A.M. Links: Schumer to Vote Against Sessions, Senate Begins Obamacare Repeal, Trump Tweets About Clapper

• 

  Gage Skidmore / Flickr.com

  Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said today that he will vote against Jeff Sessions' nomination for attorney general.

• "President-elect Donald Trump tweeted Thursday morning about his private conversation with Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, in a statement that contradicts the spy chief's take."
• There will be confirmation hearings today for Trump Defense secretary nominee James Mattis.
• Confirmation hearings also begin today for Trump Housing and Urban Development secretary nominee Ben Carson.
• "The U.S. Senate took the first major step toward repealing the Affordable Care Act after a marathon voting session that started Wednesday evening and extended into early Thursday."
• Peter Thiel: "The election had an apocalyptic feel to it."

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said today that he will vote against Jeff Sessions' nomination for attorney general.

Party of No.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said today that he will vote against Jeff Sessions' nomination for attorney general.

Sessions is going to be the worst AG we've had since Janet Reno. And he's going to get confirmed because the Democrats are mistaking accusations of racism for actual arguments and the Republicans have forgotten what they thought "advise and consent" meant 3 months ago.

[robc]

The 5th column this week suggested the Dems need to be hammering him on civil asset forfeiture in order to peel off a few Rs.

[Fist of Etiquette]

They have no experience with that. Identity politics feels like home.

[commodious just wasting time]

Besides, civil asset forfeiture is what those dirty libertarians at Reason and Cato and IJ hammer on about. No need to sully one's pristine progressive credentials by consorting with those reprobates.

[Volren]

More than that, they don't think it's a bad thing.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I don't know why that would matter. We're talking politics here!

[CatoTheChipper]

On what logical basis would a coherent progressive oppose civil asset forfeiture?

Civil asset forfeiture involves property, and the progressive believes that the state should replace the market in the determination of the distribution of property. The progressive believes in the beneficence and the wisdom of state actors to make such distribution. Civil asset forfeiture is just one of many ways -- taxes of innumerable varieties, fines, penaltaxes, user fees, and so forth -- to accomplish a socially just distribution of wealth.

[commodious just wasting time]

A text exchange with a hardcore progressive friend of mine, recent law school graduate and soon-to-be prosecutor underling, went very roughly like this:

"[state] is reforming its forfeiture laws. Good for them."

"I don't understand. Why is it good to curtail laws for law enforcement to go after criminals?"

"It's not the criminals I'm worried about, it's the abuses caused by overpolicing."

"'Overpolicing'? What does that mean? If they're arresting people pursuant to the law how can it be overpolicing?"

I really couldn't think of anything to say to that. It's tautologically accurate if one is something of a deontologist as she is. The question of whether every civil infraction should be a police matter just doesn't occur to her. The laws are on the books, so the takings are just.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Presumably that would require more guile than the average politician is capable of. I increasingly get the feeling that most federal politicians are people who followed a script and failed upwards.

[VG Zaytsev]

Sure seams that way.

The question is whose script are they following?

[Mickey Rat]

But that would be an argument to restrict government authority. They will not make such an appeal just to beat Sessions.

[Deep Lurker]

In their hearts, the Dems love them some civil asset forfeiture and war on drugs. It's about the federal government having unlimited arbitrary power to take people's money and property, and to ban things even when some states are willing to let those things be legal. And that gives them the warm fuzzies.

So the Dems won't go after Sessions for civil asset forfeiture because that doesn't feel right to them, whereas accusations of racism do feel right to them. And what feels right is more important than what happens to be true.

[Chipwooder]

Worst since Reno? Maybe.....they've all been awful though. Ashcroft, Gonzalez, Holder, Lynch - not much to like there. I'd still probably pick Holder as worse than Sessions, but they all suck.

[John DeWitt]

Yeah, more of the same, possibly to a slightly worse degree. It's all part of our slow descent into hell.

[robc]

Ashcroft was pro-strong-crypto, so he had that going for him.

[Rich]

And he covered up those pornographic statues.

[Fist of Etiquette]

He simply encrypted the titties.

[R C Dean]

Lynch set a shockingly high bar for "worst AG" when she had her private meeting with Bill Clinton. Sessions will have to really work on his form to do worse than that.

[Zeb]

They all suck in their own special ways.

[commodious just wasting time]

Lynch set a shockingly high bar for "worst AG" when she categorically defended forfeiture practices. At least Sessions is punking out by saying, not incorrectly, "If you want to change it, talk to Congress." It would be nice if he at least made the Holder non-effort by setting the tone if not explicit policy of the DoJ wrt forfeiture, but I'm not holding my breath.

[CatoTheChipper]

Before Lynch, Holder's ATF sponsored Fast /n/ Furious, arming Mexican drug gangs with firearms purchased in US gunshops for some reason. (Some reason=use your imagination.)

[Billy Bones]

What would anyone expect from a job whose sole metric for success is how many human beings can they put into cages.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Hello.

And so the 'right kind' of obstructionism begins!

[John DeWitt]

It is fun to be allied with D's again. Mainly because I live in a very liberal neighborhood. All of a sudden everyone has discovered my passion for limiting Presidential power.

[Rufus The Monocled]

They have no principles.

None.

[John DeWitt]

It's also fun to watch both parties lose all pretension that they have principles. D's defending the infallibility of the CIA and the R's turning their back on free trade.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Someday the Ds and the Rs will finally admit their feelings for each other and congress will become the largest, moistest, geriatricest, fuck pit in the world and then all of the federal budget will have to go towards cleaning jizz off the roof of the capital dome.

[Slumbrew]

Paging Barfman, Barfman to the White Courtesy Phone.

[Billy Bones]

+1 Roman Senate Orgy

[straffinrun]

Hey, winning is a principle. Isn't it?

[Free Society]

It is fun to be allied with D's again.

They're your ally like a well fed bear with whom you're locked in a cage is your ally. When the time is right, he'll eat you without a second thought. Hell maybe, he'll mount you first.

[MikeT1986]

Fairly true of R's.

[commodious just wasting time]

That's why it's good to have friends in high places.

[Free Society]

It's too bad they didn't go with the books on that guy's fate. The character that Locke is a stand-in for was cut apart piece by piece and fed to himself.

[JW]

His name is No.

[Rhywun]

"No!"

[Mickey Rat]

Schumet not voting for him seems to be a very good reason to support Sessions. You cannot go wrong doing the opposite of Schumer.

[Col. Chestbridge]

It's a single good reason to support Sessions, counteracted by dozens of very good reasons to oppose him.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

275) Why are men slow to show support for the Women's March? Is it considered unmasculine?

I hope this is the first of a series: Why is it so hard to get my boyfriend to hold my purse during my weekly Girls' Night Out? Why do whites so rarely patronize black-owned barber shops?

I think my favorite part is one guy saying how he can support women: "When I hear a joke where the butt of the joke is a woman .?.?. Maybe I could say, 'I don't get it: Why is that funny?'?"

Right, because there's nothing potentially funny about the differences between the sexes! Also, nothing brings more people over to your side than being completely humorless!

[Citizen X]

Q. How many feminists does it take to change a light bulb?

A. That's not funny.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

Say Fred, did you hear the one about the Jew, the Catholic and the colored boy militant bull dyke that went to heaven?

Meh.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

A: Feminists are never funny.

[Voros McCracken]

Will steal that one.

[Lee Genes]

It's not even humorless. It's coming over to experience the lack of humor plus submitting yourself to beratement and lecturing while being expected to genuflect before their knowledge of all things.

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

LOL, they're probably just confused. One minute, women will have their own thing going and they won't want a man to come within a country mile because his very presence will pollute the sacred essence of their femdom. The next minute they're screeching that he just doesn't care because he didn't read their minds and instantly volunteer to carry their tampons at the Women's March.

[SimonD]

Maybe I could say, 'I don't get it: Why is that funny?

The fact that you don't get it is part of the joke. I'm sure women never make snarky comments about the fact that men keep everything bottled up.

Also, viva la difference!

[Crusty Juggler]

Why won't men do what I want?

[Heroic Mulatto]

So, top picture dude managed to marry a chick who began her bachelor's when he had already had his Ph.D. for 4 years.

I can put some respeck on his name for that.

[JW]

I can put some respeck on his name for that.

He's banging WAY above his weight class. You go, old, skinny guy!

[John DeWitt]

I don't know about the rest of them, but I'm staying away for my safety. I hate bears.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Why did the woman cross the road?

Why are you asking such questions?

Why did the emasculated man cross the road?

To get to the other side? Is this supposed to be funny?

How many millennial SJW couples does it take to change a light bulb?

We don't know. They don't come with manuals and consent.

/Hissssss.

[Rhywun]

*jazz hands*

[Col. Chestbridge]

*triggered*

[CatoTheChipper]

SJWs can't screw a light bulb because it can't give consent.

[colorblindkid]

Do these people even know that poll after poll shows that somewhere around 20% of Americans and only 30% of American women would label themselves a "feminist".

[BestUsedCarSales]

Why do whites so rarely patronize black-owned barber shops?

The way they style my hair tends to be off. I think they're not used to cutting white hair. Which is interesting because I have heard a similar complaint about black people and white barbers, and also hispanic people and white barbers.

I suppose the first step to recognizing diversity is recognizing that people are different.

[Crusty Juggler]

I ain't no nappy-headed hoe, that's why.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

I don't go there because I don't want to get knocked out when I talk up Rocky Marciano as the greatest heavyweight champion of all time.

[A frilly pink thing]

He whipped Joe Louis's ass.

[Rhywun]

Why do whites so rarely patronize black-owned barber shops?

Because they aren't wanted there, as pointed out by various black-owned barber shop owners all over the internet.

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

It reminds me of that scene from the Clint Eastwood movie The Enforcer, where Dirty Harry and his new female partner pull up to a black barber shop and he tells her that it's the local chapter of the VFW (Very Few Whites), and they go in and get heckled by the clientele.

[Suell]

Some years back I walked into a black barber shop near downtown Oakland. Every head in the place turned to look at me. There were several seconds of silence before the head barber started laughing at me and everyone joined in. It was pretty obvious I wasn't getting a haircut there.

[Domestic Dissident]

Damn, a real life version of Animal House. "Otis, my man!"

[AceDroman]

I go to a "multi-ethnic" barber shop. Owned by a well known (around Tampa I guess but I don't know the full extent of his reputation) Mexican guy. The barbers are mostly black or Hispanic and one white dude. My barber is a 30 something year old dude from Panama. The atmosphere is pretty great and I always get a good cut and shave.

[commodious just wasting time]

I used to wear my hair long, partly out of laziness and partly out of brokeness. I had it grown out to about shoulder length and decided I was done with it. Went to a Hispanic-owned barbershop, asked to get it sheared off, and after the barber ascertained that I did in fact know I was a gringo in a vato fade shop, they cut it down to like an eighth of an inch. Felt great.

[AceDroman]

It was pretty intimidating walking in for the first time, hip hop music blaring and every barber was covered with tattoes. But I'm glad I went because it's actually a lot of fun now. Kind of exactly like the movies.

Hows the job hunt going commodious?

[commodious just wasting time]

I have a good situation between my day jobs and class schedule. It's just the slog of it that makes me want to bail on this state and do literally anything else anywhere else for a change. I really shouldn't complain as much as I do, life could be much worse than it is.

How's the hurricane factory?

[AceDroman]

Good to hear that scheduling at least it's working out well. Balancing work and school was always an issue for me and I more often than not chose work over school when it had to be one or the other. Everything comes down to attitude.

Work down here is busy, very busy. For whatever reason there is a constant ebb and flow type situation for me when it comes to workload. Last few weeks were slow and now its getting very busy. This week I've unloaded 35 windows to be tested. Still looking to hire a couple people which will hopefully happen sooner than later.

[commodious just wasting time]

That's one thing I like about construction, my boss warns us that we're going to be slowing down a couple times a month. Never happens*.

*Barring another major recession. *crosses self*

[OneOut]

Never heard of the guy.

[CatoTheChipper]

I'm not the sort who has a routine in getting a regular haircut and have never been a loyal customer of a particular barber or stylist. Instead, I just get a haircut where and when convenient.

I went to a shop with only black stylists and customers about 25 years ago and got a haircut. Presumably it was black-owned. My haircut didn't look good in the shop's mirror. It was really, really bad, but ... what are you going to say? When I got home, without any background information, my wife said that the haircut looked embarrassingly awful. I decided that I'd look better with buzz cut, which was about all that could be done with the remaining hair on my head.

Since then I have avoided American shops that hinted of an ethnic orientation. I was apprehensive the first time a black person cut my hair in a shop that had no such orientation. It turned out fine. I really don't care who owns a barber shop, but if it obviously caters to a particular set of customers with hair styles unlike my own, I will continue to avoid it.

[Rasilio]

My wife is going to this and she tried to guilt me into going.

I told her in no uncertain terms I did not agree with a single goal of the march and I categorically rejected the idea that women are in any meaningful way marginalized. I told her I'd drive her as far as the Metro station so she didn't have to mess with parking, after that she was on her own.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

Where would you like us to send your the hand lube you're going to need for the next month?

[OneOut]

1 55 gallon drum

[Jimbo]

Proudly rub one out. It's the champagne of victory! (stolen from Bill Burr)

[JW]

I told her I'd drive her as far as the Metro station

You've been banished to the Inner Circle of Hell? What did you do to deserve this?

[Mickey Rat]

You evil patriarch!

[LurkinInaBuildin]

+1

[Fist of Etiquette]

The election had an apocalyptic feel to it.

I've already been outfitting all my vehicles Mad Max style.

[Mantis Toboggan, Jr.]

You're supposed to outfit your vehicles A-Team style.

[straffinrun]

I'm going JV style. Toyota pickup with mounted machine gun.

[Swiss Servator]

RAT Patrol style, thankee.

[R C Dean]

+ 2 Vickers

[Voros McCracken]

Whoa oh oh oh oh oh

[Rufus The Monocled]

You know. You just gave me an idea. I'm gonna get a van and hire four guys to pretend to be The A-Team to hang out with me all day. The dinner table would be AWESOME!

Rufus's wife: Idiot, can you pass the salt?

Rufus and Murdoch both reach for the salt and everyone laughs. Wife picks plate up and leaves the table.

Wife: I'm sending you my papers tomorrow!
Hannibal: I love it when....
Rufus: Can it. Honey....

[Mantis Toboggan, Jr.]

Since I gave you the idea, I'm on the team. I'm Murdock!

[Swiss Servator]

Warty can be Mr. T!

[Rufus The Monocled]

Question is...who is cunning and handsome enough to be F.A.C.E. ?

[bacon-magic]

Robby Soave, come on, that is/he is a no brainer.

[Mickey Rat]

That role requires cynicism not hopeless naivet

[JW]

I no longer pity the fools.

[Col. Chestbridge]

Every one knows that five is the ideal number of members for a team.

[OBJ FRANKELSON]

You need to make sure that they are highly trained but have inexplicably poor marksmanship as well.

[Col. Chestbridge]

I love it when a van comes together.

[Bee Tagger]

Filling the cup holders with salsa, airbags with chips... oh, nevermind, you said Max

[Domestic Dissident]

I feel like Lord Humungus should be responding to this.

[Lord Humungus]

502 big-block inside of a 2-door Chevy Caprice aerocoupe

Add in a 200-shot (or so) of nitrous to use as little power boost, or supercharge it.

Cop parts for improved handling, roll cage, race seats, widest tires you can fit on 15" rims - I would want a lot of sidewall for the pothole roads of the future. Built TH400 to take the abuse, and maybe some 3.08s out back.

[Lord Humungus]

Ooh, I didn't know they were making 572 engines now.

[notJoe]

Oooh, engine pr0n...

Yikes, 12:1 compression! So...that refinery you've been admiring, does it produce 110 octane?

[Bee Tagger]

Peter Thiel: "The ... had an apocalyptic feel to it."

This must be what linking PayPal to your bank account must feel like.

[Swiss Servator]

Oh very nice!

*stand to applaud*

[Injun, as in from India]

"The U.S. Senate took the first major step toward repealing the Affordable Care Act after a marathon voting session that started Wednesday evening and extended into early Thursday."

Repeal and replace?

Or rebrand?

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Here's what Trump had to say about it: "The easiest thing would be to let [Obamacare] implode in 2017, and believe me, we'd get pretty much whatever we wanted, but it'd take a long time. We are going to be submitting, as soon as our secretary is approved, almost simultaneously, shortly thereafter, a plan," Trump said. "It will be repeal and replace. It will be essentially simultaneously. It will be various segments, you understand, but will most likely be on the same day or the same week, but probably the same day, could be the same hour."

"Very complicated stuff," he added.

I'm going to make the case that Trump is probably the best presidential communicator since Reagan. I mean, this isn't really good English--but everybody, from elementary school on up, can understand this.

[R C Dean]

We are going to be submitting, as soon as our secretary is approved, almost simultaneously, shortly thereafter, a plan

Interesting, in that this sounds like he's going after the regulations and bureaucracy.

[VG Zaytsev]

Presidential speechifying isnt supposed to be about communicating ideas. It's supposed to salve our souls and make us feel better about ourselves.

[thom]

This. When Trump talks I kind of just feel like I'm hearing information presented in a not very interesting way. I definitely don't feel the inspired, audacious, hope I expect to feel after listening to our leader.

[Lord Humungus]

You know who else...

US troops enter Poland, 1st deployment to Russia's doorstep

Soldiers in camouflage with tanks and other vehicles crossed into southwestern Poland on Thursday morning from Germany and headed for Zagan, where they will be based. Their arrival will be feted on Saturday in official ceremonies attended by Poland's prime minister and defense minister.

U.S. and other Western nations have carried out exercises on NATO's eastern flank, but this deployment ? which includes around 3,500 U.S. troops ? marks the first-ever continuous deployment to the region by a NATO ally. It represents a commitment by President Barack Obama to protect a region that became deeply nervous when Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and then began backing rebels in Ukraine's east.

But despite the celebrations, clouds hung over the historic moment. There are anxieties that the enhanced security could eventually be undermined by the pro-Kremlin views of President-elect Donald Trump.

[Citizen X]

Batu Khan?

[Just a thought not a sermon]

...who else committed their own troops to defend Poland? Unfortunately, not many.

[Citizen X]

Jan III Sobieski?

[MikeT1986]

Jozef Pilsduski would also be acceptable.

[Episteme]

The Teutonic Knights?

[Hamster of Doom]

It represents a commitment by President Barack Obama to protect a region that became deeply nervous when Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and then began backing rebels in Ukraine's east.

But despite the celebrations, clouds hung over the historic moment. There are anxieties that the enhanced security could eventually be undermined by the pro-Kremlin views of President-elect Donald Trump.

What a crock. If Obama gave two shits about the area's security, he'd have moved troops in 2014, not ten days before he leaves office years later.

[Injun, as in from India]

The 1980's finally called and got their foreign policy back.

[straffinrun]

Whew. I thought you said "Foreigner".

[commodious just wasting time]

Without Foreigner all we'd have is football and MMA.

[straffinrun]

Without Foreigner all we'd have is football, MMA and suicide. (Disclaimer: I Wanna Know What Love Is is my background fopping music.)

[commodious just wasting time]

background fopping music

When you're swanning about the court, gossiping of the latest scurrilous anecdotes and generally making yourself a nuisance to the aristocracy?

[Mantis Toboggan, Jr.]

straffinrun was arrested for it at least once.

[straffinrun]

You guys just jumped all over that. I was just using the vernacular of the day, so I thought. Fine, it's back to "Churning the Codpiece Butter."

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

I'd pictured straffinrun as more of a court jester.

[Chip Woodier]

But we wouldn't have Double Vision.

[Darth Squirrel]

+1 Cold as Ice

[Brett L]

I notice that Europe's The Final Countdown experienced a resurgence last year. Coincidence or Russian plot?

[Swiss Servator]

Mehmed IV?

[SimonD]

I think it would be quicker to ask 'who didn't'?

[Rasilio]

Rumor has it that Poland is used to having foreign troops crossing their border.

[Brett L]

Just a quick question. With the current uniforms, don't soldiers wear camouflage any time they aren't in dress uniforms? It seems like the old green working in the office uniform is gone.

[Mickey Rat]

The Army changed its equivalent to a business suit to blue a few years back.

[OBJ FRANKELSON]

Most of the time the duty uniform is either the "Equally Inneffective in all terrian" gray-gren Army Combat Uniform or a uniform with some variation of the Multicam pattern. I would expect that they issued that brigade the new MultiCam patterned Operational Camoflage Pattern uniforms for their rotation. I miss BDUs.

[CatoTheChipper]

" pro-Kremlin views of President-elect Donald Trump"

Fake news. Did anybody listen to the SoS designate's confirmation hearings. He explicitly said Russia is an adversary.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The U.S. Senate took the first major step toward repealing the Affordable Care Act after a marathon voting session that started Wednesday evening and extended into early Thursday.

If your vote lasts more than four hours consult your lobbyist.

[Bee Tagger]

The U.S. Senate took the first major step toward repealing the Affordable Care Act after a marathon voting session

Adding an entirely new level of boredom to watching marathons.

[Swiss Servator]

Yeah. Not going to binge watch that.

[OBJ FRANKELSON]

UK Parliment is way more fun to watch. The brits are the masters of civilized insults.

[Injun, as in from India]

"President-elect Donald Trump tweeted Thursday morning about his private conversation with Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, in a statement that contradicts the spy chief's take."

Two known liars contradict each other.

Who you believe is based on your feelz.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Only one was gutsy enough to put his version in tweet form.

[Rich]

Hey, it *could* be one of those logic puzzles!

[Shirley Knott]

Believe neither of them.
If you simply must take a position, take the most damaging or offensive bits of each -- those are the most likely to be true, even if they appear to conflict.

[SQWRLZ: Deplorable Woodchipper]

Fuccam's Razor?

[Lord Humungus]

Girl, 12, streams her own suicide on Facebook Live for 20 minutes after being 'sexually abused by a relative' ? and cops are powerless to take it down

According to reports, the 20-minute video was filmed in her backyard and played out as a woman's voice was heard calling her name in the distance.

Polk County police department has since been inundated with requests from people as far away as Britain that versions of it being shared online are taken down.

Police chief Kenny Dodd told Fox5 that he was first contacted about the video by an officer from California who saw it on the night of her death.

He said Polk County cops had contacted several sites and urged them to take it down, but they had refused.

He added: "We want it down as much as anyone for the family and it may be harmful to other kids. We contacted some of the sites.

"They asked if they had to take it down and by law they don't. But it's just the common decent thing to do in my opinion."

[Mantis Toboggan, Jr.]

Ken Shultz hardest hit.

[Crusty Juggler]

Where is her integrity!

[robc]

[insert Diane Arbus joke here]

[Lee Genes]

Sad

[JW]

Yeah, I don't have any joke for this. I'm not watching it either.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

"...and cops are powerless to take it down"

Why would cops have the power to do this?

[straffinrun]

No kidding. They'd probably just shoot her.

[John DeWitt]

Blue Lives Matter

[commodious just wasting time]

TAKE IT DOWN! *BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM*

[Lord Humungus]

as a side note: who lets their 12yo daughter wear that much makeup? (note: I don't have daughters)

[straffinrun]

My 8 year old daughter struck again. Over the New Year's holiday we stayed at the in-laws and I carried her change of clothes in my backpack. Finally used that backpack again yesterday when I went back to work. Had a meeting with two 30 year old ladies (Oh, yeah) and my nose started running so I quickly reached into my backpack to grab my hanky. Yeah, I know that's gross, but it's Japan and everybody does it. Anyways, the ladies were surprised when I produced a pair of little pink undies with hearts on them and almost pressed them to my nose. I didn't even bother explaining.

[Lee Genes]

Thank god you were in Japan.

[straffinrun]

LOL. True and a nice comeback.

[Mantis Toboggan, Jr.]

You're lucky to be in Japan. If the same incident happened over here, your death-by-cop would be the subject of Lenore Skenazy's latest article.

[Volren]

That's chutzpah.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Ha! And were they hot?

[straffinrun]

You better be talking about the laydees.

[Rufus The Monocled]

DON'T BE COY WITH ME. SPILL.

[straffinrun]

One was about 35 (?) with braces due to her "summer teeth".

[JW]

and almost pressed them to my nose.

Always follow through.

[Note to straffinrun: Buy new backpack.]

[Lee Genes]

People who don't pay attention enough to realize a relative is abusing her.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Confirmation hearings also begin today for Trump Housing and Urban Development secretary nominee Ben Carson.

Check his belt buckle to see if it's big enough to deflect criticism.

[Bee Tagger]

There will be confirmation hearings today for Trump Defense secretary nominee James Mattis.

You mean, Jeff M.A.T.T.I.S.

[Injun, as in from India]

comSenate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said today that he will vote against Jeff Sessions' nomination for attorney general.

What will it take to get Schumer to vote for Sessions?

A "free" bra for his moobs?

[Rasilio]

If Sessions changed his party affiliation to democrat Schumer would be among his biggest cheerleaders

[Citizen X]

"President-elect Donald Trump tweeted Thursday morning about his private conversation with Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, in a statement that contradicts the spy chief's take."

I have the Smiths stuck in my head for some reason.

[John DeWitt]

Obergruppenf?hrer Smith?

[Chipwooder]

Half of the hook for me of Man in the High Castle is listening to people say "obergruppenf?hrer" over and over. It's a funny sounding word. To me it is, anyway, since I'm clearly a Nazi.

[John DeWitt]

I call my wife's Schnauzer "Obergruppenf?hrer" now. Seems to fit her personality, too.

[Lee Genes]

Heinermacherfrau is better.

[Citizen X]

Huh. I don't have a nickname for my wife's genitals. Way to go, i guess.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Fuck. That almost made me choke.

[lap83]

Not obergruffenfuhrer or obergruppenfurrier? I am disappoint

[CatoTheChipper]

The annoying thing about Man in the High Castle is how the characters refer to the German government and the administration of the eastern part of North America as "Nazi". No politically correct Nazi ever called his political movement or his government "Nazi". The movement was always referred to as German "national socialism". The government of Germany was national socialist.

Nazi was an ugly-sounding contraction used by opponents of national socialism because it sound nasty.

[BearOdinson]

I was pissed when I finished the first season. All build up and no climax. But, I have to admit, I enjoyed the second season. Pretty awesome writing and acting to get an audience to start to feel that Hitler dying is a bad thing, and that Heinrich Himmler ended up on the "not quite as bad side".

[Lee Genes]

I have the Smiths stuck in my head for some reason.

Self-loathing?

[Bee Tagger]

"President-elect Donald Trump tweeted Thursday morning about his private conversation with Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, in a statement that contradicts the spy chief's take."

Pretty good chances they both got it wrong, right?

[Libertarian]

Call me foolhardy, but I'll go with the guy who hasn't lied under oath to Congress.

[Lord Humungus]

Police: Naked burglar was looking for sesame seeds

William Loland and his girlfriend, meanwhile, were awakened early Friday morning to a commotion in their kitchen. Police say that commotion was caused by Henderson.

"I get up, I see this guy, because I only had my night light on in the kitchen. I thought it was a woman because he had long hair, and he was all nude. I thought it was a woman because he had a pot belly," Loland told FOX 13 News. "So I asked, 'How did you get in my house? Who are you?"

Loland says Henderson wouldn't leave his home, and things got a bit violent.

"I grabbed him by his neck, and I escorted him towards the door," Loland said. "He was still naked. I said, 'You're lucky I don't knock you out.' He said, 'I don't think you can.' So that's when I hit him. That's when I hit him twice."

[Citizen X]

I thought it was a woman because he had a pot belly

John?

[Rich]

"I thought it was a woman because he had a pot belly," Loland told FOX 13 News.

SEXIST!

[Volren]

He should have just said manboobs.

[Zeb]

"Gunt"

[Brett L]

He said, 'I don't think you can.'

Bad call

[Brett L]

Fuck.

[lap83]

"Naked burglar was looking for sesame seeds"

These euphemisms are getting downright odd

[Rich]

"The election had an apocalyptic feel to it."

Actually, it was more of an *apocryphal* feel.

[Citizen X]

I think you mean "apoplectic."

[Rich]

I think you mean "apologetic".

[Lee Genes]

I think you mean "apostasy"

[Citizen X]

SOMEONE owes us an apology for the last two years.

[R C Dean]

Two?

[JW]

I think you mean "apathetic."

[Injun, as in from India]

There will be confirmation hearings today for Trump Defense secretary nominee James Mattis.

This guy I trust.

[straffinrun]

Friends that know how to kill everyone you meet are valuable indeed.

[Lord Humungus]

Oregon's goat yoga now has a 900-person waiting list

Morse said that since starting goat yoga, it has taken over her life.

"I ended up quitting my job that I had for the past 10 years and I'm doing this full time now!" she told us.

She can longer do yoga on her farm due to zoning rules but she said she is working with Oregon State University to provide goat yoga on campus and is also working with Emerson Vineyards to do "Sunset Goat Yoga & Wine Tasting" on Saturdays and Sundays starting in the spring.

"It's been such an uphill battle trying to create this new thing," Morse said. "I had six liability insurance companies turn me down."

Still, she's committed to providing goat yoga. And it's so popular now, there is even a line of goat yoga apparel.

"People are desperate for something that is pure and peaceful," says Morse in the video.

"It's really hard to be in pain and sad when there's baby goats jumping around you," she adds. "It's just you're letting go."

[Rich]

Next up: "Sheep massage"

[Swiss Servator]

New Zealand and Scotland scoff.

[Libertarian]

"She can longer do yoga on her farm due to zoning rules"

That's funny as hell. You can have goats running around a field fornicating and defecating, but somehow yoga is worse. Maybe Oregon isn't as progressive as I thought.

[commodious just wasting time]

Au contraire, asking permission and taking orders is the crux of progressivism.

[thom]

There are factors that need to be considered beyond health and safety. Should people even be doing this at all? Are there other things that these people should be doing? What is the economic impact of doing this? Governing is complicated. We have to think these things through.

[Crusty Juggler]

Shoveling a fuckton of snow is pure and peaceful.

[Lee Genes]

I think we're in need of some cultural cleansing.

[straffinrun]

How about some goatee Yoga? Amirite, laydees?

[Volren]

Have we reached peak hipster yet? How much further can we go?

[Rufus The Monocled]

"...She can longer do yoga on her farm due to zoning rules"

For yoga?

[Zeb]

Goats are the funniest domesticated animal.

[Enough About Palin]

I seem to recall an attorney who would probably be really into goat yoga...

[commodious just wasting time]

I've never heard him deny it, anyway.

[Juvenile Bluster]

The San Diego Chargers are moving to Los Angeles because they couldn't extort a new stadium out of San Diego. Los Angeles can't even support one team that isn't the Raiders, and they're going to have two.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Prediction: Dodger pitchers will hit more home runs next season than combined wins between the Chargers and Rams.

[Certified Public Asshat]

Well, I guess the good news is most of the money is private, save for whatever "infrastructure improvements" are made.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

And St. Louis won't pay for a new soccer stadium. A new era when cities have finally realized they shouldn't pay for this crap?

[John DeWitt]

I wish. Atlanta bought half of the Falcons new stadium. They wouldn't build the Braves a new ones, so they moved to "conservative" Cobb County, who agreed to pay for half of that new stadium. Public support of private business is alive and well here, unfortunately.

[Juvenile Bluster]

The government of San Diego was perfectly ready and willing to throw money at the chargers. Fortunately, the law required that the public approve it as well, and it got shot down.

[Brett L]

Fire Phillip Rivers and have the referendum again.

[The Last American Hero]

Possibly - Seattle has not one but two separate investor groups trying to put together a hockey/basketball arena deal with private money.

[Certified Public Asshat]

Also, is San Antonio that bad? It seems like it would be a really good market for some footbaw.

[Mantis Toboggan, Jr.]

I've always thought that if you put the stadium between SA and Austin, it would do great.

Supposedly, Jerry Jones wants no part of SA getting an NFL team.

[Brett L]

Schlitterbahn already has parking and exit infrastructure.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Jerry Jones will never allow a team in San Antonio.

[R C Dean]

Its a great market for Cowboy and Texan football.

[OneOut]

San Antonio is Cowboy country and JJ would fight it tooth and nail.

[OneOut]

Plus the Spurs would probably fight it as well.

[SimonD]

The part I find funny is that all of the teams who wanted to move to L.A. (Rams, Chargers, Raiders) have already been in LA at one point and ended up leaving because of a lack of support, but it's going to be so much better this time.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Move every team in California to L.A.!

Awesome fan support over there!

C'man San Fran whaddya say?

[Injun, as in from India]

Peter Thiel: "The election had an apocalyptic feel to it."

Based on the proggie tears, sure.

Based on Hit & Run laughter, not at all.

[Zeb]

When people still thought Hillary was likely to win, there was some pretty apocalyptic talk going on here.

[Injun, as in from India]

Tru Dat.

I was among those. I was actually resigned about the SCOTUS and more progressive laws making it through all branches of government.

[commodious just wasting time]

^this

My thinking was that whatever clusters of authentic small-government conservatism still existed after 2016 had better be ready to batten down the hatches and prepare to withstand the deluge of federal interventions sluicing down under another Clinton administration. In fact I was ready to start ignoring politics altogether, because no noose is good noose and what you don't know about what you can't change is better than knowing exactly how they'll hang you.

[Lord Humungus]

Florida home to seven most dangerous regions for pedestrians, study shows

The seven most dangerous metropolitan communities for pedestrians are all in the Sunshine State, according to the Dangerous by Design report released by Smart Growth America today.

That includes the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area, which was ranked seventh with 821 pedestrians killed over a 10-year period through 2014.

The Cape Coral-Fort Myers area topped the ranking, which is based on population size, number of people who commute on foot and number of fatalities.

Florida's bad record actually represents an improvement over an earlier version of the study, reflecting state and local government efforts to make streets more bike- and pedestrian- friendly. For example, the state's "Complete Streets" initiative requires that road planners focus not only on drivers but walkers and bicyclists, too.

[robc]

I will make another reference to strongtowns.org here.

Build streets or build roads. Don't try to combine the two.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Would self-driving cars really make that worse? I think not.

[Citizen X]

Florida is the answer to the question "What's the worst that could happen?"

[robc]

I thought Australia was the answer.

[Lord Humungus]

Australia: the answer to a question that no one ever asked.

[commodious just wasting time]

42?

[Swiss Servator]

Wouldn't Australia have a piece of that title too?

[Citizen X]

Australia is not an answer. Australia is just more questions, most of them along the lines of "What god would allow this?"

[Swiss Servator]

"God created Arrakis Australia to test the faithful"

[Brett L]

That includes the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area, which was ranked seventh with 821 pedestrians killed over a 10-year period through 2014.

Florida Man vs. Old People Driver

[Juvenile Bluster]

I am baffled that none of them are in southeast Florida. Baffled.

[Free Society]

The Cape Coral-Fort Myers area topped the ranking, which is based on population size,

Must be a lot of Florida Men in that area.

[Lord Humungus]

Swiss town denies passport to vegan anti-cowbell campaigner 'for being annoying'

"The sound that cowbells make is a hundred decibel. It is comparable to a pneumatic drill. We also would not want such a thing hanging close to our ears." she reportedly told the media.

"The animals carry around five kilograms around their neck. It causes friction and burns to their skin," she has said in interviews, according to the Daily Mail.

In Switzerland, local residents have a say in a person's passport application. Ms Holten's first attempt at naturalisation was made in 2015, when she was approved by local authorities but rejected by 144 out of 206 residents in a vote.

[Rufus The Monocled]

I have a vegan client and she's just as annoying.

[commodious just wasting time]

Have you tried more cowbell?

[Citizen X]

You know who else was an annoying vegetarian from Europe?

[Injun, as in from India]

Godwin!!!!

[Swiss Servator]

Petra Kelly?

[PBR Streetgang]

Morrissey?

[Lord Humungus]

I larfed.

[straffinrun]

Me too, but "annoying" isn't strong enough.

[John DeWitt]

Bono?

[Just a thought not a sermon]

"The sound that cowbells make is a hundred decibel."

100dB=Jet take-off (at 305 meters), use of outboard motor, power lawn mower, motorcycle, farm tractor, jackhammer, garbage truck

Those are some loud cowbells.

[Rufus The Monocled]

NEEDS MORE COWBELL!

[commodious just wasting time]

I gotta fever and the only prescription is veganism.

[Swiss Servator]

*chortles*

[R C Dean]

Does this count as the Swiss violating her religious rights?

[Lord Humungus]

Is Kim Kardashian Getting Her Own Snapple Flavor?

"Do you guys see something so special?" Kim narrated in her Snapchat video. "It's called Kim's Peach RoyalTEA."

The flavor, which is diet, has special label that includes a picture of an animation Kim from her mobile app Kim Kardashian: Hollywood. There's also a crown above "diet" and a peach emoji that is not only representative of the flavor but also a reference to some of Kim's curves. In the background of the video

something something Michelin Man

[Juvenile Bluster]

The flavor, which is diet, has special label that includes a picture of an animation Kim from her mobile app Kim Kardashian: Hollywood.

I would've been better off not knowing that existed. I also don't want to know how much $$$ it makes.

[Crusty Juggler]

Made from the classiest stuff on earth.

[Lee Genes]

Who buys this shit? What is her core following? I just can't comprehend it.

[Lord Humungus]

Ass fetishists?

[Crusty Juggler]

Her show has been on for over eleven years.

[Lee Genes]

I still don't get it. It's like a modern day sideshow, except people are watching it and taking advice from it.

[Crusty Juggler]

I don't understand it, but I realize there is this huge universe of people who do watch it (even if they hate-watch it), or watch similar shows, and who religiously follow her social media, etc. She is very influential.

[commodious just wasting time]

After listening to Mary Katharine Ham and Emily Miller discuss the goings-on of The Bachelor for close to half an hour on a recent episode of the Federalist podcast, I have come to the conclusion that viewing habits are in no way rational or predictable.

[Chip Woodier]

Someone give her a Golden Globe award. I want to know how she feels about Trump.

[Enough About Palin]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gw3Dc-EXmo

[LoneWaco]

mmmmm. Tastes like mackeral and ass.

[Citizen X]

+1 fish dick

[Rasilio]

Um, didn't Snapple already have a Peach tea?

[Lord Humungus]

Now with more ass?

[commodious just wasting time]

Fuzzy and cleft. That sounds about right.

[Injun, as in from India]

True story from the break:

I was at a Christmas party where a professor of social psychology introduced himself, chatted with me for 5 minutes, and then avoided me for the rest of the party. Avoiding as in, everywhere I would go, this guy would walk away. Even if he was in the middle of a conversation with a group when I joined that group.

My crime? Saying that corporations are basically trying to earn an honest living, and defending Wal-mart.

These people don't just block you online.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Niiiice.

[Chipwooder]

He did you a favor.

[Injun, as in from India]

Imagine what he does to his students. His classes likely have the intellectually stimulation you get from the Daily Kos or Salon.

[Rich]

Avoiding as in, everywhere I would go, this guy would walk away. Even if he was in the middle of a conversation with a group when I joined that group.

I trust you had *lots* of fun with that.

[Swiss Servator]

"So...If I stand right here, he can never make it to the bathroom! HA!"

[Lord Humungus]

You should have sat in his car... or chatted up his wife (if he had one).

[Injun, as in from India]

He has a wife. But if she married a hypersensitive Social Psych prof, not sure if she would want anything to do with a wild guy like me. 🙂

[Not a True MJG]

It's like he had a force field.

[Lord Humungus]

Our Own Worst Enemy

In 1947, at the dawn of the Cold War, Michigan Sen. Arthur Vandenberg, a Republican, justified his firm support for the foreign policy priorities of Democratic President Harry Truman by insisting that "we must stop partisan politics at the water's edge." Coming from Vandenberg, these words carried great significance, for he had spent much of his tenure in the U.S. Senate as a leading light among Republican isolationists. The Second World War and the rising Soviet threat changed Vandenberg irrevocably, and convinced him that Republicans and Democrats had no choice but to stand together in solidarity against Soviet imperialism.

One wonders what Vandenberg would make of today's headlines. There is good reason to believe that the Russian government took extraordinary measures to tilt the scales in an American presidential election. While Democrats are furious, President-elect Donald Trump and many of his Republican allies have downplayed the news, suggesting that senior Democratic officials were to blame for leaving themselves vulnerable to Russian hacking. This isn't partisan politics stopping at the water's edge: It's a hostile foreign government successfully interjecting itself in America's partisan politics.

[DJF]

"""suggesting that senior Democratic officials were to blame for leaving themselves vulnerable to Russian hacking""

No, I blame the fact that the Democratic leadership chose a terrible candidate who ran a terrible campaign

[Free Society]

It's a hostile foreign government successfully interjecting itself in America's partisan politics.

I love how the leak of the emails is a bigger scandal than the litany of scandals contained within the emails.

[Not a True MJG]

Wait, the moral of that story is that we shouldn't stop partisan politics and support Our President?

OK then.

[CatoTheChipper]

Based on the DNI report last week, which was mostly a recycled TV Guide story about the RT network that was re-purposed to substantiate the report's conclusions, I gather that RT news coverage was the main way the Russians "supported" Trump. The report provides no other basis for its conclusions.

Having followed Russian propaganda broadcasts personally for the past fifty years, the only thing that was "extraordinary" about RT coverage of US election stories is that it was more balanced than the coverage by NYT, WaPo, and the networks, and immensely more balanced and factual than outlets like Slate. This is a new phenomenon in Russian propaganda.

[Mantis Toboggan, Jr.]

Confirmation hearings also begin today for Trump Housing and Urban Development secretary nominee Ben Carson.

"Dr. Carson, could you...could you explain your pyramid theory one more time?"

[Swiss Servator]

I would laugh if that happened.

[commodious just wasting time]

They're not pyramids, they're tetrahedral grain silos.

[wef]

Never gets old:

Has James Clapper been indicted for perjury yet?
NO
It has been 1402 days since James Clapper
lied to Congress and the American people.

http://www.hasjamesclapperbeenindictedyet.com/

[Libertarian]

Why does he still have his job? I'm well on the road to believing the tin foil hats who have been warning me about the Dark State.

From Glenn Greenwald's recent Intercept blog:

"Yet craving Deep State rule is exactly what prominent Democratic operatives and media figures are doing. Any doubt about that is now dispelled. Just last week, Chuck Schumer issued a warning to Trump, telling Rachel Maddow that Trump was being "really dumb" by challenging the unelected intelligence community because of all the ways they possess to destroy those who dare to stand up to them"

[Libertarian]

* Deep State, not Dark

[wef]

The deep, dark state is right.

Although improbable, a night of long knives is not out of the question. One can fantasize: Meat hooks and piano wire would make a fitting end to Clapper et alia.

[Free Society]

The deep, dark state is left.

[Lee Genes]

Cultural-Marxists versus regular old Marxists

There are many lessons to learn from the 2016 presidential election, and there are also a lot of painful issues to reckon with.

Unfortunately, most of the proposed ways to move forward have, in part, championed an erasing of the crux of progressive politics: "identity politics." These strategies, often put forth by men ? and, in particular, white men ? have attempted to de-center women and people of color on the left.

Bernie Sanders insisted that economic policies needed to be at the forefront of the Democratic Party platform ? then he described, over and over again, a political philosophy in which identity politics and economic justice were not intertwined, but in opposition to one another, or ranked in importance in relation to one another. In the New York Times, another white man purported that a focus on identity had cost Democrats the election.

These men are wrong. And when they elevate their perspectives, especially in a time of rather unmitigatable hate and violence toward the most marginalized, they're threatening to leave us behind.

[Rufus The Monocled]

I found this amusing - Crowder on Sanders.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiKklFUW4To&t=625s

[Citizen X]

You know who else advocated political positions based on racial and other identity group membership?

[Heroic Mulatto]

Pretty much every political party in India?

[Swiss Servator]

Huey Long?

[Lee Genes]

Madison Grant?

[Crusty Juggler]

George Wallace?

[Chipwooder]

Robert Mugabe?

[sloopyinTEXAS]

Winnie Mandela?

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Powerless but shrill minority discovers that they're powerless and most people regard them as shrill.

[Free Society]

And when they elevate their perspectives, especially in a time of rather unmitigatable hate and violence toward the most marginalized, they're threatening to leave us behind.

Donald Trump supporters?

[Not a True MJG]

So you lost, and lost big, but it wasn't because of identity politics. Good luck with that.

[Lord Humungus]

Soros Lost Nearly $1 Billion in Weeks After Trump Election

Billionaire hedge-fund manager George Soros lost nearly $1 billion as a result of the stock-market rally spurred by Donald Trump's surprise presidential election.

But Stanley Druckenmiller, Mr. Soros's former deputy who helped Mr. Soros score $1 billion of profits betting against the British pound in 1992, anticipated the market's recent climb and racked up sizable gains, according to people close to the matter.

The divergent bets of the two traders are a stark reminder of the challenges even acclaimed investors have faced following Mr. Trump's unexpected victory. Many experts had predicted a tumble for stocks in the wake of the election, but instead the Dow Jones Industrial Average has climbed 9.3%.

[Citizen X]

You know who else was an actual Nazi?

[Crusty Juggler]

Edward VIII?

[Swiss Servator]

Major Strasser?

[Rufus The Monocled]

Oh and I feel just so terrible for the guy.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

I only hope Krugman called him for some investment advice in the weeks before the election.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Has anyone been reading his tweets? Absolutely out of his mind.

[Lee Genes]

Jesus he's a dolt.

Fact: health spending has grown much more slowly since Obamacare went into effect than it did before.

Include premiums in those figures and see what happens.

[R C Dean]

In 2015, U.S. health care spending increased 5.8 percent to reach $3.2 trillion, or $9,990 per person. The coverage expansion that began in 2014 as a result of in the Affordable Care Act continued to have an impact on the growth of health care spending in 2015. Additionally, faster growth in total health care spending in 2015 was driven by stronger growth in spending for private health insurance, hospital care, physician and clinical services, and the continued strong growth in Medicaid and retail prescription drug spending. Lastly, the overall share of the U.S. economy devoted to health care spending was 17.8 percent in 2015, up from 17.4 percent in 2014.

http://www.cms.gov/Research-St.....lights.pdf

[Lord Humungus]

Kevin Williamson: Obama's Last Lament

If President Obama does not understand why our institutions and the common ground they once represented are in a shambles, he need not look very far for an explanation: He is a man of the Left, and the Left corrupts every institution it touches: the news media, the educational and academic institutions, the cultural institutions, professional organizations, government bureaucracies, everything from National Geographic to the English department at the University of Texas. This is not a case of "both sides do it" or an instance of a conservative polemicist simply fitting his political opponents for black hats. If you want to understand why Americans have so little faith in institutions that were once granite pillars of respectability, you must understand the Left's coopting of them.

Consider the case of the New York Times. Hating the self-proclaimed newspaper of record is a great conservative preoccupation. But it was not always the case that it was discounted, even by the most gimlet-eyed of conservatives. No doubt that William F. Buckley Jr. found much in the Times to annoy and dismay him, but he also read it every day and cared about what was in it.

[Swiss Servator]

As David Burge said:

Identify a respected institution. 2. kill it. 3. gut it. 4. wear its carcass as a skin suit, while demanding respect. #lefties

[commodious just wasting time]

Much as I like Williamson's often deliberately esoteric verbosity, I disagree that Obama is logorrheic. Between the teleprompter and his verbal staccato when speaking off the cuff, Obama strikes me as not especially prone to manic chattiness as he is to inventing rhetorical flourishes at a snail's pace. It's the worst of both worlds, really: his obsessive verbal showiness to reinforce his Smartest Man in the Room routine mixed with the soporific tendencies of someone preoccupied with huffing his own intellectual farts. Yes, he loves hearing himself speak. Yes, he will gobble up every mic put in front of him like a... well, nevermind. But he is just so boring and contrived in how he goes about it; he's not an extemporaneous speaker. He's a natural-born professorial type who's had his scant resume padded over the years by fawning boosters, and believes it all.

[Not a True MJG]

Indubitably.

[R C Dean]

This is how you pedant.

[Rich]

Journalist Attacked By Seizure-Inducing GIF Identifies Culprit

[Eichenwald, whose epilepsy is widely known] intends to make good on a promise that there would be severe consequences for the tweeter, as well as the other trolls who continued to send him seizure GIFs. He pressed charges against @jew_goldstein and appeared to be in the beginning stages of filing a civil suit against him

Grand malware?

Seriously, what are the commentariat's takes on this?

[Injun, as in from India]

I'll give you my take once I get my woodchipper ready to shred another subpoena.

[Citizen X]

You know who else blamed Jews?

[Crusty Juggler]

Mel Gibson?

[Rich]

Woody Allen?

[Heroic Mulatto]

John the Apostle?

[Chipwooder]

Bobby Fischer?

[straffinrun]

Puerto Rican HnR trolls?

[Jerryskids]

Marcia Clark, the LAPD and half of America?

[creech]

Sheldon Richman?

[lap83]

The middle east would be a peaceful utopia without them!

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Jews?

[Juvenile Bluster]

I've no love for Eichenwald, but to the extent that the GIF was sent with knowledge of his seizure disorder and with the intent of causing problems, it's a tort. Not sure if it's a crime.

[Injun, as in from India]

It was clearly malevolent, and the ID of the guy who sent it suggests he's an anti-Semite who went after Eichenwald for his Jewish background.

There's a big difference between the H&R woodchipper comments and this guy tweeting a seizure-inducing gif.

[straffinrun]

Heroic Mullato owes me some settlement cash if that's the case.

[Free Society]

and the ID of the guy who sent it suggests he's an anti-Semite who went after Eichenwald for his Jewish background.

Irrelevant. What if he had handle that indicated he went after Eichenwald because he's bald and wears glasses? It would similarly have no bearing on whether or not this a crime or a tort.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

If you're allergic to peanuts, don't eat peanut butter. If you have pale skin, don't go out in the sun for long periods of time. If you're vulnerable to GIFs with rapidly-changing patterns, don't look at GIFs.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

If you're severely allergic to peanuts and someone purposefully mails you something coated with peanut residue in the hopes of triggering an allergic reaction that's absolutely a crime as well as a tort.

[Chip Woodier]

If someone sends you a peanut package that's known to contain peanuts, it's best not to open it up if allergic. Gifs can be disabled in software. It's (at minimum) partial responsibility to have not done so.

[Jerryskids]

I don't know about the rest of the commentariat's take on it, but I say "grand malware" is seriously pretty damn good.

[Free Society]

He shouldn't be using the internets if he's such a cripple that using it causes health problems. Even if we take him at his word that it caused a seizure, well so would clicking on a link to anime cartoons or gifs.

[Rasilio]

If you knowingly expose someone to a substance you know to be harmful to them I can't see any meaningful distinction between that and assault

[Jerryskids]

I didn't watch Trump's presser but I did see a clip of it where, IIRC, he was talking about how his good relations with Russia are an asset and he said something curious and it's doubly curious because I haven't seen anybody else mentioning what he said.

What he said is that it's good to have good relations with Russia because we're going to need Russian help to defeat ISIL, "which is tricky", and blah blah blah. "Which is tricky" is the odd phrase that came out of his face - what does that mean? ISIL is tricky? How so? And why are you throwing that in there in the middle of a sentence? Did you just get some new intelligence briefing that shows ISIL is trickier than you thought - or did you really not know they were tricky?

Now maybe, given his inability to express a complete thought or a complete sentence, he was simply making the self-referential comment that speaking the very sentence he was speaking was tricky?

Or maybe he meant getting Russia to help us defeat ISIL was tricky, literally, since of course Russia knows full well we don't need their help in defeating ISIL. Therefore, convincing Russia that we need their help for a simple task is the tricky part, which should raise the question of why exactly we're tricking Russia and - more importantly - why the hell is Trump standing there telling the Russians we're tricking them?

[Jerryskids]

Of course, some stupid people might think the "tricky" part he was referring to is defeating ISIL, which would explain why we need Russian help, but that's just a ridiculous slander of Trump's simple plan to defeat ISIL by bombing the shit out of them and taking their oil, waterboarding and worse anybody we capture and killing their families. Suggesting that Trump would think defeating ISIL is "tricky" and therefore what he was referring to is nonsense.

So what was he referring to as being tricky? And why am I the only one curious about this?

[Swiss Servator]

He is going to use Tricknology!!!!

[Chip Woodier]

I am still waiting on the oil we stole from Iraqis by the evil Bush Empire. I am sure the tanker is on the way to my door. One day...

[OneOut]

Why are you the only one who is curious ?

Perhaps it is because he never once said anything about ISIL.

He used the much more widely used ISIS to refer to that particular group of Islamist.

I've never heard anyone outside of the Obama administration and their sycophants use the term ISIL. ISIL was supposedly invented to misdirect attention from Syria being involved and Obama's weaksauce foreign policy.

Is that why you seem to be the only one here curious about that ?

[John DeWitt]

You'll give yourself an aneurysm trying to pull any meaning from the things Trump says.

[Lord Humungus]

Slate Blames Danes' Comfy Sweaters, Socks, and Cocoa for Trump, Brexit

The Danish cultural phenomenon of hygge has invaded the west, leaving a trail of comfy socks, knit sweaters, and scented candles in its wake. The gospel of hygge?no one agrees on its pronunciation?centers on comfortable living and coziness designed to inspire contentment and, as one evangelist put it, mimic "how we felt when we lived in the uterus," though this uterus comes equipped with a $55 adult coloring book.

...

"Poured into hygge's candlelit sweetness, like a cloying cream filling, are inevitable and explicit cases of xenophobia and racism," Slate said, citing that an anonymous person in a closed chatroom made a racist joke while having hygge in his username. "This little hygge anecdote should raise doubts about just how apolitical hygge can claim to be."

The article said that liberals should avoid the temptation to retreat to cozy bubbles, which would only further contribute to hygge's ultimate goal of excluding foreigners. Slate, which argued that There's No Such Thing as a Good Trump Voter in November, urged readers to begin "engaging with other people, not just those we feel comfortable with."

[commodious just wasting time]

Say what you will about progs, they're obsessed with making their bubbles as uncomfortable as possible.

[Not a True MJG]

I liked last season of South Park, but it wasn't that true to life.

[Auric Demonocles]

New head banging Facebook meme: A drawing of Martin Luther King saying "I have a dream" with Obama to the right saying "I am the dream". Yes, the president judged based on his skin color instead of his actions is exactly what MLK was talking about. Fuck this hero worship.

Personally I have a dream that one day a picture will be judged not by the color of it's pixels, but the content of it's alt-text.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

I guess in some literalist sense, having a black man as president fulfills some aspects of MLK's dream. But yeah, the overtones of Obama as a messiah fulfilling some sort of prophesy is disgusting.

[John DeWitt]

That's pretty accurate, actually. Like a dream, once gone, very little of the particulars can be remembered and ultimately none of the actions that took place in the dream have an impact on the real world.

[The Last American Hero]

I already early-adopted that philosophy 8 years ago. The next best thing to being able to play the race card is to play the black president card. I've gotten so many miles trolling the shit out of people with that meme, I could get a free airplane ticket.

[Rich]

This three-mile-high skyscraper design is coated in self-cleaning material that eats smog

These free radicals pull in pollutants from the air and break them down to get sloughed off the side of the building along with dirt and grime ? almost like dead skin. The end result is a cleaner building surrounded by cleaner air.

But the sidewalk around the base of the building is *disgusting*.

[Citizen X]

Just getting into the place is like tunneling through your mom's loofah.

[Rich]

LOL

[straffinrun]

Bard the Bowman hardest hit.

[Rhywun]

Ridiculous. There is no reason to build a 500-story skyscraper other than hubris - which is why all the new tall buildings are being built in autocratic hellholes these days.

[The Last American Hero]

It is wasteful, but I kind of liked it when we were a rich enough country to do shit like that just because we could.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Justin Amash managing to further depress me this morning:

Justin Amash
45 mins ?

Early this morning, the Senate voted on a budget that grows the national debt by nearly 50 percent. Thank you, Senator Rand Paul, the only Republican who voted no. It now goes to the House.

[Rich]

"We'll cut the Debt *tomorrow*!"

[Libertarian]

They mean deficit, not debt, right?

[Juvenile Bluster]

Guessing it's debt over a 10 year period.

[Rich]

WDATPDIM?

[Chipwooder]

But Rand's not pure enough for most of Reason's staff, unlike the totally libertarian Johnson and Weld.

[John DeWitt]

He was so impure he knew where Aleppo was and wouldn't have sabotaged his campaign down the stretch to preserve Hillary's coronation.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Their next election is only 6 years away, they need to grease voters hands now so that they can save money later.

[Jerryskids]

Peter Thiel thinks the election has an apocalyptic feel? You know what gives me an uneasy feeling about Peter Thiel?

Which reminds me, I saw a thing where Trump maybe backed off his statement about "opening up the libel laws" a little bit when somebody pointed out to him that opening up the libel laws would make it easier for the people he regularly insults to sue him - and Trump actually admitted he hadn't thought of that.

Yet more evidence for my assertion that whatever flops out of Trump's piehole shouldn't be taken seriously because it's not like it's anything he's thought about seriously for more than two seconds. Which is why he loves Twiiter and its character limit - he's never had a thought in his life that can't be expressed in less than 3 lines but with Twitter he can pretend that those 3 lines are just a character-restricted synopsis of a much more complex thought. Unfortunately, too many people just assume he does indeed have deeper thoughts than whatever throw-away line he just uttered and don't realize whatever it was he just said is it - that's the sum total of his knowledge or interest in the subject and it's silly to go looking for the deeper meaning that's not there.

[paranoid android]

I brought this up briefly yesterday, but I feel it bears repeating. Look at the passage below from Trump's presser yesterday:

So if you want to move to another country and if you want to fire all of our great American workers that got you there in the first place, you can move from Michigan to Tennessee and to North Carolina and South Carolina. You can move from South Carolina back to Michigan.

Does anyone else get the feeling while watching Trump speak that it's like watching an adaptive algorithm attempting to understand human language by trial and error? Like, he has words in approximately the correct order to form sentences, but what the fuck does any of this mean? It's not lacking in substance, it is post-substance. It's a semi-random string of symbols and signals that gesture towards broader ideas but could actually mean anything or nothing.

[Ken Shultz]

I think a lot of his love for twitter is about going over the heads of the journalists (who hate him).

They're more than happy to quote and report on his tweets, which are harder to misconstrue. When he gives a press conference (yesterday's was the first since July?), they edit his statements down to a self-incriminating blurb or summarize his message in their own way.

With twitter, they can't do that. Obama giving press conferences for the Washington Press Corps was an opportunity to preach to the choir. No matter how awful or stupid Obama was, they were going to spin it in a positive light. Trump giving press conferences to the same bunch is like facing a tribunal during the Inquisition. Why carry wood for the Washington Press Corp when they're determined to use everything he says as an excuse to burn him as a heretic?

[Not a True MJG]

it's not like it's anything he's thought about seriously for more than two seconds.

Which is why these statements are a better indication of his instincts and impulses than a carefully crafted political statement, no?

I don't take anything he says as a clear sign of a future legislative goal - even for building a wall or attacking ISIS - but I do think they're good indications of how he thinks, and therefore what kind of legislation he may support or executive actions he'll pursue.

[commodious just wasting time]

Where would I go about looking for information about a police-involved situation near my home? A cruiser was parked a few houses down a little after one this morning, had his spotlight trained on something (although I couldn't see what, and I wasn't about to step outdoors), and was on the loudspeaker repeating the same thing again... and again... and again, in between bursts of siren. I couldn't make out what was said due to either a PD or news chopper making frequent passes. This went on for maybe an hour. It was all very surreal, especially since I can find nothing about it now. Nothing on their social media accounts, nothing in the news, no overnight arrest records from that area, Do cops no longer do the blotter thing?

[Lee Genes]

Blotters are jurisdiction dependent. Check with the local newspaper, they'll know how it is reported.

Some jurisdictions use RAIDSonline now instead of a blotter.

[AlmightyJB]

Yeah, Raids covers a lot. If you google crime maps for your zip code you may find some other tools as well. Usually a delay in stuff getting posted though. Columbus police used to have a prevent level crime report but I think everything moved to Raids.

[commodious just wasting time]

That's pretty handy. Sadly, it doesn't look like my city has adopted it yet.

[Free Society]

Check with the local newspaper, they'll know how it is reported.

The local "safety blotter" in my hometown newspaper infuriates people almost as much as it's a joke. They routinely plaster local people's names not convicted of any crime, nor necessarily accused of one, in the paper in order to shame them. And they go after business owners accused of infractions by OSHA or the EPA and never bother to mention when the business owner prevails in court over the issue. (They hired a Marxist reporter from a big city who hates our town and wants to make a name for herself in order to go elsewhere.)

While the same newspaper utterly ignored reporting on the issue of our local police department selling cocaine from the evidence locker, or when they omitted mentions of how city council was taking personal bribes to vote in favor of building Section 8 public housing in our small town, so that poor people from distant cities and counties can come here to live rent free off our local taxes. They basically omit any mentions of government connected people who have run-ins with the law in order to spare them from the public humiliation campaign.

Yet when you complain that your name appears in the blotter, they tell you it's an objective matter of public record. Fuck the press, from the NYT all the way down to local podunk newspapers. I wish them all bankruptcy.

[straffinrun]

Pretty sure Dunphy and Tulpa could give you some good advice. Something like get naked and handcuff yourself to the radiator just in case they come knocking.

[ant1sthenes]

I can only imagine how that conversation between Trump and Clapper went...

Trump: Clapper, did you order the Code Yellow?
Clapper's Assistant: You don't have to answer that question!
Clapper: I'll answer the question! You want answers?
Trump: I think I'm entitled to.
Clapper: You want answers?
Trump: I want the truth!
Clapper: You can't handle the truth!

[ant1sthenes]

Clapper: Son, we live in a world with secret police and secret courts, and that power has to be guarded by press lackeys uncritically disseminating propaganda. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Peter Thiel? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for the republic, and you curse the presstitues. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That Pissgate, while farcical, probably protected the national interest. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, protects the national interest. You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at quinoa cup parties, you want me your email, you need me in your email. We use words like classification, authority, disposition matrix. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very security that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a laptop, and pilot a drone. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to.
Trump: Did you order the Code Yellow?
Clapper: I did the job I...
Trump: Did you order the Code Yellow?
Clapper: You're goddamn right I did!

[Ken Shultz]

"The U.S. Senate took the first major step toward repealing the Affordable Care Act after a marathon voting session that started Wednesday evening and extended into early Thursday."

Burn that bridge.

In order to move Congress forward, there must be no way back.

Every effort to replace it with something else will generate stiff resistance--not only because of what's in the replacement but because of what the replacement doesn't do. And we libertarians want the replacement for ObamaCare to not do a lot!

Therefore predicating repeal on replacement means that the most awful parts of ObamaCare likely won't be replaced. Why make a controversial stand when Congress can just borrow a tremendous amount of money instead?

Screw that!

The Senate did the right thing. With only a two member Republican majority and Rand Paul opposed, the Senate did the right thing. If repeal gets to Trump's desk and Trump signs it. it will be a victory for libertarians that seemed virtually impossible only a few months ago.

I can't remember the last tie I saw the government demonstrate something like competency.

[ant1sthenes]

Someone brought up Cortez burning his ships; seems like the better analogy.

[Ken Shultz]

That was me.

I didn't want to use the same thing over and over.

[Sevo]

Oakland's mayor wants higher rents:

"Oakland Mayor Schaaf moves to protect tenants"
[...]
"Relocation fees apply to residents of nonpermitted housing as well as to people living in legal spaces that have been poorly maintained. The current fees are $3,446 for a one-bedroom and $4,346 for a two-bedroom, plus $200 for move-in costs. The proposed ordinance would raise payments to $6,500 for a studio or one-bedroom unit, and $8,000 for a two-bedroom unit. Tenants evicted from a three-bedroom unit could be entitled to $9,875 under Kaplan's proposal ? significantly more than the current payment of $6,034."
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/.....852123.php

Is it written that in order to run for office, you must prove yourself to be an econ-ignoramus?

[Idle Hands]

This can't be real right?

US intel sources warn Israel against sharing secrets with Trump administration
Israeli intelligence officials fear that top-secret information that has been exposed to the United States will be leaked to Russia?and from Russia to its close ally, Iran.

I mean wow.

[Volren]

But what will Bibi do with all his drawings of bombs? He's been working hard on new ones.

[Sevo]

So the US intell agencies now claim to be in charge of who is granted access?
Pretty sure Trump can warm up his "YOU'RE FIRED!" mojo.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

I had no idea fivethirtyeight was so slanted toward progressives. I assumed since it was (at one point) based on statistics, you'd see a broader spectrum of comments. But, not really. They're discussing Trump's divestment plan on there and bemoaning not having a permanent political class when I chimed in on original intent of the founders being that they wanted businessmen to temporarily take office.

Here is a response I got:
Ben Broder
Kenneth Russell What are you talking about? Franklin was the only founding father who was a "businessman." Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton, Jay, and Madison were lawyers and Washington was a general. Where do you people get this shit from?
Like ? Reply ? Mark as spam ? 1 ? 3 hrs

Is this what passes for knowledge in today's schools?

[ant1sthenes]

And yet they'll be the first to discount their opinion because they were slaveowners.

[Volren]

Silver/538 used to be with the NYT, so I assume that he carried over a lot of the following from there. He also probably won favor since his first big predictions were in favor of the Lightbringer, and he also picked Clinton to win.

Pretty sure I saw a bunch of unironic prog comments about Silver "failing" them, which I enjoyed immensely.

[commodious just wasting time]

He differed with Huffopo's 98% Clinton favorability estimate and was raked over the goals by progs for giving Trump a fighting chance. Which is funnier still because if Dems had turned out like they took Trump seriously, they'd likely have won. But it was already in the bag for Clinton, so why bother?

[Injun, as in from India]

if Dems had turned out like they took Trump seriously,

I remember reading something about how Clinton's turnout machine was actually turning out Trump voters.

These were people who voted for Democrats in the past but were on the Trump bandwagon in 2016. So all the phone calls and door knocks worked against Clinton.

[commodious just wasting time]

I can see that being true. Clinton was nothing if not the conservative status quo candidate this time around: shackled to Obama's dubious legacy, having to toe the line wrt: social and environmental issues, and acting the reactionary to everything Trump said. And Trump by contrast was the renegade insurgent, novel and even exciting (so long as you didn't dwell on the details). Exposure to Trump turned off a great many leftists, but it's important to remember that the left played the conservative party this time around. For anyone else, exposure to Trump was refreshing.

[Injun, as in from India]

Nate Silver himself is a Libertarian. I think he voted for Johnson in 2012. Also, he had some cryptic comments in his podcasts which I inferred as saying he voted for Cruz in the GOP primary.

[ChipToBeSquare]

He's probably nothing close to a purist, but I do have that impression of him as well. Unfortunately he's staffed the website primarily with progressive types

[Greg Loves His Woodchipper]

I saw a quote where he said he is a economic centrist and a social liberal. That sounds to me a lot like how I believe a lot of Dem voters would describe themselves.

[Col. Chestbridge]

It's what passes for knowledge on the Internet.

[Brett L]

Does Washington leading an army to quell the Whiskey Rebellion when he himself was a distillery owner and whiskey maker put him as the leading crony capitalist in American history?

[Idle Hands]

no he was neutral party because he put all of his assets in a trust.

[straffinrun]

Simone tweet: William Smith and Tim Scott are house niggas

Tim Scott tweet response: Senate

[commodious just wasting time]

Some are saying the girl deleted her account. Looks like Republicans are already silencing critics. /proglogic

[Brett L]

She won't need it from the ICU burn unit.

[Kurmudgeonly Kristen]

Let me womansplain sumpin to y'all: DON'T GO INTO THE FUCKING OFFICE WHEN YOU'RE CONTAGIOUSLY SICK WITH A FEVER!. Goddamn it.

On a related note: could someone bring me some OJ?

[commodious just wasting time]

If I don't go to work when I'm seriously ill how can I prove to everyone that I'm seriously ill and shouldn't be going to work?

[Brett L]

Working from home rules. When I'm sick but don't want to take a day off, I can. When I'm "sick" and need a day, I can. Although I haven't had a mental health day since I had kids. Because you know what doesn't help my sanity? Sitting around with my toddlers an extra day.