Matt Lauer Fired for Sexual Misconduct, Supreme Court Considers Cell-Phone Privacy, Even InfoWars Is Condemning Trump's Latest Tweets: A.M. Links

• 

  Abaca Press/Van Tine Dennis/Abaca/Sipa USA/Newscom

  The TODAY show's Matt Lauer has been fired from NBC for "inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace."

• President Trump's Wednesday-morning retweets of anti-Muslim propaganda videos from a far-right British group have earned criticism even from generally pro-Trump corners.
• The Supreme Court is considering a major privacy case today.
• A contraception shortage is looming in Venezuela.
• Congress is targeting "revenge porn" and considering changes to Congressional sexual-harassment training policies.
• Bitcoin worth has hit $10,000.
• On trial for war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, Slobodan Praljak drank poison in the courtroom just before the judge could hand out his sentence. He's alive and the hearing has been postponed.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and don't forget to sign up for Reason's daily updates for more content.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

...Matt Lauer has been fired from NBC for "inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace.

NBC just created what will become an inconvenient precedent.

[Rich]

You're saying *AL GORE* is next?!

[Conchfritters]

I'm going to not miss that smug bastard. Who am I kidding - - I haven't watched that show since their last smug bastard Bryant Gumbel was on the air.

[Bearded Spock]

I suspect many liberal men in the Media are beginning to feel like Robespierre right now: "You know, maybe this is kinda getting out of hand...."

Look to see more editorials extolling the virtues of Due Process and Innocent Until Proven Guilty.

[Palin's Buttplug]

I suspect a lot of this "harassment" is just your run-of-the-mill hitting on women who then feel awkward by it. I worked for big software companies (Oracle) and us guys fished off the company dock all the time. I am sure if I had been famous they would be telling about how I "harassed" a few of them (but mostly had many consensual relationships).

[$park? leftist poser]

us guys fished off the company dock all the time.

That's a weird euphemism for jerking off into a potted plant.

[Citizen X - #6]

(but mostly had many consensual relationships)

This is even less believable than your insistence you paid your bet.

[Juice]

Is it really a relationship when it's through the wall of a restroom stall?

[Chipper Morning Truthjammer]

It's just another dick in the wall...

[Bearded Spock]

*nods approvingly, golfclaps*

[BestUsedCarSales]

Good job.

[Chipper Morning Truthjammer]

Mostly???

[Palin's Buttplug]

Where is "may I massage your breasts?" on the HW/Trump sexual predator meter?

1 = non invasive

5 = pussy grabbing

10 = rape

[Citizen X - #6]

That's about a 2 on the Predator meter, but it comes damn close to maxing out the Gross Creep meter.

[Chipper Morning Truthjammer]

But it's like an 8 on the Alien meter, for obvious reasons.

[Citizen X - #6]

Well, it certainly doesn't sound remotely like anything a human would say.

[Domestic Dissident]

You've never worked for any software company, you lying JournoList piece of shit.

[Hail Rataxes]

lol

[Sevo]

"I worked for big software companies (Oracle) and us guys fished off the company dock all the time."
Last we heard, turd worked in 'finance', which, if true, probably had him emptying the trash after the office closed.
Now he worked for Oracle? Sure; that security uniform looked real good on you behind the registration desk.

[Bacon-Magic glib reasonoid]

He is Oracle, and God, and Yakub. He is all and we are none. *meditates*

[BestUsedCarSales]

To be fair, Oracle is 90% copyright lawyers and accountants. And PB working there would also fully explain the state of Oracle over the last 20 years.

[colorblindkid]

Now that people are finally having a "come to Jesus" moment about Bill Clinton, has anybody even asked George Stephanopoulos about his role during the Clinton administration? He was one of the leaders of the slut-shaming commission. Half the people I tell don't even know he worked for Bill Clinton. Having him host GMA is like having Karl Rove host GMA.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Hello.

"On trial for war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, Slobodan Praljak drank poison in the courtroom just before the judge could hand out his sentence. He's alive and the hearing has been postponed."

How do you say 'D'oh!' in Yugoslavian?

[Bacon-Magic glib reasonoid]

Yugo

[IceTrey]

They obviously were looking to dump him over his salary. They took one day to review one complaint in 20 years, c'mon.

[Dead inside]

Actually by many accounts, including investigations by "Variety" magazine, there have been complaints lodged for 20 years, It seems more to mirror the Harvey Weinstein :everyone knew and turned a blond eye" phenomenon,

[Dead inside]

or blind eye. a Freudian slip perhaps.

[Fist of Etiquette]

President Trump's Wednesday-morning retweets of anti-Muslim propaganda videos from a far-right British group have earned criticism even from generally pro-Trump corners.

I hope Benghazi is safe.

[Fist of Etiquette]

A contraception shortage is looming in Venezuela.

More little burdens on the state is the last thing they need!

[Rich]

They don't have toilet paper, much less Pampers!

[Just Say'n]

I thought it was bad when people were starving there, but the possibility that people might be procreating- ill!

[Chipper Morning Truthjammer]

It's time to stock up on a palette of condoms and toilet paper at Costco.

[Rat on a train]

Are you proposing a palette drop from a C-130? Imagine the street riot.

[Nwallins]

What, and support the capitalist pigdogs? Good comrades shop at CastRo

[Hank Stamper]

Or goto move for a Communist regime facing starvation - let them eat their children.

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

[Bee Tagger]

The Supreme Court is considering a major privacy case today.

You've already said far too much.

[Citizen X - #6]

Congress is targeting "revenge porn" and considering changes to Congressional sexual-harassment training policies.

I wonder just how closely those two items are related.

[lap83]

They're studying it for the children! Wait, that came out wrong...

[Citizen X - #6]

Some of them undoubtedly are.

[BestUsedCarSales]

These sex crimes investigators are so worn down now that they ejaculate from the back of the knee.

[Fist of Etiquette]

On trial for war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, Slobodan Praljak drank poison in the courtroom just before the judge could hand out his sentence.

And he was just one day from retirement.

[Chinny Chin Chin]

He was gettin' too old for this shit?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Congress is targeting "revenge porn" and considering changes to Congressional sexual-harassment training policies.

And this time... it's personal.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Supreme Court is considering a major privacy case today.

Shhhhhhhh.

[Bee Tagger]

drank poison in the courtroom just before the judge could hand out his sentence. He's alive and the hearing has been postponed.

If the poison doesn't bilious you must recess

[Chipper Morning Truthjammer]

But if it doth froth forth then god bless

[Palin's Buttplug]

The Internet Is Dying. Repealing Net Neutrality Hastens That Death.

Because net neutrality shelters start-ups ? which can't easily pay for fast-line access ? from internet giants that can pay, the rules are just about the last bulwark against the complete corporate takeover of much of online life. When the rules go, the internet will still work, but it will look like and feel like something else altogether ? a network in which business development deals, rather than innovation, determine what you experience, a network that feels much more like cable TV than the technological Wild West that gave you Napster and Netflix.

https://goo.gl/NpE89B

What the GOP central planners don't get - the internet is supposed to be a grass roots end-to-end network and not tightly controlled at chokepoints by the giant ISPs like Comcast and AT&T,

[Citizen X - #6]

It should be tightly controlled by the FCC instead!

[$park? leftist poser]

What if Net Neutrality ends and nobody notices the difference?

[Conchfritters]

It will be like MTV?

[Bee Tagger]

Sounds like fertile ground for something better to eventually replace it.

[Zeb]

Yeah, that's the other thing. The Internet as we know it now isn't the only possible way that computer networking can happen. Especially as wireless becomes ubiquitous.

[Zeb]

I'm still not seeing much reason to believe that this is a problem that needs solving.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Tell that to the new FCC regime.

[BestUsedCarSales]

I'm now wondering. Did you misunderstand Zeb? Did I misunderstand Zeb? Or did you think that was a burn?

[Bubba Jones]

I think VOIP data should get precedence over bittorrent.

But that's just me, I guess.

[Chipper Morning Truthjammer]

What if I told you there is this thing called QCI?

[Number 2]

So what you're telling us is that internet giants like Google, Netflix, and Twitter are supporting Net Neutrality even though it harms them and helps startup potential competitors?

[Adam330]

This might be why the internet giants like Google and Netflix are lobbying FOR these rules. They want to make sure the start-ups can compete with them.

[Tony]

Libertarians believe in at least one of these equally plausible statements:

If it's not government, it can't affect freedom.

The planet Jupiter is made of Cool Whip.

[Citizen X - #6]

It shouldn't be possible, but your strawmen are actually getting stupider.

[MarkLastname]

What freedom are the ISPs violating? Do tell us.

[Bra Ket]

Once your "startup" has so many customers downloading so much data that you need netflix-sized bandwidth to serve them all, you can afford to pay for it like netflix does.

[Citizen X - #6]

On trial for war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, Slobodan Praljak drank poison in the courtroom just before the judge could hand out his sentence. He's alive and the hearing has been postponed.

He's a Serb. That poison was probably just his regular afternoon pick-me-up.

[Chipper Morning Truthjammer]

You know who else had an unconventional afternoon pick-me-up, and what the pick-me-up was?

[Citizen X - #6]

BUCS/elaborately degrading medical pornography?

[BestUsedCarSales]

Just to clarify, the porn itself is elaborate. It is a completely standard amount of degrading.

[Citizen X - #6]

Shreek/cocaine cut with Comet?

[Citizen X - #6]

Hihn/going down to the nickelodeon to catch a picture show?

[BestUsedCarSales]

Stop, you're making Hihn sound adorable.

[Citizen X - #6]

John/20 minutes in the bathroom with a Lane Bryant catalog?

[Citizen X - #6]

Crusty/[redacted pending investigation]

[Bacon-Magic glib reasonoid]

ENB and twit shaming a guy over a sammich?

[Citizen X - #6]

Simple Mikey/smearing his shit just everywhere?

[loveconstitution1789]

Citizen/ Glib one-liners?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Bitcoin worth has hit $10,000.

It's backed by bits, people!

[Bee Tagger]

I wonder if bitcoin is playing the long game here and will one day announce: "it's been BITS the whole time, not BYTES!" and pocket the change on their way out of town.

[Conchfritters]

JP Morgan is only trading at 1/100th of that price.

[loveconstitution1789]

I started a band call 999 megabytes. We haven't got a gig yet.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Not bad

[$park? leftist poser]

But inaccurate.

[Citizen X - #6]

I wonder where he copied and pasted that from.

[Azathoth!!]

1987

[loveconstitution1789]

citizen-cant-tell-a-joke.com

[Citizen X - #6]

Are... are you dissing your own joke by claiming it's a bad one that you stole from me?

[Bee Tagger]

President Trump's Wednesday-morning retweets of anti-Muslim propaganda videos

At this rate, he'll never be one of the announcers on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball

[Rich]

The TODAY show's Matt Lauer has been fired from NBC for "inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace."

Fire 'em all. Let Goddess sort 'em out.

[Fist of Etiquette]

He's alive and the hearing has been postponed.

Until he can procure more poison.

[Citizen X - #6]

Uh oh. If you click the link, there's an update reporting that he died. [sad trombone sounds]

[Scarecrow Repair & Chippering]

Every trombone sounds sad, except Turk Murphy's.

[Chipper Morning Truthjammer]

I make trombone sounds all the time, and they are definitely not sad.

[BestUsedCarSales]

They are a Joyful Noise.

[Rich]

Congress is targeting "revenge porn" and considering changes to Congressional sexual-harassment training policies.

"Alright, people, this viewgraph shows the proper way to implement 'revenge porn'."

[Chipper Morning Truthjammer]

Is it a pie chart? A squat cobbler pie?

[Rich]

On trial for war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, Slobodan Praljak drank poison in the courtroom just before the judge could hand out his sentence. He's alive and the hearing has been postponed.

Update: He has died.

[Rich]

But I see X knew that.

I blame net neutrality or something.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Damn ISPs are favoring packets filled with glib one liners.

[Citizen X - #6]

It's a gift. Or a curse. I forget.

[Nwallins]

This is bearish for Slobodans

[Just Say'n]

"Wednesday-morning retweets of anti-Muslim propaganda videos"

Posting a video of ISIS murdering people is 'anti-Muslim'? Are you suggesting all Muslims are supporters of ISIS? It may be in poor taste and unbecoming of the office, but that's par for the course for him.

[Zeb]

It isn't necessarily so. But from the titles of the videos and the context of the original poster of the videos, it seems pretty clear that they were intended as anti-Muslim (or anti-Muslim migrant/refugee at least) propaganda.

[Bacon-Magic glib reasonoid]

Which is funny because it was ISIS propaganda first but we don't want to talk about that.

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

*sigh*

Yes, they are anti-Muslim propaganda videos, because they are propaganda videos released by an anti-Muslim political group.

Which video is ISIS murdering people? I saw that one was Egyptian Islamists murdering anti-Morsi protesters in 2013. Then there is the "Muslim migrant beats up Dutch boy on crutches!" video; according to the Dutch media, the bully is neither Muslim or an immigrant.

[Ron]

and you trust the media to be accurate on that? why they've been proven liars before about such things

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

I give more credence to professional media and the claim of the victim's sister over the claim of a garbage nationalist group (or Dutch trolls sharing a video online, whichever came first).

Literally the only reason to think that the video is of a Muslim immigrant is because that's what was entered as the video's title. That is all. That, and the bully has dark hair, I guess. But that *ahem* might be racist.

But sure, you're the sophisticated one here, engaged in a righteous crusade against fake news.

[Just Say'n]

Fuck your *sigh* MJ.

That is all

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

That settles that, then.

[Just Say'n]

FYI- My reference to ISIS was a mistaken confusion with one of the videos that showed some ISIS member destroying a Virgin Mary statue. I didn't realize the source of the videos when I wrote the comment and after reading the article further I see that the Dutch clip was bogus.

My comment on your *sigh* still stands though.

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

So my sigh was warranted.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Sigh is a great black metal band. Never stop pimping them MJ. Scorn Defeat.

[Just Say'n]

You are beyond insufferable

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

*sigh*

You clearly suffer me on the reg, Waka. Try to be accurate about something today.

[Just Say'n]

Going forward, I'll be sure not to admit an error. And you go on being an ass. It suits you well

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

You admit the error, you admit the sigh. PACKAGE DEAL

[Rich]

Well, at least there's some GOOD news: Cataclysmic 'super eruption' is MUCH closer than we thought, warns latest research

[$park? leftist poser]

The eruption will be set off by a dead Serb? I don't get it.

[Rich]

Oops.

*** gets coffee ***

[Citizen X - #6]

That is every Serb's dream.

[Chipper Morning Truthjammer]

You just got Serbed.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Eh.

[$park? leftist poser]

It's kinda weird how an allegation of misconduct is enough to effectively unperson someone now.

[Rich]

It's allegations of misconduct all the way down!

[Conchfritters]

Just a few months ago mere allegations weren't enough to keep Trump from the White House. Things have turned dramatically.

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

It doesn't look like it will keep Moore from the Senate, either. As every libertarian should know, politics and businesses have different concerns and standards.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Unfortunately, those businesses need to answer to the people.

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

1. How long ago was this not the case?

2. If you're referring to Lauer, there appears to be serious and well researched allegations. It's not as if NBC's HR department got a complaint and fired him hours later.

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

(correction: that is the timeline that NBC is trying to put out there, but it's just more ass-covering of the fire-alleged-assaulters kind)

[Adam330]

I find it hard to believe they didn't do a serious internal investigation before firing him. This is a guy with a $20M a year contract. He's of obvious value to the network, so they're not going to just dump him on an unsupported allegation. And I doubt that his contract lets them fire him without cause.

[Praveen R.]

Hollywood and the media paying for years of hypocrisy on this issue. However, let' not take the right wingers off the hook. What happened to Roger Ailes when he got fired? He got a nice payoff AND Trump actually hired him asa consultant . And Trump thinks he is vindicated over his pussygate recording which he brushed off as lockerroom talk(which I actually agreed with as much as celebs disowned that in the subsquent days) but now lies about it that it was faked? Trump is hte last one who should talk about it considering he was reported to have walked in on teenage beauty contestants undressing or dressing.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Trump is pretty scummy. Unfortunately it is looking like most of DC is going to be protected from their own behavior.

[lap83]

The clip appears to show radicals?one of whom is carrying what looks like an ISIS flag?throwing a man from the roof of a building and then beating him as he lay on the ground.

So, arguably, "anti-Muslim propaganda" has the same content as radical Islamic propaganda

[lap83]

also, I think the sentence needs more qualifiers... "allegedly throwing a man from what appears to be the roof of what might be a building and then seemingly beating him as he looks as though he lays on what could be the ground"

[$park? leftist poser]

also, I may think the sentence possibly needs what appears to be more qualifiers

FTFY

[Citizen X - #6]

AFWMBTFYOSLY,M

(Allegedly Fixed What Might Be That For You Or Someone Like You, Maybe)

[lap83]

To be sure, I maybe probably could have sort of hedged my comment a little bit more.

[Citizen X - #6]

Theoretically, according to some.

[Chipper Morning Truthjammer]

God, I miss Robby.

[Bacon-Magic glib reasonoid]

He's gone?

[BestUsedCarSales]

He's authoring with the angels now.

[Praveen R.]

I think the left brought about its own demise. Instead of focusing on Trump's worse crimes, they kept talking about pussy gate which was a non issue. Talking about grabbing a pussy is not the same as actually grabbing one. Instead of being proactive on guys like Weinstein, Charlie Rose, they let those guys get away with a lot. Now, you are seeing minor stuff like Louis CK's get the same attention as criminals like Weinstein and borderline criminal like Rose. (seriously, he jacked off, who the fuck cares. if a gay guy jacked off in front of me, I wouldnt react like those women did, i would just laugh at the guy and tell him how gross he was or if he was in contrl of my job, I would laugh at him with friends behind his back).

I personally think Trump is a lech. but the left overplayed its hands with the sexism stuff on Trump the same way the right overplayed the Monica lewinsky thing. The only Clinton issue that matters to me from a moral point of view is what the real truth was behind the Roderick case. I think Willey was clearly lying as she was reported to have been flattered by his attention and Lewinsky thing is something men in power have been doing for ages and I consider it a harmless perk of power. Same with Bush Sr pinching women';s asses. Not a great thing to do and certainly i iwsh some women slapped him but in the big scheme of things, not ahuge deal.

[Praveen R.]

I think the left brought about its own demise. Instead of focusing on Trump's worse crimes, they kept talking about pussy gate which was a non issue. Talking about grabbing a pussy is not the same as actually grabbing one. Instead of being proactive on guys like Weinstein, Charlie Rose, they let those guys get away with a lot. Now, you are seeing minor stuff like Louis CK's get the same attention as criminals like Weinstein and borderline criminal like Rose. (seriously, he jacked off, who the fuck cares. if a gay guy jacked off in front of me, I wouldnt react like those women did, i would just laugh at the guy and tell him how gross he was or if he was in contrl of my job, I would laugh at him with friends behind his back).

I personally think Trump is a lech. but the left overplayed its hands with the sexism stuff on Trump the same way the right overplayed the Monica lewinsky thing. The only Clinton issue that matters to me from a moral point of view is what the real truth was behind the Roderick case. I think Willey was clearly lying as she was reported to have been flattered by his attention and Lewinsky thing is something men in power have been doing for ages and I consider it a harmless perk of power. Same with Bush Sr pinching women';s asses. Not a great thing to do and certainly i iwsh some women slapped him but in the big scheme of things, not ahuge deal.

[Citizen X - #6]

Yeah, but then you're letting a perfectly good moral panic go to waste.

[John]

If the guy does what you want from him in office and refrains from letching while there, who cares if he was a letch or whatever else before he took office? Some people seem more interested in feeling good about whatever politician they support than they do about actually getting anything done.

[creech]

Wasn't there something about Clinton being on the phone with the Israeli president while Monica was giving him a bj? Don't know about you, but if I'm getting a bj I'm not going to be concentrating on whatever - of possible international importance - some guy on the phone is telling me. Who knows what potentially important stuff is getting neglected while our rulers are lining up a ten foot putt or lining up a "10" for some afternoon delight?

[Praveen R.]

If you never got a BJ, sure it can be distracting. But I am sure the BJ helped keep Clinton alert during those calls. If anything, it infused him with more energy to deal with work. That's a good thing. My problem with Trump(as much as I think HIllary stupidly overplayed that pussygate issue) was he comes across to me as someone who just has a negative attitude about women, he just wants to fuck them with no affection for them. I actually think Clinton liked to have fun with women in addition to fucking them like a piece of meat even if he was too cowardly to stand by them when things went wrong(the way he let Lewinsky get bullied by his underlings).

Same with Bush Sr. I think he respected women, more than Trump did, but he had some old boys mentality of grabbing their asses because he could and in his own way, he probably thought they would go along with his fun. Again, not to excuse any of these people. But I really feel Trump has disdain for women separate from the sexuality part.

[Palin's Buttplug]

dammit, got to head to work. I'l catch you Peanuts later

[Chipper Morning Truthjammer]

Off to the peanut factory?

[Citizen X - #6]

By "work," shreek means the street corner in Alpharetta where he likes to drop trou, flog his tiny dolphin, and scream at passersby.

[Bacon-Magic glib reasonoid]

I bet he sells peanuts too.

[Citizen X - #6]

If by "peanuts" you mean bath salts, sure.

[Bacon-Magic glib reasonoid]

He snorts that, you know better.

[John]

http://www.nationalreview.com/.....c-failures

This NRO piece by some insider who worked at the CFPB is horrifying. It is not tragic. It is dystopian. This shit has to be read to be believed. The fact that these people and thousands like them still out there holding positions of responsibility and will be running the government the next time the Democrats take the Presidency should scare the hell out of you. Get this

Job seekers interviewed with two pairs of attorneys and most senior managers. All Office of Enforcement employees were invited to attend the weekly hiring meetings, where interviewers summarized the applicants. Any attendee could voice an opinion before each candidate's verdict was rendered; even a single strong objection was usually fatal. Note taking was strictly forbidden, and interviewers destroyed their records after the meetings. I never missed one. Clear verbal and non-verbal signals quickly emerged. The most common, "I don't think he believes in the mission" was code for "he might not be a Democrat."

[John]

White men over 40 received the opposite treatment. One attorney's r?sum? was so spectacular that interviewers struggled to come up with plausible excuses to reject him. Finally, someone blurted out, "For the love of God, don't hire him!" Cordray, who always spoke last, had no choice. He asked that the rejection letter be delayed until he could call the Supreme Court justice who had left a voicemail recommending the man...

Things changed after the recess appointment. Markus, the new enforcement chief, exacerbated hiring biases by soliciting anonymous oral comments about colleagues competing for twelve mid-level supervisor positions. Similar illegal practices throughout the bureau resulted in a dearth of real-world experience, and then socialistic management schemes camouflaged by new-age nomenclature.

Enforcement had issue groups, issue teams, working groups, strategy teams, investigation teams, and litigation teams. Individual initiative was forbidden ? investigation ideas were to be submitted to the collective even before preliminary Internet research. An issue group took custody of my exchange-rate investigation and aborted it.

[John]

The "us against the world" culture that was exhilarating in a startup became debilitating in a mature agency. Internal policies to minimize record-keeping deprived the CFPB's enemies of statistics, but limited management tools. External criticism was dismissed as disingenuous, good advice ignored. Problems that could not be acknowledged could not be fixed. Morale and productivity deteriorated. The employees unionized. There were a few winners, most with political connections, and many more losers. Moderates who objected were marginalized or ostracized. Leonard Chanin, a 20-year veteran of the Federal Reserve, was the rulemaking division's first leader. During meetings, I was humbled by his dignified intellect and mastery of financial laws. In 2013, I asked him why he'd left the bureau. With characteristic understatement, he replied, "I thought it was going to be a professional agency." Other employees had fewer options. I once shared a cab with an enforcement attorney who'd had several drinks and was so despondent over her treatment at work that I was terrified she would harm herself.

[John]

By 2013, no other label worked. For each issue the strategy team identified, one or two companies were investigated. The CFPB's complaint database contained grievances against almost every financial business. Enforcement targeted the companies with the most revenue ? what it called the "chokepoints" ? rather than those with the most complaints. Enforcement's internal procedures restricted the contents of investigation files, about the only thing the CFPB had to turn over to defendants before administrative trials. One of the procedures' drafters told me that withholding exculpatory evidence from targets was ethical because the bureau was like any civil litigant ? it did everything it could within the law to win. Targets were almost certain to write a check, especially if they were accused of subjective "unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices." Even the size of the checks didn't depend on actual wrongdoing ? during investigations, Enforcement demanded targets' financial statements to calculate the maximum fines they could afford to pay.

[Citizen X - #6]

Yeah, but if not for the CFPB, banks might continue to pursue strong government incentives to push loans on people who can't repay them, and then where would we be?

[John]

Apparently, all of the fines they collected, $12 billion worth, went to a fund that was then distributed to the "victims" after an Obama bundler collected a large fee for administering the trust fund. For all of their claims of justice and equality and all that, in the end, it was just about money. It was just "fuck you pay me" and nothing else.

[Tony]

But then you think it's OK for men who touch little girls to be senators, so why the fuck does your opinion matter?

[John]

Tony, I have always called on Menendez to be kicked out of the Senate. I don't know why you keep claiming I support him.

[Tony]

I've known since a young age that people who bark the loudest about how much they are Christ's own personal messengers are usually the biggest deviants and hypocrites, but in your case the pathetic hypocrisy is just sewer level. Pathetic because your long history of being a hypocritical moral scold pales in comparison to that of Roy Moore, child predator. You're the lapdog of a far superior piece of shit. How do you sleep at night? To the sweet tones of Sean Hannity telling you it's all OK because at least the little girl fingerer supports tax cuts on billionaires probably?

[John]

In fairness Tony, you personal and up close experience with perversion does likely give you some incite that normal people would not have. So there is that.

[Tony]

Oh do parrot your personal hero Roy Moore and tell me how being gay is far worse than fingering children.

[Citizen X - #6]

Guys, just fuck already. Jesus.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Jesus will forgive this sin. No worries.

[MarkLastname]

It's Ronald Rubin's opinion, the guy who wrote the article for NR.

You are truly a walking bag of logical fallacies.

[Old Mexican's Speedos]

The TODAY show's Matt Lauer has been fired from NBC for "inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace."

Being smug and having a punchable face wasn't enough to get him booted, but I'll take it.

A contraception shortage is looming in Venezuela.

How awful. More future Miss Universe winners will be born, considering the above AND the fact that they scarcely have any electric lighting left.

Congress is targeting "revenge porn"...

Because they want to keep on grabbing p...y without thinking about the consequences.

[Citizen X - #6]

p...y

Paneer burjhy? I don't blame them, that shit is delicious.

[$park? leftist poser]

Being smug and having a punchable face

Look at the supposed libertarian over here advocating violence.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Do you actually read that as advocating violence? Or are you being bitchy to try to shit on him for word choice?

[$park? leftist poser]

Yes.

[Sevo]

Background:
A circular street in SF with homes occupied by Feinstein for a long time and others of similar wealth is actually privately owned. And therefore taxable.
Well, the HOA somehow forgot to pay the taxes on it, so after legal notification processes, it went up for auction, and was bought for $90K by a quick-thinking couple, who then sent notices to the homeowners.
Who screamed bloody murder! How dare someone not walk up to their front door and tell them they owed taxes?
So yesterday, the SF BoS decided the 5th Amendment doesn't apply to "out of town speculators", voided the sale and gave the land back to the HoA:

"SF supes reverse sale, return private Presidio Terrace street to homeowners"
http://www.sfchronicle.com/pol.....389377.php

I've got the popcorn...

[John]

The problem is that they are stuck in the 9th Circuit. I would not want to bet on the 9th Circuit applying the right law here. And if they don't, those people are screwed since the Supreme Court likely wouldn't take such a small case.

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

Well, this is certainly a morning.

[Rebel Scum]

The TODAY show's Matt Lauer has been fired from NBC for "inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace."

I lol'd when I read this. And I'm ok with that. And I'm not sure if I'm ok with that.

[lap83]

Doesn't that imply there is "appropriate sexual behavior" in the workplace?

[John]

Appropriate sexual behavior is when the woman likes it and benefits from it.

[Rebel Scum]

This. They wear low cut blouses, but only the "right" people can look. And only the "right" people can hit on them, and so on.

[Citizen X - #6]

Also, it's pretty gross how they pee out of their butts. Plus, they always be shoppin', amiright?

[lap83]

A fistula is no laughing matter!

[Tony]

Unlike the children who were victimized by the man you support to be the next US Senator from Alabama, correct John?

[John]

WAAAA. Looks like someone didn't get their daily talking points and is having to use outdated ones.

[Tony]

They're not outdated as long as you still support the guy who touches little girls.

[Jerryskids]

You might think that an intrepid journalist would have jumped on that phrase and asked NBC just what they consider to be appropriate sexual behavior in the workplace.

[Citizen X - #6]

An intrepid journalist these days is someone who sources their story from more than one Twitter account.

[John]

http://newstalk1130.iheart.com.....hypocrite/

Here is a clip of Lauer smugly lecturing his audience about the evils of Bill O'Reilly sexually harassing women. If you can't laugh at that, you have no heart.

[Rebel Scum]

Nice. I figured something like this would be out there. On the one hand, accusations only have merit if there is evidence. On the other hand, it's fun to watch these a-holes burn, given their abject hypocrisy.

[Ron]

the left assumed, with great glee, they could tear down fox news with harassment issues but they didn't realize the snake had venom on both ends

[Tony]

You still supporting that disgusting pedophile to be a member of the US Senate, John?

[John]

Your tears and lamentations are so wonderful. Keep crying Tony. Don't deprive me of the pleasure of your misery.

[Tony]

Remember when you used to be a holier-than-thou Christian? How does it feel to be so morally bankrupt that you support an active pedophile because of his political party? How does it feel that you never get to lecture anyone else ever again about their moral lapses? Is Roy Moore worth it, do you think?

[John]

LOL. Yeah Tony, you called it.

[Tony]

That you still support a serial child predator to be a member of the US senate? Yes, I believe I did. I must say I'm relieved that you never get to judge another human being about anything and be taken remotely seriously. It will make this place a lot less annoying.

[John]

No I don't. And pretending I do isn't going to convince anyone.

[Tony]

So you're a cynical amoral hypocrite who supports child rapers, and also a liar. A bit anticlimactic.

[Jerryskids]

Hey, some people support a party so loathsome that people hold child molesters in higher regard than that party's candidates. For that matter, they hold loud-mouthed brain-damaged pathological liars with dead muskrats on their head in higher regard than that party's candidates.

[Tony]

Which would make those people the scum of the fucking earth even if the party they supported weren't a retarded death cult with no good ideas about anything.

[Sevo]

Poor Tony. More than a year and he's yet to find acceptance.
Hint: Grow up, scumbag.

[MarkLastname]

Someone should post a link to Tony's comment about how retarded whataboutism is from like a week ago.

[Rebel Scum]

The Supreme Court is considering a major privacy case today.

In which it will be determined that 4A does not mean what it says. Bc if it means what it says, the surveillance state is dead. And we can't have that bc reasons.

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

Great pic, ENB, but it doesn't work without the appropriate alt-text:

Man walks down the street in that hat, people know he's not afraid of anything.

[Jerryskids]

The better-known version of this hat is pink.

[Rebel Scum]

A contraception shortage is looming in Venezuela.

More like an everything shortage. Also, socialism is sexist.

[Rebel Scum]

President Trump's Wednesday-morning retweets of anti-Muslim propaganda videos

Without looking I am going to assume they are actually anti-ISLAMIST videos and therefor not "anti-muslim".

[Tony]

And why bother looking?

[Rebel Scum]

Things like the "muslim ban" that never was have told me that these claims of "anti-muslim"-whatever are bs until proven true.

[Tony]

But you're not going to even go look and see for yourself?

[Citizen X - #6]

Good news! Charges dropped against Norfolk mom who put recorder in daughter's backpack