Trump Complains Obama Throwing up 'Roadblocks' to Smooth Transition, White House Preparing Sanctions Against Russia, New Parliament Sworn In in Mogadishu: P.M. Links

• 

  frank1030/flickr

  Donald Trump is complaining that Barack Obama is putting up "roadblocks" to a smooth transition.

• The White House is reportedly preparing to announce sanctions against Russia over its alleged interference in the U.S. presidential election.
• At a speech at the State Department, John Kerry defended the U.S. abstaining from a vote on a United Nations resolution condeming Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories, saying the settlements posed a threat to peace. Benjamin Netanyahu responded by saying Israel did not "need to be lectured."
• Police in Arkansas want Amazon to give them access to Amazon Echo recordings.
• Dylann Roof is not expected to provide a defense at his sentencing hearing next month.
• A new parliament was sworn in in Mogadishu.
• Adult Swim released a teaser for the new season of Rick and Morty.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Donald Trump is complaining that Barack Obama is putting up "roadblocks" to a smooth transition.

At least everyone is finding each other's level.

[bacon-magic]

Dammit.

[Citizen X]

You can't stop Eugene. He can't even stop himself.

[bacon-magic]

I know the secret now. Just have to not be working at work.

[PapayaSF]

Tell me the secret! Email me at my handle at gmail.com if you don't want to put it here.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Careful what you wish for. When you're at the top, everyone is gunning for you.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

When you're at the top

I always thought of you as more of a power-bottom.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

Now Bobarian, I heard speed has something to do with it.

[Col. Chestbridge]

(HV)2, speed has everything to do with it.

[OneOut]

Telling everyone the secret is the libertarian thing to do.

As for me I try to not have the first post and so far I have a 100% success rate. Far superior to ole FoE coming in first MOST of the time.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I tip my hat to your prowess.

[Citizen X]

Hey, i'm rarely working at work, and the only time i got a first comment on a links thread the entire post was eaten by squirrels. Nothing is guaranteed at Hit'n'Run, homie.

[PurityDiluting]

Squirrels have been feasting on my submits lately. Either that or there's a new quality control feature in place

[Jimbo]

"Just have to not be working group at work."
That's been my secret for the past 25 years.

[Jimbo]

Wtf? How did "group" get in there?

[Charles Easterly]

A nest of squirrels?

[waffles]

Is that what you call a group of squirrels? I thought it was a scurry of squirrels.

[Charles Easterly]

waffles,

H&R squirrels.

[thrakkorzog]

Similar to a murder of of crows, it is a woodchipper of squirrels.

[Fist of Etiquette]

It was the blockquote tag instead of the italics tag. All that extra typing.

[bacon-magic]

LOL. See you tomorrow. *got fisted again ;(

[Ted S.]

4500 comments on that story? Uh, no thanks.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Hello.

"Donald Trump is complaining that Barack Obama is putting up "roadblocks" to a smooth transition."

Duh.

[Tonio]

Damn, this reminds me of something of which people in politics are always accusing their opponents.

[Ted S.]

BTW: I asked the other day well down a thread, and only got one serious reply.

Since about Friday, I haven't been able to comment via my smartphone, only on my desktop. (I've got Verizon with an LG Transpyre and Chrome, if that makes a difference.) I tried clearing cookies from Reason, and logging out and logging back in, but non of that worked. Any idea what else (serious) to try?

[jesse.in.mb]

Have you tried Opera?

I'm just kidding. I don't know anything about commenting from mobile because the last few times I tried I nearly chucked said mobile device out a window. H&R mobile commenting is pure masochism.

[Jimbo]

I thought you liked Masochism.

[R C Dean]

That would be a great name for a mobile browser.

[jesse.in.mb]

I mean, it depends on the context. Mobile browsing? Definitely no.

[Trshmnstr, Grump Apprentice]

Try using a different browser. If it's the same issue with Firefox or whatever else, then you've ruled out the browser.

[Mr Drew]

I have Verizon, a Samsung and chrome and no serious issues. It's awkward sometimes but nothing like you're reporting.

All I can offer is sympathy, sorry.

[The Grinch]

I can't speak to getting Chrome working but try installing a different browser and commenting from there. Opera, Firefox, and DuckDuckGo should work fine for you. If none of those work there's something else going on.

[JayU]

*Russians*

[Jerryskids]

Donald Trump is complaining....

Ed Krayewski is a no-talent hack nobody likes at a failing magazine nobody reads any more. Sad.

Seriously, did you even pay any attention to the campaign? Trump actually bragged about the fact that he's a whiny crybaby, he considers whining a great negotiating tactic. Just the same way any criticism of him is immediately met with some version of "you're a stupid ugly loser and nobody likes you" - and that's the extent of the guy's rhetorical abilities as far as I can tell. He just opens his piehole and whatever thought's in his head just falls out.

[bacon-magic]

White House Preparing Sanctions Against Russia,

Sure.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The White House is reportedly preparing to announce sanctions against Russia over its alleged interference in the U.S. presidential election.

A red line has been crossed.

[PapayaSF]

This is all just a "Let's delegitimize Trump any way we can" move.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Time to draw a new one!

[Libertarian]

That would be a "reset," right?

[Austrian Anarchy]

There is a button for that.

[Citizen X]

A new parliament was sworn in in Mogadishu.

Nawww.

[Rich]

"We *swear*!"

[Tonio]

Double-dog or it doesn't count.

[Mr Drew]

Wait, a double-dog SWEAR?

[Tonio]

Shit.

[Pat (PM)]

A double-dog shit?

[R C Dean]

As the owner of multiple dogs, I can assure you that this is a thing.

[Mr Drew]

Looking for pinkie?
/pat on back

[BestUsedCarSales]

Bitch Cur.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Benjamin Netanyahu responded by saying Israel did not "need to be lectured."

Well, then, you're really cuffing Kerry's hands here.

[TheZeitgeist]

Lecturing? Kerry's moved on to whining.

[Rich]

LOL

[Austrian Anarchy]

Is that after a strongly worded cable, or before?

[Mr Drew]

Heard on NPR a few minutes ago:

"President eject Trump is inheriting a solid economy with unemployment historically low and consumer confidence extremely high. Something that Mr Trump had been quick to take credit for even though he has yet to even take office."

Yeah, consumer confidence started to skyrocket within hours of Trump winning, but it's because Barry's policies just took 7 years and 11 months to start working.

[Rufus The Monocled]

And they will be quick to pin any foreign policy errors or flare ups clearly of Obama's administration on Trump.

Solid economy. Good one.

[Mr Drew]

+1 Do you know where your bombs are falling Mr Trump?

[Suthenboy]

Ooops. I could have read down a couple of comments.

[Mr Drew]

It bears repeating anyway

[pan fried wylie]

Next you're going to start refreshing before you post, and before you know it you'll be reading the articles.

Nerd.

[Charles Easterly]

Next you're going to start refreshing before you post, and before you know it you'll be reading the articles.

Thus wrote pan fried wylie.

Take heed.

[Suthenboy]

Does Donald Trump know where his bombs are falling?

[Get To Da Chippah]

I think Obama should actually be called the President-Eject right now, since he'll be gone in a month.

Hillary is, of course, the President-Reject.

[Rich]

Donald Trump is complaining that Barack Obama is putting up "roadblocks" to a smooth transition.

By removing all the D's and T's from White House IT equipment?

[american socialist]

Hello. I forgot to shit on Thomas Sowell's retirement. Sorry

Idiot Emeritus.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/otoo lefan.wordpress.com/2010/07/31/thomas -sowell-idiot-emeritus/amp/?client=safari

[Pat (PM)]

At 86 he can probably at least use html tags

[american socialist]

You mean like this...

Thomas Sowell was an overblown windbag whose number one achievement was to assure White racist douchebags that their privilege was warranted

[Pat (PM)]

No, I mean without fucking it up first.

[Chipwooder]

It's even funnier when you read the poorly-written gibberish it tried to link.

[american socialist]

Honest question. When was the last time one of his articles was peer-reviewed by someone other than Rush Limbaugh?

[Sevo]

american socialist|12.28.16 @ 4:52PM|#
"Honest question"

Bullshit; you're a pathological liar.
But honest answer:
Fuck off, asswipe.

[Pat (PM)]

Probably about the same time Picketty and Krugman were peer reviewed by anybody other than you and Markos Moulitsas

[american socialist]

I see plenty of peer-review..,

http://www.parisschoolofeconom.....thomas.pdf

[Sevo]

american socialist|12.28.16 @ 5:24PM|#
"I see plenty of peer-review..,"

That's a CV, you stupid shit!

[american socialist]

...filled with references to articles published in peer-reviewed journals, numb-nuts!

[kbolino]

I see plenty of peer-review

To be fair, Thomas Piketty's peers are not people of high intellect. But hey, I'm sure they reviewed what he wrote; just ask Alan Sokal.

[Charles Easterly]

These works have led to radically question the optimistic relationship between
development and inequality posited by Kuznets, and to emphasize the role of
political and fisca institutions in the historical evolution of income and wealth
distribution.

Thought is necessary here, am. Where do you disagree or agree?

Also there is this - it seems to me that many of the commentators on H&R are not among the types of individuals to consider your posts seriously. Do you disagree or agree?

[american socialist]

"Thought is necessary here, am. Where do you disagree or agree?"

I think I might agree that increasing levels of economic activity doesn't reduce income inequality. Am I reading it wrong?

"Commenters on H&R [don't take] your posts seriously?"

I don't know why not. I strenuously argue day after day against wars, the military industrial complex, nanny state big government conservatism, and against right-wing political interests that align themselves with religious fundamentalism to reduce human freedom. A lot of the people here are right-wing hacks that argue in bad faith. Wouldn't you agree?

[kbolino]

I strenuously argue day after day against wars

BULL. SHIT.

[kbolino]

nanny state big government conservatism

To be replaced by nanny state big government socialism.

[Austrian Anarchy]

Sevo|12.28.16 @ 4:59PM|#

american socialist|12.28.16 @ 4:52PM|#
"Honest question"

Bullshit; you're a pathological liar.
But honest answer:
Fuck off, asswipe.

Mega dittoes.

[Bill Dalasio]

You should quit while you're behind. You're beclowning yourself. Here's a listing of the Sowell's books, essays and scholarly articles:

http://www.tsowell.com/writings.html

Sowell has forgotten more about economics than you can ever hope to know.

[american socialist]

"Sowell has forgotten more about economics than you can ever hope to know."

Hi Bill, I read that his last peer-reviewed article was in 1993 and the one before that was in 1981. To be sure, he wrote a lot of books on how liberal professors were corrupting their students, but I fail to see how that theory might be tested by peer review.

[Heroic Mulatto]

That was all merely a very long-winded way to call him an "Uncle Tom."

Jesus, can you imagine the vitriol that would from AmSoc if Sowell were Asian?

[american socialist]

That's the other thing he could do par excellence. He could label any criticism of a Black conservative by a White liberal as being motivated by smugness and racial condescension. What a lazy close-minded bigot. There's a reason he was paid well.

[kbolino]

Thomas Sowell has forgotten more provable facts than you've ever known. What's amazing to me is how abhorrent an actual intellect is to a pseudo-intellectual apologist like yourself.

[lafe.long]

He could label any criticism of a Black conservative by a White liberal as being motivated by smugness and racial condescension.

When is this not true?

[Heroic Mulatto]

I'm not sure he could label "any" criticism that way. Just the type of mendacious and invidious criticism that is your hallmark.

[Trshmnstr, Grump Apprentice]

What a lazy close-minded bigot.

Why am I not surprised that amsock called a black guy "lazy?"

[Krabappel]

That's because amsoc is motivated by smugness and racial condescension.

[Austrian Anarchy]

He could label any criticism of a Black conservative by a White liberal as being motivated by smugness and racial condescension.

Just because smug racial condescension is all you know is no reason to lynch the man.

[Rufus The Monocled]

You loser piece of worthless space. Get off my PM Links.

I could only take small doses of that shrill left-wing nonsense but it reached dizzying heights when he made a half-assed sophomoric attempt at using stats to back up his pathetic claim about FDR.

Notice anything? Notably, the parts he omitted?

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0104719.html

I give people a loooonnnng leash before I dismiss them and eventually go off on them and you sir have arrived at that point with this garbage. Seriously, if this is your source, you're not that bright.

Now fuck off and grow a brain you fake libertarian COMMUNIST.

[american socialist]

"Notice anything?"

The unemployment rate went from 23% at the beginning of FDR's term and was at 1.2% by the end of his term?

[kbolino]

And hey, it only took two fascist states and one would-be empire waging a war across the entire world that killed 60 million people!

[DOOMco]

the left does like war.

[Mr. Paulbotto]

I'm sure the meat grinder had absolutely fuckall to do with that.

[Mr. Paulbotto]

Great minds an'allat...

[pan fried wylie]

You'll all be sorry for not electing hilldawg and her 100% Employment Plan of starting WW3.

[lafe.long]

All those cushy high paying highly skilled WPA jobs.

[Sevo]

american socialist|12.28.16 @ 5:15PM|#
"The unemployment rate went from 23% at the beginning of FDR's term and was at 1.2% by the end of his term?"

Asswipe has claimed to be a chemist, but somehow was confused regarding what constitutes and "acid".
Then, a couple of days ago, he pulled some numbers from a civics lesson and claimed to be knowledgeable regarding math as a result.
Now, he picks two numbers, separated in time by some 12+ years, with several recoveries demolished by FDR's policies and a war all tossed in that time span and is fucking stupid enough to hope we here will draw causation from this pile of horseshit.
Fuck off, asswipe.

[kbolino]

Well, he think Thomas Piketty is an intellectual and Thomas Sowell is a minstrel, so what do you expect?

[Rufus The Monocled]

Piketty. Pft. You know it's bad when you spot all the gaps in their arguments quickly.

Very rudimentary and all set to fit a narrative.

Nothing useful to humanity.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Thank you. He omits 1930 and 1938.

Illiterate moron. Him and that idiot who wrote the screed.

[american socialist]

"Thank you. He omits 1930 and 1938."

FDR didn't take office until March of 1933 so a more relevant comparison might be to look at the numbers between 1932 and 1938.

Boy... And I was accused of picking cherries when I said that the proceeding event that led into the Great Depression-- the Stock Market Crash of October, 1929-- might be laid at the feet of Calvin Coolidge, who left office in March, 1929. Seven months is a really long time.

[kbolino]

There is no relevant comparison to sending 16 million people off to fight a goddamn world war and putting the rest to work supporting said war.

[VG Zaytsev]

Don't forget the Japs hr threw into concentration camps.

[Jimmy Free Trade Pirate]

You pissed Rufus off. This means war.

[Enough About Palin]

Shouldn't the publication be named Uncle Tomfoolery?

[The Fusionist]

You can tell it's a serious article because they drew a Hitler mustache on Sowell's photo.

[VG Zaytsev]

Good, good,
Let the racism flow throu you.

[BigT]

Racist will race-bait.

[Ted S.]

You fucked up the link. I'm not surprised.

[TheZeitgeist]

But with socialism all links fucked equally. Injustice solved.

[Libertarian]

Commenters of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your links.

[Hayeksplosives]

LOL!

[Rufus The Monocled]

You were saying about idiots, Mr. Fake Libertarian?

[Lurk Diggler]

We already knew you were racist.

[Citizen X]

Yeah, american socialist is a prince of a guy. Sowell's retirement must be specially marked out because he's an uppity black fellow who wouldn't stay on the plantation, you know.

[Sour Kraut]

I can see someone opposed to Sowell's viewpoints calling him many things. But an idiot, he was not. He knew his stuff, and man did he have some brass ones.

I read his __ & Culture books in college and thought they were brilliant. I never seem to see them mentioned, Maybe it is because they have not held up, but maybe it is because they have.

[american socialist]

You see, HM, any criticism of a Black right-winger by liberals who think that things like comparing Obama to Hitler warrant a trip to the funny farm and not nods of approval from the White guys who sign his checks means that said liberals looks upon Black people as chattel. Uh-huh

[Heroic Mulatto]

I'm not Citizen X.

I'm sure you'll claim that "we all look alike" in your defense.

However, the fact remains that I'm not Citizen X, though I wish I were.

[kbolino]

Black right-winger

the White guys who sign his checks

liberals looks upon Black people as chattel

+1 least self aware single comment ever posted here

[DesigNate]

If the shoe fits you slimy piece of shit.

Pay your bills.

[Tyler.C]

Doing a great job making a fool of yourself.

[CatoTheChipper]

Am Soc is a pathetic loser.

He's such a pathetic loser that he would revel in the retirement of a 86-year-old hero of liberty.

Am Sock is such an awesomely pathetic loser that his vain and vulgar attempt to share his revelry failed in elementary html.

[OneOut]

AmSoc I seriously doubt that Sowell gives a rats ass about what you think on any subject under the sun and especially his retirement.

That is just one more thing he and I have in common.

[Fist of Etiquette]

A new parliament was sworn in in Mogadishu.

THEY FINALLY DID IT. THEY GOT TO OUR PRECIOUS HOMELAND.

[Dr. Fronkensteen]

At least now they will have roads.

[Sour Kraut]

Once they get roads, they can all swear in next time in the same place.

[american socialist]

Is there a libertarian model that one can point to and say, ah, now there's a sign of a functioning society whose citizens live well? Most societies with weak central governments are pretty much shitholes. I'm no totalitarian but I can name at least 20 governments who tax rich people at rates greater than 50% of their income that have extremely high standards of living. It's no wonder you guys have to point at Somalia in a sarcastic manner. I look at it in a more direct way, I guess. What's the punchline of the joke?

[Fist of Etiquette]

"The Aristocrats."

[Mongo]

Somalia is a warlord theocracy, Shit-fer-brains.

[Suell]

Ejit doesn't know what form of government that Somalia had from independence until it devolved into a warlord driven theocratic craphole. It ends with an "ism" but the first part does have "liberty" as a root. Wonder what it could be?

[Suell]

*Does not*

[kbolino]

I'm sure he can find a way to "connect" the collapse of communism in Somalia with the U.S., specifically Ronald Reagan and/or the CIA.

[CatoTheChipper]

Somalia is a warlord theocracy that arose after the failure of a Soviet-sponsored socialist state.

Don't forget about its origins.

Before it became a warlord theocracy, its government was precisely the sort that Am Sock advocates.

[R C Dean]

Is there a libertarian model that one can point to and say, ah, now there's a sign of a functioning society whose citizens live well?

Other than the well-documented correlation between relative political and economic freedom and prosperity, you mean?

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

"extremely high standards of living"

[Red Rocks Dickin Bimbos]

What's the punchline of the joke?

Every time you look in the mirror.

[pan fried wylie]

"A punchline says 'what?'"

"What?"

[Rasilio]

Why bother, the fact is most of them are either historical meaning they suffer from problems of the past that have nothing to do with libertarianism but you will blame on libertarianism (for example, the US from 1780 though ~1850 where slavery existed as a product of it's time but you will blame on the evils of the founders) or are isolated cases nominally under the control of some other place but largely ignored leaving them free to have a defacto libertarian society even if that is not nominally how the place is structured.

That said, I would tell you to follow through with your claim on naming 20 countries but the problem is there are only about 35 countries on the planet that can reasonably be said to have an extremely high standard of living (per capita GDP on a PPP basis is more than double the world average) and there are only 17 countries that have top marginal tax rates north of 50%, which I need to add is in no way shape or form anywhere near taxing rich people at 50% of their income, nobody in those top 35 countries has effective tax rates on anyone that exceed ~48% of income.

[kbolino]

there are only 17 countries that have top marginal tax rates north of 50%, which I need to add is in no way shape or form anywhere near taxing rich people at 50% of their incom

You definitely do need to add that, because amsoc has previously demonstrated that he does not understand marginal tax rates in the slightest.

[american socialist]

Sorry... I screwed up the reference. You're right... the top marginal tax rate in the top 10 countries as measured by HDI only exceeds 50% in 4 out-of-ten!of those countries. I have a bit of time on my hands and graphed the HDI VS marginal tax rate and got no correlation. Why do you think low taxes on rich people contributes to the standard of living of its citizens. No one here is arguing for gulags so maybe a reference that does not involve Mao,Pol Pot, or Stalin would be good.

This is the raw data

Norway, 0.944, 40
Iceland, 0.899, 37.2
Switzerland., 0.93, 40
Australia 0.935, 45
U.S. 0.915, 35
Canada 0.913, 29
Sweden 0.898, 56.6
Neth. 0.922, 52
NZ 0.913, 38
DK 0.923, 55.38

[kbolino]

I'll be sure to tell the guy who said that higher top marginal income tax rates make for lower HDI if ever I find him.

[kbolino]

Let us recap: the last time you tried to "do math" when it came to taxes, you computed the revenue effects of a top marginal rate increase as total income ? tax rate. But a marginal rate only applies to marginal income. It is little wonder that your state is a fiscal mess, since it is run by people with the same lack of numerical sense.

[american socialist]

I've been here for 3 years now so I'm just waiting for one of you guys to show me one piece of evidence that high tax rates on rich people decreases the quality of life of the people where those tax rates are applied. I've been here for a long time.., I think I deserve an answer.

[kbolino]

You're going to be waiting a long time for somebody else to prove your own claim.

[John Titor]

Maybe try spending 3 years not being profoundly stupid, a compulsive liar, and an apologist for brutal autocracies and perhaps someone will argue in good faith with you. You being here and 'deserving' an answer is like a garbage man who dumps trash on my lawn for three years and then demands an answer to why I don't double bag.

[kbolino]

Hey, he set up that strawman, set it on fire, and is now complaining that no one will douse the flames. Surely, he is owed something for all this effort?

[John Titor]

It's hilarious that amsoc thinks he 'deserves' someone arguing his strawmen in good faith when he has spent the past three years deliberately (or accidentally, this could just be a product of the whole profound stupidity thing) arguing in bad faith with everyone here. There has been multiple times that I have pointed out that a whataboutism is a logical fallacy that isn't actually an argument, and he has followed up with "LOL EVER HEARD OF VIETNAM HIROSHIMA LOL."

[Zero Sum Game]

I've been here for 3 years now so I'm just waiting for one of you guys to show me one piece of evidence that high tax rates on rich people decreases the quality of life of the people where those tax rates are applied.

Well, if you'd spent any of those three years studying a bit of economics, you'd already have learned about the Laffer Curve. Of course, you're a socialist and that is synonymous with ignoramus, so there you have it.

You can see that effect in all the whining the left does about billionaires stashing large sums of cash in other countries where they incorporate in order to avoid the ridiculous corporate tax rate this country has. You whine and whine about Trump offering a tax "amnesty" rate to bring that cash back to the country, as if the US is "losing" money. In reality, a tax rate of 35% on zero available dollars is still zero tax revenue, but that never occurs to any of you.

[OneOut]

Can you do the same with a full blown socialist country.

And nordic countries that depend on capitalists to get their oil out of the ground for them do not count.

Let's start with Venezuela and count backwards to Cuba.

[Pat (PM)]

Parents slam 'very inappropriate' design on children's trousers

A mum has blasted the sale of apparently drug-themed trousers made for kids.

The leggings were spotted for sale on Amazon, and featured a print of what looks suspiciously like marijuana leaves in a vibrant green.

The trousers were spotted by a grandparent searching for a Christmas present.

The shopper, from Florida, US, chose to remain anonymous, but contacted local station WFTX to highlight the sale of the suspect 'pants' to kids.

She said: "I just think that's very inappropriate for a three-year-old, not something they should be advertising."

Which one of you started selling on Amazon?

[Mr Drew]

Old news I'm afraid buddy.

[Pat (PM)]

I'm not your buddy, guy!

[Mr Drew]

I'm not a guy, pal...wait...shit, I've been had

[Christmas Cuck, Jr.]

This is your Buddy Guy.

[Ted S.]

What's inappropriate about that?

[PapayaSF]

Attention Reason readers! We are having a San Francisco meetup this Friday evening. Email me at my handle @ gmail.com for details.

[Ted S.]

I'm not in the Bay area.

[PapayaSF]

That is partly unlucky for you, and partly lucky for you.

[Juvenile Bluster]

"San Francisco meetup" is not a very subtle euphemism.

[PapayaSF]

So far, these have all been cis-het sausage fests.

[jesse.in.mb]

Prime for "bud-sex" no?

[PapayaSF]

That's "cis-HET!" And I mean it.

[jesse.in.mb]

I take it you didn't read the (terrible) article on "bud-sex" then? They're not gay or nuthin', just helpin' each other out sometimes.

[Mr Drew]

+1 tales from the tea room

[Mr Drew]

A True friend goes downtown and gets 2 blowjobs from a hooker so he can come back and give you 1.

[jesse.in.mb]

I'm not sure *when* I will casually drop that into conversation, but I will. That made me laugh.

[lafe.long]

A True friend goes downtown and gets 2 blowjobs from a hooker so he can come back and give you 1.

That was sort of a backhanded joke/insult back in junior high for hetero boys... "You're my true friend, right? ... "

.. but I can see how it really works nicely (better!) for teh gayz. =)

[Rhywun]

Boys will be boys.

[PapayaSF]

Sorry, no, didn't read it.

[jesse.in.mb]

Oh it was another in a long line articles about men who identify as heterosexual who engage in varying degrees of homosocial or homosexual behavior, but justify to themselves that they aren't gay or bi for a panoply of reasons.

The phenomenon is interesting and something I can attest to from personal experience, but the articles about its various permutations are so desperate to be a "new discovery" when it's a barely warmed over rehashing of the last dozen articles with slightly different phrasing of the reasoning and a new catchy title for the behavior.

[Mr Drew]

Homo...social?

I miss the eighties. My brother introduced me to his buddies at the gla and radical fairies. I worked in a couple of gay clubs. It made me feel hip and maybe kind of...Cosmo.

But now, like so many other things, my knowledge is embarrassingly outdated.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

Y'all should form a LOEG to address that.

[fish]

Meets us at Scomas at 11:00 on Sunday!

[The Late P Brooks]

The White House is reportedly preparing to announce sanctions against Russia over its alleged interference in the U.S. presidential election.

"The days of double secret probation are behind you, Mister."

[Rich]

"Fat, drunk, and stupid ...."

[Lurk Diggler]

Progs apparently believe thier on insane ramblings to the degree they want to have a war over them.

[dschwar]

Progs apparently believe their own insane ramblings actually have the intended effect on other people.

[DEG]

Keene, NH parking meter group wins in court

Cheshire County Superior Court's denial of the city's request for a buffer between city parking enforcers and activists feeding parking meters has been upheld by the New Hampshire Supreme Court.

The city was appealing to the New Hampshire Supreme Court a lower court denial of an injunction that would establish a buffer zone between city parking enforcers and activists filling empty parking meters.

In a Dec. 22 decision from the state Supreme Court on Thursday the appeal of a superior court's denial of the injunctive relief was denied.

Saving motorists parked downtown from a city parking ticket in the nick of time is called "Robin Hooding" by the liberty activists, but the act often comes along with the harassment of city employees, the city has argued in both courts.

[Ted S.]

That's not harassment; it's a 1A petitioning for a redress of grievances.

[DOOMco]

stupid city.

[The Fusionist]

I don't know the details, but on the philosophical plane I can see how a parking-space owner (and if the govt shouldn't own parking spaces, say so) is entitled to set the terms on which people can use the spaces.

Say it's a buck an hour to park in a certain metered spot. Sally Scofflaw parks, buys 30 minutes of parking with 50 cents, then goes off. An hour and a half later her car is still there, and a parking enforcement person is about to write a ticket, when Robin Hood comes up and inserts 50 cents - parking enforces walks off without writing a ticket. At the end of the 30 minutes back comes Sally Scofflaw and drives off.

She's stolen an hour's worth of parking.

More modern parking-enforcement mechanisms don't allow for that - you guess how much time you'll need and buy that much, and there's a record of when your time runs out.

[Pat (PM)]

Woman says Uber driver abandoned her 75 miles from home on Christmas

An Arizona woman who called an Uber to take her home from a Las Vegas hospital said the driver abandoned her 75 miles from home when he lost phone signal.

Holly Tennant of Lake Havasi said she had complications from undergoing numerous surgeries in recent weeks, including a lap band removal. The closest hospital that could treat her during the holidays was Sunrise Hospital & Medical Center in Las Vegas, more than 150 miles away from home.[...]

Tennant said she fell asleep in the back of the Uber driver's Dodge truck and awoke at the Chevron gas station in Palm Gardens, Nev. -- 75 miles from Las Vegas, and 75 miles from Lake Havasu.

She said the driver told her he wouldn't drive any farther because his cellphone had lost signal, so his Uber app wasn't functioning.

"He said, 'I am not going to take you further. If my phone doesn't work, I am not getting paid,'" Tennant said.

She said the driver gave her a choice: Get out at the gas station, or ride with him back to Las Vegas.

Tennant decided to get out and soon discovered she couldn't order another Uber because her phone also lacked signal in Palm Gardens.

She said her husband was able to pick her up about two hours later.

[PapayaSF]

She should have offered to pay him cash, off the books.

[PurityDiluting]

"She said her husband was able to pick her up about two hours later."
Problem solved

[Brochettaward = (((pants)))]

I should contact the media about all the times I was fucked over by taxis.

[Michael]

+ ten laps around the block

[CatoTheChipper]

An audit by a state agency found nearly a quarter of taxi trips from the Las Vegas airport in 2012 involved illegal long-hauling in which passengers were overcharged an estimated $14.8 million.

This refers to the tunnel route. If you've ever passed through the tunnel from airport to the Strip or downtown LV, you were ripped off.

[pan fried wylie]

fell asleep in the back of the Uber driver's Dodge truck and awoke at the Chevron gas station

or

She said the driver told her he wouldn't drive any farther because his cellphone had lost signal, so his Uber app wasn't functioning.

"He said, 'I am not going to take you further. If my phone doesn't work, I am not getting paid,'" Tennant said.

She said the driver gave her a choice: Get out at the gas station, or ride with him back to Las Vegas.

Which is it?

[westernsloper]

"He said, 'I am not going to take you further. If my phone doesn't work, I am not getting paid,'" Tennant said, as he pointed at his, "ass, cash, or grass. Nobody rides for free" bumper sticker.

[Rich]

Satellite spots MASSIVE object hidden under the frozen wastes of Antarctica

*** dusts off Carpenter's "The Thing" ***

[Citizen X]

+1 Mountains of Madness

[Tonio]

The stars are right, after all. The messengers have been abroad.

[Citizen X]

I've been saying all along that Hillary was an Elder Being whose coming was foretold in De Vermiis Mysteris. Welp, now we're gonna pay for denying Her the throne.

[Ted S.]

Howard Hawks would like a word with you.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

James Arness as a giant broccoli-man has nothing on Carpenter's re-imagining!

[DEG]

Not enough Page 3 girls in the linked story. Safe for work, I think

[PurityDiluting]

Page 3 is what puts the Great in Britain

[Pat (PM)]

Would, wouldn't, might

[Brochettaward = (((pants)))]

Are those what pass as beauties in Britain?

[Juvenile Bluster]

Global Warming really will doom us all.

[Aloysious]

AVP: Alien vs. Predator ...

[Fist of Etiquette]

Dylann Roof is not expected to provide a defense at his sentencing hearing next month.

Does he at least know the rebel flag has been discontinued?

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

At a speech at the State Department, John Kerry defended the U.S. abstaining from a vote on a United Nations resolution condeming Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories, saying the settlements posed a threat to peace.

So, what Israel is doing is bad, and the US will stand up and bravely abstain, rather than joining the vote to condemn?

[Lurk Diggler]

I haven't been following this. Since UN resolutions are only as powerful as the US is willing to enforce them why does it matter?

[Mr Drew]

Kinda related...
I don't really understand the whole history of the issue with Israel building settlements on former Jordanian land that they captured in the 7 days war...in fact, am I correct even in what I've said to this point?
Can anyone recommend a paper/book/lecture that had an interesting and non-higher truth flavor to it?

[Brochettaward = (((pants)))]

The point is that the Arabs cried and whaled about Israeli gains. It's not particularly complicated.

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

Arabs should get their shit together and start squatting.

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

Oh fuck me, I obviously shoulda made some pun about Israelis squatting. Boring work days melt my brain.

[Mr Drew]

So Brochettaward, I just recently learned what the whole triple parentheses means (although trying to Google "((()))" seemed to give random, unhelpful results), but I'm still not getting your handle.
Are your pants Jewish? Help a guy who doesn't really understand religion?

[Heroic Mulatto]

It means he likes his girls a little zoftig.

[Brochettaward = (((pants)))]

I will not enact that labor for you, Mr. Drew. And it's not because I don't know what my own handle means.

[Mr Drew]

The more you deny the more I believe. 😉

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

Circumcised?

[Mongo]

Anti-semitic posters and commentators would place the triple-parantheses around known or suspected JOOOS.

[Jerryskids]

I think we decided his pants are either Levi's or Calvin Klein's.

[Mr Drew]

LOLed

[R C Dean]

As far as I can tell, they conquered a bunch of land fair and square in a defensive war. They've given most-to-all of it "back"*.

*Of course, you can't give territory back to the Palestinians, since they have no sovereign claim to it at all. Those Pali refugee settlements are basically on unclaimed land, subject, as far as I can tell, to no recognized government.

[Heroic Mulatto]

It was quasi-reported, but it bears repeating that when ISIS took over a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, they raped a bunch of women, and then beheaded a bunch of men and children so they could play soccer with their heads.

Yet, Palestine's gravest threat is from Israel.

[JayU]

Free electricity is fucking dangerous.

[OneOut]

The adherents to The Religon of Peace really seem to enjoy killing each other.

I think ten times more Pals have been killed by their fellow Muslims than ((( meanies))) have killed trying to prevent the Pals from blowing up (((day care centers))).

[DRM]

The core of the issue is that the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits settling your civilians in occupied territory of another High Contracting Party.

So, insofar as the West Bank after the Six-Day War is Israeli-occupied territory of another High Contracting Party, it is illegal for Israel, a party to the treaty, to settle its citizens there.

However, 1) no part of the West Bank has ever been the undisputed territory of any High Contracting Party, 2) between 1988 and 2015, the West Bank was not even claimed as the territory of any High Contracting Party, and 3) ever since Israel annexed East Jerusalem, it's not clear that area counts as occupied territory.

So, Israeli settlement in the West Bank prior to 1988 was violations of international law insofar as one considers the land to have been an occupied part of Jordan, and since 2015 have been violations insofar as one considers the land to have been an occupied part of the Palestinian State. There is, obviously, a lot of room for judgment calls there, given the caveats above.

The new UN resolution, in claiming that Israeli settlement in all the territory are violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention, implicitly claims that all the territory, including the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, is Palestinian State territory occupied by Israel.

[The Fusionist]

Yeah, basically it depends on how you interpret the relevant convention - meanwhile, far less ambiguous violations of war-crimes treaties are getting committed by non-Israelis.

[OneOut]

What is a Palestinian State ?

[DRM]

It's the self-declared state of the Palestinian Authority, which has received some international recognition and which sent its instrument of accession to the Swiss in 2015.

[CatoTheChipper]

It's just Obama messing things up before Trump gets sworn in. It Community Organizing 101.

[DEG]

Pennsylvania's highest-in-the-nation gas tax going up again

Starting Sunday, the nation's highest gas tax will increase by another 8 cents per gallon.

Drivers will pay about 78 cents per gallon in tax, up from just under 70 cents this year.

[Rich]

"78 cents"?!

Sheesh, no wonder they use those coal-powered cars in Pennsyltucky!

[PurityDiluting]

[golf clap]

[Ted S.]

If the oil companies did it, it would be evil price-gouging, and the legislators would be grandstanding night and day. But when the money goes to the State, it suddenly, magically becomes virtuous.

[Chipwooder]

Jesus, thank god my trip there ended yesterday. I already paid $2.53 to fill up on my way out of that shithole yesterday.

[Pat (PM)]

Witchcraft banned from football games in Africa after bizarre coincidences freak out players and referees

African football chiefs have been forced to outlaw witchcraft - over fears players are using it to gain an unfair advantage in matches.

In a game between Rwandan Premier League teams Mukura Victory and Rayon Sports, a player apparently performed a ritual mid-game, and within seconds scored a goal.

In the video footage Rayon's striker Moussa Camara, whose team was losing 1-0, can be seen missing a goal, by hitting the bar.

He then dashes to the goal and seems to lean a small object against the post.

Camara is then chased away by an angry goalkeeper from Mukura.

But as the game restarts, Camara scores, pulling his team back level.

The incident, was one of many that have caused the FA to act.

It has decided to fine any player seen to take part in witchcraft, with a 100,000 Rwandan Francs fine - equivalent to around ?99.

[Fist of Etiquette]

How about a ban on calling soccer football? AM I RIGHT, PEOPLE?

[Hayeksplosives]

I stand with the Fist.

[BigT]

Fist bump!

[Lurk Diggler]

It appears they are now a modern western democracy. They may be a bit more advanced then us since we are going to start a war with Russia over witchcraftery determining elections.

[Tonio]

Witchcraft

[Rich]

Magic

[The Fusionist]

Magic

I put a spell on you

Voodoo Child

Is this how Charlie Brown will finally manage to kick the football?

[PurityDiluting]

I wonder if he gets paid more than ?99 each time he scores a goal

[pan fried wylie]

football chiefs?

[Gojira]

I hate it when people stand in line at the store and don't move up as patrons in front of them are served and move on. They just leave this huge-ass gap while the line continues to grow behind them, getting in everyone else's way.

Fuck those people.

[Rich]

"There ought to be a law."

[PapayaSF]

As someone always consciously trying to not be in someone's way, I am astounded how often people do things like that. E.g. leave their shopping cart in the middle of the aisle. They should teach that sort of thing in grade school or on Sesame Street or something.

[Juice]

Some people do it just to fuck with you.

[Brochettaward = (((pants)))]

Or, parents could even teach their children! Ignorant assholes breed more ignorant assholes. It's the circle of life.

[ScareCroWoodChippeRepair]

I posit that everybody is stupid multiple times a day -- that at any given time, 10% of us are doing something trivially stupid and 1% of us are doing something a bit worse, but very few of us are doing anything truly harmfully stupid.

How many people do you come across during a commute? Hundreds, thousands -- meaning you see dozens of people doing such trivially stupid stuff that you usually just shake your head and roll your eyes. You probably see one or two people every commute doing something more noticeably stupid, which actually gets in your way or makes you react in some small manner or delays you by a few seconds.

Same thing in a grocery store. You see dozens or hundreds of people, and one or two get in your way, however briefly.

You don't remember the trivial eye-rolling stupidity for more than a few seconds. You remember the in-your-way ones for a while, long enough to tell people at work or your family or comment on HyR.

And remember -- you are someone else's trivially stupid interruption several times a day.

[PapayaSF]

But that's my point: I don't think I am "someone else's trivially stupid interruption." I keep my shopping cart off the side. I don't stand in doorways. I am conscious of where my car is, including the rear. I park leaving as much space as possible for others. Maybe it's a weird thing, but I try to not be in the way of other people.

[ScareCroWoodChippeRepair]

And that's my supposition: that you are not so careful 100% of the time. Maybe your cart sticks out for a few seconds before you notice it and move it to the side -- you don't see the other shopper who started to come down your aisle but changed their mind before you got your cart in place.

[jesse.in.mb]

you are not so careful 100% of the time

I've had this same thought a few times. "Ah shit, I reached into the back seat to find something when the light turned green" kinds of moments, but I also have some family members that just *don't* care at all. The kinds of people that will pull up to the front of a highway split and block an entire lane until someone lets them in, not because they missed the turn off (which I've certainly done), but because they didn't feel like they should have to wait. I think the impossible thing is to know if someone is blocking you because they're a self-involved asshole or because they got briefly distracted by life.

[Hayeksplosives]

How about folks who descend/ascend a department store escalator and just stop when they reach their floor to look around and figure out where to go? No idea at all that there are dozens of people behind them who have no choice but to continue the escalator ride and inevitably collide at the end.

I call them Oblivions.

[Ayn Random Variation]

Oh that reminds me of the assholes who stand on the left side of the escalator, oblivious of the people behind them who want to get by. This is probably only a NY thing.

[Hayeksplosives]

At my "home" airport of Minneapolis St Paul, the moving walkways and escalators have a demarcation down the middle, with the right being maked STAND, and the left WALK. It usually works. Not always, but usually.

[Hayeksplosives]

At my "home" airport of Minneapolis St Paul, the moving walkways and escalators have a demarcation down the middle, with the right being maked STAND, and the left WALK. It usually works. Not always, but usually.

[Trshmnstr, Grump Apprentice]

The kinds of people that will pull up to the front of a highway split and block an entire lane until someone lets them in

The best part is when everybody teams up to keep them out and they have to take the wrong turn. I get really spiteful when people ignore social convention to their own benefit.

[Ayn Random Variation]

My pet peeve is assholes who stand right by the door on the subway/PATH so people have to squeeze by them to get on and off. By people, I mean humans who don't give the doorway standers an elbow to the ribs.

[Playa Manhattan.]

Asians in Costco.

[Hayeksplosives]

As with driving and escalator riding and corridor navigation! Is it the cultural lack of personal space awareness, or genetic peripheral vision thing? (Almost 90% kidding).

[Playa Manhattan.]

I think it's singular focus. No multitasking.

[pan fried wylie]

As someone always consciously trying to not be in someone's way

I coulda swore I was the only one.

[Tonio]

We need more feeder lines which service multiple checkouts.

[Rich]

One queue to rule them all.

[Sevo]

Years ago, I read a study on queuing, and this was the absolute most efficient way to handle lines.
WIH groceries don't use it is a mystery to me.

[Tonio]

Where I live the self-check lines use those and generally service six self-check stations. I have become master of the self-check for this reason.

[Playa Manhattan.]

No booze on self check here. It's punishable by jail time. It's for the children unions.

[dschwar]

Separate lines for each checkout station (a) allow people to discern where the end of any particular line is and (b) leave aisle space for people to wander by the end caps of the aisles. At least that's my guess.

[ScareCroWoodChippeRepair]

I think so. Separate queues take up less space when not full. Think how much extra space you'd need in a grocery store for one queue to feed a dozen registers. Think how much wasted space there is in banks.
Another factor is that you can't estimate how much time any bank customer will take, so separate lines for each would make it a crapshoot. You can easily see how much groceries in a cart and so self-adjust to shorter lines.

[Rhywun]

Unfortunately with separate lines anywhere there is the problem with getting stuck behind a complete idiot and flying into a rage and/or having to switch to a moving line.

[SimonD]

One of the local grocery stores here in Indy (Market Basket) uses a setup like that. There is one winding queue with basic goods on either side (milk, eggs, chips, etc.). At the end of the line is a LED sign and a speaker which directs the next customer in line to the next checkout that's ready. It seems to work, but I've never been there during a high-traffic time.

[Hayeksplosives]

The commissaries on Army posts (at least the ones I've been to) use this format. I always marveled at it as a kid, wondering why the "regular" groceries didn't do it too.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

Dylann Roof is not expected to provide a defense at his sentencing hearing next month.

Good lets speed this shit along. Some of us won't be around 25 years from now when this closeted faggot hangs.

[Mr Drew]

Whoa h8r!

[PapayaSF]

You expect him to last that long in prison?

[Suthenboy]

I am amazed that he is still breathing.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

This one is going to go the distance. Because that is 'justice' in America.

[Mr. Paulbotto]

O/U 5 days. Taking the under.

[The Fusionist]

I think I see what you did there.

"Under" ground?

[Brochettaward = (((pants)))]

...when this closeted faggot hangs.

You can't blame the gays for this.

Do I get a cookie from the cosmos for this?

[jesse.in.mb]

I'm sure that he was just blaming the destructive nature of the closet, Bro.

[Tonio]

Oh, you are a brave man.

[Jimbo]

That doesn't sound like Virtue talking.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

Yeah... I was letting the hate flow. Which leads to saying the meanest things possible, it's not that I am against the gays, it's more that calling someone a closeted faggot and a fuckin' cuck is really mean.

No quarter for evil.

[Tonio]

It's ok, bro. Would have been cooler had you said something else, but whatevs.

[pan fried wylie]

"when this defeatedhillary hangs" doesnt have the same ring.

[jesse.in.mb]

That you see closeted faggots and Dylann Roof as somehow morally equivalent is a telling look into your reality.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

And you lost me. The notion was that "closeted faggot" is a really mean thing to say to someone and I've nothing but contempt for mass murders; I'd spit venom in his face and rain a litany of curses upon his brow.

That this choice pox I've cast does virtue signaling wrong, well, it is what it is by design.

[jesse.in.mb]

For an insult to work you have to believe and have an expectation that your audience believes that the anchor point for your insult (in this case closeted faggots) is such a bad thing that it reflects poorly on your target (in this case a mass-murdering shitstain). If you choose something that you or your audience believes is less bad you at best confuse your audience and at worst compliment your target.

If you take a quick scan through the responses to your post nobody responds to the comparison favorably. Your sense of "the meanest thing possible" is out of step with the expectations of your audience. Hence the "telling look into your reality" comment.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

An interesting assessment. I guess I'll just say that a severe condemnation that wouldn't resonate with a third party 'audience' was sort of the point; it starkly highlights my individual contempt for this... man.

You're still losing me on your second paragraph. It seems that we are in agreement that calling someone a 'faggot' is mean; what is so telling about my reality? The out-of-step with the audience thing is really an added layer of consideration. To "work" an insult really only needs a speaker and a recipient, not third party approval.

The curse in question was really only loaded into both barrels and fired off into the abyss towards Dylann Roof because I know a fuck like him would get all butthurt and let a thing such a thing penetrate him deep.

Really I think you are just upset by the use of the hateful word 'faggot', which you would not be alone in that regard. More-or-less this is the point, I loathe this man such that I would deliberately cast social off mores and use language that I hate, just to show my disdain.

[jesse.in.mb]

How you think Roof would interpret it is completely irrelevant here. You're not putting it out there for Roof you're putting it there for us, which is why audience is a primary consideration. Your target i tangential since he'll never know what you said.

I mean at this point I think calling someone a faggot is embarrassing for the speaker, painfully fremdschammey for the audience, and only insulting to the incredibly brittle.

I'll Godwin the shit out of this. "You're worse than Hitler" only works because everyone in the room including (hopefully) the target agrees that Hitler is REALLY bad. It fails if the target thinks that Hitler is a mensch or if the audience (say you're posting at Stormfront) thinks he's a great guy. Everyone has to agree that being related to Hitler is insulting or else the insult falls flat. If you're on Stormfront and you use "worse than Hitler" you're out of step with the cultural norms of the space and using it as an insult shines a spotlight on that disconnect.

[Mr Drew]

I *think* I see where you were trying to go here..............

Like if I were trying to level the worst insult I could to an Irishman, I might call him a dirty Mick. (Ha! Dodged the obvious use of the word "nigger") But if I'm trying to insult and express volcanic rage at, say, an Indian, calling him a Mick just send to imply that Mick is the worst insult I could think of.

Trying to give some benefit of doubt here...

[Pompey: Ho Class Mothersmucker]

Yeah that's pretty fucking weird. You might want to quit while you're ahead on this one.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

*twirls cloak, fades into shadow*

[Pat (PM)]

What Carrie Fisher and George Michael taught me about men, women and sexuality

The first Star Wars film was released in 1977, the year I was born ? but, along with its sequels, helped define the culture of my generation.

Our sense of good and evil, bravery and fear as well as the sense that all our problems can be blamed on our parents all arguably trace back to the Star Wars trilogy. As does our sense of sexuality.

While I saw other movies before or after that had women in them, I don't remember them the way I remember Princess Leia. It was as if she was the first sexy woman in the galaxy. For several years, everything I knew about what it meant to be a "real woman" orbited around Fisher.[...]

If Star Wars defined the first 10 years of my life, Michael helped define the next 10. Earlier in my youth, I probably wasn't sure if I wanted to be Fisher or be with her, but by age 12 when Michael's hit song "Father Figure" burst onto the charts and into my bloodstream, I was definitely sure I wanted to be like him. He was confident and suave and super sexy.

I was still a half-dozen years away from figuring out my own sexuality, but watching the steamy "Father Figure" video I remember thinking that to get hot women like the ones in the video, you have to be like Michael.

TW: Sally Kohn

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

But Cinnabon trying to profit off of Fisher's death is beyond the pale.

[Ted S.]

This isn't actually a thing, is it?

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

Of course it is. Cinnabon made a cute tweet that Fisher probably would've loved, and people bitched and bitched. http://variety.com/2016/biz/ne.....201948949/

[Hayeksplosives]

"a cute tweet that Fisher probably would've loved, and people bitched and bitched."

No doubt! Just like Steve Martin's tweet about her today that he had to remove because people thought he was being sexist about The Bikini. She would have loved his comment!!

Here are her real comments about The Bikini in a Wall Street Journal interview with Fisher:

WSJ: There's been some debate recently about whether there should be no more merchandise with you in the "Return of the Jedi" bikini.

CF: I think that's stupid.

WSJ: To stop making the merchandise?

CF: The father who flipped out about it, "What am I going to tell my kid about why she's in that outfit?" Tell them that a giant slug captured me and forced me to wear that stupid outfit, and then I killed him because I didn't like it. And then I took it off. Backstage.

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

She also referred to her Star Wars hairdo as "cinnamon buns."

[Ted S.]

but by age 12 when Michael's hit song "Father Figure" burst onto the charts and into my bloodstream, I was definitely sure I wanted to be like him

So you wanted to cruise public bathrooms?

[jesse.in.mb]

It boggles the mind that you didn't link this in your comment.

[Juvenile Bluster]

The fact that you forced me to read about something regarding Sally Kohn's sexuality makes you more evil than Satan, Hitler, Stalin and Warty combined.

[PapayaSF]

I'm not a prude, but I am starting to long for a world in which people don't publicly discuss their sexuality.

[PurityDiluting]

^ this. The only time I want to hear it discussed is when it involves participation with mine.

[Ted S.]

So you don't want to hear anybody here mention their wife/husband/sheep?

[Jimbo]

You are so baaaaaahd.

[PapayaSF]

A comment that one can infer from is not the same as a discussion.

[John Titor]

When did Reason start letting the Welsh in here? We've got to have standards, dammit. We already have way too many Fenians!

[AlmightyJB]

I find it kind of trite as well.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Screw people who have to be 'defined' and 'defined' by fricken celebrities. I'm of the Atari and Star Wars generation and didn't let it fricken define me. Just go with the fricken flow. George Michaels...whatever. It's just part of our youth is all.

Why must we be treated to such nauseating 'what they taught me' articles whenever celebrities die?

[Aloysious]

Because the word mangler that writes pukes up these wretched things are obtuse, self absorbed snowflakes?

[Michael]

Why must we be treated to such nauseating 'what they taught me' articles whenever celebrities die?

Because that Coumbia degree isn't going to pay for itself.

[Lurk Diggler]

When people do these stories about a celebrity affecting thier lives I just figure they're bullshitting because they have nothing interesting to say.

Maybe not, but if their self image and sexuality are influenced by fictional characters then I think it shows a tenuous grasp of reality.

It would also be fun to troll her about supporting reversion therapy since she implies sexuality can be influenced externally.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

Adult Swim released a teaser for the news season of Rick and Morty.

Stop the presses! How is this on page 10???

[Brochettaward = (((pants)))]

No one has commented around here over how Adult Swim cancelled one of their shitty live shows (I have them all) because it was supposedly too "Alt-Right." This despite it having decent ratings and every intention to renew.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

Which show? (I am way out of the game on Adult Swim)

[Brochettaward = (((pants)))]

Million Dollar Extreme Presents: World Peace
http://www.hollywoodreporter.c.....how-954487

Interview with the creator. From the stuff I watched on Youtube after, the show was bad (and not political in any overt way), but less shitty than the old stuff they had on, in my view. Or maybe I just missed the genius of Tom Goes to the Mayor and Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job.

[pan fried wylie]

not genius, insanity. which is interesting in it's way, though I don't know if I'd go so far as to call it entertainment.

[GILMORE?]

this video discusses the political motivations behind the cancellation. Haven't watched it yet, but it was in my feed

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

Police in Arkansas want Amazon to give them access to Amazon Echo recordings.

Amazon is going to let the terrorists win. BOYCOTTED!!

[Lurk Diggler]

I was looking for a reason to not want an echo. Thanks.

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

Adult Swim released a teaser for the news season of Rick and Morty.

I liked "Rixty Minutes" and all, but a whole season of that focused on interdimensional news stations may be going overboard.

[Juvenile Bluster]

An entire episode of interdimensional cable would be awesome and you know it.

[Juvenile Bluster]

er, that should've said an entire SEASON.

Apparently I'm doofus Rick.

[Pat (PM)]

Head of CAIR-LA in Anaheim apologizes for tweet about fatal Russian jet crash

Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Los Angeles chapter of the Council of American-Islamic Relations, has apologized for a tweet he sent out on Christmas Day expressing disappointment that a plane crash involving a Russian military jet on its way to Syria didn't claim more lives.

Ayloush's tweet read: "I'm sad about the crashed Russian military jet. The Tu-154 could have carried up to 180 military personnel instead of just 92!"[...]

The passengers included dozens of singers in Russia's military choir, nine journalists and a doctor known for her work in war zones.[...]

"I sent it out when I was filling gas on my road trip with my family," he said Tuesday. "All I saw was a Russian military plane went down before it made it to Syria. To me, that's like hearing a couple of World War II Japanese planes went down before they got to Pearl Harbor for the bombing."[...]

"In the back of my mind, every terrorist or foreign fighter who doesn't make it to Syria means innocent lives that are saved," said Ayloush, who was a California delegate to the 2016 Democratic National Convention. "Whether they are Russian, Iranian or ISIS, they're all the same to me. No one knows what it feels like to be a Syrian today unless they are Syrian."

[Rich]

"I sent it out when I was filling gas on my road trip with my family," he said Tuesday.

Busted.

[PapayaSF]

Oh, so CAIR is opposed to terrorism, huh? Yeah, right.

[Hayeksplosives]

This is why we need Keith Ellison to become the DNC chair. He is loved by, and loves, CAIR.

[PapayaSF]

I think the entire Republican Party is praying that Ellison gets the job.

[Lurk Diggler]

We accept you're apology and would like to send you this complimentary Amazon Echo.

[ant1sthenes]

Eh, no nastier than things we routinely say.

[Rich]

100% Of US Warming Is Due To NOAA Data Tampering

Actually, it's 104%.

[Pat (PM)]

The data doesn't fit the models, so clearly there is something wrong with the data.

[Brochettaward = (((pants)))]

I'd be disingenuous to claim that I'm knowledgeable enough to double check the work of anyone involved here. So I have to admit I revert to my own biases and just assume that the guys getting massive funding from government to study global warming may have some incentives to cook the books even before you add in a happy dose of derpy leftwing politics.

It is strange to me that in 1989, there was no warming, per NOAA. Then after that point they 'corrected' things and realized there was some really dangerous trend. Did we make some sudden leap in our understanding of how to measure temperatures the 'right' way?

[kbolino]

What's interesting to me is that, if you take their claims at face value, the fact that their adjustment factor from measured values keeps increasing means that with every passing year they get worse and worse at actually measuring temperature.

[ScareCroWoodChippeRepair]

All you really need to know is that everything they claim is based on climate models, and ZERO of them have predicted the current 16-17-18 year leveling off.

Some other interesting but unessential data: the dire predictions from all the alarmists are based on the most outrageous climate models.

The one science journal I read, Nature, has one article a year, more or less, on new features in climate models. These features have included cloud cover, humidity, and other similar features which I have forgotten. You might wonder how any climate model could be considered accurate when it doesn't include cloud cover and humidity.

It is .... interesting ... that the alarmists depend on federal funding which would not be forthcoming without the alarming press releases. But that's second rate compared to the basic fact that the alarms ar based on failed predictions from faulty models.

[kbolino]

This is known as PBEM (Policy Based Evidence Making.)

Modern "science" in a nutshell.

[Suthenboy]

It's almost like the whole global warming thing is a scam.

[Hayeksplosives]

In related news, Mark Steyn's legal battles have entered a new, not good, phase.

Link.

Breaking news in the Mann vs Steyn global-warming hockey-stick case! Santa has come early and left a lump of coal in my stocking:

Almost three years ago, my sometime colleagues at National Review and my co-defendants at the Competitive Enterprise Institute filed an interlocutory appeal to determine, inter alia, whether the new anti-SLAPP law was interlocutorily appealable. Fascinating stuff.

...

The takeaway is that Mann's suit against National Review editor (and my old boss) Rich Lowry has been dismissed, but those against me and Rand Simberg will proceed.

[R C Dean]

Posted that yesterday.

Looking forward to Trump riffing on it.

[CatoTheChipper]

It's not all that surprising that NOAA reports warmer temperatures in the present.

What's surprising is how NOAA keeps reporting that past is getting colder.

[lafe.long]

"All hands on deck": Michael Moore has advice for the Donald Trump resistance

After that, Moore suggested that his followers form their own rapid response teams. "By New Year's Day this Sunday, I want you to ask 5 to 10 friends, family members, co-workers, classmates or neighbors to be part of your Rapid Response Team," Moore urged, adding the teams "will agree with each other to email elected reps, make calls, post on social media, go to protests and/or organize others at work, school or in the neighborhood."

TW: Salon

[Citizen X]

I want you to ask 5 to 10 friends, family members, co-workers, classmates or neighbors to be part of your Rapid Response Team

That sounds like a good way to shorten next year's list of people you have to buy presents for by 5 to 10 people.

[Pat (PM)]

It's also an exponential overestimation of how many friends the target audience has.

[Citizen X]

Well, that's why it includes "family members, co-workers, classmates or neighbors."

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

On the poop deck, maybe.

Teehee

[PapayaSF]

Incredibly fucking useless. The left already has armies of people, amateurs and organizations funded by leftists billionaires, who do exactly this with every Republican president. They don't need Michael Moore to tell them.

[Tonio]

Yeah, I keep hearing about this resistance thingy. Boycotts, alternative concerts timed to coincide with inauguration. They have no idea what is going to hit them and are going to spend all their resources moaning ineffectually about Betsy DeVos while AG Sessions runs roughshod over the BoR.

[PurityDiluting]

Sessions is the one buzz kill of this post-election prog tears feast

[Brochettaward = (((pants)))]

I really doubt most Republicans or Trump voters give a fuck about the symbolism of the inauguration, anyway. It's just masturbatory fodder for the anti-Trumpers who themselves take political theater way more seriously.

[Sour Kraut]

Yeah one of my dipshit in laws has basically done this. And an old college friend who should know better. "Here's what I did in anti-Trump Activism TODAY!" Every goddamn day on facebook.

[Brochettaward = (((pants)))]

They're tire out within a month.

[Red Rocks Dickin Bimbos]

Virtue-signaling is about to ramp up even higher in the next Current Year.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

"The bar always raises," he whispered with dread.

[Chipwooder]

Nothing like a frenzied and yet ineffectual and meaningless protest! THAT'LL SHOW EM!

[PapayaSF]

The other thing is that the anti-Trump types are blowing their wad too soon. They've already had riots and boycotts and all sorts of histrionics, and the guy isn't even in office yet. They're creating a background noise level that will work against them if Trump actually does something objectionable (as opposed to just saying something, or nominating someone). The boy who cried "Wolf!", people.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

Donald Trump is complaining that Barack Obama is putting up "roadblocks" to a smooth transition.

I'll take 'Another name for a wall' for $500, Alex.

[Pat (PM)]

All in all it's just a...

[Hyperion]

"The White House is reportedly preparing to announce sanctions against Russia over its alleged interference in the U.S. presidential election."

Obama is officially a retard.

[Rich]

"reportedly preparing to announce ... over ... alleged"

*** takes deep breath ***

PLEASE, JUST GIVE US THE FUCKING NEWS!!

[Free Society]

Obama is officially a retard.

Basically everything he's said and done in office would warrant official retard status. He can't even offer empty platitudes without injecting his retarded ideology into it.

[Juvenile Bluster]

I know how horrible Trump is going to be as President yet Obama is getting me to the point where I can't wait for January 20th to get here.

[Sevo]

TDS shows no sign of ending:

'If I had to lose my job over this, I would': Some of the Rockettes are refusing to perform at Trump's inauguration
http://www.sfgate.com/technolo.....821791.php

OK, you're fired.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Bake that cake.

[DOOMco]

today, i convinced my friend that people own their labor, and cant be forced to provide anything for anyone.
it worked. i even talked him down from 'evil racists not serving food'. i can't believe it

[Tonio]

Congrats. Hope that sticks.

[DOOMco]

"you have a good point" halfway point.

it might not stick entirely, but it might be a thought thay comes up next time.

hes a rogan person, seems loosely libertarian enough. at least he listens through a sentence, thinks, then responds. i can respect that on its own.

[Hyperion]

I've converted people from socialism to free market almost libertarians. It's take a lot of time, patience, and typically a few socialist nations collapsing into dust and you saying 'You see this part right here, this is that part I told you about where they run out of other people's money'.

[Libertymike]

Venezuela.

[GILMORE?]

Crusty was mentioning "Libertarian Movies" yesterday, and offered Thief (1981) as an example.

I remembered liking it, so last night i re-watched it, looking for examples of libertarian themes.

The one that struck me = the mafia boss learns that he's been unable to successfully adopt, and so informs him that he runs a sideline business buying and selling babies, and offers him one as part of his employment contract.

[Pat (PM)]

I thought The Purge and Last Tango in Paris were the only libertarian movies?

[Ed]

link to thread?

[GILMORE?]

Yesterday PM links. i'll find it in a second.

[GILMORE?]

here

[Libertymike]

How about the following westerns, all of which at least featured libertarian elements and / or gave libertarianism a fair hearing?

Shane

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

The Outlaw Josey Wales

The Undefeated

[GILMORE?]

i think 2 of those were mentioned.

[Rufus The Monocled]

What about 'What ever happened to Baby Jane?'

I mean. We're cruel, right? It's the sort of existence we're destine to, right?

[JayU]

I watched "The Man Who Would Be King" last night.

Totally Libertarian.

A pair of enterprising young men take advantage of an ignorant local population for their own personal profit. There are no monocles involved, but lots of free labor.

[Ted S.]

Michael Caine and Shakira are still married ~43 years on.

[GILMORE?]

Yeah, that's a good one.

Also = Waterworld.

[Brochettaward = (((pants)))]

So now libertarians are to blame for that monstrosity, as well?

[Suell]

Dinosaur 13. Great doc about private fossil hunters that find the largest and most intact T Rex ever discovered. Then the government decides to step in.

[PapayaSF]

An excellent if little-known Alec Guinness comedy that I'd recommend for being quite pro-business: The Promoter (1952).

[GILMORE?]

I think the James Cagney movie "1 2 3" is possibly a great Libertarian movie.

Its about how Coca Cola opens up a franchise in Eastern Germany, and destroys communism, more or less. Its very funny

[PapayaSF]

That one counts as well.

[Ted S.]

That's not quite what 1, 2, 3 is about, but it is a funny movie.

[Red Rocks Dickin Bimbos]

I can't believe no one mentioned "Die Hard." A movie where the only competent government agents are two off-duty cops, one of whom is nothing more than a desk jockey and the other who's operating completely out of his jurisdiction and gleefully tells the deputy chief to go fuck himself, while the bad guys put up a front as terrorists in order to commit a simple robbery because they want to retire in style.

[Libertymike]

How about the westerns I mention above?

[Red Rocks Dickin Bimbos]

Die Hard's a Christmas movie.

[Libertymike]

Yes, it is.

Have you seen Greenie and Golic squabble over whether it is a Christmas movie?

[westernsloper]

What about that property rights documentary about a rug? That was kind of libertarian.

[Crusty Juggler]

I remembered liking it, so last night i re-watched it

And then you had a hankering to use a thermal lance to open a vault with Jim Belushi while listening to Tangerine Dream.

[OneOut]

I saw the thief when it first came out. I loved it.

I was selling cars at a high end used car lot at the time. We used to get lunch from a BBQ joint across the freeway from the job. There was a cutie that worked the frive through window and she and I started flirting. I began to volunteer to pick up lunch when we had BBQ and I would drive a different expensive ride through the drive in window every day.

So one day she says to me, " WOW you have so many nice cars "'

Says I, " yeah Babe, I change cars like most guys change their under ware. ( it is a famous line from James Cann to the waitress when he is trying to get her hooked up).I though this might impress her ( we were young)

Without hesitation she replies, " I SAW THAT MOVIE", with enthusiasm . I almost slunk under the steering wheel thinking I had been busted for stealing the line , but NO. She was impressed by my quoting a movie line and didn't take off points.

It worked.

[CatoTheChipper]

The Americanization of Emily is a great anti-state, anti-war film.

[lafe.long]

Child uses sleeping mom's fingerprints to buy Pokemon gifts

When you want to buy $250 worth of Pokemon presents, desperate times call for desperate measures.

[Jimbo]

Hilarious!

[R C Dean]

When she's ready to sell, I'll make an offer.

[Free Society]

The White House is reportedly preparing to announce sanctions against Russia over its alleged interference in the U.S. presidential election.

There's nothing more productive to the cause of peace and diplomacy than putting sanctions on Russia at the end of his term for the grievous crime of embarrassing Democrats by revealing factual data.

Now of course we are certain that the Russians did this even though there is no known evidence, because who else could possibly have the resources necessary to mastermind a phishing scam ingenious enough to trick a 65 year old computer-illiterate man into revealing his password?

Moreover, who other than the Russians, would have the enormous amount of resources necessary to hack into Hilary's unsecured bathroom server?

Why would the Obama administration lie about something like this? They were perfectly candid with us about the Youtube hatevideo that got that ambassador to be killed, so why would they lie now?

Case closed. Good job Obama, best fucking president ever.

[DOOMco]

i know i fucking love science!
/DU or occupy dems

[TheZeitgeist]

Now of course we are certain that the Russians did this even though there is no known evidence, because who else could possibly have the resources necessary to mastermind a phishing scam ingenious enough to trick a 65 year old computer-illiterate man into revealing his password?

Kinda ironic Podesta was stuck with IT clown signing off on the phish as legit (Podesta did do his due diligence), yet was in cahoots with Google board member (Eric Schmidt) about Donkey digital strategery in that very compromised account. You'd think guy like Schmidt would understand the stakes, and get his boys and girls an actual secure setup.

[Suthenboy]

Thank all of the fucking idiots who voted for the guy.

[R C Dean]

Of course, the claim that the Russians were behind the wikileaks of the DNC and Podesta emails is completely unsupported by any (publicly released) evidence whatsoever. There aren't even any intelligence agencies willing to put their name to it.

[Free Society]

And yet despite the lack of any known evidence, it's the basis for sanctions against Russia. Think about this, even if it were true, the Dems are willing to skirt a war with Russia over factual information being released that harmed their electoral prospects. If that's not the soul of pettiness I don't know what is. They'll throw their little temper tantrum and do real harm to international relations in the process, but that's okay because knowing factual information about Democrats undermines democracy!

[kbolino]

It also conflates the DNC, a private organization, with the government. If the DNC getting
"hacked" affected the election outcome, that's the DNC's problem, not the U.S. government's. Just because the sitting President is a member of the Democratic Party does not mean he is justified in using the government to defend or aid his party; the last guy to do it got into a bit of trouble.

[OneOut]

I haven't looked at it from that point of view but it is a very valid viewpoint.

[Red Rocks Dickin Bimbos]

Yeah, it's pretty telling that all these "the Russians did it!" claims are being coordinated through the CIA rather than statements from the "17 intelligence agencies" themselves.

[westernsloper]

Not to mention the only two People to go on record, Assange being one, have said the wikileak dump did not come from the Russians.

[ant1sthenes]

Oh, pishposh. There hasn't been a greater outrage committed against the US by a foreign power since at least the Gulf of Tonkin incident. In fact, you might have to go as far back as the sinking of the Maine to find such a vile crime.

Wait, now that I think about it, why is "Remember the Main[fram]e" not a thing?

[Mr. Paulbotto]

Because there's no such country as Spainframe?

[Suthenboy]

RC, FreeSociety, kbolino, Red Rocks, westernsloper, Ant1sthenes: All that you have said is only the tip of the iceberg yet it is the very definition of how a banana republic tin pot dictator would behave. Obama was never anything more than that and he never will be. How anyone can still pretend otherwise is a mystery to me, yet he still has legions of cheerleaders.

[ant1sthenes]

Before he fell on the wrong side of various red lines, I remember a fair bit of gushing over Assad and his classy wife too.

[Free Society]

Luckily for us, institutional resistance saved us from Obama's worst inclinations. I dare not ponder what would have happened to this society with Obama as an autocrat.

[CatoTheChipper]

Has anybody asked why the Russians would even want to antagonize Hillary when everybody knew that she was a heavy favorite to win?

Or why they would so favor Trump who had promised to Make America Great Again, fill his cabinet with generals, escalate the war on ISIS in Syria, and revitalize the US military with hundreds of billions of weapons?

[lafe.long]

The canukistanians will NOT be outdone by that Aussie punching a 'roo....

Man punches cougar to save dog behind Whitecourt Tim Hortons

Putting new meaning in Boxing Day, a 31-year-old man punched a cougar to save his dog after being attacked in Whitecourt on Monday.

William Gibb says he stopped at a Tim Hortons on Elko Drive when he let his two dogs out for a bathroom break near a wooded area, then heard one of them crying in pain.

Gibb says he ran to see what was wrong and found the cougar on top of his husky, Sasha, so he bashed it with his fist. The cougar jumped off and Gibb continued to fight it back while calling RCMP for help.

[JayU]

RCMP? Are those the Mounties? Did a guy in a red jacket come riding out of the woods on horseback to fight the cougar back with a lance?

[Tonio]

The dog...that chick must have been desperate. I guess he didn't have any Chardonnay.

[Lurk Diggler]

This is aboot the most Canadian story I've heard in a while.

[Brochettaward = (((pants)))]

What really makes this story is that he was stopping at Tim Hortons.

[But Enough About Me]

They're everywhere. EVERYWHERE.

[John Titor]

Where else are we going to get 'normal people' coffee (that I'm pretty sure has nicotine in it)?

[OneOut]

"The cougar jumped off and Gibb continued to fight it back while calling RCMP for help."

It's a very talented person who could fight a cougar and call for help at the same time.

[Stormy Dragon]

Benjamin Netanyahu responded by saying Israel did not "need to be lectured."

Feel free to stop mooching billions of dollars a year then. Until then, he who pays the piper calls the tune.

[TheZeitgeist]

If USA keeps a'drifting vis-a-vis Israel, they may start broadening their horizons for other patrons. China comes to mind; there is a history with big-time defense programs like F-16->Lavi->J-10 technical migrations via Israel, for example.

[Stormy Dragon]

there is a history with big-time defense programs like F-16->Lavi->J-10 technical migrations via Israel

Even better reason to stop giving them $3 billion a year.

Ultimately, how much Obama's middle east policy sucks is an issue for Congress and the US public. I could give fuck all what Netanyahu thinks of it, and I'm getting sick of him constantly begging for more money while whining about how we don't respect him enough.

[TheZeitgeist]

For the record, we give the Palestinians tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars a year; we basically helped finance Arafat and the gang, including all the weapons and accouterments of that kleptocratic statelet from Dayton through Hamas takeover of Gaza.

And I also think any discord on display with Israel vis-a-vis the United States is with the expiring American regime as it were, and with no elections to lose the Obama administration's limp knives are out. To let the vote advance, then chicken out and 'abstain' from it, was spiteful and spineless in that order.

[kbolino]

Not to mention that some of the aid to Israel is matched by aid to Egypt, since we brokered a peace deal between them.

[Stormy Dragon]

I don't like funding Gaza either. Or Egypt, for that matter. But Netanyahu seems to have this singularly... ingratious attitude about it that is increasingly rubbing me the wrong way. And maybe Palestine and Egypt are just as ingratious and it just doesn't make the news.

[kbolino]

Hamas is not "ungrateful" for the aid and cover that the UN gives them. I'm not sure all the Palestinians are so thrilled about the arrangement. As to Egypt, that depends on who's in power.

[kbolino]

I feel like, as a contributor in this piling on of Stormy's comment, I do still need to add the usual SLD: our government should not be giving out foreign aid, whether to Israel or any other country.

[GILMORE?]

Netanyahu seems to have this singularly... ingratious attitude about it that is increasingly rubbing me the wrong way

if the person who sold you guns (*according to a 35 yr old treaty) also mandated how you were allowed to use them, you'd be a little snippy too.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Indeed, the problem is that Netanyahu refuses to suck Obama's cock; not that Obama has been slapping him in the face with it for the past 8 years.

[Stormy Dragon]

We're not selling them guns, we're giving them guns. Again, if he was going to refuse our aid and then tell us off, I could respect that.

[Heroic Mulatto]

No, we're selling them, at discount.

When people refer to military aid, they are usually referring to the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program. The FMF consists of grants and loans offered to foreign governments for the procurement of arms manufactured in the U.S..

Yes, it's completely a crony campaign for defense contractors, but that's beside the point. As you can see at the USAID site, our military aid to consists of 3 billion dollar discount on arms purchases, not 3 billion dollars worth of arms exported.

[GILMORE?]

We're not selling them guns, we're giving them guns.

you'll find the distinction doesn't matter that much. we're obligated to give them the money, and they're obligated to spend it on US defense contractors. Its not a status-quo that either country has any particular ability to change unless they go to their respective legislative branches and demand change. but you shouldn't pretend its an entirely 1-sided issue where the US is "doing them favors". We stuck our dick in that mess on purpose.

[GILMORE?]

Basically, "blame Jimmy Carter"

[ScareCroWoodChippeRepair]

s/sold/gave/

[OneOut]

And Arafat's widow retired to France a BILLIONAIRE after his death.

Israel buys a lot of US made weapons with that money we give them. That's a lot better than what the Pals do with theirs.

[Tonio]

[Israel] may start broadening their horizons for other patrons. China comes to mind...

LOL. Yeah, the PRC has such a good history with unpopular religious groups. Not that nations have ethics, of course.

[John Titor]

PRC has a bad history with unpopular religious groups, in China. Outside of China they'll still play the Middle Kingdom game as long as they benefit.

[Juvenile Bluster]

The only reason we keep paying Israel is to have a say in them going ham on the Palestinians. If the money goes away, the chains go away too.

[Tonio]

going hard?

[Heroic Mulatto]

...as a meshuggenah, fam.

[Playa Manhattan.]

Yeah, the 3 billion a year is basically to bribe them to kill a lot less Arabs. Why does Stormy Dragon hate Arabs???

Thought exercise:
If the US-Mexico relationship was anything like the Israeli-Palestinian relationship, would there even be a Mexico anymore? I'm going to go with "fuck no".

[JayU]

Parts of America used to be parts of Mexico.

The Mexicans just aren't dumb enough to try and fight us for it.

[Hyperion]

Texas will just get a lot bigger and I won't need my passport to visit the southern parts.

[Playa Manhattan.]

I want Baja.

[jesse.in.mb]

Like San Diego, but poorer!

[GILMORE?]

would there even be a Mexico anymore? I'm going to go with "fuck no".

You mean New Texas?

[Mongo]

'Roadblacks'!

Hahaw!

[Mongo]

The A key is on the other side of the keyboard from the O....

*snicker*

[GILMORE?]

Donald Trump is complaining that Barack Obama is putting up "roadblocks" to a smooth transition.

Noted = the WaPo article spends 90% of its focus on Trump's complaint itself, and not of the things Obama has done which he complains about.

I can see some rationale for Obama's use of his final days in office to milk benefits for Dems domestic agenda. You can't really criticize that sort of thing. Use it while you got it.

but the foreign policy stuff? Like the UN vote re: Israel, or the lifting of arms restrictions to Syrian rebels? - intended to threaten Russia - .... things like that are purely symbolic, and basically do nothing except function as spiteful parting shots. They don't actually accomplish anything.
Its pure posturing for a sycophant media.

Israel basically said as much to Kerry just yesterday = "shut your yap, no one cares what you think anymore"

Turkey and Russia have their own versions of "go fuck yourself" as well

[GILMORE?]

The White House is reportedly preparing to announce sanctions against Russia over its alleged interference in the U.S. presidential election.

yeah, this whole "Obama = international Tuffgai" thing is purely for media-consumption.

Anything he proposes would be rescinded before it was even fully implemented. You think sanctions are going to be effective if everyone knows they will cease to exist in a month or so?

fucking juvenile.

[Heroic Mulatto]

fucking juvenile.

Exactly. This is all just a petulant hissy-fit by the Obama administration. I'm guessing that the trigger was that the Trump transition team has already begun setting the groundwork for moving the embassy to Jerusalem. If, true, I think that's exactly why Kerry decided to shit in the punchbowl in such a public way.

[GILMORE?]

The US diplomatic prowess is so widely respected that people don't even bother inviting us to their "peace talks" anymore

This editorial summed it up nicely =

"The US Is Now a Country That Can be Ignored"

foreign and defense ministers of Russia, Iran and Turkey met in Moscow to discuss a plan for Syria. The U.S. was not invited. Instead, the ministers adopted a statement saying the three countries were willing to serve as the guarantors of a deal between the Syrian government and opposition. All other countries with "influence on the situation on the ground" are welcome to join, the statement said....
...Another authoritarian country, China, has not just ignored U.S. demands that it stop reclamation projects in the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, it has apparently militarized the islands. It hasn't attacked U.S. ships or planes in the area yet, but by seizing a U.S. underwater drone last week, it carefully showed that it might.

The British public, of course, also ignored U.S. warnings when it voted for Brexit...

And so on.

[Tyler.C]

This is Trump's America /msnbc

[OneOut]

Does Trump even know where HIS bombs are dropping ?

[OneOut]

The next 4 years are gonna be so interesting.

If Trump guts as many of Obama style progressive moves as he can and trims back the Federal Leviathan as his cabinet appointees hint at ( Sessions needs a tight reign) he may go down in history as Reagan II, or better.

I really think that the man understands that he has the opportunity to etch his name in the history books as a great American President. That's uuuuuuge compared to just being a footnote as a developer in NY City.

If Ivanka would close his twitter account she would be doing him a great favor.

[GILMORE?]

Dylann Roof is not expected to provide a defense at his sentencing hearing next month.

I feel like we missed out of the coverage of his trial. He was his own lawyer = he must have done something hilarious.

[GILMORE?]

This suggests he's at least doing *something* in his own defense =

I'm RACIST I aint Crazy!

Roof said he planned to make an opening statement to jurors but did not indicate whether he would testify on his own behalf. He said he would present no evidence or witnesses.

He made clear he wanted no details about his mental health revealed, asking Gergel to refrain from unsealing video interviews about his competency or the transcript from a hearing on the topic in November.

"The unsealing of the competency hearing is sort of against the purpose of my representing myself," Roof said in court.

I seem to recall that Zacharias Mousawi (*the leftover 9/11 hijacker) also got angry when people said he might be nuts. Something like that. He insisted suicidal mass-murder was a perfectly reasonable thing to do.

[PapayaSF]

It is a perfectly reasonable thing to do, according to much of Islamic theology....

[OneOut]

Not just reasonable but admirable .

[GILMORE?]

Massachusetts legalizes weed, but Govt needs more time figuring out how to best tax the shit out of it

actually, it seems they're unsure what to do since they don't know the Trump admin attitude towards it.

Massachusetts lawmakers on Wednesday pushed through a surprise six-month delay in the retail sale of marijuana for recreational use, saying they needed more time to tinker with a legalization measure that voters approved last month.

Meeting during a holiday-shortened week, the state's House and Senate voted to push back the licensing of cannabis shops from Jan. 1, 2018, until July 1 that year, according to a copy of the legislation posted online.

The delay frustrated those who championed a Nov. 8 ballot measure, easily approved by voters, to allow use of the drug by adults 21 and older in private places.

Personal possession, use and cultivation became legal on Dec. 15, making Massachusetts one of eight U.S. states to take that step since voters in Washington and Colorado first approved the idea in 2012. Wednesday's legislation does not change that.

Hanging over all the states is what action President-elect Donald Trump will take after he is sworn in on Jan. 20. Marijuana remains illegal under federal law, and legalization by the states has occurred only because of the blessing of the outgoing Obama administration.

[Marty Feldman's Eyes]

and legalization by the states has occurred only because of the blessing of the outgoing Obama administration

Bullshit.

[pan fried wylie]

Not taking is giving, moran.

[Zero Sum Game]

The recurring thought I've had for a couple of weeks now and keep forgetting to bring up:

If the polls were clearly such horseshit that they couldn't manage to give anywhere near the truth about who would be elected President, then why the fuck should the debates be using poll data that is obviously so bad in determining who gets to attend? Fucking rigged system.

[Tonio]

^This. But that will have to wait until 2020.

[Zero Sum Game]

When they try to run Michelle Obama or Chelsea Clinton, because they don't have any other ideas but trying to "make history" and form coalitions that exclude white males, because fuck those guys, we don't need 'em and their cishet patriarchy in our scum. What a bunch of shitlords, am I right?

[PapayaSF]

And those are the same polls that tell us that Obama has a high popularity rating....

[Sour Kraut]

Et tu, Czech Republic?

Czech republic to fight fake news with specialist unit

Know what other German leader announced policies, which the Czechs then replicated?

[Lurk Diggler]

Fact Czechers?

[GILMORE?]

(golf clap)

[Don Escaped Texas]

nice

[GILMORE?]

The Czech government is to set up a specialist "anti-fake news" unit as officials attempt to tackle falsehoods, predominantly about migrants, which they claim are spread by websites supported by the government of Russian president Vladimir Putin.

I get the feeling the 'right wing' backlash in the EU is going to be *exactly as bad as the EU left fears*... because they seem to be doing everything in their power to legitimize the backlash.

[TheZeitgeist]

Not to mention setting up all the not-sexy infrastructure like various incarnations of the Fact Czechers for right-wing score settling fun later.

[kbolino]

An interesting thing to note is that the Weimar Republic was very progressive, and that's by modern standards not just the standards of the time. The Nazis and just about everything they did was illegal. Until they took over, of course.

[PapayaSF]

Tolerant leftist cancels Christmas party because some of those invited might be Trump voters. Better be safe than sorry!

[Pat (PM)]

And I cancelled my date with Miranda Kerr because I don't like Australians...

[Rich]

We couldn't invite only the few people we knew who conformed to our sense of decency.

Oh, yeah? Well, then fuck you.

[Tonio]

IOW, they are going all passive-aggressive and acting out instead of confronting the situation head-on. "Uncle Ralph you have Trump stickers on all your vehicles and I'm just too embarrassed to invite you to Xmas dinner with all my cool prog friends who might be triggered or offended by something you might say.

[The Grinch]

Check out the comments bragging about cutting off close family members-fathers, mothers, siblings. How Goddamn pathetic can they get?

[Lurk Diggler]

Scientology is a bastion of tolerance compared to leftology nowadays.

[TheZeitgeist]

Leftology is proof there is a need in a lot of people for what could be called religion; even if said people don't believe in a god there is a space on their mental shelf for it that must be filled.

[Lurk Diggler]

I think the need for purpose in life is inevitable. Leftism is just one of the most dangerous outlets for it.

[PapayaSF]

I know. The self-righteousness is incredible.

[Hyperion]

Wow, these must be some really fun people, shame they aren't still having a party.

[AlmightyJB]

Who would want to party with those pretentious douchbags anyway?

[OneOut]

Their idea of party probably isn't the same as ours JB.

Theirs is to see and be seen and signal.

Ours ( mine) is to have a good time.

[Tyler.C]

It's good to have illustrations of idioms like, cutting off your nose to spite your face. Makes it easier to understand them.

[lafe.long]

Steve Martin deletes tweet calling Carrie Fisher 'beautiful' after backlash

"When I was a young man, Carrie Fisher was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen. She turned out to be witty and bright as well," Mr. Martin wrote Tuesday afternoon in the now-deleted tweet, The Blaze reported.

In an article titled, "Carrie Fisher Struggled Against Being a Nerd-Boy Sex Object Her Whole Life," New York Magazine's Claire Landsbaum wrote that Mr. Martin's characterization of Princess Leia "as a wet dream for prepubescent men" was something Ms. Fisher repeatedly spoke out against.

What. the. fuck?

[Hyperion]

How dare he insult her by calling her beautiful. What a hateful bigot monster.

[PapayaSF]

That sort of thing got Barry Malzberg and Mike Resnick in trouble with the SFWA a few years ago. They referred to a beautiful "lady editor" of the 1950s and a shitstorm descended upon them.

[Tonio]

Hmmm...

[R C Dean]

Umm, pre-pubescent men is really a thing, you know. Unless you count the de-masculinized SJW pajama boys, of course.

[You ARE a Prog (MJG)]

Mr. Martin's characterization of Princess Leia "as a wet dream for prepubescent men" was something Ms. Fisher repeatedly spoke out against.

Which is admitting that it is an accurate characterization, no?

[Don Escaped Texas]

worse: it's criticizing guys for enjoying something she gladly took money to do in front of them

[Lurk Diggler]

I like how calling people a derogatory term of "nerds" is fine but saying someone is beautiful is beyond the pale.

[AlmightyJB]

What a bitch

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

This is my shocked face. o.o

[Lurk Diggler]

These people would be so easy to fuck with I feel sadness for the missed opportunities these celebrities have.

[Domestic Dissident]

Nothing pisses off the mean-faced clipped hair bull dyke mafia more than when men compliment pretty women on their looks (act like normal men in other words).

[Pompey: Ho Class Mothersmucker]

Don't you mean grumble grumble bull spike muffotta?

[Christmas Cuck, Jr.]

Beautiful is the new ugly.

[The Grinch]

She posed in a space sex slave outfit in front of a giant criminal slug and then complained about the reaction. Huh, what did she expect?

[Sevo]

Your tax dollars at work, or Herr Goebbels would be pleased!

"Covered California for Small Business Prepares for New ACA Compliance"
[...]
"Late 2016 is shaping up to be one of the most robust holiday shopping periods in recent years. The purchasing process, however, is not limited to picking up gifts for family, friends, and white-elephant exchanges at office parties. The open insurance marketplace, mandated by the Affordable Care Act, will receive an enormous volume of traffic."
http://blog.sfgate.com/storyst.....pliance-2/

This is featured in the "From Our Partners" box in the on-line version of the Chron, sort of maybe hinting it's a bunch of ads rather than actual news. But then hoping you don't look too closely; maybe the lefty readership will be fooled.
But there is a tell; the byline: "By StoryStudio November 11, 2016 1:31 pm"
IOWs, it's output from some PR firm still hoping pajama-boy will suck 'em in.

[OneOut]

Be interesting to know who paid for that.

[GILMORE?]

Venezuelan Justice

In Venezuela, lynchings kill one person every three days: report

recent internet celebrity, George "Racist Communist" Ciccariello, wrote a piece a while back on the wonders of the socialist local-policing of the Venezuelans. -

it shouldn't surprise us to find that the role of law in contemporary Venezuela is peculiar to say the least. The situation is what one might call a "revolutionary reverence" for the law: not an a priori respect for the law but rather an admiration derived from the experience of revolutionary legislation imposed from below, and specifically the organized defense of the 1999 Bolivarian Constitution. As the spokesperson for a communal council in the Naguanagua sector of Valencia recently told me?Communal Council Law in hand?"we can't read the law like a reactionary lawyer, but instead, without violating it, we need to make it fit our social reality in order to restore the true protagonism to the people." This radical view of the law is, in fact, a manifestation of the Venezuelan emphasis on constituent power

really, worth a read .

[Hyperion]

It could all fall apart when they inevitably run out of rope. I mean, rope is probably what's for dinner today.

[Christmas Cuck, Jr.]

In Venezuela, lynchings kill one person every three days: report

That poor bastard. /obligatory

[Lurk Diggler]

He doesn't get to live to see the socialist paradise. Unlucky bastard.

[ant1sthenes]

And every one is named Jesus.

[westernsloper]

This internal security situation in the barrios was explained to me by Rigoberto, who I met at around noon on the day of the communal council elections for block five of 23 de Enero, at which point he was already drinking cold Polar Negra and shots of rum. Given that he was running for the security committee, perhaps it was lucky that he was not elected (he came in fourth place, but insisted that he had actually come in second). Despite his intoxicated state, Rigoberto explained to me how security worked in the zone even prior to the existence of the community council or security committee. "If we catch someone dealing drugs in our neighborhood," he tells me, "first they get a warning. If they show up again, they get a beating. And if they show up a third time?." He trails off, indicating with a hand gesture that the outcome will not be pleasant.

While this sort of autonomous, local self-management of security matters may seem insignificant, it is a fundamental precondition for the deepening of dual power in Venezuela, and while it didn't begin with the councils their empowerment in the area of security and defense promises to contribute to it.

Safe to say, the good Professor has no problem with lynching people with no due process.

[westernsloper]

But his call for "Genocide" was just a joke. Honest!

[AlmightyJB]

Hard to say how long these jobs will last given that it's Sprint. Probably get some good PR out of it for a while though. Also, Trumpinator.

http://www.businessinsider.com.....us-2016-12

[Lurk Diggler]

I wonder if he's offering the benefits or if it's just that having a President that's not outright hostile to businesses like Mr. You didn't build that is what's leading to this.

[AlmightyJB]

Well I think alot more has to happen to create a less hostile business atmosphere, but maybe that's part of it.

[AlmightyJB]

From exploding phones to exploding washers

http://www.businessinsider.com.....es-2016-11

[BakedPenguin]

Sorry if this has been said, but if the Obama idiots really believe the Russkies are so dangerous, why'd they sell them 80% of our uranium stocks?

[Libertarian]

Why did they wait until the last three weeks of an 8 year term to impose sanctions?

[Tyler.C]

That was before HRC lost the election!!!

[AlmightyJB]

Check out the fine print at the very bottom

http://www.dsausa.org

[kbolino]

For the lazy:

DSA was concerned to find out that the company that provides our website and online organizing infrastructure, NationBuilder, had as a client the Trump campaign and other right-wing candidates. Progressives built this kind of infrastructure and tools for digital organizing and we have now lost that organizing edge. We are moving to identify other options for a CMS/CRM. As an under-resourced, member funded organization, this move will take time for us to carry out, but it is an important statement for us to make.

[AlmightyJB]

If you can't do business with anyone who does business with a Trump voter, how do you eat?

[The Fusionist]

I seem to recall that Heinz Ketchup is Democratic.

You can live on that and rainwater.

[Juvenile Bluster]

I dunno. I'm sure that Heinz sells product to Republican-owned businesses.

[Lurk Diggler]

DSA was concerned to find out that the company that provides our website and online organizing infrastructure, NationBuilder, had as a client the Trump campaign and other right-wing candidates. Progressives built this kind of infrastructure and tools for digital organizing and we have now lost that organizing edge. We are moving to identify other options for a CMS/CRM. As an under-resourced, member funded organization, this move will take time for us to carry out, but it is an important statement for us to make.

Our socialist movement keeps having to rely on capitalists....

[Tyler.C]

Liberals are really into cutting of their nose to spite their face.

I mean I can respect the sentiment, and if I found out the company I bought shit from was involved in stuff that I felt morally questionable id look around too. But this screams of holier than thou syndrome and other puritanical need to feel that everyone must be perfect.

[ant1sthenes]

At some point, they're going to run out of non-violent ways to express their hate for half the country. Then things will get interesting.

[Ken Shultz]

"The White House is reportedly preparing to announce sanctions against Russia over its alleged interference in the U.S. presidential election."

There are so many directions to go with this. You could make fun of Obama's administration being the most transparent ever--so they lash out at people for exposing the truth?

You could talk about how Obama's foreign policy has always been about politically correct posturing, capitulation, and personal animosity--all of which is evidence of fundamental incompetence.

My first reaction is how pathetic it is that Obama is holding trade policy hostage to personal slights against himself and his chosen heir--it makes Obama look a lot like Putin. That's what Putin did with natural gas to Ukraine!

Incidentally, how ridiculous do you think Obama's temper tantrum looks to people in eastern Europe, after the hand the U.S. had in various democracy movements from before the wall came down a la Poland, etc., not to mention the Rose Revolution, the Orange Revolution, etc.?

Obama wants sanctions against Russia because Washington's favorite party didn't win in Ukraine or Georgia, but he throws a hissy-fit when Putin responds in kind?

Obama is such an embarrassment on the world stage, and everyone from Manila to Moscow and Beijing think so.

[Suthenboy]

He isnt finished yet. He still has 20 days.

I am guessing he will keep stirring shit as much as he is able after he is out. Everyone else has the grace to leave office and go fishing, build houses, yuk it up with their buddies on the ranch, etc.; to get out of the way and let the new president be president. I bet this guy doesnt.

[Ayn Random Variation]

If a trailer park redneck and a humorless shrew could raise hundreds of millions in "donations", imagine how much the Obama Hope Foundation will raise over the next 30 years.

[OneOut]

He waited too long for that kind of money.

The Clintons started while they still had power and promises of more.

Even their donations have fallen off.

[DEG]

I am drinking this Dutch beer. It's good.

[The Fusionist]

Heineken?

[BakedPenguin]

Outhouse? Thanks, I'll pass.

[dajjal]

Part of it is Fox News in every bar and restaurant in big chunks of the country

Obama is desperate to pass the buck. Will Fox News be the next target of sanctions? Sad!

[Lurk Diggler]

I've never seen foxnews on in any bar or restaurant in my life and I've lived in the most deplorable parts of the country.

These people have no idea about those parts of the country. The bars play sports, the restaurants don't have TV, and the people avoid politics until it intrudes into thier lives.

[ant1sthenes]

I've never been to a bar or restaurant where I could follow what anyone was saying on TV, so...

[Ayn Random Variation]

I was going to say that. I see cnn on at every bar. It's considered the neutral station

[ant1sthenes]

Guh? By whom, communists?

[Lurk Diggler]

It's more that democrats have such a visceral hatred of Foxnews that people would rather play are them then listen to them bitch and moan.

Still I've never seen it in a bar, more like waiting rooms.

[Ayn Random Variation]

So I was reading the wiki entry for Darkness at Noon because the book was mentioned in another thread, and I came across this gem, which I think says it all about the Clintons:

At the height of the media attention during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, US President Bill Clinton reportedly referred to Koestler's novel, telling an aide, "I feel like a character in the novel Darkness at Noon," and, "I am surrounded by an oppressive force that is creating a lie about me and I can't get the truth out."[33]

[Ken Shultz]

We should seriously think about moving inauguration up for future presidents.

Obama has three more weeks for his shenanigans.

Three weeks!

I've worked for companies where if you put in your 30 days notice, they'd pay you out the 30 days and just let you leave. If you're in a position to do something that helps the company function, you're in a position to hurt it, too.

Three more weeks, Obama has, to booby trap public policy. Three whole weeks!

[Ayn Random Variation]

That happened to me when I was fired. They paid me for 3 months after the date they fired me. Then at that point, I could collect the severance.

[Ken Shultz]

"John Kerry defended the U.S. abstaining from a vote on a United Nations resolution condeming Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories, saying the settlements posed a threat to peace."

Did Kerry defend divesting from Israel and sanctions?

Because that's the next step.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Disinvestment_from_Israel

[kbolino]

Because that's the next step.

Not from Kerry. It would take an act of Congress.

[Ken Shultz]

No.

It takes an act of college activists everywhere.

Just like it did with South Africa.

How can you defend not divesting to a bunch of activists after the UN has already condemned them and they still haven't dismantled the settlements?

First the colleges start divesting, then they start picketing and boycotting companies that do business with or within Israel, etc.

The first step is a UN condemnation. It's a crucial foundation.

[OneOut]

The US invaded another Mid East country because of a UN condemnation.

[Domestic Dissident]

Heh, it looks like the lying of piece of shit Elizabeth Nolan Brown has fabricated yet another story. Now she's claiming that she personally witnessed journalist Eli Lake laughing at a group of dead Muslims or something. Some people have called her out on this, and of course she had no one else or nothing to back it.

Frankly, this woman is beyond despicable, and it's kind of a disgrace that Reason is giving a forum to a compulsive, pathological liar like this.

[Crusty Juggler]

Breath Colon Clown

Dry Fruitcake.

[ant1sthenes]

Lizard-breath Colon Clown. FTFY

[Crusty Juggler]

Thanks, Chant Nurse Peen!

[Playa Manhattan.]

She's not going to fuck you, bro.

[Crusty Juggler]

Lay Your Fat In.

[Domestic Dissident]

I wouldn't touch that creature with your dick. And frankly, I'm a little surprised you're OK with her defaming people the way she's doing.

[Crusty Juggler]

Spray Your Cat Skin

[Crusty Juggler]

Bedpan Scat Bin.

[Heroic Mulatto]

The commenter formerly known as Dyke Femme.

[ant1sthenes]

Now known as Dumbastic Dipshitdent

[ant1sthenes]

*Dumbasstic

[Crusty Juggler]

Spastic Scent.

[Crusty Juggler]

Like Phlegm.

[GILMORE?]

defaming people

I thought the entire purpose of Twitter was for journalists to talk shit to other journalists? I mean, no real people actually use it.

[Domestic Dissident]

It's one thing to insult people because you don't like their politics or whatever. But what she's doing now is WAY over the line and beyond the pale. If I were Welch, I would tell her to cut this crap out immediately or she's fired. And if I were Lake, I would seriously consider suing her ass.

[ant1sthenes]

Uh... do you have some proof that she's lying?

[Heroic Mulatto]

To be fair, semper necessitas probandi incumbit ei qui agit, and all that.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Because I'm sure that you have proof she's wrong, right?

I think we used so much troll spray on Tulpa and his alts, you were able to sneak in after we ran out.

[Crusty Juggler]

Poop In Pile Custard.

[GILMORE?]

what she's doing now is WAY over the line and beyond the pale

maybe you missed my implicit "who cares?"

[Lurk Diggler]

Is there a link or something?

[Playa Manhattan.]

That would be nice.

[Domestic Dissident]

Here you go.

[Crusty Juggler]

Ingest A Breath Mint.

[Domestic Dissident]

By the way, I highly recommend you read down the thread a ways. I truly think Reason is employing a borderline psycho here. You let me know what you think.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Still waiting for your proof that she was lying.

[Ken Shultz]

Either way, outing someone as a smoker isn't the coolest thing I've ever seen somebody do.

[Sevo]

And if she's claiming a lie, she should have some evidence.
Kinda hard for him to prove he never said something.

[Ken Shultz]

Apparently, there were other people present. What do they remember?

[Ken Shultz]

The link is crucial. Haven't looked at it yet, but . . .

I think ENB and Robby come from a school of thought that says inserting good opinion in place of precision is okay so long as you mean well.

The other week, Robby responded to one of my comments asking about how I could tell whether his piece was pro-free speech or anti-free speech with the observation that you could tell it was libertarian because of the masthead.

. . . which isn't really how I roll. If the same piece could have been progressive if it had been posted under the masthead at Salon, then maybe it's no wonder people get confused about what the new additions around here are really saying sometimes.

I've seen Sullum, Bailey, Welch, and Cathy Young accused of intellectual dishonesty in the past, and they all came out smelling like roses because they were so intellectually honest. I hope this is the case here, but I wouldn't bet on it.

[Ken Shultz]

http://reason.com/blog/2016/12.....nt_6614211

[westernsloper]

"If the choice is one state, Israel can either be Jewish or Democratic," he said. "It cannot be both."

Has Kerry made that same speech about other nations where the majority of the populous belongs to a single religion? As far as I know, one is not required to be Jewish to live in Israel.

[kbolino]

Indeed, I wonder* if the same ultimatum was presented to Islamic theocracy Iran before they received pallets of foreign currency courtesy of Uncle Sam?

* = Not really

[TheZeitgeist]

If the choice is one state, Israel can either be Jewish or Democratic," he said. "It cannot be both."

Do they play actual circus music while he talks, or dub it in later?

[R C Dean]

Yakety Sax, bro.

[Juvenile Bluster]

There are many countries in the Middle East.

Only one is a Republcan form of government which grants equal rights regardless of gender or religion.

But anything to criticize Jews Israel by the left, right?