Clinton Versus Trump Begins, D.C. Passes $15 Minimum Wage, How Capitalism Enabled Feminism: A.M. Links

• 

  screenshots from CNN

  Hillary Clinton officially claimed the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday night after winning primary races in New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota, and likely (though it's still not official) California; Sen. Bernie Sanders was victorious in Montana and South Dakota.

• Clinton and Donald Trump played the magnanimous card in their respective speeches last night, each calling for "unity" and welcoming Bernie Sanders supporters to their flocks. Trump also took a page from Rick Astley, declaring that he would "never, ever let [us] down."
• Republican Sen. Mark Kirk takes back his Trump endorsement.
• Washington, D.C., will join the ranks of U.S. cities with a $15 minimum wage.
• Capitalism doesn't "care" for women, but it has made life easier for them.
• Once again: no, the average age of minors in prostitution is not 13-years-old.
• Tennesse's "Blue Lives Matter" bill would make cops a protected class for hate-crime purposes.
• As porn goes, so goes technology.
• Democrats and Republicans in Congress voted overwhelmingly for a new chemical safety act; it now heads to the White House.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and don't forget to sign up for Reason's daily updates for more content.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Sen. Bernie Sanders was victorious in Montana and South Dakota.

Here come the PUMA's 2.0.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Here come the dancers one by one

[WTF]

Your mama's callin' but you're havin' fun

[Juvenile Bluster]

They're already there.

I don't think Bernie's actually lost any primaries according to some people I know. The ones he lost were obviously due to massive fraud, so they didn't count.

[Injun, as in from India]

I actually think that there were shenanigans in Iowa. The rest of the states were clear cut, but there was a lot at stake in Iowa. If she had been beaten there, it would have looked bad. And I wouldn't put any thievery past the Clintons.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Hello.

"Capitalism doesn't "care" for women, but it has made life easier for them."

Yes, because ideologies and systems of trade are designed to care or not.

Lord me.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Wtf, Reason!!!! Where is my Kimbo Slice tribute???? You did a nice one for Ali. Well, what's more libertarian than an unsanctioned, mutually agreed upon, bare knuckles backyard brawl?

[CatoTheChipper]

Obviously it is in the interests of capitalists everywhere to get more money in the hands of women. They do all the shopping

[The Brakeless MAGA Train]

in fairness to Sanders' supporters, Clinton's "victory" rests entirely on a vote that has not happened yet.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

188) I've noticed that nearly always, when someone gets in big trouble, it's not their fault. My kids, friends I've known, certainly inmates I worked with when I volunteered at a public defenders' office in college?even myself?when trouble comes it's always not my fault, not my fault, not my fault. In fact, in all the times I've seen people get in a lot of trouble, this seems to be the one common element.

I've come to believe things being not my fault is the actual cause of getting in trouble. It seems like a lot of the trouble of trouble is due not to the original fault, but to doubling-down, covering-up, sweeping under the rug, etc. These are all things you do when it's not your fault. But when it IS your fault, you acknowledge, make transparent, fix before it become worse. Even if it truly is a problem caused by somebody else, when you make it your fault, you address it before it blows up. A far better motto for life than not my fault is the buck stops here.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Accountability is a lost virtue.

[Florida Hipster]

Nixon took responsibility and lost the presidency.

Hiliary has never been responsible and will be your next POTUS.

Theory Fail.

[Rufus The Monocled]

It's a winning formula. People want to believe they're not to be blamed or are wrong. It's comforting to feel and know you didn't fuck up; even if you did.

It's the 'Blame the Jews' feature we've seen time and again.

[straffinrun]

Can't blame the Jews? My foreskin has a sad, discarded expression.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Aw, you make little faces with your foreskin as well? It's a good way to pass the time when you are waiting in line.

[Notorious UGCC]

What kind of lines are we talking about, when you can do that?

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Waiting for your turn with Winston's mom.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

"Theory Fail."

I don't think so. The operatives here are the voters, not the candidates.

[WTF]

Yes, and what Hillary has done is orders of magnitude worse than anything Nixon ever did. Yet she will pay no price.

[Overt]

Nixon took responsibility and lost the presidency.

Actually, Nixon had really nothing to do with the actual Watergate scandal, but he DID help in a coverup. Had he come clean immediately, or thrown the people responsible under the bus, it would have hurt him but not destroyed his presidency. It was precisely his decision to try and quietly clean things up that led to his impeachment.

[Hamster of Doom]

Our family motto is, "You can make mistakes, but you can't make excuses." The kids repeat it in chorus, usually with much eye-rolling.

It lays a bit more on parents, to be honest. I found that this is a great motto, but without an accompanying tolerance to being wrong and consistent application, it's just more fuckery. It has to be okay to make a mistake. The kids need to know that admitting a mistake is not going to face the full wrath and fury; it's going to be met with correction and discipline, and acceptance that it'll probably be someone else's turn to be the mistake-maker in an hour.

We all screw up. Including me. And don't they notice, my word, yes. Ergo, I have to apologize and correct the problem I caused pretty much as often as they do.

It's embarrassing and uncomfortable to realize you might have been the one in the wrong. On the other hand, my legacy will be four humans who understand the difference between a reason and an excuse. Hopefully they can take it from there.

Parenting. I'll be lucky if *I* make it out without a complex.

[Florida Hipster]

Your family is based on love. When taking the blame gets you thrown in jail or fired, it's a different game.

[commodious spittoon]

Children should neither make mistakes nor excuses.

/milfordman

[lap83]

You can always tell a Milford man

[commodious spittoon]

I don't blame his ex for not wanting to see or hear him. He looks like he gets shrill when provoked.

[GILMORE?]

That's awesome.

my dad had a similar theory, only was applied in a sort of silent-judgement fashion.

[Lee G]

Thanks. I'll be borrowing that.

[Lord Humungus]

Last time I got in a car accident, I was at fault - four hours of sleep a night over the course of a few days does impair the ability to make good decisions.

When the cop came to ask me what happened, I told him, took the blame and suggested it was a "Failure to Yield" infraction. He thanked me for my honesty and gave me the ticket: Failure to Yield.

But yeah, I was raised that's it's better to admit responsibility for something if you are truly at fault, since, as other have said, than it's best to 'fess up and move on.

Of course for something more serious, I would want a lawyer with me before talking to the police.

[Brett L]

My last car accident. I did the same. Ran up the back of another car on a merge because I was picking my spot after I saw the brake lights go off. The cop didn't even give me a ticket.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Trump also took a page from Rick Astley, declaring that he would "never, ever let [us] down."

RickRolled by Trump. Damn.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Rick Astley for VP!

[Citizen X]

If there was ever any doubt that the man is a master-class troll...

[Hamster of Doom]

A world where Trump rickrolled the public in his acceptance speech is a world in which I want to live. The universe owes us this much.

[Citizen X]

It is the best of the horrific possibilities that await us.

[Swiss Servator]

I...I feel like I am living a SugarFree novella.

[Groovus Maximus]

Don't laugh; I once had the honour of reading one of Saccharin Man's manuscripts, A Very Serious Manuscript...

He truly is a fine writer, and I am really am disappointed he never (to my knowledge) finished his novel. I really think he would find a niche market for best-sellers.

[SugarFree]

I did finish it. Still polishing and cleaning it.

[Groovus Maximus]

EUPHEMISMS!

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

We were rick-rolled by Trump when he announced his candidacy. We're now being forced to watch the video to the end.

[Notorious UGCC]

Inside, we both know what's been going on
We know the game and we're gonna play it

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Hillary Clinton officially claimed the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday night after winning primary races in New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota, and likely (though it's still not official) California; Sen. Bernie Sanders was victorious in Montana and South Dakota.

POWA! UNLIMITED POWA!!!

[WTF]

The cankles crackle with lightning!

[Chipper Morning Wood]

The goiter is pleased.

[Bee Tagger]

Republican Sen. Mark Kirk takes back his Trump endorsement.

Quick, Trump, call him a Po-Kirk-hontas!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Republican Sen. Mark Kirk takes back his Trump endorsement.

Because who doesn't like waffles?

[straffinrun]

You'd think with 3 Ks in his name he'd be down with Trump.

[Swiss Servator]

*slow clap*

[Juice]

lol

[Florida Hipster]

That guy is a dick.
Jk waffles.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Capitalism doesn't "care" for women, but it has made life easier for them.

Put it in a Life of Julia infographic.

[thrakkorzog]

Hard to break to you ladies but if you;re better at breaking rocks than your male counterparts then you get paid the same as other slaves . If you start demanding time off for having babies and demanding flexible work schedules, you're gonna take a pay cut.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Tennesse's "Blue Lives Matter" bill would make cops a protected class for hate-crime purposes.

But what if a TN cop shoots a black transgender person on the toilet of the women's room?

[Crusty Juggler]

I'll be in my bunk.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

A far-fetched hypothetical or next week's headlines?

[sarcasmic]

Axl Rose demands Google remove image of Guns N' Roses frontman that has resulted in countless memes mocking his weight

Axl Rose is demanding that a photo taken of him at a 2010 concert be removed from the internet
The image ran in the Winnipeg Free Press and had led to countless memes mocking his weight in the years since
Even if the image is removed however, the memes will still exist of the image on social media

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....eight.html

Some of those are pretty funny.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Axl needs to talk to Meatloaf so he can learn how to own it. Or the Screaming Trees--I saw them in concert once, they were pretty good.

[Citizen X]

+1 Gospel Plow

Mark Lanegan is a terrifying-looking human being.

[sarcasmic]

I recorded a radio broadcast of a Mad Season concert (I wore out the tape and never found a recording of that concert since) where he sang on one of the songs. Didn't know who he was. Now it all makes sense.

[sarcasmic]

I never saw them. Don't even know what they look like. But I do like the music I've heard.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

The guitarists were two huge fat guys--brothers, I think, who would fall to the ground and roll across the stage and over each other during guitar solos. They continued to play while doing this.

[Citizen X]

While Mark Lanegan stood stone still, microphone in one clawed hand, thousand-yard stare on his face, looking like a golem carved of some cursed wood.

[GILMORE?]

looking like a golem carved of some cursed wood.

brilliant

[Swiss Servator]

Seconded.

[Rhywun]

"Bob had bitch tits."

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

I like to think of them as 'perky'.

[Rhywun]

"They had to open up my pecs and drain the fluid again."

Not so perky any more.

[Steve G]

He looks a bit like Streisand in those pics

[Atanarjuat]

Exactly.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Did he remove the weight?

[thrakkorzog]

He could try contacting the Dwarves, I couldn't name a song of theirs, but they used to run around the stage buck ass naked covered in fake blood. And that was punk as fuck.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Lol, that brings back GWAR memories: two foot cock spraying semen all over the crowd, OJ getting decapitated, Ceasarian alien abortion, giant larva eating girls from the audience....all in the span of two hours.

[Citizen X]

+1 World Maggot

I've mentioned it before, but this HAS to be the location for any central Virginia H'n'R meetups.

[Citizen X]

Ahem. This.

[Chipwooder]

Oh I'm fuckin' there. GWAR fan since high school, when the most subversive thing you could do to anger your parents as a teenager in Richmond was listen to GWAR.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Set something up and I am there.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

"Once again: no, the average age of minors in prostitution is not 13-years-old."

OMWC hardest hit.

[Groovus Maximus]

I thought Popper was devastated by this news....

[Swiss Servator]

Too old for him.

[Fist of Etiquette]

As porn goes, so goes technology.

Automobile airbags came out of Brazilian fart porn. True story.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Yeah, that's more of a chicken or egg situation.

[Bee Tagger]

welcoming Bernie Sanders supporters to their flocks

Yeah, that's going to be a ram party.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

I see what ewe did there.

[Swiss Servator]

*narrows gaze*

[Bee Tagger]

Sen. Bernie Sanders was victorious in Montana and South Dakota.

It's cute that you guys voted, though.

[Citizen X]

That's, what, 3 delegates total?

[geo1113]

North Dakota was really funny. The results with 100% of the precincts had something like 370 votes.

[sarcasmic]

Shocking footage shows NYPD sergeant pointing gun at Brooklyn man who filmed arrest in his apartment building hallway

A video shot in March last year shows NYPD sergeant pulling out her gun
She points it at man filming ongoing arrest in Brooklyn building hallway
He was not involved in the original arrest but was handcuffed in his home
The sergeant can be seen snatching the man's phone and cursing at him
The shocking video shows cops searching his apartment without a warrant

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....llway.html

My favorite part:

Pichardo, a 13-year NYPD veteran, is facing disciplinary action after the incident. She has been named in 20 other lawsuits, police said.

What... The... Fuck...

[Drake]

The 4th Amendment...

......like every other constitutional right, is subject to reasonable regulation.

- Hillary Clinton

[Cyto]

But not the 5th......

[Groovus Maximus]

....because she drank it already.

[Cyto]

Yeah, I don't think that was the joke I was looking for....

... but I like the way you think! 9 in the morning and already thinking about getting your groove on!

[Citizen X]

Hey, that's midafternoon in Ukraine.

[Groovus Maximus]

Speak for you yourself, it's 16:40 here. *grins*

I actually don't drink though...

My wife is the lush; she drinks every day (when not pregnant). Exactly one chilled shot of vodka with lunch, and exactly one glass of port or cabernet before bedtime. Without fail.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

She waits till lunch?? Not a true Russian.

[Groovus Maximus]

She waits till lunch?? Not a true Russian.

She's surgeon, not pilot for Aeroflot. Jeeperz!

[commodious spittoon]

Exactly one chilled shot of vodka with lunch

Tequila, sure, but vodka...?

[PBR Streetgang]

Or abortion.

[Crusty Juggler]

I mean, it's not that shocking.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Pichardo, a 13-year NYPD veteran, is facing disciplinary action after the incident.

So what, she might get a week or so of paid vacation? A strongly worded letter in her file?

[Chipper Morning Wood]

If you gonna break the glass ceiling, you gotta break some bones along the way.

[GILMORE?]

She has been named in 20 other lawsuits, police said.

A fact which stunned even me - aka 'he for whom no level of civic-derpitude can normally surprise' =

NYPD Abuse Increases Settlements Costing City $735 Million

that's annually

For perspective, that's 6X-per-capita what LA spends on its 'not exactly famed for their community-policing-expertise' own Police-misconduct suits.

The excuse offered is, "NYC has ungodly bad tort law" which has no cap on payouts and makes suits easy (and almost always settled). which is true.

But regardless- you'd think the natural effect of that would be to *limit* liability by.... well, *doing something* to reduce it. But no, its like a perpetual motion machine of shitty policing and predatory lawyers.

[rts]

What incentive is there to limit it? It is other people's money, after all.

[sarcasmic]

As long as they are paying with other people's money, where's the incentive to act like human beings?

[GILMORE?]

I don't know, some part of me thinks that "beating & abusing the public" then robbing them to pay the consequent lawsuits would.... Get Old at some point, and maybe someone would suggest that it wasn't the ideal formula.

Except of course, it is.

[sarcasmic]

What can the people do about it? Seriously. The number of people who are beaten and abused, at least compared to the general population, is relatively small. I'm sure a good number of them have been railroaded into pleading guilty to felonies, so they can't vote anyway. The media waffles back and forth between police abuse being a racial issue and a few bad apples. No major media outlet will point out that it is a systemic problem. No politician will run on a platform of reforming the police. No prosecutor will go after the organization that they depend on to get the convictions required for attaining higher office. I don't see how anything can change.

[Notorious UGCC]

I don't see how this is a problem...the cop who pointed the gun seems to be black.

[Notorious UGCC]

/sarc for the first part of that sentence..

[Steve G]

SMOD2016

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

The last seal that needs to be broken is the Cubs playing the Cleveland Indians in the World Series.

[Private Chipperbot]

If the Cubs call up a reliever name Cartaphilus, I'm outa here.

[Juvenile Bluster]

SMOD/Cthulhu 2016. Because we have to be sure.

[Swiss Servator]

Hey?! No poaching Almanian's running mate! Almanian!/Cthulhu 2016!

[robc]

Running mates can be shared. Happend in 1824?

[Pay up, Palin's Buttplug!]

Yup, John C. Calhoun.

[Crusty Juggler]

Trump also took a page from Rick Astley, declaring that he would "never, ever let [us] down."

Linking to your own Twitter? Jeezy-petes.

[Hamster of Doom]

Hey, speaking of nothing apropos, I emailed you.

[Citizen X]

That was a mistake. Do you have any idea how many Russian teenagers he's going to try to sell you now?

[Hamster of Doom]

I've already got three dozen on backorder. His customer service is appalling.

[Citizen X]

That's really the least appalling thing about him.

[Crusty Juggler]

*blushes*

[Bee Tagger]

Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) says the fact that "you had extremists in both sides in agreement" was a key factor in getting the bill to the president's desk.

This is the moment the word "extremist" officially stopped meaning anything.

[Drake]

Long ago.

[Doctor Whom]

Capitalism doesn't "care" for women, but it has made life easier for them.

It's funny how much capitalism and the Enlightenment have done for their supposed victims.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Before one can bitch about microagressions and social injustice on tumblr one must first not die of starvation, dysentery, diphtheria, tuberculosis, small pox, or polio.

[CatoTheChipper]

... or in childbirth.

[Notorious UGCC]

"capitalism and the Enlightenment"

...are not the same thing.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Democrats and Republicans in Congress voted overwhelmingly for a new chemical safety act...

Hey boy, hey girl, let's galvanize out of control regulators to let forever be.

[WTF]

The chemicals between us
The walls that lie between us
Lying in this bed
The chemicals displaced
There is no lonelier place
Than lying in this bed

[Krabappel]

Really, Bush?

[Crusty Juggler]

I am not sure what's worse - him writing Bush lyrics, or you recognizing Bush lyrics.

[Citizen X]

Especially when that's clearly a Chemical Brothers reference in Eugene's original comment.

[Krabappel]

*ashamed*

[Bee Tagger]

Tennesse's "Blue Lives Matter" bill would make cops a protected class for hate-crime purposes.

True story, I wondered if this was a joke thing on Twitter meant to reference the movie Avatar for a time.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Tennesse's "Blue Lives Matter" bill would make cops a protected class for hate-crime purposes.

THEY DIDN'T CHOOSE TO BE LIKE THAT

[Citizen X]

Hey, smurf you, man!

[Groovus Maximus]

PAPA SMURF!!!!! Smurfizen Smurf smurfed me!

(But my allergies are suddenly gone!)

[WTF]

Oh, smurf off!

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Hey, the politically correct terminology is Colloidal-Silver-American.

[Atanarjuat]

Steve Chapman is busy writing pro-Hillary editorials. Actually it could be described as anti-Trump, except his next one is anti-Sanders...

Hillary Clinton has been wrong on one foreign policy issue after another, from the war in Iraq to the war in Libya to the war in Syria. She is secretive, averse to transparency, habitually deceptive and arguably corrupt. She is a risk to lead us into another messy conflict.
...
So let me be clear: If I had only these two choices of whom to be in charge of U.S. foreign policy for the next four years ? or five minutes ? I would pick Clinton in a heartbeat.
...
But she also has a wealth of knowledge of the world and many of its leaders, and she needs no on-the-job training in international affairs. At the routine daily business of diplomacy, Clinton offers competence and predictability.

[Citizen X]

Sad!

[SugarFree]

That breed will turn on you, Steve.

[Crusty Juggler]

Before they gather to collectively foam at the mouth, I would ask that Team Trump continues to make the links a Team Trump-free zone.

[Citizen X]

Donald J. Trump
@TrumpGenerator

Uncomfortable looking Crusty Juggler calls me to ask for favors and then mockingly smiles.
9:18 AM - 8 JUN 2016

[Heroic Mulatto]

Crusty Juggler is a totally overrated clown who speaks without knowing the facts. -- John Barron

[Warty]

Crusty Juggler, very untalented guy, sad!

[Certified Public Asshat]

Question for you Warty, do you use any protein powders?

[Warty]

NOW Sports 100% whey isolate. Costs ~$50 for a 5 pound tub on Amazon. I generally drink three scoops after I train. Flavor it up however you like or just learn to love the sour-milk taste of whey.

I also always have hard-boiled eggs around. They're an easy way to add protein to your diet.

[Certified Public Asshat]

I lift in the morning and then have eggs for breakfast, but I have flatlined in my progress and figured I am probably not consuming enough protein.

I thought protein powders were a little gimmicky before, but now I see I could use the boost.

[Slammer]

Warty uses Protean Powders

[Swiss Servator]

"Hmmmm...'Heart of Neutron Star'...does this work?"

[Lord Humungus]

He does: Distilled from the essence of his dungeon "guests".

[Heroic Mulatto]

No. I have it on good authority he gets his protein solely from human breast milk.

[Warty]

Human milk has a ton of sugar. Bad for gainz.

[Slammer]

Warty, do you know Nails?

Fucking amazing.

[Warty]

Google Music has played me this on my Indian station. I agree, fucking awesome.

[Private Chipperbot]

Google Music is the best $8 I spend every month.

[Heroic Mulatto]

You know I meant the colostrum.

[Groovus Maximus]

I loved him in X-Men!!!!!

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Way better in Deadpool.

[Citizen X]

Yes. They're made from the ground-up corpses of the other people who have asked him that.

[Cyto]

Being anti-Trump and anti-Sanders doesn't make you pro-Hillary.

As a libertarian, it is my God-given right to be anti-everybody. That is what we do. We point out how everyone else is a corrupt idiot. Even our own nominees.

It is our superpower... the ability to find fault in everyone else. Not as cool as flying, or as useful as x-ray vision... but is our super-power and we own it.

[Warty]

Being anti-Trump and anti-Sanders doesn't make you pro-Hillary.

Tell that to the books r 4 faggots crowd around here

[SugarFree]

Being anti-Trump and anti-Sanders doesn't make you pro-Hillary.

You sweet, naive boy. In October, bloody October, this mantra will not save you.

[thrakkorzog]

Wait until the Superhuman Registration act comes into effect, you sweet summer child.

[Atanarjuat]

Well, it wasn't just implied, Chapman said a bunch of nauseating pro-Hillary stuff about her "competence" in the article. Being just partway through Clinton Cash, I'm convinced she's only competent at being Grandma Graft.

Your anti-everybody point is dead on and perhaps should be in the Hit n' Run FAQ.

[Cyto]

Half a billion dollars says she's really, really competent at graft.

[Azathoth!!]

Being anti-Trump and anti-Sanders doesn't make you pro-Hillary.

As a libertarian, it is my God-given right to be anti-everybody

Of course -- that's something the WHYCOZMUTERRIERS can't seem to see applies to most of the people here who say they're going to vote for Trump.

A yuuuuge chunk of Trump voters are anti-Trump.

They're just a whole lot more anti-Hillary.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

At the routine daily business of diplomacy, Clinton offers competence and predictability graft and corruption.

[CatoTheChipper]

She's predictable, all right. She's as predictable as neo-con.

[Bee Tagger]

Capitalism doesn't "care" for women, but it has made life easier for them.

Socialism only hurts them because it just loves them so much it can't help it.

[Drake]

Look how everyone is equal now in Venezuela.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article.....at-or-sell

[Rhywun]

Venezuela was once the richest nation in South America, but a fall in oil prices combined with other economic problems has sparked desperation.

LOL

[Lee G]

And it's only started. Oil is going to take a dive again, probably to the teens. At that point we'll probably witness a full scale implosion.

[Rhywun]

Yeah, it's not exactly cheap anymore - like 50 bucks a barrel again?

[Rhywun]

But the lulz are of course for the AP completely ignoring the 800lb gorilla in the room (and his 800lb predecessor).

[Lee G]

They're not exactly the brightest.

[Atanarjuat]

True, but in this case it's deliberate.

[Rhywun]

^This

[Krabappel]

That is some incredible hand waving.

[Citizen X]

Women do love a bad boy, or so Longtorso keeps insisting.

[Slammer]

Victory

U.S. prison inmate can sue over removal of marbles from penis

A federal appeals court on Tuesday revived a lawsuit in which a West Virginia inmate accused state prison officials of invading his privacy by surgically removing marbles he had implanted in his penis.

[Citizen X]

Don't worry, Crusty, you can put 'em back when you get out.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Bad news, as this could be a precedent for Greece getting back the Elgins.

[Notorious UGCC]

Then the Germans would repossess them.

[Notorious UGCC]

He lost his marbles?

[Slammer]

Correction officers union head charged in NYC corruption probe

Norman Seabrook, the longtime president of the Correction Officers' Benevolent Association, and Murray Huberfeld, who ran several funds that were later taken over by New York-based Platinum Partners, were charged with fraud and conspiracy, according to a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.

The charges stem from an unauthorized investment of $20 million of union money that Seabrook made in 2014 in Platinum through Huberfeld in exchange for bribe payments. Huberfeld paid Seabrook an initial kickback of $60,000, according to court documents.

[Crusty Juggler]

Preet is not fucking around.

[Citizen X]

The dude is a machine. How many officials is he currently in the process of taking down?

[commodious spittoon]

He's working his way to the very top: the H&R commentariat. He'll have to go through the Kochs to get us.

[Citizen X]

Dude, that's where he STARTED. I look forward to the inevitable showdown with Herself. I bet the sun won't even rise for months.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Preet is gonna slip up sooner or later and threaten himself. Then he will disappear in a puff of logic.

[The Last American Hero]

Careful, that prosecutor could get charged with a hate crime.

[Rufus The Monocled]

This is for Chipper Morning Wood in response to PM links question about jaywalking in Montreal:

Not sure where you were but jaywalking in Montreal is the rule rather than the exception. It had become a common if not playful feature of our city landscape and culture. We're notorious for jaywalking. I know there was a crackdown but don't know what kind of impact it had and I do confess to not being in the city like I was once upon a time but to my knowledge, we still jaywalk. I know I do.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Hey, thanks for replying, Rufus. BTW, Montreal is a great city. We were situated in the Village but walked all over. When was the crackdown?

[Groovus Maximus]

Democrats and Republicans in Congress voted overwhelmingly for a new chemical safety act; it now heads to the White House.

The Chemical Bros hardest hit.

[Tornado16nb]

Barf.....

"The $15 minimum is estimated to raise wages for 114,000 workers, or about 14 percent of the District of Columbia's workforce, according to an analysis for the council by the non-profit Economic Policy Institute.

Some lawmakers said the measure did not go far enough to address a widening income gap and 18 percent poverty rate. Council member David Grosso added an amendment requiring the government to study a minimum income system to help the poorest residents.

"Raising the minimum wage is a good thing, but is $15 enough? Or should the number be $35, or $50 an hour?" he asked."

[Cyto]

Raising the minimum wage is a good thing, but is $15 enough? Or should the number be $35, or $50 an hour?" he asked."

Well, he's asking the right questions.... sort of....

[Tornado16nb]

Yea i thought it was odd the last part...was wondering if he was trying to say it was absurd logic to raise the min wage. But it appears he was a council member who voted for it.

[Rhywun]

City council types really are that stupid.

[WTF]

We shall address the poverty rate by pricing unskilled labor out of jobs.
Brilliant!

[Injun, as in from India]

Stop it! Only a cold-hearted capitalist pig would question his motivations or his logic!

[Juice]

Fuck, I don't make the equivalent of $50/hr right now and I thought I was doing ok.

[Lee G]

There's so much derp in this I had a hard time deciding what to excerpt

Language justice cannot be accomplished without resource redistribution, because there are always disparities in who is allowed resources.

Many of the interpreters who build bridges across different languages are underpaid or not paid at all. Interpreters that are involved in social justice work often come from marginalized backgrounds and work on marginalized topics ? so there are often little funds in the first place.

But there needs to be an urgency placed on making sure that money is allocated to make spaces inviting to those who don't speak English.

The interpreters, who do the vital work of decentering the English language, need to be well-compensated ? because language justice and economic justice are bound together, as all forms of justice are.

[Lee G]

Each of us are positioned at different points, and we have certain privileges based on where we're positioned. If you have more resources than others, redistributing resources is easy ? throw your money at those with less resources. We can easily use PayPal to send twenty or more dollars to an Indigenous femme, for example, because all settlers benefit from being on stolen land.

All settlers have an obligation to extend resources as reparations for all of the benefits that have arisen for settlers at the expense of Indigenous people. The genocide against Indigenous people is ongoing, which means that we need to urgently support Indigenous survival in tangible, immediate ways.

Resource redistribution is thus one of the most important parts of language justice. Because when people of color, especially Indigenous and Black people, who don't speak English are left out of organizing spaces that already sit on occupied territories, that is far from anything we could call justice.

And there is no justice without language justice.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Really? I had to devote around 5,000 dollars of budgeted resources for translators for my last study.

[WTF]

Holy fuck, that's an awful lot of words with no meaning whatsoever!

[GILMORE?]

We can easily use PayPal to send twenty or more dollars to an Indigenous femme

but i already have their record, and it only had one good song anyway.

re: "Femme" -

i feel (like with the "Charleston Loophole" in previous) like i don't even want to ask....

....but, i presume this is the term du jour for 'people who identify as female'? because 'woman' or 'female' is like waaaaay too exclusive for Real Feminists these days?

or is there more to it?

[Heroic Mulatto]

Based on the dude's picture, I think it's just a high-falutin' word for "swish".

[GILMORE?]

I honestly just want to know if a Femme includes girls or whether its just a miscellaneous grab-bag of "things with dicks that act sissy"

[Heroic Mulatto]

As far as I know, "femme" includes lipstick lesbians. But it's like black slang, the minute white people figure it out, it changes.

What I'm saying is that "on fleek" is deader than a disco-dancing dodo.

[Crusty Juggler]

Would if she drank less red wine.

[Lee G]

You're asking the wrong person. It like a train wreck to me. I just can't look away.

[Lee G]

It's

[Rufus The Monocled]

When immigrants come to "America," they are routinely stripped of their language. They are expected to learn English immediately and flawlessly, because the kind of people that Americans consider respectable talk and look like middle-class white people.

America in scare quotes. Love it.

Don't go full Quebec, America. Don't. It's not good.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

"because all settlers benefit from being on stolen land."

I actually live on land that was legally purchased from Native Americans by the French. THEN the land was stolen by the English. So do I send MY reparations to a Parisian??

[Warty]

Language justice

NOPE. Nope nope nope nope nope nope. Sorry, Lee.

[Lee G]

I thought you were braver than that.

[John]

So is the idea it is unfair that some people have to learn the native language?

[Lee G]

It goes even further than that. It's multi-layered privilege that requires special glasses to see in all its glory.

Trans, in fact, has become another colonial tool. It has become a way for imperialist media companies and corporations to spread the colonial understandings of gender, while hiding it under the guise of progress. People are weaponizing the language of transness as a way of making money off of people of color across the world, especially Black and Indigenous people.

[WTF]

Um, LOL, wut?

[Lee G]

The author also wrote this gem:

3 Reasons It's Irrational to Demand 'Rationalism' in Social Justice Activism

It helps explain every other article they've written.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

What I get is a 'femme' is a trans black who speaks only apache, thus winning the points battle for most oppressed.

[Warty]

weaponizing the language of transness

GODDAMMIT LEE FUCK FOR FUCK'S SAKE GODDAMMIT

[Groovus Maximus]

Trans-lation:

Pronouns are patriarchal and enslave.

[lafe.long]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11PF7IAsHdU

[John]

I don't even know what to say to that. Wow.

[You Sound Like a Prog (MJG)]

How absurd. Indigenous people don't have money.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Unless you speak fluent Apache, I'd be cautious in throwing around the term "native language".

[Crusty Juggler]

With Oingo Boingo, The Shadows version of Apache is the best version.

[Crusty Juggler]

*With all due respect to Oingo Boingo (a phrase which has never been uttered).

[Private Chipperbot]

My kids were incredulous when I had them listen to Weird Science and told them it was the same guy who does the music for all of Tim Burton's movies.

[GILMORE?]

Absolutely not = the Incredible Bongo Band does the very-best Apache

[Florida Hipster]

Proto-Eurasian or GTFA.

[Florida Hipster]

GTFAO.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I would agree to the existence of an Proto-Indo-European-Uralic-Altaic super-language family if I didn't firmly believe the Altaic languages were introduced by aliens.

[Florida Hipster]

I will grant you the aliens. Have you heard the theory that so many languages share a common ancestry due to domestication of the horse?

[Free Society]

Yeah it's a pretty solid theory as far as I'm concerned. I think it's more about the domestication of the horse enabling one or two particular language families, Mongolic and Turkic, to have a wider range over an area that happens to be conducive to large herding animals. In a similar way that agricultural innovations gave proto-Indo-European speakers an economic advantage over other cultures, particularly in temperate (seasonal) climates.

[John]

The Apaches are no more or less native to North America than you or I. Everyone comes from somewhere at some point. English is the native language of North America. It wasn't always of course but it is now.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Respectfully, I disagree. It's pretty much incontrovertible that American Indians were the first group to people the American continent. Yes, they originated from Asia, just as we all originate from Africa, but in everyday meaning it is understood that "native" in America refers to those Indians who were here long before anyone else. If you want to refer to English as the common language of the United States, sure, I'll sign on to that. But referring to it as the "native" language is just rewriting history.

[John]

But the Apache were not the first native Americans. They were displaced and replaced by plenty of other people. Beyond that, the Anglo Saxons were not the original inhabitants of Britain. The Welsh Celts were. So by your logic English isn't even a native language in England.

You can't go down the "we were here first and have primacy" road. It leads to nowhere. English is the native language of North America. If the Apache's don't like it, too bad, such are the wages of getting run over by another civilization. And if the English speaking Americans don't have the will or the ability to remain dominant in their own home, it will be too bad for them someday too.

[commodious spittoon]

Warty knows only SF does justice to language.

[WTF]

Your definition of 'justice' is,...interesting.

[SugarFree]

I give language what it deserves. If you want to call that justice, so be it.

[Warty]

If English didn't like what you do to it, it wouldn't keep getting blackout drunk around you while wearing that skirt. Fucking whore.

[Citizen X]

Jesus, dude. I am sort of angry at you for posting that.

[Cyto]

Seriously. That was a real Billy Madison moment.

[SugarFree]

Everyday Feminism is always so extreme you have to wonder if it's satire. Then you realize they really are all that dim.

[Lee G]

You see me linkin', you hatin'

[Citizen X]

I am barely speaking to you.

[Florida Hipster]

Linkin' Dirty.

[Rhywun]

I loved it. Best laugh I'll get all day, probably.

[Rhywun]

OK, I just skimmed the whole thing as well as noted the other headlines on that page ("3 Ways My Parents Unintentionally Taught Me That My Consent Didn't Matter", "10 Ways Your Social Justice Work Might Be Inaccessible and Elitist (And Why That's a Problem)").

This can't be real. It just can't be.

[Citizen X]

My thoughts and prayers are with you.

[GILMORE?]

Derptologist would swoon

[Lord Humungus]

Study suggests selling wine in larger glasses causes people to drink more

Over 16 weeks, researchers led by Marcus Munafo of the Unviersity of Bristol studied serving patterns at a dual bar and restaurant establishment called The Pint Shop in Cambridge. Over the course of the study, the space's owners alternated between three different glass sizes: the "standard" 300 ml, a larger 370 ml, and a smaller 250 ml.

Not only did they find that people tended to buy more wine when the bar served alcohol in larger glasses, they also found that it was a significant amount more; patrons bought an average of 9.4 percent more wine when it was served in the 370 ml glass, as opposed to the standard 300 ml glass.

[Lee G]

Who cares? (other than wine dealers)

[Private Chipperbot]

How much did they charge for each size? If my choice is $10 for 370ml or $9 for 250ml, I'm sure as shit buying the bigger one.

[SugarFree]

So people who go in to have a couple of glasses of wine drink more wine when there is is more wine in each of the glasses?

Science!

[Glide]

@Chipperbot & Sugarfree -
I interpreted it the same but after clicking through they were actually serving the same volume wine in different size glasses. That is, people bought 9% more glasses of wine when they were big, slightly more empty glasses.

[SugarFree]

So it's more about people not understanding volume?

[Lord Humungus]

Shock the Monkey!

Monkey knocks out Kenya's entire power grid after 'falling onto transformer at electricity plant'

The country on Africa's east coast was without electricity for more than three hours today after the incident shortly after 11.30am local time.

Electricity company KenGen released a statement this afternoon claiming that the outage was the result of an ape climbing on a power station roof and tripping a transformer.

It said: "At 1129 hours this morning, a monkey climbed on the roof of Gitaru Power Station and dropped onto the transformer tripping it.

"This caused other machines at the power station to trip on overload resulting in a loss of more than 180MW form this plant, which triggered a national power blackout.

[Lee G]

Not that different from the 65 NE blackout, except with more monkey.

[Drake]

That happened in my town except it was a teenage human.

[John]

Who knew Peter Gabriel was a futurist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnVf1ZoCJSo

[Citizen X]

I always knew he had SOMETHING going on. Seriously, how many hit songs did he have that were about his penis?

[John]

I don't know. Is there some double entandre going on in Salisbury Hill or In Your Eyes that I never got?

[Citizen X]

Yes.

[GILMORE?]

Is there some double entandre going on in ....In Your Eyes that I never got?

Its not a double entendre at all. Its a very clear song about spooging in a girl's face.

[John]

Not a girl, Rosanna Arquette, who was his girlfriend at the time.

[GILMORE?]

Wow, that's what Rosanna is about as well then

[Crusty Juggler]

As demonstrated in this episode of yacht rock.

[Notorious UGCC]

Mario kicked Donkey Kong onto the power grid.

[Tornado16nb]

I actually think Hillary being POTUS could be a good thing provided republicans hold congress to prevent anything from being done.

With Obama he still has a bit of a cult following...at least with hillary being so unlikeable am wondering if folks won't care about "obstructionism" or whatever talking point proggies use these days. The lack of enthusiasm for her could be a good thing.

[Private Chipperbot]

republicans

I've identified the flaw in your thinking...

[The Last American Hero]

Hillary has a vagina. Any disagreement will be due to misogyny.

[Injun, as in from India]

The 1A hangs in the balance: she wants the SCOTUS to overturn Citizens United vs FEC

The 2A hangs in the balance: she wants DC v Heller, and MacDonald v Chicago overturned.

Too bad the major party alternative to a statist liar is a proto-fascist thug.

[Tornado16nb]

Good point. Though i am wondering the proggie rationale for over turning those...that would be ok but overturning Roe V Wade (seeing how there was 5 pubs before) is not?

Consistency isn't there forte!!

[Rasilio]

She wants, doesn't mean she has a shot in hell of getting it.

The SC very very rarely overturns established precident so she'd need to appoint judges she could count on to do just the AND get them confirmed by a Republican dominated Senate. Then she'd need a test case that could get to the SC and hope that the 2 to 3 justices she got confirmed and another 2 to 3 existing judges were willing to rule in such a way that 2 very unambiguious prior rulings were overturned

[GILMORE?]

I theorized a ways back that - in some senses - regardless of who wins, its "doom" either way, or its possibly a "win-win" either way.

e.g.

- Both will be 1-term presidents. That's my bet. Both will be miserable failures riddled by controversy.
- Hillary hurts democrats by congealing opposition while fragmenting her own party's support. (Trump you could argue does the same, but in less/different ways)
- Neither will actually be able to pass any major legislation (*downside - both will follow the Exec Order trend and try to rule by decree)
- It will, at the very least, be manna from heaven for Reason magazine and the endless stream of Lulz, regardless of who wins
... and so on.

My biggest caveat/disclaimer = Hillary will load the SC with the worst possible jurists, and the court will be a more-potent constitution-shredding machine for the remainder of my lifetime.

Which is reason enough to try and stop her from winning, IMHO. But that aside - assuming all of you are cool w/ that.... otherwise i think its pretty much a wash in many ways.

[SugarFree]

Given that we have no idea who Trump would nominate for SCOTUS (and that list he put out means nothing given that his only consistency is inconsistency) it remains a wash.

I admit to a certain ghoulish fascination of a Trump presidency, but neither Trump nor Clinton should be president.

[GILMORE?]

neither Trump nor Clinton should be president.

its cute that you think "should" matters.

[Chipwooder]

Even if there's only a 10% chance that Trump nominates someone not-revolting, that's better than Hillary's 0%.

[John]

The biggest upshot for reason of Trump winning is that all of the staff's prog friends will pretend to like them again. The liberaltarian moment will return. Suddenly all of the cool kids will pretend to care about wars and government overreach, and civil liberties again.

You can see the start of it on this board. In the last few weeks there have been a few new posters show up. They are all leftists and only post on the Trump and partisan threads. This board used to lean a lot more left back during the Bush years. When Obama got elected most of the leftist ran away. There was no point in pretending to care about government power now that they were in charge and even the ones who had integrity and still cared lacked the fortitude to attack Obama or try and defend the indefensible. So most of the went away. If Trump wins, they will be back in a big way.

[Glide]

I agree, but must point out it cuts both ways. There are certainly right-leaning libertarians that are going to mysteriously go silent about government spending and overregulation if the president doing it has an R by his name.

(note: I am right-leaning myself, just pointing out the fairly obvious truth that both sides have their team players)

[Lord Humungus]

An update:

Romania: Vasile Cepoi wins, loses and loses in mayor's race

In a Romanian town, Vasile Cepoi defeated Vasile Cepoi and Vasile Cepoi in a mayoral election.

The middle name made all the difference.

The victor told The Associated Press: "I added my middle name, and ran as Vasile Lica Cepoi. Anyhow, residents knew about the confusion before the vote."

He was also the incumbent, who secured his fourth term as mayor of Draguseni.

[Notorious UGCC]

The municipality's name translates as Dracula City.

Source: A warm, moist place.

[Free Society]

Republican Sen. Mark Kirk takes back his Trump endorsement.

The Daily Beast takes back the take back article.

[Lord Humungus]

Europe to America: Your love of air-conditioning is stupid

The U.S. has been the world's leader in air-conditioning ever since, and it's not a leadership Americans should necessarily be proud of. According to Stan Cox, a researcher who has spent years studying indoor climate controlling, the United States consumes more energy for air conditioning than any other country. In many parts of the world, a lack in economic development might be to blame for a widespread absence of air-conditioning at the moment. However, that doesn't explain why even most Europeans ridicule Americans for their love of cooling and lack of heat tolerance.

Of course, Northern Europe is still colder than most regions within the United States and some countries, such as Italy or Spain, have recently seen an increase in air-conditioning. "The U.S. is somewhat unusual in being a wealthy nation much of whose population lives in very warm, humid regions," Cox told The Washington Post in an e-mail. However, the differences in average temperatures are unlikely to be the only reason for Europeans' reluctance to buy cooling systems. It's also about cultural differences.

[Private Chipperbot]

Europeans are imbeciles.

[Injun, as in from India]

+100 degrees Celsius

[Hamster of Doom]

They tell us this every June since the 70's. I don't think it's working.

[Injun, as in from India]

We should all be like the enlightened Europeans!

Submit to authority, put the individual beneath "society", and be good beta males.

[The Last American Hero]

And worst of all, watch adults play soccer.

[lap83]

According to Google, July is the hottest month in London with an average temp of 66F. That's about 10 degrees colder than the temp my AC has been set at for the past week.

[John]

It's also about cultural differences.

No it is about them being poor and electricity being outrageously expensive. These assholes are not mad about air conditioning. They are mad that Americans are not poor.

[CatoTheChipper]

And expensive electricity is what you get when you try to generate it from solar panels and windmills.

[Citizen X]

Check your latitude privilege, Europeans! Madrid is one of the southernmost capitals in Europe, and it's just about exactly as far north as New York City is. Most of Europe's population is located quite a bit further north than that.

You can have my air conditioning when you pry it from my sweaty, mosquito-bitten fingers.

[Crusty Juggler]

In Europe's defense, they lock up their elderly in homes without air conditioning and then take a holiday. It's a cultural thing.

[Citizen X]

It's sad, but it's nature's way.

[thrakkorzog]

To be fair, they don't have a bunch of igloos to send their old people out on, so they have to get by, locking them up in old folks homes. Same difference.

[Rhywun]

And their winters are milder than ours too. It's like the writer never heard of the Gulf Stream.

[GILMORE?]

Southern Europeans don't get anything remotely like the humidity we do.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

"Europe to America: Your love of air-conditioning is stupid"

Well then fuck you Europe. I can't help the fact that my Latvian heritage makes even SPRING in the northern US unbearably hot. I bet ya assholes spend more money on heating during the winter, ya can't take the cold ya pussies.

[SFC B]

Not only do they use a ton of heat, they burn wood in fireplaces. While cities are nothing but soot spewing chimneys from October to march.

[Timon 19]

Holy shit, a fellow Latvian?

[Chipwooder]

Yet another piece at Wapo criticizing air conditioning. I've lived all around the country - New York, Virginia, Florida, California, Arizona, Alabama - and every single one of them has hotter summers and more humidity than anywhere in Europe. Stick the average European in the Sonoran Desert and they'll trample each other to get to that thermostat.

[Chipwooder]

I should have said "OR more humidity". Obviously, when I lived in Yuma it wasn't very humid, but it did get 115+ degrees from time to time.

[Juice]

I was in Germany one summer and it was about 85F outside and nowhere was air conditioned. It was fucking sweltering in the conference center I was in and I had to wear nice clothes, tie and all. I was dying. And none of the Germans were wearing fucking deodorant. It's like they don't believe in the stuff. It was miserable.

[CatoTheChipper]

Since this is a WaPo article, I think it only fitting that they shut down the a/c in all WaPo offices as an example to us all.

[Injun, as in from India]

I posted this yesterday during PM links, but I'll repost because I remembered something:

Hillary Clinton wore a $12,495 Armani jacket during a speech about inequality

Circa 2008, does anything remember this thing about Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast?

Sarah Palin Has Secret Style Team, Wore Pricey Valentino At RNC (SEE BEFORE/AFTER PHOTOS)

I'm so totally expecting the media to go after Hillary's $12k jacket the way they went after Palin's $4k jacket.

[The Last American Hero]

Due to QE 1-2-3-4-5, the $12k jacket is worth half of Palin's jacket.

[Chip Woodier]

I'm so totally expecting the media to go after Hillary's $12k jacket the way they went after Palin's $4k jacket.

Me too. I'll be in the corner...holding my breath.

[Lord Humungus]

An Open Letter to Mitt Romney

Dear Governor Romney,

I write to you not as a fellow conservative, not as a fellow partisan, but as a citizen of our republic. You have served your nation admirably for many years and by any ordinary standard are entitled to a happy retirement. But these are extraordinary times, and your nation still has need of your service. I respectfully implore you to run for president as an independent candidate in 2016.

America is not bound by a shared nationality, religion, or even geography, but a commitment to certain ideals?that all people are created equal, endowed by God with inalienable rights, and that government is instituted to secure these blessings. This is the republican creed that has animated our experiment in self-government for 240 years. And yet neither of the major party candidates represents it.

Donald Trump is a sympathizer with the nativist "alt-right," a twisted and angry ideology that views the world through a racialist lens. Worse, his intemperance knows no bounds, making him liable to lash out at any (real or perceived) rivals. These qualities combined in an awful spectacle this week when he claimed that the judge in the Trump University case was biased?simply because he is of Mexican descent.

[Injun, as in from India]

Related: Arnold Schwarzenegger Calls Judge in Trump University Case an 'American Hero'

Judge Curiel is an American hero who stood up to the Mexican cartels. I was proud to appoint him when I was Gov.

From NYT article linked to by Schwarzenegger in his tweet:

For much of a year, Gonzalo P. Curiel, then a federal prosecutor in California, lived officially in hiding.

He hunkered down for a while on a naval base and in other closely guarded locations under the protection of United States marshals. Even his siblings did not know exactly where he was at times.

The reason: In a secretly taped conversation inside a San Diego prison, a man accused of being a gunman for a Mexican drug cartel said that he had received permission from his superiors to have Mr. Curiel assassinated.

[John]

That these losers would turn to Mitt Romney tells you everything you need to know about conservatives and the GOP. Mitt Romney is perfect example of our broken political class. He is a morally craven idiot son who got ahead on family connections yet thinks he earned it.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

He is a morally craven idiot son who got ahead on family connections yet thinks he earned it.

You mean he's just exactly like Trump?

If you changed some gender specific words in that sentence, it would be an exact description of the other one.

[commodious spittoon]

Does anyone really believe Trump has the emotional or intellectual consistency to be a bigot? His shtick is being infinitely malleable and self-serving, and he's all about the conspiracies. Maybe when he says he thinks his judge is biased because Trump wants to build a wall, he means exactly that.

[John]

No. And beyond the reasons you mention, there is no way someone could make it in business and Hollywood the way Trump has if they were in any meaningful way a bigot. Eventually who you really are comes out. And if Trump were an actual bigot, it would have come out long before now and doomed his career in business and television.

The thing you have to remember about racism is that when ever one white person accuses another of racism, it is not about racism. It is just the one white person asserting their moral superiority over the other white person and virtue signaling to the rest of the white community that superiority.

Usually it is the left that does that to the right. Trump, however, has given the elitist right a chance to get in on the action and assert their virtue supremacy over other white people. That is all that is going on here.

[Injun, as in from India]

So why is the white supremacist crowd hovering around him?

[John]

I wasn't aware they were.

[commodious spittoon]

Because he's infinitely malleable and self-serving. He got on their radar in a big way with the fence and the Muslim talk, and since he's the only one saying that sort of thing he's been able to walk it all back and drop none-too-subtle hints that he's open to negotiation; the idiot alt-right won't bail.

[Azathoth!!]

So why is the white supremacist crowd hovering around him?

Because he's telling SJWs to take a flying fuck. Because he's making at least a token defense of Western values. He may not mean a word of it, but he's saying the right things and the right people are pissed that he exists.

And mostly because we've allowed the left to stretch 'white supremacist' into a meaningless shape. When a gay man who prefers sex with black men is a bastion of the new 'white supremacist crowd', the term has lost all meaning.

[OldMexican Trained Philosopher]

Are you saying he's dumb? That would explain much.

[Private Chipperbot]

Asshole kills five cyclists in Kalamazoo.

[John]

That is horrible.

[Lord Humungus]

I heard about this this morning - Kalamazoo is only ~50 miles south of me.

I also heard that the driver's truck was actually mangled enough that it couldn't drive any further, which is why he was caught on foot. *shudder*

[John]

It is interesting they didn't mention the name of the driver. Just who is the "50 year old West Michigan man"? Whoever he is, I think it is a safe bet he isn't white and didn't have a tea party bumper sticker or this would be on a 24 hour loop on CNN and MSNBC.

What is your guess? Mine is he is either an illegal alien with multiple drunk driving convictions or a Muslim who for some reason, we will never know why, decided to run down a group of cyclists.

[Lord Humungus]

Hard to say. North Westnedge - at least when I went to college there - was a place that few people dare tread at night. Very high crime zone - especially since Kalamazoo was the center of a drug gang war at the time, being between Chicago and Detroit. Of course this happened at a point further north than the city, where it becomes more country-fied.

Lots of racial tensions in that town - middle-class college students with money and not much common sense, along with poor, mostly black, people living in the same area. Muggings and break-ins happened to lots of my friends. I stayed low - wearing old clothes and an army jacket. I never had any trouble.

But Kalamazoo has changed dramatically since I've lived there.

[Private Chipperbot]

I went to Western and that sounds just about right. Back then only a few spots downtown to drink and stay the hell out of the neighborhoods.

[Lord Humungus]

I'm a Western grad myself. I lived in the student ghetto for most of my years there. I didn't know what the hell I was thinking. I would have been better off living somewhere in the suburbs or country and driving a little bit more.

[commodious spittoon]

My ex's dad is a triathlete with three races under his belt. We used to cycle together. He was struck by a car on a mountain road outside Durango and pitched off the side. He lived, thanks to a couple park rangers who found his bike, and mostly recovered except for somehow losing a bone in his inner-ear. The vertigo forced him into an early retirement.

Sadly, the driver was never found.

[John]

Cycling is so much more dangerous than people think. I am always amazed at how casually people take cycling and the risks associated with it.

[commodious spittoon]

I don't do roads if I can help it. We're blessed with a terrific paved trail following the Rio Grande, and except for the goddamn pedestrians doubling up and blocking both lanes it's a scenic 25+ miles.

[John]

I wouldn't do roads either. I don't cycle but if I did no way would I get out on roads.

[Atlas Slugged]

I've done many tris and will do everything I can to AVOID biking on public roads. That includes the US and Japan (Okinawa) where I lived for three years. My folks are from SW Colorado and am familiar with many of the main roads there. Why the hell was he biking on them? regardless, sorry to hear he got hit!

[OldMexican Trained Philosopher]

Trump goes back in to message. Now can we please focus on deporting the 11 million Mexican rapists which is what Trump is here for?

[John]

Yes we can. And conservatives who swear they are serious about securing the border can go back to reacting in horror. They are serious about securing the border but they didn't think that would involve deporting anyone.

[widget]

John,

Trump went beyond securing the border, wall or not, and took to insulting Mexican men. The fact is that Mexican men are very family oriented, a bit more so than gringos by my observation.

[John]

He didn't insult Mexicans. He just told the truth, which is that the elite of Mexico are not who comes here and that of the people who do there are a fair number of serious criminals. That is all true. It doesn't mean that every Mexican who comes here is a criminal. And the people who say it does either don't know what he actually said or are not being honest about it.

Whatever you think of immigration, I don't see how lying about it is a good idea. Yes, a good number of criminals immigrate here illegally from Mexico and central America.

I would also point out that the same people who find that observation so shocking and racist, think nothing of making appalling generalizations about the white working class or any group they don't like. National Review is all about not slandering Mexicans by pointing out criminals immigrate but when we are talking about the white working class, those bastards are nothing but welfare queens and meth heads living communities that need to die.

[widget]

I half-way agree with you, John. The inflammatory sentence fragment by Trump is

"... they're rapists..." : they are rapists.

It makes more sense, in context, to be "their rapists". They being the Mexican government unloading criminals they don't want to deal with upon us among the migrants.

[Rhywun]

unloading criminals they don't want to deal with upon us among the migrants

I've been hearing that theory since long before Trump. Even recall some Mexican official catching heat for admitting it.

[widget]

You darned well should have. Texas was formed on the behest of Mexico. Mexico wanted a second front to divert Comanche warriors from always raiding northern Mexico.

[Notorious UGCC]

I hadn't heard this idea before.

It sounds interesting.

You mean Mexico was secretly promoting Texan independence?

[widget]

Trump fumbled the ball on that.

[Citizen X]

Sad!

[Injun, as in from India]

I'm looking forward to Hillary getting indicted for her FOIA-evasion email setup, and Trump getting convicted on the fraud lawsuit.

I really hope this election destroys whatever faith people have in government, and begin to look to themselves the way they did when Alexis De Tocqueville visited America.

[Notorious UGCC]

Getting "convicted" in a civil suit means your wallet will become much lighter.

Getting convicted of a federal crime means prison is an option.

[Lord Humungus]

Let me find my shocked face.

Sex Change Bombshell: Richard Simmons Is Secretly Living As A Woman!

[Citizen X]

That's... not a secret.

[tarran]

Richard Simmons Is Secretly Living As A Woman!

Wayne Brady is neither amused nor surprised at this news.

[tarran]

Completely unsurprising.

[John]

I have a good friend who a native of New Orleans. Richard Simmons comes from a very old New Orleans family. His brother was New Orleans DA or some other figure in politics. My friend is a member of the social cru that the Simmons family belongs. The crus are the social clubs who put on Marti Gras. One year, the cru is meeting outside the city to get on a bus to go down to the quarter to be a part of whatever parade they help do every year. Its like seven in the morning and many of the people in the bus have been up drinking since the night before or are just waking up after a couple of hours of sleep. Its a bit of a muted environment. So into this steps Richard Simmons who stands up in the front of the bus and starts being Richard Simmons about how they were going to put on the greatest parade ever and so forth. About 30 seconds into this, someone threw a full solo cup of beer hitting Simmons right in the face followed by a loud "shut up". My friend says it was the funniest moment he has ever witnessed.

[GILMORE?]

+ tra la la la lay

[Notorious UGCC]

Wait, Richard Simmons is involved in Mardi Gras? This is totally unexpected.

[Lord Humungus]

I had a very disturbing dream last night. I was at a movie theater with my wife, watching a documentary about Donald Trump.

SugarFree - who was a pudgy teenager - was sitting next to me, telling me about his fishing trip with RC Dean.

My wife, in the meanwhile, was making snarky comments about the movie while the audience was hushing her.

/true story

[Citizen X]

So it was a sex dream?

[Lord Humungus]

"no corks were popped, no trains went into tunnels, and no killdozers were in the making of this dream"

[Free Society]

"And you were there, and you were there, and you were there too! But not you."

[SugarFree]

Weird. I was actually pretty skinny as a teen. But I did go fishing with RC Dean quite often.

[Citizen X]

"Going fishing with RC Dean" is my favorite masturbation euphemism yet.

[SugarFree]

It is refreshingly unambiguous.

[Slammer]

Goddam this place is nuts.

[Groovus Maximus]

Ummm... My Liege of the Wasteland.... shoot me an email. You need help!

[Lord Humungus]

I think the only cure will come at then end of a barrel.

(damn these masturbation euphemisms never seem to end)

[bacon-magic]

Translation: nuttier than a fruitcake. *blows bubbles on bubble pipe

[R C Dean]

I have the feeling spending a day bullshitting, smoking cigars, and drinking scotch with SF would be a good day, indeed.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Three euphemisms in a row!

RC Dean with the hat trick!

[commodious spittoon]

You should come to my party. There's gonna be fighting, fucking, and farting... and you're the only one invited.

[Libertarian]

Hell, I could have a good day with Hillary Clinton if I were doing those 3 things.

[Notorious UGCC]

"I dreamed that I wag giving a speech in the Senate...only to wake up and discover that I *was!*"

[Notorious UGCC]

*was* giving

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Tennesse's "Blue Lives Matter" bill would make cops a protected class for hate-crime purposes.

If not one, why not the other?

[Just a thought not a sermon]

It's all part, Bernie's my democrat fantasy
he's my socialist dream, yeah

[geo1113]

Cloud 9...you can be what you want to be
Cloud 9...you ain't got no responsibilities

[Crusty Juggler]

More green cleaning products, please.

[WTF]

And then we can look forward to the 'unexplained' increase in bacterial diseases, harmful insects, and other vermin because we don't have effective chemicals to combat them. It's like we forgot why we started using chemicals and harsh detergents in the first place.

[Krabappel]

All you need is bleach. They'd have a hell of a time banning that.

[Citizen X]

+some ants and also a bunch more ants

[Citizen X]

+some ants and also a bunch more ants

[Florida Hipster]

I use a lime based product to clean my coffee roaster. It actually works pretty well.

[Crusty Juggler]

I do recommend hydrogen peroxide cleaners for many tasks. The problem, I think, is that "eco-friendly" products are not useful in many circumstances, and that lead to something like a MRSA outbreak in locker rooms.

[Private Chipperbot]

And squirrels!

[Citizen X]

Seriously, you end up with a LOT of ants.

[Warty]

Usually. These days I either lift at 5 on Saturday mornings or after I get off work, and I'm not going to bother to eat before either of those times.

[Certified Public Asshat]

Yeah, I wake up at 6 and go down to my powercage. I don't have much time to get it all going before work and then don't have much time in the evening either with two young kids.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Yeah, see, living in Florida, where it's 92 degrees every summer day with 95% humidity, with a low of 80 with 95% humidity... you're insane if you think I'll go without air conditioning.

[Florida Hipster]

Absolutely. What I clean food related equipment with is not the same stuff I would use to clean hospital floors.

[Warty]

Lack of sleep will kill you. And a lot of people do better if they eat some kind of slow-digesting carb a little while before they lift. I seem to do just as well if I'm starving. You have to experiment to find what works best for your phsyiology, and remember that what works best may well change as you force your body to adapt to your demands.

[Florida Hipster]

I grew up without AC. I don't recommend it.

[commodious spittoon]

Were you born on the bayou?

[Col. Chestbridge]

I'm currently living in an apartment building that has no AC, I shudder to think how much worse this would be in Florida.

[Florida Hipster]

No, just in a house built before AC was a thing. Fun fact: my parents had a window unit for their bedroom, no where else in the house had AC.

[CatoTheChipper]

Greenpeace tried to ban all forms of chlorine back in the 1990s. As Greenpeace's Joe Thornton explained, "There are no uses of chlorine which we regard as safe."

[CatoTheChipper]

I

[CatoTheChipper]

Household bleach is a solution of sodium hypochlorite, which was included in the substances that Greenpeace wanted to ban. In 1991, it called for regulations to phase out completely "the use, export, and import of all organochlorines, elemental chlorine, and chlorinated oxidizing agents (e.g. chlorine dioxide and sodium hypochlorite)."

[Robert]

Actually the great thing about chlorine dioxide is that it has hardly any propensity to form organochlorines.