A.M. Links: Weld Says Trump Has 'A Screw Loose,' GOP Insiders 'Panic' Over 2016

• 

  Todd Kranin

  "A sense of panic is rising." Republican insiders are reportedly investigating what to do if Donald Trump drops out of the race.

• New poll: Hillary Clinton 44 percent, Donald Trump 35 percent, Gary Johnson 12 percent.
• At last night's Libertarian Town Hall on CNN, vice presidential candidate William Weld said Donald Trump has "a screw loose."
• Two men have been arrested in connection with last month's terrorist attack on a restaurant in Bangladesh.
• "A U.S. woman was killed and five other people injured by a man with suspected mental health issues who went on a rampage with a knife in central London, but police said there was no evidence that the attack was terrorism related."
• The 2016 Summer Olympics officially start tomorrow in Rio De Janeiro.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

"A sense of panic is rising." Republican insiders are reportedly investigating what to do if Donald Trump drops out of the race.

Celebrate.

[Je suis Woodchipper]

I assume Pence would move up and they would pretend nothing happened.

[Fist of Etiquette]

A man no GOP primary voter cast a vote for?

[Je suis Woodchipper]

I'm pretending nothing happened.

[Bra Ket]

Nothing actually is happening. Just the same old shit and the same old hysteria about it.

[Trigger Warning]

I have been meaning to ask you if you are a physicist, or a fan of Paul Dirac. Either one?

[Libertarian]

What do you have against President Ford?

[some guy]

What do you have against President Ford?

He's Canadian and recently deceased. Otherwise... not much.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

And he was probably a whole lot of fun at a party. Or a staff meeting.

[BigT]

" A man no GOP primary voter cast a vote for?"

Super duper delegates!

[Injun, as in from India]

Pence will get socked by Hillary.

The nomination should go to Cruz, but none of the top brass likes him.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Most democratic solution would be to re-poll the delegates against the other 16 original candidates; then re-poll against smaller # until first remaining guy hits 50%?

[Injun, as in from India]

Yeah, something like Instant Runoff or Ranked Choice.

If they had that for the primaries, Trump would not have made it.

2/3 of the GOP primary electorate was against Trump but split among a large number of candidates.

[BigT]

Yeah, when it was just Teump, Criz, and Kasich he lost big time!

Oh, wait...

[Rufus The Monocled]

Hello.

[Mike Laursen]

I wonder if the situation could degrade to the point the GOP's leaders meet Trump in an alley with a knife, as the ancient Romans would have handled it. Nah, they don't have that kind of resolve.

[Brian]

His shift is out of control! How will I vote? Who will I vote for?

Khan!

[R C Dean]

Meh. I wonder how true this is. Its awfully convenient that anonymous sources are reporting that unnamed people are doing exactly what the Dems and their media wish they would do.

[BigT]

What's amazing is that despite Obama's $400 mill ransom to Iran this was the lead story on the networks. F@ing a-holes!

[Mickey Rat]

Classic "silly season" story

[Bee Tagger]

New poll: Hillary Clinton 44 percent, Donald Trump 35 percent, Gary Johnson 12 percent.

Ahhh, the feeling of almost being relevant.

[Fist of Etiquette]

So very, very close.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

At what point DOES Johnson become relevant? 15%?

[Princess Trigger]

Yes, that is the tipping point. Can I say "Moment" of Libertarian conquest and domination?

[Pat (PM)]

50%+1

[JW]

How's never? Is never good for you?

[commodious gone pear-shaped]

And people wonder why there's so much interest in the Republican party for a mainstream libertarian website. Libertarian policy is a fine thing to debate but the Republican party is where the rubber meets the road. The Democratic party is where the rubber meets the tire fire.

[Injun, as in from India]

Republican party is where the rubber meets the road. The Democratic party is where the rubber meets the tire fire.

The Libertarian Party is where the rubber met the Johnson.

[R C Dean]

Oh, bravo.

[apr? commodious, le d?luge]

I've never slept with a libertarian, but I would insist on a rubber. No idea where a girl like that has been.

[Brett L]

There are no female libertarians, so....

[thom]

When he has a plurality in one state.

[robc]

Perot was relevant and never got that.

[thom]

Yes, but Johnson isn't Perot and it's 24 years later.

[Mike Laursen]

If the claims in the article are true, and the Trump campaign self destructs, AND Julian Assange's claims that he has damning documents about Clinton, Johnson could suddenly find himself with no major party competitors.

If I had read a plot like that in a book, I'd have said, "Never happen."

[Suthenboy]

The claims in the article are not true.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Thematically, a better answer then having a crazed Japanese pilot in a 747 crash into the capitol during the one time every member of the gov, except Jack Ryan, is there.

[WTF]

Goddam Japanese terrorists!

[ant1sthenes]

I think you mean, hooray for Japanese terrorists!

[R C Dean]

At what point DOES Johnson become relevant? 15%?

I would say, at the point where his polling exceeds one of the other two candidates, in a state that matters.

[Mickey Rat]

You cannot be relevant and have no effect on the outcome of the election simultaneously.

[Fist of Etiquette]

"A U.S. woman was killed and five other people injured by a man with suspected mental health issues who went on a rampage with a knife in central London, but police said there was no evidence that the attack was terrorism related."

Somali teen means it's libertarian related.

[commodious gone pear-shaped]

Maybe when you have global spates of mass-killings very obviously inspired by but not immediately connected to terrorist groups, your definition of terrorism is outdated.

[Injun, as in from India]

If the perp says "Allah-u-Akbar", it's either:

- Workplace violence
- Homophobia
- Republican hate
- Mental health
- Climate change
- Libertarianism

You choose.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

man with suspected mental health issues means it was doubly libertarian related.

[R C Dean]

They are getting dangerously close to conflating "Muslim" with "mentally ill".

[Groovus Maximus]

Why not? Conflating it with Christianity seems to work everywhere else. Oh, that's right, Islamo-Mohammedans tend to react rather negatively to that, and people like Frau Merkel make excuses for them.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

Those darn radical libertarian knife murderers!!

[Just a thought not a sermon]

209) So I was booking a hotel room online recently and there was a photo of the hotel exterior on the website. Now the hotel is in downtown Wilmington, NC, a historic area with lots of beautiful old buildings, but the hotel itself is hideous. It brings up a question that recurs to me everytime I go on vacation: why are hotels so ugly?

In any city you go to with tall buildings, those skyscrapers belonging to banks or financial firms or whatever are often pretty cool-looking. At the very least, they're just sort of bland. But the hotels are nearly always god-awful.

At one time I thought the answer might have to do with balconies being an awkward architectural detail, but in the D.C. area there a number of apartment buildings with balconies that look pretty decent. Maybe it has to do with the fact that hotel architecture seems to be stuck in the 1970s, but if that's the case, why is that so?

[Illocust]

Same reason internal rooms or painted off white. The idea is not to please anyone, but to not displease anyone enough they won't buy a room.

[Florida Hipster]

I like this one:
http://boomsy.co/wp-content/up.....00x450.jpg

[Rufus The Monocled]

I thought this was a nice place with peaceful decor:

http://www.the-line-up.com/clown-motel-tonopah/

[Lee Genes]

They obviously modeled that after the Hotel Del Coronado

[Lee Genes]

Crap, that was supposed to be a reply to Florida Man

[Florida Hipster]

They have one called the Coronado:
http://as1.wdpromedia.com/medi.....t/Hero.jpg

[Libertarian]

Peaceful so long as you can ignore the alligator issues.

[SRVolunteer]

What's the big deal? You just listen for a ticking clock, right?

[Princess Trigger]

I'd say it's because it doesn't matter much to the hotel's bottomline. A few million more to make a building cooler and even iconic adds to a bank or mega-corps prestige and name recognition. But hotels are all about the rooms and efficiency in operations. They could probably do a lot of upgrades on the efficiency side and rethink their building for that factor but I don't see making a hotel 'cooler' looking, outside of resorts destinations, would translate into actual $$$.

[Florida Hipster]

They just built this one by my house. I'm sure it looked cool in water color, but the real deal looks dated.
http://blog.atlastravelweb.com.....yhotel.png

[Libertarian]

I'd say that is well beyond "dated" and into "retro."

[Florida Hipster]

They missed the mark. If it had a timeless retro feel i'd like it. It looks like one of those building that really has been around 70 years and needs to be freshened up.

[robc]

I agree.

Looks like a scene from the Godfather should be filming there.

[R C Dean]

Its retro, but the colors are a little strong. A different palate, and that would be a pretty cool building.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

210) Here's an article in the Washington Post about that Muslim kid who built a clock last year. I guess he and his family are back in Texas after spending the school year in Qatar. I'm not one of those people who believe the whole thing was a set-up, but man, did his family milk the incident for all it was worth. I really had to laugh at this line in the article. "The move [to Qatar], it seemed, was an attempt to escape the spotlight?" Yeah, escape the spotlight. Sure. That's why the family's granting interviews again the second they land back in the U.S.

[Domestic Dissident]

I hope they're being monitored very closely, because they're big trouble waiting to happen.

[Mike Laursen]

Don't you know it's because of lack of central planning by urban planning experts. If there were a redevelopment agency skimming the top 20% of the city's property taxes and subsidizing the hotels and convention center, and maybe throw in a sports stadium bond and a transportation center, then you'd have some real civic showpieces.

[Mike Laursen]

Aargh. Wrong JATNAS.

[Mickey Rat]

I believe he took apart a clock and brought it to school as if he had done something impressive.

[Citizen X]

"A U.S. woman was killed and five other people injured by a man with suspected mental health issues who went on a rampage with a knife in central London, but police said there was no evidence that the attack was terrorism related."

COMMON SENSE KNIFE CONTROL NOW.

[Rich]

I thought the Brits in fact have that.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Seriously, there was a dude who killed people last week at a home for the elderly in Japan. How long are we going to allow the insanity of unrestricted knife sales?

[Rufus The Monocled]

RUBBER TIPPED KNIVES.

COMMON SENSE FOR THE GREATER GOOD!

[Slammer]

SPORKS!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Transgender cutlery.

[R C Dean]

A detachable blade?

[Groovus Maximus]

No, there's an actual spork, Fist of Utensils. If Slammer had claimed a "Knoon" existed, then we *might* have a Title IX issue here.

Fun fact: In Medieval Europe, France in particular, serfs and peasants were forbidden, upon the pain of death, to own knifes or any other cutlery with sharpened points.

[Colonel Slanders]

As an obvious Gue'vesa, you sir are now considered Excommunicate Traitoris the Imperium.

[JW]

COMMON SENSE KNIFE CONTROL NOW.

This is what happens when you keep finishing in 2nd place.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...vice presidential candidate William Weld said Donald Trump has "a screw loose."

HE'S NO HILLARY CLINTON.

[Rich]

"... and the other has screwed a loser."

[Roger the Shrubber]

Yeah. Web Hubble was the worst.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Ouch for Chelsea.

[Libertarian]

+1 Chelsea

[Red Rocks Okey-Dokein]

We're about the same age, and in her younger years I thought she just had the misfortune of getting her parents' most unattractive features at once. As she's gotten older, though, it's pretty damn obvious. You'd have to be blind to not think she was his kid; she's basically Hubbell with a wig on.

[Atanarjuat]

I wonder if it was a love affair, or Hillary just wanted some viable sperm and knew the fat oaf would keep his mouth shut.

[Red Rocks Okey-Dokein]

Eh, I suspect "love affair" is taking it too far; probably just hippie boomers doing hippie boomer things like partner swapping, or Hillary getting knocked up out of spite for Bill's tomcatting.

[Roger the Shrubber]

The resemblance is striking.

[R C Dean]

She has a closer resemblance to Hubbell than a lot of kids I know have to their parents, that's for sure.

[Roger the Shrubber]

The resemblance is striking.

[Lord Humungus]

Wine floods streets of French town after 'act of sabotage'

The town of Sete, near Montpellier was drenched in red wine on Tuesday night after the contents of five huge vats of wine were spilled onto the streets.

The plonk flooded into local basements, car parks, and even some people's homes, reported the local Midi Libre newspaper.

Up to 50,000 litres of the tipple belonging to the Biron distributors were spilled, according to reports.
On Wednesday afternoon, the radical group of wine producers CRAV (Comit? r?gional d'action viticole) claimed responsibility for the move, reported France 3.

The group has infamously carried out numerous wine-related attacks in France, irate at foreign cheap wine making its way onto the shelves of French stores and supermarkets.

[Citizen X]

the radical group of wine producers

That is the Frenchiest set of words i have ever seen.

[Swiss Servator]

"numerous wine-related attacks in France"

I larfed.

[JW]

They're really taking the idea of NOT DRINKING ANY FUCKING MERLOT to heart.

[1775]

Why go Merlot, when you can call a Cab?

[Libertarian]

"That is the Frenchiest set of words i have ever seen."

Even though it has the word "producers" in it? Wow.

[Citizen X]

You mock, but never go up against a Frenchman when wine is on the line.

[toolkien]

Inconcevable!

[Groovus Maximus]

You keep spellin' that word...

[Lord at War]

It was seen Doc Groovus... It was seen.

[lap83]

damn terroirists

[Citizen X]

Awesome.

[Swiss Servator]

*applause*

[R C Dean]

That's the second "Oh, bravo" of these lynx.

[JW]

the radical group of wine producers CRAV

Don't you mean the RAVC?

[Pope Jimbo]

Don't get me started about those SPLITTERS!

[R C Dean]

Forget it, JW. Its Frenchietown.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Bart: Hey, mister. You gotta help me. These two guys work me night and day. They don't feed me, they make me sleep on the floor.

Man: [looks bored]

Bart: They put anti-freeze in the wine and they gave my red hat to the donkey.

Man: [gasps] Anti-freeze in the wine! That is a very serious crime. Come along boy, there's nothing for you to fear now.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Yes, because France doesn't have bigger problems.

[Injun, as in from India]

irate at foreign cheap wine making its way onto the shelves of French stores and supermarkets.

Can you believe Frederic Bastiat wrote the "Candlemaker's petition" in the French language?

These people can't or won't read.

[pan fried wylie]

if you don't understand how destroying French wine hurts foreign wine makers then you're just being obtuse acute.

[Mickey Rat]

You don't preach to the converted.

[Ted S.]

I enjoy Chilean and Australian reds.

[ant1sthenes]

Not nearly as many Chilean reds these days. Thanks, Pinochet!

[Bee Tagger]

Republican insiders are reportedly investigating what to do if Donald Trump drops out of the race.

options #1 through #10 is ?\_(?)_/?

[Princess Trigger]

I think the state chairpods can elect a candidate.
This it the opening JEB! has been praying for.

[Swiss Servator]

SHRIEK'S PREDICTION COMES TRUE AT LAST!!!

"please clap"

[Injun, as in from India]

*polite applause*

Cashes check for applauding.

[Tasty But Whole]

Here's what pisses me off about this. Today on Morning Joe, Mika was interviewing someone and pointed out that the Trump/Khan story has now dominated the news cycle for six days and what did he think about that. My thought was, you stupid cunt, who do you think determines what's going to dominate the news cycle?

[Rich]

police said there was no evidence that the attack was terrorism related

, other than ISIS crowing about it?

[Fist of Etiquette]

The 2016 Summer Olympics officially start tomorrow in Rio De Janeiro.

Too bad it's winter there.

[WTF]

It's summer where it counts.

[Lord Humungus]

Pittsburgh Police Officer Charged In Funeral Home Brawl
The criminal complaint says, "in front of the casket, Troy lifted her dress and told Schweitzer to kiss her [expletive]. "

Schweitzer said, "Troy threatened to get a gun, and shoot me in the head."

Two funeral home employees said they witnessed the incident and heard the threat.

The verbal argument spilled out into a hallway, police said, where the two women started throwing punches. Troy allegedly kicked, punched and spit at Schweitzer.

Troy said she was struck in the face, arm and chest.

After police arrived and consulted with an assistant district attorney about the law as it pertains to domestic violence, both Schweitzer and Troy were taken into custody.

[Citizen X]

Sounds more like a Florida funeral to me. Then again, Pittsburgh is the Florida of Pennsylvania.

[Crusty Juggler]

I thought that was Crapafilthia.

[Citizen X]

You mean West Newark?

[JW]

Clearly, you've never been to Harrisburg.

[Citizen X]

I have, and it was more like South Detroit.

[Stormy Dragon]

Journey lied to you; there is no South Detroit.

Detroit is on the north bank of the Detroit River with the center city right along the water line. The area across the river where a putative South Detroit would be is Windsor, Ontario.

[Citizen X]

Your cartographical pedantry is appreciated but unnecessary, Stormy. What i meant was perhaps more along the lines of "Harrisburg is the Detroit of Pennsylvania."

From what i've heard, Windsor is the Florida of Ontario.

[Mickey Rat]

Come on, don't stop believing in South Detroit.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Ohio is the Florida of the North (actually, Ohio is more Florida than Florida, but they get away with it for some reason). It seems to be leeching over to their neighbors to the east.

[Citizen X]

Ohio gets away with it because the Ohioan seasonal cycle (Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter, and Construction) isn't as conducive to outdoors dumbassery.

[Rufus The Monocled]

There was a show that was on air all too briefly that went around looking for under ground talent. All the strangest acts and places were in...Ohio.

If anyone remembers the name of the show please chime in. One of the host was a flamboyant gay dude.

[bacon-magic]

One of the host was a flamboyant gay dude.

You just narrowed down the list to 10,000 shows.

[Crusty Juggler]

Tenspeed and Brown Shoe?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Pittsburgh is North Ozarks.

[Don Escaped Texas]

banjos > accordians

[Crusty Juggler]

Officer Tracey Schweitzer.

[Citizen X]

It was nice of the photographer to not ask that she remove the raccoon from her head.

[SugarFree]

Hey! Be nice. That wig is a family heirloom.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Hairloom.

[Citizen X]

Her great grandma was buried in that wig!

[Rich]

LOL

[R C Dean]

A mullet? Seriously?

[Tonio]

Still popular among a certain subset of lesbians.

[Je suis Woodchipper]

drop out?

[Just a thought not a sermon]

But I haven't even tuned in yet!

[Slammer]

New Olympic logo

[Rich]

Nice!

[Je suis Woodchipper]

terribly disappointed. i was expecting Copacabana beach to have greater influence on that graphic.

[Illocust]

""A sense of panic is rising." Republican insiders are reportedly investigating what to do if Donald Trump drops out of the race."

A.K.A. they are trying to figure out how to force him to drop out of the race. Trump winning would kill the people in power in the Republican party (less so for the Democrat party, but it will still be a huge hit).

[Juvenile Bluster]

At this point I'd feel confident betting every cent that I have that Trump will not win.

[Swiss Servator]

You can actually do that in various UK and Irish betting establishments.

[Florida Hipster]

I bet against Trump once. I won't do it again.

[commodious gone pear-shaped]

Had Trump gone up against any of the more insidery candidates, let alone Cruz, he'd have lost early on. He benefited from a fractured and confused field, aided by a very friendly media. Would his opponent have driven GOP irregulars to the polls in November? Doubtful, but then they'd have had to clear a very low bar to win the general: suck a little less than Hillary. Trump seems dead set on sucking a whole lot more.

[SugarFree]

I do wonder if the left media was smart enough to set up Trump as an easy pin for Hillary to knock down or if it was just dumb luck.

[Florida Hipster]

Dumb luck. I never buy complicated conspiracy plans outside of movies.

[commodious gone pear-shaped]

No doubt it was done for ratings and easy moral preening, but it's not like they'd endeavor to seriously vet the guy on the GOP's behalf.

[SugarFree]

Yeah, I agree with both of you. But, man, what dumb luck. I mean, I think even Bob Dole could beat Hillary and he had all the excitement of a tepid glass of tap water behind his campaign.

[Injun, as in from India]

This was supposed to be a conspiracy theory:

Harvard study: As Trump won, media coverage turned sharply negative

[Injun, as in from India]

If you look at the above link, he got positive coverage until Super Tuesday when he socked the split field pretty good. That gave him the momentum.

Now it's all going to be negative through November.

This is how the media will make Hillary's corruption palatable to the public.

[R C Dean]

The media is going to ignore the living fuck out of any story that might hurt Hillary.

The President pays an illegal $400 million cash ransom to a terrorist state? Barely covered at all.

Trump tells a political activist to piss off? Six solid days of pearl clutching.

That's how HIllary wins, unless something breaks the DemOp media blockade. I, for one, am impressed that the DemOp media maintains such a death grip on the news cycle and narrative. I thought the intertubes would have broken their control by now.

[Homple]

Who needed a Harvard study? This has happened in every election since at least 1960. The media will put up with a Republican being nominated; what they will not stand for is one being elected.

[Red Rocks Okey-Dokein]

He benefited from a fractured and confused field, aided by a very friendly media.

That, and Jeb becoming the early front-runner. I'm convinced that if he had stayed out of the primaries, it would have been Cruz or Rubio rather than Trump. Jeb sticking his fat head into the race pissed off so many of the party's rank-and-file that Trump became a spite candidate, especially after Trump started bullying him.

$100 million down the tubes that could have been used for candidates that were actually popular outside the Bush social circle.

[commodious gone pear-shaped]

Jeb! had no business being there after August.

[Red Rocks Okey-Dokein]

Shit, Jeb! had no business being there at all. How bad are your political instincts and how much of a bubble do you live in when you honestly think that the country wants to see another Bush/Clinton presidential race right now, just 8 years after your brother made the family name nationally toxic?

Considering Hillary is probably going to shit the bed in her first term, he may have had a shot at beating her in 2020 but he let too many of Daddy's golf cronies and millionaire donors convince him that another Bush was just what the country was looking for right now. Simply a horrible lack of situational awareness which also had the added bonus of opening up the social/class rifts in his own party.

[thom]

That it's only August and everybody has written off Trump already basically assures him victory. This is how Trump works. He "loses" by the rules of politics, everybody in the Washington/CNN/Fox News echo chamber agrees that he has done himself in and lost, and then to everybody's surprise he "wins" when normal people vote for him.

I don't like Trump and I'm not going to vote for him, but it's hilarious seeing that same patterns emerge over and over again over this election cycle.

[Injun, as in from India]

The moment he attacked the Khan family, it was over for him.

I can see the media's double standard in not giving the same coverage to the Benghazi soldier's mom, but Hillary never double-down to attack her.

[thom]

The moment he attacked the Khan family, it was over for him

Right - it was over for him among the political class - in the Washington/CNN/Fox News echo chamber. Political suicide, right? But attacking an immigrant Muslim who stands in front of his submissive, head scarved wife and wags his finger and lectures...that plays better than you might think with the people in this country who don't spend their workday going on TV opining on the issues of the day.

[R C Dean]

Its still early days, folks. I still think Hillary is a very long way from wrapping this up.

She needs (a) to avoid unscripted statements in any venue, for an entire campaign, and (b) a string of good news to wrap it up. Those are not guaranteed by any means.

[WTF]

I was one of the people who said there was no way Trump would actually win the Republican nomination. I wouldn't bet actual money on Trump losing in November.

[Don Escaped Texas]

538 has Trump at 27% chance;
he never got above 35% except right after RNC.

[R C Dean]

Even 27% is a long way from 0%.

[The Last American Hero]

538 didn't have him winning until it was obvious he was going to win.

[commodious gone pear-shaped]

I doubt there's much worry about Trump winning at this point.

[Azathoth!!]

And yet that's all anyone seems to be able to do--constantly prattle on and on about how Trumps' got no chance whatsoever.

really?

Then shut the fuck up about Trump and post something about that 400 million for hostages

[Bee Tagger]

At last night's Libertarian Town Hall on CNN, vice presidential candidate William Weld said Donald Trump has "a screw loose."

He thinks he only has 1 screw loose and to, presumably, tighten that would create a palatable candidate? I think this will finally silence the commenters who think the LP ticket has been easier on Hillary so far.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

More proof that Open Hypergamy is real. Broad clearly hit The Epiphany Phase late:

[Longtorso, Johnny]

What I learned from being single for 51 years: Don't ruin your life by yearning for something you haven't yet got, says CHRISTINA PATTERSON
...The steady, reliable men I met seemed boring. What made my pulse race was charming men who made me laugh. What made my heart sing, in fact, was narcissistic charmers who played the game and often didn't stick around....

...When I hit 30, panic kicked in. I put a skull and crossbones on the invitation to my party and pretended it was just a joke about passing time.

At 40, I had just ended a relationship with another charming bad boy. And at 50? Well, if anyone had told me when I was 30 I would still be single at 50, I would probably have picked up the phone to Dignitas....

...I don't know if my relationship will last. None of us can know. I still live on my own. My home is my castle and I have no desire to fill it with someone else's stuff....

[lap83]

cue "Tall Trees in Georgia"

[Red Rocks Okey-Dokein]

I still live on my own. My home is my castle and I have no desire to fill it with someone else's stuff....

This happens if you stay single for a long time regardless of gender. It's tough to shoehorn someone else's routine and habits into your life when you've become used to only managing your own for so long.

At a certain point, it's best for single people to just stay single.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Can we get an extension that turns these Red Pill/MGTOW links to something, I don't know, not insane?

[Citizen X]

Johnny's busy this morning. His Real Doll must be in the shop again.

[Lord at War]

Suki is not dead!

[Rich]

For what it's worth, the men women want to fuck wouldn't keep track of sexual frequency because the dread of missing out on a sexual opportunity with a desirable Alpha is usually enough to ensure frequency.

That Rollo Tomassi is certainly an astute observer of the passing scene.

[commodious gone pear-shaped]

the passing scene

It's a shitshow for sure.

[Lord Humungus]

Yamamoto Floats Wage-Target Idea a Day After Joining Abe Cabinet

In a press briefing that also covered agricultural competitiveness, jobs and incomes in regional areas, Yamamoto spoke repeatedly about the Bank of Japan. It must strive to meet its 2 percent inflation target as soon as possible, and it has policies at hand to stoke price gains to 1.5 percent-plus by the middle of next fiscal year, he said.

In pushing the notion of targeting specific increases in wages, Yamamoto, 67, is taking on one the key failings of Abenomics to date. Stagnation in wages is holding back household spending in Japan and undercutting efforts to generate the kind of steady gains in consumer prices needed for a healthy and expanding economy.

[Swiss Servator]

You know what other Yamamoto had strove to meet a target?

[Lord Humungus]

something something Battleship?

[Agent Cooper]

Who's the sleeping giant?

[Slammer]

Yamamoto Floats

I thought this was going to be a WW2 Battleship story

[Mickey Rat]

I don't think he floated after the P-38s caught up to him.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Caribbean contagion
...For the past 15 years Venezuela has been shipping oil to Cuba, which in turn sends thousands of doctors and other professionals to Venezuela. The swap is lucrative for the communist-controlled island, which pays doctors a paltry few hundred dollars a month. It gets more oil than it needs, and sells the surplus. That makes Cuba perhaps the only importer that prefers high oil prices. Venezuelan support is thought to be worth 12-20% of Cuba's GDP....

... Tourism has surged since the United States loosened travel restrictions in 2014, which will partially offset the loss of Venezuelan aid. The cost of fuel is minuscule compared with the fares Hector's American passengers pay....

[Longtorso, Johnny]

So Conservatives, What Have We Learned From This Trump Thing?
...Our base demanded someone who wouldn't be intimidated, who would fight. Instead, the establishment was dead set on dumping a steaming pile of Jeb on our collective lawn, the same durrwood you can watch on YouTube hanging a medal around Hillary Clinton's wrinkled neck. That pompous geebo can't even take his own damn side in a fight; why is anyone shocked that our voters saw he would never take theirs?

So what have we learned about ourselves? Maybe that many of us are snobs. There's a lot of class warfare going on here, a lot of backroom snark, with a lot of conservatives who want to believe that the only people who could ever support Donald Trump are knuckle-dragging morons who can't cut it when it comes to anything besides digging ditches. Too many of us choose cultural solidarity with the liberals we live among over political solidarity with the people we expected to vote with us....

[Glide]

Total shocker: what we've learned is that the writer of this piece is totally right and you're totally wrong, except insofar as you exactly agree with him.

Funny, that seems to be the lesson that a lot of people take from a lot of things.

[John]

Yes, when you agree with someone, you think they are right. That is called having an opinion. I don't think the words you use mean quite what you think they do.

[kbolino]

A movement that began by calling its opponents cuckolds bears some responsibility for setting the tone.

[R C Dean]

Wasn't the tone set years ago, when calling your opponents racists and bigots became the norm?

[Groovus Maximus]

Wasn't the tone set years ago, when calling your opponents racists and bigots became the norm?

Yep, makes one long for the days when our Founders were calling each other Democrats, bastard sires, and hermaphrodites.))

[Swiss Servator]

"My opponent is a direct, lineal descendant of the impenitent thief on the Cross!"

[Overt]

the establishment was dead set on dumping a steaming pile of Jeb on our collective lawn

And there were 15 other not-trump candidates to chose from.

At some point, all the people who sided with Trump need to take responsibility for the state this party is now in. Christie, Giuliani, and all the primary voters who picked Trump.

From his dismal campaign performance in Colorado and other places that required organization, to his propensity to go pick fights with everyone who pricked his thin skin, there were signs (and people screaming loudly) that Trump's national campaign would be a disaster.

The GOP establishment shares enormous blame for their backroom deals and maneuvering, but the rebels have to be held accountable for who they chose as the spokespiece of their revolution.

[Overt]

And to be clear, Trump's flagging performance is a direct result of Trump being a bonehead, not some conspiracy.

He continues to pick fights with sympathetic surrogates rather than staying laser focused on Hillary Clinton. And then when he says stupid shit, he then spends his time insulting other republicans for not blindly supporting his stupid shit. So we have had 4 weeks of Clinton being the despicable Clinton and the media happily turns the coverage into how Trump insulted a soldier's family, and then how Trump insulted Ryan for not backing him up on the idiocy.

Clinton should be getting swift-boated right now by the email and benghazi scandals. Instead, everyone is talking about how much of a disaster Trump is. That is Trump's fault and only his fault.

[commodious gone pear-shaped]

If Trump isn't deliberately sabotaging his candidacy, he's extraordinarily bad at spotting all the bear traps he keeps stepping in.

[Injun, as in from India]

The conspiracy theory of Trump being a Clinton plant is plausible IMHO.

It is true that Bill Clinton spoke with Trump and encouraged him to jump in to the race.

The media blindly covered Trump and crowded out all the other candidates. At one point, Trump was getting several times the coverage of all the other candidates combined.

Now Trump's behavior is indicative of sabotage, or just narcissism that Bill Clinton wisely exploited.

[ant1sthenes]

Ironically, I think he might win anyway.

[commodious gone pear-shaped]

"Their base" did no such thing. Trump may have gotten a plurality of the GOP base against sixteen other candidates, but he lost and dissuaded the bulk of it. Trump's base wanted a firestarter who would burn down God knows what, but the majority wanted a credible candidate who could beat Hillary. This isn't to say Trump isn't a masterful troll and welcome for that reason, nor that Jeb would have been a tremendous force for conservatism. But it hardly matters if the party loses in November.

[R C Dean]

the majority wanted a credible candidate who could beat Hillary

Of course they did. Too bad they settled on squishes like Rubio and Bush III, who, actually, wouldn't beat Hillary because they would be afraid to actually run against her lest they get beat for being mean to the girl.

The "credible" candidates weren't very credible to the base, was their fundamental problem.

[Pope Jimbo]

I actually think that a big factor for Trump was that most people thought he was the only candidate who would call Hillary out during a debate and not treat her with kid gloves.

I don't like Trump, but I think that every other GOP candidate would have pulled a modified Bernie and taken the high road and declined to talk about those emails. They were all scared of looking like a bully when debating Hillary.

Trump is the only one who would be fine with every media outlet in the world calling him a misogynist bully.

I still think that if Trump takes it to Hillary in the debates he has a good chance of winning. He'll be the kid who is willing to tell the world that the Empress has no pantsuit.

[Hyperion]

Notice how utterly giddy that the leftist media is when talking about Trump dropping out? Why would anyone who hates Trump or anyone who wants Hillary to win, want Trump to drop out? That makes no sense at all. If you take care to read into the the situation, it's hard, at least for me, to come to any conclusion other than they want Trump out because they want some Romney like candidate in, who will trade softballs with Hillary during the debates. They are scared that Trump will be Trump and go for blood in the debates, and that Hillary will not be able to handle it.

[commodious gone pear-shaped]

I don't think there's more than first-order thinking involved here. The left wants Trump out because it further fractures the GOP. It's not about getting a milquetoast on the stage with Hill but pretty much sealing the Republican party implosion.

[commodious gone pear-shaped]

After all, that's essentially why Republicans are concern-trolling on behalf of Bernie's loser voters. Do any of them really care about antidemocratic Democratic primary rules? Nah. But it pits a large number of normally reliable lefty voters against the lefty establishment.

[Pope Jimbo]

My hope is she starts coughing and he pours it on about how bad her health is. He's crazy enough to be battling the EMT's to get one more zinger about her health in as they try to cart her off on a stretcher.

[Red Rocks Okey-Dokein]

They were all scared of looking like a bully when debating Hillary

I think Cruz and maybe even Christie might have hit her on that stuff. The problem is that Cruz is despised by everyone in the party apparatus because he's such a smarmy, self-serving asshole, and Christie doesn't have a clue how to connect with flyover conservatives because he's a loud-mouthed northeasterner.

[KDN]

Christie doesn't have a clue how to connect with flyover conservatives because he's a loud-mouthed northeasterner.

As is Donald Trump, but he didn't have that problem. The real issue for Christie was that Trump is better (and more believable) as that character than he is. Trump also seems to realize (or is able to convey) he's playing a role, where "loud mouthed asshole" is Christie's default mode. It's who he is at his core, just like Cruz is quite clearly a self-serving douche.

Yes, I'm perfectly aware that the second and third sentences seem to stand in direct conflict with each other. But I don't think people want to elect an asshole, they want someone who can be an asshole when the situation warrants it. And I think Trump basically conveys that quality.

Still, if Trump didn't enter the race then I think his voters get split roughly 45/25 among Cruz and Christie, with the remainder voting in proportion to the rest of the field or not voting at all.

[R C Dean]

I still believe Christie sealed his fate with the base when he got all kissy-face with Obama just before the 2012 election. Trust, once lost, is very hard to regain.

[KDN]

There's that, too. The situation warranted Christie quickly accepting Federal aid; it was a similar situation to Katrina, though not nearly to that extent, and he didn't repeat Landrieu's blunder. He didn't have to let Obama look so good while he was doing it, though.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Whoops: Clinton Just Promised to Raise Taxes on Middle Class
..."Well we're not going there, my friends. I'm telling you right now, we're going to write fairer rules for the middle class, and we are going to raise taxes on the middle class!" Clinton proclaimed to a cheering crowd....

[Rufus The Monocled]

Anyone who didn't make the calculation or connection that all her promises wouldn't be paid by the middle-class needs a new connect-the-dots coloring book.

[Hyperion]

And sadly, that means that at least 50% of the country's adults need a new connect the dots coloring book. More sadly, I'd put the number at closer to 80% and 90% of those would need help connecting the dots.

[Je suis Woodchipper]

that clip's all over the place this morning. OOPS!

[Rich]

"OOPS!", nothing. She said she always tries to tell the truth.

[Princess Trigger]

Kulaks got to pay.

[Groovus Maximus]

Fist of Finances hardest hit.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I'm more a wrecker.

[R C Dean]

And down the memory hole it will go, Johnny. Far more important, according to the media, is how mean Trump was to a political activist.

The fundamental mistake the Kochs and other anti-proggy funders made was pouring money down the rathole of useless political consultants and apparatchiks. If they had spent that money on media outlets, they might have a chance of breaking the DemOp media cordon escorting Hillary to the White House.

[Lord at War]

It's like the perma-bureaucracy. You can own the shop, but nothing will change...

[Mickey Rat]

That not what she heard herself say!

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Pew data: Heavy majority of asylum seekers in Europe are young men under the age of 35

Military-Aged Men Extremely Over-Represented in EU Refugee Asylum Applications
...As a result, about four-in-ten asylum seekers in Europe in 2015 (42%) were young men ages 18 to 34. This was also true for most leading origin countries: 39% of those from Syria were young men, as were 38% of those from Afghanistan and 47% of those from Iraq. Young adult males made up a larger share of asylum seekers from some origin countries. For example, roughly three-fourths of asylum seekers from Gambia (80%), Pakistan (76%) and Bangladesh (76%) were young adult men in 2015....

[kbolino]

Over-represented? Yes
A "heavy majority" of male asylum seekers? Yes
A "heavy majority" of all asylum seekers? Not even close

[Hyperion]

Yet in the media, all that is every shown is some poor wiminz and their sad little children.

[Lord Humungus]

Obama administration denies Iran cash payment was a ransom

The Obama administration said on Wednesday that $400 million in cash paid to Iran soon after the release of five Americans detained by Tehran was not ransom as some Republicans have charged.

The five, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, were released on Jan. 16 in exchange for seven Iranians held in the United States for sanctions violations. The prisoner deal coincided with the lifting of international sanctions against Tehran.

At the time, the United States said it had settled a longstanding Iranian claim at the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal in The Hague, releasing $400 million in funds frozen since 1981, plus $1.3 billion in interest that was owed to Iran.

The funds were part of a trust fund Iran used before its 1979 Islamic Revolution to buy U.S. military equipment that was tied up for decades in litigation at the tribunal.

[Injun, as in from India]

It's just coincidence that Obama decided to pay money that was due since 1981.

Nothing to see here, just like that chance meeting between Loretta Lynch and Bill Clinton on the tarmac.

[R C Dean]

Excellent question raised yesterday:

Where did that money come from one, and what authority did Obama have to give it to the Iranians?

[Rufus The Monocled]

Question: I mentioned last night in another thread I was carded ordering beer at a resto in Delaware. We all laughed putting the poor waitress on the spot but it was really a retarded moment. My BIL was buzzing and ended up asking the manager about it. We were told that restos have to card everyone - similar to Sevo's story in the same thread - or else they can get into big trouble. Apparently authorities come in pretending to be a family looking for waiters who don't card people regardless if they're clearly above 21. The manager wholeheartedly agreed with us and told us he would have to card his grandmother. This is common sense apparently? My BIL didn't order a beer it pissed him off so much; which made me wonder how many people do the same. Anyway, the question is: Is this a Federal law and who enforces it? AFT? I didn't ask the guy because I wanted to leave and go shopping.

[Crusty Juggler]

This is common sense apparently?

No. However, restaurants and bars are told to card everyone, and on occasion state or local authorities send people in working "undercover" to see if they get carded.

[Lord Humungus]

I was told by a bartender that the state will often send in an older person with someone who is underage. The older customer will order alcohol and so will the underage person, trying to see if the latter will get served.

[Crusty Juggler]

I think that is exactly the sort of behavior these agencies do.

[Rufus The Monocled]

FYI: I ordered a Not your father's vanilla cream ale.

Very interesting and enjoyable.

That was a weird one too. I ordered it and the server told me they were out of it. I declined to order another one since my kid wasn't going to finish her ice-tea. Then, like five minutes later, another waitress shows up with the bottle without a glass. Whatever. Good food though.

[Slammer]

It's so weird to me the personalities of the poeple who work for those agencies who do that. What kind of mental gymnastics does a person have to go through to justify behavior like that? Or is it sociopathy where they totally get off on that shit.
I bet some of the people who work there also get super pissed when they get a parking ticket or something.

[Rufus The Monocled]

EXACTLY what I think. It even came up in our conversation. It takes a special sort of person to do that. If you're a decent person and know it's bull shit, it's got to be an irritant. Or you get into that job because you're an asshole to begin with?

[kbolino]

What kind of mental gymnastics does a person have to go through to justify behavior like that?

Whatever else they tell themselves, at the end of the day it's about collecting a paycheck.

[Pope Jimbo]

Read my story about the bust of Wally the Beerman below. The guy who nabbed him seems like a budding sociopath who was a decoy to try to claw his way onto the force.

Anthony Pasquale, an earnest and well-spoken witness, is a law enforcement student at Minnesota State Mankato and an emergency medical technician in St. Croix County, Wis. He had already participated in about 10 undercover operations for Minneapolis police before the Target Field sting.

Anthony Pasquale should be as infamous a name in Minnesoda as Armen Terzian.

[kbolino]

Armen Terzian (1915?1989) was an American-Armenian American football official

... I wonder how anyone ever got the idea that Wikipedia values political correctness over clarity of writing

[SugarFree]

It's the same little asshole who got off on being lunchroom or hall monitors. Just a little bit of power hits them like a rock of crack.

They should be weeded out of society early and sent to an island where they only have themselves and some coconuts to boss around.

[Citizen X]

Preferably, one of those South Pacific islands that's infested with coconut crabs.

[SugarFree]

I keep killing those damn things in Fallout.

[Citizen X]

In real life, i don't think they can be killed.

[lap83]

Yeah the law isn't that they have to card (I don't know if there are any exceptions by state?), but they're incentivized to do so by the possibility of getting into trouble

[Rufus The Monocled]

As we understood it, he said 'have to'. Whatever. Just a curious question.

[Overt]

Here is what happens. In most states, as a restaurant you get only so many strikes before they pull your liquor license. Accidents happen, and so every now and again a restaurant accidentally sells liquor to a minor- or staff has friends that are under age that they sell to. Once they get the warning, one more infraction gets the license yanked. So they over react and managers say YOU MUST CARD EVERYONE.

[Lord at War]

It's generally after they've been hit. The gas station where I buy my smokes reprogammed their cash registers to require a "birthdate" (and you can't just enter 1-1-88 two hundred times a day). So I get a 22 yr old cashier asking about my birthday in the early 60's...

[Pope Jimbo]

In Minnesoda we had a legendary vendor named "Wally the Beerman". He worked all the Twins and Vikes games and had a huge voice, so he was a bit of a celebrity.

Years ago, got nabbed in a sting but he was acquitted by a jury. Probably because he was an institution. Another guy who got nabbed with Wally was convicted pretty much for the same charge.

What a waste of resources. Who fucking cares if kids drink beer at the stadium. I remember being able to buy beer at the State Fair beer garden as a 16 year old in the early 80's. No one cared.

[Lord at War]

Growing up in the early 70's, dad would give me $10 and tell me to go get a carton of Chesterfield (unfiltered) and a carton of Saratoga 120's for mom- I got to keep the change. I was 9. And nothing else happened.

How the hell did we get here?

[Red Rocks Okey-Dokein]

However, restaurants and bars are told to card everyone, and on occasion state or local authorities send people in working "undercover" to see if they get carded.

That happened to me once; the state sent in a young-looking family and they ordered drinks. After I asked them for their IDs, they pulled out a card that basically said, "congratulations for not screwing up" and I got a free meal out of it.

The rule at the restaurant at the time was we'd card if you looked under 45, but I'd ask for everyone's ID because 1) they typically understood I was just following the law, and 2) the old people got a kick out of it. I once asked an 84-year-old grandmother for her ID and her son tipped me a couple extra bucks because she thought it was hilarious.

[Agent Cooper]

Entrapment is basically what the government does best.

[$park? is totally a Swifty]

Wait, showing an ID to get a drink is so oppressive that your BIL decided to not get one?

Dude, that's kinda lame.

[Rufus The Monocled]

It was and we bugged him about it but even the server didn't handle it well.

Oppressive no? Retarded yes. And you Yanks talk shit about being free and accept this? Please.

It's stupid. Sorry.

[Florida Hipster]

We don't talk about being free anymore. Also, I don't remember the last time I was carded in a restaurant.

[Crusty Juggler]

It's time to dye that hair.

[Florida Hipster]

My Latina wife is baffled by the fact I refuse to dye my hair. I tell her I earned them grays, so I'm showing them off.

[Crusty Juggler]

I commend you for that. I thought women liked the salt-and pepper look anyway. A friend of mine is hilariously going grey very quickly, and he is just thirty-five. Two years ago him and his wife drank wine and danced while she dyed his hair black.* He looked so bad. I was relentless with my mockery. It is rare for a man to look good while coloring their hair. This is really evident in older men.

*Yeah. She then tried to get him to wear a fedora. You need these details.

[Florida Hipster]

It's a Latin. Thing. Everyone dyes their hair. I'm not big into appearances. If I'm not at work, I'm dressed like a bum.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Yeah well.

I got nothing.

[lap83]

As far as I know, it's up to the establishment. I don't know of any state laws that mandate it.

[Free Society]

And you Yanks talk shit about being free and accept this? Please.

I honestly don't know anyone with an IQ above 85 that thinks it's a free country. I haven't heard the ole "it's a free country" quip spoken unironically since I was in high school.

[Rufus The Monocled]

It isn't free. Lame is not us thinking it's silly. Lame is carding people who clearly look waaayyy past 21 (not me. I still look really marvelous. Especially since I got a tattoo of a clown decapitating another clown on my head). Anyway, here in Montreal it's pretty much hedonism the catch of the day. It's one town into its nightlife.

[invisible furry hand]

Especially since I got a tattoo of a clown decapitating another clown on my head).

Glorious. Simply glorious.

[$park? is totally a Swifty]

I have plenty of grays in my hair. Some restaurants card me, some don't. Some liquor stores card me, some don't. I don't get bitchy at the ones that do because I understand that the person asking is just trying to cover their ass.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Absolutely. Let me be clear, he didn't complain. He went to ask about it knowing full well the waitress was just doing her job. She's not the problem. The rule/law (and you putzes HAVEN'T ANSWERED THE QUESTION conclusively) is. It was weird because he's exactly the character that doesn't get ruffled over this sort of stuff; the master of don't sweat the small stuff. Maybe being at the beach all day made him tired or something.

[$park? is totally a Swifty]

If the question you're still waiting to have answered is who enforces it, I haven't a clue. The liquor store I normally go to is a small place near my house, never been carded there. I sometimes go to a chain liquor store and always get carded there. Restaurants are hit or miss so I can't say it's a difference between small places and chains. I suspect it's state rules or possibly even local rules rather than federal that drive it though. In MA, it's the locals that hand out liquor licenses.

[Citizen X]

You went to the beach in Delaware? I think i found your problem.

[Free Society]

Delaware is like a tropical paradise for those northmen.

[Slammer]

I'm totally free. I have all my papers and permits to prove it.

[$park? is totally a Swifty]

If this were a free country, my 16 year old son would be able to order a beer with nobody batting an eye. That ship has long since sailed.

[Rufus The Monocled]

See above: Montreal. The chances of you ordering a beer for your son (18 is the drinking age and it's loosely enforced except for the state liquor commission) and getting it here are very good. If they don't for some reason, they will not on any level hassle you if you give your beer to him. I routinely let my daughter take a sip of alcohol and no one bat's an eye. It's much more laid back than the U.S. and Lynch can confirm this!

[Free Society]

A few years back I held the door open for some dude at the convenience store on my way in. The dude tried to buy beer, I got a coffee. But the clerk insisted that since I held the door open for him, that we came in together, therefore I had to produce an ID as well, or this dude couldn't buy his beer. I didn't have my ID and basically everyone in store chimed in that all I did was hold the door for a stranger. The cashier wouldn't budge. he was angling to get that assistant managers job I suppose.

[Rufus The Monocled]

RE: Story about your kid the other day. What happened after the doctor asked you to leave the hospital? Did you say anything? I mean, that sounds like a lawsuit.

[Free Society]

Well I did try to explain my side of the story, that he was completely rude to my wife and that he's not back home in wherever he's from anymore. He was a doctor, treating my little girl and yet he refused to behave civilly towards his patient's mother. I told him that I didn't think Doctor Muhammed or whatever his name is, was capable of treating a female patient and that I certainly wasn't going to trust him. (As far as I'm concerned that'd be no different than taking my black kid for treatment at the KKK Children's Hospital.)

The proggy doctor said I was blowing it way out of proportion and that he's sick of people (read: whites) finding any reason at all to complain about or speak harshly to Dr Muhammed. I did tell white proggy, "inshallah" after he asked me to leave.

I'm not going to sue, I gave their clinic terrible reviews though. My daughter got proscribed some antibiotics by white proggy. Which I was tempted to get diagnosed elsewhere, but I looked up the meds online and that's pretty much what any clinic would have proscribed.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Ah. At least he prescribed her medicine.

[The Fusionist]

Wow, so he admitted Dr. Akbar or whoever had gotten complaints before?

I can imagine the clinic's lawyer going, "you said *what*?"

The Dr. was supposed to say, "you're the only patient who's ever complained before!"

[Libertarian]

"My BIL didn't order a beer it pissed him off so much"

Kudos to him. I've had this done to me twice (not in Fla) and both times I still got a beer because that was the whole reason I was there in the first place.

I wish someone would organize an annual (or monthly) day where people could go out to bars and restaurants and refuse to show ID in these situations.

[Libertarian]

BTW, the two places this happened to me were in Maryland and Tennessee.

[DWB]

Sign me up!

[Hyperion]

In TN, they care everyone. I don't care if you're 80, they will card you. TN has some bizarre weird alcohol laws. I've never been carded in MD and I've lived here for 9 years.

[Hyperion]

'card everyone'

[Homple]

How can black people, who according to Democrats are prevented by racism from obtaining ID cards, ever be allowed to by alcoholic beverages in these areas?

[Jerryskids]

There's a store near me that cards for cigarettes, not carding gets the clerk fired. That's because the under-age scam the cops run has become lucrative enough that the cops run stings all the time and stores get hit with huge fines they can't afford. The liquor stores are required by law to card, cigarette sales are not but a lot of places have signs saying if you don't look over 40 you're going to get carded. (I stopped being disappointed 10 years ago that I didn't get carded because I obviously looked well over 40.) If you're bitching about getting carded, keep in mind it's just a business covering their ass much like the mandatory pre-employment drug testing that insurance companies require but really don't do jack as far as screening out bad employees. It would be nice if a company had the balls to do the right thing, but shareholders prefer to see discretion.

[CatoTheChipper]

I thought that the government had determined once and for all that requiring people to show a photo ID was racist.

[commodious gone pear-shaped]

AFAIK, it's mostly state-based enforcement. I wasn't carded when I visited New York and California in the last couple years, but New Mexico is extremely tough on businesses who fail to card. I'll go out for drinks at a familiar watering hole with my nearly-sixty dad, and we'll both be carded. His fifty-y/o girlfriend sometimes forgets her purse. Oh well! Can't serve her, despite serving us the previous week. The state has shut down liquor sales at the nearby supermarket a couple times this year for failing to card an undercover agent. Just a blatant cash grab.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Yeh, cash. All about cash. Not the children.

[commodious gone pear-shaped]

And they'll go after servers individually.

Anything to keep college-age minors out of bars and restaurants and binging at home like God intended.

[robc]

Not federal, but it is state law in some places. TN for example.

[R C Dean]

Is this a Federal law and who enforces it?

State law, enforced by whoever issues liquor licenses.

[The Last American Hero]

Rite Aid got busted for selling to minors near my place, and now they card everyone. Period. And yes, the clerks often joke about how stupid it is.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Remember when Kim Davis refusing to obey the law mattered? Good times, good times....

Pima elections director on 'ballot harvesting': 'We're not police'
..."I've been told the way they do it is they collect the ballots early, they put them in a microwave with a bowl of water, steam them open, take the ballots," he said. "If they like the way it's voted they put them back in. If they don't like the way it's voted, they lose that ballot."...

[Drake]

But I'm told here that it's crazy to worry about rigged elections.

[WTF]

I guess nobody remembers the districts in Philadelphia that somehow went 100% for Obama, after Republican poll watchers were forcibly and illegally removed.

[The Last American Hero]

I do, and that 100% is not an exaggeration. There were like 9 precincts that didn't cast a single vote for Romney. Not one. I get that there are neighborhoods where he isn't popular, but not a single ballot?

[Slammer]

Which is complete bullshit. There would have been at least one or two by ACCIDENT.

[Slammer]

Which is complete bullshit. There would have been at least one or two by ACCIDENT.

[$park? is totally a Swifty]

This idea of Trump dropping out sure has become quite popular in the past two days. Where the hell did it originate? Was it just because of his comment about the election being rigged?

[Swiss Servator]

Journolist II - narrative boogaloo?

[Lord Humungus]

Yeah I don't get it either - if he had closed up shop and wasn't out campaigning, or stopped using twitter - then maybe I could see the fears.

I assume this is all part of the Dem-Media-Op machine or whatever...

[WTF]

I assume this is all part of the Dem-Media-Op machine or whatever...

Probably a reasonable assumption.

[Dallas H.]

Him complaining that they are burying the debates to help Hillary is also proof that he's going to drop out of the debates because he's knows Hillary will destroy him.

Forget just economics or incentives, the left still can't figure out cause and effect.

[Lord Humungus]

US General in Europe Agrees NATO States Must Pay More for Defense

The commander of U.S. European Command recently said allied nations must pay their fair share of defense costs to deter Russia in comments that support Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's tough talk on NATO.

U.S. Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, EUCOM commander and NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe, emphasized to an audience at last week's Aspen Security Forum that European countries, as well as the United States, have an obligation to spend at least 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense.

...

Currently, only five of the 28 countries in NATO have honored the commitment to invest 2 percent of GDP in defense, Scaparrotti said. However, he added that 22 others have increased their investment in defense.

[Free Society]

And those should be the only five members the US fights for in the event of an attack.

[lafe.long]

Sheldon Richman hardest hit.

[WTF]

There is no difference between U.S. Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti and Adam Lanza.

[Drake]

Not a peep on the biggest story of the day?

The Obama Administration sent a $400 million ransom payment to Iran.

http://dailycaller.com/2016/08.....som-video/

[Domestic Dissident]

I think the official JournoList leftard talking point is that it doesn't matter because we stole the $400 million from the Shah decades ago, or some crap like that.

[Drake]

And it's just a coincidence the hostages were released that day. Nothing to see here, no hostage situation in an election year again.

[Princess Trigger]

And Gov to Gov payments are commonly done with pallets of cash delivered in unmarked cargo planes.
Everyday.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

There are $100 billion in Iranian assets frozen by the US government.

Just this year, Obama, Congress, and the US Supreme Court declared that Iran was financially responsible for the 1983 bombing that killed 241 Marines at their barracks in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, and thus declared that the families of the victims would be paid by two million dollars from assets held in New York by the Central Bank of Iran.

With that in mind, the $400 million bribe seems ridiculously low.

Overall I side with no one. It is obvious both sides in this are blatantly looking for any and all excuse to seize the other side's money through hostage taking, legal claims, and other shenanigans, both sides still butthurt over the Iranian Revolution.

[Domestic Dissident]

But yeah, if Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush did this, it would be the story of the year. Because it's Mofo, of course it gets hand-waved away like it's nothing.

[WTF]

Yeah, this is Iran-Contra on steroids. Except Obama knew of this in advance. And actually orchestrated it.

[CatoTheChipper]

Bush actually did something similar with Iraq, though not in exchange for hostages. The US froze Iraqi assets after the Kuwait invasion. After Iraq's "liberation", Bush hoped that cargo planes full of cash on pallets would help pacify the Iraqis. It didn't work out that way. The money was looted and, well, you know the recent history of Iraq.

[The Last American Hero]

Iraq, post-Saddam, was allegedly friendly to the US.

Paying ransom to terrorist governments is different.

[$park? is totally a Swifty]

HOW WILL YOU KNOW WHAT TO THINK?!?!!!???!?

[Rich]

DHS gives Somali Muslims special airport security tours because they felt harassed and profiled

On at least two occasions?December 18, 2014 and February 18, 2015?federal authorities granted the unprecedented excursions of the facility's sterile and secure areas, according to Transportation Security Administration (TSA) records obtained by Judicial Watch. The DHS agency that conducted the expeditions, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), provided the Muslim participants with "an in-depth, on-site tour and discussion of CBP's airport, including both inbound and outbound passenger processing," the TSA files state.

Oh, FFS!

What could *possibly* go wrong?

[WTF]

Jesus titty-fucking Christ, these morons are like a fucking Monty Python skit.

[Homple]

In Minneapolis, the country's jihadi recruiting capital, no less.

[AlmightyJB]

Google and Facebook lobbying Congress to screw consumers. I'm guessing NSA doesn't want to lose access to your Google info well.

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/.....le-devices

[AlmightyJB]

Should have said lobbying FCC since we live in the imperial era now. Congress does nothing.

[Drake]

Czech President Proposes Citizens Arm Themselves In Face of Terror Threat

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/l.....t-n2201103

[Je suis Woodchipper]

small world. i was looking at a CZ rifle yesterday.

happy investors at http://www.czub.cz/

[JW]

New poll: Hillary Clinton 44 percent, Donald Trump 35 percent, Gary Johnson 12 percent.

No candidate at 50%? DO OVER.

[Rich]

H has a Womandate!

[JW]

With Huma? /ducks

[Swiss Servator]

*slightly narrows gaze*

[JW]

"if you squint hard enough, H looks almost human."

[Libertarian]

I read that as "squirt."

[SugarFree]

Riven?

[lafe.long]

Washington, D.C. Transit Officer Charged With Supporting ISIS

According to an FBI affidavit, Young bought nearly $250 in gift cards last month that he intended for ISIS to use to purchase mobile apps that would facilitate communication. But Young actually gave the gift cards to an undercover FBI source.

Documents show Young has been under surveillance since 2010, and that he traveled to Libya twice in 2011, where he said he joined rebel forces seeking to oust dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

[Brochettaward]

So, in 2011, he was on the side of the Obama admin.

When these stories break, it's to the point where my first instinct is the FBI baited some moron into doing something stupid. The guys aren't innocent or anything. My brother looked at me dumbfounded yesterday and asked why would they waste their time with that...

[The Fusionist]

The thinking is that if some dumbass is walking around with a cardboard sign reading "will jihad for food," then sooner or later a *real* jihadi will recruit them.

[Lord at War]

If you are stupid enough to fall for an FBI jihadi plant, you are too stupid to live, and might need a cage to be protected from yourself.

Just saying...

[Eternal Blue Sky]

$250... in gift cards... for phone apps.

Just sayin, the US has given ISIS a LOT more useful and valuable support, what with all the weapons we gave 'em to fight Syria.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

ATF not fully compliant deleting FFL records
The federal agency tasked with regulating firearms has been inconsistent in deleting sales records, especially those of out-of-business gun dealers, according to a government accountability study published Monday....

[SugarFree]

Mmm... warm, flaky hypocripsy, served piping fresh...

Slate condemns a little boy for calling Hillary a btich...

and then two posts later...

Praises Liz Mair for calling Trump a dick.

[Lord Humungus]

related

[Crusty Juggler]

When a boy who looked no more than 10 years old repeatedly screamed "Take the bitch down" at each invocation of Hillary Clinton's name at a Donald Trump rally in Ashburn, Virginia on Tuesday, his yells landed like a thunderbolt.

CBS News' Sopan Deb, NBC's Katy Tur, and Guardian politics reporter Ben Jacobs captured the scene:

Breaking news!

[WTF]

Not hypocrisy, because MALE. PRIVILEGE.

[Hyperion]

But 'little boy', 'Trump is Hitler'.

[Red Rocks Okey-Dokein]

Most responses to the journalists' tweets focused on the indecency of the boy's tongue,

They'd fall over dead if they heard how these kids talk on the playground.

[Random Axe Of Kindness]

I'm fairly sure this was one of you...

http://www.fox25boston.com/new...../416302718

[Citizen X]

Hmm, too young to be Hihn...

[Rich]

"I don't give a (expletive). I'm 90 years old," Salerno told officers

"I don't give a (expletive). I'm the next President of the United States," Hillary told the voters

[Free Society]

"A U.S. woman was killed and five other people injured by a man with suspected mental health issues who went on a rampage with a knife in central London, but police said there was no evidence that the attack was terrorism related."

Armed police were called at 10:33 p.m. (2133 GMT) after a Norwegian man of Somali origin with a knife started to attack people in London's Russell Square, an elegant park near the site of a 2005 suicide bombing.

Those Norwegians are always causing trouble. Maybe what Great Britain should do, is figure out how to get more these Norwegians into their country. The cultural and economic enrichment will be beyond measure...because the census takers won't be able to safely measure in the Norwegian neighborhoods.

[Rufus The Monocled]

It's pretty much a trick they do now. A so and so of such origin. SEE? It's not about *this*.

Lame.

[Free Society]

I'm genuinely surprised they included the "of Somali origin" bit. I bet the editor was up all night deciding whether to include it.

[WTF]

I bet they didn't include his name. Because it's probably something like Mohammed Amajihadi.

[Free Society]

His name is Erik Grundlenob, you bigot.

[R C Dean]

I just had to Google that.

A very rare zero hits. Well played.

[Free Society]

It's a very obscure Norwegian name, originating from the Norwegian province of Somalia.

[lafe.long]

Karen Bass: Congresswoman, D-Calif., Launches Petition Asking Donald Trump to Take Psychiatric Exam

"We deserve to have the greatest understanding of Mr. Trump's mental health status before we head to the polls on November 8th, 2016," Bass wrote on Change.org, where she filed a petition on Tuesday.

[Rich]

I hope Trump takes her up on it -- on the condition that Hillary also be examined and that both exams be broadcast live.

[WTF]

Hillary, the sociopathic stroke victim?

[SugarFree]

There's never been a single major party candidate for President who wasn't suffering from Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Just because the two this year so obviously have it doesn't really make it anything new.

[Hyperion]

The reason they hate Trump so much is that he's taking a big crap on PC. If this becomes a trend, they'll have a big problem.

[Certified Public Asshat]

Giving credit where it is due, a good Gawker post:

Public Television Virgins Wish You Wouldn't Make Arthur Fuck

The memes posted throughout the comments are actually pretty funny.

The Ernie one is my favorite.

[$park? is totally a Swifty]

The operators of a wholesome kids cartoon kindly ask the Internet not to turn it into sex jokes, Gawker responds "fuck you".

Classy

[Certified Public Asshat]

The public will do what it wants with it's public television.

[Citizen X]

If my taxes are paying for that lil' aardvark, i'll make him fuck if i want to.

[$park? is totally a Swifty]

Indeed. And the bulk of the public will show how retarded they are. Power to the people.

[Free Society]

This one was pretty funny too.

[Certified Public Asshat]

Haha, yeah that was my second place.

[Lord at War]

Motherfuckers can't even do a decent aardvark anymore...

[lafe.long]

Trump Tower: Armed Retired Cop Arrested Outside New York Skyscraper, Authorities Say

The Democrats are cheering on an armed man who tried to assassinate Donald Trump this evening, August 4th, at Trump tower as the candidate arrived home for a night of rest.

[Domestic Dissident]

I'm guessing this probably wasn't the dude who knocked off Scalia or Breitbart.

[Florida Hipster]

Eh. Tree of liberty and what not.

[WTF]

Although that would require whacking somebody who is actually in a position of significant government power.

[ant1sthenes]

I suppose the good thing about them whacking Trump is that it would make it even more likely that a Trump fan will retaliate by taking out Hillary.

[R C Dean]

Whish. Down the memory hole.

[Drake]

Obamacare is collapsing.
http://www.pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/20.....-bad-week/

[Lee Genes]

And the kicker is it's collapsing even though premiums and deductibles have doubled over the last three years.

[Drake]

I pay more for an completely worthless policy now, than I did for an HMO that covered everything 8 years ago. I would be well ahead of the game if I had no insurance and just paid cash every time somebody in the family needed to see a doctor - that includes 1 emergency room visit, a broken foot, and a sports injury so far this year.

[Lee Genes]

Ditto

[Rufus The Monocled]

Why do you hate the greater good, Drake?

[Drake]

It's not that I hate it - I just don't believe in it.

[kbolino]

I used to have an HMO that covered everything with a reasonable deductible.

I now have a much more expensive PPO that only covers 80% of most things with a high deductible, which I chose over the HMO because it was the only option that kept my emergency room coverage at 100% (after the deductible is paid).

What brave new world we live in.

[DWB]

But you got COVERAGE!!!!

Hater ...

/sarc

[WTF]

But, you got to cover other people with all that extra money you probably would have spent on foolish things!

[R C Dean]

C'mon, kbo. You've got pregnancy AND birth control coverage. What are you complaining about?

[Swiss Servator]

PHAKE SKANDULL! 8%!!!! EVERYONE LOVES THIS FREE MARKET EXPANSION!!!!

/derp

[Rich]

"This regulatory dystopia is the equivalent of forcing the local baker who sells cupcakes to neighborhood coffee shops to pay between 14 percent and 22 percent of his revenue to Nabisco."

Always with the cakes!

[WTF]

They all want cake.

[Domestic Dissident]

Exactly as intended.

"We need full single payer now to fix all the problems we created when tried to fix all the previous problem that we created!"

[Hyperion]

Once the working millenials, no matter how small of a majority that is, turn 27 and realize the cost of having insurance, or paying a huge penalty, that's when the real shitstorm will start. 'BUT THEY SAID IT WAS FREE!!!!'

[Citizen X]

That's when push for single payer will REALLY get obnoxious.

[R C Dean]

Obamacare is collapsing.

To the memory hole, stat!

[Lee Genes]

I've been trying to find something novel on DU lately to astound us all, but they're so Trump-crazed they make Reason look like Donald's twitter team.

[Lord Humungus]

so DU reads like the National Review team twitter feed?
https://twitter.com/nro/lists/teamnro

[Drake]

It's like nothing else is happening in the world. Obamacare is completely collapsing, Western Europe is importing more refugees and devolving into a state of constant terrorism, the economy sucks, Clinton is literally mocking the broken justice system, the Iran nuclear deal is exposed as a total fraud, Zika is creating even more pinheads in Florida...

[Libertarian]

"Zika is creating even more pinheads in Florida..."

Good. I'm goddam tired of Florida importing them from the northern states.

[John]

Make Florida great again by brining the manufacture of "Florida Man" back home to the state.

[Citizen X]

"Brining" Florida Man? I guess that makes sense - if you don't brine your Florida Man it'll end up all tough and stringy, on account of the meth.

[Groovus Maximus]

A Salt with a Deadly Method.

[WTF]

But, Trump said a (sort of?) mean thing about a Muslim who verbally attacked him! And he also ATE FRIED CHICKEN WITH A KNIFE AND FORK!!11!!!!!

[CatoTheChipper]

He doesn't like to get his little fingers greasy.

[Slammer]

Deputy shoots and kills unarmed homeless man, prompting investigation

William Bowers, 51, was riding a bicycle about 9 p.m. in the 31500 block of Castaic Road when deputies tried to stop him, according to sheriff's Lt. Joe Mendoza.

Bowers dumped the bicycle and fled on foot from the deputies.

A deputy opened fire, striking him once in the upper torso. Bowers died at the scene.

Deputies initially tried to detain Bowers because they recognized him from previous interactions and knew he was on probation for a narcotics conviction, detectives said.

"He jumped off his bike and started running, and the cop shot him," the man told the news station.

Disobeying a direct order over suspicion from a non-violent crime now equals death

[Swiss Servator]

Disobeying a direct order over suspicion from a non-violent crime now equals death

Shortened that up for ya.

[Slammer]

It's sickening. Where is the guy going to go? He's gonna disappear? So fucking what?

[Brochettaward]

This guy is white, right? So I won't hear anymore about it?

[SugarFree]

Are you finished social signaling or would you like to wipe your ass on the dead guy some more?

[Brochettaward]

Take the sanctimonious and irrational bullshit somewhere else.

[SugarFree]

All you had to say is that you weren't finished.

[R C Dean]

Another broad daylight murder by a cop with zero legal justification.

Prediction: paid vacation.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Mount Olive, NJ cops settle false arrest suit for $60k

A man who wouldn't give Mount Olive police permission to search his car for drugs has settled his false arrest and excessive force suit for $60,000.

[...]

Granese passed field sobriety tests, but officer Anthony Gardner said he smelled marijuana and became agitated when Granese wouldn't consent to a search of his car, according to the suit.

The suit alleged a sergeant arrived a short while later and granted Granese permission to place a call with his cell phone. Gardner then ordered Granese not to use it, taking him to the ground and cuffing him, according to the suit.

A Morris County K-9 Unit that showed up soon after found no drugs in the car, the suit says.

The Flanders resident, now 25, was charged with resisting arrest, obstruction and motor vehicle violations. He was later convicted of the motor vehicle offenses and obstruction charges, but acquitted of resisting arrest.

In August 2013, Judge Mary Gibbons Whipple overturned Granese's obstruction of justice conviction. In her ruling, Whipple aid she was "appalled by the conduct of the police," and described it as "rather disturbing."

Gardner, who began working for the Mount Olive police in 2008 is now a detective for the department.

[Drake]

Damn. I had a run-in with a Mount Olive cop once. Biggest fucking asshole liar I've ever met. Accused me of all kinds of crazy bullshit traffic violations as I was making a turn to pick up my kids from daycare.

Wonder if it was the same guy.

[Libertarian]

"Wonder if it was the same guy."

Probably. I mean, what are the chances of two assholes being in the same police department?

[Drake]

We are talking a relatively small upper middle-class town in Northwest NJ. I live a couple towns over but will assume the residents aren't the type to tolerate too much shit from the hired help.

[WTF]

My current office is in Mount Olive. I got pulled over a few weeks ago, the cop was professional and polite, and let me skate with a warning.

[R C Dean]

A Morris County K-9 Unit that showed up soon after found no drugs in the car,

Somebody needs some more training . . . .

[Lee Genes]

For Sugarfree

Lindy West is one of the Great Ladies of the Feminist Internet, her writing style alone setting a regal standard for many of us coming of age in these wild online times.

[Crusty Juggler]

Lindy West is also known for her ability to devour an entire three-tier wedding cake over a long weekend.

[Slammer]

Pics?

[Lee Genes]

Make sense of this, I dare you:

Contemporary American social justice politics often hinges on the mobilization of identity, or ? as the black feminist Combahee River Collective pioneered in the 80s, and as Fox News has been maligning ever since ? identity politics. In its truest form, this isn't the Balkanization of politics into smaller and smaller interest groups for the sole purpose of raining on your parade (though your parade probably deserves to be rained on); it's the urgent need for any revolutionary politics to center the lived experience of marginality, according to the marginalized.

[Crusty Juggler]

Cramming as much pseudo-intellectual bullshit into a single sentence is an acceptable writing style in some circles. I don't know what is worse: that style, or the common trend of writing an article based solely on Tweets.

Either way, humanity loses.

[Drake]

You are supposed to just act like this mumbo-jumbo makes sense and nod knowingly.

[SugarFree]

The authoress of the article isn't a model of clarity in writing herself"

As I cried to a friend, almost putting our joint out with my tears

And she doesn't know how to smoke a joint, either.

[Swiss Servator]

You owe me two Tylenol for that.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

Translation

"Contemporary American social justice politics often hinges on the mobilization of identity, or ? as the black feminist Combahee River Collective pioneered in the 80s, and as Fox News has been maligning ever since ? identity politics."

Minority-status based tribalism requires identity politics to function.
+Namedrop Good People supporting this to prove it is Goodthink.
+Namedrop Bad People opposing this to prove it is Goodthink.

"In its truest form, this isn't the Balkanization of politics into smaller and smaller interest groups for the sole purpose of raining on your parade (though your parade probably deserves to be rained on);"

Obsessing on nothing more than identity isn't merely about shitting all over people who can't claim a minority identity themselves (but such Bad People totally deserve being shit on);

"it's the urgent need for any revolutionary politics to center the lived experience of marginality, according to the marginalized."

It is because if we DON'T center all politics on people's identities we won't be able to exploit those identities to push our agenda.

[SugarFree]

Barf.

[Lord Humungus]

Wearing Don't Tread on Me insignia could be punishable racial harassment

On January 8, 2014, Complainant filed a formal complaint in which he alleged that the Agency subjected him to discrimination on the basis of race (African American) and in reprisal for prior EEO activity when, starting in the fall of 2013, a coworker (C1) repeatedly wore a cap to work with an insignia of the Gadsden Flag, which depicts a coiled rattlesnake and the phrase "Don't Tread on Me."

Complainant stated that he found the cap to be racially offensive to African Americans because the flag was designed by Christopher Gadsden, a "slave trader & owner of slaves." Complainant also alleged that he complained about the cap to management; however, although management assured him C1 would be told not to wear the cap, C1 continued to come to work wearing the offensive cap. Additionally, Complainant alleged that on September 2, 2013, a coworker took a picture of him on the work room floor without his consent. In a decision dated January 29, 2014, the Agency dismissed Complainant's complaint on the basis it failed to state a claim . . . .

[Swiss Servator]

the Agency dismissed Complainant's complaint on the basis it failed to state a claim

Or not.

[Rich]

Complainant stated that he found the cap to be racially offensive to African Americans because the flag was designed by Christopher Gadsden, a "slave trader & owner of slaves."

Case dismissed.

*** pounds gavel ***

[You Sound Like a Prog (MJG)]

Complainant must not carry any $1 or $20 bills.

[Lee Genes]

Asexuals Unite?

Whenever I'm on asexual forums or blogs, I see many aces concerned about whether or not they qualify as asexual.

If you identify as asexual, then you are probably asexual. There is no checklist or prerequisites you must meet in order to be a certified ace.

It doesn't matter if you masturbate, if you have an illness, if you are sexually active, if you like porn, or if you're not aromantic. It doesn't matter if another ace said you couldn't be part of the club because your asexuality didn't look like theirs.

[lafe.long]

"aces"?

What the fuck?

[WTF]

So, I guess you can be sexually active and asexual, because words have no fucking meaning anymore.

[The Fusionist]

Look, you can be a women even if you have a penis, so I imagine you can be asexual while having sex.

[SugarFree]

"DON'T TOUCH IT!" the hat screamed.

"It's just an egg?" the hair began and then he screamed too as tendrils shot from the egg and began to wrap around Donald's tiny hands.

"Get it off me!" the hair wailed. "It burns!"

"Ah, fuck, man. Ah, fuck," the hat moaned impotently.

Hair-driven Donald thrashed around the motel room as the hair tried to fling the black mass of tendrils and flesh-corrupting acid away from him. The Ivanka doll shrieked when the bloated billionaire fall back on the bed and on top of her.

"Get the fuck off him, man," the hat yelled to the hair. "He's not worth it. We can find another bald pasty moron to ride to the White House!"

Donald, finally awake, bellowed in pain, holding up his raw and bloody shot-fingered baby hand in the dim light of the hotel room.

"It hurts. Some Mexispic has attacked me in my own hotel room!"

"Calm down there, big guy," the hat said. The Ivanka doll writhed beside him and made straggled cries.

"Guards! Where are my guards! I have been attacked by Sjwmexispicmuslims!"

The Ivanka doll grew suddenly still.

[SugarFree]

"How did you get it off?" the hat asked the hair.

"I don't know. The whore tried to bite me and I think she got the egg instead."

"Guards! To me, my guards!"

"Donald, give it a rest. You sent them downstairs while you beating that whore with your daughter's face," the hat said.

"I did? I don't remember that. Are you sure that was me? I love babies. Get that fucking baby out of here. I love women. They are great. Just the tops. I think that cunt bit me. My hand hurts. Where I am? Why is my penis all sticky? I don't know. You tell me. Sad."

"He's babbling again," the hair said.

"My mother was a woman, you know," Donald said. "Big tits. Yuge. I bought Ivanka my mother's tits."

The Ivanka doll groaned and rose into the air. It said: "WHEN REPRESENTATIVES FROM 13 UNRULY COLONIES MET JUST DOWN THE ROAD FROM HERE, SOME WANTED TO STICK WITH THE KING AND SOME WANTED TO STICK IT TO THE KING."

Donald slapped his hands over his years and rolled onto the hotel floor.

"Oh, god. It's horrible," the hair screamed.

"The voice," the hat moaned. "It's the worst thing I've ever heard!"

The doll floated to the center of the roll. Black ichor ran from her eyes and nose and ears, it flowed in lazy rivers down her reconstructed legs like an obscene parody of menstruation. A fresh rush of it spilled forth as it began to speak again:

[SugarFree]

"POWERFUL FORCES ARE THREATENING TO PULL US APART. BONDS OF TRUST AND RESPECT ARE FRAYING."

The room shook under the flaying onslaught of meaningless babble.

"She was trying to turn Donald into that!" the hat said.

"What do you mean?" the hair shot back.

"She wanted to turn Donald into a receiver, a puppet!"

"But he's our puppet!"

Donald huddled on the floor, his hands still over his ears, rocking back and forth and crying.

"Donald, get up! You have to kill this thing!" the hat screamed.

"No, no, no, no, no, no," he moaned.

"Donald!" the hair yelled. "Stop presenting like a mandrill, get up and act like a fucking man!"

"WELL, WE HEARD DONALD TRUMP'S ANSWER LAST WEEK AT HIS CONVENTION. HE WANTS TO DIVIDE US ? FROM THE REST OF THE WORLD, AND FROM EACH OTHER. HE'S BETTING THAT THE PERILS OF TODAY'S WORLD WILL BLIND US TO ITS UNLIMITED PROMISE. HE'S TAKEN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY A LONG WAY FROM "MORNING IN AMERICA" TO "MIDNIGHT IN AMERICA." HE WANTS US TO FEAR THE FUTURE AND FEAR EACH OTHER."

"DONALD!" the hat and hair screamed together as the doll collapsed into a pool of viscous goo.

[Rich]

So, ... you think Trump will drop out withdraw leave the race?

[SugarFree]

Trump's not going anywhere. The people that are going to vote for him don't care what he says, and the people who weren't going to vote for him weren't going to be swayed by either convention.

I'm still thinking this will be the lowest voter turnout per capita in decades.

[John]

You might be right about that. That is why the polls don't mean a lot. It is a question of who shows up. And who knows who that will be.

[Hyperion]

Not so sure about that. The GOP had record turnout in the primaries.

[Swiss Servator]

If you have Hillary burst in on the scene, in a tight superhero outfit, I am going to projectile vomit....

[SugarFree]

You mean, something like this?

[Swiss Servator]

HA! IMMA NO CLICK THAT!

I have learned a few things in my time on H&R.

[KerryW]

I linked to an article about that yesterday; only click on it if you need to purge yourself...

[Lord Humungus]

It's Early August. There's Time to Turn This Around, Right? Right?

Ace of Spades and I have had some major disagreements during this primary season, but I see his generally compelling point: if the electorate signs off on Hillary Clinton's bad behavior, it will ratify every dishonest, radical, anti-Constitutional and vindictive thing President Obama has ever done. The ballot box is the only way to hold the progressive aristocracy accountable or check their power, and thus opposing the Republican nominee hinders that make-us-or-break-us test of whether we're still a country with a rule of law.

The problem is that Trump seems to grasp none of this, has no interest in strengthening our arguments and at times seems to take a gleeful pleasure in undermining them, as Ace observes:

Here's the thing: A presidential candidate shouldn't need supporters to constantly work hard to bail him out of trouble. He should, as many anti-Trumpers point out, sort of try to keep out of trouble. He should be working for us ? not vice versa?

[Brochettaward]

The National Review doesn't care about the rule of law anymore than the progressive aristocracy does. And maybe they should accept the reality that most of the Republican voter base doesn't agree with them. Difference is, they don't even want to pretend to rationalize their votes that way.

[Drake]

The losers who run NR are as immune to self-examination as your average SJW. They and the campaign-as-conservative Republicans / govern-as-liberal-Democrat assholes they support destroyed the GOP years ago. Trump just showed up to make it official.

[John]

I look at it this way. The media will do anything to drag Hillary's sorry ass over the line. If they actually thought Trump was imploding and had no chance, the last thing they would do Is run fantasy pieces about him dropping out of the race. If they thought he had no chance, they would be running stories about how he is in it to the finish and wants to lose with honor and all that the way the do with other losers.

The crazier and more panicked they get the more I think they are worried he might win.

[Drake]

It's amazing how they have cleared every legitimate news story off the headlines for non-stop coverage of how much Trump sucks.

[John]

It is the only thing they have. Every day it seems a new story comes out about Obama and or Hillary that is just jaw dropping. Hillary's campaign manager is making tens of millions of dollars from a Russian government controlled company. The Clinton foundation has been found to have taken money in connection with State Department actions regarding drug exports while she was secretary. Obama gave Iran 400 million dollars. And that is just this week.

So of course they want to talk about Trump. And notice, reason is exactly the same way. They haven't touched either of those stories but found time to talk about important shit like the debate over cargo pants and Sheldon Richman explaining how Trump is really a war monger for wanting to get out of NATO. They are just pathetic.

[R C Dean]

Every day it seems a new story comes out about Obama and or Hillary that is just jaw dropping. Hillary's campaign manager is making tens of millions of dollars from a Russian government controlled company. The Clinton foundation has been found to have taken money in connection with State Department actions regarding drug exports while she was secretary. Obama gave Iran 400 million dollars.

Total number of Reason stories on these massive abuses of power (not counting the links):

Zero.

[commodious gone pear-shaped]

The GOP cannot field a candidate capable of reuniting its base this close to the election, especially if it dumps Trump unceremoniously. And that's assuming it has some unknown in its back benches who would light an unquenchable fire in the first place. Dumping Trump would all but ensure Hillary runs unopposed. So it's not a question of whether they're worried about Trump actually beating Hillary, it's the even juicier prospect of seeing the GOP not just fractured but splintered going into November.

[John]

There are a lot of very connected people in the Republican Party whose entire future depends on Trump loosing in a landslide. If he wins, they are finished because they will have no influence over a candidate they tried to defeat. If he loses but comes close, they get blamed for putting Hillary in office. So their only hope is that he loses in a landlside and they can say "I told you so".

[Pope Jimbo]

Even though I am so happy about this ruling by the Minnesoda Supreme Court I am starting to get tired of chicks skating out of trouble because "they didn't mean to do wrong"!

It's called mens rea, for fucks sake. Why not let men get in on that too?

A southern Minnesota school board was wrong to expel a high school student who accidentally brought a pocket knife to school and left it in her purse in her locker, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

In upholding a Court of Appeals reversal of the board's decision, the Supreme Court said the district failed to show that Alyssa Drescher, then an honor student at United South Central High School in Wells, Minn., willfully violated school policy or willfully endangered herself or others.

See what a bad example Comey and the FBI set?

[AlmightyJB]

Nothing like looking the part.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/04/.....index.html

[Atanarjuat]

The National Crime Records Bureau's annual report of crime statistics found in 2013 that a woman was raped somewhere in India every 20 minutes, and the number of children raped had increased by 336% in 10 years.

If you think that's bad, you should see American college campuses.

[Lord Humungus]

okay I gotta take a break from Hit 'n' Run - last night I had a dream mixing the Game of War App, SugarFree as a dungeonmaster, and a very large pair of Warty shorts. I guess the "crazy season" of politics is getting to be too much for me.

Main Force Patrol, we're out of the game

[SugarFree]

I loved being Dungeonmaster, but I'll be honest... I was mostly in it for the graph paper.

[tarran]

You too?

[SugarFree]

I had a drafting class in 8th grade. It was all downhill after that.

[invisible furry hand]

You get excellent dreams like that and you think that's a reason to quit? My Lord, I never knew ye....

[Lord Humungus]

not quitting - just taking a break. And those were some big shorts.

[Shit Pyrate]

I AM THE NIGHT RIDER !!!!!

A FULL INJECTED SUICIDE MACHINE !!!!!!

[John]

http://www.mfs-theothernews.co.....d-and.html

Gay refugee beheaded in Istanbul. But don't worry, letting tens of thousands of refugees into this country is not a threat to anyone.

[ant1sthenes]

Uh, were I to make a judgment based on that headline, I would say letting refugees into Turkey isn't safe for refugees.

[Hyperion]

They must have taken a wrong right turn somewhere around Greece. Who the hell would want to go to Turkey? I mean to live.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

Given the climate and culture around gay people in Turkey at the moment, the perpetrator has a very good chance of being a Turk.

[lafe.long]

Paul Krugman Predicts a 'Derp Spiral' When Trump Realizes He's Likely to Lose

Nobel Prize-winning New York Times columnist Paul Krugman coined the phrase "derp spiral" on Tuesday in preparation for Donald Trump's behavior once he decides he will likely lose the election in November.

[John]

If anyone would know a derp spiral, it would be a guy who has been in one for the last 20 years.

The media sure does know how to repeat talking points. They all use the same words and phrases at the same time. You would think they would thing for themselves once in a while out of boredom or curiosity if nothing else. I guess there is so much social and professional pressure not to do that, they have no choice. What a shitty life Washington Journalists must lead.

[ant1sthenes]

It's kind that he thinks Trump is more capable of recognizing a failing campaign than Krugman is a failing economic policy.

[Hyperion]

Krugman IS a derp spiral.

[Roger the Shrubber]

How would one recognize a Trump Derp Spiral?

[commodious gone pear-shaped]

I have no doubt Trump will continue to plumb new depths long into the new year.

[Hyperion]

The problem when media posts polling data, is that they (including Reason), cherry pick the poll that best represents what they WANT it to look like.

Here's what the polling numbers really look like when you average them all out:

Clinton - 42.5
Trump - 38.2
Johson - 7.2
Stein - 3.2

So, basically, we're back to where we were a couple of months ago. Yet the media tells us that Trump is going to drop out? I don't know who started the rumor, but it seems based purely on the fact that Trump refuses to endorse Paul Ryan, a guy who looks like he's not even going to get the GOP nomination again for his Senate seat, and that Newt Gingrich has second thoughts about Trump. These are things that voters could care less about.

The real situation we have is that Trump keeps being Trump, Hillary keeps being Hillary, and Johnson is just as irrelevant as he's always been.

It's sad to see Reason becoming more and more like CNN with each passing day.

[VG Zaytsev]

But., but Trump said mean things about a Moslem man whose sone died in Hillary's war. That's like the word test thing that anyone could ever do.

[Hyperion]

There's a rumor that super moderate Muslim dad hero, at some point came out in support of Sharia law. At this point, I don't know if this is true or not, but if it is, why is the media not talking about that? Everyone knows what happens to women and gays, etc, under Shariah. Also, they're still butt hurt because Trump won't apologize.

[DWB]

"everyone knows what happens to women and gays, etc, under Shariah."

But that would distract coverage of the more pressing news of the Crusades and slavery those Christians have been engaging in lately...

[Domestic Dissident]

I think sloopy couldn't take it anymore and left here for good, and I'm pretty sure he's far from the only one.

I ain't leaving though, even though Reason jumped the shark years ago. I battle leftard SJWs everywhere.

[SugarFree]

It's nice to see you admit to being no better than shrike or Tony.

[Citizen X]

Neither shreek nor Tony has ever gifted us with such gloriously, insanely dumb nicknames as Block Yomomma, so Mikey has that going for him.

[Hyperion]

I'm not going anywhere. This is still the best news outlet there is. At least they do a great job of reporting on police misconduct and other things that no one media outlet cares about. And also, of course, we have by far the best comments on the web.

[tarran]

My hope is that after the election is over, Reason will once again start covering the news and stop acting as the research arm for Sugarfree's fiction.

He should do his own damn research.

[SugarFree]

No. Don't take my freeride!

[Citizen X]

Come on, man. Research is hard work, and you know how tired the 'beetus makes him.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

"for Sugarfree's fiction."

Hah!! Sure, we'd all like to pretend it's just fiction, but we all know that isn't the case.

[R C Dean]

tarran, my fear is that Reason has fallen to the left's long march through the institutions.

[ant1sthenes]

A victim of Conquest.

[Domestic Dissident]

Reason's post election tone will of course depend mostly on who wins. If it's Hil, it will be more of the same of what we've had the last eight years: "Shut up republicans and pass Hillary's budget already!" and "Most everything is wonderful and you've never had it so good."

If Trump wins, the tone will be far darker; more along the lines of "Things are terrible and we must stop our domestic Hitler now."

[paranoid android]

He who does battle with retards should take care that he does not himself become a retard...though it's clearly too late in your case.

[tarran]

The real situation we have is that Trump keeps being Trump, Hillary keeps being Hillary, and Johnson is just as irrelevant as he's always been.

Note how in 15 seconds, Hyperion has provided the same information that hundreds of journalists churning out thousands of pages of drivel have produced at an incalculable cost of time and money.

[Hyperion]

Only I left off the biased spin. And that was also free of charge.

[Lord Humungus]

Thanks for the "keep it real" post. And it's August - voters aren't paying attention.

I would be worried if I was Hillary - since she's not hitting 50% that's not exactly a sign of strength.

Oh well - I can try to predict the future but it doesn't mean I'm going to be right.

[tarran]

I'm standing by my predictions that Trump is going to win.*

My wife and I have bet an ice cream sundae on the outcome - so this is likely the most important presidential election of my lifetime.

* Not a normative statement, but a descriptive one - i.e. I don't want him to win; I just think he will.

[Lord Humungus]

I'm in the position where I really don't want Hillary to win. (Which makes me a Trump supporter by proxy?)

I've decided I won't be voting this time around - at least for the presidential ticket - but at least I can throw in a vote for Justin Amash.

[Hyperion]

Hillary is worse. I don't want either of them to win. If Hillary wins, we know exactly what we're getting. With Trump? At least we're not sure exactly what kind of awful we're getting, so it will be more interesting.

[tarran]

Hillary is worse. I don't want either of them to win. If Hillary wins, we know exactly what we're getting. With Trump? At least we're not sure exactly what kind of awful we're getting, so it will be more interesting.

This is my opinion too.

According to some people in my circle that makes me worse than Hitler.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

100% Doom of the Normal Flavor

or 25%-100% Doom of Random and Interesting Flavors.

Yeah, let's roll the dice.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Good bet outcome. You'll probably have ice cream either way.

[tarran]

Definitely. It's the inverse of wargames.

The only way to lose is not to play. 😉

[ant1sthenes]

I've decided (perhaps it's one of the stages of grief?) that Trump winning would be preferable, so long as he was running with such a clear lead that Congress and Obama passed some panicked legislation to cripple the office of the presidency. The people may hate Hillary, but to DC she might as well be the chosen one. Not so with Trump.

[John]

They had to change the subject before stories about Kahn got any traction and undid the damage they think they did to Trump with him. Also they needed to get the stories about Hillary's campaign manager's connections to Russia and Obama's payments to Iran out of the news. That is all that is going on here.

[WTF]

In spite of how how paranoid/conspiracy theory that sounds, it's also probably true. Things really have gotten this bad.

[R C Dean]

Its the simplest explanation. How is it that stories of this magnitude get zero play? It can't be a coincidence. An ambitious reporter who wasn't a DemOp apparatchik could put together career-making stories on the corruption of the Hillary campaign or the illegality and stupidity of the Obama hostage payment.

But . . . crickets. The simplest explanation is that these stories are being suppressed, intentionally.

[Bill Dalasio]

At last night's Libertarian Town Hall on CNN, vice presidential candidate William Weld said Donald Trump has "a screw loose."

After last night, I can't help but wonder if Johnson and Weld have a screw loose. Cripes, candidates are supposed to get better with succeeding town halls. These guys were cringe-worthy. Is Johnson smoking again? Or does he need to start back up. Because after last night's performance something's got to change.

* "Never been better"? Well, then why vote out the party in office?
* Ban discrimination? Just about any argument he made could be turned on any libertarian position.
* Prostitutes are the victims? No. Just, no.
* BLM should have been an opportunity to showcase libertarian positions on criminal justice reform. Johnson simply responded by saying he had his head in the sand.

What a disaster.

[tarran]

They are professional politicians - that's strikes 1 - 5,000.

The are professional politicians who couldn't hack it in the Republican Party - strike 5,001.

They can't help but be contemptible shit-weasels. If they weren't they'd have honest jobs, jobs that are more socially useful to society - such as jizzmopper.

[Bill Dalasio]

I know to expect awful. But, this was awful and stupid.

Really, he did a better job at the first town hall. You're supposed to get your act more polished as you do more of these things, not less.

[Groovus Maximus]

WE ARE THE WELD!

It reflects so poorly on GayJay that he actively shilled for the homunculus that is the Bizarro World Mitt Romney, had Mittens taken up booze swilling, law-and-order graft, and The FedGov as his Lord and Saviour.

[Domestic Dissident]

"I agree with Bernie Sanders on about 70% of the issues."
- Gary Johnson

Hey schmuckface, that means that you're a pretty standard issue democrat. So why are you spending your life pretending to be everything except what you really are?

[ant1sthenes]

Why complain? The more he bills himself as a moderate, honest Democrat, the more likely he is to spoil the election for Hillary while scaring off NeverTrumpers. Shit, maybe that's actually his plan, and picking Weld was part of the strategy. I mean, if I was running as the LP guy and knew I had no chance of winning, I would have two goals: 1) get enough % support to help the LP in future elections, and 2) steal votes primarily from the shittier candidate.

[Lord Humungus]

Libertarians (with a capital L) now equals Dem-Lite? Or Republican squish?

?\_(?)_/?

btw: this may be a must-have

[Hyperion]

That will get you attacked by a group of illiterate Democrat sycophants.

[John]

For years Libertarians have talked about the "bipartisan fusion party" that runs Washington. Judging from Johnson last night, Libertarians have apparently decided to make that analogy come to life.

[Hyperion]

Johnson/Weld have been cringe worthy from the start. The sooner this election is over, the better. Then we can continue down the path to royal executive rule by fiat, and the wholesale destruction of the Constitution and the rule of law. But the best part will be that there is no longer a LP candidate getting air time on CNN to generally misrepresent libertarian principles and embarrass and discredit us all.

[Free Society]

It's sad to see Reason becoming more and more like CNN with each passing day.

I'd like to blame it all on the new hires. But The Jacket himself has come out in support of the welfare state (he supports the "social safety net" so that's like totally different and stuff.) Chapman is a Chicago liberal who takes the occasional libertarian stance on civil liberties and the occasional proggy stance on economics. Shikha is big advocate for colonialism and accuses Donald Trump of inciting Hindus to commit genocide. ENB disapproves of free association rights, is an advocate of white privilege theory and doesn't think parents should be able to make medical decisions for their children. (I've said it before but she should be able to find a good career for herself at NBC.) Robby has a split personality disorder of some kind, his alternate ego is an SJW fighting to take full control and is held in check only because of a steady diet of fruit sushi and calming exercises that involve shampooing and combing his hair five times per day.

Harsanyi and Two-Chillies are sorely missed 'round these parts.

[Free Society]

misplaced reply to:

Hyperion|8.4.16 @ 10:06AM

[kbolino]

Sadly, Harsanyi went full retard.

[Free Society]

I guess I forgot about that one. Historically, I've greatly enjoyed his articles. There's a sort of HL Mencken quality to his writing.

[Domestic Dissident]

Stossel and Judge Napolitano are also real straight shooters who dish it out equally to both sides when it's justified.

Sadly, their contributions here have become less and less frequent as the DC leftards have increasingly taken over.

[Free Society]

I love Stossel, he reminds me of my dad. And I think Napolitano is a great guy and a great libertarian, but a terrible writer.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

Is he really a terrible writer?? How can you know this?? What do you base this claim on?? Could it be that perhaps you are a poor reader??

[Free Society]

What if I'm wrong? What if I'm right? What if he's writing his article for remedial high school civics class? What if he got an A on the paper? I'm just asking rhetorical questions!

[Groovus Maximus]

Judge Napolitano are also real straight shooters who dish it out equally to both sides when it's justified.

The same Judgle Nap who wholly, fully, and unequivocally endorsed AG Loretta Lynch, the primary rationales being her race, sex, and "...reputation for ethics above criticism..."*

*- He stated this on an appearance on, "The Kelly File," during AG Lynch's confirmation hearings. Kelly, of course, was pushing Lynch and personal plumbing as iron clad reasons alone to confirm.

[Free Society]

I missed that one. Fuck it seems like everyone's taking a ride on the pander train these days.

[commodious gone pear-shaped]

The candidate Trump is currently down ten points against. Remember when Democrats hated corporatism and pharmaceutical companies?

[SugarFree]

Not really. Bill Clinton sure did bombed the fuck out of the latter.

[apr? commodious, le d?luge]

If it pushes just one headline off the front page...

[Suthenboy]

"A sense of panic is rising." Republican insiders are reportedly investigating what to do if Donald Trump drops out of the race."

Thats funny because this morning on teevee I heard party leadership saying Trump is the nominee and that this whole kerfuffle was a complete fabrication by the media.

[Hyperion]

I think John is probably right in his comment above, that the left media are just using this as a deflection away from the latest release of Hillary emails and Obama's Iran money give-away-athon.

[Ken Shultz]

It'll hold people over until Friday, then the Olympics start and everyone will be focused on America's newest sweetheart winning the gold in roller-fucking or whatever.

[Hyperion]

If there were actually roller-fucking, I might watch a little. As it is, meh.

[John]

I would watch that too. The last Olympics entire prime time seemed to consist of a couple of 30 something MILFs playing beach volleyball while constantly picking their bikini bottoms out of their ass cracks.

I don't remember their names, but neither one was that good looking let alone anything close to good looking enough to make me care about beach volleyball but that is all they ever had on in prime time. It was ridiculous.

[Ken Shultz]

You're talking about Kerry Walsh and Misty May-Treanor.

Misty May-Treanor is actually a very nice person.

[Agent Cooper]

But Kerry Walsh is a human trashbag!*

* - I have never met Kerry Walsh in my life and I might be lying.

[R C Dean]

The last Olympics entire prime time seemed to consist of a couple of 30 something MILFs playing beach volleyball while constantly picking their bikini bottoms out of their ass cracks.

You say that like fit, barely clad MILFs jumping up and down and rolling around in the sand is a bad thing.

[commodious gone pear-shaped]

They would say that, wouldn't they?

And I mean everybody would say everything they're saying.

[Free Society]

and that this whole kerfuffle was a complete fabrication by the media.

Unpossible!

[Ken Shultz]

"Serious, senior lawyers" have begun researching how the rules would work if the party had to replace Trump on the ticket, a senior GOP figure in Washington with close ties to the party hierarchy confirmed."

----From LA Times piece in links

"Serious senior lawyers" sounds so ominous! Actually, it it sounds like speculation by the LA Times rather than something that should be taken too seriously.

In unrelated news, it was reported by the Wall Street Journal earlier this week that The Clinton foundation facilitated the transfer of military technology to the Russian military. Meanwhile, just yesterday, it was discovered that Barack Obama secretly sent $400 million in cash to the Iranian government as part of a deal that released American hostages.

These revelations have been openly confirmed by official documents and various named officials in the Department of State, the FBI, the Department of Justice, Clinton Foundation documents, and named officials in the White House.

While none of those sources sound as ominous as "serious senior lawyers", some people may find those sources persuasive--even if the subject matter is as trivial as the Democratic candidate facilitating military technology transfers to the Russians in exchange for cash like a traitor, or as trivial as the White House doing an Iran-Contra "arms for hostages" style deal with the Iranians all over again.

[Drake]

It sounds like grouchy old guys at the retirement home complaining about politics.

[Free Society]

Not that anyone much cares that Obama and Hilary have committed a long list of improprieties that would have been huge national scandals thirty years ago. People are considered with real issues, like Trump saying mean things to a Muslim DemOp activist that stands on his son's corpse to take a swing at the GOP nominee. Oh and Trump eats fried chicken with silverware, so out of touch.

[tarran]

A lot of people are ignorant.

A while back I got into a discussion in the comments section for one of a former manager's facederp posts regarding some unlawful thing the Obama administration had done. I opined that the fact he hadn't been impeached showed how toothless that check was and it was as if I'd thrown a squirrel into a room full of hungry dobermans; proggies showed up denouncing anyone who thought Obama should be impeached as racists. One demanded to know on what grounds could someone who was as perfect as Obama be impeached.

So I rattled off a handful of serious constitutional violations involving ACA, the bombing of Libya, the GM bankruptcy and Fast and Furious (remember that one?). It was all simple and succinct.

The proggies were stunned. They had heard of these "fake" scandals, but had been so run amok by the media that they couldn't construct a coherent analysis of the facts that absolved the admin of the crimes I was accusing it of. And, forced to confront the reasonable conclusion that despite what they wanted to believe, Obama was guilty of serious misdeeds that warranted removal from office, they took refuge in the idea that *we* were running them amok.

[tarran]

But, it was clear they had really no idea of what happened in these scandals. They watched cable, read the NY times religiously. And yet, they were oblivious to huge pieces of the puzzle. The bits they knew (or thought they knew) were all inoccuous. It was just run of the mill bad luck or mistakes of omission by well meaning top men. And they weren't questioning what they were missing after they observed that people were overreacting with such anger to these mistakes. They figured that the overreactions must be solely due to racism on the part of people who hated seeing a black man in charge.

[Free Society]

It's an uphill battle trying to break through the bubble those people live in. Every 5 sentences of their derp requires something on the order of 5 paragraphs to refute. That is the secret power of leftisms, weaponized sophistry.

[The Last American Hero]

My dad made a tin-foil hat comment when I made a comment about the Disposition Matrix the night Obama won re-election. There is no getting though to these people.

[The Fusionist]

At least they didn't refer the matter to those frivolous junior lawyers.

[John]

Serious lawyers who are not named. That right there tells you that the story has no legs or truth behind it. If it did, they would be giving names and details.

[R C Dean]

Reporting on what anonymous sources claim unnamed people are thinking?

Why, you can take that to the bank!

[Agent Cooper]

If there's no names attached to sources, I assume they are the author's reflection.

[Ken Shultz]

I'm going to add something to my previous test for trump Derangement Syndrome:

If you think what Donald Trump says is of profoundly more importance than what Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama do, then you may have Trump Derangement Syndrome.

If you think what people in the media say about what Trump says is of profoundly more importance than what Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama do, then you almost certainly have Trump Derangement Syndrome.

[american socialist]

Yeah, I know. People who extrapolate from Trump's unhinged rhetoric and think, "gee, this guy sounds like a loon. Maybe we shouldn't give him the power to fire off thousands of nuclear weapons" are assholes. We get it, Ken. Which dates are you going do decide to vote for Trump? Pretty much everyone else around here has. You might as well join your right-wing pals.

[Ken Shultz]

People who extrapolate from Trump's unhinged rhetoric and think, "gee, this guy sounds like a loon. Maybe we shouldn't give him the power to fire off thousands of nuclear weapons" are assholes.

That's exactly what I said--in your imagination.

What I actually said was that focusing on what the media says about what Trump says over focusing on what Hillary and Obama actually do is an excellent test for derangement.

What do you think is worse, wanting the government to discriminate against gays or saying the word "fag"?

If you think saying the word "fag" is worse than wanting the government to discriminate against gays, you may be deranged.

What do you think is worse, Donald Trump saying he wouldn't let the families of ISIS members dissuade him from bombing them--or Barack Obama actually having killed hundreds of children in drone strikes against ISIS.

If you think what Donald Trump says is more important than what Obama and Hillary actually do, then, yes, you may have Trump Derangement Syndrome. And, no, the test isn't necessarily a failure if it suggests you have it.

[apr? commodious, le d?luge]

It's important inasmuch as he's the other major party candidate in the race. Nothing any of them say, Obama included, means a goddamn thing. Obama for example is masterful at oblivious, avuncular, content-free windbag serenades to his own legacy. Clinton minces words expertly, rendering all context from a statement until it perfectly fits her purposes. Next to them, Trump is just a blithering populist simp whose utterances make up in semantic paucity what they lack in consistency.

[commodious gone pear-shaped]

FBI discloses what everyone already knew about the IRS tax-exempt scandal. No word yet as to whether anyone intended it to happen, or if the agency merely accidentally "adopted a series of policies assuring that Tea Party and other conservative group tax exempt applications would not be approved before the November 2012 presidential election".

[DWB]

"Last week, Libertarian party candidate told the Washington Examiner's Tim Carney that "religious freedom, as a category, [is] a black hole." Another overlooked gem from that interview, in the same vein:

I mean under the guise of religious freedom, anybody can do anything. Back to Mormonism. Why shouldn't somebody be able to shoot somebody else because their freedom of religion says that God has spoken to them and that they can shoot somebody dead.

This is some A-grade, five-star, top-shelf stupid ? and that's in an election featuring almost unlimited material from Donald J. Trump.

Indeed

[Free Society]

"Back to Mormonism"? Mormons claim they have a religious practice of shooting people dead and should be protected by the 1A?

[commodious gone pear-shaped]

NRO cuck and pseudo-intellectual who merely peacocks for conservatives and in fact cares nothing about America or the rule of law nonetheless somehow avoids entangling himself in low-rent squabbles with media surrogates and makes reasoned case against socialism.

Canada in most meaningful ways enjoys a more free-market economy than does the United States, which is why our friends at the Heritage Foundation rank it several steps higher on their economic-liberty index. Denmark has a very free-market economy, too, though it is ranked one step behind the United States; Iceland is ranked ahead of Japan and enjoys a dramatically more free economy than is the Western European norm, ranked at No. 20 as opposed to No. 75 France and No. 86 Italy.

Thank God the insurgent Trump movement bucked these white-hating progressive-lite quislings in favor of Trump's staunch, unwavering commitment to Trump.

[Hyperion]

Denmark has a very free-market economy, too

Unpossible, Denmark is a great socialist utopia! Stop lying, you rat fucking bagger!

/progs

[paranoid android]

Don't worry, John, I've got this one.

"God that Kevin E Williams is such a douchebag. He probably is just bitter that he couldn't stop Trump and is lashing out. His real objection is that Maduro isn't having the homes of poor white people bulldozed with the occupants still inside like he constantly fantasizes about. Something something I love Trump something something women are whores."

[apr? commodious, le d?luge]

William F. Buckley has not been party to the party of William F. Buckley for decades, long before compassionate conservatism became the supposed sure-fire electoral powerhouse. But for some reason, after spending a generation out in the wilderness, it's only now that the NRO crowd is rioting over its loss of power at the hands of honest-to-God nationalists. And it has nothing to do with their avowed nationalism or bastardization of conservative principles but because they didn't go to the right schools and don't rub shoulders at D.C. cocktail parties.

[apr? commodious, le d?luge]

The Ch?vistas, like Hillary Rodham Clinton and Donald Trump, believe that international trade isn't the open and mutually beneficial exchange of goods and services between people operating in open international markets but a nefarious scheme in which domestic workers are exploited and ripped off by ruthless foreigners who want to . . . sell them useful and desirable goods at low prices. ... So the Ch?vez and Maduro regimes enacted various kinds of controls on foodstuffs and other essential goods that sought to control prices and restrict international trade. Soon, the shelves of the grocery stores were empty, and Venezuelans couldn't even buy a roll of toilet paper.

The food shortage is especially severe right now, so the Maduro government has just passed a decree empowering itself to conscript workers ? public-sector or private ? into the state's collectively run farming, food-processing, and food-distribution businesses. The pattern here will be familiar to those familiar with the history of socialism in Russia and China.

[John]

You don't have to like Trump to understand how stupid those two paragraphs are.

[apr? commodious, le d?luge]

Though you would have to hate the author to take issue with them.

[John]

Donald Trump is not Chavez. That is beyond idiotic.

[apr? commodious, le d?luge]

You're right, that would be a retarded conclusion to take away from the article. The anti-trade position, Trump's only constant policy prescription, is the only link he draws between them.

[OneOut]

While the forced labor decree in venezula is bad it's nowhere as sever as the executive action Obama signed along the same lines.

I dont remember the executive order number but google does if anyone is interested.

I do remember that it basically gave the US President dictatorial powers in time of peace or in time of war.

[John]

He really doesn't make a reasoned case against anything. He says Trump and Chavez are the same thing. That is an epic piece of derp.

Williamson is a performance artist at this point. He used to make me angry but lately I just feel sorry for him. He has no skills or anything to fall back on beyond talking out of his ass. His entire career depends on his ability to say whatever pleases his bosses. Worse, he isn't creative or smart enough to generate interest and page views without resorting to saying increasingly stupid and outrageous things in hopes of trolling people into outrage and attention.

As much as I dislike the guy, I wouldn't wish his life on anyone.

[paranoid android]

He really doesn't make a reasoned case against anything. He says Trump and Chavez are the same thing. That is an epic piece of derp.

I admit defeat, my attempt at parody of your ability to completely miss the point and project all of your own biases into anything and everything could never hold a candle to the real thing.

[John]

So you will continue to write nonsense. Not surprising but good to know I guess.

[apr? commodious, le d?luge]

Did you read the article? Did you even click the link? His central complaint isn't with Trump but with Sanders. He throws #NeverTrump a bone by including the big-spender Democrat alongside the other big-spender Democrat he's up against. But it's Sanders he's after, and by extension, the blinkered vision of democratic socialism evinced by Sanders' historically ignorant, dimwitted enthusiasts. He actually prepares a case against socialism writ large by noting that the "socialist" countries Sandernistas favor are merely welfare countries with liberal trade policies. What a relief to hear some intellectual ammunition expended against the left rather than the derpy pap you get from the Republican frontrunner.

[Ron]

has anybody else notice that other than polling there are no articles about Hillary on CNN or Drudge or anywhere and she only has one on Reason. Attack Trump for a statement taken out of context for five days but silence on Hillary is she in hiding?

[Ken Shultz]

Yeah, a lot of us have noticed that.

They're stone walling.

I don't know if it's intentional or just a function of fundamental bias. But either way, important stories that speak directly to the candidates are being ignored.

I'm not a Trump voter, and I've actually opposed Trump in the past, but I always said that there were reason to vote for him. I think I'm going to add sticking it to the elitists as a major issue.

I still don't plan to vote for Trump, but I want to see the elitists run around in circles screaming with their panties in a wad because he won.

Trump needs to make elitism the issue again.

It's hard, though, because if he said he was anti-elitist this afternoon, the headlines tomorrow might be about how he wants to execute everyone with a college education.

[Ron]

being a Californian I can safely vote for anyone but Hillary and know that my vote wont count so I can vote my conscious and vote for GJ just to get some traction for anyone but team red and blue

[Ken Shultz]

Yeah, that's another excellent reason to vote for Trump.

My fellow Californians, voting for Johnson may not get our middle finger high enough in the air.

And nothing says "fuck you" to the progressive authoritarian socialists in California quite like voting for Trump.

[american socialist]

Good luck adopting a billionaire hotel developer to deliver your anti-elitist message. If we're to pick amongst Clinton and Trump (and I have no problem doing that) which candidate is the elitist? The product of a bored plutocratic family and prep schools or the person who grew up in a solidly middle-class family?

[apr? commodious, le d?luge]

But he's pig-ignorant and talks like a train jumping its tracks, so he *must* be a man of the people.

To answer your question, I would guess the one who spent all of her life in politics, hid her dealings from the public to which she's legally accountable in order to avoid disclosing her ties to foreign governments, and runs a political slush fund that would make corrupt commie fucks like Putin fidget is in fact more elitist than the MAGA chump.

[Agent Cooper]

CNN is completely in the tank. They've been fucking passed by MSNBC in ratings.

[apr? commodious, le d?luge]

Something's fucky with the comments. FIX IT, PEOPLE

[Slammer]

Something's fucky with the comments.

Yeah, AmSoc is here

[american socialist]

Psst, Hillary, all you have to do is not talk. No press conferences, no speeches, no debates, etc. I'd even make it explicit as in "no no... I want you to listen to what my opponent is saying". Do that and the job you've wanted since you were five is yours.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016......html?_r=0

[Vermeer Coodwhipper]

CommenTexit