Well talk about a crazy sports weekend. The Patriots lost (hooray!) to the Ravens (booooo!). The Steelers won and should be commended for hanging in there this year. The Texans smoked the Jags in London. The Bills topped the hapless Redskins. The Chefs beat the Vikings in a hell of a fun game. The Jets are a fucking joke after losing to the Dolphins. The Iggles topped the Bears. Carolina righted the ship against Tennessee. The Raiders beat the Lions and continue to be an enigma. The Seahawks had to go to overtime to beat the Bucks. The Browns shit the bed again against the Broncos. And the Chargers packed in the Packers’ fudge.
WORLD CHAMPIONS!
On the college front, there wasn’t much action at the top of the rankings. Florida State fired Willie Taggert after failing miserably for a year and a half. USC is about to do the same to Clay Helton (and rumor has it they’re eying Urban Meyer), Notre Dame was on the brink of thinking about it until the last minute of their game, and TTUN hasn’t reached the decision stage for their coach…that happens right after Thanksgiving.
Oh yeah, and if you’re a rugby fan, you missed the Springboks absolutely laying the wood to England in the World Cup final. I woke up at 4 to watch what I thought would be a crapshoot at best and was pleasantly surprised at the victory.
Mapplethorpe showing good trigger discipline.
Will Rogers was born on this day. As were newsman Walter Cronkite, actor Art Carney, actress Doris Roberts, controversial photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, First Lady Laura Bush, stunning and brave comedienne Kathy Griffin, Karate Kid Ralph Macchio, and Lincoln pitchman Matthew McCounaghey.
OK, that brings us to…the links!
Property taxes mean you never really own your property. What makes it even worse is once you’re behind, they all but make it impossible for you to catch back up. “Minnesota nice” apparently doesn’t extend to government.functionaries.
“That’s some quality care.”
-nobody
I’m sure proponents of a nationalized health care plan will wave this off. Or they’ll consider it a feature not a bug. Either way, it won’t deter them from trying to impose this hellish system on us.
If geese are hate birds (the birds that hate), then Australian raptors have decided to one-up them.I don’t know what to think about this, other than “man, is there any species on that island that isn’t fucked up?”
Obituary writers everywhere sharpen their pencils to describe the life of Ronan Farrow ahead of his impending suicide. He had a good run, but the strain got to be too much for him as he plans to shoot himself in the back of the head twice.
“Oh well, if you didn’t want to end up in jail you shouldn’t have been drinking at all. Legal limits are just a guideline anyway.” Or something like that. Either way, this shouldn’t come as a shock to anybody.
Unaffiliated with the story but so delicious it still deserves a mention.
Don’t shit where you eat. And that’s true even when the McRib (which is undoubtedly the fast food served in heaven) is on the menu. Seriously, why can’t these people ever learn? Even if its consensual, nothing good can come from it. Nothing at all.
Don’t ask why I chose this, just enjoy it.
That’s it, folks. Sun’s up early, there’s reason for hope. Have a great start to the week.
Poo poo pee pee
If that’s not worth a “first” gif, I don’t know what is.
I think the number two gif should come before the number one gif
I aim to please.
Another scalp for the lodgepole.
Even if its consensual, nothing good can come from it. Nothing at all.
Lighten up, Francis.
If it’s consensual with an adult, why is there only a picture of the guy in that article?
I don’t think it’s a crime or anything, but I get the policy. It’s good advice, anyway. Shit gets awkward fast when you date co-workers, especially if there’s a chain of authority involved.
Now, what does it have to do with Fight for 15? You got me there.
They “filed dozens of sexual harassment charges against the company”.
Hey, those coffers don’t fill themselves.
My opinion of the Fight for 15 people is already pretty low, but piling on to whatever the hell this is in a cynical attempt to cash in just makes it drop even further. It definitely tells you just how committed they are to this minimum wage bit, that’s for sure.
Cal won this weekend by not playing.
“man, is there any species on that island that isn’t fucked up?”
Especially their plants. There are 3 trees just outside my property line that are unkillable. I looked into a “midnight raid”, and it’s impossible.
Are they Aussie imports? Man, your neighbors are dicks.
Melaleuca quinquenervia, also known as the paperbark tree. They’re ugly, they’re dirty, they’re a fire hazard, they’re invasive, and they’re nearly impossible to kill.
They shed oily tree dandruff all over the place. I have to power wash my skylights and solar panels quite often.
If you want a shot at killing them, you have to gird the entire tree tree trunk to a width of 3 feet or more, and then apply a herbicide. If I do that in the middle of the night, it will be….. quite obvious.
Can’t you pour a gallon of concentrated total vegetation killer on it and then put rock salt down before it rains? That worked for me with bamboo the previous owners inexplicably planted around our pool.
Nope. I tried. It killed everything but the trees.
It’s an invasive species in Florida, and they have an eradication program. If there were an easier way, I’d know about it.
If you cut it down and wood chip it, it will grow back. You have to murder it all the way down to the roots.
That’s messed up. But it brings me back to the adage:
It’s better to ask forgiveness than permission.
I am familiar with these trees. Cleared many from my grandads property, rest his soul. If you cut on them they go into shock and shoot seeds from those little pods that look like hornets nests in all direction. Come next year you’ll have a field of saplings.
Have you considered importing one of those Australian fire kites?
Unfortunately, that would burn my house down and result in even more of those trees.
I live in SoFL. Melaleucas are like hydras–every time you chop one down, two more grow in its place. Fire causes the seed pods to erupt, spreading the seeds faster. If you have a row of them along your property line, they will effectively make a wall. A wall with long, rock-hard roots that cannot die.
Once a tree guy tried to assure me that if he cut them down to the stump, they wouldn’t grow back. That’s how I knew he wasn’t from around here.
“Don’t shit where you eat”.
Pretty common. A store owner friend once told me, “If you have two equally qualified female candidates, hire the one with the biggest tits,’cause you’re gonna be with her all day long”.
#fakenews
Chick Fil A is the fast food served in Heaven.
Only because there aren’t enough McRibs to go around.
^^This is wisdom.^^
I may disagree with you….but every guy in the building trades around here is nodding along with your sentiment.
I always felt bad for the McD’s in Memphis when the McRib days would hit.
I always think that the phone calls to Corp HQ were something like “Hey, can we push something else? I mean, our city is full of shops that sell good BBQ. We can’t compete with that. Why try? This McRib probably does great in places that don’t know what BBQ is (like Kansas City), but here? We’ll lose our shirts.”
Well played KC jab.
*drops gloves, circles His Holiness*
Is that supposed to scare me? Looks more like this to me
That shade of green looks lovely on you.
Australian raptors have decided to one-up them.I don’t know what to think about this, other than “man, is there any species on that island that isn’t fucked up?”
I’m calling bullshit on this. I wait for this to be continuously observed.
That headline is a bit misleading.
yeah. i read through it again. They didn’t even observe the behavior, just collected witness accounts.
I’m willing to trust eyewitnesses more than researchers at this point on a lot of things.
Ah, but it’s the researchers deciding which witness reports are credible.
The family wanted to pay the taxes, get the home back, get help fixing it up. But …that couldn’t happen until it was already fixed.
“You’d receive it back on contract for deed, and that contract has stipulations in it (getting it fixed), and you wouldn’t be able to meet those stipulations without the loan, and you can’t get the loan as long as it’s under contract,” Moremond said. “And so you’re in a Catch-22 situation.”
What began as a $1,541 unpaid property tax bill in mid-2018 had blossomed — in just more than a year — to Pettiford’s house being seized. Which — when he and his family tried to pay the taxes and repurchase it — prompted a damning city inspection. Which prompted his eviction.
Who cares, as long as we can parade our moral superiority over grown adults employed by the same corporation who engage in consensual personal relationships.
Your quote seems a bit disconnected from your reasoning for not caring.
Taxes are the price we pay to pretend we can morally sieze your property.
“Fuck you, pay me.”
-Minnesooooooda property taxes collectors
You’d think that the SJWs would take notice of this and Do Something! But somehow they only notice when it’s Wells Fargo foreclosing on a house for non-payment of the mortgage. Government can do no wrong.
RE: Breathalyzers.
“People are wrongfully convicted based on dubious evidence.”
Major feature, not bug.
Most people, including lawyers, don’t even know about California case law regarding partition ratios. It’s 100% rigged in favor of the prosecution, and almost always guarantees a guilty plea.
::fapfapfapfapfapfapfapfap::
/Kamala Harris
dancingdrumline.gif
Never take a breathalyzer or a polygraph.
Refusing an FST in CA results in an “administrative suspension” of your license and results in a de facto DUI conviction.
In Ohio, you get an auto 6 months suspension but not an automatic conviction. You can get work driving privileges though, and I believe it’s possible to get it shortened or dropped. Every news story where a judge, lawyer, or cop gets pulled over, the refuse the breathilizer. That should tell you everything you need to know in Ohio.
In Colorado, you can refuse testing pre-arrest with not consequences; however, refusing gives them probable cause to arrest you and if you refuse after you’re arrested, you’re fucked:
– 1 year mandatory license suspension with no appeal
– Designation as “persistent drunk driver” even if it’s your first arrest
– Ignition interlock for one year after you get your license back
– SR-22 insurance even if you are found not guilty
So what you’re saying is, Due process died a long time ago.
…aaaaaand the kicker is that our retarded legislature shot down limitations on civil asset forfeiture so the cherry on top is your car will probably be stolen by them too.
Yeah. It’s a horrible infringement of individuals rights. But because Courts can’t read the 9th amendment, the only rights you have are the ones expressly written in the constitution. That “Drivers license are privileges” pisses me off so damn much. No they aren’t they are something that people should be able to get, without undue threat of having that right deprived of them.
Can you insist on a blood test?
Depends on the state. Look up your state’s policies and make them your friend.
You have your choice of blood or urine if you decline breath.
Smart people know which one to choose based on when they’ve had their last drink. Blood gives you 30 minutes to an hour of extra time, depending on how busy the facility is.
Unfortunately, implied consent laws have all but removed the first as an option.
I think we need implied consent laws when it comes to dating and sex; you agree to go to coffee, implied consent for oral. Dinner = PIV. A night on the town = threeway with her hottest friend.
Slow down there, Katie Hill.
No choice in Romania really. If you refuse the cops can take you to the hospital for mandatory blood test.
I think you can refuse though but are considered automatically guilty, you get your license suspended for 3 to 6 months and a huge fine.
If you fail a breath test you can voluntarily ask for a blood test if you think it is wrong.
Or you can sue the cops in the chance that the breathalyzer is not up to all the rules and regs, which is likely. Either way refusing is probably a bad strategy if you want to keep your license. It is better to blow (no jokes) and challenge them on the breathalyzer paperwork.
Did the female employee also have to step down?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
…
No.
No, because patriarchy.
Way to assume it was a female, shitlord! (I didn’t read the story, so maybe it was mentioned?)
But it would be interesting to see how it would shake out if he was messing around with a male employee. Would it still be assumed that the power imbalance made it impossible for the underling to say no?
USC is about to do the same to Clay Helton (and rumor has it they’re eying Urban Meyer)
Damn Skippy. Tough crowd. USC isn’t doing Terribly this year, just because they aren’t on “Top”. Not every year can be a winning year.
Yes it can. They’re USfuckingC. There is no excuse for anything worse than an 8-4 “rebuild” year.
There are a few programs this holds true for. USC is definitely one of them.
Huh. I’ve never had such a High Opinion of their program. It’s not like they are Oregon.
This is quality satire.
A+
The last Decade of PAC 12 play indicates that Oregon is the better program. USC is good, but it is not nearly the strongest in the conference and is debatable that it is even dominant in the PAC 12 South. They are certainly one of the few Heavy Hitters, but (aside from maybe the Ducks) the PAC 12 does not have a “Power Team” that every one is required to suck their dick because they think they are that good. It makes for a much more fun and interesting College Football conference.
I’m talking on a much longer timeline. USC should never be that “down” even if a Johnny-come-lately program has an extended run at the top of the conference. Same applies to FSU, Oklahoma, Ohio State, TTUN (although they’ve bucked the trend same as USC) and Bama (ditto the 90s for them).
I see. Perhaps they are having a bad 5 years.
They did make the Cotton Bowl a couple years ago but OSU boat-raced them. Otherwise, they’ve been mediocre at best.
When you cheat, bribe and look the other way that hard…you had best come up in the Top 10!
Examples? Last time they were in trouble an agent was paying off a player’s parents.
When your defense is “last time they were in trouble”, you’re doing it wrong.
I can’t think of a time before that, and I was there in the 90s. The idea that a school should be monitoring and held accountable the finances of an athlete’s parents offended my libertarian sensibilities. The idea that the University of Miami AD was responsible for the punishments was laughable.
If your college is a top 25 program they are cheating. period.
In a way, it’s not really fair. They lost 2 quarterbacks in the first 2 weeks. Last week they had wide receivers playing tailback because ALL of their running backs are hurt. And they were winning until the one starting saftey not injured got ejected on a questionable targeting call. But nobody cares.
Championships can be won with third string quarterbacks.
So can 9 games in a soft division of a decent conference.
I remember the name Urban Meyer from this apparently “cold take”
Do you agree with Nebraska AD Bill Moos, when he says that Urban Meyer and Jim Harbaugh are “running scared” of Scott Frost?
I only believe half of that statement.
Urban Meyer quit Ohio State because the school administration sided with some SJW lunatics and messed with his coaching staff and reprimanded him for not doing err…something.
USC has screwed up their coaching ever since Pete Carroll left. Why they let Ed Orgeron go is a mystery I’ll never understand. Urban Meyer in charge of that recruiting machine would be fun to watch.
Don’t shit where you eat. And that’s true even when the McRib (which is undoubtedly the fast food served in heaven) is on the menu. Seriously, why can’t these people ever learn? Even if its consensual, nothing good can come from it. Nothing at all.
Probably not in Hindu Heaven.
Your assuming there is beef in that there McRib.
I thought it was made of mealworms.
I assumed it was woman.
No no, it was Adam’s rib, not Eve’s.
That’s the food you get in Hindu Heaven. Sacred on Earth, Lunch in the afterlife …
Earlier this year, the county revamped the departments that work at the tax counter: Staff who work for the recorder, the assessors and tax services are being trained on what those other departments do.
It’s akin to the county’s “transforming systems together” initiative, which it’s proposing to shift millions of dollars into over the next couple years, including the creation of a new director-level position.
We just need more administrators. And team building getaways. And lots more money.
Look, I couldn’t get through a single day without the guidance of a Director. Truth and Smarts just shoot out their asses and enlighten us all.
Of all her songs that’s the one you go with?
There’s four more days this week.
Minnesota nice.
Government officials rail at predatory interest rates charged by companies but have you seen what government charges as interest? I remember getting a letter from Rev. Que explaining if I don’t pay their extortion fees (heh) 19% interest would apply.
19% DPR?
The sun’s up at the correct time, finally. Stupid DST.
I don’t care which one, but just pick one and leave it. This switching back and forth interrupts my sleep schedule.
Set it at summer and forget it.
Don’t ask?
What are you? A progressive?
Explain. Hit us with your best shot.
Today in local news: a man in rural Romania poisoned the village well in the attempt to kill his ex wife.
Was he a Freemason?
/foil hat
From the wording, I’m guessing it didn’t work.
Nope the water had a fowl smell apparently
He poisoned it with dead chickens?
And apparently he didn’t give a cluck how many other innocent people he took down with her.
He went with the cheep stuff to save a bok
*ducks and covers*
He had to, he was under a geese.
“Either way, it won’t deter them from trying to impose this hellish system on us.”
One of many things that will be imposed on us, regardless of what we want. It was a nice run while it lasted.
Florida State fired Willie Taggert – this was one of the confusing things from my morning browse of @oldTakesExposed. College football things usually are.
It shouldn’t be confusing. College coaches are on a slower hook than soccer managers.
The midseason fire is semi-rare in college football. Probably due to lack of relegation threat.
Even county officials now say that what happened to Wesely Pettiford shouldn’t happen again.
So you’ll be eliminating the property tax as it is an affront to property rights, right? Right?!
Don’t shit where you eat. And that’s true even when the McRib (which is undoubtedly the fast food served in heaven) is on the menu. Seriously, why can’t these people ever learn? Even if its consensual, nothing good can come from it. Nothing at all.
Is this where everyone flips? All the people upset about Katie Hill now say this guy should be let go, and all the folk calling for Katie Hill to resign say he should be kept?
For the record, I have no problem with his resignation or the company policy. He knew the deal when he got the job. It’s a double standard that the woman didn’t resign, too, but that’s another issue. I don’t think he did anything illegal certainly, but that’s also not the issue.
Well, she was a government official with great power over our lives, and a barely functional alcoholic. Also, her resignation was almost certainly political – if she represented a safe district she’d still be with us.
But otherwise, totally comparable situations.
I just think it’s funny that this situation happens so much. Often you will get two situations where very similar “incidents” occur, and people are on opposite sides of each issue without articulating why.
As for me, i know that it might seem “prudish” or “normie” but a manager banging a subordinate is wildly unprofessional from a managerial aspect. I think the Board is well within their rights to ask a CEO to step down if he is caught in a scandalous affair with subordinate employee. It opens the Company to a very risky prospect that if the relationship sours there is going to be some costly payout to the subordinate, and bad press, Thinks that cost the board and stockholders. From a professional standpoint, i find it highly dubious to the point of laughable that you think you could fairly be a manager over people, when you are romantically involved with one of them.
Non-governmental company, it’s up to them. If they set the rules and he broke them, bye.
Otherwise, I really don’t care,
Now how they treated Ken Fisher over a stupid analogy is a damned travesty.
Remember when Trent Lott tried to say something nice to a
dessicated huskold man at his 100th birthday and had to resign for it?Playa:
Last night you mentioned RAD140 as a SARM and legal alternative to steroids.
Have you used it? Did you get good results? Do you have to cycle it? Notice any side effects?
I received shipment, but have not started. I’m getting some bloodwork done first, including a full liver panel. I’m overly cautious.
The guy I work out with did 10 mg 2x day for 8 weeks, and he put on about 15 lbs of muscle. He’s in his 50s. The difference was quite obvious.
Why are you trying to cheat? Get your mass the honest way
Cheating is relative.
I could quit going to the gym at all and just lift heavy rocks with no equipment. I could eat only what I can forage and/or hunt. That would be the most honest method of all.
Cheating is relative. – Marriage may not suit you
Is Playa in some sort of sport activity in which he has agreed not to use steroids (or precursors)? Because if not, he’s not cheating.
Today in local news: a man in rural Romania poisoned the village well in the attempt to kill his ex wife.
His methods are… unsound.
Where there’s a Well, there’s a way.
Swiss will be along to dowse this thread.
You’re just artesian Swiss.
I don’t see any method at all, sir.
I need a trained air force of arson birds.
For an Afghan wedding?
Their celebratory anti-air fire would make it a fair fight.
Or a Royal Wedding. Makes no difference to me.
Afghan Royals?
British of course.
Socialist Party of Moldova won elections as mayor of Chisinau, which was supposed to be more pro-western being the capital and a large city. The socialists are pro-Russian. Some Romanians still say Republic of Moldova should reunite with Romania, but it think it is much more trouble than it’s worth.
Got pulled over this weekend for going 90 in a 65 (75?) (rural Highway).
Cop: Hi how are you?
Me: Good how are you?
Cop: Good. i Clocked you going 90.
Me: 90? Gee i’m sorry.
Cop: Do you know how fast you were going?
Me: You just said i was going 90.
Cop: Yeah, but do you know how fast you were going?
Me: Nah, i wasn’t really tracking, didn’t realize, sorry.
Cop: :SIGH: can i get your license and registration?
I did end up using my “Get out of Speeding Ticket Free” card, so only got a warning thankfully. But made me laugh. I aint a fool, i aint gonna tell you how fast i was going, even if i did know.
Yeah, I always tell them that I had no idea how fast I was going.
“Do you know why I pulled you over?
“Drugs in my butt?”
Way to get cavity searched, bro.
“Saw my car in your driveway while you’re at work?”
I got a written warning a few years ago for 51 in a 50. Going down a hill.
The statie was going uphill, saw me, lights on and he did a fucking handbrake turn to get behind me. I thought I had the same car as some serial killer or something.
“Do you know how fast you were going?”
“No.”
“Wrong answer.”
Seriously that’s how the conversation went.
There was construction down the road, and a detour he then claimed I was coming in too hot for. I live there, and have known about it for the entire time I told him. Apparently looking at my ID he didn’t look at the address.
“Well you should have gone slower”
I didn’t say “then change the speed limit up here, dumbass”
I got pulled over in Wichita for doing 50 mph in a 55. Officer thought it was too fast for the conditions. It was snowing. the road was nearly empty, I had brand new tires, and I learned how to drive on snow in Minnesota. I talked him out of it.
I wanted to ask him how fast he was going to catch up to me but, for once, I was able to bite my tongue.
+1 motorcycle cop handing out seatbelt tickets
Motorcycle cops… one of the biggest lies of officer safety. If that was really paramount, they wouldn’t be using bikes and definitely not in the rain. But it’s really about being able to get paid to ride.
A cop got shot and killed several years ago by a mentally disturbed woman. Covered up in the cop fellating including a long meandering funeral procession (really, a show of force) that shut down traffic, was why was he riding his department bike home and making traffic stops far outside of his jurisdiction and after hours? Or doing high risk traffic stop with a bike that provides zero cover when being shot at?
McDonald’s CEO pushed out after relationship with employee
I saw nothing on the nature of the relationship and who it was with.
I thought i saw that he was for sure boinking her (him?), and she (he?) was a subordinate. But it was only a headline.
Isn’t it tradition for the McD’s CEO to be boinking an employee?
The Patriots lost (hooray!) to the Ravens (booooo!).
No booing the Ravens. *climbs into OMWC’s van*
The Ravens represent all that is fine and good in this world.
And holy shit, Jackson is fun to watch.
It was a hefty price to pay (11 years of Flacco + those before him) but I will gladly watch Jackson for the next few years.
All that is fine and good
https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/nfl-star-charged-2-slays-supe-night-article-1.870915
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2563240/Shocking-video-footage-shows-Baltimore-Ravens-running-Ray-Rice-drag-girlfriend-Atlantic-City-casino-elevator-legs.html
“Could Bill Clinton, if he had done what he did in 1998 survived today? Or would his own party have thrown him under the bus?”
Democrats don’t police their own.
+1 Governor Coonman
Steve Bannon lays things out in an interview.
Good morning, Sloopy and good morning to the rest of Glibertopia!
The Pioneer Press web site is perhaps the most fucked up piece of shit I’ve ever used. But I persevered and read the whole story. It really has a little of everything: property taxes, homesteading designations (designed to fight problem landlords, naturally) code enforcement, an uncaring bureaucracy and vilification of flippers. Whew!
It’s nice that his family is trying to keep him in a condemned house and all, but why not, you know, take him in. And why the fuck is the county paying for hotel stays?
Anyway, thanks for selecting Pat this morning. She has some terrific pipes.
I hope all y’all have a marvelous Monday!
Think of all the dead people that must be carted out of that neighborhood every week. If 50% of the houses are that out of code, surely people are being killed every day there. Or are you telling me that housing codes are random arbitrary things that are mostly based on what irks busy body neighbors?
Some of those code things are the result of do-gooders, for example screen door requirements which may have made sense (though still not the government’s business) before air conditioning. Others, such as broken windows are government gotchas.
We wanted to remodeled the upstairs bathroom a few years ago. According to city code, anytime you tear into a wall you need to change out the 1/2″ diameter water supplies to 3/4″ diameter.
That would have doubled the cost and time to do the remodel.
The code is a good way to keep “others” out. Can not build a starter house without plumbing, water, electricity, sewage. The result is that a lot of young people are unable to ‘homestead’ on land that they are given by a family member.
To turn the first shovelful of sand over one needs a minimum of 20K. That’s a lot of money for youngsters that want to live in a mobile home temporarily and upgrade as their situations improve.
Yeah, lots of head scratches there. Its too bad the internet has destroyed the legacy media and the reporter is physically incapable of asking the family when she spoke with them any of those questions.
I realize I don’t really know a character when they’re the only one left for the narrator to talk to and I’m sure what they’d say.
Cue awkward silence.
“Wanna fud?”
Hey UCS,
Is this the week that you are taking off from work to force yourself to write?
yes
I saw nothing on the nature of the relationship and who it was with.
Unless their relationship can be clearly shown to have an adverse effect on the business and shareholder value (like promoting an egregiously unqualified person to a major managerial position, which likely still would be defensible as a “business decision”) I don’t think it’s anybody’s goddam business but theirs.
In case you can’t tell, I am seriously over the hysterical and vindictive sex prudery which has infected American life. I see no reason why Katie Hill should have been forced to resign. Let the voters decide.
MUH POWURR IMBALUNS
Well Hill’s car was different in that she actually did violate a law. The House passed a law making it illegal for reps to bang staffers.
*case
Ugh… Phone…
My understanding is that there was no penetration, so technically, she’s innocent.
So it only applies to men?
That is why Omar is banging a consultant. He’s totes fair game.
Isn’t she facing an ethics inquiry for that and how she paid him? As well as paying herself a salary after the election?
It is hard to keep up with her. I know the state legislature convicted her of a lot of unethical shit when she was a state legislator. (She took “speaking fees” from colleges while she was on the committee that regulated colleges, she used campaign funds to pay for her divorce and other fun stuff like that).
I’m not aware of any Fed level shit yet. Of course, living here, we will be the last to hear of any of that. The local paper is still carrying water for her. Even after she called them a bunch of racists for mentioning some of her problems.
I expect there’s some variation of prosecutorial discretion going on there. Can’t have a member of “The Squad” getting dragged through an investigation over something as tawdry as shacking up with a chubby white guy.
-1 MerryMount
Prohibition showed bans can be good for us
David Aaronovitch
Outlawing alcohol 100 years ago led to a boom in bootlegging but it also had a striking effect on public health
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/lesson-of-the-prohibition-era-is-that-it-lengthened-lives-5636gpdcs
Confounding variables just off the top of my head (maybe they get addressed, I can’t tell because it’s paywalled):
1. WWI and WWII saw rapid advances in medicine, WWI being the first war where more combatants died in combat than of disease
2. Prohibition wasn’t actually that effective at keeping alcohol out of peoples’ hands, it just created a very lucrative black market
3. Life expectancy rose sharply in many places from 1920 to 1940 regardless of whether they prohibited alcohol sales or not
i think the claim in the article is specific deaths from cirrhosis dropped.
This sounds like the “gun death” nonsense redux.
Also does not count the injuries and deaths caused by prohibition.
Look up ‘jake leg’ and weep.
2. Prohibition wasn’t actually that effective at keeping alcohol out of peoples’ hands, it just created a very lucrative black market
FYI, both things are true. It was effective at keeping alcohol out of peoples’ hands and also did create a very lucrative black market. The black market was lucrative precisely because the supply of alcohol was limited (i.e. kept out of peoples’ hands). There was a large depressive effect on alcohol consumption in the US due to prohibition, such that per person consumption did not return to pre-prohibition levels for decades.
I wonder how reliable the alcohol consumption numbers are, though, especially those dealing with the period where it was illegal.
In the first recorded instance of fire being used by animals other than humans, three Australian birds of prey species have been seen carrying burning twigs to set new blazes. John Pickrell reports.
That’s quite the hot-take.
Mammary Monday is crushin’ it as usual!
https://tinyurl.com/yyqfpvsn
Archive is f-ed up again…
I know #10 is there for an ad, but I’m just sayin’ I wouldn’t need the Green Lumber if she was the one droppin’ it off.
NHS waiting list hits another record high: 4.4million people are now waiting for routine operations as the figure is the worst ever for a third month in a row
Something something government healthcare something something rationing.
Minnesode entrepreneur gets shut down by Giant Corporation.
*Full disclosure. I hate fucking Krispy Kreme. Not because of the way they taste but because one of the first stores opened up near my house and it became my responsibility to stop by and pick up donuts for clients. (I was working for a startup and our clients thought it was totes cool to chomp into Krispy Kreme donuts).
God that was a fucking nightmare. Remember how the cops had to direct traffic because the place was so busy?
And then it died because KK donuts are shit.
KK donuts are great, but they are about volume, or magically seeing the hot donuts now sign on the way home from the bars.
They stopped giving away free donuts when the hot sign is lit. There’s one around the corner from my house, but it’s just sad compared to all of the local bakeries that are in the area.
See my chili comment below. Yes, a local bakery should kick KK’s butt.
Southern Maid buttermilk are best donuts. It is known.
Not only were they underwhelming, but they tried expanding here just when the no-carb, paleo diets were getting huge.
Ugh. Krispy Kreme doghnuts have a one hour window of time when they’re good. Then they rapidly become terrible. There’s no way his customers got quality product with that road trip.
They’re just sugar. Warm sugar and then after an hour cold sugar.
Do we not all own a microwave?
KK has been around whole life. They were one of the standard youth group fundraisers, selling dozens thru the week to be delivered early Saturday morning.
The boom and bust was weird to me.
They expanded too rapidly at a time when the Atkins craze and such was going on.
So companies like Door Dash, Grub Hub, etc are illegal in MN?
I think crossing state lines with contraband!!! is the issue.
I can’t figure out the legal basis for Krispy Kreme’s demand that he stop transporting their donuts across state lines for resale, myself.
I think they are covering their ass. If they know he is buying their product in bulk and then reselling it they have arguably tacitly approved him as a distributor, and could have liability if he improperly handles, stores, or alters the products. I suspect they don’t even care if he complies, and sent the letter purely to have something in the file in case some lawsuit comes along later.
See we aren’t liable for the 500 cases of e coli because his car wasn’t clean, we ordered him to desist.
This.
True. Plus, there’s the issue of product quality. If he happens to let the donuts sit around for days, then people are getting a sub-par product under the impression that this is Krispy Kreme. If they ever decided to open up a store in that area, the locals might be disinclined to buy from them since they believe Krispy Kreme donuts are stale and flavorless.
I can’t say it’s a bad move from a business perspective.
To be fair, that does describe Krispy Kreme after it cools down the first time around.
Huh. Did he sign a EULA when he bought the Doughnuts?
Still doesn’t compare to my favorite story about a similar plan. Pirate Joe’s, unfortunately laid low due to a stupid lawsuit.
Krispy Kreme is a major nostalgia comfort food. When I was a kid, we always went there after ballet recitals, and my sisters and I spent the whole time watching the donut machine.
I’ve heard of budgie smugglers, but doughnut smugglers…?
Trump: ‘The bitch is crazy’
Trump said, “I think Nancy Pelosi has lost her mind.”
He continued, “I think, frankly, that she should go home to San Francisco. If you look at what is happening to her district, her district is going to hell. With homeless that they’re not taking care of, with needles all over the streets, with tents, with people, with sanitation, with horrible things being washed into the ocean, into the Pacific Ocean.”
He added, “Her district has probably gone down more than any district proportionally, in the United States. And what she has done for that district— then on top of it, you’ve got fires eating away at California every year because management is so bad. The governor doesn’t know he is like a child.”
Best timeline.
He’s not wrong.
So, if Nancy Pelosi were against impeachment he wouldn’t be saying that, and there are plenty of other Congresscritters to whom that sentiment could probably apply, but it’s nevertheless a really good point. My impression has always been that the job of Congressperson is to represent the interests of your district at the national level. I know to some extent that means considering things in the national interest generally, but how many representatives and senators spend their time going from meeting to meeting having serious deliberations about inside baseball DC shit and highfalutin national policy instead of promoting efforts to benefit the people who put them there?
Psst, Pelosi doesn’t live in SF….
Apologies, I was getting her residency mixed up with Waters and a couple others that live outside of their districts.
Well, by definition she has a home there. I’m sure she lives there part of the year.
So my phone is on the fritz. It was hanging up yesterday so I tried to restart it. Since then, when turned on, it restarts itself a few times after getting stuck on the load screen before ultimately remaining stuck on the load screen? Anyone know how to fix this? I’d like to avoid having to go to the Verizon store.
Apparently I suck at punctuation this morning. *gets coffee*
Have you tried hitting it with a hammer in just the right spot?
Heat it up in the microwave.
Take an angle grinder to the back panel to unstick the components.
Did you change the filter?
Thermostat problem?
You guys…….
It’s possible that the problem was caused by an update, but in order to fix it you’d have to be able to get past the load screen, or you’d have to have an unlocked bootloader (i.e., you rooted the phone). If it’s a hardware problem, you’re probably SOL. The things are not designed to be serviceable anymore.
Sorry, your best bet is to get a new phone. If you hate the Verizon store that much, you may be able to get a carrier-unlocked phone and just take the SIM out of the old one (assuming you *have* a SIM card, I know old Verizon phones didn’t, not sure about their recent models). In order for that to work, though, the modem has to be rated for CDMA and Verizon’s LTE frequencies. If none of this sounds familiar/comfortable, going to the store is your safest bet.
You could always go to the AT&T store. The staff looks nice.
https://peanutchuck.com/22-photos-milana-vayntrub-att-supervisor-commercial/
KK donuts are like Cincinnati chili. You can’t compare them properly to other products with the same name.
Because they are so shit-tier language doesn’t do justice to how bad they are.
Unintentional mistake made by innocent headline writer, or deliberate effort? Headline from Australian sports’ story:
“Bulls move into dominant position over Warriors”
“That’s some quality care.”
-nobody
You’d be surprised at how wrong you are. If the most important metric is everyone getting the same (shitty) care the various nationalized plans are the best thing since sliced bread.
Typically, there are other metrics that some of these systems do well on. They don’t have one big queue for everything, they typically have different queues for different things, and sometimes those queues are short. The problem is that you’re at the mercy of bureaucrats to decide what’s worth funding and what’s not. They’re also really bad at adapting to changes in demand (see also: “certificate of need” laws in the good ole U.S. of A.).
I wonder if they offered him the option of making an “honest woman” of her.
Every now and then the Romanian press is having a fainting spell over how Romania collects only 28% of GDP in taxes compared to the EU average of 40% and how this number can be increased. No one question of whether this is desirable and not a mention of the concept that a poor country may be incapable of wasting the same % of GDP via government like a richer country. The general view that the closer people are to a substance level,the less % can you tax them.
No mention either that the 40% of the rest of europe is making those countries poorer?
Thing is Those countries are richer than Romania. They collect more. Hence they are richer because they collect more.
How else are y’’all going to be able to afford reparations for the Roma?
The stupid think is that the actual government accountability office says how billions are either misappropriated or wasted by government. And they are under-reporting these things. Why would you want the government to get more money if the government wastes the money it already has? What incentive is there to spend well if waste has no repercussions?
While I understand non libertarians thinking more government is good, when it is clear the government wastes money why give it more? It makes no sense
It’s the technocrat dreamland. This time, they will write the right laws, find the right people to put in charge, and the new infusion of cash won’t be 90% wasted like the existing funds are. Unfortunately, to borrow from Rumsfeld, you implement policy with the government you have, not the government you wish you had.
Do you even grift, bruh?
World’s largest child-sacrifice site found in Peru. Neil Young told me they were all nice and peaceful before Cortez and his lot showed up.
Respect different cultures man. Only white people can do bad things, no whites only have different cultures. Expect the Japanese, they are honorary whites.
“ Native American Innocence Myth”
Some of the North American tribes had a penchant for skinning captives alive and throwing them out into the snow and don’t even get me started on the Aztecs. That’s a myth that should have died long ago.
Dude it was Pizzaro who conquered the Incas. Cortez conquered the Aztecs. Cortez only succeeded because the neighboring tribes all hated the Aztecs and helped Cortez.
and his lot
So you are going for the “technically correct – the best kind of correct” answer?
Did Neil Young write a song about Pizzaro?
Uffda. How the fuck should I know? I don’t listen to sissy hippie music like that
Not his posse?
World’s largest child-sacrifice site found in Peru.
Has any one pointed these researchers to Verdun?
They were just doing their bit to save the earth from overpopulation. Chill out.
Indigenous folkways, bro. Check your privilege.
What a weekend! We got an extra hour of sleep AND a rally for the dream team.
Because all of the criticism of Omar is purely because she is a refugee and a Muslim. Yeah, that’s the ticket! Just keep saying that and never anything else. Also “get more out of government”? What kind of Orwellian shit is that?
Bernie is a disgusting human being. He has severe brain damage from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, and he’s only capable of saying about 5 things, all of them evil.
Fuck cultural healing.
This is the healing we all need.
That better be Marvin Gaye.
The Reckoning Bernie 2020.
At least it would be an honest bumper sticker.
55 minutes?! C’mon. Any commie worth his salt should be able to gasbag for at least 3 or 4 hours.
get more out of government
I want less. Stop stealing a quarter of my paycheck and leave me alone.
thicc?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-7645281/MTV-EMAs-2019-Dua-Lipa-puts-risqu-display-thong-leotard.html
Whatever it is, it’s not sexy.
meh. would
That is how I picture the trans asshat who keeps winning those bike races.
This is sexy
Also would
*falls out of chair*
Speaking of the Fail
Hollywood Life causes outrage by confusing social media star Irene Kim with K-pop singer Jennie Kim – despite the women looking ‘nothing alike’
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-7647019/Hollywood-Life-confuses-Instagram-star-Irene-Kim-K-pop-singer-Jennie-Kim.html
I mean I would not say nothing alike. If it was Irene Kim and Kim Kardashian I wold say nothing alike.
OUTRAGE!!!!!1111!!
You really need to stop reading the Daily Fail.
I don’t see any “washboard abs”.
Busted.
Also, ladies, stop doing the Gene Simmons tongue. It’s like jumping into an ice bath. I took a look at that picture after Q’s link and there was a ‘pop’ from the vacuum cause by my penis retreating into my abdominal cavity.
So we are calling off the invasion of Canada?
“I am beyond honored and excited for a president who will fight against Western imperialism and fight for a just world,” Omar told the crowd of Sanders supporters. “I am excited for President Bernie Sanders.”
Omar went on to claim that a “movement” must be built in order for Sanders to take the White House from President Donald Trump.
“Here’s the cold truth: We can’t achieve any of these goals if we don’t build a movement that is representative of all of our aspirations, all of our pain, and all of our shared trauma,” Omar said. “That is why we must build a mass movement of the working class that transcends faith, age, gender, and background.”…
“That is the history of the labor movement, the history of the women’s liberation movement, that is the history of the civil rights movement, and the LGBTQ movement, and the disability rights under equal justice movement,” the freshman Minnesota Congresswoman added.
Muslims are well-known for their progressive views on the alphabet people.
I wonder if there are any imams out there who are going to pull the islamic equivalent of that Catholic priest who denied Biden communion because of his views on abortion?
Of course, any imam who is a die-in-the-wool literalist on the Koran is probably not going to talk to Omar any way because she isn’t layered up enough as a woman for him to tolerate.
I’m not familiar with Islam at all, but it never struck me as very… organized. I.E no ordained priesthood with duties to minister and administer sacramental rites to believers, but i could be way off base.
Yeah, Trump is the Russian stooge. ?
thicc?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-7645833/Demi-Rose-shows-eye-popping-cleavage-red-bikini.html
Heartless Orange Man is heartless
President Trump has approved a plan to reduce the cap for refugee admissions to the country for fiscal 2020 to 18,000, the lowest level on record since the program began more than three decades ago.
In a statement announcing the move this weekend, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that “the core of the Trump Administration’s foreign policy is a commitment to make decisions based on reality, not wishes, and to drive optimal outcomes based on concrete facts.”
Pompeo went on to say that “this year’s determination on refugee admissions does just that, even as we sustain our longstanding commitment to help vulnerable populations and our leadership as the world’s most generous nation.”
The plan, which was announced in late September, has drawn pushback from Democratic lawmakers, including governors who have said they will continue to welcome refugees to their states despite the steep reduction.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) said last month that her state is a “sanctuary state” and that Oregon will continue to “stand with refugees” in light of the executive order issued by the Trump administration, which allows states to turn away refugees.
Define “refugee”.
Define “refugee”.
Someone from California
That’s me….
She’s coming back, she’s coming
Keep you company
How can you set a refugee cap? Shouldn’t the number we allow be set by the number of actual refugee situations that are occurring in real-time? And the number of people fleeing those situations as refugees that show up at a port of entry and claim asylum?
Refugees =/= immigrants in the traditional sense. Whoever decided setting an arbitrary number of refugees that we will allow doesn’t understand the concept of refugees or how it’s different than immigrants.
There will always be enough refugees if you define refugee well enough
That sounds kind of Petty.
we’ll be free falling into chaos if we let this stuff continue.
We now begin the waiting for a narrowed gaze.
You’re hoping Swiss don’t come around here no more.
Well, even the losers need a place to call home.
Pretty much. Millions from Syria alone. Many millions around the world.
This is where you land when you start talking about “economic refugees” as a thing. And I don’t believe that’s a coincidence.
Refugees =/= immigrants in the traditional sense.
Refugees are a sub-category of immigrants. Immigration “control” always goes to the reason the person is trying to get into the country. One set of reasons qualifies you as a refugee. The argument now is over whether the traditional definition should be trashed in favor of something more . . . expansive.
I see no reason why you can’t set a cap. Refugee status is an allowance, an exemption from most normal requirements for legal immigration.
“The modern definition of ‘refugee’ is someone who wants to live somewhere else. Keep taking them in and soon enough the refugee is you.”
…Anonymous internetter
Sweden’s national bomb squad has been called out to 30 blasts in the past two months and 100 so far this year, more than twice the number in the same period in 2018, as concern grows about rising levels of violence by criminal gangs.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/04/sweden-bomb-attacks-reach-unprecedented-level-as-gangs-feud
It must actually be bad if the Guardian is reporting
Must be the violent Viking genes coming to the fore (or maybe not).
If they wanted to stop those violent Vikings from this, they’d just permanently broadcast a playclock that shows there are only a few minutes to go and the Vikes are down a couple points. That has proven to be 100% effective here in Minnesoda against any successful bombs.
Tarkenton the Red begs to differ.
I was referring to his son Shaking like a Lief Cousins.
That slide. *SMDH*
*sips tea*
/Redskins
What is an acceptable number of explosions? And it’s hard to find a cause when the cause doesn’t agree with your worldview.
Scientifically speaking, 64 per calendar year
What is an acceptable number of explosions?
Whatever number doesn’t get headlines in the Guardian.
Here is your cause.
rising levels of violence by criminal gangs
I am sure this has nothing to do with a mass influx of people of incompatible culture.
I say turn the Swedish mafia loose on them to fix the problem.
And what is this deal with “criminal gangs”?
Get with the program. There are no gangs. Sure there may be a few violent street groups but that is all.
That’s racist, because you’re presuming that a rich and vibrant culture with a long history of achievements should have to change to fit the culture of a host country where they don’t treat women as cattle and set gay people on fire.
We should send them a 16 year old autist stat.
“Swedish gangs”
Uh-huh.
I blame Connecticut Glibs.
Police, FBI investigating ‘hate-filled flyers’ found on Western Connecticut State University campus
What did those ‘hate-filled flyers’ say?
“It’s OK to be white” and “Islam is right about women”
I think the “Islam is right about women” one is great, because then you get to ask them “what is the hateful part of that?” and see them twist and squirm trying to decide which team they want to be on.
The plan works.
Shorter progs: I WILL NOT BE MOCKED!
I still think whoever did the “Islam is right about women” flyer should follow up with “Islam is wrong about women”.
Whatever the 4chan equivalent of the CMH is should go to whoever came up with that.
“Have no doubt that we are treating this as an attack on our university community and making every effort to see that those responsible are caught and properly punished,” Clark wrote in a letter published late Friday afternoon. “I am fully committed to the absolutely necessary goal this does not happen again. We must be ever vigilant to protect our university against these hateful attacks.”
“Freedom of speech will not be tolerated.”
First can anyone articulate a specific crime that has been committed? Maybe a week vandalism charge? But if you aren’t also running down all the other people who post flyers, I think you have a problem convicting.
Second, what the fuck Federal crime has been committed to bring the FBI in?
Why won’t some journalo ask questions like that?
Because a douchebag provocateur is totes the same thing as the Klan burning down people’s homes while the local PD pretends to not know who is behind it.
So it is NOT ok to be white?
Well it’s hateful to be okay with your whiteness.
And whoever distributed those should follow up with flyers that say “Its Okay to be black”.
Or, “It’s okay to be the White President of Western Connecticut State University” with a picture of Clark on it.
That is NOT OK!
Hmm, this could get interesting if the university and/or the feds try to criminalize anything. Kevin Gutzman is a History prof there. He’s a semi-regular on Tom Woods’s show.
Re McDonald’s CEO Easterbrook stepping down due to an inappropriate sexual relationship with an employee. The last line of the article:
“Kempczinski (the interim CEO) described Easterbrook as a mentor.”
For….? Eh? Hm?
“Inappropriate? So, like, anal?”
Question I may ask if I were a reporter.
What the history of the left teaches us: Warren has the best chance of winning
Cas Mudde
Elizabeth Warren is able to offer a new leftwing message without dividing the Democratic establishment and base
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/04/elizabeth-warren-best-chance-of-winning-us-elections-2020-democrats-left
Hillary Clinton: Zuckerberg should pay price for damage to democracy
Former presidential candidate criticises Facebook’s decision to let politicians lie in adverts
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/nov/04/hillary-clinton-mark-zuckerberg-pay-price-damage-democracy
I think US politicians are getting jealous on China
Hong Kong protests: Chinese state media urges tougher stance on ‘wanton violence’
China Daily newspaper accuses protesters of being at mercy of hormones, and venting anger ‘at grievances real and imagined’
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/04/hong-kong-protests-chinese-state-media-urges-tougher-stance-on-wanton-violence
At what point does a different interpretation of objective facts become a lie I wonder?
Whenever the wrong person wins an election
When your interpretation is at odds with my narrative.
Funny how fast the wrong kind of trouble-maker can get deported from Norway.
I support the Hong Kong protesters as much as anyone here, but I draw the line when they start taking their frustrations out on the dumpling soup.
to let politicians lie in adverts
So she wants to not allow campaigning at all?
wanton violence
It has certainly made for a soupy mess.
China Daily newspaper accuses protesters of being at mercy of hormones, and venting anger ‘at grievances real and imagined’
Oopsie. Did the ChiCom propaganda sheet just admit that the Hong Kongers have real grievances?
I think they will regret poking the robot.
All those factories and offices stuffed in their mattresses.
He’s fucken FRIGHTENING.
Cancel the billionaires = starving the Kulaks.
He’s a cranky old man who will never become president.
Warren is the one we should be frightened of. She wraps up the exact same platform under a veneer of schoolmarm technocrat that gives Dems a tingle.
I don’t think Sanders is stupid, which leaves me with some variation of deliberately obtuse wishful thinking and/or intentionally lying. Relevant to your handle, I’m taking a class for an MBA that deals with some light accounting–looking through 10-Ks and doing some analysis–and I suddenly “got” the accounting equation, particularly as it pertains to financial statements, while in the shower, where I do my best thinking. I was so excited I told my wife, which was probably wasn’t the most boring thing I’ve talked to her about but had to be way up there. Anyway, it’s given me a new appreciation for just how idiotic people like Sanders and Warren are.
I don’t think he is that smart either. Just found his shill niche
Wow. Clearly I haven’t had enough coffee. Just try to read that such that it makes sense and add/remove the words you feel are necessary.
He’s not stupid. He’s a petty, envious little man.
He’s also stupid.
Looking at my business financial affairs reminds of how utterly stupidly retarded, illiberal, and illiterate Sanders, AOC, Warren et a and all their fans are.
It’s like they’re standing in the streets yelling, “Stop the presses! We don’t need math any more! 2 + 2 = fire hydrant! That’s it! We’ve figured it out!” And there are a bunch of dummies in the street behind them yelling, “Yeah! Math is dumb! We hate school!” It’s the perfect example of people who aren’t even wrong.
Yup. When questioned on how the money would actually be raised to pay her tax, when a goodly chunk of the assets being taxed aren’t publicly traded securities, Warren actually proposed that the IRS go into the private placement business, by forcing those taxpayers to deliver shares in their privately held companies to the IRS for resale.
And I’m sorry, that’s just stupid. Anyone who seriously proposes it is stupid. Elizabeth Warren is a stupid person.
Also stupid: aside from the volatility that the wealth tax would put on both the capital markets and federal revenue, it also contains a huge incentive to reduce your net worth by borrowing. More distortion of capital markets, more leverage, more volatility.
Maybe if you didn’t bore you wife so much, she’d bang you more and you could cut your “shower time” in half?
Combine her assets with his liabilities?
Hey, that’s nothin’ but equity down there, baby!
So your family planning strategy is to pull your equity out when you sense the end of a business cycle?
He wants to liquidate dat ass(et).
What if the assets are fully depreciated with no salvage value?
That is why you should always have reserve assets on the side.
Sanders had a logic to his socialist nonsense 4 years ago. He knew you couldn’t artificially control blue collar wages with an open border, so he was for very limited immigration. He also acknowledged that “free” healthcare would need to be a closed system to be feasible. Those small nuggets of logic have been dropped now in the Democrat race to out-crazy each other.
You would be surprised how many people do no understand wealth. Actually if you are a cynical enough libertarians, you would not be surprised at all.
I’d argue it’s scarcity that people don’t understand. They think money is this magical thing that you use to get stuff and rich people are trying to keep it from you. They don’t get that money represents a resource. They think that if there are tickets for a slice of pie it doesn’t matter if there are only ten pies, you just print more tickets and you get more slices. If the slices become infinitely smaller because con artists have figured out that if you print twice as many tickets people will think they’re rich for ten minutes, that’s fine, because hey, you’re getting a slice of pie!
I think people don’t understand many things. scarcity , money, wealth, resources etc. What do they understand is the question
The understand envy.
They understand they want an Ultra High-Def television and work is boring and hard, but there’s some guy walking around calling himself the government who’s willing to take money from bad people they’ve never met in order to give them the lifestyle they so richly deserve.
Explain to a person the magical awesome power of compound interest. The long-term advantage of dollar cost averaging. Why dividends and capital gains are beneficial – nay essential – in helping to achieve wealth and financial stability. etc.
I saw it every day when I was in financial services. People aren’t aware hence why Sanders sounds soooo good. But when they learn or have something to lose, then they understand.
Manousos
”
@ManousosKouidis
Replying to @BernieSanders
we cant afford tuition-free college & cancelling all student debt BUT we can afford $750 Billion military budget and billions in tax breaks for the 1%.”
“@HWoertz
We don’t want to “punish them for their success,” we just don’t want them deleting trillions of dollars from our economy while most of their workers are relying on welfare benefits to survive.”
etc., etc.
“deleting trillions of dollars from our economy”
Are they really this stupid? Or is this a reference to something other than personal wealth?
There are less than a thousand billionaires in the United States. The IRS doesn’t provide reliable statistics at that level, but in 2015 the exact number was 585, leaving 559,000 people to every billionaire, or putting billionaires at less than 0.000002% of the population. How is that, exactly, a “class”? If their wealth averaged $10 billion each, that’s $5.85 trillion or about 1/4 of U.S. GDP for one year. Tax it at 5% per year and you net $292 billion, which will diminish as the capital is consumed by the tax, reallocated to avoid the tax, or leaves the country entirely.
Meanwhile, there are 91.5 million households making between $25k and $250k per year, with a combined taxable income of $7.53 trillion. Raise their taxes by 5% and you net $377 trillion, which in theory will only continue to grow.
Taxing the middle class (or, at least, those in the middle ~80% of incomes) is the only practical way to fund the welfare state through taxes. Of course, there’s a reason debt funding has become more common: it’s an invisible tax and everybody pays it.
Well Europe does not tax the middle class. In Romania the median wage only pays 40% in taxes, and the VAT is only 20%
In the U.S. the median wage pays a nominal ~15% of income in Federal tax, plus probably an average of 5% more in state income tax and 5% in sales tax.
Plus I assume some payroll taxes.
In Romania income tax is a flat 10%.
The rest are payroll taxes for healthcare and pensions.
There are some additional taxes as well, but in general the difference between what goes out of the employers account and what goes into the employees account is 43%.
There is, off course, a lot of black market not paying taxes going on.This is why the government only collects 27% of GDP.
Also while unemployment is nominally low, this is because many people are not counted as part of the labor force, as they are engaged in mostly subsistence agriculture with some money from welfare.
That’s a fair point. Payroll tax in the U.S. is 15.3% up to the Social Security cap (currently $132,900) and then just 2.9% of the excess. So, the average U.S. worker is paying roughly 30% in income taxes to the Federal government.
The Nordic countries don’t count as Europe?
Tax it at 5% per year and you net $292 billion, which will diminish as the capital is consumed by the tax, reallocated to avoid the tax, or leaves the country entirely.
My understanding is that Warren’s plan is to tax unrealized capital gains by billionaires as ordinary income, plus payroll tax equivalent. The amount collected or refunded will vary based on asset/market performance, but in a good year, you will pay 40 – 50% of the “value” of your unrealized capital gains. In a bad year, the government will presumably owe you 40 – 50% of the “value” of your unrealized capital losses. The cycle will look something like this:
Year 1total net worth (basis): $2BB
Year 1 change in net worth: +200MM
Year 1 taxes: $100MM
Year 2 basis: $2.1BB (net of taxes, which aren’t part of your net worth any more)
Year 2 change in net worth: -$200MM
Year 2 tax refund: $100mm
Year 3 basis: $2BB (including tax refund)
And around and around we go.
And around and around we will go.
In a bad year, the government will presumably owe you 40 – 50% of the “value” of your unrealized capital losses.
ROFL, not a chance. Unrealized gains are income, unrealized losses will at best be usable to offset future gains, or maybe if they feel generous they’ll let you take $3k a year against income like they do now on realized losses.
unrealized losses will at best be usable to offset future gains,
I think you’re probably right. They will reset your basis whenever it goes up, and after down years you will be allowed to play catch-up.
Either way, I look forward to a hugely expanded valuation industry, and endless lawsuits over the value of privately held assets.
If they don’t discount/rebate/refund the losses somehow, the stock market will be severely distorted and there won’t be much in the way of “paper gains” to tax. So one assumes that that pragmatic compromise will (have to) be made.
The long-term stock market growth rate for S&P 500 is about 7-8% per year. There’s an estimated $24 trillion in combined S&P 500 market capitalization. Assuming that’s the primary target of the tax, and the growth rate is 8%, that’s almost $2 trillion in toal “paper gains” on average per year. If we estimate that 25% of those gains are being realized every year, that leaves about $1.5 trillion in unrealized gains.
If the current rate of 20% were extended to unrealized gains, that would net $300 billion in additional tax revenue (the deficit is over $1 trillion right now). Rates substantially higher than that would have serious knock-on effects. Even so, that $300 billion is now pulled out of the market and can’t be compounded next year. That effectively drops the market to 5-6% gains instead of 7-8%. That’s going to push a lot of municipalities and large institutions with high legacy costs into bankruptcy even sooner.
That effectively drops the market to 5-6% gains instead of 7-8%.
It is going to tank the market harder than that. It will require large sales of assets, by large numbers of big holders with no corresponding pool of buyers, which means that there will inevitably be an initial market crash before a new equilibrium can be reached. But that will then be repeated in any year in which there is a large gain as of whatever date they decide to use for valuation. I suspect that if they use a single date for valuation what will happen is a very distorted growth curve in which assets spike up after valuation day, then crash in the 2-3 months before valuation day.
This will be reported on as ‘fraud’, but it will not require any collusion or manipulation. If you tell me a huge number of people will be dumping assets on January 1st, I am not buying anything from October through December, and will likely liquidated some equities, and am hoarding cash until the dumping. Of course, the scum that think this is a good idea will then pass new laws punishing people for responding to the last set of incentives and eventually investment will largely evaporate.
Ugh. I was assuming they’d make at least some attempt to compute an average value rather than just value as-of date. But, they aren’t the brightest bulbs.
An average value over what time frame? A calendar year? That might smooth things out a bit, but you still have the issue of a lot of assets needing to be sold with no corresponding buy pressure.
That’s a fair point. Just because people have gains on paper doesn’t mean they have the liquidity right now to pay the tax on them.
How do we transfer wealth into student debt?
We take bezos couches and, what, sell them in a charity auction?
Or do we just give college grads James Harden’s Audi?
If you rapidly liquidate those assets, it won’t have any effect on their price.
Cool. Who buys?
Seriously though, just such a law passing would crash some stocks. People who have stocks can sometimes anticipate shit like this.
Even if you could somehow pass the law in secret and keep the secret til it takes effect (which would be nearly impossible in the U.S. as Congresspeople own stocks and can trade them based on information not yet public), the sudden fire sale would still cause prices to crash. It would have to be done gradually (e.g. why I used 5% above, although even that is a bit aggressive as a tax on wealth; property taxes are usually around 1%), but even then you’d still have to be careful about it (e.g. don’t sell everybody’s fancy cars at the same time). And then, of course, you’d be stuck with the fact that, if you do keep prices up, your pool of erstwhile buyers is going to be the very same group you’re fleecing.
Exactly. Again, the money has to come from somewhere, otherwise you’re talking about effectively nationalizing wealth above an arbitrary cut-off, which would have a catastrophic effect on the economy. Look at Venezuela, a country that’s literally sitting on a gold mine while starving to death, for an example of what nationalizing an industry does to an economy.
Warren wants government reps in boardrooms, TheBern! wants to confiscate wealth/assets, but Donnie 2-scoops is the fascist.
I don’t think he’s talking about grabbing the billions of dollars in tax sheltered foundations that push left wing politics. Or the bloated college endowments. Harvard, for example is a hedge fund with an attached SJW factory.
While no one can blame US libertarians for Sweden, this is defiantly your fault.
Bloody Tijuana: a week in the life of Mexico’s murderous border city
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/04/bloody-tijuana-mexico-murderous-border-city-week
Look you can’t shame me into not defiantly supporting mexican ass sex
Yeah, pay no attention to the massive government corruption behind the curtain.
Never change, Grauniad.
Mexico really has no government left to criticize. What means “government” in a failing narco state?
True – the cops and courts are probably just working for themselves at this point.
What is an acceptable number of explosions?
That is entirely dependent on the targets.
“Trump’s seat at the MMA fight was close enough to hear the kicks land and the thuds of the bodies hitting the floor. “If there’s blood that’s spilled and it’s not his, it’s thrilling to him.” ”
https://twitter.com/peterbakernyt/status/1191349497043062784
The paper of broken record.
What’s a Baker nyt? Some sort of flying insect?
It’s like NYT but with a 13th page.
Remember this is the paper that Endorsed Hillary “We came. We saw. He died” Clinton.
And Barack “I’m good at killing people and I have a disposition matrix” Obama.
Speaking of that mendacious ass Obama: you know that if Obama had attended an MMA fight, the corporate media would have been gushing about what a cool president he is.
“Dear diary,”
And, I presume, to everyone else that watches mma.
Oh, the replies warm my black heart.
Trump posing with the Baddest Mother Fucker belt was funny.
https://i.imgur.com/FdrkaST.jpg
The Warren Plan to Paper Over the Costs of Medicare for All
To summarize, the Warren proposal understates M4A’s costs, as quantified by multiple credible studies, by about 34.2%. Another 11.2% of the cost would be met by cutting payments to health providers such as physicians and hospitals. Approximately 20% of the financing is sought by tapping sources that are unavailable for various reasons, for example because she has already committed that funding to other priorities, or because the savings from them was already assumed in the top-line cost estimate. The remaining 34.6% would be met by an array of new and previous tax proposals, most of it consisting of new taxes affecting everyone now carrying employer-provided health insurance, including the middle class.
But think of the savings if no one pays for private insurance.
Correction:
The media’s plan to paper over the costs for Warren’s medicare for all
And when is someone, anyone, even on the Right going to bring up Medicare’s record of ALWAYS costing more than even the most pessimistic estimates?
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/18/health-programs-have-history-of-cost-overruns/
So when they say Medicare for all will cost $3 trillion a year in new spending, understand that it is likely going to be closer to $5 Trillion a year if not more.
“”This Christmas give your wife something she really wants. Something truly exciting. A cheat pass.””
https://twitter.com/Telegraph/status/1190569313012457472
“Why men should give their wives a cheat pass this Christmas”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/sex/men-should-give-wives-permission-infidelity-christmas/
Woops! Sorry, that’s paywalled.
Do the men get 3 escort passes as well?
Best reply
“I did last year but she still didn’t win the Scrabble tournament”
Seems like a trend
“”Hearing a child laughing along the road or seeing a family out shopping together would at first prompt floods of unstoppable tears.” A mother writes about the most agonising decision of her life: walking out on her husband and children for true love”
https://twitter.com/thesundaytimes/status/1191119556590346241
It’s true love until she gets bored again.
I have a niece like that. As soon as the excitement is over and she’s no longer the center of attention of the family, she dumps the guy and moves on. Problem for her is she’s past her use-by date now and she’s got three kids by two fathers.
What a cunte
walking out on her husband and children for true love
Walking out on your kids, means you don’t know shit about love. I have no qualms saying she is a garbage person and should [CENSORED PENDING THE INVESTIGATION]
At least she didn’t kill them.
Also, I could only read the first half of the first paragraph because I had to subscribe to read it. That is very irritating.
I see that story mention that she killed herself and her kids with a gun, but curiously omitted that she was a vocal supporter of gun control.
Auzenne was a vocal advocate for stricter gun control in the United States with multiple social media postings calling for an end to gun violence and Facebook profile pictures that bore the hashtags #Enough and #EndGunViolence.
Because they want a divorce?
I like what you’ve posted so far about your grandfather. Hope you can find the time to flesh it out. Feel free to reach out to me for “encouragement.” tonio at glibs, bro.
Thanks. I’m working on it. I’ve got the bulk of it edited in a word doc and just need to port it over and add links. Should be done in a day or two.
Hooray. And thanks. No rush.
Lol some of us do that every day of the year because we know no one else can measure up and while she is out with someone else we can finally get a few minutes to do something we actually like uninterrupted for a change
Yeah, just save yourself some time and skip to the divorce. Couples that are already into that are already doing it without exchanging the worst Christmas cards ever.
Letting the Browns down…
I thought there are no racial slurs against whites… Also that is funny I see no reason for suspension
I thought there are no racial slurs against whites
You’re cracker ass would be right.
That is a broken man.
looks like someone who commits mopery is the funniest response
Kind of looks like Casey Affleck in that picture.
And he’s gone.
Bitch made ass lil boy got smoked.
From Pie’s Guardian link:
“When Facebook is the principal news source for more than half of the American people, and the only source of news that most of them pay any attention to, and if it announces that it has no responsibility for the airing of false ads … how are you supposed to get accurate information about anything, let alone candidates running for office?”
This is the same bullshit talking point from Reich’s nonsensical tirade posted yesterday.
“Facebook is the principal news source, blah blah bah…”
That’s like saying, “That news stand in the lobby of Grand Central Station is the principal news source for thousands of commuters. Let’s shut it down, because some of those commuters buy and read newspapers which we don’t like and which don’t agree with us.”
I don’t facebook, but I suspect I could find “news” from a broad spectrum of viewpoints. It’s not facebook’s fault which ones I look at.
*Now I feel dirty.
“When ____ is the principal news source for more than half of the American people, and the only source of news that most of them pay any attention to, and if it announces that it has no responsibility for the airing of false ads … how are you supposed to get accurate information about anything, let alone candidates running for office?”
Fill in the blank: television, radio, newspapers. Somehow, the republic survived these constant crises of disinformation.
I love how the onus is on Advertisers. “YOU HAVE TO STOP THE “LIES”!!!” because.. you know, they are prohibited from doing so? Does anyone doubt that given an inch the Democrats wouldn’t try to run a mile with censoring their political opponents?
The root problem is nobody has the moral authority to categorically declare something a lie. There are demonstrably false statements, demonstrably true statements, and then there’s 99% of political discourse.
Now do “television”.
Why does the news get a pass? They report on lies all the time? shouldn’t they stop reporting things untill they have been independently verified by multiple and diverse credible resources?
This is one thing I’ve never understood. I’ve never seen news on FB. Are they talking about articles people post or does FB insert stories into people’s feeds?
#metoo
Do you use an ad-blocker?
Honestly, I would have a modicum of respect for Zuckerberg if he agreed to comply with these demands on the condition that the board designated the Arbiters of Truth ™ was comprised of Rush Limbaugh, Carl Benjamin and Pat Robertson. Because the bottom line is that what these assholes want is precisely the mirror image of just that. They want the ability to define truth the the rest of the world to suit their agenda. Offer to let them live on the receiving end of their demands. Let the world see precisely what rank hypocrites they are.
Clinton said she believed we were seeing “a war on truth” in which the “manipulation of information” served to further the interests of a set of “incredibly wealthy people who believe they can do whatever they want to do”.
Oh, does she, now?
I mean, in some sense, she’s not wrong. The problem is that she’s a beneficiary of the system.
Sweet Jesus, the projection is just fucking astounding.
Just once I’d love to see an interviewer burst out laughing and tell her “Hillary you are so full of shit it is spewing out your mouth!”
I’d settle for a good ol’ fashioned eye roll.
They’d never let someone like that get close to her.
Then suicide in the green room 15 minutes later.
Still worshiping at the altar of Saul Alinsky. “Accuse your opponent of what only you are doing, as you are doing it, to create confusion, cloud the issue, and inoculate voters against any evidence of your guilt.”
I mean, in some sense, she’s not wrong. The problem is that she’s a beneficiary of the system.
And Tom Steyer buys his way into a “debate” so he can bitch about money in politics.
Libertarians (well, some of them, and not exclusively) accurately pointed out way back when that the “get money out of politics” crowd only cared about the wrong money. It’s why Citizens United is a free speech case. If you can control who spends money, then you can control who gets to speak.
See “campaign finance reform”, “public campaign finance”, etc. etc.
It’s all a vehicle for the folks who push that stuff to stay in power.
Why should regulatory capture stop at cable providers and automobile manufacturers?
Don’t forget banks (of all shapes and sizes). When was the last time we had a Treasury Secretary who wasn’t thoroughly embedded in the corporate-banking nexus?
The answer to my question appears to be Lloyd Bentsen, the 69th Treasury Secretary, during Bill Clinton’s administration from 1993 to 1994.
Ah, that great bipartisan achievement known as McCain-Feingold.
It’s stupid because “political” is not some easily defined category. I remember a lot of rhetoric from Democrats where they’re admonishing the legislature to “forget about politics” and pass their gun control bills, as though those proposed political ideas somehow transcend politics. I’m sure they’re not the only ones who insist that their ideas are non-political, but it just goes to show that you can reclassify the ideas you like as non-political and those you don’t like as political.
People are either evil or pathetically ignorant if they think the power to regulate political spending/advertising would not be abused by whichever party is in power.
No, I have it on good authority that CU vs. FEC was the case where the meanybutt doo-doo head Supreme Court declared that corporations are literal, flesh-and-blood human beings.
“So, if Citizens United is wrong and corporations shouldn’t be legally recognized as persons, you realize that means nobody can sue a corporation, right? You have to sue somebody, after all, and if a corporation isn’t a somebody, you can’t sue them, can you?”
For that argument to have meaning, the person hearing has to already believe that economic activity outside the state is not automatically a bad thing. Not being able to sue corporations is fine, as long as there are no corporations except those controlled by the state.
This is a timely discussion. I’ve got three articles (or really one in three parts) in the hopper that specifically deal with ‘campaign finance reform’ and the 1A. I don’t know when they’re getting posted, but this drives me nuts whenever these hacks start this nonsense about Citizens United. JFC, it’s almost as if they’ve never even read the case. (See, also, Roe v Wade).
Ok so which one of you yahoos is Jeff Dunham in real life?
I watched his new show on Netflix yesterday and one of his jokes was that Trumps hair was sentient so he obviously has encountered SugarFree’s writing
Mornin’ Glibbies.
My big accomplishment for the day will be getting to my desk before 10:00 a.m.
Evening. My big accomplishment will be to get in bed before 1 am.
Good luck with that. I’m a night owl.
Morning Mojeaux. I’m taking a work-from-home sick day. I’ve already missed 11 am so my big accomplishment will be to get at least half a day’s work in.
*Shrugs* You got beer, I’m down.
I’ve parted from my longstanding habit and pre-ordered a game today. Red Dead Redemption 2. I figure it comes out in a day and it’s not as if I wasn’t going to buy it as soon as it dropped anyway. And, really, if I’m being totally honest, there’s a fair chance I might take a personal day tomorrow and play it until I give myself a migraine.
Steam has rearranged my expectations. Games should go to early access or at least open beta before release if I’m going to be asked to pony-up for preorder. Even a game like RDR2 which has technically been out for a while on consoles could still have a shitty console-to-PC port.
It won’t though.
Maybe. I’m sympathetic to the game developers’ plight but my wallet has its limits. I don’t buy much of anything sight-unseen and games are no exception. The last time I did that I got burned (Fallout 76).
Fortunately, multiplayer has zero interest for me so I avoided *that* dumpster fire.
Yeah, I’m generally the same way (which is funny, because I played a lot of multiplayer as a kid). The last real multiplayer game I got before that was Destiny 2. In both cases, it was on the recommendations/encouragement of coworkers. While I will credit the guy who sold me on Destiny 2 with playing it religiously (whereas, I played it for a couple hours), Fallout 76 is a total mess by nearly everyone’s admittance.
That having been said, the single-player scene has its fuckups too. Whatever is going on with Total War: Warhammer is an utter shitshow that makes me regret having bought the first game (granted, the shitshow wasn’t apparent then).
I bought it for PS4. Pretty fun. Never played the original. I’m terrible with Open World Games though, cause i just wander around exploring/hunting/gambling, and never complete any of the missions. I haven’t played in a few months, because i got sidetracked on other games.
The problem I’ve found with some open world games is they don’t tell you which quests matter and which don’t. Put another way, in some cases you never get to progress the game if you don’t complete at least some story quests, leaving skills, equipment, and sometimes 3/4 of the game world locked away. If it’s not obvious that you’re missing something, it can make the game seem hollow despite being a “sandbox”.
I played it for 150 hours, and never finished the game. I really enjoyed a lot of the side missions and hunting, but got fed up with the main story after it moved to the swamp.
I’m terrible with Open World Games though, cause i just wander around exploring/hunting/gambling, and never complete any of the missions.
If you are having fun, you are winning.
About the only game on my radar I’m currently considering pre-ordering is Cyberpunk 2077. Outer Worlds, Borderlands 3, are both on my radar, but I’m not buying them through the Epic Game Store, and I’ll wait until they hit Steam next year. Besides, the last Battletech DLC is dropping in a couple of weeks.
Same here with Cyberpunk. I’m also gearing up for Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries next month and Vampire: Bloodlines 2. MW5 is an Epic exclusive, I think, but I’ll get the other two on GOG most likely.
Outer Worlds is also available from the Windows store (maybe because MS bought Obsidian, I don’t remember right now). I don’t often buy things from there, but it is better than giving money to EGS if you feel the itch before the exclusivity deal runs out.
I got it a couple weeks back and am really enjoying it. First set of characters who I actually care about in a game in a long time.
I do get annoyed with how your character always puts his rifles and shotguns away while riding his horse. There have been a couple of times where I jumped off to get into a gunfight and forgot he had stored them, so I was left with pistols/revolvers, which are nowhere near as effective. Still, I think it’s worth the game’s worth money.
Where else would you store the long guns?
Over his shoulders?
Demographics based politics?
Outgoing Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas), the only black Republican in the House, warned in a new interview that the GOP needs to adapt and start looking like the rest of America or “there won’t be a Republican Party in this country.”
In an interview with Axios that aired Sunday, Hurd said that “we know where the trends are going” regarding demographics in America and that Republicans “know what we need to do.”
“Minorities, people under the age of 29 and women with a college degree in the suburbs are not choosing the Republican Party,” Hurd told Axios.
Here’s an idea- why not adopt a philosophy of openminded personal and economic freedom for everybody, and conduct yourselves accordingly?
“Hispanics feed their families, too, you know.”
Did someone repeal Hotelling’s law last night? If not, neither party is going away.
Because jumping on the identity politics bandwagon will totally solve what’s wrong with the GOP.
Have the bulk of the under 29 demographic ever chosen the Republicans?
the GOP needs to adapt and start looking like the rest of America
What does that even mean? A bunch of white/male GOP politicians need to quit, so room can be made for non-white/non-male GOP candidates?
What does that even mean?
He’s setting himself up for a party switch in a couple years?
“Minorities, people under the age of 29 and women with a college degree in the suburbs are not choosing the Republican Party,”
My sense is that it isn’t lack of diversity, it is Trump hatred. In my county the black GOP County Commissioner will probably lose tomorrow. The GOP female Sheriff declined to run for re-election because it looked like she would lose. In the suburbs, there are plenty of GOP women running but losing to progressives of all genders and colors.
Trump-hatred and crisis mentality. Everything is “underfunded”, the global warmings are about to kill us, there’s a white nationalist under every bedsheet, etc.
what lobbyist is he going to work for?
When was the last time we had a Treasury Secretary who wasn’t thoroughly embedded in the corporate-banking nexus?
What sort of deranged troglodyte gold fetishist doesn’t want Goldman Sachs to provide us with an ongoing supply of establishmentarian Treasury Secretaries?
*raises hand*
“Property taxes mean you never really own your property.”
My house is paid off (my grandfather bought it in 1945), but I don’t really own it. I rent it from Hennepin County.
this drives me nuts whenever these hacks start this nonsense about Citizens United. JFC, it’s almost as if they’ve never even read the case.
Thanks. I needed a good laugh.
*Says a guy who has also not read it.
I know they haven’t. It’s obvious. The same is true of the overwhelming majority of protesters and talking heads running their suckholes about Roe v. Wade.
It’s the world we live in now. EVERYONE has an opinion and a microphone/megaphone, and almost none of them are familiar with even the most basic facts about the thing they’re rheeeing about. See, also, Thunberg, Greta.
It’s so fucking infuriating (to me, anyway).
See also: California has 19 times the electoral voting power of Wyoming. Yet, somehow, the dastardly Wyoming devils are trouncing the good-hearted votes of California.
My friend constantly says: “We live in the Post-Rational Epoch. Things like math, logic, facts no longer hold sway. They don’t even matter.”
I used to think he was just an “old guy” ranting, but he’s right. We really do live in a post-rational world. The evidence is everywhere, everyday, and the news is like a non-stop assault for those who still believe in rationality, liberty, etc. It’s tough. It’s why I have to manage my “dosing” of the outside world.
I don’t know if I would call it post-rational. It’s more like the age of sophistry. People will use facts and logic when convenient, then discard or ignore them when not. Part of it is the non-transitivity of expertise. Lots of people are deferring their opinions on subjects they don’t know well to “experts” but they are picking and choosing who those “experts” are. If you don’t know enough to decide yourself, how do you know enough to pick the right “experts”? They also have a difficult time prioritizing. I’ve heard people say “I don’t think I could support a President who doesn’t believe in evolution” yet I cannot recall the last time the President was put in charge of biology.
Have to disagree w/ you KB. It isn’t sophistry. Here’s just ONE example “ripped from the headlines!” (Cue the Law and Order them music).
Hillary Clinton’s emails as SecState are, by federal law, the property of the American people. She’s just the hired help and FOIA means we have a right to see what’s in there, with some listed caveats. The fact that those emails were allowed to be deleted by Clinton and her co-conspirator lawyer, that the FBI never looked at those servers, all while the Media and Dems were claiming “COLLUSION!!1!1!!”…. and that doesn’t even begin to address the Wikileaks Podesta and DNC emails showing that the DNC rigged the primary with CNN giving Hilary the debate questions ahead of time. That has to be the most clear-cut example of trying to “fix an election” – a nationally televised debate is rigged and Hillary pretends like she didn’t know the question ahead of time… But “no reasonable prosecutor!!!” and Strzok has texts that say “insurance policy” and on and on.
And then Clinton is out there on the talk show circuit lecturing about the “war on truth”??? That’s about all of the proof I need. That’s not “sophistry” – it is a complete abandonment of rationality; it’s wiping one’s ass with the notion of rule of law. It’s not just “relying upon selected experts;” it’s disconnecting reality from the underlying facts.
In the end, we’ve arrived at straight-up will to power and fuck anyone who doesn’t go along.
To the point about “when was the supposed era of rationality,” I’d say that we’ve always had corruption, the difference was that there was a time when it had consequences. There was a reason it had to be hidden. There was also a time when we had things like the Lincoln-Douglas debates. One can always point to scandals of the day, but there was a time when we had public debates with real intellectuals. I didn’t like Gore Vidal or William Buckley, but at least they had some sense of rhetoric’s demands, and some sense of history. That’s all gone now. If you want me to pinpoint when it started going south I’d say it begins with post-modernism.
when was this mythical rational epoch?
It was between π BC and e AD when Emperor Euler died.
Unfortunately We keep trying to get to the end of the Irrational Epoch, but it just keeps going and going.
That drives me insane too. “We need to get rid of EC/or git rid of the senate” because Wyoming is too powerful? I get the relative vote argument, but the argument that Small states would want to participate in a union where NOT ONLY do they have the fewest actual votes, but they have not bidding power, is ridiculous. The Senate and EC delagates for senators are the concession Large states make to keep the smaller ones in the union.
You only need the 10 most populous states to get to the 50% market
There’s also solutions built into our republic. The House can be expanded by a simple vote, and the Senate can be expanded by the splitting of existing states. But, all of these changes require something that no one wants to bother obtaining any more, and that is consensus. While utterly irrelevant to the practice of science, it is actually quite important to the smooth functioning of a democratic polity. Tell the same people going around with “97% of scientists agree!” that we’d need 97% agreement to pass a law and watch their heads explode.
But, all of these changes require something that no one wants to bother obtaining any more, and that is consensus.
See, also, amending the Constitution. Why get a consensus of the citizens, when you can just get 5 Ivy Leaguers to rewrite the inconvenient bits?
Indeed. We’ve been stuck fighting over Roe for almost 50 years even though most other “controversial” decisions have been settled (see: how many people even know about Wickard never mind have a problem with it?). But, that decision was “right” (for the wrong reasons) so instead of fixing the broken process we’ll just game it some more.
We’ve been stuck fighting over Roe for almost 50 years
“I am unable to lay my finger upon that provision of the Constitution that prohibits the several States from passing laws regulating or even outright prohibiting the practice of abortion.”
But, all of these changes require something that no one wants to bother obtaining any more, and that is consensus.
This. I had this argument with someone who said the “Constitution is Too hard to Amend”. Yeah, Surprising that you would need the buy in from Most people to change the Supreme Law of the Land
Of course that argument starts the whole “Fuck the 17th Amendment” thing. Only a nut would defend the EC. And anyone who starts in on how the Senate is supposed to represent the States and not just be some souped up House is a dangerous nut.
The Senate retains one redeeming quality even post-17th Amendment and that is that it doesn’t get gerrymandered (the ravings of idiots notwithstanding). Of course, if we did start splitting some states, that might change.
EVERYONE has an opinion and a microphone/megaphone, and almost none of them are familiar with even the most basic facts about the thing they’re rheeeing about.
We’ll just send an IRS backhoe to scoop some of those gold doubloons out of Scrooge McBezos’ swimming pool, so the deserving poors can go to college and become geniuses. And granny can get a new hip, and go on Dancing With the Stars.