Twitter Launches New Tools to Combat 'Hate Speech,' Russia Ditches War-Crimes Court, Conflicts of Interest Abound for Trump: A.M. Links

• 

  The Internet

  Twitter announced new plans to get tough on "hate speech," including tools that give users more control over what content they see and an apparent "purge" of alt-right accounts.

• "Unlike past presidents who took office with considerable wealth," reports Politico, "the setup Trump is creating for his financial assets—leaving his three oldest adult children and a 'team of highly skilled executives' in charge while he's in the Oval Office—appears likely to expose large numbers of people the president hires to an unprecedented set of conflicts spanning his entire federal government."
• Will Steve Bannon, Trump's newly-named White House chief strategist, be able to pass the standard background check needed for a security clearance?
• Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country will drop out of the International Criminal Court designed to try war crimes.
• Trump wants us "to believe both that he's 'pro-life' and that he won't actually stop anyone from getting an abortion, at least not anytime soon."
• White women apparently "voted for Trump in 2016 because they still believe white men are their saviors."
• Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford were getting it on while shooting Star Wars.
• Tens of thousands of fish have died since Donald Trump was elected president.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford were getting it on while shooting Star Wars.

It was that gold bikini.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Someone's been reading my fan fiction.

[AlmightyJB]

Totally would have

[Crusty Juggler]

And he was a carpenter, so you know he had strong, rough manly hands.

[PBR Streetgang]

You know who else was a carpenter....

[Citizen X]

Richard and Karen?

[Swiss Servator]

*drops coffee cup, staggers up to heartily applaud*

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Not Tim Hardin

[jack sprat]

And she was no lady!

[Groovus Maximus]

John?

[PurityDiluting]

Groovus, checking back with you on the solyanka recipe.
Also, which side of the Dnieper river are you from?

[Groovus Maximus]

From? Neither, I am an American, of the natural born variety. We're in Odessa, and way, way west of it. We were very east it in Donets'k.

Soljanka

[robc]

The proper answer was "West, by about 6000* miles"

*adjust for accuracy.

[PurityDiluting]

Ah, ok. Thanks for the link (and thanks to Microsoft for right-click translate: "Rich meaty flavor and various acid"). Now I know why I like it so much

[Groovus Maximus]

Soljanka in English. This is pretty close to my MIL's recipe.

[PurityDiluting]

Even better. Thanks again.

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

(cue Halloween theme)

[Fist of Etiquette]

IT'S A TRAP. You dumb nerfherders don't even realize she didn't wear that until Return of the Jedi.

[spqr2008]

I was going to mention that, but ISWYDT.

[jarflax]

She didn't wear it on SCREEN until Jedi. You don't know what she wore in Han's basement.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

She coulda had anything on under that long white get-up with the cinnamon bun hair-doo!

[Groovus Maximus]

True Star Wars Nerd Fact:

She didn't. Apparently, there's some sort of movie rule about unmentionables in space movies, supposedly, and Lucas told her not to wear undergarments because of bra and pantie lines.

So, she was taped down so her bosoms wouldn't flop about excessively in action scenes, and the rest of her was free as Monte Crusto in gabardine.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

There were also several wardrobe malfunctions with the metal bikini during the filming of the sand barge rescue scene, so Hamill got more than his share of looks at her goods.

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

I don't think it's a "movie rule." I recall Fisher saying it was George's rule that there are no bras in space.

And it's pretty obvious on screen.

[Groovus Maximus]

I don't think it's a "movie rule."

Apparently everything needs a /sarc tag. Carry on.

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

You said true fact!!1

I meant to expand upon your post, that it is specifically a George rule. Which I consider more fun than it being some common understanding in Hollywood.

[Atanarjuat]

Not a bra, she claimed they had to tape her tits down for some of the running around the Death Star scenes.

[Agammamon]

No, no she couldn't.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Hello.

And what about 'assassinate Trump' tweets?

I hope they flame out and end up working for minimum wage.

[Swiss Servator]

COCOON...REINFORCE!

[Domestic Dissident]

Most of Reason pretty much endorses those tweets!

[Crusty Juggler]

Take a pill, yo.

[Citizen X]

They don't make a pill for trisomy, Crustle.

[IbrahimN]

They have done some experiments at U of Washington to remove the extra chromosome. Obviously just in a lab and not on people.

[Juice]

#RAPEMELANIA

[MarkLastname]

Who is Lania and why should I want her to rape me?

[Rasilio]

At least it wasn't Mark Hammil she was banging cause then it would have been brother and sister and that would have been icky.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Uh, they definitely banged after the medal ceremony.

"Alright, I'm going in and I'm going in full throttle."

"Luke at that speed will you be able to pull out in time?"

"It'll be just like Beggar's Canyon back home."

Beggar's Canyon being the low-rent brothel back on Tattooine. It was next to the Toschi Station strip club.

[Groovus Maximus]

Beggar's Canyon being the low-rent brothel back on Tattooine. It was next to the Toschi Station strip club.

Now wonder he was whinging about, ahem, "...Power Converters..." Looks like Luke mastered the art of a good euphemism at an early age.

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

He's lucky Porkins didn't survive to get in there first.

[BakedPenguin]

Stay on TARGET!

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

They didn't know that until Jedi.

Which makes it OK.

[Cdr Lytton]

Han shot first.

[Swiss Servator]

*narrows gaze*

[Fist of Etiquette]

White women apparently "voted for Trump in 2016 because they still believe white men are their saviors."

It's in the Bible.

[Rich]

Hey! Everybody knows the historical Jesus was Black!

[Just a thought not a sermon]

And he totally smoked reefer, too! Or was that George Washington?

[Rich]

Jesus smoked George Washington?!

Well, perhaps in a metaphorical sense.

[Swiss Servator]

No, no! Washington ate opponents brains and invented cocaine.

[Citizen X]

He saved the children, but not the British children.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

6'8".

Weighed a fucking ton.

[MarkLastname]

And had 2 dicks. Or was it 4 or 8?

[Rufus The Monocled]

And he totally would have supported ALL progressive policies.

[gaoxiaen]

And the Koran.

[gaoxiaen]

Okay, maybe not white.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Trump's going to deal with you soon enough.

[Injun, as in from India]

White women apparently "voted for Trump in 2016 because they still believe white men are their saviors."

Yeah, right.

I know a lot of leftie misogynist bigots who refused to vote for Palin because she's a woman.

[prolefeed]

And this gem from the linked article: "The pattern of white women choosing white men over women of color underscores some of the more insidious machinations of patriarchy and the racism ingrained in the feminist movement."

Because, apparently, Hillary is a woman of color. That color being white. And she has a vagina, so any woman who doesn't vote for her vagina is a traitor!

[TheZeitgeist]

I hear Madeleine Albright is hitting the trail for Marine Le Pen next year in France, because sisterhood and avoiding hell etc. etc.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

257) Why does this article on a racial slur found written on the wall in an elementary school bathroom get a 682-word write-up in the Washington Post?

Is it just me, or is it insane that this is an item in a nationally-distributed newspaper? I don't mean insane hyperbolically here?I mean it seems disproportionate to the point of mental disturbance that the editors of the newspaper think this is a huge news story. It was on the front page of the Metro section in the print edition. (Headline of a 111-word story on an interior page: Man fatally shot in Bladensburg.)

And when the school administrators find out that some 6th grader wrote it as a joke, what will happen to him? A one-day suspension seems fair to me, but this was a huge story in the newspaper. Would he really receive a punishment commensurate with the crime after this kind of publicity?

[(((Renegade)))]

And when the school administrators find out that some 6th grader wrote it as a joke, what will happen to him? A one-day suspension seems fair to me, but this was a huge story in the newspaper. Would he really receive a punishment commensurate with the crime after this kind of publicity?

HAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHA You slay me!

And don't expect that any follow up will appear on that same front page, if at all.

[DJF]

The narrative is settled.

[Atanarjuat]

I tuned in to NPR while driving around yesterday. I heard the phrase "white nationalism" at least 5 times.

They're trying to create a narrative out of thin air, that's all.

[WTF]

Yes, just ignore the fact that Trump did slightly worse with white voters than Romney, while doing significantly better than Romney with black and Latino voters.

[PurityDiluting]

sssshhh, don't wake them. Their safe space from cognitive dissonance surrounds them like a warm, comfortable blankey.

[Groovus Maximus]

I guess you could say they just got off a boat.

[Tonio]

[squints]

[Brett L]

Yes, the obvious problem with the national Democrat platform is that you have to read all of the "Why did all of you stupid white womenblack people vote for Trumpnot vote?" articles with the decoder ring.

And then they still have the same problem. Accusing a key demographic of being stupid or tricked into not doing what is in the express interest of the Democratic Party, and implied interest of the demographic. You would think all those sociology and Identity Studies would be able to see the difference between express and implied. Look how often they find implied racism and sexism where none is expressed.

[Jerryskids]

This morning they were describing the alt-right as a "white identity" movement - and saying that like it's a bad thing. Isn't that what identity politics is all about? Are the straight white middle-class middle-American males doing it wrong or something? Aren't we all supposed to be voting our self-interest? The Left has won, they've managed to defeat the idea that we're all somehow the same as human beings and should put common interests ahead of factional interests, they've managed to get us all to accept the idea that we're not personally responsible for our ideas and our actions, that we're helpless victims of the circumstances of our birth - and yet somehow they don't seem happy with their victory.

[Tonio]

Yeah, they are going to paint themselves into a corner real soon on this, what with all their black only safe spaces and stuff. Predictable response: "It's different when WE do it."

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Did not quite work out like they planned.

[Suthenboy]

Well Atanarjuat, where do you think narratives come from?

[Cyto]

I tuned in to NPR while driving around yesterday. I heard the phrase "white nationalism" at least 5 times.

They're trying to create a narrative out of thin air, that's all.

I noticed this as well. It was everywhere. Apparently the KKK went from 18 guys who had to chip in to buy the generic beer for the rally to 60% of the population in 18 hours. It was a pretty impressive transformation.

[Heroic Mulatto]

The problem is that the soi-disant "alt-right" currently believe their own hype. Much like the neoconservatives whom the media described as in firm control of the universe a decade ago, they will exist only as far as their utility as bogeymen for the left. When they are no longer useful for the media's narrative, they will disappear into the same obscurity as the renegade "Project for the New American Century."

[Idle Hands]

The problem is that the soi-disant "alt-right" currently believe their own hype

I feel like this is a common belief among most political ideologues that they are the secret majority and the only thing that prevents most other people from admitting it or realizing is disinformation spread by their opponents/enemies.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Indeed.

Jews did 5/28.

Teach the controversy.

[Cyto]

I'm confused about this whole alt-right thing. I thought it was sorta neo-con territory. Maybe tea-party conservatives? But then it was supposedly me, a libertarian. Which means pro gay rights, pro drug legalization, against government involvement in people's lives in any way, particularly with respect to race or religion... but now it is somehow white nationalists... and now we are all white nationalists?

As a white dude that used to be married to a black chick, I feel kinda like the Dave Chappelle blind, black Klan wizard. "Wait, what? I'm supposed to be a racist now?"

[BigT]

"used to be married to a black chick,"

Racist.

[MarkLastname]

Since there is a power disparity between you and this black chick, she was effectively your slave/rape victim, you chauvinist pig.

Only date within your race or gender; it's only sure way to avoid committing tacit social rape.

[Emmerson Biggins]

Empirical definition of alt-right:

1) disagrees with CNN or MSNBC about anything
2) has a computer

so we are all alt-right now.

[John DeWitt]

The KKK Moment?

[mad.casual]

I tuned in to NPR while driving around yesterday. I heard the phrase "white nationalism" at least 5 times.

This morning they did a special about Gun stores and gun sales. As is well-known to anyone without both hoplophobia and agoraphobia, mere talk from politicians about doing virtually anything with regard to 2A rights is sufficient to drive a surge in gun sales. So, with an impending Trump presidency, sales are (already!!!!) slumping.

The literally ended the story with a phrase to the effect, "So, with Trump in the White House, gun makers are going to have to scare their customers in some other way to motivate them to buy guns."

[Chip Woodier]

gun makers are going to have to scare their customers in some other way to motivate them to buy guns.

Some violent protests should do this handily.

[Mr Drew]

That's funny, I don't need another gun but Hillary losing makes me want to buy another one...because I can.

[IbrahimN]

I would like to see the manufactures work harder to sell me a new turkey gun. I don't need a new one, but wouldn't mind upgrading to a different model if they can sell me on it. Like Apple does with their endless iPhone models.

[BigT]

"Siri, shoot the turkey."

"Oh no, not Bill next door! Sure I called him a turkey, but..."

[Chipwooder]

Look, these narratives aren't going to concoct themselves.

I had a left-leaning friend, who is a smart and accomplished guy who usually is pretty clear-headed despite his political beliefs, who has been losing his mind about this stuff. He gets even more hysterical when I tell him that some mean-spirited graffiti is hardly a major crime.

[Rich]

If you want to really send him over the edge, spray-paint his house with "mean-spirited graffiti is hardly a major crime".

[Swiss Servator]

....whoa.

[Chip Woodier]

No gaze needed

[Rich]

Disclaimer: I do not advocate this. "For humor purposes only."

[spqr2008]

Or spray paint a sheet with the same phrase, and hang it from his trees....

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

My entire office has lost its collective goddamned mind. One co-worker put up a poster on her door depicting what to do if you witness Islamophobia.

Come to think of it, I guess that information is useful, as I wouldn't know how to deal with it since no one has witnessed any.

[Rich]

what to do if you witness Islamophobia.

I'll bite. Get stinking drunk?

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Just how afraid of Islam do you have to be for it to become irrational?

[IbrahimN]

I'll say it again. The liberals, they take the cake with Islamophobia. They get down right scary toward me and other Muslims when we don't share their social views. "You talk to your mother with that mouth", is what I'm thinking when they flip their lids. Yes there are some folks who the liberals call trump supporters. Where I get the under-breath "terrorist" when I walk past. My wife gets the "Go home" crap more than I do. Those instances are few compared to the vile hatred I get from liberals.

[Sorta]

Graffiti: outrageous crime

Assault of one wearing a MAGA hat: free speech

[Tonio]

Because pants-shitting hysteria.

Also, it was local news (see the url) so I'm giving them a partial mulligan on that. If this had happened in Podunk it would be all over the cover of the Podunk Tribune.

[Crusty Juggler]

The Podunk Tribune is a pinko, Commie rag.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Agreed. Podunk Times is where you get the real news.

[Suthenboy]

It is the WaPo. We are talking CNN, NYT and MSNBC level leftist propaganda machine.

[Ceci n'est pas un woodchipper]

Why does this article on a racial slur found written on the wall in an elementary school bathroom get a 682-word write-up in the Washington Post?

Asked and answered.

[Enough About Palin]

Has anyone else noticed that the only people wearing hoods these days are black folk?

[Paulpemb]

Wasn't it the Washington Post that refused to cover the Kermit Gosnell abortion butcher shop trial, because it was a 'local crime story'?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Trump wants us "to believe both that he's 'pro-life' and that he won't actually stop anyone from getting an abortion, at least not anytime soon."

Safe, legal and rare?

[WTF]

It actually is possible to be both. You can believe that abortion is wrong, but that making it a crime would be even worse.

[Tonio]

And I thought it was a lonely and thankless job being a gay libertarian.

[Rasilio]

You can even believe that it is wrong but have it so far down your policy agenda that addressing it isn't even on your long range plans yet

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Especially if you factor in the fact that it would take an enormous amount of political capital, likely not change very much except at the margins, and run a high risk of getting struck down by SCROTUS because the Fourteenth Amendment apparently discusses abortion in-depth.

[spqr2008]

Isn't this exactly what he said in a series of interviews? At first he came out in favor of banning it and punishing the woman, then said it's the doctors who should be punished, then said that making abortion illegal would require the punishment of the woman.

[John DeWitt]

So you're saying Trump wants to punish women?

[Enough About Palin]

At first he came out in favor of banning it and punishing the woman

Bullshit. He was asked a hypothetical: If abortion were illegal, should the be some sort of punishment for the woman. The correct answer to that question is "I don't answer hypothetical questions regarding situations that never will happen. Republicans need to learn this. Stephanoplois did something similar to Romney in 2012.

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

Wait a minute ... that sounds like me.

[CatoTheChipper]

Abortion isn't an interesting issue to me. I'd be pleased, however, if he were to defund Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers along with about 75% of what fedgov spends.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

But if Planned Parenthood isn't funded by the federal government, how will it afford massive ad-buys for Democratic candidates?

[Jerryskids]

Wow, that's an extremist position - I'll bet you couldn't find more than about a hundred million or so Americans who have that exact same opinion.

[Rhywun]

Curious phrasing. I want you to believe that I hold the same position. SMDH right?

[(((Renegade)))]

Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country will drop out of the International Criminal Court designed to try war crimes.

How fast can we follow that excellent example?

[Just a thought not a sermon]

We already have. From Wikipedia:

"Countries that have not signed or ratified the Rome Statute include India, Indonesia, and China. On May 6, 2002, the United States, in a position shared with Israel and Sudan, having previously signed the Rome Statute, formally withdrew its intent of ratification."

[(((Renegade)))]

And Obama didn't put us back in? Wow, now there's two things he's stayed out of that he should be praised for staying out of.

[Atanarjuat]

What was the other? Obama also cancelled the Constellation program, to his credit. I'm trying to find some silver linings.

[(((Renegade)))]

Didn't invade Syria.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

As far as we know...

[Cyto]

And then we went right back in with the SLS, a rocket design that only exists to keep all the disparate factories that created the space shuttles working, thereby garnering the votes needed in the congress.

He also killed Bush's mission to Mars so that Bush wouldn't have a legacy, and then a couple of years later put it right back - to the cheers of the lefty science communicator crowd. (they were very happy that the anti-science Bush administration had finally been overcome and the light-bringer had resurrected planetary science that Bush killed. Delusions are not education dependent)

[mad.casual]

And Obama didn't put us back in? Wow, now there's two things he's stayed out of that he should be praised for staying out of.

Not exactly. It's not like Obama refused because he thought the ICC was stupid or government overreach. He refused because, well, we tortured some people. And everybody knows that if you let some group of petty bureaucrats get all uppity about torturing people, next thing you know, they'll probably want to have a look at your dronessassination list.

[Lord Humungus]

Groin-flashing frog found in Australia

Although a frog rather than a toad, the word "toadlet" was added because the glands on its back look like those found on some toads in Europe and the Americas.

"They are highly secretive. Individuals remain well camouflaged and hidden under grass, leaves and sand," Clulow said, adding that the best way to find them is by following their mating call, an audible "squelch" of less than a second.

When confronted by predators, the frog extends its legs and flashes its orange groin, which Clulow believes briefly startles predators, allowing it to escape. His findings, with co-authors, is published in peer-reviewed journal Zootaxa.

[Citizen X]

Someone finally located Crusty's ancestors?

[straffinrun]

Sounds like Pepe Trump.

[Rich]

The "Anthony Weiner frog".

[Citizen X]

Ahem. Toadlet.

[Injun, as in from India]

Thread winner!

[Idle Hands]

Looks like John is officially apart of the White House transition team. I present one of the more interesting articles Buzzfeed has put out: This Is How Steve Bannon Sees The Entire World

we're at the end stages of a very brutal and bloody conflict, of which if the people in this room, the people in the church, do not bind together and really form what I feel is an aspect of the church militant, to really be able to not just stand with our beliefs, but to fight for our beliefs against this new barbarity that's starting, that will completely eradicate everything that we've been bequeathed over the last 2,000, 2,500 years.
Now, what I mean by that specifically: I think that you're seeing three kinds of converging tendencies: One is a form of capitalism that is taken away from the underlying spiritual and moral foundations of Christianity and, really, Judeo-Christian belief.
I see that every day. I'm a very practical, pragmatic capitalist. I was trained at Goldman Sachs, I went to Harvard Business School, I was as hard-nosed a capitalist as you get. I specialized in media, in investing in media companies, and it's a very, very tough environment. And you've had a fairly good track record. So I don't want this to kinda sound namby-pamby, "Let's all hold hands and sing 'Kumbaya' around capitalism."

[Idle Hands]

But there's a strand of capitalism today ? two strands of it, that are very disturbing.
One is state-sponsored capitalism. And that's the capitalism you see in China and Russia. I believe it's what Holy Father [Pope Francis] has seen for most of his life in places like Argentina, where you have this kind of crony capitalism of people that are involved with these military powers-that-be in the government, and it forms a brutal form of capitalism that is really about creating wealth and creating value for a very small subset of people.....
The second form of capitalism that I feel is almost as disturbing, is what I call the Ayn Rand or the Objectivist School of libertarian capitalism. And, look, I'm a big believer in a lot of libertarianism. I have many many friends that's a very big part of the conservative movement...
However, that form of capitalism is quite different when you really look at it to what I call the "enlightened capitalism" of the Judeo-Christian West. It is a capitalism that really looks to make people commodities, and to objectify people, and to use them almost ? as many of the precepts of Marx ? and that is a form of capitalism, particularly to a younger generation [that] they're really finding quite attractive. And if they don't see another alternative, it's going to be an alternative that they gravitate to under this kind of rubric of "personal freedom."

[Idle Hands]

The other tendency is an immense secularization of the West. And I know we've talked about secularization for a long time, but if you look at younger people, especially millennials under 30, the overwhelming drive of popular culture is to absolutely secularize this rising iteration.
Now that call converges with something we have to face, and it's a very unpleasant topic, but we are in an outright war against jihadist Islamic fascism. And this war is, I think, metastasizing far quicker than governments can handle it.....
They have a Twitter account up today, ISIS does, about turning the United States into a "river of blood" if it comes in and tries to defend the city of Baghdad. And trust me, that is going to come to Europe. That is going to come to Central Europe, it's going to come to Western Europe, it's going to come to the United Kingdom. And so I think we are in a crisis of the underpinnings of capitalism, and on top of that we're now, I believe, at the beginning stages of a global war against Islamic fascism.

[Citizen X]

Jesus, Steve Bannon. Shut the fuck up.

[Idle Hands]

I just find it interesting that Buzzfeed didn't just break this down into a list/pictures and they actually published a transcript of what the guy said for their readership to "read".

[Crusty Juggler]

That's worse than that pizza pedo Podesta.

[Password: pode$ta]

This could very well be Glenn Beck.

Except Beck has been running around calling Bannon a white supremacist.

[Swiss Servator]

Anyone see if they could slip some lithium into Beck's water bottle?

[Groovus Maximus]

It's part of, "The New Pollution," that's been wracking places like Michigan. Besides, he already has a, "Devil's Haircut," and he's busy with his, "Sun Eyed Girl."

[Lee Genes]

So what exactly is Judeo-Christian capitalism?

What a bunch of philosophical claptrap.

[Rufus The Monocled]

There is just capitalism. No descriptives needed.

This sort of stuff is tedious.

[Jerryskids]

I suspect what he's arguing is that "Judeo-Christian capitalism" is indeed "Just Capitalism". You can't go around giving people what they want because they might want the wrong things, therefore you must have some higher guiding principles to determine whether or not what they want is what they should want. You must make sure that what is allowed to be offered in trade is morally just.

How this is fundamentally any different than the "Right Top Men" argument is beyond me. However benevolent a dictator's intentions may be, it doesn't change the fact that he is a dictator with an absolute confidence that he is doing God's work even if he has to kill you in order to save your soul.

[John Titor]

When you trade beads for Manhattan island and destroy the local economy with manufactured wampum.

[Chip Woodier]

What they don't tell you is that the guy that ended up with the beads got laid for years with them. Seems like a good use of $24 of land to me.

[LynchPin1477]

They have a Twitter account up today, ISIS does, about turning the United States into a "river of blood"

*Deletes Twitter*

Well that was easy.

[LynchPin1477]

And here I thought you were going to post something that might make Bannon seem more reasonable.

[Idle Hands]

lol, look the man might not be a complete racist, but he still was the head of Breitbart.

[LurkinInaBuildin]

Made him sound more reasonable to me.

But I'm one of those sick maniacs who considers atheism irrational and doesn't discount thousands of years of religious practice by my own direct ancestors just because they didn't have the internet.

[John Titor]

Regardless of your religious beliefs if you think you can arbitrarily define 'good' capitalism and 'bad capitalism, then pretend one doesn't treat people as commodities (as has every economic system in human has) you're a moron. Bannon apparently doesn't care that the 'Judeo-Christian capitalism' spawned the Triangle Trade.

[John Titor]

*In human history

[LynchPin1477]

So I completely agree that religion can provide a powerful source of group cohesion and social norms, which many people seem to benefit from. I see no strong evidence that suggests these things can *only* come from religion in general or organized religion in particular.

But his complaints about crony capitalism and even Randian objectivism are, IMO, perfectly legitimate. I suspect that if poked and prodded I'd disagree with him about his particular vision for capitalism, and the necessity of a strong Christian religion in maintaining it, but I don't think it is at all unreasonable to say "hey guys, I don't think we should *just* treat people as inputs and *just* concern ourselves with maximizing productive efficiency".

What is unreasonable his exaggeration of the threat posed by radical Islam and ISIS. Like most people who fret about this, he fails to realize that how we react is far more dangerous than the theology of radical Islam or the groups that follow it.

[John Titor]

The problem I have is that he's obviously handwaving every example 'people being treated as commodities' in his mythical notion of 'Judeo-Christian capitalism'. We most definitely treat people less like commodities now then, say, in the early industrial revolution.

[John Titor]

In my experience I've met more 'grr kill Islam' atheists than I have 'grr kill Islam' Christians. If you're consistent about the whole 'religion has no value whatsoever' position and not a progressive ideologue.

[MarkLastname]

So, what is so 'alt' about this guy. He just seems like an arch traditionalist. In fact I doubt his views are that out of place in the GOP. I'm kind of disappointed actually. From the way the media described him I expected him to quote Otto Weineger and Nietzsche and he's big fan of racial phrenology.

[Rich]

tools that give users more control over what content they see

Seems Reasonable.

[Swiss Servator]

*narrows gaze*

[Lord Humungus]

British man gets Donald Trump tattoo because 'great art is controversial'

'Great art is always controversial. Craig has spent seven hours creating a masterpiece ? it's more about him than me or Trump.

'I've not seen a portrait of Trump as good as this. Most of them make a mockery of him. I see this one for the art.

'The last hour or so was pretty painful. I think it looks outstanding though. Generally the comments on the art have been positive.'

[Rich]

What could *possibly* go wrong?

[DJF]

I would have gone with the Pepe the frog, I think it has more staying power.

Plus few tattoo artists have the talent to capture Trumps magnificent hair and this guy got it all wrong.

[UnCivilServant]

Twitter announced new plans to get tough on "hate speech,"

So, they're shutting down their platform?

[Lord Humungus]

Creating a monster: Man crafts life-size Bigfoot statue

It all began four years ago when David Auleman's then-10-year-old daughter, Madison, wanted to watch a television show on Animal Planet and asked him to watch it with her.

"The show was 'Finding Bigfoot,' and it was the first time I'd ever seen it," Auleman said. "I thought it would be kind of cool to make one, so I got out my sketchpad and started drawing."

Inspired, he first sketched Bigfoot leaning against a tree, and then thought of ways he could perhaps make it bigger and better. Auleman decided to also create a juvenile, add running water and implement a voice recorder with Bigfoot sounds.

Auleman's sculpture of Bigfoot and the juvenile stands about 9 feet, 6 inches tall. It is built upon a dissectible 4-by-8 pallet sheet with caster wheels attached to the bottom for mobility.

[(((Renegade)))]

Let me guess- it looks like Michelle Obama.

[Crusty Juggler]

"I'm tired of seeing a ape in heels."

[Chipwooder]

Your wife's a Bigfoot, isn't she, Gus?

[Florida Hipster]

Goonie goo goo!

[Citizen X]

STEVE SMITH HAVE COMPLAINTS TO MAKE. EN ROUTE TO SEYMOUR INDIANA RIGHT NOW.

[Swiss Servator]

AND BY "MAKE COMPLAINT" MEAN RAPE.

[Citizen X]

SWISS SERVICER REALLY GET STEVE SMITH.

[Lord Humungus]

SERVICER? STEVE SMITH GIVES SERVICE WHETHER YOU WANT IT OR NOT

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

SERVICE WITH SMILE.

[Cyto]

He contacted the author, who was a researcher in Oregon, to ask if he could name his Bigfoot creations Enoch and Shelby because those were the names of the Bigfoot and daughter from her book.

"I never received a response back from her," David said. "I recently emailed her again with pictures of the finished sculpture, thinking maybe she could use it for free publicity for her book, but I've still not heard anything back."

If you've seen the fairly creepy sculptures, you'd be able to guess why.

[Citizen X]

He probably shouldn't have made Enoch so obviously... excited.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Twitter announced new plans to get tough on "hate speech..."

#SafeSpace

[John Titor]

If any of you have any plans to compete with Twitter with a platform for twenty something idiots and celebrities to spew out their most inane thoughts, now is the time. Well actually the last couple months really.

[Lachowsky]

In Trump's america, it will be called Twatter.

[Ceci n'est pas un woodchipper]

Twitter's stock has been on a slow, gentle decline since it went public. It's a shit business model: it was originally created to be used via text message, hence the 160 character limit. That's like designing a product to transcribe answering machine messages to email. Not only do most people use social media to communicate to other people using the same platforms, but now almost every phone will take a text message that's over 160 characters and split or merge it automatically, making the 160 limit mostly a background technical issue that users don't really have to think about. So now, Twitter is just a crappy version of Facebook, and they haven't demonstrated any plan to grow their brand in any meaningful way.

[robc]

The ultimate twitter replacement will be some sort of distributed, open-source tool that can't be filtered.

[John DeWitt]

Yeah, I don't see how Twitter lasts the decade. They're not profitable and haven't added new users in years. Moves likes this are just signs of desperation (from July):

Dorsey addressed Twitter's plan to create a safe and honest online environment during today's investor call.

"We hope -- and we recognize it's a high hope -- to elevate civil discourse," he said. "I emphasize civil discourse there. Abuse is not part of civil discourse. It shuts down conversation and prevents us from understanding each other. Freedom of expression means little if we allow voices to be silenced because of fear of harassment if they speak up. No one deserves to be the target of abuse online and it has no place on Twitter. We haven't been good enough at ensuring that's the case and we must do better."

Caught in the Silicon Valley echo chamber. No way out except down.

[Chip Your Pets]

The limit is 140 characters actually. And their explosion in popularity indicates that there is certainly demand for a message service which forces short messages. Among other things, this allows the user to view several on a screen, with no danger of some jerk posting a TL;DR excretion.

[robc]

As soon as I figure out how to make a profit at it.

[Nativist, Racist & Xenophobe]

Too late.

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

I'm triggered by the frog.

[Chip Your Pets]

Not gonna work. No business is going to pay to advertise on your new messaging platform when Twitter has like a million times more users.

This is why social media needs to be hit hard with antitrust. The industry lends itself naturally to consolidation, and Suckerberg and Dorsey are exploiting that fact to push their leftist agenda.

Facebook and Twitter need to be broken up like Ma Bell was.

[IbrahimN]

Don't use twitter, only use facebook during elections(so many tears, so delicious). Facebook has had several alternatives. Diaspora comes to mind. Diaspora failed because of the almost complete 100% hateful dribble that was banned from facebook. That dribble was in essence diaspora'd to the alternatives, such as Diaspora. The service had promise. The user base just utterly destroyed it's ability to shine. Twitter does have some useful tech they have released to the public. Such as Atom.io and it's offspring. I don't however see a future for Twitter as a social media outlet. They do have promise, tech wise.

[WTF]

leaving his three oldest adult children and a 'team of highly skilled executives' in charge while he's in the Oval Office?appears likely to expose large numbers of people the president hires to an unprecedented set of conflicts spanning his entire federal government."

"Unprecedented"? You mean like Bill and Chelsea running the Clinton Foundation taking huge bribes donations from foreign interests with business before the State Department?

[Zeb]

Unprecedented for a president.

[WTF]

Technically correct, if you just want to limit it to Presidents, rather than high-ranking officials like cabinet secretaries.

[Zeb]

The linked article was specificaly about presidents.

[OneOut]

WJC was a president and is still called Mr. President.

[robc]

Washington and Jefferson set up blind trusts?

Highly unlikely.

[Zeb]

Well, that's what the article is saying. I'd guess that you are probably right.

[Florida Hipster]

Trump's conflict of interest: he can't screw business over like democrats because he has a real job before.

[Password: pode$ta]

appears likely to expose large numbers of people the president hires to an unprecedented set of conflicts spanning his entire federal government

The only reason this is true (the 'unprecedented' part) is that he was actually in the private sector as a businessman.

Unless you want to eliminate any possibility of people going from private sector to public sector, this is completely unavoidable. But nobody wants that, right? Right?

[Florida Hipster]

Hey! Other people sold some stocks! The least he can do is dismantle a lifetimes work, so the media can find something else to bash him on!

[Brett L]

I think they want the Cheney example. Put all your assets in a blind trust. The problem is that Trump has both an ownership and executive stake that are for more convoluted than any other president I can think of since Washington. Who, IIRC, wasn't willing to surrender his business interests to be President.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

This is why we should only elect career politicians!

[Lord Humungus]

You know who else...

89-year-old digs own grave because he 'loves digging'

The octagenarian owns his own construction firm, and for the last 50 years has dug countless trenches for sewer mains, power lines and the like.

"I love digging," Mr Kickham told CBC. "Just one of those things that gets into your system. It's just work. Money. No matter what they wanted dug, I could do it."

Mr Kickham told the Guardian the process of digging his own grave was fairly swiftly accomplished. He and his family left home at around 6pm, and the job was done by approximately 7.45.

In that time he had not only dug the five-feet-deep hole, but also lowered in in a pine box, into which his coffin will eventually be placed, then covered it with a layer of soil.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

I knew a chick in college who was dating a grave-digger. I mean, that was his job. I was surprised at the time to find out people still had a job like that. He was a pretty scary dude, actually. Hugely muscular, and not a real day-time kind of guy. Seemed to really enjoy his work.

[Chipwooder]

Maybe it was Dave Vanian.

[straffinrun]

Did he trade her in for a back ho?

[Password: pode$ta]

And that's how young Michael Hihn acquired a taste for necrophilia.

[Rufus The Monocled]

He kept saying 'you dig?' As in, 'hey man, that tombstone was something else, you dig?'

[EDG reppin LBC]

Sounds like Kickham is ready to kick it.

[XenoZooValentine]

I shovel well. I shovel very well.

[Citizen X]

Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country will drop out of the International Criminal Court designed to try war crimes.

MORE conflicts of interest?

[End Child Unemployment]

Now that Twitter has finally explained it's only hate speech they are after I totally trust them

[John DeWitt]

Who can be FOR hate speech?

[Hamster of Doom]

Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford were getting it on while shooting Star Wars.

"People had sex in the 70's and early 80's. Film at 11."

[(((Renegade)))]

That's a film I'd like to see.

[Citizen X]

I've seen that film. There's so much body hair involved it's tough to tell what's going on.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

I'm sorry, the 1970s were the best period ever for adult films. You need to get over the fact that adults have body hair.

[(((Renegade)))]

No high res. Grainy and poor production values.

But yeah, I miss pubes.

[Crusty Juggler]

I miss pubes.

I can send you some, if you'd like.

[commodious is retromingent]

Your own, or...

[Rufus The Monocled]

Or my samples from my idea.

[The Grinch]

If you can't see the pimples, herpes scars, and ingrown hairs it ain't worth watchin'.

[Groovus Maximus]

If you can't see the pimples, herpes scars, and ingrown hairs it ain't worth watchin'.

Wow! You were one of my professors in med school?

[Citizen X]

What part of my comment sounded like a complaint?

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Ah, I read it again and see I read too much into it. My fault.

[Atanarjuat]

Angel, Shauna Grant, Aja... Can't beat 'em.

[(((Renegade)))]

And the young and pre-silicone Cara Lott. Let us not forget. Lisa DeLeeuw and the red bush, mmmmmm.

[John DeWitt]

You need to get over the fact that adults have body hair.

That's like saying I need to get over the fact that most people are ugly. That may be true, but it doesn't mean I want to jack off to the ugly ones.

[Lord Humungus]

Did Republicans Rig the Election?
Voter suppression was all too real, and 14 states?including important swing states?had new voting restrictions in place.

The 2016 election was the first presidential contest in 50 years without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), because the Supreme Court ruled in Shelby County v. Holder that states with a long history of discrimination no longer need to have their proposed voting changes approved by the federal government. Partly as a consequence, 14 states had new voting restrictions in effect for the first time in 2016?including important swing states like Wisconsin and Ohio.

We'll never know how many people were kept from the polls by these restrictions, but in states like Wisconsin, they had at least some impact on the outcome. Donald Trump carried the state by 27,000 votes, but 300,000 registered voters, according to a federal court, lacked the required forms of voter ID. Turnout in Wisconsin was at its lowest level in 20 years and fell by 52,000 in Milwaukee, where 70 percent of the state's African-American population lives. "We saw some of the greatest declines were in the districts we projected would have the most trouble with voter ID requirements," Neil Albrecht, executive director of the city's Election Commission, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

[Tonio]

Or maybe those black folks just weren't that into the candidate of the party which thinks it owns all black votes.

[PBR Streetgang]

I saw this article earlier today. Shelby County v. Holder has NOTHING to do with Wisconsin or Ohio voter laws. What a garbage paragraph.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

"Turnout in Wisconsin was at its lowest level in 20 years"

Okay, but did turnout also fall in states without new voting restrictions? If so, this is close to meaningless. Also, why was turnout so low in 1996, if those voting restrictions weren't in place then?

[robc]

538 article yesterday says that turnout isnt actually down (much). Its just the delay in counting all the votes that makes it seem that way. Once final numbers are in, it will look similar to 2012.

[Rufus The Monocled]

"lacked the required forms of voter ID. Turnout in Wisconsin was at its lowest level in 20 years and fell by 52,000 in Milwaukee,"

How is this rigging an election? Voters who didn't have proper ID or didn't show up are not proof of rigging but proof of negligence and laziness or whatever on their part. Unless there was a sinister plot to deny them of ID or kept them locked down in their homes.

[Brett L]

Right. Bemoan an electorate made up of the stupid and uninformed, lament people too stupid or unprepared to get and have ID.

[Tonio]

And next time a prog whines about how onerous the ID requirement is, ask him how many poor people he drove to the registrar's office. Seriously.

[commodious is retromingent]

That's not their job. Their job is making sanctimonious blog posts about voter suppression.

[Cyto]

So at my polling place here in Florida, I was asked to produce my driver's license in order to vote.

So imagine this ironic image: I, a white dude, am asked to produce my driver's license by a heavyset black lady. Who works for the black lady who is the county election supervisor. Who is also a Democrat and runs unopposed every year, because republicans are so few and far between.

But asking for an ID is racist voter suppression?

[0x90]

Well, see, you're the exception that proves the rule.

[Jerryskids]

When did The Nation become a right-wing extremist organization spewing this conspiracy theory bullshit about rigged elections? Those retarded Trumpalos just won't give up no matter how many times that ridiculous nonsense has been debunked.

[LynchPin1477]

the Supreme Court ruled in Shelby County v. Holder that states with a long history of discrimination no longer need to have their proposed voting changes approved by the federal government

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that what the Supreme Court *actually* decided was that Congress had to update the lists of states requiring federal oversight using data that wasn't 50 years old. Congress could have updated the legislation.

/checks Wikipedia

I see I am exactly correct.

[Paulpemb]

But of course Congress won't do that, because it is controlled by Tea Party Rethuglikkkans who don't want black people to vote, QED.

/sarc, in case it's needed.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

I was new to Milwaukee. I needed my driver's license and an electricity bill. To get an ID card from a Wisconsin DMV, you need to pay a $33.50 fee, which, for the DMV, is pretty damn low. Considering $3 bus fare, and a trip to the DMV and the polling place, the Feds are seriously stating that 300,000 could not afford to pay about forty bucks??

[LynchPin1477]

So in VA it seems like you can show almost anything with a photo and name, even a non-government employer ID (at least that is how I read the signs. I just showed my driver's license and they didn't even blink at the fact that the address was different from that where I am registered (and not just down the street, but in a different city/county) because we moved and I never bothered to get the updated thingy from the DMV.

If voter IDs are going to be required I feel pretty strongly that there should be an option to obtain a free one (which could only be used for voting, i.e. driver's licenses could still require a fee). As long as we live in a society in which everyone, at least in principle, has the right to vote (and I think that is a good thing), then it ought to be truly available to everyone, even the flat broke.

[LurkinInaBuildin]

Bro you could stay high for a whole day on forty bucks. Have YOU ever had to make a choice like that, Mr. Privilege?

[CPRM]

There's a FREE voter ID in Wisconsin.

[Lee Genes]

Hit N Run hardest hit?

Here's Why You Shouldn't 'Debate' with People Online

[UnCivilServant]

Why do you go back there?

[Lee Genes]

It's like crack.

[Rasilio]

Yeah but do you really want to be anywhere near a feminists crack?

[(((Renegade)))]

I undestand.

[Atanarjuat]

Not clicking, but I'm assuming the answer is "because it takes you out of the comfy, reassuring echo chamber".

[Microaggressor]

One of the suggestions is, literally, when you see something Not Okay posted outside your echo chamber, instead of trying to engage it, take a screenshot and return to your echo chamber to complain about it where you can be certain nobody will disagree. The screenshot prevents the site from getting pageviews.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

"Why You Shouldn't 'Debate' with People Online"

For most commenters at Everyday Feminism the correct is answer is "Because you are too dumb."

[Zeb]

Well, they almost have a point. But they seem to miss that some people just enjoy arguing about things. And to think that "debate" only means formal debate team kind of stuff.

Don't assume that you are going to change anyone's mind and stop if it's not fun and internet arguments are great.

[Rasilio]

They also miss another reason for it

The purpose of the debate online is not to change the mind of the people you are debating with, it is to leave a record of the counter arguments for others to find. Without that they would come online and be inundated with the posts promoting the position you are arguing against and no counter argument.

[commodious is retromingent]

Which is why it's very important for sites like Feministing and Everyday Feminism to carefully curate their comments, ensuring no dissent is ever brooked.

[Brett L]

Some of us are old enough to remember when you might spend a whole night at the bar, arguing sports/entertainment minutiae with random people because all the facts in the world weren't in your pocket.

[Echo Chamber]

Google has sucked some of the fun out of conversation. I feel stupid asking someone a question when I could just google it and avoid looking ignorant.

[Zeb]

I'm old enough for that. And I still don't use a smart phone because I'm a weirdo.

[Rufus The Monocled]

It's a form of elitism to see it as 'formal'. The art of argument serves a function for all. Sure, some are bad at it (as we see around here all too often), but it's participatory democracy in action. I respect people who take the time to vent, rant, or offer their well thought-out opinions. They put themselves out there. People who complain or mock this are missing the point and some may fools themselves into thinking they're too cool for such activities.

[Brett L]

Counter-argument

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

But I'm a master-debater!

[Suthenboy]

Takin' a stab at it before I read...

Writers for everdayfeminism shouldn't debate online or anywhere else because they always get their asses handed to them?

[Douchey defeats Trumpman, Jr.]

Tens of thousands of fish have died since Donald Trump was elected president.

Was this after posting a weepy, hysterical YouTube suicide video? It would be nice to see someone go through with it for once.

[Password: pode$ta]

"I will literally fucking kill myself. Someone needs to fix this shit right fucking now."

[gaoxiaen]

Not everyone is as good an angler as me.

[Citizen X]

Would you say you're a master baiter?

[Rhywun]

Robby's afternoon trolling is bad enough, do we have to get it in the morning too? Sheesh.

[Groovus Maximus]

Apparently, ENB's Lotus of Pulchritude is more forgivable and subject to pass than Robby's Ken Doll Flavoured Genitalia. Apparently, one of the Robby Horses got out of the stable and ENB just had to ride it.

[Hamster of Doom]

Twitter announced new plans to get tough on "hate speech," including tools that give users more control over what content they see and an apparent "purge" of alt-right accounts.

A compelling argument to never sign up for Twitter. How's that sale of their company going?

[Ceci n'est pas un woodchipper]

Who would buy Twitter? It's a crappy version of group text, and they can't add any feature that some other company isn't already doing and doing well.

[commodious is retromingent]

Twitter does one thing very well: eroding any lingering confidence in public perspicacity.

[Lord Humungus]

Donald Trump ditches his press pool again, spurring sharp criticism

For the second time in a week, president-elect Donald Trump has abandoned precedent and traveled without the "press pool," a small group of journalists assigned to cover his movements.

His surprise trip on Tuesday evening was met by sharp criticism from some journalists.

Trump's press secretary Hope Hicks told journalists around 6:15 p.m. that there was a "lid" for the night -- a term of art meaning that no more news or travel was expected until Wednesday. Trump has been at Trump Tower for several days and has not been seen in public.

Later in the evening, however, Trump took his family to a nearby restaurant, the 21 Club, for dinner. The "pool" would have been ready to travel with him, but they were not notified. A Bloomberg staffer dining at the restaurant spotted Trump and tweeted a picture, sending journalists scrambling to catch up.

[UnCivilServant]

Let the press whine.

They are reaping what they sowed.

[Tonio]

^This, this, a thousand times this.

[John]

The worse Trump treats them, the more his supporters will like him.

[robc]

Even some of his non-supporters.

[gaoxiaen]

The whirlwind?

[Lord Rollingpin]

The Whinewind.

[Swiss Servator]

The Whirlwhine.

[Sorta]

The ... ah fuck it

[spqr2008]

It's almost like decisions to portray someone as the worst evil since Hitler, evah! have consequences.

[Jerryskids]

They weren't really whining - Trump was giving them exactly what they wanted, something to criticize him for. Had he invited the press pool to tag along they would have had to work just a little bit harder to find something to criticize so he really was just being nice, giving them a break, giving them an easy assignment to pound out a critical news article in a few minutes and call it a night.

[DJF]

Oh my god, the American public missed out on what Trump eat and what he wore to the restaurant!!!!!

Its like he burned the 1st Amendment in public!!!!!!!!

[Swiss Servator]

YOU CAN'T GO OUT TO DINNER WITHOUT US BUMBLING ALONG WITH!

[LurkinInaBuildin]

The 21 Club is still open? Did they go to Jackie Gleason's bar afterward?

[John DeWitt]

Makes sense. They're upset because they didn't get the opportunity to expense a posh dinner.

[Glide]

Christ. He's just going out to dinner, leave the guy alone.

If that's how easily the press goes to "sharp criticism", then they would stab President Glide to death within the first week.

[Mickey Rat]

The press needs to cover the President-elect's night out for dinner?

[Rich]

Baltimore OKs ban of replica guns

Antique replica guns are not prohibited. Kraft said replicas also are allowed for theatrical productions.

CLOSE THOSE LOOPHOLES!!

[Hamster of Doom]

Baltimore taking bold movies to stop cops from shooting kids with toys. Let the world see Baltimore, and be impressed.

[Ceci n'est pas un woodchipper]

With apologies to Hyperion (you live in B'more, right?) and anyone else from Charm City, this is just so typical Baltimore. What a shithole. I'm surprised decades of Democratic rule haven't turned the place into a smoking crater yet, although it's pretty damn close. It's a damn shame, because there's a lot of good stuff there, it's just being choked to death by the overwhelming corruption and incompetence of city government.

[The Late P Brooks]

Butthurt communist is butthurt.

The narrative went something like this: Now that the government was getting out of the way of buoyant entrepreneurs, a rising tide was lifting the boats of all Indians aspiring to the richness of the world. Suave technocrats, economists and publicists (mostly U.S.-trained) endlessly regurgitated free-market nostrums (imported from America) ? what Mr. Frank calls the "liberalism of the rich."

The fervent rhetoric about private wealth-creation and its trickle-down benefits openly mocked, and eventually stigmatized, India's founding ideals of egalitarian and collective welfare. It is this extraordinary historical reversal, and its slick agents, that must be investigated in order to understand the incendiary appeal of demagoguery in our time.

----

Social and political life in India, America and Europe was drastically remade by neoliberal economism in recent decades, under, as the legal scholar David Kennedy has argued, the administration of a professional global class of hidden persuaders and status-seekers.

Economic freedom is bad. Democracy leads to bad outcomes. That's why we need the dictatorship of the proletariat bureaucrats.

[Tonio]

I would love to unleash Injun on this mofo...

[Injun, as in from India]

🙂

Thanks Tonio.

India's founding ideals of egalitarian and collective welfare

More like egalitarian and collective poverty/misery.

I will read the rest of the derp this afternoon and post my comments.

[CatoTheChipper]

Because everything in India was just swell until the country liberalized.

Sure, the people died from hunger in the villages and in the streets of Calcutta, but the absence of a middle class meant that almost everybody was equal their misery. Sure there were a few people who lived the lifestyles of the rich and famous, but this was necessary for them to administer the constitutionally socialist state that ensured this equality.

[Injun, as in from India]

My parents and grandparents suffered a lot under socialism. My uncles and aunts' lives were ruined because of it.

I try to deal with uninformed western leftist praise for socialism with humor, but it really angers me.

[gaoxiaen]

Stalin is not rolling in his grave.

[commodious is retromingent]

Mr. Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014, was accused of supervising mass murder and gang rapes of Muslims

Just like here!!!

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

You could've started the quote with the "economism" bit, and made it clear right away that this person is not worth reading.

[Slammer]

Twitter announced new plans to get tough on "hate speech," including tools that give users more control over what content they see and an apparent "purge" of alt-right accounts.

This is 177 characters.

[Tonio]

SyFy is making Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land as a miniseries.

[Citizen X]

I wonder how bad they're gonna fuck it up.

I'm sort of relieved they never went through with their adaptation of The Diamond Age.

[(((Renegade)))]

I wonder how bad they're gonna fuck it up.

I don't wonder. I know. As completely as they fucked up Starship Troopers.

[Hamster of Doom]

*shudders*

[Swiss Servator]

*pukes*

[Tonio]

While not completely happy with the Starship Troopers movie, I've never gotten all the hate.

[Juvenile Bluster]

If you disconnect the movie from the book, the movie's great. It's awesomely cheesy b-movie sci fi.

[Cyto]

If you disconnect the movie from the book, the movie's great. It's awesomely cheesy b-movie sci fi.

I think very few people got this. I loved Starship Troopers and Robocop. They were cheesy sendups of 50's sci-fi with over-the-top violence used for dark humor. If you took it as a sort of b-movie action-oriented dark comedy, it was fantastic.

Apparently very few people saw it that way. I don't know how you can watch all of the training scenes without understanding that it is a comedy. The constant cries of "medic!" should have been a clue. Particularly when the kid gets his head blown off....."Medic!!" Classic.

Verhoeven used the same joke in Robocop when the ED-209 unloaded a couple-hundred rounds into the torso of the executive from 10 feet away. "Somebody call a doctor!"

[Billy Boogers]

lLol!! Robocop, one of my favorite scenes was when Boddicker is bringing in the assault cannons for his gang slaps the roof on his brand new, stolen 6000 SUX and you can see the rear view mirror fall off the windshield behind him.. Intentional or not, the irony in that scene alone was worth the price of admission.

Bitches.. LEAVE!

[(((Renegade)))]

The book is a serious examination of the obligations between citizen and state, the martial philosophy, and the nature of sacrifice. The movie was... not.

Now, the worst novel adaption ever wasn't sci fi, it was The Natural. The message of the book was that you can never redeem yourself and endings aren't happy. The message of the movie was that you can always redeem yourself and endings are happy.

And I don't mean "endings are happy" in the sense of Crusty and Winston's mom.

[Crusty Juggler]

Now, the worst novel adaption ever wasn't sci fi, it was The Natural.

That's enough of your Joo propaganda.

[robc]

You misspelled Dune.

Actually, The Natural may be worse in that sense.

[Groovus Maximus]

You misspelled Dune.

For what, the book? That's a masterpiece, robc. Oh, are you idiots *STILL* claiming there is a Dune movie? That myth has been thoroughly debunked years ago. There was a mini-series produced by then-Sci Fi, but it was pretty faithful to the books.

But there was no, *NO* Dune move. SMDH. I swear, you people will believe *ANYTHING*!

[(((Renegade)))]

(((Malamud)))

[robc]

Plus the Mech Infantry powered suits.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Spoiler alert -- The ending with Winston's Mom isn't very happy.

[Rasilio]

Yeah, had they kept the original title for the script (it was something like "Bug Hunt on Outpost 9") which was written completely independently of Starship Troopers and then revised to change some of the character and place names to loosly line up with the book after they secured the rights to the book it would be remembered as a classic of anti fascist and military satire only slightly behind Robocop in popularity.

Plus, there was the shower scene and a naked Dina Meyers which make any movie worth the price of admission.

[Cyto]

Whatever happened to nude scenes? Did internet porn kill the nude scene in R rated movies?

[SugarFree]

No, PG-13 and China killed the nude scene in action movies.

[Cyto]

Damn you China! Damn you all to hell!!

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

I don't think the reception of Starship Troopers has to do with its fidelity to the book.

[SugarFree]

The real problem with Starship Troopers is that adapting the book as is results in less of an action movie and more of the first half of Full Metal Jacket played with a straight face. Except for the opening chapter, there is very little of the actually fighting of the war.

The real book to adapt would be Armor, by John Steakley, which is basically all the stuff Heinlein left out (and was already cribbed from here and there for the movies and the cartoon without any acknowledgment.) And only the first half of it, though, because it takes a massive shift in direction and tone in the second half of the novel.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Armor, by John Steakley.

Fucking love that book!

Vampire$ rocked as well, and is another candidate for terrible movie adaption of a book.

Used the same basic characters, in completely unconnected settings.

[SugarFree]

And Vampire$ had the immortal line:

She spread her legs so wide I could see her liver.

[Rasilio]

Yeah I've discussed this in various Heinlein communities often.

At the end of the day any faithful adaptation of Starship Troopers would be REALLY boring movie. It has basically 3 action scenes in it one of which is unrelated to the rest of the book for any purpose than establishing the setting. Then something like half of the book takes place in one kind of classroom or another.

[Brett L]

Kickflip 3 hole on 2!

[Griffin3]

The movie was satire, a parody of Starship Troopers, and a hilarious send-up of the current high-information but low-thinking internet/school system. Although, forgive me, I never understood the ga-ga over Dina Meyer.

[bacon-magic]

Did you ever read Armor by John Steakley?

[Voros McCracken]

Do you not care how Lou Diamond Phillips feeds his family?

[gaoxiaen]

Forbidden Planet or GTFO.

[Rich]

Good Lord.

Why can't they do "The Mote in God's Eye" instead?

[(((Renegade)))]

Heh, I just reread that and thought that in the hands of a good team, it could be a fine movie. The chances of it getting in the hands of a good team:

[Brett L]

Re-reading the sequel, which in even better for a movie.

[(((Renegade)))]

Gripping Hand?

[Rasilio]

Is that the one that stars Epi's mom?

[Brett L]

Yes. Easier because the points of view mostly converge.

[Swiss Servator]

Special effects might be a bit much for that one....yet.

[Rich]

I tend to agree. It's just a matter of time.

[Rasilio]

I don't know that they could realistically do a good adaptation of Mote. I'm not sure the Special effects are up for that yet.

What I do want to see however is both Footfall and Lucifers Hammer turned into 3 season 10 episode per season TV series

And you could probably do Legacy of Herot as well

[robc]

I have mapped out the seasons of Legacy.

Also 3 seasons.

[Rasilio]

Oh and King Davids Spaceship would make a great movie trilogy

[Tonio]

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is, of course, the holy grail of libertarian cinema. However, I'm glad to see any Heinlein works done as TV/films, all libertarian concerns aside.

[Citizen X]

As a work of pro-libertarian speculative fiction, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is way, way better than Atlas Shrugged. As just a fun book to read, same.

There. I said it.

[SugarFree]

"Ayn Rand sucks as a writer" is not a brave or bold position to take.

/farts into mic, stalks off stage

[Citizen X]

Is not the truth beautiful? Yet does it not hurt?

[robc]

Anthem would make a very good movie, on the other hand.

[Rasilio]

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress adaptation is in the works already, I believe it comes out next year but the title is different, it is called Uprising

[SugarFree]

It depends. The adaptation of The Expanse was so good I kept checking to make sure it was actually airing on SyFy.

Stopped clock and all that, but if they can pull a twofer we might start trusting them a bit.

[Auric Demonocles]

That's been amazing. I also liked the Childhood's End miniseries, though it wasn't nearly as good.

[robc]

I never managed to finish it.

The first 3rd is great...then somewhere about 2/3rds of the way the whole cult/religion thing gets so boring I quit.

[CatoTheChipper]

This is how Steve Bannon Sees the Entire World

Donald Trump's newly named chief strategist and senior counselor, Steve Bannon, laid out his global nationalist vision in unusually in-depth remarks delivered by Skype to a conference held inside the Vatican in the summer of 2014.

It's probably different from what you think about Bannon if you listen to NPR hate radio, watch CNN, or read Reason.

[Cyto]

I tried to read it. I got through most of it. I'm not sure I understand what he was talking about, to be honest.

But the gist I get is that he praises people of faith who work hard to build their businesses because he thinks they have a core set of values that drives them to have ethics within their business dealings.

Oh, and he is wrong about securitizations. They are a fantastic invention, allowing access to capital for a myriad of things, and a controlled risk for investors in very risky instruments. It is one of the great innovations of modern capital management. But that part didn't sound particularly right-wing. Actually, it sounded pretty left wing.

[Lee Genes]

At the risk of offending J Walker, I'm gonna go with "Where were you?"

Trump's looming presidency grows more and more ominous to all minority communities by the day, with the rise of hate crimes upon his election; his public commentary on overturning Roe vs. Wade; his plans for mass and unprecedented deportation; his appointment of fearful, hatemongering, and unapologetic scumbag racists, white supremacists, misogynists, and homophobes to his cabinet. One (out of the many) alarming features of an America under Trump? The lack of a free press to expose his corruption and wrongdoings, keep the public informed, and hold him accountable.

[Chipwooder]

So.....what white supremacists are getting Cabinet appointments?

[WTF]

All of them. If they work for Trump, they must be white supremacists. QED

[Chipwooder]

Fair enough. I will cop to being surprised, though, at Tom Metzger being bandied about for the HHS position. Really came out of left field.

[Private Chipperbot]

And that crazed homophobe Peter Thiel.

[Tonio]

"Gender traitor!" I've actually heard that slur used against gay men who didn't go along with the Big Gay agenda. Also "race traitor." It's interesting that they can't even come up with a proper description since "gay" is neither a race nor a sex. And I wrote gay men because I have yet to meet a conservative lesbian.

[Groovus Maximus]

I have yet to meet a conservative lesbian.

Tammy Bruce?

[Jerryskids]

Two seconds on google.

[Suthenboy]

A good friend of mine is a conservative lesbian. Hell, she owns a gun store.

[SFC B]

I have a cousin who is a lesbian. She and her wife live in rural Oklahoma. She is also deeply religious and very conservative. It took them a little bit of time but they were able to find a church within like 30 minutes of their house which was openly welcoming of her and her family. It wasn't that others they visited weren't per se, but she felt they'd be more of an oddity in their congregations.

America is so deeply homophobic that even in rural, Dark Red Oklahoma a lesbian couple were able to find a church and community that enthusiastically embraced them. Clearly the community did this to try and hide how homophobic they are. Clever, clever Pepe.

[Glide]

Unlike those terms, "sexual orientation traitor" just sounds silly!

[Crusty Juggler]

Who are the Hipster Four? Suspected fraudsters accused of installing skimming device on deli ATM are caught on camera laughing and joking around Manhattan

The NYPD has asked for the public's help to identify four suspects accused of installing a skimming device on an ATM.

The three men and one woman can be seen in surveillance footage released Tuesday walking on the street and smiling, like a carefree group of friends.

One of the men is holding a white paper bag, as if in the middle of a shopping trip. The woman wears a glamorous black floppy hat.

All four are suspected of installing a skimmer, which is used to steal debit card information, on an ATM at an Upper East Side deli.

Trump's War on Hipsters begins, and it's about damn time.

[Florida Hipster]

*grabs go bag*

[Swiss Servator]

BLAMBLAMBLAM!

...Stop!

[Florida Hipster]

*ugh*
...use my body as compost...*gurgle*...plant a sycamore tree...*death rattle*

[Crusty Juggler]

I laughed at this, but I'm still tackling the first floppy hat wearing hipster that I come across.

[Florida Hipster]

I hate floppy hats, so I approve.
*adjust ironic MAGA trucker hat*

[gaoxiaen]

I'm supposed to feel sorry for banksters? Sorry, not sorry.

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

The woman wears a glamorous black floppy hat.

Floppy and glamorous are mutually exclusive.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Tens of thousands of fish have died since Donald Trump was elected president.

Melting snowflakes have flooded their habitats.

[Rich]

Nice!

[Paulpemb]

Leftist tears have increased the salinity of the water to lethal levels for freshwater fish.

[Lord Humungus]

GOP and Trump put deficit on back burner
Giant infrastructure plan, major tax cut on the agenda ? and so is a huge increase in the debt.

"There is now a real risk that we will see an onslaught of deficit-financed goodies ? tax cuts, infrastructure spending, more on defense ? all in the name of stimulus, but which in reality will massively balloon the debt," said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

The non-partisan group estimated Trump's campaign proposals would increase the national debt by a whopping $5.3 trillion over the next decade. That would make the debt as a share of the economy rise from nearly 77 percent to 105 percent, a potentially dangerous level for the government.

Not all of the promises Trump made on the trail will be enacted, of course, but even just a few would mean a flood of red ink. A top Trump priority ? major infrastructure spending ? is one of them.

[Hamster of Doom]

Oh, look. We care about deficits now.

[Injun, as in from India]

We also care of civil liberties and war all of a sudden.

Krugabe even tweeted about civil liberties recently after 8 long years in exile.

[Lee Genes]

Deficits don't matter anymore? Again?

Fucking GOP, the tards in the room.

[Injun, as in from India]

I saw something about the GOP voting on bringing back earmarks as well.

The GOP's commitment to fiscal responsibility is as real as the Democrats' commitment to the 2nd and 4th amendments.

[Hamster of Doom]

Trump promised something different, not Bush2 Redux: Electric Boogaloo.

Booooooo, fucking unnecessary poorly-written sequels. Booooooooo.

[Pat (PM)]

Remember when we needed a trillion dollar infrastructure spending bill and to bring back the Public Works Administration in 2009? Pepperidge Farms remembers.

[John]

It wasn't really an infrastructure program. It just paid off the states. It never funded building anything, yet somehow the media never mentioned that.

[kbolino]

Hey, now. Lots of stuff was built. Most of it was unnecessary and the rest was done in the most wasteful way humanly possible.

Such gems include:
- Putting those yellow spiky mats where every sidewalk meets a street. This literally saved hundreds scores several at least one blind guy's life. Probably. And hey, it only took on average six months per hundred yards of sidewalk and definitely does not impede people who need mobility assistance, no sirree.
- Building new control towers at municipal airports. Let us not forget the constant burning wreckage of Cessnas and executive Learjets that made these places death traps before.
- Repaving short stretches of road over multiple years. Who doesn't want their commute fucked up for a solid 24-36 months to remove a couple of potholes on the shoulder?

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Missouri actually used some of theirs to finish off a road project by my old house.

For about 6 months, I had my own personal 5 lanes of freeway to run every morning, before people figured out the new traffic patterns.

So probably 0.1% of that infrastructure trillion was actually spent on infrastructure.

[Rasilio]

So you gotta wonder if they go this route how long before the actual fiscal conservatives in the party finally give up and abandon the party altogether?

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

Don't forget about new childcare subsidies!

[Hamster of Doom]

Trump wants us "to believe both that he's 'pro-life' and that he won't actually stop anyone from getting an abortion, at least not anytime soon."

So you're saying he sounds like all the pro-life libertarians. But should we be angry at him for this, or not? I can't quite tell.

[Zeb]

Someone, please tell me what to think.

Sounds like the usual Republican approach.

[Swiss Servator]

*casts gaze toward Hannity*

... lead us!

/Elephant

[gaoxiaen]

...lead us!
/Manitee

[Lord Rollingpin]

HOOOON.

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

Don't lead us!

/Manafort

[Hamster of Doom]

I hope that's sarcasm. It's going to be super annoying if I'm accused of being both a socialist leftie and a Republican.

Morning, Zeb! How're things out there in the land of OMG SNOW?

[Citizen X]

It's going to be super annoying if I'm accused of being both a socialist leftie and a Republican.

Hey, that's how you know you're doing something right.

[Zeb]

Good morning! Yes, first part is sarcasm. And the second part was a comment on Trump's apparent position, not your comment.

No snow yet.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

I think both sides should treat him as The Enemy because he dared to not be 100% on their side.

[Lord Humungus]

Trump's Win and Transition Turmoil Buy Time for FBI Chief Comey

Now it's unlikely Comey would voluntarily resign before Trump takes office in January and the two have a chance to talk one-on-one, according to six current and former U.S. national security officials who asked not to be identified. And with Trump's transition team still struggling to settle on nominees for key cabinet and national security posts, Comey can expect to remain in the job at least until 2017, they said.

Trump himself told CBS's "60 Minutes" during an interview broadcast Nov. 13 that he wasn't sure if he would ask Comey to resign.

"I would like to talk to him before I'd answer a question like that," Trump said. "He may have had very good reasons for doing what he did."

With his transition team still debating who should head the State Department, Pentagon and Justice Department, Trump doesn't have a long list of candidates to replace Comey. Those who might be considered include Republican Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, Republican Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina and Frances Townsend, former homeland security adviser to President George W. Bush.

[Tonio]

POTUS can fire the head of the FBI at will. A careerist can run the agency until a new head is appointed. That sort of thing happens all the time with fedgov agencies.

[Lord Rollingpin]

' ...who asked not to be identified.'
Which is great because now I can just make stuff up and claim they said it.

[Pope Jimbo]

Blue on Blue crime.

Of course, he got to get his job back.

[Hamster of Doom]

Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country will drop out of the International Criminal Court designed to try war crimes.

Oh, just like America!

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

?Trump wants us "to believe both that he's 'pro-life' and that he won't actually stop anyone from getting an abortion, at least not anytime soon."

That's called "having a list of priorities" and ranking abortion low on that list.

Nothing contradictory there. It's just not worth the political capital for what would likely be little to no change.

[Zeb]

Could also be cynical pandering to part of the Republican base.

Either way, it's pretty much what I'd expect.

[John]

It could also be not wanting to outlaw something just because you think it is wrong.

[Zeb]

Yes, another good possibility.

[John]

At least a positive one if not a likely one. My guess is Trump doesn't really care. He is just not a culture warrior in that way and is unlikely to rock the boat either way.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

This has been my take, as well

[Zeb]

I think you are right about his not being that kind of culture warrior. He also doesn't seem to have been socially conservative in his own life.
I'm still no Trump fan, but a lot of the reasons people have for freaking out about him are just dumb.

[Lord Rollingpin]

That's because a lot of the people freaking out about him, are dumb.

[Crusty Juggler]

Man who shot dead accused child rapist 'in self-defense' while holding him at gunpoint is found guilty of manslaughter

A man who fatally shot a rape suspect he was trying to turn in to police was found guilty of manslaughter on Monday.

David Carlson, 46, claimed he fired his gun in self-defense in October 2013 as he held Norris Acosta-Sanchez at gunpoint so a neighbor could call police.

Acosta-Sanchez had been charged with statutory rape of a teenage girl and had been staying at a summer cabin by Carlson's home near the Pennsylvania border.

Over the next few days, Carlson and his wife, Sarah, hatched two plans to try to help police catch Acosta-Sanchez, the New York Post reported.

On one occasion, they told an officer about the situation and said they would deliberately speed down a stretch of road with the accused rapist in the car.

When they were pulled over, police would have their man. That plan failed.

[Crusty Juggler]

They tried a similar plot a second time, and this time they were pulled over. Acosta-Sanchez, who was in the car at the time, gave police a fake name and was driven back to the cabin where he was staying.

But the moment the police car pulled in, he pushed his way out of the back-seat - where he had not been handcuffed - and escaped into the woods.

The third time also failed, despite police obtaining a 'no knock warrant', according to the Post.

The Orange County Sheriff's Office sent 23 of its most highly trained officers, including two snipers and a dog squad, to the property to make an arrest.

Again Acosta-Sanchez escaped.

Acosta-Sanchez on one occasion fled police after they let him go back to the cabin he was staying in to get his wallet

So strange!

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

So the cops f-ed up, and now it's this guys fault he cleaned up their mess?

I'm not understanding much of this.

[Password: pode$ta]

Man who shot dead accused child rapist 'in self-defense' while holding him at gunpoint

Why would you need to hold a dead person at gunpoint?

Why would you be so threatened by a corpse that you would need to shoot it? Was the corpse not cooperating? Did it go for your gu- wait.... It was a Zombie!

[Zeb]

Headline writing has its own special rules of syntax.

[Tonio]

"Shot dead" is an actual phrase, but you have to be careful about where in a sentence you deploy that to avoid ambiguity. Headline writing is an art to which far too little attention is given.

[Brett L]

Shoulda claimed justifiable homicide.

[Pope Jimbo]

I love Minnesoda.

Tundra and I may live in the tony burbs, but we still run stories like this in the local paper.

By 6 p.m., Wackler was drawing a crowd at Joe's Sport Shop in Howard Lake. Owner Joe Drusch said the parking lot was full. "The only time you see something like him is in magazines," Drusch said of Wackler's buck. "We'll never see one like this again."

His wife, Carolyn, said she was worried that all the attention would be too much for her husband's heart. "We stood there so long, so many people stopped," she said.r

Love the fact that we still love deer hunting enough that people stop at a parking lot to see a big buck.

[Private Chipperbot]

We went to the buck pole yesterday evening to check out what the hunters were bringing in. It's a huge deal around parts of Michigan. There are easily a few hundred people milling around at any one time in our little town.

[Pat (PM)]

Love the fact that we still love deer hunting enough that people stop at a parking lot to see a big buck.

You like big bucks and you cannot lie?

[Citizen X]

You other hunters can't deny.

[Florida Hipster]

When a skinner walks in with a buck skin in yo face...

[SugarFree]

.223 rack with a .308 booty

[I can't even]

More stories coming out of an epic election night Hillary meltdown.

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2016/.....n-podesta/

[Rich]

She was in a "psychotic drunken rage"

Whew! Looks like we dodged a nuclear bullet.

[(((Renegade)))]

No attribution, no confirmation = no credibility.

[WTF]

(((Renegade))) = no fun.

[Swiss Servator]

We will have to wait for the wikileak.

[Zombie Jimbo]

And it isn't as funny or as psychically disturbing as a SugarFree tale.

[CatoTheChipper]

It does, however, have more credibility than SugarFree's fan fiction about the adventures of Hillary and Huma.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

That's a lie, we all know SugarFree has inside sources with the Dark Ones.

[SugarFree]

I often wonder if I even scratch the surface, though.

[Swiss Servator]

*quietly readies Elder sign*

[Zeb]

Yes, but I want to believe.

[John]

No credibility in saying he made it up either. Do we know this happened? No. But it is consistent with Hillary's past behavior. Moreover, the Hillary campaign has never explained why she didn't show up and talk to her supporters election night. If this isn't why, then why don't they say so?

[Chip Your Pets]

No, it is not consistent with her past behavior, especially the "drunken" part. She was expecting to deliver a big victory speech that night -- there is NO way she would have gotten drunk.

I have no doubt that she was losing her temper, and was so distraught that Podesta had to take her place in telling everyone to go home from her election night "party". But this story is just ridiculous. A 69 year old woman physically attacked two young men? Come on.

[SFC B]

She was expecting to give a big victory speech at like 9pm once the central time zone polls closed. By 10pm Ohio and Florida are clearly trending Trump, the Rust Belt is too close to call and trending the wrong direction. Podesta says "We'll be back later" at like 2:30. That's a long time to be seeing your political death coming.

[Zeb]

A 69 year old woman physically attacked two young men? Come on.

I don't know why that is so incredible. It's not as if they were going to fight back.

I have no idea if it's true, but it doesn't seem so implausible.

[Seguin, the Mighty Monoclops]

A 69 year old woman physically attacked two young men? Come on

You clearly have never tried to cut in line at a Golden Corral.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

This reinforces my previously held perceptions of Hillary, so I choose to believe it.

I'm just waiting for news of the housekeeper she slaughtered to surface.

[Chip Your Pets]

Right. But you know she had to have been unpresentable in some manner, for Podesta to come out and deliver that embarrassing Election Night speech in her place.

[(((Renegade)))]

IMO, most likely, it never even occurred to her that she could lose, so no speech written. And no way she was going out there without a polished, tested speech.

[Chip Your Pets]

That's plausible. Though she could have gone out there and said what Podesta said, and avoid the questions about why she didn't address the crowd.

[Cyto]

I'm surprised her behavior hasn't gotten more attention. Even late-night seems to have given her a pass on it.

It was a major breach of protocol. Every election in my lifetime, the loser comes out first and concedes the election. Then the winner comes out and makes his speech to his supporters.

Even Gore conceded before he withdrew his concession.

I didn't even hear a mention of the breach of protocol. And the next morning it wasn't brought up. Just a lot of somber coverage about how sad this must be for her and her campaign team. It was very weird. Almost as if the media did't know how to act without their marching orders.....

[SFC B]

Corey Lewandowski was on CNN that night and was calling the hosts of their election coverage on their hypocrisy. It was pretty funny because after about 10 minutes they started to agree with him that it was an issue they'd have been elbow-deep in Trump if he had done.

[Lord Humungus]

China's Xi urges cooperation among nations in governance of global internet

"The development of the internet knows no international boundaries. The sound use, development and governance of the internet thus calls for closer cooperation," Xi said in a video message at the start of China's third World Internet Conference.

While China's influence in global technology has grown, its ruling Communist Party led by Xi has presided over broader and more vigorous efforts to control, and often censor, the flow of information online.

China infamously operates the so-called "Great Firewall", the world's most sophisticated online censorship system, to block and attack Internet services the government deems unsavory.

Xi repeated China's pledge to "promote equitable global internet governance" while upholding "cyber sovereignty", or the right of countries to determine how they want to manage the internet.

[Citizen X]

Citizen X's Simple Rule for Governing the Internet: Don't, Motherfucker.

[Free Society]

Good thing the US handed control of the internets to the free speech advocates over at the UN with people like Xi at the helm.

[Derpetologist]

Trump goes to dinner with family without alerting media; media very butthurt.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7GEa7r8Vyk

[Atanarjuat]

Calling this a "lack of transparency" is just going to make people continue to distrust the media past the election session.

[CatoTheChipper]

Wow, multiple MSM sources really did call this a "lack of transparency".

Obviously the MSM uses this term to mean something other than what I thought it meant. Maybe Obama did have a transparent administration by their definition. Sure it was continually plotting assassinations, secret wars, IRS harassment, deals with cronies, etc. in secret, but I don't think Team Obama left the media in the dark when the Obamas went out for dinner.

[Lee Genes]

"Transparent" means allowing them to ride along for free and report on the bullshit that doesn't matter. The MSM is nothing more than glorified paparazzi at this point.

Actually, I think the paparazzi do more investigation than they do.

[Cyto]

This is truly amazing. After 8 years in which the President was asked maybe 2 and a half questions that made him burn a calorie or two, all the while resisting open records requests at record levels and prosecuting whistle-blowers and press leaks, spying on members of the press to catch leakers....

Buuuuuuut, we are going to act all bent-out-of-shape about getting to cover dinner with the family. Which is decidedly not news.

Flash back to 2009, when the press breathlessly covered the President's trip to 5 Guys for burgers. Huuuge news. So much cooler than Bush. Because he eats at 5 Guys!!

Maybe reporting on restaurant outings really is terribly important to them after all.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

"The president must livestream everything he does, anything less is blatantly nontransparent!!

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

For all we know he might like his steaks well-done. That would make him literally worse than Hitler, and Hitler was a vegetarian.

[Hamster of Doom]

Least transparent administration ever!

[Rufus The Monocled]

Trump should treat them like shit until they stop acting like self-entitled sycophants.

[CatoTheChipper]

I'll bet that Trump is a better tipper than Hillary, who has been reported not only to stiff the waitstaff but to walk the check.

[spqr2008]

I would not be shocked. My dad worked at Music Hall in Cincy in the early 90s (during the first few years of the Clinton Admin.) In 1993, Hillary was in town for some event, and instead of using the very nice green room they had backstage, she insisted on taking over the offices of all of the management, including my dad's office, and was an absolute ass to everyone there. My dad didn't say a single thing about this to me until this year, but he also said it was a large reason he voted Dole in 96.

[Lord Humungus]

Bursting the Facebook bubble: we asked voters on the left and right to swap feeds

If there was one thing that our participants agreed on, it was that the Facebook feed "the other side" reads is largely wrong.

"It's like reading a book by a fool," said Pines. "It's hard to read something you know is a lie."
Andra Constantin, a conservative 37-year-old project manager in the construction industry.

Andra Constantin, a conservative 37-year-old project manager in the construction industry. Photograph: Photo courtesy of Andra Constantin

Another liberal, Nikki Moungo from St Louis county, Missouri, went a step further: "It's like being locked into a room full of those suffering from paranoid delusions," she said.

Loos said that he found the left-wing Facebook feed was too "confined" and he was frustrated by the liberal media's attempts to "spin" and "justify" every negative story about Clinton.

Andra Constantin, a conservative project manager from Westchester County, New York, was frustrated by "this whole big brainwashing push to save the world from the horrible climate change".

[Rasilio]

And as someone who has both conservative and liberal friends and posts in both conservative and liberal communities I get a blend of both feeds and both of them are so full of bullshit and lies I could spend 100 hours a week debunking them and still not get to half of the BS

[CampingInYourPark]

But, what does Andra Constantin think?

[Cyto]

And what is her profession?

[The Late P Brooks]

I see misogynists

Still, there was a lot of hope and excitement on campus leading up to Election Day. This week, one student told me: "I'm still in shock. The reality is hitting me in waves."

Many people have attributed Mrs. Clinton's loss to her actions in public life, or to an America that wanted "change" at any cost. But this loss is as much about sexism as anything else.

For our mothers, sexism was explicit. Their war stories would make any Title IX officer today shudder. For our daughters, today's students, sexism is often implicit. Both men and women internalize stubborn cultural biases about gender that affect our understandings, actions and decisions.

For this reason, female leaders are restricted by far more than ceilings. Glass walls erected by these unconscious biases box women into traditional roles and limit our opportunities.

They're everywhere.

What the fuck is wrong with these people? Hillary Clinton lost because she was a horrible candidate, and would have been a horrible President.

Get your head out of your ass, little girl.

[Rich]

Clinton lost because she was a horrible candidate

Ah, but she was a horrible candidate because of *sexism*.

[Raven Nation]

Hah! We all know that if the election was between Carly Fiorina and Joe Biden, all these people would have voted for Carly, right? RIGHT?!

[Injun, as in from India]

See my post above.

Ask these ladies if they would have voted for Palin.

If not, they are sexist women with internalized misogyny.

[Injun, as in from India]

I look forward to gun-totin' Indian-American Nikki Haley to be on top of the GOP ticket in the future.

Just so I can troll lefties for being racist against Indians and sexist against women.

[DJF]

They will just say that Nikki Haley is not a real Indian or women.

They have been doing the not a real women attack since at least Margret Thatcher.

[Tonio]

I thought the progs were down with those who are characterized by their enemies as "fake women."

[DJF]

They are fake women when they have lady parts but don't follow prog narrative.

They are real women when they don't have lady parts but do follow the prog narrative.

[Free Society]

They already do say that. If I recall correctly, Shikha Dalmia wrote a piece a while back basically calling she and Bobby Jindal token Indians and alluded to them being uncle toms because of their conversion to Christianity and assimilation into American society and culture. Which is rich coming from Shikha "Open-borders" Dalmia who pins any and all failures of assimilation of certain groups onto the host society.

[Hamster of Doom]

So, the predominant conclusion among lefties seems to be that white women are all unenlightened tools of the patriarchy who need to be scolded and evangelized until they get over their ingrained sexist inability to vote for a woman.

Clearly, I did not have enough reason to hate feminists already.

[Password: pode$ta]

Feminism, as defined by women like Paglia (whom I happen to find interesting and entertaining), has been completely overtaken by infantilization-feminism.

If white women don't believe they're tools of the patriarchy, it's because they're too weak to accept it. If you accept that the patriarchy dominates everything, then naturally it's up to men to fix it because women can't possibly be expected to fight for themselves.

[Injun, as in from India]

scolded and evangelized until they get over their ingrained sexist inability to vote for a woman.

Or indoctrinated... sorry, I mean, educated.

That's the sole purpose of Women's Studies departments in universities.

[Hamster of Doom]

Educated to vote as they're told properly. That's how you know a woman is educated. She votes the way she's expected to by her betters.

Fuck feminism. They would replace Sauron with Galadriel and think the job done.

[(((Renegade)))]

Remind me to tell you my ERA story sometime.

[spqr2008]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tqb0CUMquzc

[$park? is totally a Swifty]

What the fuck is wrong with these people?

My guess - 'civilization' has hit a brick wall and hit it hard. Many people are now rebounding back towards animalistic behavior.

I will concede that this is happening only in first world nations where there is literally nothing else to worry about.

[Chip Your Pets]

I will concede that this is happening only in first world nations where there is literally nothing else to worry about.

That may change soon enough.

[Rufus The Monocled]

She made a rape victim cry on the stand. She chose her bed a long-time ago. To me, real feminism that possesses principles and values does not permit a woman to do this to another woman; let alone child.

That they present her as a feminist actually reveals they lack principles and integrity. Quite the sorry bunch if you ask me.

[SFC B]

If she, or her proxies, had made the case that she was doing her job as a lawyer, and then held that principle and extended it to everyone accused of a crime, I'd have been more open to her. But noooooooo. She defends herself by saying it was just her doing her job (and leaving aside whether she did it underhandedly or whatever) and then continued to say all victims should be believed.

That she, her campaign, and its enablers in the media were never able to come up with a plausible rationalization for her actions as a lawyer, as a defender of her husband, and now as an advocate for all victims was really just awful. It's not like these problems came out of nowhere. They had to know that Bill's past, and her treatment of his victims, would come up. And their horrible response to it made sure it would come up again and again and agian.

[Lee Genes]

Why would you mourn a career politician? Ever?

[$park? is totally a Swifty]

Trump wants us "to believe both that he's 'pro-life' and that he won't actually stop anyone from getting an abortion, at least not anytime soon."

I'm not getting why this is such a stretch. Is it not possible to believe that people shouldn't get abortions while also acknowledging that it is legal and that person's right to choose?

[Crusty Juggler]

Isn't that pretty much Rand Paul's and Justin Amash's position, too?

[John]

I think so. And shouldn't Libertarians encourage the idea that someone can be against something but also not think it should be banned? I don't think assuming anyone who objects to something can't be trusted not to ban it sets a very good precedent.

[Zeb]

This is a very good point. It would be a good thing to see more examples of politicians who personally oppose certain things, but don't want to make them illegal. Define some boundaries on the proper role of government.

[I can't even]

Like both Bush's and Reagan?

[Domestic Dissident]

Trump wants us "to believe both that he's 'pro-life' and that he won't actually stop anyone from getting an abortion, at least not anytime soon."

Don't get your pussy all bent out of shape, you TDS-afflicted SJW PFL. You're still going to be able to get your theoretical abortion without having to resort to the wire coat hanger. The worst that will happen is that you might have to pay for it out of your own pocket though instead of sticking the rest of us with the bill. A major fucking tragedy for you, I know.

[Crusty Juggler]

Take a pill, yo.

[Juvenile Bluster]

I think we've found Red Shriek.

[SugarFree]

Found? He's been here for years.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Oh, I know. But he's gone more insane over the past few months.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

"Found? He's been here for years."

Don't call it a comeback!

[$park? is totally a Swifty]

Yet another gift granted by Trump's election, the complete moronic unhinged meltdown by his supporters against everyone who isn't.

Excellent work Dumbhectic Dipshitdent.

[Domestic Dissident]

You can go fuck off too. Practically the entire list of links is hysterical, unhinged Trump Derangement Syndrome on display, and the man hasn't even taken office yet.

[Citizen X]

That doesn't make YOU not an idiot, though.

[SugarFree]

See, we're the ones that are deranged, not the twat with the idiotic nicknames for public figures that has be terrified of "SJWs" that are out to get him and brave Donald Trump, Truthteller.

[Citizen X]

My favorite time was when he made a reference to the "so-called president" and then claimed that i wanted to orally service Barry O. because i pointed out that he is, in fact, really the president.

Come to think of it, that was around the same time that Michael Hihn told me my parents didn't raise me right. Probably the proudest day of my Hit'n'Run career.

[SugarFree]

The crazy was high and the derp was growin' fine.

[Crusty Juggler]

Mikey, you need to pop Trump's cock out of your pretty mouth and take a pill, yo.

[Citizen X]

Pretty? Naw, Mikey doesn't even have lips. He just sort of has mouth edges.

[Citizen X]

You act like you came off a boat.

[$park? is totally a Swifty]

These euphemisms are getting quite nautical.

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

That's naughtical.

[Zeb]

So, where is the part where she makes any commentary or inserts her personal opinion?

[Domestic Dissident]

She has made it abundantly clear with her past content written that she is an abortion hysteric who thinks the rest of us should have to foot the bill.

[Zeb]

I've missed the "foot the bill" part if it exists.

[John]

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-.....ign=buffer

Trump ditches media to go to dinner. The outrage!!! I hope he kicks them off Air Force One and makes them leave the White House grounds and set up camp in Lafayette Square.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Fucker probably had his steak well done. He's evil I tell you.

[Florida Hipster]

I can't trust a man that doesn't drink. Seems like he is afraid to lose control and let something slip.

[Crusty Juggler]

His older brother was an alcoholic who died in his early 40s.

[$park? is totally a Swifty]

Boo-fucking-hoo, that's a beta excuse.

[Cynical Asshole]

If only people realized what a beta-male he is, he wouldn't have won. Harden the fuck up and have a beer once in while you whiny-ass cuck!

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

It seems Don was scared sober.

[$park? is totally a Swifty]

Like those crazy-ass mormons that tried to sneak someone in last election.

[Florida Hipster]

I've got an even bigger beef with Mormons. No caffeine? Come the fuck on!

[$park? is totally a Swifty]

Dude, caffeine isn't good for you. Caffeine addicts scare me.

[Florida Hipster]

You're lucky I've already had two cups of coffee or I'd give you a tongue lashing you won't soon forget!

[Hamster of Doom]

We ought to talk more. Maybe tomorrow morning?

[Florida Hipster]

*adjust collar*
Oh my...

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

I think it's because his brother Fred Trump, Jr. drank himself to death. He's probably afraid alcoholism runs in the family.

[Florida Hipster]

I'm not sure I buy alcoholism is inherited. I think it is probably more cultural than genetic. It wasn't really a serious comment anyways, both my parents are teetotalers.

[$park? is totally a Swifty]

Well that's clearly not inherited.

[Florida Hipster]

Oh hell naw! I'll drink anything that doesn't drink me first!

[Free Society]

No alcoholism specifically is not genetically coded. Genetic predisposition to alcohol addiction and addiction in general, can certainly be genetically inherited.

[Groovus Maximus]

I'm not sure I buy alcoholism is inherited.

It is. Polygenic inheritance, actually. Which is why there are varied levels of alcohol sensitivity, meaning how likely you are to be unable to stop once alcohol is present in the body (if you have AA AA AA AA AA as opposed to Aa Aa aa aa Aa, for example, with "A" dominantly expressed, the former is much more likely to develop alcoholism at an earlier age). Incidentally, those same receptors that alcohol affects, so do opioids, by the by. Which is why alcoholics proper, and first degree relatives of alcoholics have a demonstrable tendency to get hooked on opioids, even if they don't develop a discrete drinking problem.

[Florida Hipster]

Hmm...

*looks at FS & GM*

It's appears the science is against me yet again.

[Groovus Maximus]

It's appears the science is against me yet again.

And nature, too. You are a Florida Man in all your ketchup smeared, sweat stained wife-beater glory (the official Florida Man uniform, as I understand it), no? *grins*

[Lord Rollingpin]

Just white man science. Blaze your own trail to a newer better science.

[Suthenboy]

Ever been to an Indian reservation Florida? That visit will remove all doubt.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

"I'm not sure I buy alcoholism is inherited."

Yeah I'm not sure either, but if I was Native American I still wouldn't touch a drop just to be on the safe side. Better dry then being proven wrong in that particular area.

[Florida Hipster]

Don't worry NBC, you've never needed information or facts to do your job before. You'll be fine.

[John]

And didn't they nearly have orgasms when Obama and Michelle gridlocked Manhattan for a "date night"?

[Free Society]

With his Tuesday night actions, the Trump Administration is shaping up to be the least accessible to the public and the press in modern history.

Yeah, going out for a private dinner with family and not informing the press is certainly indicative of malfeasance and secrecy. Great reporting NBC. If this isn't the "fake news" that google, tweeter and facebook are supposed to be combating I don't know what is.

I wonder though, has NBC ever characterized the Obama administration as the least transparent administration in history? (which it certainly is)

[Chip Your Pets]

There isn't even a Trump Administration yet. It's been a week since the election and the electoral college doesn't vote for over a month, and inauguration is more than two months away.

I'm all for the press holding the government's feet to the fire, but I worry that they won't do it on the issues that really matter, but instead this kind of bullshit.

[Free Society]

Definitely. Expect more of this crap.

[Paulpemb]

No, this is just what they have now. They are going to push hard on everything they can.

If there is even a hint that Trump ever uses the IRS against his political enemies, for example, you can bet that the press will not be satisfied with a simple "We investigated ourselves, and there wasn't a smidgen of corruption. Too bad we can't prove it, because every single computer in the IRS suffered a simultaneous hard-drive crash."

[Tonio]

So, I thought I saw something about how all that swastika graffitti at that university in Chicago was a false flag operation. Credible?

[Atanarjuat]

*ALL* swastika graffiti is false flag until proven otherwise.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

I say *ALL* swastika graffiti is altruistic Hindus wishing people good luck until proven otherwise. It's the most amusing assumption.

[Private Chipperbot]

Has anyone seen any reporting on the amount both parties spent during the election? Seems like it could be an interesting story for a Reason writer to delve into.

[Florida Hipster]

She out spent him by over 300 million dollars. Campaign finance re-something...oh well, prolly wasn't important.

[CatoTheChipper]

Check out http://opensecrets.org/pres16/

Hillary Clinton (D)
CANDIDATE COMMITTEE MONEY: $497,808,791
OUTSIDE MONEY: $189,453,103

Donald Trump (R) WINNER
CANDIDATE COMMITTEE MONEY: $247,541,449
OUTSIDE MONEY: $59,389,531

Gary Johnson (L)
CANDIDATE COMMITTEE MONEY: $11,410,313
OUTSIDE MONEY: $1,383,852
Evan McMullin (I)
CANDIDATE COMMITTEE MONEY: $1,025,703
OUTSIDE MONEY: $0
Jill Stein (3)
CANDIDATE COMMITTEE MONEY: $3,509,477
OUTSIDE MONEY: $0

[John]

Hillary spent $586 million on her campaign. Talk about separating suckers from their money.

[Greg Loves His Woodchipper]

It's actually even worse than that, you forgot to carry a one. $686 million.

[I can't even]

Wow - he spent less than half. Hope he has the same philosophy when it comes to federal spending.

[Raven Nation]

Of course, the media gave him a lot of free advertising. Even when they thought they were doing hit pieces, they were often helping his campaign.

[CatoTheChipper]

Hillary's top 5 sources:
1 Securities & Investment $78,102,505
2 Retired $60,785,273
3 Lawyers/Law Firms $36,416,035
4 TV/Movies/Music $21,962,280
5 Non-Profit Institutions $21,118,930

Trump's top 5 sources:
1 Retired $19,540,406
2 Real Estate $2,521,199
3 Misc Business $2,232,157
4 Health Professionals $1,696,622
5 Misc Finance $946,486

[John]

How can non profits be allowed to give to political campaigns? Isn't the reason why Churches can't do that is because they don't pay any taxes?

[Jerryskids]

It's not just non-profits that can't donate to campaigns - no corporations are allowed to donate to campaigns. That listing refers to where the individual donors are employed. (Not that there's not a shitload of people who won't assure you that when the CEO of Exxon donates to a campaign, that's Exxon attempting to influence an election whereas a NYT journalist donating to a campaign is in no way a reflection on the NYT's political stance.)

[Jerryskids]

That's what bugs the crap out of me about the people who claim the Citizen's United decision was the Supremes saying "OMG! Corporations are people! That means Exxon should be treated just the same as Jim or Fred or Nancy!" No jackass, what they meant was pretty much the exact opposite of that - corporations are mere abstractions and when "the Exxon corporation" does something, it's not actually "the Exxon corporation" doing it, it's the people collectively known as "the Exxon corporation" that are doing it. "CBS News has learned...." and "The NFL announced today...." and "The Boyscouts of America will be...." are more examples of using an abstract collective name to refer to a specific group of individuals. All of those things are incapable of doing any action whatsoever as they lack any corporeal existence. If a group of people can get together and call themselves "Americans For Liberty, Justice and Oreo Cookie Ice Cream" and campaign for certain political actions, why can't any group of people getting together and calling themselves whatever name they want campaign for certain political actions? If Jim and Fred and Nancy get together for the purpose of collectively selling petroleum products, why should that preclude Jim and Fred and Nancy from collectively supporting candidates disposed to support the selling of petroleum products?

[CatoTheChipper]

Jerryskids explanation is correct.

[Lord Humungus]

Ha! It's all social signaling "journalism" now.

or something like that.

[Rufus The Monocled]

I wonder if Trump realizes his life is forever changed now. It's sort of like embarking on a boat with - Frodo was it? - and heading off to a land far away never to see the life he knew before.

And I wonder if he likes it.

'What the fuck have I done?! WHERE MY ORGIES GONE?!'

[Pat (PM)]

The only adequate punishment for someone seeking the office is president is for them to obtain it.

[Citizen X]

Dude, the orgies have just moved to the bowling alley in the White House basement.

[Swiss Servator]

The 'murican version of a bunga-bunga party?

[John]

He has been married to his current model wife for a while. He is nearly 70. I get the feeling he moved away from the two beauty queens with dinner lifestyle. My guess is he is pretty boring in person these days.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Like J. Peterman and his coupons huh.

[Pat (PM)]

+1 plant food.

[Injun, as in from India]

He is nearly 70.

But there's always Viagra.

[John]

Yes there is. I am not saying he couldn't. I just think he likely doesn't. A few divorce settlements that cost you in the tens of millions will do that.

[$park? is totally a Swifty]

Viagra is for losers. Winners get a titanium rod installed.

[Lord Humungus]

Sad! Trump would have a gold rod.

[Injun, as in from India]

+1 Gold Member

Who knew Austin Powers was a clairvoyant movie?

[I can't even]

Chicks do like to blow money.

[Suthenboy]

I read that as 'chicks like blow money'.

[Suthenboy]

My father is working on 80 and still cant give it up.

I am working on 55 and I can still scratch glass 5 times a day.

[Cynical Asshole]

I get the feeling he moved away from the two beauty queens with dinner lifestyle.

AKA "after meal whores."

[Free Society]

"Unlike past presidents who took office with considerable wealth," reports Politico, "the setup Trump is creating for his financial assets?leaving his three oldest adult children and a 'team of highly skilled executives' in charge while he's in the Oval Office?appears likely to expose large numbers of people the president hires to an unprecedented set of conflicts spanning his entire federal government."

[...]

They're going to need it given the president-elect's sprawling business empire and his lack of interest in selling off his companies and properties outright.

Uhhh the aforementioned presidents usually used 'blind trusts' to manage their companies, they didn't sell them off either. Why is Trump supposed to sell off his life's work that he's always intended to be ran by his children one day? Now it's being run by his children and to hear the media tell it, you'd think Trump is running his companies like Clinton ran the Clinton Foundation, not that you'd hear media outlets talking about the Clinton Foundation of course!

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

From what I understand, the fear is that Trump will sell massive amounts of uranium to the Russians in exchange for, um, a license to open a hotel or something.

Or maybe the fear is that Trump will push us into war with Libya to benefit his friends?

[I can't even]

Nobody could ever be that corrupt!

[Free Society]

Except Republicans!

[Chip Your Pets]

To be fair, he really should break his ties with his company and formally transfer ownership to his children now. It does create the potential for conflicts of interest for him to still own all that stuff.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

Wouldn't he have as much conflict of interest in favor of his beloved children's business??

[Free Society]

Yeah I'm not so sure the degree of separation between he and his children would be enough to eliminate the supposed conflict of interest that the media is riding on before it's even a story.

[Lord Rollingpin]

I'll start worrying when Air Force One becomes Trump One. (And the color scheme is gold.)

[Lee Genes]

I've got some quality Jesse Walker bait right here. I need a ruling.

For those many citizen journalists who are in the know, Pizzagate was immediately recognized as the scandal that will literally take down the U.S. Federal Government, after it dissolves the Democratic Party.

This epic and rapidly unfolding crime spree has all the elements to incriminate many leading politicians and D.C. power-brokers, well-known globalists and Beltway lobbyists. Truly, this is the scandal that the American people have been waiting for.

Of all the scandals that end in "Gate", it is the Pedophilia Pizzagate that has the potential to do the most damage to the existing criminal power structure that was shoehorned into power in Washington D.C. by the World Shadow Government (WSG).

Note: Five bucks says that link initiates automatic NSA monitoring. Of course, you're on Reason so you're already doomed.

[Crusty Juggler]

*sigh*

The story will be suppressed by the liberal media and their government allies.

[John]

It is either a lie and thus no proof will ever emerge or it is true and the people involved are so powerful they would never let the truth emerge. Either way, it goes nowhere. That is the thing about the really big conspiracy theories like this; even if they were true, anyone powerful enough to pull it off would also be powerful enough to make sure it was never uncovered.

[Suthenboy]

I looked into it a bit. It doesnt look as suspicious as I thought initially.

Those kids going to 'The Farm' are the grandchildren of the woman who owns the estate and pedestal is a family friend/acquaintance. The 'spirit dinner' crap is some kind of fruitloopy performance art.

[XenoZooValentine]

Long time lurker, first time poster. I just want to thank Reason, ENB, Fruit Sushi, and the commenters here for getting me through some tough times. I'm glad you're out there doing what you do. Best wishes from New Jersey, and may the holidays treat you well. Travel safe.

[Crusty Juggler]

New Jersey?

*reports spam*

[Lee Genes]

Best wishes from New Jersey

So Christie didn't eat everyone? Were you hiding in the closet or the basement? Anywhere with a narrow passageway might have worked, I guess.

[XenoZooValentine]

Yeah, I guess I'm part of that "dangerous strain of libertarianism" he keeps warning us about.

Still uneaten, though. Maybe I'm not ripe yet?

[SugarFree]

"Uneaten" is not the safe as "not eaten yet."

Keep salt handy, I hear it melts Christie like a slug.

[Groovus Maximus]

You heard incorrectly. His hide is too thick. Sweaty too, secreting oils and mucus, much like say, Jabba the Hutt, which protects him from most corrosives. It's quite remarkable, actually.

I figured Troomp would keep him around as a meat shield. Sir Cumference of the Troomp Table, he couldda been...

[SugarFree]

Costs too much to feed him. And he shits all over the place.

[Private Chipperbot]

Crusty's thoughts and prayers are with you.

[$park? is totally a Swifty]

Are you calling this a safe space? Because that shit will not fly.

/Negan

[Crusty Juggler]

JDM owns a candy shop! He is such a sweetie.

[$park? is totally a Swifty]

He is a good actor and plays that role superbly.

[Injun, as in from India]

I hope you buy lots of guns before New Jersey outlaws them.

[Injun, as in from India]

And congrats on your first post!

[Tonio]

Stop that, or he'll start to count and number them.

[XenoZooValentine]

One, two, three, another, another....

[Injun, as in from India]

LOL. Where's JATNAS?

[Tonio]

Welcome aboard. Remember that uncontrollable vomiting is normal...oh, wait, Jersey. Carry on.

[Florida Hipster]

Get a pen and paper handy.
Things you need to comment on H&R:
1. Coffee for AM links
2. Beer for lunch articles
3. Hard liquor of choice for PM links
4. Eye bleach for Lena Dunham post
5. Puke bucket for SF post

[Injun, as in from India]

6. Learn to ignore posts by American Socialist (see below)

[XenoZooValentine]

Eh, we all need comic relief.

[american socialist]

I just come at it from a different angle. I figure that College kids who worry a little too much about LBGTQ issues aren't bothering me and probably have their hearts in the right place. I don't go to Defcon 1 and seek out the launch codes whenever a women gets a pamphlet on how to protect herself from being raped or when immigrants worry about being deported. That's kind of your guy's thing.

[Pat (PM)]

I just come at it from a different angle.

Obtuse?

[Lord Rollingpin]

Genius!

[XenoZooValentine]

"Hard liquor of choice for PM links"

First, you drink liquor. Then, you touch a police officer!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b5V3EFfPi0

[american socialist]

As long as you suck Trump's cock and make excuses for conservatives you'll be ok.

[Bubba Jones]

How is the Trump conflict of interest any different from letting Senators inside trade?

[Injun, as in from India]

He's a Republican president. That's why the media noticed.

[The Late P Brooks]

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Now the country has elected a man who threaded racist, xenophobic and misogynistic messages and mockery of disabled people through his campaign. Donald J. Trump's victory gives others license to do the same. There are already signs that during his presidency, the moral values that schools and parents have been helping to instill in young people ? empathy and "upstanding," a term schools use that means looking out for fellow students who are being mistreated ? will be in danger of eroding.

Since Mr. Trump's election, the Southern Poverty Law Center has received more than 430 reports of bullying, harassment and racist displays around the country. "We haven't seen this volume in the United States in decades, with the exception of the wave of anti-Muslim incidents that followed 9/11," said Ryan Lenz, a spokesman for the center. Not all of the reports have been verified. But they include real and painful episodes at secondary schools and colleges.

Trumpocalypse is upon us.

[$park? is totally a Swifty]

Because I hate myself, I was watching the news Monday night. Now anyone who knows MA, and possibly even those who don't, knows what kind of town Amherst is. Anyway, one of the reporters was talking to high school kids about Trump. They trotted out some black girl who claimed that since Trump had been elected she had been called 'the N word' more times than ever. IT'S BEEN ONE FUCKING WEEK YOU ASSHOLE!

[Pat (PM)]

Now anyone who knows MA, and possibly even those who don't, knows what kind of town Amherst is.

I always thought the Pixies summed it up pretty nicely.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Yes, but anyone who knows MA knows who they treat "Mondays".

[Heroic Mulatto]

*how

[John]

And what white person living in Amherst drops an N bomb? What is next, the secret KKK chapter in Cambridge?

[Crusty Juggler]

Amherst in 2010 is exactly like a Southie cornah in 1972. That's a fact, kid.

[John]

Amherst is a college town. And everyone knows universities are the last bastions of old time Southern White Supremacy and racism left in America. I bet some philosophy professor or dean in charge of diversity called that little girl the N bomb.

[american socialist]

John,

Do you ever get tired of reporting on how you are being oppressed by political correctness? I can't imagine your burdens.

[Pat (PM)]

Inorite? John, find something real to complain about, like the oppression of having to pay back money you borrowed.

[spqr2008]

I'm curious if she's heard it more often because of the proclivity college aged males have for A) Rap and Hip Hop, and B) A certain game, set in 1968 "New Orleans" came out in the last few weeks (Mafia III), and prominently drops the N bomb all the damn time. It's quite uncomfortable, but I think it's a reasonable projection of what the south may have been like at the time.

[SugarFree]

It's OK. The "N-word" she was referring to was "obnoxious."

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

Noxious?

[Cynical Asshole]

They trotted out some black girl who claimed that since Trump had been elected she had been called 'the N word' more times than ever.

She was probably called "nigga" by a fellow black student and just wanted to go on TV and claim that it was a racially motivated thing from a white person. Just wait, by next week it'll be a bunch of full on Klansmen in hoods burning crosses on her front lawn while yelling the n-word at her.

Either that, or someone called her a nagger and she misheard them.

[Tornado35235gsg35423ttg3gt3g3g]

Does the NY times want to be credible at all? Why use the southern poverty law center?

[Cynical Asshole]

Not all of the reports have been verified.

Have any of them been verified? Or are people still conflating any and all crimes committed against non-white victims as signs of the Trumpocalypse?

[Sevo]

If Twitter bans enough stuff, it'll end up being like a FOIA page from Hillary's days as S/S.

[Injun, as in from India]

I want Peter Thiel to start a competitor to Twitter. No censorship whatsoever. Let the left withdraw into its safe space.

[John]

I think there is a competitor to twtitter. I want to say it is called "Gab". It is a dying platform. They are losing money like crazy and they got no offers when they tried to sell a couple of years ago.

[I can't even]

I think Twitter just jump-started them.

[Pat (PM)]

I don't think Twitter has any competitors because the concept is so fucking retarded and nobody actually uses it except for media types who want to smell their own farts and pretend it's work.

[Crusty Juggler]

Interesting! Twitter never really worked out for me, and now I know the reason why: my shit don't stink.

[XenoZooValentine]

Twitter was always a mistake.

It's like they thought long and hard about what makes a good communication platform, then went out of their way to design the exact opposite.

[Cynical Asshole]

the concept is so fucking retarded and nobody actually uses it except for media types who want to smell their own farts and pretend it's work.

Nail on the head.

[american socialist]

Clearly wrong. Look how it's worked for you-know-who?

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

I use it primarily as a newsfeed for screenwriting news. That's all.

[Chip Your Pets]

Losing money perhaps, but they provide a handy means of controlling the conversation on certain topics -- which Reason and doctrinaire libertarians will defend as their "right" as a private company, even as they promote statism and silence pro-liberty voices in their monopolistic echo chamber.

Excellent opportunity for a liberal billionaire to help the cause, a la Bezos and the WaPo.

[Cynical Asshole]

Not sure if anyone else has posted this or not, but I found it interesting:

Ed Klein: Bill Clinton: It's Hillary's Fault, Not Comey's

In the waning days of the presidential campaign, Bill and Hillary Clinton had a knock-down, drag-out fight about her effort to blame FBI Director James Comey for her slump in the polls and looming danger of defeat.
...
"Bill didn't buy the excuse that Comey would cost Hillary the election," said the source. "As far as he was concerned, all the blame belonged to [campaign manager Robby] Mook, [campaign chairman John] Podesta and Hillary because they displayed a tone-deaf attitude about the feeble economy and its impact on millions and millions of working-class voters.
...
"Bill said that constantly attacking Trump for his defects made Hillary's staff and the media happy, but that it wasn't a message that resonated with voters, especially in the rust belt," the source explained. "Bill always campaigned as a guy who felt your pain, but Hillary came across as someone who was pissed off at her enemy [Trump], not someone who was reaching out and trying to make life better for the white working class."

This shows you the difference between Bill and Shrillary. He's just as much of a corrupt scumbag as she is, but man, he's a million times better politician. He's also pretty much spot on.

[Lord Humungus]

Weird that Hillary didn't listen to Bill. But why would she?

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Bill also warned them to pay more attention to Wisconsin and Michigan, and apparently that Mook just laughed at him.

[(((Renegade)))]

IF true (and big IF, since it's Newsmax and no attributions), we may be seeing Billary finally divorce.

[Pat (PM)]

we may be seeing Billary finally divorce

wdatpdim?

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

Not as long as the Foundation is still under FBI investigation.

[I can't even]

Why? In what way would a divorce change either of their lives other than a messy legal process?

[(((Renegade)))]

They couldn't before because of political ambitions. Now that this is a dead issue, they're free to go their own ways so that Hillary can scissor with Huma all she wants and Bill can bang desperate girls with grand-daddy issues and not have to hide it.

[I can't even]

Again, how is that different than now?

[(((Renegade)))]

No hiding it and no wasting time pretending they're still married. Win-win.

[Raven Nation]

I kind of thought that whole Comey thing might have helped Hillary along the lines of: "well, the rumors continue to swirl so we're going to re-investigate...having done a second investigation, we just want to point out AGAIN that Hillary did nothing wrong."

[Chip Your Pets]

In fairness to Hillary, Bill Clinton didn't run against somebody like Trump -- he got into office running against the famously aloof and distant George HW Bush. His reelection came against another weak opponent when the economy was booming.

Against a brainless bigmouth like Donald Trump, the obvious strategy would be to sit back and let him have enough rope to hang himself, while maybe pointing out how horrible he was occasionally. Hillary's problem was that she had as many horrible facts out there about herself.

There's also the fact that Hillary does not have Bill's charisma to be able to pull off the "feel your pain" bullshit.

[Agammamon]

Will Steve Bannon, Trump's newly-named White House chief strategist, be able to pass the standard background check needed for a security clearance?

Yes. Easily.

1. Even if the dude is a hardcore white supremist - that's neither illegal no disqualifying.

2. I go a 'Secret' Clearance solely on the say-so of my CO because I was needed to fill a manning shortfall and I needed access to *some* 'Secret' classified stuff to do the job he wanted me to do. It wasn't until some time later that they got around to converting my clearance from provisional to . . . regular - despite the fact that by that time I wasn't doing anything that needed a clearance anymore - simply because I filled out an SF-86 and they didn't find a criminal record.

Clearances can be issued on need and there's no such thing as an 'automatic disqualifier'. At least not if the need is high enough or you're holding a sufficiently exalted position.

[(((Renegade)))]

They gave me a TS and certain program clearances. That should tell you how low the standards are.

[Cynical Asshole]

Same here. TS-SCI. To a self proclaimed cynical asshole. They're not that hard to get as long as you're not a convicted felon, or have a bunch of regular contact with people from places like Russia, China, the Middle East, etc.

[Chip Your Pets]

I suspect your information is out of date. As in pre-Snowden.

First off, even if he's not denied outright, he can be delayed indefinitely. If he has white supremacist connections, that's going to be immediate trouble in the "involvement with organizations intending to prevent citizens from exercising their constitutional rights" category, which is disqualifying.

[The Late P Brooks]

"Bill didn't buy the excuse that Comey would cost Hillary the election," said the source. "As far as he was concerned, all the blame belonged to [campaign manager Robby] Mook, [campaign chairman John] Podesta and Hillary because they displayed a tone-deaf attitude about the feeble economy and its impact on millions and millions of working-class voters.

Bill was pissed? It couldn't have anything to do with her outright repudiation of much of ill's "legacy" in pursuit of the BernieBot and E Warren vote, could it?

[Lord Rollingpin]

' [campaign manager Robby] '
Now we know why those linkz where late.

[Agammamon]

Trump wants us "to believe both that he's 'pro-life' and that he won't actually stop anyone from getting an abortion, at least not anytime soon."

So, like every Republican President since Roe vs Wade? Yeah, I think we can believe him on this one. Especially since its not his decision - he'd have to find a case with standing and sufficiently compelling that it would get to the SC, get SC cert, *and then* they'd feel strongly enough to discard stare decisis and change precedent.

I think first trimester abortions are pretty darn safe in this country.

[american socialist]

Donald Trump ?? Moonbeams and unicorns.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016.....-work.html

[Pat (PM)]

This is why we need a NHS-style system!

[Tornado35235gsg35423ttg3gt3g3g]

How is forcing people into a system helping them?

[american socialist]

He wants to keep people in the system without doing anything that might inconvenience anyone into paying for it. Sounds like a free lunch.

[Tornado35235gsg35423ttg3gt3g3g]

A socialist who only knows coercion. Here is my shocked face! Since when as a socialist do you care about spending? See your paradise in Venezuela. Also can i have some of your money that really isn't yours?

[The Late P Brooks]

I hope you buy lots of guns before New Jersey outlaws them.

Have a seat, Shirley, there's something you need to know.

[commodious is retromingent]

NRO contributor dismantles JAMA study on "stand your ground" laws. It's really pretty damning how awful the study reads, at least as critiqued by this Branca guy. In short, the authors conflated homicide with murder, failed to distinguish states with statutory "stand your ground" laws vs. those with case law supporting "stand your ground" doctrine, and only at the very end of the study disclosed that the study is pertinent only to "the effect of the Florida law on homicide and homicide by firearm, not on crime and public safety." Sure, guys. I'm sure that's a distinction journalists are going to make.

[Je suis Woodchipper]

thanks for posting that critique.

study seeks to contrast FL with non-SYG states NJ, NY, OH, and VA. one small problem...

In fact, Virginia takes a unique approach on whether a defender has a legal duty to retreat or has the right to stand his ground. Under Virginia law, a defender who has made a "contribution to the affray" ? that is, someone who is not an entirely innocent party in the conflict ? does indeed have a legal duty to retreat before using deadly force in self-defense. In that subset of self-defense scenarios, Virginia acts much like the duty-to-retreat states of New York, New Jersey, and Ohio. A defender who has not made a "contribution to the affray," however ? someone who is in every sense the innocent victim of an act of criminal predation ? has absolutely no legal duty under Virginia law to retreat before they may use deadly force in self-defense. Because of this, to include Virginia among the set of non?Stand Your Ground states used as a contrast for Florida is to fundamentally undermine the study's methodological validity on this point.

[Bubba Jones]

For example, California instructs its juries in self-defense cases that a defender may not only stand his ground, he may even pursue his attacker if necessary for his safety. This position makes California one of the most aggressive Stand Your Ground states in America, and its stance is based on its case law dating back to 1898. At the same time, California has not a single Stand Your Ground statute on the books. It is noteworthy that the authors erroneously fail to include California as among the Stand Your Ground states.

[Bubba Jones]

I am a scientist in Pharma.

Every retrospective study published in a medical journal is a complete waste of time.

They always ascribe any observed association to their pet theory. They are essentially impossible to replicate in any sort of prospective manner.

So, the good news is that that paper isn't some disingenuous outlier. It is entirely typical of modern medical scientific publication. Utter crap.

[Bubba Jones]

This paper reminds me of an academic panel on the ethics of pediatric lung transplants. The panel included adult transplant docs but did not include pediatric docs or ethicists!

MDs have giant blind spots when it comes to self reflection.

[The Late P Brooks]

It's funny (in the utterly humorless sense of the word) how openly anti-business/anti-capitalist all the news outlets currently shitting themselves over Trump Inc's "potential conflicts of interest" prove themselves to be.

They plainly believe government service is some sort of priestly calling, and that those who Serve are magically stripped of venality and avarice when they join the Order. The Democrats are,anyway.

[Tornado35235gsg35423ttg3gt3g3g]

The southern poverty law center is a joke....it is amazing me the truth and reality based liberals use this as a credible source.

[(((Renegade)))]

It's no joke. Morris Dees has made himself fabulously wealthy, so at least one Southerner has been lifted well out of poverty.

[Chip Your Pets]

There aren't many nonprofit organizations that have offshore accounts.

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

Rainbow Coalition?

[The Late P Brooks]

Also- it's going to be interesting to see just how much of an earnings hit the Clinton Foundation takes post election. It's not like they have much to sell, now.

[Je suis Woodchipper]

95%

easy

[bacon-magic]

WTF? I thought pepe was just a racist meme. Help me discern the truth here beloved commentariat.

[Free Society]

Well, Hilary Clinton and Rico Suave lied to you.

[Trigger Warning]

This is going to be a long, tedious couple of years.

[KerryW]

Only two? Are you expecting an impeachment or assassination?

[Trigger Warning]

The first one.

[american socialist]

From the NYTimes:

"We'll get your taxes down?don't worry about it" POTUS-elect Trump tells diners at NYC's 21 Club?via @HallieJackson who made a rez to get in pic.twitter.com/0IcEYXq7SW

? Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) November 16, 2016

Some patrons laughed.

Mr. Trump, who lives on Fifth Avenue, campaigned as a champion of the middle class."

Haha... jokes on you, rubes.

[Free Society]

Shit he went out to dinner and didn't tell me. Oh god, what has he done to America?!?!?

[Pat (PM)]

Because Trump lowering taxes on people who live on Fifth Avenue will make my taxes go up?

Is there anything at all that isn't adequately explained in your ideology by the underpants gnome theory?

[Tornado35235gsg35423ttg3gt3g3g]

What? This makes no sense. I am in the middle class. Why are you so bothered by how much people make? Bizarre. You know not everyone is jealous like you are.

[american socialist]

Because you and I in the middle class will end up paying the taxes that rich people don't pay. That or we'll see less dollars in our Social Security check or we'll end up running up the deficit. That's the problem with right-wing middle class pseudo-intellectuals who think they're making a point when they say they don't care how much taxes rich people pay. They keep making this point and then complain-- often in the same paragraph-- about how Social Security is going broke and debt levels are unsustainable. Yeah, I agree... if we continue to listen to right-wing middle class pseudo-intellectuals.

[Pat (PM)]

Nevermind the negative correlation between income tax rates and the amount that the wealthy actually pay. Or the fact that federal revenue has never been higher in history as either a % of GDP or in adjusted dollars even as the deficit goes up and the national debt has doubled in the past 8 years (after already doubling in the 8 years prior to that).

I ask again:

Is there anything at all that isn't adequately explained in your ideology by the underpants gnome theory?

[american socialist]

"never been higher in history as either a % of GDP"

% of revenue as a percentage of GDP is running at about It's average over the last 70 years. There's a lot of signal-to-noise but the last time it was higher than what it is now was in 2007.

http://www.taxpolicycenter.org.....-share-gdp

[Tornado35235gsg35423ttg3gt3g3g]

1. Why are you being selfish with not wanting to pay more taxes? weren't you just lamenting above about free riders.

2. How would them paying less means you and i pay more?

3. Since when are you concerned about the deficit?

4. What is the "fair share" they should pay?

[Injun, as in from India]

4. What is the "fair share" they should pay?

Fair share == MORE.

ALWAYS.

[Cynical Asshole]

4. What is the "fair share" they should pay?

However much it takes for them to no longer be "rich," duh.

[american socialist]

We did fine when it was at 90%. I say we should shoot for what works. Can anyone show me a statistic that says economic growth is correlated to the rate at which we tax rich people? Any bullshit right-wing source would be fine so I can get some laughs.

[kbolino]

We did fine when it was at 90%

Then we must be doing even better now, where the growth in tax revenues since then has outpaced population and inflation growth combined, while the tax burden on the middle class is lower than it was then.

You really are clueless. When the top marginal rate was 90%, the government collected a much smaller share of tax revenue from the top bracket than it does today. Want to make the rich pay more in taxes? Keep the rates low.

I realize this is counterintuitive, but for someone who claims to care about statistics and reality, you seem awfully clingy to naive delusions.

[mad.casual]

They keep making this point and then complain-- often in the same paragraph-- about how Social Security is going broke and debt levels are unsustainable.

Your pseudo-intellectuality is pretty strong as well. If I'm sitting in a slow moving vehicle that's running out of gas and I'm complaining about the speed am I suggesting that we invest in a improving or buying better vehicle or that I and anyone else in the vehicle be allowed to get out and walk? You seem to accept it as a foregone conclusion that the people complaining should be out begging, borrowing, and stealing fuel to keep the car going when, in reality, it's demonstrably more reliably, personally profitable, and morally beneficial to get out and walk. Or that the people complaining about being in a slow moving vehicle that's running out of gas should focus on the wealthy but chintzy freeloaders in the back seat who aren't paying their fair share.

You seem to think that these right-wingers are the Charlie Brown pseudo-intellectual sort that you can recursively extort for gas money to get to the end of the block and then compel them to extort their wealthier neighbors for gas money to get to the end of the street or neighborhood. When, in reality, they didn't exactly need a ride to begin with (they are middle class), didn't get in the car by choice, and have already had gas money taken from them and, as such, are reluctant to take it from the next guy on down the line.

[kbolino]

Because you and I in the middle class will end up paying the taxes

... just like in 'socialist' Europe.

I love American lefty whining about taxes. Besides being innumerate, you are just as parochial as you insist everyone else is.

Of the developed countries, the U.S. has among the lowest of middle-income tax burdens. For example, Denmark taxes people making $55,000 at 60% and has a 25% VAT to boot.

[american socialist]

Maybe you want to pay more taxes so that a rich guy can pay less. I don't. I pay enough in taxes.

[Trigger Warning]

You? I doubt it.

[kbolino]

Somebody making substantially more than me pays more in taxes than I do even if their effective rate is lower than mine.

$100,000 is more than $10,000 even if the former is 10% of that person's income whereas the latter is 20% of mine (all numbers hypothetical).

But please do dodge the point. The social welfare state requires heavy taxes on the middle class because that's where the largest share of aggregate income is.

[american socialist]

No, it doesn't. We still have Medicare and Social Security and still you can go to rushlimbaugh.com and find out just how much as a percentage of tax revenue rich people pay.

[american socialist]

"Somebody making substantially more than me pays more in taxes than I do even if their effective rate is lower than mine."

WOW. I like the way you state things that are self-evident as if they are revolutionary concepts.

[kbolino]

We still have Medicare and Social Security

Which drives a massive and growing debt, the cost of which is inflation, i.e. a very regressive tax.

I like the way you state things that are self-evident as if they are revolutionary concepts.

Self-evident it may be, but it does at least have evidence behind it.

[John DeWitt]

Yummy. I feel a little guilty getting such pleasure from these proggie tears considering I didn't vote for Trump, but only a little.

[kbolino]

They keep making this point and then complain ... how Social Security is going broke and debt levels are unsustainable

Because unlike you, these alleged "pseudo-intellectuals" can do actual math.

Federal tax revenues have grown at a rate that outpaces both population and inflation combined.

1970: $192 billion in revenue, 205 million people, CPI at 39
2015: $3.24 trillion in revenue, 320 million people, CPI at 238

Population increase: 56%
CPI increase: 510%

"Expected" increase due to population and inflation growth: 950%

Actual revenue increase: 1590%

[kbolino]

Other starting points, for reference:

1960: $92 billion in revenue, 180 million people, CPI at 30
Expected vs. actual increase in revenue to 2015: 1310% vs. 3420%

1980: $617 billion in revenue, 226 million people, CPI at 82
Expected vs. actual increase in revenue to 2015: 310% vs. 425%

1990: $1.03 trillion in revenue, 250 million people, CPI at 131
Expected vs. actual increase in revenue to 2015: 132% vs. 215%

2000: $2.02 trillion in revenue, 282 million people, CPI at 172
Expected vs. actual increase in revenue to 2015: 57% vs. 60%

2008: $2.54 trillion in revenue, 304 million people, CPI at 215
Expected vs. actual increase in revenue to 2015: 17% vs. 28%

I used 2008 instead of 2010 because, while both years reinforce my point, Federal revenue was down in 2010 due to the recession.

[Injun, as in from India]

Why are you so bothered by how much people make?

"Social?ism is a phi?los?o?phy of fail?ure, the creed of igno?rance, and the gospel of envy, its inher?ent virtue is the equal shar?ing of misery."

- Winston Churchill

[bacon-magic]

^Injun nailed it.

[commodious is retromingent]

Oberlin fires assistant professor and hobbyist bigot Joy Karega. Meanwhile, NYU reinstates anti-social justice professor, gives him raise. So it's not all bad news.

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

I don't necessarily think Karega should be fired unless her tweets compromise her ability in the classroom.

[The Late P Brooks]

We did fine when it was at 90%.

Give us the Truman era Federal Register, and we'll talk.