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Homeland security

DHS Keeps Crying Wolf About Domestic Extremists

Plus: Psychedelic decriminalization efforts, how cities throttle small businesses, and more…

Elizabeth Nolan Brown | 2.9.2022 9:35 AM

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upiphotostwo843376 | JIM RUYMEN/UPI/Newscom
(JIM RUYMEN/UPI/Newscom)

In a February 7 bulletin, the Department of Homeland Security warned that fake news is fueling domestic extremism. The warning came complete with new jargon to describe the threat: mis-, dis-, and mal-information (the three are collectively referred to as MDM). "The primary terrorism-related threat to the United States continues to stem from lone offenders or small cells of individuals who are motivated by a range of foreign and/or domestic grievances often cultivated through the consumption of certain online content," says this latest National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin, which extends through June 7.

"The United States remains in a heightened threat environment fueled by several factors, including an online environment filled with false or misleading narratives and conspiracy theories, and other forms of mis- dis- and mal-information (MDM) introduced and/or amplified by foreign and domestic threat actors," the bulletin states. "These threat actors seek to exacerbate societal friction to sow discord and undermine public trust in government institutions to encourage unrest, which could potentially inspire acts of violence. Mass casualty attacks and other acts of targeted violence conducted by lone offenders and small groups acting in furtherance of ideological beliefs and/or personal grievances pose an ongoing threat to the nation."

Scary-sounding stuff! But as media entrepreneur Tom Elliott points out on Twitter, the department doesn't have the best track record with these things. By Elliott's count, this is "the 10th time in 22 months [that] the DHS has issued a warning that 'anti-government' 'domestic violent extremists' may launch a violent attack."

Last year, advisory alerts about potential domestic terrorists came in January, May, August, and November. With each terror alert lasting several months, they basically covered the whole year.

The latest DHS terrorism alert states that "while the conditions underlying the heightened threat landscape have not significantly changed over the last year," certain factors have "increased the volatility, unpredictability, and complexity of the threat environment." These factors include "the proliferation of false or misleading narratives, which sow discord or undermine public trust in U.S. government institutions." Specifically, it mentions narratives about election fraud and COVID-19.

What's interesting about these warnings isn't just that DHS is falsely forecasting attacks but also that it is sowing narratives. First, that it's most assuredly "MDM" fueling social unrest and anti-government sentiment…not, you know, actual government policies and legitimate grievances with them. Second, that anti-government criticism should necessarily be viewed as suspicious and potentially dangerous.

Viewed one way, better-safe-than-sorry alerts that don't pan out do little harm. Viewed another, these broadsides—which may influence local law enforcement action and tend to get widely and uncritically amplified in the press—help to delegitimize protests against government policies by casting them as the product of a misinformed populace that should seen as threat. And just like in the heyday of post-9/11 terror alerts, they also help create an atmosphere of fear that drives support for expanded government surveillance—like the newly created domestic terrorism branch in DHS' Office of Intelligence and Analysis.

"The Department expanded its evaluation of online activity as part of its efforts to assess and prevent acts of violence," it says in its latest alert. And, as always, it instructs Americans: "If you see something, say something."


FREE MINDS

Psychedelic decriminalization bills are spreading: 

Will magic mushrooms follow the path of marijuana legalization? Lawmakers in many states are debating psilocybin, a naturally occurring compound found in certain mushrooms that, when consumed, give the user visual and auditory hallucinations. https://t.co/tq7MpzhJPm pic.twitter.com/av9zo8IMk9

— MultiState (@MultiStateAssoc) February 8, 2022


FREE MARKETS 

A new study from the Institute for Justice (IJ) shows how cities make starting a business stupidly expensive. The report—Barriers to Business: How Cities Can Pave a Cheaper, Faster, and Simpler Path to Entrepreneurship—looks at startup costs and processes in 20 cities. It found that opening a physical business in these cities takes an average of 45 regulatory steps and interactions with eight agencies.

"You shouldn't need a pile of cash and a law degree to start the mom-and-pop shop of your dreams," said IJ City Policy Associate Alex Montgomery, who co-authored the report. "These high price tags and burdens most harm those with the fewest resources at their disposal."

"Cities can do more to support entrepreneurs than simply providing them with technical assistance and small business resources. Cities must invest in small businesses by removing barriers that are already on the books," IJ Activism Associate Andrew Meleta, the report's other co-author, said.

Find the whole thing here.

Small biz wages rise. In other small business news, the National Federation of Independent Business reports that a record 50 percent of U.S. small business owners raised wages in January, as worker shortages persist. "With some 47% of small businesses reporting job openings last month that they could not fill, employers have been raising wages to attract skilled candidates—a trend that doesn't appear to be reversing any time soon," Bloomberg points out.


QUICK HITS

Vladimir Putin is scary because he is modern, not because he's a throwback. He reflects the 21st century to come, not the world that has gone. My latest???? https://t.co/8WbKhgFM5F

— Tom McTague (@TomMcTague) February 9, 2022

•  The 2022 Oscar nominations list is out.

• "Americans tuning in to the Super Bowl on Sunday will be inundated with ads from cryptocurrency companies, including the trading platform FTX, which plans to give away millions of dollars in bitcoin," reports The Washington Post. FTX's founder, Sam Bankman, said it's about painting "a healthy image of ourselves and the industry" in order to assuage U.S. regulator fears.

• Cities are getting on board with City Coins.

• New York City Mayor Eric Adams wants to go all-in on facial recognition technology.

  • Revenge of the COVID Moms: They're mad about masks, and they're running for office.

• WikiLeaks has raised massive amounts of money for founder Julian Assange's defense:

Wikileaks has managed to raise ~$50M seemingly without any notice at all by major media.

Fifty. Million. Dollars.

probably nothing https://t.co/sn1IU5a96R

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) February 8, 2022

• While a number of states have been seeking constitutional amendments to declare there is no right to an abortion, Vermont is going the other direction.

• Utah's weird liquor laws mean many hard seltzers may be relegated to liquor stores—including some brands who are allowed to sell some flavors of the same beverages in grocery stores. "If you're looking at your particular favorite brand, they may have certain flavors that meet the glycol based flavoring standards and stay in a grocery or a convenience store and others that use an ethyl alcohol based flavoring component and that doesn't meet Utah's unique flavoring test and they will have to go to a [state liquor] store," Kate Bradshaw, president of the Utah Beer Wholesalers Association, told FOX 13 News.

• A new book challenges the way people first arrived in America.

• PayPal founders Peter Thiel, Luke Nosek, and David Sacks will be discussing the new book The Founders: The Story of PayPal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley with author Jimmy Soni on writer Antonio Garcia-Martinez' The Pull Request.

Start your day with Reason. Get a daily brief of the most important stories and trends every weekday morning when you subscribe to Reason Roundup.

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NEXT: The Federal Government’s Pandemic Jobs Program Was a Resounding Failure

Elizabeth Nolan Brown is a senior editor at Reason.

Homeland securityReason RoundupDepartment of Homeland SecurityTerrorism
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  1. Fist of Etiquette   3 years ago

    In a February 7 bulletin, the Department of Homeland Security warned that fake news is fueling domestic extremism.

    ROOOOOO-GAN!

    1. Moonrocks   3 years ago

      Not content with harassing insufficiently docile parents, the FBI is now going after some guy on the internet?

      1. Fat Mike's Drug Habit   3 years ago

        I feel bad for his dogs, RIP.

    2. Enjoy Every Sandwich   3 years ago

      And his followers! And anybody who uses Rogaine--obviously a DOG WHISTLE!!!

      1. Social Justice is neither   3 years ago

        You leave Brian Stetler out of this.

        1. Unable2Reason   3 years ago

          Alca Seltzer?

          1. Outlaw Josey Wales   3 years ago

            I'll give you alopecia my mind

      2. Anomalous   3 years ago

        Rogan obviously doesn't use Rogaine.

    3. The Encogitationer   3 years ago

      The warning came complete with new jargon to describe the threat: mis-, dis-, and mal-information (the three are collectively referred to as MDM)

      *GROWL! GROWL!*

      1. Mike Laursen   3 years ago

        Oh, boy. Now we can have MSM and MDM media!

    4. Mike Laursen   3 years ago

      🙂

  2. Fist of Etiquette   3 years ago

    Will magic mushrooms follow the path of marijuana legalization?

    Could be a lot of fun, Gus.

    1. Don't look at me!   3 years ago

      Mycelium what you did there.

      1. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

        I tip my cap for puns. Amanita bigger hat for this board though.

        1. Ajsloss   3 years ago

          Morel, please!

    2. The Encogitationer   3 years ago

      "You do shit every muthahfuckin' year, Gus! You drop them muthahfuckin' magical mushrooms, and then burn down my muthahfuckin' back yard, Gus!..."

      Eddie Murphy--The Cookout (Delirious 1984)
      https://youtu.be/vc4Wt3ckNis

  3. Fist of Etiquette   3 years ago

    A new study from the Institute for Justice (IJ) shows how cities make starting a business stupidly expensive.

    The last thing current city government patrons need is a lot of competition.

    1. Earth-based Human Skeptic   3 years ago

      Why even have a "democratic" government if we can't use it to harass other people for their wrong-headed ideas and protect established business interests?

    2. JohannesDinkle   3 years ago

      The LA Times today has a lead article about how businesses are leaving the state and taking tax money with them.

      1. Marshal   3 years ago

        File under "left wingers discover 1776 economics".

      2. Earth-based Human Skeptic   3 years ago

        Don't worry. Newsom will demand that people leave all their wealth behind. And garnish their future earnings elsewhere.

        1. Agammamon   3 years ago

          They already place a 10 year tax liability on people who leave the state.

      3. Moonrocks   3 years ago

        Gotta love how the angle to "Californians Fleeing California" is "Taxes Hardest Hit!".

        1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

          Well, California does want to tax them for leaving too. It's all part of the plan.

        2. Red Rocks White Privilege   3 years ago

          Don't forget how wealthy Californians use red states like Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho as tax havens while being employed by California companies.

      4. Sevo   3 years ago

        "...and taking *THEIR* money with them."
        But lefties don't quite understand that...

  4. Fist of Etiquette   3 years ago

    Small biz wages rise.

    It's tough competing with roided up unemployment bennies.

  5. Longtobefree   3 years ago

    Two words for the DHS:
    Southern border.

    1. Moonrocks   3 years ago

      Small potatoes. The real two words are Domestic Wrongthink.

    2. Cyto   3 years ago

      Those two words? Racist.

      Not racist? "White people are the greatest danger to this nation."

      1. Earth-based Human Skeptic   3 years ago

        They are in California.

  6. Fist of Etiquette   3 years ago

    The 2022 Oscar nominations list is out.

    Is he past his prime or did Cuomo garner any?

    1. Moonrocks   3 years ago

      Any bets on which will get less viewership, the Olympics or the Oscars?

      1. damikesc   3 years ago

        Given that nobody watched the movies nominated, cannot fathom why they'd watch a telecast rewarding those movies that nobody watched.

        1. Nardz   3 years ago

          I can't even think of movies that might be nominated.
          Tenet?
          What year did that come out?
          It was enjoyable.
          Though I think I liked it better when it was called Deja Vu and starred Denzel Washington

          1. BrianL.   3 years ago

            Of the 10 movies nominated for Best Picture, I've seen two of them: Dune and Nightmare Alley. I actually saw both of them twice. Dune, I saw in the theater and then again on HBO Max. Nightmare Alley, I saw in the theater twice, the first time when it came out, and again recently in black and white.

          2. Illocust   3 years ago

            Spiderman was pretty good. Embracing the multiverse was just a good move on the mcu part.

        2. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

          From the ratings of award shows, no one really does watch them. They didn't even broadcast the Golden Globes this year, I believe. No one gives a fuck anymore, and Hollywood is a bit scared, because how can they lecture the little people if no one watches them self fellating.

      2. Stuck in California   3 years ago

        Well, one is obviously focused on Chinese propaganda and the other is....

      3. The Encogitationer   3 years ago

        With streaming of anything else anyone could possibly want to view, the entire compendium of human entertainment and enlightenment on screen, who cares which gets less viewership?

    2. CE   3 years ago

      Coming 2 America got one, the same number as Spiderman: No Way Home

      1. Nardz   3 years ago

        For a late delivered sequel, Coming 2 America was good enough. Not great, but not a complete travesty.

    3. Fats of Fury   3 years ago

      The nominees are
      Oscar Wilde
      Oscar Hammerstein II
      Oscar Meyer
      Oscar I of Sweden
      Oscar the Grouch

      1. Outlaw Josey Wales   3 years ago

        Oscar Meyer

        Yes, but did Meyer get nominated for best wiener or most bologna?

        1. Fats of Fury   3 years ago

          The Lifetime award for Best Wiener was won by this guy for his legendary performance.

          https://www.flickr.com/photos/66890686@N02/51872175191/in/dateposted-public/

      2. The Encogitationer   3 years ago

        Per the commercial, it's M-A-Y-E-R.

        Oscar Mayer Commercial--1973
        https://youtu.be/rmPRHJd3uHI

      3. Nardz   3 years ago

        What about Oscar Gold?

        1. Fats of Fury   3 years ago

          He was cheated.

  7. Fist of Etiquette   3 years ago

    New York City Mayor Eric Adams wants to go all-in on facial recognition technology.

    Once NYPD, always NYPD.

    1. Don't look at me!   3 years ago

      facial recognition technology

      Sounds like porno related software.

      1. The Encogitationer   3 years ago

        Yep! You can't tell Stormy Daniels from Pam Anderson from Jenna Jameson without facial recognition software.

    2. Fats of Fury   3 years ago

      In his case his face will be catalogued under "You Ugly!"

  8. Enjoy Every Sandwich   3 years ago

    They need the "domestic extremist" narrative because the Covid narrative is collapsing, both in this country and overseas.

  9. Illocust   3 years ago

    I'm pretty shocked that more people aren't upset that the US government wants to focus their power on persecuting non violent American citizens.

    1. Moonrocks   3 years ago

      It's all good as long as it's against the Wrong kind of non-violent Americans.

    2. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

      A near-majority of Dems support this.

      1. Earth-based Human Skeptic   3 years ago

        A near-majority of Dems live for this.

        1. Sevo   3 years ago

          And are more than happy to provide truly horrible justifications:

          JasonT20
          February.6.2022 at 6:02 pm
          “How many officers were there to stop Ashlee Babbitt and the dozens of people behind her from getting into the legislative chamber to do who knows what?...”

          Murder by cop is just fine if the victim might, at some later date, have done something which lefty shits like Jason find objectionable.

    3. Commenter_XY   3 years ago

      We are. What will happen is people will recoil and withdraw in disbelief and disgust. That is the last step before violence.

  10. Cyto   3 years ago

    Your analysis of Homeland security's domestic terrorism pronouncements is astonishingly facile.

    It is obviously a transparently a politically motivated attempt to silence those who are not on board with the establishment. Primarily, Trump and Trump supporters. But really, anyone who is not on board with funneling more and more power and money to the mainstream establishment from both parties.

    Tulsi Gabbard therefore fits this description. So do far left Bernie supporters like Joe Rogan.

    Pretending that there is anything at all honest behind these announcements and initiatives is not just counterproductive or a missed opportunity. It is as dishonest and dangerous as pretending that a toddler playing with a loaded handgun isn't all that big of a worry.

    We are way, way over into banana Republic territory with this kind of stuff. Declaring political opponents to be dangerous enemies of the state is miles away from anything of free society can allow. This is Stalin, Mao, Kim... Even if there were a kernel of truth to it, which there isn't, it would still be extremely dangerous.

    And in a world in which all of these same people not only failed to declare mass, nation-wide riots and organized violence as any sort of domestic terror threat, the purely and nakedly political nature of these actions is transparent and beyond question. Pretending like this is just some vague suspicion is just running cover for them.

    Where would you stand if they announced that a group that actually does perform some low level acts of terrorism, say PETA for example, was a national security threat like they are doing with "anyone to the right of Nancy Pelosi"? Would you dither, saying that sure, it's a nationwide group that is primarily organized around a set of ideas and not engaged in any sort of violent activity, but there might be a handful of extremist individuals involved who might do something violent? Or would you loudly condemn homeland security?

    I think we know the answer to that. Left right or center, standing by idly while your nation devolves into a 1970s spy novel generic evil empire is a dangerous game.

    1. Nardz   3 years ago

      "Pretending that there is anything at all honest behind these announcements and initiatives is not just counterproductive or a missed opportunity. It is as dishonest and dangerous as pretending that a toddler playing with a loaded handgun isn't all that big of a worry."

      This is how Reason always "confronts" totalitarian leftism.
      They are as transparent as government or any msm functionary

    2. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

      "We are way, way over into banana Republic territory with this kind of stuff. Declaring political opponents to be dangerous enemies of the state is miles away from anything of free society can allow."

      This is absolute madness, and I'm getting very very concerned about elections. We saw enough malfeasance in the presidential fortifications, it would be insane to not expect the same or worse for midterms. The stakes are astronomical and the consequences immeasurable.

      When Rs take back governance Ds can expect only to be absolutely pummeled to dust for what they've done these past two years. The unscientific, totalitarian diktats have had thin or no legal basis and have merely been held together by complicit judges or refabricated under a fresh label - figuring out what to prosecute first might be the greatest issue.

      Watching them double and triple down on lies and fascist repression of society gives me no hope for a peaceful transition of power.

      1. Cyto   3 years ago

        Now that is even funnier.... A notion that Team R is actually going to put the brakes on?!?

        They stood idly by and watched political operatives in high ranking positions in the Bureaucracy spy on their candidate and president, frame people for crimes and attempt to remove him from office based on the laughable charge of asking about corrupt acts by his predecessor. Note that all of those "solid and trustworthy men" who were brought in to clean it up managed to slap one low level functionary on the hand.

        Hoping that team R is going to root out this corruption is a pipe dream. It is going to take a massive and sustained revolt by the people. Graham and McConnel have to be tossed out on their ear just as much as Biden and Schumer.

        1. Overt   3 years ago

          Expecting the GOP to do anything to fix these entrenched problems is like expecting the Bengals to beat the LA Rams in the super bowl and declare the NFL illegitimate. Win or lose, both teams have more to gain perpetuating the game than breaking it.

        2. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

          You misread me.

          I ascribe no motive of patriotism or goodly intentions. This is an expectation of future political machinations having really fucking good traction, and those in the line of fire knowing exactly what's coming.

      2. Ragnarredbeard   3 years ago

        Oh please. Like the Republicans are gonna actually do anything if they get back in power. The vast majority of them have no spines and the few who do have no power.

        1. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

          Do you think voters will support the preponderance of RINOS? I don't. That's part of my midterm expectations.

          1. Fats of Fury   3 years ago

            You mean like the Tea Party? Or the Reagan revolutionaries?
            The only things you can be sure of when the R's take over will be new décor in the Speaker's and Majority Leader's offices. You'll probably get a tax cut, no decrease in spending though and another Bush for the presidential nomination. Maybe they'll go for black and woman too and run Cori Bush.

            1. Fats of Fury   3 years ago

              Oh and war in the next Moneyholeistan.

              1. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

                If we don't wind up tangled in Russia or China first. Wars are big business.

                I do believe that public ire is bordering on insanity, so a normal result is not whay I am expecting.

    3. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

      Some are now describing Tulsi Gabbard and Russell Brand as right wing because they dare question the narrative. Matt Tailib has an interview with Russell Brand about it and other things on Substack today. Actually, listening to exerts from Brand today, I may watch some of his YouTube videos. Never been a big fan of his, and I am sure we disagree on issues but he seems honestly interested in hearing others.

      1. ElvisIsReal   3 years ago

        I watched the clip that Taibbi posted yesterday, and it got me to subscribe to Brand. He's a lot like Rogan in that he's totally open to talk to anybody about anything to better everybody's understanding. Plus, he talks some serious shit about the media 🙂

        1. Red Rocks White Privilege   3 years ago

          The fact that they both come from working-class backgrounds probably has something to do with it.

          1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

            Yeah, Brand said something about the left shitting on the working class in the video Taibbi posted.

      2. Mother's Lament   3 years ago

        That list of Right-wingers was incredible.

        Russell Brand
        Steven Pinker
        Sam Harris
        Bret Weinstein
        Bari Weiss
        Gad Sad
        Elon Musk
        Roseanne Barr

        From the sorting criteria they seem to use I guess Dick Cheney is a left winger.

        1. ElvisIsReal   3 years ago

          You forgot Tulsi Gabbard.

        2. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

          Well, the left did embrace Dick and Liz Cheney a couple weeks ago, so there you go.

    4. ElvisIsReal   3 years ago

      Yep. Exactly as predicted by Ron Paul and others after passage of the USA PATRIOT Act, we're all terrorists now.

      https://simulationcommander.substack.com/p/were-all-terrorists-now

      1. Outlaw Josey Wales   3 years ago

        This is a nice quote from one of the commentors:

        “The state calls its own violence law, but that of the individual, crime.” ― Max Stirner

    5. Chuck P. (The Artist formerly known as CTSP)   3 years ago

      Remember that their answer to a toddler playing with a loaded gun would be to arrest the parents and remove all the kids to the custody of the state.

      It is our fault they have to treat us this way. The gaslighting will continue until a successful revolution. They will never stop on their own.

  11. Fist of Etiquette   3 years ago

    Revenge of the COVID Moms: They're mad about masks, and they're running for office.

    The party of the ERA must be ecstatic.

    1. Cyto   3 years ago

      Dammit.... You are a genius.

    2. Rev. Arthur L. Kuckland   3 years ago

      Why should I care about a polititions earned run average?

      1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

        Because, it may be important in 8th inning of a tied 7th game of the World Series with bases loaded and only one out?

  12. Fist of Etiquette   3 years ago

    While a number of states have been seeking constitutional amendments to declare there is no right to an abortion, Vermont is going the other direction.

    Vermont always did seem kinda racist to me.

    1. Outlaw Josey Wales   3 years ago

      You're not wrong there:

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

  13. Fist of Etiquette   3 years ago

    A new book challenges the way people first arrived in America.

    You better not be trying to tell me that the birth of Native Americans didn't exactly coincide with the birth of the continent.

    1. Illocust   3 years ago

      If I'm remembering correctly, the answer is that the people we call native Americans weren't the first people in America. Another group was here first, but like the Neanderthals they ceased to exist sometime after the arrival of the current crop. Genocide, interbreeding, or likely some mix of the two.

      1. Rev. Arthur L. Kuckland   3 years ago

        Ask the toletecs

      2. Michael Ejercito   3 years ago

        So they need to acknowledge they live on stolen land.

        1. Earth-based Human Skeptic   3 years ago

          Come on, man, only white people can steal stuff.

      3. American Mongrel   3 years ago

        This is the current theory, but I think this broad is trying to claim that the clovis came earlier (pre clovis are clovis) and originated on the bering land mass.
        I was interested until they started talking about using native mythology in her research. Then I googled her, she makes marija gimbutas look conservative.

    2. Cyto   3 years ago

      Chrome doesn't want to let me read the NYT article. What is she talking about? Clovis people?

      1. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

        There have been several migrations of prehistoric peoples to the Americas over time. Clovis were some of the earliest, coming from the Bering path. Mammoth hunters!

        Also had boats from the Polynesians, possibly other places.

        1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

          I stand firmly in the belief that the archeological data now shows man immigrated to the Americas long before the Bering path was possibly physically possible (I've also heard geologist that said the Bering path would not have been feasible as the existence of an ice free corridor would have been under feet of rushing, near freezing temperature water, if it existed). I tend to lean far more towards the kelp highway migration theory, which seems to be becoming the dominant theory, and as you said probably was multiple rather than a singular migration and started as far back as possibly 50,000 years ago.

          1. CE   3 years ago

            Yeah, the theory that said we needed a land bridge to America 15,000 years ago, but we didn't need a land bridge to Australia 60,000 years ago was always kind of suspect.

            1. American Mongrel   3 years ago

              They do think they used a land bridge:
              https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_human_migrations#Near_Oceania

          2. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

            I am behind on my prehistory, kelp migration is new to me but makes complete sense.

            The more we advance archeology, the more we realize prehistoric peoples were incredibly ingenious and adaptable.

            1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

              The Kelp highway hypothesis was first proposed in the 1990s but was strongly resisted by the Beringia proponents. But as archeological evidence has mounted that migration to the Americas has been mounting, and some sites in Mexico and South America especially, predate the proposed existence of Beringia, it has been growing in acceptance. Also, growing in acceptance has been the multiple migration hypothesis, and that not all were Siberians.

      2. Mother's Lament   3 years ago

        No pre-Clovis, possibly twice as old, based on footprints in the volcanic dust of a known, well dated event.

        Modern South American Native DNA also indicates introgression with an ancient population more similar to Andaman Islanders and Australian Aboriginals than other populations.

        The speculation is that this group arrived in the Americas as early as 20 thousand years before the Clovis people.

        If true they left almost no evidence aside from their genes.

        1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

          Anthropology/archeology are some of the most hide bound, orthodoxy driven science fields, especially in regards to the settling of the Americas. Lans aux Meadows was discovered in the 1970s, but they continued to deny the existence of pre-Columbian European contact of North America well into the 1990s. It's like they didn't even look at a map. The Scandinavian colonies were on the South Western side of Greenland, so you are denying that the Norse, who sailed thousands of miles over open water to get to the British Isles, Iceland and Greenland, were incapable of sailing hundreds of miles to North America?

          1. Mother's Lament   3 years ago

            Yeah, genetic archeology has been burning down all the old mantras in the last ten years.

            The biggest change has been to the Out of Africa scenario, which while not totally wrong has been shown to be sorta wrong recently.

            The most interesting discovery outside the Denisovans for me, has been the Ancient North Eurasians. Partial ancestors of Northern Europeans and Amerindians, but not Southern Europeans and East Asians.

        2. Overt   3 years ago

          "If true they left almost no evidence aside from their genes."

          While it could be that no evidence remains, it is also possible that the evidence hasn't been found. South America is notorious for hiding evidence of previous cultures. We are still finding entire cities swallowed by the jungle. It is entirely plausible that it also holds a small stone-age settlement.

          1. Mother's Lament   3 years ago

            I think that they weren't as well equipped as the Clovis people (no atlatls, Clovis points, etc) and so they avoided the American super-predators (American lion, Scimitar cat, Smilodon, Dire wolf, Arctodus) by staying on the coasts.
            But that was during the last glacial maximum and sea levels have risen 300 meters since then, so everywhere that they lived is now deep underwater.

            1. Ben of Houston   3 years ago

              If they built out of anything other than stone, then all history will be washed away by now. Even granite buildings might be indistinguishable from rock formations after this length of time.

      3. Seamus   3 years ago

        I read the article, and the best I can derive from it is: "She [University of Kansas anthropological geneticist Jennifer Raff] builds a persuasive case with both archaeological and genetic evidence that the path to the Americas was coastal (the Kelp Highway hypothesis) rather than inland, and that Beringia was not a bridge but a homeland — twice the size of Texas — inhabited for millenniums by the ancestors of the First Peoples of the Americas."

        If you can figure out what the fuck that means, you're better than I am. (That sentence, BTW, is the only mention in the article of "Beringia," so I have no idea what it means.)

        1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

          The Bering land bridge hypothesis is quickly becoming less accepted and the kelp highway hypothesis more mainstream, due to lack of evidence for the former. Basically, they migrated by water rather than by land.

        2. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

          Beringia would likely be referring to an area around the Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia that has been postulated as an iced bridge between the continents at one point.

          She is proposing that rather than a pedestrian migration, it was more a maritime ans coastal village venture following the trail of kelp for shallows guidance and food.

          1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

            Beringia has been proposed as either an ice bridge, or that sea levels were low enough that Siberia and Alaska were joined by dry land. The sea level hypothesis tends to be the more accepted hypothesis by Beringia proponents these days. Even the Kelp Highway proponents accept that there was likely multiple migrations and one very well could have occurred across a land bridge between Siberia and Alaska during the last ice age.

    3. Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf   3 years ago

      There's only one review on Amazon so far, and it's not promising, especially if the NYT is pushing the book (I have not read the NYT review).

      I liked how Dr. Raff put herself into the story, explaining the intricacies of working with Indigenous people ... While Raff has certain interpretations of the information, I did not find her dogmatic. She presents both sides of an argument and uses data to support one side or the other.

      BOTH SIDES
      And I am not impressed by what I have read of "working with indigenous people" from the Kennewick Man studies. Graves from just a few hundred years ago are routinely examined by archaeologists, yet this 9000 year old skeleton was somehow holy and had to be returned to its "descendants", as if it was a straight shot from 9000 years ago.

      I won't be reading this book.

      1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

        Yes, the whole Kennewick Man debacle was a clear indication that Amerindian leaders would do whatever it takes to shut down any archeological discovery that may undercut the favored narrative.

    4. R Mac   3 years ago

      It’s from the 90’s so doesn’t have any updated genetic information, etc., but Columbus Was Last is a good place to start for learning about different people that came to the Americas before Columbus.

      https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1567315771/reasonmagazinea-20/

  14. Nardz   3 years ago

    https://twitter.com/APhilosophae/status/1491396024463925248?t=ol81U5IkglRAnrz7p8mYww&s=19

    The DOJ will allow safe injection sites for heroin but your small business was a danger to the community for the past 2 years and had to be shut down.

    The Biden admin is sending crack pipes to Black neighborhoods but Trumps all-time low in Black unemployment was a problem.

    1. Don't look at me!   3 years ago

      Well, if it’s like any other government program, the crack pipes won’t work.

      1. Earth-based Human Skeptic   3 years ago

        Thus the addicts will be entitled to compensation, right?

    2. Cyto   3 years ago

      And nothing else happened!!!!

      Did I meme that right?

      .........

      Money quote:. Incidents of fake racist attacks are rare, but they do happen....

      Which is what "officials" seem to be saying almost every single time there is a racist attack widely reported.

      1. Cyto   3 years ago

        Thread fail. Belongs 2 down

    3. Commenter_XY   3 years ago

      Can you conceive of the extreme stupidity of the 'free crack pipe distribution policy'? I just can't.

      Joe Biden is the current version of that failure Jimmy Carter.

      1. Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf   3 years ago

        Jimmy Carter was at least coherent. Misguided, ill-informed, pessimist, but at least coherent.

        1. Cyto   3 years ago

          He also did some good things at the time, mixed in with the malaise.

          Cheap airline tickets are his legacy.

        2. Red Rocks White Privilege   3 years ago

          Yeah, Carter wasn't anywhere near as much of a doofus as Biden. He was just the wrong guy for the time period in terms of what the country needed to regain its morale after the cold civil war of the late 60s-early 70s and socio-economic degradation of the country in its aftermath.

          A big reason Reagan ended up in the seat was simply due to the fact that he exuded a far more positive and upbeat public image than Carter was ever able to muster. Most Americans back then still considered civic nationalism as an important keystone of a functioning society, not a precursor to the dark night of fascism, which is why the comm-symp creative classes pitched an 8-year fit after Reagan was elected.

    4. JesseAz   3 years ago

      This is also 10s of millions of dollars while your insurance costs went up 30-50% under ACA.

    5. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

      It is also pipes to poor white neighborhoods for meth smoking. Let's keep them hooked on drugs, while also fighting the war on drugs. They're expendable after all, who wants more poor people? This is what Johnson meant by his war on poverty.

    6. Hank Ferrous   3 years ago

      Relatively sure thing that stooopid Joe was involved in the original push to get crack into black neighborhoods, so it has a nice sense of completion for the old racist.

      1. ElvisIsReal   3 years ago

        It's an awesome bookend to the "I'll throw anybody who smokes crack in prison" speech.

  15. Nardz   3 years ago

    https://twitter.com/dannydeurbina/status/1491143871983939584?t=0ZBjtnXReLpf0euc0wH2-A&s=19

    Psaki tries and fails miserably at gaslighting on hero Canadian truckers— dismissing their MASSIVE protest as "sporadic congestion and blockages" and "not related" to the vaccine mandate

    They think you're stupid.
    [Video]

    1. Don't look at me!   3 years ago

      The videos are impressive.

    2. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

      Psaki: These protests are not because of mandates.

      Psaki moments later: These protests have morphed beyond protesting the mandates.

      ??????????????

      1. Earth-based Human Skeptic   3 years ago

        Level 3 or 4 bullshitter.

      2. I, Woodchipper   3 years ago

        she rolled an 18 on her stalinism

        1. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

          That's a natural 20 crit for fascism, what are you talking about.

          1. American Mongrel   3 years ago

            I think hes talking attributes. 18 is the highest you can roll; 3d6

      3. Seamus   3 years ago

        Obviously the truckers are now pushing the entire white supremacist agenda, including disenfranchising all BIPOCs and reinstating (or in Canada's case, instating) Jim Crow, if not actual slavery ("they're gonna put you in chains!").

    3. Lord of Strazele   3 years ago

      People should sue those truckers and put liens on their trucks for blocking commerce. These aren't broke dick BLM protesters blocking a Circle K parking lot. These destructive rioters are blocking major economic corridors and they have valuable property that could be seized to pay judgments for the damages they are causing.

      1. Sometimes a Great Notion   3 years ago

        Umm.., blocking major economic corridors that they themselves supply. Might want to rethink your strategy if you don't want Canadians to starve. Are you expecting some Starbucks barista to magically learn how to shift gears in a big rig?

        How about following the advice of Liberal MP Joel Lightbound:

        "It is time we stopped dividing people, to stop pitting one part of the population against each other,"

        https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberal-mp-politicization-pandemic-1.6343730

        1. VULGAR MADMAN   3 years ago

          Spazzle thinks food comes from the grocery store.

      2. Mother's Lament   3 years ago

        These destructive rioters

        Yeah, remember when the truckers started riots in twenty+ cities smashing windows and burning down laundromats, courthouses, churches, restaurants, police stations and apartment blocks?
        Remember when truckers looted Walmart, Nike and cell phone stores nationwide?
        Remember when truckers siezed an urban center and made it a no-go zone for cops and started raping women there?
        Remember when truckers laid siege to the Whitehouse for three days and burned down a historic church?
        Remember when the physical damage caused by truckers exceeded two billion dollars?

        1. Seamus   3 years ago

          Nice points, but the BLM people only started a (quickly extinguished) fire at historic St. John's Church on Lafayette Square, not burn it down.

          1. Sevo   3 years ago

            Bing is your friend, liar:
            https://www.bing.com/search?q=fires+started+by+BLM+rioters&cvid=e74a3cf24d4647dc88bc2a838f88daaa&aqs=edge..69i57.21974j0j1&pglt=43&FORM=ANNTA1&PC=U531

          2. Mike Laursen   3 years ago

            “BLM people”

            1. I cannot find any source saying that the Black Lives Matter organization organized any event, rally, or protest in Lafayette Square that day.
            2. The fire was set about 10 - 10:30 pm by a single actor, caught on security video.

            1. Don't look at me!   3 years ago

              Where are the notarized membership cards? We must have notarized membership cards!

              1. Mother's Lament   3 years ago

                Sealions are going to sealion.

          3. Mike Laursen   3 years ago

            So, an accurate statement would “a lone protestor started a (quickly extinguished) fire…”

            1. Mother's Lament   3 years ago

              To bad you muted Sevo, you could have clicked his link, looked at the different articles, and saved yourself some embarrassment.

      3. JesseAz   3 years ago

        BLM protests costs over 2 Billion dollars. And that is just what insurers paid out, which is less than the actual damages.

      4. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

        Uhm, you are either a well fashioned parody, or the dumbest partisan sycophant ever, because this level of gaslighting just takes the ticket.

        1. Hank Ferrous   3 years ago

          The latter, doc, the latter.

          1. Stuck in California   3 years ago

            Agreed.

            He's been muted for a long time, but I always got that impression. Just parroting the trolliest of partisan troll talking points for the sake of being obnoxious, really.

      5. rbike   3 years ago

        Dumbass. You should be sued for your crap posts.

      6. Chuck P. (The Artist formerly known as CTSP)   3 years ago

        broke dick BLM protesters blocking a Circle K parking lot

        Fuck off and die, you gaslighting piece of shit.

        https://www.yourstephenvilletx.com/story/news/crime/2020/05/31/sunday-protests-in-austin-see-i-35-blocked-again-more-standoffs-with-police/42607085/

        If I could post more than one, I would post a dozen. I watched these same assholes block bridges in Portland for 25 years. Portland is a city of bridges and blocking them stops I-5 which runs from B.C. to San Diego. 40 million people live within 50 miles of I-5.

        1. Mother's Lament   3 years ago

          It's like the shills think we can't remember things beyond the last news cycle.

          1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

            Well, they can't, so they expect no one else can either.

      7. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

        Sullum, this is pathetic, even for you.

      8. Red Rocks White Privilege   3 years ago

        HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK!

      9. Red Rocks White Privilege   3 years ago

        If the truck drivers try to burn down the Ottawa parliament and local businesses for Black Lives, will that make the protest more legitimate?

      10. Zeb   3 years ago

        Have you never heard of civil disobedience before? The truckers are willing to accept the consequences of their actions. They've already made big sacrifices to fight for freedom. Sue away if you can get standing. If some financial loss was going to stop them, they never would have started it.

    4. Earth-based Human Skeptic   3 years ago

      "They think you're stupid."

      They might be right.

  16. JesseAz   3 years ago

    Racist notes and texts sent to black student in Illinois College. They find the culprit, a random white women, and seek to expel her.

    Difficulty... the actual perpetrator was the victim. Another Hoax. Demands for expulsion stop and not repurposed on the hoaxer.

    https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/victoria-taft/2022/02/08/illinois-college-students-want-hate-crime-culprit-expelled-until-they-find-out-who-she-is-n1557383

    1. Commenter_XY   3 years ago

      The perpetrator was not capable of racism, JesseAZ. You are guilty of wrongthink. The FBI will be there shortly....

    2. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

      I think the accused should sue her for defamation, mental anguish and the bill for a full scholarship to another university, aa these spurious accusations based on a false premise have led to her persecution and ostracization for an act she did not commit.

      1. Stuck in California   3 years ago

        Yeah, that's not how it works.

        Remember matress girl? That chick basically ruined a man's college years for the sake of her performance art. It took him four or five years -- well after he was out of college -- to win a lawsuit and his name is still sullied in the eyes of many.

        And that was sexism, not racism, which means the perpetrator has way more clout on the CRT victims spectrum, or whatever the hell colleges call that heirarchy of who is wrong.

        1. Stuck in California   3 years ago

          Correction -- I don't know if he won. I think he may have just settled the suit.

          1. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

            Oh, no expectations of winning it, or actually getting money if you do. But take up a free civil rights attorney and burn that bitch down as an example?

            Yes, please.

    3. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

      This just proves how bad racism really is in the US, so bad that blacks have to make up incidents of racism to get attention.

  17. JesseAz   3 years ago

    CNN’s “Inside Politics” discussed the protestors, which had entered its second week, on Monday’s episode. Host John King quickly labeled the Freedom Convoy as “a nationwide insurrection.”

    “The state of emergency in place in Ottawa where the police chief says COVID protests are ‘a nationwide insurrection driven by madness.’ Thousands of Canadians, you see the pictures there, protesting vaccine mandates. It started with the so-called ‘Freedom Convoy’ led by truckers protesting a new mandate requiring vaccines in order to enter the country,” King said.

    CNN correspondent Paula Newton followed up comparing the convoy to “sedition” and “a threat to democracy.”

    1. Cyto   3 years ago

      Peaceful protest is a threat to democracy......

      Shoulda been "mostly peaceful", I suppose.

      1. Don't look at me!   3 years ago

        An anti Covid protest with American flags went by while in a restaurant.
        Heard at the next table: “Since when is protesting patriotic?”

        1. Cyto   3 years ago

          One of the most underappreciated comedic moments of the last two decades is the guy responding to Chris Cuomo asking where is it written that protests have to be peaceful?

          "It's right there in the constitution. You can read it", he answers, while munching away on dried ramen noodles and pointing to the text.

        2. Marshal   3 years ago

          “Since when is protesting patriotic?”

          I miss the Bush days when the left pretended to believe "dissent is the highest form of patriotism".

          1. Don't look at me!   3 years ago

            Remember #Resist! ?

            1. Enjoy Every Sandwich   3 years ago

              Now it's #Obey.

              1. VULGAR MADMAN   3 years ago

                Remember when occupying things was good?

          2. Mother's Lament   3 years ago

            Remember how after Bush was elected, the aristocracy said that dissent was patriotic?

            And then when Obama was elected, dissent was suddenly racist?

            And when Trump won, resistance was not just patriotic, but compulsory?

            Well, dissent is racist again and resistance is now treason.

          3. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

            Remember the screaming over W's 'free speech zones' outside the rallies?

            The choir seems to have lost some voices since.

    2. Mother's Lament   3 years ago

      Host John King quickly labeled the Freedom Convoy as “a nationwide insurrection.”
      CNN correspondent Paula Newton followed up comparing the convoy to “sedition” and “a threat to democracy.”

      We knew this was going to be the modus operandi going forward when they did this to J6. Anyone opposing the will of the party is a traitor.

      The elite literally think "L'état, c'est moi".

      I sorta hope that they end in the same way.

    3. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

      Zaid Jilani had a piece today on Tablet describing this type of behavior as the "Blue Stack". I think it describes it quite well.

    4. I, Woodchipper   3 years ago

      if only they were looting shoe stores CNN would take a knee on screen...

    5. CE   3 years ago

      It's always a "threat to democracy" when people stop following bureaucratic edicts.

      1. Red Rocks White Privilege   3 years ago

        It's a "threat to democracy" when the left-liberal agenda is resisted. The edicts are incidental to the real problem.

    6. Cronut   3 years ago

      That word, sedition, is getting tossed around quite a bit lately. They sure do love that word.

      1. Sevo   3 years ago

        It would help if they used it as if it meant something other than 'I don't like what they are doing'.

  18. Rev. Arthur L. Kuckland   3 years ago

    If the dhs was serious about countering domestic terrorists, they would raid the fbi and arrest every agent

    1. CE   3 years ago

      Well, they did mention mal-information.

  19. Nardz   3 years ago

    Typical leftist:

    https://twitter.com/dickexpert/status/1491108863524818945?t=TUdP9W4TiUNyUfnp2YjsnQ&s=19

    1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

      Mad that the restaurant owner was nice and worked hard to insure they enjoyed their meal and hopefully turn them into regulars? How dare he. Fuck, people like the one who posted this just need to be marooned on an uninhabited island, as they simply can't exist in a polite society.

      1. Cronut   3 years ago

        It's really sad when friendliness and good service is "creepy." What kind of world do these people live in?

    2. ElvisIsReal   3 years ago

      Holy shit that has to be fake, only because lefties love free shit.

      1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

        They love free shit only if they force others to give it to them, not if the person does so out of free will and altruism. Then it's self serving and authoritarian. Don't you even speak leftist? J/K

        1. ElvisIsReal   3 years ago

          Apparently it was deleted from Reddit after the comments savaged the OP, so it WAS real.

          I can't even imagine that type of person. "NOBODY ORDERED THESE GARLIC KNOTS! ARE THERE ROOFIES IN THEM!??!?!?"

    3. Seamus   3 years ago

      Pretty sure she thinks that the DMV is the model of customer service, because it reminds her of the good old days back in the Soviet Union.

    4. Overt   3 years ago

      Imma saying fake. No way that happened.

      1. Red Rocks White Privilege   3 years ago

        The sad part is that, while AITA is mostly ShitThatDidntHappen.txt, we really are at the point where it's not out of the range of probability for some Zoomer to really act like such a socially retarded buzzkill.

      2. Stuck in California   3 years ago

        It's a parody account. I mean, the name is dickexpert and the next few twits are all the same obvious trolls.

        I love this sort of dry humor. Just on the other side of Poe's Law lines.

  20. JesseAz   3 years ago

    Biden is asking for federal pay to be raised 4.6% this year.

    https://justthenews.com/government/white-house/biden-seeking-raise-federal-pay-46-while-private-sector-salaries-expected

    1. Cyto   3 years ago

      They are only paid "substantially more" than the private sector. This is clearly unsustainable.

      Remember when public sector jobs paid less than private sector jobs and we used the "civil servant" label?

      1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

        Yeah, at one time going to work for the government meant poorer pay and worse benefits, and was not considered desirable, now you want to work for the government for the pay and benefits.

        1. CE   3 years ago

          No, the deal used to be low pay and low prestige, but good job security and great benefits. Now it's high pay, less work, and still great benefits.

          1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

            Depends how far back you go.

            1. Stuck in California   3 years ago

              I'm Gen-X. I don't go that far back.

              Maybe pre-Johnson that was the case, but my adult life government jobs were seen as cushy ways to get early retirement.

              1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

                Gen X here too, but a student of history.

    2. Mother's Lament   3 years ago

      So 4.6% inflation expected this year?

      1. Don't look at me!   3 years ago

        No, but performance bonuses will make up the other 5%.

      2. Red Rocks White Privilege   3 years ago

        You want to talk inflation, a gov worker making around $80K this year would have been making around $15-17K in the mid-70s, inflation-adjusted. That's just within, what, two generations?

        It's notable that, other than the Great Recession, we haven't really had a deflationary period of any real impact since the Great Depression. Even back when these sort of things would roller coaster in the 1800s, overall prices on most things remained relatively stable. If you had a small collection of $20 gold eagles, you were sitting pretty asset-wise, and $10,000 was considered a lot of money.

    3. Earth-based Human Skeptic   3 years ago

      Gotta love that Magic Money Tree.

      1. CE   3 years ago

        MMT for the win.

  21. Nardz   3 years ago

    https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1491405917463592961?t=eFii_W-V1eg-XFNWpDX-cA&s=19

    Democrats polling is so bad they are talking about natural immunity and banning Congressmen from buying stocks

    1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

      They also are quickly ending mask mandates and backing off vaccine passes, at least somewhat on the latter. I believe they fear a Canadian Trucker style protest. It may not have scared Trudeau, but it's scared the leftist down here shitless.

      1. Mother's Lament   3 years ago

        It scared Trudeau's cabinet and his Davos bosses though.
        The man is literally Zoolander. His only prior job experience was snowboarding and a stint as an uncredentialled drama teacher's assistant. His diploma is honorary.
        Nothing is going to scare Trudeau unless he's told to.

      2. Red Rocks White Privilege   3 years ago

        I guarantee the trucker protest has Canada's leaders absolutely shitting themselves, especially Trudeau. That asshole spent a week hiding in his cuckshed before emerging like a groundhog to predict only four more weeks of racism and right-wing nationalism.

    2. Commenter_XY   3 years ago

      I read the tweet.....No way. That chick is a fucking ingrate.

  22. Nardz   3 years ago

    https://twitter.com/ElectionLegal/status/1491170073041465347?t=3TZeSNYSl40LLsRR2yksnw&s=19

    ngl that's the gayest superpower ever [link]

    1. Mother's Lament   3 years ago

      "That's right children, tolerance is a real superpower! Now hands up everyone who wants to be tolerant."

      "Meee Ms. Marvel! I do! I do!"

      1. Mother's Lament   3 years ago

        We're all six-year-olds now.

      2. Don't look at me!   3 years ago

        I’m not sure I can tolerate that.

      3. Earth-based Human Skeptic   3 years ago

        And by tolerance they mean imposing an official ideology and crushing any disagreement.

        1. ElvisIsReal   3 years ago

          Yes. We can't have tolerance of people who think differently than we do!

        2. Red Rocks White Privilege   3 years ago

          I guarantee these people really believe that Repressive Tolerance is a superpower.

    2. Nardz   3 years ago

      https://twitter.com/VNuallain/status/1491405702367088644?t=Nsr78hhhV05g46cOkh3I6w&s=19

      Hey now, that's all Bill Cosby ever did was "chemically induce people to like him" as well

    3. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

      In other comic book news, the new Superman, Kal El's openly bisexual son, comic has dropped out of the top 50 most bought comic books after only 7 issues (they didn't issue the promised December issue).

      1. I, Woodchipper   3 years ago

        ^ because everything woke turns to shit.

        1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

          They should have learned from Gillette, or from Disney/Marvel/Lucas Films. MCU was once guaranteed to set box office records, but of the last three MCU releases (not to mention Captain Marvel's release) only Spider Man 3 was really successful, and that wasn't really woke and was due a lot to the nostalgia aspect of the movie.

          1. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

            I will never forgive the woke for ruining Star Wars

            1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

              That and changing directors and no one agreeing on a story arc.

              1. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

                I consider all that their fault too. Promulgating shit rank enough even Lucas threw up his hands and walked.

          2. Red Rocks White Privilege   3 years ago

            Captain Marvel was successful, but mainly because it was a narrative bridge for the audience between Infinity War and Endgame. With that said, there's definitely no appetite for CM2 because of Brie Larson's toxic wokism and self-righteous attitude, which is probably why she's been trying to revamp her public image with those Nissan commercials.

            The only Captain Marvel 2 movie I'd ever want to see is one where Rogue steals her powers and puts her in a coma.

      2. Red Rocks White Privilege   3 years ago

        Great, now we'll never find out if his PrEP prescription was renewed.

  23. Mother's Lament   3 years ago

    "Edward Snowden @Snowden
    Wikileaks has managed to raise ~$50M seemingly without any notice at all by major media.
    Fifty. Million. Dollars.
    probably nothing"

    NSA, CIA, chemjeff hardest hit.

  24. Earth-based Human Skeptic   3 years ago

    "The warning came complete with new jargon to describe the threat: mis-, dis-, and mal-information (the three are collectively referred to as MDM)."

    At this point we might as well start using the correct religious-ideology terminology, like blasphemy and sacrilege.

    1. Cyto   3 years ago

      Right idea... Leaning the wrong way.

      You are looking for terms like counter-revolutionary, subversive, wrongthink...

      1. Cyto   3 years ago

        Holy crap.
        I asked thesaurus.com

        https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/counter-revolutionaries

        synonyms for counter-revolutionaries
        archconservative.
        conservative.
        right-winger.
        rightist.
        traditionalist.
        counterrevolutionary.
        royalist.
        ultraconservative.

        1. Nardz   3 years ago

          Wow

        2. Earth-based Human Skeptic   3 years ago

          Who knew Roget was woke?

        3. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

          Well if the dictionary can change the meaning of a word, to placate the political elites, why not the thesaurus?

    2. Mother's Lament   3 years ago

      Blasphemy is still a crime for our erstwhile liberal aristocracy, only the gods have changed.

  25. Bill Godshall   3 years ago

    "These threat actors seek to exacerbate societal friction to sow discord and undermine public trust in government institutions to encourage unrest, which could potentially inspire acts of violence.

    The DHS is accurately describing the Democrats woke divisive strategies to promote elitism, racism, genderism and totalitarianism by invoking covid, climate change and other fearmongering lies.

    1. Bill Godshall   3 years ago

      Seems like the left wing Democrat partisans who now run DHS are labelling all libertarians, Republicans and everyone else who opposes their lies, corruption and totalitarian policies as "domestic terrorists".

      1. Don't look at me!   3 years ago

        Wrongthink.

    2. CE   3 years ago

      Oh, I thought they were reading the FBI playbook.

  26. Nardz   3 years ago

    https://twitter.com/JoelWBerry/status/1491175605781807104?t=Cj5r8YM7YaI1xQt_ZLvGnA&s=19

    We’ve actually arrived at “freedom is slavery” [link]

    1. Cyto   3 years ago

      They keep using the phrase "a threat to Democracy".

      I am not entirely convinced that they know what any of those words mean.

      1. Moonrocks   3 years ago

        They don't care what those words mean. It's the fake because; they just need an excuse, any excuse, to justify their actions to themselves.

      2. Bill Godshall   3 years ago

        The only people who use the intentionally divisive term "a threat to Democracy" are woke left wing totalitarian partisans (i.e. Democrats) who hate libertarians, Republicans and anyone else who supports freedom and opposes them and their disastrous policies.

      3. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

        Democracy is a government run by Democrats, duh.

    2. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

      Stalin was known as Uncle Joe. Biden is known as Uncle Joe. Just a coincidence, I'm sure.
      Actually, this is straight out of the Stalin ordered purges of the 1930s type propaganda. Not even being hyperbolic.

  27. Earth-based Human Skeptic   3 years ago

    "The Department expanded its evaluation of online activity as part of its efforts to assess and prevent acts of violence," it says in its latest alert. And, as always, it instructs Americans: "If you see something, say something."

    I see an organized effort to eliminate liberty and replace a government and society founded on freedom and opportunity with an authoritarian socialist system driven by race and class fanatics. What should I say?

    1. Cyto   3 years ago

      "thank you sir, may I have another"?

    2. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

      So, because I post on Reason for liberty I'm now on a government watch list. Oh boy, another one. I also protested at a TEA party rally at the federal building in Anchorage after Obama warned that the feds would be taking pictures of protestors and keeping records.

    3. Longtobefree   3 years ago

      "What should I say?"

      Up against the wall!

  28. Kevin Smith   3 years ago

    "The warning came complete with new jargon to describe the threat: mis-, dis-, and mal-information (the three are collectively referred to as MDM)."

    I think we need to add a fourth category, anti-information, to the list, and adjust the initialism accordingly

  29. OpenBordersLiberal-tarian   3 years ago

    "DHS Keeps Crying Wolf About Domestic Extremists"

    Ummmmmmm, have you not been paying attention to Mr. Buttplug's intelligence briefings? Remember when he warned us 5 days in advance of the SECOND INSURRECTION BY RIGHTWING EXTREMISTS on 9 / 18, which resulted in a catastrophic loss of life?

    Indeed, domestic extremism is THE major issue facing the country. Especially now that Joe Biden shut down the virus.

    #9/18WasWorseThan9/11

    1. Spiritus Mundi   3 years ago

      I remember that well, it was just before Russia invaded Ukraine.

  30. Michael Ejercito   3 years ago

    There is a domestic terror threat in Chicago.

    http://johnkassnews.com/the-survivor-chief-judge-tim-evans/

  31. Nardz   3 years ago

    https://twitter.com/VallachianR/status/1491363577722437632?t=ueHdgPMbzpLdT0pQbTktpg&s=19

    If you get to know how a communist regime acts,then you'll know how all communist regimes act. In Romania there was a law punishing with years of imprisonment any criticism against socialism.They called it "undermining the socialist order" and "terrorism". Today in Obiden's USSA:
    [Link]

    The communist Penal Code published on Feb 1948 went as far as mentioning the death penalty as a punishment for undermining the socialist order. Interestingly enough, the offenders could be retroactively punished for offenses committed before the law was passed.

    In 1955 another law passed, Decree no. 62. It made it a crime to speak against or spread misinformation and sow mistrust in the working class and the socialist order. Like in Obiden's recent HHS bulletin, it was simply a clear attempt to intimidate and punish the regime opponents

    Should be pretty clear what is the direction in which America is headed under Obiden's regime. Just in case you're a brain dead leftist lemming and still don't understand what I'm warning you about: that direction is a totalitarian, boot stomped on your face kind of Hell.

    1. Nardz   3 years ago

      https://twitter.com/VallachianR/status/1491433275470249986?t=AM3v_bfn9DgNTUQMdO8mFg&s=19

      2/16 I need you to think for a minute and ask yourself this question: how can you tell when a government is legitimately democratic and represents the will of the people, and when is a government authoritarian communist or fascist and is no longer legitimate?
      3/16 I am going to give you my answer: you can tell a government is legitimate or not by the way it treats its dissenters. Take for example the last and the present administrations: Trump and Obiden
      3/16 The moment Trump took the oath of office, the radical left spearheaded by BLM and Antifa and coordinated and financed in secret by major Democratic Party donors started a campaign of political intimidation and violence never seen before in America.
      5/16 Only at Trump's inauguration, leftists injured 6 police officers. Antifa threw rocks and bottles at officers, set vehicles on fire and used chunks of pavement and baseball bats to shatter the windows of a BofA branch and a McDonald’s. [Link]
      6/16 I can already hear the argument made by some random Demshevik reader of this thread: "But...but...but it's not the same! Our side never invaded the Capitol, we are not insurrectionists and traitors like you are!
      Really?
      7/16 Take a couple of minutes to read how 11 years ago left wingers busted through the doors of the WI State Capitol, attacked the police and rampaged with impunity through the Wisconsin People's House. [Link]
      8/16 Quote:
      "Gov. Walker received a steady stream of death threats against him and his wife, including one that promised to “gut her like a deer” and one threatening to kill his sons. Police found dozens of .22-caliber bullets scattered across the Capitol grounds"
      9/16 "The occupiers drew chalk outlines of fake dead bodies etched with Walker’s name on the floor, and carried signs that read “Death to tyrants,” “The only good Republican is a dead Republican” and one with picture of him in crosshairs with the words, “Don’t retreat, Reload.”
      10/16 What was Nancy Pelosi reaction to that? Read for yourself:
      "@SpeakerPelosi
      @WeGotEd @thelastword I stand with the students & workers of #WI, impressive show of democracy in action #solidarityWI"
      11/16 So if at the time Nancy thought armed left wing activists invading the WI Capitol,making explicit threats to assassinate Walker was just "A legitimate show of democracy in action", why does the same Nancy Pelosi calls unarmed Jan 6 activists insurrectionists and terrorists?
      12/16 Because she knows she and the Obiden regime cheated their way to power are not representing the will of the American people. As I mentioned in my previous thread, this is what communist regimes do to political dissidents in order to intimidate and punish them.
      13/16 They demonize their opponents, they want them silenced, they want them made into enemies of the State. And when that doesn't work, they take the law, twist it to make it fit their agenda, then send their obedient FBI and DOJ attack dogs after those who dare oppose them.
      14/16 It's time to face the truth, my friends: America had slid down the path of authoritarianism and the Republic is already dead and buried. If you still believe I'm exaggerating I recommend you to watch @yesnicksearcy 's movie Capitol Punishment: [link]
      15/16 See for yourself what really happened on Jan 6th, listen to the people who were arrested, terrorized, imprisoned in solitary confinement, dehumanized, lost their livelihoods and were evicted from their homes as a consequence of Pelosi and the Obama regime going after them.
      16/16 Watch how the FBI swat team slapped handcuffs on the 12 year old daughter of a Mexican-American man who didn't even set foot inside the Capitol on Jan 6th, threw her to the ground and threatened to shoot her dog. Not even Ceausescu's Secret Police didn't do that to children

    2. I, Woodchipper   3 years ago

      Anyone who hasn't read Solzhenitsyn better get on it real soon because it could be a guide for how to navigate the future USA.

      1. LibertyWeeb   3 years ago

        Read it while it's legal!

  32. docduracoat   3 years ago

    So mostly white people engaging in peaceful protest is “domestic terrorism”?
    While BLM burned down city centers and killed people is ignored?

    1. Moonrocks   3 years ago

      While BLM burned down city centers and killed people is ignored?

      To be fair, that was also mostly white people engaging in "peaceful protest".

    2. Ronbback   3 years ago

      BVLM violence was not ignored, it was supported and cheered on as patriotic

    3. I, Woodchipper   3 years ago

      ^yes. you're getting it

    4. Mike Laursen   3 years ago

      Rioters burned and looted stores. That is true.

      Why do you attach the Black Lives Matter organization’s name to those rioters? What evidence do you have?

      1. I, Woodchipper   3 years ago

        what a fucking joke you are

        1. Mike Laursen   3 years ago

          You have no arguments or evidence, but insults. Should have muted you long ago.

      2. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

        Why do you tie January 6th rioters to Republicans and Trump?

      3. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

        Carry water harder, Liarson.

  33. Ken Shultz   3 years ago

    "What's interesting about these warnings isn't just that DHS is falsely forecasting attacks but also that it is sowing narratives. First, that it's most assuredly "MDM" fueling social unrest and anti-government sentiment…not, you know, actual government policies and legitimate grievances with them. Second, that anti-government criticism should necessarily be viewed as suspicious and potentially dangerous."

    ----Elizabeth Nolan Brown

    TRUTH social is supposed to launch in less than two weeks (on February 21), and I'm sure the Department of Homeland Security is entirely aware of that. Why wait until after Trump launches his own social media app to ramp up the justification for shutting it down?

    1. Cyto   3 years ago

      They have come after the app stores, hosting companies, banks, search engines, advertising platforms....

      But so far they have not succeeded in going after the top level DNS servers. Only government has been able to violate the sanctity of the top level domain name services.

      Could this be the next level of attack?

      I expect them to have extreme, even crippling troubles with uptime.

      1. Ken Shultz   3 years ago

        Truth Social is using Mastodon.

        https://uk.pcmag.com/social-media/137421/trumps-social-media-site-quietly-admits-its-based-on-mastodon

        I understand Mastodon to be a decentralized node platform. They probably can't take down TRUTH social by deplatforming a single server or even by denying them a single host. They'll take it off of Apple's and Google's app stores, and when that proves not to be enough, they'll probably go to drastic measures. I don't think the progressives have what it takes to simply tolerate Trump's speech.

        1. Ken Shultz   3 years ago

          "Each user is a member of a specific Mastodon instance, which can interoperate as a federated social network, allowing users on different nodes to interact with each other . . . .

          "Mastodon servers run social networking software that is capable of communicating using the ActivityPub standard, which has been implemented since version 1.6.[8] A Mastodon user can therefore interact with users on any other server in the Fediverse that supports ActivityPub."

          ----Mastodon

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastodon_(software)

          The government may need to shut down thousands of servers, in order to shut down Truth social, while simultaneously stopping new ones from coming online. The government may need to go far beyond anything they did counterterrorismwise, which isn't to say they won't. I don't think the progressives are capable of tolerating Trump's speech between now and November of 2024. They have no respect for the First Amendment or its principles. They hate free speech, and they won't tolerate it.

          1. Commenter_XY   3 years ago

            I still have trouble believing that social media companies shut down media accounts of a sitting US POTUS. To me, that was a bright line.

            1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

              Especially after the courts ruled he couldn't block people because it violated their 1A rights.

            2. Ken Shultz   3 years ago

              Reports are that this is when Xi turned hard against social media in China.

              He saw social media deplatform Trump, and he didn't want anyone to have that kind of power in China.

              1. Ken Shultz   3 years ago

                "Western capitalism, in [Xi's] view, focuses too heavily on the single-minded pursuit of profit and individual wealth, while letting big companies grow too powerful, leading to inequality, social injustice and other threats to social stability.

                Early this year, when Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. took down former U.S. President Donald Trump’s accounts, Mr. Xi saw yet another sign America’s economic system was flawed—it let big business dictate what a political leader should do or say—officials familiar with his views said.

                A few months later, when the Chinese Communist party celebrated its centenary on July 1, Mr. Xi donned a Mao suit and stood behind a podium adorned with a hammer and sickle, pledging to stand for the people."

                ----WSJ

                "Xi Jinping Aims to Rein In Chinese Capitalism, Hew to Mao’s Socialist Vision"

                https://www.wsj.com/articles/xi-jinping-aims-to-rein-in-chinese-capitalism-hew-to-maos-socialist-vision-11632150725?

          2. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

            Sounds like a mammoth undertaking.

            1. Ken Shultz   3 years ago

              ICWYDT

        2. Mike Laursen   3 years ago

          Nobody has messed with donaldjtrump.com. In fact, I often see Trump’s press releases there passed around Twitter by liberals mocking the childish tone of his missives.

          1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

            And how does that prove anything? Did Twitter block Trump? Yes they did. So your stupid counter doesn't disprove anything.

          2. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

            With this level of lack of thought I may have to mute you again. Just so I don't lose all hope for humanity.

      2. I, Woodchipper   3 years ago

        nah they can just pressure the cloud hosting service and the bank services and the app stores.

        It's enough to shut anything down.

        1. Ken Shultz   3 years ago

          How 'bout shutting down file trading software or Tor?

          I don't think it's gonna be that easy.

    2. Mike Laursen   3 years ago

      Paranoia strikes deep.

      1. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

        Starts when you're always afraid.

  34. Mazakon   3 years ago

    Ottawa chief brags about being responsible for GoFundMe shutting down the truckers fund and removing a source of funding for the protestors and weakening their numbers

    In no way does a free country do this to people expressing their right to protest.

    1. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

      Mayor went to GoFundMe who cited the police chief's (completely false) allegations of widespread violence as justification for shutting it down.

      Even if it were true (8 arrests for disorderly conduct now? Including a 78-year old driver who had the audacity to honk his car horn) can someone explain BLM to me?

      1. I, Woodchipper   3 years ago

        yes but you wont like it

    2. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

      Well, we'll see what Florida and Texas AGs come up with in their fraud investigation against GFM. In other news, related to fund raising, multiple state AGs are now investigating BLM for possible fraud and misappropriation of donated funds, some of them blue states who didn't get their cut (er taxes).

    3. ElvisIsReal   3 years ago

      Thank you for the link! I turned it into an article.

      https://simulationcommander.substack.com/p/in-case-there-remained-any-doubt

  35. Sometimes a Great Notion   3 years ago

    Fuck Joe Biden and the DHS.

    1. Union of Concerned Socks   3 years ago

      Fuck Joe Biden, government "intelligence" on domestic citizenry, and the horse they all rode in on.

      1. Earth-based Human Skeptic   3 years ago

        Can we get the horse to fuck Joe?

        1. Hank Ferrous   3 years ago

          +1 donkey show. Could it be on 5 May?

    2. Moonrocks   3 years ago

      Fuck Joe Biden and the fascist regime propping him up like a Weekend At Bernie's.

    3. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

      DHS equals NKVD. Both assisted in purges of Uncle Joe's enemies.

  36. Nardz   3 years ago

    https://twitter.com/DietHeartNews/status/1491057733096726534?t=SKHls6UQiS85uexrSlxyhQ&s=19

    TO THE WHINING "PEOPLE DIE UNEXPECTEDLY" CROWD: Malignant Neuroendocrine Tumors up 276%; Acute Myocardial Infarcts up 343%; Acute Myocarditis up 184%; Acute Pericarditis up 70%; Pulmonary Embolisms up 260% -- IN OTHERWISE YOUNG ABLE BODIED US SOLDIERS...

    1. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

      I'm sorry, but POLITIFACT1!! refutes you.

      Apparantly, DMED has been innaccurate for years. They just started accurate reporting this year, and have had to take down the database to fix the errors. Good thing we have Facebook misinformation flaggers! Definitely on the up-and-up here.

      1. Earth-based Human Skeptic   3 years ago

        Fortified!

    2. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

      I fully suspect that in the next five years there will be mass advertisement by class action lawyers saying "if you or your loved one were seriously injured or impaired by the COVID vaccine call us today, you may be eligible for compensation".

      1. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

        I will not hold my breath on the exemptions from lawsuits dropping here.

        1. Illocust   3 years ago

          Medical companies are immune. No one granted the companies pressured by the biden administration immunity.

          1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

            And the courts can always rule the immunity was illegal or unconstitutional and allow the lawsuits. I suspect if there is proven to be enough injuries, especially as BJM is reporting that whistle blowers have come forward with evidence Pfizer ignored discrepancies in their approval processes, the courts almost would have to overturn the immunity.

            1. Illocust   3 years ago

              That's true. They could be immune to harm caused, but not immune to fraud.

              1. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

                I would love to be completely wrong about this. Fingers crossed and pitchfork sharpened.

  37. Union of Concerned Socks   3 years ago

    If ask Google, "How many days to midterm elections?" it will happily tell you.

    272 days to midterms.

    1. Moonrocks   3 years ago

      I would take that answer with a grain of salt. You never know when some Russian hackers will manage to hijack Google's servers and Interfere In Our Democracy again, just like they have for every election except for 2020.

      1. Earth-based Human Skeptic   3 years ago

        Or another worstest-ever COVID variant that will justify postponing elections for two weeks*.

        *Note that two weeks is an undetermined time period based on official assessments of pandemic policies and compliance.

        1. Sometimes a Great Notion   3 years ago

          No later then Easter though. Right?

  38. Bill Godshall   3 years ago

    • While a number of states have been seeking constitutional amendments to declare there is no right to an abortion, Vermont is going the other direction.

    Since Puritanical Conservative Prohibitionists remain obsessed with banning doctors/healthcare providers from performing abortions, it would be excellent if Vermont (and other states) amended its constitution to protect women's right to legally access abortion services.

    It would also be great for libertarians and the GOP if Vermont's Republican governor endorses the measure, as that could make GOP strategists realize that abortion bans help Democrats win elections in swing districts and states.

    If SCOTUS strikes down Roe v Wade as unconstitutional (ruling expected in June), abortion politics will split the GOP in swing states and districts, and could help Democrats keep control of many US House and Senate seats, governor's offices, AG's offices, State legislatures in swing states and districts.

    1. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

      It would be great if babies had inalienable human rights.

      1. Cyto   3 years ago

        Which opens an entirely other can of worms. If a 3 weeks fetus has full human rights.... Well.... That would have some profound implications.

        1. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

          Yes, it would mean 97% of abortions are murder for convenience, and free lovers better pack protection or take some fucking responsibility for their choices.

      2. Earth-based Human Skeptic   3 years ago

        At least voting rights.

        1. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

          They're not dead yet, we can't be sure they'll vote D.

    2. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

      Abortion rights activist seem to hate federalism.

    3. Red Rocks White Privilege   3 years ago

      It would also be great for libertarians and the GOP if Vermont's Republican governor endorses the measure, as that could make GOP strategists realize that abortion bans help Democrats win elections in swing districts and states.

      Wait a second, what? Vermont is one of the shitlibbiest states in the country.

  39. Nardz   3 years ago

    https://twitter.com/davidharsanyi/status/1491403920643698696?t=uX7YMxs_VXbqyN3G22bo6A&s=19

    Rubin accuses justices of wanting to live in a colorblind world. Monsters!

    "@JRubinBlogger
    The court’s right-wing activists would apparently love to live in a nation in which “colorblindness” is the rule — as they seem prepared to establish in the court’s upcoming affirmative action case. It’s wrongheaded but worse, an excuse in jud. arrogance"

    1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

      When will they cancel MLK? Oh, I'm forgetting that they now are saying MLK changed his mind or never really meant it.

      1. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

        Seriously?

        That was the single most inspirational speech of my life.

        1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

          Yeah, the new refrain was that he became disillusioned and more radical later.

          1. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

            I need to drink now.

    2. CE   3 years ago

      All 9 justices should want to live in a nation where the government abides by the law. The 14th Amendment requires equal protection of the laws to all persons.

      1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

        It's like the 1A, 2A, 4A, 5A, 6A and 10A, there is unwritten exceptions according to the left.

        1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

          Oh and the 9A also. Basically the entire BoR has unwritten exceptions according to the left. So why shouldn't the 14th?

    3. Red Rocks White Privilege   3 years ago

      The fact that Biden has brought Rubin on as a media advisor tells us all we need to know about that shriveled harpy.

  40. Nardz   3 years ago

    https://twitter.com/sunnyright/status/1491280491047432193?t=Nc0C2F22BqwHUnTdqrCdHg&s=19

    The media has now been talking about Joe Rogan's podcast longer than they did the Waukesha massacre or synagogue attack.

    1. Cyto   3 years ago

      Which is an excellent point. The coverage of that story really is truly indefensible.

    2. I, Woodchipper   3 years ago

      what happened in Waukesha? I heard a car lost control of its brakes or something. While it was driving itself.

      1. Earth-based Human Skeptic   3 years ago

        Not a car, an evil SUV. You know how bad those things are.

        1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

          Wasn't it an assault ARAK SUV with the shoulder thing that goes up and a bayonet lug?

          1. Longtobefree   3 years ago

            All SUVs are capable of carrying chain saws. It is settled science.

            1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

              The funniest thing was after that was put out some company actually started marketing a chain saw bayonet attachment. Not at all practical but ultimate trolling.

              1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

                Then again, since at least the end of WW1, bayonets period have been mainly unsuitable for modern combat. And contrary to Hollywood, even when bayonets were a main offensive weapon, they rarely ever accounted for a large percentage of casualties. They were always more a psychological than an actual weapon. Troops who could stand for volley after volley musket and cannon fire would break when bayonet charged. The British Army figured this out in the 18th century and adjusted their tactics to it.

                1. Chumby   3 years ago

                  Joshua Chamberlain and the 20th Maine used them effectively.

                  1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

                    Yeah, but they inflicted very few casualties with them. It was the psychological effect, and the fact that both the Confederates and the 20th Maine were at their breaking points when Chamberlain ordered his charge. From a strictly military standpoint his charge was considered unthinkable, which may explain why it worked that day. Sometimes audacity in combat will trump conventional military doctrine.

                  2. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

                    And saving Little Round Top probably played a bigger role in Gettysburg than Pickett's Charge.

                2. Longtobefree   3 years ago

                  Unsuitable, maybe. But effective.
                  "United States Army officer Lewis L. Millett led soldiers of the US Army's 27th Infantry Regiment in taking out a machine gun position with bayonets. Historian S. L. A. Marshall described the attack as "the most complete bayonet charge by American troops since Cold Harbor". Out of about 50 enemy dead, roughly 20 were found to have been killed by bayonets, and the location subsequently became known as Bayonet Hill.[60] This was the last bayonet charge by the US Army. For his leadership during the assault, Millett was awarded the Medal of Honor. The medal was formally presented to him by President Harry S. Truman in July 1951.[61] He was also awarded the Army's second-highest decoration, the Distinguished Service Cross, for leading another bayonet charge in the same month.[62]"

        2. Gaear Grimsrud   3 years ago

          It was named Christine.

      2. Nardz   3 years ago

        It's really pretty amazing.
        50 injured, 6 (7?) killed, mostly women and children, in one attack.
        Almost no coverage.

        1. Commenter_XY   3 years ago

          It is deliberate. That is the saddest part of all.

          1. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

            And he was out on bail after attempting/succeeding to run another lady over with the same SUV.

            Christine gained weight.

  41. NealAppeal   3 years ago

    The FBI is glad to conjure up domestic threats coaxing half-wits into joining them and convincing media half-wits that it was a home grown threat. DHS thanks them.

  42. Ken Shultz   3 years ago

    Paying attention to the news in other countries gives you some objectivity.

    I've made the case before, and I'll make it again--the social, political, technological, and economic forces that shape the debate hit the entire developed world at more or less the same time. We tend to imagine that things that happen in our country are happening for their own unique reasons, but the same arguments are happening all over the developed world in the same terms for the same reasons. The arguments over the rights of minorities in the United States are not unique to the United States. They're very much the same arguments, on both sides, all over the developed world--even those that didn't have slavery.

    Really to the point, here, the political movements we experience in the United States tend to be happening all over the world at the same time. The populist anti-elitist movement that brought Trump to power in 2016 was not unique to the United States. It also arose in Brexit, France, Germany, Italy, and other European countries. It arose in Brazil and the Philippines.

    The student protest movements of 1968 happened all over the world for more or less the same reasons--even in countries that weren't at war in Vietnam. The revolutions of 1848 happened all over the world for more or less the same reasons. It's hard to look at the United States with objective eyes when you're an American, but you can see the same things happening elsewhere in the world for same reasons with more objectivity.

    Justin Trudeau is driven to denounce truckers as terrorists for the same reasons that Biden was driven to sic the FBI's counterterrorism division on parents for opposing their local school boards. It's easier to see it when you're looking at someone else's country, but it's all the same thing. If the police end up shooting a trucker (or a supporter) when they move to forcibly remove them, the justification will sound a lot like the progressives defending the killing of Ashli Babbitt--and they'll be doing it for the same reasons.

    How Canadians view this and what they'll do about these things may be different from everyone else, but the forces driving them to make choices will be the same. It's like a predator provoking a fight or flight response. How the majority of the people react may be different from country to country and from culture to culture, but the predator driving the decision is the same for everybody.

    Americans who imagine the public response to things like January 6 are uniquely driven by the events of the day itself are barking up the wrong tree. The reason you're an authoritarian who supports shooting an unarmed protester is not because of the unique situational events that happened on January 6. The reason progressives defend shooting an unarmed protester is because their instincts are authoritarian. It isn't about the facts. It's about their authoritarian motives being exposed in that situation--and it's the same everywhere.

    1. Sevo   3 years ago

      "...the justification will sound a lot like the progressives defending the killing of Ashli Babbitt--and they'll be doing it for the same reasons..."
      -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      Dunno if you caught this, but one of our new lefty shit sank to a new low a couple of days ago:

      JasonT20
      February.6.2022 at 6:02 pm
      “How many officers were there to stop Ashlee Babbitt and the dozens of people behind her from getting into the legislative chamber to do who knows what?...”

      Yep, murder as a preventative measure for what someone might later do.

      1. Ken Shultz   3 years ago

        Neil Young has been in the news lately. I wonder what he thinks of the shooting of Ashli Babitt? I know what he used to think. He wrote these lyrics about people's reactions to when they shot those unarmed protesters at Kent State:

        Gotta get down to it
        Soldiers are cutting us down
        "Should have been done long ago"
        What if you knew her
        And found her dead on the ground?

        ----Ohio

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX95QSKBODo

        1. Earth-based Human Skeptic   3 years ago

          Ima bet Neil is happier about shooting people who challenge a liberal government than shooting people who challenge a conservative one.

          1. Chumby   3 years ago

            Thought they were protesting the DNC convention.

        2. Mike Laursen   3 years ago

          Not even comparable situations. Ashli Babbitt was attempting to break into the Speaker’s Lobby with apparent violent intent to the people the officers were guarding. They had no way of knowing whether she or any of the rioters behind her were armed or not.

          1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

            Apparent violent behavior based upon what? The cops behind her didn't consider her a threat, as they just stood and watched her. God, you excuse BLM above for the riots during their protests but excuse the killing of an unarmed Trump supporter. We see you have no fucking principles other than hate towards the right. Yeah, for my own sanity, due to your complete lack of moral consistency and anything approaching logical, consistent, honest discourse, I am going to have to mute you again. No point in debating someone who lacks self awareness.

  43. Nardz   3 years ago

    https://twitter.com/TheLastRefuge2/status/1491194945323085826?t=hJ37BGJ7GoJJrf7QnZjS5A&s=19

    McConnell States the People Can Never Be Permitted a Voice in Politics, and January 6th Was a Terrorist Attack
    [Link]

    1. Don't look at me!   3 years ago

      Crazy old man needs to be shown the door.

      1. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

        Bitch McConnell should have been shown an airplane door with no chute years ago.

  44. Sevo   3 years ago

    "'Burn it down': This deep-red California county is now a recall warzone"
    [...]
    "Anger over COVID-19 restrictions has fueled recall elections of public officials across the state over the past year, but the recall election set to take place in Shasta County is different. Moty is a Republican. Former President Donald Trump won the county by more than 30 percentage points in 2020. And the run-up to this particular election has seen a political climate that county elections chief Cathy Darling Allen isn’t comfortable with.
    "I guess contentious is a word you can use," Allen told SFGATE. "You definitely have a group of folks with very serious concerns who are very loud about expressing those."..."
    https://www.sfgate.com/california-politics/article/Shasta-County-Republican-recall-warzone-16810959.php

    The paper version had this a "far-right"; the guy who stands to find a new job backed the state-wide mask-and-jab mandates. Guess he doesn't know his constituency very well.
    Toss him out on his ass!

    1. I, Woodchipper   3 years ago

      they are all little stalinists at heart aren't they?

      1. Earth-based Human Skeptic   3 years ago

        They just KNOW BETTER.

        1. Sevo   3 years ago

          And, hey, it's just wearing a mask, right? And showing your papers, and getting jabbed, and, and, and...
          Bootlickers don't mind at all!

    2. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

      How dare the voters expect their elected officials to be accountable to the wishes of their constituents? That is both fascism and anarchy at the same time.

      1. Minadin   3 years ago

        Sounds like a Threat to Democracy!

  45. Marshal   3 years ago

    These factors include "the proliferation of false or misleading narratives, which sow discord or undermine public trust in U.S. government institutions." Specifically, it mentions narratives about election fraud and COVID-19.

    It's revealing they don't mention anti-police rhetoric even though this has directly inspired many terrorist attacks in which a dozen or so people were killed.

  46. Nardz   3 years ago

    Fun thread:

    https://twitter.com/TheRealTypo/status/1491083472156639237?t=scfS3FHETK0FPY2m22l3NA&s=19

    Remember when Joe Rogan had the inside information about Jeffrey Epstien but didn't release it to the public because he didn't want to ruin his relationship with the royal family? That was wild.

    Remember when Joe Rogan for 3 years kept pushing lies that the president stole the election by colluding with the Russians? He never apologized for it. Scumbag.

    1. Chumby   3 years ago

      I remember when he had the guy on who claimed to have worked on a UFO. And when Rogan supported UBI.

  47. Nardz   3 years ago

    Evil, totalitarian weasels

    https://twitter.com/DrLeanaWen/status/1491173646882455553?t=1rlyZXVEusLLYbOxi9yJrw&s=19

    Before, there were 2 camps, for & against pandemic restrictions.

    Now, there's a 3rd: pro-restrictions earlier but recognizing it's a different time now.

    This group wants to move from vitriol & divisiveness to nuance & compromise.

    @postopinions

    1. I, Woodchipper   3 years ago

      ^ these people destroyed millions of lives and now they want to claim "nuance and compromise"

      Fuck. Off.

    2. Dillinger   3 years ago

      ya they can all fuck off.

  48. Weigel's Cock Ring   3 years ago

    Welcome to the thirties, population you: so-called “president” Sleepy Joe Biden’s aggregate Real Clear Politics approval rating dips below 40% for the first time:

    https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president-biden-job-approval-7320.html

    How low can he go is the question?

    1. ElvisIsReal   3 years ago

      I think Bush bottomed out around 30%, I suspect Biden will be about the same. It seems that the letter behind your name entitles you to 30% support no matter how bad you are.

      1. Chumby   3 years ago

        Have some money riding on him dropping below 30%. Am hoping for a live tv pants shitting moment to fortify that.

        1. ElvisIsReal   3 years ago

          The State of the Union is poop in my pants!

      2. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

        Biden is the left's version of W.

        Folksy, patronizing, really not all there and willing to do what he's told.

        He's even got the big floppy ears.

  49. Sevo   3 years ago

    Didn't see anything about those we should all be emulating:

    "U.S.-to-Canada crossing blocked by truckers fighting Trudeau’s Covid mandate"
    [...]
    "The busiest land crossing from the United States to Canada remained shut on Tuesday, Canada’s border agency said, after Canadian truckers blocked lanes on Monday to protest their government’s pandemic control measures.
    [...]
    Trucks started blocking traffic at the Ambassador Bridge, located between Lake Erie and Lake Huron, late on Monday...."
    https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/08/angry-canada-truckers-block-busiest-bridge-with-us-trudeau-faces-grilling.html

    1. CE   3 years ago

      No, that was just "sporadic congestion". Sort of like "transitory inflation".

    2. Gaear Grimsrud   3 years ago

      The Ambassador Bridge is a notorious bottleneck and only the lanes into Canada are stopped. If this is part of the Canadian truckers protest they're blocking inbound lanes in Windsor which means they would have had to pass through US customs, presumably empty, turn around in Michigan and cross back through Canadian customs. If you cross an international border in a big truck you better be prepared to produce all of your paperwork. If you don't have a bill of lading you better have a damn good reason to enter the country empty. I just heard Geraldo shrieking on Fox news that these crazy truckers are interfering with international commerce and have to be stopped. I suspect that the delay is entirely a creation of Canadian customs and we'll be hearing Geraldo's talking point a lot in the next few days. Again, long lines of trucks on the Ambassador Bridge are the normal state of affairs. It looks like another easy propaganda spin to me.

      1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

        Geraldo would probably have chastised the Sons of Liberty for blocking unloading of tea in Boston and then destroying it because it impacted international trade.

  50. I, Woodchipper   3 years ago

    Revenge of the COVID Moms: They're mad about masks, and they're running for office.

    Just pull your kids out of public school. Getting into office wont the school, trust me.

    1. I, Woodchipper   3 years ago

      won't *fix* the school. (sigh we need an edit button here badly)

      1. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

        No edit button. I will own my typos to watch sarc and jeff squirm like worms on a hook weekly.

  51. Nardz   3 years ago

    https://twitter.com/EricMMatheny/status/1491437381358350338?t=9f4BkX3K7SCctpHaiaVcPg&s=19

    You don’t praise your kidnapper when he finally decides to let you go.

  52. chemjeff radical individualist   3 years ago

    Remember folks: just a tourist.

    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/fbi-arrests-trump-fan-stormed-capitol-bail-attempted-murder-rcna15169

    1. Hank Ferrous   3 years ago

      'Stormed.' Did he take out a machine gun nest, totally not left-leaning Jeff? Or, maybe just walk through the door?

      1. Sevo   3 years ago

        Lefty shits like Jeff think no one notices the loaded words and phrases.
        They're stupid.

      2. Nardz   3 years ago

        Did he run over 50 people, and kill multiple, or hold several at gunpoint?

    2. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

      So it's cool now to bring up unrelated crimes to excoriate and besmirch a person? Cool, so we can do this the next time a black person gets shot by police?

    3. Chuck P. (The Artist formerly known as CTSP)   3 years ago

      Just to clear up something for Jeffy the Shill and the folks over at NBC, anytime you have something, like a flag, in one hand and throw your other arm up in the air, it has the appearance of a 'Nazi salute'. You disingenuous shit-eaters.

    4. Cronut   3 years ago

      His defense is that he was being robbed when he shot the guy, you piece of shit. Tell the whole fucking story.

    5. Gaear Grimsrud   3 years ago

      Now do the FBI supervisor that entrapped the Whitmer guys who was arrested for brutality beating his wife.

  53. ElvisIsReal   3 years ago

    I'm on another list? Sweet!!

    1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

      Join the crowd. I remember when I was deployed stateside in 2003-2004 (despite volunteering for a combat assignment) the DoD had announced that they may be monitoring service members for possible Muslim extremism (this was after some Muslim fragged some fellow service members in Kuwait). I would call my mother or my wife from my phone in the barracks, there was always a slight delay and a click before the phone started ringing. I would joke with my mom and my wife that the FBI was monitoring our phone call, and then during the conversation I would throw random "trigger" words in, like bomb, gold, Israel, etc into the conversation. If they were recording, I sure hoped I pissed some FBI agents off. My mother used to get so upset, kept saying I was going to get in trouble. Never did.

      1. Sevo   3 years ago

        You should have whistled "Taps" and told your mom to 'name that tune'.

        1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

          Never been able to whistle properly 🙂

    2. Don't look at me!   3 years ago

      But are you on the most important list of all? Sarc’s enemy list?

      1. ElvisIsReal   3 years ago

        I was last time somebody posted the big long version. I dunno if he puts out an official list because he's just a grey box.

  54. Union of Concerned Socks   3 years ago

    "Holy underwear! Sheriff murdered! Innocent women and children blown to bits! We have to protect our phoney baloney jobs here, gentlemen! We must do something about this immediately! Immediately! Immediately! Harrumph! Harrumph! Harrumph!"

  55. chemjeff radical individualist   3 years ago

    Disgusting.

    https://twitter.com/elierlick/status/1490799028401020932

    1. Chuck P. (The Artist formerly known as CTSP)   3 years ago

      It really is. Paranoid conspiracy theories about bloggers trying to conduct interviews. Oh, the humanity!

    2. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

      Yes, it's only okay for leftist documentations to trick people and selectively edit their quotes for their agenda, how dare someone associated with Matt Welch (the literal devil) do so?

  56. chemjeff radical individualist   3 years ago

    Paranoia is a hell of a drug.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/us-capitol-police-rejects-gop-congressman-e2-80-99s-claim-that-check-of-his-open-office-is-illegal-investigation/ar-AATCPZW

    1. Don't look at me!   3 years ago

      Watergate.

    2. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

      It's so paranoid that the Capitol Police's own IG is now investigating.

    3. Cronut   3 years ago

      You mean the police agency that doesn't have to answer any questions from anyone because they're exempted from FOIA?

      Totally trustworthy.

      1. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

        Some days it's like fatjeff is trying to make Dems look bad.

    4. Chuck P. (The Artist formerly known as CTSP)   3 years ago

      “No case investigation was ever initiated or conducted into the representative or his staff,” Manger said in his statement Tuesday.

      This is where Jeffy gets the idea the Congressman is a paranoid wank.

      In a letter sent to Nehls on Jan. 31, Manger acknowledged that the officer had taken a photograph of the office Nov. 20 and also explained to Nehls that special agents in the Capitol Police’s Protective Services Bureau had received “a satisfactory explanation” for the writings on the whiteboard, and that the case was closed by USCP.

      So, in the last sentence of the article is an admission that an officer did indeed take pictures, there was a case opened, and they demanded clarification from a sitting Congressman of what was written on his whiteboard.

      All of the Congressman's allegations were validated in this article titled "U.S. Capitol Police rejects GOP congressman’s claim that check of his open office is illegal investigation"

      Thank you, Jeffy. You have posted enough garbage now to convince me beyond any shadow of a doubt that you will never make a honest argument on any subject. It's not just that you are stupid or ignorant of history, you reject objective truth. I don't even care to speculate on your goal. It is as irrelevant as the drivel you post.

      Sarcasmic, please come along and defend one of your true libertarians on this one. We know you and White Mike are similar gaslighters, please step up and prove it.

      1. chemjeff radical individualist   3 years ago

        CTSP you are purposefully misrepresenting the article.
        The claim that the congressman was making was that his office was under illegal surveillance. Also from the article:

        “I am requesting that House admin come in and sweep my office for bugs, and I believe we have to do that a little bit more than one should have to,” he said. “As a member of Congress, I should feel safe and secure.”

        So a Capitol police officer found his door open, took a picture to document it, closed and locked it, and then filed a report. From this, Nehls thinks that he's being spied upon illegally. THAT is the illegal surveillance that is being alleged by him, and THAT is what makes him a paranoid wanker.

        special agents in the Capitol Police’s Protective Services Bureau had received “a satisfactory explanation” for the writings on the whiteboard, and that the case was closed by USCP.

        The case of the open office door was closed, yes. The "case" of "LET'S SPY ON CONGRESSMAN NEHLS" was nonexistent.

        1. Chuck P. (The Artist formerly known as CTSP)   3 years ago

          Bullshit. There was a case opened over what was written on the Congressman's white board, there were pictures taken in the Congressman's office without his permission, and the Congressman was officially asked to provide an explanation.

          Those may very well be illegal acts on the part of the police. It is true, for example, that Congressmen cannot be arrested or detained by police. Yet the legality of the pictures and the questioning of a sitting Congressman is something the article doesn't address that at all.

          It doesn't take a conspiracy theory to suspect the article's author is full of shit.

        2. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

          You are making predictions before the Capitol Police's IG has conducted their investigation, which just started.

  57. Chumby   3 years ago

    The domestic extremists are the politicians with a (D) after their name.

    1. chemjeff radical individualist   3 years ago

      Don't forge the (R) ones too.

      1. Mother's Lament   3 years ago

        Yes, don't forge them, Jeff.

      2. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

        Here comes Jeffy with his boff sides attack whenever someone criticizes the left. Will Sarc be along soon also?

        1. Chumby   3 years ago

          CRT jeff always has to weigh in on things.

        2. Red Rocks White Privilege   3 years ago

          Don't forget, chemtard radical deathfat is the same guy who posted a link to The Root, which is the black version of the Daily Stormer, about how racist school textbooks supposedly used to be.

      3. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

        Freudian slips are sexy.

  58. Mother's Lament   3 years ago

    https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1491242631963508737

    "Benny
    @bennyjohnson
    After the “fuel ban” it is now illegal to bring gas cans to the Freedom Convoy Peaceful Protest
    — here is what the streets of Ottawa looked like tonight.
    God bless these people"

    1. Commenter_XY   3 years ago

      I have the same reaction....May God bless them.

      They are at least standing up to oppression. Can we Americans say the same?

    2. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

      The authorities are scared because they are realizing that all it takes is for people to stop listening to them and then they have no real power.

    3. I, Woodchipper   3 years ago

      I love how the Canadian authorities are this dumb.

      "These truckers won't move. I know! Let's confiscate their gasoline!"

      1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

        Yeah that never made any sense. It's like taking away driver's licenses and hunting and fishing licenses for anyone who falls behind on their child support. So, you can't drive to work now, or be able to acquire your own food, surely that will help you pay your child support.

  59. chemjeff radical individualist   3 years ago

    *forget

    1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

      Is this a post admitting you forget whenever the left does something overtly authoritarian?

    2. Dillinger   3 years ago

      I try but you keep showing up.

  60. Cronut   3 years ago

    "Revenge of the COVID Moms: They're mad about masks, and they're running for office."

    Yeah, that's a pretty belittling take. They're not "mad about masks." They're mad about what they call "criminally bad policies" as well as the fact that government institutions have no more credibility. They're mad about being under the arbitrary and capricious thumb of those institutions. And they're mad about being belittled by twats like ENB.

    1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

      Like Bill Maher, several of these moms interviewed were once leftist themselves, but now say they didn't leave the left, the left left them.

      1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

        BTW this is what political realignments look like and political realignments often occur when the previous alignments overreach.

      2. Union of Concerned Socks   3 years ago

        they didn't leave the left, the left left them.

        That's a good turn of phrase. I seem to remember a politician who used that turn of phrase some years back. Pretty effectively, too.

  61. Ken Shultz   3 years ago

    The progressives in Congress just got some very bad news. They've been pushing to kill the AT&T deal that would send WarnerMedia's CNN into a partnership with Discovery Media over antitrust concerns.

    Democrats in Congress are taking aim at the pending $43 billion merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery, pushing the Justice Department to scrutinize the transaction on antitrust grounds . . . .

    "The letter was spearheaded by U.S. House member Joaquin Castro of Texas, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, House member David Cicilline of Rhode Island, who is chair of the House Antitrust Subcommittee; and House member Pramila Jayapal of Washington, who is chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. It’s also signed by Sen. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico and more than two dozen other liberal House members, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman of New York, Barbara Lee, Ted Lieu, Zoe Lofgren and Juan Vargas of California, Al Green and Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.

    ----Variety, December 6, 2021

    I maintain that their primary concern of progressives was that if CNN was sold to a joint partnership headed by the CEO of Discovery, Discovery would start reorganizing CNN to be appealing to people across the political spectrum--rather than narrowly focused on projecting radical progressivism as if it were mainstream.

    Since then, CNN's rating have remained in the toilet, Cuomo is out, Chris Wallace has been brought in, and Zucker is out--all of which is to say that the Progressive Congressional Caucus' worst fears were probably well founded.

    Much to the chagrin of the progressives, however, both the FTC and the Justice Department's antitrust division failed to take action against the merger, and, as of today, the merger date is being accelerated to happen in Q2 of 2022 rather than Q3.

    Expect the dramatic transformation of CNN to continue at an accelerated pace.

    Market forces win again!

    1. Ken Shultz   3 years ago

      This time with the link:

      https://variety.com/2021/tv/global/democrats-justice-department-warnermedia-discovery-antitrust-1235126826/

    2. Ken Shultz   3 years ago

      "The Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice did not challenge the merger, according to an SEC filing from Discovery Wednesday morning.

      "The filing says “The HSR Act statutory waiting period has expired or otherwise been terminated, and any agreement not to consummate the transaction between the parties and the Federal Trade Commission or the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice or any other applicable governmental entity, has also expired or otherwise been terminated"

      https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/warnermedia-discovery-merger-gets-ftc-justice-dept-approval/?

      Progressives will be laid off. There will be so many divorces over this. So many progressive daughters having to settle for state college. And the alcoholism. Don't forget about the alcoholism. There's just not much of a market for progressive windbags on a cable news station insulated from ratings anymore. They'd probably be lucky to get a job as a local anchor covering pet adoption drives anymore--if they can't get a job working directly for the DNC.

      Conservatives should be celebrating. The progressives are losing a mouthpiece ahead of 2022 and 2024.

      1. Ken Shultz   3 years ago

        Resignations. I'm expecting a wave of resignations at CNN--in protest--over the changes that are coming. And after the staff at CNN resign in protest, who will watch the network anymore?

        I bet that's the way CNN staff really see the world. In reality, CNN's audience is so small, no one would notice if viewers went away. And the number of cable subscribers paying carriage fees to insulate CNN from ratings concerns fall every month lower and lower and lower . . . Watching progressives realize they've been selling buggy whips to no one for years and years is gonna be fun to watch. Everything they believe about their place in the world is a lie.

        1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

          Oh, I am sure there'll be some divorces also.

          1. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

            Mr. Zucker and Ms. Gollust both are eligible now...

        2. Union of Concerned Socks   3 years ago

          Live by the cable, die by the cable.

          1. Ken Shultz   3 years ago

            They were so inept, they still haven't launched a CNN+ streaming app.

            How long as Fox Nation been available for cord cutters on Roku? Has it been four years?

            CNN didn't care about cord cutters. Chris Wallace was hired by the CNN to work on their CNN+ app, which is only happening at all because of the Discovery merger. I suspect all of this is being orchestrated by the CEO of Discovery. He's the reason Chris Wallace is at CNN. Zucker knew about Cuomo for a long time and did nothing. I suspect the CEO of Discovery forced his hand. Now that Cuomo is gone, Zucker is out. Zucker would have been working under the CEO of Discovery if they'd kept him around.

            You see the rationalizations about inappropriate relationships, but that's just an excuse. You can't be the CEO of a major news network and survive the terrible ratings CNN has. If he were playing first base for the Yankees and he was batting .150, you wouldn't need to justify benching him. Because of the progressive environment, they needed to find a woke reason for the press--but he was batting .150. Cuomo's ratings, likewise, completely sucked. They wouldn't be looking to get rid of him if his ratings were great.

    3. Illocust   3 years ago

      Even with rationalization glasses on. How can spinning off past if your business be a monopoly action?

      1. Ken Shultz   3 years ago

        AT&T buying WarnerMedia was one of the worst acquisitions in modern American history. They thought they were buying content for their 5G network, that giving people CNN for free with their data plan would prompt more people to subscribe to AT&T rather than their competitors. They weren't really concerned about ratings for that reason.

        Meanwhile, the reason they're spinning it off to a joint venture is because they couldn't sell it for more to someone else. It's an equity losing enterprise with terrible ratings. Up top, they say it's a $43 billion merger? AT&T paid $100 billion for WarnerMedia (parent of CNN) just a few years ago. The streaming revolution devastated that collection of cable channels--and they didn't make up for it with high ratings. Their ratings have plummeted.

        CNN lost 90% of its viewers over the last year.

        So, to your point, I think it's unlikely that the FTC or the Justice Department's antitrust division would prevail in court to prevent the merger under those conditions. AT&T isn't doing this because they're trying to extract massive profits. They're selling WarnerMedia at like a $57 billion loss!

        The Justice Department and the FTC have bigger fish to fry with the antitrust actions against Facebook and Google. I'm reading this as them concluding that opposing the sale of WarnerMedia to a joint venture with Discovery is just a waste of time. They don't have a leg to stand on in court.

        1. Union of Concerned Socks   3 years ago

          AT&T buying WarnerMedia was one of the worst acquisitions in modern American history.

          Among the others: Time & Warner, AOL & TimeWarner....
          This time, though, it's different.

          1. Ken Shultz   3 years ago

            Yeah, that was probably #1.

            That was a terrible deal.

            Bayer's acquisition of Monsanto in spite of all those RoundUp claims was a bad one, too.

            https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-bayer-monsanto-became-one-of-the-worst-corporate-dealsin-12-charts-11567001577

            There's that time Lehman Brothers and BearStearns bought the outstanding subprime loans of New Century out of bankruptcy court for pennies on the dollar (with tons of leverage), but that wasn't a corporate acquisition as much as it was just a bad investment.

    4. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

      More Democrats and self styled liberals watch Tucker Carlson than his CNN or MSNBC competitors in the all important 25-47 demo

      1. Ken Shultz   3 years ago

        Do you have a link for that?

        I suspected that was the case in comments yesterday based on the fact that Fox News has four times as many viewers as CNN.

        If 25% of Tucker watchers are Democrats, he's breaking even with them.

        1. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

          Tucker Carlson has an interview with Dr. Robery Malone tonight. More Dems watch him than Rachel Madcow.

          https://www.mediaite.com/tv/who-is-the-most-watched-host-in-all-of-cable-news-for-young-democrats-tucker-carlson/

          1. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

            Sadly, Dr. Malone will not have his Covid ties on.

        2. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

          39%.

        3. ElvisIsReal   3 years ago

          Taibbi and Greenwald talked about this. Greenwald was 'giddy' with the news. "See, to reach Democrats I HAVE to go on Tucker."

    5. Mike Laursen   3 years ago

      Doesn’t this undermine your narrative of the power of progressives over media?

      1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

        Unmuted you to read this pile of illogic. Bad ratings don't at all demonstrate that the narrative of progressives control the media. It does demonstrate that their control doesn't necessarily equal success.

      2. Salted Nuts   3 years ago

        Do you ever learn anything when you come to post shit here?

        No. You just flail and dig in deeper.

        So, what on earth makes you believe that another average CNN viewer like yourself would react differently to Fox, of all things?

  62. Agammamon   3 years ago

    DHS has to - or else people might ask hard questions about their necessity or, worse, their budget management.

  63. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   3 years ago

    DHS Keeps Crying Wolf About Domestic Extremists

    Are they? We had a deadly... and I say again deadly attack on the capitol which was worse than 9/11. People died. Politicians were hiding while rampaging terrorists were hunting for them. The horror of that cannot be understated. I wouldn't call that crying wolf.

  64. Dillinger   3 years ago

    >>>Cities are getting on board with City Coins.

    Disney Dollars for all!

    1. Chumby   3 years ago

      Gadgets tokens

  65. Mike Laursen   3 years ago

    The group City Coins is asking Miami and New York to accept the equivalent of millions of dollars in a new cryptocurrency, and at least some of the money is real: Last week, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez announced that City Coins had transferred $5.25 million to the city.

    The dizzying proposal has leaders in other cities, like Philadelphia and Dearborn, Michigan, clamoring to get in on a deal they hope might patch budgets, similar to how some cities and states had hoped lotteries or legalized gambling would be a solution to financial problems.

    Just substitute "tulips" for "cryptocurrency" in that first sentence.

  66. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/states-one-step-closer-in-uphill-unconventional-approach-to-amend-constitution-limit-federal-govt-power
    Halfway to holding a constitutional convention, with the number of states needed currently working in legislation to hold one. Proposed amendments would require fiscal responsibility, limit federal government powers and implement term limits for Congress.

    1. ElvisIsReal   3 years ago

      Half of me is terrified what these idiots would come up with.

      1. soldiermedic76   3 years ago

        It's state legislatures, so it's better than the feds.

  67. JeremyR   3 years ago

    If the DHS really cared about domestic terrorists, they'd be investigating the FBI

  68. Hank Phillips   3 years ago

    Every Christian National Socialist attack on Roe v Wade is also an attack on the LP platform. That platform was libertarian back before fascist infiltration ramped up: “We further support the repeal of all laws restricting voluntary birth control or voluntary termination of pregnancies during their first hundred days.” --That's what the Supreme Court copied into its de-clawing of laws written to bully women into involuntary servitude.

  69. jagjr   3 years ago

    "acting in furtherance of ideological beliefs and/or personal grievances"

    that's not terrorism. that's garden-variety psycho criminal behaviour.

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