Obama Criticizes FBI for 'Innuendo,' Gawker Settles With Hulk Hogan, World Series Ends Tonight in Cleveland: P.M. Links

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  U.S. Military

  President Obama criticized the FBI for operating on "innuendo" in a reference to the agency's Hillary Clinton investigations.

• Gawker settled with Hulk Hogan for $31 million.
• A former police chief in New York was sentenced to less than 4 years in prison for beating a handcuffed man who stole from him and trying to cover the incident up.
• The sexual assault victim of Brock Turner was named Glamour's woman of the year.
• Microsoft launches a service to compete with Slack.
• Game 7 of the World Series will be played in Cleveland tonight.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

President Obama criticized the FBI for operating on "innuendo" in a reference to the agency's Hillary Clinton investigations.

Someone got a call.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Hello.

[DEG]

Guten Tag

[bacon-magic]

Don't start with the Rufus, Hitler.

[Rufus The Monocled]

You know, it just hit me. I shoulda dressed as Hitler this Halloween to troll the morons.

More opportunities missed in my life.

[DEG]

You could have had a little fun with it and used something like this as inspiration.

[loveconstitution1789]

I dressed as a clown.

Scared the shit out of most trick or treaters.

I ended up with better candy than I was giving out. All I had to do was pick it up off my driveway between groups.

[bacon-magic]

Clinton Inc. just sent Barack a get well card.

[Dick N. Bimbose (n?e Cooper)]

IN YOUR ENDO!

[Chipwooder]

Endo here has forgotten more about inflicting pain than you or I will ever know.

Mr. Joshua

[UnCivilServant]

But does he remember more than I currently know?

I mean if he was once very good but forgot most of it, that's not much of a boast.

[R C Dean]

"Innuendo" - is that the IT slang for "hundreds of thousands of emails"?

[Zero Sum Game]

He's given the press their marching orders and a word to spin Hillary's crimes into a fantasy. Probably got the idea from Clinton herself since that's how Bill's Presidency worked.

The media's all too happy to fire out chaff from every mouth-breathing orifice of the left in order to deflect heat seeking missiles coming for a legitimate target. Fuck every one of them.

[Timon 19]

Chaff is ineffective against heat-seeking missiles. You want flares for that.

Chaff is for spoofing radar-guided missiles.

The more you know...

[Zero Sum Game]

Ah, yeah, I mixed up my countermeasures. Good catch, fellow pedant. 😉

[GOML!]

Fellow Pedants would be a good band name.

[Timon 19]

When knowing the difference is a big part of the majority of your career, sometimes you become pedantic about it 🙂

(Note: not a pilot or in the USAF at all)

[Zero Sum Game]

I do know the difference. It was just a brain fart. 😉

As an aside, I chose to describe it as chaff over flares because of the connotations of the word. Chaff, dregs, dross, scum, etc. The part which is worthless and to be discarded. (Sums up a lot of MSM news anymore). Also, because chaff is spewed out in big clouds of radar-confusing nonsense. If have to begrudgingly report any real news, shit out a bunch of chaff to drown it out with noise.

Flares would imply that there's anything at all burning brightly in what they're doing.

[Timon 19]

I'll buy that.

[Agammamon]

Eh, throw up *enough* chaff . . .

[R C Dean]

Since Hillary is probably operating at room temperature (whether due to her reptilian ancestry or her mechanical workings), I think radar guided would be the way to go.

[OneOut]

She looked pretty hot under the collar over the weekend.

[R C Dean]

Faulty cooling unit?

Supports the robot theory, I would say.

[loveconstitution1789]

Should have given her a short power cord. That way, when she tries to destroy us, she cannot go far.

[Timon 19]

Indeed.

[Zero Sum Game]

lap83:
She shouldn't smile, it just makes her look less human.

This Machine:
Right? Like a reptile wearing a human suit. Whenever I see a picture of her with a big grin on her face, it looks like she's about to unhinge her jaw to swallow a live baby just off-camera.

[Playa Manhattan.]

The Al Pastor was great, thanks for asking.

[Tonio]

They have artificial intelligence preachers now?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Let's all put our heads together and think up a Shroud of Turing joke.

[Tonio]

[applause]

[Playa Manhattan.]

You just did, but you pretended you didn't, you one-kidneyed coward.

[Citizen X]

You did it, Eugene. Nice work.

[Zero Sum Game]

Does it run on a holy Cray-1 supercomputer?

[UnCivilServant]

The Blessed Cogitator reads "Commodore 64"

[Zero Sum Game]

And they built the tower of Babbage. Yea, verily our digital deity did smite them for it with utmost wroth. Some were forced to speak ASCII, others unicodes of big and little endians, and the worst of the sinners He condemned to prattle on in EBCDIC until end of days.

[UnCivilServant]

Ave Machina.

*Rings MIDI chimes*

[Zero Sum Game]

And he gave unto Knuth, when he had made an end of computing with him upon mount -t ext3 /dev/sda1 /mnt/, two punch cards of source code, punch cards of stiff cardstock, written with the keypunch of God.

[Pan Zagloba]

Ah, our God the Father (Son Daughter being Amiga, and The Holy Spirit an Apple II).

[Tonio]

Well-done, all of you.

[UnCivilServant]

They have artificial intelligence preachers now?

Ave Machin... wait... Abominable Intelligences are Techno-heresy!

Burn It!

[LynchPin1477]

Did you ever find those recipes I posted last night?

[UnCivilServant]

I saw them.

I think we have divergant taste in foods.

[LynchPin1477]

Heh. I've got others. What are you in to?

[Tonio]

Funny, this mirrors a conversation I'm having on social media, just not about food.

[jesse.in.mb]

What are you into?

"Social media"? Are your conversations blue and gold or blue and grey on this particular social media?

[Playa Manhattan.]

"What are you into?"

"Banging dudes."

"No way, me too!"

[John Titor]

Bullshit, the Mechanicus just rebranded them machine spirits for optics.

[UnCivilServant]

How dare you profane the Omnissiah's servants!

*roots around for a bottle of promethium that hasn't been used up yet*

[bacon-magic]

I looked at the recipe, looked like a lot of work. I've never tried tacols al pastor before, you've piqued my interest. Bacon is involved so it must be good.

[Playa Manhattan.]

I cheated. A lot. I bought it pre-marinated at a Mexican market. Baked it in the loaf last night, let it sit in the fridge, and seared it with pineapple for lunch. Delicious, and it's running me about $.90 per meal.

[bacon-magic]

I like the cut of your apron. Keep us posted.

[TheZeitgeist]

I bought it pre-marinated at a Mexican market.

Did you by chance use a trebuchet to scale the wall?

[Playa Manhattan.]

I put on a mustache and walked right across.

[Sonoran Desert Rat]

al Pastor is one of those things I don't bother to try to do at home. I live in a target rich environment.

[OneOut]

Si Senor

http://www.thealamo.com/

[RBS]

Can you post it again? My internet isn't working.

[Aloysious]

To reconnect your internet, hit control + alt + delete as many times as it takes.

[Playa Manhattan.]

As soon as your internet is working, check this out.

[UnCivilServant]

I keep thinking that link goes to 'Serious Seats'. Why my mind insists on adding another letter, I don't know. Sounds like the sort of site HM would frequent.

[RBS]

Sounds like a magazine for chair aficionados.

[Playa Manhattan.]

Cheat with this. You don't have to buy the 22lb bucket.

[Mr. Dyslexic]

?Microsoft launches a service to compete with Slack.

Is it called Slacker?

[Dick N. Bimbose (n?e Cooper)]

It's called Microsoft Organizer '97.

[TheZeitgeist]

I think it is called 'Yammer-reskin-to-ripoff-Slack' internally at Microsoft.

[thom]

Is this like Google Wave?

[When will you report on Carl?]

Skype Lync Yammer Cloud Chat for Enterprise Teams 365

[kbolino]

Side comment: "Skype for Business" ... isn't

[Pope Jimbo]

I'm never going to use it if it isn't called Clippy

[Fist of Etiquette]

The sexual assault victim of Brock Turner was named Glamour's woman of the year.

That's what it takes? The women's movement has come so far.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Pass out next to a dumpster; get assaulted; run for office in 2020?

/Hulk Hogan's running mate?

[Pope Jimbo]

Whoa, isn't it Sandra Fluke's turn to run for office?

Of course, it would be worth electing Emily Doe because she could never be named in any media coverage. Come to think of it, why isn't Jackie running too?

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

If victims get 'person of the year' awards, what does that guy who gets hit by a car every 30 minutes in New York get?

[jack sprat]

Stitches

[John Titor]

A bumper to the kneecaps.

[Groovus Maximus]

A massive increase in his deductable.

[DEG]

The Gawker/Hogan link is broken.

[DEG]

"Broken" if you're hoping it goes to a story about Gawker and Hogan.

[Ted S.]

Damn your nimble fingers!

[When will you report on Carl?]

Hey, cut Ed some Slack.

[Playa Manhattan.]

That's a paddlin'.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

It seems to work now...

Known for its wry, conversational tone and willingness to push the boundaries of internet journalism, Gawker...

wry, conversational tone?

That's like "Known for his soothing, romantic musings, Mr. SugarFree..."

[DEG]

Ed makes us all look like we're crazy.

[Ted S.]

Most of you commenters do a good enough job of it by yourselves.

[bacon-magic]

Hello kettle.

[UnCivilServant]

Hey! my tea kettle is steel.

But then again so are my pots...

[John Titor]

If by 'conversational' they mean 'a conversation with smug, stupid teenager', sure.

[Zero Sum Game]

Sneering, condescending, vapid, navel-gazing SJW claptrap.

[Get To Da Chippah]

Denton's blog post explaining the need to settle.

It's a shame the Hogan trial took place without the motives of the plaintiff's backer being known. If there is a lasting legacy from this experience, it should be a new awareness of the danger of dark money in litigation finance.

DARK MUNNEE!!!

Jesus, he has the 'insufferale douchebag' meter pegged forever.

[Ted S.]

Pro bono = dark money.

[Agammamon]

I'm not sure how he could not know the motives of the plaintiff's backer. Thiel's been pretty up front that he's pissed at Gawker and is using this as an opportunity to crush them.

[Tonio]

Richmond Times-Dispatch Editorial - Gary Johnson remains the best choice for president, Part II

[Suthenboy]

Didn't the RTD hear? The Johnson ticket is endorsing the Clinton ticket.

[Ted S.]

Gawker settled with Hulk Hogan for $31 million.

Check the link.

[Playa Manhattan.]

We never do.

[Get To Da Chippah]

Is it a link to the check?

[waffles]

The sexual assault victim of Brock Turner was named Glamour's woman of the year.

The soft bigotry of low expectations.

[grrizzly]

Glamour's woman of the year

And what about Hillary?

[Rhywun]

Hillary will accept nothing less than a Nobel.

[PBR Streetgang]

Japan. Farts. A laser. And a fire...
http://www.nbc12.com/story/335.....dly-burned

[Tonio]

During surgery, no less.

[Tonio]

Be careful what you eat before your procedure, Groovus. 😛

[Groovus Maximus]

NO BORSHH, SHHI, OR PEROGI FOR ME!

I certainy only want the proper tubes cauterised, not my entire Grooviness; I still haven't decided if wifey is going to do it or not. She's already selected her Dr. So's I have to get on the stick, so's to speak.

[Playa Manhattan.]

YOU still haven't decided if SHE is going to do it?

[Pan Zagloba]

Think about it - what's the worst that happens if she botches it?

Now stack that against, say, 30-40 years of her steaming over you not letting her do it.

My experience with Slavic women is Southern not (alas) Eastern, but damn, man, I know what I'd choose.

[R C Dean]

Pan speaks wisdom, doc.

[Joe M]

Sounds like a candidate for Glamour's next woman of the year.

[Playa Manhattan.]

Yawn. Call me when there's a queef laser fire.

[Florida Hipster]

There's no methane in queef!

[bacon-magic]

Way to fuck up his unicorn hunt Hipster.

[Florida Hipster]

I also like to tell children how magic tricks are performed.

[bacon-magic]

Hipsters are douches confirmed. (jk)(kinda)

[Florida Hipster]

Also, upon further thought, a recto-vaginal fistula could allow a methane queef.

[bacon-magic]

Truffle butter blaster?

[jesse.in.mb]

Also, upon further thought, a recto-vaginal fistula could allow a methane queef.

*faints*

[Groovus Maximus]

recto-vaginal fistula could allow a methane queef

Provided the diameter and patency of said fistula is sufficient (and Dr. ZG has encountered at least one in her career) you bet your sweet bippy methane queefs can and do happen.

[jack sprat]

+1 Farkel Family and friend Ferd Berfel

[Playa Manhattan.]

Now we're talking.

[Playa Manhattan.]

What about a really bad yeast infection?

Eh, that would probably extinguish the fire, resulting in my disappointment.

[Groovus Maximus]

What about a really bad yeast infection?

That would give new meaning to, "Bun in the oven," no? I knead not tell you how rolling around with a yeast infection whilst a fire rages would might cause tensions to rise in a relationship later on.

[bacon-magic]

Swissy, need a narrowed gaze over here stat! It's fresh from the oven. Stop loafing around already.

[Citizen X]

That would be an excellent name for a Peaches cover band.

[PBR Streetgang]

Which one, "Queef Laser Fire" or "Unicorn Hunt Hipster"?
I like both actually.

[Citizen X]

Either one, for sure.

[Sir Digby Chicken Caesar]

How about an amalgam: Laser Queef Arcade Fire

[bacon-magic]

I have a comma disability.

[Ted S.]

Does Herb get a cover band too?

[Fist of Etiquette]

A former police chief in New York was sentenced to less than 4 years in prison for beating a handcuffed man who stole from him and trying to cover the incident up.

The item stolen? Handcuffs.

[Ted S.]

I'm surprised the guy was even found guilty.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Man oh man, if Bill Clinton can't have the class and decency to stay out of the limelight, I wonder how bad it will be with the commie-in-chief narcissist.

[Fist of Etiquette]

"President Hillary acted stupidly..."

[Playa Manhattan.]

The one who bought a house in DC? I totally expect him to fade away gracefully.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

If by 'gracefully', you mean 'in a miasma of underage hookers and venereal diseases'?

[Adans smith]

I just heard A. Wiener just entered a sex addiction .He can't stop.

[Adans smith]

The jokes write themselves now a days.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Giggity.

[bacon-magic]

In related news: A. Wiener has killed himself by 20 bullets to the face.

[Dr. Fronkensteen]

The nervous system causes twitches even after death. What can you say?

[Dr. Fronkensteen]

The nervous system causes twitches even after death. What can you say?

[UnCivilServant]

That firearm was illegal in New York if it held 20+ rounds of farying calibres.

[UnCivilServant]

*varying

[Pan Zagloba]

Thus proving he was a Secret Republican all along!

[bacon-magic]

Squirrels?

[Dr. Fronkensteen]

I hope so. Otherwise I'm dead and twitching. Nothing a little lightning and profane experimentation can't cure.

[bacon-magic]

You should've linked in your name to the Fronkensteen not Frankenstein part of Young Frankenstein.

[Pope Jimbo]

There is already a tweet for that

[Playa Manhattan.]

He's checking in.

[Rhywun]

Great, I couldn't get that earworm out of my brain for months the first time around.

[Joe M]

The sexual assault victim of Brock Turner was named Glamour's woman of the year.

And I'm sure she's thrilled with the attention.

Yeah yeah, I know she's Emily Doe, but someone, somewhere, is going to figure out who she really is.

[jack sprat]

I'm not sure who she is yet, I feel like I am close but just can't put my finger on it yet...

[DEG]

A Hogan/Gawker link that goes to a story about Hogan and Gawker

Warning: auto-play video

Hulk Hogan and the remnants of Gawker Media have struck a confidential settlement agreement, rewarding the wrestler with millions of dollars.

"After four years of litigation funded by a billionaire with a grudge going back even further, a settlement has been reached. The saga is over," Gawker founder Nick Denton wrote in a blog post on Wednesday.

He said "Hulk Hogan's retirement will be comfortable."

As part of the settlement, Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, will receive $31 million in cash, according to a court filing.

[Ted S.]

After four years of litigation funded by a billionaire with a grudge going back even further,

Sounds like a lot of cases the State brings.

[Ted S.]

And Gawker did pretty much the same thing as News of the World. But that was totes different, because Murdoch. Or something.

[Dick N. Bimbose (n?e Cooper)]

Privacy is expensive.

[Dick N. Bimbose (n?e Cooper)]

Privacy is expensive.

[OneOut]

Confidential settlement huh ?

[Playa Manhattan.]

Part of the settlement should have been that Denton shuts his fucking mouth.

Bad lawyers.

[kbolino]

There isn't enough money in the entire world...

[R C Dean]

a confidential settlement agreement

As part of the settlement, Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, will receive $31 million in cash,

Somebody isn't super-clear on what "confidential" means.

[DEG]

Tesla's new solar panels

Warning: auto-play video

Can you trust a car company to sell you your next roof?

Tesla unveiled a beautiful rendition of its solar roofs Friday evening. They're practically indistinguishable from an ordinary roof, but the shingles absorb sunlight to generate electricity for your home and car. The shingles are part of an all-in-one energy solution for home owners. Tesla is in the process of buying SolarCity, which makes and installs solar panels, as it broadens its offerings and becomes a sustainable energy company.

While experts see the concept as exciting, they have questions about the costs, performance and reliability of solar roofs.

"It's been a tough field to enter into with essentially no success stories," said David Fenning, a University of California-San Diego professor and solar researcher. "The challenge with solar comes down to cost. You want to be squeezing out every .1% in efficiency."

[Rufus The Monocled]

THIS time it will be different!

[Zunalter]

/Socialism

[Juvenile Bluster]

I'm actually hopeful about this technology, to the extent that it's wind-resistant enough to be used in South Florida.

Of course, SLD, because it's getting all kinds of public subsidy, which it obviously shouldn't.

[UnCivilServant]

The amount of labor required to wire up the smaller tiles makes it even more expensive than classic roof installations, plus it's a Tesla, so it will drive itself into the next house over...

[Private Chipperbot]

And catch on fire.

[OneOut]

These are actually shingles that generate power.

Not solar panels that go on top of shingles.

I'm curious how they would stand up to a hail storm. Most solar panels do pretty well and better than the shingles arround them.

If they are fragile as regular shingles they could play hell with insurance premiums.

[Tonio]

The photos I've seen looked like those classic terracotta shingles. Hoping these are fiberglass or something else more hail resistant.

[UnCivilServant]

Tempered glass, from what I've read. (I could be wrong, it was secondhand information)

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Using solar panels on as many exterior surfaces as possible is really the way to go. Whether Tesla can do it efficiently, cheaply and have it still work? Meh.

[John Titor]

Does this mean we'll finally get the cyberpunk undercities we were promised?

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Just as soon as solar panels become economically viable on their own accord.

[R C Dean]

"But we'll make it up on volume!"

[JW]

Oh sure, they'll totally pay for this boondoggle out of their own pockets.

Yeah, I larfed too.

[BigT]

DOW was working on solar roof shingles and recently abandoned the project.

http://www.chem.info/news/2016.....r-shingles

[Playa Manhattan.]

I almost bought their first power wall. Then I read the specs.

A Dell Laptop is a better investment over 10 years.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

He states that he has significantly cut down his daily energy bill by an incredible 90-percent (from $5-$6 a day to just 59 cents) and that his family has consequently learned to use their appliances in a more mindful manner. One example is that they use their "dishwasher during the day and shift as much power use to the daytime" so that they effectively use only solar energy for heavy duty tasks.

Conversely, even though the Powerwall has provided him and his family a great deal of utility, he also shares his critical feedback. He goes on to state that, at this point in time, that the current generation power and energy banks "don't make sense from a pure financial perspective," and that "pretty much none of them will pay for themselves before the warranty expires." And that definitely holds some truth to it. But, Mr. Pfitzer continues on and says that, right now from his perspective, it is about "eliminating waste."

[BigT]

"...shift as much power use to the daytime" so that they effectively use only solar energy for heavy duty tasks."

No vibrators for you!!

[Agammamon]

Someone should tell Mr. Pfizer that *price* already figures in the amount of resources used in creating an object and if using increases your *total* costs, you're increasing your *total* waste, even if it allows you to decrease waste elsewhere.

PAY ATTENTION TO THE UNSEEN YOU FUCKING MORON!

[Timon 19]

All-in-one solution = eventual single point of failure = you're over a barrel.

[GILMORE?]

Gawker settled with Hulk Hogan for $31 million.

Well as long as they're still bankrupt and Denton is forced to sell Steak Knives door-to-door, i think the universe is in harmony.

[Pro Libertate]

Didn't Univision buy the whole mess?

[GILMORE?]

GOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL

[GILMORE?]

oh wait, that's telemundo?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Game 7 of the World Series will be played in Cleveland tonight.

World? When was the last time another country has even contributed to this thing?

[Citizen X]

Aren't most of the players Dominican?

[BigT]

"World Series Ends Tonight in Cleveland"

So no series next year ;(

[Fist of Etiquette]

He didn't say World Serieses, dummy.

[BigT]

Who do you think I am? Dummy Hoy?

"William Hoy (May 23, 1862 ? December 15, 1961), nicknamed "Dummy", was an American center fielder in Major League Baseball who played for several teams from 1888 to 1902, most notably the Cincinnati Reds and two Washington, D.C., franchises.

Hoy is noted for being the most accomplished deaf player in Major League history, and is credited by some sources with causing the establishment of signals for safe and out calls."

[R C Dean]

"Women and children hardest hit"?

[Dick N. Bimbose (n?e Cooper)]

Aroldis Chapman is Cuban?

Also, there's plenty of South Americans playing in this series (and others) who are not American citizens.

[Ted S.]

How many non-US players are on the teams?

[Juvenile Bluster]

Indians have 5 on the WS roster (Danny Salazar, Michael Martinez, Jose Ramirez and Carlos Santana are all Dominican, and Yan Gomes is Brazillian). Cubs have 6 I think (Miguel Montero, Wilson Contreras and Hector Rondon are Venezuelan, Pedro Stroop is Dominican, Chapman and Jorge Soler are Cuban). That's just the ones I'm pretty sure were born outside of the US (or Puerto Rico)

[waffles]

I have to double check but Canada may be another country. Plus all the best players from overseas that can play MLB will play MLB. Also USA USA USA

[Playa Manhattan.]

America junior?

[TheZeitgeist]

Canadians lost ALCS to Cleveland.

[Ed]

1993

[Fist of Etiquette]

Get a load of Wikipedia over here.

[Ted S.]

Ah yes, Joe Carter.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Triggered.

[Pope Jimbo]

My wife actually followed baseball that year. Mostly because she was 9 months pregnant and we didn't have cable so she watched what she could.

My daughter has the middle name Jo which I told everyone was because she was in love with Joe Carter, but really it was a Korean family name.

[Rufus The Monocled]

So we get this email today:

"Dear parents,

Although the children had a very lucrative Halloween. We would ask you to please refrain from sending chocolate, chips and candy etc. in their lunches.
Thank you for your cooperation."

What I wanted to respond:

Dear School,

Fuck you and mind your business.

With warm cum,

Rufus

[bacon-magic]

What are you going to use for a substitute in your poutine?

[BigT]

"We would ask you to please refrain from sending chocolate, chips and candy etc. in their lunches", but we're not assholes, so we won't."

[Rufus The Monocled]

My wife - a teacher who thinks all this nannying is dumb - reminded me of the time she put six Smarties in a bag for our daughter when she was in Kindergarten. They took it from her.

Heartless little pukes.

'We're a health school' is such bull shit.

[Rhywun]

Jesus Christ. We used to have candy sales and sell each other boxes of M and gorge them in class. I can't imagine being a child today.

[Rhywun]

Squirrels ate my other M

[Gadfly]

I think you have to use the code &+amp+; to get & if you are immediately following it with letters (delete the + signs).
M&+amp+;Ms = M&Ms
But an ampersand by itself or succeeded by only a single letter will stand without the use of the code.
M&M
Or cheat using spaces.
M&M s

[Greg Loves His Woodchipper]

I've read some terrible things about M, these new designer drugs are just killing our children

[R C Dean]

Somebody used that "we would ask you" phrasing on me recently. Because they were a dick and I was in a mood, I asked them "OK, that's what you would ask us to do. What are you actually asking us to do?"

Hilarity ensued.

[Pope Jimbo]

The old elementary school my kids went to had a super fucked up lot. It had been pretty good, but then they put up a bunch of barriers and lights and screwed it up royally. Using the parent drop off area was insanely inconvenient for me. So instead I would use the bus dropoff area/faculty parking lot.

The principal once flagged me down and did the passive aggressive Minnesoda deal of asking me nicely to use the parent lot next time. He was flummoxed when I told him that that would be too inconvenient for me and I would continue using the convenient lot. When he started to push back, I asked him what law I was breaking and if he couldn't tell me, then we'd see each other in the lot some more.

Luckily for both of us, I only dropped the kid off a handful of times so it never became a real issue. The kid got a good lesson, though, in how to stand up to school yard bullies.

[Playa Manhattan.]

It sounds like they're asking you, not telling you.

You know what to do. Your daughter is going to school with a trash bag full of candy tomorrow.

[Rufus The Monocled]

By 'ask' they mean 'tell'.

You know the game.

[R C Dean]

They actually aren't even asking.

"Would ask" is essentially conditional, implying that there are situations in which they would ask, etc. Its not an actual ask, not yet, anyway.

[Rhywun]

Or, passive-aggressive bureaucratese.

[Tonio]

Dear School,

Actually, Rufus Junior did not have a "lucrative" Halloween, in fact far from it. Our entire family found your letter triggering and othering.

I respectfully request that the school ask each student for an inventory of his/her Halloween candy, and work towards ensuring an equitable distribution.

Sincerely,

Rufus the Monocled

[bacon-magic]

Tonio,
You rock.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Ha!

[Playa Manhattan.]

P.S. She likes Skittles

[BigT]

Dear School,

We would ask you to refrain from sending emails that require the production of electricity by combustion that is killing us all from global warming. In the future communications should be inscribed on acid-free, renewably produced, fair trade paper or be made from edible materials such as cookie dough or pasta.

In Gaia,

The Rufuses

[Pope Jimbo]

Even better if you say your family doesn't celebrate Halloween and that it is triggering for your kid to hear other kids even talk about candy. Fuck equitable distribution, demand that they confiscate it all. No kids should be allowed candy.

If that doesn't create some proto-libertarians nothing will.

[DOOMco]

Do it!

[Eternal Blue Sky]

"Although the children had a very lucrative Halloween." isn't a sentence. Isn't it amazing when these sorts of letters are sent out by the people who demand they be the ones paid to educate our children??

[Rufus The Monocled]

She's admin. And as rude as admin women in school's tend to be. I told this woman off once.

[sarcasmic]

Yeah. Wouldn't want the kids to learn how to trade.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

We would ask you

Fucking weasel words...

Are you going to ask me or not?

[R C Dean]

"OK, then. Let me know when or if you are actually ready to ask me that. In the meantime, I'll be setting up in the parking lot to pass out my excess Halloween candy."

[Sevo]

Did I get scooped again?

"New WikiLeaks Release Shows DOJ Official's 'Heads Up' to Podesta"
[...]
"A new WikiLeaks release shows a possible conflict of interest between a Justice Department official and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.
[...]
Under the subject "heads up," Kadzik wrote: There is a HJC [House Judiciary Committee] oversight hearing today. Likely to get questions on State Department emails. Another filing in the FOIA case went in last night or will go in this am that indicates it will be awhile (2016) before the State Department posts the emails."
http://insider.foxnews.com/201.....inton-camp

So the DOJ is a branch of the Clinton campaign?

[Florida Hipster]

Someone linked to that this morning. It went to zerohedge and hang the bankers, so I wasn't sure if it was legit.

[Playa Manhattan.]

Hmmm.....

I remember some people complaining about Hatch Act violations recently....

[Florida Hipster]

receive $31 million in cash

How many briefcases is that?

[Ted S.]

According to Wikipedia, the dimensions of US currency are:

(6.14 length ? 2.61 width? 0.0043 in thickness = 156 ? 66.3 ? 0.11 mm)

Figure out your briefcase size, and voil?, you've got your answer. For a 14x13x2 briefcase, I get around 70.

[Florida Hipster]

That's how I would demand delivery. 70 briefcases, mr denton.

[Playa Manhattan.]

I'd ask for it in a swimming pool.

[jesse.in.mb]

This is why you have norovirus

[Playa Manhattan.]

You know damn well that I don't eat at Chipotle.

[OneOut]

In that case we must rush to a currency less economy.

It's for the children you know.

[UnCivilServant]

the main variable will be airspace between the bills and how new they are. Older bills will not stack as neatly and thus make bricks that are less dense.

[R C Dean]

That's why I also require that my ransom payments be vacuum packed.

[Playa Manhattan.]

No, you do that for the currency sniffing dogs.

[R C Dean]

I have never run into such creatures deplaning from my Lear at the private airfield.

[Adans smith]

That's 30 dirty laundry bags in Florida speak.

[OneOut]

Not even a full pallet in Obama to Iran measurements.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

In Florida speak, I thought that was about a thousand keys of blow, or 250 bales?

[Zunalter]

In Florida speak, I thought it was 2 Million cases of Natty Light?

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Floribama speek.

[BigT]

One piece of a trillion dollar coin split into 1/33,000ths.

[GILMORE?]

President Obama criticized the FBI for operating on "innuendo" in a reference to the agency's Hillary Clinton investigations.

Is he suggesting that there aren't in fact tons of the Secretary of State's email-communications on the computer of a guy who keeps exposing himself to children?

Just wondering what the 'innuendo' part is supposed to be.

[grrizzly]

The official line is that the FBI doesn't even know yet whether the emails are relevant.

[GILMORE?]

Actually i'm pretty sure that's not true.

They got their warrant by demonstrating through their review of metadata that the emails in question covered the same senders/recipients/time-periods and some of the same subject lines as other evidence that the FBI had reviewed.... but which here seemed * to include more actual exchanges than the original batch of emails.... suggesting that included in this batch were emails which may have been deleted from the server prior to handoff.

True, they can't be 100% sure until everything has been gone through in detail, but to suggest there's nothing but innuendo involved... that's not the FBI's doing, that's the media. The FBI simply said they're looking at new evidence. Obama is trying to blame the FBI for how the media has interpreted this whole affair.

[grrizzly]

I meant that it was the talking point of the die-hard Clinton supporters. Almost by definition it ought to be false.

[CatoTheChipper]

I don't think the even the die-hard flacks have come out and said, "We are totally unconcerned about what will be found on Mr. Weiner's computer. We are absolutely certain that no classified e-mail could be there."

[OneOut]

There is a lot of noise about how the emaisl got there.

I am most curious to find out if any of the classified one were forwarded out and to whom.

Ananswer to that might partially lay to rest some peoples questions about Huma's Muslim Brotherhood ties.

[PurityDiluting]

"Game 7 of the World Series will be played in Cleveland tonight."
I expect the winning and losing sides to respond with much more civility and class than we will see after the election

[Juvenile Bluster]

You mean the matchup that pits a team that features an offensive image of Native Americans against a team that appropriates the culture of a subculture of young homosexual men? Disgusting!

[thom]

Wait...which of them is Chief Wahoo?

[jesse.in.mb]

The Provincetown Twinks made the World Series this year?

[PBR Streetgang]

I LOL'd.

[BigT]

You mean a team that honors the life of a beloved former Native American teammate, and one that supports the LGBT youth movement.

Sheesh!

[JaimeRoberto]

According to the new GLAAD style guide, it should be LBGTQ. Get used to typing that extra letter or be prepared to be called a hater.

[jesse.in.mb]

Fun fact: people bitching about the acronym's varying length and letter ordering are the preponderance of people who care about the acronym's varying length and letter ordering.

[Hoof Hearted]

Some things never change...

Bought this book several years ago but just recently started reading it:

Murray Rothbard as published in The Rothbard-Rockwell Report.
The Irrepresible Rothbard, The Center for Libertarian Studies, Inc. 2000

Found a couple of gems to share:

"..[T]he liberal elites are desperately trying to cover for Clinton, and are bewildered and appalled by the entire phenomenon. In a recent column, Thomas Sowell noted the perplexity of the media, and replied, in effect, that the reason the Clintons are widely "perceived" as power-hungry sleazes is because they are power-hungry sleazes."
-A New Strategy for Liberty, October 1994

"Let's never forget the looming menace of the monster Hillary: sure, they cleaned up her act until November; they shut the witch up, stopped her from openly reviling baking cookies, they bobbed and blonded her hair and took that damned headband off..., and made her look like a sophisticated matron instead of an aging grad student. But you can bet your bottom dollar that if [Bill] Clinton wins in November, that the monster Hillary will be back: worse than ever, in control, nasty, tough, and very leftist..."
-Working Our Way Back to the President, September 1992

[BigT]

Prescient

[To: Trshmnstr From: Hrod [C]]

Some of us keep agitating for better quality articles from some of our "favorite" Reason writers. I've even said that I would write an article and post it in the PM Links if I ever found the time to write it. I didn't have a ton of time for a research article, so I wrote a simple editorial on property taxes. Here it is for your enjoyment.

Against Property Taxes
Written By: Trshmnstr

Of the many ways in which the government extracts money from its citizens, it would be hard to find one more nefarious than property tax. One could argue that inflation is particularly evil for the way it invisibly targets the poor and the economically unsavvy. Perhaps an argument could be entertained for the income tax being uniquely horrible because it erodes the dignity of a man's labor. However, neither of those taxes reach the levels of terribleness that are characteristic of the property tax.

[To: Trshmnstr From: Hrod [C]]

John Locke, famous for contributing a philosophical basis for much of the Declaration of Independence and for undergirding the Founders' discussions at the Constitutional Conventions, focused on three basic individual rights that government should protect, "life, liberty, and property." The attacks on life and liberty in modern society are numerous and not entirely germane to this discussion. However, property taxes are a direct attack on the government's ideal role of protecting the individual right to property. Property taxes are not levied against a business transaction (e.g. sales tax), or a business relationship (e.g. income tax), or liquidity (e.g. inflation), but against ownership of property, specifically a homestead.

Ownership of land is unique in the scope of capital ownership. Throughout history, land ownership has been equated with success, or at least with a reduction in the hardships of basic sustenance. A cursory study of anthropology illuminates support for this proposition. Humanity was slow to grow and develop, and a person's life was rife with hardship before land ownership became a widespread practice. The nomads of the ancient past were one step away from rejoining the apes in the jungle, foraging for food in the hope of making it just one more day.

[To: Trshmnstr From: Hrod [C]]

Once people began to establish ownership of certain plots of land through the development of agriculture, humanity began to develop at a break-neck pace. It was no mistake that the nomads were largely replaced by agrarians within just a few centuries; owning a plot of land is a massive advantage when trying to survive. Nothing is more universally useful, no matter the context, than land. Whether the crisis is a temporary bout of unemployment or a nuclear holocaust, land ownership is the greatest insurance policy against undue suffering.

Ever since the first family set down roots and started a farm, there have been bad actors attempting to scheme, coerce, defraud and kill their way into stealing the advantages of the land from the homesteader without paying in the toil required to generate those advantages. The property tax is just one of the latest iterations of the grasshopper holding a gun to the head of the ant and forcing him to relinquish some of his food as winter sets in. The unique evil of property tax is that a man is given no opportunity to truly own his land free and clear. The very notion that man has a right to property is undercut by the property tax.

Proponents of the property tax appeal to the sense of community and equity in every person in order to defend the property tax. They say that you benefit from the services provided by the tax, even if you never use those services. .

[To: Trshmnstr From: Hrod [C]]

"The children are in school becoming educated instead of running amok vandalizing your home," they say. "You're paying for a fire service to come to your house when it is on fire," they say. "What will you do when you call the police and nobody picks up," they ask. Of course, this line of reasoning is highly flawed in no small part due to these services not specifically requiring property taxes to function. It also ignores the petty injustice done to a liberty of a person by coercing them into paying for services that may or may not be worth it to them. All in all, the statist has no argument for property tax as an efficient vehicle for collecting public funds. Once all of the rationalizing and sophistry are swept away, all that is left is an assertion of property ownership as violence, of communal ownership of property (if not a veiled argument that Gaia has self-ownership).

[To: Trshmnstr From: Hrod [C]]

The reality is much different than the picture painted by the statist. Property taxes incentivize people engaging in riskier living situations, and relegate the homeowner to the status of perpetual tenant of the government landlord. This fee simple (in the medieval context) arrangement lends a preposterous credence to the defunct "divine right of kings," an idea making a postmodern resurgence. Thus, property taxes are, in the words of Henry Hazlitt, a revival of an ancient error, and further proof of the dictum that those who are ignorant of the past are condemned to repeat it. Property taxes are an idea predicated on the subjugation of the man to the crown, even if the crown is voted into office and wears a pantsuit

[BigT]

"Ever since the first family set down roots and started a farm..."

Moochelle 's garden?

[DOOMco]

Clapping*

[tarran]

Excellent letter, sir!

[R C Dean]

Bravo, sir.

Reason has a resource here in the commentariat that it isn't making any real use of. Shame, that. Between the engineers, scientists, doctors, and lawyers, we could easily be used to bang out articles for their posting pleasure. A side-blog, if you will.

Taking nominations for names of the commentariat corner.

[Echo Chamber]

I nominate "Commentariat Corner"

[bacon-magic]

I nominate "The Woodchipper".

[Yusef Adama]

I like this here

[A Cynic's Guide to Zen]

I nominate "(T)reason" as the name of the side-blog.

[BigT]

"Reason has a resource here in the commentariat that it isn't making any real use of. "

Why buy bacon when the pigs are free?

[UnCivilServant]

Why buy bacon when the pigs are free?

Because I don't have the patience to kill the pig, butcher the carcass, smoke the bacon and slice it into rashers all by myself?

[R C Dean]

Why buy bacon when the pigs are free?

That's it, though. They aren't getting nearly what they could from us.

Give us a real page, let us submit articles (or "commission" them), and I guarantee they could get longer-form, properly edited work from several of us that would be as good as anything they have to pay for. And I'm betting there's plenty of us who would do it for free.

[To: Trshmnstr From: Hrod [C]]

And I'm betting there's plenty of us who would do it for free

Hell, toss up $100 every quarter for the "Editor's Choice" winner article. That'll incentivize people to write more articles, and it probably costs less than their server squirrel eradication service.

[The Hyperbole ((Very Tall))]

I nominate "Alt Text"

[The Hyperbole ((Very Tall))]

Between the engineers, scientists, doctors, and lawyers, we could easily be used to bang out articles for their posting pleasure.

Not to mention the mechanics, masons, bar keeps, and small business owners. Yeesh, elitist much?

[To: Trshmnstr From: Hrod [C]]

Not to mention the mechanics, masons, bar keeps, and small business owners.

I'd read articles from each of those. I think that commentariat here has a wealth of institutional knowledge and insight that is quite unique.

[OneOut]

I was thinking the same.

Roofing contractors need love too.

Value added production and all that jazz.

[R C Dean]

Yeesh, elitist much?

What, the monocle and tophat didn't give it away?

Good point, though. I spend too much time with Cloud People, and it affects my thinking.

[The Hyperbole ((Very Tall))]

Good point, though. I spend too much time with Cloud People, and it affects my thinking.

I was hesitant to post that. I didn't want to sound like an anti-elitism elitist, if you follow.

However, now that I have, allow me share my favorite anti-elitism story.

I did some work for a couple, both doctors. Towards the end of one job, wife-doctor asks if I would mind hanging some pictures in husband-doctor's study. They recently had it repainted and the painters left without rehanging the art work. 'Sure', says I, just 'show me where you want 'em.' So she is holding up the paintings and I'm putting in the hangers, when I notice that the next painting is Picasso's The Old Guitarist, but she is holding it sideways, as if the old guy is laying on his side and strumming. I ask if she wouldn't rather hang it upright and she swears that the sideways way is the right way, insist that they have had it hanging that way for years. I shrug tell her that she's in good company, that MOMA did a similar thing with a Matisse. Last job I ever did for them.

[BigT]

"Between the engineers, scientists, doctors, and lawyers, we could easily be used to bang out articles for their posting pleasure.

Not to mention the mechanics, masons, bar keeps, and small business owners. Yeesh, elitist much?"

Not to mention the pervs, drug aficionados, the alt-sex experts (I.e. SF), sociopaths, and insane. Oh, wait, you did - libertarians.

[bacon-magic]

Good job.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Well done.

Property taxes are oxymoronic.

[BigT]

Rent-seekers are just living up to their reputation. What are property taxes but rent?

[OneOut]

I have a buddy who's current property taxes are more than twice what his mortgage payment once was.

That's probably not an unusual situation in high growth areas like Katy, Tx.

[Suthenboy]

All of the suggested names are good but I have to go with bacon-magic's suggestion. The Woodchipper.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

*slowly clapping from the back*

[GILMORE?]

The sexual assault victim of Brock Turner was named Glamour's woman of the year.

Nothing is quite so glamorous as passing out in the garbage and getting fingerbang-raped by a freshman.

Does no one else think that this whole "commercializing our moral-solidarity" thing is tawdry, gross, ridiculous etc.?

I think its terrible to be sexual assaulted. But turning assault-victims into petit-celebrities, martyrs? What's next? Put her on a box of wheaties?

[IndyEleven]

Jackie Coakley as spokesmodel for Nev-R-Break brand coffee tables?

[GILMORE?]

i groan-laughed. I appreciate that sort of thing.

[When will you report on Carl?]

Emma Sulkowitz (sp? I think there's a "c" in there somewhere) for Featherlite Ultraportable Mattresses?

[Playa Manhattan.]

Oh please; you know how to spell it.

She's your screensaver right now.

[When will you report on Carl?]

I don't need to know the spelling; I downloaded the vid to my porn folder as soon as it came out.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

But turning assault-victims into petit-celebrities, martyrs?

And people can't IMAGINE why anyone would ever fake a sexual assault complaint.

[DEG]

Church set on fire and vandalized

Warning: auto-play video

Police are treating the burning of a black church in Mississippi -- during which vandals spray-painted "Vote Trump" on an exterior wall -- as a hate crime, saying it amounts to an act of voter intimidation.
A 911 call reporting the fire at Hopewell Baptist Church in Greenville came in at about 9:15 p.m. Tuesday, police said. Firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze.

Most of the damage to the 111-year-old church was to the sanctuary, pastor Carilyn Hudson said at a news conference.
"We do believe that God will allow us to build another sanctuary in that same place," she said, though the extent of the damage was unclear.
There were no reports of injuries, and no one had been in the building since about 1 p.m. Tuesday, Hudson said.

[R C Dean]

Police are treating the burning of a black church in Mississippi -- during which vandals spray-painted "Vote Trump" on an exterior wall

I'll give 5-1 odds this is a false flag.

[Playa Manhattan.]

100-1.

[Suthenboy]

5-1? How about 100 - 0.

[GILMORE?]

Cam Newton = Debuts New Silly Hat

[Je suis Woodchipper]

what's with the turkey feather?

[AlmightyJB]

That's from L.L. Beans pimp collection.

[GILMORE?]

On a scale of 1-10, how unbelievably cynical is it for me to assume that this was orchestrated by people for the DNC?

""Mississippi church burned, vandalized with 'Vote Trump'""

Because seriously, that's how people really behave when they want to rally support for a candidate. Burn Churches.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

On a scale of 1-10, how unbelievably cynical is it for me to assume that this was orchestrated by people for the DNC?

Not at all. I'd put the likelihood of it at around 100%.

[Yusef Adama]

^ this squared

[BigT]

Pence should say: "Political terrorism! But this looks more like a false flag operation - who thinks burning a church will get them votes?"

[jack sprat]

Ours goes to 11

[The Hyperbole ((Very Tall))]

Its a big jump to arson but a Trumpster has admitted to dumping the load of manure at some Ohio DNC headquarters.

[GILMORE?]

a Trumpster has admitted to dumping the load of manure at some Ohio DNC headquarters

lol - I know. someone else proposed that was a 'false flag' and I said,

"No @#()*$()@ way. Nobody dumps 100s of pounds of animal shit on their own front doorstep. Its just not consistent with human psychology"

I had no doubt that was real.

[Deep Lurker]

Whereas people have been known to commit arson against their own property.

Anyway, shouldn't the manure dump be treated as modern shitty performance art, of the sort protected by the First Amendment?

Or maybe the guy will get charged with making an illegal campaign contribution to the Democrats. Manure can actually be worth money.

[spqr2008]

He admitted to doing it in 2012 as well.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

I don't know. It boils down to either Stupid Party voters acting Stupid or Evil Party voters acting Evil. Aren't both distinct possibilities??

[UnCivilServant]

The balance of probabilities suggests the Church was a false flag, while the manure (listed below) was authentic stupid.

[Suthenboy]

"Because seriously, that's how people really behave when they want to rally support for a candidate. Burn Churches."

And then sign their name to it.

Also, Trump has been going after the AA vote with some success. I have never gotten the notion that Trumpers are any of the things that Cankles accuses them of, in this case racist. Only the fanatical Cankles supporters actually believe that, you know, the kind that would go out and burn a church and paint 'Vote Trump' on it.

[Greg Loves His Woodchipper]

When I really want a message to get out I make sure I write it on something that I plan to burn down and destroy.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Here's the $2.5 billion streetcar boondoggle Mayor de Blasio is trying to fleece the NY taxpayers for

It's going to pay for itself!!! Well, someone will pay for it.

The city has said that the proposed 16-mile project could pay for itself, raising property taxes along its route.

That's... not paying for itself, actually.

[UnCivilServant]

If the subway, which has an absurd ridership, can't pay for itself, a streetcar of little utility won't do any better.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Why on earth would the city of New York... a city that actually has a functioning subway system, want to copy West Coast cities and put surface level street cars in? Why on earth?

It's weapons grade retard when we do it out here in the west, but at least you can point to a lack of subways (aka 'light rail') and claim you're trying to do something.

[UnCivilServant]

It's a status symbol. "Oh dear, we're not retrograde enough, we need even more outdated transit systems because the guys on the west coast have them"

[Pan Zagloba]

Surface level street cars are awesome because they are both romantic and fuck with the car traffic, in a way regular buses don't. If you always assume first purpose of any mass transit initiative in North America is "fuck cars" rather than "improve transportation of people", a lot* of things that look silly make sense.

*Disclaimer: I don't have a driver's license, I use transit daily and sometimes yes, it serves it purpose admirably.

[OneOut]

Houston has a light rail who's number 1 purpose is to fuck with car drivers.

And it works !

[Suthenboy]

When anti-gravity engines are finally invented and I and everyone else gets their flying car, when bending space becomes economically and logistically feasible so that bulk cargo and people can be moved from any point in the universe to any other point in the universe for pennies, the goddamned pinkos will still be running choo-choo scams.

[DOOMco]

And designating half of every road for bikes.

[Drave Robber]

Unexpected Chart Of The Day: USA Default Risk Tumbles As Trump Gains

It's Zero Hedge, yes, but the chart itself is sort of real.

[Agammamon]

That's not exactly a bad thing. We (potentially) risk default because, maybe, possibly, not really, Trump might stop funding debt payments with more debt.

Nothing scares those who lend money to countries more than the idea that one of those countries might reform its spending.

[Drave Robber]

No, it looks as if Trump decreases the risk of default.

It's a low liquidity market and all that might well be a coincidence though.

[bacon-magic]

I don't know if this guy is nuttier than squirrel turds, but if true would be world shattering.
I looked at his youtube channel and he has some Alex Jones interviews...I'm leaning towards he is nuts.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Someone else posted this link in a previous thread.

[bacon-magic]

Scooped again! Eh, it happens.

[Adans smith]

Just like A. Wiener.

[CatoTheChipper]

On one hand, he's an Alex Jones nut and 9/11 truther.

On the other hand, he's a former assistant secretary of state. He's a PhD MD shrink with experience in psychological warfare. It is claimed that he worked out the negotiating strategy that led to the success of the Camp David Accords. (Wikipedia)

I don't know what to make of it. I'm sure the Hillary campaign will say he's working for the Russians if it gets any more traction. It already has about a million views on youtube.

[Echo Chamber]

Attack ads usually take words out of context or accuse the other candidate of eating babies. Here's one Democrats are running in Minnesota:
"We shouldn't be surprised Stewart Mills said this behind closed doors," the ad says, before using a secretly-recorded quote of Mills talking to someone at a Republican dinner event on September 10th. "I'm for free trade," you hear Mills say. "We need a free trade agreement. We need to be part of the Asian Pacific alliance."

There is only one media market in Minnesota, so this gets statewide coverage even though it's targeting one congressional district. This means the Dems aren't worried about this attack hurting them in other districts.
I am concerned that we've now reached the point that saying "I'm for free trade" now lands you in the basket of deplorables.

[kbolino]

I am concerned that we've now reached the point that saying "I'm for free trade" now lands you in the basket of deplorables.

On the one hand, much of that "basket" is comprised of people who aren't keen on "free trade" and so it seems an unlikely place to put proponents of "free trade".

On the other hand, it would hardly be the first time people of widely divergent views have been grouped together for the sake of political grandstanding.

[Echo Chamber]

ok, deplorables was poor short-hand on my part, but free trade is supposed to part of the recipe for success and now it is being tainted as an evil concept. wtf?

[kbolino]

Eh, I agree with you. But there are many people (left and right) who feel that their jobs and prosperity are being stolen by foreigners and refuse to accept the role of their own government (oftentimes, doing things they themselves claim to want done!) in creating this situation.

The greater concern to me is that proponents of "free trade" won't have anywhere to go, not even among the basket of deplorables.

[Echo Chamber]

Protectionism worked so well when Smoot-Hawley tried it.

[CatoTheChipper]

It was great when Lincoln tried it, too.

[Echo Chamber]

Also agree that we need better job retraining / reeducation / relocation programs to help the losers on trade

[kbolino]

Also agree that we need better job retraining / reeducation / relocation programs to help the losers on trade

I'm not sure exactly what this means, but in general I would say that this has nothing to do with the problem. The government penalizes legitimate economic activity via regulation and taxes, and rewards economic stagnation via inflation and welfare.

People will, generally, retrain/re-educate/relocate as needed if it is in their interest do so. The history of this country is replete with people bettering themselves by exploiting new opportunities. But they can only do that to the extent they are allowed and aren't being encouraged not to.

[Gadfly]

Free trade is one of those things with dispersed benefits but concentrated costs, so the few hurt by it are more concerned about it than the many helped by it, since the few hurt are often harmed significantly while the many that benefit often benefit marginally. While it benefits society as a whole over the long term, people often think short-term and are short-sighted. Its one of those situations where libertarians and communitarians ironically take opposite positions from what would be expected, with the libertarians trumpeting the benefit to the collective while communitarians harp on the harms to the individual (which is not to say that they abandon traditional individualist and collectivist arguments, respectively, just that the loudest arguments seem to be the ones cited, as they have the most power to sway people).

[John Titor]

So in light of today's story about goofy politicized Flintstones comics, let me share an equally goofy politicized story about Doctor Who.

I was watching it with my brother awhile back, which is really the only reason why I would watch it (that and whatsherface the hot companion), because goddamn is the writing bad. Anyway, this was some episode about some alien race that had shown up on earth previously, and through the magic of Doctor Who bullshit he had cloaking devices or they could transform or something into human lookalikes. Apparently they worked out a peace deal, and a couple million of these things have been living in Britain. But suddenly a group of the aliens don't want to live in peace, they want to take over the planet, and they murder the peace-loving leaders of the aliens. So the bad aliens have some base in Central Asia or something, and the British anti-alien service wants to bomb the crap out of them. The Doctor thinks this is a bad idea, and declares:

"No, you can't do that! If you do that you'll radicalize them all!"

I WONDER WHAT THE FUCK THE WRITER COULD BE TELLING US GUYS.

I miss when Space Arabs were Fremen. And filithy xenos knew to stay off Holy Terra.

[UnCivilServant]

Good to see the hack political commentary of the BBC is as unsubtle as ever.

[R C Dean]

No, you can't do that! If you do that you'll radicalize them all!

"Hmm. Good point. We'll finish with multiple napalm and cluster-bomb passes. Dead radicals don't bother me."

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

This means the Dems aren't worried about this attack hurting them in other districts.
I am concerned that we've now reached the point that saying "I'm for free trade" now lands you in the basket of deplorables.

Is that what the ad is suggesting, that the quote from Mills is taken at face value to mean he's Hitler?

[When will you report on Carl?]

I think we have a winner for best treat

[jesse.in.mb]

I'm sure Warty agrees.

[Playa Manhattan.]

It was Foster Farms. Fuckin gross.

I'd rather have rotisserie road kill. Don't care what kind of animal.

[B.P.]

I was standing behind a guy at the grocery store on Halloween night. The store had run out of candy, so he was purchasing stacks of ramen noodle packages to hand out to trick-or-treaters.

No, I don't live near a university.

[DOOMco]

Thats good cover.

[GILMORE?]

Germans, Migrants, Not Getting Along

Count the number of times the term 'right-wing' is used. Ask yourself whether the journalist writing this knows of their political affiliation through seeing their voter-registrations... or just assumes it, because everyone knows Xenophobia and Nativist sentiment is entirely a party-affiliation issue.

I think the way the media insists on that narrative is in many ways self-affirming. What's funny is that when a country that was pretty clearly 'center-left-dominated' for many years, suddenly starts to see a push towards growth of the center-right (or as they say here "far right")... they seem to want to pretend that its a case of previously invisible Right-Wingers emerging ex-nihilo from the ether... as though they never actually voted in the past.

What they never seem to ever allow for is the possibility that large swaths of people in "the middle" actually change their minds.

Its never a case that anyone *stopped* supporting the left, for some reason... and now support some mix of opposition figures... its always that this opposition somehow emerged from nowhere, because racism.

[bacon-magic]

Open boarders is the only way, the Jacket told me so. (borders didn't seem to fit as well as boarders)

[UnCivilServant]

There are other ways.

Most of them don't involve rapey freeloaders.

[Playa Manhattan.]

Beauty Contest?

[bacon-magic]

You don't say?

[tarran]

Sadly, I kind of predicted this after the Paris massacre.

Sadly, many of the reasonable steps they could take are illegal; the French State will punish them if the state's agents should discover them arming themselves or turning away suspicious characters from their stores or producing propaganda denigrating the salafists. Sadly, they face a more extreme variant of the problem faced by all of us who live under the thumb of nation states: balancing their own personal desires against the threat of state punishment. Whether they choose to risk breaking the law is up to them, their conscience, and their own personal cost-benefit calculation.

Importing refugees and giving them welfare while making it impossible for them to work; punishing citizens for communicating about dangers and taking steps to defend themselves; all of these steps don't "solve" xenophobia. Rather they prevent people from protecting themselves against the bad actors among the new comers. People crave and deserve security. If the state outlaws the steps they want to take to secure themselves, then they will eventually rebel against the state. They will do it by joining political parties that are anti-immigration. If those parties are repressed or prohibited, they'll start engaging in vigilante action.

[GILMORE?]

Importing refugees and giving them welfare while making it impossible for them to work; punishing citizens for communicating about dangers and taking steps to defend themselves; all of these steps don't "solve" xenophobia.

You're exactly right that the mix of instant entitlements and social/cultural barriers-to-entry are like the perfect mix to create immediate hostility between newcomers and natives.

European culture is FAR more 'problematic' than the US in this way, despite what people might want to believe about US racism and its large pop of immigrants. We by and large get along reasonably well w/ our 'illegals'. (despite what Papaya might have you believe)

[GILMORE?]

Reuters Asks The Tough Questions

Commentary: Does the FBI think Russia hacked Weiner's computer?

Its actually about 40% less-stupid than the headline seems to suggest.

He's mostly just talking about the potential for Weiner to have provided a 'backdoor' (bouncy bouncy) for any potential spies. Because serial-sexters are easy marks.

For the Russians, contacting Weiner would have been as easy as posting a few fake sexy photos and waiting for him to take a bite. Placing malware on his computer to see what was there was as easy as trading a few more photos with him. He clicks, he loads the malware, National Security Agency 101 level stuff. An intelligence officer then has access to Weiner's computer, as well as his home wireless network, and who knows what else. An internet-enabled nanny cam? A smartphone camera? Abedin's own devices attached to that same network? It seems an easy, cheap, predictable kind of fishing expedition.

[Playa Manhattan.]

It does sort of bring into question the judgment of the Hillary campaign. They knew he was involved in this underage girl shit a long time ago, and they did NOTHING.

[Pan Zagloba]

Which is weird, you'd think they'd have a standardized Bill Protocol for such situations by now...

[kbolino]

The Bill Protocol works for Bill because half of the U.S. voting population will leap to his defense and/or aggressively ignore his misconduct out of instinct. Weiner has no such constituency.

[GILMORE?]

Yeah, i guess. I've never put a lot of weight into the whole "OMG he's a perv" thing. As I've pointed out before = everyone in this election seems to be married to a serial sex-criminal of some variety or another.

I think as far as the FBI is concerned, the fact that confidential State Dept business is archived on the portable computer of that sex-offender *should* be de-facto proof of mis-handling of intelligence... as well as de-facto proof of false-statements to investigators, etc.

unfortunately the FBI's real goal here (despite Obama's tut-tutting) is to try and cover for Hill & Co., not 'catch' her. The investigation going through that laptop likely won't even be able to use any examples of "classified information" to bring charges, since they are only - from what the WSJ article on sunday seemed to suggest - looking for Clinton Foundation-related skullduggery.

[R C Dean]

If, as I suspect, that laptop was a de facto backup for the private server, then I don't think you can assume anything. If that's the case, then everyone's immunity deal is at risk and there are ample means to re-open the old Espionage Act case (which was never technically shut down anyway).

Of course, as ever, it depends on the FBI doing some approximation of the right thing. Which is a question, but after Comey shot his wad covering up for the Clintons earlier, I think they have a lot less scope to launch an even bigger coverup now.

[GILMORE?]

If, as I suspect, that laptop was a de facto backup for the private server....

oooooh....

interesting. it would explain why there were "hundreds of thousands". Huma's statement was simply that "she'd never deleted anything", which suggested it was just accumulation over a decade.

*I myself was trying to consolidate about 10years of data between computers recently and can attest to the digital sprawl that is possible.

re: ""everyone's immunity deal is at risk ""

that's not the impression i got from the WSJ piece, which suggested that the DC FBI office's investigation of 'mis-handled classified info' was conducted in a way to limit the use of any evidence they collected. Basically, they were handing out immunizations left and right in order to isolate swaths of information. The impression i got was that this new trove of email was "open season" for the NY FBI office only if it were relevant to their investigation of the Foundation. Anything else would simply be nixed by the DoJ.

[Playa Manhattan.]

Wikileaks. Mills lied, and there's proof. She can't decline to answer on the grounds of attorney-client privilege anymore.

[GILMORE?]

just my opinion, but I don't think they're going to re-open anything re: the mishandling of intelligence case at this point, no matter what "evidence" you think the Wikileaks stuff shows

e.g. unless the FBI can validate the source of those emails from mills/podesta - i.e. how did they get them, and who was the originator, and how can they be sure they weren't tampered with? etc. .... even if they wanted to go through all that trouble, until then, they're not considered evidence at all.

I think the issue w/ the latest bunch of email is that the NY FBI office, which is investigating the Clinton Foundation, was basically locked out of the process that DC was running. they weren't allowed access to those witnesses, and they're barred from using many of the same sources of data. This new discovery basically gives them their own primary source from which to generate leads and evidence which isn't touched by that process.

again, all of that is the impression gathered from the WSJ story above. I don't think anyone cares about the Wikileaks info in from the FBI pov. Maybe if it helps lead them to *other stuff*, sure, but they don't have any plausible reason to subpoena Podesta's mail and i doubt any of the Wikileaked data would be admissable as bupkis in any case.

[GILMORE?]

*re: "re-open"..... yes, i know nothing was "closed". My point was that the WSJ piece seemed to indicate that what is involved here is mostly driven by the Foundation investigation, which was a separate beast from the previous case.

If they happen to find some slam-dunk/smoking gun evidence re: "intent" to mishandle/violate classification etc., sure they'll pass that on to the DC office, and maybe the FBI will be forced to re-address that. Its just that i don't think those guys WANT anything to be found, even if its there. The people investigating the mishandling-intel thing weren't trying to catch anyone. They were trying to cover up their crimes. The NY people seem to be of a different mindset.

[OneOut]

They did not do nothing.

They emailed back and forth about it confirming they knew about it as far back as 2011.

I'm waiting with bated breath to see if any of the emails were forwarded and where ?

[Ken Shultz]

"The sexual assault victim of Brock Turner was named Glamour's woman of the year."

"Never mistake activity for achievement".

----John Wooden

[Pope Jimbo]

Whoa, Minnesoda went for Trump

Sure it was only the high school students, but still.

GJ came in 4th.

[waffles]

GJ lost to Legal Marijuana Now...

[GILMORE?]

And "Write In"

[Pan Zagloba]

GJ shoulda picked Pepe for VP if he wanted the high school vote. But noooo, he had to let Trump claim him.

[Hayeksplosives]

I have been surprised by the number of commercials the Clinton campaign is running in Minnesota, a solidly blue state. Are they worried? Just saw a Trump ad during the world series. I've seen only Trump yard signs, no clinton. Interesting.

[Ayn Random Variation]

Sorry if this was mentioned, but I just heard weiner was sent away to a sex rehab clinic until after the election. I assume on Nov 9 he'll be found in his room with 2 gunshots to his head, his wrists slit, and with an empty bottle of Valium next to him.

[Zombie Jimbo]

Nope. Auto-erotic asphyxiation.

[OneOut]

Huma is responsible I would imagine, after Herself of course.

Why kill the Weiner ?

[Ayn Random Variation]

Leave my innocent, beautiful Huma out of this or I will have to ask you to step outside.

[Trigger Warning]

Isn't POTUS theoretically in charge of the FBI? If he's so concerned, he could make a phone call.

[DOOMco]

An interesting update:
Heater core clogged as well? test run this afternoon, hot lines into the heater, cool on return. No fan running.
I will pull both heater core and radiator to attempt to clean.
Spend a lot of time last night doing the head gasket. It wasn't in great shape, but held compression above 120 on all 6 cylinders. I'm hoping to get those numbers up to 150.