Gunmen have attacked a convoy of trucks carrying uranium fuel to a nuclear power plant near the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, police say. The convoy came under attack as it drove past a community controlled by drug traffickers in Angra dos Reis, a tourist city 145km (90 miles) from Rio. Police escorting the convoy responded and a shootout followed. No-one was injured or detained.
But speaking of Brazil. Earlier this week Trump and Brazilian Trump met in the oval office.
Nicknamed the ‘Trump of the Tropics,’ Bolsonaro rose to power praising the U.S.-backed military government that ran Brazil for two decades before a return to democracy in 1985.
He moved quickly to ally Brazil closer to the United States, a shift in diplomatic priorities after over a decade of leftist party rule that had seen Brazil forging closer ties with regional allies.
At Tuesday’s news conference, the two presidents repeatedly rejected socialism, celebrating their joint efforts to oust Venezuela’s left-wing leader, Nicolas Maduro.
Illegal border crossings are on the rise….from Canada.
More than 960 people crossed into the U.S. illegally from the northern border with Canada last year, according to data released from Customs and Border Protection.
While that number is a tiny fraction compared to the migration across the border with Mexico, it represented a 91 percent increase from the prior fiscal year, the data showed.
The Trump administration’s rhetoric on border security has largely homed in on the southern border, which has seen an influx of thousands of families with children from Central America seeking asylum in the United States.
12 Die in a plane crash…in Columbia.
The flight was traveling between San Jose del Guaviare and Villavicencio, the Civil Defense said. The plane called in the emergency at 10:40 a.m., according to Colombia’s Civil Aviation Authority. The plane was found in La Bendición, near Villavicencio. Authorities are working to identify the passengers. There is no publicly known cause for the crash at this time. Colombia’s Civil Aviation Aviation released a statement of condolence for those who died in the crash.
From 2015 to 2018, the number of Venezuelans registered in Spain rose 54 percent to more than 255,000, according to Spain’s National Statistics Institute. But the total Venezuelan-born population is likely higher if undocumented immigrants are taken into account.
Some arrive from Venezuela with Spanish citizenship obtained through grandparents who escaped Spain’s civil war in the 1930s.
Others, such as Quintero, come on a three-month tourist visa and apply for asylum. Venezuelans were the largest group of asylum-seekers in Spain last year with 19,000 applications, more than a third of the annual total, according to the nonprofit Spanish Commission for Refugees.
“Spain is the European country that most often rejects asylum requests,” says Oriol Amorós, secretary of migration for the government of Catalonia. “They’re denying around 70 percent of all asylum-seekers. And for Venezuelans, it’s almost 100 percent.” The commission for refugees said about 24 percent of all claims were accepted in 2018.
That’s it. Here’s something to make you mildly uncomfortable.
Comments
600 responses to “¿Los huevos con chorizo en Jueves por desayuno? ¡Enlaces Mexicanos!”
To early for links. They are an hour early anyway.
12 Die in a plane crash…in Columbia. – This would not happen in socialist Venezuela. I blame capitalism
Only because there’s not enough fuel in Venezuela to get the plane airborne.
Don’t think of it as poverty, think of it as a safety measure!
BAN AVGAS!
Well, in a sense they have…
They banned a lot of shit. Including eating and surviving if you are not part of the elite.
Just like a good famine will really bring down incidence of heart disease. Fucking capitalists.
¡
Can’t
Find
My
MInd
Even
Learn
What the hell is this upside down exclamation point thing anyways?
That’s a Spanish thing.
¡Ay, caramba!
Speaking of.
She’s a master. I had to do six different characters for an audio book once and they all sounded like Louis Armstrong. Amazing how well she is at making each one sound unique.
Did you wear blackface while you worked, racist??
I listened to most of ASOIAF. Roy Dotrice was masterful. Then he went and died before Martin finished the series. Asshole.
Spoiler — Everyone will die before Martin finishes the series.
His ghost will still be making episodes. Bart is still in freaking 4th grade after over a quarter century!
I did 5 voices in last nights episode. Why no love for that?
*shrugs* double standards for Glibs?
Needy much?
Your Trump impression is terrible! You make him sound like a gibbering retard!
What is the circle period like thing? 。
And why do Japanese textbooks omit a question mark (?) on a question that ends in “か”, but in the real world everybody uses one?
So they can use the ? to indicate uptalk.
They use “?” in email / text etc. So yes, to denote pitch up at the end of the sentence to indicate a question. Same as the the English in “you went to the store?”
But in something formal the “ka” denotes a question so technically you can just use the Japanese period. Only place I really see it used it textbooks. My friends all use “ka” + “?” in an email or simply a question mark.
You only use “ka” in formal speech. If you use it in with plain speech it’s rude and condescending.
That’s because it happened in COLOMBIA! (Swerve!)
In what sound like something out of the plot to an awesome 80’s TV show….a convoy in Brazil carrying nuclear fuel was attacked.
Gunmen have attacked a convoy of trucks carrying uranium fuel to a nuclear power plant near the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, police say. The convoy came under attack as it drove past a community controlled by drug traffickers in Angra dos Reis, a tourist city 145km (90 miles) from Rio. Police escorting the convoy responded and a shootout followed. No-one was injured or detained.
I remember a year or two ago also in Brazil people stole some nuclear stuff, they didn’t know what it was and got irradiated.
Triggered! Some fellows found an old X-ray machine in an abandoned medical facility or a dump and decided to crack it open to see what was inside. They, for their troubles, received some nasty radiation poisoning. I, because my mom was a radiologist who was appalled by the story, was then banned from salvaging worky bits from her office dumpsters. Lousy radiation, ruining it for everyone.
City of Fear (1959)
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0052696/
Medical X-ray equipment uses a vacuum tube to generate X-rays. They do use radioisotopes for some types of radiation treatments, x-ray dyes, etc.
Yikes. You mean, it’s not marked with labels like “Warning: this substance is known by the state of California to cause cancer and reproductive harm”?
What about the (criminal) children!
These people would have to believe that their government was not using that label to hide other things, like Jew gold, for example.
Illegal border crossings are on the rise….from Canada. – I mean if I ever want to sneak in the US I am going via Canada…
Sod that…Just come as a tourist and “overstay”.
Or marry a Glib.
But there’s no female Glibertarians, they’re a myth, like polite IT workers, or helpful sales reps.
When committing Immigration Fraud, you need only have a legeally valid marriage. Under the current law, that shortage doesn’t make a difference.
He can marry a man, you shitlord!
Pie, I’m sorry for assuming you wouldn’t want to get married to a man. I mean, that would mean double the toxic patriarchy in your life. I was just trying to protect you.
Can I marry an old rich dude for the money and the front row seats to a big sport’s team or box office, and then keep banging chix? Cause I am thinking that would be the win-win…
Well, it might be a pain in the ass on occasion…
That would be a deal breaker. Even if the pain has to be in his ass.
$20 billion is $20 billion.
Yeah for those numbers I might go gay for a bit…
We’ve established what you are, now we’re just haggling about price.
More than 960 people crossed into the U.S. illegally from the northern border with Canada last year, according to data released from Customs and Border Protection.
Another one of those oddly specific numbers. The whole point of crossing illegally is to keep “them” from knowing you did it.
These things always bring to mind a quote from one of P.J. O’Rourke’s books where he was discussing the polling that predicted an easy electoral victory for Danny Ortega and the Sandinistas. O’Rourke quipped about the absurdity of public opinion polling in a place where one can be jailed or disappeared for publicly expressing certain opinions.
the number of Venezuelans registered in Spain
Common sense Venezuelan control.
As long as you use your Venezuelans only for hunting, it’s ok. They must be pretty good at it by now.
No one is trying to take your Venezuelans away from you.
Latin guys tell me Venezuelan women make the best wives and homemakers. For better or worse, I already have a (((Canadian))) applicant.
Venezuelan women can be real pretty, but they can also be what the locals call “Sifrinas”. You don’t want one of those….
Definition per Urban Dictionary:
Sifrino
Venezuelan slang for preppy guys who talk in a pathetic way with words like: Osea, amiguis. They are generally rich and waste their money in sensless things and wear expensive clothes.
Mira a ese sifrino con su ropa cara, es tan estupido!
Look at that preppy with his expensive clothes,he’s so stupid!
I imagine the female version of that would be “vapid and high maintenance”.
Those are two of the female version’s descriptive values, yes. The best abbreviation of the personality is cunt.
I imagine Venezuelan women would be quite grateful to get out of their socialist paradise and come live in the exploitive capitalist hellhole here.
And this is the problem with capitalism, it seeks to gain from people in bad situations.
But don’t ALL relationships do this?
I coached women’s gymnastics on an international level and the most beautiful woman I have ever seen was a 15-year-old from Caracas. This was back in 1981. Her father was the president of Coca Cola Venezuela, so I figure she and her family are all dead.
They are likely living in Miami…
The top end people saw what Chavez was doing and bailed quick. That is one of the reasons the country went into the shitter. Political cronies took over and they ran everything into the ground because of their kleptocratic ineptitude.
They probably had the money and connections to get out. If they were smart enough to leave early enough.
Now she’s 52/53. You should stalk her on Facebook.
From Canada….except they’re Mexicans.
Now, now, I know it’s misused, but ‘Mexican’ isn’t actually the word in American for ‘Illegal alien’.
Enlighten.
IDK if it’s still the case but back in the 1980s, US CBP had only two categories for interdicted aliens – Mexicans and OTMs (Other Than Mexicans).
Ah. But the report said it was Mexicans. Not OTMs – which I’m stealing.
“What are you? An OTM?”
This brings back the very short-lived period where my brother and I discovered the hilarious word “ofay” and decided to publicly greet each other with it as often as possible.
Rufus is an OTM. That label will be branded on his ass shortly.
It was a poorly thought out joke that could have used more polishing.
/hands silver polish over.
If you polish it more than three times you’re playing with it.
I was going to send it to Poland. Plenty of polish there.
There was a sign back in the day in the men’s room warning people that more than three shakes implied playing with it on company time, leading to a visit by HR….
We once made some disease-awareness signs over urinals that said “Don’t look now, but one out of every 5 men has genital herpes.”
Fun stuff.
Everybody wants to get out of Canada.
Even the Snow People!
That must be why all those desperate Canadian gals are always spending each and every summer trying to become the girlfriend of all those American dork boys.
And yet you still had to go all the way to Korea to get a girlfriend.
Some nice stuff out there in Korea…
Oh yes…without a doubt. I wasn’t knocking Korean women, just Jimbo.
Yeah, we need to make his life miserable cause he got lucky..
Jokes on you! I had to go to an even more foreign country/culture than Korea before I found someone deranged enough to marry me.
I had to go to Memphis State to find that package of intellectual shortcomings.
You really went deep into hostile territory there man..
Shouldn’t that be in quotes — “girlfriend”
Human trafficking is no laughing matter, shitlord!
Illegal border crossings are on the rise….from Canada.
All of the people who fled in 2016 are returning.
Noooo!!!
Close the border! Shoot to kill!
I laughed at the T-shirt. Some Asians (VN style) use #10 as a negative for bottom of the barrel. As in “You numbah hucking 10, GI!” That was pretty much my description with the bar girls. At least Trump and I have something in common today. All the VN Glibs are laughing their butts off right now.
China numba wan!
I’m sure that guy never sounds funny to native Chinese when he speaks their language.
I laughed because it looks like it *might* fit Barron.
I’m more in the mood for something Pepe
Dear Spain – take in those refugees, but don’t let those Venezuelans vote.
It’s not like they could fuck Spain up too much worse than it already is.
Challenge affected!
Coffee brewed!
Catalonia should slip ’em a five Euro note to vote “Si” for independence…
You know who else…?
My parents have (ethnically German) Venezuelan neighbors. Somehow they escaped and own a small factory in Florida now. They are less than enthusiastic fans of socialism.
Metal
The real and better Ghost
I still like the other Ghost since it’s basically performance art masquerading as music.
In a joint news conference in the White House Rose Garden, Trump said he told Bolsonaro he would designate Brazil a major non-NATO ally
Trumps needs to hold a joint news conference with Jamaica.
Jamaicans smoke pot right? Libertarian moment!
Dude…you already have a runaway lead for “Most Tedious Banging of Comment Drum for 2019” – no need to pile on.
Gotta credit Winston for pissing you off so much that you forgot to give me a *Narrows Gaze*.
Hey, I have been a little busy…
*narrows gaze*
Did Winston’s sarcastic Libertarian moment comment beat out “narrowed gaze” for the award?
😉
In a joint news conference in the White House
RoseMarijuana Garden,I beg your pardon,
I never promised you a marijuana garden….
Doesn’t scan. 🙁
go for the ganja garden…. flows more naturally.
These pot puns are getting chronic.
Get off your high horse…
That was very blunt…
STOP!!!!!!!!
Ganja Time?
You know who else crossed the border illegally from Canada into the US?
Confederates!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Albans_Raid
We need to build a wall! Canadians not welcome, except for Glibs.
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt1899353/
That looks terrible
Dammit, it was supposed to link to this:
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0047388/
IMDb doesn’t play nicely with cell phones.
Christchurch mosque shootings: New Zealand to ban military style weapons
Mission Accomplished!
– the Terrorist
Someone should start looking into this to make sure this guy was not sent out by the people that are now demanding gun confiscation. Yeah, I am sure I am just being a conspiracy theorist here, but the democrats in the US will take that as the lesson to learn and implement from this horrible event..
https://www.cato.org/blog/new-index-human-freedom-falls-more-countries-not
Hmm…
Being Cato, I actually doubt this will even count against them for next year’s index.
Ms Ardern said the buy-back could cost up to NZ$200m ($138m; £104m), but “that is the price that we must pay to ensure the safety of our communities”
Again with the “we” shit.
It’s so important that this never happens again. I’m just wondering what happens when some guy kills s bunch of folk with his semi truck
WE MUST BAN FERTILIZER!!!!!
It’s all “We” when you do it with other people’s money….
That will include the police too, right?
Sure, particularly her own personal security detail.
When do you need green energy the most? During the Polar Vortex.
When does “green” energy absolutely fail? During a Polar Vortex!
http://dailytorch.com/2019/03/green-energy-failed-the-polar-vortex-test/
Well, yes, the river does freeze, and has reduced throughput for the hydroelectric station. But my heat is gas.
Oh, you meant the poor sods on solar and wind with electric heat. Yeah, they’re boned.
If only we allowed nature to take its course and enforce the “survival of the fittest” thing. The world would be blessed with less stupid people weighing down Gaia…
“Environmentalists seem to think that demand response is a perfectly fine way to deal with extremely cold weather. Of course, this overlooks the fact that workers at shut down businesses might need their missing wages and that some people, including many of the elderly, get cold easily so turning their heat down is more than a minor inconvenience.”
Happened in Europe where people DID actually die.
It’s beyond the pale.
For environmentalists, people dying is just another demand response.
Killing and destroying, then standing triumphantly atop the pile of rubble and bodies, arms akimbo, smirking with deep satisfaction, are the real goals of the envious, frustrated, progressives.
^^^THIS^^^
It is about wrecking it for the others that have not decided they hate the game because it is too hard for them to play by the rules like the proggies have.
Doing the People’s business
Two San Francisco officials proposed a new law Opens a New Window. Tuesday that would ban the sale of e-cigarettes in the city until the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conducts a review to evaluate its effect on public health.
Under the legislation, any sale — in-store or online — of an e-cig that has not undergone an FDA review would be prohibited.
“By law, before a new tobacco product goes to market, the Food and Drug Administration is supposed to conduct a review to evaluate its impact on public health,” San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera, who co-authored the bill, said in a statement. “Inexplicably, the FDA has failed to do its job when it comes to e-cigarettes. Until the FDA does so, San Francisco has to step up.”
Shitting on the sidewalk and sleeping in doorways still okay.
*EDIT FAIRY CAN NO HELP*
Link?
Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement
I used to work at a large convention center, which steadily increased the severity of their smoking bans over time. Usually people could pop out the back door and smoke on the loading dock. When they cracked down, even vaping was banned out there (enforced by security, but I’m sure not very harshly on VIPs and paying guests vs employees).
Yep, you can’t vape on a non-enclosed loading dock next to dozens of idling semis and forklifts. Might pollute the air, you see.
It’s about making sure the serfs know that when they are told to do or not do something they comply with the demands from the top men.
Yep. It’s like bans on smokeless tobacco. Although the dangers of a secondhand spit cup are real.
You know *somebody* drank it thinking it was coffee.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_affair
So racist.
They’re Scots. It’s how they played. Americans are no fun.
The darkie got it in the Princeton Disaster as well.
New Zealand bans military type semi-automatic weapons used in mosque massacre
A lot of guns about to go missing in boating accidents.
I think a lot polititians should go missing “in boating accidents”.
Australians are triggered
As a traditionalist I object to this! Boats are for guns; helicopters are for Communists.
And guillotines are for frogs.
It’s the axe for this lot.
Don’t forget woodchippers!
That’s for judges, we’re talking commonwealth politicians here.
Monarchs get a sword.
Queen E isn’t invovled here.
Did someone say woodchippers?
/Preet
Ms Ardern said she expected new legislation to be in place by 11 April, saying: “Our history changed forever. Now, our laws will too.”
A thoughtful, measured response. Quite statesmanlike.
Number one free-est country in the world!
Wouldn’t it make more sense to ban Australians?
Link?
maybe
They don’t want the 200,000 homeless bums shitting in the street taking up vaping and getting all uppity.
This has been said many times before but wouldn’t it be easier to make a list of things not banned in progtopia?
Of course it would
because all the things not banned would be mandatory
“We don’t want them in our city,” he said, adding, “I don’t eventually want to see them leave this city. I would have liked for them to have been gone yesterday.”
“Stay out of San Francisco!” He forgot to call them Goldbrickers.
Heroin still readily available
And free needles to shoot it up with, no doubt.
John McAfee Won’t Pay $25M Judgment in Wrongful Death Case, Has Ignored All Lawsuits for 11 Years
John McAfee, founder of the well-known anti-virus software company bearing his name, was hit with a $25 million judgment in a wrongful death case brought by the estate of a Belizean man who was allegedly murdered at McAfee’s behest. Don’t expect him to pay up, though. Wednesday morning, McAfee issued a statement saying he hasn’t paid judgments for any lawsuit over the past 11 years, and he has no intention of starting now.
I wonder how well his actual assets are shielded come probate time.
“Al Sharpton Level”
Pretty well, so long as you keep paying the subscription fee and downloading the weekly updates.
If you’re willing to accept horrible performance and the periodic (daily) crash of the network stack.
When you hear “common sense gun control”, this is one of the speaker’s waypoints along the final goal to completely disarm the entire civilian populace, said disarming to prevent a repeat of that pesky treasonous (“you can’t spell treason without Reason or a T and an O and an S”) uprising in 1776 against the legitimate ruler.
“Six days after this attack, we are announcing a ban on all military style semi-automatics (MSSA) and assault rifles in New Zealand,” Ms Ardern said in a news conference.
“Related parts used to convert these guns into MSSAs are also being banned, along with all high-capacity magazines …
Once the amnesty period ends, anyone in possession of a banned weapon would face a fine of up to NZ$4,000 and three years in jail.
As with Australia’s gun reforms in 1996, exemptions will be made for farmers who need weapons for pest control and animal welfare.
So if they are pink they are ok?
And they give the shooter exactly what he wanted, just in the wrong country.
Ask thew Dutch in Utrecht how well their draconian gun banning laws worked for them….
I would but I’m busy waiting for the inter-denominational unity ceremony they throw every time there is anti-Christian violence.
So, if their argument about mythical “MSSA’s” is true why would there need to be exceptions for anyone? Clearly there must be non military style semi autmatics that can serve the needs of farmers for pest control as well as the military style ones.
Oh I get it this isn’t just banning the scary black guns, this is banning ALL semi automatic rifles.
Oh, they only intend to ban “Military Style Semiautomatics”. Be interesting to watch them parse what that actually means.
I would expect at least four totally unrelated outcomes:
1) A lot of boating accidents, even in landlocked areas with no boats
2) A huge surge in sales of the non-banned semiautomatic rifles, unless they go full on statist and ban everything but lever action rifles and whatnot
3) A surge in people declaring themselves farmers who need scary black rifles for pest control
4) A surge in people quietly redefining “pest control” to include politicians who vote for the ban
2. After the vast surge in sales, the PM will come out and simply say “we need to ban all arms.”
Guaranteed. If you don’t have ‘pests’ why would you need any kind of gun?
Then ban legs too!
3) A surge in people declaring themselves farmers who need scary black rifles for pest control
So called “urban farming” has never looked so attractive.
Sharkey’s men also tried to ban the possession of weapons in the Shire.
What’s Burt Reynolds got to do with this?
We are so old.
FTA:”An assault weapon can switch between semi-automatic or fully automatic modes.”
So at least the BBC is admitting that an AR-15 is not an “assault rifle”.
They can be converted to full auto, ergo “assault rifle”.
Also, since with enough ingenuity you can convert almost any firearm to full auto, we must classify every firearm as such and preemptively ban them all.
Learn to love Big Brother
Volvo said on Wednesday it will use cameras installed inside its vehicles to monitor driver behavior and intervene if the driver appears to be drunk or distracted. It’s a risky move by an automaker, even one with a reputation for safety like Volvo, which could raise concerns among privacy advocates.
Volvo’s in-car cameras will monitor eye movements to gauge driver distraction and / or intoxication. If a driver looks away for a period of time, such as at a smartphone, or fails to keep their hands on the steering wheel, a representative from Volvo’s on-call assistance centers will call them to check in. Drivers who aren’t watching the road, or even have their eyes closed, will be warned as well. If they don’t respond, the car will slow and even stop. The system will roll-out to all Volvo cars by early 2020.
This follows Volvo’s recent announcement that it will be limiting the top speed on all of its vehicles to 180 km/h (112 mph) in a bid to reduce traffic fatalities. Volvo is framing these new policies as key components in its Vision 2020 goal, in which no one is killed or seriously injured in a Volvo vehicle by 2020. Over the years, the company built its reputation on safety and quirky designs, and today’s announcement is meant to underline that.
Will the car also call the cops?
Why don’t they just stop making cars completely, instead of fiddling around with these half measures?
Good lord.
*crosses Volvo off the list of cars I’d ever consider buying*
The 850GLT I owned was enough for me to cross Volvo off of my list – forever.
I had a bunch of them and really liked them a lot. Until they got all luxury-ish and started to cost a shit-ton to keep rolling. I still maintain that the 240 wagon was nearly the perfect vehicle.
The RWD platform was def better than their first stab at FWD
I had a 2001 XC70 that was a nifty vehicle, too.
Fixed.
My first was a 1975 Volvo something or other (can’t remember the model number). It was a great car that was built like a tank and I wish I could find another one.
Why all the technical wizbang bullshit. Breathalyzer interlock systems are already installed in a a lot of cars and the technology is solid.
There has to be more to this camera bullshit than safety.
Do you think those Volvo engineers are going to be crushed when their spycam never catches any sexytimes that they can peep on? Do they really not know that no one has ever gotten laid because they drive a Volvo in the entire history of the world?
That’s what Jaguars are for.
“Volvo said on Wednesday it will use cameras installed inside its vehicles to monitor driver behavior and intervene if the driver appears to be drunk or distracted.”
I was just looking at buying a new car and was thinking Volvo. That’s now a no way in hell…
No kidding.
People don’t realize it but 1984 has arrived.
It looks like the progressive nanny state supporters have decided that book, along with others like “Brave new World” and Rand’s stuff are instruction manuals…
Volvo is now owned by Geely, which means this is an insidious commie plot to spy on us.
Volvo’s are notorious for having one of the highest depreciation rates. I’m sure that adding spyware to the console will help get rid of that sales problem.
I’m really looking forward to Volvos coming to a rolling stop right in front of me. I’m glad I don’t have any Volvo stock to dump.
“The only way to get into Europe is by being a Jihadist”
Or pedaphile or rapist or actual sex trafficker (as opposed to the made up sex traffickers in The States).
Fuck cancer. I just found out that a kid I used to contract with passed away from brain cancer. He had been battling the cancer for as long as I’ve known him, but it still stinks that it finally got him.
That’s the thing that pisses me off about “microagressions” and the other nonsense petty grievances coming out of the progressives. You can’t even qualify the amount of pain some people go through due to circumstances outside of sex, race or socioeconomic situation. The biggest oppression is more often just terrible biological luck. We all kick it someday and I hope that kid left the world a better place. Sorry.
The worst part of all of it was that this kid (he was probably late 20’s when he died) was the anti-millennial. He grew up in Serbia and came here to study. Half way through his first semester the non-profit that awarded him his scholarship went under. He started a couple small businesses to do consulting and web development and paid for the rest of his schooling that way.
The kid was just a special guy who worked his ass off to get ahead. I’m pretty sure if the cancer thing hadn’t eaten away so much of his life, he would have had a very successful business (and I would have had to come – hat in hand – to beg for a job).
Every time we met up, it was pretty humbling. He had been dealt such a shit hand, but every time he was super optimistic that this time the treatment was going to work. If I had been in his shoes, I’m not sure I wouldn’t have gone down a much darker path.
Dammit… the world needs more of that attitude.
I am often left wondering if there is some higher power that just likes to fuck with us ants. The fact that good people always seem to die young and so many real scumbags live long lives where they make everyone else suffer because they are evil fucks, just being something coincidental, is too hard for me to accept.
The longer a scumbag lives, the better. They have to live in the little hell they’ve created for themselves.
I’m pretty sure Fidel was livin’ large right up until the end.
Exactly. It’s because of fucks like him that I hope hell does exist.
Makes you loathe SJW even more.
He was a winner.
He would joke about having a tough time with history/polisci classes in college because he kept calling Bill Clinton a war monger.
When his profs would get upset and tell him that Clinton was a great president and not a war monger, Bo would bring up the fact that Clinton and NATO had bombed his home city. He had to leave the city to go live with relatives in the country because the airstrikes blew up his school.
Tough to argue that your SJW butt hurt is on the same level as literally having to live through bombings as a kid.
That sucks to hear. Had a close friend from childhood die a few years ago in a car accident (he was mid 20’s) and really was the smartest, most driven person my age I’d ever met. Among his many talents, he could listen to the first verse of a song he had never heard before, and could play along to the tune on a piano.
Sorry, dude.
That sucks. Sorry, bud.
Truly sorry to read that.
Fuck cancer!
Bernie Sanders
Verified account
@BernieSanders
Follow Follow @BernieSanders
More Bernie Sanders Retweeted The Washington Post
This is what real action to stop gun violence looks like. We must follow New Zealand’s lead, take on the NRA and ban the sale and distribution of assault weapons in the United States.Bernie Sanders added,
The Washington Post
Verified account
@washingtonpost
New Zealand bans military-style rifles, prime minister says just six days after 50 killed in mosque attacks https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/first-victims-of-christchurch-shootings-laid-to-rest-as-police-say-gunman-had-planned-another-attack/2019/03/20/fa76af1e-4ad6-11e9-b871-978e5c757325_story.html …
10:53 PM – 20 Mar 2019
All that time Sanders was talking up gun rights he was full of shit? Well color me surprised!
Wonder if they’ll actually get more than ~10% of the existing weapons like Australia did when they tried it.
Also, the NRA will sell out and support an assault weapon ban at some point. It’s in their nature.
It’s why the left loves to hate the NRA. Set them up as extremist and then anyone else who actually stands on their principles can be dismissed out of hand.
All the better if the guns aren’t turned in. A) Instafelons for the state to fuck with, b) any use is automatically tagged as an illegal gun, c) gun ownership dies out in a generation or two.
Yes, we all know how eagerly they supported the Crime Bill.
:tokes again:
“…..and then I’ll have them all like lobster boiling in a pot!*”
*Actual statement made by Quebec nationalists who spend a tad too much time in Barcelona exchanging separatist tips.
Fuck.
You.
Commie.
Asshole.
Anyway the New Zealand gun grab should remind us that our institutions and culture are not as libertarian as we sometimes would like to think and that things do change and that in the right circumstances major reduction in rights can occur.
It reminds me that terrorism works really well.
Especially when it gives them as excuse to do what they have always wanted to do.
Which is why false flag conspiracy theories sometimes sound sensible.
I have a feeling that quite a few things we consider to be conspiracy theories actually were not theories. People forgot or pretend it didn’t happen, but the Obama admin did use the ATF, for example, to smuggle guns to Mexico in the hopes those guns then would kill Americans so they could enact gun grabbing laws. Holder all but admitted they were doing that because he knew nobody would call them on it. And he was right.
Vice President Burr really was a paid agent of the Empire of Spain, working to subvert the Louisiana Purchase and establish a Spanish monarchy in its place. The explosion of the Maine, the sinking of the Lusitania, the Gulf of Tonkin incident, etc. IMO, those who dismiss ideas as conspiracy theories are doing themselves a disservice.
I’m going with 9/11 readiness – it wasn’t a false flag, but the laws they wanted to pass were drafted and ready to be pulled off the shelf the second something bad happened. Most legislative bodies spend months debating whether the new sewage treatment plant should be named after a famous congressman, but they have pretty substantial legislation ready before the bodies are even buried.
That is what gets me about these situations. Bodies aren’t even in the ground and you are prepared to pass comprehensive legislation. You either 1) Don’t care to contemplate other possible outcomes of your laws, 2) had this legislation sitting in your back pocket. There are others but I don’t feel like typing them.
What’s sad is how often they point to other countries as if those places are superior to their own.
Asshole commie shitheads like Bernie hate their country so much that’s why they do it.
It sure does with people that use emotional reactions to achieve real illogical results.
I don’t think anyone here is under the illusion that most or even many people think like we do.
Man wearing MAGA hat kicked out of vigil for Christchurch, New Zealand, mosque victims
Amazing how stupid people are.
The media built a narrative and it worked. That’s why they keep doing what they do.
“Before I started recording he was saying the vigil was meaningless”
I’m sorry but the actions of people around the world have me not believing without team real evidence.
As long as they kick all people looking to politicize the event, I’m fine with it.
But I doubt that’s the case.
yelled “Shame!” and he left.
Game of Thrones is real.
Ichiro retires.
Impressive career.
And a class act. He’s from the old school of “just play the game” and let the stats speak for themselves.
Exactly. Always liked him as a player.
I remember when the Mariners first picked him up when I was still mildly interested in baseball. That’s a hell of a career in professional sports.
Wow. Nice way to end it to, playing his last game in Tokyo.
My Japanese nieces – who know nothing about sports – love Ichiro.
About six years ago Ichiro carried the Japanese national team on his back in some international tourney (don’t think it was the Olympics, but who knows?) and the nieces were rooting him on big time.
Ichiro once said he’d rather get punched in the face than visit Cleveland to play.
As an Indians fan, it at first made me mad, but now I just laugh about it.
Another Remy gem courtesy of TOS.
https://youtu.be/VVe8bPQX4Z0
Remy is so freaking talented. (I really really hate RHCPs, tho)
OMG!
“What do Instagram models think of GMOs?”
I wouldn’t say I hate them. Probably wouldn’t go see them though.
Yeah, fuck those Dudley Dorights!
I had a parent like that. She and her kid would come in wreaking of essential oils. Whenever her child got sick she would instruct us to not use ‘medicine’ and that she’d take care of it.
Lol.
At least they didn’t insist on using nonessential oils.
“I had a parent like that”
I read that as your parent, then I thought you were to one reeking of 30W
Well he does reek of 30W. Which is the reason his wife walks a bit funny (and sits on one of those roid donuts).
Brenton Harrison Tarrant, a 28-year-old personal trainer who was charged with murder, was seen flashing the “OK” sign in court — a hand gesture associated with white supremacy.
That cracks me up every time.
What about smiling? Is that a White Power greeting?
Sounds like there’s going to be a lot of white supremacy once the march madness tourney begins.
ESPN cucks will wet their panties.
Thank goodness ESPN only has the women’s games. Even Candace Parker won’t be watching.
“was seen flashing the “OK” sign in court — a hand gesture associated with white supremacy”
And by associated we mean we vapidlly have been repeating that talking point.
Rumor has it that he was engaging in that white power display known as breathing
I suggest that all allys and people of color immediately stop this seemingly harmless behavior before they are converted to being race traitors and white supremacists themselves
Only if you’re a Catholic High School boy on a field trip.
Do they really not know that no one has ever gotten laid because they drive a Volvo in the entire history of the world?
That’s not what I heard
Would
My favorite thing about living in the suburbs: reformed bad girls still bring the awesome!
‘Watching porn at the age of 12 desensitised me to sex’
Hasn’t really been my experience, at least not since the days of mislabeled shock videos on Limewire, but hey, if it makes you feel better to think that the BDSM found you rather than the other way ’round, have at it.
That having been said, it’s possible to overindulge just like with anything. Sexual novelty on demand was unheard of until recently, and it probably does make a difference for those exposed to it extensively during their formative years. Fortunately the solution is pretty easy.
It’s funny, somehow I manage to avoid watching any BDSM videos because they don’t appeal to me. I guess my browser doesn’t have the special mind-control powers hers had.
I used to do a little but the little wouldn’t do it so the little got more and more….
Vote democrat. Because they hate you.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/tennessee-democratic-party-chair-apologizes-for-calling-state-racist
Why apologize, it got Sinema elected.
Has the state party apologized for segregation and the klan yet?
Poll: 38 Percent of New Yorkers Have an ‘Unfavorable’ View of Ocasio Cortez
womping?
The only poll that matters: voters in her district. I.e., morons.
I can’t believe white people without college degrees are allowed to vote.
I can’t believe people with college degrees are allowed to vote.
/College Graduate
Lately I lean toward the opposite position. I’m not sure we want a college degree as our proxy for responsible voting.
Did you read my comment too quickly?
Oh for fuck’s sake.
Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life removed from Whitcoulls following Christchurch terror attack
Controversial? The stupid burns. It burns, man!
Rule #2 – The double-tap.
“Don’t discard all of the ethics we spent 2 millennia cultivating up until the 1960s” = white supremacist mass murder, obviously.
You know who else wouldn’t take their antidote?
Never let a crises go to waste. And the left sure are milking this one.
They are not just stupid: they are evil.
Here’s the thing.
he’s reaching out to the people like the shooter, and trying to get them to stop hating the world and start caring for a part of it.
SO BANNING HIS BOOK IS HOW YOU GET MORE MASS SHOOTINGS LIKE CHRISTCHURCH!!!!!!!
These people are so stupid and ignorant, it hurts. I mean as ignorant as the stereotypical knuckle-dragging “if English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it’s good enough for me!” evolution-denying mouthbreather who has more fingers than teeth that they sneeringly look down on.
The fact that Peterson’s views are the least bit controversial really drives home how disconnected I am with modernity.
The book literally is just about getting shit in order.
They’re out of their stupid minds.
Same with that tweet in the article where the idiot tries to equate Peterson having the temerity to pose for a picture with a guy in a ‘Proud Islamophobe’ t-shirt with him being one.
I bet you it’s probably one of those sessions where people come one after another. What does he expect him to do? Turn people away based on their attire?
I bet you jerk offs like that brushed aside stories about Obama being friends with Wright and Ayers though.
“The book literally is just about getting shit in order.”
Jordan’s stuff, which is pretty much basic common sense, is about people owning their own shit and not expecting anyone but themselves being able to get it in order. The left wants absolutely none of that. Big brother is the only entity that should “help“. And by help, I mean help in the same sense as a bull helps a cow get pregnant.
Expecting someone to take care of their own shit is racist, patriarchal, cishet shitlordism.
Sad thing is that progressivism is all about the fact that people are not good enough to fix the problems they have (in addition to blaming anything but the people themselves for their self-inflicted problems too), and need the progressive elite’s strong hand – through the state – to help them overcome their deficiencies.
I haven’t quite finished it yet, but there seem to be a few themes running through Peterson’s book.
– You are the person responsible for how you live your life. Or, you might not be responsible for bad things happening to you, but you are the only one responsible for how you respond to them.
– Love yourself by acting in your best interests, setting yourself up for success, building a foundation of good habits, and not setting goals you can’t reach.
– Be a good person, and if you can’t be good, at least be honest.
You can find a list of the 12 items pretty much anywhere, but I think that’s the crux. I cannot imagine what kind of person would honestly find those things controversial or objectionable. It’s pretty much what any responsible therapist is going to tell his or her patients.
It’s solely because he refuses to kowtow to the grievance mongers. Your first point is kryptnite to them
They crucified Jesus. Buddhists were persecuted in India from the beginning. Preaching basic human decency has always offended the power hungry.
Well, that Jesus was a rabble rouser.
Man a guy hulks out one time and flips over a few moneychanger tables and suddenly he needs anger management sessions.
I appreciate the journalism here : 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos does not contain the word ‘Islam’ and only contains the word ‘Muslim’ once, but not in a negative context.
New Zealand is showing what a dark age looks like in real time.
Way for these “top men” to do the kind of shit that the shooter wanted them to do. Christ, what a bunch of mendacious assholes.
Never let a good crisis go to waste
I’m generally not one to determine intent solely by someone’s appearance, but Peterson looks like he’s one ounce of self restraint away from making the jerking off gesture in that photo. Also, people really need to tone it down with verbose messaging on t-shirts. There’s an upper limit to the number of words you can print on one before it basically becomes a sandwich board.
That is why my t-shirt was should have sold so many, but for some reason I’m still the only person I’ve ever seen wear it.
Front: Jesus is coming
Back: Will you spit or swallow?
*fiercely narrows gaze*
Actually, I can see why SJWs hate the advice from the book. Here’s the edited SJW version of the original list:
What are the most valuable things everyone should know?
Jordan B Peterson
Tell
the truthlies.Do not do things that you
hate.
Act so that you
cancan’t tell the truth about how you act.Pursue what is
meaningful, not what isexpedient.If you have to choose, be the one
who does things, instead of the one whois seen to do things.Don’t Pay attention.
Assume that the person you are
listeningtalking tomightwon’t know something you need to know.Listen todenounce them hard enough so that they willshare it with youshut up.Plan and work diligently to maintain the
romancepower in your relationships.Be careful who you share good news with.
Be careful who you share bad news with.
Make at least one thing ostensibly better every single place you go.
Imagine who you could be, and then aim single-mindedly at that.
Do not allow yourself tobecome arrogant or resentful.Try to make one room in your house as
beautifulpolitical as possible.Compare yourself to
who you were yesterday, not towho someone else is today.Work as hard as you possibly can on at least one thing and
seecreatively reinterpretwhat happensthe consequences.If old memories still make you cry,
write them down carefully and completelyvent on a blog about how you’re a victim and it ain’t your fault.Maintain your connections with people you can use.
Do not carelesslydenigrate social institutions or artistic achievement.Treat yourself as if you were someone
that you are responsible for helpingblameless.Ask someone to do you a small favour, so that
he or she can ask you to doyou can identify the suckers who you can coerceonein the future.Make friends with people who
want the best forwill be useful to you.Do nottry to rescue someone who does not want to be rescued, and be very careful about rescuing someone who does.Nothing well done is
insignificantedible.Set your house in perfect order before you
Dress like the person you want to
beusurp.Be precise in yourfight free speech.Stand
up straight with your shouldersback.Don’t avoid something frightening if it stands in your way — and don’tget others to do unnecessarily dangerous things.Do not letAbort your childrendo anything that makes you dislike them.Do not transform your wife into a maid.Do nothide unwanted things in the fog.Notice that opportunity lurks
where responsibility has been abdicatedin every crisis.Read something written by someone
great.Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street.Do not bother children when they are in compliance with common sense skateboarding regulations.
Don’t let bulliesget away with it.Write a letter to the government if you see something that needs fixing — and propose a solution.
Remember that
what you do not yet know is more important than whatyou already know how other people should live their lives.Be
grateful in spite of yourinsufferingable.Anyway lately I’ve been thinking about the Great Man theory of history. How correct is it?
Certainly things do depend on what Individual politicians do decide to and their interactions with others and their behavior on the campaign trail. Ardern is in power in New Zealand so what she says goes. If Beto wins in 2020 because people think Trump is icky and he goes full commie because he thinks that is the best for him than what does that mean?
On the other hand they wouldn’t engage in this behavior if they and society didn’t believe it. Not to mention my numerous cracks about the Libertarian Moment where based on my skepticism that there really is a libertarian thrust among a wide swath of society.
To the extant someone can get people to take up arms and fight for them or their cause they can certainly change the direction of history. Beto doesn’t have the moxie to do anymore than what the PTB allow him to do.
I think it needs to hit the right combination of person and circumstances. Would Napoleon today ignite popular passions in France? Or would he be some loudmouth member of their parliament that most people think is a crank? Maybe he’d be a businessman, and maybe he’d have enough drive to be successful, or maybe he’d just be an asshole middle manager that think’s he’s Gordon Gecko because he drives a gently used BMW and got a bj from a stripper that one time.
The great men steer the ship while the people provide the current. When their directions align, big things happen.
The controversial Canadian professor visited Aotearoa in February, weeks before a gunman killed 50 people and injured dozens more at two mosques in Christchurch.
“Clean your room” is just white power code for KILL THEM ALL.
Brexit: Revoke Article 50 petition crashes Parliament website
Looks like the people have spoken!
Are they sure it was that one and not the one asking the Queen to suspend parliment until April so the politicans can’t abort Brexit?
If people didn’t want to stop brexit, why didn’t they not not sign the petition?
In Utah, a lot of people are upset that the legislature just gutted two popular liberal referenda. I’m sure these people who are upset about that would be happy if that were in England and thought parliament would reverse brexit. They don’t care that they don’t live in a beloved democracy, they just want things to go their way.
What were the referenda thus gutted?
One of them was to mandate gender-fluid bathrooms in the Mormon Temple.
STEVE SMITH GET FLUID ON ALL GENDERS
You…you are correct!
One was a referendum on leagalizing marijuana for medical patients. It’s still leagal, but you have to jump through hoops. The other was on Medicare/medicade expansion
I had to work from home today to deal with some personal issues, but I just got a call from some faked number that left me a nice message in Mandarin Chines on my voice mail. If my rusty Mandarin is correct they are telling me that the IRS is coming to get me unless I get me a Chinese bride that will love me long time.
Lucky.
I had one like that recently as well.
Ha! So that is what that odd voice mail I had was…. thanks.
If my rusty Mandarin is correct they are telling me that the IRS is coming to get me unless I get me a Chinese bride that will love me long time.
Either that or they wanted sub gum chow mein with a side of egg rolls.
I … I am torn between narrowing my gaze and setting up opera applause.
*wanders off*
Go with Peking Opera applause
sub gum
So the Chinese bride is toothless?
Hmmmm… Maybe I should have seen if I could have gotten that option on the Korean version of tax avoidance that I got.
Yeah, that’s a bonus…
Cream of sum yung guy…
Wa Tu Yung
Menu option not available on school nights.
I had a conversation with one of my Chinese speaking coworkers about these.
At least here in NYC the telephone scam is usually immigration or visa related.
Am I getting them because of the fact I now only date me them oriental ladies?
“are telling me that the IRS is coming to get me unless I get me a Chinese bride that will love me long time.”
Hell yeah- you hit the jackpot. There’s like 20,000 single women and China and now us Americans are stealing those few from all those single Chinese men.
U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!
It’s a trap, they’re actually exporting the excess boys.
Those boys identify as women over the phone. Close enough, bigot
I will let USC go for those. Mine need to provide DNA checks that show they are XX chromosomes. I don’t want any Wangs….
The Trojans welcome ladyboys, don’t they? That chick that’s been all over the news can’t really be Y-less, can she?
I know them Greeks had a hard time leaving their brother’s behinds, but that was their choice and I am not gonna judge…
Is the Chinese bride hot?
Hard to tell on voicemail.. I will check my personal email and see if they sent me any linx….
Dogfish head brewing is going full bore crazy now. They’ve released a high ABV Gose (5.8%), that as an added benefit can process your Super8 film sitting around (due to high acidity and vitamin C, not due to toxic chemicals).
I enjoyed a few too many of their 90-Minute IPA last night. Not nearly as delicious as the 120-Minute but significantly less expensive. IIRC, they have a 120-Minute Stout coming out in May for which I am VERY, VERY excited.
World Wide Stout?!! YEA!!!!!
Not seeing 120-Minute Stout, but they are bringing back the World Wide Stout (which is just a couple of ABV points below 120-Minute IPA), and I see 120-Minute IPA is due out again this year. Hmmm… I think I still have a vanilla oak World Wide sitting in the fridge… there goes my weekend.
“I think I still have a vanilla oak World Wide sitting in the fridge… there goes my weekend.”
Must. Control. Jealousy.
Then I won’t mention the ones in the cellar, nor the Barrel Aged Blackout Stout, nor the Bigfoot, nor the…
STEVE SMITH OFFER COME BY SHARE BIGFOOT.
Weird. It was on the Rarities web page a few weeks ago as a 2019 release but I can’t seem to find it now. Upon learning of it, I pestered the fellow at the beer store and he called his distro who told him it comes out in May so I’ll keep my fingers crossed. They make a fine product, although, they make the only beer I have ever poured down the drain after a couple sips.
How many people have leftover, undeveloped Super 8 film?
Everyone that ever had a super 8 camera? I have 2 35mm cameras with a 1/2 roll left in each. I waiting for digital to peak and crash and I’ll be sitting on top of the photo world.
I’m more surprised that production of film only stoped in January of 2011.
Definitely not OMWC
An increasingly small number as people either get their stuff developed or throw it out.
BUT, Super 8 filmmaking is still a thing – Kodak currently sells a Super 8 camera model with interchangeable lenses and an LCD viewfinder. Just learned that thanks to Nephilium’s link (thanks, bro). I’m torn between “cool af, I want one” and “silly hipster toy.”
FWIW the Dogfish Head Super 8 Gose appears to be tuned to develop one particular film stock – Tri-X Reversal film, which is a B&W film. Reversal means that when processed the film contains a positive image like a slide. Professional filmmakers (at least used to) shoot on negative stock. Generally B&W is a simpler process than color, but reversal adds more complexity.
I’m torn between “cool af, I want one” and “silly hipster toy.”
This is why the concept of guilty pleasure exists. Get one, but don’t tell anybody about it.
Cool. I can drink a bit and use the rest to get impurities out of my skate blades.
They don’t care that they don’t live in a beloved democracy, they just want things to go their way.
True democracy means getting your own way and trampling those who disagree into the dirt.
Tyranny of the majority. Ain’t it beautiful?
doesn’t even have to be the majority for some people
True, you could even bring in the dead as well.
Democracy, like bipartisanship, means the proggies get there way. No matter what.
So I read some neocon blatherings from Robert Kagan in WaPo.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2019/03/14/feature/the-strongmen-strike-back/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.23f4338b5142
Strikes me as a rather disingenuous to ignore Robespierre, Napoleon and the UK in that statement.
Er weren’t Pitt and Liverpool accused of similar things?
Describing Asquith and Wilson as “liberals” makes me wonder what is so great about “liberalism”. Not to mention all the militarism, central planning and censorship and conscription going on in those “liberal” countries.
Damn it I fucked up the quoting.
Edit Fairy smiled upon you.
Thanks!
But didn’t insert a picture.. Like the cool one above..
Probably because, like WW2, despite the fact that ideology was important to the individual actors the winning side was a grab-bag of opposing philosophies whose only commonality was “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”.
I have little homemade message for May and Ardern.
“Webpage Blocked”
Interesting message. Oh wait, that’s my work proxy. Damn.
Not missing much.
What you wouldn’t do those two fuggos?
Just a few days ago (prior to that mosque bullshit), somebody was telling me what a great place New Zealand is, and how it would be a terrific place to live. My reply to the general notion of emigration was, “If you like freedom, you’re pretty much stuck here. Especially if you like the freedom to own guns.”
That doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of Americans eager to strip us of our freedoms, but we’re still better off than just about anyplace else. Especially those Commonwealth shitholes.
And there are still plenty of places in this country where you can largely keep to yourself. despite the crazy fuckers.
The fact is that the US has always been freer than its Western peers. Now the statism of our Western peers is just so much more stark.
Good news! You don’t have to wait for 1984- it’s already here!
https://twitter.com/Timcast/status/1108691142789472257
NZ’s largest book seller has banned Jordan Peterson’s books because of the shooting or something.
“Libertarian Moment!” proclaimed the Jacket.
He really hits a nerve with the left. Can’t allow anyone pointing out their lies and absurdities.
I honestly find him to be boring and I have an extremely low opinion of psychology (even if said psychologist tangentially confirms my prior beliefs), but now I need to buy his book just to oppose fascism. This sucks, because I don’t even want to read it.
It’s really worth reading just so you can see how absolutely fucking insane the reaction to it is. It’s “basics of Western civilization” with about 2 paragraphs of evolutionary psychology during the brief part of the book that discusses sex and gender.
ARGLE BLARGLE PEOPLE AREN’T LOBSTERS ARGLE BLARGLE
When I finish reading the book we can debate its merits in the gulag.
It’s going to be fun to meet all you guys in person when we’re all jailed for “wrong thought”. See you then!
I call top bunk.
Censorious assholes
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacinda_Ardern
2.5 out of 3 on the trifecta…
New LP nominee?
According to Cato New Zealand is the free-est country in the world.
If by free you mean you are free to do what you are told, then yes.
You are free to be shot for non-compliance as well.
*jazz hands*
Ardern/Corbyn ticket?
Get rid of capitalism, and the immigration and population growth problem will take care of itself.
She advocates a lower rate of immigration,
Wasn’t the shooter anti-immigration as well? She should ban herself.
doesn’t even have to be the majority for some people
“People too stupid to agree with me shouldn’t have a say.”
Always get a lawyer…
Parsippany pastor suing NJ State Police, Wells Fargo for arrest
AdBlock hits 35 different scripts on that site and they want me to disable it in order to see the article. Yeah… NO
Interesting.
I use uBlock and an anit-adblocker script and didn’t get the warning.
I totally get why you didn’t bother, however…
I’ve been trying the Brave browser on my tablet. Works a treat – fast, no ads, and it seems to get around the “click on this shit allowing us to dump garbage on your computer or you can’t see our site”. I like it better than Firefox, and I won’t use Chrome (because fuck Google). Also has a script-blocking function that I haven’t tried yet.
Does it have Tampermonkey/Monocle support? That’s why I haven’t been using it as much as I’d like to.
No. But I have an Apple tablet and can’t use those on it anyway.
now I need to buy his book just to oppose fascism. This sucks, because I don’t even want to read it.
Donate it, in a highly public way, to the library at your local high school, shitlord.
Some SJW’s Little Free Library.
Yesterday our instructor gave a lecture on building foundations and presented a couple slides about the sinking Millennium Tower in San Francisco. Now, there’s a guy in my class who’s a few years older but sounds exactly like I did when I was a DU-style progressive numpty back in the early Bush II years. He browses DailyKOS during class and talks about whatever he’s heard on The Young Turks. He’s a nice enough guy, but his politics is lefty cotton candy. Anyway, during break this guy complains about the lack of building codes in Houston and Peru. They don’t subscribe to building codes in Peru, see, so you get miles and miles of favelas in Lima. (He didn’t elaborate about Houston other than to say he’d never live there, too dangerous.) He denigrated “rugged individualism” for this mentality, as if libertarianism is all Marlboro Man and not polite Jewish intellectuals like Mises and Rothbard. And this was directly after a long discussion about the Millennium Tower… in San Francisco, not Houston. And what do you bet there are a dozen or maybe dozens of tent cities within easy walking distance of that building?
Yes, I’m relitigating an argument here that I wasn’t clever enough to make yesterday.
L’esprit de l’escalier
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27esprit_de_l%27escalier
I swear I had something for this.
My prairie ass would never, ever dare to say that out loud in front of anyone.
The sound of french makes me irritable and violent.
I don’t know why.
I know why the sound of French makes me nervous.
My French Canadian grandpa would swear and rant in French (or the FC version of that) when he was really upset. You didn’t want to be around him much when he was that mad.
+1 Working a graveyard shift by one’s self and having to tell the group of Cajun roughnecks, onshore for the first time in a month and a half, that they are being a nuisance to the other customers and have to leave.
Do you get all tingly in your private parts?
No.
Never?
From the disgusting sound of the french language.
Pffft, Marlboros are for cuck wusses.
*lights Camel filterless*
Ooooh, look at Mr. Fancy over here, with his fancy Camels!
*lights Chesterfield straight*
I can say with certainty that Chesterfields assisted my uncle in slowly killing himself. Those things are rank.
They helped clip my Grandpa at 60. With the assist going to whisky, of course.
My dad had a little help with Pall Malls. If he could have afforded whisky Jim and Jack would have been his best friends though.
My dad used to smoke Raleighs because they came with little certificates that you could collect and trade in. “If I’m going to get cancer, I at least want a toaster out of the deal.”
The best counter arguments are the ones you come up with three days later.
While commuting to work
It’s why I don’t debate shit in public anymore. Other than because it’s tedious and pointless. But I end up sounding like an even bigger moron than I am, and then agonize over it.
This is why everyone should be a progressive for a little phase. You get good at saying things with conviction, bowling over people, and rapidly citing ‘facts’. Great for public arguing.
I suggest a period of no more than 3 days one summer while trying to get in some hot young lefty’s pants.
The problem is you’ll get good at smooth-talking lefties out of their pants — a wonderful skill — but it’s probably not going to build the skill-set he needs. Unless he’s going to try to talk a whole group of them out of their pants….
If you talk hot girls out of their pants you get laid. If you debate people publicly you get fucked. laid is better
Granite is good, marble is for idiots, but formica is easier on knives if you don’t use a cutting board.
What sort of savage would cut directly on the counter?!
The sort who enjoys sharpening knives.
Just use the pull-out
crumb-catchercutting board built into your cabinet.Never put the cutting board in the sink and realized you need to slice one last lemon?
Nope. My cutting board is bigger than the sink. I have to wash it on the counter.
Wash a cutting board? Interesting.
I would agree that marble is for idiots. Why the hell would you get a porous countertop that stains? Unless, of course, it is a butcher block countertop, in which case the stains can be sanded out.
Better than washing your dick in the sink…
No opinion on quartz?
The jerk store called, they’re running out of you!
The best counter arguments are the ones you come up with three days later.
I think they are the ones some troll starts in reply.
That Trump, always blowing everything out of proportion
The new economic approach will be central to Trump’s 2020 reelection bid, according to a half-dozen White House officials, allies and campaign advisers, and made all the easier by progressive causes like the “Green New Deal” championed by the likes of freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).
“The socialism versus capitalism message is a home run with every group apart from millennials,” said one informal adviser to the campaign. “The campaign will cast 2020 through the prism of socialism versus freedom.”
It’s unclear how seriously Americans might take the prospect of Washington adopting a state-run socialist economy, but a recent CNN poll showed 71 percent of Americans believe the current U.S. economy is in good shape.
Democrats and liberal groups accuse the Trump administration of wildly stretching the truth to discredit ideas, like raising taxes on wealthy Americans or expanding health care, that might otherwise pose a political threat.
“Obviously, this is an absurd political tactic,” said Emily Gee, a health economist at the Center for American Progress. “The Trump administration clearly thinks that high-level fear-mongering on socialism is better than talking about actual policy.”
Look, we admit it. Stalin and Mao got a few things wrong, but that’s no reason to condemn the whole program.
Pinochet was imperfect, but that is no reason to condemn helicopter rides for socialists.
Pinochet theme?
Like I’ve said before: I’m not saying Pinochet should have been tossing people from helicopters…..but I understand.
IIRC this is not the first time that directly quoting Democrats is considered “wildly stretching the truth” and “high-level fear-mongering.”
Just like how the Russians gave the election to Trump by… releasing unedited copies of the Democrats own emails? Huh.
“Capitalism is irredeemable” – It-girl
No need to stretch the truth when it comes right out of their mouths.
Stretching the truth?
*Looks at recent polls showing an avowed socialist is second in the Democrat primaries.*
Thot Thursday is muy caliente!
https://thechive.com/2019/03/21/burn-your-bra-and-join-the-revolution-40-photos-18/
35>12>9>27
12
and 21
9 looks like a trans girl. NTTAWWT
Constitution Smonstitution.
https://youtu.be/GFhJvC6K3Hw
So just to clarify, if my son posts pics of his Boy Scout Troop participating in a shooting event, at a gun range, under the supervision of licensed instructors, we’re looking at federal prison?
State pen, it’s a Florida law.
Because first graders wielding assault Poptarts are pretty much future Columbine murderers if you don’t rain down opprobrium and official censure on their little heads.
Indeed. The way to prevent people from getting alienated and possibly violent is to make sure they know they are irredeemable untermensch who will never be accepted by society.
Yep. Definitely don’t instill expectations of personal responsibility or moral rectitude. Teach them that they are either the wellspring of all iniquity and human misery, or victims of same. Either way, they are incapable of atoning for their sins/bucking the oppressors. They are wholly alien creatures defined entirely by superficial traits and not by their place in their communities.
Fight the Power!
The Altar Boys somewhere north of Beach, ND.
POLICE SEARCH WARRANT, DOWN ON THE GROUND DOWN ON THE GROUND!
if my son posts pics of his Boy Scout Troop participating in a shooting event, at a gun range, under the supervision of licensed instructors, we’re looking at federal prison?
You had better hope the Kiwis don’t extradite him for terrorism.
Did he watch the video?
Will there be a glib basketball bracket game this year?
Don’s gonna want a word.
There is one, Tundra and Mikes are in it, they must have the deets.
I thought you just followed the NBA?
I do. all my college picks are random guesses
I’m not doing a bracket, but hope my Purdue Boilermakers make a Final Four run.
The Gophs beat Purdue.
Your dreams are less reasonable than a crack head’s delusions.
Did he watch the video?
I actually tried to watch it. Criminently, that girl is annoying. I only made it about thirty seconds.
I meant the video of the shooting which the NZ authorities are trying to jail people for 14 years for watching
Talent not testosterone powers intersex athletes, scientists say
Talent not testosterone is behind the success of intersex athletes such as Olympic champion Caster Semenya, scientists said on Wednesday…
The left sure loves appeals to authority.
Thomas Dolby – She Blinded Me With Science
Science!
This has got to be crossing a lot of wires in SJW’s heads. OTOH, testosterone icky. OTOH, yay trannies! OTOH, testosterone gives a physical advantage. OTOH, women athletes can’t compete with trannies.
I think in this case they’re referring to biological females which have a naturally high testosterone level.
Not not be confused, I suppose, with “former” men who also have naturally high testosterone levels.
And yet testosterone supplementation is banned in most professional sports.
Wait, isn’t there? Beyond strength boosts, you get reduced recovery time, which is huge. Also, and I don’t know if it’s because of testosterone, men are able to recruit more of their muscle fibers at once, have better coordination and visual tracking skills and probably some stuff I’m forgetting.
No direct link = it is not guaranteed that the highest T athlete will win, second highest will place etc.. But I’ll bet you there is a hell of a correlation.
Talent is still involved, absolutely. But, particularly in the case of women’s sports, and some more than others, testosterone puts the T in talent.
I think some organizations have made exceptions for people who are (claiming to be) transitioning.
Who, coincidentally, are all looked down upon by the Olympian gods!
Actually, maybe not if we’re talking female -> male. Though sometimes they still get to compete against women, right?
*Shakes head in confusion*
I’m fine with leaving the differentiation to be determined by the chromosomal makeup of the individual.
Introducing the new XX and XY leagues!
IFLS
So they’re saying people who are born male are just more talented? Yeah, that’s not as problematic as saying a chemical can make you stronger. *Gets Barry Bonds stamp of approval*
Yet the only actual study cited in the article says otherwise:
Americans Are Seeing Threats in the Wrong Places
Nepolitano makes false assumption that Americans who want the border secured do so purely for the reason of physical security. I might be stepping away from Libertarian leanings here, but I primarily want the border secured for fiscal security. So long as we have a welfare state we cannot allow the unchecked flow of people. Trump’s build a wall isn’t the solution but neither are the ideas coming from the left.
I won’t even go into the mindless rantings Nepolitano has about climate change being a national security threat. That’s just code for give the government more power.
Fine—let’s impose a hard cap on immigrants because America is such a big polluter. Back home, immigrants won’t pollute nearly as much as they do when they move here. Here, their carbon footprint expands drastically—they drive more, they consume more, their homes are bigger, more of their children will survive infancy and they’ll grow taller. Their jobs will be more carbon-intensive. Sound climate policy means minting as few new polluting Americans as possible.
I was thinking yesterday about the collapse in Venezuela (which is driving migration), the dysfunction elsewhere in Central America (which is driving migration), and the possibility (likelihood?) that Mexico will revert to form and have similar dysfunction/collapse. The ongoing crypto-civil war/insurgency with the cartels does not give one great confidence.
Let’s say there is a realistic possibility of Mexico truly going in the shitter (it actually is in better shape than its southern neighbors, but for how long?). What are now caravans of thousands of Central Americans travelling very long distances to get to the US become caravans of many, many more Mexicans travelling shorter distances. If that scenario comes into play, I think we are going to want a much more secure border than we now have, starting with elementary physical security.
“But walls are not 100% effective, so don’t bother!”
/straw distillation
Progressives treat every measure taken by Israelis to keep knife-wielding jihadists from stabbing school children as indistinguishable from genocide. I kinda don’t think they’ll care that American cities swamped in “economic migrants” until and unless it breaks out in vigilante violence.
I have a very liberal opinion on immigration and I don’t think it increases costs since most immigrants are banned from most welfare programs. My biggest issue is that people opposed to the wall and opposed to enforcement of laws against illegal immigration do not actually hold a liberal opinion on immigration. If these people actually believed in liberal immigration then they would be focused on reducing visa wait periods which incentivizes illegal immigration. “Open (southern) border” advocates are just peddling identity politics and masquerading as if they are actually advocating for liberal immigration policy when they most definitely are not.
If you actually want more immigration and a more liberalized process then tackle the onerous visa process. As it stands “open (southern) border” advocates are really no better than closed border advocates.
My NYS and NYC tax bills suggest otherwise. You’d be surprised at the creative ways they work around federal restrictions.
most immigrants are banned from most welfare programs
Legal ones are effectively blocked from some welfare, probably most.
While some illegals function mostly in the cash economy and may not need fake IDs, many do not function mostly on cash and therefor need and have fake IDs. Nobody fakes a visa; if you are going to fake an ID, you fake a US citizen ID, and can get welfare. Barely a week goes by here in AZ without a story about illegals running welfare fraud schemes, and its not just fraud because they have fake IDs. The slop is slippery; once you commit a little fraud, why not go big?
Like I said, the “open (southern) border” position is not one that I respect, nor do I believe there is any merit to the argument.
An oft overlooked issue is that their kids are using services, such as public school, even though the parents aren’t even supposed to be here in the first place. Granted, it can get messy if the kid is born here and is a citizen, but if their parents hadn’t broken the law, they wouldn’t be born here, so I dunno.
*Throws hands up*
I would like a simple reform. A child must have at least one citizen parent at birth to be regarded as a citizen at birth. If they have no citizen parents, their nationality is to be regarded as that of their parents.
There is no reason that popping in and popping out a child should convey citizenship to anyone.
I could get on board with that. It leaves a ton of problems unsolved though. Do you bar the kid from school because they’re not a citizen?
That’s a question for the school.
Take it up with the US Supreme Court. They ruled on this question in the 90’s and said school districts cannot restrict illegal immigrant children from attending these schools
Like I’m going to start looking to *them* for advice on what to think.
Agreed. They suck ass, in all seriousness.
At least with Justice Beer Pong in, we might get some rulings on party fouls.
Nah, he sucks ass too. I’m a “but…Gorsuch” man, myself
I know almost nothing about any of them. What I saw of Gorsuch in confirmation and since makes me think he’s okay. He’ll probably be a full blown commie in another 5 years.
1982, Plyler v. Doe.
Here’s a story about emergency Medicaid in one little state:
https://coloradosun.com/2019/02/25/undocumented-immigrants-dialysis-colorado-medicaid-policy/
“Colorado’s Medicaid department spent $40.5 million on emergency care for 2,722 people here illegally in fiscal 2015, according to a department report to the legislature.”
Not Medicaid total, just emergency.
Hospitals must treat anyone that goes to an emergency room by law. The issue is the welfare state itself and not necessarily immigration.
I feel like this sums up libertarian arguments on immigration. It’s basically dismantle the welfare state and let everyone in, but some people think you have to do the former before the latter, and others think a bunch of nonsense 🙂
It’s basically dismantle the welfare state and let everyone in
Not necessarily. I still think that a nation needs an immigration policy with some restrictions, and those restrictions should be based on what will best serve its citizens, not the citizens of foreign nations.
I think we should just basically not take degenerates. What that looks like I don’t know. I don’t want to disbar somebody for life because of a felony. Beyond that, I’m not going to pretend the government is ever going to be able to determine what’s in the interests of the citizenry, and I’d rather be lenient.
Illegals pose a different problem, though. The cost of their services is often born entirely by the hospital because they don’t/can’t qualify for Medicaid. They either stick the taxpayers for it through fraud, or stick the hospitals for it through nonpayment.
That said, our problem with poorer citizens is that, thanks to OCare, they have high deductibles which they can’t afford to pay, so even if they are insured, we can still get stuck with part of their tab.
Well, we just saved about 18 grand last night.
We have a window that had one of the panes broken out, the inside one. We need to replace/repair it. We called a window company to come out and give us an estimate for replacing all the windows in the house.
We got the hard sell; all the blah, blah, blah about how they are made out of special unobtanium that’s better than everything else and how happy their customers are, and what the resale value is, etc. Whatever, seeing through the puffery it still looked like a good window.
We get down to brass tacks though and here’s the price, and shock and surprise it’s like 50% higher than the competition. But wait, there’s more! There’s a 20% discount, and since we’re paying cash another 2% discount.
Okay, fine, good enough. Pretty standard sales technique. We’re ready to buy.
Then…*record scratch* If you buy today right now you get another 5% off.
Wife and I both were /pissed/. I detest that sort of thing. So we told her to pack her demo stuff while we discussed it, even though we’d already had the Married for almost 15 years Vulcan mind-melt conversation that neither of us likes that kind of high pressure bullshit.
So we bring her in and tell her our concern and instead of saying, “I understand. Is there someway to make this deal go through?” she gets defensive.
Deal over. She lost whatever the commission is on 19G, and we’re going to just replace the one window.
Windows companies are notorious for the timeshare hard sell. I don’t play along at all.
Yeah, fuck Bill Gates.
My wife is awesome at dealing with sales people. Neither of us fall for the high pressure BS. But when it comes to negotiation my wife always manages to get an even better deal.
My ex was that way too. I just want to be fucking done already since they are going to take too much of my money regardless.
They’re already getting my money, must they also take my time!?
My wife is definitely the negotiator in our family.
Her main tactic is to “understand” English in proportion to how much she likes the deal. So when the car salesman starts out way high she sounds like she got off the boat about 5 minutes ago. As they get closer to a price she can handle, her language skills grow to the point where she can discuss intricacies of financing or other discounts.
The salesmen will always look at me for help during a negotiation. I just shrug my shoulders and tell them that they are talking to her and her only.
One of these days some salesperson may wind up switching to Korean mid negotiation. That would be worth it just for grins…
Mind you I have had some Japanese people play this game with me – pretend not to understand my English and pretend not to understand my Japanese. Since I’m not fluent I essentially lost in both languages! In this case they were trying to be polite and not accept my refusal for food / entertainment and the like – so not high stakes.
This has stung another of my pet peeves. That first ‘No’ was not a coy game to avoid looking greedy or some nonsense like that. I declined politely because I didn’t want any. Don’t make me decline rudely.
Similar to my approach, but I usually try to sort of radiate intransigence and general hostility, so that they would much rather talk to her than to me. Joke’s on them – she’s the tightwad and tough negotiator. I’m just an asshole.
I have NEVER bought product from people using that “If you buy right now we will give you a discount” bullshit, and never will. I immeidately know the deal is not the best when they use that fucking tactic. Shit I even had some asshat tell me because he liked my ex-wife so much he would give us a full 24 hrs to decide. Ain’t he grand? I told him to go fuck a rock and went elsewhere for the work. Paid half of what these assholes pretending to give you all sorts of discounts did and the product was better quality if I go by what my neighbor who fell for the racket tells me.
I’ve read a few sales/persuasion books and an artificial timeline is indeed a trick to get people to buy right away. It works pretty often. “This discount ends tomorrow”, “I have another buyer looking at this house”, “Someone else took the car for a test drive before you got here”, etc.
It is. And it is specifically a tactic used when you are negotiating a deal where you don’t expect the relationship to be ongoing. In other words, one where you are trying to squeeze as much juice as possible out of the other party as you think this will be a one time thing. It’s not a tactic I will give in to. I’ve walked away from many a deal like that.
I don’t mind haggling. I enjoy negotiation and can be a tough negotiator. Friends call me to help them buy cars. Our homes we’ve bought I negotiated myself. I don’t mind hard negotiating. Give me your value prop, and take your best swing with your best price, but don’t give me these bullshit artificial timelines and other pressure tactics.
“If you call in the next 60 seconds…”
Amazes me that anyone falls for that.
*sheepishly hangs up phone*
Yeah, that is silly.
I try to keep the value proposition separate from the sales pitch. Was the deal a good one, regardless of how it was presented?
If it was a pitch from a sales person in your house for windows it was NOT a good deal. My suggestion for any work on your house is to ask around your circle of friends and find someone who does some landlording/investing and get a recommendation from them. The guy you call from the professional advertisement is probably charging you more than double what you can get the work done for elsewhere.
This is normally what we do. I’m looking around our network now to find a good person to handle the windows. But those folks from last night can fuck right off. Esp. if they think I’m not getting any competitive bids.
I have been known to pay more just to do business with people who don’t push the hard sell. If I have decided there is something I need, and the price is within the ballpark of what I expect, I’m liable to shrug and accept any lost savings as the cost of avoiding the hassle of the haggle. Haggling always leaves me feeling cheated. The hard sell and haggle produce very similar responses in my brain.
I have the *family builder do that work. Getting the five windows replaced in the back of my house, for example, was only – roughly $1500 – if my memory serves me right. Whatever it was, there wasn’t any sticker shock.
*He built the old man’s second house, the addition to said house, and the garage/loft for him. Also recently clad the interior of my dad’s current house in wood, and also did the front door of my house. He’s retired from his days of building log cabins but still likes to pick up some extra cash. I hope he’s around when I want to build the addition to my digs.
Yep. Windows, installed, should be $300-$400 each unless you are getting something really custom. My brother just got a quote from one of the TV window companies for something like $5000 for 4 windows and a sliding door.
I had an appliance place talk themselves out of 20K of sales.
I had a quote that was over 30days old, and was about to put down the deposit. I had talked to a person in the business and he had said that prices from vendor X were going up at the end of the month.. so lock in now and you are fine.
The appliance place told me “oh, vendor X just went up.. your new cost is 10% higher” … I thought to myself “something is wrong” so I walked out, immediately went to another major appliance retailer, who took my list, told me it was good to lock in today since vendor X is going up at the end of the month, and gave me a quote that matched the original one.
They got my business that day.
I had the same hard sell from a roofing company.. didn’t go with them either.
We just had a new roof put on our two-unit condo; my neighbor in the other unit had Long Roofing in and my bullshit-radar went off instantly – “we need all decision makers there before we’ll give an estimate”.
Looking through those Yelp reviews gives you a good feel for the bullshit that eventually went down – a couple of sales-weasels showed up, started with the “if you sign today” BS right away – the older of the two was very displeased when I said “we’re looking for a quote, no way we’re committing to anything today”.
After about 15 minutes I just got up and said “I have to go, X (my neighbor) can answer any of your questions” – that _really_ made them unhappy (which made me happy).
Even after all that, they still worked on her for over an hour and managed to get my neighbor into a tizzy to the point she called and said “I want to sign this today, they’re offering X…”. Fortunately, she’s pretty happy to defer to me on joint building stuff and was OK with my firm “no, we need to talk to Y (contractor we’ve used before)”.
Kicking those clowns to the curb was satisfying.
My suggestion is to make sure the quote isn’t a one line it’s going to cost X to replace your roof. I advise fam & friends to make sure it’s itemized. Hell, you can get an Eagleview report for your roof that will give you the exact amount of each material (including waste) you’ll need for $35 and have it in two days.
We went with the contractor we’ve used before – his roofing business is new but I trust his work. Not the cheapest option, but it was done within 5 days and done well.
You know this guy is good – you can barely get any of his time because he’s always busy 🙂
Shitty contractors have all the time in the world.
More nonsensical gaslighting about the electoral college
TW: The Week
“What Democrats want is effectively to make California and New York the kingmakers in presidential politics, and not have to bother with the middle of country and smaller, more rural states,” Rich Lowry wrote at Politico. “This is exactly the approach that the Electoral College is meant to foreclose, in favor of greater geographic diversity.”
In that case, the Electoral College is failing. As the folks at National Popular Vote point out, two-thirds of general election campaign events in 2016 were held in just six states — Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, and Michigan — and 94 percent of them were held in just 12 states. The campaign to govern the country is already being contested on fairly narrow grounds, and almost never in smaller, more rural states.
We just need more Pony Express riders to get (quill) pen and ink copies of those stump speeches into the hinterlands, because otherwise, nobody in Wyoming or Louisiana would ever know what the candidates’ positions are.
They are not liking the game because they can’t rig it to win consistently with the current rules, especially with the current electorate, and thus, have decided they are better off changing the rules AND the electorate.
If they eliminate the electoral college politicians will just focus on a few select cities. On top of the fact that you will have mob rule.
Yep. You want a revolution? That’s how you get a revolution.
“That’s perfect, they’re our mobs.”
Or bypass the need to campaign at all in some states by rigging a variant of Top Two that means all votes cast go to one Democrat, and other parties can’t get candidates on the ballot. 100% of the votes in CA and game over w/o EC.
It’s basic separation of powers. People elect the legislature; states elect the executive.
“Popular vote” is a poorly-defined term. Does that mean each person votes for his/her favorite, and plurality wins? Is there a runoff if nobody wins a majority of votes? Are ranking systems popular votes? If not, why not?
Dems are pissed because under one of a dozen different alternative “popular vote” systems, their candidate would have won, this time. This is not a powerful argument for adopting that one system.
Want a change that is both good and will do what he wants? Constitutional amendment requiring all states to switch to the ME/NE plan.
Suddenly there are districts that aren’t competitive, but not whole states.
Plus, it makes fraud less of an issue, as localized fraud can flip at most 3 EC votes (1 for the district, 2 for the state).
Constitutional amendment requiring all states to switch to the ME/NE plan.
That’s probably one of the strongest solutions.
The big states won’t do it voluntarily, because it dilutes their impact on the election.
Hence the amendment requirement. 2/3rds of the small states could force it on the big states.
3/4ths not 2/3rds.
2/3rds to call the convention 3/4ths to ratify afterwards.
Convention won’t get called. 2/3rds of House and Senate, 3/4s to ratify.
2/3rds of the house might be next to impossible. Although you might get republicans in CA and democrats in TX to vote for it.
I think the past two years have actually illustrated how little any of this matters. We aren’t a Federated Constitutional Republic with enumerated, separated powers anymore. We are a Bureaucracy as complete, and as out of touch as the last days of the Manchu. I started to write a piece about this, but I am not sure I have anything all that novel or interesting to say, and the subject doesn’t seem to call for humor, so it may not be worth finishing.
Trump would have won 290-248, which is closer than it was. He won 230 disticts and 30 states.
To be sure.
two-thirds of general election campaign events in 2016 were held in just six states — Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, and Michigan
It’s funny they point that out. The states they cite are, in all reality, the precise sort of states you’d want playing the pivotal role in deciding the election, fairly evenly balanced between rural and urban interests, neither overwhelmingly liberal nor overwhelmingly conservative, highly diverse demographies, etc. If I were to want to select the set of states that I’d want to choose the leader of continent-wide republic, I’d be hard-pressed to choose a better sample.
I meant the video of the shooting which the NZ authorities are trying to jail people for 14 years for watching
Ahh.
Is that because watching it will cause some sort of irrevocable brain reprogramming which will turn the viewer into a remorseless unstoppable killing machine?
*scribbles notes for pitch to CIA*
No direct link = it is not guaranteed that the highest T athlete will win, second highest will place etc.. But I’ll bet you there is a hell of a correlation.
“The race is not always to the swift, nor victory to the strong; but that’s how you bet.”
-Damon Runyon
Don’t think creating a new thread keeps us from seeing right through you =D
Beat you by a minute. Maybe if you didn’t have to waste all that time scrolling down and then quoting the original comment you could have beaten me?
The frustrating thing is that when you want to comment, but there are still 100 unread comments you’ll lose track of when you do. So you sit on it hoping you’ll remember to come back *and* not find something more interesting to comment on.
Around that many unread, I tend to give up and don’t really engage in the conversation.
Maybe it’s because I’ve been lurking in your guys’ conversations for years. I was skulking around at TOS for maybe 6 months before the diaspora, and lurked here for quite awhile before I started commenting with any regularity.
Reading through all the comments has gotten me through many a boring day at work. I hate to skip any (except garbage about baseball and basketball and painting minis (sorry!))
When painting the ball on a basketball mini, use a brighter orange on the raised panels then cover it all in a wash to color the lines and dull the panels.
That one got me
Space marines play basketball?
It’s time to round up the HoopBoyz and JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!
Why not? They dance.
I yam what I yam.
A sweet potato?
Can I get that as deep-dish?
Kale?
You, sir, are a monster.
I think I actually like Kale. Quelle surprise!
On a “Pizza”?
Maybe? Never tried it.
I think the past two years have actually illustrated how little any of this matters. We aren’t a Federated Constitutional Republic with enumerated, separated powers anymore. We are a Bureaucracy as complete, and as out of touch as the last days of the Manchu. I started to write a piece about this, but I am not sure I have anything all that novel or interesting to say, and the subject doesn’t seem to call for humor, so it may not be worth finishing.
In that Week piece, the guy quotes Madison to make his “case”:
The Founders weren’t unvarnished small-d democrats. But a close examination of their writings suggests that while they didn’t want the majority to run roughshod over the rights of the minority, they also feared allowing minority factions to subvert the will of the majority. James Madison, in particular, used the Federalist Papers to warn against government structures that would allow minority factions to subvert the popular will.
In such cases, Madison wrote in Federalist 58, “the fundamental principle of free government would be reversed. It would be no longer the majority that would rule: the power would be transferred to the minority.”
Left unaddressed is the likelihood that Madison (or any of the Founders with the possible exception of Hamilton) would be horrified by the size and reach of the federal government.
Of course, what these guys truly want is an all-powerful federal; government, so no part of the country, no matter how remote or insignificant, can escape the grasp of Beltway intelligentsia. No Face Left Unstomped.
Today is what you’d refer to as ‘A low productivity day’. Unless pining for freedom is productive.
Nope, you should be oaking for freedom instead.
That one didn’t get me.
Soaking for freedom?
I put down a bunch of words I’m supposed to read out loud to several dozen people while pretending I’m not reading out loud. The vision I have for doing this is nothing like the nightmare that will unfold tomorrow.
Extemporaneous Speaking! Learn it! Love it!
A few bullets to remind you of the points you want to make, with the actual words being extemporaneous, is my preference for public speaking, whether I am speaking or in the audience.
HA HA SLOWPOKE!
I’m going to practice loads tonight and tomorrow morning, but yeah, bullet point speaker’s notes in PP and trying to look like I’m winging it. It’s short, thank God. (TNWSS.)
You’re going to love this advice: Don’t put your bullet points in powerpoint then read the slides off. It’s terrible. Instead, display a useful graphic, or barring that cat pics or tits depending on your audience.
Cardinal sin – reading what is projected on a screen in giant letters. I think the audience will get what’s on your PowerPoint slides.
I typically pick one or two PP bullets on each slide and expand on them.
Better yet, skip the PP.
Agreed!
I had to take a public speaking course to get my engineering degree, and it was one of the more useful courses I took. It was a pleasant surprise.
For no good reason-
I’d have a Volvo like this one, especially if it came with a hot soccer mom.
Unless pining for freedom is productive.
Better than pining for the fjords.
dammit
/holds down Backspace button
So my Raleigh Libertarian Book Group is off to a good start. I picked 3 books (I don’t remember which ones!), and have 21 people in the group already. Somehow seven of them are women. Who knows what that’s about. Probably secret commies.
We’re opening with Economics in One Lesson, then something by Rothbard, I forget which, I think the one recommended here, and finally The Road to Serfdom. We’ll see if anyone actually shows up or reads the books.
Also, I’m kind of cheating because I’ve read 2 of the 3.
But how many of the libertarian women are you cheating on?
I havne’t met any of them yet.
Wait, that’s not true, my GF is in the group. Zero! The answer is ZERO!