A.M. Links: Clinton Leads Trump in Polls, Twitter to Lay Off 9% of Its Workforce, Canada and E.U. Eye Free Trade Agreement

Damon Root | 10.27.2016 9:00 AM

Todd Kranin

New poll: Hillary Clinton 48 percent, Donald Trump 42 percent, Gary Johnson 5 percent, Jill Stein 1 percent.
Another new poll: Hillary Clinton 44 percent, Donald Trump 41 percent, Gary Johnson 7 percent, Jill Stein 3 percent.
"Inside the Trump bunker, with 12 days to go."
Twitter is laying off 9 percent of its workforce.
Canada and the European Union are on the verge of signing a major free trade agreement.
The Chicago Cubs won game two of the World Series last night against the Cleveland Indians. The series is now tied at 1-1.

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Fist of Etiquette 8 years ago

Hillary Clinton 48 percent, Donald Trump 42 percent, Gary Johnson 5 percent, Jill Stein 1 percent.

So. Close.
1. UnCivilServant 8 years ago
  
  Funny thing that if you replaced Hil with 'Remain' and Donald with 'Leave' and the remainder with 'Undecided', those were the numbers from the last pre-Brexit poll. I don't know why that stood out to me.
  1. WTF 8 years ago
    
    I heard Nigel Farage on the radio yesterday making that very point. He noted that regarding the Brexit vote, the polls didn't capture many first-time voters who were motivated to vote "leave" and hadn't really bothered to vote previously. He suspected the same might be true regarding Trump based on the apparent disparity in enthusiasm among Trump v. Hillary supporters. I guess we'll see in a couple of weeks.
    1. NebulousFocus 8 years ago
      
      538 looked at this theory, iirc the lack of newly registered voters was the reason to doubt it.
      1. WTF 8 years ago
        
        There could also be a lot of registered voters who typically don't bother to vote, especially since a lot of states have automatic registration through the DMV. 538's analysis wouldn't pick that up.
        
        ImogenHorton 8 years ago
        
        I'm making over $15k a month working part time. I kept hearing other people tell me how much money they can make online so I decided to look into it. Well, it was all true and has totally changed my life.
        Go this web Site and click to Tech tab to start your work... http://www.Trends88.com
    2. Rufus The Monocled 8 years ago
      
      Can it be people are keeping their plans to vote Trump to themselves lest they be chastised?
      1. WTF 8 years ago
        
        Could be.
      2. thom 8 years ago
        
        One of the very first elections I voted in, I voted for Jesse Ventura for governor of MN, who, in terms of appeal, I consider a similar candidate to Trump. I just looked up the pre-election polling for that race from Minnesota Public Radio:
        
        "In a match-up, Humphrey captures 44 percentof the vote, compared to 31 percent for Coleman, with 15 percent backing Reform Party candidate Jesse Ventura and 10 percent remain undecided."
        
        To me, this election has turned into a referendum on class: those who are being left behind are lashing out against those who are capturing all the gains, only aggravated by the fact that America's elites find it incredibly amusing to point out how stupid and simple the underclass really is.
        
        I think if Trump can get unemployed 18-25 year olds, service workers, etc to turn out for him, he winds. Otherwise he loses. They're likely the ones being missed in the polls.
        
        PurityDiluting 8 years ago
        
        Final pre-election polls had Ventura at about 25% and the other two candidates roughly tied with 33%
        
        MN candidates neck and neck
        
        thom 8 years ago
        
        Ok - the one I saw was two weeks out.
        
        WTF 8 years ago
        
        So Ventura was trailing by 8 points. And won.
        
        PurityDiluting 8 years ago
        
        Yep, I've been clinging to that article in hopes that it would apply to Gary this time
        
        B.P. 8 years ago
        
        "I think if Trump can get unemployed 18-25 year olds, service workers, etc to turn out for him, he winds."
        
        Trump is going to "wind" regardless of the outcome of the election.
      3. LynchPin1477 8 years ago
        
        Can it be people are keeping their plans to vote Trump to themselves lest they be chastised?
        
        I have never, ever understood this. Are people worried that the pollsters are going to publish the names and responses of the people they polled? Or are people afraid that the random person calling them at 7:00 pm is going to tease them if they say they are voting for Trump? Or is the "lying to pollsters" thing just an urban legend?
        
        WTF 8 years ago
        
        The Bradley Effect is an actual phenomenon. I don't know how much it applies to Trump.
        
        LynchPin1477 8 years ago
        
        But where is the social pressure to lie to pollsters coming from, and why doesn't it also operate in the voting booth? Maybe it's real, but I don't understand it. I'd like an explanation from someone who actually lied to a pollster.
        
        Ice Nine 8 years ago
        
        You don't have to have your reply to the pollster published to be embarrassed by it. It is not hard for me to understand why someone would not want even an anonymous pollster to know it. It certainly wouldn't matter to me and, I presume, to you but there are people like that. As for the voting booth, really? It doesn't apply there because there is only one person there privy to your decision -- you.
        
        kbolino 8 years ago
        
        I'd like an explanation from someone who actually lied to a pollster.
        
        Why would they give you an honest explanation if they won't give an honest answer in the first place? I feel like this effect, presuming it exists in statistically significant numbers, is going to be impossible to identify and explain by its very nature.
        
        I think the bigger problem has always been and always will be one of sampling and statistical methods. It's not so much that people lie, it's that the people being sampled aren't representative and the methods being employed do not capture the variability.
        
        Pay up, Palin's Buttplug! 8 years ago
        
        I'd like an explanation from someone who actually lied to a pollster.
        
        Not an election but when I was HS, we took drug use, sex, violence, etc., surveys. My friends and I always lied because we thought the surveys were bullshit and we wanted to mess with the pollsters.
        
        Pay up, Palin's Buttplug! 8 years ago
        
        Are people worried that the pollsters are going to publish the names and responses of the people they polled?
        
        Socialization.
        
        People want to get along, so they'll tell the pollster what they think the pollster wants to hear or say the name of the less controversial candidate in order to get the pollster to like them, not think less of them, not stir the pot, etc.
  2. Brochettaward 8 years ago
    
    I've tried to avoid the conspiracy talk on polls, but it's a bit harder to do that when you have the Podesta email talking about rigging polls.
    1. Tonio 8 years ago
      
      How do you know the email is real? [Proffers role of heavy duty tinfoil to 'Chetta]
    2. Calidissident 8 years ago
      
      Are you referring to the one talking about oversampling (which is the only one I'm aware of)? Oversampling in polling refers to taking larger samples of certain demographic groups that wouldn't be captured enough in a general sample, in order to more accurately gauge their attitudes about things. This is something campaigns especially do a lot with internal polling, which is what the email seems to be talking about. It's not referring to oversampling Democrats, which wouldn't even make sense because the email was sent in January 2008, a time Clinton was in the beginning of a primary battle with Obama. Let me know if there's another email you're referring to.
      1. Brochettaward 8 years ago
        
        Meanwhile, CNN does it's debate polling with the majority already being Clinton supporters (what, as high as 58% for the second debate), and several polls regularly overshoot Democratic representation by roughly ~5% or more. It may not be a conspiracy, but they are as shit aren't capturing what the actual electorate will look like in many cases.
        
        gaoxiaen 8 years ago
        
        Duh!
        
        Free Society 8 years ago
        
        I don't think it's a conspiracy. I think it's a bunch of activists masquerading as journalists that follow the same propaganda industry standards.
        
        MikeT1986 8 years ago
        
        Part of polling is adjusting your numbers to be more demographically representative. Oversampling is only a problem if they don't adjust the numbers properly.
        
        Calidissident 8 years ago
        
        I'm skeptical of these claims because Republicans said literally the exact same thing in 2012 and in the end the polls underestimated Obama's margin. Party identification is not static and there's not always an equal number of Republicans and Democrats. On top of that, polling will naturally produce variations from whatever the true number is (so, for example, if the Democrats really have a +5 advantage, you'll see polls where they're +8 or +2 or whatever).
        
        Brochettaward 8 years ago
        
        When polls routinely and consistently produce the same over inflated Democratic margins, that's more than suspicious. It's not just natural variation when it's a pattern.
        
        Hillary is not Obama. Demographics that don't historically show-up aren't likely to do so for Hillary.
        
        Calidissident 8 years ago
        
        "When polls routinely and consistently produce the same over inflated Democratic margins, that's more than suspicious."
        
        That's circular reasoning, because you're assuming the margin is over-inflated.
        
        Hillary isn't as well-liked as Obama, but her opponent is a very good motivator for her base to turn out, and he's alienated a lot of potential GOP voters himself. It's not that difficult IMO to see that all balancing out.
    3. Pay up, Palin's Buttplug! 8 years ago
      
      the Podesta email talking about rigging polls
      
      This email?
      1. TheZeitgeist 8 years ago
        
        Who wants to get put on (another) sketchy government list maintained by likes of Preet and the gang?
        
        Just hit the Wikileaks 'Donate' button and give them $$$ from OECD-compliant (i.e. trackable) financial institution.
  3. Calidissident 8 years ago
    
    The final Brexit polls were tight. Remain had had a lead for a while, but Leave closed in the last few weeks.
    1. UnCivilServant 8 years ago
      
      If I were at home and had more time, I'd dig out the poll which had these exact numbers.
      
      I'm afraid I'm at work. Yes, I know there were polls close to the vote that had 52-48 Remain as the result. I was commenting more on the sense of deja vu the numbers had given me since I'd seen the brexit poll just last night.
      1. Calidissident 8 years ago
        
        There very well may have been a poll with those numbers. I'm just saying that the polling average was very tight, and that's more predictive than any single poll.
        
        T.F.G. 8 years ago
        
        You are correct.
        
        No, Trump is probably not going to win. It's not this one poll, but what they all show.
        
        Lord Rollingpin 8 years ago
        
        'Very tight'
        No, not at all. At 10pm that evening when counting began the opinion in both camps was that remain had won, all that remained was to see by how much. That's why the outcome was such a shock. The first significant result came in from Sunderland, I think, it was expected to be a majority for leave but the majority was much larger than expect. A wonderful night.
    2. kbolino 8 years ago
      
      Also worth noting: once you get into 52-48 territory, the margin of error for 95% confidence covers the spread (assuming every vote swings from one side to the other). In other words, the result is indeterminate from a statistically honest perspective at that level of confidence. Even so, 95% confidence, while the default choice for popular statistics reporting, is at best only going to cover the outcome about 95% of the time.
      1. MarkLastname 8 years ago
        
        Not necessarily as you say. It depends on how consistent the margin is. If every poll over a long period of time shows 52-48, then the person with 52 is almost certainly going to win. If the average is 55-45 but there's lots of variation then it may be a close race. The variation in the difference across time and geography, not the difference itself, is what matters.
2. Rufus The Monocled 8 years ago
  
  Hello.
  1. Tonio 8 years ago
    
    Bon jour, Rufus!
    1. Aloysious 8 years ago
      
      Heh. You made me think of Vinnie Jones.
      
      Bon jour
3. gaoxiaen 8 years ago
  
  The only important number is Gary Johnson 5%. Break the rigged duopoly.
  1. PurityDiluting 8 years ago
    
    In reaching that 5% ($10 million) threshold, your vote cancels out 19 ClinTrump voters.
    1. Calidissident 8 years ago
      
      Really missed an opportunity by keeping the "n" in there.
Fist of Etiquette 8 years ago

Another new poll: Hillary Clinton 44 percent, Donald Trump 41 percent, Gary Johnson 7 percent, Jill Stein 3 percent.

Reason sees a poll and just has to grab it by the p***y.
1. Florida Hipster 8 years ago
  
  I choose to believe this poll because it confirms my bias.
  1. UnCivilServant 8 years ago
    
    I choose not to believe polls because I've oft derided them.
    1. straffinrun 8 years ago
      
      I live my life in the margin of error.
      1. Bobarian (Would Chip Her) 8 years ago
        
        I live my life swinging on polls.
        
        straffinrun 8 years ago
        
        Watch out for YouGov. Gave me a rash.
        
        straffinrun 8 years ago
        
        Watch out for YouGov. Gave me a rash.
        
        MarkLastname 8 years ago
        
        Gave the squirrels a rash too apparently.
      2. Tom Bombadil 8 years ago
        
        I live my life like there's no tomorrow.
        All I have, I had to steal
        Least I don't need to beg or borrow
        Yes I'm livin' at a pace that kills
        
        /Running with the Donald
  2. Tonio 8 years ago
    
    I don't trust polls because I know that I never, ever respond to them and that there is an uncountable number of other people who also don't participate in them.
    1. robc 8 years ago
      
      And some always lie.
    2. Doctor Whom 8 years ago
      
      Once, against my better judgment, I picked up. None of the questions came with what would have been my honest answer to every one of them, which was "None of the above."
      1. Pay up, Palin's Buttplug! 8 years ago
        
        I've taken those surveys? they try to fit people in with certain predetermined answers even if they disagree with all of them.
    3. RBS 8 years ago
      
      I participated in one once. Back in 08. The pollster called my parents house while I was dog/house sitting. I was about 4 scotches deep when I answered the phone and pretty much went full Paultard. As far as I know that was last time anyone called to poll my parents.
    4. BoTardESQue 8 years ago
      
      Tonio- ^This. I don't even believe "exit polls".
      
      There are two types of people in the world-- Those who are happy to go out of their way to pronouce their views to the entire world, and the others who will say, "Fuck off, asshole!", and even try to stomp on the pollster's ankle as they go by (I got one good in 2004... lol)... I have seen no evidence that these positions are equally divided in terms of partisan affilliation.
2. Juvenile Bluster 8 years ago
  
  Drudge, getting more than a little bit desperate, actually tweeted out a story this morning about Trump winning a mock election at some High School in Minnesota.
3. gaoxiaen 8 years ago
  
  Putty?
Fist of Etiquette 8 years ago

"Inside the Trump bunker, with 12 days to go."

You know who else... had less that two weeks to go?
1. Florida Hipster 8 years ago
  
  Eva Braun?
2. UnCivilServant 8 years ago
  
  Someone quitting their job?
3. straffinrun 8 years ago
  
  Roberto Benigny?
4. Mike Schmidt 8 years ago
  
  Blondi?
5. Libertarian 8 years ago
  
  The Titanic?
6. toolkien 8 years ago
  
  The average Make A Wish kid?
  
  What? Too Soon?
7. Entropy Drehmaschine Void 8 years ago
  
  The German General Staff?
8. Anomalous 8 years ago
  
  Goebbels?
Tonio 8 years ago

How to annoy progs, using this one weird trick.

Prog: Blah, blah, blah, a household name like Bernie Sanders.
Tonio: Who? [Pauses] Oh, that guy.
Prog: [Sweet, salty ham tears.]
1. robc 8 years ago
  
  Sounds awesome, any more details?
  1. Tonio 8 years ago
    
    This was a friend from college who was far-left then and whose position has moderated only slightly in the intervening decades. I was trolling, of course, but I don't think my friend realized that. The setup was far too good to let go.
    1. invisible furry hand 8 years ago
      
      You are a very bad man. Let's be friends.
      1. Tonio 8 years ago
        
        Thanks. Squee!
        
        gaoxiaen 8 years ago
        
        Squeel like a pig. You got a real purty mouth.
2. Rufus The Monocled 8 years ago
  
  Yeh but if you pretend to not know a commie then they act like you're ignorant and can't be trusted to discuss enlightened politics.
  1. A frilly pink thing 8 years ago
    
    Well, that would be a shame.
  2. Tonio 8 years ago
    
    Winner, winner, poutine dinner.
    1. gaoxiaen 8 years ago
      
      +1 Tim Horton's.
Fist of Etiquette 8 years ago

Twitter is laying off 9 percent of its workforce.

WHO WILL BE LEFT TO BAN THE DEPLORABLES?
1. Scott Foval, Jr. 8 years ago
  
  Relax, everyone. It's a shadow layoff.
2. Griffin3 8 years ago
  
  Twitter has a workforce? Doing what? Code changes happen ... never?
  1. UnCivilServant 8 years ago
    
    Thought policing.
    1. gaoxiaen 8 years ago
      
      NEEDZ MOAR SOMA.
  2. Fist of Etiquette 8 years ago
    
    Everyone who works for them is a real character, and the staffing capacity is capped at-
    
    Well, you see where I'm going with this.
    1. Citizen X 8 years ago
      
      Cruisin' for a bruisin'?
  3. Diane Reynolds (Paul.) 8 years ago
    
    Well, Reddit has a CEO, so in this new day and age of posting text to a website, yeah, I can see Twitter needing a workforce.
3. Swiss Servator 8 years ago
  
  They just need to progban harder!
4. Brochettaward 8 years ago
  
  Twitter still has lots of users who demonstrate proper Good Think who are willing to do it for free.
5. rodent 8 years ago
  
  Not every tweep (yes, that's what we're called) is a progtard. In engineering there are a good number of libertarians. Hopefully I'll still be employed at the end of the day.
Scott Foval, Jr. 8 years ago

The Chicago Cubs won game two of the World Series last night against the Cleveland Indians. The series is now tied at 1-1.

Turning now to weather, today's high in Hell is expected to reach a chilly 45 degrees, with temperatures expected to drop further into next week.
1. Brett L 8 years ago
  
  Hell will still be warmer than Chicago.
  1. PurityDiluting 8 years ago
    
    The fan base on the losing side of Cubs/Indians will be heartbroken, but won't hate the fan base of the winning side. Just like this election amiright?
    1. Brett L 8 years ago
      
      The Cubs fans will start gearing up for 2126 if they win.
Fist of Etiquette 8 years ago

Canada and the European Union are on the verge of signing a major free trade agreement.

Cheap bags of milk for all.
1. Bobarian (Would Chip Her) 8 years ago
  
  What aboot Caxit?
2. gaoxiaen 8 years ago
  
  Poutine and Moulson's exports boom. Tim Horton's franchises in every city in the EU. How do you like them donuts?
LynchPin1477 8 years ago

Posted this in the Chapman "Trump is an idiot" article...

There is a story (and it may even be true) that someone once asked Einstein for his phone number, and he told them to ask his secretary. "Why should I memorize something when I know where to find it?" was supposedly Einstein's response.

I like that. If the presidency was purely a technocratic office then I think it would apply here. But the presidency isn't a purely technocratic office -- people imbue it with symbolism and expect that a president will live up to that symbolism. I don't romanticize the office that way, so I don't particularly care if someone can't answer a gotcha question about world leaders (Johnson's Aleppo gaffe was more substantial -- even a technocrat should be aware of the challenges they may be taking on). But as long as lots of people (including other world leaders) insist on imbuing the office with this symbolic power and moral authority, it's not unreasonable to want a president who can handle that power responsibly. It's just the way the world is.

I wish voters would place more value on having good policies and not being horribly corrupt instead of these types of aesthetic concerns, but I can understand why the aesthetics and "optics" of the presidency matter to a certain degree.
1. $park? is totally a Swifty 8 years ago
  
  The President is just the ultimate celebrity at this point and celebrity worship is at an all time high.
  1. gaoxiaen 8 years ago
    
    -1 star in Hollywood
2. Lee Genes 8 years ago
  
  My father used to play gin rummy with a fairly successful banker. When asked why he, a banker, needed a calculator to tally the score, he said "I pay people to do that".
3. Brochettaward 8 years ago
  
  My copy and pasted response:
  
  I am in no way signing off on the argument of Hillary supporters that simply being able to use the right nouns makes one fit for the presidency, but this is a little more important than memorizing a phone number. It's kind of difficult to think critically on foreign policy when you have no clue about the particulars. One issue with our foreign policy is that we have rank amateurs running the show who are intent on aggression. They see foreign policy as a way to show their policy bonafides and boost domestic support. The consequences of their stupid decisions be damned.
  
  In that sense, someone who is ignorant, but humble is a step-up. But libertarians who want to pretend that this is just information that can easily be looked up are kidding themselves. The people the president has to deal with on the national stage are far more familiar with American politics than vice versa.
  1. LynchPin1477 8 years ago
    
    That's fair. I still think not being able to name some people in an interview isn't so big a deal. Presumably before going into a summit or decision making process, the president is prepped. But maybe the interview shows an unwillingness or inability to adequately prepare in the first place. I tend to assume that someone going into something as high stakes as the presidency would prepare like crazy, but maybe that's because it's what I would do.
  2. A frilly pink thing 8 years ago
    
    "It's kind of difficult to think critically on foreign policy when you have no clue about the particulars."
    
    How long after one is briefed on "the particulars" does this change, seems to be the real question.
    
    To which I'd answer, immediately in some cases. So the idea that "libertarians who want to pretend that this is just information that can easily be looked up are kidding themselves" doesn't hold up.
    1. Brochettaward 8 years ago
      
      I think it's pretty arrogant to assume that you can just receive some briefings and become an expert on a particular subject instantly myself. Especially when a lot of the issues don't involve simple circumstances or questions.
      
      Now, if you have a predetermined set of conclusions, the particulars don't matter much. And I think a lot of libertarians fall into that category. The opposite of the Neocons who never saw a mess they didn't want to stick their fingers in. And maybe that's a good approach, if you can ground it in principle. You'll definitely screw up less, in my view.
      1. Rufus The Monocled 8 years ago
        
        Up here, a politician gets thrown into a cabinet position often not being an expert on the subject.
        
        MarkLastname 8 years ago
        
        Not often; almost always. Our system is probably meritocratic than monarchy. At least a bigness prince grows up seeing his dad meet with dignitaries. Here, it's just having been around a long time or being from a state to score support from that gets you on the boat.
    2. kbolino 8 years ago
      
      How long after one is briefed on "the particulars" does this change, seems to be the real question.
      
      This presumes that the briefers are themselves familiar and unbiased (or, at least, open about their biases) with regard to the particulars. A lot of American foreign policy misadventures seem to be driven by "advisors" with agendas and skewed perspectives.
      
      Of course, the people receiving these briefings are often all too happy to hear what they want to hear, or to be told a compelling narrative that is mostly fictitious.
      
      If the advisors are knaves and the advisees are fools, the problem is not one of information.
  3. gaoxiaen 8 years ago
    
    American exceptionalism, FTW.
4. Free Society 8 years ago
  
  I'm not going to be voting for Gary Johnson, I'd sooner not vote at all than go for that ticket. That said, Gary Johnson not knowing what Aleppo is completely irrelevant. It's the name of a shithole city in shithole country. A president could be brought up to speed on the relevance of that city in one briefing just before he makes a decision about what to do with it. I assume Johnson wouldn't be starting a war with Russia to secure a no-fly zone over Aleppo, so no it really doesn't matter. The interviewer could have asked, "what can be done about the situation in this shit hole city in middle east where X, Y and Z is happening right now?", I think even Gary could have managed to pull a satisfactory answer out of his ass. The Aleppo gaffe is such a non-issue, it's just been fabricated into one.
robc 8 years ago

SIV stole my schtick last night. I make the algebra comments in abortion threads. And he got the same response I always get (crickets). I thought there were more PKD fans here.

I figure derailing an abortion thread into an SF thread is the first step to sainthood.
1. Tonio 8 years ago
  
  Why do you spoil my fun, robc?
2. Chipper Morning Wood 8 years ago
  
  Polycystic kidney disease is no laughing matter.
  1. gaoxiaen 8 years ago
    
    Unless treated with nitrous oxide.
Fist of Etiquette 8 years ago

The Chicago Cubs won game two of the World Series last night against the Cleveland Indians.

The Cleveland Whatians?
1. Scott Foval, Jr. 8 years ago
  
  The Cleveland First Peoples
  
  The Cleveland Oppressed
  
  The Cleveland Not-The-Browns
  1. straffinrun 8 years ago
    
    If you're going to troll, The Cleveland Steamers.
2. Juvenile Bluster 8 years ago
  
  The Cleveland Indians can keep their name.
  
  The Washington Football Team must change theirs. Mostly because their fans are awful and the wailing and gnashing of teeth that would result from a name change would make me so very happy.
  1. Tonio 8 years ago
    
    The Seahawks?
    1. $park? is totally a Swifty 8 years ago
      
      *gasp* You can't say that!
      1. Bobarian (Would Chip Her) 8 years ago
        
        *gasp* You can't say that!
        
        sesuncedu 8 years ago
        
        But can he like it?
    2. Tonio 8 years ago
      
      That was more a slam on the characterization of it as the Washington team rather than the preferred DC team.
Bee Tagger 8 years ago

The Chicago Cubs won game two of the World Series last night against the Cleveland Indians. The series is now tied at 1-1.

B-b-b-ut ESPN's homepage asked the question "Did Kluber's dominance spell doom for the Cubs?" They wouldn't just ask a question like that for attention, would they?
1. robc 8 years ago
  
  The answer to headline questions is always No.
  1. PurityDiluting 8 years ago
    
    true dat. click bait 101
Bee Tagger 8 years ago

Multiple poll links? If you're going to mail it in, Root, don't use the Internet.
Domestic Dissident 8 years ago

How the "elites" blew up the world:
those who squandered America's economic and strategic advantage are trying to distract from their record.

This is one of the best pieces I've seen yet that summarizes the totality of the recent failures of America's so-called "elites", and why Hillary Clinton will only give more of the exact same shit we've had for the last sixteen years.
1. Juvenile Bluster 8 years ago
  
  And I don't have much hope for President Kaine's eventual successor either.
2. $park? is totally a Swifty 8 years ago
  
  If Hillary Clinton doesn't even rate getting a special name, why should we take your doom and gloom seriously?
  1. A frilly pink thing 8 years ago
    
    Shitlery Cunton.
    1. Swiss Servator 8 years ago
      
      Hitlery Clittoon?
      1. straffinrun 8 years ago
        
        HilareolaRottenspamBeanflickuntin.
        
        Hey, these are fun.
        
        WTF 8 years ago
        
        Supercalifagilisticexpialicankles.
        
        pan fried wylie 8 years ago
        
        whenever we go out, the people always shout, HilareolaRottenspamBeanflickuntin
        
        WTF 8 years ago
        
        LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA!
  2. Dick N. Bimbose (n?e Cooper) 8 years ago
    
    Who is Snukeapotamus?
  3. bacon-magic 8 years ago
    
    Prisoner 1253987666
3. Brochettaward 8 years ago
  
  But Hillary's brand of corruption and evil is familiar and comfortable!
4. LynchPin1477 8 years ago
  
  Eh, it is a mixed bag. They have some decent points but they also give in to a lot of the fallacies that Trump supporters often spout off.
5. T.F.G. 8 years ago
  
  Though I think elites suck, there's an awful lot of economic nonsense in that article.
6. toolkien 8 years ago
  
  Ron Bailey isn't going to like that link. No where near enough optimism and not one mention of a salubrious carbon tax.
  
  No Carbon Tax Exemption Voucher for you! Next!
Doctor Whom 8 years ago

I keep seeing this in my Facederp feed: "If you think Obamacare is the reason your insurance is high and not corporate greed, you're a special kind of stupid." It's almost as though they didn't have an argument beyond name-calling; isn't that weird?
1. robc 8 years ago
  
  Corporate greed is up 25% in 2017?
  1. commodious cam't contmpla.. 8 years ago
    
    It's especially corporate greed when corporations start reporting huge losses, consolidating, and withdrawing from markets.
    1. PurityDiluting 8 years ago
      
      The true sign of corporate greed is when corporations withdraw from markets. They surrender the field to one of their kind so each gets a monopoly market to themselves. That's why insurance can't be bought across state lines ... it's for the profits.
  2. thom 8 years ago
    
    I've noticed that if progs want to use the "corporate greed bad" argument to cover for the failure of their political programs, they always use the word "quarterly".
    
    "Executives who are less concerned with customer satisfaction than quarterly results."
    
    "Willing to let sick people die in order to prop up quarterly earnings."
    
    Etc, etc.
    
    I've come to think that they actually believe that companies will completely destroy their entire business model just to have a good quarter. Maybe some will, but those companies are going to last very long.
    1. pan fried wylie 8 years ago
      
      Just gotta last that one quarter, till the clock runs out, TOUCHDOWN BABY....huh, wha, where am I.
    2. Swiss Servator 8 years ago
      
      Motorola?
2. Juvenile Bluster 8 years ago
  
  Progs (and, lets be honest, pretty much everyone who identifies with the GOP) don't need facts, they have their feelings, which is what matters.
3. Tonio 8 years ago
  
  That and smug little posts about the salaries of various CEOs of insurance companies.
  
  They certainly aren't making an effort to win anyone over with smugness and insults, so it's all virtue signalling and butt-hurt.
  1. Chipper Morning Wood 8 years ago
    
    Virtue Signal and Butt Hurt would be a great comedic duo.
    1. Bobarian (Would Chip Her) 8 years ago
      
      If you like your comedy to make you cry.
  2. spqr2008 8 years ago
    
    My response to this is that I'd like the market to give a swift kick in the ass of every insurance company, which is what it would do if we deregulated insurance and made it purchasable across state lines. Then those CEOs would at least be out of work, even if they do get a golden parachute.
  3. Glide 8 years ago
    
    The CEO salary thing always make me chuckle. It's all optics, no facts.
    
    My CEO is paid a goddamn lot, but if you took his whole salary/stock options and applied it towards discounting our product it would save customers a solid penny at the pump per forty gallons of gas.
    
    I assume that a similarly insignificant impact would be felt by cutting insurance rates by the CEO's salary divided by the number of customers.
    1. To: Trshmnstr From: Hrod [C] 8 years ago
      
      I think it's funny when people who don't know the first thing about C-suite level executive and administrative positions bitch about how much the CEO of a Fortune 50 makes. He makes that much money because he has skills that 99.999% of the population don't have, and he has to tailor his entire life (not just 40/week) to running the business.
      
      It's kinda like some of the loser sports fanatics that I know from my undergrad. They bitched and moaned about the athletic director and the president of the university because the football team sucked, not knowing the first thing about running a public research institution or an athletic department. No, the athletic director's first priority isn't to give alumni better entertainment every saturday. He's not made of gold, and that's why he didn't fire the coach the second the football team started underachieving.
  4. In Time Of War 8 years ago
    
    Don't care. The democrats sold us down the river to the insurance companies, so they can fuck off.
4. Suthenboy 8 years ago
  
  I am under the impression that health insurance companies are essentially departments of the fedgov.
5. Red Rocks Dickin Bimbos 8 years ago
  
  "If you think Obamacare is the reason your insurance is high and not corporate greed, you're a special kind of stupid."
  
  Or, roughly translated, "Government regulations never impact the market unless the impacts are positive." Classic circular reasoning.
  
  As I've pointed out, blaming insurance companies for high health insurance costs is like blaming Sallie Mae for high tuition costs (and not coincidentally, both have outpaced inflation for decades). Insurance rates are set in response to market forces, and the fact of the matter is that these premiums wouldn't be so high if medical care providers weren't charging the insurance companies with sky-high service costs. We're one of the only countries where improvements in existing technology for a product or service (in this case, the healthcare industry) ends up resulting in higher costs over time--imagine if the cost of flat-screen TVs went up at 2-4 times the rate of inflation every year and you have a good example of how the healthcare industry operates.
  
  Enforce the anti-monopoly laws that are already on the books, require medical care providers to list the cost of their services beforehand, create a market environment that encourages cash-based payments and treats insurance as an emergency rather than a standard method of payment, and provide incentives for more people to enter the medical profession as doctors and nurses to increase the supply of medical care providers, and costs will start to come down.
  1. WTF 8 years ago
    
    treats insurance as an emergency rather than a standard method of payment
    
    But....MUH FREE BIRTH CONTROLZ!!!!
6. gaoxiaen 8 years ago
  
  No, it's normal.
7. Pay up, Palin's Buttplug! 8 years ago
  
  They've forgotten Obamacare put a cap on profits?
Bee Tagger 8 years ago

Canada and the European Union are on the verge of signing a major free trade agreement.

And our "conservative" presidential candidate is the most hostile of the two major party candidates to this kind of thing.
1. Possible Bot 8 years ago
  
  Something tells meant trade agreement with crony deals, not "free trade".
  
  But maybe all the talks to make mountains of paper work is really just the phrase "We agree to really, really, really free trade."
  
  But with a few million more "really's."
  1. gaoxiaen 8 years ago
    
    Fuck fair trade, as far as dumping coffee, rice, and chocolate. Eastern Europe prostitutes, however, is fair trade and labor mobility. They are a control on vice inflation.
  2. MikeT1986 8 years ago
    
    Like, you do get that with everything being a legal nightmare, and each state being a somewhat unique one it does require paperwork to explain how to adjudicate business practices with mixed jurisdictions right? Even if the agreement is very freeing, there's going to be a lot of nitty gritty detail involved.
Citizen X 8 years ago

"Inside the Trump bunker, with 12 days to go."

You know who else ended their efforts in a bunker?
1. robc 8 years ago
  
  Edith?
  1. robc 8 years ago
    
    Dammit, Archie makes more sense.
    
    I screwed up the joke.
    1. straffinrun 8 years ago
      
      Meathead.
      1. WTF 8 years ago
        
        Dammit!
        
        straffinrun 8 years ago
        
        I wasn't calling him a meathead. Just saying that would fit in a Bunker. Even Archie is wasn't such a transphobe.
        
        WTF 8 years ago
        
        I should have went with "dingbat" anyway.
        
        Dick N. Bimbose (n?e Cooper) 8 years ago
        
        Meathead fucks Sally Struthers. Ergo, he ends his "efforts" in a Bunker.
        
        I'd accept Archie as well.
        
        /jokeexplainer.com
    2. WTF 8 years ago
      
      You meathead.
  2. toolkien 8 years ago
    
    I wouldn't have minded ending my efforts inside gloria bunker.... before she got really fat anyway...
2. Juvenile Bluster 8 years ago
  
  Andre Maginot?
  1. Swiss Servator 8 years ago
    
    *salutes*
  2. Dick N. Bimbose (n?e Cooper) 8 years ago
    
    *surrenders*
3. invisible furry hand 8 years ago
  
  Greg Norman?
  1. EDG reppin LBC 8 years ago
    
    Thank you. I have internetted for the day. 🙂
4. Chipper Morning Wood 8 years ago
  
  The commentariat? No, wait, that's bunk, not bunker.
5. Suthenboy 8 years ago
  
  Me, the last time my brother wanted me to play golf?
6. commodious cam't contmpla.. 8 years ago
  
  This guy?
7. The Fusionist 8 years ago
  
  The Siamese Twins?
8. gaoxiaen 8 years ago
  
  Randy Weaver?
  1. gaoxiaen 8 years ago
    
    David Koresh?
Bee Tagger 8 years ago

Parscale is one of the few within Trump's crew entrusted to tweet on his behalf.

I have a feeling we're going to find out this was Daniel Day Lewis preparing for a role the whole time.
1. Florida Hipster 8 years ago
  
  "YOU HAVE MY SOUL, LEAVE ME MY NAME!!!"
  1. commodious cam't contmpla.. 8 years ago
    
    -1 dust on the feet of them that hang
2. Dick N. Bimbose (n?e Cooper) 8 years ago
  
  I... grab...your....milkshake!
invisible furry hand 8 years ago

Banned Halloween costumes, part 6,294:

Several NSW schools have banned students from wearing "creepy clown" outfits for Halloween celebrations in the wake of the phenomenon sweeping the United States and copy-cat pranksters appearing closer to home.
1. $park? is totally a Swifty 8 years ago
  
  So now it has jumped both oceans. That's so cool.
  1. robc 8 years ago
    
    Both? There are 2 more.
    1. $park? is totally a Swifty 8 years ago
      
      The real oceans.
    2. Citizen X 8 years ago
      
      Only two that matter.
    3. Chipper Morning Wood 8 years ago
      
      There was another one after Oceans 13?
2. Entropy Drehmaschine Void 8 years ago
  
  Can I wear my dropbear costume in the US?
  1. invisible furry hand 8 years ago
    
    hands off marsupial culture, shitlord!
    1. Cdr Lytton 8 years ago
      
      I'm with ifh. It belongs to them. Let's give it back.
      1. WTF 8 years ago
        
        +1 seven-foot tall bald guy ranting about aboriginal land rights.
        
        Dick N. Bimbose (n?e Cooper) 8 years ago
        
        Swiss?
        
        Swiss Servator 8 years ago
        
        *narrows gaze*
Longtorso, Johnny 8 years ago

THE ULTIMATE VOX.COM WORKPLACE ACCIDENT? Vox co-founder Matt Ygelsias has deleted several thousand tweets
1. Tonio 8 years ago
  
  For once, a Longtorso post of which we can all approve.
  1. commodious cam't contmpla.. 8 years ago
    
    I find Matt Yglesias triggering.
Rhywun 8 years ago

I'll be in Trump's bunk.
1. Florida Hipster 8 years ago
  
  Watch your pussy cornhole.
  1. Brochettaward 8 years ago
    
    I call it my man pussy, thank you very much.
    1. Tonio 8 years ago
      
      [Strokes chin and nods approvingly while looking at 'Chetta's backside.]
    2. Florida Hipster 8 years ago
      
      He Pussy
    3. Bobarian (Would Chip Her) 8 years ago
      
      Why are you calling Rhywun's cornhole yours?
      
      Kinda grabby, don'tcha think?
    4. IndyEleven 8 years ago
      
      Something something black blanket welcome...
      1. gaoxiaen 8 years ago
        
        Blanket party? Gomer Pyle disapproves, until he draws a bead on Sargeant Hartman.
        
        WTF 8 years ago
        
        Are you quitting on me? Well, are you? Then quit, you slimy fucking walrus-looking piece of shit! Get the fuck off of my obstacle! Get the fuck down off of my obstacle! NOW! MOVE IT! Or I'm going to rip your balls off, so you cannot contaminate the rest of the world! I will motivate you, IF IT SHORT-DICKS EVERY CANNIBAL ON THE CONGO!
    5. Pay up, Palin's Buttplug! 8 years ago
      
      Mangina!
Rufus The Monocled 8 years ago

Canada and the European Union are on the verge of signing a major free trade agreement."

That twit Chrystia Freeland's tears was the clinched. All of Europe came to its senses and realized how hard she worked on it.
1. UnCivilServant 8 years ago
  
  I thought that fell apart - what gives?
  1. tarran 8 years ago
    
    My guess is that Prime Minister Zoolander caved. That's what the current Canadian government's doctrine when confronted by a recalcitrant french speaking minority, right? 😉
    1. Rufus The Monocled 8 years ago
      
      Belgium struck a deal with Wallonia paving the way.
      1. invisible furry hand 8 years ago
        
        Is it wrong of me to giggle every time I hear Wallonia or Walloon? It is so hard to take them seriously when they sound like a country in a Marx Brothers movie.
        
        UnCivilServant 8 years ago
        
        It is not wrong.
        
        Do continue to enjoy whatever degree of laughter and amusement it brings.
        
        straffinrun 8 years ago
        
        Could be worse. They could be Phlegmish.
        
        Swiss Servator 8 years ago
        
        *scowls*
        
        Tonio 8 years ago
        
        [makes throat-clearing noises]
        
        Chipper Morning Wood 8 years ago
        
        Isn't there a place called Anttwerk in Belgium? I mean, really.
        
        gaoxiaen 8 years ago
        
        Or Pennsylvanian.
        
        commodious cam't contmpla.. 8 years ago
        
        Is it wrong of me to giggle every time I hear Wallonia or Walloon?
        
        Well, when I first heard it I assumed Australia.
  2. LynchPin1477 8 years ago
    
    It's all theater.
2. Tonio 8 years ago
  
  Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium was holding out for something, but they got what they wanted and the deal is on.
  1. Rufus The Monocled 8 years ago
    
    Being a hard core socialist region they probably wanted more cake.
    1. Swiss Servator 8 years ago
      
      Ag subsidies or such, ne?
Lee Genes 8 years ago

Word of the Day: Otheredness

Read on for maximum delusion.

This became evident when my Muslim values started to be berated by fellow feminists.

Last December, my Muslim identity ? an otheredness that will never change ? became strikingly clear when my friend announced that her birthday wouldn't be "my type of thing" because it involved alcohol. In the group chat where she mentioned it, it felt like I was suddenly a burden, an elephant in the room.

It didn't matter that the summer before, I had gone to bars with my friends or that my one of our non-Muslim friends also didn't drink. My "intersectional" feminist friend still felt compelled to make it clear that I was different, even though she knew I could come to the party without complaint.

The older I get, the more the once bright promise of solidarity appears to be a fading illusion.

Feminism, the supposed holy grail of acceptance, is the space in which I often feel the most rejected. And the microaggressions I experience in feminist spaces are an unexpected violence.
1. Juvenile Bluster 8 years ago
  
  Eventually all of the different progressive grievance groups are going to eat each other and it's going to be funny.
  1. WTF 8 years ago
    
    It already is funny. It will just progress into hilarity. These articles already read like the Onion, back when the Onion was funny.
    1. Tonio 8 years ago
      
      It's not the Onion's fault that reality just got too bizarre to parody.
      1. WTF 8 years ago
        
        Good point.
      2. Pay up, Palin's Buttplug! 8 years ago
        
        It is their fault to agree to be sold to a major Clinton donor.
  2. Citizen X 8 years ago
    
    "Intersectionality" is a frantic attempt to wish away the fact that, ultimately, identity groups are mutually exclusive.
    1. Lee Genes 8 years ago
      
      Interesting observation
    2. Chipper Morning Wood 8 years ago
      
      That's a cool observation. I would add that once you other the outgroup far enough away, it becomes too distant to be an effective outgroup and you start looking for a new one closer to home.
2. $park? is totally a Swifty 8 years ago
  
  felt like I was suddenly a burden, an elephant in the room.
  
  Gaining self-awareness?
  1. $park? is totally a Swifty 8 years ago
    
    Feminism, the supposed holy grail of acceptance, is the space in which I often feel the most rejected. And the microaggressions I experience in feminist spaces are an unexpected violence.
    
    Guess not.
    1. T.F.G. 8 years ago
      
      Yes. Feminism is the holy grail of acceptance. Everyone says that.
      1. UnCivilServant 8 years ago
        
        Yes. Feminism is the holy grail of acceptance. Everyone Militant Feminist says that.
        
        I know your comment was sarcastic.
        
        I just don't give a damn.
    2. WTF 8 years ago
      
      And the microaggressions I experience in feminist spaces are an unexpected violence.
      
      Somebody has no idea what violence is.
      1. thom 8 years ago
        
        "Violence" has come to mean: "anything I don't like."
  2. LynchPin1477 8 years ago
    
    Only until it starts to become painful. At that point they'll turn around and start violently lashing out at anything they see.
  3. gaoxiaen 8 years ago
    
    Your Ganesha Halloween costume didn't help any.
3. Griffin3 8 years ago
  
  Apparently you were the life of last summer's party, too.
4. Tonio 8 years ago
  
  While most decidedly sweet and salty, I guess those aren't really ham tears.
  1. Private Chipperbot 8 years ago
    
    Heh.
  2. Chipper Morning Wood 8 years ago
    
    He prefers going out on a lamb.
  3. Gadfly 8 years ago
    
    So, salty halal tears then? Doesn't quite have the same ring to it.
5. Cdr Lytton 8 years ago
  
  Is this from her video message released just before she strapped on a suicide vest and went to the infidels' b-day party?
Longtorso, Johnny 8 years ago

'I would consider suicide if she would take herself with me': Victim tells of humiliation by teenage 'Poison Ivy', 17, who bullies 'weak' men into degrading themselves online before encouraging them to kill themselves
New Zealand teen Hanna, or 'Poison Ivy, grooms unstable men online
Lures 'socially awkward guys' into sexually degrading themselves
Hanna, 17, later entices the vulnerable men to commit suicide
YouTube video has surfaced calling for victims to report Hanna
Her Twitter is flooded with photos from men declaring their love
One lover exclusively said he would consider suicide if she did the same
1. $park? is totally a Swifty 8 years ago
  
  Clearly the woman is to blame.
  1. Swiss Servator 8 years ago
    
    +1 lost shaker of salt?
    1. Scott Foval, Jr. 8 years ago
      
      *golf clap*
2. LynchPin1477 8 years ago
  
  Sounds hot
3. Florida Hipster 8 years ago
  
  Someone should post her picture to "roast me" on Reddit.
4. straffinrun 8 years ago
  
  Maybe I'm wrong, won't you tell me if I'm coming on too strong.
5. Citizen X 8 years ago
  
  Y'all, this is a cry for help. Obviously, Longtorso is one of her victims. DON'T DO IT, JOHNNY! We need to be able to mock your red pill garbage!
  1. WTF 8 years ago
    
    Johnny would respond that the Red Pill would have saved these guys from being taken advantage of like beta losers worshiping the pussy. You don't worship the pussy, you grab the pussy.
  2. Swiss Servator 8 years ago
    
    *applauds, hands plaque and trophy to X*
6. Crusty Juggler 8 years ago
  
  I sent her dick pics.
  1. Citizen X 8 years ago
    
    She immediately committed suicide.
    1. Crusty Juggler 8 years ago
      
      I have a gift.
      1. Scott Foval, Jr. 8 years ago
        
        I have a gift.
        
        You're not the only one.
        
        Bobarian (Would Chip Her) 8 years ago
        
        Reid, D-Nev., writes: "'That speech was phenomenal, Barack,' I told him. And I will never forget his response. Without the barest hint of braggadocio or conceit, and with what I would describe as deep humility, he said quietly: 'I have a gift, Harry.'"
        
        Is this the opening for the sexy time in the book? Because someone around here could be inspired to fill in the blanks... The thought of a SF post opening with those words would horrify me, and drive to read it all.
        
        WTF is wrong with me?
7. Half-Virtue, Half-Vice 8 years ago
  
  Smoking hot babe. Let people kill themselves I say.
Lee Genes 8 years ago

DU falls in love with Weld

Accepting that his presidential bid will fail, Libertarian vice presidential candidate Bill Weld on Tuesday obliquely urged voters to vote for Hillary Clinton.

In a Tuesday statement addressed to "those in the electorate who remain torn between two so-called major party candidates," the former Massachusetts governor told Republicans not to vote for the GOP nominee out of "fear for our country."
1. Citizen X 8 years ago
  
  I got an email from Weld this morning insisting that he didn't do that.
  1. Lee Genes 8 years ago
    
    His problem is that his de facto membership in the Democratic Party makes it believable.
    1. Citizen X 8 years ago
      
      It's amazing how obnoxious the LP candidates can be, and still be infinitely preferable to the Rs and Ds.
      1. Lee Genes 8 years ago
        
        They're at least pretending to like us.
        
        commodious cam't contmpla.. 8 years ago
        
        They're our Poison Ivy?
      2. Swiss Servator 8 years ago
        
        Ain't that the truth. I am thinking I am going to resist tarran's siren song of not voting so I can vote LP and at least try to help them get over the 5% mark.
        
        Citizen X 8 years ago
        
        Same here. Then i'll go home and drink a beer in the shower while thinking about my life.
        
        Swiss Servator 8 years ago
        
        I guess I will do the same, except I will probably need whisky.
        
        Crusty Juggler 8 years ago
        
        Thirdsies. It doesn't help that my polling place is within walking distance.
        
        Citizen X 8 years ago
        
        My polling place is within walking distance AND there's a bar on the way. I may be in trouble.
        
        My polling place is at a zoo, which has always struck me as animal cruelty.
        
        The Fusionist 8 years ago
        
        Hmmm...maybe the animals at the zoo should be gawking at the weird behavior of the humans.
        
        The Fusionist 8 years ago
        
        (present company excepted)
        
        Gadfly 8 years ago
        
        My polling place is within walking distance AND there's a bar on the way. I may be in trouble.
        
        You're only in trouble if you count the bar as being on the way instead of being on the way back.
        
        The Fusionist 8 years ago
        
        Yeah, what if you get so plastered that you...hmmm, I can't think of something a voter could do drunk which would be worse than they're probably going to do sober.
        
        The Fusionist 8 years ago
        
        (Not an endorsement of drinking, simply a sociological observation)
        
        Dick N. Bimbose (n?e Cooper) 8 years ago
        
        Nevernude?
        
        Tonio 8 years ago
        
        Which is, I suspect, the real reason the LP puts so much effort into running candidates for president.
        
        Dick N. Bimbose (n?e Cooper) 8 years ago
        
        I thought this said "ruining" instead of "running." I think the point, however, is the same.
        
        Lee Genes 8 years ago
        
        I'm going to drink but it will be in celebration of the end of someone's political career. It doesn't really matter whose at this point.
        
        Chipper Morning Wood 8 years ago
        
        Glass of wine for me, and washing my dick really fast, to get the feeling of unclean off me.
2. Chipwooder 8 years ago
  
  When it comes to Weld, Morris "Mo" Wanachuk from Slap Shot said it best: "That cunt is no good"
3. Brochettaward 8 years ago
  
  Speaking of which, it was funny to me how quickly the Johnson campaign issued a statement blaming media bias when they and other cosmotarians are so loath to admit it in other instances.
  1. Scott Foval, Jr. 8 years ago
    
    I'm almost shocked at the ongoing denial about voter fraud. These people will lie until they're blue in the face, spin when they're caught, make deals with the AG in the airport, run as anti-Bush while continuing his policies, decry war until they have their hands on the launch codes, but committing electoral fraud is a step too far. AAAAAND, the government in which we all have no confidence is magically competent when it comes to preventing electoral fraud.
    
    Right.
    1. WTF 8 years ago
      
      I'm almost shocked at the ongoing denial about voter fraud.
      
      See Calidissident above for a fine example.
robc 8 years ago

Yardsign count from Madisonville, KY on Sunday:

Trump 3
Johnson 0
Clinton for Prison 1
City Council race EVERY SINGLE YARD.

Apparently there is a coup in the works, they are trying to completely throw out the current council.
1. Swiss Servator 8 years ago
  
  It doesn't work 🙁 Our shitheels in our City Council got bounced for being complete asshats to every business in town during the last bubble burst. The new crew was completely co-opted within 2 years.
  1. robc 8 years ago
    
    Looked up details. 4Ds, 2Rs currently. 1 D running unopposed. 1D challenged by R. 1R challenged by D.
    
    2Ds and 1R challenged by independents.
    1. Swiss Servator 8 years ago
      
      Our council is "nonpartisan"...which is code for half Donkey, Half Elephant (all worthless).
      1. Mickey Rat 8 years ago
        
        I thought "non-partisan" meant "our government officials claim to be above partisan bickering by not publicly talking about their party affiliations while everybody who has a clue knows exactly what they are".
2. straffinrun 8 years ago
  
  That'll teach 'em to ban dancing!
  
  *Bits lower lip and white man dances*
3. straffinrun 8 years ago
  
  That'll teach 'em to ban dancing!
  
  *Bits lower lip and white man dances*
  1. Swiss Servator 8 years ago
    
    Doing the Squirrel Dance?
    1. invisible furry hand 8 years ago
      
      Is that the one where you grab your nuts with one hand, and wave the other one like you just don't care - twice?
      1. Swiss Servator 8 years ago
        
        YES!
        
        *squirrel dances around office*
        
        Citizen X 8 years ago
        
        That's how you celebrate your last few moments of not being fired.
        
        Swiss Servator 8 years ago
        
        I just claim it is authentic culture from some backwoods Swiss canton like the Graubunden.
    2. Rhywun 8 years ago
      
      S s s s Q q q q...
      1. Mike Schmidt 8 years ago
        
        You can squirrel dance if we want to
        You can leave your friends behind
        'Cause your friends don't squirrel dance
        And if they don't squirrel dance
        Well they're no friends of mine.
Thymirus 8 years ago

http://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-bor.....-week.html

NYPD Sending Thousands of Guns Out of State to be Melted Down This Week

Thousands of guns, seized by the NYPD, are headed for the scrap heap.
"The NYPD works very had in getting these guns off the street and we are going to keep them off the street. And by destroying them there is no chance they will every find their way back out into the street, into the public," says Stephen Davis, the NYPD's deputy commissioner for public information.

NY1 has learned that 3,000 thousand illegal guns seized by the NYPD or surrendered in gun byback programs will be shipped to an out-of-state facility this week, placed in a furnace and melted at high temperatures.

"They can come up the Iron Pipeline, and they are going to end up as a hunk of iron at the end of this process," Davis says.

The Iron Pipeline is the nickname for the route that most illegal guns travel into the city.
1. Tonio 8 years ago
  
  "Sure we melted 'em all down, just like you told us."
  1. Thymirus 8 years ago
    
    NYPD - "Okay, let's destroy the weapons. We'll ship them to..."
    BATFE - "Now, hold on a minute. It'd be a real shame to see all of this excellent gear go to waste. After all, why squander such an opportunity? Let me just give my contact in the cartels a quick call."
2. Cdr Lytton 8 years ago
  
  The Iron Pipeline is the nickname for the route that most illegal guns travel into the city.
  
  So it resembles a closed loop?
3. Mike Schmidt 8 years ago
  
  I say these buyback programs are organized by employees of Winchester, Remington, S&W, et.al. What better way to increase demand than by lowering supply?
  
  /adjusts tin hat
  1. UnCivilServant 8 years ago
    
    Two things - most guns sold to buyback programs are the garbage ones that don't work anyway.
    
    And unrelated, a new analysis of data suggests there could actually be two guns for every American in thsi country
    
    http://bearingarms.com/bob-o/2.....ed-states/
    
    We just don't know.
    1. commodious cam't contmpla.. 8 years ago
      
      Good, and good.
    2. Mike Schmidt 8 years ago
      
      Two things: Yes, I know. Just trying to be funny. What is funny is some of the crap "firearms" that people actually get cash for. I've seen guns so rusted they are beyond useless. A while back a guy made a "gun" from wood and duck tape and they took it. Can't remember where that was.
      
      And only 2 per American. I wouldn't be shocked if even that number was low. All I can say is I'm doing my part to up the average.
      1. Pay up, Palin's Buttplug! 8 years ago
        
        "Minneapolis Police Pay $100 for Piece of Wood, Pipe During Gun Buyback"
4. Rhywun 8 years ago
  
  I L'edMAO when I heard that yesterday. I guess crime is over and we can send all the cops home now.
5. Tom Bombadil 8 years ago
  
  "NY1 has learned that 3,000 thousand illegal guns..."
  
  Easier to say "3 million".
Thymirus 8 years ago

http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....berry.html

Sources: Clinton emails would have been 'whitelisted' for Obama BlackBerry

President Obama's high-security BlackBerry used a special process known as "whitelisting" that only allowed it to take calls and messages from pre-approved contacts, two former senior intelligence officials with knowledge of the set-up told Fox News ? pointing to the detail as further proof the White House knew Hillary Clinton's private account was used for government business.

As the administration now acknowledges, Obama and Clinton emailed each other while she was helming the State Department. If received on his BlackBerry, the "whitelisting" safeguard means Clinton and other contacts would have had to be approved as secure for data transmission ? covering everything from emails to texts to phone calls. The Obama BlackBerry would have also been configured to accept the communications.

"Think of whitelisting like a bouncer in the VIP line at the party. If you are on the list you get in, if you are not, you get bounced to the pavement," said Bob Gourley, former chief technology officer (CTO) for the DIA, and now a partner with strategic consulting and engineering firm Cognitio.
1. commodious cam't contmpla.. 8 years ago
  
  Does anyone really need whitelisting explained?
  
  Well, there are people who still think Clinton's deliberately hiding her business while helming a cabinet position is kosher, so maybe.
2. Dick N. Bimbose (n?e Cooper) 8 years ago
  
  So racist.
Thymirus 8 years ago

http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....tates.html

ObamaCare premium hikes fuel Trump, GOP case in key swing states

Newly announced double-digit premium hikes for those on the ObamaCare exchanges are handing Donald Trump a political weapon in key swing states where residents could be facing rate increases even higher than the national average.

The administration announced Monday that premiums for a midlevel plan are set to rise an average of 25 percent in 2017 in the 39 states that use the federal HealthCare.gov. The rate hikes vary widely across different cities and states, but several battlegrounds could be facing increases that are considerably higher.

According to administration figures, the average premium increase for a popular "silver" plan will rise 116 percent in Arizona; 40 percent in North Carolina; and 53 percent in Pennsylvania.

These projections do not factor in taxpayer subsidies, which many enrollees ? though not all ? would receive to defray the cost.
1. Citizen X 8 years ago
  
  Newly announced double-digit premium hikes for those on the ObamaCare exchanges are handing Donald Trump a political weapon
  
  ...which he will promptly use to shoot himself in the foot with.
2. UnCivilServant 8 years ago
  
  Anyone who did not see this coming a mile away - raise your hand.
  1. Swiss Servator 8 years ago
    
    shriek, tony, amsoc, joe from lowell...
    1. Thymirus 8 years ago
      
      We're excluding those adjudicated as mental defectives for the sake of fairness. Those hapless retards can't justifiably be expected to think.
    2. commodious cam't contmpla.. 8 years ago
      
      amsoc's is paid by his wife, Shriek can't afford it anyway, and Tony is on an employer plan through the university. None of them have to worry about Obamacare.
  2. straffinrun 8 years ago
    
    This guy?
    1. Lee Genes 8 years ago
      
      GRUBER: Look, once again, there's no sense of oh it just has to be fixed. The law is working as designed; however, it could work better, and I think probably the most important thing experts would agree on is that we need a larger mandate penalty. We have individuals who are essentially free riding on the system. They're essentially waiting until they get sick and then getting health insurance. The whole idea of this plan which was pioneered in Massachusetts was that the individual mandate penalty would bring those people into the system and have them participate. The penalty right now is probably too low and that's something ideally we would fix.
      
      Asshole
      1. straffinrun 8 years ago
        
        FREERIDING! asshole.
      2. Thymirus 8 years ago
        
        "Rape people harder, and everything will work out."
        
        Citizen X 8 years ago
        
        STEVE SMITH NOT HAPPY ABOUT STOLEN PLAYBOOK.
        
        Swiss Servator 8 years ago
        
        OK, folks, the netz is done for the day. Go home, nothing left to see.
      3. Rufus The Monocled 8 years ago
        
        Now if there's one guy who got a severe beating I'd just smile and whistle.
      4. NuckenFutz 8 years ago
        
        Did he say "penalty"? Wasn't it argued to the SC that it was a tax?
        
        UnCivilServant 8 years ago
        
        It was argued both ways at the Supremes to weasel out of procedural law and constitutional claims.
        
        WTF 8 years ago
        
        Hence, JohnnyRob's "Penaltax".
      5. Chipwooder 8 years ago
        
        How Gruber has any credibility left after admitting to bald-faced lying to get the thing passed in the first place, I'll never know.
      6. In Time Of War 8 years ago
        
        It also needs a more potent enforcement mechanism. Possibly some sort of community facility where folks who don't purchase insurance can live and work to pay off the money they owe the state. Erh, "health insurance companies". Now what could we call these centers...
3. robc 8 years ago
  
  Prog headline:
  
  "Corporate greed worst in Arizona"
  1. Thymirus 8 years ago
    
    "Unscrupulous health providers refuse to prevent rise in costs to protect own profits, black children dying of AIDS as a consequence."
4. Red Rocks Dickin Bimbos 8 years ago
  
  These projections do not factor in taxpayer subsidies, which many enrollees ? though not all ? would receive to defray the cost.
  
  This talking point that originated with NPR (which means it probably came directly from the Obama administration) is so deliberately obtuse that it's infuriating. It doesn't matter if the subsidies are increasing to match the premium increases, because the whole point of Obamacare, supposedly, was to "bend the cost curve down" on the real, actual cost of healthcare. It was supposed to save both private citizens AND the government money in the long run.
  
  If you have to increase subsidies to match increases in health insurance premiums, no one is saving money, you morons!
Thymirus 8 years ago

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016.....ouple.html

US to deport South Korean man 37 years after his adoption by American couple

SALEM, Ore. ? A South Korean man flown to the U.S. 37 years ago and adopted by an American couple at age 3 has been ordered deported back to a country that is completely alien to him.

"It is heartbreaking news," said Dae Joong (DJ) Yoon, executive director of the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium, who had been in contact with Adam Crapser.

Crapser remains confined in an immigration detention center in Tacoma, Wash., pending his deportation.

Crapser waived an appeal during the hearing Monday because he is desperate to get out of detention, his Seattle attorney, Lori Walls, told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

"I'm sure he doesn't have any idea what he can do in Korea," Yoon said in a phone interview from his group's offices in Annandale, Va.

Crapser's plight mirrors those of thousands of others. Yoon's group says an estimated 35,000 intercountry adoptees lack U. S. citizenship. It is backing legislation in Congress to address that.
1. Citizen X 8 years ago
  
  Yoon's group says an estimated 35,000 intercountry adoptees lack U. S. citizenship.
  
  Wait. What the fuck? Is... is citizenship not part of the adoption deal?
  1. UnCivilServant 8 years ago
    
    I would have thought it was. At least permanant legal residency anyway.
2. robc 8 years ago
  
  Why would you not get citizenship at some point?
3. Lee Genes 8 years ago
  
  Huh?
4. Swiss Servator 8 years ago
  
  Now, if he was a Guatemalan who had snuck in...
  
  And people wonder why there is no confidence in the system.
5. Thymirus 8 years ago
  
  They're essentially exiling an American from his own country (I don't give a wet shit about legal technicalities and state-mandated paperwork). May the individuals complicit in the issuance and enforcement of Crapser's deportation burn in Hell.
Mainer2 8 years ago

Donna Brazile is a vile human being. Just wanted to say that.
1. Juvenile Bluster 8 years ago
  
  She certainly is, but what did she do now?
  1. straffinrun 8 years ago
    
    Sat on a Russian?
    1. gaoxiaen 8 years ago
      
      And broke his mandible.
Lee Genes 8 years ago

Another episode of "LOOK AT ME, I'VE FOUND ANOTHER TOOL OF OPPRESSION THAT NOBODY ELSE THOUGHT OF"

According to Misao Dean, Professor of English at the University of Victoria, the canoe can be a symbol of colonialism, imperialism and genocide due to history. She also accused the canoers of cultural appropriation because they are primarily white men and have a privileged place in society.

In a radio interview for CBC Radio, which wasn't picked by the Internet until several months later, she claimed "we have a whole set of narratives that make the canoe into a kind of morally untouchable symbol, something that seems natural, that seems ordinary, and seems to promote values that we ascribe to."
1. Juvenile Bluster 8 years ago
  
  Are kayaks cultural oppression? Need to know before going out on the lake this weekend.
  1. straffinrun 8 years ago
    
    Maybe you've seen it, but this one is my favorite.
    1. Dick N. Bimbose (n?e Cooper) 8 years ago
      
      I find vocal fry highly offensive.
    2. Free Society 8 years ago
      
      "You dumb cunt, get out of my car."
2. Thymirus 8 years ago
  
  Red is the predominant color on the Turkish national flag. I've got Armenian ancestry. Therefore, all uses of red are offensive to me, because genocide.
  
  Old Glory features red. As a result, Old Glory is offensive. Replace the flag of the United States today!
  
  #RainbowBanner4NationalFlag2016.
  1. The Fusionist 8 years ago
    
    "#RainbowBanner4NationalFlag2016"
    
    Wait, isn't red part of any decent rainbow?
    1. Dick N. Bimbose (n?e Cooper) 8 years ago
      
      Ask Roy G. Biv.
3. Tonio 8 years ago
  
  Covered yesterday, but bears repeating. These people are rapidly painting themselves into a corner, ideologically.
  1. Crusty Juggler 8 years ago
    
    Except that doesn't matter.
4. Suthenboy 8 years ago
  
  Have you ever noticed how gun grabbers flaunt their ignorance about guns? They are signaling. I am convinced that lefties are doing the same thing when they come up with shit like this. They are deliberately trying to come up with the stupidest idea possible as a signal to the other lefty morons about how deeply they are steeped in useful idiocy.
5. Michael 8 years ago
  
  Is it cultural appropriation if you and your buddy are paddling the same canoe?
6. Dick N. Bimbose (n?e Cooper) 8 years ago
  
  Does she drive a car to work everyday?
  
  Is SHE GERMAN?
Jerryskids 8 years ago

In other Trump news, I checked on Google news to see what the latest yap was and there's an item headlined "Trump Slams Hillary For Taking Time Off For Adele Concert". Just out of morbid curiosity, I click on it - and it's an interview with George Stephanopoulos wherein the former Clinton Communications Director (not identified as such by ABC news, natch) asks Trump for his reaction to some unnamed supporters ("some people" is generally code for "Me. I'm bringing this up but I'm going to pretend somebody else is bringing it up so I can pretend to be a disinterested observer") criticizing him for taking time off campaigning to attend the ribbon-cutting on his new hotel. And Trump defends himself by pointing out that he only took an hour off for attending to personal business and, hey, Hillary took the whole evening off to attend an Adele concert and nobody's criticizing her, are they? The first sentence of the article is that Trump is "blasting" his critics by pointing out that nobody's criticizing Hillary for taking time off.

And that's what's reported as Trump "slamming" Hillary and "blasting" his critics by our fair and unbiased and in-no-way-partisan media folks over at ABC. Good job, you stalwart truth-tellers.

It's hard to keep from rooting for Trump.
1. WTF 8 years ago
  
  That's one of the things that would be good, about a Trump victory, punishing these dishonest scumbags for their scumbaggery.
2. Chipwooder 8 years ago
  
  And this is what's keeping him in the race. Two weeks ago the media was screaming that the race was over, that he was dead and buried, and yet Hillary's vile, decrepit ass can't pull away. Part of that is because Hillary is vile and corrupt, but part of it is people simply choosing to view Trump as a symbol of resistance to the dishonest hacks despite his general buffoonery and utter lack of principles. He's a totem, not a candidate.
  1. Libertarian 8 years ago
    
    I see more insightful comments by unpaid commenters at Hit and Run in five minutes than I hear in a week of channel surfing the talking heads on TV. This is not an exaggeration.
    1. Glide 8 years ago
      
      ^seconded
    2. The Fusionist 8 years ago
      
      Sad but true.
    3. Mainer2 8 years ago
      
      Absolutely. The regulars on Hit and Run are clearly more intelligent, well read and informed, and respectful than, well, anyone I see on TV.
      
      especially Donna Brazile, who as I mentioned elsewhere is a vile human being.
Idle Hands 8 years ago

DOBBS!!!!

Lou Dobbs ? @LouDobbs
Look Deeper, He's nothing but a Globalist, Romney and Mormon Mafia Tool #MAGA #AmericaFirst #TrumpPence16 #TrumpTrain #Dobbs

I don't know what's more surprising that Dobbs wears a tinfoil hat or the fact that he tweets.
1. Citizen X 8 years ago
  
  Lou Dobbs is still alive?
  1. Crusty Juggler 8 years ago
    
    Gah!
2. Red Rocks Dickin Bimbos 8 years ago
  
  Dobbs was way off base there. McMullin's primarily a neocon tool, not the other three.
widget 8 years ago

At least that's not an awful photo of Trump raising his arm to dead HItler.

It's more like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPBkiBbO4_4
american socialist 8 years ago

BLACK HELICOPTERS FROM THE CLINTON FOUNDATION ARE GONNA TAKE OUR GUNS AWAY.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016.....oters.html

"Some Trump Voters Call for Revolution if Clinton Wins"

Jesus Christ.
1. widget 8 years ago
  
  Jesus Christ was a bit revolutionary himself. Nice to know where you stand.
  1. Citizen X 8 years ago
    
    I would've thought amsoc would be stoked at the thought of any revolution, given that he's already said he doesn't care how many people die in the collapse of the U.S.
2. Rufus The Monocled 8 years ago
  
  Aren't commies but about revolution?
  1. The Fusionist 8 years ago
    
    Yeah, but it has to be a people's revolution, some some right-wing counterrevolutionary coup.
3. Suthenboy 8 years ago
  
  More bullshit from the NYT. What a shock.
4. Cdr Lytton 8 years ago
  
  Fuck off tulpa.
5. deepspeed 8 years ago
  
  Says the dipshit advocating for WWIII to destroy the United States.
Juvenile Bluster 8 years ago

Shit JB's prog friends share, the "I fucking give up" edition. (Part 1)

Premiums are shooting up because insurance companies are monsters whose basic model before Obamacare was "your money or your life". Of course they are going to continue to pull this shit, and it's asinine to think the law you've been mocking and wanting to see repealed is in any way responsible for this mess. Premiums are being driven up by the same greed that created the pool of very sick people whose mandatory acceptance by insurance companies (after years of exclusion through pricing, lifetime caps, and red tape) is being used as an excuse for behavior they have always engaged in. This is a sign that the law needs to be strengthened and insurance companies brought even more to heel. Their greed is boundless, and can only be counterbalanced when the populace uses the power of the government to make its wishes known. I swear to honey barbecue Jesus. This country is proof God exists and that he loves fools, because some times we are too stupid and petty to deserve our success.
1. Juvenile Bluster 8 years ago
  
  Shit JB's prog friends share, the "I fucking give up" edition (Part 2)
  
  Do you recall that ACA was passed through reconciliation because not a single GOP Senator would vote for it? Many of the flaws in the legislation came about because they were trying to get at least one GOP Senator to sign on. Conservatives worked overtime to make sure not a single GOP vote was given to the legislation. What were the Democrats supposed to do? There was not a single thing that could be done to make it better, such as a single payer option on the exchanges, without Republicans signing on. Something to offer competition to these insurance monstrosities. So if you want to look at why this bill is flawed, don't look to the left. Look at the conservative Senators who tried to kill the reform in the cradle, and to the Republicans that have worked to weaken the law since its implementation. Those are the impediments to fixing the glaring problems in a law that was formulated to attract people who do not care about the sick, the uninsured, or people like you who are trapped in difficult financial circumstances.
  
  That shit is so stupid that I can't even think of a snarky comment to go here.
  1. LynchPin1477 8 years ago
    
    Wait, so the argument is that the Democrats voted in lock-step for a law they thought was flawed because they were trying to get Republicans to vote for it? But not a single Republican voted for it and it still passed, so why didn't the Democrats just load it up with single payer and everything else on their wishlist? It shouldn't have made one bit of difference at all.
    1. Juvenile Bluster 8 years ago
      
      I'm surprised this doesn't blame George W Bush. Everything else that's gone wrong in the Obama administration has been his fault.
2. Juvenile Bluster 8 years ago
  
  And this was something else from the same person that about 99% likely was directed at me.
  
  i'm not going to call out anyone in particular, but simply put, it's safe to say that some of y'all (and many in this country) don't give a shit that millions of people lead unproductive lives, go bankrupt, go homeless, and/or die due to health problems. no, we can't save everyone. but it's ri-goddamn-diculous that the world's richest, most advanced country can't come close to the universal coverage of other western nations.
  1. Mike Schmidt 8 years ago
    
    You need to find some smarter friends.
    1. Juvenile Bluster 8 years ago
      
      I just unfriended the person who posted the above. There's derp, and there's derp so stupid that your brain will break if you continue to look at it.
      1. Tornado35235gsg35423ttg3gt3g3g 8 years ago
        
        Did this friend get a bunch of likes or "here here!". What i find unbearable about liberals and progs is their constant desire to preen and virtue signal.
      2. Tornado35235gsg35423ttg3gt3g3g 8 years ago
        
        Did this friend get a bunch of likes or "here here!". What i find unbearable about liberals and progs is their constant desire to preen and virtue signal.
      3. To: Trshmnstr From: Hrod [C] 8 years ago
        
        I'm gonna go ahead and toss this out here. I don't think it's so bad to unfriend people for voicing their idiotic politics on social media. I know that people attempt to signal their tolerance by talking about how they're friends with people who have different ideologies, but it's not much of a virtue, IMO.
        
        Unless it's a close friend or family member who just happens to have a single dark spot, they're likely insufferable in real life, too. However, if my experience is representative, most of the outspoken morons on social media are old high school classmates whose lives haven't turned out that well, family members from that part of the family tree that is off-limits, and that one friend who is only a part of your friend group because one of the people you actually like keeps inviting them to tag along.
        
        There ain't nothing wrong with purging outspoken idiots from your life. Exposure to other ideologies can be satisfied in more productive ways.
  2. Suthenboy 8 years ago
    
    I understand that the greedy capitalists are still fucking everything up in Venezuela too.
    
    I remember a number of commenters here predicting that Obumble care would be a disaster and the blame laid on the republicans.
  3. LynchPin1477 8 years ago
    
    Obamacare was supposed to fix all those problems and has instead made them worse for many.
  4. Red Rocks Dickin Bimbos 8 years ago
    
    i'm not going to call out anyone in particular
    
    Typical passive-aggressive prog bullshit. I would have put that moron on blast and told him to shove his stupid baby feelings up his ass.
  5. Rhywun 8 years ago
    
    the world's richest, most advanced country can't come close to the universal coverage of other western nations
    
    We just need to free shit harder.
    1. LynchPin1477 8 years ago
      
      We absolutely could provide "universal coverage". A bunch of us just don't want to.
3. Rufus The Monocled 8 years ago
  
  My. God.
  
  That's progressive ignorance in all its depressed marvel.
4. LynchPin1477 8 years ago
  
  Ask him/her how completely leaving certain markets helps profits and is a sign of greed.
  1. Tornado35235gsg35423ttg3gt3g3g 8 years ago
    
    Lol. They are clowns....they hold contradictory views at the same time (cognitive dissonance).
    
    I also find it amusing that they seem to think if only they had insurance then they wouldn't die!
    1. LynchPin1477 8 years ago
      
      I got drug out to a bar with some colleagues to watch the last debate. I know where these people stand but never talk politics with them. The comments during the debate were so superficial that it was stunning. I had the sense that these people (who are otherwise, literally, geniuses) were painfully simple minded when it came to politics.
      
      But then, after the debate, we started talking in more detail about certain policies. And lo and behold, most of these same people articulated very deep and thoughtful positions on a range of policies. I disagreed with some (thought not all) of them, but the quality of the commentary was like night and day.
      
      I don't understand what causes people to behave so differently in one circumstance as opposed to another. It was the same group of people so it wasn't just virtue signaling.
      
      The only thing I can think of is that they simply did not take the debates seriously - it was nothing but a form of entertainment, and their comments were just a way of playing along. Sort of like taunting an opposing team when, in reality, you don't actually think they are bad people and don't wish any harm on them.
      
      But then these same people talk about how stressed and worried they are about the election! They seem to flip back and forth between being entertained and terrified, treating it like a game and taking it seriously. It's odd.
      1. UnCivilServant 8 years ago
        
        these same people talk about how stressed and worried they are about the election! They seem to flip back and forth between being entertained and terrified, treating it like a game and taking it seriously. It's odd.
        
        Two words: Gallows Humor
        
        LynchPin1477 8 years ago
        
        I don't think so. It doesn't have a cynical or desperate quality to it.
        
        UnCivilServant 8 years ago
        
        It grows from the same root. You can't despair all the time or you end up at the end of a noose.
  2. mad.casual 8 years ago
    
    Premiums are shooting up because insurance companies are monsters whose basic model before Obamacare was "your money or your life".
    
    It's way beyond that level of derp. If I said I invented an anti-gravity machine and we dicker back and forth on cost, after which, I build the machine and it explodes catastrophically. He ignores Jonathan Gruber, at my elbow, literally saying that this anti-gravity scheme needs more rubes and assumes I really can build an anti-gravity machine.
    
    I can only assume that if this now unfriend walks waist deep into boiling water despite everyone's protest, he then continues on the assumption it will get better; that a full boil wasn't implemented yet.
5. Brochettaward 8 years ago
  
  They have their talking points, and by god they are sticking to them. It's surprisingly difficult to respond to derp that just demands insurance companies bankrupt themselves for the greater good. I mean, it's to the point where I would need hand puppets to explain to explain it to these people like they're fucking toddlers.
  
  There are non-profit insurers being driven out of the exchanges right now. The co-ops have mostly failed (response I got to this - that was in red states where they were sabotaged, which takes almost no effort to prove wrong). The evil profit motive doesn't change basic math.
  
  But none of it will matter because these people are just fine with the idea of a system that is unsustainable and permanently subsidized at a massive loss. It's what they want. Nothing else matters.
  1. spqr2008 8 years ago
    
    I keep replying to this kind of derp that I don't care if insurance companies go out of business, as long as it's the result of consumers getting more freedom in their health care choices. If the GOP were to make cross state lines purchases available tomorrow, and minimum coverage policies more available, and help to end the tax benefits of employer purchased coverage, so the market would be more like car insurance, then let the chips fall where they may. Maybe United Healthcare, Aetna, and Blue Cross Blue Shield don't deserve to be in business in a free and open healthcare market.
    
    Of course, the reply is, "What if all of them go bankrupt?" And none of them can see that other competitors would enter the market at that point.
Tornado35235gsg35423ttg3gt3g3g 8 years ago

Gruber claims it would have been better if states just expanded medicaid. Isn't this revisionist history? I thought it was supposed to be affordable insurance...not just more medicaid.
Jake Stone 8 years ago

Twitter: the all too frequent threat of harassment on the platform

Riiiiightt.... Got nothing to do with quashing and censoring viewpoints that don't align with their San Francisco ideals.... It's all about the "harassment" users face.

Harassment = "the possibility of seeing an opinion I don't agree with".
Chinny Chin Chin 8 years ago

"Inside the Trump bunker, with 12 days to go."

FTA: unnamed "senior official" in Trump campaign, "There's really not that much of a difference between politics and regular marketing."

Testify, brother!

We choose presidents for the same reasons we choose favorite Super Bowl ads.
1. mad.casual 8 years ago
  
  We choose presidents for the same reasons we choose favorite Super Bowl ads.
  
  Crotch grabbing FTW!
2. GILMORE? 8 years ago
  
  "There's really not that much of a difference between politics and regular marketing."
  
  Not true. In politics, they need you to buy the product right now, and usually just once.
  1. Diane Reynolds (Paul.) 8 years ago
    
    And there are no refunds!
Jennifer90 8 years ago

Well, I still don't know how come that Donald Trump has won the elections and become a President of the United States. Even regarding to that polls, Hillary Clinton had a better chance. However, we will never know what would happen if Hillary would become a President. There are too many complaints on Donald Trump's Presidency, poor people living through the help of North'n'Loans company stay poor and don't face a lot of perspectives of having a better life. Those who were rich before, stay rich and everything is fine for them.
UnCivilServant 8 years ago

The one person I know who had at any point stated an intent to vote Clinton has stopped raffirming that and is now merely freustrated and angry at the whole mess. I think they might not even vote at all.
WTF 8 years ago

Tell them you are voting Trump because you can't in good conscience reward a corrupt criminal by putting her in the Oval Office.
kbolino 8 years ago

Amazingly, some I know have gone for Trump and some others are just "unenthusiastic" at this point. While most lefties who vote will pull the lever for Clinton, she's hemorrhaged support from the default blue voters.
Rhywun 8 years ago

My circle is mostly apolitical except one woman I know who started blathering to me about how great Hillary is and this specifically right after I told her I don't talk politics with friends. Sigh. That was last year but she's been on the Clinton train for decades so I doubt she's giving up now.
Lee Genes 8 years ago

Politics is very much like religion. For most people, once they've been on the bandwagon for a while, it's very hard to admit they were wrong. They'll rationalize their beliefs until the day they die.
UnCivilServant 8 years ago

No, they grew last week. These are the ones none of them wanted.
Thymirus 8 years ago

I predict that certain functionaries in the NYPD shall be seeing a substantial fattening of their wallets, official or otherwise.
commodious cam't contmpla.. 8 years ago

Feelings?
WTF 8 years ago

Wow, it's almost as if people are more worried about their financial security than talk of pussy-grabbing.

That actually remains to be seen.
Tom Bombadil 8 years ago

That is the bottom line. The Presidency would be the big reward for a lifetime of corruption. Unthinkable.
The Fusionist 8 years ago

Unthinkable? It's how most countries select their leaders.
gaoxiaen 8 years ago

Except for her friends. Why no place setting for Clump?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls1VCPoN9GI
gaoxiaen 8 years ago

Which is none too soon. DIAF. Praying for a fire, in Washington DC, Dresden style. Or sweet meteor of death.

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