gaining clout among students, school administrators and teachers.

I'm sure if I was working in a school with kids who were willing to assault teachers, I'd love a program that gave them a stick.

[commodious spittoon]

In some cases, a facilitator may use a talking stick

Until a discussant beats the facilitator with that talking stick.

[Lord Humungus]

It's Not Just You, Most Millennials Are Bored at Work

Fortunately, a new Gallup report, "How Millennials Want to Work and Live," should shed light on that question. There have been other reports and surveys like this before, and there will undoubtedly be more in the future, but for the moment, let us bask in the comforting glow of yet another poll purporting to tell us something new about millennials. And that new thing is: Millennials are bored at work.

There are other findings, including that millennials are less likely to be religious and more likely to get news from the internet, but everyone already knew that. The big takeaway is that 55 percent of millennials are "not engaged at work," with 16 percent being "actively disengaged," that presumably being the technical survey term for the kind of feeling you have where you just want to walk away from the cash register out into the street and see what happens.

[UnCivilServant]

No shit, sherlock.

It's "work" not play. Work is often not fun.

Get over it.

[Pope Jimbo]

I said almost the same thing to a millenial who used to work for me. I was counseling him on how he needed to improve his performance or I'd have to let him know.

His rebuttal was that I "didn't make this a fun place to work."

That is when I informed him that if work was fun, I would charge him for the privilege. The reason I had to pay him should be a hint that work is not fun.

[Rhywun]

They are disappointed at the lack of scheduled play dates.

[thom]

Too often, however, work seems unnecessarily stupidly boring and uninteresting. I've always joked that my job has two requirements: get my work done and sit in my chair for at least 40 hours. But it's not really a joke, is it?

[commodious spittoon]

The big takeaway is that 55 percent of millennials are "not engaged at work,"

The bigger takeaway is that 45% of millennials are engaged at work.

[VG Zaytsev]

Breaking news:::!!!!!1!1

Trump trolled reporters twenty five years ago

[Elspeth Flashman]

OT: On this episode of "When Nerds Get Power" Lady Elspeth gets to review applications for the State Bar Committee she now chairs. (rubs hands in glee).

[Lord Humungus]

Dying for gold: South Africa's biggest ever class action lawsuit gets go ahead

Several studies estimate that there are at least two hundred thousand current and former miners in the region suffering from the disease. Researchers have called it a pandemic.

On Friday, thousands of gold miners were given the go ahead to proceed with their landmark class action suit -- the biggest in South Africa's history -- against mining firms.

South Gauteng High Court Judge Phineas Mojapelo ruled that there is "sufficient common action to satisfy a class action."

"Almost the entire gold mining industry is involved in this case. The scope and magnitude of the proposed silicosis case is unprecedented," said Mojapelo.

[UnCivilServant]

You can't have an epidemic or pandemic of a noncommunicable disease.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Clinton directed staffer to call her on home phone instead of secure line

New emails released by a conservative watchdog group on Thursday appear to show former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton directing a top aide to call her via an unsecured phone line when technical troubles prevented a secure phone conversation.

"I give up. Call me on my home #," Clinton told then-chief of staff Cheryl Mills in a February 2009 email, after more than an hour of trouble trying to communicate via a secure line.

"I just spoke to ops and called you reg line - we have to wait until we see each other b/c [the] technology is not working," Mills said in another email sent at almost exactly the same time.
"Pls try again," responded Clinton, a few moments later.

It's unclear whether the two did connect, or if they moderated any discussion they may have had to avoid sensitive topics while on an unsecure landline.

But the episode is likely to cause concern among critics of Clinton, who have previously accused her of resorting to unsecure forms of communication out of convenience, potentially jeopardizing sensitive information. Another email of Clinton's, released in January, appeared to show her telling a top aide to remove identifying details and send a sensitive document through a "nonsecure" channel instead of via "secure fax."

[Rich]

"This drip, drip of new Clinton emails show Hillary Clinton could not care less about the security of her communications," said Tom Fitton, the president of the watchdog group, Judicial Watch, in a statement releasing Thursday's email. "How many other smoking gun emails are Hillary Clinton and her co-conspirators in the Obama administration hiding from the American people?"

Yep. She is going down.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Yep. She is going down.

I'd like to think so. There has already been more than sufficient evidence released to convict a mere mortal like you or I. I keep trying to convince myself that some modicum of justice must still exist within the higher ranks of our government, but the Obama Administration has spent the past seven years confirming all of my deepest cynicisms.

[Not an Economist]

^This.

Based on what we know, even if nothing she has done is worth prosecuting her for, any major Republican (except for Trump ... maybe) would have been hounded mercilessly by the press for the appearance of impropriety and driven from office or running for office. Any mere government mortal would, if they were extremely lucky, would have been suspended without pay, more likely they would be fired.

The fact that Hilliary is getting such a pass is infuriating.

[Lord Humungus]

US Planning Month of Raids to Deport Hundreds of Central American Moms and Kids

US immigration officials are planning a month-long series of raids in May and June to deport hundreds of Central American mothers and children found to have entered the country illegally, according to sources and an internal document seen by Reuters.

The operation would likely be the largest deportation sweep targeting immigrant families by the administration of President Barack Obama this year after a similar drive over two days in January that focused on Georgia, Texas, and North Carolina.

Those raids, which resulted in the detention of 121 people, mostly women and children, sparked an outcry from immigration advocates and criticism from some Democrats, including the party's presidential election frontrunner Hillary Clinton.

[BigT]

Democrats hate immigrants. This should be on the Donald's lips every day for a month.

[Griffin3]

largest deportation sweep targeting immigrant families ... detention of 121 people, mostly women and children

illegal immigration of these children hit record-breaking numbers in 2014, with U.S. officials apprehending more than 52,000 alien children ... more than 10,600 unaccompanied minors crossed the border just in the month of June

Is there even a Jeopardy category for "Why Bother?"

The surge has led the Obama administration to request at least $1 billion in fiscal 2016, according to the report. More than $770 million is expected to be allocated through 2017.

Oh.

[Bill Dalasio]

OT

Interesting chart on tax payment relative to income for the top decile here.

One of the ironies here is that the Scandinavian countries the left tells us we should try to emulate have much flatter tax structures.

In Sweden, the ratio of income to tax is 1.00. The richest decile pays the same proportion of the tax bill as they make of the income.

In Norway, the figure is 0.95. In Denmark, 1.02.

In the U.S., it's 1.35.

So, someone isn't paying their fair share. It's just not the rich, but the rest of the general public.

[Agile Cyborg]

Powerful women give my telomeres erections.

I desire to grind their metaphorical brains and bodies into sweet compelling psychonutrients spilling into my mouth palace with big bang explosions raining the cum of humongous parallelatronic space veins ripping and coursing through my motherfucking entity as this army of solar flame spewing fatty mounds and rivulets of flesh smash effulgent rich vitalities into my corridors so core that rainbows blanch and then beg Jesus for the keys to my cities so that they may rent penthouses in my goddamn brain.

Rainbows with powerful women on their rays may exist within me for free, colorful cloud people. Spread the motherfucking word, atmosnature!

[Rich]

Good morning, A C!

Serious question: Have you considered writing a novel?

[Agile Cyborg]

No, my lovely Rich.

[Rich]

Well, please think about it. It would be a bestseller.

[BigT]

Not a novel, Rich, but a collection of poetry would be appropriate.

I can't say I understand half of what Agile is saying, but his command of language is fantastic.

[Rich]

I could live with that.

[robc]

He is publishing it a bit at a time here.

[Mickey Rat]

"Claire says that "straight guys just can't get over you having the male parts" and expresses hope that when he "gets the surgery," his life will be better. Until then, he can't "get physical" with straight guys.

First, the contradictions. For the last decade, the American public has been told that sexual orientation is a fixed, immutable characteristic ? like skin color. Now we're told that "gender identity" is much the same. Psychology is fixed. Biology has to adjust.

But observe the lamentation in the video: A transgender boy wants other boys to change, to reject the "born this way" of their own sexuality for the open-mindedness of "getting physical" with a girl with a penis. Claire is desperate for their psychology to change, for their minds to open, and for their sexual identity to change in response to Claire's allegedly unchangeable desires."

http://www.nationalreview.com/.....liberation

[Irish is a Millennial, Poll Me]

"First, the contradictions. For the last decade, the American public has been told that sexual orientation is a fixed, immutable characteristic ? like skin color. Now we're told that "gender identity" is much the same. Psychology is fixed. Biology has to adjust."

They don't think gender identity is a fixed immutable characteristic though, they think you can literally change your gender identity on the fly. That's what being 'gender fluid' is.

They don't know what their own arguments are. They say gender is a social construct, but if gender is a social construct then it's impossible to be born transgender. Therefore, unlike homosexuality, transgenderism must be a choice. However, transgender people deny that transgenderism is a choice.

So gender is a social construct, but somehow you can be born with a set gender identity.

[UnCivilServant]

It's much more consistant to conclude that the 1 in 2400 people with gender dysphoria are better served by getting mental help instead of being ushered into a different bathroom or surgically altered.

It would also greatly reduce their suicide rates.

[mfckr]

Constructive interventions that could actually help people?? Govt ain't got time fo' dat.

This is just to impose more odd and disorienting societal rules on people.

And pave the way for transgenders to be a more officially sanctioned victim class.

[BigT]

Why not just have a third bathroom, one stall, that is open to all who want the increased privacy? Some places have such 'family bathrooms' with dinky potties and changing tables, for example.

[mfckr]

Because that doesn't grant people arbitrary options validating whatever identity they wish to be, duh.

(Also bc most current bldgs have already been designed in mind for separate male & female bathrooms, so we'll keep using 2n bathroom schemas until there's reason to renovate or tear the bldg down entirely).

[BigT]

Good point. Solving the physical problem, doesn't necessarily solve the mental health problem. And there is a bottomless well of mental health problems that the Progs can tap for future grievance politics. Sad.

[Mickey Rat]

The Obama administration has specifically rejected that as a complying accommodation.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

My understanding of the "gender is a social construct" argument was that, basically, there was nothing inherently "male" or "female" about the gender norms of a given society, for example, the color pink or wearing dresses in most Western cultures. As I understood things, the point was that it should be perfectly acceptable for girls or boys to deviate from said norms without their behavior or sexuality being challenged.

I feel like the trans movement (or more accurately, the SJWs who have recently adopted trans issues as their grievance of the month) completely distorts that, arguing that, saying, liking pink or wanting to wear a dress in fact does make you a girl. It's a very childish and rigid perception and they do not seem to have thought it through in the slightest. Which, of course, is their standard operating procedure.

[Irish is a Millennial, Poll Me]

That's a good point. You'll sometimes hear 'gender queer' people say 'Oh, I knew I was different because I was born a girl but I liked playing with trucks when I was a kid!' As if playing with trucks is only a male thing and that somehow indicates you're a different gender.

[John]

So gender is a social construct, but somehow you can be born with a set gender identity.

Exactly. And that is why a lot of old school feminists have objected to this. The other issue is what does "gender identity" even mean and what makes it more special than any other identity? There is never been any scientific evidence that the brains of the transgender are any different than the brains of those who are not. So someone is "transgendered" because they feel that way. Okay, what if I feel that I am a vampire or a wolf. Why is that not valid and worthy of accommodation but thinking you are the other gender is? Both are contrary to biology.

[Irish is a Millennial, Poll Me]

There's also no reason why criticizing certain aspects of transgender ideology (and it is an ideology - transgender people have very specific beliefs about what transgenderism is, even in the absence of evidence) should cause transgendered people to get as mad as it gets them. I've seen transgendered people freak out because someone used the wrong gender pronoun.

I'm sorry, that's very minor. It really is not a big deal. We're not talking about someone abusing or oppressing you. It's just words.

That's what annoys me about this. You can do what you want with your own life, but there's just so much ridiculous hysteria when a transgender person gets their feelings hurt.

[John]

That annoys me too. They don't check your DNA at the door. I have no doubt lots of transgender have lived as the other sex without anyone noticing. And that is fine. So why is it an issue? The only reason I can see is that for some transgender at least, blending in and everyone thinking they are the sex of their choice is not enough. They must have positive affirmation of their choice.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

In my experience, that behavior is exhibited more by SJWs wanting attention for being "different" than actual people with gender dysmorphia.

[Zeb]

Yeah, I think that's true. People with the actual gender dysphoria (or dysmorphia or whatever it is) just want to be the other sex and usually just want to live as normally as possible. I don't know if that's the best way to deal with it, but they can choose for themselves.
But now we seem to be seeing a lot of people who are identifying as some "non-binary" thing. Which seems like a whole different issue. I'm all for people being as freaky and sexually unusual as they want. But it doesn't warrant a whole new protected class.

[Zeb]

"They" aren't all the same people. There is a lot of disagreement among those who spend a lot of time thinking about gender and sexuality about all of that.

[Irish is a Millennial, Poll Me]

When I said 'they' I meant 'progressive SJWs' not transgender people. I should have made that clear. Obviously there's disagreement among trans people, but I was specifically talking about the progressive, leftist view of gender.

[Drake]

I saw that yesterday. Trannies shocked that straight American boys don't want to engage in homosexual acts. And insinuating that it's because something is wrong with the straight young men.

[Idle Hands]

Someday in the near future not having sex with a tranny or homosexual will be seen as homophobic by the right thinking among us.

[Irish is a Millennial, Poll Me]

"The world's oldest person, 116-year-old Susannah Mushatt Jones, has died."

I can only assume she was murdered by the world's second oldest person so she could claim the throne.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

It's just a parking spot, there is no actual throne.

[sarcasmic]

"The Obama administration is planning to issue a sweeping directive telling every public school district in the country to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity."

Ah yes. More tolerance and inclusivity. As in "Do what we want or we're going to use force on you."

[Rich]

Good thing this directive doesn't have "the force of law", huh?

[Drake]

Does make me feel better about forking out the money for private school.

[CatoTheChipper]

But not for long, because the next step is to deprive your private school of 503(c)(3) status if they fail to comply.

[Mickey Rat]

No, it is just going to be the basis of lawsuits flushing down taxpayer money on both sides.

[Lord Humungus]

Zuck to Invite Politicians to Facebook to Talk Trending News

In a Facebook post published Thursday night, Zuckerberg said Facebook has found no evidence that its employees have been intentionally suppressing conservative content in its Trending Topics section, as was alleged in a recent report.

Still, he said the company would launch a full investigation to ensure that there's been no foul play. And if there has been, Zuckerberg wrote, "you have my commitment that we will take additional steps to address it."

Zuckerberg also said the company would be inviting "leading conservatives and people from across the political spectrum" to come to Facebook and discuss these issues in person. "I want to have a direct conversation about what Facebook stands for and how we can be sure our platform stays as open as possible," he wrote.

[Agile Cyborg]

Information sources feed our brain pool... create realities... force the structuring of aversions and paranoias. Facebook is one minnow marching in the shallows with all the other data manipulators. Every fucking source, including 'favorites' (Reason for example), should be viewed through the consistent prism of skepticism.

Crowds can be efficiently driven once they coalesce into similarity gatherings.

[straffinrun]

*Heaves sink through window and strolls into sunset*

[Demoted Comment (Slammer)]

+1 Chief

[Agile Cyborg]

Gorgeous.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

You realize that Straffinrun is obligated to suffocate you with a pillow, now.

[BigT]

Every fucking source, including 'favorites' (Reason for example), should be viewed through the consistent prism of skepticism.

Crowds can be efficiently driven once they coalesce into similarity gatherings.

Amen!!

[mfckr]

WHERE ALL THE TRUMP ARITCLES AT? WOW FAGS

[straffinrun]

Is it just me, or is this a rather hang dog thread?

[Drake]

Later we'll have a shoot dog thread.

[Rich]

And then a hang ten thread!

[Lord Humungus]

+1 Surfs Up, Daddy-o

[Mazakon]

"The Obama administration is planning to issue a sweeping directive telling every public school district in the country to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity."

Via Mark Knoller: "No student should ever have to go through the experience of feeling unwelcome at school or on a college campus," - Educ Secy @JohnKingatED.

Come on, there are plenty of people who feel unwelcome at school, but they just aren't enough of a protected class.

[Crusty Juggler]

I suffer from social anxiety, and I feel uncomfortable here.

[Demoted Comment (Slammer)]

*shoves Crusty in locker*

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

"Welcome to school, motherfucker!"

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

I thought feeling unwelcomed was the entire point of high school.

The real atrocity, in my opinion, is that forcing awkward teenagers to undress and shower at school is still practiced at all.

[Rhywun]

No student should ever have to go through the experience of feeling unwelcome

Because "getting everything you want" is an important life lesson.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

"No student should ever have to go through the experience of feeling unwelcome at school or on a college campus," - Educ Secy @JohnKingatED.

Sounds like someone was home-schooled. Poorly.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Obama is doing all this crap for his legacy. There's no depth to his reasoning. He finds all the areas where Presidents didn't visit and goes - bang, a filler right there - finds a cause or narrative to latch onto - gun control, pay gap, transgender rights - bang more filers for his bio.

None of this stuff were pressing or in need of his presence or help. Put it to you this way, if he didn't do any of these things the world would still move ahead without him.

He's nothing but a filler.

[Agile Cyborg]

"He's nothing but a filler."

Filler on a spectrum, perhaps. It seems 'selecting' or voting masses cling to a gigantic rusty pendulum that swings disinterested between dangerous fillers... settling on violent continuums roiling with glistening eyes on the hazy outliers where the greatest concentration of civilization rapists exist.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

/kneels before AC.

[Yusef Adama]

I actually understand , Well put AC

[Lord Humungus]

Chait: Nothing Will Stop Reporters From Believing Paul Ryan's Deficit Malarkey

In reality, Ryan's record in public life supports a very different conclusion. Over the last two decades, he has supported all of the major deficit-increasing legislation: the Bush tax cuts, the Bush-era defense buildup, and Bush's debt-financed Medicare drug benefit. During the Bush administration, Ryan distinguished himself from the president by demanding even larger tax cuts ? and, during the fight over privatizing Social Security, advocated a plan that the administration rejected because it would have exploded deficits by too much. Likewise, Ryan has opposed all of the major deficit-reducing legislation during this period ? ending portions of the Bush tax cuts, ending overpayments to private tuition lenders, and enacting the deficit-reducing Affordable Care Act, especially its cost-containment measures. Ryan also voted against the Simpson-Bowles deficit-reduction framework, and torpedoed bipartisan efforts to negotiate a deficit-reduction compromise between the Obama administration and Congress.

[Irish is a Millennial, Poll Me]

"deficit-reducing Affordable Care Act"

HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAA

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Yeah, fuck Ryan. However, Chait is completely lying about him supporting 'all' the major deficit increasing legislation. He voted against the stimulus bill. It's kind of weird Chait includes all those things Bush did that increased the deficit while ignoring the things Obama did to increase the deficit...

[Lord Humungus]

The Pushovers

A new investigation has found that the Department of Labor rarely kicks employers out of the program, leaving thousands of workers each year exposed to mistreatment, injury, and even death. Scores of employers have stolen guest workers' pay, forced them to live in overcrowded or dangerous housing, held them at gunpoint, or even been sent to prison for immigration fraud, yet have been allowed by the Labor Department to continue receiving hundreds or even thousands of H-2 visas.

By its own admission, the Labor Department very frequently finds problems with guest workers' labor conditions. In the 2014 fiscal year, it identified violations in 82% of the H-2 visa cases it investigated. Yet federal records show that the department bans ? or to use its term, debars ? very few companies, and in at least one year didn't debar a single one in the entire country. Between 2010 and 2014, agency investigators identified nearly 1,000 companies that had violated H-2 laws, yet in that time period, the Labor Department debarred fewer than 150. Twelve employers were found to have each stolen more than $100,000 from their guest workers in that time period; only one was debarred."

[lap83]

Personally, I don't care if a trans person uses the same restroom as I do. I wouldn't even care about using a unisex bathroom. What I do care about is the top down enforcement of unbelievably petty shit based on the feelings of a tiny percentage of the population. And the fact that our national priority for education is where those people should get to potty. Fucking education. Anyway, homeschool it is.

[lap83]

Not that I wasn't already in favor of homeschooling my kid when the time comes, but the fact that we're no longer pretending that public school is about education makes it a really easy choice.

[Irish is a Millennial, Poll Me]

"the fact that we're no longer pretending that public school is about education makes it a really easy choice."

We stopped pretending public school was about education when leftists decided the main purpose of education is to provide a make-work program for education majors.

So about 100 years ago.

[Citizen X]

Read John Taylor Gatto's Underground History of American Education in its entirety.

The entire point of public schooling, by explicit design, is to create compliant, obedient cogs for the machines of state, church, industry, union, and war. Actual education has never been the primary goal. There's a reason rhetoric and logic fell off the curriculum at the same time that school became mandatory.

[Injun, as in from India]

End the federal Department of Education already.

End government schools at the state level.

[BigT]

End the federal Department of Education already.

End government schools at the state level.

Trump can do part 1. But part 2 would require a huge revolution in this country. We have a better chance of making Poland the 51st state.

[Irish is a Millennial, Poll Me]

^ this. I really don't care what you want to do. If you want to live as a woman, go for it. Just don't expect everyone to accommodate your decisions.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Agreed 100%

[straffinrun]

It's the most ridiculous culchur war battle to date. What's next?

[lap83]

I'm sure we'll have reached utopia by the time this has settled, we're just crossing our t's and dotting our i's

[UnCivilServant]

while the other half are dotting their t's and crossing their i's.

[straffinrun]

I'd narrow gaze, but my i's are crossed.

[straffinrun]

Bet most societies in history figured out rather quickly where people could take a dump.

[Heroic Mulatto]

In India's case, the answer was "everywhere".

[Rich]

Polygamy.

[Irish is a Millennial, Poll Me]

"It's the most ridiculous culchur war battle to date. What's next?"

Forcing churches to build transgender accommodations and punishing religious institutions that don't let transgendered people be priests.

Requiring teachers to ask gender identification before every class because otherwise a gender fluid student may have changed pronouns overnight.

[Idle Hands]

or cakes, it's always cakes.

[John]

Don't forget, banning teachers for saying that there is such a thing as fixed gender or in any way questioning transgenderism. That is one of the goals of this and a inevitable result of forcing schools to accommodate the transgender.

[Idle Hands]

Discrimination lawsuits against employers who don't employee you/fire you because your fat/ugly.

[Idle Hands]

a litter box/ bathroom area for my service animal?

[Citizen X]

How dare you other my service parrot? He demands the right to shit everywhere, as is his nature!

[Rhywun]

What's next?

As long as it distracts from the many issues that politicians would rather not talk about, it doesn't really matter.

[Lord Humungus]

I remember the Great Bathroom War of 2016. There was shit 'n' piss everywhere; streaming out of every orifice until I couldn't tell if the stench came from a man or woman or other. Those were dark days, especially with the lack of fiber in most people's diets.

[UnCivilServant]

Oh, poor thing, you survived a hit from a laxbomb.

[John]

It's not about bathrooms. It is about government force and designating transgender as another protected class. Once you say that a school can't keep a transgender from using the bathroom of their choice, then you have said transgender is a protected class like race. And that means a lot more than just bathroom. if transgeder is a protected class, the school has to treat the person as the other gender and make sure the students do as well. Basically, it makes objecting to transgenderism the same thing under the law that overt racism is.

This is an enormous attack on freedom. And libertarians have convinced themselves its great because GAYZ!! or something.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

And libertarians have convinced themselves its great because GAYZ!! or something.

Umm...have you read any of the above comments, John? The consensus here is pretty strongly against the government's actions.

[John]

It wasn't on the Shackelford thread last night. And Shackelford thinks that government facilities should accommodate transgendered. He just thinks the courts ought to force it not DOJ. And all of the comenters sans me and couple of others agreed that any government run building should accommodate them. Sure they say private people shouldn't, public accommodation laws and all that. But they think any government entity should be forced to.

This is gay marriage all over again. The progs put out bait by designating some fashionable group as "oppressed" and libertarians take it and jump on the "government" should not discriminate train, and ride it right over people's freedom to object or disagree.

[Irish is a Millennial, Poll Me]

Bullshit. I just looked at that thread. People are disagreeing with you because you're putting words in Shackford's mouth and attacking him for things he never said, not because they disagree with your point.

[John]

I did no such thing. Shackelford said in so many words that he thinks governments should have to accommodate the transgendered. He objects to this because he things the courts should order it not DOJ.

And everyone sans Winston and Mickey Rat agreed with him and thought I was a bigot for saying that the issue should be left up for individual schools to decide based on what the parents there wanted.

Go back and read Shackelford's post. He wants an Ogberfeld or whatever the name was for the transgendered. He made that very clear.

[Demoted Comment (Slammer)]

And awaaaaay we go!

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Ah. I've been pretty slammed at work lately, haven't been around much the past week or so.

I think this issue is drastically different from the gay marriage debate (which, as I recall, you and I do not see eye-to-eye on). My positions on the matter are above, I won't rehash them here.

I do think libertarians need to be cautious of allying with proggies on anything. Progressives are not our allies, even in the events when our interests might overlap. They are unpredictable children who see government force as the solution to everything and tolerate no dissent.

[John]

It is different than gay marriage substantively. But it is the same in the sense that it is another issue where libertarians are supporting the prog line and ignoring the second order effects of achieving that. Whether you like it or not we do have public schools and we do have public accommodation laws. You can't ignore the foreseeable and inevitable legal effects of doing this and just say "but I don't support public accommodation laws or government schools so therefore it is okay for me to support this".

[Long Woodchippers]

This is what I've been trying to explain to people. I don't have a problem with committed transgendered people using a restroom. The problem is government forcing a solution on a problem that doesn't exist, and writing these laws in such a way that open up opportunities for unintended consequences.

There can be *some* privacy in restrooms with the use of stalls, but what about locker rooms and showers, both in schools and places like commercial gyms, where customers expect to be able to be naked while not in the company of people with differing genitalia. Not considering their needs creates a caste system, where some group's feelings are paramount while another group's are ignored.

[SugarFree]

The Shackelford thread last night was mostly about you being an asshole. That you still can't grasp that is a big part of the reason you are such an asshole.

[John]

Yeah. I am a total asshoie about people who refuse to see the logical consequences of their position. I can't suffer fools. It is a character flaw of mine.

I was right and everyone knew it. But yeah, I was a total asshole about it.

[Lord Humungus]

Apparently my attempt at humor was lacking...

[John]

My apologies. More like my reading comprehension was lacking.

[Lord Humungus]

no problem-o

[Private Chipperbot]

Isn't the end game of this idiocy the end of Title IX as well? Boy wants a girls' lacrosse scholarship? Identify as female and kick ass. Same for any other sport.

[Citizen X]

+1 WNBA

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Stephen Curry would totally dominate!

[Injun, as in from India]

"The Obama administration is planning to issue a sweeping directive telling every public school district in the country to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity."

While the federal government is figuring out bathroom policy, the country is going down the proverbial toilet with $19 TRILLION in debt.

[Hamster of Doom]

We can't talk about that now. Someone somewhere is doing something trivial of which we do not approve.

...the country is going down the proverbial toilet...

Oh, you.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Injun, we need to deal with the real problems first, like where a miniscule percentage of high school students are allowed to shit.

Your fixation with trivial distractions like the crippling national debt is just a manifestation of your racism against Obama. Please try to stay focused.

[Injun, as in from India]

"Please do not moan to me about Hillary Clinton's problems," Sanders told MSNBC.

Bernie Sanders knows a thing or two about sexual moaning.

As an under-employed twentysomething radical across the border in Vermont, Sanders preached that sexual repression causes breast cancer, responded "Don't all mammals eat the afterbirth?" to a woman describing how she dined on the placenta after delivering her baby, and ridiculed as repressed a society that compels clothes upon its children. "Now, if children go around naked," Sanders mocked, "they are liable to see each others['] sexual organs, and maybe even touch them. Terrible thing!"

[DEG]

MA and NH state troopers on vacation after beating suspect

Warning: Auto-play video

In the meantime, a New Hampshire state trooper has been relieved from duty without pay.

"I want the public and law enforcement personnel to know that the Division of State Police does not condone the unjustified use of force, and it will not be tolerated," state police Col. Robert Quinn said.

You can tell he's serious about what he says because the trooper received an unpaid vacation.

This story doesn't say if the MA trooper's vacation is paid or unpaid.

[Rhywun]

Well, "unpaid" until they receive their back-pay along with the promotion and raise they have coming.

[mfckr]

Uhh? New OAN/GravisMarketing poll (1500 respondents)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34Y7cA8w6Hk

Trump wins Hispanics 55% to Hillary 45%

[John]

Who knows what will happen in November. But for the sake of argument suppose Trump gets 15% of the black vote and say 35% of the Latin vote, which is three times the black votes and about 8% more Latin votes than Romney got. What will the various media people who are calling Trump a "white nationalist" candidate along the lines of LePenn going to say? There would be so much butt hurt about the facts not fitting the narrative.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Which LePen? Marie or her dad?

I'm not sure of the veracity of this poll, but if Trump were to win the majority of Hispanics in November the narrative would be hilarious.

[Irish is a Millennial, Poll Me]

All the other polls I've seen have trump with an approval rating of -70 among Hispanics and Hillary with a positive approval rating among Hispanics. A gallup poll from March had Trump -65 among Hispanics with Clinton +33.

[VG Zaytsev]

Trump is a natural fit for 'Hispanics'. Remember that the republican presidential candidate that received the highest percent of Hispanics was Nixon.

The DC narrative that the only thing Hispanics care about is maximizing immigration is just flat out racist bullshit.

[John]

I think the old lady. Marie is more moderate I thought. But I could be wrong because she is so fucking hot I have a hard time not believing she is wonderful. I don't care if she is a Nazi. She is a Gaulic goddess.

[Citizen X]

the narrative would be hilarious

Nah, it'll just be endless moaning about Hispanics voting against their own best interests, the way there's already similar whining about the poor rural white Trumpets. It won't be funny AT ALL.

[sarcasmic]

He could get 100% of the black and Latino vote and he'd still be labeled a "white nationalist."

Facts never get in the way of the narrative.

[Not an Economist]

Exactly.

[Irish is a Millennial, Poll Me]

You'll have to excuse me if I don't take a One America News Network poll that is directly contradicted by all other polls on this issue seriously.

[mfckr]

Seems Gravis Marketing was the actual pollster.

[mfckr]

Accompanying ugly graph tables, etc.

http://www.oann.com/pollnational/

[Juvenile Bluster]

I really don't get this whole transgender bathroom panic thing.

I mean, it's not an issue. It shouldn't be. I guarantee you that you've used a bathroom at the same time as a transgender person in the past. And nobody's really noticed or cared. I have absolutely no clue why the left decided this had to be the biggest issue of the day where all must fall into line. It's like they wanted there to be a backlash so they could use that backlash to help themselves.

(wait a minute...)

[Lord Humungus]

something something gloryhole...

[VG Zaytsev]

How many trannies have been arrested for using the 'wrong' bathroom?

[Heroic Mulatto]

A quick Google search will reveal the answer.

[straffinrun]

You want to have some fun? Open this video of Hillary dancing with the sound off and play this song on another tab.

[SusanM]

This works better

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WGVgfjnLqc

[SusanM]

And now for something completely Trump: The butler did it:

http://www.motherjones.com/pol.....kill-obama

Anthony Senecal, who worked as Donald Trump's butler for 17 years before being named the in-house historian at the tycoon's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, has repeatedly published posts on his Facebook page that express profound hatred for President Barack Obama and declare he should be killed.

[John]

That is a huge story. But Obama going to Reverend Wright's church for 20 years was no big deal. And see my post below on what would be the perfect response to this.

[SusanM]

I'm the first to scoff at conspiracies, but I could totally buy that this isn't something that just happened. Either way, you're likely right that Trump has an attention getting follow-up ready.

[John]

You don't just get your views on such things. I am sure he really feels this way. But I am not sure why Trump would necessarily have known about that or is responsible. If the guy did his job and didn't give Trump any reason to fire him, why does it matter? He is the butler not his public spokesman. I honestly can't understand why this is a big deal.

[John]

If Trump were the media troll people think he is, he would respond to this racist butler story by saying "I could no more walk away from him than I could my own grandmother. And he is just a typical white person."

It would be perfect.

[mfckr]

That? sounds dumb. And would drop like a lead brick. Sorry man.

[Chipwooder]

The most important news of the decade is being ignored here: The Misfits are reuniting. I repeat, the original Mifits are playing at Riot Fest. Danzig, Jerry, and Doyle are going to share a stage for the first time in 33 years. I've been waiting over two decades for this moment, and it's finally here!

[SusanM]

Ah, the start of the "Get Off My Lawn" tour!

[John]

That is really funny Susan. And it really sucks that all of the decent rock bands are all old.

[SusanM]

They live on in song and story. Still, it was pretty depressing when the local oldies station switched to the 60's and 70's.

[John]

You are telling me. When I started hearing the Beatles on the oldies station it was a very sad day.

[Lord Humungus]

It was - gee - 14-15 years ago when I saw the "Misfits" play here. The only original member was the guitarist.

The highlight of the show were The Dickies - especially when the singer brought out a penis hand puppet and they did a cover of The Who - See Me, Feel Me.

[Chipwooder]

Ah yes, the Michale Graves era. That wasn't too bad, much better than the Jerry-only (hah! get it?) recent incarnation of the Newfits.

I honestly thought this would never happen. Too much hatred between Danzig and Jerry, but I guess someone needs money.

[Stormy Dragon]

If they really want Sanders out of the race, Reid needs to pull him aside and ask him if he still wants that nice Budget Committee seat come January. Because I'm sure there's lots of loyal Democrat Senators who would like such a prime post.

[Citizen X]

I suspect Sanders is both principled and stupid enough not to take that deal. He may well stick it out to the end and then fade back into the Senatorial back bench.

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[antoniareid444]

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[Pope Jimbo]

I'm convinced! Give them even more money. They obviously are great stewards of the public funds that they are entrusted with.

[Crusty Juggler]

They didn't budget to keep their buildings operational?

[Illocust]

I'm surprised a Democrat congressman is so disenchanted with his or her own party. Figured they'd be happy as clams with their status as the 'sane' ones.

[Crusty Juggler]

Minnesota schools apparently do not require functional heat in the winter.

[Rhywun]

Ugh, my head hurts now.

[Rhywun]

12th solo album?! Love him - been meaning to check out more of the last 11 or so albums I've neglected.

This video for "Voices in My Head" is freaking me out because if I just let my beard grow a couple more days we could almost be twins...

[Chipwooder]

no they don't.....but Danzig still has the voice. I won't be close enough to the stage to see how old they look under the devilocks, anyway.

[Hamster of Doom]

Largest Budget Items

Medicare/Medicaid

Social Security

Defense/War

Income Security [ed. What a neat little phrase. Whatever could it mean, do you suppose..]

Net Interest on Debt [ed. I like to think of this as Watch Yellen Shrink Percentage of Defense Spending With This One Neat Trick.

Federal Pensions

[Sterling's Gold]

Why would they? Minnesotans were born in the snow, molded by it. I didn't see summer until I was already a man.

[Citizen X]

You've never watched Veep, huh?

[Citizen X]

This song is problematic.

[Rhywun]

Dissing anything H?sker D? is not OK.