John Bolton Is Trump's New National Security Advisor, Senate Passes $1.3 Trillion Spending Bill, Craiglist Personals Killed by FOSTA: A.M. Links

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  Jeff Malet Photography/Newscom

  President Trump announced via Twitter Thursday evening that as of April 9, former U.S. Ambassador John Bolton would be replacing H.R. McMaster as a national security adviser. If you need a refresher on Bolton's unique brand of awfulness, check out Eric Boehm's post from last fall on five "horrifically bad foreign policy ideas that should disqualify" Bolton from being anywhere near foreign policy.

• Senators voted 65-32 in favor of a $1.3 trillion federal spending bill.
• Craigslist has gotten rid of all personals-ad sections in the wake of the Senate's passage this week of "FOSTA," a bill making websites criminally liable for user-posted content.
• Long-time National Review writer Kevin D. Williamson has been hired by The Atlantic (and the internet is not pleased).
• "By the way, tolerance is tolerance is tolerance. Period, you assholes," writes filmmaker Vincent Gallo in a long and rambling but sporadically interesting essay on "today's intolerant, young" city folk who "are all part of a similar social ideological consensus."
• "Obsessive train lovers" are restoring vintage rail cars and hooking them up to the back of Amtrak trains for customized rail travel adventures.
• Parisian authorities say a sex-doll hub is not a brothel.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

...U.S. Ambassador John Bolton would be replacing H.R. McMaster as a national security adviser.

He likes surrounding himself with the best mustaches.

[Leo Kovalensky II]

For those who don't read the links:

1. Bolton was a primary cheerleader of the War in Iraq and stands for everything Americans rejected about the Bush administration's foreign policy.
2. Bolton wanted the U.S. to go to war with Cuba over WMDs that also didn't exist
3. Bolton really, really wants to bomb Iran
4. President Obama followed Bolton's terrible advice about Libya and then Bolton blamed Obama for the resulting mess
5. Bolton suggested Israel should unleash nuclear weapons against Iran

I'm guessing there's no chance for "Shiny Happy People" playing in this guy's office.

[Palin's Buttplug]

I guess Americans should be grateful that the idiot actually had a few decent people in his cabinet at one time (Tillerson, McMaster, Cohn). It is now officially a worse cabinet than Dubya's. You can't get worse than Sessions, Bolton, Kudlow, Rick W Perry, Ben Carson and the other misfits.

[NotAnotherSkippy]

So much butthurt over this. It's going to be a good Friday.

[Get lit]

Maybe our last Friday. Fun!

[Rufus The Monocled]

Hello.

You meant left-wing nut jobs aren't happy about Williamson being hired by The Atlantic.

One chick is from (I'm alt-right because I used the term 'broad'!) the shithole that's become The New Republic and the other is some unemployed Jew (they exist?) named David Klion.

Whatev! I do what I want!

[Palin's Buttplug]

You're alt-right because you shill for the white nationalist Dotard.

[Rufus The Monocled]

I see you're in fine retard form this morning.

Folgers really makes you hyper and coo-coo.

[fotini901]

So you're good with executing women who have abortions, then? "Pro-life?"

[Hank Phillips]

Count on it. Now that mystical nationalsocialists can no longer ignore that the 1972 LP platform became the Roe v. Wade decision, you can count on their least desirable exemplars being assigned here to shriek, piss in drug testing Dixie cups and moan that the Pope iv Rome should wrote American Comstock laws.

[Rebel Scum]

He likes surrounding himself with the best mustaches.

John Stossel needs a post!

[Bee Tagger]

Senators voted 65-32 in favor of a $1.3 trillion federal spending bill.

That's how much it cost to buy the paper to print it on from China. Thanks Trump.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Senators voted 65-32 in favor of a $1.3 trillion federal spending bill.

Sophie's choice of shutting the government down now or the economy down later. They chose the latter.

[Bee Tagger]

Why don't just we make the economy the government?

[Citizen X - #6]

We're doing our damnedest to go the other way.

[Citizen X - #6]

Long-time National Review writer Kevin D. Williamson has been hired by The Atlantic (and the internet is not pleased.)

I eagerly await John's take.

[MP]

I don't have a firm opinion about this hire. I do have to say that, op-eds aside, The Atlantic is become one of the few places where the reporting is rather even-handed. And having diversity within the op-eds is always a good thing.

I may even...subscribe...

[Bacon-Magic glib reasonoid]

^^^
For realz Citizen.

[BestUsedCarSales]

I must admit, I never even knew Lando wrote for the National Review.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Craigslist has gotten rid of all personals-ad sections in the wake of the Senate's passage this week of "FOSTA," a bill making websites criminally liable for user-posted content.

Mission accomplished.

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

Brave Sir Craig ran away.
Bravely ran away away.
When FOTSA reared it's ugly head,
He bravely turned his tail and fled.
Yes, brave Sir Craig turned about
And gallantly he chickened out.
Swiftly taking to his feet,
He beat a very brave retreat.
Bravest of the brave, Sir Craig!

[General_Tso]

...and there was much rejoicing.

[Hank Phillips]

Welcome to the Comstock laws of 1872-3... and the Panic of 1872-3 revisited. It is remarkable that the destruction of individual rights and the train wreck of the economy can be counted on to march goosestepping in lockstep even after all these years...

[Citizen X - #6]

"By the way, tolerance is tolerance is tolerance. Period, you assholes," writes filmmaker Vincent Gallo in a long and rambling but sporadically interesting essay on "today's intolerant, young" city folk who "are all part of a similar social ideological consensus."

Did he write it while filming himself receiving a blowjob?

[Bee Tagger]

Craigslist has gotten rid of all personals-ad sections in the wake of the Senate's passage this week of "FOSTA," a bill making websites criminally liable for user-posted content.

Internet #2 will now be a refuge for people who want net neutrality and a haven for all speech. We may need an Internet #3.

[Libertarian]

But I'm not done reading all the pages on Internet #1 yet.

[Leo Kovalensky II]

But the Republicans told me that the government shouldn't regulate the internet!!!

[Nardz]

Trump considering veto of omnibus...

[Nardz]

CNN freaking out... so just being themselves

[Jerryskids]

Trump says he's considering a veto of the budget spending bill. Pay no attention to what he says, watch what he does.

[Nardz]

Of course, but a little more hope than if he'd said nothing at all.
We shall see

[Citizen X - #6]

Or, watch who's the last person he talks to before it gets to his desk.

[Libertarian]

If you're trying to cheer me up, it ain't working.

[Rebel Scum]

"Rand Paul, you're wanted at the courtesy phone"

[DJF]

Oh My God!!!!

Everyone hurry to the Washington Monument before its closed forever!

[Palin's Buttplug]

Someone forgot to fund The Dotard's border wall.

MEXICO WILL PAY FOR THE WALL!

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

"I found it! I found it! Border security, what President Trump wanted!

no . . .wait a minute section says Defense can spend what funds it determines to enhance the border security of Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, and Tunisia"

- Rand Paul on Twitter.

Congress is taking a page from GWB. Build the wall there so we don't need to build it here.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Please tell me he's doing it for something approximating the right reason.

[Nardz]

Ha!
Who cares, if he does it, what the stated reason is?

[NotAnotherSkippy]

Principles matter... unless it's something I want.

[Nardz]

Principles in USSA gov?
That ship sailed a long time ago. Not sure if it's ever existed in my lifetime.
...unless those principles support global socialism, in which case it's all I've ever known from our feudal lords

[Palin's Buttplug]

He tweeted something about not funding his border wall.

TRUMP PISSED!

[Jerryskids]

But before he mentioned the wall, he whined that the Democrats have abandoned the DREAMers and he really wants to do something to help those folks. One of his spokesmen* bragged on how Trump was doing more to help the DREAMers than Obama did. Funny ol' world when Obama sets the bar for the GOP.

*Nobody speaks for Trump. Trump speaks more than enough for Trump and anybody who claims they know the meaning behind whatever random thoughts fall out of his face is just speculating.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The right reason. Good.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Long-time National Review writer Kevin D. Williamson has been hired by The Atlantic (and the internet is not pleased.)

So everyone forgot the fine work he did coming up with Dawson's Creek already?

[Citizen X - #6]

Joey and Pacey's relationship is a metaphor for white genocide.

[Jerryskids]

President Trump announced via Twitter Thursday evening that as of April 9, former U.S. Ambassador John Bolton would be replacing H.R. McMaster as a national security adviser.

More fake news - pay no attention to what Trump says, watch what he does. There's no evidence that McMaster is out or Bolton is in.

[Bee Tagger]

Eric Boehm's post from last fall on five "horrifically bad foreign policy ideas that should disqualify" Bolton from being anywhere near foreign policy.

Watch Eric Boehm totally DISQUALIFY John Bolton

[Citizen X - #6]

Number Four Will Shock You

[BestUsedCarSales]

Number 4 was that his 'stache wasn't good enough. So yeah, I was shocked.

[Fist of Etiquette]

By the way, tolerance is tolerance is tolerance. Period, you assholes...

Gallo, you may earn you way back into the public eye after all.

[Fist of Etiquette]

"Obsessive train lovers" are restoring vintage rail cars and hooking them up to the back of Amtrak trains for customized rail travel adventures.

Uncle Joe can now throw away his Viagra.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Parisian authorities say a sex-doll hub is not a brothel.

It's a charging station.

[db]

*discharging*

[Fist of Etiquette]

President Trump announced via Twitter Thursday evening that as of April 9, former U.S. Ambassador John Bolton would be replacing H.R. McMaster as a national security adviser.

I look forward to his eventual gruffly unceremonious termination.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Dow down 800 points since the corporate tax cuts went into effect Jan 2.

[Conchfritters]

Yes, if only there were a few more trade wars to lift it out of the basement.

[Leo Kovalensky II]

Suddenly you care about the stock market performance.
Suddenly you'll find that Republicans don't care about the stock market performance.

And the parting on the left, is now parting on the right.
And the beards have all grown longer overnight.
...
We won't get fooled again!

[Libertarian]

I'll take that bet.

[Kivlor]

This started the moment Trump elected. It is terribly frustrating for spergs like myself, who have a fetish for honesty. How many people on the right started talking about lower unemployment almost immediately after he took office and by doing so switched the goal posts from Labor Force Participation and U-6 to the same U-3 metric they criticized when Obama's supporters were using it to say he was saving the economy.

I voted Trump, and I've not changed the metrics I used when I was criticizing Obama. But most of the Republicans I know certainly have. Many of them were saying "The Dow isn't a snapshot of the entire economy" when it was up under Obama, and they crowed about it being the economy when it was down. Now that our guy is in the driver's seat those same people are shifting positions again as it suits them.

[Kivlor]

An honest look at the economy under Trump would say that Labor Force Participation remains unchanged in comparison to the last 2 years of Obama's Presidency. The U-3 is down 0.5% and the U-6 is down 1.5% since the election of Trump to office.

This indicates that there has been some improvement, but hardly the kind of increases in employment that we should be crowing about as if Trump had parted the Red Sea and was leading us to salvation the way some do.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Riiiight. Because the two are absolutely correlated.

[bevis the lumberjack]

Yeah, it has nothing to do with the fact that Trump is starting trade wars willy-nilly. Or that senior positions in the Trump administration are turning out to be short-term internships. Or that 720 of those 800 points happened yesterday in response to Trump stirring it up with China.

I mean, it's got to be the tax cuts, right? That's the only thing that's happened this year.

[Palin's Buttplug]

The tax cuts are fake Keynesian stimulus.

It took The Dotard to turn H&R "libertarians" into deficit loving Keynsians.

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

Do you know of any correlation between long term buttplug insertion and toxic shock syndrome? Asking for a friend.

[Juice]

The tax cuts are fake Keynesian stimulus.

Is that the only reason someone would want their taxes cut?

[Palin's Buttplug]

Whatever happened to "FUCK YOU CUT SPENDING!"?

It is amazing how quickly fiscal responsibility is ignored when the GOP is in power (see 2003-2007)

[Kivlor]

It died when the "TEA Party" gave up and went home years ago.

[bevis the lumberjack]

You're assuming that I supported the tax cuts. I didn't say anything either way on that.

My point - which you seem to have missed - is that your attempt to tie a certain outcome to a particular event was ridiculous and stupid. Virtually all of your 800 Dow points happened yesterday in response to a specific decision by Trump that had nothing to do with the tax cuts.

But yeah, everything is caused by something that you oppose politically. My daughter had a baby this week and made me a grandpa. Thanks, Tax Cuts!!!!!

[Palin's Buttplug]

tie a certain outcome to a particular event was ridiculous and stupid.

Just like the idiots who say that the Dow is up 3200 since Trump got elected?

Yes, just like that.

Trump inherited a bull market in full swing and wants to take credit for it.

[bevis the lumberjack]

"Just like the idiots who say that the Dow is up 3200 since Trump got elected?....Yes, just like that."

Allow me to paraphrase for you - "Other people say stupid shit and because of that they're stupid. When I'm just like them and say something stupid I'll irrationally defend it to my dying breath because it's ok when I say stupid shit because other people say stupid shit and they're stupid. But not me when I say stupid shit because...well...just because".

Dude, sometimes it's ok to say, "yeah, what I said doesn't actually make sense". It's what objective people do. You know, the not-stupid ones.

[Brian]

You meant to say "Down down 800 points since California legalized recreational marijuana."

[Citizen X - #6]

Down 800 points since Mueller started investigating. Boom.

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

"Down down 800 points since Oumuamua exited the Solar System."

[bevis the lumberjack]

Down 800 points since the weather changed from cold to warm. OMG, Climate Change killed the Dow!!!!

[BestUsedCarSales]

Down 800 points since MJ Green stopped posting.

[Leo Kovalensky II]

The good news is that it's up about 3200 pts since Obama left town.

It's also up about 4800 pts since Hillary lost in 2016.

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

One of those amazing, incredible, articulate Parkland kids goes full-on superior asshole on NPR this morning. We have to listen to him because he says so, even @2:20 when he starts shitting on kids in Team Red occupied states. Also, they are totally NOT useful idiots being manipulated for political gain. These kids are waaaay too sharp.

I give you Cameron Kasky, your better.

[Rhywun]

My morning news said the kids are organizing another march. Uh huh.

[Conchfritters]

President Trump announced via Twitter Thursday evening that as of April 9, former U.S. Ambassador John Bolton would be replacing H.R. McMaster as a national security adviser.

I wonder what Kim Jong U.N. is thinking now about his upcoming meeting with Trump. Might as well just put a bullet in his head.

[Palin's Buttplug]

They will learn the lesson all teens eventually learn - that no one cares about their idealism.

[Palin's Buttplug]

(About the Parkland kids)

[sarcasmic]

The question is... when will you learn that no one cares.

[Brian]

If it makes you feel better: the constitution doesn't care what they think about Roe v. Wade, either.

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

Well that's not amazing, not at all.

[sarcasmic]

"By the way, tolerance is tolerance is tolerance. Period, you assholes,"

Uhhhh, no? Tolerance is not tolerating intolerance. The more one does not tolerate intolerance, the more tolerant they are.

[NotAnotherSkippy]

That's at least master's level work at harvard.

[Brian]

Craigslist has gotten rid of all personals-ad sections in the wake of the Senate's passage this week of "FOSTA," a bill making websites criminally liable for user-posted content.

Thank God. Because no one can conspire if no one can communicate. Society improved, no trade-offs to be had.

That's called solving problems.

[Ken Shultz]

Technically, this should be considered the PM links from last night.

Either we should get another AM links today, or, better yet, an AM links on Saturday to make up for it.

I'm just sayin'.

[Ken Shultz]

"Obsessive train lovers" are restoring vintage rail cars and hooking them up to the back of Amtrak trains for customized rail travel adventures."

The libertarian observation, here, is obviously how the taxpayers are subsidizing this through Amtrak.

"During its more than 40-year tenure, the rail service has received over $45 billion in taxpayer dollars. Yet Amtrak has run operating losses every year since its inception in 1971. For over a decade, 41 of its 44 routes have remained unprofitable. In 2014 alone, its loses totaled roughly $1.1 billion."

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/.....-1-percent

These opulent, privately owned rail cars look really amazing--until you realize that the money spent to drag them around the country is coming out of our paychecks.

[Libertarian]

I admit I didn't read the article, but is it not possible that the fees charges these private owners more than pay for themselves and actually decrease the need for subsidies?

[Ken Shultz]

Bottom line, they aren't paying more than a billion year to offset Amtrak's, so dragging those trains around wouldn't be possible without taxpayer subsidies.

If this can be done profitably, then someone should do it without Amtrak.

There's actually a project to accomplish something like that. Have you heard of Elon Musk's "Boring Company"?

[Ken Shultz]

P.S. I was disappointed to hear Musk state that the Boring Company would concentrate on pedestrians and bicyclists.

When I originally read about these ideas in the early 1980s (this idea was really big in popular mechanics, Omni, etc. back during the oil crises), even back then, the exciting part of the idea was being able to drive your car into a vacuum tube. The appeal was mass transportation--for your car.

It's just like with air travel or getting fiber optic internet. The problem isn't going from city to city. The problem is getting from your house to a mass transit center. You want to get from your house to work without leaving your car. When I thought the Boring Company was working to solve that problem, that was pretty exciting.

Pedestrians and bicycles?

Now it's a glorified subway.

[NotAnotherSkippy]

It's a terrible idea.

[Ken Shultz]

Why is being able to drive your car onto and off of a privately owned mass transit system a bad idea?

[dave b.]

There's actually a project to accomplish something like that. Have you heard of Elon Musk's "Boring Company"?

Yeah, the king of subsidies who has not once made an organic profit. That's the guy who'll lead us out of this mess!

[Conchfritters]

Absolutely right - fuck Amtrak. And this coming from someone who has an HO train set in his basement.

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

People all over the world
Join hands
Start a HO train, HO train

[Rhywun]

Too bad the Congresscreatures in flyover country love them some subsidies just as much as the blue staters.

[Libertarian]

Regional airport subsidies, anyone?

[NotAnotherSkippy]

That's supporting the backbone of the country:GA.

[SIV]

Owning a private rail cars is a transportation hobby so complex you'd have less stress doing a solo trans-Atlantic crossing in a trawler-yacht.

If you're set on touring by private rail car the "flys, floats or fucks" rule applies.

[Rhywun]

"Williamson has really nailed the Buckleyite tradition of espousing virulent racism..."

You don't say.

[Rhywun]

"Correction: This post originally referred to East St. Louis as a Chicago suburb. It's a suburb of St. Louis, MO."

LOLOL deep thinkers there

[Libertarian]

Talk about suburban sprawl!

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

East Chicago don't play that.

[Rich]

I heard Thomas Massie talking about the spending bill. He voted 'no', of course. The shenanigans leading to its passage are eerily reminiscent of Obamacare. Shit like one minute before midnight plus 24 hours plus one minute after midnight technically equals three days.

Vote out every incumbent.

[Palin's Buttplug]

We need gridlock back (like I have said for years).

But the H&R Republicans insist that the GOP will slash spending and lead us into a new libertarian Utopia.

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

signs and symptoms: fever, malaise, confusion, stupor, coma, organ failure, desquamation

Be careful out there.

[Brian]

No, that's Obamacare.

[Libertarian]

"Vote out every incumbent."

I used to think this was a solution, but after "populist" Trump supposedly winning on issues like building a wall, reduced foreign interventions, etc. then backtracking, I'm thinking any real solution is going to be more complicated.

[Rhywun]

any real solution is going to be more complicated

This. The NYC council got term limits. Great, right? Well, except for the fact that every time it turns over, the leftists that replace them are even loonier. This week's proposed bans include:

- processed meat in school lunches: "Chicken nuggets and sloppy joes are in the same class of substances as cigarettes."

- walking and smoking: "Too many times, when we are walking, we get stuck behind somebody with smoke, and you have to inhale all the secondhand smoke, and it's terrible for your health"

[Juice]

In NYC it is pretty annoying to be walking down a crowded sidewalk without much room to maneuver and there's 5 people in front of you smoking. It happened damned near everywhere I went last time I was there.

[Rhywun]

"It's pretty annoying" isn't exactly the best justification for another goddamn law that's just going to turn into another excuse to harass people we don't like the look of.

[Citizen X - #6]

Yeah, it doesn't do a whole lot of good to vote out the old assholes when the new assholes can just slide right in to the same fucked-up system. "How about not electing assholes this time?" you might wonder. Well, nobody else wants the job.

[Ken Shultz]

Nobody's been harsher on John Bolton than me over the years, but picking Bolton doesn't have anything to do with Bolton's position on anything. It's about Trump surrounding himself with people he trusts--after being stabbed in the back by his own team over and over again.

One more time with feeling, the only Republicans who bet their political futures on Trump during the primaries (Larry Kudlow, Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, John Bolton, Rudy Giulliani, Chris Christie) were Republicans who had no political future to lose on that bet.

The exception was Jeff Sessions, and Trump didn't pick him to be Attorney General because he supported Sessions' positions on anything. He picked Sessions because Sessions supported him in the primaries when no other Republicans with a future would--so he thought he could trust him to watch his back. Watching the president's back has been the primary responsibility of attorneys general since Watergate.

Trump feels like Sessions stuck a knife in his back instead, which is one of the reasons why Trump is surrounding himself with people he trusts. When Trump gets impeached after the Democrats take the House, he needs people around him who won't sell him short. If Bolton and Kudlow weren't giving the president advice, they'd be arguing with Kennedy on Fox's bush league channel or following after Kraemer's ridiculous advice on CNBC.

[Tony]

For fuck's sake Ken.

[Jerryskids]

It's about Trump surrounding himself with people he trusts--after being stabbed in the back by his own team over and over again.

Trump promised he'd have the best people. Kinda have to wonder about Trump's ability to pick the best people, that's sort of crucial for an executive. Or wonder if the best people are uniformly of the opinion that Trump needs a good back-stabbing.

[Ken Shultz]

Actually, the best people aren't necessarily the most loyal.

Stupid people can be loyal. My dog is loyal. Not sure she's the bestest person when it comes to advising me on national security.

"The recommendation to fire Mr. McCabe isn't coming from Donald Trump or Russian bots. It comes from the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility. News reports say it is based on a finding from the Justice Department's Inspector General that Mr. McCabe authorized the disclosure of sensitive information to a Wall Street Journal reporter about the investigation into the Clinton Foundation?and then lied about it to IG investigators."

http://www.wsj.com/articles/an.....1521153789

He was on the short list to replace Comey.

He was also leaking to the press to undermine the Trump administration of which he was a part?

The Trump administration has been dogged by problems with loyalty since before he took office. That's what this is about.

Trump doesn't give a shit about John Bolton's positions on anything. He cares about loyalty to Trump, especially given that Trump is likely to face impeachment proceedings in the next congress.

[Ken Shultz]

As a thought exercise, let's take the opposite view and see how much sense that makes:

The median loss for the president's party in the House in his first midterm since taking office is -24--going back to the midterm election of 1910. The average is -31. The Republicans only need to lose another 20 seats to lose control of the House. Meanwhile, if Pelosi doesn't impeach Trump if and when she takes the Speaker's chair, she'll likely be kicked out of it by her own party--so the chances of Trump facing impeachment proceedings nine months or so from now are pretty good.

Is it reasonable to assume that Trump isn't taking any of that into consideration? That when he replaces people he doesn't trust with people whose loyalty is only to him, it doesn't really have anything to do with their loyalty at all?

Is it reasonable to assume that Trump doesn't give a shit about whether he can discuss Putin with his National Security Adviser--or whether he has some reasonable assurance that his National Security Adviser won't tattle on him to Mueller, the newspapers, or impeachment proceedings in congress?

Who here wants to defend that position?

Tony, I'm sure. Anyone else?

[Tony]

John Bolton is just yet another flapping head he saw on FOX News, which now apparently constitutes his entire universe. Trump cannot plan that far ahead because Trump is not lucid most of the time.

[Ken Shultz]

Fascinating.

Now I understand.

[db]

Craigslist has gotten rid of all personals-ad sections in the wake of the Senate's passage this week of "FOSTA," a bill making websites criminally liable for user-posted content.

OK, everyone: A-game time. What will it take from the commentariat to get Reason to follow suit?

[Ken Shultz]

We already tried that.

It had to do with a jackass at the U.S. attorney's office misconstruing hyperbole and idiom as if they were violent threats against a judge.

I suppose libelous statements in comments might do the trick, too, and it doesn't really matter if the law is on the website's side. It just matters if the legal costs of defending themselves is worth more than the value of the free content we create.

Some of us create content that's more valuable than others.

[db]

Yeah I remember all that. My comment was mainly a reference to the good old days and certainly not a call to action.

[Ken Shultz]

It was ridiculous.

So ridiculous, the jackass of a U.S. attorney dropped for fear of making a bigger fool of himself.

Last I heard, the jackass was presumed to be a candidate for Mayor of New York City.

[Kivlor]

It just matters if the legal costs of defending themselves is worth more than the value of the free content we create.

Then we're safe here at H&R. I mean, there's at least a dozen regulars who put up far better content than the articles that Reason publishes. That makes the comments section more valuable than most of the staff, right?

[Ken Shultz]

Every time we see someone say "RTFA", we should take it as a compliment.

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

STEVE SMITH CONFUSED. REASON HAS PERSONAL ADS? HMMM...

OMNIVORE IN SEARCH OF OMNIVICTIM
MULTIORGAN W/O INHIBITION
HAVE WEAPON
WILL TRAVEL

[Rebel Scum]

former U.S. Ambassador John Bolton would be replacing H.R. McMaster as a national security adviser.

John Warmonger Bolton??? For fucks sake...

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

Trust me. John Bolton is the most peaceful man that ever lived. The best peace. You might think he's the Prince of Peace when we get to making the world a peaceful place. So peaceful. So peaceful. So peaceful you might think you were dead.

[Rhywun]

You'll get sick of the peace.

[Rebel Scum]

Such beautiful peace, to be sure.

[Libertarian]

I'm no fan of Tucker Carlson, but beginning at 5:30 on this video, he gets in a couple good jabs against Bolton. Very few talking heads on TV that are capable of this type of banter.

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

[Sevo]

WHAT DO WE WANT?!
We want to sit around drinking wine
WHEN DO WE WANT IT?!
Pretty much all the time

"Half a Million French People Protest against Government Plans"
[...]
"Around half a million people took to the streets across France today to protest against plans by the government of Emmanuel Macron, such as railway reform and changes in the civil service."

http://www.plenglish.com/index
.php?o=rn&id=25977&SEO=half-a-
million-french-people-protest-
against-government-plans

[Libertarian]

I'm starting to think that the French just don't like change. They erected an entrance tower for the 1889 World's Fair and the damn thing is still there.

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

Maybe they're hiding alien spaceships in plain sight.

[Rebel Scum]

Aren't they down to something like a 24 hr work week already?

[Citizen X - #6]

A substantial percentage of their young adults are down to a 0-hour work week.

[Tony]

I think Trump is playing a game with his supporters. Since he's hired the world's biggest neocon after running a campaign against neocon adventurism, we must be nearing the final stage where he shoots someone on 5th Avenue.

[Rebel Scum]

Do you remember when Barry won a Nobel Peace prize (presumably for...well...I still don't know...) then proceeded to get the US militarily engaged in more countries and further destabilize a region (that the immediate previous admin already fucked up), and deposed a certain Libyan leader leading to the rapefugee crisis and rise of ISIS? Fun times.

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

Don't forget the slave markets. Yeah, Obama promoted slavery. Too bad there's not a Nobel Dickhead prize.

[Libertarian]

Obama did the best he could. If only there had been a recent example of a country in the middle east that was made worse by our military intervention. That way, he would have never, ever ok'ed the Libya bombing.

[Tony]

My elementary school guidance counselor instilled a very important rule of conversation: stick to the point.

It was on a poster with a cartoon swordfish.

[Brian]

Was that advice, or or a note-to-self between swigs from the hidden bottle in the desk?

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

Oh, you were serious. I thought we were playing a game.

Well then, on point. If Trump was lying about neocon adventures maybe, just maybe, he was lying about shooting up 5th Ave. I mean, he is a fraud, a liar and an actor, right?

[Tony]

The point is the abject lack of any standards or principles on the part of Trump supporters.

[Rebel Scum]

"Obsessive train lovers"

Something something band name.

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

Everyone note the absence of John. Maybe John's hands are full today, maybe getting ready to move into a new job? An "I'm not a neocon" type job?

[jcw]

The only good thing about the tariffs is that we won't have to hear from loveconstitution and others about how the market is doing so super well because of trump. I'm sure they will move the goalposts and say how much better the market is doing than under Obama, so I guess...nevermind, there's nothing good to come of the tariffs.

[Sevo]

So we start with this:
"Great Pacific Garbage Patch is now nearly 4 times the size of California"
[...]
"A team of scientists from the Ocean Cleanup Foundation, based in the Netherlands, said the debris field, known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, covers about 618,000 square miles of deep ocean and weighs 80,000 metric tons."
https://www.sfchronicle.com/nation/article/
Huge-garbage-sprawl-in-Pacific-ocean-is-
much-12773818.php?cmpid=gsa-sfgate-result

But a check finds this:
"How Big Is the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch"? Science vs. Myth"
[...]
"There is no "garbage patch," a name which conjures images of a floating landfill in the middle of the ocean, with miles of bobbing plastic bottles and rogue yogurt cups. Morishige explains this misnomer:"
https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/
about/media/how-big-great-pacific-
garbage-patch-science-vs-myth.html

Another tree-hugger group putting out scare stories to hype fund-raising.

[NotAnotherSkippy]

Working so far. I don't see FOE or Greenpeace or NRDC homeless and out on the streets.

[Jerryskids]

"Obsessive train lovers" are restoring vintage rail cars and hooking them up to the back of Amtrak trains for customized rail travel adventures. Parisian authorities say a sex-doll hub is not a brothel.

I'm not even going to check Rule 34 on obsessive train lovers, I'm just going to assume it's not by accident that those two items are snuggled up next to each other.

[Citizen X - #6]

+1 train going into a tunnel

[Conchfritters]

So I take it that McMaster was the one to leak the "don't fucking call Putin to congratulate him" to the press?

[Hank Phillips]

Now would be a good time for Reason and the LP to take out Craigslist ads showing, say, platform plank paddling and spoiler vote come-ons...