Rep. Thomas Massie: Congress Less Is Like House of Cards And More Like The Walking Dead

"There is nobody in Congress with a plan."

At Reason Weekend 2016, Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie (R) tried to convey what it's like working on Capitol Hill. People ask him all the time if Congress is anything like the Netflix melodrama House of Cards; Massie contends it's more like AMC's The Walking Dead. 

To find out why, watch:

Comments

[Adans smith]

I prefer Arrow and Grimm.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Gotham is pretty darn good.

[Adans smith]

Yeah it is,I also like Supernatural.

[Hamster of Doom]

Youtubing the ALDS from 1995. Yankees v. Mariners.

The ALWest tie-breaker was last night's funtimes. Langston had such an impressive game. I can't figure out which must've been the bigger kick to the nuts, being taken out in the seventh or watching Randy Johnson finish the game off with his 12th strikeout.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

Last day of the EPL is supposed to be fun but it's pretty boring with the top and bottom sorted out.

[SimonD]

well at least there's a little bit of excitement. The Man U. game has been cancelled. Apparently there was a 'suspicious package' found at the stadium

[sloopyinTEXAS]

That sounds suspiciously like a "let's find a way to delay our game so we can see what side we need to put out in advance of the FA Cup."

[Crusty Juggler]

Mattingly's last game. Stupid Jack McDowell.

[Fist of Etiquette]

These are nonsense words you people are saying.

[bassjoe]

In my opinion "Veep" encapsulates Washington, DC, perfectly...

[Adans smith]

I get enough reality here and the news.Hell,I even watch the Flash and Super Girl. Gonna miss Agent Carter.I really like Haley Atwell.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

I've started watching repeats of "Knife Fight". If you can get past the hipsters in the crowd (I offhandedly referred to one as The Duke of Faggotburg the other day and Banjos did a spit take), it's a fun cooking show.

[Adans smith]

Sounds good.It's cold and wet here,had to cover the tomatoes and peppers and such.I'm making baked pasta primavera with red,green and banana peppers,garlic,onions,Roma tomatoes ,a light sauce and Italian cheeses.Just need to run to the carry out,I think Newcastle will do it.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

Nukey Brown sounds like a perfect beer for that kind of day.

[AlmightyJB]

That's my favorite beer to have with wings.

[Suthenboy]

"It's cold and wet here..."

It is summertime-hot here. And I don't mean the kind of hot you have there, I mean fry your nuts in the sun hot. Tropical oh my god hot. My tomatoes are still green but getting close...my peppers are already pickable.

Speaking of which, I should have a look at the garden.

[The Last American Hero]

Too many hipsters. Plus, I don't get all the cheering. The crowd has no idea if adding ghost peppers to the chili is going to be overkill on the heat or not, but they go bananas anyways, because, ghost peppers.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

I ignore the idiots. I just like to see really creative people in the kitchen under pressure. That's why a show like that is so much better than a "here is my recipe. Cook it while I berate you" type of show.
And while you can tell some of these chefs are a little hipstery, it's hard to deny their ability. Although I'm pretty sure I could have done a lot better than either of the ones that had brisket.

[Crusty Juggler]

Furlong's military-industrial complex rant was fantastic.

[Aloysious]

The only way this could have been better is if he actually did say, "No, fuck you, cut spending."

[Jerryskids]

I'm guessing the Walking Dead reference is more specifically about Carl. Always doing something thoughtless and stupid and endangering everybody else even though he's been warned repeatedly about that shit - and still nobody has had the sense to take him down by the river, sit him down, tell him to look over there while you tell him about the farm, the cow, the pigs, the chickens and the rabbits.

[Libertarian]

I've never clicked on a 30 minute video at Hit and Run, but this was great. Do yourself a favor and watch it.

[dajjal]

"They're just voting for the craziest sunofabitch in the race!"

[juris imprudent]

Seconded.

[Jerryskids]

AMEN! In a way it's depressing to think that all the dirty dealing in Congress you think is going on really is going on, but it's not considered dirty dealing it's just business as usual so they're not even trying to hide it, plus you think of how few there are that make it to Congress that see it as dirty dealing and want to stop it. But then you think of how few there are and yet they've managed to drag some of this stuff out into the light and make a stink about it and you hope that maybe it's not really the bad guys vs. the good guys, it's that the bulk of them just do whatever everybody else is doing and it really may only take a few here and there to get the herd turned in the right direction. A few Boehners and a few Cantors to get their attention and a few Massies and a few Pauls to take their place and maybe we could get something going.

[Jerryskids]

I think back to when Pat Robertson made a big splash in the GOP (and which really explains why the religious right has such an outsize influence even today) - he got some grassroots supporters to find the little county-level GOP operations where you might only have 20 or 30 party members and it only took a handful of Robertson supporters to go in their and take over since these were generally the rural areas that were already at least somewhat sympathetic to the socon message. And they could easily get a good grassroots willing to do the work because that's how church people are. Those are the ones who show up early and stay late and they roll up their sleeves and pitch in and they do what needs to be done. You want a strong team of campaign volunteers to do the grunt work, the unglamorous work of handing out flyers, doing door-to-door canvassing, setting up tables at the potluck and folding the chairs and sweeping the floor and hauling off the trash when it's all done? You need church people for that - or at least followers who think they're on a mission from God. Just ask Bernie about his worshippers if you don't think that's true.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

So I took my daughter to register for fall classes yesterday. State school in Texas.
Anyway, during the admin panel parents were at while the kids signed up for classes, they did a q and a. The second question was about bathrooms. The answer was "we have male and female bathrooms and unisex bathrooms as well. Any confused person is free to use one of those so nobody in the room needs to be made uncomfortable."
A later question was "do you have alarms around campus for female students to feel safe at night?" The answer was "would you have sent your daughters here if you didn't think they'd be safe? But seriously, we have no alarms and we've never once had a student report anything of that sort to the campus police. Your kids are as safe or safer here than they've been their entire life."
Another one was "what about guns on campus?" The answer was "we will comply with all gun laws in the state of Texas and will respect the right of Texans to protect themselves."

I think she picked a good school.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

They did qualify the bathroom answer in a later comment and said that there are no communal bathrooms anywhere on campus except for athletic facilities. And those that are for recreation have male, female and single unisex bathrooms while the ones for NCAA sports are separated in accordance with the NCAA standards for men and women.

[Adans smith]

So,you'll give her a .380 for her purse before she goes off in the fall? Have a good day,gotta run.

[Suthenboy]

A .380? For what? To kill roaches?

This is a thing now: http://www.sigsauer.com/Catalo.....ewood.aspx

I load these http://www.midwayusa.com/produ.....box-of-100 with 5.5 grains of Blue Dot... 1000 fps-ish. That is a lot of punch in a small package.

[DOOMco]

Nice

[Heroic Mulatto]

Listen, you goddamn fucking liar, I have been assured multiple times on this very site that the overarching climate on all college campuses is that of 1940s Amsterdam with Anne Frank in your attic.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

I thought the same after visiting a few campuses. Until we found this one.

[R C Dean]

Not to pry, but which school?

[sloopyinTEXAS]

Tarleton State in stephenville. She wanted to do pre-vet and liked it there a whole lot more than aTm and didn't even visit Texas Tech because...well, Lubbock is a shithole where the wind never stops.

[Suthenboy]

I am getting old Sloopy. I think of your kids as grade school aged. Christ, your daughter is going to college?

*grumble grumble, scratches balls*

[Francisco d'Anconia]

There is nobody in Congress with a plan

Bullshit. They all have a plan. They plan to get reelected, using someone else's money that is obtained by writing law that allows their donors to play by different rules than their competition.

How is that not a plan?

[Ken Shultz]

I believe that's called equivocation.

They also plan to pay down their mortgage.

That wasn't the plan he was talking about.

They don't have a plan for balancing the federal budget. They don't have a plan for public policy, generally speaking.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

They don't have a plan for balancing the federal budget. They don't have a plan for public policy, generally speaking.

That's not why they become politicians. They are doing EXACTLY what they are incentivised to do.

[Hyperion]

It's only about cronyism, except for the ones that really do have a radical progressive agenda. Those also have a plan to micromanage your life while getting fat on cronyism.

[GILMORE?]

Always On Topic =

Why are Smart People all Liberals? (Or: Why Are Liberals So !&*(#^$* Smart?)

[Ken Shultz]

"Why Are the Highly Educated So Liberal?

I'm going to suggest that the universities that educate the highly educated are liberal, and so it shouldn't be surprising to find that the product of those liberal educations skew liberal.

I'm also going to suggest that many of the highly educated are in positions in various forms of government. If you have a PhD in Education or History, or any one of dozens of other areas, chances are you're either working for the government or planning to work for the government.

I doubt anything makes people support government spending on government more than working for the government.

[GILMORE?]

I'm going to suggest that the universities that educate the highly educated are liberal, and so it shouldn't be surprising to find that the product of those liberal educations skew liberal.

hm. Do types of institutions have their own inherent biases? or are they just the product of the collective 'culture' of people who join them?

My own guess is that people who never leave a campus environment for most of their adult lives are bound to be a little myopic and have a retarded view of how the 'real world' works. Like anyone, they'd project what they know of how a 'campus' works, and impose that model on society, believing that the way 'good order' is achieved in one is achieved in the other.

Neither here nor there - but my impression w/ people on Wall St. is that there's not really the widespread appreciation of "emergent order" and "self-organizing systems" that you might expect from people greasing the wheels of capitalism. Most people in finance really only ever deal with their tiny slice of the pie, each of which is layered in 1000 rules and regulations and almost no one can conceive of how the highly complex marketplace functions as a whole. There's also a widespread perception that "someone else" must be cheating, so few ever suggest there's "too much" oversight.

That said = most people seem to have at least a basic appreciation for fiscal-reality you find missing everywhere else. Everyone can read a balance sheet.

[Hyperion]

Very few of them are actually liberals. Agreeing that everyone should be able to get an abortion paid for with tax payer money or that a person should be forced at gun point to bake a cake for a gay wedding regardless of their personal beliefs, that is not liberal. Most of them could better be described as authoritarian statists. Liberal to me is a live and let live thing and most so called 'liberals', for them, it's more like live and do as I tell you or else.

[NYC2AZ]

There goes the NYT conflating education with intelligence again. After teaching college for 5 years, I got out because I couldn't handle the sheer depth of student (and faculty) stupidity. Alas, my wife was not that lucky and continues to deal with all the entitled special snowflakes to this day.

[GILMORE?]

There goes the NYT conflating education with intelligence again

To be fair - i did that. their headline is just about 'education'.

[NYC2AZ]

Hey now, I have a Master's Degree! I can ignore and infer just as well as those PhD phucks.

[Brochettaward]

Equally important is the Republican Party's move to the right since the 1980s ? at odds with the social liberalism that has long characterized the well educated ? alongside the perception that conservatives are anti-intellectual, hostile to science and at war with the university.

Did anyone catch Jim Webb at the debates? And the leftists complaining about how awkwardly out of touch he was?

Hillary couldn't run as a Democrat today if she had the policy positions she held in the 1990's.

[Brochettaward]

The Democrats may find they need to give up a little of their wonkiness if they want resounding victories. It's not in their long-term interest to be too much what Pat Buchanan once referred to as "the party of the Ph.D.s."

And Dems are like totally wonky! Bernie's message is so sophisticated!

[Suthenboy]

"...conflating education with intelligence again."

Both of which are very different things from wisdom and neither is required for wisdom. Even an average intelligence can acquire wisdom given time.

There is something to the old saying 'a young conservative has no heart, and old liberal has no brain'.

*looks at liberal graybeard college profs, flips bird*

[AlmightyJB]

So Liberals agree that Ben Carson, being a neurosurgeon, would be the best choice for president Because getting an advanced specialized degree makes you super wise about everything.

[commodious spittoon]

Members of the old class turned to scientists, engineers, managers, human relations specialists, economists and other professionals for help. As these experts multiplied, they realized the extent of their collective power. They demanded fitting levels of pay and status and insisted on professional autonomy. A "new class" was born, neither owner nor worker.

That's positively Kiplingesque.

No, these people gained power because so much of the political economy was turned over to bureaucrats as Congress ceded more and more of its authority to the administrative state. These technocrats aren't the product of managerial problems but compliance mandates.

[Suthenboy]

Why are Smart People all subscribing to failed philosophies?

I think I know the answer to that. Maybe I shouldn't say...

[Ken Shultz]

My brother built himself a cabin in Utah. Did the whole thing off grid. Talking to other locals up there, it's amazing how often the subject of solar panels and alternative energy comes up with cowboys, farmers, et. al. I suppose it shouldn't be surprising, but it really debunked the stereotype for me.

What the urban progressive, Whole Foods set think of as rednecks? Those "rednecks" know more about solar panels and everything that goes with that--than any urban progressives I've ever known.

Seeing Massey talk about being off grid with a Kentucky accent probably seems weird as hell to a lot of urban progressives. There's an excellent study to be made in individual consumers making choices for themselves and that suiting society's interests generally--better than some government imposed solution from above, I'm sure.

Say, mark the performance of the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility vs. the collective installation of the same amount of panels by individual consumers across Nevada, Utah, and the Mojave desert in various ways: price, power production, environmental impact, etc., and I bet the individual consumers make the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility look like an even bigger joke than it already does.

[Ken Shultz]

"Ivanpah Solar Project Faces Risk of Default on PG&E Contracts"

"To build the $2.2 billion plant, Ivanpah's owners got a $1.6 billion loan guarantee through the Department of Energy, and last December they received $535 million from the U.S. Treasury in lieu of a 30 percent investment tax credit, a deal made available as part of the Obama administration's 2009 economic stimulus package."

http://tinyurl.com/hklugrw

Your tax dollars at work.

[GILMORE?]

People carefully weighing costs and individually making decisions based on their own interestsis clearly an inferior model to top-down-mandated, Federally-funded giganto-projects

[AlmightyJB]

Especially when the feds can pick the winners and losers from their list of donors.

[Ken Shultz]

I should have mentioned that the giganto-project is utterly failing, too.

It's failing financially:

"In November 2014, Associated Press reported that the plant was producing only "about half of its expected annual output". The California Energy Commission issued a statement blaming this on "clouds, jet contrails and weather".[13] Performance improved considerably in 2015 ? to about 650 GW?h, but ownership partner NRG Energy said in its November quarterly report that Ivanpah would likely not meet its contractual obligations to provide power to PG&E during the year, raising the risk of default on its Power Purchase Agreement.[14]"

It's failing at keeping down carbon dioxide emissions:

"In 2014, the plant burned 867,740 million BTU of natural gas emitting 46,084 metric tons of carbon dioxide, which is nearly twice the pollution threshold at which power plants and factories in California are required to participate in the state's cap and trade program to reduce carbon emissions.[35] If that gas had been used in a conventional fossil fuel plant, it would have generated nearly 124,000 MW?h of electrical energy. That is enough to power the annual needs of 20,660 Southern California homes.[36] Ivanpah used that gas plus solar energy to produce 524,000 MW?h of electrical energy (more than four times that of the referenced conventional plant), all while operating at well below its expected output."

[Ken Shultz]

And it fails at protecting wildlife:

According to a report by the Associated Press, "Ivanpah might act as a 'mega-trap' for wildlife, with the bright light of the plant attracting insects, which in turn attract insect-eating birds that fly to their death in the intensely focused light rays."[60] . . . . In April 2015, "biologists working for the state estimated that 3,500 birds died at Ivanpah in the span of a year, many of them burned alive while flying through a part of the solar installment."

http://tinyurl.com/jhzw3vb

Ivanpah makes Solyndra look like a walk in the park.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

Solar plants that use natural gas for back-up are just natural gas plants that are more expensive and less efficient. The gas "back-up" ends up being the primary electricity producer, but unlike a normal gas generating station, it now has to constantly fluctuate its output to deal with the solar panels inconsistent output, which is not an ideal way to run a gas generator.

[commodious spittoon]

Run the gas plants for electrical consumption during the day. The solar plants meanwhile store electricity by pumping water into an uphill reservoir. The water is drained at night through turbines, generating a consistent and predictable amount of electricity, with the gas plants supplying the shortfall.

Still more expensive than gas plants alone, but maybe not as wasteful.

[Hyperion]

One of my neighbors, back in the midwest was using only a geothermal loop for heat. He did it all himself. The suburban proglodyte minions would definitely think of the guy as a dumb redneck. For them, everything is about ideology. Most of them don't know jack shit about any of this stuff, let alone being able to actually design and build something like that, but the mere fact that they 'identify' with someone somewhere who might and they're right thinkers is cause for them to feel all smug and intellectual.

[Ken Shultz]

"The suburban proglodyte minions would definitely think of the guy as a dumb redneck. For them, everything is about ideology. "

For them, it's about aesthetics.

If you took the same guy, dressed him up like a suburbanite, taught him to speak like a suburbanite, and told them he believed in gay marriage, they'd think he was an expert.

It's just about aesthetics.

The aesthetics were even kind of mindblowing for me. The bro unit goes to this restaurant/bar attached to the local cattle auction. There were a lot of cowboys in there, and they were sitting around arguing about the technical details of this solar installation vs. that, what kind of batteries to use and why . . .

My brother was a banker. Started a mutual fund. I suppose the cowboys would be kinda blown away if they knew that about him, too. But it's just aesthetics.

[Ted S.]

How much land do you need to make a geothermal loop work reasonably well?

[Hyperion]

I'm not sure. The guy I'm talking about had 2 acres on his plot there, so that must be enough. I sold him an additional 18 acres, so he can now build the really big hadron collider size loop. There are different types of loops, he explained all of this to me, but that was 10 years ago and I don't remember much of it.

[Ken Shultz]

It isn't the size of the loop that matters so much as the number of degree days you're trying to mitigate and how far down you need to go to dig to get a good a temperature differential. Sinking one in a small pond can be just as good as anything.

Heating can make more sense than cooling--just because if you're in Vegas where it's 105 degrees, there's more of a difference between the 55 degree temperature however many feet down and the 105 degree temperature on the surface. . . . more than there would be if you were trying to heat between 30 degrees outside and 55 degrees below ground. But if it makes sense in the midwest, It should make sense anywhere.

I've been a huge fan of geothermal heat pumps for a long time. Of all the alternate energy solutions, it's the most cost effective, too. Much better than solar. Much better than wind.

Also, not all geothermal systems are loops. Even if you have a smaller space, you can drill them vertically into the ground. They aren't always as effective that way, and they may not remain as effective for as long that way (loop system typically have a 40+ years on 'em), but it's often less expensive that way to just drill holes in the ground rather than put in a loop system.

[Ken Shultz]

If I were building a new house where I had to dig footings and/or a basement or a pool anyway, that would be the best time to look at installing a loop. The cost is moving dirt around, and if you're already got the equipment on site and you're already digging footers, a basement, or a pool anyway, you're minimizing your cost by putting in a loop. And geothermal heat pumps have the lowest time required to get your money back on saving, as well.

Generally speaking, the only thing cheaper than a geothermal heat pump is natural gas.

P.S.

"Of all the alternate energy solutions . . ."

Understand, they don't actually create energy--they collect it and/or disperse it. You're just taking advantage of the fact that 20-30 ft. down, the temperature differential is substantial. You can use that to heat your house when it's colder outside than it is underground, and you can use it to cool your house when it's warmer outside when it's under ground.

To find out how much you can benefit in your area, as a napkin number, you might look at the number of 72 degree days in your city (number of hours in a year where the temperature is above or below 72), then divide your annual heating bill by the heating degree days and your air conditioning bill by the number of cooling degree days. People typically save between 40% and 70% with a loop system.

My parents went from `1984 to 2004 without air conditioning in San Diego. Some climates, it just doesn't make sense.

[Ken Shultz]

http://www.degreedays.net/

[GILMORE?]

"And then there was one"

The heat gets closer to Cuomo

Attorney Preet Bharara's investigation was revealed last month when Cuomo's office confirmed the federal prosecutor was examining possible undisclosed conflicts of interest and improper bidding related to the Buffalo Billion initiative and Nano, the governor's effort to attract high-tech nanotechnology jobs

In response, Cuomo announced hiring Bart Schwartz, formerly head of the U.S. attorney's criminal division in Manhattan, to lead an internal investigation and report any findings to Bharara's office.

A third investigation came to light when the Albany Times-Union reported that Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office is investigating possible bid-rigging for a dormitory project on the campus of the SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Albany

Its technically investigations of "aides". I still think Preet's going for the Trifecta of nailing all of the top 3 pols in NY for corruption.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

Isn't the CGI headquartered in Preet's neck of the woods? I wonder if he's ever gonna go after the rampant corruption and pay for play going on there.

[GILMORE?]

I doubt it. not-for-profits have too many ways of hiding sources/uses of funds. And who could he ever 'turn' as a witness?

Scumbag NY pols don't really swing any weight outside NY. Clintons have a planet full of cronies. Preet knows when to curb his appetite.

[Ken Shultz]

It should be noted, whenever Preet Bahara's name comes up, that in addition to whatever else is going on, Preet Bahara is also a one-eyed jackass that tried to prosecute individual commenters here at Hit & Run for making innocuous comments.

Honestly, that colors my perception of him on everything he accuses people of doing. I don't believe anything Preet Bahara says about anything--unless it's confirmed by an independent source. And even if what Preet Bahara says is true, he's still a one-eyed jackass.

[AlmightyJB]

It just seems like he has one eye cause he talks out of his ass

[Ken Shultz]

He also resembles a dick.

[Suthenboy]

True. Minus a heartfelt apology and admittance of error he can go jump in a woodchipper. Feet first. Fuck him.

[Hyperion]

They'll never get rid of all the corrupt Democrats in NY. The leftist voters will ensure that they remain. There's hundreds of little Cuomos and DeBlasios just waiting in line to take their place. Nothing will change.

[Brochettaward]

NYT writes hitpiece on misogynistic Trump - Crossing the Line: How Donald Trump Behaved With Women in Private

Hint - it contains unwanted sexual advancements on hot models who think they were invited to the party because of their spectacular personalities.

[Brochettaward]

Argh

*advances

[Brochettaward]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/15/us/.....women.html

[AlmightyJB]

Don vs Bill in "Creepy Old Pervert Wars: The Quest for the White House"

[Brochettaward]

Bill's sex life is irrelevant and none of your business! Same with Hillary! If America wasn't so repressed, it wouldn't spend time worrying about its leader's private lives.

Unless you made an unwanted pass at a super model.

[AlmightyJB]

No doubt. I'm sure the NYT DNC Pravda shit rag will continue to give Billie a pass on his rapescapades.

[GILMORE?]

they aired that laundry way back at the beginning of the year so that it wouldn't be used later in the primaries

[Playa Manhattan.]

Not really though.

There's 40 years of bad behavior that need scrutiny.

Bill Clinton no shit rape-raped someone.

[AlmightyJB]

Bill responds to that with two thumbs up and a smile. "Feminists" respond to Bill with schoolgirl giggles.

[GILMORE?]

The NYT did their part in the beginning of the year then went stone-cold on Hillary's skeletons.

Tho, to be fair they've done one or two things on Bill since he started tut-tutting BLM.

The WaPo recently admired his magical-ability to turn West Virginia coal-miner's anger against them and chide them for the inability to 'believe in themselves' (while his wife brags about destroying their industry)

"Don't tell me we can't bring different kinds of jobs," he admonished. "Don't tell me you're not smart enough to do it, and don't tell me nobody over a certain age can learn this stuff."

Clinton also vowed that if he finds himself back in the White House as the spouse of the nation's chief executive, he will make the concerns of coal country part of his portfolio.

"... what really matters is whether people are better off when you quit than when you started, whether your children have a brighter future, or whether we're coming together or being torn apart. The rest of this stuff is all background music."

And then he was finished. There were a few more jeers. But this time, the applause nearly drowned them out.

[commodious spittoon]

"Don't tell me we can't bring different kinds of jobs," he admonished. "Don't tell me you're not smart enough to do it, and don't tell me nobody over a certain age can learn this stuff."

You can't bring different kinds of jobs to these people. You're not smart enough to do it. And age is not the limiting factor in what sorts of jobs people can learn, it's economic demand for those skills.

[Brochettaward]

Bill took repeated trips to a literal pedophile's island.

[Playa Manhattan.]

I love how all of the MSM articles casually mention that he ditched his Secret Service detail, like it's not a huge fucking deal.

[Suell]

Weird, you would have thought that Bubba's Secret Service detail would have definitely been super excited to visit Pedophile Isle.

[Hyperion]

I've heard this countless times from lefties, 'who cares who Bill slept with? Who cares if Hillary is munching some rug?'. And I agreed with them. I don't care and I don't want to know. But now that it's a Republican, that makes all the difference.

Then, there is this:

The horror of being Melania Trump

Of course it is New Republic, a dead rag that somehow still lives on with each dying gasp of air. Poor Melania, lol, she's got it rough.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Don vs Bill in "Creepy Old Pervert Wars: The Quest for the White House"

Think of the porn version.

[Derpetologist]

A long time ago in a massage parlor far, far away

[orchestral music blares]

PERV WARS

A NEW SLEAZE

The REPUBLIC is in turmoil as CLINTON,
the greatest sleaze in the country
now faces a challenge from TRUMP, a
powerful tycoon who will stop at nothing
to win the ELECTION. The only hope
for CLINTON is to flee to a secret island
in the CARIBBEAN and screw as many
nubile teenage prostitutes as he can. His
secret weapon to maintain his waning
erections is VIAGRA, a powerful drug
which can turn the most flaccid member
into a solid, throbbing erection.

[Ted S.]

So, no worse than Hillary then.

[Suthenboy]

I just assume anything said about Trump at this point is a slanderous lie.

[Suell]

More OT: Just read a very interesting interview that McInnes did with Jesse Hughes, the singer for the Eagles of Death Metal. I read a fair bit about the massacre when it happened and shortly after, but there are a number of things Hughes says in the interview that I had never heard reported elsewhere. He claims that the door staff was in on it, that he saw a few women in traditional Muslim garb that he believes concealed the rifles, and he says that the shooters were in there well before the show started. He said he had pieces of teeth and bone removed from his body from a girl whose head was shot right in front of him.

http://takimag.com/article/sur.....qus_thread

[Hyperion]

It's just OT all the way down. Takimag? McInnes? OMG, OMG, OMG! Somewhere a snowflake just melted.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

Great interview. I had never heard any of that before regarding staff at the venue likely being in on it. What an awful tragedy though. These people are pure fucking evil.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

When you tell people they can't help themselves and that they're children, you weaken them to a point where three feet away is life and they can't see it because they're too scared.

I really don't know how I would react in that situation, but I see this general weakening everywhere up here in Canada. People act like we are now *above* those icky guns and that there is no need to have them around anymore. Police can protect all of us now etc. I would love a world where that was true, but that isn't reality and likely never will be. There is evil in the world and it is not going to give you a heads up when it comes around. Allowing society to fall so far into a delusional lull that evil doesn't exist leads to tragedies like this where people can't (and have no idea how to) defend themselves.

[Suthenboy]

As I recall the evil fucks threatened the venue weeks before the actual shooting. None of that is surprising.

If it were me I would get some fucking payback, big time. But then I am a racist scumbag bigot.

[Derpetologist]

Spot the Not: Sound as a weapon

1. The US used rock 'n roll to pester Noriega while took refuge in the Vatican embassy.

2. The Israeli Davidka mortar made a terrifying shriek and an explosion so loud the Arabs first thought they were atomic weapons.

3. During the battle of Stalingrad, the Russians had loudspeakers play the sound of a metronome along with the message "every 7 seconds, another German soldier dies."

4. During WWI, The British sent many bagpipe players into battle against the Turks, as the music tended to frighten them more.

5. During the Vietnam War, Operation Wandering Soul used loudspeakers to broadcast spooky noises and the voice of a Vietcong "ghost".

6. During WW2, a German dive bomber was equipped with "Jericho trumpets" which made a terrifying shriek when the plane went into a dive.

[Brochettaward]

If Turks are anything like Iraqis, #4 makes total sense. Point a machine gun at an Iraqi mob? Nothing. A handgun? They scurry like flies.

[GILMORE?]

huh? Really? I don't get it.

It it more to do with perception of 'the specificity of threat'?

i.e. - everyone knows a machine gun is such overkill that's its far more likely to be a 'warning' than a real threat. Whereas a handgun is a very-personal and individual item which means "I AM GOING TO SHOOT YOU" and no one wants to be that 'one guy' who stands out enough to get shot.

[Brochettaward]

I couldn't say why, but for a point of reference, the trained Iraqis also had a habit of wearing their knees pads on their elbows and their elbow pads on their knees.

[GILMORE?]

huh.

...some Iraqi soldiers have a unique sense of style.

Efforts to mimic their American mentors or simply spruce up and re-enforce their regular army gear result in a variety of different outfits whenever the troops are on patrol.

Sejad Mehdi, 21, said that he habitually fixes a pair of goggles to the back of his American helmet ? bought at a Baghdad market for 50,000 Iraqi dinar (21 pounds) ? because he saw US troops wearing them that way rather than because he uses the mask in his job.

"It makes the helmet look better," he said, speaking while on a joint patrol escorting a visiting American general to a market in Yousifiyah, a town south of Baghdad, last week.

Asked why he also had knee pads around his ankles, Mr Mehdi said: "It looks more trendy and they tend to slip down when you have them around your knees."

Pads sometimes worn by US troops (officers told me that their new uniform has internally fitted padding for the knees already, which makes the attachable versions redundant) have been known to slip down on operations, but certain Iraqis think it looks good that way to begin with so put them around their ankles on purpose.

There is trouble, however, if a commanding officer spots the fashion statement.
...
[Picture 3: A soldier with elbow pads fixed to his ankles]

Sadly the link to the original story seems broken

[Libertarian]

Interesting theory. I've also read that someone with a knife, using a slashing motion, is perceived to be less threatening than someone using a jabbing motion.

[AlmightyJB]

I'm going to go with #3

[GILMORE?]

Yeah, I'll take 3. where'd they get the electricity to broadcast messages? Stalingrad was a mess. I can't imagine anyone wasting time on Psy-ops when they were dying by the thousands on each side daily.

[Derpetologist]

[game show buzzer]

http://retronewser.com/2012/12.....y-1942-10/

[GILMORE?]

I'm on like a year long "not" dry-spell

[Derpetologist]

wiki sez:

Although the early history of pipers within these regiments is not well documented, there is evidence that these regiments had pipers at an early stage and there are numerous accounts of pipers playing into battle during the 19th century, a practice which continued into World War I when it was abandoned after the early battles, due to the high casualty rate.[citation needed]

The custom was revived by the 51st Highland Division for their assault on the enemy lines at the start of the Second Battle of El Alamein on 23 October 1943. Each attacking company was led by a piper, playing tunes that would allow other units to recognise which Highland regiment they belonged to. Although the attack was successful, losses among the pipers were high, and they were not used in combat again during the war.[5] A final use of the pipes in combat was in 1967 during the Aden Emergency, when 1st Battalion, The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders were led into the rebel-held Crater district by their pipe major playing the regimental marches.

[GILMORE?]

The scene depicted in the "Longest Day" where the commandos at the Pegasus bridge were relieved by Lord Lovat, led by a bagpiper, was apparently true

Millin is best remembered for playing the pipes whilst under fire during the D-Day landing in Normandy.[4] Pipers had traditionally been used in battle by Scottish and Irish soldiers.[5] However, the use of bagpipes was restricted to rear areas by the time of the Second World War by the British Army. Lovat, nevertheless, ignored these orders and ordered Millin, then aged 21, to play. When Private Millin demurred, citing the regulations, he recalled later, Lord Lovat replied: "Ah, but that's the English War Office. You and I are both Scottish, and that doesn't apply." He played "Highland Laddie" and "The Road to the Isles" as his comrades fell around him on Sword Beach.[1] Millin states that he later talked to captured German snipers who claimed they did not shoot at him because they thought he had gone mad.[6]

[commodious spittoon]

Warfare makes for the tightest bonds.

[Jackand Ace]

Hopefully he includes himself in that lot without a plan. Last I looked he is a member. Missed all the great things he has done to get all of those there to work together.

[Agammamon]

For those who say they're going to forego the disaster tourism schtick now that Cuba is open - here's something to consider.

When a location is short of something, price signals leave that area and the profit motive encourages entrepreneurs to bring the missing good/service to reduce/eliminate that scarcity.

Cuba has a scarcity of prosperity. That's why things are so cheap. The more tourists flock to Cuba, the more prosperity they'll sell the Cubans, reducing that scarcity. Prices will then rise, making Cuba less attractive for tourism, in pace with the increasing prosperity of Cubans.

The best thing we could do for the Cubans is to flock down there and gawk at their 'authenticity'.

Suck it up and obey the price signals.

[Agammamon]

God damnit Reason.

[dajjal]

"Staff is policy in Congress. This is one of the ways they get you when you go into Congress. They get you to hire bad staff, or staff that's working against you or doesn't share your ideals."

[RoninX]

After watching the entire video, there are now two-and-a-half members of Congress whom I admire.

[lukashik]

And one of those applications is Showbox app. It is one of the best online streaming application for watching Movies and TV Shows. In the starting, this application has been released for only a few of the mobiles and allows users to watch shows online.