A.M. Links: Michael Flynn Resigns, U.N. Condemns North Korea Over Ballistic Missile Test, Trump's Travel Ban Loses Again in Federal Court

• 

  Todd Kranin

  National Security Adviser Michael Flynn has resigned from the Trump administration.

• A federal district court judge in Virginia has issued a preliminary ruling against President Donald Trump's executive order banning travelers from seven majority-Muslim countries.
• The Senate has confirmed Steven Mnuchin as Treasury secretary.
• The United Nations Securities Council has condemned North Korea over its recent ballistic missile test.
• Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen is scheduled to appear before Congress today to deliver the agency's semiannual monetary policy report.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

National Security Adviser Michael Flynn has resigned from the Trump administration.

The president suggested the man step down to tweet more time with the family.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

I guess he wasn't actually in like Flynn.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Hello.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

I'd rather be in like Rufus, anyway.

[DEG]

Hello

[Monty Crisco]

[Insert "In like Flynn" joke here]

[UnCivilServant]

Has anyone here ad the indoor dining at Churchill Downs?

I was going over my road trip and realized that I would be arriving in Louisville before noon on a race day (I'd previously looked at the schedule because I had a tuesday to fill, but tuesday had no races and I ended up deciding to go to a Burbon Distillary instead). Since the races run in the afernoons, I'm contemplating spending it there. But if I was going to I'd have no time for lunch. So I'm looking at just upgrading to the buffet package and eating at the track.

What I'm wondering is if it is worth the ~$40 price tag. Has anyone ever been? If so is it any good?

[robc]

I have been to the track plenty of times, but only time I have eaten anything other than hot dog type food was when I was in a luxury box and we had catering. It was good.

So I am probably no help, but I have heard good things.

[robc]

I highly recommend getting a finish line suite early in Derby week and having Pat Day stop by and chat for an hour or so.

[LynchPin1477]

Horse racing is dumb. Horse meat is tasty.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

So... you're saying he should get the lunch?

/Whadda ya think they do with the losers?

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Meat is murder. Horse riding is slavery. Collecting horse semen is theft.

[Lee picked the wrong week....]

I didn't know Reason allowed horses to post here.

[Bee Tagger]

The Senate has confirmed Steven Mnuchin as Treasury secretary.

Now, to finda mneumonic to remember his name

[UnCivilServant]

Lysdexic munchin'

[Rich]

"Munchkin"

[Just a thought not a sermon]

288) This morning I was running a little late to work so I drove by the high school kids waiting for the school bus at 6:45. I notice whenever this happens there is a mini-van with interior lights on waiting near the bus stop?a parent with a special snowflake who can't possibly stand out in the weather, or walk .2 miles to the bus stop, or whatever the problem is.

Yesterday, my 7-year old daughter asked if she could ride her bike around the neighborhood by herself. She's been practicing a lot lately and is getting pretty good. It happened to be really windy?40 mph gusts?so I turned her around on those grounds. But I know she'll ask again soon. I'd love to let her. But how can I, knowing there are people like the high school mini-van parent, just waiting to interfere (or worse, possibly call the cops?) when she sees an unaccompanied seven-year-old happily riding her bike? I know this, from past experience.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Let's re-run a very special JATNAS that's pertinent to today's item:

19) I feel for this Maryland couple that's being investigated by CPS after letting their 10- and 6-year olds walk to the park alone. But notice, they were turned in by some nosy neighbor who called it in to the police. I just don't understand why people find it so hard to mind their own business.

A couple years ago I was walking home from a nearby park with my son (then almost 8). It's about three blocks from our house and there are two streets you can take to get back. He wanted to race me by taking one street, and I'd go the other way. I agreed, fully expecting him to be at the house when I arrived, but when I got there he didn't show up for several minutes. I asked him what took so long and he said a lady in a mini-van had stopped and asked him where his parent was and what he was doing away from home.

I could hardly believe it--he was out of my sight for no more than five minutes and somebody thinks it's a problem! Does this lady cruise around in her minivan looking for kids to pester or what? I mean, thanks for looking out for my kid, I guess. But mostly, Jesus, my son wasn't wandering around crying or anything, why do you feel the need to put your fuckin' nose in our business?

[Griffin3]

Tell the kid, anyone asks them anything, especially friendly looking ladies, yell "STRANGER DANGER" and run off. They _will_ be taken aback.

[Bob Boberson]

Tell the kid, anyone asks them anything, especially friendly looking ladies, yell "STRANGER DANGER" FUCK OFF SLAVER and run off. They _will_ be taken aback.

[Lachowsky]

Move way out in the country and get you some land. Having nobody around to put their noses in your business is a great thing. My 4 year old can go outside by himself. He knows to stay within the fence in the back yard. Honestly, the only solution to busy bodies is to just get away from them.

[Griffin3]

Actually, they don't even have to stay in the yard. Out here in the country, my 7 and 8 year old bike/scooter up to the pharmacy to get ice cream floats all by themselves. Cut through a couple neighborhoods, every now and then get stopped and asked how they've grown so much. It's a different world, a one stop-light town.

'course, here, even 6 year old girls get .22 rifles for their birthdays.

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

Theory: Griffin is a time traveler from 1956.

[Fist of Etiquette]

They should issue permits for a fee so that parents can let their kids ride bikes alone. That would add to the coffers and protect the children's safety.

[Trials and Trippelations]

And the pedophiles that would fill the position of biking alone permit writer would get the benefit of diddling children and job security with a sweet pension.

[Citizen X - #6]

National Security Adviser Michael Flynn has resigned from the Trump administration.

Well, that was fast.

[Citizen X - #6]

What i should have said was:

Guess he's no longer in like Flynn.

[Bee Tagger]

how dare you

[straffinrun]

You were talking about Errol. He was referring to Chuck.

[Juice]

Why wasn't the headline Out Like Flynn?

[commodious rebrands]

And so it begins, whatever it is.

[Lee picked the wrong week....]

Dumbass Flynn lied to Pence and got him to vouch for him in the media. I'd can him too.

[John DeWitt]

The two picks I disliked the most were Flynn and Sessions. One down, one to go. But who am I kidding...

[Free Society]

Sessions is absolutely my least favorite cabinet pick. In fact everyone that was floated as possible AG pick was awful. I think this indicates that Trump will be worse on criminal justice issues than any other sphere of policy.

[John DeWitt]

Agreed. Flynn was way too hawky for my liking, but Sessions is going to be a bitch. Can't wait until he starts using the internet of things to create a surveillance network that would make the Thought Police jealous.

[Free Society]

I'm not sure about his Big Brother credentials, but I'm more worried about him cracking down on the legal marijuana industry and expanding the fed's police powers over the states.

[Last of the Shitlords]

they won't. It would be a massive shit storm if they tried. The genie is out of that bottle, and the cork is not going back in.

[Free Society]

They can still hang their hat on the Supremacy Clause and the other genie that is out of the bottle, federally usurped police powers.

[Deven]

I don't like my AGs legislating from the DOJ. I don't think Sessions will do that, I think he'll follow the law, whatever it is, so I'm not so upset about him.

Of course there could definitely have been better choices, but he is not that bad, especially considering those we've had in the past.

[Bee Tagger]

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen is scheduled to appear before Congress today to deliver the agency's semiannual monetary policy report.

She should consider shouting it to promote her #brand

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

It's more of a #tattoo. And nobody wants to see it.

[Fist of Etiquette]

A federal district court judge in Virginia has issued a preliminary ruling against President Donald Trump's executive order banning travelers from seven majority-Muslim countries.

VIRGINIA? AS IN DC? AS IN DC COCKTAIL PARTY ATTENDEE?

[Citizen X - #6]

Fuck you for conflating the entire Old Dominion with that cesspit on the Potomac. DC is in Maryland. MARYLAND.

[UnCivilServant]

NoVA

[Citizen X - #6]

Occupied Northern Virginia doesn't count as part of Virginia.

[Juvenile Bluster]

If you get to disclaim NoVa, southern Florida gets to disclaim the rest of the state.

[Griffin3]

Please.
-- resident of Republic of West Florida

[Griffin3]

Oh, and you can keep Tallahassee, we don't want it.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Where is the dividing line between Southern Florida and the rest of the swamp?

[Cdr Lytton]

The St Marys River.

[John Titor]

West Virginia obviously exists because Virginia loves DC so much.

[Trials and Trippelations]

If VA doesn't want to be conflated with DC maybe it should legalize radar detectors!

[A Cynic's Guide to Zen]

Isn't Virginia 104% Federal Employees?

[Just a thought not a sermon]

My favorite thing about Richmond is that all the biggest companies headquartered there are things good people are supposed to hate: tobacco companies, energy firms, and the lawyers who defend them.

[Chipwooder]

That's my city.....but we're definitely getting more proggy all the time. A lot of assholes are moving down from the DC area these days.

[A Cynic's Guide to Zen]

Definitely moving up in the world though, eh?

[Chipwooder]

I suppose. In most ways the city is better than at any time in my lifetime, but it feels weird.

[Krabappel]

I'm not sure who sucks more, Northern Virginian rent seeking leeches, or my horse-"farming" limousine liberal neighbors in Albemarle County.

[Lee picked the wrong week....]

Raising horses is the ultimate social signal of I've got money and don't know what to do with it.

[Domestic Dissident]

It's a straight up tax scam. It doesn't take much land to get a sweet-ass tax break for being a "farmer".

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

Hey Weigel, go make another one of your pink pussy hats.

[Lachowsky]

How the hell is showing a loss on a piece of land you are operating a farm on a tax scam? I assume you think that having a business that shows a loss is also a tax scam. Maybe we should pay taxes on our losses as well as our profits.

[OneOut]

Because many of them fit the definition of hobby rather than working farm.

It is very similar to charterboat fishing. Who wouldn't want a tax writeoff for their boat because they hire it out a few times a year ?

Or be able to wrtie off your classic car hobby by calling it a museum and charging a few people a dollar to walk around in your garage and look at your cars.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Don't forget Louisa County and all the hippie commutes. Those kinds of liberals are all right in my book.

[Chipwooder]

It's always cracked me up that there are hippie communes in Louisa, because I've known some people from Louisa and they are the exact polar opposite of hippies.

[Citizen X - #6]

There's people in Louisa? In my experience the whole county is nothing but State Police speed traps.

[AlexInCT]

Probably because they have had to interact with the hippies?

[Rich]

tobacco companies, energy firms, and the lawyers who defend them

Beautiful.

[Citizen X - #6]

I work for some of the Richmond-based lawyers who defend tobacco companies and energy firms.

We also have a lot of clients who manufacture firearms.

[Bee Tagger]

The United Nations Securities Council has condemned North Korea over its recent ballistic missile test.

Then wiped their hands and declared the matter settled.

[StartSpreadinTheFakeNews, Jr.]

The United Nations Securities Council has condemned North Korea over its recent ballistic missile test.

Strongly-worded letter to follow.

[UnCivilServant]

But no Hans Brix?

[Sour Kraut]

They should call him, he's feeling ronery.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

You gonna measure their sugar levels?

[Bee Tagger]

You don't fire your silver bullet unless you have to.

[Fist of Etiquette]

It looks like they...

[dons sunglasses]

...went ballistic.

[A Cynic's Guide to Zen]

Pyong-yaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnng!

[Scarecrow Repair & Chippering]

Pying Pyong diplomacy

[Bee Tagger]

A federal district court judge in Virginia has issued a preliminary ruling against President Donald Trump's executive order banning travelers from seven majority-Muslim countries.

What's the plural of so-called judge? Is it like sons-in-law?

[Bee Tagger]

National Security Adviser Michael Flynn has resigned from the Trump administration.

It's in like Flynn, you dope!

[John Titor]

Frank Herbert, 'stealth' libertarian?

[DEG]

It's been a long time since I read Herbet, but I think he had some libertarian leanings. Bureau of Sabotage?

[JR Robble Dobbs]

The only leaning I attribute to Frank, is hack. He had one great work, Dune, like Lucas had one great work, Star Wars (the first movie only) and Frank continued to milk it for all it was worth, while that franchise continued to spiral the drain. Frank's son, Brian has continued that fine family tradition. I'll stop here, but I really should tell you how I really feel.

[John Titor]

The only leaning I attribute to Frank, is hack.

Them's fighting words on Reason lad.

[Mike Laursen]

Meh. I think he's a hack, too.

[Rhywun]

He wrote many things besides Dune books, you know. Many of them very good.

[JR Robble Dobbs]

Hmmm...How do you judge someone, by the good stuff they did, or by the worst stuff. I think if they did something so unforgivable such as "Chapterhouse: Dune" then all their works must be judged by it. Now if you can prove to me that it was ghostwritten, I can change my opinion.

[Free Society]

Someone asks you "Who is Frank Herbert?" would you say "The guy who wrote Chapterhouse."

"Who is George Lucas?"...."He's the inventor of Jar Jar Binks."

[Last of the Shitlords]

Or Steven Spielberg as the director '1941' and 'Always'.

[Rhywun]

Yeah, I think every writer has stuff they're not proud of.

Of course you judge someone by their best work. And frankly, I don't think Dune is that.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Should we judge Heinlein by "I Will Fear No Evil"?

[Volren]

I think unless your worst stuff is doing something like gassing a few million Jews, it's fair to judge by your best contributions.

Maybe he never recaptured the greatness of the first book, and the less said about his son the better, but the stinkers will be forgotten while Dune will live on.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

You most definitely judge people by their best stuff. If you are a Nietzschian, that is. We do not judge ancient Greece by their pederasty, but by Socrates and Aristotle.

[Free Society]

Hell, in mainstream circles Islam is often judged by centuries old scientific contributions that some Christians, Zoroastrians and Muslims made while living in Muslim territories instead of the gang rapes, social intolerance and incessant violence that seems to be the more common thread nowadays.

[UnCivilServant]

So why are Christians judged by a distorted recall of the crusades and the Westboro Baptists?

[Free Society]

Because the west has developed a taste for nihilism induced guilt.

[Fascist loofa-faced shitgibbon]

STEVE SMITH POSTULATE PEDERASTY IS BEST GREEK STUFF.

[Last of the Shitlords]

I prefer to judge authors by a random book report written in primary school. And it better be good.

[Mike Laursen]

Paul McCartney... isn't he the guy that wrote that "Ebony and Ivory" song.

[John Titor]

Also, real talk: I like THX 1138 better than Star Wars.

[Gadfly]

Depending on how you count great works of film (does a person have to develop the story, write the script, and direct the filming for it to count as their work or only do one of the three?), Lucas has had more than one great work. Lucas created both Star Wars and Indiana Jones, and even if those franchises spiraled (which they did) and he milked them (which he did) and his later work was crap (which it was), for those achievements alone he has cemented his place as a legendary filmmaker.

[Mike Laursen]

And "American Graffiti", which was a really good movie.

[robc]

As much as I love Dune: NO.

[Rhywun]

Check out the BuSab books

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

Frank Herbert: stealth libertarian boring writer.

[Lee picked the wrong week....]

*retreats into bunker, puts on helmet*

[John Titor]

Crusty Juggler: Harkonnen scum.

[UnCivilServant]

The "protagonist" was so awful and uninteresting that I ended up rooting for the cartoonishly evil pedophile instead. That's a sign of a poorly composed work

[Last of the Shitlords]

You just described several previous presidential elections.

[John Titor]

UCS (who hates everything) has clearly not accepted Muad'Dib into his heart.

Also, 40k is Dune's illegitimate grandson who ditched the philosophy classes and formed a heavy metal band.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Crusty loves Redwall, but he imagines the mice are chinchillas.

[straffinrun]

TN bill: Drivers who hit protesters immune to civil liability

A new Tennessee bill addresses protesters who block traffic. Under the proposal, if a person is blocking traffic during a protest or demonstration - and a driver hits them, the protester would not be able to sue the driver in civil court for any injuries. The bill says a driver would not be immune from civil liability - if the actions leading up to injuries were willful.

[A Cynic's Guide to Zen]

Seems like a resurrection of contributory negligence to me.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

As opposed to contributing to resurrection negligence?

"Your honor, he knew full well why they were going into that cemetery, without the requisite amulets, and he let them in anyway."

[Rufus The Monocled]

Good. Eradicate the arrogant incentive of protestors.

[StartSpreadinTheFakeNews, Jr.]

Am I allowed to target them and accelerate? If not, forget it.

[Fist of Etiquette]

National Security Adviser Michael Flynn has resigned from the Trump administration.

I guess it was out like Flynn.

[A Cynic's Guide to Zen]

Trump's next move: "Pin on Flynn."

[Kurmudgeonly Kristen]

Goddamn it. Who's gonna narrow their gaze?

[Rich]

*** misses Swiss 8-( ***

[Fist of Etiquette]

I have no use for cut-and-runners. You - you people who have chosen to stay and complete the mission so that it's accomplished - you are who I want to gaze upon my awesome wordplay anyway.

[Rich]

10Q, Fist.

"Who's with me?!"

[Private Chipperbot]

Let's go!

[Bacon-Magic <3 Hayek]

You guys really should check out the Reasonoids site. It doesn't mean you have to stop commenting here but it's a good way to keep in touch with all the cool kids.

[A Cynic's Guide to Zen]

Keep in touch. The good kind, I presume?

[Chipper Morning Wood]

What site? And do they really want non-yokels to crash their party?

[Bacon-Magic <3 Hayek]

Yes, it is not just yokels. No trolls though.

[SQWRLZ://cdn.panopticon.gov]

I'm having swiss miss too

*narrows gaze in the mirror*

[Rhywun]

I'm only halfway through the page and that joke has been made a dozen times already. No gaze awarded.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Of all people, I thought you got it. I thought you understood the nature of things. Where the joke lies.

[Citizen X - #6]

Constant repetition is the essence of humor. It is known.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Senate has confirmed Steven Mnuchin as Treasury secretary.

You know who else had a Kraut sounding name?

[John Titor]

Hieronymus Karl Friedrich von M?nchhausen?

[StartSpreadinTheFakeNews, Jr.]

Charles Krauthammer?

[Aloysious]

john jacob jingleheimer schmidt?

[A Cynic's Guide to Zen]

Kris Kringle?

[Juvenile Bluster]

Mr. Sauer?

[Kurmudgeonly Kristen]

Me?

[Get To Da Chippah]

Sgt. Schultz?

[Lee picked the wrong week....]

Mr. Sauer?

[Ken Shultz]

My dad?

[paranoid android]

Dr. Merkwurkdigliebe?

[Trolleric the Goth]

A Kraut by any other name...

[Chipwooder]

German Titov?

[Rich]

This guy?

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

Christoph Waltz?

[Sour Kraut]

Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern- schplenden- schlitter- crasscrenbon- fried- digger- dingle- dangle- dongle- dungle- burstein- von- knacker- thrasher- apple- banger- horowitz- ticolensic- grander- knotty- spelltinkle- grandlich- grumblemeyer- spelterwasser- kurstlich- himbleeisen- bahnwagen- gutenabend- bitte- ein- n?rnburger- bratwustle- gerspurten- mitz- weimache- luber- hundsfut- gumberaber- sh?nedanker- kalbsfleisch- mittler- aucher von Hautkopft of Ulm?

[Rhywun]

Oberb?rgermeister Meisterburger?

[Bacon-Magic <3 Hayek]

David Hasselhoff?

[Fascist loofa-faced shitgibbon]

Brute Schnitzelflex?

[Lachowsky]

Lachowsky

[Chips&Salsa]

Burkhalter

[straffinrun]

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen is scheduled to appear before Congress today to deliver the agency's semiannual monetary policy report.

She may be late. It takes Fed Chairs 8 years to get their car out of idle.

[Monty Crisco]

Remember Eleanor Holmes Norton parking job from a couple of years back? Christ, that is probably something she considers herself GOOD at....

[DEG]

For anyone interested, especially those who are considering stepping away from the Reason comments, whether temporarily or permanently, I co-admin a private email group strictly for the Reason commentariat. We've currently got about 40 members. It's Tulpa-free (with verification) and anonymous (unless you wish to voluntarily self-identify). For an invitation, email me at dgroves140 AT gmail DOT com with your handle, and we'll get you verified and added to the group.

We'll post this on the AM and PM links every day this week to give everyone a chance to see it.

LynchPin, I responded to your question probably a bit too late for anyone to see. If you post via e-mail, whatever your e-mail client sends for e-mail address/identity is shown to list members. There is a group page where you can post from where you can configure what you want seen. E-mail me for more details.

[A Cynic's Guide to Zen]

Why the migration?

[Rufus The Monocled]

Why do birds migrate?

[A Cynic's Guide to Zen]

Global warming? Obama said the migrant crisis was because of global warming.

[Rich]

Why not?

[Free Society]

Globalprogging

[Fascist loofa-faced shitgibbon]

"Why do birds migrate?"

To get to the other side.

[DEG]

Some folks have been leaving H&R because concerns of coverage, like Trump, sloopy's mom (police abuse case).

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Are there more members today than yesterday, when you first ran this announcement? How many members are migrating per day, do you think? How do you REALLY know Tulpa's not over there?

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

He is Tulpa.

IT'S A TRAP!

[Lee picked the wrong week....]

dajjal/AM was going bonkers last night looking for any kind of interaction. It was really kind of sad.

[juris imprudent]

Last of the Trollhicans.

[????? ????]

Takes a sockpuppeteer to know a sockpuppeteer!

[Monty Crisco]

That call is coming from INSIDE THE HOUSE!!!!!

[Last of the Shitlords]

Isn't everyone here actually Tulpa?

[DEG]

Yes, there are more members. As for a rate per day, try us tomorrow. I don't think what might be a one day spike is meaningful.

How do I know Tulpa isn't over there? Well, I don't because I can't read minds. The verification step is our attempt to weed out Tulpa and trolls. I think it is working. I hope it is working. I see no evidence of Tulpa infestation.

[LynchPin1477]

Thanks

[Juvenile Bluster]

Mike Flynn violated federal law. There should be an investigation.

At the same time. Prog people I keep seeing say it: This is not treason. Treason has a definition. This isn't it. Stop with the petitions and stop with the HURRR DURR LOOK AT THE PICTURES OF FLYNN AND BENEDICT ARNOLD memes.

(I share this here because if I said this to them, I'd get shouted down and accused of "whataboutism" or "defending Trump" or whatever.)

[John Titor]

How the hell is that whataboutism? Are you using examples from other administrations or something?

[Last of the Shitlords]

Since progressives are all trying to bring down America, you would think they should give a big thumbs up to anyone perceived as a traitor.

[straffinrun]

Moby bringing the truth.

1-the russian dossier on trump is real. 100% real. he's being blackmailed by the russian government, not just for being peed on by russian hookers, but for much more nefarious things.

There are 5 more.

[Sour Kraut]

the trump administration needs a war,

Dafuq. The neocons hate Trump because he says he wants less wars. While Hillary wanted more. But I suppose Moby was for Jill Stein anyway.

[american socialist]

yea that didn't make sense. the GOP wants him replaced but Trump wants to make war with Iran. Wouldn't the hawks in GOP want him then?

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Oh yeah, I remember Moby. He had a couple big songs like 15 years ago. Nice to know he hasn't died from vegetable overdose or anything.

[Monty Crisco]

lmao

[Tyler.C]

Man, I really enjoy his music, but I got to ignore his views.

[A Cynic's Guide to Zen]

This guy said, "I wish I was gay."

What a charmer.

[Rich]

"It can be arranged."

[commodious rebrands]

Sorry, sweetcheeks, gender is fluid and mutable, but sexuality is absolute.

[Juice]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YshNl851lUs

[Lost_In_Translation]

What's wrong with being peed on by Russian hookers?

[????? ????]

Moby did the music for the Bourne movies. He knows this stuff. Russian Karl Urban has got Trump over a barrel.

[Sour Kraut]

Moby is going to turn those red states blue by releasing an anti-Trump techno record.

[????? ????]

I would stand in line to #resist
There's always room in life to #resist
OH BABY
OH BABY
Then Trump fell apart, he fell apart
OH BABY
OH BABY
Then Trump fell apart, he fell apart

[commodious rebrands]

Wow. That is a guy who blends in with his roles.

[????? ????]

Treadstone was a fantastic program, so great, so successful, I don't know why we ever got rid of it. We made a horrible deal with this Bourne loser, so bad. Who negotiated this deal? I would have negotiated with him and gotten a great deal, brought him back into the program. We're gonna bring back Treadstone and it's gonna be so great, you're gonna be so safe, so happy.

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

Pam Landy is bad on national security and takes too many phone calls near windows.

[????? ????]

Listen, people - do you have any idea who you're dealing with? This is Donald Trump. You are nine hours behind the most petite-handed target you have ever tracked. Now I want everyone to sit down, strap in, and turn on every Twitter sockpuppet you've got. That would mean now.

God, I just love the Bourne trilogy so much. If John Woo did a Face/Off-Bourne crossover I would die happy.

[Aloysious]

The Dawn of Digital Music

By SAMIR S. PATEL
In 1951, the BBC recorded three melodies?"God Save the King," "Baa Baa Black Sheep," and Glenn Miller's "In the Mood"?generated by mathematician Alan Turing's pioneering Mark II computer. It is the earliest known recording of computer music?. Researchers recently analyzed and processed the recording, which includes the voices of people in the room, to restore the original sound of this founding artifact of the age of digital music.

For those fans of Turing and digital music.

[Sour Kraut]

Needz moar graduate degrees

Feeling 'Pressure All the Time' on Europe's Treadmill of Temporary Work

Armed with a master's degree in human resources and economics and business degrees, Mr. Terraz, a native of Lyon, France, was confident of finding work at a large company. Yet in the country's struggling economy, where more than 80 percent of all new hires are temporary, that proved virtually impossible.

Making it impossible to fire your permanent hires causes all the new jobs to be temporary -- unforseeable! No doubt some wise new regulations from the EU leadership will stomp out this corporate greed.

[commodious rebrands]

Does the Times make that connection, or is it the usual flap about struggling economy/corporate greed?

[John DeWitt]

Weird. It's like how there are less marriages because folks lose half their shit when they get married, but if they just shack up together and then call it off, all is good.

[John]

http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/.....out-trump/

After you get passed all of the throat clearing and virtue signaling, this is a interesting article. The Russians are figuring out Trump might not be such a great thing for them.

Putin now has to share the capacity to keep the world off balance with a new American president vastly more powerful than himself. More world leaders are watching anxiously to discover what Trump will do next than are worrying about what Putin will do next. Meanwhile, using anti-Americanism as an ideological crutch has become much more dubious now that the American electorate has chosen as their president a man publicly derided as "Putin's puppet."

Maybe not being openly belligerent and saying nice things about Putin wasn't so dumb after all? Then there is this

The Russian government fears not only Trump's downfall, of course, but also the possibility that he could opportunistically switch to a tough anti-Moscow line in order to make peace with hawkish Republican leaders in Congress.

[John]

To me it was always obvious what Trump was doing when he kept Tweeting nice things about Putin and letting the "Russian's hacked the election" meme run. He was boxing his opponents in and giving himself total freedom in how he deals with Russia. Had he come out and been a tough guy, the Democrats and media would have attacked him as a war monger and went after any negative thing he did towards Russia. But by letting them accuse him of being in Putin's pocket, Trump's opponents are now in a political corner. They will not be able to object to anything Trump does regarding Russia no matter how confrontational. The Russians are starting to figure this out. The other interesting quote from the article is

It is emblematic that, in their first telephone call, Putin refused to press Trump on lifting the sanctions or on America's discontinuing support for Kiev. Moscow has also chosen to ignore some harsh anti-Russian statements issued by certain members of the new administration.

Trump can now tell Putin "hey I have a lot of political pressure and anti Russian sentiment going on here so I can't really afford to be flexible" as our former President once said.

[american socialist]

I don't think he is playing 3d chess or whatever but i think it is clear he is smarter than he lets on.

Take the travel ban...he doesn't seem to be too in to re-instituting (perhaps i am wrong) as he can just write another order. If an attack happens from one of those countries, the dems are screwed. If not then he can say his admin did a good job.

He has changed the immigration debate to begin with instead of how many more refugees can come in to how many should we take

[John]

I don't think doing what he did is playing 3d chess. It is clever but not that clever. It just looks like 3d chess because the rest of our political and media establishments are so simple minded.

[american socialist]

Yea agreed. I also think he gets them to cover stupid crap....he shock and awes them they have no idea what to focus on.

Side tangent: The funny thing is all the protests and violence are in deep blue areas...those areas can really only go the other way (red) if they go somewhere at all. I am not sure that violent protests help the dems at all. And it just confirms to people in red areas the Ds are nuts

[Sour Kraut]

Even some Democrats have pointed out that protests just allow metropolitan progressives to virtue signal and feel good in each other's company and hang out with celebrities, that rather than avoid the hard work of reaching out and listening to people they find icky.

[american socialist]

Yea. Thing is i suspect there is a lot of metropolitan folks who are not crazy about politics and on the fence but lean D for various reasons. I dont see these protests as beneficial to them at all.

[Rich]

The funny thing is all the protests and violence are in deep blue areas

, areas without CC.

[Cdr Lytton]

CC DeVille?
community college?
closed captioning?

[Lachowsky]

armed americans

[Ken Shultz]

I think Trump has two goals with closer ties to Russia.

1) He wants to coordinate with Russia on ISIS in Syria like we coordinated with Stalin on defeating the Nazis and chasing the Japanese out of China.

2) He wants to isolate Iran, and that means getting Putin to withdraw Russia's support for Iran.

It's Trump goal #2 that should give Putin pause.

[John]

I agree. We need to pry Russia away from Iran. And you can't do that without giving them a reason to do so. Iran is a much bigger problem than Russia.

[spqr2008]

Iran is one of the worst countries on earth because of its leadership. If the Russians drop their support, sanctions against them will be easier to enforce, and some "technical" aid in assisting Israeli assassinations would be great.

[John]

Iran and Russia are historic enemies. And Russia is under more threat from Islamic terrorism than we are. Russia supports Iran because it is so dependent on oil revenue. A strong and belligerent Iran causes instability in the Middle East and keeps oil prices high.

[Konima]

It's hilarious to assume that Trump has a rationale behind the things he has done and is doing. Trump has proven to me that he can be understood at a surface-level too many times to fall into that thought trap again. None of this is clever misdirection. It's just hilarious incompetence that we are incapable of coming to grips with. At this junction, anything good that happens will have been by accident.

[John]

It is just hilarious incompetence. That might be compelling if I hadn't heard that all last year followed by how he had no chance to win the election. How many times does this guy have to hand his opponents their asses before you give up on that fantasy?

[LynchPin1477]

This sounds like ex post facto rationalization to me - which is pretty remarkable given that there really hasn't been time for anything of consequence to happen with regards to Russia. I suppose it could be true, but there is nothing in Trump's behavior that suggests this level of forethought or strategic thinking. If it works out well I'm sure he'll get credit for being a genius. If it doesn't work out well, I suspect everyone will conveniently forget about articles like this one, most of all the people who write them.

[John]

I suppose it could be true, but there is nothing in Trump's behavior that suggests this level of forethought or strategic thinking.

Nothing at all except his entire Presidential campaign where he did similar things time after time. Taking a position that baits his opponents into responding and take an opposite position that he wanted them to take is Trump's move. He does it time and again.

If it works out well, is up to how he uses the freedom of action he now has. But his obtaining that freedom was a very smart move.

[commodious rebrands]

Bullheadedness and public insensitivity to his many scandals, every one of which was supposed to be The Last Straw, is what won Trump over his voters. Maybe that's strategery on Trump's part, I doubt it, but in any event he didn't let himself be corralled by the media and he didn't signal weakness by apologizing. The flubs and miscues and talking out of his ass became a part of his persona, not a serious character defect like they'd be in any conventional candidate.

[John]

He did the same thing on immigration. He said all the stuff about Mexican immigrants and bulding a wall and banning Muslim immigrants. This causes his opponents to spend all of their time being outraged over what he said. He takes an extreme position which forced his opponents to respond and attack him as being extreme. This does two things. First, it gives him total freedom to then back off that position without his opponents being able to attack him. Second, it makes it appear that he is the only one who cares about the issue. All of the GOP candidates had plans and positions on immigration. But the voters never really knew that because all they heard was Trump saying he was going to build a wall and his opponents saying "you can't do that".

Same thing with the travel ban. Currently the Democratic position on Muslim immigration is that Trump is evil and wrong because he doesn't let enough Muslims from failed states into the country.

How many times does he have to do this before people realize it isn't by accident? I don't know why it is so hard to admit the obvious. Saying Trump isn't stupid and knows what he is doing politically is not the same as saying you agree with him. In fact, saying that makes your disagreements with him more credible.

[commodious rebrands]

Without relitigating the entire primary, he was up against sixteen revolving-door candidates with few notable standouts. Making outrageous, bombastic, indefensible allegations worked to the extent that he stood out. But it's not as if he doesn't have a long career of doing exactly that sort of thing. So the extent to which it was a brilliant strategy to continue doing the thing he's known for is at best a reflection of his media success. He's made feints toward the White House before and never gotten a footing. Was he unserious then and serious this time, I don't know. Probably he saw a good opportunity in a crowded field against a mushy Democratic opponent after eight years of lackluster Democrat rule. But that swings back around to my first premise, that he stumbled into success ass-backwards and it's served him well. That's no longer up for question, only whether it continues to serve (and I think it will), and more importantly whether it's replicable by anyone else. Because if it's down to Trump's persona, these too-clever-by-half tactics aren't going to help him or anyone else if he becomes deeply unpopular.

[John]

It worked this time because the media latched onto him and gave him lots of attention. Also, the public was ready to hear what he had to say. As I say below, this strategy only works if your opponents take the bait and spend their time responding to you. If they ignore you and just calmly present their positions, it just makes you look unreasonable.

The GOP had no idea how to deal with him. They couldn't help but go after him because they are generally not that bright and let the media convince them that Trump was destroying the party. Had the GOP just offered credible positions on immigration and trade and such, Trump likely would not have won.

The other thing that helped him is that the GOP had so badly shot their credibility on immigration, it was very difficult for them to present a reasonable position because none of their voters believed them and figured they were just lying and would sell them out.

Had there been another candidate that the GOP voters trusted and who was smart enough not to take the bait, Trump would have never won the nomination. There wasn't, so he did.

[commodious rebrands]

There wasn't, so he did.

You sure about that? He had the media presence and the "moderate" stances that wouldn't turn off the rural Obama whites he ultimately needed to win. He didn't want to touch welfare, talked out of both sides of his mouth about defense spending and nonintervention, favored protectionism and taking corporations and Wall Street to task for bailing on Americans. That shit is anathema to conventional GOP candidates, and he embraced it all. And he came out swinging early on immigration, his fait accompli. Others emulated him but could only follow in his wake, and I think that's because immigration may have been the lynchpin but they weren't going to prize away voters from Trump because their other positions re: welfare, trade, general social leftyism weren't in line.

[John]

You sure about that? He had the media presence and the "moderate" stances that wouldn't turn off the rural Obama whites he ultimately needed to win. He didn't want to touch welfare, talked out of both sides of his mouth about defense spending and nonintervention, favored protectionism and taking corporations and Wall Street to task for bailing on Americans.

That is the other aspect to his candidacy. He also figured out two things. First, that neither conservatives nor Republicans were that popular. So, the more conservatives and other Republicans accused him of not being one of them, the better off he was. The GOP isn't the stupid party for nothing.

[John]

The other thing he figured out was that both parties had left the majority of the public behind on some very important issues. Basically, Trump ran on a platform that was pretty close to what Democrats in the 1960s ran on. You know, back when Democrats were a hugely dominant and popular party. He figured out that the Democrats had gone way left and walked away from capitalism altogether and the Republicans had gone right. Republicans had become this weird combination of fake libertarians on trade and immigration but SOCONs on social issues. The public was tired of social issues, tired of Democratic socialism but also not the kind of fake libertarians on economic issues and immigration the Republicans were.

He ran a centrist campaign picking issues from both sides that were popular. In a healthy democracy, he would have been a Democratic nominee. In ours where the Democrats have gone stark raving mad and the Republicans have become a stupid and unprincipled fake Libertarians, he ran and won as a Republican insurgent.

[Konima]

Is it more likely that Trump is a secret, super secret, genius, or that he bumbled his way into success. The latter is infinitely more likely. He's president now. If ever there was a time to prove that you could speak adult sentences, it would be now. He isn't capable of that.

[John]

Yeah, anyone can bumble into being President. That is why so many people do it. And speaking cleverly is the measure of a President's competence. I mean look at Obama. He was such a clever speaker and such a great President.

[LynchPin1477]

Trump ran for president, what, twice before this last time? Honest question - was his strategy any different back then? If so, *maybe* you're on to something. If not, I suspect Trump is just Trump, and that it was larger cultural forces that explain his success this time rather than some intentional strategy.

People get fooled by this sort of thing all the time. Like the trader who has a string of good years and is hailed as a genius. Maybe it's true, but the argument loses a lot of weight when you realize that someone is going to have a similar run of success just by pure chance.

[american socialist]

The original times didn't appear to be really serious at all...just for publicity. Now i thought the same thing this time though he did have more of a campaign starting off...and now he is the POTUS.

I don't think you can just luck your way into POTUS the way he did. He flipped 6 states that obama carried twice.

[LynchPin1477]

Well sure you can. Suppose I ran for president on a consistently libertarian message and never made it out of the primaries. But then something changes in the culture - a bunch of people who really wanted smaller government but never really took action finally got sick of the taxes and regulation and nanny state and started to mobilize. Hard to say why that is or to predict it, becaues culture is an emergent phenomenon. But if I'm the beneficiary of that, it isn't necessarily because of anything I did, other than persist until I got lucky with some cultural changes. Persistence isn't nothing, but it's not really the same thing as a strategy.

Now, if I usually took a mainstream line until this one year, when I had some fairly unique insight that a libertarian message would take hold, then yeah, I think you can say I had a good strategy.

[commodious rebrands]

Less a matter of luck than a matter of right man for the time. When you get past the the mediocre differences... the woman, the black guy, the young guys with the ethnic surnames, the Bush, the outspoken libertarian, the unapologetic warhawk, the fat fuck from New Jersey... Trump was the only one who stood out from the conventional crowd, rhetorically and ideologically. It was a big bowl and Trump was the floatiest turd.

[John]

He was the right man for the right time. People were tired of bullshit poll tested rethoric and ate up Trump's outrageous rhetoric like candy.

[LynchPin1477]

right man for the time

That sounds like another way of saying "luck" to me 🙂

[John]

Just because you are lucky doesn't mean you are not also good. Most people who succeed succeed because they are good and because they are lucky enough to be the right man at the right time.

[commodious rebrands]

To my mind luck would have been winning the lottery. It's more like Trump fashioned a key that happened to fit the lock this time. That's part down to luck and part down to foresight and skill, but a big part down to crucial voters wanting him in their keyhole.

[John]

Trump ran for president, what, twice before this last time? Honest question - was his strategy any different back then? I

I don't know. But, the reason it worked this time is that he commanded so much attention. The way to deal with Trump is to ignore him and calmly present your positions. Do that and he looks unreasonable. For whatever reason, this time both the media and his opponents were incapable of doing that and played right into his hands.

The strategy is not foolproof. It depends on your opponents taking the bait and attacking you. If they don't take the bait, you just look unreasonable.

[commodious rebrands]

It certainly didn't work for Cruz. He was conciliatory toward Trump, then a bog-standard critic of Trump when the field narrowed. Trump's response? Citing a National fucking Inquirer story implicating Cruz' dad in assassinating FDR. That's not unreasonable, that's raging paranoid critical mass stupid. But nobody cared. Because Trump's voters were pulling more than half their weight on his behalf.

[John]

It didn't work for Cruz because he really didn't have a position and had very little credibility with GOP voters outside of movement conservatives. Cruz spent the entire fall of 2015 courting SOCONs and doing his "Jesus wants me to be President" routine. That got him nowhere. The public wasn't interested in social issues this year. They cared about trade and immigration and Cruz had very little to say about that. So Cruz didn't attack Trump but he didn't offer his own credible responses to Trump either. He ran a campaign like it was still 2004 and SOCON cultural issues could get you the nomination. So he ended up ceding the field to Trump though in a slightly different way.

The other problem Cruz had was that he tried to run as an insurgent against the establishment. Trump sucked all the air out of being an insurgent. So what started as an insurgent campaign against the establishment ended up being the establishment's last hope to stop Trump. In the end, Cruz never offered a consistent and coherent reason why he should be the nominee. First he was insurgent SOCON movement conservative and then he became the last hope of the establishment. It never worked or offered any appeal beyond movement conservatives.

[LynchPin1477]

I would argue that, even more importantly, it requires that a significant fraction of people agree with you going in. If not, it doesn't matter if your opponents engage with or ignore you, because you'll have no base of support. And it's not like Trump was really out there engaging in persuasion.

Like I said upthread, I suspect he was the beneficiary of a cultural shift that was outside his ability to control. Maybe he saw it coming and changed his ways to capitalize on it. But I haven't seen evidence to support that.

[John]

Yes Lynch pin.

You can't do it on just any issue. You have to do it on an issue that the public agrees with you on and feels like is being ignored. It was tailor made for immigration and trade and this election.

The advantage that Trump has as President is that there continues to be a huge divide between the political establishment and the public on multiple issues. So, he can continue to play the same game effectively even though the campaign is over. The establishment just refuses to learn or change its positions to better reflect public opinion. Trump is a very lucky man in his enemies.

[LynchPin1477]

Glad you came around to my point of view on this one 🙂

[Chip Your Pets]

Freedom of action? Seriously?

His presidency is under siege, including from members of his own party, less than a month in.

Right now, even his non-opponents are just waiting to see what happens. If the economy tanks, he's fucked. We really could see an impeachment and conviction. Many scenarios where his support in the Senate drops below 34.

[John]

Many scenarios where his support in the Senate drops below 34.

None of which are even remotely likely to happen. But sure. The GOP will never walk away from Trump. He has millions of supporters who would walk away from the GOP if he did.

If it makes you feel better to fantasize about him being impeached, whatever works for you. But you should understand those are fantasies that make you feel good and are not and never will be reality.

[WTF]

You know, people might at some point figure out that Trump is actually a pretty shrewd guy and really is a master negotiator. For Christ sake, he climbed to the top of the heap in the cutthroat NYC real estate world, he didn't do that by being a naive dipshit who is clueless and dumb. Whether you like him or not, at least have a sense of realism about his abilities.

[Chip Your Pets]

It only took 4 bankruptcies and god knows how many greased palms.

Also, business negotiation and political/diplomatic negotiation are two very different things.

[Konima]

Accounting for inflation, he is worth roughly the same as what he inherited from his dad. What business acumen. He didn't release his tax returns for a reason.

[Lurk Diggler]

That's simply not true. Trump was wealthier than his father before he inherited money.

[Konima]

Please source this.

[Chip Your Pets]

This doesn't make any sense. A tough stance on Russia is not something he would have been opposed on from nearly any corner in US politics. There's no reason for him to have some compricated pran for justifying it.

The "Russia hacked the election" meme detracts from his ability to govern and gives the Dems a justification for obstructionism... which is why the Dems love it.

[John]

This doesn't make any sense. A tough stance on Russia is not something he would have been opposed on from nearly any corner in US politics.

Go ask Mitt Romney how being tough on Russia worked out? The Democrats are total doves on Russia. And had Trump been hawkish, they would have called him a war monger and irresponsible just like they did Romney.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

I used to play a lot of strategic boardgames in high school. I had one friend who was known for being crazy unpredictable--attacking putative allies, weird gambles. He won the game more often than he crashed and burned. I don't think he actually had any real plan--but just by throwing everybody else off their carefully calculated strategies he opened the field for outcomes nobody could have predicted from the starting positions.

[John]

The problem with being open and predictable in international affairs is two fold. First, it makes every conflict a test of your credibility. If you shoot your mouth off and tell everyone what you are going to do, you end up drawing lines in the sand making it impossible to ever strategically retreat without losing your credibility. Second, if you are predictable, your enemies can manipulate into doing things that benefit them and that you didn't necessarily plan or want to do.

[StartSpreadinTheFakeNews, Jr.]

If you shoot your mouth off and tell everyone what you are going to do, you end up drawing lines in the sand making it impossible to ever strategically retreat without losing your credibility.

Oh come on John, that's crazy talk.

[Chipwooder]

This reminds me of when a friend of mine started playing in a regular poker game. Despite not really knowing what he was doing, he did OK and several of the longtime players hated playing with him. That surprised me, but what they said is he did so many things you're not supposed to do in hold 'em that he threw everything off in the game. He made it unpredictable which was more difficult for them to deal with.

[american socialist]

Yep lol i was just about to say the same thing. Are we friends?!

[commodious rebrands]

Martin the Tout: The thing is, mate, you need a bankroll.
Bernard: Yeah, I had some good cards. Just not in the right hand or in the right order.
Martin the Tout: Your moves were amazing. You kept on losing but you kept on going. That's what makes a gambler. That crowd were scared. They've already got a nickname for you.
Bernard: Really? Usually it takes years. What, like Tex or Doc, or...?
Martin the Tout: No. They call you The Goldmine.

[LurkinInaBuildin]

Best. Show. Ever.

[$park? don't care bout yo mom]

I'll call it semi-strategical mastermindery.

Once upon a time I played Rise and Fall of the Third Reich against my dad. He played the good guys and I played the Nazis. This brand of playing, plus my exceedingly lucky dice rolls, didn't lead me to total domination but did keep the allies out of Germany at the end. I ended up winning thanks to the victory point score for holding Germany.

[Conchfritters]

He who holds Kamchatka pretty much controls the game. That's why Russia will ever be our eternal enemy.

[Chip Your Pets]

I don't know about that. In my experience, those players tend to do all right when they first start playing with a group, due to the other players drawing unjustified inferences from their random activities. but after a few games the other players know to ignore them and just treat them as white noise. They can still fuck things up for one of the real players vs the other real players, which makes the game less fun, but they're never going to win. (a real world analogue is North Korea)

Strategy always beats unpredictability in the long run.

[LurkinInaBuildin]

Trump is only "unpredictable" to cynical cretins. He is hardworking, reasonably intelligent, and relatively honest. Sad!ly, those combined qualities have become rare among America's elite.

He seems to change his positions based on new information, but even if true that is different than the cynical, calculated dishonesty that people perceive in career lawyers and politicians.

Trump is a teetotaler who comes from solid European Protestant stock, and surprise, that 'secret formula' still succeeds even in the grim circus of modern America.

[LynchPin1477]

The United Nations Securities Council has condemned North Korea over its recent ballistic missile test.

Fun fact: Anytime you see "United Nation Security Council", you can replace it with "Crazy guy yelling in the street" without any change in meaning.

[Sour Kraut]

Or "cocktail party"

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

The crazy people who were yelling in the street are now desperately seeking attention on comment boards.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

I know, and they're making anti-Dune comments upthread.

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

I'm not desperate.

[John]

http://www.yahoo.com/news/us-w.....14064.html

The problem going forward is that once Trump hopefully takes the goverment's foot off the economy's throat a little bit, all that money the Fed has printed over the last 15 years is going to start to flow like the water over that dam in California. Then we will have to deal with real inflation.

Going back to Bush and especially under Obama, this country's economic policy has amounted to printing money to keep stock and asset prices artificially high but then keeping that from causing inflation by strangling economic growth with taxes and regulation. This has served to screw everyone but the wealthy and asset holders. Getting out of that bind is going to require a lot of work and a fair amount of pain. We have to get the government to stop killing growth with regulation but we are also likely going to have to raise the living hell out of interest rates to wring out all of the inflation the Fed and the last two administrations have injected into the system.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

My 401K is doing great, and my house if probably worth like 180% of what we bought it for back in 2002. But I'll be really interested to see how they do in a high-interest rate environment, which at this point is inevitable.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Also, how come left-wingers can believe that all the global warming we're not seeing is hiding in the oceans, but are completely unable to fathom that the worldwide buildup in liquidity is being expressed through the property bubbles occurring in many countries simultaneously?

[John]

Because they don't understand how markets and economies work. If they did, they wouldn't be leftists.

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

National Security Adviser Michael Flynn has resigned from the Trump administration.

The Trump Administration's theme song.

[John]

So this thread died before I could respond, but this was a remarkable comment yesterday.

Crusty Juggler - #2|2.13.17 @ 6:00PM|#

John makes his wife roleplay "Vidal/Buckley" once a month. She calls him a crypto-Nazi, he calls her a queer and threatens to punch her in the face.

Then he cums.

Then they switch roles.

Then he cums again.

That is really detailed. Do you think about that a lot? I don't know that I have ever commanded that much attention from someone. It is kind of flattering I guess.

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

It's all about you.

[John]

I guess so. I just hope I am worthy of the attention.

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

You should be flattered I allowed you to inspire my awesome power of creative wit.

[$park? don't care bout yo mom]

You aren't.

[John]

Crusty disagrees.

[John]

And apparently so do you.

[Cdr Lytton]

My wife asked me why i was laughing last night when I read this. I wasn't sure how explain it but fortunately she didn't press for details beyond "reading something online".

[John]

It is just my luck, I am finally the object of sexual fantasies and it is some guy on the internet. It couldn't be some 20 something fitness instructor. Noo. It had to be Crusty fucking Juggler.

Life sucks man.

[Citizen X - #6]

Well, my goodness!

[Rich]

LOL

[chemjeff]

For our Canadian friends:

Trudeau's reaction to Trump's offer for a handshake

There are some genuinely funny ones there.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

That's real class, though, isn't it?

[John Titor]

Meh. Trudeau sufficiently kowtowed to the Emperor. Methinks the Old Guard Liberals said "look, you can throw a bitchfit in private, but you've got to suck up to this guy, so close your eyes and think of NAFTA."

[John Titor]

Trump almost falling asleep like a grumpy cat when Trudeau was speaking French is way better.

[Lee picked the wrong week....]

He's a man's man, that Trudeau. Standing up for the little guy everywhere.

[????? ????]

Donald Trump Character Removed from Iconic Video Game 'MapleStory'

[Lee picked the wrong week....]

It's unclear whether the game company was afraid of offending Trump haters, who may see the character's inclusion as an official endorsement of the President. To be clear, there's nothing political about the character.

Everything is political, EVERYTHING

[Monty Crisco]

Lee - THEY POLITICIZED THE ACT OF TAKING A SHIT - what WON'T they politicize???

[John Titor]

It's so bloody weird to me seeing Ian Miles Cheong write this stuff, it's like I've fallen into the Mirror Universe.

[Kauzig Kristen]

Is it fucking Valentine's Day today? Maybe the Russel Stovers will be on sale. Gonna swing by the CVS.

[A Cynic's Guide to Zen]

With Zombie Jesus day just around the corner, I'd try and get in there this weekend for discount heartbox chocolate, before the fake grass shows up with markups.

[Kauzig Kristen]

Good idea. I hate Easter candy. Why does Zombie Baby Jeezus get the worst candy?

[Juvenile Bluster]

I know you're not talking about Cadbury Eggs, which are the greatest confection that god has ever inspired man to create, are you?

[Private Chipperbot]

Ugh. They now have mint ones that look disgusting.

[Kauzig Kristen]

Can't stand 'em. Maybe if they made them in dark chocolate. Or if Cadbury completely changed its recipe for all its chocolates. Cadbury is the Bud Light of chocolates.

[commodious rebrands]

Ew. Seriously.

[Fist of Etiquette]

ON EASTER HE'S NOT A BABY.

[Kauzig Kristen]

Exactly...he's Zombie Baby Jeezum.

[Azathoth!!]

when it gets close, look for a brand called 'Superior Confections'. Target gets mid sized and large hollow rabbits and small solid ones.

you won't be disappointed

[Griffin3]

Feb 15 is national Half-Price Candy Day. No discounts today, because people are desperately buying candy (and roses) for their girlfriends right until closing time.

And curse Wal-Mart and their just-in-time predictive supply orders. Nothing left but 1.5 sections of waxy faux-chocolate.

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

According to the Daily News, the sisters dropped the hat 'horsing around' on the elevator and after asking the guard, Jenny lost her balance leaning over trying to retrieve it and toppled over.

'It was one of the worst things I've seen on account of the stupidity of it all,' a source close to the investigation who has seen the footage said.

Coroners later discovered that Santos had a blood-alcohol content of 0.167, which is more than twice the legal limit for drivers.

She suffered a blunt trauma to the head so severe that doctors thought she had been shot.

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

What the frick happened there? Html much, bro?

Anyway, sad story, and white girl drunk is one of our nation's greatest threats.

[Kauzig Kristen]

You guys Crusty always brings me the very best violence.

[Lee picked the wrong week....]

A safety expert told the Daily News on Monday that Santos' death could have been prevented if the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the state-run agency which owns the land on which the World Trade Center sits and which operates the Oculus, had installed a $5,000 outrigger handrail alongside the escalator.

I foresee outriggers for everyone.

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

Drunk girl proof everything.

[WTF]

Her death also could have been prevented had she not been drunk as shit riding on the railing pretending to fly.

[Lee picked the wrong week....]

There oughta be a law....

[Rhywun]

I have no idea what an "outrigger handrail" is but I knew dollars to donuts looking at those escalators for the first time that something horrible would happen there and probably sooner rather than later.

[Rhywun]

I walk past that every day - I hate that I was looking for the spot yesterday morning.

[A Cynic's Guide to Zen]

Morbid curiosity is still curiosity, which kills cats, dontchaknow.

[Rich]

Multiple cars caught fire at the main parking garage for Disneyland guests

"It's just an accidental fire that started with one vehicle then quickly communicated to other vehicles."

And *still* some folks want cars to "talk" with each other.

[Domestic Dissident]

Gee, I wonder if it could have been one of those electric cars with batteries that tend to explode (ahem, Chevy Volt, ahem).

[John]

Why are journalists so often such bad writers? Fires spread. Why use a strange and awkward word when there is a simple and appropriate one available? Its really not that hard folks.

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

The investigation into the cause of the fire was underway, officials stated. Foul play was not suspected as a factor, according to police Sgt. Daron Wyatt.

"It's just an accidental fire that started with one vehicle then quickly communicated to other vehicles," the sergeant said.

It was a quote.

[$park? don't care bout yo mom]

Quotes have a tendency to befuddle John.

[John]

That explains it. It was a cop talking. Cops talk exactly like that. They use awkward words and phrasing like "I then exited the vehicle and apprehended the suspect" as a way to keep themselves from talking as they do among each other. If they did that they would say something like "so I get out of the car and grab this shit bag by the neck and slap his ugly face into the pavement" instead. Such talk doesn't usually go over well in court.

[????? ????]

Turns out Shen Yun doesn't just have annoying commercials and cryptic billboards. It's also EVIL ANTI-CCP PROPAGANDA BY THE EVIL FALUN GONG:

Falun Gong, a cult group, is notorious among overseas Chinese compatriots. In recent years, it orchestrated a so-called Shen Yun show, which disguises itself as a form of traditional Chinese art performance, in order to deceive many foreigners.

It has been several years since the Shen Yun show was first staged. The company behind the show, Shen Yun Performing Arts, was founded in 2006 by practitioners of Falun Gong. The kitschy show continues to be staged for several reasons.

For starters, Falun Gong is good at disguising itself. It masks its political propaganda behind traditional Chinese culture, and inept actors as excellent performers. [SHOTS FIRED] The various singing and dancing performances in the show deceive the spectators who are interested in the Chinese culture but have limited knowledge of it.

If the few joys we are to get out of the Trump admin are bumbling foreign policy and "trolling", I really hope he ends up cavorting with the Falun Gong somehow. It would be hilarious.

[Rhywun]

It's cute that China thinks the rest of the world takes its official proclamations seriously.

[Monty Crisco]

Hard to read that article over the deafening whine of the axe grinding....

the PRC!! Countering propaganda with EVEN MORE OBVIOUS propaganda since 1949!!! Praise Mao!!!

[Citizen X - #6]

Isn't Falun Gong's entire ideology basically "be nice to people and exercise more"? Weird how threatening the PRC finds that.

[Lee picked the wrong week....]

My morning NPR rage inducer:

White Idaho Democrat insinuates that every white that moves to Idaho from California because of crime is a racist.

"The economy has changed enormously," says Mary Lou Reed, a Democrat, who represented Coeur d' Alene in the state legislature until 1994.

Reed also moved here from California, albeit in 1956. She recalls how north Idaho was once the country's top silver producer and union Democrats once ruled up until the late 1980s.

"The lumber mills are all gone, the mines are shuttered down, we do not have labor unions that are active," she says.

Today, Kootenai County doesn't have a single Democrat in an elected office.

For Reed, there's one thing that no one talks about out in the open at least with all these demographic changes.

Farmers Are Courting Trump, But They Don't Speak For All Of Rural America
THE SALT
Farmers Are Courting Trump, But They Don't Speak For All Of Rural America
"We're very, very white up here," she says. Kootenai County is 95 percent white according to the most recent census, compared with much of California today, where whites are in the minority.

She insists race plays a factor in some people's decisions to move up here.

"No question the white flight is to flee from a multi-racial situation into one into in which everybody looks the same," she says. "It's very dull."

[american socialist]

Hasn't Idaho always been overwhelmingly white?

[Chip Your Pets]

Sacajwea wants a word with you.

[Free Society]

Mary Lou Reed

It's been a difficult transition for him.

[Chipwooder]

Hey, babe, sometimes you just gotta take a walk on the wild side.

[The Fusionist]

(S)he has a lot of nerve calling other people racist, with his remark about "colored girls."

[spqr2008]

Doo doo-doo doo-doo doo-doo doo-doo doo doo.... Now, if I were a politician with that name, I'd have a fundraiser where the plate costs are the normal insanely high amount, but I sing some Lou Reed to entertain the guests, so they shut me up with more money!

[Free Society]

"No question the white flight is to flee from a multi-racial situation into one into in which everybody looks the same," she says. "It's very dull."

Yes high trust societies, low on crime and devoid of rank tribalism are so boring.

[Rhywun]

It's almost like the last 70 years never happened.

[Krabappel]

We all hate when the Californians start moving in.

[Idle Hands]

Journalist says Omarosa Manigault bullied her and mentioned a 'dossier' on her:

Manigault, who is now a communications official in the Trump administration, got into a heated argument with a White House reporter just steps from the Oval Office last week, according to witnesses. The reporter, April Ryan, said Manigault "physically intimidated" her in a manner that could have warranted intervention by the Secret Service. Ryan also said Manigault made verbal threats, including the assertion that Ryan was among several journalists on whom Trump officials had collected "dossiers" of negative information.

Manigault, a onetime friend of Ryan's, declined to address Ryan's accusations on the record, offering only this emailed statement: "My comment: Fake news!" She did not specify what she considered false.

This is awesome, I'm like 60% sure this never happened. But god I hope this happened.

[Idle Hands]

her in a manner that could have warranted

lol.

[commodious rebrands]

"could have"

[Crusty Juggler - #2]

Two black women having an argument? The Secret Service knows not to get involved in that.

[A Cynic's Guide to Zen]

Oh. My. God. Crusty. Just. Uh. Wow. I. Can't. Even.

[Krabappel]

In high school in Hawaii, when two big Samoan girls were fighting, you didn't get involved in that, either. 😮

[Fascist loofa-faced shitgibbon]

I'd suspect you of being Barry Obama but I know Punahou doesn't admit big Samoan girls, just big Samoan guys (football, etc.)

[spqr2008]

My cousin's daughter tried to stop a fight between two Samoan girls (they live in Hawaii) at school, and the school ended up zero tolerance policying them all to a two week suspension. School Administrators are dicks.

[Citizen X - #6]

two big Samoan girls

What is this, John pr0n day?

[Not a True MJG]

Mmhmmm.

[Chip Your Pets]

I am praying that she does an interview on Piers Morgan's show.

[Monty Crisco]

Widely known that when the left has nothing on you they just make shit up.... which is why the MSM wants to sell the idea that saying "fake news" is the same as the "n-word". They simply want to own the terms of debate and disallow any counter-argument, like the intellectually dishonest shit-weasels they are....

[waffles]

Taos sucks, don't go. I love you Kachina.

[commodious rebrands]

I have fond memories of Taos 🙁

That said, I haven't been in over a decade, since before they opened it up to snowboarders.