Man, Louisiana Tech throttled SMU last night in the Something Something Bowl. Some guy actually will come back from Dead Man’s Curve. Talk about a crazy story. Good on the EMTs on this one. ESPN almost dislocates shoulder patting itself on the back. Sorry, but your coverage on wimmins sports is still a failure until you open up comments on your ESPNW articles.
In scores, all of the ranked college teams took care of business as usu….oh no they didn’t! UNC lost at home to Wofford. And not a great Wofford that wasn’t getting respect either. I mean an average lower-level program. Chelsea advanced to the League Cup semifinals while ManUre were bounced by lower-level Bristol City. On the ice a very small slate of games. Calgary took out St Louis. Columbus topped Toronto. And the Philthadelphia Flyers beat the Red Wings.
Well I hope you’re ready for Christmas or have a plan in place to get your shopping done. Unfortunately you won’t find any gift ideas below. Only…the links!
Does every vote matter? Or do none of the votes matter? Either way, this has to be Russia’s fault.
Rolling Stone has been sold for $100,000,000. Jesus, that’s a bigger tax write-off than Cole Hamels giving his Missouri estate away to a charity for kids.
Merry Christmas to employees of AT&T, Comcast and a bunch of others. Of course, the leftarded idiots would have you believe “corporations” always stockpile “profits” after a tax break like this and use it to fund research into programs to further rip off their customers and employees. But in reality, both tax increases and cuts are passed on to their customers and employees in an effort to seize market share. Well since they can’t make that argument anymore, they’re shifting to “this costs society more than the bonuses and increased wages those few people are making.” I guess you just can’t win with those assholes. So here’s a bit of advice for Team Red: stop trying to.
Expect this trend in states with ridiculously high taxes to continue. But don’t worry, there are positives! FTA (emphasis mine):
“Among some positive signs — for example, increased overall diversity, despite losses in some races, ethnicities, and geographic areas — the ability to retain current residents poses near- and long-term economic and social challenges for metropolitan Chicago and Illinois,” Schuh said.
Hear that? Although they’ve had a serious drop-off in population of “some races” who are much more likely to have high-taxpaying people, they’ve increased the diversity! In other words, Chicago specifically and Illinois in general are losing their tax base and replacing it with people who are more likely to generate fewer tax receipts. Well, not really replacing, just having those people represent a larger percentage of the population. And that on top of the legacy costs bubble that is all but unsustainable at this point means that the Windy City might see tumbleweeds rolling through her streets in a decade or so.
Tip. Of. The. Iceberg. Or one can only hope so.
San Francisco government talks about how much they love the poor and homeless. But their actions say otherwise.
Don’t worry. I’m almost done posting these kinds of songs.
Have a great Thursday, dear friends. If you’re working the rest of the week, God bless you. I’ll be headed to South Carolina tonight for my parents 50th Anniversary and Christmas with our entire family (parents, brother and sister and their entire families) for the first time in forever. It should be quite the adventure.
Links at more or less exactly 8am? I don’t know what to do…
Masturbate?
I’m at work, that’s on the list of things that can get a state worker fired.
Only for the third offense if you’re Union.
You sure about that? http://www.slate.com/articles/life/dear_prudence/2009/02/whack_off_while_you_work.html
Sung to the tune of “Whistle While you Work”
Snow White and the Seven Euphemists?
I am taking it out of my pants…
I am doing what my mommy told me not to do…,
slap, slap, slap!
When doesn’t he do that?
Um, it’s 7am.
Not in Real People Time.
Yup. In Real People Time it’s 5am.
Your clock’s off.
No, it’s set to Pacific Time, like any civilized person would have it at.
Yep, the very civilized barker outside the donkey show in Tijuana sets his watch to Pacific Time.
So do San Francisco government employees. And Jerry Brown.
Real time is UTC.
Not all people who set their clocks to Pacific Time are civilized, but all civilized people set their clocks to Pacific Time.
Fuck that. Mountain is the One True Time Zone.
Sarah Purcell hardest hit.
UCS is right for a change.
God’s Time is EST.
So for most of the year, CDT is the correct time.
I… can’t disagree with that.
Exactly.
Follow-up Dr. visit tomorrow.
Feels like I have a mild muscle strain in my right-kidney area. Everything else is fine and no more intestinal pain. Three bean salad on the way.
BTW: Best podcast—The Last Podcast on the Left. Super-R and hilarious about serial killers and the macabre.
Make a pass at the nurse. Trust me.
Not something I expected to have to say in a serious context.
The team just wasted three days trying to figure out what was going on. The problem was the process was written without error checking, and when the conditions were not what it was assuming, it deleted the input files instead of the encrypted copy it thought it was cleaning up.
It would have been less time if not for this school of scriptwriting that tries to apply object-oriented programming principles where they don’t belong. So instead of reading a linear script, I’m tracing spaghetti in vi.
Well, that’s done now, back to documentation.
*looks at half-finished document*
*sigh*
What scripting language are you using?
bash
Yeah, I see what you mean about OOP.
OOP? More like oops, amirite?
/non-computer nerd
Object-Oriented Programming.
Out of plane
That can be fixed with a burn to normal or antinormal, depending on which requries less delta-v.
/Too Much KSP
Hohmann Transfer MY ASS!!!
THAT SHIT IS Heinlining to the surface!
This is going to greatly reduce my already shitty image on here BUT:
I get a sick kind of enjoyment out of using bash to solve problems. Don’t get me wrong, Python is the preferred scripter and I use Java for all my heavy lifting (and now getting into Node for micro-service architecture) but occasionally i just say to myself “Self, I want to write this is bash.”
I start at bash/ksh because so much of what I do involves manual CLI work, so my mind is there already. I have to sometimes sit back and ask “Is this really the right tool for the job?”
I have some scripts I built in Bash that still work better than the ‘professionally built’ workflows in Python OR powershell.
Only people that knock Bash are people that don’t understand it.
Thank You!
I’ve spent the last two weeks trying to troubleshoot a function that was supposedly tested, working, and signed off on by another department. After working through it, it has never been working, they didn’t test it, but they did sign off that it was working and tested. And the business is now pressuring my department to get it up and working before the weekend.
Just once I want the other department to be the one to suffer for their piss poor planning and decisions.
Do we work for the same company? Cause I do the same thing on a daily basis (I mean I do work a help desk, so there’s that), but it’s constant where I’ll get a procedure that, the way it was written, would never have worked properly. yet it was ‘tested’ and accepted by the client, only to end up on my desk.
Doubt it, you seem to intelligent to work on the help desk for my company. So far, in the past 24 hours I’ve had to deal with the service desk reporting that something wasn’t working, when they were following a completely different process and using defined terms to mean something else. Then, they locked down my tablet, so I can’t get WebEx working on it, and when I requested it to be installed on my tablet, they asked me what I would be using it for.
/sigh
*too
Welcome to the world of IT brah….
Let me guess? That work was off-shored too?
I’ve been in IT for close to two decades, and been at the current company for one decade.
The work was poorly done by overpaid Americans, showing that incompetence knows no borders. My biggest gripe is that this call center constantly underperforms, and for my entire time with the company, has never been held accountable for their failures. They’re a call center, we’re in our busy season, and they’re already saying that they’re understaffed for this coming weekend. How the fuck are you understaffed? You make the schedule, if you need more people working, fucking schedule them.
I don’t often test my work, but when I do, I do it in production!
My avatar says it all..
Where I work, it’s total incompetence until you reach Tier 3 engineering. Here is our support model…
Tier -2: User self-help
Tier -1: Helpdesk
Tier 0: Desktop support
Tier 3: Engineering
I don’t often test my work, but when I do, I do it in production!
When we finally got away from that mantra in my old job, our productivity doubled and our bug reports were decimated.
Your problem is that you’re using vi(m).
Something something, great operating system lacking only a decent editor, something something.
vi is on every box I have to work on, and is far easier to use through an ssh session than any of the clunky, overweight alternatives that don’t get installed by default. And for tracing the ‘logic’ of this script, the only thing that would be useful would be a full-blown IDE that could track simulated variable values based on sursor position.
THIS.
I even added the vi add-on to Eclipse so that I could use the same commands everywhere.
Leave VI alone!
Dammit. I missed SP’s spice recipe article last night.
Mrs. Suthenboy’s coffee rub:
6 tbl ground coffee
2tbl course salt
2tbl brown sugar
2tbl paprika
2tbl black pepper
2tbl garlic powder
2tsp onion powder
1tsp cumin
1tsp coriander
1tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
Fantastic on pork
I don’t have onion powder or coriander. Everything else, I can just get out of my cabinet at home, except the pork.
Check the expiration dates and make sure to remove the plastic.
Pork doesn’t last long enough to go bad, and I’ve never forgotten to take food out of the packaging before putting it in the oven/on the grill.
Will try that. Grazie SB!
What am I supposed to do with all that stuff? Blend it? Snort it?
Make a latte
It’s beer time. Budweiser.
I’ll have the pork-chop latte with a sprinkle of bacon
That might get me into a Starbucks.
I hate that place.
Sprinkle it on your wife?
Cajun foreplay?
Or yourself if she’s not home.
Last day of work before a 5 day weekend. (then two work days, then a 4 day weekend)
I’ll either be on here all day goofing-off, or not on here at all and getting shit done before the long holiday break. Can’t. Decide.
I contend that I was 1st. I was referencing this comment:
Wait, who wouldn’t be working the rest of the week?
People who didnt use up their vacation days when the weather was nice?
I take my vacation in June. Not so many deadlines to be met, less end of year processing to make sure is done on time, generally less busy than the end of year.
Me, for one.
No christmas-themed industrial equipment auctions?
*Raises hand*
I thought I was clear about that?
Yes, but who are you? *peers at monitor, sees pixels*
I never got why recounts are presumed more accurate than original counts. The idea of a recount is, you know, knowledge and reality might differ, so you might need a recount. Why can’t knowledge and reality also differ in the recount?
And don’t get me started on NFL replays…
They should have to recount a recount until they get more than one count agreeing with the previous count.
*or if after X recounts the results have not changed and the same candidate won every count
Right, there should be some sort of sign that recounts are converging to something.
It’s just odd. As far as I understand the system in my state, if you win the original and lose the recount, you lose. Even if you “lose” the recount by less than the amount by which you “won” the original count. That’s…insane.
I think in this recount, they had multiple people look at each ballot. But yes, they should do three recounts and if they’re not the same, do three more, etc until they are able to duplicate results.
Oh yeah, and don’t allow a Minnesota poll worker to show up during the recount with a box of ballots he said he “found in his car”. That’s how you get Senator Gropey McDickhead.
Still can’t believe how blatant that was. I hate politics.
One vote. Basically, the dumbest person that voted decided who won. Yeah, democracy.
I say the candidates determine the winner via pistols. Tomorrow at dawn. Maybe not tomorrow, give it a few days so they can put it on pay-per-view.
I think it should be that all recounts are done 4 times by default leading to 5 vote totals.
If at least 3 of them do not match then the election should be declared null and a second election be required.
The cost of that special election would come directly out of the budget of the department overseeing the election
There would just be constant elections with no one on charge. See, we can’t have anarcho-capitalism in our lifetimes!
Stringer said there are no penalties for tampering with the boulders
Anybody got a chisel and nude picture of Gavin Newsome?
If you can find a chisel, we’re golden.
Politics In Everything Has Become Today’s Midas Touch
“Rather than unify us,”
What idiot thought that would be the outcome of politicizing everything?
The one whose goal is unity of thought.
^^^THIS MAN GETS IT^^^
People that believe wrong think should be punished and people not willing to accept the right think reeducated or composted, think they are creating unity…
The one who is a fan of communism. The countries that tried that unified all of their people in misery.
Among other things, identity politics tells women that our children are a burden and our husbands boorish drags
Kardashians hardest hit.
Hardest hit, or correctly identified?
*walks off whistling tunelessly*
I love Kanye. I think he’s hilarious. He once said not to believe “80% of what he says.” He’s a troll, like Trump.
If only there were some sort of philosophy or political affiliation that took this into account.
On the article about prosecutors asking for info on the Uranium deal. How in the world has Hillary Clinton escaped any kind of justice? If Lynch was so easily, erm, lynched, you would think given her slime she’d pay for something no?
Unless God is planning for something really special for her. “Yeh? You do that to Haiti? Watch this. Hold my beer…”
Speaking of God asking someone to hold His beer: what kind of beer do you think God would drink?
Also, could God make an IPA so hoppy that even a hipster named Jesus wouldn’t drink it?
G-d obviously drink Busch Light.
Also, I am pretty sure Satan is the one responsible for the IPA craze.
Only the Devil and those who worship him would enjoy IPAs, a style of beer that tastes more like diesel fuel than God ever intended.
I’m sorry your taste buds are that broken man… there’s still hope for you though. Here, have a nice solid 60 Minute, a Two Hearted, or a Columbus IPA.
You know better than most that over-hopping a beer is an easy way to disguise a bad beer, negating the need for taste buds. And just because you can name 3 legitimately good IPAs doesn’t mean there are 300 shitty ones out there.
*are = aren’t*
Just because you are incapable of discerning good from bad doesn’t mean the rest of us cant.
Me? I can discern a good beer from a bad beer quite easily, thanks. Most bars and breweries and beer-snobs seem to forget that there are hundreds of beer styles. Hyper-focusing on IPAs and PAs doesn’t make you some sort of beer expert.
The other styles exist, buy them.
I dont have any trouble having a nice variety in my fridge.
Right now I have Hefeweizen, Scotch Ale and IPA in my fridge.
I do buy them. Hefe, stout, porter, berliner wiesse, lager, pilsner and pale ale all in my fridge right now. And I am sure I’m forgetting a couple.
Look, I’m sure the IPA lovers are sick of hearing the IPA non-lovers bitch. But we’re tired of hearing that if you don’t like high-IBU IPAs, that somehow means you don’t know what “real” beer is.
Real beer is loaded with lactic acid and no IBUs. 😉
I dont see any of that here, all I see is you denigrating IPAs.
Damned limeys.
And I currently have a Belgian dark, a wit, an IIPA, a NEIPA, three BA Imperial Stouts, and a Baltic Porter in my fridge.
#allbeersmatter
Regardless of whether or not you’re seeing that on *this* thread, it is very common amongst beer snobs to exalt the IPA over all other styles and sneer at those of us who don’t believe that the more bitter, the better when it comes to beer.
Alright everyone, calm down. Here… have a slice of deep dish pizza as a peace offering.
Quick. Someone pivot to abortion or something less contentious!
*breaks bottom of IPA bottle off on edge of table and lunges at Stinky*
#allbeersmatter
*Starts singing “I’d like to buy the world a beer, and keep it company…”*
…as long as it’s not a fucking IPA.
I keed! I keed! #allbeersmatter
and a Baltic Porter in my fridge.
Sure, now you find one!
*shakes walls of cubicle, screaming*
That was you being unable to distinguish the good IPAs from the bad IPAs, You complained about all the bad IPAs out there after someone pointed you to a few good ones.
We have had a misunderstanding.
Here’s my position: There are very good IPA’s out there (I especially like Two Hearted). But the fad has been to raise the IBU’s to very high levels. I think that makes bad beer.
What Woodchipper said above is what I am (poorly) trying to get across. IPA has been elevated by beer snobs as some sort of super-beer and it gets tiresome when their are so many other styles.
#allbeersmatter
Most IPAs ARE shitty.
Abraham Lincoln was a goddamned traitor #WAROFNORTHERNAGRESSION
mexican sharpshooter:
It’s just some of this year’s BA 3Bean from Sixpoint. They’ve got a pretty wide distribution footprint, but don’t make it to you yet.
No worries. Normally they arrive out here in January.
La Fin du Monde.
Get it?
Apocalypse. End of wor…
Oh fuck off.
… I like Fin du Monde.
#metoo
God drinks wine, not beer.
Only if G-d is a woman
Then she’d be drinking White Zinfandel or Rose.
/Lionel Hutz shudder.
James Comey has been there as the fixer in a very long string of Clinton investigations.
Whitewater / Rose Law records, Sandy Bugler, HSBC money laundering, Lockheed Martin pay-to-play – Comey helped fix every one of those investigations.
Someone has to ‘unfix’ it then.
The problem is that the Clintons are masters at making sure others have a vested interest in making sure they will never have to face the firing squad. The reason Clinton will walk again is that if they get her Obama and a ton of other people with power would end up going down with her, so they all have a vested interest in making sure the Clintons never, ever have to face the music. When I point out that the democratic party is a crime syndicate, and the lifetime government bureaucrats are basically enforcers for that syndicate, I am not joking but pointing out the state of our affairs.
And yet, no one brought that up during the campaign.
How in the world has Hillary Clinton escaped any kind of justice?
The same way all Hugh level politicians escape justice. They are all criminals. Every last one of them. They can’t start prosecuting each other. If they did, then then each politician would start spilling the beans on other politicians. The while house of cards would fall. She gets away with everything because the consequences of prosecuting her would be that everyone else would be prosecuted too.
nods in agreement.
Preach it!
It’s not restricted to high level politicians. Some professions tend to turn into exclusive clubs where everybody looks out for each other, no matter how incompetent. It’s especially noticeable in professions where people wield power: cops, CEOs, politicians, etc.
Unless God is planning for something really special for her.
She’s going to live long enough to see a Trump-endorsed Republican become the first woman POTUS.
Trump the Usurper
This marks a new era in American politics. The Republican Party is no longer just obfuscating the truth or defending the president when he is accused of wrongdoing. Rather, Mr. Trump, Fox News and Republicans in Congress seem to be actively using falsehoods to prepare an assault on the institutions that allow American democracy to function.
In all democracies, politicians occasionally lie to cover up scandals or exaggerate their legislative accomplishments. In the United States, the rise of the right-wing news media in recent decades has tempted politicians to play to their own supporters without worrying whether their rhetoric is inflammatory or fair. But the construction of an alternate reality that obviates the very possibility of conducting politics on the basis of truth is a novelty in this country. And it is increasingly becoming obvious that it will serve a clear purpose: to prepare the ground for egregious violations of basic democratic norms.
“No, YOU’RE destroying democracy!”
The only truly surprising thing is that he omitted any specific references to the destruction of the Ascended One’s legacy.
“In the United States, the rise of the right-wing news media ”
The moment I realized I was reading something written by someone completely detached from reality.
It’s all projection with the left. Whatever they accuse others of is what they are actually doing.
Damn, I thought this was a Republic.
If you can keep it.
We couldn’t.
Agreed.
Despite the ignorant Chocolate Jesus’ claim we are not a democracy.
Wow, that’s some remarkable derp right there.
I’ve been saying the left leave in an ‘alt-reality’ for months now. I guess they’ve taken to it as well.
As for Obama, I just hope what’s happening now that he’s out of office, journalists who were too scared to look into or write about some of his shenanigans are now free to do so like we saw with Politico (to their credit) and that story about the Iran deal. That’s some incredible crap he pulled there. One can only hope this is how his legacy erodes – one story at a time with the help of Trump undoing some of his EO’s and other policies.
I’ve fallen into the camp Obama is anti-American; or at the very least, after reading that piece, he was in it ALL for himself. He’s a vainglorious twit-twat.
Bias confirmation? Maybe. yesterday I took great pleasure in someone telling me that Trump unraveling Obamas legacy is driving Obama batshit crazy.
I hope it is true.
Was there ever a time when it wasn’t completely obvious that Obama is anti-American?
When I’d never heard of him…
Obama is a narcissist. And I mean has the full blown personality disorder.
They tend to betray everyone whom they seduce into trusting them.
Exactly this. He’s an extreme narcissist – remember him bragging about how he would be a better communications director than his communications director, a better political director than his political director, etc etc? How about “You should be thanking me”? He has a messiah complex too – he is a genius, far beyond the rest of us, and he’ll save us all if we dumb peons would just stop opposing him.
“But the construction of an alternate reality that obviates the very possibility of conducting politics on the basis of truth is a novelty in this country.”
Except it happens in every other country.
https://youtu.be/LzuSJXjbQ2o
Because sometimes things go boom
What caused that?
The Trump tax cut.
-NBC News
A pinhole leak in a hydraulic line. 2500psi hydraulic fluid spraying out in a fine mist next to the steel. It took about 30 seconds for the mist to ignite. Once it did, it ignited all the fluid in the air.
The laws of physics are a bitch..
Any serious damage?
Nah. It burned up a camera, some coaxial cables, all the lighting in the area, ano shut down strand two long enough for us to replace the hydraulic hose.
/just another day at the office.
http://imgur.com/O0Qww02
The lighting afterwards.
fun and melty.
That is f’ing awesome.
I mean, sorry about the damage and the extra work it made for you.
meh, work is work. Even though it negatively affected my plant, it’s still cool as fuck. Not everybody gets to see stuff like that.
/white privilege
Holy shit!
Euphemism for Hillary’s campaign?
That works.
What does a fire that intense do to the structure? Anything?
Being a foundry, I think it’s pretty well resistant to heat.
Industry! Bad ass stuff, have to clean it all up though…….
Speaking of election tampering.
(Soros in Ireland this time)
If Soros is as nefarious as I’ve been reading, why hasn’t he been quietly. er, dismissed? You would think that guy has pissed off not just a few people but many-much peoples. I mean like small country peoples.
He must have the absolute best security in the world. I thought the Brits would have killed him after he fucked with the Pound.
The retards on the left harp on about Koch, but Soros has profited off the misery of nations.
Do the French still have a warrant out for him?
Dunno. I know the Hungarians hate him.
SUV drives itself into a crowd. Yup, that vehicle just up and drove itself. Oh, two people have been arrested. No clue what the motive might be. Definitely not Islam.
Try another link.
I linked right from the page itself! Why is it giving an error message? https://www.cbsnews.com/news/melbourne-suv-rams-australia-pedestrians-flinders-street-live-updates/
Witnesses told Sky News the car ran a red light, sped up and then struck the pedestrians in an area with a 25-mile-per-hour speed limit.
How did that speed limit not stop him?
That link leads to the memory hole.
The man who deliberately drove a car into a crowd in Melbourne is a drug user with mental health issues but no known terrorism links, police say.
The Australian citizen of Afghan descent was taken into custody after a struggle at the scene of the incident.
Afghan descent, likely Muslim, but yeah, just coincidence, not terrorism at all. He was just yelling something about the snack bar.
Not terrorism, workplace violence.
Yep, just came from the office lunch at Allahu Snackbar
The people that are supposed to be protecting the plebes prefer if the plebes don’t know they are not just doing a terrible job of it, but really don’t give a fuck what happens to the plebes as long as they stay in power and can keep reaping the rewards of the bad policy they have foisted on the plebes.
The Irish again?
It might not be this time. Reports I’ve seen said the dude had a history of mental illness and a long arrest record.
Of course that may just be how they report people being on the cops’ radar for saying and doing Islamist-y things in Australia. After all, calling Islamists “dangerous” is a criminal offense, isn’t it?
I mean, I guess technically thinking that God wants you to kill people could be mental illness, but then they should start thinking of it as communicable and looking into quarantining those who have been exposed to the transmission vector.
Well, I reckon it could be one of Musk’s driverless SUVs, no?
I honestly thought cops for a second, but then remembered that people had been arrested
“Merry Christmas to employees of AT&T, Comcast and a bunch of others.”
Got into an argument with a lefty last night over cutting corporate taxes. His argument was that since salaries are deducted from profits pretax and dividends post tax that all the tax cuts were just gonna go to shareholders and employees won’t see a dime. My argument was if that really is the case so what! Also that’s a broad assumption to make. More cash in the hands of companies will have a broad array of outcomes. You can’t assume just one specific scenario will happen.
The money always goes somewhere, and less of it goes to the government. That’s a win.
Not if you are a proggie douchebag…
Chuck Schumer was literally on the floor saying that cutting corporate taxes does not result in higher salaries for employees only in richer fat-cats when At+T, Wells Fargo, and a bunch of other companies announced that they were giving large bonuses and raising salaries for their employees specifically because of the tax cuts.
Meanwhile Trump was saying that anyone in the UN who votes against recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel will have their foreign aid cut.
Every day is like Christmas with this guy.
Seriously, Schumer is such a fucken lousy parasitical ignorant jerking-off chooch.
Who’d win in a slap fight, Moobs or Bernie?
Chucky. He may be chunky, but Bernie is an osteoperotic geezer.
We would all win.
The United States.
Why can’t we cut all foreign aid regardless of what they vote?
Hey, it’s a start. Hopefully several countries vote against it so Trump will cut off aid to them.
Pakistan is leading the effort to condemn the move. Of course, Pakistan doesn’t recognize Israel as a country, just an occupying force. As far as I’m concerned, Pakistan can suck it. Their country is a shithole breeding ground for some of the most militant Islamists on the planet.
They harbored Osama bin Laden for years.
They also have nukes.
Hitchens from back in the day…
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2011/07/osama-bin-laden-201107
Nope – I’ve already been in conversations on how some ($millions) of this tax boon will be reinvested in projects that were not going to be funded.
The part I am enjoying the most it the teeth gnashing here in “The People’s Republic Of Connecticut” as the corrupt one party political class tries to wrap their over exaggerated, yet always low in performance, brains around the fact that that deficit the state keeps running because of the blue state overspending policies they love, is going to end up being even bigger than the already scary projections we have, now that this tax plan does even more to incentivise the rich people and corporations they had hoped to keep fleecing so they could keep buying votes from the unproductive, to bail on the state.
Yeah, the American tax payer – the ones that actually pay taxes – are going to do fairly well with this bill, but the blue state political model imploding (even though I am going to end up feeling it myself) is the biggest boon from this tax bill IMO.
Well, on one hand some of these companies are making these payments now while their 2017 tax rate remains at 35%.
Still though, hard to refute that it hasn’t already seen some positive results.
Yes, but the tax cut is permanent, so when a company is looking at future rates -14% points from current rates, long term planning can allow for such decisions. What would have been a financially unsound decision days ago makes sense now in light of guaranteed future returns.
“all the tax cuts were just gonna go to shareholders”
Who does he think the shareholders are?
The answer is, mostly normal Americans who have a pension or a 401k or an IRA or some other form of retirement savings plan.
Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me. If the $87/paycheck materializes I can up my deferred comp (it was lagging behind where I would like it to be)
THIEF!!! THAT IS TEH PEEPULZ MONIEZ!!!!
/prog
“Thief! You’re a tax parasite!”
/Some Libertarians
We joke about this Swiss, but the fact is the fucking nanny staters truly believe that for the system to be socially just, you have to start from the premise that people – especially the ones that have done nothing to earn – have ownership of capital.
Communism is the fucking evil.
I think you have this a bit hokey. People do and should have ownership of capital. The ownership of capital is the driving engine of human progress. The problem with communism vis-a-vis property ownership is twofold.
One, it holds that, initially, the government should own all the capital. That is a guaranteed recipe for totalitarianism. There is no feasible mechanism, except for the utmost generosity and purity of spirit*, by which this state will even begin to transition into the next.
Two, it holds that, finally, the capital should be held equally by all people. This is impossible. Even if we accept that the state mentioned above could and would peacefully abolish itself, the mere existence of the anarcho-communist state for any real length of time is contrary to every natural and humanistic tendency. Exploitation of capital requires decision making, and decisions cannot be made coequally (disparate information, disparate geography, relative scarcity, indivisibility of certain things, etc.). Some will call the shots and the others will obey, impede, or revolt. Once this starts to stabilize, there will once again be haves and have-nots. Those haves may have gotten there by luck, by work, by intellect, or (most likely) by force. Regardless, the anarcho-communist state will last for only an instant, before it becomes a different state entirely.
* = In other words, you’d have to put Jesus Christ Himself in charge of the government immediately after it has obtained all of the capital it hasn’t destroyed in the process. I’m not getting into the theological ramifications of this; I’m just making the observation that no one short of an omnibenevolent god is capable of handling this responsibility.
people =/= The People (TM)
His argument was that since salaries are deducted from profits pretax and dividends post tax that all the tax cuts were just gonna go to shareholders and employees won’t see a dime.
That argument doesn’t make any sense. After the change to the tax rate, there is less tax advantage for salaries to be increased versus dividends or retained earnings, true, but the corporate income tax still exists and so there is still some advantage. A decreased incentive is still an incentive. Regardless, the end result of the tax change is that the company gets to keep more of its revenue. That’s additional money in their pockets to be retained or spent on whatever the company finds prudent. Yes, some companies may dump it all into dividends, but some may use for capital investment, some may increase salaries, some may improve benefits, …. There is no reason to believe that every company will do nothing but increase its dividends.
Apple’s iPhones slowed to tackle ageing batteries
Damn decent of them.
I would rather cope with power management than have someone else arbitrarily decide to gimp something I paid for because other people wore out their batteries too soon.
(My usage pattern results in phones that need be plugged in about once a week, even when the salesman insisted any given phone would drain its battery after two days)
If that’s true then why keep it a secret for years? It’s not like that doesn’t happen to other phones too.
I don’t know, I never got Apple.
One of the main reasons I avoid their products… If I can’t do with it what I want, I can’t quickly find out if they are dicking me.
Sounds like I need to get into the Apple replacement battery business
Apple also won’t allow older iphones to download software updates, so you have to upgrade if you want to run newer apps.
That’s one of the reasons why android is superior. Markets, How do they work?
Who was it that recommended One + Five phones a couple months back (and why)? I’m very much in the market for a non-iPhone with 2 SIM card ports, bearing in mind I’m just a technological dolt who works remotely (and would like to do so internationally).
Any recommends?
Too bad android instantiation costs are huge, they keep encroaching on run time memory with each new OS update and testing against multiple devices is nightmare because managing side-load installation, deletion and debugging varies per manufacturer. At least there’s no manual review process with unclear response times making hotfixes take about a week longer than necesssary.
So that’s how my cheap ass LG is three years old and still works great?
Of course, the leftarded idiots would have you believe “corporations” always stockpile “profits” after a tax break like this and use it to fund research into programs to further rip off their customers and employees.
I inflicted some news clips on myself yesterday, and couldn’t help noticing the constant harping on kkkorporate greed, duplicity and malfeasance. “You’re giving a huge gift to corporations, and they will just stuff that money right into their own pockets. Meanwhile, honest, hardworking Americans are starving in the streets.” Et c, et c, blah blah blah.
And it occurred to me the same news readers would pitch a fucking fit if I (for example) were to come on her show and talk about the evil and/or incompetence of “government” in such sweeping generalized terms. Imagine the outraged spluttering. I’m certain you’d get something on the order of,
Well, I, uh, don’t think it’s quite fair to condemn a whole program because of a single slip-up, sir.
they will just stuff that money right into their own pockets
These people believe Scrooge McDuck was an actual person.
What they don’t get is that when a corporate stuffs that money into ‘it’s pockets’ what that really means is that the company is investing in itself, by hiring more labor, or investing in equipment, both of which help employees.
WRONG. They have swimming pools filled with dollar bills that they swim in every morning.
https://youtu.be/viDL2W0HcJw
Or paying dividends to shareholders or doing stock buybacks to increase share price. Which benefits the 401ks and retirement funds of all of the people whining about it.
… or even if they do keep the money for themselves and put it in the bank, the bank can invest it by loaning it out for people to buy homes, invest in small businesses, and the like.
People don’t save money in banks, they bury it in jars in the back yard.
What happened to paper bags under the mattress?
People complained about poor sleep.
Makes it easier to justify that they feel your money belongs to them, and stealing it is much easier if they can first paint you as a villain.
It’s nice to see the simpleton one-step logic working in our favor for a change. With Obamacare it was, “Why don’t you want the poor to have healthcare”. With the tax cuts it’s, “Why don’t you want to give people more of their own money?”. I’m conflicted on the tax bill because it doesn’t cut spending and so it just defers tax hikes to a later date. Or they’ll continue to monetize it.
Inflation is a tax hike.
Right? It’s, “Fuck you, cut spending” for a reason.
Yeah. Tell them how Medicare has a fraud epidemic. Something to the tune of 11% of the money going out is for either fraudulent billing or fraudulent/non-qualifying people.
And that 11% represents $60 BILLION a year. I can’t imagine there being $60B a year in corporate profits even being generated by a tax cut, let alone that much being stockpiled/given to shareholders at the “expense” of employees.
My brother is probably in better shape than I and he is drawing enough disability cash to live comfortably in the third most expensive city in the world. He’s proud of his accomplishments and owns not one but two guitars!
If you look at the fraud as more Keynesian investment, then it is a great thing and we need more of it Sloopy.
I had no idea Roger Penske had a retarded son.
Whatever happened to that Penske File anyway?
George put it in that nice accordion-style folder.
You’re not Penske material.
Legit retarded, or are you poking fun at Jay Penske?
Alright everyone. NBC News as got the scoop on the Russian Trolls timeline during all last year! Proof they stole our election!
Really, broken link again? https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/russian-trolls-went-attack-during-key-election-moments-n827176
You appear to be getting a closing ” on your links that shouldn’t be there.
“Thinking about this in a binary of ‘did it cause someone to change their vote?’ is overly narrow,” said Laura Rosenberger, director of the Alliance for Securing Democracy. “It’s about influence over time.”
Forgive us for narrow thinking, but that’s what you’ve been claiming for the last year.
“It’s about influence over time.”
Influence over time… that didn’t cause anyone to change their votes.
Laura Rosenberger, director of the Alliance for Securing Democracy
Amazingly enough, Laura also happens to be the only member of the Alliance for Securing Democracy, an organization she created just in time for today’s interview. The title narrowly beat out her second choice, the Coalition On Respecting People’s Savings & Economics.
TrollsAngels on the “Right” cluster promoted Trump and attacked left-leaning causes and politicians, mainly Clinton.TrollsAngels in the “Left” cluster generally attacked Trump and his followers, though they didn’t express support for Hillary Clinton.“Black Lives Matter” were pro-black, but not pro-Democrat. Their message was to distrust all authority, especially the police.
Yeah, totally not pro Dem and pro Clinton.
Americans may have thought they were using hashtags during the election to discuss politics with each other. They didn’t know they were also talking to Russians thousands of miles away in a troll factory.
Americans don’t use hashtags. Twitter users use hashtags. Hardly anyone uses Twitter with the sort of regularity and frequency that journalists do. We’re talking about a small proportion of the American electorate theoretically interacting with theoretical Russian Twitter bots.
I’m going to address this excerpt:
Thousands of Russian trolls targeted national events during the 2016 U.S. presidential election to infiltrate the online conversations of millions of Americans, according to a new analysis of a database of recovered troll tweets by NBC News.
The records show how digital communications tools invented by U.S. companies, such as Twitter and Facebook, were instead exploited by the Kremlin-backed agents to promote autocracy and fear.
“Infiltrate conversations”? You mean “reply to comments”.
As for “digital communications tools” being “exploited”, that’s a flowery, yet very chilling, way to say “people exercised free speech that we don’t like and we want them punished”.
Seriously, the whole Russia narrative is little more than an attempt by the left to eviscerate the First Amendment.
Come on Sloop! They bent your minds!
Anything that forces right-think (meaning lefty commie beliefs) is good, but anything that opposes that is bad?
That’s what a Russian agent would say.
Is Sloopy really Boris Badenov? Inquiring minds at NBC demand to know.
No, Sloopy is actually Natasha Fatale.
Shit-loads of former Jocks engaging in “locker room culture”? Hold the phone, Lois! We got a hot tip here!
It should be fun to watch ESPN investigate alleged wrong doing that took place at the NFL Network.
Coffee, Toots! A bourbon chaser while you’re at it!
Democrats: Repeal and Replace the Tax Bill
Raising taxes on the rich is one of the most reliably popular political propositions out there. It’s also unquestionably what needs to be done if we are ever to have a fairer society. So if a Democratic candidate doesn’t promise both to repeal the Republican tax bill in its entirety and replace it with a bill that actually gives rich people what they deserve, they’re not worth your time.
“bill that actually gives rich people what they deserve”
Are they talking about a 100% tax cut? Cause otherwise they don’t understand what the word deserve means.
Class envy in its purest form.
That’s social justice for ya..
That’s leftie-speak for prison and/or a bullet (except for the good uns of course).
Rich people deserve exactly what they own. property rights, you know.
This tax bill is actually increasing taxes on the richest.
It just so happens that it specifically the richest in the bluest of the blue states. And so the blue party is going to see cuts in campaign donations.
Not to mention see these rich people they relied on to finance the failing blue state model move out of the blue states to places that are not fleecing them…
Now listen here you little fuck. You kids think you’re so cool what with all your newfangled melons and gazongas, well let me tell you what. When I was your age, I was stuck in a fuckin’ jungle in the middle of Viet-fucking-nam, getting shot at by fuckers in trees, and the only things to take the edge off were big luscious tits . You think it’s such a god-damn hassle to go to pornhub because you have to turn on your computer? Boy when I was your age I was running from bullets while my friends were gunned down next to me, and I LOOKED AT BIG OLE’ TITTIES IF I WANTED TO. NOW GO TELL YOUR GRANDMA TO MAKE ANOTHER BATCH OF COOKIES.
http://archive.is/mcOuz
I like 33’s hat.
36 and 37 appear to be the only non selfies. Tattoos, though. Alright, 37.
Shame I have to head into the office.
Trying to make sense of photo #40. Looks like some type of coffee machine, so a store? But why is she in panties instead of a bikini bottom in public? And what’s with two five gallon gas cans in front of the coffee machine?
No idea about the gas cans, but it sure looks like she’s a bikini barista.
Speaking of online porn, had the interesting experience the other day of recognizing the hotel where a “film” was shot. Quite distracting wondering which room it was in.
There was a welcome paucity of duckface in that group. Well done!
#15
Because tits are great, but a good dog is a good dog.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to cut off financial aid to countries that vote in favor of a draft United Nations resolution calling for the United States to withdraw its decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
I take back every bad thing I ever said or thought about the man.
I listened to plummy BBC types losing their shit over Haley’s “take names” statement. It was delicious.
The anti-semites are pissed they are being called on it..
I still to don’t like him, out of principle, but he knows how to hit someone where it hurts.
Oh he’s a boorish fuck but he makes the rheeeee happen like clock-work. That’s all you need from that employee.
Judging him by his policy actions so far, I’d say at this point there are more pros than cons. His personal style is certainly unrefined, boorish and clumsy; and exactly what the GOP needed to fight against fanatical Dems that would rather burn the country to the ground than lose power.
We shouldn’t forget that he is also very dumb and boasts about the fact that he never reads. All the good actions that have occurred under his administration are usually due to his cabinet or the Republican Congress.
I don’t read books very often. But I do read trade publications. Does that make me dumb?
As for his lack of personal good actions, how about rolling back all those Obama EOs that stifled business and individual rights?
As for them being the work of the GOP Congress, that’s got to be a joke, right? They’ve done all but nothing. And his cabinet doesn’t put conservative judges in place or roll back shit without him both nominating them and delegating the work and then greenlighting their decisions by signing the EOs they propose (in order to undo previous ones).
There is a lot of good that the administration has done, but little credit belongs to Trump other than putting the right people in the right place. It’s known that Trump doesn’t make his judicial picks- he farmed that out to the people at the Federalist Society.
And I’m not knocking people who don’t read, I’m just saying that the president of the United States should have a little more breadth to his intellect than Trump possesses.
I would say that pitting the right people in the right places and farming out judicial picks picks to the federalist society just might be an indicator that our current president has a bit more breadth of intellect than most of his predecessors.
I would also give him credit for not really giving a fuck what the Dems or the media (but I repeat myself) say about him.
Ok, that’s an argument to be made. Personally, I don’t find him to be a moral or curious person. And I think he punches down too often, which makes him seem petty. I do admit that I’ve been pleasantly surprised with his domestic policies, for the most part. But, more disappointed with his foreign policy
“Punching down” is not a concept I’m willing to give creedence to.
As in – perceptions of status are less relevent than the content of the communication. I see a style that is consistantly boorish, but consistant nonetheless.
But, more disappointed with his foreign policy.
His foreign policy sucks. It does suck less than than his predecessors though.
” And I think he punches down too often, which makes him seem petty”
This coming from the one with the Nick Gillespie fetish. You’re getting very close to the projection you claim to abhor.
Just Say’n is the Nick Gillespie of Glibertarian commenters.
he farmed that out to the people at the Federalist Society.
*clasps hands together menacingly, clutching FedSoc membership card*
Muahahahahahhahah MUAhahahahahaha MUAHA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAA
Seriously, if he’s deferring to FedSoc, then he’s doing a very good thing. FedSoc is light on SoCons and heavy on Conservatarians.
Obama was a voracious reader and he is likely the stupidest fuck to ever occupy the oval office. If all you’re going to read is propaganda, you’re better off not reading.
This…
In my experience the credentialed class seems to place far too much on people reading (especially when the material they read is plain and simple stupidity to begin with), and far to little on results. As you mentioned, we were constantly told how intellectual and well read Obama was/is, but pointing out that the man was inept and downright destructive because of his beliefs and narcissism, and that we are lucky to have this boor that doesn’t read much getting rid of the shit Obama and his people straddled us with, seems to not make people realize that actions should count more than fluff.
I’m sorry, are you saying that the chief executive has only succeeded in building a team of competent and qualified actors and in operating within the constitutional confines of his office.
That bastard!
We really have elevated the office of President above its station. Trump is almost a perfect fit for what the Presidency is supposed to be. Not because he makes all the right decisions (hardly!), not because he’s so dignified (ha!), not because he’s a supreme intellect (as if!). Because we’re not in a goddamn monarchy and the office of President is just the chief janitor of the executive branch.
The biggest problems, and on this I agree with Just Say’n, is a) that the President is also the head of state, and that office requires some finesse and b) the President is also the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and that office requires some restraint. That having been said, he’s not yet demonstrated himself to be unfit for those offices (at least, as compared to his recent predecessors), just not such a good fit as he is for the office of chief executive.
He could be 275 pounds of shit poured into an ill-fitting suit but he’s still preferable to Hillary.
Seconded..
Let’s face it – when Rand Paul or Ted Cruz start talking about freedom and the Constitution, most of the public has an Idiocracy reaction. “Blah, blah, blah, I talk like a fag…”
I think it’s less that and more “what is this going to do for me?” Freedom is abstract. Cash in hand is concrete.
Oh no! KOCHTOPUS is looking to trick people into thinking the GOP tax bill is a good thing! But, only those evil greedy people making over $300K a year will see a tax cut!
(Please don’t be a broken link this time!)
What the hell? Why is the closing “ put in as part of the link?! http://time.com/5075076/koch-brothers-tax-bill-campaign/
Russian Trolls.
Close quote.
Someone was trying too hard with Time’s error page.
I don’t get what’s going on with that. After the href= I’m putting the link between the two “” like you’re supposed to. Yet somehow the closing “ is getting added to the link.
Are you closing the tag correctly?
There’s an extra ” in there- your code:
a href=”//time.com/5075076/koch-brothers-tax-bill-campaign/”” rel=”nofollow”
It’s showing up as a ‘smart’ quote. I wonder if that’s causing some trouble with a parser. ie, not registering as a quotation mark properly.
Yeah, and I don’t understand why. I only put in an opening “ and then a closing “. I don’t get where this second “ is coming from. I’m certainly not typing it in. Hell, I even double checked to make sure I only had opening and closing quotes.
It’s Trump’s fault.
I can get on board with that.
Other than people just getting to keep more of their own money?
IT’S NOT YUR MONEY! IT’S DA PEOPULZ MONEY!
/prog moron
I’m not a doctor, but maybe you should get your blood sugar checked.
Eric Hoffer on Israel in 1968
It’s worth noting that the leftist intelligentsia oppose Israel as a matter of historical accident. The Soviet Union was backing many Arab states during the Cold War, while Israel was a staunch US ally. The Nation and other leftist outlets began their antagonism of Israel as an outgrowth of this fact and it has persisted until this day.
Well, that and their virulent anti-Semitism.
That doesn’t explain the US Jewish intelligentsia very well though. I otherwise agree.
The Bond villain funding most of progressivism is a literal Jewish Nazi, so…
I still can’t grasp his motivations. It just doesn’t make any sense.
See my essay about this.
*reads*
does not cover why George Soros is trying to destroy western civilization.
He views it as saving Western civilization. Very Team Blue.
And therein my confusion returns. How do they reach the conclusion that destroying western civilization is its salvation?
And are you sure George isn’t just evil?
Can we all agree that Eric Hoffer is the most prophetic philosopher at this time in history?
He is physical proof that college is not necessary to become a great thinker.
I absolutely agree.
I’m not a fan of how the Israelis treat the Palis but they’re certainly not acting uniquely bad. Plenty of other nations do much worse, as the quote illustrates, and they catch minimal grief for it.
To be fair, it’s mostly reactive because of the ongoing violence. This was far less of an issue in the years immediately after the ’67 war (I spent a few months there in ’70), but once Arafat came along, things deteriorated rapidly.
The current situation is a result of the multiple intifadas. Every time Israel has made real strides towards peace with the Palestinians, they have been met with violence or resistance. Arafat robbed the Palestinians blind and used the conflict to ensure his own continued leadership with encouragement from much of the West.
I find it telling that when I was there, the Arabs were delightfully friendly and incredibly optimistic. They viewed the Israeli takeover as an opportunity to be freer and make more money from increased tourism- remember, they had been incredibly discriminated against by Jordan, Egypt, and Syria before ’67. And tourists were indeed flocking to those areas, increasing prosperity. Then came Arafat…
The pattern repeats itself, as you observed. Israel gave Gaza all the opportunity in the world to create a vibrant and prosperous territory when they withdrew in ’05. But of course, Hamas took over, destroyed the infrastructure, started shelling, and pretty much forced both Israel and Egypt to impose an embargo in ’07. The corrupt “leaders” and the Palestinian Arabs’s fellow tribesman in the surrounding countries have been far worse enemies than the Jews.
“remember, they had been incredibly discriminated against by Jordan, Egypt, and Syria”
Yes. Nassar’s belief in Arab solidarity was always a far fetched dream.
The Palestine Arabs and the Israelis would both be better off if Israel had just expelled them after one of their wars and forced Egypt, Jordan, and Syria to accept them as a condition of peace.
None of them want the Palestinians- especially not Jordan since the PLO tried to topple their government. The Palestinians have a legitimate beef, too. Arab civilians lost their homes after the war when the Israelis evacuated them from occupied areas. The right of return (which will never happen now) was always a sticking point for both sides.
Like most conflicts this can’t be boiled down to ‘good guy, bad guy’. There is blame on both sides. And I’m not saying that the Israelis are at fault or what not (it’s impossible to determine who is at fault at all since this conflict goes back to the English occupation of Palestine after World War I).
The number of Arab and Jewish refugees from the initial war(s) were comperable at start. The difference is that in the time since, the Jewish refugees accepted that the land now held by another power wasn’t going to be back in their hands and resettled.
And quite frankly, when you’re talking third to fifth generation, you’re not refugees and your great-grandparent’s land was never your home.
That’s fair. I’m just saying that I don’t view the conflict as one with a clear cut ‘good guy or bad guy’. But, I generally reject those notions with regards to military conflicts, because they are usually just forced constructs.
The Arab States and their subjects never like Palestinians either. They backed the PLO as a method to fight for the destruction is Israel. You get your military forces demolished a couple of time and by 1968 you are funding the Pali’s big time and after the embarrassment of 1973 you double down.
Never forget the reason Gaza is a landlocked shithole is not because Israel keeps their border shut for security reasons. It is because Egypt keeps their border shut.
The Fatah and Hamas movements don’t want peace. Then they would have to give up fun (and lucrative) terror activities and get down to the boring and difficult business of making sure property rights are respected, the sewers work and the garbage get picked up. Actually governing a nation stuff.
Fun fact (in support of your statement) – the water infrastructure of the West Bank is built and maintained by Israel because the PLO won’t.
Frankly I think the Israelis are saints for not bombing the Palis of the face of the earth. How do you think any other country on this planet, especially the fucking preachy Eurotrash, would react to any neighbor that strapped bombs to their children and sent them across the border to murder their citizens, huh?
“Had Nasser triumphed last June [1967], he would have wiped Israel off the map, and no one would have lifted a finger to save the Jews.”
There is an author who I really like. He’s a military historian and I can’t detect any political affiliation from him, even though I have read a dozen of his books. Steven Pressfield wrote an excellent book on the 6 days war. The Jews were absolutely fucked if they had lost again nassar. They had little to no outside help and if they hadn’t been victorious, their country would have been overrun and there would have been holocaust 2.0
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18667934-the-lion-s-gate
I’ll have to check that out. I read and enjoyed Michael Oren’s Six Days of War, but he of course is extremely pro-Israel.
Have to break a few eggs…
https://hotair.com/archives/2017/12/20/bernie-free-college-sanders-damaged-college-offering-free-tuition-needy-students/
“By any means necessary”
If say principals/principles, but in this case isn’t Bernie’s guiding principle to tax the fuck out of everyone.
http://thehill.com/policy/international/365906-trump-administration-approves-lethal-arms-sales-to-ukraine
Trump just proved that he is not a pawn of Putin. He’s like every American president post-Eisenhower, he’s a pawn of the military-industrial complex! #MAGA
Not a good move, a really stupid one in fact. If Putin just decides to roll on into Ukraine there’s not a whole lot we’d be able to do.
I don’t think Putin is going to go for the rest of the Ukraine. He’s got the Russian-speaking areas (more or less) and they’re liable to not be as troublesome to reintegrate. The long term hassles of the Ukrainian speaking areas means “not yet” for that annexation. He’d probably win the initial war, but I think he’s shred enough to go slice by slice instead of a SHTF technique.
This is how quagmires begin
Giggedy.
We need to keep our nose out of the Ukraine, the same way we would look askance at Russia trying to arm a close neighbor we had a grudge with, i.e. Cuba for example.
Russia only intervened in Ukraine because the central bankers were starting to move in.
As for “digital communications tools” being “exploited”, that’s a flowery, yet very chilling, way to say “people exercised free speech that we don’t like and we want them punished”.
“The world was a better place when a small cadre of well-intentioned thought leaders controlled the flow of information and shaped the national dialog.”
Top. Men.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DRjXixcVQAA5O-l.jpg:large
Raising worker wages in response to tax cuts is literally how fascism comes to America
That’s cause some of those tax cuts will go to foreigners! And that’s just what the fascists want.
Damn fascists and their love of foreigners. Damn them to hell!
Is that satire? I hope so, otherwise some of these people will be institutionalized before the end of Trump’s first term. You can’t function in the world with that level of delusion.
It is hard to tell what is satire and what isn’t nowadays. So many people are beyond parody
Good night folks, I’m off to the Land of Nod. Have fun and by fun, I MEAN RAPE!
https://twitter.com/RandPaul/status/943524240581709824
Rand Paul remains defiant
#hepersisted
Good for Rand but it won’t make a damn bit of difference.
I was hoping he would have used more leverage during the tax debate to repeal FATCA.
I don’t think they have the votes to do that.
Better chance of lumping this in with the outrage over surveillance overreach of the Trump Campaign.
Rand didn’t want to be the guy who sunk tax reform. It’s better to make this stand when tax reform is off the headlines. The man is more strategic than his father and I don’t think he gets enough credit for that
I blame Ken Schultz.
Commies tried to kill the man twice and he keeps going. But, seriously if the man is not carrying now at this point, he should lose 500 libertarian points
God bless Paul, but he’s fighting a losing battle. Spying on us is popular with both parties.
A thought. All the shit I hate the most has bipartisan support.
I want my politicians to sometimes tilt at windmills.
Its rare that a guy I actually voted for is respectable.
He just needs to make the case that such spying is mainly the tool of tyrants — in our own era, the Clintonistas in the IC and DOJ who (ab)used it to subvert democracy and sabotage Trump. Make corrupt partisans like Clapper and Brennan the face of mass surveillance. The Democrats are going to oppose him regardless because they’re pure evil, but he might win some converts from the MAGA crowd.
^This^
The wise man musters both philosophical and practical arguments to his cause, as different appeals will work on different people. If domestic surveillance is curtailed in order to protect freedom or to #MAGA makes no difference, in the end, as the result is the same.
Back to the Dark Ages
Last week, we found ourselves in an unexpected place: in the very back of the top balcony in the Stockholm Concert Hall, watching as King Carl XVI Gustaf awarded medals to this year’s Nobel laureates — in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and economics. As Americans spending the year in Sweden, we were honored and surprised to learn that we had been invited. While we were inspired by the pageantry of the celebration of human achievement, we were simultaneously sobered by the realization that the Trump administration is attacking the very institutions that make Nobel Prize-winning careers possible. In doing so, our country is charting a path to its own irrelevance.
————-
All of the American laureates are university professors. Yet the current administration and its supporters consistently attack universities as biased, irrelevant and hyper-politicized. It ignores the many contributions that “basic research” has made to human liberty and security. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has no experience — professional or personal — with public schools and no familiarity with fundamental concepts of education. The administration uses dishonest critiques as an excuse to push its political agenda, cutting funding for research that is politically inconvenient. In our own state university system in North Carolina, conservative political appointees to the governing board have closed research centers focused on poverty and banned litigation by the Center for Civil Rights. They are exploring ways to force conservative views onto campuses through intellectual affirmative action. The United States has the best system of higher education in the world, yet this administration and its acolytes seem bent on tearing it down.
Donald Trump and his Republikkkin minions are destroying intellectualism, and knowledge itself.
Oh, woe!
If there were any celebrated intellectuals worth a damn I might take this seriously.
What are Neil Degrasse Tyson and Bill Nye the Science Guy, chopped liver?
We can only hope.
I hate these people much more than I hate Trump.
“The United States has the best system of higher education in the world,”
-10 points. cites facts not in evidence.
Nobel Prizes jumped the shark with Obama getting one.
It’s like getting a People’s Choice or Globe or Oscar. Worthless junk.
As far as i know, Obama is the only person in human history who as the recipient of a Nobel Peace prize, bombed another recipient of a Nobel Peace prize.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/doctors-without-borders-bombing_us_5615690ce4b021e856d33d51
Arafat lacked only the opportunity, not the will.
Bastiat, who should be taught in every high school in this country.
However, through a deduction that is as false as it is unjust, do you know what economists are accused of? It is that when we reject subsidies we are rejecting the very thing that is to be subsidized and are the enemies of all these types of activity since we want these activities to be free and at the same time pay their own way. Thus, if we demand that the State not intervene in religious matters through taxation, we are atheists; if we demand that the State not intervene in education through taxation, we are against enlightenment. If we say that that State ought not to give an artificial value to land or a particular sector of the economy through taxation, we are enemies of property and labor. If we think that the State ought not to subsidize artists, we are barbarians who think that art is of no use.
I protest here as forcefully as I can against these deductions. Far from entertaining the absurd notion of abolishing religion, education, property, production and the arts, when we demand that the State protect the free development of all these kinds of human activity without having them in its pay at the citizens’ mutual expense, we believe on the contrary that all these life-giving forces in society would develop harmoniously under the influence of freedom, that none of them would become, as we see today, a source of unrest, abuse, tyranny and disorder.
Our adversaries believe that an activity that is neither in the pay of the State nor regulated is an activity that has been destroyed. We believe the contrary. Their faith lies in the legislator, not in humanity; ours lies in humanity, not in the legislator.
https://twitter.com/nikkihaley/status/942174391475101697
Nikki Haley’s daughter is a definite ‘would’ too
Yeah, would both.
Before I comment, I’d like to know how old she is.
FYI- She’s in college so it’s not creepy
Totally would. Both.
Yes
They’re both pretty cute. I like the mom better. Those big brown eyes.
Mom’s probably better in bed, daughter’s got youth on her side. Decisions, decisions…
Have I taught you people nothing? The answer is always- ALWAYS- ‘college girl’. But, in this case, ‘both’ is the only acceptable answer. Nikki Haley is purrrety
Big Brown Eyes https://youtu.be/y9vnIghFrUU
I’m envisioning one of those “mom teaches daughter” pornos….aw yeah
I have a feeling that the people in some of those videos may not actually be related.
SANTA CLAUS DOES EXIST!
Related in the sense that they live in the same crack house?
Although they’ve had a serious drop-off in population of “some races” who are much more likely to have high-taxpaying people, they’ve increased the diversity!
Diversity for its own sake is the most bewildering goose chase. It should be a second-order consequence of good policy, prosperity, and the rule of law. Instead, it’s meritorious on its own, because… fewer white people, and more shawarma joints. And don’t think just because we say we value diversity that you get to hold opinions we don’t like.
increased overall diversity, despite losses in some races, ethnicities, and geographic areas is a new way of saying White Flight, that makes it sound so much better.
Hey, what happened to my HTML tags? testing
Is this one of those lame-ass things where I have to use [i]square brackets[/i] instead of angle brackets?
Guess not. So where are my italics?
em for italics
strong for bold
Huh. What happened to < i > and < /i > and < b > and < /b > ?
damn it. That didn’t work.
Angle brackets and what UCS said
<em>Gives</em>
<strong>Gives</strong>
Witchcraft!
How the hell did you get the >em< to show and not become an HTML tag?
< is <
> is >
& is &
Hot takes on Chromebook?
Would use it for some kids online games, typing out some stuff, typical web surfing (not Glibs typical, sickos). Was thinking about the Samsung Chromebook Plus. I think the daughter would like the pen part and do some drawing artsy stuff with it.
Not powerful enough to be useful as an actual notebook. I’d just get a tablet if I were in the market for that sort of thing.
Love em. We have had one around since they came out. Tablets are fine, but a keyboard is nice. CBs are light, cheap and perfect for the things you describe.
Bought one for the kids. Not really enthused about it. A cheap notebook PC will allow you to install parental controls and is more flexible.
I can’t say that I know what model a good Chromebook is as I’m not presently looking for one, but when my wife’s tablet is finally done for I will be replacing it with a Chromebook.
I got my mom (novice computer user) a mid-level Chromebook for Christmas last year and its been exceptionally easy for her to use, and there have been no tech support calls about it compared to anything running windows.
I used to really like tablets, but they seem to suffer more from a lack of OEM support for Android updates after the sale than phones do. That’s even when buying higher end Samsung tablets, not the cheapo crap $100 tabs. Chromebook gets their updates from Google not the OEM so its a lot less of an issue.
Chrombooks are ideal for children, pensioners, and any other sloped-brow dullard likely to fuck up the settings or install virii on a windows machine. I have 2.
Thing is this is exactly what they believe.
The company takes the money saved by the tax cuts and reinvests it in the company expanding their business that expanded business of course generates even more revenue than the company took in before and while their margins remain the same their net profit increases in absolute dollars as well as a result. This is then used as “proof” that the company just put the tax cut savings into profits.
That money is being distributed according to Market forces instead of government dictates. That’s bad, man.
A thought. All the shit I hate the most has bipartisan support.
Every time I hear the phrase, “Bipartisan consensus,” my ass starts to hurt.
STEVE SMITH LIKE BIPARTISAN CONSENSUS! AND BY BIPARTISAN CONSENSUS, I MEAN RAPE!
http://freebeacon.com/politics/former-obama-adviser-imagines-obituaries-republican-leaders/
It’s Ok to joke about the obituary of dead Republicans, because reasons
Here’s a tale to put you in the Christmas spirit.
Bracken: What I Saw At The Coup
Even among the generally loathsome population of Dem operatives, Ben Rhodes is uniquely horrible.
The list of people killed in the Amtrack crash is kind of weird. Child sexual abuse promoter among dead in Amtrak wreck.
I assume the rest were witnesses in the Las Vegas shooting.
Fair assumption
Pizzagate is tying up loose ends?
The train is a great place to meet kids.
Somehow the fact that an autistic person is in love with Amtrak is strangely appropriate.
Pointless debate considering that one rifle is 80 years old and the other is still in service, but a fun read nonetheless.
http://www.nramedia.org/t/9307394/99297094/72176/26/
Given that the bastard step-son of the Garand is being re-issued at the moment as a battle rifle for SDMs, is the weapon the USMC honor guard uses, and is in regular use in a number of other roles in the US Armed Forces, I’d say they both are.
Finally winter has arrived (took it long enough)! Crisp 18F outside with light snow; I love it.
Unrelated: If you haven’t already, watch Wormwood on Netflix. Assuming you have any left, that doc will utterly destroy your faith in the government.
OT got down to 14 he are last week
We are back up to low 70s this week
There is a saying in arkansas-
if you don’t like the weather, then wait a week
https://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2017/12/hispanic-identity-fades-across-generations-immigrant-connections-fall-away/
I called this years ago. And this is why identity politics is doomed to electoral failure: like all immigrant groups, Hispanics stop identifying as such by the third generation. Then they begin identifying as ‘white’.
They’re the new Italians.
Pretty much.
I’m going to use that phrase on my Italian wife. She won’t be amused.
This is utterly unsurprising to those of us who have spent significant time in/lived in the Southwest. The “Hispanic/Latino” designation is largely a manufactured identity that didn’t even show up on the census until 1970. The vast majority of “Hispanics” that I know don’t identify with that label at all anyway, they are much more likely to identify with a National Origin (eg: Mexican-American, Salvadoran-American, etc.) and not some homogenized, meaningless collective. Think about it, it’s like saying everyone in Europe is “White” with no reference to National Origin. A Frenchman would balk at the suggestion that he be lumped in with a Serbian.
The race question is equally ridiculous. Yes, most people of Latin American origin have slightly darker skin due to a genetic admixture that includes more American Indian DNA, however the vast majority of Latin Americans have a significant portion of, if not mostly, European DNA too. Combine that with increasing rates of intermarriage and in the next 50 or so years, you’ll see the trend mentioned in the article skyrocket. It’s actually a beautiful thing and only possible in a free society in which voluntary association, civil discourse and mutual trust is possible (see Europe’s Muslim immigrant problem for the diametric opposite). Of course, the Left is desperate for this *not* to happen because then they’ll lose one of their grievance groups.
If you need even more proof of this concept simply look at prison gangs. There the Hispanics separate themselves by birth i.e. “Southern” vs. “:Northern” Mexicans.
I grew up in the Tucson area. The Ronstadt family is of Mexican heritage but you couldn’t tell that by looking at Linda or her brother Peter who was the chief of police.
After a few generations the “Mexican Sharpshooter” clan will be the “Saharita Sharpshooter” clan.
Already happened. I’m a 5th gen, I just look Mexican.
Already happened. I’m a 5th gen. I just look Mexican.
Kalifornia is a cesspool. In other news, water is wet.
https://townhall.com/columnists/victordavishanson/2017/12/21/christmas-lessons-from-california-n2425093
so mismanaged by so many creative and well-intentioned people
[citation needed]
Seriously, how do you impute creativity to people whose answer to every problem (and non-problem) is “raise taxes, spend more”?
Or good intentions to people who prop up failing public services on the backs of taxpayers, for the benefit of public sector unions?
These people are tiresome, malicious gits.
Brian Moynihan (Bank of America) is on Bloomberg talking about how “anonymous money” (bitcoin) is bad for America.
Fuck off, slaver.
What will happen now that net neutrality is gone? We asked the experts
What will happen now that net neutrality is gone? We asked the
expertscarefully selected leftist panelWhat’s with the new age photo?
Net Neutrality brought peace and tranquility to the world….
I assume they mean what will happen after the mass killings quiet down?
Thankfully the NN holocaust was preempted by everyone simultaneously dropping dead of tax reform.
Althea Erickson’s, head of advocacy and impact at Etsy
The head of advocacy at a failing company. I’m impressed with those credentials.
Karyn Smith, general counsel for Twilio
The text message spamming service that has fought for years to get the service providers to stop filtering their crap.
Interesting that the panel of fifteen only looks like it has two representatives of ISPs on it.
No doubt SP’s got the email from DreamHost too.
I can’t find a copy of the circular they have sent to me, but I presume it’s been sent to all their hosting clients:
WTF?
I’m with Dreamhost too, but I turned off all of their spammy emails.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DRi8tHXUQAAo15H.jpg:large
Dude, you’re a Democratic senator from Montana. How do you expect to get re-elected? Seriously, I can’t believe how Democratic senators from MO, MT, and WV honestly think that playing to a progressive base is going to turn out well for them
MUH ALABAAMUH!
Yes, take a unique off-year special election with a great many unusual elements and try to extrapolate to a regular midterm. That will work.
Ignore that every rancher in Montana just got a huge break if they want to pass their property on to the next generation.
Yea, as great as he is on War on terror issues, fuck that guy. I might have to vote Republican just to make sure he gets out. Although I am confident that the Republicans will nominate someone retarded, just to make sure he wins again.
Add ND to that list. Apparently Ms. Heitkamp wants to lose reelection next year.
The Democrats have been taking their cues from their donors. That’s why they took it on the Chin up until Virginia. I’ll add that the hard left slant of a lot of the media and pop culture seem to be making the situation worse for them by convincing them that hard proggie positions have a lot more popularity than they do.
Look at that hair. This is not a man that makes good choices.
Odds are greater than 50% that there are some crack rocks in his very recent past.
Are you suggesting that their 2018 slogan of “Vote for Us and We’ll Take Those Thousands of Your Dollars Away Again” might backfire on the Dems?
“It is a melancholy truth, that a suppression of the press could not more completely deprive the nation of its benefits, than is done by its abandoned prostitution to falsehood. Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day.”
-Tommy J, 1804
FAKE NEWS!
I fucked up the link twice, so here’s what you get.
NYT op-ed whines about tax bill because the authors don’t think it social engineers hard enough, or in the right direction.
Surprised? I was.
^^^See my post above.
Just watched Dunkirk. Loved it.
I agree. I really liked the understated presentation of the story. The entire thing was told very matter of fact and the guys who made it let the tension and excitement just speak for themselves. It strikes me as one of the better films of 2017.
I watched The Darkest Hour last weekend. I wanted to like it. I really did. Oldman gave an absolutely terrific performance, Oscar material. But, there really didn’t seem to be much to the movie to grab me beyond what they had already put in the previews. Most of the rest was just Churchill doddering, which seems out of character to me.
The juxtaposition of the boredom of standing in DMV length lines and the sporadic terror dropping out of the sky certainly gave it that matter of fact feel.
Watched it the other night. I thought it was okay, but a better movie would have been the French trying to hold off the Germans while the Brits waited for their boats.
How do WWII movies play in Japan anyway?
From beginning to end, just like here.
he’s thinking of Australia, where they have to play them backward and upside down because of the Coriolis effect.
From top to bottom and left to right.
The sound design is the best part of the film.
My big problem with it was the lack of characterization and the indistinct nature of the characters. But that’s Nolan — he has a technocratic approach to storytelling.
Dude, you’re a Democratic senator from Montana. How do you expect to get re-elected?
Tester is a fucking moron. He’d better not get re-elected. They love him in places like Bozeman and Missoula, but I think they’re pretty much fed up with him in most of the state.
Montana is more incumbent-friendly than any place I have ever known. He could wear Che Guevara T-Shirts to campaign stops and ostensibly right-wing Republicans would be going “Well, he’s got good seniority, we can’t waste that”
“Prosecutors ask FBI agents for info on Uranium One deal”
And the FBI responds by mentioning somebody named Fekhov. He’s a Russian, right?
https://twitter.com/evanmcmurry/status/943874473266094081
God damn, Nikki Haley is spicey
Must be the curry
We will remember it when so many countries come calling on us, as they so often do, to pay even more.
There’s a lot of sand in the Middle East that these folks can go pound.
I have an erection right now.
The only way that could have been any better is if she said “The United States will put its embassy in Jerusalem, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
And along those lines, why not cut our contribution by 90% just for one year to see how they feel. If they get pissed, cut it completely for two years and seize the building to be used for offices.
I’d prefer to see it razed.
seconded.
We all realize, of course, that Nikki Haley is going to be the Republican nominee for president eventually (maybe in 2020, because Trump may not want to go through all this again- this is got to be draining for him).
“Free the Period
A-Level student Amika George, who was behind the Free Periods campaign, recently told The Evening Standard: ‘These children would face enormous anxiety while sitting in lessons, fearful that they’d bled onto their uniform, so the easiest solution was often simply to miss school.
‘It was clear to me that missing lessons means falling further behind in academic progress, and these children find they are such a long way off from attaining their goals and ambitions, all because they bleed.’
Daisy joined a slew of attendees who spoke at the protest, including MP Jess Phillips, who said: ‘Toilet paper is free in schools, so why not sanitary products?’
She added: ‘I want to open my speech by saying I’m on my period.'”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-5199815/Daisy-Lowe-joins-Suki-Waterhouse-Free-Period.html
Oh, now I understand why the birth rate in the West is declining
“Now look at my bum.”
Why wouldn’t you leave him after the first rape?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5201017/Danny-Mastersons-ex-girlfriend-accuses-raping-her.html
Hmm…
“‘Cat Person’ Author, Kristen Roupenian, Gets 7-Figure Book Deal”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/20/books/cat-person-book-deal.html
*invents time travel, kills Gutenberg*
And the publishing industry just can’t understand why it is dying.
Dammit, I have to get back to writing so I can have a release for 2018.
You hate the Police Academy movies that much?
“City to remove ‘racist’ trees from golf course”
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/city-to-remove-racist-trees-from-golf-course/news-story/b37fb325a2c53bfef21bff77b1b79cf3
So non-racist concrete walls tagged with graffiti?
I don’t get it — trees are segregationist, but a privacy wall and netting aren’t? Just call them privacy trees and be done with it.
This assumes that the governments of high-tax, cobalt blue states will act rationally. Not good odds there.
https://amgreatness.com/2017/12/20/good-riddance-to-the-blue-state-model/
I must be poor at grasping people, because I don’t get the electorate who keeps putting people like Chuck and Andy into office.
States with lots of public employees, poor minorities and guilty liberals. The public employees and poor minorities are just voting for more shit for themselves which is entirely rational, and the guilty liberals think they deserve it and are willing to have their paychecks ass-raped.
I say that it’s a blow against Federalism and should be reinstated. Especially as Q says the local politicians will not act rationally.
disclaimer: I live in Illinois.
I think there should be no deduction for state or local taxes. However unpleasant, hiding the rot is to the long-term detriment of the state and locality.
But if we want the localities to take on the role of most governing and remove those areas of control from the Federal government then you need to allow the states to do so without making it harder for them. This makes it easier for the states to throw up their hands say we can’t tax what we need to and be mere supplicants to the Federal government even more than they already are.
Nesting taxes actually means the localities are less responsive to the residents, because the residents are dulled to the sting of the expendatures, and will not evaluate whether the product is worth the cost.
Dulled but not inured. IL is losing residents for a reason. I don’t think this change in the tax code will change the minds of the current crop of politicians and it’s debatable whether the electorate will evaluate if the product is worth the cost as they have not done so as yet in IL or places like Detroit.
“it’s debatable whether the electorate will evaluate if the product is worth the cost as they have not done so as yet in IL or places like Detroit.”
The IL electorate HAS INDEED been evaluating – that’s why the population is dropping! The ones NOT paying income nor property taxes are the ones that keep electing the shitbirds.
As I stated yesterday, the reduction in the federal tax will enable me to pay for the massive tax increase IL laid on me.
If the Federal Tax rate is 70% and the IL tax rate is 70%, you personally can only get deeper in the hole. Why should the Federal government say “Well, we don’t want you to go into the hole, so we’ll let you deduct your state taxes so that you’re total tax outlay is not 100% or more of your income”? Why can’t IL let me deduct my Federal taxes?
Yes, the federal government should be subservient to the states – but the states are the ones enacting local welfare programs yet they want the fed to shield them (as much as possible) from the local tax burden of their retarded ideas so that they don’t get hammered at the polls. (Obamacare in a nutshell – it was concocted as a bailout to the 30 or so states that fucked up their insurance markets.)
In any case it has ZERO to do with Federalism. Prior to the income tax schemes the states and Fed were strictly funded on excise taxes and there were no reciprocal agreements between the two levels that let one take precedence over the other.
Trump’s year 1, in one gif
SFW
“If you think about it, Super Mario is a story about white colonialism. Rich monarchy (Princess Peach) occupies a native population (Toads.) Infrastructure spending is erased. Peach lives in a castle while populace is invaded by a hostile foreign power. Mario is a white savior.”
https://twitter.com/Spacekatgal/status/942773570811387904
That right there is one intensely, aggressively stupid person.
And running for office.
Ask her about the threat from moon rocks
Infrastructure spending is erased.
This one of the more pervasive anti-colonialist narratives and it is absurd. Most colonies that were established for any real length of time brought significant improvements to infrastructure. Often, of course, those improvements were focused on the exploitation of the colony’s resources. But apart from Leopold II’s personal murder colony, most of the time it behooved the colonizers to develop institutions in the colony that were tangential to its purpose. This is not to say that the colonizers weren’t brutal, or had the colonists’ best interests at heart, or any such thing. Only that colonial powers generally had the resources, capital, experience, and ability to develop infrastructure which was necessary and beneficial to the colony as a colony.
Certainly, nobody should be expected to say “it was great under the yoke of colonialism, look at all these (rail)roads!” But, regardless of the other factors of colonialism, infrastructure was built and such infrastructure efforts almost always exceeded what was being done before the colony was established.
See. The whole time I thought Super Mario was a treatise on the virtues of performance enhancing drugs.
The fact that yellow stars make Mario invincible is a subtle commentary on how (((they))) prop up the oppressive white hegemony. And Mario being a plumber speaks to false consciousness within the white working class. Hey, I could make up bullshit like this all day, it’s kinda fun.
CNN: Joining a terrorist network is a sign of sanity.
That’s the implication, right? He’s insane, so he must not be a terrorist?
I have seen a related, argument made, in particular in relation to a number of European attacks… e.g. like the Nice truck… people-smashing thing.
namely, that “people who are not “known jihadists” prior to their attack are not really terrorists.”
it effectively bars any of these “one-shot, lone wolf” attacks (which are the majority) from being labeled, “Terror”, because by definition, these lone-wolfs have no prior history of association before they make their attack.
Never mind that they actually outright state that they are acting in the name of “ISIS” or whomever: they were recently divorced/wife left them/lost jobs/had a history of instability, ergo can not be terrorists. “they just snapped” is the narrative, despite the fact the person in question scoped the scene of the attack days in advance and made careful preparations for the aftermath, expecting themselves to die in the process.
terrorism, it seems, requires that a person pass rigorous tests for mental stability, be socially well-adjusted, solidly employed, married with large families, AND have an extensive and documented history of membership in a terrorist organization. Because if anything, terrorists are very much into the idea of open-record-keeping of their member rolls, and maintaining strict standards for membership.
Its an absurd set of non-standards, which the media arbitrarily bends/breaks/modifies whenever they want depending on how they want to spin any given story. Under the Obama admin, they were generally abetted by the FBI, who would refuse to say ‘yeah or nay’ on the Terror/not-Terror question for days on end, even after both motive and links to Islamic jihadi groups were established.
The front page of the NYT/CNN/WaPo et al on December 3, 2015, was a moment i remember particularly: pretty much everyone started running think-pieces about “what’s a ‘mass shooting’, and what’s Terror, really? NO ONE CAN TELL DIFFERENCE”
there was a concerted effort to bend reality; ‘its not terror when our guy is president, because that looks bad’.
It is also a standard that was not applied when the terrorists were Irish rather than Muslims. When somebody blew up a British police station or government office, there was none of this hand-wringing.
I remember the desperate “No no no, he wasn’t a terrorist. He was a homophobe (or self-loathing gay man)!” as if they were mutually exclusive. Jesus, we really need to teach logic in high school.
Let us call it Obama’s razor. There is one and only one explanation for any act of violence, and whenever possible, that explanation is not terrorism, unless the perpetrators were “right-wing”, in which case it’s always terrorism.
There’s also a one-drop rule for right-wing terrorism — if a person releases a mish-mash word salad manifesto, so long as at includes at least one vaguely right wing idea (any and all opposition to the government is considered “right wing” for this purpose), it’s right wing terror. The exception being if the perpetrator is Muslim, in which case attitudes normally classified as “right wing” (anti-semitism, misogyny, religious bigotry, homophobia, or hatred for the US government) are now merely “mental illness” with no ideological component whatsoever.
“Star Wars: The Last Jedi Offers the Harsh Condemnation of Mansplaining We Need in 2017
An eerily perfect installment for the post-Trump era.”
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/12/star-wars-last-jedi-laura-dern-admiral-holdo-listen-to-women
These articles are not making me dislike it any less.
The Rebel Alliance must always be led by a woman in a light colored dress.
I’m not clicking the link, but I assume they are referring to the scene where the purple haired lady that may or may not be working in the best interests of the rebels told the fighter pilot to pound sand?
–INITIATE SPOILER ALERT– That’s about as stupid as the WW2 style bombing run from the opening sequence. Seriously, you mastered light speed, why are you DROPPING bombs on a space frigate? — END SPOILER ALERT —
Given how long FTL travel has been in the Star Wars universe, I don’t think the people in it understand how it works or physics in general. I wouldn’t be surprised if it were being made by people who’d never be able to develop it with their level of understanding.
Worse, how it works changes depending on the requirements of the shitty plot.
You’re just not applying the woke algorithm
I still maintain my crush-on for Laura Dern from 1987 (Blue Velvet). If she wants to SJW I’m sanguine, so long as she makes me a sammy and gives me a handy.
Was the fat guy in the red sweater the actor (Steven Furst) who played “Flounder” in Animal House?
oh, snap
A little homework indicates he had appeared in other Twisted Sister videos. I feel vindicated
“These Disney Princesses Are Fighting for Affordable Health Care
This is real.”
http://www.cosmopolitan.com/health-fitness/a8734620/disney-princesses-healthcare/
“Santa’s Reindeer Are Actually Female And Duh Of Course
Or castrated. Merry Christmas!”
https://www.buzzfeed.com/laurenstrapagiel/who-run-the-christmas-girls
TW: Buzzfeed
They skipped a step. None of the reindeer species they use as a reference point can fly.
Do we know anything about the dimorphism of flying reindeer?
Besides, it would be cruel to name a male reindeer “Vixen”.
Burn the witch!
In her speech, DeVos praised the university, a public institution, for providing “flexibility outside of a traditional college environment.” She even highlighted several stories of recent graduates who overcame personal challenges, including one who grew up in a foster home and one whose parents grappled with addiction, to earn their degrees.
But the thesis of her speech—that a quality education and selfless perseverance can overcome any adversity—seemed to ignore growing evidence that the dream of economic mobility is out of reach for many Americans. Throughout the roughly 20-minute talk, she also focused on family support as a key to success while ignoring the role community and government play in both bolstering and funding the success stories at hand.
Money *is* the metric. Keep pounding money down the rathole of union indoctrination centers. Otherwise, you hate children.
Throughout the roughly 20-minute talk, she also focused on family support as a key to success while ignoring the role community and government play in both bolstering and funding the success stories at hand.
In other words, “it takes a village”.
The problems with this quaint notion are that the government is not a village, it is a warlord; and that a functional community does not arise from any collection of dysfunctional individuals or families. As the government intervenes to save people from themselves, it turns them against their own betterment. It usually takes more than one generation for this to happen, which is why many government programs get to appear successful (on gamed metrics) at first.
The more dependent people become on government, the less dependent and concerned they are on families, communities, and ultimately themselves.
I think it’s more like a cross between a warlord and the sort of evil corporation that Hollywood likes to conjure up.
“the dream of economic mobility is out of reach for many Americans”
Yeah, because taxes are too high. Now they’re only high in specific states.
And they’re highest in states held hostage by teachers unions and bloated education bureaucracies.
Everyone I know who made the transition from Poor to Not Poor did so by hard work and in spite of the public education system, not because of it. Most did not bother with college.
That right there is one intensely, aggressively stupid person.
Ostentatious stupidity, the kind that must be brought forth and paraded through the streets accompanied by a great fanfare.
Active shooter instructions for my office
When the active shooter kills me after I throw a stapler at him, I’d like you all to go to the media and tell them to go fuck themselves and their gun control. Right in the ass.
This shit is just incredible…
report to 9-1-1 the type of weapon?
considering everyone in my office, that made me laugh.
Remember to always duck, and cover.
If an active shooter shows up your place, I would advise you crawl around inside the ductwork. Then, get the drop on a bad guy near a model of your company’s latest construction project, and kill him. Take his weapon. Keep in mind, they may shoot out all the glass in the conference rooms. So keep your shoes on. Also, try to get the bag with the detonators in it. By the way, your office Christmas party isn’t tonight is it?
Why, yes it is…
HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANS!
They left out empathize with them.
Remember that run, hide, fight is also how you ambush someone.
Make sure it’s a red Swingline.
We have a similar posting here. The last ditch option is a little better: “Prepare to defend yourself. Be aggressive and committed to your actions.”
Active shooter instructions for my office
Wait- what happened to “Attempt to reason with him”?
What about negotiation?
“We’re worth more to you alive, Dude.”
“I’m on your side, man. The manager’s down the hall. Go shoot that fat bastard.”
DeBolshevik pines wistfully for his own version of Pravda.
“Sure, the mayor named the head of WNYC, but that was a no-fly zone in terms of political influence. You had to choose someone very much above the fray, using almost the same sensibilities we would think about naming judges, for example,” de Blasio said.”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Oh, the terrible paradoxes stalwart feminists like Jessica Valenti must endure.
Get the smelling salts!
The bill encourages tax evasion. Glogower and his colleagues cite
opportunities to use rate differentials and ill-considered transitions to engage in transactions that serve to basically pump money out of the Treasury and into the pockets of well-advised taxpayers.
Yeah whatever, dude. Take your meds.
Glogower ain’t happy unless everyone is taxed to the fucking hilt.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2841479
This article claims that accounting for both a taxpayer’s wealth and annual income provides a more complete measure of ability to pay, and therefore a more appropriate basis for progressive taxation.
another one of Glogower’s papers extolling the virtues of mark-to-market progressive taxation..
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2979583
For example, replacing the realization rule with accrual taxation in 2004 would have raised an estimated $2.2 billion from the two founders of Google Inc.—Larry Page and Sergey Brin—alone.
Well, mark to market is nuts, but there’s something to be said for taxing people based on lifetime average of annual income rather than annual income. It would help ease the burden on people starting their lives, and people without steady income who may be in a low tax bracket one year and a high tax bracket the next. It would also ease the punitive effect that getting a job has on people’s benefits.
“measure of ability to pay”
ahem….*clears throat*….Fuck Off, Slaver!
and by tax evasion, Glogower means that state governments will rig their tax collections to avoid the SALT deduction of $10,000.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3089423
1. Employee payroll taxes. The conference bill does not alter the analysis as to the potential shift to employee payroll taxes. Taxes imposed on a business are still deductible. Therefore states can shift from non-deductible over-the-cap state income taxes to still-deductible employer-side payroll taxes. It is important to repeat that that states already impose a payroll tax for unemployment insurance purposes, and many localities impose an additional payroll tax as well—and employers currently can claim a deduction for their portion of these taxes.
2. Charitable gifts. The conference bill does not alter the analysis that the new law would permit the shift from use of non-deductible over-the-cap state income taxes to deductible charitable contributions to state and local governments. One point bears further emphasis: Many states already have laws in place granting state income tax credits for donations to certain funds, and the IRS has allowed taxpayers who take advantage of these credits to deduct their payments as charitable contributions rather than as state taxes.
get that? to avoid the $10K cap on SALT deductions, states will jack up employer taxes or change from an income tax to a charitable donation because those are still deductible.
holy shit the man is insane.