Analyzing AT&T and Time Warner Merger, Early Voting Begins, Venezuela Keeps Finding New Ways to Worsen: P.M. Links

• 

  C.M. Guerrero/TNS/Newscom

  So will the merger of AT&T and Time Warner happen or not, and will the federal government intervene?

• Early voting has begun in several states. Those folks are going to be disappointed to discover they're still going to have to endure all the election commercials for the next couple of weeks.
• Venezuela's Congress has accused President Nicolas Maduro of staging a coup by blocking a recall effort. Polls suggest that as many as 80 percent of Venezuelans want Maduro out.
• The Onion's version of a Gary Johnson commentary: "Look, I Wish I Were Better at This Also."
• Adnan Syed, the man convicted of murder who was the subject of the first season of the podcast Serial, has filed a motion seeking bail while awaiting a new trial.
• Lawmakers are demanding answers from the Defense Department following the report (noted in the morning links) that the California National Guard is trying to force veterans to repay signing bonuses they were handed (but apparently were not entitled to).

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

So will the merger of AT&T and Time Warner happen or not, and will the federal government intervene?

TRUMP WILL INTERVENE.

[Zero Sum Game]

Hello.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Hello.

/sucks down apple Warheads.

[DEG]

Hello

[Citizen X]

Canadian masturbation euphemisms are so weird.

[Zeb]

I’ve had dreams where I can suck down apple warheads, but I always wake up disappointed.

[Rufus The Monocled]

All I know is they’re not sour ENOUGH.

[OneOut]

Hi Rufus.

I took my Canadian citizenship test today.

I got an eh? +.

[But Enough About Me]

Well, at least it wasn’t an F(U).

[Mr. Dyslexic]

Booya! Good afternoon all.

[Fist of Etiquette]

You wish.

[Mr. Dyslexic]

I had to try… 🙂

[Fist of Etiquette]

Those folks are going to be disappointed to discover they’re still going to have to endure all the election commercials for the next couple of weeks.

Helpless to change their votes when the real October surprise is revealed!

[Zero Sum Game]

We were promised some Wikileaks that would lead to Hillary in handcuffs. I wonder what happens if we elect a convict-in-chief before the lame duck’s been returned by the dog.

[Spartacus]

Mailed in my ballot a week ago. The only thing left to do on election day is get drunk and weep for our future.

[Pan Zagloba]

Why wait? Make it a part of your daily routine! Can’t be all wrong, 200 million Russians have been doing it for centuries!

[Trigger Hippie]

Ah, and so I question; have Russians allowed themselves to be ruled by tyrants for 1000 years because they’re drunk or do they stay drunk to cope with being ruled by tyrants?

[Pan Zagloba]

The second.

Also, that many Russian tyrants had the decency to be incompetent, or at least heavily engaged in tyrannizing the aristocracy, so that the average peasant had less to fear from them then their own lord. Or the neighboring lord. Or the fucking Mongols coming over the fucking hill. And if it’s not Mongols, it’s goddamn Poles, or Cossacks.

[Gilbert Martin]

“Those folks are going to be disappointed to discover they’re still going to have to endure all the election commercials for the next couple of weeks.”

Except for the voters in all those Chicago cemeteries.

They vote early and often and don’t watch commercials.

[C. Anacreon]

I’ve gotten Change.org petitions today from a couple of friends (both super-lefties) which call for Trump to be forced to stop saying there’s election fraud in the USA, because if he isn’t stopped, think of the ‘damage it will cause to our democracy’. The petition asserts that there’s ‘never been any evidence of vote fraud in the USA’, so I guess that means in their minds there never will be any either.

Anyone else gotten forwarded these petitions?

My response is: why are Democrats always so incensed at vote fraud allegations? And fight any voter ID laws (ostensibly because they think minorities are too stupid to get a photo ID, although they never seem to be able to find anyone who actually doesn’t have ID, since it’s nearly impossible to walk outside your home these days without it).

I think they’re pissed that it’s much harder now for them to have a charter bus pull up at a poll location, have fifty Spanish-only-speaking people come off the bus and mispronounce their ‘own name’ — which is supposed to be Elizabeth Wilkinson or something similarly WASP-y — and there’s no way to prove it’s not Ms. Wilkinson since it’s racist to ask for ID.

[bacon-magic]

Voter ID needs to be a main concern going forward. Fuck all the “It’s racist to ask for ID!” garbage.

[bacon-magic]

Voter ID needs to be a main concern going forward. Fuck all the “It’s racist to ask for ID!” garbage.

[Zero Sum Game]

The squirrels are voting now. I, for one, welcome our bushy-tailed overlords.

[R C Dean]

Someone needs to pull the language from all the Office of Civil Rights briefs opposing photo ID for voting, and cut and paste it into their Constitutional challenge of the requirement to show photo ID to buy a gun and their Constitutional challenge of the requirement to show photo ID to get on a plane.

Bonus: it doesn’t matter if the photo ID for flying is a legal requirement or an airline policy – airlines are public accommodations.

[Akira]

I think it’s funny how “progressives” consider it a given that voter ID is racist because the fee required for a photo ID is tantamount to a poll tax. Yet, when it comes to buying a gun (another constitutional right) they think that you should not only have to show ID, but you should also have to pass a background check, go through a waiting period, register the gun with the government, and pay some hefty taxes to fund “gun violence prevention programs”.

[R C Dean]

The petition asserts that there’s ‘never been any evidence of vote fraud in the USA’,

Huh.

http://www.washingtontimes.com…..ts-all-to/

[Gilbert Martin]

“The petition asserts that there’s ‘never been any evidence of vote fraud in the USA’

Never been any evidence of vote fraud in the USA, eh?

Ask your super lefty friends if they’ve ever heard of Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall.

[JeremyR]

It’s funny though, here in St. Louis, there was voter fraud in a Democratic primary in the city (which amounts to the election).

Basically a challenger lost to the incumbent who was part of the local political machine. But a judge threw out the election and they re-did it, the challenger lost.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

the real October surprise

A flaming bag of presidential-candidate crap that actually blows your doorstep off?

[rts]

Police smash windows of hot car to rescue child, find wig instead

Turner told local news station WAVY: “I don’t have a baby so I’m like, ‘Where’d the child come from? Who put the child in my car?'”

Police broke the window anyway, but discovered what had appeared to be a child to the concerned bystander who called 911 was actually no more than a wig and some blankets.

Perhaps due to embarrassment, or perhaps due to more pressing business elsewhere, the responding officers reportedly left the scene before Turner returned to her car.

[Scott S.]

Thanks for spoiling an upcoming brickbat, you monster.

[Zero Sum Game]

You were brainstorming titles, weren’t you?

I suggest: Police Wig Out

[Scott Foval, Jr.]

W-hair’s That Kid?

Police: Say No To Rugs

[KDN]

Like the Post would ever put a story on the cover that paints the cops in an unflattering light. They are heroes, one and all, how dare you criticize them.

[KDN]

Bah, just realized these are Brickbat suggestions and not random newspaper headlines. Continue ignoring me.

[SugarFree]

Something something Trans-Tailpipe Ultrasound

[Fist of Etiquette]

No Way Toupee!

Nothing But Locks

Weave My Car Alone

[C. Anacreon]

Ameriken cops find A Merkin

[Pope Jimbo]

Toupee or Not Toupee, that is the question local cops asked after breaking a window

[BoTardESQue]

You were brainstorming titles

I saw that as “brainstorming titties”… “Pants on the Ground” lol

[rts]

THAT’S WHAT HAT TIPS ARE FOR.

[Pope Jimbo]

No shit. They fucking treat h/t’s like they are CFC’s eating up the ozone.

[Ted S.]

Aren’t most of the Brickbats weeks old, anyway?

[Agent Cooper]

That’s why they are so easy to find.

[C. Anacreon]

And once they’re really old, you’ll find them in the front part of the print version of next month’s Reason magazine.

[notJoe]

Reason has a *print* version?
Why?

[Tonio]

And people still trust and respect the cops despite all evidence to the contrary. We are so fucked.

[Sir Digby Chicken Caesar]

Well, someone was thinking of the child(ren).

[Ted S.]

And they’ll get at worst a paid suspension.

[Playa Manhattan.]

Nope. Not even that.

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

For what? They were doing their job.

[thrakkorzog]

I think you have to at least kill someone before they the book at you with a paid vacation.

[RBS]

concerned bystander

Truly a menace to society.

[AlmightyJB]

Do gooders are the bane of a free society

[Sir Digby Chicken Caesar]

Well, do-gooders who use the state to do the “good”, absolutely. If it had just been the bystander, maybe this woman would have some civil recourse regarding her window. Maybe.

God, it’s not worth it to go out in public anymore. Too many possible nannies.

[Hyperion]

This. I don’t talk to my neighbors much. I say hi as I’m quickly on my way. I don’t want them getting concerned for me or anything.

[Sir Digby Chicken Caesar]

“He was quiet. Kind of a loner.”

I’m the same way, Hyp. Of course, if anything bad ever goes down (criminal-wise), you just know it’ll be used against you.

But, then again, what wouldn’t be?

[Hyperion]

Well, I’m not a loner, friends and family show up sometimes and my wife is here most of the time. I do occasionally have a quick friendly chat with the neighbors, but nothing more than that. It’s mostly older people here, mostly retired, although there are a few younger couples with kids and middle aged professionals like us. The younger couples are definitely the minority here. I mostly see the neighbors when they’re out walking their ankle biters which they’ve named sweety pie and other cringe worthy things.

[lafe.long]

a wig and some blankets

So a typical commentariat Friday night?

[Scarecrow & WoodChipper Repair]

Car pool bandit.

[Juice]

and they just left the car as is, for anyone to break in and steal shit

thanks for protecting and serving, dipshits

[Scott Foval, Jr.]

Early voting has begun in several states.

And often voting has also commenced.

[Tonio]

[Golf clap.]

[Hyperion]

So do the dead voters rise first?

[DEG]

Former PA AG Kathleen Kane sentenced

Warning: auto-play video

A judge has sentenced former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane to 10 to 23 months in prison for committing multiple felonies stemming from a politically motivated act of retribution. Kane, who was convicted in August of perjury and obstruction, also will be on probation for eight years following her jail time, according to Kim Bathgate, spokeswoman for the Office of Pennsylvania Courts.

[Tonio]

Nice. But she does have at least one appeal left, so she won’t be wearing prison orange for a while.

[Ted S.]

I hope she was disbarred too.

[DEG]

She was. That’s why she is a former AG. Pennsylvania’s state constitution requires that the AG be a lawyer.

[Rufus The Monocled]

“Pennsylvania’s state constitution requires that the AG be a lawyer.”

I would hope so. I wouldn’t want Danny the mechanic moonlighting as an AG as well!

[DEG]

Shame, because he might do a better job.

[Hyperion]

Probably almost a certainty.

[Hyperion]

Her mistake was not making it to the national level, where you can get away with anything now. It’s going to take a while for that to trickle down to the states.

[Playa Manhattan.]

For the 20th time (so far), Obama is massively fucking up traffic again in LA.

[jesse.in.mb]

Like you would be caught dead north of LAX anyway.

[grrizzly]

I just drove down 405 to LAX. Everything is clear at the moment.

[esteve7]

thank you for correctly saying 405 and not “The 405”

[jesse.in.mb]

It isn’t Highway 405, it’s The 405 Freeway, but thank you idiom police for policing regional idiom.

[jesse.in.mb]

Sorry, unclear explanation socals highways were labeled with names before numbers, most of the local population refers to them as freeways in the context of “the san diego freeway”, but the numbers have taken primacy which is where the “the 405” “the 110”

While technically integrated into the interstate highway system’s naming schema, people relate to the pre-formalization naming structure. Hence the idiom police bit.

*kicks can*

It can be hard to be pedantic when you don’t pedant clearly 🙁

[Cdr Lytton]

Dammit jesse. I was just going to post that technically it’s the San Diego Freeway or Interstate Highway 405, but not the 405 Freeway.

[KDN]

I was watching an episode of Law & Order where one of the detectives referred to 287 as the 287. I sat there screaming at the TV for a solid 5 minutes about this serious breach of regional idiom from a character that was supposedly born, raised, and living in Queens. My wife failed to understand why this upset me so much.

[Rhywun]

Does that one not have a name? I couldn’t tell you the number on any highway around NYC because AFAICT nobody uses the numbers.

[KDN]

We mostly use numbers in Jersey. I’ve never heard of 287 / 440 referred to as anything other than 287 / 440, but once you’re in Staten Island it’s suddenly the West Shore Expwy.

[jesse.in.mb]

Is Law & Order the one where it’s all filmed in LA and they just put a colored tint on it to tell you it’s NY or Florida? Or is that NCIS?

[jack sprat]

Law & Order is filmed in NYC. I don’t anything about NCIS except there seems to be an equal or greater amount of spin offs as L&O.

[C. Anacreon]

I remember seeing some TV show based in Boston where cops saw a person acting psychotic and spoke into their radio “we’ve got a 5150 here!”

I’m sure the oh-so-clever California-based screenwriter thinks that’s universal cop-talk for a psychiatric emergency — but, oops! 5150 is the section of California law that allows for involuntary evaluation of dangerous mental health situations. Every state has some version of this, but only in California is it referred to (appropriately per state Code) as a 5150 situation.

I screamed this explanation at the TV at the time, but the TV Boston cops didn’t pay attention to me and apprehended their ‘5150’.

[jesse.in.mb]

Different scenario, but I’ve heard that Canadian law enforcement is always annoyed by Canadians protesting that they know their rights and/or weren’t read their rights, not realizing that Mirandizing isn’t a thing in the great white north.

[But Enough About Me]

…Mirandizing isn’t a thing in the great white north.

True of course, but a Canuck arrested by a cop still has to be apprised of their section 10 Charter right.

[Tonio]

Calm down, C. We all scream at the telescreen.

[Tonio]

Calm down, C. We all scream at the telescreen.

[BearOdinson]

Now if he had said the Cross-Bronx Expressway, or the L.I.E. that would be different.

[Cdr Lytton]

Bonus points if grizzly had gone with I-405.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

The Long Beach Fwy?

The world’s Longest Parking Lot?

The road paved with good intentions?

[jesse.in.mb]

If you ever want to see someone from Oregon or Washington lose their cool say “the 5 freeway”.

I mean don’t do that unless you want to hear thousands of tiny blood vessels pop at the same time.

[Playa Manhattan.]

I’m not as polite as Jesse. Fuck you.

THE 405.

[esteve7]

You crazy southern california people. I’m in San Jose and it’s understood if I say take 5 to 405 you know what the hell I’m talking about. “The” 5 and “The” 405 are wrong, get it right.

-Steve

[jesse.in.mb]

San Jose? That’s hella cool.

[Playa Manhattan.]

You started it, I finished it. The end.

I’ve heard people say “The 880” and “the 101” up there.

[flye]

I live in Oakland, and everyone I know would say “take the 13 to the 580 and cut over on the 280.”

[C. Anacreon]

Oakland, Michigan doesn’t count. In the California Oakland, as in all the Bay Area, we never say ‘the’ before our roads. Your example should be “take 13 to 580”.

[jesse.in.mb]

I think the flight was supposed to land at 1:30, so they might not be out and about yet.

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

But 1:30 was 3 hours ago.

[jesse.in.mb]

Was it? At LAX?

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

If you wanted to be there in time.

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

Everywhere.

[jesse.in.mb]

Eastern Time Onlyists are like the Red Chinese of American timezone thought.

[jack sprat]

Trying living in NYC where the UN and His Majesty wreck the already difficult gridlock every other week it seems…

[Rufus The Monocled]

There’s something Twin Peakish about listening to LAers and Nyers complain about traffic.

[Ted S.]

I live on a dead-end road. On the road it feeds into, a bridge over the NYS Thruway has been under repair since April. Not too bad for me since I don’t go that way too often. But now they’re also repairing the next bridge up, not having finished the first one. It’s just past another road that’s been serving as the detour for the last four months.

But now, the next stage of bridge repair is going to close that section of road, so I’m going to have to go over a twisty two-lane uphill/downhill road at 5:30 every morning for the foreseeable future to get anywhere. Fun fun fun.

[KDN]

That actually does sound fun. You should go buy a sports car.

[Rhywun]

Gridlock? Oh, that’s for suckers who drive in NYC.

[Ted S.]

Have you ever gotten stuck behind a school bus on a country road?

[Rufus The Monocled]

/raises hand.

I have. And they stop every 15 fucking feet.

ROAD. RAGE.

[Rhywun]

Have you ever been in a Turkish prison?

[Zwak]

Do you like gladiator movies?

[C. Anacreon]

Have you ever seen a grown man naked?

[Lachowsky]

Tractors. I live in hay and cow country. It’s always tractors.

[jack sprat]

Tis true. But sometimes you need a cab/Uber/Lyft to get across town. I still prefer walking/ subway most of all.

[Rhywun]

I think in 20 years I have been in the vicinity of the UN maybe twice. It’s kind out of the way unless you live in the area.

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

It can fuck up 57th street, which leads to all sorts of other fuck ups.

[C. Anacreon]

It’s terrible to fuck up 57th Street. If you’re on the 57th Street Bridge you should be feelin’ groovy.

[Rhywun]

*Ahem* 59th. Recently renamed for some Democrat (Koch?).

[C. Anacreon]

I know. My mother-in-law still lives on 55th Street and 1st Ave, in the same apartment my wife grew up in. You can see the bridge from her parlor, if you can cut through the omnipresent cigarette smoke.

Just couldn’t resist sneaking in the S&G reference.

[Rhywun]

She sounds like my kind of broad.

[Rhywun]

She sounds like my kind of broad.

[KDN]

I used to work next to the Waldorf and walk to Penn Station each day. Whenever GWB was in town I had to walk up to 55th before I could start actually heading towards my destination, and on several occasions I was held in the lobby by the Secret Service for long enough that I’d miss my train.

TL;DR – fuck the imperial presidency. I want more of these fuckers to die in office (of natural causes!) so America remembers how replaceable they are.

[Mad Scientist]

You know you like your traffic jams, so Obama is trying to help you keep your traffic jams.

[Playa Manhattan.]

Essentially, this is STEALING. He’s here to fundraise, AGAIN, and it’s going to impact the 405 and the 101 at fucking rush hour. Anywhere from 600,000 to a million people are going to have to spend an extra 2.5 hours in traffic because of this visit, all so that Obama can use the power of the presidency to raise money from billionaires and give it to Hillary’s campaign.

It’s fucking stealing.

[Cdr Lytton]

Just be glad you only have to sit in traffic and aren’t required to line the streets so that His Imperial Presidency can wave to you as he drives by. That’ll be a feature of a future presidency.

[Cdr Lytton]

Sorry.

aren’t required to line the streets so that you can wave to His Imperial Presidency can wave to you as he drives by

[Homple]

Wait until they mandate the installation of flag staff sockets on every building so there is a place for the flags you are required by law and custom to display on days special to your government.

[Ted S.]

Her Imperial Presidency, not His.

[Cdr Lytton]

President Imperator Chelsea Clinton, First of her name, Keeper of the Two Most Holy Email Servers, PBUH.

[Scott Foval, Jr.]

Polls suggest that as many as 80 percent of Venezuelans want Maduro out.

They’re oversampling the starving people.

[Don Escaped Texas]

howdy from a very red state, so this election means nothing to me

[Zunalter]

Utah?

[DesigNate]

Some talking heads are speculating that Texas might be up in the air. Fucking Texas!

I’m generally an open borders guy, but if Hillary flips Texas thanks to all the Californian immigrants…

[Unreconstructed (Sans Flag)]

Honestly, if Texas flips, it’ll be because so many are turned off by Trump, and the Clinton fans are…unreachable.

[BigW]

If Texas goes for Hillary she’s going to act like the Emperor from Revenge of the Sith. “Total POWER!!!”

[Azathoth!!]

If Texas ‘flips’ it’ll be clear evidence that the election riggers think they’re untouchable.

Texas will go for Hillary when they start opening ski resorts in Hell..

[Citizen X]

The Onion’s version of a Gary Johnson commentary: “Look, I Wish I Were Better at This Also.”

Snap.

[Zunalter]

How dare they!? Don’t they know that any criticism about GJ from outside the Libertarian party is obvious concern trolling? Also, any criticism of GJ from within the Libertarian party is an over-insistence on purity. Either way STFU.

[PurityDiluting]

^this

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

Huh?

[Zunalter]

Just responding in the vein of how every other criticism about Gary Johnson has been handled by Reason this election cycle.

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

I know, but I’m saying that’s WRONG!!

[Zunalter]

Oh, I thought you were saying “Huh?”

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

At first I just raised my eyebrow incredulously, then I decided to be more direct.

[DEG]

Lying may be your brain’s fault

Hmmm…..

Understanding why people are dishonest is complicated. Theories about that have been the subject of psychology and sociology books.

But could there be a biological component at play? New research that focused on a specific region in our brains suggests there is.
“When we lie for personal gain, our amygdala produces a negative feeling that limits the extent to which we are prepared to lie,” said Tali Sharot, an associate professor of cognitive neuroscience at University College London. “However, this response fades as we continue to lie, and the more it (fades) the bigger our lies become.”

[Shirley Knott]

Riiiiiight. It’s all my brain’s fault, I had nothing to do with it.

The data quoted does not support the headlines. Astonishing, I know.

[DEG]

I know. I had to go find my shocked face!

[KDN]

Sounds legit. Explains Hillary anyway.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

She had her amygdala removed?

[AlmightyJB]

So that’s why bullshitters never take a break even when it makes no sense to lie?

[Zunalter]

As long as it isn’t my fault, blame whatever you want!

[John Titor]

Have you ever heard of the story of the Boy Who Cried Wolf?

[Pan Zagloba]

Obligatory Oglaf link (SFW).

[John Titor]

There’s no dicks in that comic, I refuse to believe it’s from Oglaf.

[Pan Zagloba]

Come on, that boy was a total dick! No wonder the wolf got him!

[Juice]

Lying comes from your brain? No shit?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Venezuela’s Congress has accused President Nicolas Maduro of staging a coup by blocking a recall effort.

Erdo?an says you’re doing it wrong.

[lafe.long]

The Electoral College Exists To Protect Us From People Like Trump & Clinton

The two corrupt authoritarians must be stopped and the Constitution has provided a way to do so. The Electoral College system offers our country a way out. When the Presidential Electors meet on December 19th they must choose not to vote for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Instead, they should choose to select an honest, moderate candidate that will bring the country together.

[Citizen X]

Instead, they should choose to select an honest, moderate candidate that will bring the country together.

Too bad no such person has been interested in the job in ever.

[Gadfly]

I don’t think any such person exists. How could anyone bring the country together, with all of its many disparate and fractious factions, while at the same time being honest and moderate? The most effective way of bringing people together is by facing a common enemy, and as we don’t seem to have one at the moment this theoretical candidate would have to create one. I don’t think this could be accomplished honestly or moderately.

[Tonio]

Instead, they should choose to select an honest, moderate candidate that will bring the country together.

Nice fantasy.

[Ted S.]

Fat lot of good it’s done.

[Tonio]

But let’s say they actually ignore the popular vote and choose someone other than the winner – you can be damn sure that the electoral college will be disbanded. At least that would be something.

[Rhywun]

And replaced with what? Something a lot worse, would be my guess.

[AlmightyJB]

Muno

http://www.birthdayexpress.com…..dup-6-tall

[Ted S.]

You want a dildo for President?

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

You say that like we have an option.

[DEG]

Obvious

Warning: auto-play video

When it comes to cars, progress often means problems. Consumer Reports latest auto dependability survey, released Monday, tells the story. All-new or completely redesigned cars and SUVs tend to have the most problems. Basically, the latest thing is also the most trouble-prone.

[Playa Manhattan.]

“Polls suggest that as many as 80 percent of Venezuelans want Maduro out.”

I don’t normally endorse violence, but, if the other 20 percent of Venezuelans end up dead, I probably won’t care.

[thrakkorzog]

Pretty sure they’re ending up beachfront mansions, considering the history of previous dictatorships.

[Crusty Juggler]

Regarding the alt text: just say “would” or “wouldn’t.” It’s much easier that way.

[End Child Unemployment]

Those folks are going to be disappointed to discover they’re still going to have to endure all the election commercials I should have my ballot already. Looking forward to mailing it in and no longer caring about the desirable choices available to me.

That’s what happens right? You vote and can stop caring for a little bit?

[PurityDiluting]

Early voting is not the safe word for tapping out of this election. Nobody gets off this train

[lafe.long]

Michael Moore to Donald Trump Voters: ‘You’re Legal Terrorists’

“You have to protect the population from him like you do with a pedophile. A pedophile doesn’t need to be in prison; they’re sick. They have to be separated from us so they don’t hurt children. But you have to treat it that way.”

[lafe.long]

Same story from Rolling Stone:

Despite polls predicting Clinton to win the presidency by a large margin, Moore is far from confident. “I live beyond the wall where the White Walkers are,” he tells Rolling Stone. “I could just tell on the streets that there’s no enthusiasm [for her] whatsoever.”

[Citizen X]

“The People have spoken, the bastards!”

[Free Society]

Michael Moore lives on streets. His mansion is near a street, as is his bubble.

[Ted S.]

As opposed to the Michael Moores of the world who are illegal terrorists?

[DJF]

Thank you for bringing back sanity to the links page, I thought that someone had taken over Reason Magazine when I found a links page without any Trump stories headlined. Somebody must have accused Trump of something over the last few hours. But thankfully due to Micheal Moore, we now know that Trump supporters are terrorists

[mad.casual]

Excuse me, but I have trouble seeing an essential difference between what Chris Kyle did in Iraq and what Michael Moore does here in America. Some call it heroism.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Hey, hey, hey. It’s FAT ASSHOLE!

Peter Jackson: Oh, there you are Gothmog. Get out there!
Michael Moore: I’m not Gothmog.
Jackson (touching Moore’s face): You’re not?

[Pan Zagloba]

“No, Gothmog had style!”

[Ted S.]

Would he be OK if he were thin?

[DenverJ]

Well, there would be less of him to hate.

[John Titor]

Out of all the people they satirized, Team America World Police didn’t even need to parody Michael Moore, he’s already a walking parody.

[That's A Bingo!]

Lawmakers are demanding answers from the Defense Department following the report (noted in the morning links) that the California National Guard is trying to force veterans to repay signing bonuses they were handed (but apparently were not entitled to).

Monopoly rules apply here: Administrative error in your favor, collect $200.

[DEG]

Jared Fogle’s ex-wife sues Subway

Warning: auto-play video

The ex-wife of disgraced Subway pitchman Jared Fogle is suing the sandwich chain, charging that top executives knew of his pedophilia as early as 2004 and should have notified authorities.

Katie McLaughlin divorced Fogle after he pleaded guilty to federal charges of child pornography and having sex with minors. She alleges in the suit that she and her children suffered emotional distress because Fogle’s behavior did not become publicly known before she married him in 2010.

I’m not a lawyer, but I don’t see how Subway executives have an obligation to tell Katie McLaughlin about Fogle.

[SugarFree]

Just give her a bunch of coupons and send her on her way.

[Rufus The Monocled]

ONE MONTH. Not more than that.

Expired ones too. No one reads the fine print.

[Playa Manhattan.]

If she’s married to the guy, it’s kind of her job to know what he’s into. She should be suing herself.

All of the school girl outfits and calling him “daddy” didn’t tip her off???

[DEG]

Personal responsibility is pass

[Ted S.]

How would they have known?

[DEG]

According to the article, the then Subway CEO knew. How? The article doesn’t say.

The suit details an instance when a Subway franchisee, Cindy Mills, called the company’s then-CEO Jeff Moody in 2008, to alert him about Fogle. She said that Fogle had told her that “he really liked them young,” and that he admitted to her that he had had sex with minors from ages 9 to 16.

The suit charges that Moody interrupted Mills and told her “Please don’t tell me any more. Don’t worry, he has met someone. She is a teacher and he seems to love her very much, and we think she will keep him grounded.” Moody told Mills that he had dealt with similar complaints in the past.

The suit says that the teacher that Moody was referring to is in fact McLaughlin.

[JayU]

Yeah, I remember reading about this at the time. The guy is the scummiest of scumbags. He would literally ask parents if he could fuck their underage children. That kind of thing is bound to get around.

[C. Anacreon]

I think his inspirational dieting saga more than made up for the fact that he was an incorrigible pedophile. Think of all the meatball subs that were sold as a result!

[Scott Foval, Jr.]

Subway should countersue: “You knew him better than we did! Why didn’t you warn us?”

[Rufus The Monocled]

You’ve been fucking him all these years. Not us!

[DJF]

They have money and planteffs and lawyers like to get involved in suing people with money

[Mickey Rat]

Suing in the name if children who presumably would not exist if she had known is an interesting argument.

[Horatio]

She has a Polaroid of her kids that fades every time it looks like she’ll win the suit.

[Crusty Juggler]

An epic battle between feminism and deep-seated misogyny is under way in South Korea

uch of this antipathy simmered below the surface until Megalia appeared on the scene, and the story of its creation shows how extensive and bitter tensions in Korea have become. The group has its roots in the May 2015 outbreak in Korea of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS, a disease which was first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012. The outbreak was linked to two Korean women, who apparently contracted it while traveling on a flight from Seoul to Hong Kong for a holiday.

After they refused to be quarantined in Hong Kong, critics on a popular Korean message board called DC Inside (similar to Reddit in the US) viciously attacked the women, calling them selfish and saying they damaged Korea’s reputation abroad. While the women were later led into quarantine, the online chatter devolved, with many calling them “Kimchi bitches,” for women who are obsessed with wealth, and “doenjang girl” or “bean paste girl,” a reference to young women who save for luxury goods by skimping on essential goods (doenjang being a cheap kind of stew).

[Crusty Juggler]

Angry at the MERS accusations, some women responded by posting messages on the same message board, adopting a controversial practice female activists call “mirroring,” or mimicking the language men use against women. They called men “kimchi men,” among other epithets, and mocked them for having “6.9cm penises”.

These women broke out of DC Inside to create their own site and Megalian.com was born. It was an instant provocation: The logo of the site shows a hand with the thumb and index finger close together to suggest a small penis.

[Cdr Lytton]

mocked them for having “6.9cm penises”

Wow. Way to perpetuate stereotypes about Asian men.

[gaoxiaen]

It’s shrinkage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DoARSlv-HU

[esteve7]

hahaha, 6 (point) 9

I told my Dad, no matter hold on you get, that number is always funny. He got a huge crackup over that

[Homple]

Her: 6.9 centimeters! Who you gonna satisfy with that little thing?

Him: Me.

[gaoxiaen]

Is that an extra belly button?

[Ted S.]

It’s not their job to be Korean ambassadors.

[When will you report on Carl?]

Forgive me for not taking anything on Quartz at face value. I enjoyed them for a while, but at some point they went stupid.

[RBS]

hey damaged Korea’s reputation abroad.

What is Korea’s reputation abroad?

[mad.casual]

I’m pretty sure Korea’s reputation abroad already revolved around underage school girls with pigtails and plaid skirts so it was really an uphill or lose-lose battle for the feminists either way.

[John Titor]

There’s a good one and a bad one. The good one has online gaming addiction, Starcraft E-Sports, K-Pop, great internet, and hates the Japanese. The bad one has starvation, concentration camps, a dictator, and hates the Japanese.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

Ah. The kind of tribalism where you identify SO much with your group (in this case women) that you are willing to defend even people who caused a disease outbreak that left thirty-eight people dead because they are part of MUH TRIBE!!

[John Titor]

If Oldboy is anything to go by, South Koreans are REALLY GOOD at quarantine.

Also incest.

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

LEGENDARY

[BearOdinson]

“Megalia”

Isn’t that the one that fought Gamara and poisoned him with the stinger and the kids had to go into him and save him?

[DEG]

Wasn’t there supposed to be a release from O’Keefe today?

[jesse.in.mb]

I’m sure he had his morning constitutional and it was just as informative and trustworthy as anything else he’s ever done.

[DJF]

So it was the real shit and Hillary was covered in it?

[DesigNate]

I’m not quite sure how you fake actual known democrat operatives revealing their unethical plans and actions on tape.

[bacon-magic]

Getting people fired trustworthy?

[Scott Foval, Jr.]

“Mr. O’Keefe’s video is an appalling example of shoddy, unsourced, deceptive journalism at its worst and we’re also firing the guys featured on the video.”

[bacon-magic]

What floors me is not the Reason “journalists”, the main stream media hacks or Team BLUE shills that are dismissing this. It’s the commenters on this site. You guys I trust, and for some reason it is no big deal for a few of you. I like to think that most of you on here are smarter than me and can see through the bullshit. The wikileaks – not bullshit. Project veritas – not bullshit. Grabbing pussy, while it does get clicks, is immaterial to the office being ran for.(Right, Mr. Clinton?)

[bacon-magic]

I’m going to social signal here and still vote for da Johnson btw. Good and hard.

[VG Zaytsev]

Jesse is a reason journaliste.

[lafe.long]

Rigging the Election ? Video III: Creamer Confirms Hillary Clinton Was PERSONALLY Involved

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEQvsK5w-jY

[DJF]

Thanks for the links, I would check Reason magazine for hard hitting stories about these videos but they seem to have barely heard of them and think that because they were edited it means that they are no good.

[bacon-magic]

Shut up already! Reason staff is tired of dragging Hillary’s dead body across the finish line.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Lawmakers are demanding answers from the Defense Department following the report (noted in the morning links) that the California National Guard is trying to force veterans to repay signing bonuses they were handed (but apparently were not entitled to).

They’re so unaccustomed to any flash of fiscal responsibility in the DoD, and naturally it comes in the worst of places.

[thrakkorzog]

Are those soldiers going to use their ill-gotten gains to hire a bunch of retired generals as advisors?

No. Then fuck’em.

[OneOut]

Are they trying to claw back the money from the widows who inherited their late warriors estates ?

[jesse.in.mb]

doenjang being a cheap kind of stew)

Doenjang jjigae is fucking delicious and I will not hear it slandered by half-witted K-redditors

[Crusty Juggler]

“Bean paste Jesse.”

[Playa Manhattan.]

Where are you quoting?

Where is my soup?

[jesse.in.mb]

That was supposed to be a reply to Crusty’s earlier post about Korean feminism.

[Krabappel]

I’ve never made that but kimchi jjigae is awesome. I love kimchi and make it regularly.

One of my favorite Korean foods is tteokbokki. Also, gim bap.

[DenverJ]

Look, you can’t just go around making up words. Also, although I have never tried kimchi, it smells God awful.

[Krabappel]

Sometimes my fridge smells like a cabbage took a dump in it. But it tastes so good!

[jesse.in.mb]

I made dak galbi not that long ago which is very tteokbokki heavy. I always forget how much I love those little rice cakes and then I realize they are chewy delightful nubs of pure rice starch and I don’t eat them again for a while.

[DOOMco]

Started on my ballot last night, but was too drunk to read some of the things.

[DenverJ]

Absolutely the best way to vote. In fact, how else is one supposed to exercise the bad judgement needed to vote for any of the top 4 candidates? I’m planning on being stoned, as well.

[DOOMco]

The wording becomes confusing at twice the legal limit.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Oh well, at least I’m not blowing it as badly as Jill Stein.

Talk about your low bars.

[Crusty Juggler]

Ghost fleet: Explorers accidentally find a graveyard of more than 40 perfectly preserved ancient shipwrecks at the bottom of the Black Sea

In the depths of the Black Sea lies a landscape of complete darkness, where there is no light and no oxygen.

Archaeologists have long believed this ‘dead zone’ holds of a perfectly preserved graveyard of shipwrecks.

Now, a mapping expedition has proved them right, after accidentally uncovering more than 40 ancient shipwrecks from the Ottoman and Byzantine periods.

[SugarFree]

Yeah, piss off the ghost boats. Good idea, assholes.

[John Titor]

They’re Ottoman and Byzantine ghost ships. If anything they’ll start fighting each other.

[C. Anacreon]

Byzantine – Ottoman? Sounds like an excessively complicated footrest.

[thrakkorzog]

That ghost pirate on The Venture Brothers is a pretty cool guy.

[Idle Hands]

pretty cool Crusty.

[Mazakon]

Glenn Beck: Should We Use Illegally-acquired E-mails from WikiLeaks

So I give Edward Snowden the benefit of the doubt that this was important, constitutional stuff, that our own government was violating. That’s not the same as WikiLeaks. This is just a document dump. And you’ll notice that they haven’t documented ? they haven’t document dumped anything on Russia. Nothing on enemies of ours. Only our allies and us. And trying to hurt us with our allies. I don’t trust Julian Assange or WikiLeaks at all.

I mean, think about this. This is the Russians hacking our election process, and a Republican congressman said, “Thank God for WikiLeaks.”

[DJF]

“”””they haven’t document dumped anything on Russia.”””

Maybe they are not dumb enough to put everything they do on personnel computers hooked up to the internet?

[thrakkorzog]

Actually, they use typewriters for their most sensitive info, rather than storing it on Gmail. It’s almost like the people in charge of security over there take their jobs seriously.

[DesigNate]

It helps if your boss is as paranoid as Putin supposedly is.

Obviously Hillary and the Democrats don’t give a fuck if they are exposed to be the worst most vile kinds of human beings.

[TheZeitgeist]

Knowing how Russians work, they’re probably saving the actual orphan-drowning videos and hitman-invoice emails for a ‘private discussion’ with Hillary once she’s got her brass ring. Such manipulation is perfect approach to having some control over such a compromised and reactionary creature.

[DesigNate]

That would not surprise me in the least.

[John Titor]

When your country is run by an ex-KGB man you tend to take internal security rather seriously. And Russian government officials in general probably feel a lot less invincible than those in the United States.

[mad.casual]

Maybe they are not dumb enough to put everything they do on personnel computers hooked up to the internet?

Especially considering that they are the fucking Red Team.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

Clinton-born conspiracy-theory to deflect away from the contents of the leaks or not, if the Russians AREN’T trying to influence the election away from the psychopath who is openly advocating war against them, then the Russians are idiots.

[MetalBard]

War with Russia?!?! Who cares, thats just a distraction from real news like did you hear that Trump once called some woman fat?

Honestly female voters should be insulted that the Hillary campaign thinks they’re stupid enough to fall for this shit.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

If ~/I/~ was a woman and didn’t live in a non-swing state where voting for the major parties literally does nothing, I’d go Trump just to avoid the title of “First Female President” from being as despoiled as it will be if she wins.

[Horatio]

What emails is he talking about?

/gets all news from reason articles

[BearOdinson]

Why the fuck are all of the neocons so damned erect over having a war with Russia? FFS, Putin is a strongman, and there are definitely issues with internal freedom, but it is hardly the old Soviet Union. And, frankly, the Ukraine and Crimea isn’t as simple as some of the neocons (and leftists as well) seem to think.

Seriously, what is the point? (Other than defense contractors etc.)

[VG Zaytsev]

They way their blundering into a proxy war with the Russians in Syria should scare the hell out of everyone. But oy vey, Trump.said some mean shit about immigrants so let’s support the fuckng deranged war mongers.

[VG Zaytsev]

First of all, there is absolutely no evidence that the emails were hacked by the ruskies as opposed to being leaked by an insider. Perhaps even and insider that mysteriously died a short time ago.

Secondly, the emails are from the DNC and Hillary’s henchmen in he campaign. Neither is an official part of the US government and neither should have national secrets in the first place.

Thirdly, exposing the criminality of a major political party is not hacking our election.

[lafe.long]

The Unwoke: Sleepwalking into the Nightmare

Do those applauding the defeat of Trump realize at all the coming conflagrations? Do they stop to reflect on the seven hundred military bases around the world housing US soldiers and weapons? Seems not. Or that Russia has only ten, and all of them in former Soviet countries. Do they know or care at all what Clinton means to the people of the Arab world, Central America and Asia? Seems unlikely. Perhaps they so actively adore Michelle and Barry as a psychological defense mechanism to keep guilt at bay for the millions of dead Africans and Arabs murdered by the U.S. state. And their guilt for not waking to the two million people in prison in the U.S. Most of them people of color. All of them poor. But let the coronation begin.

[John Titor]

But I don’t know. Do I trust Assange? Snowden? Not really.I don’t know what was said at Bilderburg this year. I wasn’t invited.

Kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkay.

[Hyperion]

“Venezuela’s Congress has accused President Nicolas Maduro of staging a coup by blocking a recall effort. Polls suggest that as many as 80 percent of Venezuelans want Maduro out.”

And 80% will elect the new guy who is basically the same as the old guy. Wash, rinse, repeat.

[thom]

Yeah – the situation is Venezuela is totally going to be resolved through an election…

[Pan Zagloba]

So turns out I owe feminists an apology – there is in fact a rape culture in the “West”

AN IRAQI asylum seeker who confessed to raping a 10-year-old boy in a swimming pool, claiming it was a “sexual emergency”, has had his conviction overturned.
…
The Supreme Court yesterday overturned the conviction, accepting the defence lawyer’s claim that the original court had not done enough to ascertain whether or not the rapist realised the child was saying no…
When I made my point in the Munk Debate, our opponents, the telly historian Simon Schama and the former UN High Commissioner Louise Arbour, thought it was an opportunity for comedy. Simon reckoned me and Nigel Farage were just “a bit sad” – losers who couldn’t get any action and so got turned on by obsessing about migrant rape. This insouciance did not work out well for him.

To accord their response more respect than it merits, Louise and Simon’s point was that: sure, there’s a bit of child rape here and there, but what’s the big deal? It’s a relatively small and manageable amount.

Trigger Warning: Mark Steyn. Because I got annoyed by Reason writers sufficiently.

[Pan Zagloba]

cont.

It’s not the “small” number of cases, but the fact that, in a fainthearted age prostrate before the multicultural pieties, these “few” cases are changing us. So that the most eminent jurists in Austria feel obliged to assimilate with their invaders: hey, how was poor old Amir supposed to know the cute l’il moppet wasn’t consenting to anal rape?

Is this ruling of general application? Would Fritz and Gerhard have their appetites so indulged? Or do these new migrant rights also trump such outmoded concepts as equality before the law?
….
And, for those still looking for the joke, the funniest line in the story:

Amir A, 20, was visiting the Theresienbad pool in the Austrian capital of Vienna last December as part of a trip to encourage integration.

Same story in The Independent, for those who can’t even.

[Free Society]

Let there be no doubt that the government, media and academia push for multiculturalism and third world migration is sinister and evil. People that support this shit make me sick.

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

So that the most eminent jurists in Austria feel obliged to assimilate with their invaders: hey, how was poor old Amir supposed to know the cute l’il moppet wasn’t consenting to anal rape?

Is that what happened? Or did the SC overturn the case on procedural grounds because the prosecution fucked up its argument?

[Possible Bot]

Is the argument that ten year olds may have consented to rape valid now? Has it ever been?

Highly doubt it, so they probably have assimilated a new standard.

[Hyperion]

Sexual emergency? Fuck the what…

[Free Society]

accepting the defence lawyer’s claim that the original court had not done enough to ascertain whether or not the rapist realised the child was saying no

Jesus fucking Christ. A little boy’s consent to have his ass fucked could not be more irrelevant to whether or not it constitutes rape. Fucking multicultists.

[Pan Zagloba]

From The Independent article linked in cont. post:

While the sexual abuse verdict was “watertight”, the more serious offence requires evidence that the defendant knew their victim did not consent to sex.

Supreme Court judges ruled that the first court should have established whether the attacker thought his victim agreed to a sexual act and intended to act against the boy’s will.

“This intention was not sufficiently established, so the Supreme Court quashed the rape conviction,” Austria’s national ORF broadcaster reported.

Also not established – did the sun rise in the east that morning, and was gravity at the time 9.81 m/s2?

[Free Society]

I’m sure that every ten year old Austrian boy daydreams about getting his ass plowed by a Muslim migrant, from time to time. It’s perfectly natural.

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

An alleged victim’s consent may be relevant to whether or not the defendant committed rape. That the alleged victim is a prepubescent boy doesn’t mean the first court could just ignore that aspect of the crime.

Rule of law, memba?

[Free Society]

You’re a fucking disgrace. I’ll repost what I already posted.

I’m sure that every ten year old Austrian boy daydreams about getting his ass plowed by a Muslim migrant, from time to time. It’s perfectly natural.

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

Yes, and? If the law says that the state must prove the defendant’s intent, the question at least needs to be addressed. It can’t be passed over because, c’mon, do we really need to go there?

If that’s what happened. It’s hard to know when every English report is based on the same source and only has a sentence or two devoted to the SC’s reasoning. But it looks more like a procedural, Rule Of Law? issue than a moral relativism issue.

[Free Society]

If the law says that the state must prove the defendant’s intent, the question at least needs to be addressed. It can’t be passed over because, c’mon, do we really need to go there?

So it’s your contention that this guy literally did not know that child rape is criminal and that the sexual contact could not possibly have been consensual? How could he conceivably not know? If you want to cite some kind of cultural or moral relativism, be my guest. It would only make you look more a fool for advocating for this wave of immigration in the first place, knowing full well how unequipped these people are to dwell within western civilization.

But it looks more like a procedural, Rule Of Law

You can’t tell me that anyone anywhere is unaware that snatching and forcefully raping a ten year old boy at public pool is a profound crime. Christ the guy even made up a pathetic excuse for his actions, he knew damn well. The fact that this got overturned on those procedural grounds makes it smell even more like relativism.

[Pan Zagloba]

Rule of man, more like? Because no fucking way in hell does Wolfgang the Rapist get the same treatment. See, age of consent is 14. We established lack of consent right there. But because Happy Chappy Rapist over there is Not Aryan, we assume he doesn’t understand that fucking a crying 10 year old is bad.
That’s what a fucking rape culture looks like. “You fucked a 10 year old but because we haven’t established that you understood lack of consent, your rape charge is vacated. Statutory rape? Fuck off, law. Now go and rape no more.”
Seriously, why can’t an 18 year old Austrian use the same defense? “I read a lot of Red Pill stuff, I didn’t understand she didn’t want to, I thought it meant I was doing it right.”

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

Is violating age of consent a different kind of rape charge than what the Iraqi got? I dunno, but I expect the Supreme Court of Austria knows its laws better than either of us. And if it is just a matter of pointing to age of consent, the retrial should go swimmingly, shouldn’t it?

[Free Society]

The basic uncontested facts of the case establish that what transpired constitutes a crime. Everything appears to hinge on the rapist’s subjective point of view and his world class ignorance. Neither of which, under any body of western law, vacates one’s culpability for a child rape.

[thrakkorzog]

That’s why age of consent laws exist, essentially the government has decided that below a certain age, someone is incapable of consent. While the ages are a bit arbitrary, I think most people would agree that 10 year olds can’t consent to sex.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

“had not done enough to ascertain whether or not the rapist realised the child was saying no…”

Oh C’MON, the one time they bring up mens rea is for the like one crime it shouldn’t apply to!!

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

I mean, at least they respect mens rea.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

Another weight to my theory that Political Correctness is just the Left wanting to be really, really racist but think it’s OK because they are racist with ~*POLITE*~ words.

I mean the only thing between this and saying “brown people are too uneducated to realize that raping children is bad” is the fact that they’ve couched it in polite terminology. In reality, they’re probably the most racist fucking people out there, but they get away with it and are seen as the ones standing AGAINST racism because they said the right magic words.

[Azathoth!!]

I mean the only thing between this and saying “brown people are too uneducated to realize that raping children is bad” is the fact that they’ve couched it in polite terminology

Not ‘uneducated’. Educated.

That’s the important part. Educated.

Amir comes from a culture where what he did is fine. We keep overlooking this. Amir learned, throughout his life, that anally raping young boys was okay. He may have assisted someone with a ‘sexual emergency’ when he was a child.

Because it’s not the skin color, it’s the brain filling that’s the problem.

The people equivocating over this have defective brain filling, just like Amir–they believe that all cultures are equal.

[Gadfly]

The Supreme Court yesterday overturned the conviction, accepting the defence lawyer’s claim that the original court had not done enough to ascertain whether or not the rapist realised the child was saying no.

Considering the age of consent in Austria is 14 (just looked it up), I’m surprised this was accepted as a defense. Something really wrong is going on here.

[Juice]

A court found Amir guilty of serious sexual assault and rape of a minor, and sentenced him to six years in jail.

6 whole years? Wow.

[mad.casual]

Venezuela Keeps Finding New Ways to Worsen P.M. Links

I commend Scott for beating them back with alt-text.

[Tonio]

Well-played. Rico’s links are kind of like Bolivaran Socialism – always a waiting line, never enough.

[Tonio]

And I know that Shackford did today’s links, but still..

[Hyperion]

Has any country in history that adopted socialism ever just come out of that and become a successful free market country? I think there’s no way out of it, it’s just a repeated death spiral until it crashes so completely that you wind up with a strong man taking control, like Putin. The USA is probably so far left now that there’s no way back. I wonder who our Putin will be?

[Pan Zagloba]

Israel, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, all three Baltic States. Unless your definition of “free market” is so True Scotsmanny that no country currently or ever existing satisfies it.

[Hyperion]

I’m not counting the countries who were locked up behind the iron curtain. I mean a country who just decided on their own to be socialist.

Israel? They were socialist?

[Tonio]

They were quasi-socialist. But do also remember that they received a huge amount of US foreign aid over the years, so we paid for that.

[Hyperion]

Most Jews here in the states seem to vote Democrat and be in favor of socialism. Or so I’ve heard, they’re a strange bunch.

[BearOdinson]

The average modern Israeli Jew is far more right-wing economically than the typical American Jew. They also have a different understanding of the need to sometimes defend their country.

[Hyperion]

I suppose having rockets launched at you and people blowing themselves up at the market has some sort of effect on them.

[C. Anacreon]

It does impact the amount of self-loathing.

[BearOdinson]

In all fairness, US foreign aid to Israel didn’t take off until the Yom Kippur war.

[Pan Zagloba]

Yes, Israeli founders were socialists in the British tradition, and their Labor party ran the country till after Yom-Kippur war of 1973 ruined their standing sufficiently. I read some Ephraim Kishon satires of Israel when I was a teenager, and fuck if they weren’t bang-on for my notionally-Marxist socialist experience.
Especially the one about police inspector who had an uncanny ability to find people holding illegal amounts of foreign currency, with literally 0% mistake rate. His method? Open a phonebook to a random address and raid it.

[John Titor]

The kibbutz model was (and in some cases still is) explicitly socialist and Israel was pretty damn left-leaning in their early decades, what with most of their political class being left-wing European Jews.

[BearOdinson]

The right in Israel was always marginalized until Begin became PM. Israel has moved way right economically over the last 30 or so years.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

Speaking of kibbutz, my wife had to attend a conference for professional deaf interpreters, and one of the sessions given started with a long explanation of Jewish history and the kibbutz system, and ended with a demand that deaf people band together and each pitch in $1,000 a month to set up a special deaf-only commune where cars are banned and utopia is achieved because communes ALWAYS totally work, right??

[Trigger Warning]

What the fuck?

[rts]

India, kind of.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

“Unless your definition of “free market” is so True Scotsmanny that no country currently or ever existing satisfies it.”

Of course not!! The Icelandic Commonwealth was the ONE true free market.

[Pan Zagloba]

I just looked it up and damn, that’s awesome.
Especially since I started a Norse Pagan CK2 playthrough – so I need to know what to keep an eye out for and crush it before it spreads!

[BearOdinson]

You are the second member of the commentariat who has mentioned a Norse Pagan CK2 playthrough. I will have to check this out!

[Pan Zagloba]

It’s huge fun. You get to raid for plunder, sacrifice people to Odin, subjugate other tribes, and reform the Norse-Germanic faith to better withstand conversions by the Christians. You can form the kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, or even the (completely ahistorical) Empire of Scandinavia, which, wiki tells me, prevents the Norse from splitting into Swedes, Danes, Norwegians etc.
Trick is, eventually you have to move from Tribal to Feudal organization, because, if you happen to be fertile, stupid Elective Gavelkind succession will always divvy up your realm between your sons, and you can only play the direct heir.
It’s a super-Aspergy game, but as a strategic, emergent gameplay and “shit just exploded, how do I recover?” experience, it’s second to none. Wait till it’s on sale, and get the ‘DLC collection that doesn’t collect all the DLC but has the stuff you want’ edition. Charlemagne (769 start) and Way of Life are good additional DLC packs to pick up for Norse playthrough.

[BearOdinson]

Poland and the Czech Republic are very good examples! Vaclav Klaus is awesome!

[rts]

Kang?

[DEG]

New Zealand moved away from socialism in the 80s.

[C. Anacreon]

Moved all the way down to the Southern Hemisphere, I’m told.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Nope. Not even Sweden qualifies. Being one of the last countries to industrialized, it quickly modernized applying good old fashion classical liberal policies. When it became wealthy, productive and educated, that’s when the progressives and socialists run in to raid, rape and pillage – excuse the pun – in order to begin redistributing the wealth. After they’re done messing things up (including turning normal people into dependents of the state by enabling them through welfare – sorry ‘assistance’), they go back to ‘unfettered capitalism’ to return to innovation and productivity.

And the cycle goes.

[Hyperion]

Venezuela is due for one hell of a resurgence if that is true. What happened to the Russians?

[Free Society]

State capitalism, and all things state, are more their thing now.

[Pan Zagloba]

They went from crony socialism headlong into crony capitalism. The kind that would make a 19th century railroad contractor go “damn, man, show some ethics.”

[John Titor]

Russia happened to the Russians. They’ve never had a ‘free market’ period in their history, unless you count the Novgorod Republic and that’s pushing it.

[VG Zaytsev]

Russia was fucked by the mongol invasions, followed by two plus centuries of domination and never recovered.

[lafe.long]

The universe is expanding at an accelerating rate?or is it?

Now, a team of scientists led by Professor Subir Sarkar of Oxford University’s Department of Physics has cast doubt on this standard cosmological concept. Making use of a vastly increased data set – a catalogue of 740 Type Ia supernovae, more than ten times the original sample size – the researchers have found that the evidence for acceleration may be flimsier than previously thought, with the data being consistent with a constant rate of expansion.

[thrakkorzog]

Dark energy matters.

[Hyperion]

It’s all science and almost guaranteed to be refuted at some point in the future as new theories are proven closer to reality. Except global warming, for that the science is settled.

[TheZeitgeist]

Can this really be a surprise to anyone? Always amazed how everyone bandies about dark energy being majority of everything in universe, without mentioning the contention is mostly based on small sample of ‘standard candle’ supernovae that in the interim we’ve been realizing aren’t even that ‘standard.’

[MetalBard]

I never bought the accelerating expansion argument. Personally I think the universe expands for billions perhaps trillions of years until gravity takes over, and the universe collapses again, only to explode again into another big bang in a continuous never ending cycle.

[Jerryskids]

I think for Halloween I’ll go dressed as a Hillary Clinton supporter.

[Hyperion]

This will get you dog poo wrapped up as candy if you come to my house.

[GILMORE?]

The Onion’s version of a Gary Johnson commentary: “Look, I Wish I Were Better at This Also.”

What’s remarkable is that this is closer to a typical Obama expression

He’s phrase it as “I’m As Disappointed As You We Aren’t Doing Better”

“I’m Also Mad As Hell About All These Wars I Started”

“The IRS Should Never Be Used For Political Purposes, And Its Infuriating That’s Happening”

“No One Is Angrier Than Me About The Huge Bills Obamacare Is Causing You”

etc

I guess Obama’s thing is pretending to be mad because it means someone else fucked up. Gary just goes, “Dude, I know! I totally suck!”

[bacon-magic]

Gilmore,
Careful with the bolding, it looks like a Hihn post and I almost skipped past it. /Bully

[GILMORE?]

Elizabeth Warren = Nasty Girl

[GILMORE?]

whoops – sorry, meant that elsewhere

[bacon-magic]

Bully!

[gaoxiaen]

Forgiven.

[MetalBard]

It’s how Obama has been able to avoid the blame for his 8 years of failings. He constantly goes out there and campaigns against the messes he creates and supports. Sadly it has been very effective.

[OneOut]

It ain’t like his voters are the smartest crackers in the box.

But they are loyal in their ignorance.

[Idle Hands]

Adnan Syed, the man convicted of murder who was the subject of the first season of the podcast Serial, has filed a motion seeking bail while awaiting a new trial.

He was totally involved/or new the person who did it. The best part of the serial was how many people thought real life murder investigations were like Law and Order where there was a clear cut 100% guilty person.

[Free Society]

EarlyDemocrat voting has begun in several states.

[lafe.long]

Warren to Trump: We ‘Nasty Women’ Have Had it with Guys Like You

“Women have had it with guys like you, and ‘nasty women’ have really had it with guys like you,” said Warren, referring to Trump calling Clinton that during their final debate. “Nasty women are tough, nasty women are smart, and nasty women vote. And on Nov. 8, we nasty women are going to march our nasty feet to cast our nasty votes to get you out of our lives forever.”

#NWLM

[GILMORE?]

I beat you by 1 minute but mistakenly replied to myself above.

[MetalBard]

I can’t tell you how bad I want Trump to win. The more these people talk the more I want to see Trump win and wipe that smug look right off their faces.

[Don Escaped Texas]

there’s enough smugness to go around….why pick sides?

[MetalBard]

The media picked a side, the crony capitalists on wall street picked a side, the political establishment picked a side, and these are all assholes who deserve to lose on November 8th. The fact that almost every corrupt piece of shit in Washington, the media, and wall street have decided to back Hillary, should be reason enough to vote Trump.

[VG Zaytsev]

Yep.

Funny how the flagship “libertarian” publication finds itself on the same side as all those other shitheads, isn’t it.

[Free Society]

I mainly just want to see Nick Gillespie try to act all hip and down with the youngsters while he goes full smug anger, I want to see Shikha Dalmia absolutely lose her mind and drown in the hyperbole of her own words and I want to see Robby Soave write a series of social signalling articles premised on the notion that Trump winning the election is Not Okay.

[John Titor]

See, for me it’s less that I want Trump to win, and more I really want to avoid the unending wave of smugness that will come with Clinton wins. These people will endlessly pat themselves on the back about how they managed to stop Hitler the Second for years.

[Crusty Juggler]

I am on record as saying I hope Trump wins so rape culture is reinstated in this country. There are so many secretaries that need a good goosin’, and it’s shameful we currently live in a society that deprives me of a white man’s right to goose them any time I damn well please.

[John Titor]

In Clinton’s America, only Bill gets to sexually harass the help.

In Trump’s America, sexual harassment is FOR THE PEOPLE. #MakeAmericaGreatAgain

[MetalBard]

I like it.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

We’ll be at war with Russia and they’ll be congratulating themselves on how they averted the nuclear war by keeping that blowhard Trump away from The Button.

[John Titor]

Nasty women are tough, nasty women are smart, and nasty women vote

Nasty women are, by the very definition, none of those things. Just nasty. Learn2English, Chief Warren.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Listen, if Liz Warren wants to incorporate 90’s R&B lyrics into her speeches, she has the right to do so.

[John Titor]

It just reminds me too much of that damn “Well-behaved women seldom make history” bumper sticker. Makes me want to add a “…but some women are just cunts.” sticker below it.

[DesigNate]

Nasty women can’t figure out how to get a secure server set up or follow the fucking law. Nasty women also lie about being Native American to steal a teaching spot from someone more qualified.

[MetalBard]

To be honest I’m more angry that a university would consider race on an application then I woman lying to take advantage of it.

[GILMORE?]

Alan Alda Offers $1000 For Shitty Answers to Deep Questions

STONY BROOK, N.Y. (AP) ? Alan Alda wants scientists to answer a question for 11-year-old children: What is energy?

The actor is a visiting professor at the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University on eastern Long Island. He has been posing similar vexing questions to scientists since 2011.

He says it’s important for scientists to be able to communicate complex concepts in simple terms.

He previously has sought simple definitions of time, color and sound. His first question sought a definition of a flame? His annual contest continues to be called the “Flame Challenge.”

The judges are 11-year-olds around the world who access the contest online.

Winning scientists receive $1,000.

I presume most of these answers have already been written by other scientists throughout history, or wonderful analogies made… but that we’ve all grown so stupid that we need progressively dumber and dumber answers.

My own off-the-cuff attempt would be “Energy is the difference between stasis and motion”

The thought in my head was “maybe he should ask, “What is Money“?

[Don Escaped Texas]

energy is the ability to do work

money is a medium of exchange and a store of wealth

these definitions were so obviously true that I haven’t forgotten them in 40 and 30 years respectively

[GILMORE?]

re: Money

I meant more along the lines of “Maybe $1000 is shortchanging what you’re expecting in return”

[BearOdinson]

I have never cared for that definition of energy because when a closed system reaches thermal equilibrium, it is incapable of doing work. But there is thermal energy contained in the system.

The fact is, that energy as a whole isn’t as easy to define as some people think. As a matter of fact, energy itself is a rather contrived phenomenon. That is one reason why Newtonian motion is taught first. The idea of a force is a concrete phenomenon. Unfortunately, for many systems, it is way to cumbersome to calculate all of the individual forces as a function of time. Hence, the energy approach (in classical physics, the Hamiltonian approach) which primarily depends on the initial and final states, (particularly in a conservative field).

[Don Escaped Texas]

You’re more right than you know: that system at equilibrium certainly still has energy, but it’s potential to do work is relative to states outside the original control volume. When, as you have done, one backs away from the control volume of the system at equilibrium, you can see that the system certainly has (relative) energy.

There is no need to think of energy in terms of any given control volume for the purposes of defining it. Thermodynamics is great for explaining this: the conditions of matter can be used to define the enthalpy of any molecule; relative to absolute space/zero, it’s energy level is rather unambiguous.

[Don Escaped Texas]

Another point where you’re supremely correct: every theory relies on contrivances to explain anything.

Math is contrived: pi = 3.14 only on planets where the beings have ten fingers.
Units are contrived: gravity = 9.81m/s/s or 32.2ft/s/s…potato potatto.

In my example, enthalpy is contrived. But it is shown to be usefully accurate over and over. We do know the practical energy in a pound of steam versus a balloon of helium, even though both volumes might meet your definition of equilibrium.

The fabulousness of Einstein is that he predicted the energy in an intact atom before one was ever split. The symbols he used were contrived; the math he used was abstract; the answer he achieved was perfect. Accurate contrivance is the very point.

[PurityDiluting]

Media vs. Donald Trump

“If you’re going to rig an election, you want to rig it in the direction it might seem plausibly to have gone anyway. Hence, in this rigging, a large majority will surely applaud the outcome?so, in that sense, the voters voted for the rigging. Therefore, ipso facto, it’s not rigged.”

No mention in the article about media coverage of Gary Johnson

[GILMORE?]

Observation =

I think its interesting that for the past 9-12 months, you’d pretty much see Trump’s face on the cover of papers/websites every day, and a half dozen articles about “something he said”

In the past 2 weeks, the emphasis has seemed to shift, where now pictures of Clinton are more often on the front page, and the stories are about “Stuff Clinton Said ABOUT Trump”

his name is still plastered all over everything, but it seems like a sea-change in the way the media has tilted its focus. More

Maybe its just my own bias-confirming perspective (*constantly looking for what the underlying MSM strategy actually is)… but it seems like they’ve always known that no one could possibly tolerate months and months of seeing./listening to Clinton, so they saved up the last weeks before the election to suddenly change the focus, and now make her the center of everything… while simultaneously emphasizing her growing margin of victory and her criticisms of “the other guy”

Maybe this is completely wrong. Just a thought.

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

Not a sermon?

[bacon-magic]

#401

[Horatio]

Hopefully that calculus continues for the duration of her term. Avoiding the sight and sound of Obama has been a chore these past 8 years.

Question: I think “misogynist!” will become the new “racist!” on the lefty auto-retort button, but do you think that will quiet or further enrage the race hustlers? I think I know the answer.

[Azathoth!!]

Term?

[Crusty Juggler]

Lawmakers are demanding answers from the Defense Department following the report (noted in the morning links) that the California National Guard is trying to force veterans to repay signing bonuses they were handed (but apparently were not entitled to).

Do you know who else was handed something they weren’t entitled to?

[bacon-magic]

Crusty getting handed a beauty contest judge badge?

[Agent Cooper]

Walt Weiss?

[thrakkorzog]

Marisa Tomei?

[lafe.long]

R.I.P. JACK CHICK ? HERE’S HIS TOP 5 MOST HOMOPHOBIC RELIGIOUS TRACTS

We bring you the sad news that Jack T. Chick has died October 23. He died in his sleep at the age of 92. Jack T. Chick has been called the world’s most-read cartoonist ? though he never worked at DC or Marvel.

[Pan Zagloba]

I shall always remember Dark Dungeons. Thank you, Mr. Chick, for making D&D look much, much cooler than it actually is.

[John Titor]

This is the most hilariously intimidating way to describe D&D I’ve ever seen.

[GILMORE?]

Whomever gets the “Action shots” of fighting in Mosul needs to go back and read like the Frank Capra guide to ‘how to get great war footage’.

Its generally lots of “guys smoking cigarettes and looking bored”, or shooting a gun in a way that looks like its entirely posed. because they’re not behind cover = they’re just standing straight up in the middle of a road pasting a building 1000 yards away. and meanwhile right next to them are 2 guys smoking cigarettes and looking bored.

Another take-away… there are like 20 different ‘uniforms’ for iraqi forces. And none of them are ever being worn in any consistent way, such that they sort of look like a combination of military contractors and half-hearted rear-echelon troops backing them up. Which may in fact be close to the truth.

The one thing i think you can be pretty sure about is = the “Guys In Black” are the ones doing the real fighting. They call them “Elite Iraqi Counter-Terror Units”… but my guess is that they’re the only ones who are genuinely keen to kill the shit out of the ISIS dudes, so they are sort of given ‘right of way’ by everyone else.

[GILMORE?]

*Robert Capa was actually who i was thinking of.

[Pan Zagloba]

While Capra was making propaganda at home (and Why We Fight is still one of my favorites), John Ford was getting shot at by the Japanese.
Some of his shots ended up in Midway, which…wasn’t very good film, sadly.

[GILMORE?]

examples =

Uniform confusion = One of them has “SWAT” on his chest rig?, another seems to have on current Navy Working Uniform…? Some dudes seem squared away, others mix in their Adidas sweatshirts? etc.

I

[That's A Bingo!]

Of course Gilmore criticizes the uniforms. I’m sure your military would look dapper as hell.

[GILMORE?]

At least they’d *match*

[That's A Bingo!]

You’d have a uniform uniform.

[The Late P Brooks]

Robert Capa

Not Ernie Pyle?

[notJoe]

Soooo…if I invented a drinking game involving Curious George, does that mean I’m automatically headed for Hell?

[elizabethgmurillo]

I’ve made $64,000 so far this year working online and I’m a full time student. Im using an online business opportunity I heard about and I’ve made such great money. It’s really user friendly and I’m just so happy that I found out about it. Heres what I do,

—————– http://YoutubeJobs.Nypost55.com

[JayU]

And Germany was like “you can’t call it that because it isn’t.”

I hate Germany Nazis.

[DEG]

I wonder what will happen with my car (2013 Genesis) once I get past 100K miles. I read some talk on Genesis owners forums about folks being concerned with the GDI engine’s longevity. While GDI has been around for a while (aircraft if I remember correctly), it’s fairly new for cars.

I chuckled when I read this bit in the article about Tesla:

As a result, Tesla ranks among the “Less Reliable” brands on Consumer Reports’ list. The SUV’s dependability is rated as “Much worse than average.” Still, overall owner satisfaction with the vehicle is rated as “Excellent.”

[Tonio]

An all-electric SUV? LOL. You mean a mom-mobile. Cause real SUVs are, or at least were, durable vehicles which could do a bit of offroad, like to places where there are no charging stations.

[DEG]

Thanks! I’ll watch later.

[JayU]

To be fair, an all-electric SUV is probably easier to fill up in the middle of nowhere than a combustion engine SUV since you can create electricity with a potato but you can’t create unleaded gasoline with one.

[TheZeitgeist]

Real SUV’s to me are body-on-frame (trucks), CUV’s are unibody, and Teslas are…a solid battery plate with a shell sitting on top. One thing I imagine to avoid in Model X is off-road centering on a rock.

[DEG]

Thanks, I’m even more pessimistic about my car’s longevity.

[DenverJ]

No, but you can make alcohol with one.

[DEG]

I never liked working on cars, but I like cars and driving.

I got 227K miles out of my last car, a Crown Vic which I bought new.

I doubt I’ll reach that point with my current car.

That’s an interesting idea, buying an old, fully restored vehicle as a daily driver.

[DOOMco]

I went with just old.

[Idle Hands]

I was expecting this.

[Idle Hands]

I was expecting this.

[Agent Cooper]

I was expecting this.

[Sir Digby Chicken Caesar]

I wasn’t expecting this.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Diesels have been using DI forever. They also use significantly higher pressures than Gas (20k psi vice .75-2.5K psi for gas). durability is only a problem if a specific company under-designs.

The carbon build-up is a problem, but is easily solved by occasionally running sea-foam or like cleaner thru the intake. A little in the tank helps with cleaning the injectors as well.

Worst case is ethanol damage, but that is likely at +200k.

[DOOMco]

Timing belt vs chain vs gear.

[A frilly pink thing]

“The carbon build-up is a problem, but is easily solved by occasionally running sea-foam or like cleaner thru the intake. A little in the tank helps with cleaning the injectors as well.”

This has been demonstrated conclusively to have no impact on carbon buildup, it is a total myth.