Trump Reads a Memo, Another Government Shutdown Looms, Nashville Mayor Admits Affair: P.M. Links

• 

  Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Newscom

  President Donald Trump has seen the memo from Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) that alleges FBI misconduct in getting permission to snoop on former Trump aide Carter Page. The memo may be released to the public tomorrow.

• Some are now worried that FBI Director Chris Wray may quit if Trump ignores Wray's publicly-stated "grave concerns" with releasing the memo.
• Mark your calendar: We're facing another government shutdown in a week with little sign of a new spending deal.
• Nashville Mayor Megan Barry has admitted to having an affair with a police officer in charge of her security detail.
• A Dallas man is scheduled to be executed tonight for killing his own daughters while their mother listened helplessly on a speakerphone. His lawyers have asked the Supreme Court to intervene on the basis of the man's mental incompetency.
• Missouri's Republican Attorney General Josh Hawley, who is running for Senate, says that the sexual revolution has contributed to human trafficking.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Some are now worried that FBI Director Chris Wray may quit if Trump ignores Wray's publicly-stated "grave concerns" with releasing the memo.

And yet when I release a memo about keeping the break room clean, no one gives a shit.

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

Yet more proof that Fist is a Reason employee.

[Fist of Etiquette]

For a magazine called Reason, they should don't know how to avoid the tragedy of the commons.

[Jerryskids]

What sort of place do you work where employees shit in the break room unless they're specifically told not to?

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

Chipper already said it.

[Jerryskids]

I don't believe for a second that Fist works at Reason. Nobody really works at Reason since Reason doesn't actually have a physical presence. The idea of Reason, on the other hand, is all just Ron Bailey with a collection of friends and acquaintances (street people from outside his apartment building) posing as all the other regulars. You didn't really think there was an actual "Nick Gillespie" and "Matt Welch" and "Scott Shackford" did you? I mean, c'mon, "Katherine Mangrove-Throatwarbler" didn't tip it for you? Hellooooo!!! And do you know where Ron Bailey is from? Tulpa, Mississippi!

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

The mannequin wearing The Jacket was my first clue.

[BYODB]

*The Jacket was wearing the mannequin, this is known.

[chemjeff]

Ha. So I actually just googled Tulpa for the first time to see if there really was a Tulpa, Mississippi. Holy cow, tulpas are a real thing. Who knew.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

tulpas are a real thing. Who knew.

They're all around us. One could be commenting next to you at this very moment.

[Brandybuck]

I went to the doctor and he gave me a shot that cleared up my tulpas.

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

Looks like someone hasn't seen Season 3 of Twin Peaks.

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

Spoiler alert: Tulpas are killed.

[Bubba Jones]

They have a sign on an office door in DC. I have seen it.

Twice.

[Ecoli]

Economy to grow at 5.4% rate in first quarter, Atlanta Fed tracker shows:

CNBC link is too long for Reason's comment system, so Google the first sentence above.

If so, the Democrats are in big trouble...

[neoteny]

CNBC link is too long for Reason's comment system

Not if you up your HTML game.

[Ecoli]

My brain is full.

[Fist of Etiquette]

We're facing another government shutdown in a week with little sign of a new spending deal.

That last one was devastating.

[Don't look at me.]

Just now recovering.

[BYODB]

Jimmy Carter weeps for what he set in motion.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

Some are now worried that FBI Director Chris Wray may quit if Trump ignores Wray's publicly-stated "grave concerns" with releasing the memo.

Don't let the door hit you on the ass on your way out.

[The Last American Hero]

I'm sure the NYT and CNN will be there the next day telling how his resignation is obstruction of justice.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Nashville Mayor Megan Barry has admitted to having an affair with a police officer in charge of her security detail.

Not secretly putting it to her hard would have made him fear for his life.

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

Do we have any proof, though, that he did, indeed, put it to her "hard"?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Well, he's a cop and she's his woman, so at least we can infer that he put the back of his hand to her hard a few times.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Some are now worried that FBI Director Chris Wray may quit if Trump ignores Wray's publicly-stated "grave concerns" with releasing the memo.

I'm still recovering from the sudden loss of ol' Scaramucci. I just can't deal with this hurt again.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

Nashville Mayor Megan Barry has admitted to having an affair with a police officer in charge of her security detail.

Live and let love. Is cucking a husband a crime in Nashville?

[BestUsedCarSales]

Yes.

[Citizen X - #6]

You have obviously never heard of country music. If not for cheating spouses and broken hearts, there wouldn't even BE a Nashville.

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

Well, there's cheating, and then there's cheating in the bed of your pick up truck.

[Citizen X - #6]

Fact: fully 75% of the illegitimate children born in Nashville were conceived within view of at least three dogs.

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

"Wow, I am seeing triple! Three Cerberuses!"

[BestUsedCarSales]

What they don't make explicit is that the cheating spouses are all hanged.

[Citizen X - #6]

+1 long black veil

[Eek Barba Durkle]

But how many were hung?

[BYODB]

You'd have to check their pants after the hanging.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

A Dallas man is scheduled to be executed tonight for killing his own daughters while their mother listened helplessly on a speakerphone.

Tie a noose and make it tight;
A feast for crow come tonight!

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

^^^HVHV's masturbation mantra.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Gives you an orgasm 1 and a half times more powerful then the one you had last Thursday.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

Auto-erotic Asphyxiation? Never heard of it...

Though when murderers swing I suppose I do get a little local swelling.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Missouri's Republican Attorney General Josh Hawley, who is running for Senate, says that the sexual revolution has contributed to human trafficking.

So we've discovered something to replace the foundering War on Drugs in a catchall call for action.

[Citizen X - #6]

Put the Trafficking Crisis in a cage with the Opioid Epidemic and let 'em fight it out.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Huh, turns out the set of opioid users and the set of human trafficking victims are equivalent.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

They did this scene in Enter the Dragon.

[Chinny Chin Chin]

Fistful of Yen did it better.

[Sal Paradise]

We need total concentwation.

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

That's what I call a Thursday night.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

Missouri's Republican Attorney General Josh Hawley, who is running for Senate, says that the sexual revolution has contributed to human trafficking.

Quietest revolution in history. I slept through the whole damn thing!

[Rhywun]

Then you weren't doing it right.

[Brandybuck]

Free Love was over and done with before I even got out of puberty. Sigh.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The memo may be released to the public tomorrow.

Its contents were too big to tweet out.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

By tomorrow they mean 3am later tonight.

[AlmightyJB]

He's carefully planning the post release tweets as well as the reply tweets to what he knows is coming from the left.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

Preemptive tweeting, has SCOTUS determined if the President has these war powers?

[AlmightyJB]

Do you think they want to start getting his tweet bombs too?

[BYODB]

Always dump documents late Friday afternoon so that no one notices.

[Citizen X - #6]

Nashville Mayor Megan Barry has admitted to having an affair with a police officer in charge of her security detail.

#HimToo

[AlmightyJB]

That woman came on to me and I felt so uncomfortable said no man ever. Yeah, gender is a social construct. #XeToo.

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

Sounds like someone's never been to a nursing gome.

[AlmightyJB]

Sound like that's where all the actions at.

[BYODB]

I don't know about you, but if an unattractive fat chick hits on me it does make me pretty uncomfortable. I had a boss like that once, actually, and while I never complained it wasn't exactly fun.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

If you actually had some proper schooling you'd know that she should be destroyed for that.

[AlmightyJB]

You're saying she hit on you and you were somehow able to resist? I didn't think that was possible. You're supposed to shut up and go along and then claim rape later.

[Vernon Depner]

He froze and hasn't yet recovered the memory.

[JWatts]

The Mayor took multiple two person trips with her "bodyguard" on the taxpayers dime. Including a 'fact finding' mission to Greece.

Throw her ass in jail.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

Apparently she's the 'beloved' mayor of Nashville.

[Ecoli]

So, he did her Greek style. Isn't that sort of debauchery illegal in the Bible belt?

[MarkLastname]

Why does the mayor of Nashville even have a bodyguard? I bet most Nashvillers wouldn't even know her name if they knew how to read.

[John C. Randolph]

Apparently, it's the taxpayers who were getting fucked up the ass in that affair. She was spending a shitload of money on "travel" to get time alone with her gigolo.

-jcr

[Citizen X - #6]

Missouri's Republican Attorney General Josh Hawley, who is running for Senate, says that the sexual revolution has contributed to human trafficking.

He's definitely got his finger on the pulse of the, uh, early '70s.

[Fist of Etiquette]

He was born in '79.

[Citizen X - #6]

Oh. Is he doing some kind of retro-hipster thing then?

[BestUsedCarSales]

He's just jealous he didn't make the Millenial cut off like me and MJGreen.

[BestUsedCarSales]

And I think Chipper said he was. Crusty doesn't count as he's technically ageless.

All other age groups fuck off.

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

I am all Gen X, yo.

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

What's this now? I'm millenial af dude. I remember the SNES.

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

Oh, I misread that. LIKE A MILLENIAL

Srs tho I still have my SNES

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

SNES was dreamy.

[AlmightyJB]

Oh you guys had the super version. La Ti Da. I bet you wore designer jeans too.

[Citizen X - #6]

Do JNCOs count as "designer"?

[AlmightyJB]

Same thing really.

[BestUsedCarSales]

A while back, maybe a year ago, I remembered JNCO jeans and searched to see if they still existed. For a solid month after that every single ad on every website was JNCO jeans. I felt bad for them. Like I had tricked them into thinking they had found the ONE person still into them.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

Bought my own Sega Genesis with they money from my child modeling career. Pretty satisfying until I realized I suck at Sonic and that's all the Genesis had.

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

Child modeling career?

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

I was a cute kid. A few commercial auditions, some magazine ads for Petsmart. $500 ain't too bad for a 7 year old.

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

What happened?

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

That Sega Genesis sapped my ambition; also my mom ran over an Asian biker at my last audition (he lived and was biking on the wrong side of the road), guess my parents lost the drive after that.

[gormadoc]

Which side of the road is the wrong side to live on?

[BestUsedCarSales]

No it's not.

Streets of Rage
Vectorman
Phantasy Star 2-4
Shining Force 1-2
Alex Kidd
Contra: Hard Corps

Really, underappreciated system.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

Streets of Rage was my jam. There was a fun Avengers game as well.

[Citizen X - #6]

That's what BUCS is saying, MJ.

Where even is the line, anyway? I was born in '81 and no one can tell me definitively whether i'm an Xer or a Millennial. I look good in both flannel and skinny jeans, so that's no help.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

HS in the '90s in Gen X

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

You are Gen X, even though you dress like, sport the facial her of, and own number of cats as, a typical Millenial.

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

*hair

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

I acknowledged that, X. So GenX of you.

[Zeb]

I still firmly believe that SNES is as good as video games need to be. Unfortunately mine didn't work anymore last time I hauled it out.

I remember when Ataris were big and regular NES was new and exciting, so I must be firmly GenX.

[Pro Libertate]

I had a Pong console.

[Jerryskids]

In your defense, it is easy to confuse nouveau-Missouri with retro-Seventies. Some of the more sophisticated parts, it's even the Nineteen Seventies.

[Pro Libertate]

AD or BC?

[Eek Barba Durkle]

He was born in '79.

A lot of us were.

I did it twice, though. (7/9/79)

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

Born 3/14 at 3:14pm!

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

Oh yeah, I bet your social security number isn't as cool as mine!

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

dude so many 7's

[MarkLastname]

What's your diameter then?

[AlmightyJB]

Back when I used to cruise for chicks on my velocipede, I saw nary an ankle.

[AlmightyJB]

"FBI Director Chris Wray may quit"

Don't replace the head count

[Jerryskids]

Some are now worried that FBI Director Chris Wray may quit if Trump ignores Wray's publicly-stated "grave concerns" with releasing the memo.

It's CNN. There's always "some speculation" attached to every damn thing they report. Some are saying that there are reports that some officials are speculating that it may be possible that Trump is preparing to resign the office of President tomorrow night.

[AlmightyJB]

That means Hillary is automatically president right?

[DJF]

For Life!!!!!!

That way the country does not have to go though this long national nightmare again

[AlmightyJB]

Only she can heal our nation

[Pro Libertate]

You mean get the nation to heel.

[AlmightyJB]

Oh and it will.

[Pro Libertate]

Didn't she serve two terms already?

[AlmightyJB]

Yeah, but Bill's penis kept getting in the way of her getting everything she wanted so she needs a Mulligan.

[Pro Libertate]

She'll have to amend the Constitution.

[AlmightyJB]

Constitution Smonstitution.

[Griffin3]

Only she heesh can heal our nation

FTFY

[JWatts]

+1, ImWithHer

[Rebel Scum]

The memo may be released to the public tomorrow.

I don't understand why it has taken so long and why it's being released on a Friday.

[Jerryskids]

I don't know why it's being released *this* Friday. Friday after next is a holiday weekend, that's the best time to release a hot steamy pile of news like this. (Why do you think they call it a news "dump"?)

[H. Farnham]

That story about the Texas guy shooting his daughters is an example of why I can never fully get on board with abolishing the death penalty. I realize full well that it's not a principled stance and has everything to do with a gut-level emotional sense of justice.

Although I think most people are generally mostly good most of the time, I'm always shocked by the absolutely evil acts some are capable of.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

There is nothing sacred about life. Kill him quick, wash our hands of it, world keeps spinning. Not a big deal.

[H. Farnham]

See I don't really agree with this; I think life is very sacred. Also, I think there are some logical arguments to be made for doing away with capital punishment. However, I can't help but think that "eye for an eye" retribution is necessary for the heinousness of crimes such as these. It's one of just a few areas where I have a hard time separating emotions from policy decisions.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

The life isn't sacred bit is just an attention grabber, I wouldn't hang my closing arguments on it. Though unless one is arguing from a religious perspective -- in which case I would accept that position and move on -- life cannot be sacred. More precisely, If God is dead than nothing is sacred, by definition.

[Tony]

This is the reason civilization was invented.

[Vernon Depner]

Civilization was invented because the lives of farmers sucked compared to the lives of hunter-gatherers or pastoral people, so coercion was required to get people to submit to civilized life.

[Vernon Depner]

I guess I should have said "submit to settled life". Shouldn't use the term in the definition.

[Brian]

No, civilization was invented when warlords discovered that ruling farmers was better in the long run than raping and eating them.

[The Last American Hero]

If there is nothing sacred about life, why bother to kill the guy? Or even imprison him?

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

Life can be held in the highest regard, so that anyone who takes an innocent life deserves the ultimate punishment. But arguments based on life being sacred, so much so that even the life of a murderer is too valuable to snuff out, this argument by definition can only stand on religious grounds.

I won't argue with any person of faith who holds that their faith dictates that life is to sacred to extinguish. That is their right, and in context of their religious values it's an unassailable position. How can I argue against the word of God as they understand it?

But unless you hold that the will of God makes human life sacred; say if you don't believe in God, or the divine -- than it is illogical, contradictory, hypocritical, and flat false to label sacredness to anything, even life.

[Bubba Jones]

I don't oppose the death penalty. I oppose letting the government decide whom to kill.

[AlmightyJB]

Chair is to good for him. Tie him up and give him to Dennis Rader. Tell him he gets one cigarette for every scream. My only limitation on the death penalty would be that you need to pass some evidentiary requirements to even seek it.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

See I'm not for this hyperbole. Capitol Punishment doesn't lower societies morality to the level of murderers. Life in solitary confinement on the other hand is torture by all standards.

He doesn't need torture -- he needs a clean cut with a sharpened katana. Kick his corpse into an unmarked grave and burn the narcissistic manifesto he leaves behind; finally flush his memory from society like yesterday's shit down the drain.

[Libertymike]

The problem with the death penalty is the absolute stupidity of its supporters who would rather cheerlead for Caesar than apply the death penalty to him.

[BYODB]

My argument against the death penalty is an old one; you can't trust the justice system to be perfect and it is preferable for 1000 guilty men to go free rather than kill a single innocent.

It's not a perfect argument, but if we're going to skew things I'd prefer to skew them in a way that can carry at least the potential for remedy for the innocent. There isn't any 'taking back' killing someone after all.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

I certainly don't trust fairness from country cops or top level feds. Too many innocent people have been killed by the state. I wouldn't advocate wanton and hasty death penalties. BUT there are times when it is clear cut and guilt is indubitable.

Take the shooting of Congresswoman Kathy Gifford. When she was shot in the face along with 5 other people, including a young child, it was at a speech or rally of some sort. I recall the police doing an interview shortly after; with all the camera's and photographs being taken the cops were able to have visual evidence of the gunman (whose name is worthy of remembrance) shooting every single person. They said lining up all the footage was like watching an action movie.

This man's guilt is beyond contestation; yet he lives. He enjoys reading books, letters from pen-pals, masturbating in his bunk, more square meals than the poor. etc. etc. My blood boils at the savage, injustice of it all.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

*whose name is NOT worthy of remembrance

[Libertymike]

HVHF -

Yes, I can appreciate your blood boiling over with regard to the perp, but, to be honest, the temperature of my blood is many times higher with cops murdering a 72 year old woman defending her life and property from grubby, lowlife, parasitic marauding piglets or the ATF / FBI agents incinerating children at WACO or the assassination of Vicki Weaver or the murder of Eric Garner.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

Libertymike,

I fully understand. The abhorrent practices of the state make me physically nauseous; they wield unlimited power and can kill with total impunity. You are right to hate that. But the state will never relinquish power and they will never go after their own.

At least civilian criminals, murderers and rapists without badges, these dogs can be punished; moreover they ought be punished. All the Tony's of the world can cry and protect murderers to their dying breath but I will never weep for a dead killer.

[Libertymike]

HVHV -

Yes, you're right, I can't contest anything there.

Sometimes peeps around here and elsewhere mistakenly think that I think that the non-state murderers and thugs should not be punished. They should.

[BYODB]

I get where you're coming from, I've made the same arguments before. In the end I personally decided that my distrust of the state trumped my desire for vengeance/revenge which is really all that the death penalty amounts to (obviously one can make all kinds of supporting arguments, but this is really the big one).

Cathartic for the families, cheaper for the state/public, no chance of escape, etc. but in the end it places a certain trust in the states ability to establish 'beyond a doubt' rather than 'beyond a reasonable doubt', which is notably not something I trust the state to do.

[Sevo]

"...but in the end it places a certain trust in the states ability to establish 'beyond a doubt' rather than 'beyond a reasonable doubt', which is notably not something I trust the state to do."

100%!
"But what about Manson?"
I'll take one monster who doesn't die to protect the many who get false positives.
The state has entirely too much power already.

[Zeb]

I see what you mean. But it's really nothing to me if that piece of shit lives or dies. I certainly don't think there is any injustice in killing someone like that. But it's not going to change how I think of the death penalty in general.

[JeremyR]

IMHO, the only objection you can have about the death penalty is that if a person turns out to be innocent, you can't undo it (not that long prison turns don't screw over people, but they can at least live and get money).

But there are cases where innocence is not in question. In that case, fry away.

[Libertymike]

Not on my dime.

Why cede anything to the communist, progressive, socialist, totalitarians who fuck you every day?

[AlmightyJB]

The problem is that I'm not allowed to seek my own revenge. So the only way for me to get justice is through the government. Now if I'm allowed to personally execute anyone who harm's my family, then sure take that off the table for the state, no problem.

[Libertymike]

No problem, JB, anyone who kills a family member, have at it.

[AlmightyJB]

That's where I was going with my evidentiary requirements. You shouldn't be executing merely on circumstantial evidence. You can still give them life with no parole, but at least then if later evidence exonerates them, you can potentially return some of their life back.

[H. Farnham]

I think that's probably the best argument against capital punishment; you're basically trusting the state and random jurors to not make any mistakes.

But yeah, I don't think I could sit on a jury in a case like that and not recommend the death penalty.

[Tony]

There are plenty of other legitimate objections.

In fact the only argument in favor of the death penalty seems to be "I feel particularly disgusted by this person." Justice is supposed to rely on a sober assessment of evidence, yo.

[Libertymike]

Tony, writing for myself, and not for all of Libertopia, I want you to take note that I get just as outraged when a cop murders a black person as I do when they murder a white separatist's wife.

[DRM]

Contrariwise, the great advantage of execution is that the guilty cannot be freed from it by craven politicians a generation later.

[JoeBlow123]

When punishment is quick, proportional, harsh, and 100% understood leveled on everyone it seems to deter crime. Who wants to import drugs to Singapore when they hang you in about two weeks no matter if you are Chinese, Singaporean, American, or Australian? I was in a club in Singapore talking to some locals who were clearly ravers and even asked them about their drug use. They just said yeah, we do not do it here, we just go somewhere else.

Yall be crazy if you think punishment is not a deterrent.

[Rebel Scum]

Some are now worried that FBI Director Chris Wray may quit if Trump ignores Wray's publicly-stated "grave concerns" with releasing the memo.

"You can't quit because you're fired. Sad!"

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Mark your calendar: We're facing another government shutdown in a week with little sign of a new spending deal.

Shouldn't the government shut down at least once before we start referring to it as "another shutdown"?

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Some are now worried that FBI Director Chris Wray may quit if Trump ignores Wray's publicly-stated "grave concerns" with releasing the memo.

More of the swamp draining itself? Good day to you, sir. Yes yes, don't worry, you'll get your fucking six figure pension like all the rest.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Some critical theory on the SOTU.

[CatoTheChipper]

Thanks for that link ... brilliant!

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

I learned some civics from it. I didn't realize that a Kennedy held national office.

[BestUsedCarSales]

If only we could return to those halcyon days. Before Kennedys held office. Before Kennedys brought evil to America.

[AlmightyJB]

Dudes funny

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

Razorfist. Most of his videos drip with humor and wit but also sound reasoning. What a speaker.

[Sal Paradise]

Heh. Funny.

[Rebel Scum]

We're facing another government shutdown in a week with little sign of a new spending deal.

Shut it down

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

Get serious.

[Pro Libertate]

Really shut it down. All of it. That would make each side of the aisle take this seriously.

And stop spending.

[Tony]

Did the sexual revolution cause an alarming number of Republican Jesus lovers to cheat on their spouses and molest children too?

[barfman2018]

No.

*barf*

[BYODB]

It's weird how the same people who lived through the sexual revolution are now involved in the New Puritanism.

[Vernon Depner]

Is is really? The "sexual revolution" was a pretty raw deal for lots of people, especially women. Poverty among women with young children has skyrocketed since the "sexual revolution".

[chemjeff]

Missouri's Republican Attorney General Josh Hawley, who is running for Senate, says that the sexual revolution has contributed to human trafficking.

So are individuals responsible for their own choices, or not? These types of arguments really irritate me. Sure whatever I suppose you could make some argument that sexual liberalization created a certain type of cultural atmosphere of some such that somehow contributed to human trafficking in some way. But at the end of the day, the person guilty of sexual trafficking is... the sexual trafficker. (Presuming of course we are talking about actual 'sexual trafficking' and not just hyped up hysteria due to the moral panic of the day.) And yes people on the left do the same thing, when they blame "capitalism" or some such for why certain individuals are assholes with money. No, the reason why a person is an asshole is because he's an asshole, and not because "capitalism made him do it". Genuine individualism means holding individuals accountable for their actions and not letting them off the hook when they do something wrong.

[Libertymike]

Sexual assault, sexual harassment, and sexual trafficking are portrayed as if they transpire as frequently as FoE is first to post when they actually occur about as often as Tony writes a compelling, insightful post.

[BestUsedCarSales]

I agree. Almost no one will admit to a strict free will model of the world though, sadly.

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

Well, you can't go so far as to say that institutions and rules don't affect a person's decisions. I'm not sure how strict you're thinking, daddy.

[chemjeff]

If you mean that a person's cultural milieu can affect a person's judgment, then yes, of course.

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

As a matter of justice, the individual who made the decision to do bad should be punished, but we all agree that changing institutions does change behavior (or else economics would be even more boring). Maybe greater sexual freedom and tolerance does lead to trafficking and more predation. Some seemingly good developments lead to adverse effects, or need other changes to reach their full goodness (eg free love while still criminalizing prostitution). We can then talk about benefits and costs, which will also differ according to our values.

I assume Hawley's interest is in making changes at the institutional level to decrease trafficking, and not letting sexual abusers or traffickers slide because society made them that way.

[BestUsedCarSales]

I think I'm putting forth the idea that it's mostly useful to think of things in terms of pure free will. Though the opposite is likely true.

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

I don't know if it makes me a squishy and confused moderate, but I don't see the conflict between free will and determinism. They can be made as one. Ditto consequentialism and deontology, and natural law and utilitarianism. Fuse everything!

[Ken Shultz]

"Some are now worried that FBI Director Chris Wray may quit if Trump ignores Wray's publicly-stated "grave concerns" with releasing the memo."

Is anyone worried that America won't survive a Chris Wray resignation?

[BruceMajors]

Bitch set her up.