Buenos días Gliberinos! Sloopy is currently sweating off 4 pints of pickle juice from his bender last night outside of Dundee, TX. Have any idea where that is? Me neither but it explains why he has no wifi.
I’m having chilaquiles for breakfast this morning. How about you, half a beer from last night? You know what, lets just discuss the links from south of the border….
The big news is the Spanish government is extraditing a Venezuelan diplomat, and by diplomat I mean guy affiliated with Chavez that also trafficked cocaine.
Hugo Carvajal, an ally of Venezuela’s late Socialist leader Hugo Chavez, is wanted by U.S. authorities on allegations of drug trafficking. He has previously denied accusations that he collaborated with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia to help smuggle cocaine into the United States.
Don Brett is the big winner.
Brazil is still on fire. Note the data cited is “since 2008.” Which this fun infographic from the right wing nut jobs at New York Times might give us a clue as to why they picked “since 2008.”
Chilean police are suspending the use of pellet guns against protesters. Apparently they’re taking head shots…
Mexicans are not cool with the transgender children. Way to frame that pitch there, AP.
Since I like to give a shout out to these guys, here’s nice article on pre-Peronist Argentina. Spoiler: it wasn’t a shithole.
Here’s some tunes. Enjoy.
Since I like to give a shout out to these guys, here’s nice article on pre-Peronist Argentina. Spoiler: it wasn’t a shithole. – well It was not that great either, to be fair. But there are ways and ways to fix problems.
It sounds like people worked hard back then. The Peronists fixed that.
I assume like in most south American countries there were feudalist elements by landed interests
Comparatively speaking, was anywhere really that great in the 1880’s?
Buckingham Palace.
The big news is the Spanish government is extraditing a Venezuelan diplomat, and by diplomat I mean guy affiliated with Chavez that also trafficked cocaine. – Cocaine in Spain comes mainly on a plane
A+
I think he’s got it
What exactly is Jove in “By Jove”?
Sounds better than “By Jupiter”.
By Zeus, that’s it!
Great Cesaer’s Ghost?
Actually a bastardization of “By Jehovah” but By God and By Jehovah we’re considered low class.
Brazil is still on fire. Note the data cited is “since 2008.” Which this fun infographic from the right wing nut jobs at New York Times might give us a clue as to why they picked “since 2008.”
WE DON’T NEED NO WATER LET THE MOTHERFUCKER BURN
Now I’m thinking the song for the day should’ve been “We Didn’t Start the Fire”.
That abomination is never the song.
“It was always burning, since the world’s been turning?”
What is gonorrhea, Alex?
“Please Clap” for six hundred?
Chilean police are suspending the use of pellet guns against protesters. Apparently they’re taking head shots… – a pellet to the head will be worth it when socialism bring utopia
Pikers.
“Government snipers have shot into the crowds from rooftops and even a helicopter,”
They’re using them wrong.
Mexicans are not cool with the transgender children. Way to frame that pitch there, AP. – was there a headline change or something?
I’m simply noting that “protesting a proposed law allowing transgender children” is not “debating”.
I look at the chart, and it tells me the Amazon is running out of trees.
SAVE THE AMAZON!
Funny, Amazon doesn’t appear to be short on trees.
I should have gone with this one.
This one.
20-year-old Helen Mirren when she played Cleopatra in a theatrical production in 1965
https://twitter.com/41Strange/status/1196530278228885505
thicc?
*applause*
She has been reincarnated to save us.
Is climate change activist Greta Thunberg secretly a time traveler who has come to save humanity? A 120-year-old photo of a Greta Thunberg doppelganger has certainly sparked the intrigue of online conspiracy theorists.
“The photo, unearthed from archives at the University of Washington, shows three children working at a gold mine in Canada, including a girl wearing Thunberg’s signature braid and stoic expression,” reports The New York Post. “Historians believe it was taken around 1898.”
Fetal alcohol syndrome, stoic expression, po-tay-to, po-tah-to.
That’s eerie.
Though I’ve found pictures that look like my kids. One was an advert for a birthing center that had an “older brother” looking at the new born. Looked just like my youngest and had the same expression the my boy would have when seeing a baby (he likes babies).
Children all look alike.
And babies all look like Winston Churchill.
So this is her purgatory then?
Wales qualified for Euro2020. I think that qualifies as news.
Wales isn’t a country, it’s been a subordinate entity since… *looks it up* 1283. It’s been over seven hundred years since they were a country.
I wonder when the last time their Prince was there.
There is video footage of him in a welsh castle when he took up the title.
I can’t prove he’s been back since.
He’s also heir to the throne of Canada.
So he’s got that going for him.
The Syrup Throne of Upper and Lower Canada.
No one ever abdicates, because it’s impossible to stand up from the chair.
Please tell me you looked up your facts on Wikipedia. So I could make a comment about you using Jimmy Wales web site to get facts about Wales so you wail about how it isn’t a country.
You left out some whales. Work beluga in there and you’ve got a deal.
Whales?
*runs from room blubbering*
Don’t you ever get tired of spouting off?
Quiet or I’ll krill you
That’d be a fluke.
Please tell me Jimmy Wales is married to someone in Clint Eastwood’s family so we can also joke about him being in-law to the Outlaw Josie Wales.
Outlaw? She’s a pussycat!
The Daily Fail thicc links are generally Euro, yes
Far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has in the past questioned the accuracy of data provided by Inpe.
Again with the “far right” BS.
“Far right” = Somebody we don’t agree with
OT: How is your YouTube channel going?
Transitive and intransitive verb pairs drive me nuts!
Ask the average Japanese what 自動詞/他動詞 are and no one knows.
I’m not surprised.
Even well spoken English speakers don’t usually have a clue about grammar and sentence construction, they simply know if something sounds “wrong”.
The hardest part is how the Japanese themselves are nit strict about this. Listening to them will rarely show you the correct way to speak as they mix this stuff up all the time.
I ask my teachers and friends for sample usage on verb pairs every time I learn a new one.
And I still screw them up!
Straff – is that yours? If so, that’s really clever. I had a brief flirtation with Japanese when I was traveling there a bunch from Okinawa and… well, I wasn’t quite ready for Japanese.
No, that’s me kidding with straff. This guy also lives in Japan and makes a bunch of “inside baseball” jokes about living in Japan and the Japanese language.
Lazy cops gets his drop-gun from buyback program.
Of course.
It was a judge that originally turned in the gun…
and nothing else happened.
How could anybody think the cops weren’t going to keep some of them, either for personal use, to resell, or as drop guns. Are people really that naive?
Yeah, if some idiot turned in a Colt SAA from the 19th century I’d probably loose the paperwork.
I don’t comprehend the use of the word “probably” in this phrase.
It would depend if I was being followed around by a camera crew at the time.
Hell, in that case I would explain that as a design from before 1889 an SAA Colt is not a firearm by federal law – so it does not fall under that same restrictions and handling requirements.
Yes.
“What’s happening after you turn these weapons in?”
You get your nice, warm feeling and can pretend you did something to make a difference. Just like all the other proggy causes wrapped around feelings even though the world simply doesn’t work that way.
Cop Investigated For Dangling Pepperoni Pizza Over Jewish Colleague’s Food
https://forward.com/fast-forward/434830/british-police-sergeant-who-dangled-pepperoni-pizza-over-jewish-officer-s/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Main
Now that sort of behaviour is just not kosher.
Nevertheless, should we brand him forever with a yellow star?
Yup. Taunting a person with pepperoni is just wrong no matter how you slice it.
Well, it was a half baked idea, but at least he didn’t try to show him how it was made.
The puns are getting deep.
Keep dishing it out!
.
.
.
Pineapple.
Just keep him away from the oven.
Does the colleague work in the Hummuside Unit?
HUMMUS IS NOT JEWISH YOU ZIONIST PIG!!!1!!
Chickpea paste is a part of the cuisine of every culture that had the misfortune of being located on the eastern mediterranian.
*You have been banned and IP blocked from wikipedia*
Duration of ban: indefinite
I’m with UCS on this one. Hummus is nothing but trouble. Look at Trump. Has some hummus sent up to his room in Moscow for a late night snack one time and we still haven’t heard the end of the outrages stories about chickpeas.
*Swiss suddenly goes into inexplicable tremors at his gaming convention*
What? You really think Swissy psychically knows that he needs to get back here to post the thunderous opera applause gif?
Hummus is for people who didn’t eat enough paste in grade school.
I have made Hummus from scratch using large lima beans. It requires soaking them for awhile and the removing the outer skin. Very labor intensive, which is why large lima beans are used. Well worth the effort.
Lima beans are the devil.
*PTSD from 8 yr old Bob sitting at the dining table for 3 hours not eating lima beans.*
Get that man a job at Burger King!
That’s not a nice way to treat a religious menorahty.
The Bee catches wind…
“Finally, the Dems are getting serious about pushing out things beyond just empty policy proposals,” said one pundit after watching the footage of Swalwell. “It’s encouraging to see some Democrats move beyond empty talking points and put the shards of a real, hefty policy platform together.”
“I don’t mean to raise a stink about this, but all these Dems still in the race are all vapor. They’re all smoke and mirrors. I’m the real deal,” the rep said, pointing to specific policy proposals he has that are much better than those of the candidates who are still in the race. For instance, while many Democrats have suggested passing a gas tax, Swalwell said he will cut out the middle man and just pass the gas.
Swalwell really dropped a bomb on Democrats’ talking points, nuking his own party’s crappy, vaporous ideas. “These Democrats are all full of hot air, just dangling in the wind. But not me. I’m just having an absolute blast, and I think real progressives will greet my ideas with thunderous applause when they see I’m really cooking with gas.”
Swalwell also said he doesn’t always weigh in on things, sometimes preferring the “silent but deadly” approach. “We really need to cut the crap and offer people something that doesn’t smell fishy.”
The stench of stoopid permeates all time and space. I have smelled it, and it is bad.
don’t let Swiss see that one. He’ll strain himself.
I was going to say “Wait ’till Swiss gets a whiff of this!”
way better
*hangs head in shame*
Swiss has cut the cheese, he has no gazing rights here.
I had one for this, but it turned into a brainfart.
Too easy.
Good morning, Mexi!
And a good morning to the rest of you freaks!
Thanks for the lynx. The Argentinian one was interesting, but quite depressing. We see over and over that liberty equals success, yet proggies want to wreck everything. It’s almost as if they are evil fucks.
Your musical selection was interesting. I have to give the nod to the redhead. I think her artistry was outstanding.
Make it a great day, people.
Argentina is a case study in how economic socialism never works. Unlike Venezuela, the USSR, etc… they don’t have the disqualifiers that the proponents of socialism always object to. They’re just a failed economy.
No, they do, have their apologists. They’re just Argentine and speak a screwy form of Spanish.
I thought it was the Brazilians who spoke Portuguese?
Mexi is correct. Argentinian Spanish reflects a bunch of influence from the large numbers of Italian immigrants in the early 20th century. My bad Spanish skills takes a pounding down there with the different pronunciations.
I have no love for Argentines, but i’ll say this: Castellano is a far more lovelier sounding form of Spanish than either Castilian or Mexican Spanish.
I do love Paraguayan Spanish though.
Your musical selection was interesting. I have to give the nod to the redhead. I think her artistry was outstanding.
Yeah…I should’ve gone with Adelitas Way.
?Que is un “Adelitas guey? No intiendo.
Hey! I never called your abuelito gay!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TS4tFJ7AbM0
The Argentinian one was interesting, but quite depressing
You see, I didn’t see it quite that way. To me it’s proof positive that liberty working isn’t something peculiar to a particular culture.
liberty working isn’t something peculiar to a particular culture
Which should be obvious, as anything besides liberty is itself a culture attempting to displace/subordinate prior culture.
In local news Deputy Chief of Mission Abigail Rupp from the Romanian US embassy wanted to hold a speech at some celebration of the birth week of Mohamed and was stopped by the Turkish consul saying her speech is not part of the official program. This for some reason is news. An escalation of diplomatic issues between the US and Turkey.
Why are the Turks influencing what is said by an American in Romania?
I think the event was organized by some Turkish religious organization called Diyanet
Then that’s nobody’s business but the Turks.
after Diyanet recently merged with Cloudflare to become Diyanfire.
I blame L. Ron Hubbard.
I just finished reading Snowden’s memoir and highly recommend it. Although his credulity regarding Big Tech and the prospects of actual reform of the spy agencies even after everything he’s experienced and seen is mind boggling.
His affection for Sanders is fairly mind-boggling.
He doesn’t stray much into politics in the book, which is nice.
I particularly enjoyed his fond reminiscences of web 1.0, since I came up around the same era.
I’ll have to get the book. My impression of Snowden is that he has a nostalgic view of tech that hasn’t borne itself out over the last three decades. Evgeny Morozov is a supreme cynic on tech and liberty, but probably much more accurate.
He’s a technoutopian for sure, very much a product of that mid to late 90s hacker aesthetic that died on 9/11. It shines through in the book, particularly in those early chapters. He’s developed a sort of cynicism one would expect under the circumstances, but you can see that he still hasn’t shaken that slightly Pollyannaish hope. But at the same time, that’s also the impulse that motivated him to do what he did, so mazel tov to him. He could have turned into a jaded prick like every other sysadmin in the spook agencies and gone and cashed fat checks in a consultancy.
Hmm… I may have to read this then
The big takeaway from Impeachment Theater is that American voters have influence over a much smaller portion of the federal government than they believed. Washington is a feudal bureaucratic empire with a small suggestion box.
Yep – we’ll never vote our way out of this,.
The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of an expanding bureaucracy.
In all reality, it’s been this way at least since the conclusion of the 2nd world war.
I’d say since the creation of the Federal Reserve. That certainly could have been a by-product of European countries dropping the gold standard in quick succession, but the fact that it wasn’t necessary suggests none of these decisions were made independently.
*reads tweetstorm*
I agree with everything he said. It’s a perfect encapsulation of what we’re witnessing.
Good stuff.
Easier to read here
I think most of us here recognized this while ago. I’m not sure the rest of America is willing to do so however. It will all be OK when their guy or girls gets into office.
That, and there’s lots of fawning media coverage about how the permanent bureaucracy is really on the people’s side. The wholesale rejection of public choice theory, even by people who should know better (Cato, Reason, etc.), is quite maddening. Everybody, including the President, is acting with their own personal interests first. But lots of people have put blinders on.
Didn’t someone write a book a couple of years ago that said that public choice theory was totes racist?
That’s some excellent stuff, thanks.
Best response: When in the course of human events….
Bravo
Excellent rant. In my version of the alternate realities we are currently failing to reconcile, you have to be willfully blind not to see that we are ruled (not governed) by a semi-closed caste rotten with entryism, credentialism, and nepotism.
I wonder about possible parallels with the Chinese mandarinate, with its caste of Confucian bureaucrats and puppet Emperor.
The eunuchs had bigger balls.
Fun fact, there were times during Chinese history when the eunuchs were required to keep their severed parts in a jar.
No, I don’t know why. I suspect the Emperor was mocking them.
In case they got hungry an hour later?
That trope gets invoked so rarely these days.
Yep – we’ll never vote our way out of this.
Well, we’d have to start first. Adam Schiff has been in Congress since 2001. Pelosi, since 1987. The House has more members than the Senate who are, in theory, easier to replace than Senators, yet it has a higher (averaging 90% for 50+ years, vs 80% for the Senate) incumbency rate. Gerrymandering plays a big part in that, but it is important to remember that there are still millions of people who want this shit to continue. Midterm voter turnout in 2018 was at a level not seen in 104 years. This is what we got.
We can vote our way out of this, but people have to want it.
A republic, if you can keep it.
To be fair, you pointed out two Californian reps, and I don’t believe the Californian elections are fair
Agree on everything. One random observation. All Huffpo writers have blue checkmarks. Whycome no blue checkmark for Breitbart writters?
Early blue checks were “verified people” now it’s “Twits we like”
Oh I know why. Just something that stuck out to me.
Important: Please note that our verified account program is currently on hold. We are not accepting any new requests at this time.
Solidarity
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has doubled down this week on calling the recent ouster of Bolivia’s now-former President Evo Morales a “coup,” but few other U.S. lawmakers or candidates followed suit.
The ongoing debate on whether constitutional order was maintained during and after the transition has echoed a larger divide in global politics. Sanders’s view is shared among the global left, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who granted asylum to Morales upon his exit from Bolivia.
But the Trump administration — and opponents of the Latin American populist left embodied by Morales and López Obrador — saw the end of the Morales government as a boon to democracy in the region.
“I oppose the intervention of Bolivia’s security forces in the democratic process and their repression of Indigenous protesters. When the military intervened and asked President Evo Morales to leave, in my view, that’s called a coup,” wrote Sanders on Twitter Monday evening.
——-
At the center of the controversy is a damning report from the Organization of American States (OAS) on Bolivia’s October election that precipitated Morales’s resignation earlier this month.
OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro, who served as foreign minister under former Uruguayan President José Mújica — a hero of the Latin American left — said last week at an extraordinary session of the OAS Permanent Council that “in Bolivia there was a coup d’etat on Oct. 20 when Evo Morales committed electoral fraud.”
I know more than I did before, after reading this. Morales committed election fraud, and got kicked out for it. I’m okay with that.
Democracy only works when your candidate wins, eh, Bernie?
I thought it was fairly clear he was not allowed to run again
I doubt AOC can locate Bolivia on a map, let alone form a plausible opinion of what’s going on there.
She can too and cry while doing it
If good, then Marxism.
If bad, then Orange Man.
“It’s somewhere near Newton-John”.
Perhaps the big reason why democracy doesn’t work is that about half the country will always be dissatisfied.
Any MD Glibs want to chime in on the possibility of an actual conviction?
Former Baltimore mayor Catherine E. Pugh charged with wire fraud, tax evasion
TW: Washington Post – somehow it must be Trump’s fault.
I blame sexism myself
No “BITCH SET ME UP!” moment??
What lies beyond China’s crushing of the Uighurs
From the perspective of some Uighurs living in Australia.
I believe he wasn’t educated on the situation at hand, and he spoke. So many people could have been harmed, not only financially, but physically, emotionally, spiritually.
One of the pastors at the church I attended growing up undertook several missionary expeditions to China in the mid 90s, and I attended a few of his lectures on them between times. It’s been rather amusing to me to hear the shocked indignation of everyone that the Uighur Muslims are being persecuted considering the shit that’s been happening to Christians in China since the first day of the cultural revolution without a single fuck given by anybody in the mainstream “human rights” community.
China saw what’s happening with Islam in Europe and said “Nope”.
… does that retroactively explain why they did the same thing to Tibetans?
That was just pure assholery. Chinese nationalism and communist totalitarianism is a particularly nasty combination.
NPR took time out of it’s 24/7 coverage of how Trump’s-going-down-this-time to bring a story of a woman who ran across Australia.
She took the summer off her job delivery soup on her bike.
How is that a market that pays well enough to take any time off??
The discussions of what to cover on their show at NPR headquarters must be maddening to anyone with half a brain. I imagine a half dozen 26 year old single women, Ari Shapiro, and three Madeline Albright lookalikes nattering over topics.
I listened to NPR for three decades; my filters had to get better and better: every third article was about the metric left-handed lesbians of Laredo.
I still listen in the truck in a “bless their hearts, these kids are trying hard” sort of way. There’s no where to hide from a world that is a salad of unlearned writers, irrelevant topics, with smug sauce. Rush hasn’t been funny for 10 years. There is no sane, mature, spin-less way to keep up with the news.
Left-Handed Lesbians of Laredo
band name?
It’s insane how people think NPR is balanced. The last few years their word choice paints everything. It’s not even close, at least for a while they just picked the “right” topics and lied by omission.
They ran innumerable ads bragging about how the “didn’t report facts” they “told stories.”
Parks and rec got a few things right, and one is public radio.
Also, I don’t know if anybody here is much into linux tinkering, but the early-adopter version of the PinePhone is now available for preorder and will be shipping in late December or January. My preorder’s in.
Give us a review when you get it.
For sure. The early-adopter version won’t ship with a finished OS, but nearly all the functionality is already there in the dev prototypes, and by the time they actually ship I suspect it’ll be fully functional in terms of messaging and calling. UBPorts seems to be the most complete, but postmarketOS is also fully operational. I use my phone so little that beta-quality builds will be fine for my daily use, but anyone who needs production quality should wait til the final build goes up on March.
“Give us a review when you get it.”
Yes. Please do.
I’m no power Linux user (I use Ubuntu on my home machine), but I like the idea of an open-source phone.
The Librem5 should ship a more cohesive product, although for 700 bucks the specs compared to other high end phones are kind of a joke. That’ll happen when you collect people’s money, finalize the hardware, and then spend 3 years actually turning it into the product you promised…
linux for beginners
https://twitter.com/enelago/status/1196509563438223360
Seems legit.
Pine? This whole hipster/maker/artisan craze is getting out of hand.
Besides, wouldn’t maple be more suitable for a phone?
You just had to birch about the name.
Don’t be an ash.
You son of a beech, I was going to use that pun.
These puns are rather wooden don’t you think?
We don’t want to branch off onto a tangent.
You joke, but I remember for a while there was a company that was making wooden computer cases. They looked slick, were terrible for heat exchange, and were really limited in your adjustments after assembly. Of course, they were about 2-3 times the price of any steel/aluminum case.
Yeah, I do have a fondness for the steampunk aesthetic. Especially the laptop/keyboard/monitor mods.
First male birth control injection almost ready for penises
https://nypost.com/2019/11/19/first-male-birth-control-injection-almost-ready-for-penises/?utm_medium=SocialFlow&utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=NYPTwitter
The trials are over, including extended, Phase 3 clinical trials for which 303 candidates were recruited with a 97.3% success rate and no reported side effects. The product can safely be called the world’s first male contraceptive.”
The birth control method, which lasts approximately 13 years, involves injecting a polymer, called styrene maleic anhydride, into the vas deferens, effectively blocking sperm from leaving the testicles. The shot, preceded by a dose of local anesthesia, is designed to supplant a traditional vasectomy.
Hard pass
Don’t inject stuff into your junk.
Nuff said.
This sounds like a less-reversible version of the Vas-Clip procedure that they rolled out several years ago and then quietly killed after it turned out to cause side effects and be far less effective than advertised.
Never early-adopt any medical procedure.
some one has to though.
This is like people round here who say never buy a new car. In order to buy second hand, someone needs to buy new.
Of course, that someone can always be someone else.
An idiot is born every minute and we are counting on it.
It’s Darwinism at it’s best: those stupid enough to do this shouldn’t be allowed to pollute the gene pool…
Lots of babies and divorces came out of that fiasco (actually, I referenced that last night and noted I used it as a plot point).
The vas deferens isn’t in the penis.
Joe Biden Says Pong May Be A Gateway Drug To More Dangerous Video Games Like Asteroids And Galaga
“These young whippersnappers, they’re just trying out Pong because it’s the cool thing to do,” said Biden at a Vegas town hall. “The next thing you know, you’re pew-pewing centipedes and Pac-Manning the Marios, plunking in one quarter after another. It’s a real problem with the kids these days. We’ve got to get them out of these deadly arcades and doing more productive things.”
True story: about two months ago I played Galaga for the first time ever. We were in one of those bars with free video games, etc. My wife remembered Galaga from playing it in her youth and said let’s play it. After she got knocked out, I played it for over an hour and more than doubled the previous high score. Eventually, I purposely let my ship get destroyed enough times that the game ended – just so we could leave and go somewhere else. I’ve never been a big video game player. Next time I’m at that bar I’ll have to check if my score is still standing.
Galaga is still the shiznit.
I have a Galaga-type game on my phone I’ve been playing. Alien Shooter.
In
today’syesterday’s beer news, New Belgium has sold itself to a Kirin subsidiary (Little Lion). New Belgium was one of the first to go with the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) ownership model.Does that mean the employees approved the deal?
Another story has the note that it still has to go up for a vote of the employees. Any who are participants in the ESOP will receive a “retirement pay” of at least $100,000 (with some receiving much more), and the brewery will no longer be held by the employees (but will retain it’s B Corp status).
Most ESOP plans work out poorly, but sounds like this one is going to pay off.
Obama Reminds Democrats To Save The Far-Left Stuff Until After They Get Elected
“They’ve got to save the far-left stuff until after they get elected,” Obama said. “You’ve got to lie a little. ‘Mislead’ is the better term. You won’t get elected otherwise. On the campaign you want to stick with the simple stuff like ‘yes we can’ and ‘change.’ Once you’re elected, you can basically go full commie.”…
Obama noted that typical Democratic voters are not ready for forced abortions, wealth confiscation at gunpoint, or even labor camps. “Unfortunately,” Obama said, “ideas like this take time to develop in the collective mind, so we have to hide them from the American people.”
Is it bad that it sounds believable?
I can imagine the Lightworker himself one day seeing a quote from an article in the Bee like this one and thinking to himself – “Wait, when was it that I said that? Was that in Baltimore?…”
Asking for consent for emotional labor, even from people with whom you have a long-standing relationship that is welcoming to crisis-averting, should be common practice.
https://twitter.com/fyeahmfabello/status/1196554233715286016
Uh.
Not sure what ’emotional labor’ is, but I am familiar with emotional rescue.
I’m sure that’s a two-way street.
Not for these paracites.
“Why are men so closed off? Talk about your feelings! It’s OK to cry!”
“Ugh, you expect to steal my emotional labor shitlord!”
I honest to fucking god hope that a no-shit “man up, pussy”, “women should be barefoot and pregnant”, “shut your whore mouth while men are talking” version of the patriarchy makes a comeback.
I have it on good authority that this never happens.
According to Fox 8, police said two masked suspects with guns entered the store Friday evening. Two clerks were working at the time, one of whom, a 26-year-old male, pulled a gun and shot one of the robbery suspects.
Cleveland 19 reports the second suspect fled after the clerk fired the gun.
The Beacon Journal identified the deceased suspect as 19-year-old Ameer Majed Ismail. Summit County Medical Examiner’s Office Chief Investigator Gary Guenther indicated Ismail was shot in the head.
Akron… it checks out. Just pulled up the location on a map, and I’m pretty sure I’ve driving through that neighborhood once, on my way back from Hoppin’ Frog brewery.
and his family will be convinced by some charlatan that they should sue the store’s owners for allowing their workers to carry firearms.
NPR drills down
The shale oil boom that catapulted the U.S. into the world’s largest oil producer may be going bust. As oil prices drop amid weakening demand, bankruptcies and layoffs are up and drilling is down, signs of a crisis that’s quietly roiling the industry.
Some of the most successful companies in the oil business are household names — think Exxon Mobil or Chevron. But the boom in shale drilling has been driven by smaller, independent operators. These companies have pushed the limits of drilling technology and taken big risks on unproven oil fields.
Today, shale accounts for about two-thirds of U.S. oil production and nearly all of the industry’s growth, but many of the companies that made that growth possible are now struggling to stay afloat.
——-
Today, shrinking global demand for oil is driving the price down once again. What’s different this time around? Investors no longer seem willing to write the industry a blank check.
“I think now you’ve seen a lot of pressure of, ‘We want you to be a real business. Your cost structure’s too high, you have too much debt, I’m not funding your drilling anymore with external capital. You have to live within your own means,’ ” Deckelbaum says.
Without access to new cash, many producers are pulling back on exploration. The number of rigs drilling for new oil is at its lowest point in two years.
Strange inexplicable forces are at work. Everybody runs out and drills a bunch of wells, and when all that new supply hits the market, prices fall. Some people are overextended.
We should probably just let the Ministry of Plenty be in charge of managing the energy markets.
U.S. oil production constantly has small booms and busts. The great thing is that it effectively puts an upper limit on oil prices and protects us from the kind of foreign collusion and extortion that we had in the 70s.
The 70’s was purely an outcome of the oil controls the government had in place. Bob Murphy just had a good interview on this.
I’m not sure I’m following the logic of how oil controls led to the Bee Gees.
It’s probably all Carter’s fault in the end.
The Bee Gees had hit songs in the 1960s, doncha know?
Reminds me of a conversation I had with my old school liberal (well, early hippie era liberal) mom. She’s still convinced price controls prevented unconscionably high gas prices. And the New Deal saved America.
Praise Greta.
#winning
National Humanities Medal:
The Claremont Institute for championing the Nation’s founding principles and enriching American minds. Its publications and public events have deepened our understanding and appreciation of American freedom, democracy, justice, and rule of law.
Aren’t these the fellas who had that series on BAP which I linked here? Trump is BAP, confirmed
SJWednesday: Dehumanization Is A Necessary Step
I mean I think the same of commies, tankies in particular…. so can’t criticize
It sure worked great in the first American Civil War, the Great Leap Forward, Pol Pot’s Revolution…
The RATM ethos has always been drearily amusing. “Fuck corporations… except the largest entertainment company in the world that records and distributes all of our music. Oh and fuck the rich too! But not the Sony executives who sign my checks. My 14 bedroom estate in Beverly Hills is personal property, not private property! And anyway, we have to live under the capitalist oppressor for now!” Get bent.
It’s the Michael Moore School of Anti-Capitalism
I was listening to Dr Wolff (debated Gene Epstein about socialism) and something clicked. Socialist persons like him think that corporations are bad because not everyone has a say in the running of the business. But Democratic government is fine because everyone has a chance for input.
The fact that with a government you are forced to adhere to the outcome wether you like it or not does not matter., But business is awful because your input isn’t considered, regardless of the fact that you are free to leave and quit.
why would everyone have a say in everyone else’s affairs is the question.
I hate to say it, I don’t think Gene won that one. You can’t really argue that voluntary socialist structures like Mondragon can flourish under a pure capitalism system. Those idiots just take it as proof of concept.
It’s amazing how the failure of Robert Owen and all other late 19th Century Utopian socialist experiments don’t dissuade them
Meh I didn’t watch it, but my understand was that he was trying to reach out to the socialist college students, and the numbers say that it worked.
He was never going to convince Wolff and he didn’t need to convince me
Gene certainly won over the room, but the room is filled with people that want to hear a rational retort to somebody like Wolff. I assume Wolff lost most of them when he declared he never studied Marx in any capacity in his journey through higher education. Which is counter to literally everyone’s experience.
I’ll agree that after listening to Wolff’s after debate recap with his students that i think it was a mistake of Gene to say “I agree” with you. Because while it’s True, that Libertarians are ok with a worker co-op forming voluntarily, the Socialists like Wolff are just going to twist it into “He thinks we’re right”, and never even conceive of why we object to government implementation. I’ve heard enough leftists say that they don’t care about violence.
I’m listening to that now. Its a bunch of ad hom arguments in a echo chamber.
They never consider the consumer in this equation, the ultimate decider of the worth of a business.
Hell, if your turnover rate is 100% cause you are a douche employer, then I’d say the employees have a big say in the outcome of your business.
Permanant middle manager – “Our Employee turnover last year was a record 415%. What do we regard as a reasonable goal for next year?”
Guy overpromoted becaue he hadn’t left – “Five hundred percent?”
The actual effective range of choices in the mass market economy we live in are almost nil though to be honest. And the extent to which large businesses are wedded to government makes it almost a distinction without a difference. Let’s take a practical example. If you wanted to completely sever all commercial ties to just 3 companies – let’s call it P&G, Cargill and Google – you would be reduced to living like an 18th century agrarian. Markets are a joke and choice is an illusion.
Which isn’t to say that I support socialist policies, merely that markets as they exist in reality bear little resemblance to the theoretical cornucopia of consumer choice that’s presented in the textbooks.
You know what Pat. I just don’t want to do this today.
You make a good point. The primary way government controls your freedom is thru the limitation of your choices by regulation of businesses and banning them from offering options the government doesn’t approve of. The secondary method is a newer one, namely keeping interest rates so low that the accumulation of capital at the upper end of the economy is massive, leading to innumerable acquisitions and concentration of IP.
Fascism lite?
I think we need a new word for it.
“Corporatism”. The name that Mussolini originally wanted to dub his ideology.
The thought the Corporatists wanted to organize society along functional lines (church, business, unions, etc…) with a monopolistic concentration of power at the top of each section, all subservient to the government. I see some similarities but it’s not quite equivalent.
I don’t understand why this just isn’t seen as a more modern form of mercantilism. Seems to me that’s what it is.
Mercantilism is almost definitionally nationalistic, so that doesn’t quite fit either in our modern globalist context. I think fascism is still the most appropriate descriptor.
I like the pessimism. “It could always be worse” can only hold the barbarians at bay for so long.
I think you’re conflating very different things here.
The range of choices consumers are interested in is not in terms of producers but in terms of products.
How did we get 23 different brands of deodorant if they all trace back to P&G? We shop for products, not for producers, and at the level of your 3 examples, the range of products is so broad as to support your “without them you’re looking at an 18th century agrarian lifestyle.”
There may be problems from the concentration of producers to fewer and fewer umbrella companies, but that concern only impacts consumers at the product level.
We have the cornucopia — what matter that few make the horns of plenty? It’s the plenty we’re after.
But that’s precisely why the choice is illusory. We’re buying substantively identical products from 23 different brands all owned by 2 or 3 conglomerates that operate globally and enjoy cozy relationships with national and international political power. Take the hubbub over the Gillette toxic masculinity ads. The idiots who ran out to dump their Gillette razors and boycott the company are going to go 2 aisles over and load up an entire cart worth of P&G products. Your consumer choices have no signaling value in either market terms or social terms in an oligopolistic scenario. And that’s ultimately what makes consumer choice valuable from a market perspective – the signaling data it generates. If the ability to shop different brands was the only value in consumer choice then we’d have really no argument against a socialist state wherein the entire means of production are centrally controlled, just so long as the central planners cranked out sufficient products and placed different labels on the box.
But when the Gilette division grossly underperforms for too long, P&G will still axe it or overhaul it.
They could eliminate it or subsidize it indefinitely with no financial consequence to the organization as a whole though. Which is why they operate as if their customers don’t matter, because they largely don’t. If someone at P&G has an ideological axe to grind, or wants to promote a message in line with the agenda of one of the dozens of national governments they’re in bed with, or decides for whatever reason that they want to act in opposition to the expressed desires of their customers they can well afford to do it because you will still continue to buy P&G products of one kind or another for lack of any alternative.
I’m at a loss as to why the possibility of them making the poor business decision to prop up the money- losing division makes the choice of customers in the market for razors irrelevant in your mind.
The conglomerate makes a lot of different products, but in no category does it have a monopoly. If it burns itself down by propping up money-losing ventures or even flipping over divisions to drive away customers, doesn’t mean they aren’t shrinking each time and their compeditors growing.
There was an age when Sears going away was unthinkable. They were too big and too ubiquitous. A big company takes longer to die, but just because some of their product still sells for now doesn’t mean they’re immune from customer feedback in the long run.
They don’t really need a monopoly in any one category; the diversification into multiple categories with minimally-competitive oligopoly is actually what makes them (nearly) invincible. Oligopolistic competition is something of a farce. And even if you do manage by great pains to extract yourself from the entire suite of P&G brands you’re likely going to be giving your business to one of 2-3 other conglomerates who pay off the same bribes, attend the same conferences, and conduct their business in much the same manner. It’s a Hobson’s choice.
Sears isn’t really a good analogy I don’t think, because Sears was a mere retailer. Nobody is shopping at Sears anymore, but they’re still buying all of the same goods that sat on Sears shelves. P&G is making the goods, not operating the till. It’s of no consequence to them whether my toilet paper and laundry supplies are shipped out of an Amazon warehouse or trucked to my local supermarket. Their market position is much better secured.
From what we’ve seen, the barriers to entry into making and selling these products are not terribly high. In just the Gilette example, the people jumping ship didn’t go to Schick.
In varies by industry. The efficiencies that come with incumbency and scale as well as the marketing and product placement advantages make it untenable for new entrants in a lot of their product categories even though on the face of it they are not prohibitively expensive to make. And then you run into the same illusion of choice in some regard; for example, the popular Dollar Shave Club is a division of Unilever and sells razors made by the Korean conglomerate Dorco.
The six degrees of separation game is a feature not a bug. Yes, it makes things difficult if you’re trying for some sort of moral purity wherein you reject the foul touch of evilcorp somewhere in the production/distribution chain, but if one of those three goes kablooie, the network can route around the damage.
I’d argue it’s almost exactly the opposite. Shit is so centralized in nightmarishly bureaucratic organizations now that when one of them goes down it tends to obliterate the entire market with it. That’s how we ended up with Too Big To Fail in the finance industry, which we just further entrenched by regulating so onerously that only the Too Big To Fail institutions could afford to continue operating.
I don’t believe that “too big to fail” is actually a thing. Real assets don’t depend on any particular organizational structure. If GM went bankrupt, it wouldn’t change the fact that a demand for automobiles exists, there were people who knew how to make them and the equipment they needed to do just that.
“Too big to fail” doesn’t exist strictly speaking, but as a practical matter it might as well. The American financial system would recover from the collapse of the Big Four, for example, but likely only at the expense of a currency collapse. A larger number of smaller firms is always preferable.
“A larger number of smaller firms is always preferable.”
1) preferred by whom?
2) why?
3) as compared to what?
4) citation needed
Generally by the market; natural monopolies would most likely be a rarity, although this is impossible to test since unencumbered markets are a theoretical construction that cannot and will never exist. The more free a market is though, the less likely it is for monopolistic or oligopolistic consolidation to occur.
Because competition is an essential component of price discovery and market efficiency that is retarded by monopolies and oligopolies. Monopolies and oligopolies also introduce system risk that is more difficult to manage than distributed risk across a larger number of firms.
As compared to central planning, or to monopoly, or even to oligopolistic competition for the aforementioned reasons. Consumer choice, price discovery, market efficiency, and system risk are all generally better handled in a competitive environment with more market participants.
These are merely my opinions, but the accumulated wisdom of 2 centuries of market economics lends credence to the idea. If state ownership of the means of production is bad then it logically follows that a total monopoly would be just as bad since it accomplishes the same objective. After that you’re merely breaking the concept down by degrees. Distributed systems are generally robust, and that goes not just for economic systems.
That and the fact that it ends up with them having to kill everybody who disagrees with them kinds takes the shine off of socialism.
This discussion was the best thing I have read all day.
Francois Octave Tassaert, The Cursed Woman, 1859
https://twitter.com/restot50/status/1195971007510720512
Hmmm. Would it be worth getting a PhD in art history to do a dissertation on lesbian porn?
Are you ready for Pete?
Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) is soaring in New Hampshire, leading his Democrat counterparts in the Granite State, a Saint Anselm College Survey Center poll released Tuesday revealed.
Buttigieg, who has experienced a significant boost in Iowa in recent weeks, is also soaring in New Hampshire, a poll released Tuesday indicated.
The survey, taken November 13-18, 2019, among 255 likely Democratic primary voters, showed Buttigieg leading the pack with 25 percent support – a full ten points ahead of former Vice President Joe Biden (D) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), both of whom garnered 15 percent support.
He’s finally on the pole in this race.
He’s the Top Democrat?
255 seems like a small sample, to me. Never mind how they were selected/identified.
Can you image this guy as president? Of course, I couldn’t imagine either of the 2016 major candidates as president either.
Some people are not ready for Pete.
How dare he fucking use the name of a national hero like Frederick Douglass!
So as somebody who contends daily with cyclists riding on sidewalks, the wrong way down one way streets, and through crosswalks against the light I think I hate everyone in this story.
Bicyclist Awarded $250,000 After Being Injured By MTA Officer Speaks To CBS2
You’ll note you have to read all the way to the bottom of the story.
How to properly stop a cyclist.
That’s awesome.
One time when a bunch of them were riding in pack blocking traffic I decided I’d join their pack with my 650SV Suzuki back when I used to ride.
For some reason they weren’t happy with me, but were completely OK with blocking at least a dozen cars.
Two wheels good, four wheels bad?
This creates a conflict between my Libertarian ideals and my hatred for D-bag cyclists.
I cycle solo. I rarely see cyclists acting like douchebags. Then again, I ride in the fields and not the city. In fact, the cyclists I encounter are extremely cautious and responsible.
On the other hand, I do see a whole lot of shithead drivers – first among them the ones who hate doing their stops or observing basic road etiquette like giving cyclists (including kids on bikes) and pedestrians the right of way. The things I’ve seen on the streets….sometimes I want to set up a camera.
The worst cyclists are the wannabes, the greenies who ride them because it’s a trend and couriers.
In NYC I’d say 50% of the worst cyclist offenders are food delivery or couriers.
I have no problem with most cyclists. It’s the ones that block traffic and act like they own the road. One of our metro cities painted in bike lanes on almost every road. Cyclists don’t even use them and continue to block traffic.
I know. I agree. It’s impossible to drive in downtown Montreal now. Big stress. Cyclists completely ignore everything.
Run over any cyclist not in a bike lane, and keep driving.
The Cyclist/Driver conflict is even more fucked up that the Israel/PLO one. Fuck the problems in the MidEast might actually be solved someday. The intifada on our streets is forever though.
Both sides have more than their fair share of knuckleheads.
It’s knuckleheads all the way down.
I’ve done a couple of group rides, I’m not a big fan. The biggest things I see cars doing is passing too damned close, and not using their turn signal. I make it a point to wave cars making right turns through when stopped at a red light. I would rather have them be turning in front of me with both of us aware, then having them blindside me when the light turns green.
There’s also the cars who go the speed of the peloton. I know they think they’re being prudent but it’s actually dangerous. Hit the pedal!
I make it a point to wave cars making right turns through when stopped at a red light.
Because you understand that “right of way” is not a magical force field. Too many cyclists don’t.
I may be a fat man, but I don’t compare to a car/truck/van. I’d just put a big dent on the hood, maybe break the windshield. As for me… cycling gear doesn’t really go into protection (other then the helmet)…
“here’s nice article on pre-Peronist Argentina.”
Nice link. The post-Peronist (is there such a thing?) or, at least, after his death and the beginning of the “Dirty War” is like going down a rabbit hole. You got Nazi refugees, Catholic terrorists, Peron’s third wife, and Peronist on Peronist violence. So strange how one man had such a long-lasting legacy, on both the Right and Left, on that country.
Everyone wants to claim to be the legitimate heirs to his legacy.
It’s sad that Argentina was at one time a top 25 country in the world.
A legacy of unending shit
Epstein’s Prison Guards didn’t kill themselves either.
This is gonna get interesting.
If those two get whacked, it’s basically confirming the conspiracy.
I actually had a prog acquaintance tell me she believes in the Epstein conspiracy. Her version is that Trump had Epstein killed because of damaging stuff that would incriminate Trump in child sex abuse.
It’s the bets thing about the Epstein Death. Everyone knows he was killed, just not sure who did it….
Like JFK: everyone knows there was a conspiracy but they get into huge flames wars about who ran the conspiracy (and who ran the people who ran the conspiracy).
Oswald had a mouse in his pocket?
I don’t think Epstein was killed.
To me, the most likely scenario, as in more likely than that everything was on the up and up, is that some rich guy who liked little girls payed a large amount of money for the cops to “fall asleep”, the cameras to “malfunction”, and for him to magically be taken off suicide watch.
Pedos don’t do well in prison. Epstein probably just needed the opportunity but not the “encouragement”.
The behavioural evidence suggests he still very much thought he was going to avoid prison time again. I don’t think he had an epiphany and decided he was as fucked as the little girls on his island.
^^^THIS^^^
I believe he was certain that he would be protected because otherwise some real powerful people would be going down with him… Kind of what Hillary did to Obama about Benghazi… Only problem is that Epstein didn’t realize the Clintons were sure to whack him anyway, cause that’s how they roll…
If that were the case, the MSM would be pushing all-Epstein every day instead of trying to sweep it under the rug.
Trump is a lot of things but pedo isn’t among them I bet.
Progs are the worst observers of human nature.
Hmmm. Blocked.
The survey, taken November 13-18, 2019, among 255 likely Democratic primary voters, showed Buttigieg leading the pack with 25 percent support – a full ten points ahead of former Vice President Joe Biden (D) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), both of whom garnered 15 percent support.
Familiarity breeds contempt. The more Warren and Biden talk, the less anybody is willing to pretend to support them.
Keep your mouth shut, Pete, and you could really go places.
South Carolina will be a rude awakening for the Booty Judge.
I cannot remember a single specific thing Butthead has said about what he would do as President. That’s how you win.
Gotta give him props for not playing the “I’m gay!” card in the dem field now. Would it hurt him in the general? I dunno. He probably would help him win the nomination, though.
The truth is Black and Latino voters are the ones far less likely to vote for a homosexual. A Dem who loses a big chunk of minority votes isn’t going very far in a general.
The black and latino voters that turn out for team blue primaries are more likely to be fine with a gay guy. The black or latino voter that only shows up on election day would be more likely to have a problem with it. My guess anyways.
Green New Deal.
Free healthcare for illegals.
Universal national service.
SJWednesday: We Just Need To Do It One More Time, It Will Work I Promise
Trotskyists: when your ideology is so soaked in blood and failure that you need to distinguish yourself from your fellow travelers by naming yourself after a commie who was killed by other commies
Way to pick ’em!
I hope they get an icy reception.
tHat WaSN’t ReAL COmMuNIsM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chile has one of the strongest economies in South America. Guess that will be changing soon.
Blackface
A Hollywood studio executive once suggested that Julia Roberts should play iconic African-American activist Harriet Tubman in a biopic.
In a recent Q&A, screenwriter Gregory Allen Howard opened up about the 26-year journey to getting the “Harriet” biopic to the big screen.
At the time the effort started, he said, Hollywood was not the same.
“I wanted to turn Harriet Tubman’s life, which I’d studied in college, into an action-adventure movie. The climate in Hollywood, however, was very different back then,” Howard said. “I was told how one studio head said in a meeting, ‘This script is fantastic. Let’s get Julia Roberts to play Harriet Tubman.'”
Howard said when someone suggested Roberts could not play the role, the executive responded, “It was so long ago. No one is going to know the difference.'”
I have nothing to add.
““It was so long ago. No one is going to know the difference.’””
Oh geeze.
You have to be as far back as Cleopatra to be right about that.
She was Greek. No reason a smoking hot white chick couldn’t play the role with sufficient historical “accuracy”.
Other than the fact that there was some doubt as to the actual physical attractiveness of the inbred original.
sufficient historical “accuracy”
Angelina Jolie agrees
I’m talking about more Recent Controversies where people didn’t know she was Greek and called it racisism to have her played by a white chick.
There’s not much dumber than Hollywood executive dumb.
The ticket buyers?
Last week, the local paper had an interview with a black activist who recounted how uncomfortable the white kids made her feel back in high school in 1980s. Having no black cheerleaders, leaving out yearbook photos of black class officers were legitimate. But one complaint, fantastically, was that the school had the audacity to cast a white girl in the role of Dorothy in Wizard of Oz!
Talking scarewcrows, tin woodsmen, and lions, ok, but a black person in Kansas?
Huh?
Reminds me of the scene in Arrested Development when the studio exec greenlights Maeby’s middle school book report on The Old Man and the Sea. “Yeah, we cast a young guy, CGI the fish, let’s fast track this one”
Hollywood Executives are the dumbest motherfuckers on the planet. Seriously.
“We aren’t coming for your guns.”
While saying he supports the Second Amendment, Biden called the absolutist arguments of some gun-rights supporters “bizarre.” Noting people can’t own machine guns or bazookas, Biden said, “Why should we allow people to have military-style weapons including pistols with 9-mm bullets and can hold 10 or more rounds?”
He called the anxiety among young people over being shot in school these days “overwhelming” and “not just in tough neighborhoods but in great neighborhoods like this.”
Mentioning his own shotgun ownership, Biden talked about Delaware goose-hunting restrictions that limit hunters to three shotgun shells. “We protect geese from Canada more than we do people,” he said.
Because Hong Kong, that’s why.
It’s amusing watching these dilettantes rage against rifles that shoot a varmint round and pistols that require a large magazine capacity because the round has no stopping power. 15 rounds of 9mm = super scary military-style assault death machine. 8 rounds of .45 ACP = cap pistol.
We protect people from Canada? Who knew Canada was so dangerous!
It’s prissy douchbags, all the way down
The moment came amid a back-and-forth over the identity of the anonymous whistleblower whose complaint about President Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky led to the impeachment proceedings.
“Mr. Vindman, you testified in your deposition that you did not know the whistleblower,” Nunes stated.
“Ranking member, it’s Lieutenant Colonel Vindman, please,” the witness responded.
Yeah, whatever.
I’ve talked to a few military buddies. They say every base has that guy and it looks like Vindman is that guy.
I listened to his testimony and it’s hard not to come to the conclusion the guy is not very bright. His answers were stilted and he looked confused most of the time. Volker and Morrison were much more cunning. They found that line where they could claim Trump was over the line (make the deep state happy!) and yet didn’t stray into directly calling anything an actual crime.
hard not to come to the conclusion the guy is not very bright.
The guy was a fucking Army Officer. Of course he isn’t that bright.
I think somebody has some extra filthy dirt on him. He’s scared. Can you blame him?
IT’S MA’AM!
Oh Fuck off Vindman. With that remark alone he’s an embarrassment to the US Army Officer Corps
“Thank you for your service”
Hell, he should have come back with “If you require me to address you by your rank how about I call you Private Vindman? Because I have the authority to make that stick if you require it.”
I would have asked one of my colleagues what the correct protocol was for an Army officer to respond to a civilian who doesn’t call them by their rank.
“Sorry, Missus Vindman.”
Yes Sir/Ma’am is the correct response.
The thing is Vindman isn’t an Army Officer anymore either so he can go fuck off.
If he’s no longer in the army, then he’s violating the laws regarding use of the uniform.
Huh. I was mistaken. I thought i had seen that he was Retired, but i guess he’s still active. He can still fuck off even more. I hope His Chain comes down on him for that remark.
It was a FOX NOOZE link.
AOC says Stephen Miller ‘weaponizes’ being Jewish to promote white nationalism
I don’t think that’s how it works.
I haven’t heard Miller speak much but I don’t recall him bringing up his Jewishness at all. Certainly not to the extent that any “minority” on the left ever brings up theirs.
From the little I have heard from him he simply seemed knowledgeable on immigration and the history of immigration to the US, and he didn’t weaponize any particular characteristic of his.
Oh geeze. I thought that was A Bee.
What the hell is a noqreport?
AOC weaponizes being retarded to promote communism.
Sondland completely rolls over in his testimony today. well this seems like it could possibly change things a little..
https://twitchy.com/gregp-3534/2019/11/20/at-the-express-direction-of-the-president-amb-sondland-will-testify-there-was-a-quid-pro-quo-linking-ukraine-aid-to-a-biden-investigation/
If Obama can order an unfounded FBI investigation into the Trump campaign, Trump can certainly utilize foreign policy to investigate extremely credible accusations of corruption in the US government.
If Trump goes, you can forget about any of these grifting assholes ever coming to justice, or even slowing down their rackets. The federal government will be a completely lost cause.
Neither should be able to do it. Life is unjust however and the jig was up long before any of this happened. Obama will be off scott free for actually investigating a political opponent, Trump will be impeached.
The net result is that none of the long-standing corruption will be exposed and we will return to situation normal with one exception. They will make damned certain that no one outside their system ever gets close to the levers of power again.
Wait until he gets questioned under oath. Then we’ll see if it hasn’t unraveled.
Except the part where Congress had language attached to the aid that required that the administration make sure that Ukraine’s rooting out corruption – and had to be reviewed after the Ukrainian election.
yeah, good point. you’d think i’d get over the anxiety from all of the “they got him this time” moments.
. . . a conflict between my Libertarian ideals and my hatred for . . .
That’s exactly it in a nutshell . . . the very crux.
Libertopia will be full of inconvenience, especially in public, especially in the commons. Imagine something more like India: streets of chaos, the ox cart and the Mercedes vying for space, the naked and the Versace sitting on the same benches. Until everything is privately owned and you can choose between the two roads from A to B, we won’t be able to blame vendors for our problems or settle behavior in markets. That’s a long way off, probably only a dream.
Most folk kludge together some arbitrary standard of which they themselves will never (but barely) never run afoul: 75MPH is reasonable; 90 is INSANE as is the asshole who would like to overtake but I think I like the left side so much better . . . and so on.
Frontier libertarianism takes guts because frontier anything does. For the rest of us, living with actual people takes perspective; freedom leads to many things other than just the odd rudely-worded bumper sticker or two. Freedom requires an emotional budget for bad taste and local inefficiency. There will not be seven billion folks who all use the same hand-signals in traffic. We will need to expect an overturned applecart in the middle of your commute most days; we will yearn for the day when crazy guys in cycling shorts were the monsters.
Ass Wednesday gives you girthy glutes and gorgeous gams.
http://archive.is/X9ztd
31, 24, 18 in that order.
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/a-farewell-to-mars/
A Farewell to Mars
FTA:
“Another huge piece of my puzzle involved my knowledge of the New Testament. While it can hardly be described as vast, I can sound reasonably informed if a conversation was to touch on the topic. After further thought and some reading it was soon apparent that it was my pro war stance that was incompatible with the teachings of Jesus and my libertarian instincts.
How can one justify war when the sermon on the mount as taught by Jesus, The Prince of Peace, clearly outlines that we should love our enemies, turn the other cheek, and blessed are the peacemakers?
I was reminded of my evolution recently when there was a photo of the famous televangelist, Pat Robertson, on the front page of Drudge Report along with a link to an article stating that Trump was going to “lose the mandate of heaven” for pulling troops from Northern Syria.
“Wow” I thought. I knew that my religious upbringing had something to do with my reluctance to embrace a staunch antiwar position, but I do not recall ever hearing anything so blatant. However anyone feels about Robertson, I am sure that he has forgotten more about the life of Jesus and church history than I will ever know, and the position is even well past the “Just War” position made famous by St. Thomas Aquinas and Augustine.”
I like that.
Thanks for the link, hippie. 😉
*Hank grabs Christmas ornament*
Cotton: “Peace”? You would like that, hippie
Hank: Dad, this is “Jesus peace” not “hippie peace”
SHUT THE FUCK UP LIBTARD
And yet…
The same Jesus who inspired the martyrs to fetishize suffering and death also told his disciples to sell their cloaks and buy daggers and promised to turn sons against fathers and daughters against mothers. If you search the Bible for a coherent political ideology you’ll get out of it whatever you need to justify the one you started with.
True. But, if you read the article he is not just basing his position on the New Testament or the Bible in general. Unlike Islam, the entirety of the Christian faith is not based on the Bible alone.
And the Crusades were sort of kind of, but not really, a religious undertaking. Originally it was motivated to support the Byzantines and believed by the Pope as a good way to bring the Eastern Orthodox church more closely into the fold, but the political reasons of ensuring that the Turks didn’t control the valuable trade route played a big part too. And the fact that the Pope only sanctioned a few of the Crusades and excommunicated some of the crusaders for sacking Constantinople, for instance, speaks to the fact that it most assuredly wasn’t being directed by religious authorities and that a lot of crusaders had ulterior motives beyond religion.
That rumbling outside is an angry mob of Lutherans.
I know. And not to besmirch Protestantism, which I think had a lot of validity in its criticisms and in some ways created a more coherent faith, but I think there is a reason why Protestantism has come to encompass so many divergent strains from the Episcopal church to the Baptist tradition. As far as I know, most Protestant traditions accept the “solas” as an expression of their faith, and yet they all have different interpretations (and in more recent times so many re-interpretations) of biblical text. Protestantism can mean anything from pacifist Quakers to hawkish Pat Robertson. So, not even Protestants actually take the literal word of the Bible at face value. I’ll accept being wrong on this point, but there is something to be said about that.
The strength of Protestantism is that it doesn’t have an entrenched bureaucracy and hierarchy like the Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox churches (just to name the biggest ones), but that is also its weakness. I can go to one Lutheran church and then a different one a couple of miles away and the theology will be so divergent as to make you believe that you have attended church in a different denomination.
Again, though, I crack jokes, but I mean no disrespect toward any Christian denomination.
All fair points. I grew up in a protestant church and by the time I was in my teens I realized that the vast majority of the pastors on staff were more theologically illiterate than I was. The one good thing about the hierarchical nature of the Roman Catholic and orthodox traditions is that there is a rich history of accumulated knowledge and a better managed process for disseminating it.
Speaking to your point about the theological inconsistency from one protestant church to another, my church was officially affiliated with the Church of the Foursquare Gospel, which is a batshit crazy pentecostal denomination. But at our church no emphasis was made on the pentecost or spiritual gifts, tongues were never spoken, and the environment was so secular and feel-good as to be nearly Unitarian. Our youth group attended a youth leadership camp jointly with a local Open Bible Church group, and despite being nominally both pentecostal denominations (the Open Bible Church is actually an offshoot of the Foursquare Gospel Church) it was like being dropped on another planet. On another youth retreat we ended up sharing facilities with some Calvinist congregation or other and spent more or less the entire time bickering over predestination and election.
So, it was written by someone who knew so little about Islam that the words “Sunnah” and “Hadiths” mean nothing to them.
Probably a whole mix of things brought on the Crusades – which were a pretty mild response to Islamic aggression. The purported need to escort pilgrims to the Holy Land safely. the permanent loss of most of North African Christianity and the realization that it might be the fate of Spain and Eastern Europe without a response, the raids, piracy, and enslaving going on in the Mediterranean…
Read Henri Pirenne — Medieval Cities: Their Origin and the Revival of Trade.
Then compare with Eric H. Cline — 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed.
The Mediterranean was crucial for trade, division of labor, and when the routes collapsed, so did the trading, and thus did civilization take a giant step backward.
can I reply here?
Who said that?
having trouble pasting the reference in here but the buying swords bit is in Luke 22:36 and continues to 38 when the disciples dig up two swords and Jesus tells them “that’s enough!”
Two swords for 11 guys. Not going to be starting much trouble with that lot.
Without any research I’ve taken the “That’s enough!” to mean “cool it guys, it’s not going down how you want it to” (violent over throw of Roman occupation)
Yeah. I’ve always read that passage as “I’m ushering in a lot of change that will pit people against each other”
It could have also been a prophesy of the Turmoil to eventually follow after his death.
He also denounces his disciples just a few verses later for lopping off the ear of the high priest’s servant with the very swords that he instructed them to collect. My point in all this isn’t to say that the verse itself justifies war, only that if you go searching for a political ethic in the Bible there’s enough content and enough ambiguity therein to rationalize whatever position you want. Christian pacifism is a justifiable position, but its not the only justifiable position.
As I said above, this is the weakness of “sola biblia”. There is a lot of great work that is left on the cutting room floor if you are arguing based on the Bible alone. All Christian denominations share the writings of early Christian thinkers and I think it’s a mistake to ignore their thinking and just default to the text of a book whose words are sometimes not expressed as they were meant to be in the original language in which they were written in.
Again, not to knock “sola biblia”. Just a thought.
I agree with the protestant notion that scripture is sufficient unto itself to define fundamental Christian theology, in the sense that no extra-scriptural teachings should be afforded the same level of authority. It makes even more sense in the context of the reformation. But there does seem to me, based on my experiences in protestant churches, to be a strain of anti-intellectualism that goes along with it whereby the rejection of extra-scriptural theological authority is used more broadly as a justification to reject any Biblical commentary or analysis, including from the early fathers of the church, and just wing it. I doubt very much that’s the way the early reformers intended the concept to be understood. Luther was no slouch on church history and biblical commentary.
SCIENCE
In a victory for critics of California’s oil drilling industry, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday stopped the approval of new hydraulic fracturing in the state until the permits for those projects can be reviewed by an independent panel of scientists.
Newsom also imposed a moratorium on new permits for steam-injected oil drilling, another extraction method opposed by environmentalists that was linked to a massive petroleum spill in Kern County over the summer.
“These are necessary steps to strengthen oversight of oil and gas extraction as we phase out our dependence on fossil fuels and focus on clean energy sources,” Newsom said in a statement Tuesday morning. “This transition cannot happen overnight; it must advance in a deliberate way to protect people, our environment, and our economy.”
Along with halting use of the oil extraction methods, the Newsom administration plans to study the possible adoption of buffer zones around oil wells in or near residential neighborhoods, schools, hospitals and other facilities that could be exposed to hazardous fumes.
As soon as we perfect the magic-based economy, mankind will truly flourish.
People that depend on you for their daily subsistence are easier to control….
Yeah… right…..
I’m right over here holding my breath as to what they’ll decide!
In a victory for critics of California’s oil drilling industry, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday stopped the approval of new hydraulic fracturing in the state until the permits for those projects can be reviewed by an independent panel of scientists.
You know who else had scientists working for them….
Weyland-Yutani?
I wanted to pun this, but the suitable phrase is alien to me.
The actions come just weeks after Newsom signed a bill into law revising the primary mission of a state agency that regulates the oil industry, now called the Geologic Energy Management Division, to include protecting public health and safety and environmental quality.
Just let the Board of Equalization take over everything.
Diana Moon Glampers will know what to do.
How many fingers Winston?
They really really really are pushing this “You have to Believe” what you don’t believe.
That’s what gets me going. If they want to call themselves a man, whatever, fine I don’t give a shit. But under no circumstances am I obligated to share in their delusions. That’s totalitarian bullshit.
The millenials are starting to take over the organizations they revere.
God forbid we talk about men’s issues or appreciate men in any ways. Must hijack for some oppressed minority. Must virtue signal at all times.
Only Men with issues are those on their period.
There’s some things they can’t take from us.
Men who get pregnant and give birth are
menwomen.I never heard of “International Mens Day” before it got skinsuited.
It was never cool before then.
All these “(Inter)National [blank] Days” are retarded anyway.
Not all of them.
Come on Q. I’m pretty sure there’s an International ginormous boobs day out there somewhere.
T-Mobile’s John Legere Was Never a ‘Cool CEO’
“Legere was a union buster, anti net neutrality, anti privacy, and helped form a corporate conglomerate.”
Thanks Vice, for convincing me to like Legere.
Legere was a union buster
And? He was in fucking management. It’s not good enough that the company be forced to deal with the Unions? they have to also be happy about it?
So… a “Cool CEO”? For a given value of “cool” of course.
State Senate Republican leader Shannon Grove of Bakersfield expressed similar concerns and said Newsom’s actions could be crippling to California’s oil industry.
“The bulk of Kern County’s new oil production will be severely impacted by this policy, as well as future capital investment by the producers,” Grove said in a statement. “If those producers cannot confidently invest in this area, then they will invest elsewhere. The reduction in capital investment will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars in the next twelve months.”
Fake news. Sham alarmism. We don’t need their filthy money. We’ll live in homes powered by the fluttering of butterflies’ wings.
Kern County is a Republican County… So I think Newsome wants them to fuck off.
Was there ever any doubt that Newsom would try to punish those who voted against him? He’s a corrupt POS of the highest order.
Ah. Taking a page from Cuomo’s upstate NY policy, I see.
“Newsom’s actions could be crippling to California’s oil industry”
Feature, not bug.
Yeah – in fact it’s the whole point. Then his quid-pro-quo green buddies will swoop in and save the day*.
*This won’t actually happen.
Furries Everywhere Rejoice
You can gawk at catgirls without having to sit through bad CGI and obnoxious showtunes. Or, uh, from what I’ve heard….
If they want to call themselves a man, whatever, fine I don’t give a shit. But under no circumstances am I obligated to share in their delusions. That’s totalitarian bullshit.
COEXIST, or else, h8r.
Sondland is saying exactly was Raston posts above. I don’t get it. If Trump and Co. insisted on linking the aid to a Burisma investigation before the phone call, what did Trump even have to ask him to do him the “favor” in the phone call? What am I missing?
Oh, nevermind. He’s making some “continuum” argument.
We’ll see how this shakes up, of course.
For me the aggravating part is not necessarily that regular democrats (non-politicians) could be upset about this. I understand that. My irritation is that they will completely look past the Obama Admin shenannigans, and any future shenanigans. They will look past Shiffs outright lies ahead of the Mid-term because they have to defeat Trump.
They don’t care. The personal is political and the enemy must be destroyed. We’re spiraling towards political violence.
They intend to reverse the 2016 election results, and if they must destroy the country in the process, it is a price they are willing to pay.
Kiss the republic goodbye.
There is no way the Repubs sitting on the committee didn’t see this coming. They’ve made such a big deal out of their being no quid pro quo that they must have some line of defense against Sondland’s assertions that I can’t see. This is fun stuff. It’s soap opera stuff.
My assumption is that they were letting it roll this way as a stalling tactic. They better have something up their sleeves or they’re the biggest idiots on the planet.
they’re the biggest idiots on the planet.
I’m gonna say that that option is in the money…
I don’t think Jim Jordon didn’t see this coming. This Sondland guy is one flaky son of a bitch. This is gonna get ugly on cross.
cross will be good.
Ha! He’s already folding and retreating as Schiff’s man tries to get him to say Trump insisted that the aid is linked. Nope. He’s just assuming that Trump insisted on that. This is hilarious.
Dude, the impeachment is directly related to Biden’s naked corruption. You have to work to avoid that HUGE part of the story. The fact that the Dems will impeach Trump and 50/50 might nominate Biden who did at a minimum the same thing tells you everything you need to know about this bullshit.
Which is why it doesn’t matter even if there was a so-called quid pro quo in the first place. But that is where the committee repubs hung their hats. I got a feeling Sondland is going to wilt under hostile questioning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZhoxuinaUk
he’s maintaining composure.
Trump claimed on a call with Sondland that Trump wanted Zelensky to follow through with his own campaign promises to be transparent and to root out corruption.
“I don’t want quid pro quo. I want Zelensky to do the right thing.” was Trump’s answer to Sondland asking him what he wants from Ukraine.
so far i’m unmoved. granted i’m terribly corrupt (b/c guns) but again the headlines about Sondland are hyperbolic.
He’s maintaining so far. This guy is a bullshitter that you can spot a mile away. Even Volker let that basically slip during his own testimony (sorry if I don’t know the legalese involved). He’s basing his whole assumption on what makes sense NOW that he has read the transcript. He’s building his assumption on facts that fit in retrospect. It’s nonsense.
“I don’t want quid pro quo. I want Zelensky to do the right thing.” was Trump’s answer to Sondland asking him what he wants from Ukraine.
*bangs gavel*
“We’re done here. Who wants lunch?”
what did Trump even have to ask him to do him the “favor” in the phone call
The favor wasn’t to investigate Biden. The favor was to investigate CrowdStrike and ancillary Ukrainian involvement in the 2016 Presidential campaign.
Yeah. You’re right. I’m playing catch up. Haven’t been following this much until yesterday.
Ok. This irritates me.
First of all, why the fuck would I give a shit about anyone’s *opinion* of whether there was a “quid pro quo”? Some bureaucrat has an opinion there was. Others don’t. So fucking what? We know all these facts already.
Second, why is the Republican strategy even centered around this stupid “quid pro quo” bullshit? Why can’t Trump ask the Ukraine to look into Biden’s very obvious corruption? Sure, it benefits him politically. It also is exactly what his constituency wants. It’s not like he’s getting a yacht for his own personal enjoyment. Isn’t doing things that benefit you politically and also matches the wishes of your constituency literally what politicians do?
Third, how can this impeachment trial *not* be seen as literally the exact same thing they’re excusing Trump of? It stands literally no chance of getting a single Republican vote because of the way it was conducted in the beginning. This is the Democrats using their powers for POLITICAL GAIN IN THE NEXT ELECTION. It’s the same fucking thing,.
Second, why is the Republican strategy even centered around this stupid “quid pro quo” bullshit?
How can it not, when that is what the hearings are about?
Plus, why not? Its dead weak. Its not selling.
Because their strategy should just be “who gives a shit if there’s a ‘quid pro quo'”. There’s nothing wrong with it in the first place.
^This was my thought since I first heard the story.
Same
Seriously. I have a very hard time seeing diplomacy as anything other than a series of interlocking quid pro quo negotiations.
The Supreme Court has repeatedly held the President has wide authority in the area of foreign relations. The Executive is specifically granted the right to make treaties in the Constitution (of course with 2/3 Senate approval). We can debate the merits of the SCOTUS decisions and the limits on Presidential power WRT foreign policy, but he leads it. Which means he can largely do whatever the fuck he wants in that area and Congress has extremely limited “oversight.”
The fact that Trump asked the President of Ukraine to look into a former VP bragging he got a prosecutor fired with $1B in aid money specifically named as the leverage – and that prosecutor happened to be looking into a company where Biden’s son sat on the board – falls under the “maybe Biden shouldn’t have bragged about getting a prosecutor fired specifically on condition of aid money” clause of foreign policy.
But, of course, this is exactly the Media- DNC collaboration works. They ran the exact same playbook with Hillary’s emails. Trump mentions that people should look into Herself’s criminal activity? That gets you spied upon and THEN becomes the basis for a 3 year long criminal investigation. Again, the Media-DNC intentionally obfuscated what was in her emails AND the fact that under FOIA the America public had an absolute right to know what was in the emails she sent as SecState. That all gets flushed.
Trump asks someone to look into Biden’s criminality? Well, that’s gonna get you impeached.
At this rate, if he ever approaches Obama’s shit, they’ll just have his Secret Service guys drive him off a bridge.
All of you who are watching the impeachment show are doing damage to your souls. As you know.
In more important news, #FreeMyles. Bill Burr agrees with me, so that means my opinion is right.
Myles Garrett should never play again because he didn’t kill or seriously injure Rudolph with his helmet. What a limp wristed pussy. I ask you this do we really want guys who can’t kill people with even the aid of a helmet playing football? Also I loved that video.
You gotta suspend the guy something, though. And yes, Rudolph needs to sit, too.
who the hell is watching the impeachment?
*Shrugs* Me. It’s fun.
I like you Straff. So i’ll follow your comentary.
I could barely make it past Dr. Wolfs “Arguments” about libertarianism (all of which could be mirrored onto Socialism). I won’t be able to listen to Shiff.
I’m curious to know how many times previous presidents linked diplomacy to favors. Assuming the testimony is true, Trump couldn’t be the first.
Diplomacy is deal making. Deal making is quid pro quos. The whole thing is utterly beyond stupid, right into the “responsibility to protect” zone where we will only use our military when it isn’t tainted by our national interest.
Students demand ability to select roommate based on race during days-long sit-in
Nice progress, proggies.
The demand to allow “students of color” to elect not to room with students of other races was one of several such demands issued by a group of protesting students who aired their concerns about racism on campus during an ongoing sit-in.
In what bearded Spock world do these idiots think that it wouldn’t be an Equal Protection violation to restrict the option to “students of color”?
Just tell them they’re free to drop out if they don’t like it.
Caving on this would be beyond stupid.
bearded Spock
Uffda I have to pay more attention to what is going on in the fan boi universe. I had no idea that Spock was now gay, nor that he had entered into a sham marriage to hide that fact.
I stopped watching even before Jar Jar rebooted everything.
Jar Jar Spock would be awesome.
“Meesa so logical”
Only non-white will be allowed to choose though, right?
And it will be an open and shut court case to remove that little restriction.
The Supreame Court has rulled in the past that “Equal Protection” doesn’t actually mean “Equal”. There was a case (can’t remember which, i’ll dig around) where they ruled that because the Legislation was intended to help minorities, it couldn’t be used by a White person to claim discrimination, despite the plain language of the law.
So no. Not open and Shut. Very few cases ever are.
There ain’t no billable hours in Black and White
make segregation woke again…
something tells me this development has been predicted long ago by some shitlord or other
D’Souza called it thirty years ago. He was dead right on where college education was headed.
Justine Brooke Murray
Would.
The demand to allow “students of color” to elect not to room with students of other races was one of several such demands issued by a group of protesting students who aired their concerns about racism on campus during an ongoing sit-in.
Sometimes you fight fire with fire. Sometimes you fight racism with racism I suppose.
Black students, may feel safer and better rooming with other Black students
Someone is not familiar with crime statistics.
We’ve been doing that for decades.
my former-student self demands to select roommate based on gender and bust size.
All of the sudden those Commuter Colleges are starting to look valuable
/Commuter College Grad
“I identify as a large breasted nymphomaniac woman and I demand a room mate who is the same as me”
A dude who identifies as a large breasted nymphomaniac woman?
Clearly the dude is so not interested in other large-breasted nymphomani women like him …
Computer will do just that: pair you with another dude who identifies as a large breasted nymphomaniac woman
This is that whole “are traps gay?” thing, isn’t it?
The answer is – yes, they are.
My college gave this option to incoming freshman. I don’t really remember or bothered to notice how ethnic groups roomed.
I was roomed with a black guy. He disappeared for several months after he pledged Kappa Alpha Psi and they put him into some analog of the Underground Railroad and branded him. It was more than a little weird.
Me too. He started transitioning a couple years later.
It’s amazing to me where you have a case of a clear conflict of interest and monetary benefit and Joe Biden on tape admitting to influencing a foreign Corruption investigation using his political office and witholding aide money yet we know the allegations aren’t credible because other faceless people wanted the same outcome for reasons. While on the other hand we are investigating trump and trying to understand how what he was thinking when he withheld aide of which we have less evidence into his corrupt intent than Bidens. Biden on tape admitting he withheld money for corruption purposes and bragging he achieved a result he was seeking, Trump withholding money for unclear reasons(maybe corruption maybe not we have no direct insight as he is not on record saying why the aid is withheld as that’s what we are investigating) and not achieving a result he is accused of seeking is the bigger issue here. I just can’t get past it. It’s the largest and most clear double standard I think I’ve ever witnessed in politics and even to my cynical mind the cognitive dissonance blows me away. Largely because to say Trump was doing what he was doing you have to acknowledge Biden’s actions. How do you know Trump wasn’t just trying to root out corruption and try to stop corruption? If it’s because one is Trump and one is Biden you have no credibility. I don’t see how Intent doesn’t matter either it’s illegal to materially influence a foreign corruption investigation if it could benefit you politically or it isn’t. We can’t read any of these people’s minds and they are all professional liars. I just can’t even wrap my head around it I don’t see how anyone can whose paying attention.
Quality rant.
+10 for no line breaks.
Yeah, but the judges are going to deduct point for NO CAPS and no random words used nonsensically (see: gamboling)
The judges are assholes.
Also didn’t stick the landing. The correct ending to the rant is “Jeffery Epstein didn’t kill himself.”
It’s just so baffling to me. Anybody who thinks trump did something criminal and doesn’t think Biden is also a criminal can be safely ignored forever because they are a dishonest hack. there’s just no other way to see it. Trump has really made a ton of shit black and white and simplistic. It’s the best thing about him. Personally I believe they should all be tried for treason.
Idle Hands going back in for bonus points!
(totally agree with you BTW)
No, no, actually they can’t because they’re driving the. arrative and people who drive the narrative win.
The narrative was that Biden’s wishes also corresponded with the wishes of the entire Western community who wanted that guy out for corruption.
This was actually totally refuted by internal documents that have been released by the government, though. I think in fact the White House wanted him out because he wasn’t corrupt enough in their favor.
indeed
Purity of Essence
The state of California is taking aim at GM (GM), Chrysler, Toyota, Nissan and other automakers that are aligning with the Trump administration in its battle over emissions rules.
California issued a statement late Monday saying that as of January the state would only buy vehicles from automakers that recognize the California Air Resources Board’s authority to set tough greenhouse gas emissions standards for vehicles. California also pledged only to do business with automakers that committed to stringent emissions reduction goals.
Separately, the state also said it will no longer buy sedans that are powered only by internal combustion engines, no matter who manufactures the car. It will buy only plug-in electric or hybrid sedans, although California would make an exception for certain public safety vehicles. That rule does not apply to SUV or truck purchases.
“Car makers that have chosen to be on the wrong side of history will be on the losing end of California’s buying power,” said California Governor Gavin Newsom in a statement. “In court, and in the marketplace, California is standing up to those who put short-term profits ahead of our health and our future.”
We shall root out the heretics, and call down the Wrath of God upon them.
“The wrong side of history”.
Oh my gawd. Fuck. Off.
Well, first it was vapers that were having their lungs destroyed by products being sold by evil profiteers. Now there is another product that is silently killing us all.
Evil profiteers have harnessed the hate bird to cripple us with ‘feather duvet lung’.
So uncomfortable and dangerous? I’ll stick to the flammable polyesther fiberfill and it’s slow cancers.
You are allowed to wash bedding, you Limey slobs.
Only if you can get the electrical system in a Limey washing machine to work. Sheesh, you own a British sportscar, I thought you would understand something simple like that.
Fair point.
Sigh. Ain’t nobody who gets out of this world alive. These docs are worse than the Ambulance Chaser Lawyers (or at least on the same level). Constantly pointing out risks of things that are so minuscule and then blowing them out of proportion to scare people is way worse for peoples health than what they are talking about.
The real question is why you would use pillows made from bird feathers when you can own a pillow made of polyurethane foam blessed by Jesus himself?
Well, GLIBFIT be damned. The holiday season is upon me,
Let Thanksgrazing begin!
No dammit! I will not succumb… even though I’m hosting.
New low weight this morning, and still on pace to hit my goal by April.
Email some willpower, would ya?
Well, I only made two passes at the buffet, took no desserts. So, I’m only slightly miserable.
On the plus side, all afternoon meetings were allowed to be cancelled. I cancelled mine…for safety reasons.
The true hard part is when the fridge is filled with leftovers, and I’m going out of town the next weekend for a board game convention. There’s a reason I need to be strong up until the holiday itself.
I’m curious to know how many times previous presidents linked diplomacy to favors. Assuming the testimony is true, Trump couldn’t be the first.
It has never happened before. Ever.
In fact, I was informed the other day that trading favors based on outcomes in the “national interest” is illegal, or something.
Diplomacy is Out, Now “Do what we say you little fuck or we’ll blow you to hell” is in.
Students demand ability to select roommate based on race during days-long sit-in
Only paranoid nutjob crypto-Nazis believe in reverse discrimination.
It’s regular discrimination they’re engaging in.
Relevant
1930.
Very discouraging.
Anybody who thinks trump did something criminal and doesn’t think Biden is also a criminal can be safely ignored forever because they are a dishonest hack.
Whataboutism.
My guess as to the Repubs line: You (Sondland) are making a lot of assumptions on what president Trump wanted. You say you are certain that is what he wanted, and yet not once did Trump ever come out and say it directly. In fact, he said the opposite. What makes you such a proficient mind reader?” Of course, they will pick out the details that don’t mesh, but that would be the overall thrust. Anyone else got a guess?
Mornin’, Glibbies! Here’s hoping I can do more today than run around town on various errands not making any headway on my actual job.
Rufus will be glad someone is working around here.
If we gave some country a bunch of military aid with the (quid pro quo) proviso they only use that stuff on people we *don’t* like, would that be illegal?
“Mexicans are not cool with the transgender children.”
There are actual cases of people who Identify as amputees, even though they have fully functioning limbs. And they have at least on limb surgically removed in order to align with their self image. If a nine-year-old kid identified as an amputee, would it be ethical to remove one or more limbs in order to align with their self image?
It’s not ethical to do that to an adult. It’s a direct violation of the hippocratic oath to amputate a perfectly functional limb that’s supposed to be there instead of sending the patient for mental treatment to help them accept that yes, they do have an arm and it’s supposed to be there.
If an anorexic wants a doctor to perform liposuction in order to match their body with their mind’s image, would that be ethical for the doctor to perform?
There’s many analogs for the question of transgenderism and kids, and none of them suggest that it would be ethical to indulge their mental illness or just a desire to be special.
You know what would be AWESOME?
A California Highway Patrol fleet composed entirely of Teslas.
A race to see if the CHiPs car catches fire or runs out of charge first?
Plain old mechanical breakdown is also a reasonable possibility too!
Dry summer and the ensuing shutdown of the power grid should help too.
I broke down and skimmed through that Campus Reform thing about the inmates taking over the asylum at Syracuse.
“This university has stolen my mental health,” she added. “You want me to pay full tuition that those white students are paying, for what? For a university that stole my mental health? I hate it here.”
Another student yelled “I hate it here,” and protesters joined him in chanting these words.
“My girlfriend could tell you how many times I sat down and cried in her f*cking arms,” he shouted.
It’s too bad those big meanies have you chained to your desk. Otherwise, you could find another school to attend. But that wouldn’t be nearly as much fun as playing your aggrieved shitflinging howler monkey games.
Oh for fuck’s sake. It’s Syracuse. At least when the kids at MIT use the IHTFP they had reason; it use to really be that rigorous. And what kind of emasculated soy boy cries in his girlfriend’s arms without a dead dog being involved?
Dear students: Get a job.
Hola, Glibs! I have heard that some have expressed concern for my well being. This cannot be true for a bunch of libertarians, but nonetheless I am hale and hearty. Working from home today so I have a rare opportunity to be on here. I’ve mostly been on the Discord because I can check that on my phone from work. Some updates:
* At work, I am in charge of incentive compensation system. We are replacing the software system and have onsite consultants. Our goal for this is extremely ambitious and IT is dragging their heels. I am hoping to eliminate my own position once we finish the implementation. Either way, lots of work.
* We are also transitioning at work. From the current year plan to next year’s plan. This is also fun and exciting times.
* The rope bondage school I help teach at I am now helping to run. Instead of being an assistant next year, I’ll be running one program while the original instructors spin up a second class worth. Some of the yahoos we’ve had apply to be part of the program are…well, interesting. Particularly this one guy who was told not to apply again this year and did anyway. We had his ex who is a graduate this year, and whom he injured before she left him, be the one to “interview” him.
* I think the farm may have actually turned around. We shifted over to hemp this year, and we’re on the verge of signing a contract to be the exclusive supplier for a successful CBD products manufacturer.
* Planning for Thanksgiving with the wife, her boyfriend, my submissive g/f, her husband and daughter, and another ‘polycule’ and some assorted other orphans.
I hope you are all well and properly disciplining your orphans.
Glad you are well! I assumed the new job was the reason for your absence.
That’s the Creosote Achilles we know and fear!
I wonder who in that list is going to get roped into doing the dishes.
I wonder who in that list is going to get roped into doing the dishes.
The submissive girlfriend’s husband, of course.
They have to call you “Creosota” there?
Correct. They are not allowed to use my deadname. Y’all get a pass.
You lead a rich and fascinating life. Congrats on the CBD contract. Hope it works out.
Welcome back!
Very glad all is well.
Does hemp command higher prices?
Prices are lower, but margin is the same or better for several reasons:
1. Regulatory burden is massively lower for hemp than for pot I need an annual license that costs a few hundred dollars and some paperwork for hemp, and a yearly test of a sample. And there’s no restrictions on quantity you can grow or inspections or security requirements. Pot is an order of magnitude higher if not two.
2. The market for CBD is /much/ larger. It’s somewhat snake-oil, but it is being put into nearly everything and the market is national,
3. As a result of 1 & 2 the price is lower, but not /that/ much lower esp. on processed product and the -margin- is better.
Interesting. Thanks!
I’ve noticed a lot of fields now with big “industrial hemp” signs on the side. Sounds like the latest craze. Good luck!
Thank you. And it is something of a craze. But Hemp is an extremely versatile product. I think it’ll taper off in a few years. But I’m playing it out and seeing where it goes.
Nothing wrong with making buck on a cash crop. That’s what farmers have always done (when it moved beyond subsistence farming).
Well, the wife is out of town. Considers this.
Also, since no one has any manners today,
welcome back fuck off, Tulpa!Also, I’d be fascinated to see a timeline showing the relationship of this “protest” with the heavily reported rash of “hate crimes” on the Syracuse campus.
On the plus side, all afternoon meetings were allowed to be cancelled. I cancelled mine…for safety reasons.
One waffer-thin mint, Mr Creosote. You know you want it.
Why are you diving into the plants?
Amb. Sondland testifies President Trump never told him directly aid was conditioned on meetings. “It was my personal guess”
So you have physical evidence? Otherwise you can’t convict someone because you think that’s what they were thinking.
“How do you know that the aid wasn’t held because of Trump’s was reviewing all aid to other countries?” (Something like that)
“I don’t”.
Now this is just getting stupid. G’night. Going to bed.
Does hemp command higher prices?
hemp clothing certainly seems to. Somebody wanted me to do a run of t-shirts, and said, “Hey, can we use hemp shirts?”
I couldn’t believe how expensive plain hemp t-shirts are.
“Sure, we can do that, if you think people will be willing to pay seventy five bucks for one of your band shirts.”
Well that’s just silly. It’s not like it says SUPREME across the front.