It looks like Negroni and his wife, our reptilian overlord Mr. Lizard and I will be meeting at Mr. Dunderbak’s in Tampa on Friday. I think Negroni and I will be arriving before 4:00. Come if you can.
I love the WaPo’s idea that you somehow have to “pay” for tax-cuts. And by love, I mean hate. Motherfuckers, if we don’t have to figure out how to “pay” for free shit for people, we definitely don’t need to figure out how to “pay” for lowering taxes on taxpayers.
I like how the Afghan rebels waited until Mattis was safely gone before firing rockets at the airport. Probably afraid that he’d roundhouse kick the rockets right back to them.
FFS, so much wrong with this. I mean besides the tragic murder of two teens. Urban Assembly School for Wildlife Conservation in the Bronx? A 3″ switchblade? The school’s fault for not having metal detectors? Why am I adding so many question marks?
From the Department of Wouldn’t Fly as Fiction: Four arrested after fight breaks out inside an ‘EMPATHY TENT’.
All this fighting.
Comments
640 responses to “Wednesday Afternoon Links”
It looks like the tax “cuts” are going to fuck me good and hard.
Although…. that’s probably kind of the point. Anyone in a high-tax blue state is fucked.
Are they getting rid of the state income tax deduction? That would make sense. There is no reason why Texas taxpayers need to subsidize the high taxes of California
State and local deductions.
I pay over 10 grand in property tax alone, so that’s a pretty big deduction.
I get screwed too, if they get rid of the property tax deduction. And the income tax deduction, but to a lesser extent than you
I’m hoping that if that deduction goes away, people will be so appalled by the taxes in their state that they’ll finally push back. But, maybe that’s a pipe dream
For a single engineer in Silicon Valley, this could be absolutely crippling.
Maybe Silicon Valley moves out of California then or the State is forced to change its tax climate to retain workers. States should not be allowed to hide the cost of their over spending
As bad as the taxes are in my state (IL) I get more services from them than I do from FedGov. FedGov taxes are way more rapey.
Playa, I’ve already seen Bay Area companies willing to pay a Bay Area salary and give local employees a $10000 moving stipend to work remotely. Its already coming apart.
All taxes are wallet rape. Just because my wallet doesn’t have a chastity belt doesn’t mean it was asking for it. Consent is sexy.
Wouldn’t businesses get totally screwed by not getting a property tax deduction?
All this elimination of the deduction will do is convince states to switch everything to excise taxes (like soda for example) and jack up sales taxes since these will be less obvious.
Property tax is a business expense.
Works for me. Sales taxes are a lot easier to avoid than property taxes.
I’ll push back on that one a bit. Property taxes are often rolled into a house payment, pushed through escrow, and deducted via auto withdrawal. Sales taxes are pretty obvious when you buy something for $10 and they hit you for $12 at the counter.
I’m with TLAH on this one. Our prop taxes are rolled into our mortgage payment and paid via escrow, so we really don’t see them unless we look for them. On the other hand, they raised the state alcohol tax about two years ago and there were nearly riots. Nearly. I mean, if you’ve got to choose between food and booze, you buy a fifth of Jim Beam at the store and hit a couple squirrels on the way home.
I have to cut a giant check every 6 months. If that check is a day late, there’s a $500 penalty.
I’m over $1k a month and 6.37% state income tax.
Could backfire though.
Fuck that. Why should I have to pay taxes on my taxes?
Take it up with your state.
Why should you receive a tax deduction for taxes that you paid to a separate layer of government? Shouldn’t your beef be with the local government, rather than the federal government?
Yes. But this was the compromise.
You can’t change the rules in the middle of the game.
What compromise? “You can’t change the rules in the middle of the game” could be used about any policy change from repealing Obamacare to eliminating the export-import bank.
Why make the rest of the country subsidize the high taxes in other parts of the country? That’s ludicrous. And I would be impacted by this tax change and I always have to pay income taxes, even with the deduction. So, I’m pissed, but I realize that the current system is unfair
Now you’re making it sound like FedGov is entitled to a portion of my income. Maybe you should go back to TOS with that logic.
No government is entitled to your income and no state is entitled to have citizens from other states subsidize their poor budgeting practices, which is what the current system does
You keep saying “subsidizing” without actually explaining where the subsidy comes in. That is completely different than people in low-tax states paying a larger portion of income in fed taxes. The Feds don’t come up with the expenses first and then bill you your portion – it’s a phony-baloney revenue scam and there is no “fair” or “subsidy” involved.
The “subsidy” only comes in where there is a difference between federal taxes paid and federal monies received on a state-by-state basis.
You can’t change the rules in the middle of the game.
So, no tax reform, ever? Sure, I get that this was part of the deal 100 years ago. A lot has changed, economically, geographically, and taxically since then.
If I’m not supposed to pay taxes on my taxes, why can’t I deduct my federal taxes from my state return? For that matter, why aren’t my SocSec and Medicare taxes deducted from my taxable AGI?
FedGov is supposed to be subservient to the states. I know it’s evolved into leviathan, but the tax subservience might be the last vestige.
“Shouldn’t your beef be with the local government, rather than the federal government?”
Absolutely not.
The entire scam of the federal income tax was passed on the condition that state and local taxes would be a deduction.
This is Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown, plain and simple.
100 years later? Meh. The fact that this many generations have stuck to the deal is impressive. Our great-grandparents fucked up. They trusted the government.
Now you sound like a loony lefty saying the constitution is some old document written by white guys who have no clue of how government works today.
The federal income originally only applied to a few earners and there were few to any deductions. The 1980’s tax reform codified this deduction, but it is still illogical. It makes no sense from a budgetary perspective nor from a good government perspective. If you can deduct your state income taxes on your federal income taxes then what is the disincentive for states to not continuing to raise their income tax or property tax. If you couldn’t deduct this than there would be a lot more pressure in states that can’t do math to not continually raise taxes.
I’m all for eliminating income taxes, in general, but this deduction is the ultimate giveaway to high tax states at the expense of low tax taxpayers
IF: If they wanted to codify that practice, it would have been written into the Amendment. Since it wasn’t, I expect the government will eventually do everything it is not forbidden from doing.
The original income tax also had deduction for ALL interest paid. Not just mortgage interest, ALL interest paid.
The football has been pulled out time and again.
There is NO giveaway. FedGov isn’t entitled to the money. It’s not like the states found some loophole to deprive FedGov of its sustenance.
Ye,s robc, and it was Reagan that pulled the interest exemption for households, under the same logic Just Say’n is using.
Get rid of federal income tax and make the states underwrite the federal operations thru an annual payment.
Blow it up real good.
You buy gasoline, right?
Damn straight. I’m already paying state income tax on the sales tax on the gas tax, and now you guys think I should have to pay federal incomes taxes on the state income taxes on the sales tax on the gas tax. Fuck. That. Shit.
I don’t think you should pay taxes on ANY of it. But I also don’t think fair has any part in this discussion.
“Fair aint got nuthin to do with it”
You pay fed income taxes on FICA taxes and sales taxes. What makes state income taxes and property taxes so special?
There are some good pros in it. It repeals the pure evil estate tax that destroys farms and small businesses. It raises the standard deduction to $26k which should offset the removal of other deductions for many or even most people. It also eliminates the AMT which was starting to hit a lot more people.
Of course, everything hinges on what the income ranges are for the new brackets.
If the standard deduction is $26K, that makes my income tax close to zero.
I make well under $15, and it’s ridiculous how much I pay in tax.
You’ll still be paying FICA, which is the ridiculous amount you pay in tax.
I need to walk this back. It’s $24k /marriage which is close to $26k ($12k for individual), but it turns out they will eliminating personal exemptions which makes it like a 15% increase instead of doubling it as claimed.
http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-tax-plan-doubled-standard-deduction-2017-9
That’s disappointing and makes the whole thing rather pointless other than killing the estate tax.
I was going to say, I’d love to pay no federal income tax on the first $52k married filing jointly. Done deal.
You say that like getting fucked is a bad thing.
Hard to imagine a disease more horrifying than this.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal_familial_insomnia
It’s pretty rare. I saw a documentary about it a while back. About 6 months in, I’d probably insist on a bullet to the head.
Playing the National Anthem at sporting events is the original social signaling.
No. That would be the pledge of allegiance in schools. And the pledge is far more offensive, in my opinion. I should not have to pledge allegiance to any state. And that’s why I don’t say the words
WKUK’s take
Pretty well sums it up.
“this is not a form of brainwashing” gets me to chuckle every time.
Meh, what the fuck would one expect in government schools but bullshit loyalty oaths. Pro sports are private enterprises, there is no compulsion.
As Bill Veeck said, “We play the National Anthem before every game! You want us to pay taxes, too??”
Indivisible my ass
I’m reminded of how much teachers flip the fuck out if you respectfully sit in silence during the pledge.
Recite the Bill of Rights instead.
or even the preable to the declaration.
I think this is dumb
sports is cultural ritual. the reason they play anthems at the beginnings of games is to remind players that its just a game and that they’re both part of a shared culture.
i.e. “we’re all on the same team…. but now we’re going to try and kick the shit out of one another”. Its simply an extension of the ritual. its what makes it a sport rather than tribal warfare.
i know there’s a certain libertarian knee-jerk reaction to anything seemingly ‘nationalistic’, but it ends up sounding as stupid as the athiest who insists we need to get rid of “In god we trust” from our currency because of the 1st amendment.
I find it hard to form an opinion on the anthem at sporting events other than “whoever organizes the sporting event should decide whether or not the anthem is played“.
Akira wins.
Do you have a political party I could join? Would you like to start one?
well, that is pretty much how it already works. but it seems to offend people that most decide to go with it because its expected by some. most people probably wouldn’t notice if it was skipped, but there’s always a group of grumblers.
I think a lot of people don’t have any idea that some things are government-run and you (in theory) have a say in how they operate, and other things are private and you don’t have any voice whatsoever in how they do things.
From the makers of the Hat and the Hair plush toys
This appears to be real. (autoplay warning)
That is fucking winning right there. I think they should have gone more over the top with the ad though.
“In a world without hope…. one man rises above.”
That ad makes it sound so fake.
Yeah, it does look like a SNL parody.
With Pussy Fu Grip action
Met a girl in Thailand who had that…
It needs desperately to have a sound chip.
I AM THE BEST BEAR, THE VERY BEST BEAR YOU HAVE EVER HAD
I might buy for my niece, but i already got her HIV and Chlamydia
Long ass day.
My son had his EEG – test results show he has a tendency towards seizures. Neurologist gave him a 50% chance of it happening again. So we’re going to put him on some medication to lower that chance, with the idea that it can be weaned off of 2 years down the road.
MRI is next, to ensure nothing physical is causing these whack–a-doodle brainwaves.
Best wishes for ya and the kid
Good luck. Hopefully, its nothing.
If handheld video games are involved, you might want to remove that from the equation.
Of the 3 seizures I know about at my kids’ school last year, all involved iPads or Nintendos.
Yeah we hid his Nintendo 3DS away – and there goes my idea of buying the Switch for Christmas.
You can play the Switch on TV, which seems to be OK.
They prescribe the ketogenic diet for cases where the seizures are resistant to drugs, but I don’t know if it will affect mild cases. Might be worth a look.
Noted. We’re a low carb family, though he eats more carbs than my wife and I due to hot lunch at school and grandparents filling him up with candy.
I came down with the keto flu today. It sucks.
Good luck.
Praying the MRI comes back clean and the medication helps him.
Best of luck.
I’m no doc but heard cbd oil is effective. Hope the best for you and yours.
or Candy drops, My Grandson and myself both take them for seizures
My neighbor has a son thays about 10 yrs old. He had them bad for a few years. The cbd oil fixed them completely. That really is a miracle drug
Keppra? … My wife is on that for anti-seizure.
Damn, man. I can’t even pretend to understand how stressful that must be. All the best to you and your family.
Ugh. Nothing worse than scary shit with the kids.
Good luck, brother. I’m praying for you all.
Same here, Lord H. My thoughts for a full recovery for your son.
I hope everything turns out alright for you guys.
I hope you get it figured out and it is responsive to medications
I’m hoping for the best.
My kid sister dealt with the same thing. Medication did wonders, and she eventually outgrew it. So I’m optimistic for you.
I hope things go well for your son.
Whats up with the bullshit names for NYC high schools?
I only remember PS for grade school, MS for jr high, then a HS named after someone.
A block from work is Millenium HS, and theres a jr high and like 2 HS in one gigantic building that used to be John Jay
Please don’t be Berkeley…. Please don’t be Berkeley….
*clicks*
OH GOD DAMMIT
I heard that little commie Filipina got arrested.
Sargon covered BAMN and showed they are a cult.
Is she the teacher?
I bet you she STILL won’t get fired.
Not unless there is a conviction. A mere arrest is insufficient to break her job protections.
I grew up with her in a small town out east. She was a normal person back then.
Ayup. Berkeley will do that to you.
You gotta admit, the odds were heavily in favor of it being Berkeley.
Every time i see these Berkeley clips, i’m always struck by the fact that the ratio of “people filming people protesting” to “People actually protesting” is like 50:1
I’m really sorry to be distracting from the Official Links so early in the thread, but I just came across this and I know I will forget later and it is SO GLORIOUS I just have to share:
It’s got “femmes” and “triggered” and the sentence “the untortured, unshamed body is of little use to capitalism”
Do witches not know where the CapsLock key is on the computer?
^This,
WTF; does she think she’s e.e. cummings’ disciple?
“i’ve felt bounced back and forth between the values of my blood family (who often don’t see my work as valid)”
Good for them.
Meh. If people are willing to pay her and know what they are getting for their money, it’s valid work.
Not as valid as say, prostitution, don’t get me wrong, but still…
Sure, if it’s consensual, fine.
I’m just applauding her family for telling her that she’s stupid, because….. well, she is.
Oh, I’ll never disagree with a bit of gratuitous insultery
The compete disregard for capitalization is so far the most annoying thing about that. I know that there is far worse to be had if I could focus on the words and actually analyse the text, but fortunately the terrible syntax is so distracting that I can’t.
Listen, Caput, capitalism is a fucked up system that is degrading in so many ways. If you can’t come to terms with that then I just don’t know how you’ll fit into the new world order that the femme witches are building.
(I read your comment 3 times and still saw “disregard for capitalization” as “disregard for capitalism.” This is what happens to your brain after you read that thing the whole way through, you’re not able to parse proper English anymore.)
That’s why I stopped. I’m assuming my white cis male privilege also protected me.
Perhaps the author threw off the shackles of capitalization as a symbolic part of the struggle against capitalism. After all, we are slaves to capital.
See, that scans. I appreciate your unpaid labor that I forced you to enact in my behalf.
Am I doing this right? I feel queasy, so I’m pretty sure I’m doing it right.
Why do commies write in all lower case?
Because they’re anti-capitalism!
It totally makes sense.
Considering the mistake my brain made above, I’d actually buy that.
e.e. cummings hardest hit.
I’d treat this person the same way I’d treat a KKK member; acknowledge her right to her insane ideas in the comfort of her own loony bin and avoid her like the plague.
All I see is future demand for Clozapine
Puerto Rico is still a victim of colonial neglect
They have plenty of political power. Enough, in fact, to turn the island into a socialist shithole.
So, it’s an entire island of passive actors with no agency or ability for self-determination?
It’s like they’re subhumans.
There’s a solution for this problem. It’s called statehood.
Combine New England into one state and I’m on board.
They have rejected statehood twice since Clinton.
I know, that was my point. If they are some kind of quasi-colony, it’s by choice.
Didn’t they vote for statehood in 2012? I swear I remember reading that and wondering why no one was talking about it..
Not exactly. The 2012 referendum was a confusing clusterfuck. Then the 2017 referendum was mostly boycotted. There is support for statehood in PR but it’s not the majority position. The majority position, rather unsurprisingly, seems to be maintain the status quo but get more from Uncle Sam.
https://hotair.com/archives/2017/09/27/oddball-question-will-trump-allow-release-secret-jfk-assassination-papers/
Ted Cruz’s father is probably sweating bullets over this
I like how the Afghan rebels waited until Mattis was safely gone before firing rockets at the airport. Probably afraid that he’d roundhouse kick the rockets right back to them.
Someone has been reading Duffleblog.
+2 knife hands
Speaking of DuffelBlog (TW: Fake News): Navy heeds Sen. McCain’s advice to end 100-hour work week, increases to 168
Technically on deployment, you’re on call 24/7 – not like you’re going to stay in your rack if they call a GQ drill just cuz you were up on watch 1/2 the night.
Comment gold in empathy tent article:
lol.
Will someone invite Earl to comment here?
I’d love to come down, but I’m working Friday, and my old college roommate is driving up to see our local uni play sportsball against some gentlemen scholar-athletes from Nashville.
Have a dunkel and some Schnitzel Holsteiner Art for me.
Record $135 billion a year for illegal immigration, average $8,075 each, $25,000 in NY
And then there’s outright grants of taxpayer money to illegal aliens.
Waaah waaah ‘I cried in the meeting’
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2017/09/27/jemele-hill-cried-in-meeting-for-turning-espn-into-punching-bag-over-trump-tweet.html
Also, she says ESPN being commie is a dumb narraritive
All this fighting.
Fixed it for you.
Hah, I knew that was what the link would be.
I would have gone with this version of “You gotta fight for your right,” though (thanks to the glib who pointed out this guy’s videos).
I was expecting a clip of that 8-hour fight scene from THEY LIVE.
https://twitter.com/CahnEmily/status/913127991491858433
Speaking of tax cuts. Oh, the Democrats are totally going to win back the working class- I can feel it!
A saying came to mind, and I WAS NOT DISAPPOINTED!
Right there in the replies.
Can’t tell which one of them married down.
Yeah, that’s a, uh, very “stylized” drawn portrait of her as her avatar image rather than the RL background photo.
Reminds me of people putting the entire family photo as their personal profile picture in Linkedin. Cmon people, just try to be a little professional.
oh my god the replies are 1.4k
This person’s Twitter feed caused me physical distress.
A-N-T-I-semetic. Shame on you Just Say’n. You weren’t antisemitic enough. Or too much. I’m confused these days about what is woke.
“CobBrow 3h ago
“EU tax crackdown on tech giants will damage growth”
What a bizarre thing to say.
So should no companies, or individuals pay tax because it would be good for growth? And lets say there was lots of ‘Growth’ but no taxation, how exactly is that in a countries best interests?
This issue, at its heart is about how countries choose to fund the essential services for their populations. The notion that companies get a say in the amount they pay is absurd. They pay, or they don’t play.”
This guy.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/sep/26/eus-tax-plans-for-tech-companies-will-damage-growth-us-body-warns
Notice ‘growth’ in quotes.
essential services
is not what the vast majority of the money is spent on
Got an email from Airbnb asking for my ‘voice’ in fighting restrictions against them / short-term home/room rentals in Los Angeles. I’m sympathetic—the combination of Airbnb and Uber made my trip to LA a breeze, and much for affordable—and yet the petty man inside me (consensually) feels that these prog companies deserve to get, good and hard, what their politics necessarily entails. Fuck ’em
I get what you’re saying but I would show support so it would allow other less proggy gig-economy/sharing-economy competitors the space to do business.
You’re right. Thanks.
Besides the Friday Tampa meetup, there will also be one in LA. I have it on good authority that the LA meetup will be miles better than the sorry affair going on in Tampa. (You all know that’s just an excuse for Mr. Lizard to dine on your mammalian flesh, I hope!) The LA meetup is also going to have hookers and blackjack.
The theme:
THUNDER FROM DOWN UNDER
Unfortunately, I’ll be in New York and can’t make it.
New York City!?
Yeppers.
Where the good salsa is.
Get a rope!
You misspelled Dobbin, TX
Don’t forget to get a NY slice!
*Considers whether hookers and blackjack are worth the six hour drive*
For me it’s a six hour flight. And I’m even making it — but a week later.
Same. Actually going to be in New York, Florida, & LA next week.
You coasters haven’t seen a good meetup until you go to a heartland one.
I hear some of the LA citizens have to leave on Thursday to make it across town.
Or sooner. But I’m doing it because I love you guys thiiiiis much.
If I had a spare dog kennel, I’d let you sleep in it.
Can’t I share with the dog?
Then where would your orphans sleep?
Outside like the Watchmaker Entity intended
I love this response. You substitute “as God intended” to “as the Watchmaker Entity intended”. Solidifying my belief that only learned people become deists
Where and when?
I don’t think they’ve determined the starting point yet, but the end is usually LA County Jail.
Well,, I hate to miss the hookers, but my dad’s going in the hospital tomorrow for heart surgery, so I’ll be keeping my mom from going bananas until he gets out (i mean, hopefully nothing goes terribly wrong, in which case I EXTRA wouldn’t be able to come), but even if all goes well, family stuff first.
But play some blackjack on a Mexican’s ass for me, y’all. Especially if he’s hot.
You know who else is having a meet-up in L.A.?
“12:00pm – Lunch break with local food trucks”:
Am I to understand that the $200 fee does NOT cover lunch?
It’s probably not covering the cocaine, either.
Hitler?
No, the Florida meet up is the one at the German restaurant.
I really wish I wasn’t going out of town on Friday otherwise I would go. 🙁
Thanks for the Beastie link. Now I’m stuck in a loop of watching their videos and grinning like an idiot. Damn music used to be fun.
Brass Monkey!
Especially relevant to all us pervs.
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170926-is-porn-harmful-the-evidence-the-myths-and-the-unknowns
Related:
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/319536.php
Brought to you by the Church of Latter Day Saints!
If porn was harmful, I’d be dead.
something something cold dead hands
You’re talking about the Howdy Stranger, right?
Is porn harmful? Depends on the angle you take. It’s empowering to women, allowing them to engage in lots of different kinds of sex, and so is a great thing. But, it perpetuates the male gaze, which is terrible and awful. Men probably get too much enjoyment out of it, so it’s more harmful than empowering.
Not the porn Jesse and Rhywun and Tonio have been watching. But it’s harmful to black women just trying to enjoy their salads.
In today’s economics lesson, airlines try and teach consumers about supply and demand, and what happens when the basic laws of such are messed with. Let’s see if anyone listens
Are there laws against price gouging?
The Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation regulate price gouging in the airline industry.
But price gouging in the industry is difficult to identify when most hikes can be traced back to the usual mechanisms of supply and demand, said airline expert Seth Kaplan.
“When many or most flights are completely sold out (can’t get a seat at any price), that’s definitely not gouging, because by definition, it means airlines could have charged more,” said Kaplan, managing partner at trade publication Airline Weekly, in an email. “What happened is that the people quick enough/smart enough/lucky enough (however we want to view it) to jump on and get seats right away got seats that were probably very cheap, relative to all the demand. And then very quickly, everything sold out.”
A full regulation of airline prices would take the industry back to before the Airline Deregulation Act in 1978, which allowed airlines to add flights, increase the number of passengers flown and decrease fares.
“In 1978, airlines were regulated by the government and government regulated the fares,” said George Hobica, founder of Airfarewatchdog.com. “I don’t think anyone wants to go back to that.”
And, while caps can be put in place sooner, Hobica said the result will just be that flights are sold more quickly — and not necessarily to those who need them the most.
“I don’t know what the practical difference is between a seat that is available but it’s too expensive to afford and a seat that is cheap but it’s sold out,” added Kaplan. “In either case the bottom line is you can’t travel.”
There may be some middle ground though. Delta’s higher caps for instance, which run from $199 to $499 depending on the flight and seat, might be low enough to pacify travelers but not so low that they are gobbled up quickly, Kaplan said.
Some regulation may be in the works.
Sen. Bill Nelson, who called for airlines to instate caps before Maria and is the ranking member of the Senate’s Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, is considering the possibility of requiring airlines to cap fees when a major storm is approaching. No formal regulations have been proposed yet.
I’d be all for it, as long as the barriers to entry for running an airline were limited to raising the necessary capital to rent (or buy), staff, and provision airplanes.
Prices are icky
Considering my mother was able to book me a flight out of Tampa the Saturday before Irma on Thursday at a reasonable rate, I would tell these people to fuck right off.
When did the grandstanding by politicians start? Some of the airlines, particularly AA, backed down from their highest filed fares (fares that were filed long before the hurricane was forecast) in the face of media hysteria.
Income should start at 50k and be a (low) flat percentage.
no withholding.
And no credit cards either. Cash or check paid in person. Make us fuckers realize exactly how much we are spending.
I’d go with the original 1913 tax. 1%, up to 7% at the highest incomes.
I could be talked into it.
Really I just want to give people like Ted or me who currently make very little by hour actually take that home at the end of the month.
We can even stick to the original brackets and deductions.
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-utl/1913.pdf
https://www.paul.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/ObamacareReplacementActSections.pdf
Senate Bill 222
Toomey is only cosponsor. It went to Finance committee on 1/24/17. Mere days after Trump took office. Nothing else has happened.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/222/text
Better link.
Gilmored the hell out of that. That is a response to Ken, trying again in proper place.
I disagree. Flat across the board is where my support is. But, if the masters of all insist on a progressive tax make it a real progressive tax. Income of a million or more the tax increases per million. (I have heard Andrew Wilkow bring this up and I agree). None of this maxing out shit, go full progressive or go home. Tax it all or fuck off. I wonder how many rich leftists would agree to that? All of my income is taxed, theirs should be too if they want to stick to this stupid tax system. Something something equal protection. Same goes for FICA. Enough of this cap bullshit on that. FICA used to fund Medicare and SS which was supposedly held by the government for the taxpayer. Lock box bitch! Now it funds medicaid, disability, and god knows what else. It is welfare now. It is funded by the lower middle class at a higher percentage of income than the upper middle class, well to do, and uber rich. Something something equal protection. Everybody should have skin in the game but the skin should be equal. Something something equal protection.
Or end taxation, fire 3/4 of government employees, bring all the troops home, tell Canada they have to quadruple their military budget to help secure our shared continent and go to a fee based system.
I’m watching the head of the AFL-CIO blast the tax plan, because it brings down corporate income taxes. The first rule about taxes is that ALL taxes are paid by INDIVIDUALS. You slap a corporate tax then the consumer or the worker is paying that tax (depending on the elasticity of the product). These union guys need to learn basic economics. A reduced corporate income tax could be a boon for American business (depending on the rate and the complexity of the plan).
It’s an amazingly easy point and I’m not quite sure why they don’t understand it.
they might.
They’re doing a terrible job at representing workers with this nonsense
It’s almost as if representing workers isn’t their primary purpose…
Even if it marginally is, they’d rather raise hourly rates (since union dues are usually a percentage of the rates/wages) than cut taxes as a way to put more money into members’ pockets.
I have noticed that a lot of people seem unable to distinguish accounting fictions from economic realities. See also: zero-sum fallacy.
Because then someone might wonder why union dues are so high.
It’s funny that I even got my brother to acknowledge the point, but he STILL argues that corporations must be made to pay their fair share, because “That’s the price of being allowed to do business in America.”
But he adamantly refuses to suggest HOW corporations be made to pay these magical, non-transferable taxes.
Everybody’s “allowed to do business in America”! That’s the whole fucking point of the country!
/blood boils
That’s what I told him. ALLOWED? That’s the country you want to live in, where freedom redounds to asking permission and begging forgiveness?
And this from a guy who had to jump through hoops to start a business that ultimately folded, in part because he couldn’t come up with the legal fees to make it work.
But the cognitive dissonance is strong with him. Corporations are stealing all teh monies and must be made to pay for it!
Don’t all of his members work for a corporation? Hell, isn’t the AFL-CIO a corporation?
Non profit I’m pretty sure.
LOL
Specifically, a labor organization under 501(c)(5)
Tax-exempt. Of course he wants other people’s taxes raised.
Funniest shit was reading complaints by the unionized employees of a union. Same ‘management is taking advantage of us and screwing us over’ just like every other unionized workplace. Huh, what’s the common denominator here?….
Evil profits?
Shit, even Ireland of all places gets this.
I missed the lunchtime post, so I’ll drop this here:
The wife’s recipe for beer bread calls for a whole stick of butter melted on top of the loaf before it goes in the oven. It looks repulsive going in, but trust me, there’s no problem with the color of the crust when it comes out. And soooooo tasty.
As for the beer, she uses the stuff I won’t drink. I gave her the rest of the Rare Vos. That’s right, I said it: I gave her that funky, vile, foot-smelling brew for cooking.
Is the Rare Vos as odious as the Rich Vos?
I keed, I like Rich.
Kneeling Protests Are The Worst Form Of Resistance Ever
That SI cover is nauseatingly stupid and insufferable.
Pro athletes and celebrities are cut from the same lame cloth.
Lame.
Good article. And that’s where their logical inconsistencies and pseudo-moral ploys has gotten them – in a cul-de sake where they have no choice but to chastise aa portion of the population that disagrees with them. Hence, how they got to ‘deplorables’.
It’s truly an astounding process to observe.
“It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees!” -some mexican revolutionary who wanted the farmers to own the land they worked
Oh damn, EMPATHY TENT was my nickname in highschool.
I don’t know about you, but I always pitch an empathy tent at the worst possible time.
The Wall Street Journal editorial board hits the nail on the head:
Senate Republicans on Tuesday abandoned their latest effort to replace ObamaCare, or, more precisely, a handful of Senators defeated the Graham-Cassidy proposal despite their campaign rhetoric. Mark them down as ObamaCare’s saviors.
Top billing goes to Kentucky’s Rand Paul, who rode into Congress in 2010 on repealing the Affordable Care Act but in office has become the definition of a feckless libertarian. He helped to kill the Senate’s first replacement bill over the summer because it did not repeal every last footnote in the law. Then he supported “skinny repeal” that merely repealed the individual and employer mandates and medical-device tax, justifying that vote as realistic.
Graham-Cassidy would have done the same as the skinny bill plus devolve Medicaid control to the states—the most significant entitlement reform in decades—and the same Rand Paul who scolds everyone about runaway federal spending said no. Perhaps he thinks his vote for the skinny bill will protect him politically, but no one should be fooled. Mr. Paul did more than Chuck Schumer to save ObamaCare.
“The ObamaCare Saviors”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-obamacare-saviors-1506467452
Rand Paul’s defenders have a lot of explaining to do.
1) Why did Rand Paul vote to repeal the individual mandate, the employer mandate and the medical device tax–the so called “Skinny Repeal” but not the former replace bill nor the one that was defeated by Rand Paul and others–when the replace bills all rid of more of ObamaCare than the Skinny Repeal?
Listening to politicians bloviate is not my cup of tea. I tend to judge people by what they do rather than what they say. And if there is anything consistent about Rand Paul’s actions on this, it’s that he is always against any bill that will succeed with his support–and cuts Medicaid.
It’s very much like Ron Paul’s actions on NAFTA–he voted against free trade. Of course he had his rationalizations–people in another thread here earlier today gave sample rationalizations for blaming an uptick in STD transmissions to global warming and the Second Amendment. Ron Paul said he was against using treaties fir free trade, that free trade shouldn’t need new laws at all. An unbiased observer, on the other hand, might have noticed that Texas’ voters were anxious about NAFTA at the time and that Ross Perot was making huge inroads in Texas; indeed, Ross Perot’s Reform Party and Ron Paul were competing for the affections of the same voter pool. When Ron Paul heard a giant “sucking sound”, it wasn’t jobs disappearing south of the border courtesy of NAFTA. It was Ron Paul’s political future getting sucked away if he voted against the wishes of Texas’ voters and in favor of moving manufacturing from Texas to Mexico. Yeah, despite his rationalizations, that might explain why a supposedly libertarian senator might vote against free trade.
And so it is with Rand Paul. Rand Paul has done everything he can to stop Medicaid from being cut, and if there’s anything to Tip O’Neal’s adage that “All politics is local”, we might look to the situation in Kentucky to explain Rand Paul’s behavior. The fact is that conservatively minded voters in Kentucky of both parties are highly dependent on Medicaid in that state–and, especially, considering the ongoing opioid epidemic that’s ravaging Kentucky, Rand Paul is doing what’s necessary to ensure his own political survival.
During the Obama administration, a lot of people did a terrible job of telling the difference between what politicians do and what they say. The Obama people supported was the one who said all the right things–but in his actions bailed out Wall Street, raided state legal marijuana clinics hundreds of times, forced my mother to change insurance plans and doctors in the middle of chemo, violated the 4th Amendment rights of 300 million Americans with the NSA, and killed hundreds of innocent children with drone strikes. Go ahead and support Rand Paul for whatever other reasons, but make sure you do so with your eyes wide open. I supported Rand Paul because given what he said, I thought he was the only guy in the Republican field who had the convictions to cut the worst, most anti-capitalist, pro-socialist programs that are hurting this country–like Medicaid.
The fact is that Rand Paul has consistently fought to save Medicaid from cuts and from cutting eligibility. One of my top three priorities for libertarian government is cutting Medicaid, but given Rand Paul’s behavior, I’d have to be an idiot to vote for Rand Paul and expect him to do that.
Screw that. Paul Gigot and the whole Wall Street Journal editorial board has had it out for Rand Paul ever since he filibustered the defense re-authorization bill. Rand supported the last bill and that failed too. John McCain, Susan Collins, and Murkowski are to blame for all three failures. Graham-Cassidy was the only good bill out of the three, in my opinion and I think Rand should have supported it. But, even with his support it still would have failed.
^THIS
Nice ad hominem fallacy.
If Gigot and the WSJ editorial board had praised Rand Paul for this, would you be saying the same thing?
Are you saying that Rand Paul voted to cut Medicaid eligibility when it mattered?
Are you saying that Kentucky isn’t highly dependent on Medicaid?
Here’s a list of the top states in terms of population dependent on Medicaid:
https://www.beckersasc.com/asc-coding-billing-and-collections/15-states-most-dependent-on-medicaid-chip-coverage.html
Kentucky is ranked sixth in the country.
Is your point that Rand Paul suck or is it that he is the one that caused the bill to fail?
Your first point is a non-sequitur and the second point doesn’t jibe with the facts.
Do you imagine Rand Paul’s refusal to support the bill was immaterial?
If Rand Paul only votes to cut Medicaid when he knows it can’t happen or else he always and consistently refuses to vote to cut Medicaid, am I supposed to imagine that isn’t indicative of his support for Medicaid?
Medicaid is half the equation of socialism–“to each according to their need”.
Rand Paul pulled the rug out from under the greatest victory over socialism here in America–since forever. Am I supposed to pretend that didn’t happen . . . because Rand Paul has a mouthful of rationalizations?
If he really believes his own bullshit on this, then that’s even worse. If Rand Paul accidentally kicked capitalism in the balls and sent capitalism to the locker room and out of the game, then why should I support someone who can’t tell the difference between fighting for capitalism and kicking capitalism in the balls?
Being that his support was immaterial to the last failed bill, I’m gonna say “yeah”.
It wasn’t immaterial.
Someone has a hihnboner for the Paulocracy.
Why is the issue with Paul not voting for a crap bill and not with the GOP Senators who won’t vote for actual repeal? “Rand Paul is the problem” because apparently the GOP is the party of socialism-lite and he won’t jump on the wagon.
Especially those senators who voted for repeal while Obama was in office.
What do you mean “crap bill?
Which part of which replacement bill didn’t you like?
The part that cut Medicaid eligibility fort the first time ever?
The part that cut hundreds of billions in spending over ten years?
Any of those replacement bills are mighty blows for capitalism compared to what we have now.
Rand Paul voted for the status quo, which means Rand Paul voted for ObamaCare–along with Liz Warren and Bernie Sanders.
Paul is holding out for Senate Bill 222.
I hope he’s playing 3d chess.
Problem is that cutting Medicaid eligibility is such a libertarian dream, it’s like gambling with your children.
If I find out that you’re gambling with your children, I don’t think, “Wow, he must have a really great hand!”
I think, “Wow, that guy doesn’t give a shit about his children!”
That’s a fine apologia, except for the inconvenient fact that the Senate reviews more than one bill each session. Paul has voted for bills that did all of those things and more already.
When did he vote to cut Medicaid eligibility?
Senate Amendment 271
Right, when it had no chance of passing.
How many times have I said this–and the WSJ pointed this out!
Sponsoring bills for cover that have no chance of passing is not impressive.
It’s a stunt.
When his vote makes a difference, he won’t vote to cut Medicaid.
45-55 is not “no chance of passing”
You just make shit up and move the goalposts.
Rand Paul voted for the status quo
Hmm. I thought he voted against a bill he didn’t like. Those aren’t the same thing at all.
Honestly, Ken, you’ve kinda lost it on this issue.
He apparently didn’t like it because it cut Medicaid.
That’s the pattern here.
As to why it’s a crap bill, it mostly leaves the structure of the ACA intact. Yes, it defangs the individual mandate, the employer mandate, and the Medicaid expansion. That is something. But the ACA is otherwise mostly untouched except for the obligatory GOP anti-abortion provisions.
The replace bill cut 95% of ObamaCare.
The latest bill even provided for a way out of the community rating.
Do you understand that 75% of the millions who would lose coverage over ten years, according to the CBO, would only lose it because of the individual mandate repeal? That’s a big chunk of ObamaCare.
The CBO also said that millions more would move from Medicaid to private policies.
Rand Paul says he voted against the first replacement because it didn’t do more.
Then Rand Paul voted for the “Skinny Replacement” that didn’t touch Medicaid. See here:
http://money.cnn.com/2017/07/27/news/economy/senate-skinny-repeal-health-care/index.html
When the latest bill comes around–which does more than the “Skinny Replacement” and cuts Medicaid, Rand Paul votes against it.
And I’m not supposed to notice that whenever it cuts Medicaid, Rand Paul opposes it?
The replace bill cut 95% of ObamaCare
except the exchanges, the subsidies, the coverage requirements, the risk corridors, …
This is from the CNN link above:
Yes, Rand Paul should oppose cutting 7 million people off of Medicaid and saving $235 billion in taxpayer money.
Rand Paul should oppose millions more dropping off the exchanges of their own freewill once the individual mandate is repealed, too.
And he should oppose those things–because the exchanges will still be there?!
You don’t even believe that yourself.
Rand Paul didn’t oppose cutting people off Medicaid!
Rand Paul voted against cutting Medicaid–with Bernie Sanders and Liz Warren once.
And he refused to vote to vote to cut Medicaid eligibility this last time.
These are facts.
Guilt by association is as much a fallacy as ad hominem.
And I’m not supposed to notice that whenever it cuts Medicaid, Rand Paul opposes it?
Rand Paul sponsored a bill to cut Medicaid! Where do you get this crap from? See the link to S. Amdt. 172 above, specifically Sec 107. Medicaid which sunsets the Medicaid expansion the same time as the Graham-Cassidy Bill.
271 not 172
This is my thought too. McCain, Collins, and Murkowsk wouldn’t vote for the repeal either so shouldn’t the blame start with them? I can understand Rand sharing the blame, maybe not agree with, but can understand. The WSJ giving him top billing is absurd though. Of course, Rand may be the only republican they hate more than Trump.
“McCain, Collins, and Murkowsk wouldn’t vote for the repeal either so shouldn’t the blame start with them? “
The difference between Rand Paul, on the one hand, and McCain, Murkowski, and Collins on the other is that none of those other three ran for president on an ostensibly libertarian platform.
Rand Paul is supposed to be a capitalist–not support a socialist program that’s distorting the market so thoroughly that the next step on healthcare is a losing fight on bailing out the insurance industry.
. . . something that won’t require Rand Paul’s support at all since plenty of Democrats will be happy to vote for that.
In other words, Paul has to bend the knee to the GOPe because he has principles, whereas McCain, Murkowski, and Collins don’t have any principles so they’re free to do whatever the fuck they want.
That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
No, Rand Paul isn’t about to get my support for being a capitalist if he consistently votes against cutting Medicaid.
Libertaian is as libertarian does. Rand Paul may say he’s a capitalist–but he consistently votes against cutting Medicaid.
If the establishment GOP does more capitalist and libertarian things than Rand Paul, then guess what they are?
As a seething capitalist, there’s only one thing I’d rather see more ,than a cut in entitlements, and that would be the repeal of the income tax, corporate taxes, capital gains taxes, and property taxes.
If a bill came before the Senate, and the only thing stopping it from being passed was Rand Paul’s refusal to support it, I would not think that’s okay since . . . he’s Rand Paul.
If he’s the deciding vote and casts it against a bill to balance the budget, then being Rand Paul isn’t what decides whether he’s a fiscal conservative.
And if he consistently votes against cutting Medicaid eligibility, do you know what that makes him?
The correct answer is not “someone with the balls to cut entitlement programs”.
Any Republican who voted to cut Medicaid eligibility might make a more libertarian president than Rand Paul.
Repeating a lie does not make it the truth.
S.Amdt.271 sponsored by Paul with 45 votes yea and 55 nay:
Section 1902 of the Social Security Act is the part that defines Medicaid eligibility and was expanded thusly by the PPACA:
I’m not sure what you’re trying to say here, but I’ve probably said this three times elsewhere . . .
Rand Paul only votes to cut Medicaid when it has no chance of passing.
This is the point I’ve made–and the Journal article points it out, too.
—-Wall Street Journal
Linked above.
Voting to repeal ObamaCare while Obama is in office to ignore or veto it it isn’t impressive–because that means it won’t become law.
IF IF IF Rand Paul voted to cut Medicaid when he knew his vote wouldn’t matter, that isn’t impressive either.
when it has no chance of passing.
every bill has a chance. people need to vote on the right ones.
Your bullshit nonsensical inconsistent standards don’t impress me. Paul has both voted for and sponsored bills in this Congress under this President to do exactly what you want. He has compromised repeatedly to get more votes. You want to let the other Senators off the hook so you can bash Paul. Good for you but that’s not an argument it’s just a temper tantrum.
“Your bullshit nonsensical inconsistent standards don’t impress me.”
Inconsistent?
Nonsense?
Which standards are those?
The ones that hold Rand Paul to the same standard as anyone else who would vote against cutting Medicaid eligibility? Why should I treat Rand Paul any different from Bernie Sanders when they vote the same way?
Rand Paul could have voted for the bill on the simple logic that it cut $321 billion from the budget over ten years (according to the CBO). You want to talk about inconsistent standards?
How about someone who isn’t willing to cut $321 billion from the budget if it means cutting a socialist program like Medicaid?
If they want to pass it, go after Murkowski. All she wants is a bribe.
The WSJ is in no way a champion of liberty.
I don’t see why that matters.
If Karl Marx came out in favor of the Second Amendment, I wouldn’t disagree with just because he’s Karl Marx.
If Rand Paul came out against the Second Amendment for supposedly libertarian reasons, I’d denounce him as a phony.
Wouldn’t you?
Librtarianism isn’t a cult of personality. People who are looking for that can go be Objectivists. I’m not one of them on purpose.
It matters because the WSJ only has one principle – support anything that sends tax money to Wall Street. And that is why they have it in for Rand Paul. They are the ones pushing the cult of personality, not me.
They’re right or wrong about Rand Paul and the healthcare bill regardless of whether they’re for sending money to Wall Street.
Apply that same standard to your own argument about Paul. If motives are off the table, then they should be off the table consistently not selectively.
I’ve made an argument about Rand Paul’s likely motives based on facts.
A) Here’s what his behavior is–here’s what makes it consistent.
B) Here’s an explanation based on facts, facts that are consistent with his behavior.
I’m not saying Rand Paul is good or not based on the sources who praise or criticize him.
If Stormfront endorses Ron Paul, that doesn’t make him an authoritarian, and if Mother Jones praises him, that doesn’t make him a socialist. Hell, if the Green Party slammed him, that wouldn’t necessarily mean he was bad for the environment, and if . . .
Why are we arguing about this?
You know what ad hom fallacy is!
Here’s an explanation based on facts*
* = Except the ones you don’t like
Hey Ken, how about getting your Senators to support Pauls bill?
^
I’m all for that, but they won’t right now. The opportunity has passed.
The rule that lets them pass this with a simple majority expires on Sept 30 anyway.
Oh, and it’s now unclear to me whether Rand Paul would sponsor a bill that cut Medicaid if there were enough votes to pass it.
He works for the people of Kentucky, not me. I don’t support everything he does, but who does? There are so few voices for liberty in DC, I’m not gonna slag Rand for following through on exactly what he said he would do. Should he have done differently? Maybe, but again, he doesn’t work for me.
My fucking senators are light years worse than Rand. I try to get the people around me to understand just how bad, and maybe we can get someone better. Rand isn’t the problem.
Dick fucking Durbin…all I’m saying. *waves Rand Paul foam middle finger in air*
*uck Schumer.
I’d like to solve the puzzle.
I’m not gonna slag Rand for following through on exactly what he said he would do
Exactly. Not sure why Ken is so pissed at a politician who hasn’t broken his campaign promises and plunged into the swamp to make a deal that is 90% shit sandwich, and 10% revocable later.
It’s quite puzzling.
Rand promised repeal. He ran on repeal. The voters gave Republicans the House and Senate for repeal. The establishment fuckhead in AL just got destroyed in the primary. Bob Corker is retiring so he doesn’t get booted by a fire breather. The map in 2018 is doom for the Democrats and the RINOs.
Graham Cassidy is a desperate attempt by the RINOs and the Democrats to suck the air out of the room and try to cut the enthusiasm of the rightwing base going into the midterms. Rand’s not falling for it.
Every single time the Democrats pass a socialist program, the Republicans come along later and “reform it”, and thus it becomes a bipartisan mess. For the first time ever, there’s a leader who’s not falling for that. He’s not falling for the whole GOP strategy of “Compromise is giving Democrats half their agenda items now, and the other half later”. He wants Obamacare repealed, and that’s not the last step, that’s the first step.
You’re not seeing the forest, you’re looking at the trees. If Rand caves on this, then ten years from now we get single payer, because all the 12 year old kids who are in school will be told that the reason that their parents have to spend so much on healthcare is that Rand Paul and the Demon Trump ruined Sainted Obama’s wonderful law by sabotaging it. That will be the message pounded into the nation by the media, by popular culture, by the entertainment industry, the tech industry, the education system “OBAMACARE WAS GREAT BUT REPUBLICANS BROKE IT AND NOW KAMALA HARRIS WILL LEAD US TO THE GLORIOUS FUTURE.”
We’re gonna get single payer no matter what and anything that goes wrong will be the Republicans fault regardless of what actually happens.
That’s true but we don’t need the Republicans trying to figure out how to run the trains to the camps more efficiently.
The deal isn’t 95% shit sandwich.
Cutting entitlements is like the holy grail. We may never see another opportunity like this in our lifetimes.
I’ve never seen such a good bill.
Rand Paul blew it.
Apparently there will never be another session of Congress, nor elections in a year, in your world.
The rule that lets them pass with a simple majority–without interference from the other side–expires at the end of this month.
It is highly unlikely that we’ll get even more people willing to stick their necks out to cut the eligibility for entitlements in the future. Politicians get elected by giving things away–not taking them back.
There are reasons why no one has seen fit to cut Medicaid entitlements in 50 years. The backlash against ObamaCare and Trump’s surprise victory gave us an unusual opportunity. If the Senate rule expires at the end of the month with no cut to Medicaid eligibility, I wouldn’t expect to see another opportunity to cut that again for another 50 years.
In fact, I expect to see that eligibility expanded. Single Payer is when everyone is eligible for Medicaid. Going forward, expanding Medicaid is now the path of least resistance.
They changed the rules once, they can do it again.
Rand Paul is different. If he wasn’t, then you wouldn’t have a fig leaf to blame him and would instead be (presumably) focusing on the other Senators, the ones who won’t vote for repeal.
If you think that this bill is the difference between single payer coming or not, then the war is already lost and this battle is actually meaningless.
If Single Payer is expanding Medicaid to cover more and more people, why shouldn’t I be angry at Rand Paul for refusing to cut Medicaid eligibility?
There is not “Single Payer” apart from expanding Medicaid.
Cutting Medicaid is privatization.
From what I can tell by Rand Paul’s actions, he opposes privatization.
That’s all there is. There’s expanding Medicaid, and there’s cutting eligibility.
No one has ever managed to cut eligibility before, and if the reason it failed this time is because of the supposedly “libertarian” Rand Paul, even that’s not when we’re doomed.
We’re doomed when the real libertarians who support Rand Paul won’t stop supporting him–not even when he votes to preserve an expansion of Medicaid.
It’s like a woman who’s been battered by her husband bailing him out of jail and bringing him back home. I don’t have it in me to treat Rand Paul like that after he’s shit on me like that, and I suggest you shouldn’t either.
Remember, Rand is the only one in that august body who has given a damn for your rights as a citizen. The only one willing to stand up against the NSA and the drone program that tramples due process rights.
Other politicians who want to go through my phone calls and email can be pretty good on the Second Amendment. Should I cut them some slack on the Fourth Amendment? If it weren’t for them, the gun grabbers would . . .
Also, the thing is that other politicians couldn’t disappoint me because I had no faith in them. I was hoping Rand Paul was different, but he’s not.
Ah, now we get the real reason – the spurned lover; he took my ideals and trampled on them!
Well, looky here!
Huh.
Them two are besties now lol. Loves it.
if it turns him more libertarian…
Countdown to legal challenge in 9th Circuit . . . .
Everyone knows that buying insurance across state lines is racist and only something a Nazi would support.
I wonder if anyone in Congress introduced similar legislation the moment the first state enacted a law mandating that every person pay the same premium for health insurance.
Great, now the insurance companies can compete across state lines to sell us policies that are priced to cover 150% of cost–because of Medicare and Medicaid.
The reason costs are higher in states like New York is because f the demographics and regulatory frameworks in those states. I suspect we’ll see little benefit from that and that insurance companies will be reluctant to sell policies across state lines for those reasons.
But I hope I’m wrong.
The 600 lb. gorillas in the room will still be Medicare and Medicaid, and the problems they create will never go away until the gorillas are gone. Cutting Medicaid eligibility was a first necessary step towards accomplishing that, but we can’t even seem to get past that first step.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again; we’re fucked. Once the RINOs et. al. backed down on straight repeal, the die was cast for single payer. Anything but 100% repeal ceded the argument of government managed healthcare to the Left. Hope you’ve all got a big ol’ tube of KY handy cause within 10 years we’ll be sodomized NHS-style.
*checks inventory*
I’m good.
https://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2017/09/lingerie-football-league-responds-nfl-stand/
‘Merica! Lingerie Football League responds to the NFL by stating: “we stand for the national anthem”. It’s like South Park has become a reality that we’re all living in
I’d rather watch that any day of the week.
No shit
Is there going to be an LA meetup?Can I come and be Glib?
Where and when?
Yes and yes. I think it’s this Friday, and they’re trying to lock down a location right now.
I’ll be out of town, so things just got a lot more classy.
On a work day? Oh well, if I showed up I’d just be that guy that sits there quietly wondering why I came.
Introvert too eh?
We’re keeping the location a secret until the last moment so the vice squad is caught off guard. OK, actually, we haven’t much talked about it yet. Got a suggestion on a location?
Vegas. That place that puts an entire Maine Lobster in your pho.
I live in Upland, 35 miles East of Downtown, but it’s Socal, we could live anywhere within 100 miles
I’m about that far to the west. I never go downtown so I have no idea what’s there. My motto is: Just do whatever Jesse tells you to do.
That’s risky.
More than 92% of voters in Iraqi Kurdistan back independence
I’m not deeply disappointed. Who are they talking about?
I’m surprised its that low. Of course, there’s the minority arab population of Kirkuk that would all be driven out of their homes (if not murdered), so i guess they might be the 8%
Of course the Kurds are almost unanimous about their own independence. they have enough oil on their territory to be as rich as Kuwait… if they could actually sell it directly.
Its everyone else that isn’t so keen on it. Including (importantly) iran and turkey, who would both go to war to prevent it.
Why should we give a fuck about either of those two countries? Turkey maybe since we get some decent guns from them, but Iran? They’ve needed a good kicking for awhile now.
The Kurds are exactly what we say we want in a Muslim country.
So of course we shit on them and support exactly what we don’t want in a Muslim country – Turkish Islamo-authoritarianism and Iranian Islamo-tribal corruption.
You get more of what you reward and less of what you punish.
Guess what we’re going to get more of, and what we’re going to get less of.
If say we and the EU are scared shitless by Erdogan. He’s got some geopolitical capital and he is absolutely unafraid to use it. Ultimately, that’s our problem, not his. The only way to solve it is to make him unimportant.
I’d
I thought they were commies, but friends because they enemy of my enemy and all that.
A commie-lite group with actual combat experience having a large presence doesn’t help things.
Also consider how Europe is handling existing secessionist movements (Catalan illegal referendum on Oct 1 btw) and the standing policy of condemning any abroad lest success encourage efforts at home.
If you are the US and are trying to keep Iraq from falling over again, losing a region that has been very useful in fighting off interlopers and further destabilizing the house cards could be seen as a bad thing.
why should we care if they go to war to prevent an independent kurdistan?
because it might (most likely will) drag us into it?
and/or because it would probably result in a million more dead?
What is to be done though? Sure the Kurds aren’t perfect but they’re wayyy better allies than the whole region minus Israel. I guess the real question is do we sacrifice relations with the less friendly but more important (and better armed) Turks by arming the land locked Kurds? Not exactly he libertarian thing to do, but we haven’t exactly been neutral with regards to Turkish security forces up to now..
channeling Lenin?
well, based on what, exactly? I agree on an emotional level, but on a practical measure… i don’t think it really adds up to much on paper.
they’re the least powerful group in a region full of groups that hate each other. they’ve waged separatist war against Turkey – our already ostensible-ally – for many years. If our objective was a ‘unified Iraq’, then they’re spoilers to that idea… and while Americans might like the whole “people seeking independence” narrative in theory, they’re also mostly marxists
if we openly side with their independence we’re basically undermining everything we were trying to do w/ Iraq over the past 10+ years to stabilize it. Instead of trying to prevent a nationally-fragmenting civil war, we’d be encouraging one.
its possible that the end result of that war would be a more-stable region? Maybe. i think the virtual Risk-game says otherwise.
What is to be done? Many would rightfully say we should never have gotten involved in the first place, and while they’d be right, its not an answer.
What i think will be done is more of what has been done to date; which is try to prevent formal Kurdish independence, while protecting de facto Kurdish independence. The problem now may be that too many kurds have enjoyed de facto independence long enough that they think they’ve already “won” it.
I worry it could turn into a very very bad thing. Baghdad, after sending various constituencies to fight in Mosul for most of last year, i think is ready to grab back more territory if they think they have an excuse.
https://www.rt.com/news/404758-iraq-deploy-troops-kirkuk/
Not sure about that – the Chaldean Christians, Yezidis and other minorities seem to like the way things are going in Kurdistan.
What kills me is that it’s not as though this is a one day in/one day out situation (just like BREXIT) – but it’s starting the process that was enshrined in the post-war Iraqi constitution. With that in mind….why is this so surprising – especially in the post-ISIS, rising Iran (see PMF, etc) situation.
All the best to the Kurds – Turkey already cut off their oil exporting pipeline, but Iraq should be honest with letting them do a real export solution….and maybe if they can get a chunk of territory up to the Jordanian border, that might help. I’ve seen some things saying that Assad may even let the Kurds in NE Syria maintain some autonomy as well.
If say it’s probably all those people who are convinced that Turkey will discontinue it’s downward spiral into Islamic authoritarianism if we just suck up to them enough.
“FFS, so much wrong with this. I mean besides the tragic murder of two teens. ”
LaBoy is there in critical but stable condition, officials said.
Hey! A few of us are getting together tomorrow after work in Plymouth. If you’re around, why don’t you swing by?
Alright y’all, in the spirit of Brett, the lizard and negroni I’m calling for a ky glibs meetspace gathering. Next Friday (10/6). If the admins don’t mind, they can provide my email to the curious.
In BG, cause otherwise I probably can’t make it.
Insert ? where appropriate.
how does that work? where the sentence continues past the question. It seems very common in speech, at least mine.
Lexington
I’m thinking of one of the breweries.
Two sentences.
I suppose one word questions are ok.
Like?
Boobs?
We talking grammar now?
And how.
Im down for Bowling Green. Ill even bring the hooker
One last plug (I promise) for the Twin Cities (+1 NoDak) Meetup
Tomorrow (Thursday) @ 5:30ish pm. Broadway Pizza in Plymouth; near the 55 and 494 exchange.
Tundra, Pope Jimbo and myself are the confirmed attendees. Last I heard, hayeksplosives was a solid “I think so, but I’m not sure.”
I
sure as hell will bethink I’ll be ready for a beer before 5:30 so it could start earlier if Tundra or Jimbo will keep me from drinking alone.Just email me. My office is really close, so I may be able to get there earlier.
10-4
Hayeksplosives and Mr Hayeksplosives will be there, as soon as work allows. We met a major work milestone today so I think I can get this one (but sometimes stuff comes up, so I don’t know how timely our arrival will be.)
You will recognize us as the overweight middle-aged couple in which the man is a bald guy wearing a dress. Alright, he calls it a kilt, but whatevs. We might or might not wear top hats…
You guys mind driving a few hundred miles out of the way to be my designated drivers?
Where is your dwelling, CPRM? (and no, a few hundred miles is a bit much…)
Central Wisconsin; that was kind of the joke….Although, I’m sure Tundra an I could speak exclusively in Better Off Dead quotes, so that would be fun.
I end up for a week at a time in Madison a couple of times a year. Maybe we can do something about that… Also, I have about $1500 Amtrak credit to use this year, so we plan to take the Empire Builder down to Chicago (Mr Hayek’s hometown) a couple of times, and might find a way to stop and smell the roses along the way.
Nope, Madison ain’t even close. I mean Central Wisconsin. Like go east from Minneapolis until you’re half way to Green Bay.
My condolences. Make sure you get your affairs in order before you end it all. Or eat excellent cheese and drink beer and be merry.
Had cheese curds with lunch today (the fried ones, not the fresh squeaky ones) Delish.
Hayek’: It’ll be great to see you and Mr. Hayek’! I’ll be wearing a Twins hat and a grey North Dakota hoodie. Best of both
worldsstates!CPRM; man up and drive up here! 😉 Also, I just had some Sconie curds last night. Good stuff!
Unlike you white supremacists I ain’t rich. I can barely afford gas to get to work after I pay for two packs and 20 beers a day. Much less driving to a state where they only legalized Sunday alcohol sales in the last year. Those sick son’s of bitches.
I hear ya. If if wasn’t for this being a work trip, I wouldn’t voluntarily venture so deep into Minnesoda.
And yes, for such a liberal state, their alcohol laws are very conservative. And lame.
I know we talked about this several times but we really need to do a phoenix meetup.
Not right now though. I’m going back to Florida next week to try to fix some of the hurricane damage.
I concur, although as a Tucson resident it will be very hard for me to make it. There’s a couple of excellent bloggers (well, Razorfist, anyway, and veeshir, whose blog escapes me) from Phoenix that would be fun to invite as well.
You sure that’s a good idea? We’d probably just drink beer in the desert and shoot the empty bottles.
That sounds tops.
…That literally sounds like the recipe for world peace.
Cool. Put me in for a Nobel Piece Prize.
#1 You probably deserve it more than Obama.
#2 I see what you did there.
Next week everyone should be going to the Chelsea Wolfe show at Crescent. At least, if they know what’s good for them.
Have fun in Florida. 🙁
Wear an Ayn Rand shirt
Alas, I don’t have any. I do have a few libertarian, libertarian-ish and gun shirts, but then you run the risk of running into somebody with incredible hair who wants to bash the fash. I mean, I’ve read all those articles recently about the “libertarian to alt-right pipeline”. I’m informed.
True, would be wise not to run the risk.
Enjoy. Seems like she’d be great in concert.
Dead thread, I know. However I will say that I am also in favor of a Phoenix meetup. I do owe Vhyrus a beer for something or another, I forget what it was though.
Fuck you guys, I don’t want to meet any of you in meatspace.
(j/k, if CO Glibs can climb out of their holes long enough, I’d probably go)
we had one in denver a while ago.
Oh. Fine. Well at least I still have my imaginary friend Sluggo. He’s a Centaur and way cooler than any of you!
I tried! I’d be in for another.
Ya, where were you Q? I even drove over for that one. Gustave even showed up with his luggage from the airport. He seems to fly around to Glib meetups.
Colorado Springs.
Bullshit. You drove over for a windshield or something; the meetup just coincided.
We should have another one. My pay is going to be fucked for a minute, what about the middle of October?
Plywood is what I picked up while I was over there. It was an efficient use of time. But I was really hung over loading the plywood.
The part that cut hundreds of billions in spending over ten years?
You slay me.
I don’t want to meet any of you in meatspace.
I do not exist in meatspace. I’m a figment of your imagination.
Or mine, more likely.
P Brooks exists outside the thread in a space ungoverned by indentation and order.
-1 Euclidean space
None of us exist. We’re all bots funded through Koch Brothers money.
My check is sooooo late.
Huh
Exclusive: Russian-bought Black Lives Matter ad on Facebook targeted Baltimore and Ferguson – CNN Money
https://apple.news/AqgAQZWZGRMOmC9mBborWJQ
muh narrative?
CNN is reporting this?
Right? Must’ve slipped the cracks
What fucking mealy mouthed bullshit are they trying to peddle here? That’s like saying it looks like the glass is full BUT it could also be empty as well.
Seriously.
They are saying Russia hacked the election by purchasing ads on a social media site, owned by an openly progressive billionaire, that portrayed an advocacy group almost universally supported by Democrats in both a negative and positive light. This makes as much sense as a football bat.
Ratify the narrative in any way possible, even if unimportant and inconsequential. That’s all this is.
Also, late 2015 – early 2016 was before Trump was even taken seriously as a candidate. So Russia supposedly bought ads to influence an election in Trumps favor at a time when Trump was even a major player? Come on guys, pack it in.
I like how they don’t show the ad either. Aren’t they working off a description from filed documents too? So literally a description of a description of the damned thing.
Yeah, I already thought that earlier with the initial “OMG RUSSIAN FACEBOOK ADS TOTALLY WON TRUMP THE ELECTION” bleating. Let’s see them.
I know these intellectually dishonest fuckers would be blowing these things up to mural size if they were in the slightest way damning, so not seeing them is pretty indicative.
You know… I have no problem with people renting out their homes with Airbnb. It’s a great way for people to make money.
But if you’re going to be home, with a 7 year old girl… for the love of all things good and pure, don’t go inviting strange men to spend the night, k?
Or… and I’m just spitballing here…. own a gun?
That’s your solution to everything.
a good solution
Well whenever it stops being a solution I’ll think of plan B.
Borrow a gun?
You’re hired.
I hope you have a good dental plan. I’ve got three kids.
I’m not saying its a bad solution, but in this case I propose a knife to be a more useful tool.
If it were my kids I’d cut the guys balls off and make him eat it.
When all you have is a hammer, the guy actively trying to molest your kid looks like a proper nail.
To the bunk!
I’ll be in zombie apocalypse fantasies if you need me.
you forgot the “er”
it can be both.
Is that an Unimog?
yeah it is. or started as one.
Those things are neat. Our stupid government passed a law requiring that new trucks must only be able to run on ultra low sulfur diesel, so no one here can buy new ones to build expedition vehicles.
http://www.unimogxrv.com/
Don’t forget about the chicken tax.
Wow.
Kind of looks like it from this angle where the hood slopes down over the front tire.
One of these days someone is going to get crushed by a trademarked Ken Schultz Wall O’ Text.
We need some safety measures around here.
Anyone have any thoughts on this Spenser Rapone situation?
Dude is in a heap of shit, from what I’m given to understand about the military code (which is entirely secondhand). Although that depends on whether he’s dealt with seriously or quietly discharged…
There’s a question as to who sponsored the guy for USMA
We talked about this earlier. At least one person came to the conclusion that they were going to go at his record with a blowtorch and a pair of pliers rather than a straight up court martial, which would both deny him the publicity of a court martial and make sure he flips burgers for life.
If this ever comes out it’s going to be pretty interesting. Although he was current enlisted at the time and probably had a ranger tab (internet detectives unclear on this point) so the vetting might have been a bit lax.
He didn’t need a congresscritter appointment. He was an enlisted solider who went to the USMA prep school. They keep a certain number of those slots open for those guys.
Damn. I was hoping for some tinfoil SPECRE shit.
Then again, anyone competent enough to infiltrate and run a commie ring within a military academy would probably recruit people who aren’t so fucking stupid.
He’s from NY state. About a dozen of their congressional delegation are members of Democratic Socialists of America. Could have been any of ’em.
Sloopy asked me to keep people updated. And I greatly appreciate all your thoughts and prayers. According to the results of the MRI she had today, my mom had a little stroke (not a TIA), but because her brain wired around the damaged part, her leg is working fine. Its location corresponds to that leg, so they think it’s pretty conclusive. Anyway, she wanted to go home. But the cardiologist and neurologist agreed she should stay another night. Partly because they are trying to see if she has atrial fibrillation. She said she feels fine. Although just knowing she is in the hospital has me worried. Thanks again, for your support.
Glad it wasn’t serious in the scheme of things.
Keeping her in my thoughts.
Thanks. I wouldn’t say it isn’t serious. She’s still at the the hospital. And the neurologist said that she is at high risk of another stroke. Which is what they are trying to address moving forward.
My Dad had something similar when he was 71. He spent almost a week in the hospital,then went home and was fine – a slight limp, but otherwise ok. He passed awAy last year at 89. I hope your Mom’s experience is similar and she goes home and lives just fine for years to come.
CP, please keep us posted. Best thoughts.
Thanks for the update. Continuing to think good thoughts for you and her.
You are welcome. Best wishes
Thanks for the update, CP. Whipping out the special yeti prayers for mom.
I know how you feel. My mom went to the hospital last year after showing strokelike behavior. She was there for a couple days first for diagnosis and then for treatment. “Luckily” it was just pneumonia and not a stroke and she recovered. Glad to hear your mom is doing better too.
Good to hear. My mother has been in a similar situation and currently has surgery scheduled to glue an AVM in place before it causes another stroke. The first one wasn’t bad but the doctors told her it only a matter of time before another one occurred if they did nothing.
It’s strange to see your parents get old.
Glad she is feeling fine. That is always a good thing after such incidents.
Prayers and good thoughts for you guys.
In the last couple of weeks I have had the pleasure of the company of many doctors including a couple of neurologists. Good news is – no stroke. Not so good news – may be MS, I’ll know for sure after my spine is tapped on Friday.
Good luck
I’m hoping it’s good news.
Be well, mang.
Keep your Mom, they can’t be replaced, and God Bless you
/11 years ago
Hope your Ma has a very speedy and successful recovery!
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41421989
“Quite frankly, we saw this in this election. As far as I’m concerned, any woman who voted against Hillary Clinton voted against their own voice,” Mrs Obama said on Wednesday during a question-and-answer session at Inbound, a marketing and sales conference in Boston.”
Go fuck yourself. It’s hilarious but disturbing that folks like Michelle Obama has this much lack of awareness.
“It’s hilarious but disturbing that folks like Michelle Obama has this much
lack of awarenessmedia coverage.”FTFY
“Just 54% of women voted for Mrs Clinton, who lost to Mr Trump last year, while 52% of white women voted for her Republican opponent.
“Well, to me that just says, you don’t like your voice. You like the thing you’re told to like,” she said of Mr Trump.”
My irony meter just caught fire.
“The Obamas have retreated from the public eye since leaving the White House last January until they inked a book deal with Penguin Random House last March to write separate memoirs.
The contract is worth $40m (£29m).”
I can get President Obama writing a memoir about his years in the White House, because he was President but why Michelle Obama? She did nothing worthwhile while her husband was in office and quite frankly when they were living in Chicago, pre-2008, she wasn’t really doing much. These assholes got through life convincing others that they were the smartest people in the room.
“The Obamas have retreated from the public eye”
George W. and Laura Bush were unavailable for comment… because unlike the Obamas they actually STFU and “retreated from the public eye”.
You can say what you want about G.W. Bush, but I respect the fact that when he left the White House, he completely stayed out of politics. You can’t say the same about the Obama’s because they live for the spotlight and their worst fear is probably being view as irrelevant.
I don’t mind it so much, they’re a bunch of celebrities and they know it. Good for them. But FFS the lies the media peddles.
It bums me out that I’ll be hearing about that fucking narcissist for the rest of my life.
He’ll always be commenting on every political situation, and the media will always trumpet his words as if his opinion is still the most important one in the universe. Even after he dies, it will just spark a feverish crusade to name as many things after him as possible. Hell, they’ll probably just rename Chicago to “Obama City”. And you just know there will be a fucking Hollywood bio-pic about him, which will be heralded as the best film in history by all these “progressive” movie star douchenozzles.
Chief Justice Barack Obama.
*BAAAAARRRRFFFFFFFFF* OH GOD THE HORROR! *BAAAARRRRRRFFFFFFF*
Chief Justice Barack Obama
That’s not funny.
It bums me out that I’ll be hearing about that fucking narcissist for the rest of my life
Have I got some great news for you Akira! It turns out that you and you alone are responsible for what you hear about. You don’t have to watch television stations, or read websites/newspapers that report on things you don’t want to hear about. Sure you may occasionally find yourself trapped in a dentist’s waiting room or an airport lounge, and they may have some libtards on the only TV, but you don’t have to pay any attention to it, you can bring and read a book, or, if things are really dire , as a last resort talk to the person sitting next to you.
I’m not compelled to read Glibs?!?
I’m not compelled to read Glibs?!?
Only by your own inner demons, If only Eddie were still around *wistful sigh* he could better explain how it’s the other guys fault if you can’t control yourself.
I refuse to believe that Marxist chooch would ever be a CJ.
Quite the pompous ‘pitoune’ this Michelle is.
Like Hillary gave a shit about anyone but herself.
Bunch of hypocritical asshats.
These people can’t possibly think they’ll recoup the advance, much less the advance plus the cost of printing and marketing the thing. So what is this?
Influence peddling.
If the book sells for $29.95 and the standard author royalty is 10%, that would be 1.34 million copies the book would need to sell before the Obamas hit the advance.
I saw a bunch of glowing affirmation after Clinton’s latest bunch of tripe was published. THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND COPIES SOLD IN THE FIRST WEEK!!!
Then, suddenly, nothing. Almost like, horror upon horrors, second-week sales slumped majorly.
I don’t know what sort of advance she was given (and at this point, she should probably be paying them for taking a risk on her wrinkled ass). But her 2014 book clocked in at a mere $14 million.
It’s funneling money thru third parties. If put money that institutional size orders for the books have already been made by a variety of influence seekers.
Just wait until she runs for president. Not joking.
It’s truly a scary thought.
Michelle Obama doesn’t seem to be nearly as blindly narcissistic as Hillary; she’s a bit more cold and calculating. She also doesn’t have as much filthy laundry in her past (and present) like Hillary does. Of course, she’s still a power-mad “progressive” who wants to impose her vision on everyone else, whatever it takes. Just like her husband.
My mother is convinced she is the real wearer of the pants in that relationship and it wouldn’t surprise me if she were right.
lol. Her college dissertation was utterly banal in conception and execution, and her ‘legacy’ as first lady is getting schools to force broccoli on kids. She’s essentially a generic schoolmarm, just in fancier clothes.
Her dissertation was subliterate.
If I turned it in as a freshman in high school, I would have failed.
They voted against their own voice, because their husbands told them to. /narrative
Feminism!
Author I know well enough to talk to occasionally lives in the Florida Keys. I wasn’t sure if she and her husband had evacuated or not, but I figured they must be okay because she posted a few pictures of her cat on social media shortly after the hurricane. Apparently they stayed and rode it out. She posted a blog about it, and mostly it was just about how they weathered the storm, but she throws in this:
I’m going to guess we survived due to Florida’s very strict zoning and building codes, about which we used to complain every day. Not anymore!
For fuck’s sake
They interviewed Jeb Bush in the run up to Irma and I swear to god he repeated the ‘strictest building codes in the country’ lines every. single. sentence.
The next time you want to do something that has absolutely no connection to hurricane safety and your local planning commission denies your request after you spent a thousand bucks and filed a dozen forms in triplicate, you can rest easy knowing that your betters have spoken.
Until they have to build a new addition.
“Nobody gave me shit”
Truth
https://youtu.be/Z2txFGCn7hs
Hello again. Did I miss anything important?
*points upthread at Rand Paul tribunal*
He said “important.”
Word count matters
Must have been Ken. He has a hard on for Rand.
Yes. You missed many displays of my wit and erudition.
Yvonne Felarca = communist cunt who is a grade school teacher. Someone linked some good stories about her awhile back. I half think if the FBI was doing its job she would be in prison. Organizing violent mobs to go fuck people up for their political views used to be illegal.
Only a government employee could spend their off-time engaging in criminal activity without getting fired. Nothing will happen to her. She’ll probably be elected to Congress has a D at some point.
I was just perusing the parts of her personnel file that have been made public. It’s stunning.
Even in an ultra progressive district like Berkeley, the administration fucking hates her. HATES her.
They do hate her and want want her fired.
She has a hearing scheduled in October for charges from the incident in Sacramento in 2016. I’m not sure what a hearing would lead to (why not a trial?) but the charges are “inciting and participating in a riot, and assault likely to cause great bodily injury.” Hopefully the outcome will give the district the ammunition they need to get rid of her.
I’m not a lawyer, and will guess the answer is ‘no’, but curious if the state attny’s can mention, “oh, by the way, she was arrested again just a few weeks ago for the same shit”… in her upcoming trial? i presume its inadmissible. maybe its something they sneak into questions @ hearings. “does this shit happen to you often?”
answer is no, not at a preliminary hearing. but that’s because it’s for probable cause (same function as an indictment, but before a judge and a pretty low standard) and it’s irrelevant to the charge. But at trial, it may come in under prior acts, if it establishes a pattern.
Perhaps it’s made the rounds already, but I saw a sign from Berkeley that said basically “we love and accept everyone except white males, Christians, Republicans, and gun owners.”
I larfed.
missed that one, please link.
here it is
My response.
Of college, for those freshmen white gun-owning Republican Christian men at Berkeley. 🙁
They’ll be OK. The woke police kind of blend in with all the classic loonies ranting near Sproul.
They seem to be determined to make it 8 more years.
I don’t mean to ruin a funny meme…
….but the “Except”, the asterisk, and the typeface of the very last “you can go fuck yourselves and die”-text all seems to be photoshopped on
in fact i’d wager everything below the ‘All are welcome here’ is shopped in.
Good eye. You’re right.
Fake but accurate.
For many spouting those ‘#nohate’ platitudes, definitely, but I’d give individual shops with that on their windows the benefit of the doubt. Unfair not to.
Fair point. I could see them trying to placate the mob of braying jackasses and maybe save themselves having to fix a busted storefront.
yes, i think the basic point of the photoshopping is absolutely correct, and exposes the bullshit behind the left’s “rainbow hearts and LOVE NOT HATE” rhetoric.
they’re screaming “love not hate” while they set fire to cars, smash bank windows, and shriek that all of their opponents are naziracists
Gilmore wins this round. Here is an original poster.
I searched the hashtag at the top to find the source.
There’s no Italian on that sign, I feel so othered
Kind of weird that the photoshopper would put the effort in to make the color and type of the letters look close to accurate but not bother skewing them to fit the skewed perspective of the sign?
If you’re trying to deceive, why not go all the way? If you’re not trying to, and just want to make a point, why not just do an explicitly terrible job? It’s funnier that way. (That’s why I tell myself, anyway, as a proud terrible-photoshopper.)
yeah, i had that thought as well.My guess is that the tilt was actually very subtle (leaning forward a few degrees, and slightly to the right)… and whomever was doing it decided that their efforts to re-orient the text it was actually making it look faker than merely ‘flat + vertical’, and just gave up.
Damn you for being right
Milo might have some splainin to do.
Pretty sure that was photoshopped.
So you can’t even get a break for being a fag anymore. SMH
Actually, I guess it’s not about ‘breaks.’ I assume those are inclusive ORs. If you’re any of those things, you’re unacceptable. So if you’re a sapiosexual queer Muslim dragon-kin homeless socialist POC who happens to own a gun, you’re fucked.
Then again, since the woke police comprises mostly burdened white leftists, I’m guessing they’re not that consistent.
I guess all those militant antifas with guns better switch sides.
at least they’re more honest than most of those “we welcome EVERYONE” signs.
So even though the sign is fake, things like this remind me that I spent almost 5 years working for my sorority’s house corporation in Berkeley and thus had to be there on around a monthly basis up until I moved to Oregon in 2013.
THANK GOD I MOVED WHEN I DID. I would absolutely lose my mind if I had to go around there these days.
Which house?
I was ATO (before they got kicked off). Wife was Alpha Phi.
ADPi. I was in a local sorority that affiliated with them my senior year. We reeeeally wanted A Phi but the Panhellenic council vetoed us because they had this deranged notion that A Phi was some kind of juggernaut that would crush the other sororities on campus, even though Panhellenic has policies in place specifically to prevent that. But it worked out, I’m happy with ADPi.
I know the house well. I think I went to almost all of their formals from 1997-2001.
Nice. I really loved that house. The school I went to didn’t have Greek housing, so being able to have a position like that as an alum kind of let me get some of that experience. I’m just glad that I got out when I did, before crap like this could sour my memories of it.
West Point grad promotes communism while in uniform
https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9861
***
A West Point graduate and self-described communist is being investigated after posting controversial tweets showing him sporting pro-communist attire under his uniform.
Second Lieutenant Spenser Rapone’s tweets included a picture of him in uniform holding his hat with the words “communism will win” written inside, and another picture in which he displays a Che Guevara shirt under his uniform.
West Point quickly released a statement declaring that Rapone’s actions “in no way reflect the values of the U.S. Military Academy or the U.S. Army.”
***
[head desk]
This one we’ve been talking about a lot and we’re pretty sure he’s effed in the A.
Something that comes to mind…he was surrounded by other cadets, and anyone that spent any time in the military knows there are no secrets like that within a unit. We all knew who was a Fremason, aldulterer, Juggalo, hipster, gay or a Cowboys fan.
Somebody had to notice him scribble that in his cover. Somebody had to see the Che shirt. It would surprise me if none of the faculty knew about it for this long.
Read a rumor somewhere that he had a communist flag hanging in his room at West Point, which seems beyond belief. Even if he was senior cadre at that point.
Heard something about Antifa – but yeah…seeing some of the regs for Navy Academy, etc (ie. mandatory study time with open doors every day, etc) – it does somewhat boggle the mind – unless everyone was *really* afraid the former enlisted ranger? It’s not as though he would have been the only mustang there either.
http://img.4plebs.org/boards/pol/image/1506/46/1506460254180.jpg
I saw the picture in the bottom right floating around when things first broke but now everyone has been focusing on his twitter. Possibly hoax. The account on instagram is his but he’s since locked everything down. Time stamp would be post graduation I guess?
Awan investigation heating up: terabytes of data hoovered off Congressional server during thousands of instances of unauthorized access.
Oh, and Dems have invoked their Constitutional protection under the Speech & Debate clause to head off investigation of the data involved.
What, like with a vacuum?
I’ve always maintained that no matter who you hire or what staff you have, if you say something like, “Like with a cloth” in response to a fairly simple technical concept you’ve probably encountered if you’ve watched a tv show or movie since, say, 1985, you have no business running an email server out of your home.
Today I learned:
The British sent a diplomat with a delegation to China around 1793 to try to open up an embassy and get trade access. It did not go well. The problems started right away. The Chinese demanded the diplomat kowtow (that is, kneel and bow down on the ground 3 times) to the emperor. The diplomat said that instead he would bend the knew in the European custom. This led to a lot of trouble and the diplomat left with nothing to show for.
Prior to that, China and Japan tried to negotiate but failed to arrange a meeting because they couldn’t agree on protocol. Both sides claimed their emperor was the son of heaven.
My point is a great deal of conflict is from silly symbolic things. Lookin’ at you, anthem protesters.
Every society has its “Honor/Shame” and “face”-related rituals.
Arab and Asian societies are more overt. they require very specific adherence to certain protocols
Western society is a bit more complex, because we’ve buried/sublimated many of the honor/shame related issues, and tied them up in disparate other cultural issues. but it definitely exists, we just give it different names in different contexts.
people don’t really grasp that the thing people are mad about isn’t “the thing itself”, but rather the attitude of wanton disrespect.
e.g. If i’m visiting a historic cathedral in italy, and i’m told by a fellow visitor to take my hat off, and i don’t…. the resulting fury isn’t because ‘god hates hats’, or that hats are very important things.
Like making EBT cards indistinguishable from regular credit/debit cards?
lol, that’s something i was unaware of. but i suppose yes.
maybe its just that its mostly more-fragmented. Someone pointed out that poor people are far more highly-attuned to honor/shame + face issues than richer groups of people. if you ask people to rank the importance of “Respect” (super-vaguely defined) in different groups, i think poorer groups tend to consider it more important.
Someone pointed out that poor people are far more highly-attuned to honor/shame + face issues than richer groups of people.
I think they’re more open about it. Given the trend of social signaling and shaming that’s been all the rage lately, I’m not sure it’s accurate to say it’s not common among richer people.
that’s certainly possible. i think it actually just works differently.
yesterday i mentioned reading a bit of a Tom Wolfe biography, and the thing that really drew my attention was his very-early determination that the most important thing that influenced people’s behavior in American society was ‘perception of status‘
its a very subtle thing, but i think when you start to key into what it means (its not just ‘more money’ or ‘more-important titles’), it does reveal itself to be everywhere.
its not so much an idea of ‘status’ as in ‘hierarchy’ (people seeking to be ‘more’ than others) … but ‘status’ as in “accepted versus rejected” by peers. i.e. not about being the star of the show: its about be a member of the club.
Well, the kowtow was an acknowledgement of the emperor’s authority over an individual, and in the case of a diplomat, over their entire country. The Chinese insistence on viewing Victoria as a tributary barbarian queen was, shall we say, not helpful.
I have to look up the pronunciation of “kowtow” every single time.
IFL this, and I hope he continues making jewelry (that I can buy) after he’s done with the exonerees’.
https://twitter.com/innocence/status/913191692337123330
GASP. I know your name now
Caught that too. Who woulda thought her real name is Fart Wizard
I know, rite?
Heroes of Military Intelligence
SP5 Edward Minnock
404th
Radio Research Detachment
173d Airborne Brigade
~
Legion of Merit
~
***
SP5 Edward Minnock enlisted in the Army in September of 1966 and deployed to Vietnam as a member of the 404th Radio Research Detachment, attached to the 173d Airborne
Brigade (Separate). As a private, he was the acting Operations Sergeant for the 404th, a position normally held by a sergeant first class.
On 27 March 1968, he began to notice that the incoming information pointed to an enemy attack on Tuy Hoa City within the next ten days.He directed his soldiers to concentrate their efforts on the forthcoming operation. Within five days, Private Minnock had produced a comprehensive tactical analysis and prediction of how and when the enemy would attack. Private Minnock briefed the brigade and subordinate commanders, as well as the commander of a Korean regiment and his American advisor. In order to gain
credibility with the Korean commander, Private Minnock impersonated a captain because he believed that the Korean officer would not listen to an enlisted man.
Private Minnock accurately predicted which units comprised the enemy force, their size, the time of the attack, the routes of advance and withdrawal, and the primary targets of the assault. The targets included two important bridges, the city prison, the American airfield, and a South Vietnamese artillery battalion located in the city. Private Minnock’s information resulted in the postponement of an offensive operation by the Korean regiment, allowing them to act as a reserve during the enemy attack, and the repositioning of other key forces. He also accurately predicted the new location of the 5th North Vietnamese Army Division Headquarters. He then coordinated and directed the bombing of the
headquarters by two 175-millimeter artillery shells and eight 500-pound bombs, thus seriously degrading the enemy’s command and control capability. Subsequent intelligence gathered during and after the battle confirmed the startling accuracy of Private Minnock’s predictions.As a direct result of his efforts, the enemy was soundly defeated with minimal friendly casualties. His truly remarkable achievement is a textbook example of the difference that can be made in the outcome of a combat action by the initiative of one individual soldier. Private Minnock’s contributions are doubly impressive given his relative age and inexperience.
***
http://www.firebase319.org/2bat/issue30b.pdf
Maybe not technically MI – but I read Benavidez’ bio/citation nearly every day when I was in the schoolhouse in Huachuca:
And the kicker is he did all that years after nearly being killed by a landmine and being told he would never walk again.
Some guys are just made of something else.
And survived till 1998 – not a posthumous awardee!
Oh yeah, for the folks who won’t go to the wiki page, just a few more notes that didn’t make the official citation:
So for a 20+ year career – over 2 yrs in hospital, and he walked out on his own both times.
I was totally expecting the punchline to that to be,
“And then his superior officers over-ruled him, declaring that they needed to take a “morale boosting mission” to survey troops in some far flung location, leaving the target completely exposed to the enemy, and resulting in hundreds of US and allied casualties. To cover their ass, senior leadership then accused the young private of failing to fully appraise them of the matter, and had him court martialed”
I wonder if the guys for Lima Site 85 count?
MoH award text for CMSgt Richard Etchberger (posthumously):
The guys on the RTs and LRRPs were something else.
Oldie but goodie
“There’s some guy I know. He’s in the [official booster club for the university]. I’ve known him almost all my life; he’s a friend of my family. Guy gives about $50,000 a year to the program. And so he gets to wear a jacket and have his name in the [annual alumni magazine] and gets to shake hands with the coaches and feel really goddamn important. I see this guy all the time, and we talk about the team, and he’s always trying to big dick about how important he is to the program. Now let me ask you, who do you think is more important to this team winning next season? Him with his $50,000 getting bathrooms painted in the basketball arena, or what I do with not even a quarter of that much money?”
Have you seen Hoop Dreams?
I’m surprised no one has made another movie like that in the last 2 decades. it was an eye-opener about the reality of how young, poor black kids actually end up in college sports. i think maybe many wanted to forget about it because it was too-troubling, or too complex, and they just wanted to pretend that every kid was the product of some magical meritocracy.
So…I’ve been slowly getting caught up on today’s posts, waiting for an evening links post…so I’ll just start a dump of stuff now ;p
Thinking about a central VA meet-up sometime? There is a Charlottesville Derby Dames bout on 7 Oct – 2 PM currently (trying to confirm that) – same Saturday as UVA plays Duke, so that might be why it’s earlier than usual. The bout is a little N of town on Rte 29 at Ruckersville – so decent place, not too much traffic, then there’s the option to go get food/beverages elsewhere afterwards.
I could be convinced. That’s only about 1:30 from my house. I tried to get a NoVa/DC area meetup going, but there were 1 or 2 responses, so I shelved it.
I got a chance to visit the Titan missile museum near Tuscon recently. As part of the tour, we went down into the silo and got treated to a simulated launched. When the 2 keys are turned, a bell rings and some lights turn on. Then some more lights turn on and a klaxon signals the launch. The panel had lights for targets 1, 2, and 3. The crews did not know the target locations. Makes sense. Part of it is security and part of it is it’s easier to nuke target 2 than Moscow.
The tour guide was a former crew member. He said they had a month of food and water but only about 2 weeks of air after they shut off the outside vent in the event of war. I guess someone goofed the math.
The Titan could be fired in as little as 58 seconds once the command was given. The silo makes an appearance in the Star Trek: First Contact movie.
Storable liquid ICBM, same as the Norks. Except theirs is road-mobile. And admittedly doesn’t have the throwweight for the Titan 2’s 9 MT warhead. Both have the essentially-a-war-gas UDMH/N2O4 fuel that’s almost more dangerous to its keepers than to the enemy.
Another plug for Eric Schlosser’s Command and Control book dealing with the Titan 2 accident in Arkansas.
KK – reskimmed GMDSS. I guess it’s fairly standardized for the >300t ship class – most of those functions were just ones that you take for granted when you learn “rules of the road” (USCG standards, etc) and running big ships. Can’t argue with any of those for safety requirements – unless folks are fine with the USCG or anyone else not being able to find them if they have difficulties in the middle of nowhere.
As far as barriers to market entry – “build a better mousetrap” – I’d need more specifics re: your possible concerns.
Very happy to see multiple articles today about how the Jones Act is a potential liability – *shock* *horror* – how did this NEVER come up before 2017? The mind boggles. Never mind that every time it comes up in congress every few years, some ridiculous protectionist with no skin in the game – earlier my brain froze and I blamed McCain but reskimming articles, I think he was actually proposing some useful deregulation for a change. My bad.
Drake – you mentioned Lepanto earlier. Chesterton had a real way with words when it came to this kind of thing.
I think “Ballad of St. Barbara” is my preferred piece by him, but they’re both excellent in context and format.
So it’s a little late in the PM LANKZZZ, but I’m gonna throw this out there anyway. I’ve been miserable at my job lately, see no potential for advancement and really want to move on. This has been brewing for about a year now. I’ve been thinking about the advice I seem to be offered every time I mention this to family or friends, and that is, “don’t quit until you’ve got something else lined up.” I’ve been thinking about this more and more, and may be arriving at the conclusion that it’s completely stupid. At best, it fails to take into consideration the circumstances faced by every individual. On it’s face it’s solid advice, but sometimes the situation calls for drastic measures.
So what say you, Glibs? If you’re working a job that you’ve grown to absolutely hate and are seeing it drain so much time and energy that it effectively prevents you from engaging in a fruitful job search, would it make sense to just leave? It seems that taking a few weeks to myself would give me time to focus on this. I’m pretty confident in my work experience, skills and work ethic, but the mortgage and car payment loom large. I’m also not terribly confident in undertaking the job hunt since I’ve been at this one so long that a paper résumé was still the norm when I first started.
No, secure the next gig before you leave.
Obviously it depends on how much money Michael has in the bank. How long could he survive relatively comfortably while looking for another job? Family to support? How high is demand for the skills he has acquired? How awful is the job he’s doing?
If you want a kick in the pants, Michael, then just do if it’s possible. I walked out of a company gig 12 years ago because I wound up watching the clock from the moment I started until the moment my day ended. Hated it. I had some small side gigs going that kept me afloat until I was able to patch together enough side work after about half a year. Then I was making almost double the money and enjoying doing something different everyday of the week. If you can, start by finding a way of getting paid on the side for doing what you want to be doing, even if that pay is small at the start.
I’d be able to make it through a few months of joblessness on my savings, but I’d obviously rather not burn through that. I have the opposite problem as you described though. My company thinks it’s perfectly acceptable to continue saddling me with tasks related to my former position despite my having moved to a completely different, much more advanced position (I’m being deliberately vague as to maintain some semblance of anonymity here). In essence I’m working two jobs because the company refuses acknowledge that the position I used to occupy needs to be filled by someone else.
I should add that I’m not trying to just vent here. Any links and resources on simply how to apply for a job would be greatly appreciated, as it’s completely foreign to me. The job I’m in now happened almost entirely by chance nearly two decades ago, so I feel like a child going into this.
C’mon guys, I’m half a world a way and have no idea about practical advice on how to apply for a job in the US. Someone step up and give Mike a link or two on this.
You know something has to change, right? What helped me immensely was the network of friends and colleagues that I had religiously maintained over the years despite being a loner at heart. Talk to people. Be honest and tell them what you want and you may find someone, who you had no idea could help you, that will step up and offer you something. I’ve had foreigner friends here who ask me how I got the jobs I have. When I tell them, they say, “Could you hook me up?”. Fine. I set up an interview for them and they come back and say, “Yeah, that’s not really what I’m looking for. I want to do what you’re doing.” Pisses me off. I took the risk, learned the skills and then went for it. They wanted it handed to them. Don’t let fear paralyze you. If you believe that you can aspire for more, try. If you don’t believe you can do it, then definitely don’t even try and find a way to be satisfied where you are.
Just spitballing here:
Look at posted openings of your competitors, particularly at roles similar to your own and figure out how you stack up to the posted requirements/desires
Are you in an industry specific type of role or a more general one (HR, accounting, internal IT) that can be done anywhere? Or somewhere in between such as sales and marketing (where the skills transfer easily but the expertise obviously is where you’ve been doing it)?
Do you have your ducks lined up for job hunting? updated resume (obviously tailor it for specific openings), updated Linkedin profile (look at industry/field peers profiles- anonymous mode could help here- think about which profiles work and which ones seem amateurish- spelling and grammar count!)
Build your network- Linkedin, professional events/tradeshows/conferences, professional organizations related to your skills/position/interests, online forums for your industry/field
Update/refresh your skills- night school, online courses, etc. See what’s available at work and push for getting paid to get trained (keep in mind your company’s policy for minimum commitment after attending training and if it fits in with your timeframe)
I wasn’t even considering the issue of whether or not he could ‘afford’ some quality ‘between gigs’ time. My thinking is based on how employers perceive ‘still working’ versus ‘between gigs’ people.
If you’re already employed elsewhere, they see you as an in-demand, proven item which they will have to bid to acquire. If you aren’t, they see you as someone they can lowball to see if you’ll nibble.
Stats show that you are far more likely to win the next gig when you’re still employed. And they also show you get higher-offers when you’re still employed. HR people are not especially attracted to ‘independent people’ who simply walk off their previous gigs.
I agree. That’s why I suggested getting a side job going, no matter what it is. You’re in the game or you’re not.
yep.
Exactly right, G.
The time I’d done this I found myself paralyzed by anxiety over my finances and enervated by the feeling of worthlessness in not having the job and paycheck. It ended up being much worse on my psyche than simply holding on to the job I hated.
Hey, CS
They are all talking about meet-ups. Want to get together for a beer sometime?
jemezhobbit at gmail
… Hobbit
Sounds like a sting to me. *Eyes dart back and forth, fades into the shadows*
Thank you all for the solid advice. Looks like this is going to be a bigger nightmare for me than I thought, but I will definitely try to put all of your recommendations into action somehow.
I had to do it last year when Navy turned me down after I decided to pull my resignation – sucked being told I was good and then finding out less than 30 days prior that I was denied – lights that fire.
If you want tips, links, etc. I may be able to provide some stuff – knowing location and general skills would help narrow it down.
New Nurburgring record. 6:47
Porsche GT2 RS.
i think the previous record-holder was the 918, which was 1000hp+ and half-electric motors, etc.
The onboard footage. its funny, it doesn’t come across quite as intense as other cars because a) the engine seems quieter/smoother, b) the early-evening shadow reduces the perception of speed, and c) the suspension/handling is just so composed that you don’t ‘see’ the g-forces when its ripping through corners.
still, quite fun to watch fast nurburgring laps.
One of the last memories I was able to give my dad before he died was some Go-Pro footage of what it was like to drive Road America in Elkhart Lake Wis. He was a muscle car guy when he was younger. He had been crippled for years, but he got that first person experience.
DPRK News Service twitter breaks character for the first time, admits he’s a libertarian lawyer.
proggy morons all act shocked and go “yuck”. people like me, completely unsurprised. lefties have no capacity for true satire.
Wasn’t that widely known that one of the Popehat guys was behind it?
Also, Hugh Hefner has died.
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/27/hugh-hefner-iconic-founder-of-playboy-has-died-at-age-91.html
*Straffinrun goes to half mast, salutes*
But, at half mast you’re still larger than the natives, right?
I guess that dude finally gets the mansion.
Maybe. definitely not “widely”, because i forgot. And it seems like news to many of his readers
http://www.thedailybeast.com/the-men-behind-the-infamous-fake-north-korean-twitter-account
Nobody reads articles anymore man. Its a dead medium.
Obituary: Hugh Hefner
RIP
“Sorry, that page doesn’t exist!”
Meant as a reply to Gilmore.
I think he may have deleted the tweet. which may have been in response to the many many people going, FUCK LIBERTARIANS U SUCK etc.
Forest for the trees.
Why is necessary for the HHS secretary to give a speech of any length or tour anything? Burn the whole thing to the ground.
The Price is wrong, Bitch.
I’ve got a scroll up arrow on the right, but I have to finger flip to get to the bottom of a thread. On an IPhone. Is there a short cut to get to the bottom?
Hey straffinrun- any requirement for wearing goggles in Japanese pools? I know about the swim cap and tatts, but wasn’t sure if googles are usually required.
I don’t think so. The cap is definitely required, but I’ve seen plenty of people not wearing googles in public pools. You talking schools or public pools? My 3rd grader has to use googles at her school.
What kind of sick country subjects school girls to googles…oh, yeah, Japan, move along.
And that is an odd question. Are you coming over?
If Glibs collaborated on a movie.
Yep, mostly in Osaka & Fukuoka this time. Going to see the Toto Museum!
Thought that was in Africa. There’s actually a Parasite Museum that sounds fun.
I think I’ll stick to Dugout Doug’s dugout outhouse. Hopefully the giftshop won’t be stocking washlets. The wife has asking again how hard it would be to put one in our existing bathroom.
What ever it is, it’s prolly built by Kohler. Kohler, naming a town after a company since 1900. Sponsered by Kohler. (by the way, Kohler is why water fountains are called bubblers in certain parts of the country.)
You have to respect a culture with such a focus on anal cleanliness. If you’re in Fukuoka, it my be worth a trip to Beppu, Oita. They used to have a hovercraft to there from the harbor in Fukuoka. My family loved it. Beppu is beautiful.
Shit. I could have given you a deal 10 years ago.
My house used to be owned by an elderly Japanese couple. The toilet in the master was one of those robot toilets with a heated seat and bidet. It creeped me out, so I removed it. It wouldn’t fit in the trash can, so I sledgehammered it.
Then I looked up how much it was worth on Ebay. Whoops.
The feeling of hot liquid being shot up the bunghole is an acquired taste.
I do like the heated seats but not the feeling of something, even water, getting forced up my ass. And this is a little over the top.
I don’t know what that thing is, but for a hundred and sixty eight dollars, it better come with a reach around.
That’s too bad the hovercraft are gone. That was one of my favorite GI Joe vehicles and it’s always stuck with me.
Beppu looks wonderful too. Never enough time or money in the bank account. I feel like I’m accumulating places to see faster than I’m going to them. I still haven’t done many of the touristy things although the Grand Sumo November Tournament is going on while we’re there so might go and see it in person.
Ah, thank you! Public pools, specifically hotel pools. I learned about the swim caps like most foreigners probably do when the staff handed one with the towel and made sure I knew it was required. Damn thing was about three sizes too small. Next time I’m bringing my own. Going to Fukuoka and the hotel we’re staying at seems to be a bit more traditional, even if it’s a western chain property, such as covering up tattoos. No mention or issue at western Tokyo hotels.
What kind of tramp stamp do you have?
I bet it’s a butterfly, but flexing.
I’m guessing fuck antlers.
Ok. If that’s a thing. I don’t know. I’m a hermit.
Hah! Something military that my younger dumber self got. Now I’m just older and dumber.
So a butterfly flexxing with a machine gun?
This?
Close Playa
I’m not sure how to feel about this.
Do those things go together, like, at all? I’m no Pinotchet scholar; but….
I mean; I know Chicago School economists went down there. But that’s like blaming Obama because my nephew still wore diapers at 3yrs old.
Pinochet did liberalize Chile’s economy significantly, to the eternal whines of the Naomi Kleins of the world. They privatized a ton of state-owned enterprises and dropped tariffs. I’d argue this was more the influence of the ‘Chicago Boys’ than Pinochet himself, who was probably more content to have a quasi-oligarchy influenced by the military.
Stossel, Ayn and Ron? Maybe Ayn, but WTF?
Ever since I started reading Radix off and on there’s this weird argument that pops up of ‘I was a libertarian, until I realized the left controlled everything, so we need to purge them’.
Put a bullet in the commie before the commie puts one in you school of thought?
That’s Christopher Cantwell’s argument IIRC.
Cantwell is a cunt, who knows nothing of strategy or nuisance.
I think anyone who claims “i was once a libertarian” but then says they then jumped right from that into supporting some highly-coercive authoritarian state run by “TOP PEOPLE” which will bring about best-results? never understood the libertarian bit in the first place.
If you think a better-state can only be brought about by the total destruction of your opponents, you don’t really understand why non-coercive ideas like “markets” actually work
i agree, and I will admit that the nature of a libertarian system attracts ‘outliars’ they are reflective of a less-than-libertarian ideology, but I don’t think they should be rejected out of hand and recognize their potential for conversion.
excellent title for a film about people who pretend to be gay when they’re not
In regards to cynical fucks: why not?
Although this comment is hilarious:
Throwing leftists out of helicopters is the only legitimate function of the state.
Uhhhh….. what? White genocide?
The TL;DR version of the alt-right’s idea of ‘white genocide’ is that by the definition of genocide as established by the UN, encouraging race-mixing and such is in effect a form of genocide.
“any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”
Highlighted part is why they think they have an argument.
Why is Ron Swanson in that ensemble? Isn’t that actor a hardcore “progressive” who supported Hillary?
Nick Offerman is not really Ron Swanson. Also, Vince Vaughn? Yeah, he’s pretty libertarian as far as I know, but probably not down with killing commies for the sake of killing commies.
Coddle University.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=Vq7iuKUphNU
Probably the last post in the afternoon links…oh well. Review of French alien flick – Atomik Circus. Jason Flemyng, Vanessa Paradis, etc. Fun, violent, bloody, pretty solid soundtrack by the Little Rabbits.
Will repost links later – had to use my backup review due to drill last weekend. Hoping to knock out 3+ vids this weekend to avoid issues in the future. Some solid titles to discuss.