A.M. Links: Trump vs. FBI, Austin-Bound Package Explodes at FedEx Facility, Weinstein Company Files for Bankruptcy

• 

  Gage Skidmore / Flickr.com

  A package bound for Austin, Texas, has exploded at a FedEx facility near San Antonio.

• "President Trump shook up his legal team Monday by hiring a combative former prosecutor who has publicly argued that Trump is the target of an elaborate FBI conspiracy—marking another confrontational move by the president against the rapidly mounting legal threats facing him and his administration."
• French police have detained former French President Nicolas Sarkozy as part of an investigation into improper financial dealings with the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
• The last known male northern white rhino in the world has died.
• The Weinstein Company has filed for bankruptcy.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Weinstein Company has filed for bankruptcy.

Yeah, moral bankruptcy. Am I right?

[Rufus The Monocled]

Hello.

I had a dream last night.

[Conchfritters]

That's one of the best blues songs of all time.

Buddy Guy

[Rufus The Monocled]

Fail. Guy would be disappointed.

[Conchfritters]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=N5faR0H596w

Fuck it - so I can't post links in html.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Sweet.

Wonder what turntable that is. That's some arm.

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

Garrard. My father had one.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The last known male northern white rhino in the world has died.

The alt-right was right after all.

[Bacon-Magic glib reasonoid]

Dicks out for Sudan

[Rat on a train]

How are southern whites?

[Bee Tagger]

The last known male northern white rhino in the world has died.

The R in MRA has always stood for rhino.

[Bee Tagger]

French police have detained former French President Nicolas Sarkozy as part of an investigation into improper financial dealings with the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

Must have been running a deal on white flags.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

It's actually pretty impressive that the French police bothered to detain him at all. Every American President should go through this experience at least once during their term, if not multiple times.

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

How do you say "executive privilege" in francais?

[Citizen X - #6]

Je ne sais qua?

[Conchfritters]

as part of an investigation into improper financial dealings with the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

Did he have sex with his corpse?

[Fist of Etiquette]

French police have detained former French President Nicolas Sarkozy as part of an investigation into improper financial dealings with the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

Lock. Him. Up.

But in French.

[Libertarian]

Ever wonder what the prison food is like in France?

-- J. Seinfeld

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

Royale with cheese

[Fist of Etiquette]

President Trump shook up his legal team Monday by hiring a combative former prosecutor who has publicly argued that Trump is the target of an elaborate FBI conspiracy...

This president...

...fights back.

MAGA

[Libertarian]

The last known male northern white rhino in the world has died.
The Weinstein Company has filed for bankruptcy.

Why two bullets for the same story?

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

A failed Mozambique drill?

[Zeb]

I thought Harvey was more of a hippo.

[Conchfritters]

The last known male northern white rhino in the world has died.

Well...

[Libertarian]

Well what?

[Conchfritters]

Tried to post Powers Boothe link - didn't work. Probably the internet's way of saying "too soon."

[General_Tso]

'Bye'

[Libertarian]

"French police have detained former French President Nicolas Sarkozy as part of an investigation into improper financial dealings with the late Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi."

So the French support for Hillary's Libya bombing effort was just an immoral scheme to cover up an illegal financial relationship? I hope there's a movie about this someday.

[Old Mexican - Mostly Harmless]

Re: Libertarian,

I hope there's a movie about this someday.

If Luc Besson makes the movie, it'll be full of expensive special effects and horribly miscast.

[Libertarian]

IOW, the 2016 Democratic presidential campaign.

[Just Say'n]

"improper financial dealings with the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi."

You see overthrowing Gadhafi's government and plunging the country into anarchy just for lolz is fine, but God help you if you ever did business with Gadhafi.

Judging by North Korea's recent nuclear brinkmanship, it's clear that they've learned the lesson of Libya: don't ever hand over your weapons.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Thank you, Reason mag and your preferred candidate in 2016 for this advance in free minds and free markets:

'Where is the world?': Libya responds to outrage over slave auctions

[chipper me timbers]

"as low as $400"

This problem is easy to solve.

Why doesn't some rich fucker just go over there and buy all the slaves to let 'em go? That's what I would do.

[Zeb]

There are people who do that. But how to you protect them from being re-enslaved?

[Bubba Jones]

Give them guns.

[BestUsedCarSales]

What's Gary Johnson have to do with this?

[Mock-star]

Hes just a second hand aleppo

[Cyto]

Just because he's paranoid, that doesn't mean he isn't the target of an FBI conspiracy.......

[Palin's Buttplug]

New economic cheerleader back in 2007:

"Despite all the doom and gloom from the economic pessimistas, the resilient U.S. economy continues moving ahead," Kudlow wrote on Dec. 7, 2007, in National Review, predicting that gloomy forecasters would "wind up with egg on their faces." Kudlow, who previously derided as "bubbleheads" those who warned about a housing bubble, now wrote that "very positive" news in housing should "cushion" falling home sales and prices.

"There's no recession coming. The pessimistas were wrong. It's not going to happen," wrote Kudlow. " .?.?. The Bush boom is alive and well. It's finishing up its sixth consecutive year with more to come. Yes, it's still the greatest story never told." ... If that was the greatest story, this should be a close runner-up: Trump has just put the country's economic fate in the hands of the man who has arguably been more publicly and consistently wrong about the economy than any person alive.

WaPo

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Paul Krugman Says Markets Will 'Never' Recover From Trump; Dow Hits Record High

[JWatts]

Kudlow may well be wrong, but he'll probably never make a statement as stupid as Krugman's was.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

To fight this recession the Fed needs?soaring household spending to offset moribund business investment. [So] Alan Greenspan needs to create a housing bubble to replace the Nasdaq bubble.

Krugman. 2002. Calling for a housing bubble.

[chipper me timbers]

"The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design."

[BestUsedCarSales]

Always feels pretty good to make fun of Krugman. It's a failure in my personality, but it is true.

[CE]

Methinks he wasn't the only economist who failed to predict the housing bubble thingy.

[Just Say'n]

"marking another confrontational move by the president against the rapidly mounting legal threats facing him and his administration."

Are we ever going to find out what these crimes are? There was a ton of leaking to get this investigation going and now it doesn't even seem to be focused on Russian collusion anymore. How much longer do we have to pretend like this isn't just a political fishing expedition?

[Palin's Buttplug]

There have been four guilty pleas to date.

It is certainly not been a "fishing expedition". We know that the Trump campaign was pure trash.

[Just Say'n]

All for lying to the FBI about incidences that were not crimes. If lying to the FBI is so abhorrent you want to tackle why McCabe should not have been fired for lying to the FBI, sport?

[Just Say'n]

Correction: some were charged with none disclosure of lobbying activities that occurred before Trump announced his candidacy.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opi.....-colluding

[damikesc]

And what they PLED to was usually far, far less than they were charged with. Showing that Mueller was making shit up.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

"Pure trash" isn't criminal. You are charging Russians who will never face a US courtroom, and getting pleas on process charges that wouldn't have happened without the investigation.

[Get To Da Chippah]

Of those four pleas, how many were for colluding with Russia to elect Trump?

[John]

Mueller didn't even charge Flynn or Manfort with "collusion" assuming there is such a thing. So if Flynn and Manfort were not involved with the collusion, who was?

[Palin's Buttplug]

Money laundering for the Russian mob is the crime.

Trump is a deadbeat who needed mob money.

[John]

Sure it is, but it has nothing to do with the election or anything that Mueller was empowered to investigate. The things Manfort is accused of doing have nothing to do with Trump and happened before Manfort was associated with Trump.

The only candidate who colluded with the Russians was Hillary. It wasn't Trump who paid a British agent to create a dossier on his opponent based on information provided by the Russian government. It was Hillary. If anything is collusion, it is that you sorry sack of shit.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Money laundering for the Russian mob is the crime.

Money laundering for Hezbollah, however, is A-OK for shriek-poo.

[John]

So is telling the DEA to stand down and stop investigating their Hezbollah drug dealing efforts.

[TrickyVic (old school)]

""Money laundering for Hezbollah, however, is A-OK for shriek-poo""

Come on, it's not like anyone sent a pallet of money to Iran.

[Scarecrow Repair & Chippering]

For "lying" to the FBI. Big whoop. Do you even know how that works, how the FBI conducts "interviews", how hard it is to not lie by their definition, how stacked the deck is? Do you not remember even Martha Stewart being convicted of lying to the almighty FBI?

Fuck off, slaver.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

The FBI doesn't record interviews. You lied based on nothing but their say so.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

And the free minds crowd doesn't give a damn about that.

[John]

The same people who tried to frame two innocent people for the Anthrax attacks, driving one to suicide, would never lie about what Flynn said or fail to disclose Brady evidence before his plea. Nope, this whole thing is on the up and up and only a nut would doubt the FBI. Ken Dopehat White, who is a 1st Amendment attorney and graduated from Harvard, has assured me of this.

[sarcasmic]

You lied based on nothing but their say so.

Because they are incapable of lying.

I've actually been interviewed by an FBI agent. For a coworker who was applying for a security clearance. It was some intimidating shit. I watched him take notes, and he only wrote down a word here and there. Based upon a word here and there I could be accused of lying if I was interviewed again, even if I said the exact same thing. Because there's no way he could have encapsulated the entire interview with a dozen words on a sheet of paper.

[chipper me timbers]

Why would anyone EVER talk to the FBI. You can always stay silent.

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

Well, make sure you tell them you are exercising your right to remain silent. Otherwise they can use your silence against you. Thank SCOTUS for that bullshit.

[John]

You are right. And that is a fucking shame. We live in a society where the police and especially the feds are so craven and corrupt and dangerous that it is foolish for an innocent person who has information about a crime to volunteer it to them. That is just sad.

[loveconstitution1789]

Never talk to the police. Ever!

Never let police search you or your property without a warrant.

When it comes up with law enforcement that is your reputation, they will treat you differently. If can bring in 10 people that can testify that you have never done either one of those things its harder for them to lie that you suddenly after all the years spoke with them and/or allowed them to search.

[damikesc]

Especially since the agents in question didn't think Flynn was intentionally lying in the first place. I hope Manafort takes Mueller to the mat for this. Both are sleazy fuckers, but Mueller has a longer history of fucking over ordinary Americans with malicious and incompetent prosecutions.

[Citizen X - #6]

Look, if you were a decent, law-abiding citizen with no crimes to hide, why would the FBI be investigating you in the first place? It's so simple.

[Just Say'n]

Is it possible to believe that Trump is an immoral and incompetent person unfit to hold the presidency and still believe that Russia fever dreams is the most mainstreamed conspiracy theory in the history of this country based entirely on partisans intent on forcing the president's hand on foreign policy?

Obviously, yes. That is the libertarian position. Neoliberals defend an unaccountable bureaucracy over the authority of elected officials. Defending an un-elected bureaucracy is the opposite position of believing in smaller government

[John]

Isn't the whole point of being a Libertarian or a civil libertarian of any stripe to defend everyone's rights regardless of your opinion of their politics or personal morality? The same people who happily defend the most vicious convicted murderers on death row (and rightly so), can't bring themselves to defend people associated with Trump who are obviously being railroaded and Trump himself who is clearly the subject of a politically motivated witch hunt that seeks to criminalize disagreeing with the establishment. Defending child killers who are getting the needle doesn't get you kicked out of the smart set I guess. And that is all that seems to matter to these people.

[Zeb]

How much longer do we have to pretend like this isn't just a political fishing expedition?

Oh, is that what we were doing? I thought it was just assumed that it's just a political fishing expedition.

[Weigel's Cock Ring]

We're getting closer and closer every day to the lid finally being blown off Operation Negro Nixon and his entire cabal (aka "The Resistance").

[Eek Barba Durkle]

"President Trump shook up his legal team Monday by hiring a combative former prosecutor who has publicly argued that Trump is the target of an elaborate FBI conspiracy?marking another confrontational move by the president against the rapidly mounting legal threats facing him and his administration."

Is it possible to consider the idea that, over a full year of investigation later without a shred of evidence for any of the underlying allegations, or of anything illegal on the part of Trump or his campaign/administration, that Trump's main legal threat is, in fact, a bald-faced witch hunt?

I despise Trump, but at what point do we admit the fairly obvious reality?

[John]

And it is a bit rich, given Meuller and his team's history, some of which I describe below, to describe anyone on Trump's side as a "combative former prosecutor". Meuller has assembled an all-star team of scumbag crooked federal prosecutors.

[Zeb]

Oh, I'm sure there are enough scumbag former prosecutors to fill out everyone's legal team/.

[John]

Yes, and enough to fill the bench and practice team as well.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

GOP Rep Gohmert in Shock as Reporter Reveals Imran Awan Accessed House Server FROM PAKISTAN

[Rhywun]

FROM PAKISTAN

You mean the internet goes all the way over there? Oh my God.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Um, yes, but government servers really should be more secure than that, shouldn't they?

[Rhywun]

Man... tough crowd.

Yes, government servers really should be more secure than that.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

And we should care about crimes committed by people hired by Democrats?

[Rhywun]

Good grief, it was a joke.

This is a huge scandal, or it would be if the MSM let it.

[Citizen X - #6]

Longtorso doesn't get jokes unless they refer to classic anime.

[Just Say'n]

"You mean the internet goes all the way over there? Oh my God."

I mean those people live in huts or something. If they're not living in squalor without access to the internet then why are we spending all this money on flying death machines bombing them on a daily basis. More government incompetency.

[Weigel's Cock Ring]

Good job Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. You really know how to pick 'em!

[damikesc]

Well, in her defense, the Dems still aren't terribly broken up over it.

Now, if it turns out he is associated with Russia, they will be irate enough to blame Trump for that.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I fear that all the Russia probe coverage is eating into the high schoolers for gun control coverage.

[John]

And the scandal that Facebook may have helped someone besides a Democrat.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Basically. Take a job with the wrong campaign and you will face criminal charges. For the right one, you're cool. I eagerly await small government libertarian outrage at selective enforcement designed to tilt elections to a single party.

Oh, sorry, that's right - immigration.

[John]

http://ijr.com/2018/03/1077083.....rector-fb/

Facebook was an active part of both Obama campaigns. But now they have accidentally allowed a company to take data from them to work with a Republican!! Dum dum dum!! So, now everyone associated with Facebook must go to jail and the company must die.

[Rhywun]

So, now everyone associated with Facebook must go to jail and the company must die.

Trump is the gift that keeps on giving.

[John]

He is that.

[Ron]

more of that social credit score going on here

[damikesc]

Hey, those schoolers are also "white privilege" bitches, too. Don't pigeon hole them into being gun morons. They are racial morons, too.

[damikesc]

Hey, those schoolers are also "white privilege" bitches, too. Don't pigeon hole them into being gun morons. They are racial morons, too.

[John]

http://thefederalist.com/2018/.....x-attacks/

Mueller was so incompetent, he ruined the life of one innocent person trying to pin the anthrax attacks on him. The guy ended up getting a $6 million settlement over it. Given the fact that the FBI is never held accountable for anything, how badly must have Mueller acted to get the government to settle that? Not content with destroying one life, Mueller moved on and tried to frame another innocent person and wound up driving the poor guy to suicide. After he died, the FBI declared him guilty, despite there being no direct evidence he did it, very little circumstantial evidence and absolutely no motive or reason to think a guy who had been a boy scout his entire life would go berserk and start sending anthrax to people. The guy's mistake seems to have been helping the FBI and in doing so getting on Mueller's radar when he needed another innocent person to frame.

Like every sociopathic scumbag in Washington, Mueller was never held accountable for this and was in fact rewarded by being made the head of the FBI for it. But, his investigation is totally on the up and up and he is an honest public servant who can be trusted. Christ asshole is too weak of a word. The guy is just fucking evil.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

What's been particularly amusing/obnoxious since the McCabe firing has been all the shitlibs unironically licking Brennan's ballsack for his silly little Twitter limpout at Trump last weekend. Yankee scuzzbag Peter King had a blurb on this in his Monday NFL column and it reads like something a 15-year-old girl would write.

One of the most hilarious things about Trump's presidency is that it shows just how reactionary the left has become into taking positions that would have been standard planks of the Democrats not even 30 years ago. Only Trump would get hard-left shitlibs to defend free trade agreements, denounce tariffs, mock the evolution of defense into the space and cyberwarfare theaters, and go full throttle to defend shadow organizations that they spent decades denouncing as unaccountable authoritarian institutions.

The mere fact that Democrats are going full-bore to defend these supposed august individuals and offices shows just how entrenched they actually are in these arenas, and how invested they are in maintaining the status quo. No wonder Trump talking shit about them seems like such a threat.

[John]

Clinton and Obama totally politicized the FBI and intel communities. Bush did nothing to reverse it. The Democrats have come to see those institutions as their own secret police force to be used against opponents. So, yeah, they are pretty pissed that Trump is talking shit about them and exposing how compromised they are.

[Weigel's Cock Ring]

Happy first day of spring by the way, enjoy the mini blizzard that's coming!

[John]

Is it global warming or the evil Jews causing this? I don't do a very good job of keeping track of the latest Prog conspiracy theories about the weather.

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

Don't forget Putin and Midwestern white women who vote as their husbands tell them to.

[BestUsedCarSales]

It can be both, John.

[TrickyVic (old school)]

""Is it global warming or the evil Jews causing this?"'

Only two choices John? You're gonna need a lot more reasons if you want that book tour.

[MP]

mini blizzard

You mean a run-of-the-mill snowstorm? Pussy. Go back to California.

[John]

It is Washington. It is south of the Mason Dixon line and might as well be Atlanta. People lose their shit over snow and ice.

[sarcasmic]

My coworkers in VA said it was bumper cars driving to work.

[loveconstitution1789]

Georgia bought more vehicles and equipment to deal with ice after Snowpocalypse 2014. Its better now but yeah people are not good drivers in general and bad weather really makes them really bad.

Its the out of staters that cannot handle driving when it dumps 12 inches of rain in 15 minutes here in Georgia.

[Ken Shultz]

So, let me get this straight . . .

Am I to understand that government officials on both sides of the Atlantic suddenly woke up to what Facebook does for a living? That seems unlikely.

Or is it that officials on both sides of the Atlantic are now trying to blame both Trump's victory and Brexit on an analytics company that used Facebook data?

I don't know what's worse, UK elitists unable to accept that a chunk of their people don't want to be subjected to the EU's refugee and immigration policies or American elitists who refuse to accept that the American people are disgusted by elitist SJW politics and Hillary Clinton's corruption.

[Sevo]

"Or is it that officials on both sides of the Atlantic are now trying to blame both Trump's victory and Brexit on an analytics company that used Facebook data?"

They SWEAR there's a boogy-man under that bed, dammit!

[Longtorso, Johnny]

The Social-Media Panic
Make no mistake: 2016 will never happen again." Historians are not always reliable predictors of the future, but Niall Ferguson's analysis of how Silicon Valley and the center-Left would react to the successive and surprise victories of Brexit and Donald Trump is proving correct. Conservatives and populists will not be allowed to use the same tools as Democrats and liberals again, or at least not use them effectively.

Silicon Valley is working with its media and governmental critics to limit the damage to the center-Left going forward. You can see the dynamic in the way that the media generates a moral panic out of stories about how Brexit and the Trump election happened, and the way Silicon Valley responds. Fake news becomes a problem, and Silicon Valley responds by hiring progressive journalists as censors. I mean "fact-checkers." You can see it in the demonetization of YouTube videos. Or in the new sets of regulation being imposed in European countries that deputize the social-media networks themselves as an all seeing social censor.

The latest moral panic is about Cambridge Analytica, a data and media consultancy run by the Mercer family that did a little work with the Trump campaign, after it had done work with the Ted Cruz campaign....

[Rhywun]

Yesterday's reports made it sound like Facebook was "hacked". But this was all publicly visible data, wasn't it? The tu quoque about Obama is fun but in the end it still amounts to "who gives a shit".

[John]

I never bought the idea that Obama won the election because he had all of this social media data. That was all bullshit that the consultants peddled to make themselves look more important than they were. Indeed, Hillary hired the same people Obama used and did the same things and what difference did it make?

The only way Facebook and the analytics helped Obama and Hillary, is that it enabled them to get a list of registered voters whom they knew were not going to vote. This then allowed the DNC to have their hoards of volunteers show up and vote illegally in those people's places in states that do not require voter ID. I think Obama and Hillary likely picked up a few hundred thousand fraud votes like that. But otherwise, it is all a fantasy.

[jcw]

Talk about fantasy.

[John]

That is how vote fraud works. Do you think Democrats do not engage in it? Do you think at all or just emote?

[jcw]

I just emote, I let you do all the thinking. Thanks

Any reasonable links/resources related to your claim that ~300,000 votes were cast fraudulently, in the two most recent presidential elections?

[John]

You do just emote. And who knows how much they did it? But why wouldn't they? It is the easiest fraud you can do and virtually impossible to detect.

If you choose to believe they are as clean as the driven snow and would never do such a thing, well, whatever gets you through the night pal.

[jcw]

Any more strawmen you would like to build? Where did I say "they" are clean as the driven snow and that they would never do such a thing?

Where did I emote?

Feel free to continue attacking my person as you make unsubstantiated claims, if that helps you get through the night. Thanks for this super productive discussion (as they always are with you).

[Ken Shultz]

Obama won because people were sick of the Iraq War.

Obama went to Facebook because younger people skewed more pro-Obama, and was looking to get out the vote.

If people are influenced by what they read on social media, so what?

If we're scared of what millennials can be led to believe through social media, then maybe we should concentrate on teaching the next batch critical thinking skills--rather than making them feel good about themselves.

[loveconstitution1789]

A lot of black people voted for Obama because he was black. Oprah did.

McCain would have had Vietnam troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan and we would have been war mongering around the World like Obama did. At least with Obama, you could have a Republican Congress to block his socialist plans. McCain would have had a willing Congress of RINOs or Democrats sending our young Americans off to die for neo-con bullshit.

[BYODB]

There's little doubt in my mind that McCain would have been far worse, in all honesty, but it would have mostly been worse oversea's I think. We elected to shoot ourselves in the foot rather than some other country in the head, I guess, even while we did a little of both under Obama.

What's most amusing is to watch Romney of all fucking people be proven correct. It's laughable looking back at all the things said about Romney when he's exactly the kind of Republican the left should want Republicans to nominate. I'm not saying I like guys like Romney, but you would think Democrats would see that they could get a lot of their agenda done under a guy like that.

Guess not because Romney was Hitler too, right?

[loveconstitution1789]

The ironic thing is that if the Democrats let Romney win, Hillary could have probably slipped right in after one term of Romney.

Luckily, political hacks don't think in those terms. Obama had to be the first black president to serve the maximum two terms and then Hillary was expected to the be the first woman president and serve two terms.

Obama was so bad that Hillary was defeated by a guy from left-field and he is doing okay. Trump literally reset the standard for presidents not necessarily being hacks like W Bush, Bill Clinton, Obama, Hillary, etc. American now can demand a president who at least tries to put America first.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Silicon Valley is working with its media and governmental critics to limit the damage to the center-Left going forward. You can see the dynamic in the way that the media generates a moral panic out of stories about how Brexit and the Trump election happened, and the way Silicon Valley responds.

This is why whinging about anti-trust actions against Big Tech is so self-defeating. As I've pointed out before, these are organizations with an anarcho-tyrannic view of how society should operate, and most of them are thick with the Democrats. Again, look what happened with the James Damore incident--this guy wrote a fairly innocuous memo, backed up by actual studies, that shook up Google so badly that they fired him and held struggle sessions for the rest of their employees. It's an organization dedicated to sweeping up every bit of data on your personal life and exploiting it for financial gain; ultimately, the goal is to have the power of a quasi-governmental organization, and not a benevolent one, at that.

[John]

They control so much of the internet and the inertia from that is such that it does no good to say "just start your own platform". Sure, start your own youtube. And you and your ten closest friends will watch it. Meanwhile, the rest of the world will be going to youtube because that is where all of the non-political entertainment stuff is because that is where people naturally put things. And youtube will be happily censoring anything that offends their crazed employee's SJW sensibilities. And since most people don't care that much about politics, they won't know what they are missing or how awful Youtube is. So there will be no market correction for their awfulness.

[damikesc]

Yeah, and clowns like Reason whining about it is silly. What BENEFIT is there to LESS ACCOUNTABLE gate keepers of information? Does Reason think they won't be purged? They think their constant "Well, that guy is obviously a problem child" nonsense will spare them?

Break up Silicon Valley. Cut those companies to a fraction of their sizes.

[John]

They really do think they won't be purged or will be happy to bend over and walk away from their beliefs if that is what is required by the Prog hive.

[Zeb]

Break up Silicon Valley. Cut those companies to a fraction of their sizes.

Who is going to do that? Why would you trust them, whoever that may be? Do you really think the smaller companies that result would be better behaved?

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

And youtube will be happily censoring anything that offends their crazed employee's SJW sensibilities.

I've found LiveLeak to be a lot more open about what gets posted on their page. They do one hell of a job showing how dysfunctional most of so-called "civilized" society really is.

[John]

the other issue is that even if you could start a new platform, the SJWs are like night of the living dead. They are relentless. It would just be a matter of time before they infiltrated it and purged everything and everyone outside of the Prog hive. There was a time when companies like Google were free thinking. The SJW are fanatics who will take over anything and either destroy it or co-opt it into a tool for advancing their sick politics.

[Zeb]

YouTube is also, despite Google's efforts, the only place to go for real classical liberal, conservative or libertarian political content. If they decided to really shut that down, that could be really bad. Or it could piss off enough people that an alternative might become viable. Who knows?

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Democrat suggests 'Second Amendment' remedy vs. Trump.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Maybe someone should use the standard shitlib retort and remind him that his gun won't do squat against an armed MQ-9.

[Ken Shultz]

"Police chief: Uber self-driving car "likely" not at fault in fatal crash"

----Ars Technica, This Morning

https://tinyurl.com/yap8auw4

"Can an autonomous vehicle avoid other people plowing into it?

It doesn't seem so. In most of the accidents I see reported with autonomous vehicles, they're telling us that it was the other driver's fault--as if that were important. If you ever learn to ride a motorcycle safely, it will be because you learn to take responsibility for your own safety--regardless of what stupid people do. Anyone who tends to blame other people for their problems should probably stay off a motorcycle.

I avoid other people plowing into me every day. If autonomous vehicles can't do that, then they suck compared to me.

----Ken Shultz, Last Night

http://reason.com/blog/2018/03.....nt_7187215

Like I wrote in response to Bailey yesterday, every time I see problems with autonomous cars, it always seems to be the "fault" of people who aren't under the same control structure as the autonomous car. It doesn't take a big leap in logic to see where this is headed.

If the "problem" is individuals driving themselves around, then sooner or later, they'll want to solve that problem by stopping us from driving ourselves around.

[Rhywun]

they'll want to solve that problem by stopping us from driving ourselves around

Or walking ourselves around. Stupid pedestrians always getting in the way.

[Ken Shultz]

I've never actually met anyone who got a jaywalking ticket.

Maybe that'll change.

[Rhywun]

I've never seen anyone ticketed for blowing a red light either.

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

You can watch videos of people getting their asses kicked for jaywalking.

[Ken Shultz]

The point is that jaywalking tickets may become more frequent and more onerous in the future--not that it never happens.

[BYODB]

I foresee highway protests will increase in frequency as the robot vehicles will simply stop and accept that ten hour wait. Car robberies will also increase.

Those aren't hard things to figure out once you realize that you can't program the vehicle to run over someone on purpose.

Oh well! What are 'second order consequences' anyway?

/sarc

[loveconstitution1789]

I wonder why car manufacturers are spending so much money on autonomous cars when they have not even surveyed approximately how many Americans even will buy them

I will never buy one. Never. I can say that because they will never have a flying machine that operates on the ground too in my lifetime, which is the only thing like that I would buy.

[Rhywun]

I thought the idea was that people won't have to own a car anymore. There will just be fleets of cars ready for when you need one.

Yeah, I don't believe it either.

[Citizen X - #6]

Can you imagine being the person responsible for keeping such a fleet clean? 'Cause you know those cars would be getting fucked in just constantly.

[Rhywun]

Clearly, there are still some kinks to be worked out.

[Citizen X - #6]

Oh, there'll be kinks getting worked out, alright.

[BYODB]

Truly your knowledge of human nature is impeccable in this area.

I foresee a booming market in black lights and spray disinfectant.

[Citizen X - #6]

Plastic seats and a drain in the floor. It's the only way.

[CE]

I already have a car ready for me in my garage.

[JWatts]

"I will never buy one. Never."

Said some old guy 20 years ago, talking about cell phones. If you don't see the obvious economic advantage in autonomous vehicles, then you aren't commercially aware.

Most taxi companies will automate 80% of their taxi fleet. They'll keep 20% human driven to deal with baggage issues, old farts that insist on a human driver and are willing to pay twice the fair and special cases.

Shipping companies will automate 99% of their trucks. Package delivery companies will automate 100% of their trucks, but keep a person on board to sort and run the packages to the door.

Manufacturing companies will automate 50% of their fork lifts.

Lawn care companies will automate 80% of their lawn mowers, and the human will handle detail work and supervision. A lot of 3 person lawn care teams will drop to 2 people.

Autonomous vehicles of all types will probably free up 20 million American workers for other work.

This all assumes that politics doesn't get in the way and that the technology can decrease its error rate another 5 fold.

[John]

Shipping companies will automate 99% of their trucks.

And the first time one of those trucks causes an accident, the plaintiff's attorney is going to tell the jury "my client's life could have been saved if only the trucking company had not been too cheap to hire a driver to monitor this truck and step in and save it."

If you think that trucking companies are going to send 80,000 trucks out on the highway without any human to monitor them or step in if one gets out of control, you are delusional. Having a person there defeats the entire purpose of having it automated. What you will see is cars and trucks that are automated to assist human drivers and make them safer and better. You not getting your robot car any time soon. The improvement over human drivers are not enough and the liability risks too great to make them work outside very limited circumstances.

[NotAnotherSkippy]

Having a human present in the hopes that they'll take control at just the right time is a disaster waiting to happen. Self-driving automation is coming whether you like it or not. Emotional pleas will likely delay it, but it's only a delay.

[John]

Yeah, because emotional pleas never work in courts and the tort system is a model of economic efficiency.

And yes, it is a recipe for disaster. And that is why it isn't going to happen. Robotic cars will never be able to adapt to all conditions or make all of the subtle judgments humans do. They will work in mines and very dense urban areas with very controlled traffic like Manhattan. Otherwise, they will be useless as tits on a bore. So, what you are going to get is human driven cars where the robot monitors and jumps in when the human messes up. Robots are great at monitoring but terrible at adapting and subtle judgment. They are still machine language dumb machines no matter how clever you make them. But that are great at monitoring and jumping in to save humans when they mess up. That is the future, not fully robotic cars or trucks.

No amount of wishful thinking and sci fi fantasies is going to change that. You might as well hope for your jet back and flying car.

[BYODB]

On this at least we agree, the 'human' isn't going to intervene in shit while their pants are around their ankles and they're spending their time on pornhub. That's just not realistic.

Another unrealistic thing is a vehicle that can predict human behavior on the road with enough accuracy to simulate being a human 'but better' in the next five years.

[John]

Or even in the next ten years. Driving a single vehicle around on a completely mapped course at low speeds in perfect weather is about as far from replacing millions of vehicles used and misused in every condition imaginable well outside of what has been mapped to a high level of detail as shooting off a model rocket is from going to the Moon.

[loveconstitution1789]

Of course automation is coming. I will just never drive one of those vehicles. I will build my own vehicle from scratch if I have to.

[Zeb]

I'll believe it's possible when I see one do my drive to work in a snow storm 20 times without sliding off the road or crashing into anything.

[John]

Autonomous vehicles of all types will probably free up 20 million American workers for other work.

Of all the claims made by the robotic car believers, this has to be the most comically absurd. Yeah, everyone is going to spend their entire commute riding in their robotic car working, because that is what they want to do. Seriously, how do people convince themselves of this shit?

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Of all the claims made by the robotic car believers, this has to be the most comically absurd. Yeah, everyone is going to spend their entire commute riding in their robotic car working, because that is what they want to do

That claim doesn't even apply to the real world right now. It's one of the supposed benefits touted by mass transit supporters and socially maladjusted nerds, that our "connected" bugmen can devote even more of their precious off-time to doing work on their digital umbilicus while riding the train or bus.

I took mass transit all through college and still take it on occasion when I don't feel like driving downtown. You know what I see on these buses and trains? People napping, reading a book, fucking around on social media, or shifting their position so they don't have to touch the random smelly homeless guy who's trying to get out of the weather for a few minutes. Sure, there's a few that are doing work, but they're pretty rare.

If you know that your autonomous car is going to take you directly to your place of employment, are you really going to spend that time squeezing in an extra 45 minutes to an hour of work before you get to the office, or are you going to put the seat back and pass out because you had to get up at 4:30 or 5 in the morning to commute to your cubicle drone job?

[Rhywun]

It's one of the supposed benefits touted by mass transit supporters and socially maladjusted nerds

Really? I'm a supporter and I have *never* heard this claim. Ever.

[Edward Bellamy]

Yes really, I hear it all the time.

[BYODB]

What are all the illegal immigrants going to do when all the non-skilled or low-skill jobs have been outsourced to robots? I guess the same thing as American's; live on welfare and consume for a living?

[Zeb]

Well, illegal immigration does slow down a lot when jobs aren't available. So it will at least partly self-regulate.

[NotAnotherSkippy]

Think of the millioms of elderly that will be able to stay living at home with this. It's a huge enabler.

[John]

Good for them. It will not however replace human operated cars. You make a good point. Lots of people who cannot drive and do not own their own car today could potentially do that if robotic cars become practical. That is great. But, explain to me again how these things are going to solve all of our traffic problems?

One of my favorite fairy tales people like Bailey believe is that robotic cars are going to eliminate traffic jams and also eliminate the need for parking lots because they will be able to just cruise the streets and wait for you instead of being parked or drive to a far away parking lot and return when you need them. Ah, okay. So all of these cars are going to now be on the road either cruising or heading off to their far away parking lots that are now sitting parked at their destination and this is going to eliminate traffic problems.

How the fuck do people manage to believe this stuff? Do they just never get out of the house?

[BYODB]

Are the elderly incapable of using an Uber, or do we expect that buying a predictive AI that simulates true human behavior that you trust with your life will be affordable even for the richest generation?

[BYODB]

And, furthermore, do we think that the 'harrumph' generation will readily adopt new technology of this sort when it seems we're assuming that Uber is too much trouble for them?

[John]

And if the person is unable to drive, they likely will need help getting in the vehicle, which eliminates the robotic taxi.

And the human taxi driver will be able to speed and break the traffic laws as they see fit. The robotic taxi will due to liability concerns necessarily be programmed to obey every traffic law to the letter. Most people will happily pay a premium for a human driver who gets them there more quickly. It is not like cabs are that expensive now or would be free if only they were robotic.

[loveconstitution1789]

I never said that I would not own a cell phone but I have an old iPhone and never get a brand new cell that comes out. I only replace mine when the battery completely dies. I don't have issues with broken screens or dropping my phone, etc. I take care of my stuff and save money getting late models of many products.

Automating many things is probably the way to go but automating private vehicles will never happen in the next 40 years. After that, I will be dead.

I do have to laugh how technology optimists think robots will be the best device to take over for many human tasks. Maybe someday but not in the next 40 years. Nature is just too chaotic for computers to adjust based on programming.

Besides, driving is fun. I just hope they program trucks to drive in the right lanes of multiple lane roads and only drive in the fast lane when passing. That way, I can fly around them since there will be no cops on the road. You don't need cops enforcing traffic laws if every vehicle is supposed to be driven by law abiding computers.

[John]

I will tell you why because if they could get them to be standard, it would make all existing cars obsolete and create an enormous demand for new cars that would not otherwise exist.

[CE]

Existing cars aren't so great -- tens of thousands of traffic fatalities yearly in the US alone. Humans are terrible drivers.

[loveconstitution1789]

Except for the billions of miles driven by billions of of people around the World.

Automobiles are less safe than airplanes but for the convenience, cars are the safest and fastest mode of getting to locations away from airports.

[Rhywun]

I wonder why car manufacturers are spending so much money on autonomous cars when they have not even surveyed approximately how many Americans even will buy them

LUDDITE!

[loveconstitution1789]

Yes, companies that need to be bailed out spending money on unwanted products is super wise company management.

Keep thinking automated cars are the best thing ever. You will be disappointed year after year.

Funny you use the word Luddite after I mention one technology that is not what its cracked up to be. Not all technology and I am not against it. Only a MORON could not get that definition correct.

[TrickyVic (old school)]

""If the "problem" is individuals driving themselves around, then sooner or later, they'll want to solve that problem by stopping us from driving ourselves around.""

Already in the works. You need vehicle to vehicle and vehicle to road communications. That is being work on as we speak.

[Ken Shultz]

I suppose this speaks to the point that although technology is only good or evil based on how it's used, some technologies do lend themselves to abuse more than others.

I might put technologies that seek to exclude those who choose not to use them on the darker side of that spectrum.

[loveconstitution1789]

Luckily older auto technology will fix that. Classic cars driving on the roads no matter what the government says.

[Zeb]

Red Barchetta will become reality.

[loveconstitution1789]

Rush!

[Sevo]

"...against the rapidly mounting legal threats facing him and his administration."

They found that un-paid parking ticket?
Whatever it is, it is NOT "rapid".

[loveconstitution1789]

Three injured in shooting at St. Mary's County high school in Maryland

Two more weeks of unconstitutional gun control talk....starting NOW.

[CE]

Except this time the school resource officer did his job correctly and shot the shooter.

[loveconstitution1789]

Yup. More evidence that an armed person at a school shooting can respond quickly before police and end the shooting, so nobody is killed except the shooter.

It sucks that those kids got hurt, but this is a huge negative for gun control nuts who will never admit that gun free zones are dangerous.

[Sevo]

"Big oil faces big test in climate-change court showdown with SF, Oakland"
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/
article/Big-oil-faces-big-test-in-
climate-change-court-12765371.php?
cmpid=gsa-sfgate-result

I'm guessing the companies will have to say that they really do luv the mud momma.

[John]

As with all things involving the left, this will boil down to fuck you, pay me. They no more want to stop people from using fossil fuels than they want people to stop smoking. They are just gangsters looking for a shakedown payment.

[loveconstitution1789]

That and certain states have found a way to siphon off money from residents of other states. If Commifornia taxes cigs super high, residents of other states are technically subsidizing cigarette prices in that state. The price of the high taxes states are partly spread over the cost of all cigs. Otherwise, cigs would be $20+ per pack and the cig market would just move out of Taxifornia.

Fossil fuels will be even bigger as Commifornia has a few refineries located there, so surrounding states that buy that gas will see their prices rise too.

[BYODB]

Fossil fuels will be even bigger as Commifornia has a few refineries located there, so surrounding states that buy that gas will see their prices rise too.

Or, as I always like to say, more business for Texas. The thing that California doesn't have going for it is monopoly control over any resources in particular and that interstate commerce isn't theirs to control. While I'm not in favor of a lot of things that are derived from the commerce clause, the underlying idea is a good one.

[Rhywun]

Link doesn't work but if this is what I think it is, why aren't these cases getting laughed out of court.

[Ken Shultz]

Incidentally, to whatever extent this Facebook panic makes individuals drop out of the service because they're suddenly aware of what Facebook does with their personal information, that's a good thing.

Facebook sucks.

[Rebel Scum]

The last known male northern white rhino in the world has died.

'Northern White Rhino' was my nickname in college.

[Rebel Scum]

hiring a combative former prosecutor who has publicly argued that Trump is the target of an elaborate FBI conspiracy

This should be fun. Love or hate Trump, his admin. has been entertaining.

[Citizen X - #6]

Politics has been converging with entertainment since at least the Kennedy-Nixon debate. Donald Trump is an apotheosis, not some horrible anomaly.

[TrickyVic (old school)]

""Politics has been converging with entertainment since at least the Kennedy-Nixon debate."'

I'm pretty sure that convergence happened over 1000 years ago. It the mode of entertainment that has changed.

[John]

Yes Vic. Google Byzantium, Circus Maximus and the Blues and the Greens sometime. Politics and entertainment have always been linked.

[Weigel's Cock Ring]

Man, do I love it when the Crustard gets sent off on JournoList assignment somewhere. The collective IQ around here instantly jumps at least five points.

[Rebel Scum]

A package bound for Austin, Texas, has exploded at a FedEx facility near San Antonio.

Premature detonation

[silver.]

Shikha Dalmia on the lunacy of the SPLC.

Of course, those who most need to read such an article never will.

[John]

When you are so crazy and dishonest even Dalmia can rightly call you out...

[CE]

A package bound for Austin, Texas, has exploded at a FedEx facility near San Antonio.

Did they happen to get the tracking number?

If the USPS can help the DEA bust someone based on what stamps they bought cash for, this should be a breeze for BATFE to get the bomber.

Unless someone was just shipping an old Samsung Galaxy to a friend.

[loveconstitution1789]

I suspect this bomber is using USPS machines to add postage at a post office after hours in a disguise.

The FedEx packages were probably placed in one of those pickup bins with a stolen account number.

It does seem weird that someone would want to bomb regular people rather than government officials and be pretty good at avoiding revealing their identity.

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