A.M. Links: Trump Leads Clinton By 2 Points in New Poll, Conservative Activist Phyllis Schlafly Dead at 92, Philippine President Apologies for Insulting Obama

• 

  Todd Kranin

  New poll: Donald Trump 45 percent, Hillary Clinton 43 percent, Gary Johnson 7 percent.

• Gary Johnson, "who will be on the ballot in all 50 states, has the backing of 10 percent of registered voters," according to another new poll.
• Conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly has died at age 92.
• Congress returns to work today.
• "Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte expressed regret Tuesday over his 'son of a bitch' remark while referring to President Barack Obama, in a rare display of contrition by a politician whose wide arc of profanities has unabashedly targeted world figures including the pope and the U.N. chief."
• U.S. intelligence services are reportedly investigating a covert Russian plot to disrupt the U.S. elections in November.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Donald Trump 45 percent, Hillary Clinton 43 percent, Gary Johnson 7 percent.

So close.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Hey, those votes belong to a major party! The voters are stealing the votes from the deserving Democratic or Republican candidate!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Don’t listen to the hype. Would-be Democrat voters won’t be pulling any levers for Johnson come November. He’s every bit the monster that Trump is.

[Libertarian]

Not too long ago, libertarians thought it a noble goal to attain enough votes to swing the election. I’ll still be somewhat satisfied with that. If it’s true that GJ is taking more votes from Hillary than Trump, I look forward to being blamed in November for president-elect Trump.

[Injun, as in from India]

“I’ve got a pen, and I’ve got a phone.”

And thus will begin the pants-sh1tting by the Left, which was cheering the same line by Obama not too long ago.

[BigT]

We’ve got a rope, we’ve got a tree, …

[SIV]

Once that 6% flees GayJay for “liberaltarian-Democrat” Hitlery, Trump is toast.

[Zeb]

You are an odd person.

[SugarFree]

Please don’t feed the troll.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

You are an odd person, too?

[SugarFree]

Vote Trump.

[RBS]

SIV’s progression over the past several months reminds me of when Corning went insane.

[EDG reppin LBC]

Oy!

[End Child Unemployment]

He has become quite different from the SIV of times past.

[SIV]

Other than my frequent and well-founded legitimate criticisms of the LP nominee my posts are pretty much the same.

[This Machine]

I like your blog. Very tasteful.

[Agent Cooper]

Ask if they have a newsletter.

[Agent Cooper]

Ask if they have a newsletter.

[If-by-whiskey]

*checks out SIV’s blog*

Uh, I’ll be back.. In a few minutes.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Hello.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

224) I didn’t know too much about the Clinton Foundation and have recently heard a lot about it, but a lot of what I heard seemed poorly informed. I decided just to check the Wikipedia page on it. Man, this is one sketchy organization. Here a few of the things that caught my eye:

1) Though the foundation was founded in 1997, due to its “unusual structure” for fundraising and governance, charity monitors had not developed a methodology to rate the foundation until December 2015;

2) It was founded to “to meet the challenges of global interdependence”?i.e. whatever’s trendy in leftist circles at any given time?and has programs for malaria and AIDS prevention, giving out “Global Citizen Awards”, disaster relief, fighting climate change, and about half a dozen other things. This is not a well-focused organization;

3) Until 2007 the foundation did not publish a donors list at all and as recently as 2015 newspapers found its donor list was incomplete.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

4) Now, I bet the Clinton Foundation is hardly the first such organization to basically act as an employment agency for its founders’ friends and relatives. Still, it’s surely not a sign the organization is well-run, either, and it’s remarkable how much of the leadership is or has been made up of Lindseys, Magaziners, Shalalas, and many, many other Clinton insiders.

For the sake of fairness, I will point out that watchdogs currently give the foundation an “A” for funding its charitable mission?88% of funding goes to the mission, which apparently is a good ratio. Even so, at least its HIV/AIDS work has been criticized for “focus on treating a large number of patients with less regard for the importance of adherence, follow-up and quality of care.” That is to say, the foundation wants to get the headlines for how many people it’s treating but isn’t interested in the actual hard work of doing things right.

[AdamJ]

Makes it easier when you can charge so many of your expenses to the U.S. Taxpayer.

[Rufus The Monocled]

88% seems a bit high to me. I’m sure it’s much less. No one is that altruistic and definitely not Hillary.

“…giving out “Global Citizen Awards”,

Two Clinton foundation reps smoking and standing on the corner outside the foundation’s building with a massive Hillary gargoyle at the entrance:

Clinton foundation rep 1: We need to give out the award but we have no candidates!
Clinton foundation rep 2 (stops first person they see: YOU! Wanna make a quick 100k?
Person: Huh?
CF2 (kicks person in the ass): Shut up and get in there. You’re now a Planet citizen expert.
CF1: Global.
CF2: WDDIMATP?
Person (happens to be illegal immigrant: But I did don’t do natting!

[Overt]

Yeah, this is a trap I have seen a lot of people fall into on the right. One of the arguments is that the Clinton foundation “only” allocates around 10-15% of its funds for charitable grants, and the rest goes towards operations. They say this on Fox News all the time. It is a bad statistic, since the Clinton Foundation isn’t primarily a grant organization, but a foundation that directly operates several charitable missions. So people on the right often try to ding the Clinton Foundation with the 15% number, which is an easy softball for the CF cronies to smack out of the park pointing out that they do plenty of stuff with direct dollars.

[Overt]

Of course, buried in that 88% number is the fact that “Operations” expenses include paying some crony $150,000 for part time work to administer a bunch of volunteers who collaborate on a google doc “advocacy paper” which just happens to require research travel to conferences in Cancun and Phuket.

Teasing out what is really charity work and what is graft is difficult- if not impossible- since the records likely don’t itemize such expenses.

[Lee Genes]

Bingo

It’s a straight up slush fund that does an extraordinarily good job of burying the perks.

[CatoTheChipper]

It is absolutely true that only 15% goes to grants is not, by itself, a damning number.

Haiti was a focus country for the Foundation’s good works.

Haitians expressing appreciation for the Clinton Foundation

The fact is that the Foundation spends way more conferences and associated travel expenses than on medical supplies, doctors, and relief logistics. It’s a scam.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

The Clinton Foundation is just a stepping on Hillary’s path to sainthood. In fact, I think we should start calling her Mother Hillary.

[pan fried wylie]

Do you, remember when,
We used to sing,
Shalalas-la-la-la, la ti da.

[Mainer2]

You mean it’s pronounced Donna shuh-LAY-luh ? Not Donna Sha La La

[pan fried wylie]

I was doin Brown Eyed Girl there, so, ‘La La’.

[C. Anacreon]

One of the greatest rock songs ever.

[Tonio]

First the comments were numbered. Then each paragraph within the comment has it’s own number. The madness is progressing nicely.

[pan fried wylie]

JATNAS is the sentient incarnation of the Federal Register.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

And I didn’t speak out, because I wasn’t a number.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly has died at age 92.

Wisely bailing before the Trump Era.

[Slammer]

Wasn’t she pro-life?

[straffinrun]

Too soon?

[Slammer]

Maybe I should have waited until the PM lynx

[If-by-whiskey]

Too soon? Yes. Funny? Still, yes.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Trump is making a whole lot of conservatives rethink their positions.

[Injun, as in from India]

+1 “Planned Parenthood does wonderful things.”

[Juice]

Watch the first episode of the new season of Through The Wormhole. They talk about an experimental ad campaign that takes a certain viewpoint to the extreme. It makes people who were at the previous extreme rethink their own views. This may be what’s happening.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

If she was so pro-life, than why did she die?

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Fred Hellerman, Pete Seeger sideman in the Weavers, dies at 89

What the world needs now

what the world needs now

is another folk singer like I need a hole in my head

[straffinrun]

How about some SuperTrump?

When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful,
The Taj Mahal, oh it was beautiful, magical.
And all the turds in the DC, well they’d be begging so disgracefully,
annoyingly, unendingly for cash from me.
But then they turned me away to call me reprehensible,
a racist yo, well fuck that ho, O’donnell.
And they showed me a path where I could be so deplorable,
That even Milo, no homo yo, would suck my balls.

There are times when all the world’s asleep,
The derp it run too deep
For such an orange man.
Won’t you please, please tell me what we’ve learned
I know it sounds absurd
But you’ve made me who I am.

Now watch what you say or they’ll be calling you an animal,
look a taco bowl, Lil’ Marco, and build that wall.
Won’t you sign up your name, we’d like to tell you you’ve
lost your hold, white people, even alibino navajos!

At night, when all the world’s asleep,
The derp it runs so deep
For such an orange man.
Won’t you please, please tell me what we’ve learned
I know it sounds absurd
But you’ve made me who I am. Who I am. Who I aaaaaaam. Who I aaaaaaaaaaaam.

[Slammer]

Awesome.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

+1 siren whistle and sax solo

[Groovus Maximus]

OTLICHNO! Straff, you get to, “Take Melania Home….Take Melania home,” as your prize.

*shuts lights to AM links, locks doors*

[Chipwooder]

Cause what the world needs now
Is a new Frank Sinatra
So I can get you in bed

[Lord Humungus]

BrewDog to make 55 percent alcohol beer, package it in squirrels

BrewDog, which is building a 100,000 square foot brewery and U.S. headquarters in Canal Winchester, plans to use taxidermy squirrels to protect bottles of the first beer that comes off its new line later this year, The End of History, a 55-percent alcohol by volume Belgian ale.

The scarce beer will be a thank you of sorts to people who pony up $20,000 or more for BrewDog’s U.S. Equity for Punks fundraising scheme. The 330 milliliter bottles, about 11 fluid ounces, run more than $750 each, making it one of, if not the most, expensive beers.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

But what about the hops? IBU over 100 or GTFO

[Juvenile Bluster]

I’m waiting for one of these brewers to just put hops in a bottle and sell it that way. Beer snobs will buy it up for sure.

[pan fried wylie]

“It’s like ketchup, you gotta tap the bottom to get it out.”

[Chipwooder]

Yup. I don’t know when people decided that good beer = hopped the fuck up, but it was truly a dark day in brewing.

There are so many excellent styles that get largely neglected by microbrews because they’re all trying to outdo each other by creating the hoppiest IPA on the face of the earth. Hate that swill.

[Juvenile Bluster]

I can’t figure out how people drink that stuff.

[Zeb]

I wonder if the people who really don’t like the strong American hops flavors are some kind of super-tasters. Some things just taste different to different people. Broccoli just tastes unbearably bitter to some people, for example. Or how cilantro tastes like nasty soap to some.

Maybe you people are extra sensitive to the hops bitterness. Because I love the stuff. And I liked it before it was cool.

[CatoTheChipper]

Same here. I preferred hoppy English pale ales back in the ’70s before the vast majority of American beer drinkers even knew that beer came in a variety other than lager. I had to make it myself. It’s just a matter of taste. I suppose that, in the same way that some people prefer sweet wines, some people prefer low IBU beer.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

^^This. I’ve had had a few that were over done, but hops actually have a kind of fruity taste to me.

[Emmerson Biggins]

I used to really like hoppy beers. But at some point I hit my lifetime limit. I get a hoppy beer about once every two months now, just to check. Had one on Friday, still don’t like it.

Broccoli has always been fucking disgusting though.

[Zeb]

It might be that they make so much it because people buy it, because they like it.

It’s not as if there isn’t a great abundance of excellent non-IPAs out there either.

You people just like to complain. You are just reverse hipsters.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

You are just reverse hipsters.

I was not cool before it was cool to not be cool?

[BigT]

It’s not cool all the way down.

[Citizen X]

You go to hell, sir, where your taste buds obviously already reside.

[Crusty Juggler]

Hey hipster, hating something everyone – and I mean everyone – likes does not make you cool. It makes you lame.

[AlmightyJB]

I’m looking forward to their opening.

[Zeb]

It doesn’t seem like it should properly be called “beer”. I’d guess it must be concentrated by fractional freezing. Which I suppose could be like an “ice beer” taken to the extreme.

[pan fried wylie]

Interesting. Unlike, distillation which gives you just the ethanol, fractional freezing gives you everything but the water. Keep it in the freezer and it’s basically concentrated OJ, but beer.

[Brett L]

And also illegal. Any process that concentrates ethanol is moonshine.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Is no one worried about the revenge of the squirrels?

[If-by-whiskey]

PETA not pleased

[Fist of Etiquette]

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte expressed regret Tuesday over his ‘son of a bitch’ remark while referring to President Barack Obama…

Looks like someone got a call.

[Swiss Servator]

“You know what happens to those that….displease the Clintons?”

[AlmightyJB]

He saw how much money we were giving Laos.

[Groovus Maximus]

Imagine if Pres. Toodirty…errr… Duterte had said something *truly* untrue, slanderous, and insulting!

[Injun, as in from India]

regret Tuesday over his ‘son of a bitch’

TYPO: He called Obama a ‘son of a wh0re’.

Big difference.

[CatoTheChipper]

The Philippines have always been in low-level conflict with Indonesia.

Don’t forget that the US President is Indonesian.

[Tom Bombadil]

No. No conflict between PI and Indo.
Some conflict between Indo and Malaysia, though.

[Agent Cooper]

In the language used, the translation is meant more as a “son of a bitch” insult rather than a literal “son of a whore” one.

[Drave Robber]

I don’t like dogs but no one should insult them like that.

[Lord Humungus]

Sex-mad spiders hit UK: Killer horny beasts as big as mice set to storm Britain’s homes

The sex-craved arachnids are finding shelter in houses across the UK this autumn to enjoy their mating season.

Experts say normally-reclusive males will surface from their hiding places ? including attics, cupboards, basements and garden sheds ? to seek females to breed with.

And most of the horny arachnids are the size of mice at a whopping 12cm long.

It comes days after boffins warned cannibal spiders with monster appetite for flesh are also set to invade the UK.

[Swiss Servator]

Hey boffins…if they are cannibal spiders, why would we care. Self limiting problem, eh?

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Britain’s worst nightmare…or greatest fantasy?

[AlmightyJB]

Are their spiders ugly too?

[Groovus Maximus]

No, but their eyes are asymmetrically cockeyed and their mandibles are crooked. They’re going bald, also.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

But they have a great sense of humor.

[Groovus Maximus]

“…humour.”-)

[commodious dares eat a peach]

Pictured.

[invisible furry hand]

Australian migrants

[Slammer]

This Australian video had me dying of laughter

[Citizen X]

That is the Platonic ideal of Australia right there.

[Injun, as in from India]

LOL. You just made by Monday.

[Rhywun]

LOL even the birds are out to get you.

[lap83]

“You’re scared of mice and spiders, but oh-so-much greater is your fear that one day the two species will cross-breed to form an all-powerful race of mice-spiders who will immobilize human beings in giant webs in order to steal cheese.”

[invisible furry hand]

Jar Jar Binks makes the Ewoks look like fuckin’ Shaft.

[Swiss Servator]

*applause*

[Chipper Morning Wood]

I can’t wait to eat those mice-spiders.

[Drave Robber]

Not sure about mice but rats mostly aren’t fond of cheese. Given choice, they’d prefer rice or vegetables.

[commodious dares eat a peach]

Spaced. Nice.

[DJF]

“”””Chancellor Merkel’s party suffers loss in home state over migrant policy”

I guess importing rapefugees is not as popular as some people thought.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/…../89863102/

[AlmightyJB]

Why are Europeans so racist?

[Zeb]

They’ve always been that way.

[CatoTheChipper]

They’re white.

[BigT]

Millennia of experience?

[Rufus The Monocled]

Rapeugees.

I’m never gonna hear that Petty song again in the same way.

[Groovus Maximus]

Strokin’ Hill’s bush with Ruf’s fingahssss…. ONE TIME! Stroking Hill’s bush with some tongs…. TWO TIMES! Killing Ruf’s slowly with girl schlong…..Killing Ruf slowly… with girl schlong….killing Ruf’ slowly…..

[Agent Cooper]

+47% Lauryn Hill

[Tonio]

Rapeugees reads better than rapefugees, but either way that’s brilliant. Hope it catches on as it will surely enrage the right people.

[Crusty Juggler]

“Ready or not, here I come, you can’t hide
Gonna find you and take it slowly
Ready or not, here I come, you can’t hide
Gonna find you and make you want me”

[Fist of Etiquette]

U.S. intelligence services are reportedly investigating a covert Russian plot to disrupt the U.S. elections in November.

Even the Russkies refuse to see the writing on the wall?

[Groovus Maximus]

They HATE translit. If it was in Cyrillic, however…..

[Fist of Etiquette]

H’s for N’s? R’s for G’s? All those other weird squiggles? The only thing I’ll hand it to the commies for is knowing enough to take their cue from America and drive on the correct side of the road like the civilized world.

[Groovus Maximus]

And producing Dr. ZG. And vodka.

[Libertarian]

“Congress returns to work today.”

Is it appropriate to fly the flag at half staff?

[Swiss Servator]

and upside down.

[straffinrun]

In honor of Weiner’s career?

[Trigger Warning]

Work should have been in quotes.

[Rhywun]

Hold on to your wallets and batten the hatches.

[Lord Humungus]

Irate father bulldozes daughter’s car after catching her with a boy in the backseat

After Mike Card discovered his young daughter, Ashlyn, “getting it on” with a neighborhood boy in the back seat of her red Audi A4, he went insane, quickly shifting gears from cool dad into furious father.

Within 2 minutes, the automobile went from treasure to trash, according to KIAH.

But worry not — neither Ashlyn nor the boy in question were still in the automobile at the time of dad’s meltdown.

Ashlyn’s brother, Kaylor Card, posted a video of the backyard demolition on Facebook with the caption “When a dad has to prove a point! #DaddyNotHappy.”

[Juvenile Bluster]

Sounds alright to me.

[AdamJ]

This will turn out great the second she goes to college. Plus now she’ll seek out sex in the back of cars to piss off her dad.

[Tonio]

^This. He’s going to have to pay big bucks for a wedding to someone she hates, then pay even bigger bucks to extract her from that.

[Injun, as in from India]

Feminist interpretation of the headline:

Irate father Angry white male patriarch bulldozes daughter’s car takes away woman’s right to free transportation after catching her with a boy sexual objectifier in the backseat

[Chipper Morning Wood]

You are getting good at this.

[Drave Robber]

So her brother was nearby and armed with a camera… khem-khem.

[Agent Cooper]

This is what you get for naming your daughter Ashlyn and your son Kaylor.

[Doctor Whom]

OT: How capitalism and austerity destroyed this city

The blame fell on city leaders who had continued to fund programs even as revenue shrank or funding sources dried up. The city was using short-term loans to paper over the problem, and city staff members had ? apparently ? not communicated the full situation to the council.

Oh.

[Lee Genes]

Even withdraw support for the summer league baseball team

Oh noes

[Fruit Sushi 2 Go]

“Capitalism” is the new “fascism” – leftists throw it at anything they don’t like. I’m hoping, though, that vocabulary is like antibiotics: excessive use destroys its efficacy.

[Zeb]

They’ve been doing that since before fascism was a thing.

Capitalism isn’t actually mentioned in the article.

[commodious dares eat a peach]

“Capitalism” is the new “fascism”

But unlike fascism, they’re not actually practicing capitalism.

[Lee Genes]

Note that the Republicans haven’t held an office in Petersburg for decades, so it must be their fault.

[Injun, as in from India]

+1 Republican Hate Kills

[commodious dares eat a peach]

Is Hate Kill like Kill Death Murder?

[Azathoth!!]

do you mean murder death kill?

[Citizen X]

Who knew that the high point of Petersburg’s history would be when the Union Army blew it up?

[Swiss Servator]

+1 Giant mine

[Tonio]

Yeah, Petersburg is a dysfunctional kleptocracy. They started talking about an across-the-board ten percent cut to all government agencies and the firefighters started this obscene scare campaign. I feel sorry for the few productive people there who own property and pay taxes. Sucks to be them.

[Chipwooder]

Petersburg has been a total shithole for as long as I can remember.

I also remember well the 1993 tornado mentioned in the article. I remember a picture in the Times Dispatch the next day that looked like a giant lawnmower ran through the Wal-Mart.

[commodious dares eat a peach]

God hates fags Waltons.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

I love how austerity became a bad word.
“You evil money saver! You living-within-your-means monster!”

[commodious dares eat a peach]

When your conception of the tax base is that of a pinata, it’s never spending that’s the problem.

[Tornado16nb]

NEED MOAR STIMULUS

/krugman

[Agent Cooper]

From the article: “unusual for fiscally conservative Virginia”

Uh … what?

[Agent Cooper]

From the article: “unusual for fiscally conservative Virginia”

Uh … what?

[Slammer]

U.S. intelligence services are reportedly investigating a covert Russian plot to disrupt the U.S. elections in November

Nobody in the US or the Soviet Union has tried to influence elections….ever

[Fist of Etiquette]

Gary Johnson, “who will be on the ballot in all 50 states, has the backing of 10 percent of registered voters,” according to another new poll.

Making him just powerful enough to shoulder the blame for Hillary winning.

[Swiss Servator]

…or Trump. He is convenient that way!

[Lord Humungus]

SJW finds #IStandForDiversity offensive cuz using the word “stand” is ableist.

[DJF]

This is why I don’t worry too much about the SJW, they are going to destroy themselves in the pursuit of the perfect victim to worship.

They may annoy the rest of us for a while but they are deep into self destruct mode.

[The Fusionist]

I bet people laughed at the ridiculous infighting between different factions in the exiled Russian Social Democratic Labour Party.

“LOL, it’s so amusing watching these so-called “Bolsheviks” and “Mensheviks” attack each over ridiculous hair-splitting arguments!”

[Tonio]

^This. Thanks, Debbie Downer.

[Fruit Sushi 2 Go]

Rats will eat their own to satiate hunger. I say kick back and enjoy the show.

[Chipwooder]

Brings to mind a line from Darkness at Noon – “Bravo! The wolves devour each other!”

[Injun, as in from India]

Soon they will find the verb “sh1t” offensive because some people use colostomy bags.

[Citizen X]

Is that pronounced “shwunt”?

[Groovus Maximus]

Nope. It’s schwAHnt. A german word meaning, “Sense,” or , “Senses.” As in their offending sensibilities of SJW Stomatic-Americans WRT using colostomy bags for trick-or-treating.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Evil feeds upon itself.

[John DeWitt]

So she wants #ISupportDiversity. Which sounds pretty bigoted towards women who chose to not wear a bra.

[Lord Humungus]

Earth’s titans: Massive fossilised footprints spark claims that giants EXIST

The massive imprints appear to be humanoid, but they are 57 centimetres long and 20 centimetres wide.

Each footprint extends to a depth of three centimetres, suggesting it was a creature with an impressive weight.

The footprints were discovered on August 24 this year in Gizhou, the southwestern province of China.

Now many are suggesting the discovery is proof of the existence of giants on Earth.

Similar discoveries have been made before.

In South Africa, a four foot long fossilised imprint is dubbed The Footprint of God.

[Swiss Servator]

STEVE SMITH MUST HUMBLY POINT OUT THEY HIS FEET, NOT THOSE OF ALMIGHTY.

[Citizen X]

STEVE SMITH TAKE WALKING TOUR OF HIMALAYAN FOOTHILLS, RAPE PANDAS IS WHY PANDAS NOT BREED ANYMORE.

[SugarFree]

truthseeker
theyve been finding giant skeletons for years but its usually covered up.of coarse they existed,and probably still do but remain hidden

It’s the horrible grammar that really convinces me.

[Swiss Servator]

STEVE SMITH FANS NEED WORK ON WRITING – MAYBE HOOKED ON PHONICS?

[SugarFree]

STEVE SMITH RAPE PHONEEETCALLIE UNTIL LEARN PROPER SPEAK!

[Agent Cooper]

RAPED ON PHONICS MUCH BETTER.

[Trigger Warning]

The ease of hiding oneself is directly proportional to one’s size, apparently.

[You Sound Like a Prog (MJG)]

“Oh come on Lisa, everybody knows that leprechauns are extinct!”

[Bee Tagger]

Gary Johnson, “who will be on the ballot in all 50 states, has the backing of 10 percent of registered voters,” according to another new poll.

That poll is not even debatable.

[Swiss Servator]

*narrows gaze*

[Slammer]

Black Lives Matter protesters close London City Airport runway

Black Lives Matter UK said the action was taken in order to “highlight the UK’s environmental impact on the lives of black people locally and globally”.
A statement said: “Whilst at London City Airport a small elite is able to fly, in 2016 alone 3,176 migrants are known to have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean.
“Black people are the first to die, not the first to fly, in this racist climate crisis.
“We note, however, that the UK is willing to charter special flights to remove black people from the country based on their immigration status.”

“The community where this airport is is a predominantly black community.
“In Britain, 28% of black people are more likely to be exposed to air pollution… being in closest proximity to the industries causing climate change.”
He added the disruption to flights was “a very small inconvenience when you think about the consequences for black communities daily” and the protesters would remain on site “as long as feasibly possible”.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

We’re living in a fun time, when we can actually see it happening as racism replaces global warming as the catch-all scapegoat for everything bad that happens in the world.

[The Fusionist]

It’s a “racist climate crisis!”

[Tonio]

That’s because the price for getting the #BLM people, the Sharptons, etc on-board was that environmentalism would take a back seat to racism. But they are putting some nice window-dressing on it to appease the greenies. “Environmental racism.”

[DJF]

So they demand that Britain bring more Blacks to evil racist Britain?

[Tyler.C]

I seem to recall that practice being banned in the 1800’s.

[Juvenile Bluster]

The statement is one thing, but I’m somewhat concerned about how shitty security is there if these people were able to get access to the runway.

[Tonio]

^This. And given the paranoid security state of the UK, I’m sure they are violating any number of anti-terrorism laws. Let’s see if they get prosecuted under those, or under more generic misdemeanor trespassing and disturbing the queen’s peace statutes.

[Zeb]

Black Lives Matter UK said the action was taken in order to “highlight the UK’s environmental impact on the lives of black people locally and globally”.

That made me laugh out loud.

[John DeWitt]

racist

[Rufus The Monocled]

Know what usually enters my mind whenever these dipshits block access?

What about the person who has to get somewhere FAST? A death, a sick family member or friend, a job interview – whatever.

That these people are willing to disrupt other lives (they say it’s the only way but I think it’s counter-productive and pointless) shows the disregard they have for other people’s time and lives.

They’re ANTI-HUMANISTS.

[Tonio]

But Rufus, it’s only the *priveleged* people who get to fly home to see grandma die. Real accredited poor people can’t afford the ticket (despite the fact that airlines regularly fly people for free under these circumstances), and can’t take the time off work (ignoring the fact that even if they don’t have formal vacation time they can often easily get hired back if they were a good and productive worker).

[Slammer]

Michael Malice described the progressives and their behavior like this:

Let’s say you’re a teacher in a room with students. Everyone has to take a quiz, then you’re going to grade the quiz and discuss. And no one can leave until this is all done. Then somone comes and pounds on the door and screams there’s an active shooter on campus and everyone has to run for their lives and safety. And you say, “Hmm. It’s not that big a deal right now, this quiz and exercise is very important, and the shooter is a distraction right now.”

They see racism as an immediate life or death shooter moment, and you not losing your shit you are the teacher in the story and you’re going to geteveryone killed.

[You Sound Like a Prog (MJG)]

Oh man… I instinctively read that statement in the voice of Idris Elba.

[Agent Cooper]

A statement said:

Passive voice gonna passive.

[Lee Genes]

From Fed vice-chair Fischer

FISCHER: Well, clearly there are different responses to negative rates. If you’re a saver, they’re very difficult to deal with and to accept, although typically they go along with quite decent equity prices. But we consider all that and we have to make trade-offs in economics all the time and the idea is the lower the interest rate the better it is for investors.

Chew on that for a second,

[Fist of Etiquette]

Savers aren’t participating in the economy anyway.

[Lee Genes]

When Americans start hoarding cash in their mattresses, the government will seize it because if they’re not spending it, they must not need it.

[straffinrun]

He’ll come like a thief in the night.

[Groovus Maximus]

PHRAZING!!!

[straffinrun]

HE’LL COME LIKE A STEVE SMITH IN THE NIGHT

I don’t like these Unitarian bibles.

[invisible furry hand]

HE’LL COME LIKE A STEVE SMITH IN THE NIGHT HIKER

FIFY

(I cannot believe I just did that)

[straffinrun]

and you can NEVER take it back. Unless you’re me and get disappeared.

[Citizen X]

One of us! One of us! Gabble, gabble, one of us!

[Yusef Adama]

Gabba, Gabba /pedant

[PurityDiluting]

other than providing the capital for it

[John DeWitt]

Makes sense. It’s not the saver’s money. It says “United States of America” on it. Give unto Caesar…

[Chip Woodier]

You gotta pay the troll toll, if you want to get into that boy’s hole.

[Agent Cooper]

Fuck Off, Saver.

[CatoTheChipper]

The zero interest rate is to economics what absolute zero temperature is to physics. Weird stuff happens at absolute temperature approaches zero. High resistance materials become superconductors. Liquids become superfluid. Everything slows down. Below zero temperature, all of the models become meaningless.

Just what is a fiat dollar in a negative interest rate environment?

[Brett L]

A tax on savers. A way for the government to steal from banks legally.

[Lord Humungus]

So Long to the Asian Sweatshop

For 30 years, the word “sweatshop” has conjured up a very specific image: low-wage Asian workers making branded clothes in crowded, unsafe factories for consumers overseas. The power of that image has launched human rights campaigns, altered how major companies source their products and informed (often incorrectly) how politicians in rich countries shape their trade policies.

Now that image is fading into history. In Asia, at least, the factors that made sweatshops an indelible part of industrialization are starting to give way to technology.

A recent report from the International Labor Organization found that more than two-thirds of Southeast Asia’s 9.2 million textile and footwear jobs are threatened by automation — including 88 percent of those in Cambodia, 86 percent in Vietnam and 64 percent in Indonesia. Whether that will be good for workers in general is debatable. But one thing is certain: The heyday of the Asian sweatshop is coming to an end.

But who will think of the orphans?

[Swiss Servator]

My uranium mine overseers?

[Just a thought not a sermon]

So British and New England low-wage textile workers lost their jobs to the American South, who a couple generations later lost their jobs to Mexico and China, and then on to Vietnam and Bangladesh. So why is the jobs migration ending now with automation, rather than moving on to sub-Saharan Africa?

[Swiss Servator]

It had reached Madagascar and the Seychelles.

[Citizen X]

Racism, probably.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

I am a Luddite when it comes to monocle polishing machines.

[Crusty Juggler]

As national parks mark milestone, visitor misbehavior abounds

Washington state resident Lisa Morrow’s son was among the children Gleason led toward the elk. Despite safety advisories – and numerous examples of visitors getting gored by bison, mauled by bears and chased by elk – Morrow declared herself unafraid of the park’s wildlife. She said she was eager to see a grizzly up close.

“I want to see one right there,” Morrow said, pointing to a spot just feet away. “I’d throw it a cookie.”

Wenk said the rise in popularity of social media complicates keeping visitors safe.

“You take a picture of yourself standing 10 feet in front of a bison, and all of a sudden a few hundred people see it, and it’s reposted – at the same time we’re telling everybody wildlife is dangerous,” Wenk said. “They get incongruous messages and then it happens. They get too close, and the bison charges.”

This is why libertarians are right about hating everyone.

[Swiss Servator]

Think of it as evolution in action.

[Citizen X]

I have a hard time working up much sadness when stupid people autodarwinate.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Unfortunately, the result will be some poor bison or bear getting shot, and the meat will be wasted.

[DJF]

This is why National Parks need more wolves, they don’t take kindly to people bothering their meals

[Zeb]

This is why I avoid big parks when there are people around.

[Groovus Maximus]

I figured it was your habit of forgetting your trousers, Zebulon. It’s widely known you are Anti-Gabardine.

[Zeb]

Yeah, yeah. Among the reasons I avoid big parks…

[Libertarian]

“This is why libertarians are right about hating everyone.”

I propose we hold an annual beauty contest. We can call it the Miss Ogynist pageant.

[Lord Humungus]

How A Cakemaker Became An Enemy Of The State

Anger flushes over the would-be customer, who stands up, curses, and flips off Phillips while he heads for the door ? a reaction that is well within the normal bounds of serious disagreements in American life.

The entire episode takes, maybe, 30 seconds.

***

When Phillips declined to participate in celebrating the wedding of David Mullins and Charlie Craig that day, his life was upended in ways that people who argue passionately about the culture war on social media or political blogs might not fully appreciate.

But those 30 seconds were clarifying in many other ways. It showed us that most of the media are incapable (or unwilling) to lay out the debate over religious freedom in an honest or enlightening way. It’s shown us that many of those who praise the diversity of American life have, in reality, lost their compassion and the ability to tolerate anyone who disagrees with their worldview.

Those 30 seconds have shown us that those in power ? including every presidential candidate ? are unwilling to stand in the way of a state that has the power to crush dissent by forcing citizens to choose between their livelihoods and their faith. No one likes to be called mean names.

[SugarFree]

Ah, The Federalist… paleoconservatism masquerading as libertarianism at its finest.

Those 30 seconds have shown us that those in power ? including every presidential candidate ? are unwilling to stand in the way of a state that has the power to crush dissent by forcing citizens to choose between their livelihoods and their faith. No one likes to be called mean names.

“That’s some fine gibberish, Lou.”

The article actually makes som valid points eventually, but the anecdote in the lede has nothing to do with the state, the media or the #gayagenda.

[John]

I don’t get the opening anecdote either. Which points do you think are valid?

[The Fusionist]

He’s reporting a story. This is how the litigation against the bakery began…ending in governmental sanctions.

He’s simply using Aristotelian techniques: A story with a beginning, a middle, and an end.

[SugarFree]

That the Colorado Civil Rights Commission should have stayed out of it, and that public accommodation laws are an abomination.

But refusing service and being called mean names are both something that the government should butt out off.

[The Fusionist]

He started the story at the beginning and proceeded in linear fashion from there. The Civil Rights Commission made its entrance at the appropriate time.

[The Fusionist]

“paleoconservatism masquerading as libertarianism”

It’s David Harsanyi

From the article:

“(Disclosure: as a columnist at The Denver Post during these battles, I regularly argued in support of gay marriage.)”

And this is from a column he wrote last year, entitled “Was I Wrong To Support Gay Marriage?”

“I’ve supported same-sex marriage ever since I first heard the idea. And when I became a political columnist in the early 2000s?despite being the “conservative” at a good-sized newspaper?I was the only one at the paper (as far as I can recall) who unequivocally backed gay marriage publicly. Though I wasn’t gullible enough to believe I’d be persuading many readers, I was gullible enough to believe that my allies in the cause were merely concerned with “equality.”…

“How many backers of theoretical gay marriage will regret the reality of gay marriage? As a matter of policy, it doesn’t matter much anymore. And I have no moral qualms about same-sex marriage itself. I don’t believe it destabilizes the institution or ruins the lives of children. Then again, it doesn’t exist in a vacuum, either. If same-sex marriage isn’t just a pathway to happiness, freedom, and equality for gay citizens, but a way to pummel religious Americans into submission, it will be a disaster.”

[The Fusionist]

It seems Harsanyi is deluded enough to worry about the actual consequences of the policies he supported, rather than taking the Reason approach of taking credit for good intentions.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Sounds like a story where everyone is being a dick.

[The Fusionist]

On the one hand the Germans are making territorial demands, on the other hand the Czechs are oppressing the Sudetan Germans, so basically it’s a wash.

[The Fusionist]

Basically, there are no good guys here, just a quarrel in a faraway country about which we know nothing.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Harambe memes are racist

Over the Labor Day weekend, Resident Assistants at the University of Massachusetts purportedly released an announcement stating that “crude” references to the deceased gorilla Harambe will be considered racist attacks against African Americans.

In the statement, which was leaked to Twitter Monday, Resident Assistants calling themselves Ryan and Colleen inform students that “any negative remarks regarding ‘Harambe’ will be seen as a direct attack to our campus’s African-American community,” and warn them to “be careful of what gets written on your whiteboards, as well as what you write on them.”

[AlmightyJB]

Sounds like trolling to me.

[AlmightyJB]

Sounds like trolling to me.

[Agent Cooper]

Looks like squirrels to me.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Given the presence of this on-campus ethnic community, the UMass RA’s argue that any joking or negative reference to Harambe the gorilla could be seen as an attack by members of the Harambee community, and request that residents report whomever is writing Harambe messages to student administrators.

They sure do like getting people to report on each other. Can you send someone for re-education when the education hasn’t been completed yet?

When the suggested crime is based on the feelings of an invented victim, it’s a free for all.

[Citizen X]

Seems to me that thinking Harambe memes are racist is way, way more racist than any actual Harambe meme.

[Zeb]

Yup.

[Libertarian]

bingo

[straffinrun]

There was a racist had a dog and…

[Fist of Etiquette]

From the article, there appears to be a kind of reasoning to their assertion. Apparently there is a Harambee club on campus that is in some way race based. Harambee is a Swahili word for something. The RA’s claim to believe that people will conflate the club with the ape in question (RIP) and unsafeness will ensue.

[The Fusionist]

And how many students who *aren’t* in the club are aware that the club exists?

[Princess Trigger]

All references to gorillas make them think of Black people.
They’re the same people who watched LOTR, saw orcs and thought Black people?
Totally WOKE!

[The Fusionist]

“*I’m* not perverted, *you’re* the one with all the dirty pictures!”

[lap83]

“any negative remarks regarding ‘Harambe’ will be seen as a direct attack to our campus’s African-American community,”

stormfront or sjw?

[Zeb]

Has to be a joke.

[Agent Cooper]

So the R.A.s at UMass are racist?

[invisible furry hand]

STEVE SMITH’S non-rapey cousin:

‘Seven-foot Yowie’ seen near Toowoomba

[Swiss Servator]

NON-RAPEY = BLACK SHEEP OF FAMILY.

[Libertarian]

Racist.

[Groovus Maximus]

Non-rapey v. Cannibalistic and poisonous, like those mountainous spiders exported to the UK. Hobson’s choice, no?

[SugarFree]

‘Seven-foot Yowie’ seen near Toowoomba

Can you translate that into American?

[Citizen X]

I don’t think it’s translatable. Any apparent similarities between Strine and other human languages are purely coincidental.

[Crusty Juggler]

I assume the story is about that guy with the freakish wang people were talking about.

[Chip Woodier]

A seven footer would make anyone go Yowie. That would likely kill an elephant.

[invisible furry hand]

A yowie is Australia’s version of a sasquatch

Toowoomba is a dull parochial city in Queensland, a dull parochial state in Australia, a dull parochial country somewhere near Germany

[Raven Nation]

Queensland, a dull parochial state in Australia

Which, nonetheless, consistently kicks the butt of the much more exciting, cosmopolitan state to the south in Australia’s ongoing sporting uncivil war.

[invisible furry hand]

Touched a nerve there I think 🙂

[Raven Nation]

Hah! Well, you could compare Queensland to the American South both in their actual culture and in the way/s outsiders perceive the culture.

[invisible furry hand]

Which part are you from? I have a very good friend from Toowoomba who regales me with tales of the various flower festivals and whatnot. As a native Canberran I can’t help but think of Goulburn

[Raven Nation]

I think of Brisbane as my hometown. We moved around a lot but my first three years of high school were in Brisbane – southern suburbs (as they were then, not now). Then we were in Darwin for two years then back to Brisbane for university. From when I started at UQ until I came to the states was 10 years, so hometown. Longest time I’ve lived in one place until last month when I passed ten years where I am now.

[Rhywun]

Obama speaks Australian, I heard.

[If-by-whiskey]

Jack Links presents, “Messin’ with yowie”..

[Lord Humungus]

Dairy farmers offset beleaguered workforce with robots

The robots are coming to Vermont dairies, replacing what farmers call a problematic and unreliable workforce that includes undocumented immigrants and reluctant locals who are sometimes struggling with drug addiction.

At Nordic Farms in Charlotte, the first dairy in New England to install robots in 2004 to milk its cows, owner Clark Hinsdale put the issue in stark terms.

“Can you get and keep employees, or do you have to get illegal Mexicans?” Hinsdale asks. “The answer is pretty damn obvious. Almost everybody has illegal Mexicans. We have (robots).”

Hinsdale and industry observers say there are an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 migrant workers on Vermont dairy farms.

[John]

If we would get rid of welfare, I bet those locals would suddenly find a way to deal with their drug addiction. If you are a degenerate addict, living on welfare and getting high every day is a much better option than getting up at 3:30 a.m. every day and milking cows.

If we would get rid of welfare, our drug problem would largely solve itself, no drug war needed. Struggling with drug addiction my ass. Struggling with the fact they are a lazy degenerates enabled by my tax money.

[tarran]

If I were a malevolent and insidiously subtle bastard with lots of money who was bent on destroying a nation, spending that money towards dramatically expanding its welfare system would be Plan A

[Groovus Maximus]

I bet those locals would suddenly find a way to deal with their drug addiction.

Like resort to theft, robbery, and other violent crime? Pshaww.. never happen.

[John]

If they do that, we can throw them in prison and they can learn to deal with it there. I really don’t care if they use drugs. I just care if they use them on my dime.

[Groovus Maximus]

You are aware of the vast swath of various and sundry pharma meandering through correctional facilities, no? Methinks you didn’t think that one through, John…

[The Fusionist]

I can’t speak for John, but I suspect that the cost of supporting drug-addled burglars and robbers is part of the cost he was willing to bear to protect the public.

[Groovus Maximus]

I really don’t care if they use drugs. I just care if they use them on my dime.

Corrections are one of the things for which John pays taxes. Perhaps John can clarify?

[The Fusionist]

Of course he can, I can only speak to how *I* interpreted his remarks.

[Zeb]

Vermonters are well armed.

[Injun, as in from India]

That’s mafia-esque behavior.

Pay us money or we will do something bad to you.

[Zeb]

More just junky behavior.

[Injun, as in from India]

If we would get rid of welfare…

…the American family may still be intact.

[Zeb]

Or legalize drugs so they don’t have to spend most of their time and resources finding a fix.

Of course, that and cutting off their welfare would be even better.

[Groovus Maximus]

Right, Zebulon. The *ONLY* reason for theft, burglaries, robberies, and armed hold-ups is because of “illicit” pharma. Why, if only legalising occurs, not a speck of crime will ever happen again! If they have an addiction and no money, crime becomes quite appealing, regardless of whether or not “illlcit” drugs are legal or not.

That’s like saying because cars are legal to buy and own, there isn’t *ANY* car theft, ever. Because legality has disincentivised car theft. That’s certainly not so.

[Zeb]

I don’t believe I said it would get rid of all crime. I’m a little bit insulted that you would suggest I would suggest such a thing. Of course there will always be property crime.

But without black market prices, there would be less crime committed by junkies looking to support their habit. You don’t see a lot of alcoholics breaking into houses so they can afford to buy vodka.

[Groovus Maximus]

I know better, Zebulon, but it is important to note that, while full legalisation is a noble goal and has had demonstrable benefit in Portugal, it’s not a panacea. That’s all.

[Zeb]

Don’t worry, I’m under no illusion that all of my preferred policies would fix all the problems in the world and make everyone happy. People are just too messy and complicated (and often just shitty) for that.

[Juice]

If we would get rid of welfare, I bet those locals would suddenly find a way to deal with their drug addiction.

That’s…not how drug addiction works.

[Illocust]

Hope it works out for them. Robots are much less likely to call for the rest of us to lose rights.

[Injun, as in from India]

Just wait until there are calls for an automation tax or robot tax.

[PurityDiluting]

Each robot should pay its Obamacare premium

[Injun, as in from India]

So I got curious and did a quick search, and voila!

As more Robots replace Humans in the workplace, it is time for a robot tax?

Derka derka. Haka sherpa sherpa.

What can be done to discourage companies from using more and more robots to replace human labour? how about tax on companies using robots? what? yes you read that correctly, and this coming from someone who doesn’t believe in too much taxation and government intervention in the free flowing of a capitalistic enterprise system. Let me explain how I could justify something as outrageous as a ‘tax on robots’ (robot head tax)

[Juice]

Wait, so taxing the “hiring” of robots would discourage employers from “hiring” them? What kind of economic logic is this?

[Lee Genes]

DU is certifiable

[AlmightyJB]

Was that taken before or after Obama bowed?

[Zeb]

He looks like he’s really tired, or trying not to puke.

[You Sound Like a Prog (MJG)]

I found it interesting that the NYTimes (or some similar Obama-happy outlet), in a story on Obama and Putin the other day, used a pic of Putin looking tough and a pic of a tired, old Obama.

[Crusty Juggler]

I have a zit on my bicep.

[Citizen X]

These masturbation euphemisms are getting pretty abstract.

[straffinrun]

That is your bicep.

[EDG reppin LBC]

I got shit on my dick.
http://youtu.be/vtTp1caHUNs

[Rhywun]

Not clicking that.

[AlexInCT]

You should.. pretty catching tune… or something.

[You Sound Like a Prog (MJG)]

Pics or GTFO.

[invisible furry hand]

Six year old girl takes on robber with an axe

[tarran]

Dang! I thought the girl had the ax! That would be cool! This was more a bumbling mess.

[DJF]

I blame watching too many episodes of Vikings

[invisible furry hand]

No such thing as too many episodes of Vikings

[John]

That is the feel good story of the summer. That is almost as awesome as the family where every member was armed and shot the bugler.

[Lee Genes]

Everyone wants to shoot the bugler.

[Crusty Juggler]

I wanted to shoot the bugler after the first time I saw Buck Privates.

[Swiss Servator]

-1 Beau Geste?

[Crusty Juggler]

Ted S. would have understood the reference!

[Slammer]

Some countries are arresting people for resisting robberies

[Zeb]

This may be apocryphal, but I heard that in some places in the UK, people are being discouraged from putting bars on their windows because burglars might hurt themselves breaking in. And don’t even think about actively defending yourself.

[You Sound Like a Prog (MJG)]

It really feels like, eventually, there will be an organized and regulated Thieves Guild a la Terry Pratchett. These burglars are just trying to make a living!

[EDG reppin LBC]

Shhot the bugler.
http://youtu.be/GGkg5ytaXlA

[Agent Cooper]

Looks staged.

[Lord Humungus]

Friday night my wife and I headed out to go to the adult pool party. It was too cold to swim so we just sat around with the neighbors and drank wine and beer.

On of the neighbors is a woman who is originally from Sweden. She is voting for the first time and had some general questions on certain candidates. After a round of Trump jokes, one of the other neighbors started discussing “Sarah Palin Libertarians.” I had been remaining quiet – up to this point.

Needless to say describing libertarian ideas, and not pissing off your more liberal neighbors, was a dicey proposition. And they obviously didn’t understand being socially liberal and for small government. But at least they understood the idea of “being left alone”.

I thought I had tread on a few toes but was pleasantly surprised when my wife and I were invited to a neighborhood barbecue on Monday. No politics were discussed.

[Crusty Juggler]

Friday night my wife and I headed out to go to the adult pool party. we just sat around with the neighbors and drank wine and beer. On of the neighbors is a woman who is originally from Sweden.

I’ll let my imagination take it from here.

[Lord Humungus]

She’s pretty cute mom – and talks to her kids in Svedish, yah!

[Groovus Maximus]

But…but….she’s wearing… lederhosen….

[Rhywun]

Now she’s Bavarian?!

[You Sound Like a Prog (MJG)]

Beef jerky time.

[AlexInCT]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW0Md9TJqEE

[Crusty Juggler]

She’s pretty cute mom – and talks to her kids in Svedish, yah!

I will not allow you to ruin this for me.

[Citizen X]

Oh, like having kids is where you draw the line.

[Swiss Servator]

Wait….Crusty has a line?!

[Crusty Juggler]

Once you pop out a kid you head to the back of the line. Women peak when they are 8 months pregnant. And yes, noted pregnant “lady” commenter, I expect pics.

[lap83]

http://www.davidshrigley.com/p…..mpkin.html

[Crusty Juggler]

Short, blonde with a tanned torso? Hell yeah.

[invisible furry hand]

Changing one brain at a time. What’s it like being a libertarian with social skills?

[straffinrun]

I have no idea.

[Lord Humungus]

say what now?

[Citizen X]

Much like a libertarian female, such a creature does not exist.

[Injun, as in from India]

Add that to the list of things like the yeti, Bigfoot, Loch Ness monster, etc.

[Injun, as in from India]

I am surrounded by former Bernie supporters and who are now mostly Hillary supporters. Drive through my neighborhood and you will still find lots of Bernie yard signs.

I carefully avoid politics, but expect major neighborhood gossip if I speak up and say I’m voting for Johnson and am libertarian at heart.

Most people expect me to stay in the Democrat reservation, me being Indian and all. I want to keep up that subterfuge for as long as possible.

[robc]

BG yard sign update:

Johnson 2
Trump 2
Clinton 1

One of the Trump signs was in Allen Co, so probably shouldnt count.

[Injun, as in from India]

What is BG?

My neighborhood yard sign tally:

Johnson 0
Trump 0
Clinton 0
Bernie 3 (still up after Bernie dropped out)

Bumper sticker tally:

Johnson 0
Trump 0
Clinton 3
Bernie 10

[Agent Cooper]

Trump 26
Hillary 5
Johnson 1

Mostly Ohio and Western Pennsylvania.

[TheDefendor]

Theres a Johnson sign on covington. Saw another but cant remember where

[R C Dean]

I’ve seen a smattering of Trump stickers, one or two anti-Hillary stickers and precisely 1 pro-Hillary sticker.

[Lee Genes]

Americans of a certain age who follow politics and policy closely still have vivid memories of the 2000 election ? bad memories, and not just because the man who lost the popular vote somehow ended up in office. For the campaign leading up to that end game was nightmarish too.

You see, one candidate, George W. Bush, was dishonest in a way that was unprecedented in U.S. politics. Most notably, he proposed big tax cuts for the rich while insisting, in raw denial of arithmetic, that they were targeted for the middle class. These campaign lies presaged what would happen during his administration ? an administration that, let us not forget, took America to war on false pretenses.

[Lee Genes]

Yet throughout the campaign most media coverage gave the impression that Mr. Bush was a bluff, straightforward guy, while portraying Al Gore ? whose policy proposals added up, and whose critiques of the Bush plan were completely accurate ? as slippery and dishonest. Mr. Gore’s mendacity was supposedly demonstrated by trivial anecdotes, none significant, some of them simply false. No, he never claimed to have invented the internet. But the image stuck.

And right now I and many others have the sick, sinking feeling that it’s happening again.

[Lord Humungus]

Poor Hillary. All those lies about her server!

[Injun, as in from India]

The leftists in my social circles tell me that it’s about “truthiness” or degrees of lying, and on that front, Hillary says fewer lies than Trump.

And no, we’re not allowed to use any candidate other than Trump as a yardstick to measure Hillary.

[kbolino]

Hillary says fewer lies than Trump

… in what universe?

[Injun, as in from India]

This has been making the circles in my Derpbook feed:

Trump lies %
Hillary’s lies %

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Gee, how could a false anecdote portraying Gore as a smarmy know-it-all who took credit for things he didn’t really do ever have stuck? Must have been bad luck.

[PurityDiluting]

Al invents the internet at the 0:53 mark of this CNN interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnFJ8cHAlco

[straffinrun]

But that’s not what he really meant! You’re using his words against him.

[Injun, as in from India]

Someone here posted this a while back and I bookmarked it.

Did Al Gore say it? Or was it the Unabomber?

[Chipwooder]

Jesus Christ man, how about a warning that you’re linking Krugabe?

[Lee Genes]

Trigger warnings are for pussies

[Juvenile Bluster]

I’d normally agree, but linking to Krugman is a special case.

[Libertarian]

No, no, no. It’s Tigger warnings that are for pussies.

[Injun, as in from India]

The word pussy is apparently sexist, which means we should use it a lot.

Sexist Words To Retire in 2010

Full Disclosure: Someone told me that the word “hysterical” is sexist, so I started using it every chance I got.

Because f*** the language police.

[Groovus Maximus]

“hysterical”

Used to be a legitimate medical term in psychiatry, coined by a one Sigmund Fraud (who, in reality was quite feminist progressive type, and strongly advocated for womyn’s sexual autonomy). It’s derived from the root, “hyster-o-“, meaning, “uterus.”

You’d think, given it’s hystery…erm…history, the womyns would be fully taking that one back.

[invisible furry hand]

Actually, dear Doc, Freud appropriated it for psychiatry – it originally referred to sickness caused by what was believed to be a wandering womb

[Groovus Maximus]

True, I’d forgotten that, dear ifh. “Hystera” being the term associated with the uterus, and was DX’d as “Heracles’ disease” – I had that one stuck in my brain from when I was wee lad who enjoyed reading Greek mythos and corrected people who said the name, “Hercules.”

You win a kewpie doll!

[invisible furry hand]

*skips away, whistling a cheery tune and waving her trophy*

[Injun, as in from India]

Funny thing is I almost never used the word hysterical. And started using it a lot more after I was told that it was sexist.

I can’t stand busybodies in general, but the ones policing language are the WORST.

[Tonio]

+1 handhabungtherapeutik

[SugarFree]

It’s short for “pusillanimous,” which has nothing to do with women or their delightful anatomy whatsoever. You might as well ban the term “scaredy cat.”

[Groovus Maximus]

You might as well ban the term “scaredy cat.”

Get that puss off your face.-)

[commodious dares eat a peach]

It’s short for “pusillanimous,”

Different etymologies, iirc.

[commodious dares eat a peach]

Would link but it’s just my luck that perusing an academic blog detailing the etymology of an esoteric term like pusillanimous would get me shitcanned.

[Tornado16nb]

If those tax cuts weren’t for the middle class Krugabe, then why does Obama take credit for maintaining 98% of those cuts and making permanent?

The funny thing is Romney’s 47% not paying taxes came about thanks to the Bush tax cuts.

[Tornado16nb]

Wasn’t Krugman said going to war was a good thing to get the economy going? Something about preparing for war with aliens for 18 months.

[tarran]

When a republican initiates a war, the war is bad. When a democrat initiates a war, the war is good.

Had Gore been president and Hillary and Bill been egging him to attack Iraq (remember, they were among Bush’s biggest cheerleaders in the run up to the Iraq war), Krugman would be hammering out essay after essay on a drool-slicked keyboard explaining why it was not only economically beneficial, but vital for propserity(!) that people take useful resources and convert them into bombs that then get dropped in the desert.

[Tornado16nb]

Exactly. Has krugman become basically just an act sort of like Mark May? I think he saw the dollar signs and stopped trying to be an economist because a political hack was more fruitful

[Injun, as in from India]

I think he’s just a smug academic and leftist, who’s ego got disproportionately inflated with the Nobel Econ prize. Dollars may not necessarily be a motivation. Self-delusion is more likely explanation.

[CatoTheChipper]

It’s also a whole lot easier to crank out the drivel he writes on his blog and in the NYT than it is to do real economic analysis. Real economic analysis is more like real work.

[invisible furry hand]

A strangely interesting on trigger warnings in Slate

As for trigger warnings, “they send the message that language itself is going to damage you, and that’s simply not true,” Saxbe says. “Narrative doesn’t have the power to control us. Even coping with anxiety, we can choose how to structure our lives.” When I point out that flashbacks are scary and uncomfortable, Saxbe counters with the gentlest and most empathetic “so what?” I’d ever heard. PTSD symptoms “won’t hurt you,” Saxbe says. “They won’t shatter the integrity of your body or your mind.”

[KevinP]

I used to enjoy Slate, but it has largely degenerated into Salon.

[This Machine]

In America, You’re Your Own Greatest Oppressor

All the micro-aggressions in the world can’t stop a person who’s committed to his education and his family. Even a discriminatory employer can’t impoverish a man with a college education who’s willing to look elsewhere. All the stress in the world doesn’t make a person snort a line of cocaine, smoke meth, drink themself into oblivion, or cheat on their wife.

At the behest of its citizens, the American political class has taken upon itself a truly impossible task: preserving broad access to the American dream regardless of personal choices and cultural trends. The mandarins of pop culture denigrate fidelity and faith and then demand that politics clean up the resulting mess. When politics fails, as it inevitably does, cultural radicals actually double down rather than rethinking their libertine commitments. Black Lives Matter, for example, formally supports further disrupting the nuclear family.

[This Machine]

The article reminds me of something lap83 said last night: that there’s a difference in perspective between people who think that if one exceptional person can do something, anyone can do it, and those who think that if one mediocre person can’t do something, then it’s oppression or cheating or a rigged system or what have you.

[lap83]

Yeah, and the worst part is when the mediocre person is given an unfair boost…progs expect us to celebrate it. But if you would prefer to be inspired by someone who has actually accomplished something, you’re considered a fascist.

For whatever reason, progs don’t want to hear about someone beating the odds much less promote that behaviour. It’s like they have no soul and hate humans.

[Juvenile Bluster]

A decade after beating a man for nothing, two Chicago cops may finally be fired

Sunrise was just two hours away, but when his pregnant fiancee was hit with hunger pangs, Obed “OJ” DeLeon dutifully drove to a nearby Northwest Side taco spot to pick up some food.

Three off-duty Chicago police officers who allegedly had just been drinking at a nearby bar were also inside the Taco Burrito King, eating at a table as DeLeon walked inside complaining about a car blocking the parking lot. Brian Murphy, one of the cops, jumped up from his seat with his service weapon drawn, pointed the semi-automatic pistol at DeLeon’s head and shoved him against a wall, surveillance video shows.

The two other officers, Jason Orsa and Daniel McNamara, joined in, too, along with a Marine friend who had just returned from Iraq. DeLeon was punched, knocked down twice, kicked, hit and held facedown on the tile floor of the crowded restaurant. His shirt was ripped off, revealing gang tattoos on his shoulder and chest.

Two bystander witnesses were arrested for nothing and released without charge shortly thereafter. When the first judge overturned the firings, she said the witnesses weren’t reliable because they were arrested in the incident.

[The Fusionist]

Due process ftw, the system works, haters!

Smooches!

[Sevo]

On the jobs front, get out there and break some damn windows!

“Major job losses feared when self-driving cars take to the road”
[…]
“Millions of Americans make a living by driving trucks, delivery vans, taxis and ride-hailing cars. When technology takes the wheel, what will happen to their livelihoods?”
http://www.sfchronicle.com/bus…..pid=gatehp

[Chip Woodier]

They will just move to some other job that’s threatened with automation. Problem solved!

[Ken Shultz]

“Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte expressed regret Tuesday over his ‘son of a bitch’ remark while referring to President Barack Obama”

From the link, that doesn’t seem to be what he said.

“In a statement read out by his spokesman, Duterte said that while his “strong comments” in response to questions by a reporter “elicited concern and distress, we also regret it came across as a personal attack on the U.S. president.”

He regrets that calling Obama “the son of a whore” came across as a personal attack.

He’s saying that his comments are a legitimate expression of concern and distress. To me, it looks like the lead is buried in the middle of that article, as well–and that is the fact that Obama, who is supposed to be some kind of statesman, cancelled a meeting with a foreign leader because someone called him a bad name and it hurt his feelings.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Obama had to go to a safe space like some kind of millennial with his feelings hurt–because someone called him a bad name?!

How pathetic is Obama in all this?

[Entropy Drehmaschine Void]

ITT down the tubes?

ITT Technical Institute is officially closing all of its campuses following federal sanctions imposed against the company.

[Ken Shultz]

Also from the Duerte link above, here was Duerte’s actual statement:

“In his typical foul-mouthed style, Duterte responded: “I am a president of a sovereign state and we have long ceased to be a colony. I do not have any master except the Filipino people, nobody but nobody. You must be respectful. Do not just throw questions. Putang ina, I will swear at you in that forum,” he said, using the Tagalog phrase for “son of a bitch.”

“Who is he (Obama) to confront me?” Duterte said, adding that the Philippines had not received an apology from the United States for misdeeds committed during its colonization of the country.

In other words, the leader of a country that was colonized by the United States was invoking historical misdeeds during the American imperial period–to point out that the Philippines is no longer subject to the whims of an American president.

[Tonio]

So…they want some sort of reparations? The irony is delicious.

[Ken Shultz]

No, they don’t want reparations.

They don’t want the U.S. President coming over there and dictating policy to them like they’re children.

Unfortunately, Obama is incapable of not doing that–not after the elected President of the Philippines talked back to him that way . . .

Don’t these Filipinos know who the fuck I am?!

That was precisely the attitude the Filipino President was criticizing, and, in response, Obama acted like an offended colonial administrator–someone who’s completely ignorant of and insensitive to the historical baggage of American imperialism.

Imagine a Black Lives Matter protestor confronting the chief of police for systemic and historical racism by the police department, and the police chief responding by taking out his billy club and beating the shit out of the protestor for it. That’s effectively what Obama did to the President of the Philippines: Duerte is claiming that the problems he’s addressing in the Philippines are not unrelated to the legacy of American imperialism in his country, and in response, Obama treats him dismissively–like a U.S. President would treat a puppet Philippine administrator during the colonial period.

[Injun, as in from India]

They don’t want the U.S. President coming over there and dictating policy to them like they’re children.

It’s not like he does that only when he’s overseas. He does it here all the time and treats US citizens as children who can’t appreciate his Ivy League pedigree.

“Let me be clear.”

— “We need common sense gun safety reform.”
— “We need health insurance from government.”
— “We need executive amnesty because the Congress won’t go along.”

[Ken Shultz]

Specifically, in this case, Obama is over there looking to criticize the way Duarte is fighting his drug war and fighting separatists.

“Who is he (Obama) to confront me?” Duterte said, adding that the Philippines had not received an apology from the United States for misdeeds committed during its colonization of the country.

He pointed to the killing of Muslim Moros more than a century ago during a U.S. pacification campaign in the southern Philippines, blaming the wounds of the past as “the reason why (the south) continues to boil” with separatist insurgencies.

It’s one thing when the President of the U.S. dictates policy to Americans like an Ivy Leaguer.

Quite another when the President of the U.S. dictates policy to an ex-American colony.

[Ken Shultz]

Obama is being culturally insensitive to the historic discrimination by the American government against the Filipino people.

That he is doing this seems to be skipping over the heads of all the journalists covering him–probably because Obama himself is so quick to accuse others of being culturally insensitive to historic discrimination by the U.S. government. Obama is doing exactly what he accuses everyone who disagrees with him of doing–Duerte was effectively calling him out for racism–and Obama has effectively responded by acting like a racist.

And that is “racism” in the academic, progressive sense–you know how the progressive definition of racism has it that it can only come from being insensitive to the institutional advantages bestowed to one race of people rather than another? That’s what Obama is doing.

[Tonio]

Now, Ken, we are informed on a regular basis by progs that black people are inherently incapable of being racist; only whites can be racist.

[Ken Shultz]

This is the case Obama would make about the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow, isn’t it? That white people have no right to criticize those who were systematically subjected to racism and bigotry, and that having been subjected to these things by the government of the United States is ultimately the source of the problems within the African-American community. Obama might offer that white America has no right to criticize the African-American community today for problems that were ultimately caused by racist attitudes that many whites still hold today.

Duerte simply made that same argument in the context of the Filipino experience. “Yes, Mr. Obama”, he’s saying. “We have problems that are the legacy of American Presidents coming over here and thinking they can dictate solutions to the Philippines–as if we were children. Well listen here, you son-of-a-bitch, we’re not taking orders from the United States anymore”.

Calling Obama “son-of-a-bitch” or “son of a whore” may actually be integral to that argument. Regardless, why is Obama disregarding the historical legacy of racist American imperialism? By refusing to meet with the President of the Philippines because the Filipino President insulted him, Obama is effectively endorsing the subjugation of the Filipino people to American imperialism.

Obama is the one who should apologize.

[commodious dares eat a peach]

Hits close to home: The disgrace of Indian country.

Let me tell you about “lock-in” ? a practice at Pine Ridge, the Indian reservation in South Dakota. One weekend a month, a particular school has lock-in. Literally, they lock the children into the school, where they play games and so on.

Lock-in is timed for the arrival of government checks. Why? Because when adults receive the checks, they have money to booze up, and when they do, they are likelier than ever to abuse the children.

Hence, lock-in, for the kids’ protection. And, frankly, they could use this every other day of the month, too.

Every morning when I leave for work, I pass a couple groups of natives ambling down the street in front of my house, presumably traveling from one major bus line to another. By mid-afternoon the park down the street will have a few to half a dozen stragglers napping under the trees. They’re easy to spot: besides the dark complexion and hair, their clothes are uniformly gray and brown, multilayered, and somewhat tatty. They’re not aggressive, they don’t thieve, but many stumble drunkenly and they’re slow to get out of the street, seeming to eschew sidewalks. Well, live and let live. But they do serve as a potent reminder that I live a very good life thanks to a cultural impetus to succeed and institutions that aren’t broadly arrayed against success.

[commodious dares eat a peach]

I grew up and have worked with many natives. Like any other racial designation, it’s largely an arbitrary construct. However, those living on reservations full and part-time do present an interesting case study in learned helplessness and hopelessness. Take for example the native family, recently emigrated from the Isleta res, who rented one of dad’s houses for a time. They trashed the place in short order: the place was so squalid that I wanted to shoot myself while helping clean it, and that was after a couple hours. They lived in the shit for over a year. (Mostly; at one point, having had their electricity shut off, they migrated a few blocks over to live with a sister for a few months). They got by on foodstamps and welfare checks and a stipend from the casino. Most of it went to meth, and some to food?I cleaned up enough alternately desiccating or molding foodstuffs crammed under and behind furniture to assume they were eating something. But they weren’t paying rent toward the end, hence getting evicted. And they were bringing up three or four children in this trashed two-bedroom apartment.

I don’t know what would have been the best option during colonial expansion, but reservations can’t have been it. These are the wages of non-integration. It’s pathetic, really.

[Injun, as in from India]

Free stuff destroys the very soul of a human being.

When stuff is handed to you, you lose your goals, motivation, because you have nothing to work for. So you get destructive.

You often see that with rich parents’ kids too.

[Illocust]

Why the hell aren’t they reporting those parents to CPS? If the problem is obvious enough that you can actually instate a policy like lock in, the problem is obvious enough you can get the parents thrown in jail for beating the shit out of their kids. Foster system is bad, but it’ll at least get them out of the reservation system.

[commodious dares eat a peach]

Well, here’s one reason. But you might as well say, “Why don’t cops enforce gun laws in Chicago?” The institutions are so badly flawed and wrongheaded that it’s difficult to know where to start.

[Tonio]

Whose CPS? The tribe’s? Remember, this is a tribal school on tribal land operating under tribal law.

But, yeah, if it were anyone else people would be all over them for kidnapping or something.

This is the most paternalistic enabling thing I have ever heard of.