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I mean... he just fucking lied about Hillary making up the Birther argument right on camera. Lied. Straight lied his ass off. Not just the usual half-baked shit he throws off.

McClatchy: Clinton Advisor Sid Blumenthal Shopped Around Birther Rumors in 2008
Clinton’s 08 Campaign Manager Acknowledges Volunteer Sent Around Birther Email
Former DC Bureau Chief: Clinton Surrogate Pitched Me ‘Birther’ Story In 2008

Now? The right wing have always accused the ACLU of having a liberal bias.

And you think that is "odd"?

The ACLU’s Communist, Atheist Roots
The ACLU’s untold Stalinist heritage

They aren't quite as bad as they started, but they still are trying to drive American society towards its vision, which is very different than that of the Founders.

Then again, I'm not sure there is anything they haven't accused of having a liberal bias.

I'm curious, have you even investigated to see if there might be anything to it?

Survey: 7 percent of reporters identify as Republican
Republicans’ media bias claims boosted by scarcity of right-leaning journalists

Survey shocker: Liberal profs admit they’d discriminate against conservatives in hiring, advancement
Moving Further to the Left

Lawyers are more liberal than general population, study finds; what about judges?

Do you think we need to cover unions? Civil servants?

And if you have the curiosity, you might find a surprise or two, or three.

Some places to find new perspectives:
National Review
Weekly Standard
Commentary
Reason
Instapundit
Dennis Prager / Prager U
Hugh Hewitt

Fastest man made object is believed to be a lowly manhole cover at the top of a nuclear test. Unofficially, it was calculated to be traveling at 45 miles per second.

That means we've gone to over .024% the speed of light. We just need to detonate a focused nuclear bomb under the probe with a manhole cover as a blast shield, plus another 17500+ years to coast to Proxima Centauri.

Of course, you didn't have to cite it, this is an informal message board, not a court of law. You can claim anything you want in it.

You mean besides it makes you look crazy? Up next you'll claim that Hillary is an upstanding person and was all for the terror designation for Boko Haram as a terrorist group right? OH wait...she was actively against it so friends of hers(including the Obama's and their friends) could cash in on money relating to it. Remember #bringbackourgirls and all that SJW feel-good activism? Yeah. You support one of the worst politicians in modern history.

https://pjmedia.com/homeland-s...

Hillary Obstructed Boko Haram's Terror Designation as Her Donors Cashed In
In January 2015, I was one of the first to report on a massive massacre by Nigerian terror group Boko Haram in Borno State in northwest Nigeria, with reportedly thousands killed. Witnesses on the ground reported that bodies littered the landscape for miles as towns and villages had been burned to the ground, their populations murdered or fled.

And yet, as Boko Haram began to ramp up its terror campaign in 2011 and 2012, Hillary Clinton obstructed the official terror designation of the group over the objections of Congress, the FBI, the CIA and the Justice Department.

Nice deflection onto Bush. I gotta ask how is he running for office again and what the hell makes you think it absolves her sins.

Really? Hmm...seems to be...no. And no, and no, and doesn't appear to be so either. Looks like they went hand in hand, but he was more then happy to pledge allegiance to ISIS.

So when's that dialog happening?

Nobody owes you a platform.

Wow, PopeRatzo, that was almost Libertarian of you, congratulations!

How about a job? Does anyone owe him a job, or is it Ok for employers to let go an employee for any reason — or with no reason at all?

Or, maybe, a wedding cake? Does anyone owe anybody a cake, or is Ok — in your opinion, not asking about laws here — for a baker to reject somebody's business?

What do you say to these yahoos, who claim, a business only exists because "we tolerate it"?

Calling an opponent a sexist or a racist are sure fire ways to ostracize them and shut them up. Ironic the left is so opposed to bullying then bullies people it disagrees with and calls them names. We're not all the same but deserve the same opportunities, nothing more, nothing less. Stop with the name-calling.

As a clear example of the OP's point, one need only look to how the media covers the Trump campaign.

Trump notes that a portion (a subset) of illegal (intersect another subset) immigrants (intersect yet another subset) as rapists and murderers, and this is somehow interpreted to mean that he's a racist.

He fails to remember who David Duke is (temporarily, I might add), and suddenly he's a KKK member.

He insults a man and a woman in one breath, and since one of them was a woman, he's suddenly got a "war on women".

He insults individuals he doesn't like. The women insults are selected, distilled, and made into a campaign ad.

A quick google of "Donald Trump's war on *" shows he has a:
. war on women
. war on Megyn Kelley
. war on the media
. war on Chivalry (wtf?)
. war on people with disabilities
. war on comedy (wtf?)
. war on Muslims
. war on anchor babies

And these are only the first 2 pages! The list is endless!

Googling "Donald Trump is *" shows that he is:
. Satan
. Hitler
. crazier than April Fools' Day
. the most dangerous man in the world
. the next Barack Obama (wtf?)
. Stalin
. Mussolini

...the list goes on.

All this completely ridiculous rhetoric, people are falling over themselves to paint Trump in the most possible bad way.

(After writing that last line, I had a thought and... yep, Cthulhu supports Donald Trump. And this came from the Washington Post! WTF?)

And the worst part of all is this: I don't have the first idea how well Trumps position stacks up against those of Cruz, Clinton, or Sanders.

In fact, I don't know even *what* the other candidates even stand for.

Trump: We'll bomb the shit out of ISIS and torture their families

Clinton: "Today’s attacks will only strengthen our resolve to stand together as allies and defeat terrorism and radical jihadism around the world"

What will Clinton do if elected? I haven't the first idea. ...all I know is that she doesn't have a war on women.

I haven't posted on Slashdot in years, but I recently posted something somewhere that I will repost here in reply to you.

It was initially a response to an article written by Roger Simon, titled "Are We Ready for Reality after the Brussels Terror Attacks?".

https://pjmedia.com/diaryofama...

If you want to know how suicidal Western culture is at this point re. Islam, just watch how I get called out as a racist for daring to say these things.

Point is, I agree with everything you said, and I thank you for posting it.

Asian and Western cultures have their differences, but the last thing either society is trying to do to this world is bring into existence some kind of apocalyptic scenario. In my opinion Islam is utterly incompatible with ANY other culture in the long run, and we can blame ourselves all we want because that's safer today, but the problem will never go away until we fight back, and fight to win.

Anyway, here's my repost in its entirety:

Mr. Simon,

I don't know if you will ever read this, regardless, here goes:

I'm with you. I agree with everything you've said in your article, "Are We Ready for Reality after the Brussels Terror Attacks?".

I'm very sure that thousands and thousands and thousands of people from every corner of the globe agree with everything you've said.

I agreed with your conclusions yesterday. I agreed with them last November. I agreed in London, and Madrid, and Beslan, and Mumbai, and of course in New York and Washington.

I've agreed with you each of the 28,025 times the website thereligionofpeace.com has documented an attack that has occurred in the name of Islam world-wide SINCE 9/11.

I agreed with you when Sadat was murdered. I agreed with you when people fell from the sky over Lockerbie.

I agreed with you during the Six-Day War. I agreed with during the Yom Kippur War.

I agreed with you when I learned of Churchill's thoughts during the River War.

I agreed with you when I learned about the Siege of Vienna in 1683.

I agreed with you when I learned that the Crusades were defensive in nature.

I agreed with you when I learned of the Battle of Tours and Charles Martel.

When I look at the history of the last 1400 years, and I see that Islam is a predatory ideology founded by a warlord, I agree with you.

My question to you, and to anyone else reading this who has a thought to add, what next?

Who is going to organize all of us to destroy this culture of hate once and for all?

Who is going to bring about the cultural revolution, and it would take nothing less than that in the West at this point, to really, really fight back, and fight back to not just win and hold in check, but to win for all time?

This has been going on for 1400 years, and I can't even get my closest friends and family to acknowledge the threat we face right now, today.

I ask you Mr. Simon, what next?

p.s. Say what you want about the Chinese and Japanese, etc, they are not fools in the way that we in the West are, and not letting The Enemy infiltrate their societies en masse as we have done, is like adding 10% annual growth to their prospective GDP(s). It's a huge bonus for them not having to fight this fight. And all they've had to do to gain that advantage is be honest about the reality they inhabit.

http://dailycaller.com/2015/10...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...
http://www.americanthinker.com...
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ge...
http://nypost.com/2016/02/09/e...
https://pjmedia.com/homeland-s...
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/ho...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...
http://www.thelocal.dk/2016012...
http://www.politico.eu/article...
http://www.express.co.uk/news/...
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2...
http://www.breitbart.com/big-g...

"Since the ruling class is usually safe from terrorists, and in bed with criminals, I’m guessing that “political opponents” will get the most spying."

http://pjmedia.com/instapundit...

For government, terrorism just makes them look bad - but political opposition can remove them from power. That's why encryption hysteria ALWAYS is about protecting government from the citizens. We need to stop electing lefty governmental flunkies like Clinton, Bush, and Obama, and start to reduce the size and power of government. The Democrats and the "mainstream" Republicans are in this together, against "We, the People". We need to elect small government conservatives and Libertarians, not communists, socialists and progressives.

You mean gerrymandering required by law? That gerrymandering that the Democrats forced on the Republicans?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Those districts that are being pointed out as gerrymandering in for instance North Carolina are being demanded by the voters rights act to allow the minority voters to have their own districts so as to prevent dilution.

I have seen many attempts to attack the Republicans for Gerrymandering, but when the Democrats passed a law requiring gerrymandering of districts to pack all the minority votes, what do you expect to happen?

The term gerrymander actually originates in Massachusetts, to describe what the Democrats did to the districts up there to prevent Republican voters from having power. It is a fine tradition continued today in Mass, Maryland, California, Florida, PA, and Illinois. Yet all the Democrats seem to be able to point to and claim gerrymandering is a single district in North Carolina. So, who is the worst at gerrymandering? Also, if Gerrymandering is so powerful for the Republicans, why was a Republican Governor elected in Maryland this past round when it is a state firmly in control of the Democrats?

http://pjmedia.com/zombie/2010...

For some evidence of the Gerrymandering, take a look at this page:

http://pjmedia.com/zombie/2010...

I went through that list, and was amazed at how bad Florida is...a state that voted for Obama. But I totaled up all the states based on which way they went in 2012, though I could have just as easily done 2014, I think a presidential election makes the most sense. I came up with 25 D, and 8 R.

The law I was trying to come up with is mentioned in the article, it is the voters rights act, it is mentioned under FL-3 as the reason given for the crazy border there. This made a requirement for gerrymandering in the form of packing of minorities so that there would be more minority representation in congress. This directly led to many of the "Gerrymandered" districts as in order to pack all the minorities, you have to do some crazy districting. But, this is a federal law that was supposed to help minorities, so I am sure you are all for it.

If it is one thing MS does well it is backwards capability.

I pretty much laughed at this. I can tell you that the backwards compatibility statement from MS about 4.5 is patently false. Just try doing an elevation of privileges on an unprivileged process (ie, actually elevate the process above its base privilege). Works on .NET4, not on .NET 4.5, or, more accurately, not on .NET 4.5 on 2008SR2. It might work on .NET 4.5 2008... I didn't check. But, more telling is the last clause, which says well, maybe we aren't backwards compatible, but we allow you to run the previous versions of .NET in those cases, except for .NET4, which we completely nerfed. You also get stories like driver complaints or office issues or even with the new xbox.

The ACLU isn't for unlimited freedom, it's for maximizing freedom.

Unless that freedom involves anything nice like a Christmas tree or something else they have a Jihad against. Sometimes the ACLU does something I like, often they don't. To depend on them them for anything would be a mistake. The have no regard for anything historical in their Athiest Jihad, not unlike how the Taliban famously blew up the historical Buddha statues in Afghanistan as described here

Here's your maximizing freedom examples:

regarding hate crimes

regarding privacy

ACLU harassing citizens

and a multitude of second ammendment ones like this

You said socialism failed and I gave you an example of where it had been an amazing success.

No, you haven't. Your examples aren't valid — you didn't identify comparable countries with and without Socialism nor demonstrated, how Capitalism causes people to die from whooping cough.

The Socialism's grotesque failure is obvious, when such examples are identified and, indeed, compared:

• South Korea vs. the North;
• West Germany vs. the East;
• Soviet Socialist Republic of Estonia vs. Finland

In all three examples above, the formerly identical peoples — with the same ethnicity, culture, religion, wealth — lived for several decades under Capitalism and Socialism. The results are screamingly obvious...

Do you think, Linux would've been written, had Finland become the 16th part of the USSR in 1939, when Stalin invaded the little Baltic countries? Would you ever even have heard of Nokia or Samsung, had your dear Socialism prevailed?

Socialism — a.k.a. "Communism-lite" — is the most murderous school of thought known to humanity so far. Even Hitler's peculiarly bloody strand of Fascism (a different side of the same Collectivist coin) is but a distant second. And what did the survivors get? Much lower standard of living and absence of human rights.

The latter is by design — once the Glorious Collective is deemed to trump the lowly, selfish, and cantankerous Individual (for the Greater Good), all sorts of things become possible — from taxing one's work to console another's idleness (such as. Welfare programs), to arbitrary business regulations (such as monopoly "licenses" for various services — just to bring us back on-topic), to others deciding one's maximum acceptable age, to the outright killing fields for the non-conforming. It is only a matter of degree.

It's called MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction). It remains to be seen what a theocratic regime that's been harping on the return of the 12th Imam via an apocalypse will do. The regime could quite very well see the atomic bomb as the instrument by which to bring forth this event.

http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2...

Me? Who the fuck knows. At the end of the day, man is driven by power, money, and greed. Their own Revolutionary Guard could sack top officials if push came to shove, but that's predicated on an unfounded desired outcome vs. them actually using the damn thing.

The original article is wrong. This has been studied before and noted that Canada decreased its gun suicide rate but the overall rate didn't change. Instead the rate of jumping suicides increased. It may be that suicides decrease as guns increase for some cultures; however it is very likely that will not be the case in USA. It is also true that somewhere between 1million and 3million crimes are prevented by privately owned firearms every year in the USA. So is it worth and extra couple millions crimes to shift the suicide methods of men?

Truth is this is simply a tool for gun control. In other countries they just use other means more, but same demographic. Note too that even this article isn't "how to help prevent men from becoming victims of suicides" but rather "lets get rid of a method of suicide" as if the method and the path were intertwined.

At least they didn't talk about how Mozilla are leaders in the diversity movement and have pride in having a different standard.

I guess once you put politically correct groupthink over people with a proven track record of innovation, innovation starts to suffer and go away.

This process is also known a "Bad Luck". Sounds like Mozilla is suffering from bad luck...

"School is not biased towards the boys at all."

What's worse is that people up and down the chain, going as high as the President, thinks this is a great idea!

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012...

"“In fact, more women as a whole now graduate from college than men,” Obama wrote. “This is a great accomplishment—not just for one sport or one college or even just for women but for America. And this is what Title IX is all about.”"

The article continues...

"So if a 17% deficit was a catastrophe requiring federal intervention, what are we to conclude when that same federal intervention has created a 25% level of inequality?"

This is a good question, when women had a 17% deficit the govt enacted a host of laws to balance things out, to include Title IX. Now that there's a 25% deficit for men, where's the action to fix things? It'd be bad enough it was just crickets, but instead our president is lauding this even GREATER deficit than what women suffered. In what way does that make any sense?

And yes, federal intervention most certainly has made colleges more inhospitable to men. Case in point, the Dear Colleague letter and the kangaroo courts that have followed.

http://cdn.pjmedia.com/instapu...

Well, the first thing we need is a leadership that doesn't actually _celebrate_ men being worse off in college:

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012...

"“In fact, more women as a whole now graduate from college than men,” Obama wrote. “This is a great accomplishment—not just for one sport or one college or even just for women but for America. And this is what Title IX is all about.”"

The article continues...

"So if a 17% deficit was a catastrophe requiring federal intervention, what are we to conclude when that same federal intervention has created a 25% level of inequality?"

This is a good question, when women had a 17% deficit the govt enacted a host of laws to balance things out, to include Title IX. Now that there's a 25% deficit for men, where's the action to fix things? It'd be bad enough it was just crickets, but instead our president is lauding this even GREATER deficit than what women suffered. In what way does that make any sense?

And yes, federal intervention most certainly has made colleges more inhospitable to men. Case in point, the Dear Colleague letter and the kangaroo courts that have followed.

Let's see what they actually spent on lobbying... oh, about $940,000.

$120 million is expenditures, not revenues. I don't know how you arrived at the $940,000 figure, but EDF is a non-profit (a 501c3), so they have to limit the "lobbying" line item on their financial reports. Their major efforts are focused on "lobbying" judges (basically, they perform "friendly lawsuits" against the EPA. They do a lot of local lobbying, too, they just don't call it that, they call it "program support", because they've basically bribed a local government into enacting specific policies in order to get monetary support for it.

opensecrets.org can help you correct your numbers, if you actually care.

My numbers are accurate and referenced, AC, you should try it some time.

The mathematics of the problem of Ebola propagation are clear. So are reasonable responses to limit propagation chances. But we let politics decide against science. Who are the science-deniers now?

http://pjmedia.com/richardfern...

Actually, some of them (such as Joshua Halpern a.k.a. ‘Eli Rabett’) are paid directly by taxpayer funding to blog on places like realclimate.org. So, yes, there is a financial motivation.

As far as "well what's wrong with that if they are telling the truth", that always seems to be the go-to, but it apparently is only acceptable to trot out this defense for alarmists, and never for skeptics like Watt. The minor and late-to-the-game contribution from Heritage that alarmists use to beat Watt over the head with is nothing but a red herring and ad hominem used to distract from debate on the real issues anyway, and it pales in comparison to Peter Gleick's fraud and forging of documents to discredit his opponents.

Be that as it may, you seem to be under the impression that these guys have some interest in "truth" or "honesty", and that is simply not the case. As Gleick demonstrated, they have no interest in truth, and any will use any means to further their agenda. They are only interested in science when it supports that agenda, and when it doesn't they will throw out science and use other tactics instead. There are many examples of editing of comments on the site, decption and lies, etc., - there is no real discussion allowed. That's not surprising since it is run by Fenton Communications, run by David Fenton, an unapologetic anti-Semite and propagandist that would have made Goebbels proud.

The point of the site isn't even to promote science, it's to promote "consensus".

Of the top ten States in terms of strictest gun laws, 7 have the lowest number of gun deaths.

Got a source? I can cite plenty to show the opposite:

http://pjmedia.com/blog/states...

http://www.jstor.org/stable/10...

International:
http://www.law.harvard.edu/stu...

Transport of guns across state lines hamper efforts.

That's the talking-point advocates use to defend their failures. But it really doesn't explain why crime rates show a relative increase, and these facts don't stop them from advocating those stronger restrictions, that don't work and keep killing people. It's insanity. They refuse to live in the real world.

Most if not all illegal guns in Canada, guns in the hands of criminals, come from America.

I'm sure plenty of Canadians buy guns from the US, and never use them to commit crimes, too.

I'm betting criminals in Canada buy US-made cars pretty often, too.

I took one of these person-to-person trips to Cuba two years ago and it was pretty awesome. It's nice to travel somewhere that hasn't been ruined by American interests yet (no Starbucks, no McDonald's, etc.) It wasn't that difficult, you can find tours through chambers of commerce or other travel groups.

The restrictions are not extremely enforceable, but know that the Cuban government is looking after you, too. Don't make an ass of yourself while there. In any case, roving around the country in an air conditioned tour bus was quite desirable,

Some different views on that.

A Graduate of my ‘Commie’ High School Goes to Cuba and Sees Paradise, or How One’s Education Can Warp You for Life
The Lost World, Part I

At this point, it has very little to do with communism. Florida is a big primary state and a big electoral state. Florida has a lot of Cuban-americans who would prefer we invade the island. They have traditionally fiercely opposed lifting the

No, it is still pretty much about the oppressive communist state of Cuba. There won't be any US invasion of Cuba, the US pledged to not do that as part of settling the Cuban missile crisis.

Looking Back on the Cuban Missile Crisis, 50 Years Later

the Soviets removed the missiles already deployed in Cuba, and Soviet ships under sail with missile cargoes returned to Soviet ports. In return, the United States agreed to remove a squadron of already obsolete medium-range Jupiter missiles based in Turkey as long as that part of the deal was kept secret. In addition, the United States publicly pledged it would not invade Cuba.

Activists in Cuba support the continuation of the embargo.

The Time to Help Cuba’s Brave Dissidents Is Now: Why the Embargo Must Not be Lifted

You are missing the other half of it. The cubans that stayed, hate the cubans in Florida as much as the cubans in Florida hate the cubans that stayed.

Many of the Cubans in Cuba want to join the Cubans in Florida, thousands of them try every year. The Cubans in Florida don't hate the Cubans in Cuba, they are opposed to the communist government that is oppressing their friends and family back in Cuba.

The easiest way out for Cuba is to turn away from Communism. It is one of the last hold-outs on the planet in inflicting that failed system on its people. Activists in Cuba support the continuance of the embargo.

The Time to Help Cuba’s Brave Dissidents Is Now: Why the Embargo Must Not be Lifted

Another brave group of Cuban opponents of the regime has actually taped a television interview filmed illegally in Havana. “Young Cuban democracy leader Antonio Rodiles,” an American support group called Capitol Hill Cubans has reported, “has just released the latest episode of his civil society project Estado de Sats (filmed within Cuba), where he discusses the importance U.S. sanctions policy with two of Cuba’s most renowned opposition activists and former political prisoners, Guillermo Fariñas and Jose Daniel Ferrer.”

The argument they present is aimed directly at those on the left in the United States, some of whom think they are helping democracy in Cuba by calling for an end to the embargo. In strong and clear language, the two dissidents say the following:

If at this time, the [economic] need of the Cuban government is satisfied through financial credits and the lifting of the embargo, repression would increase, it would allow for a continuation of the Castro’s society, totalitarianism would strengthen its hold and philosophically, it would just be immoral If you did an opinion poll among Cuban opposition activists, the majority would be in favor of not lifting the embargo.

Next, they nail the claim that travel without restrictions by citizens of our country to Cuba would help spread freedom. The men respond:

In a cost-benefit analysis, travel to Cuba by Americans would be of greatest benefit to the Castro regime, while the Cuban people would be the least to benefit. With all of the controls and the totalitarian system of the government, it would be perfectly able to control such travel.

We know this, as I reported a few months ago, about how a group of Americans taking the usual state-controlled Potemkin village tour came back raving about how wonderful and free Cuba is, and how Cuban socialism works.

Finally, the two former prisoners made this point about lifting the embargo:

To lift the embargo at this time would be very prejudicial to us. The government prioritizes all of the institutions that guarantee its hold on power. The regime’s political police and its jailers receive a much higher salary and privileges than a doctor or engineer, or than any other worker that benefits society. We’ve all seen municipalities with no fuel for an ambulance, yet with 10, 15, 20, 50 cars full of fuel ready to go repress peaceful human rights activists.

It certainly helps.

The Time to Help Cuba’s Brave Dissidents Is Now: Why the Embargo Must Not be Lifted

It would be better if more countries supported it.

This, but only because of rampant gerrymandering.

"Just find me enough people that like me, and call that my district. I don't care if they're spread out all over creation. Just draw a line around everyone who voted for me last time, and call it done."

Politicians have been, for years, systematically altering their districts so that their particular flavor of nutjob are all in the same district. Be it birthers, gun nuts, 9/11 conspiracy folks, or whatever. Pick your favorite flavor, wrangle up enough people, wherever they may be, and reelections will take care of themselves. We can sprinkle the sane/moderate people around so that their votes are barely heard. Certainly not enough to cause a ruckus

The real problem, however, is just now starting to surface. If you wrangle up enough staunch believers of any one type in a particular area, a crazier candidate will surface and take advantage of that. We no longer get anyone with a hint of "moderate" in a general election, because they get destroyed in the Primaries by someone even crazier than they are.

They told me this would happen if I voted for McCain. And they were right!

What they didn't tell you, and what you don't seem to understand,
is that which scumbag you vote for doesn't even matter.

The show is run from behind the curtain, and most of you ( myself included )
are powerless to effect change to any degree which could possibly matter.

Enjoy your lives ( you only get one ) and quit wasting energy worrying about stuff
which you cannot change.

They told me this would happen if I voted for McCain. And they were right!

You're not the first to suggest this - a surtax on earnings above the government salary is a *really* good way to deal with this.

University of Tennessee law professor and blogger Glenn Reynolds is one of the more outspoken proponents of this approach (he suggests a 50-75% surtax on earnings above the government official's salary for five years after leaving office.)

http://www.usatoday.com/story/...

http://pjmedia.com/instapundit...

Although it's just a small step in eliminating cronyism and corruption, it's a meaningful and effective one, and we should all make sure that this is a major issue in every congressional election until it passes.

Ideally, this would apply to both elected and unelected officials, but the chances of getting congress to limit thier own feed trough is pretty slim given the heinous corruption levels we already have. (How *did* Harry Reid (and many others) get to be a multimillionaire *after* becoming an elected official?)

This article explains the hidden urban thought completely and why rural thought is different.

You may find this interesting, both the C-SPAN program and books, if you aren't familiar with them.

Except that GP was not talking about copying the US' computer-based espionage operations, but the US' various illegal wars.

The story is about Russian hacking. Naturally the subject won't turn to Russian hacking, or even Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but to false allegations of "illegal" wars by the US. Typical, and a diversion.

So, which "illegal wars" is the US uniquely "guilty" of?

You know, there is a bit of a mess unfolding in Ukraine. There are pro-russian and pro-european factions and the russians are obviously supporting the former -- with a completely illegal show of force.

I've heard.

Less well known is that the pro-european factions supported by the West are largely far-right nationalists. Neonazis, pretty much. See, e.g. this piece by Max Blumenthal.

Yes, I'm familiar with Russian charges that they are going to fight fascists in another smaller neighboring country. That was the excuse to invade Finland. The charge is recycled to invade and take territory from Ukraine.

During the Stalin era, Soviet propaganda painted Finland's leadership as a "vicious and reactionary Fascist clique". Marshal C. G. E. Mannerheim and Väinö Tanner, the leader of the Finnish Social Democratic Party, were targeted for particular scorn.[52] With Joseph Stalin gaining near-absolute power through the Great Purge of 1938, the Soviet Union changed its foreign policy toward Finland in the late 1930s. The Soviet Union began pursuing the reconquest of the provinces of Tsarist Russia lost during the chaos of the October Revolution and the Russian Civil War. The Soviet leadership believed that the old empire had ideal security and territorial possessions, and wanted the newly christened city of Leningrad to enjoy a similar security. -- Winter War

Yes, that is all too familiar.

As for Max Blumenthal, I'm aware of his work. I don't consider his views useful given their crank fringe attributes.

Are Mainstream Liberals Embracing Max Blumenthal’s ‘I Hate Israel Handbook’?

You can see the nonsense in his piece that you link to. As part of the "proof" he mentions "white supremacist banners and Confederate flags," but somehow passes over the British, French, Canadian, and other flags present. Does that mean that the Ukrainians are also secretly French, British, and Canadian too, or just crypto-Confederates? It contains no small bit of rubbish. He is a useful idiot making excuses for Russia's invasion.

Besides, if it the concern that prompted the invasion really was fighting "fascism," why didn't Russia take care of their own neo-Nazi and fascist problems at home first? It isn't a small problem, and they have been letting it bleed into Ukraine.

Russian Neo-Nazis Are Now Beating Up Gays in Ukraine
Russia neo-Nazis jailed for life over 27 race murders
Russia: Far-Right Nationalists And Neo-Nazis March In Moscow
Viral Vigilantism: Russian Neo-Nazis Take Gay Bashing Online
Russian Neo-Nazis Made These Horrifying Videos of Anti-LGBT Attacks

The Russians seem to be good at finding fascism and fighting it in all their neighbors, not

https://pjmedia.com/ronradosh/...

Maduro wants no possibility of an Arab spring or Ukraine revolt

When collapse comes, it comes quickly.

"The reason why collapse, especially that caused by socialism, is so utterly complete is that the damage remains hidden for so long. The design margin is used up; savings are depleted; the institutions are hollowed out; public morality becomes perverted and education becomes nothing but a credential — and it all happens out of the public eye. Only when everything is used up, as in Venezuela, when the whole edifice implodes, as if by magic, does the cumulative effect become manifest."

In the olden days, science could easily be mistaken for a bloodless intellectual game

By precisely what mature person with any shred of insight into human nature? It's kind of silly how the Church of Holy Progress has tried to co-opt scientists as some sort of secular priesthood. Get over it. Scientists are people, too. I'd expect Richard Feynman would have been a right blast of a blogger, if he yet lived.

The couplet:
"If those busy 'crisis' hatching
Could but show some action matching"
is an allusion to Instapundit's "I'll believe it's a crisis when those telling me it's a crisis start acting like it's a crisis."

And Gore told us scientists had proof the Arctic would be ice free by 2013.

Lets tally the results so far:
AGW correct predictions - 0
AGW incorrect prediction - 1340

Well, I'm going to use the scientific method and not listen to people who are ALWAYS wrong when they predict doom and gloom unless I am taxed more.

Not only are you wrong, but video evidence of Al Gore himself saying the arctic would be completely ice free by 2013.

How many times do climate scientists and alarmists have to be wrong before people like you stop defending them? So far they have a PERFECT record of being wrong every single time, yet we still have people saying "Its science and you are not qualified to dispute it". Or in your case, you just deny what was said and hope someone like me doesn't come along with video evidence.

You only think that the data sets were merged/normalised in arbitrary ways because you don't seem to understand statistics.

No, it was because someone looked at the actual code (the linked example shows data being multiplied by a random looking array of numbers which happens to generate a "hockey stick" shape in the result). The comments are quite entertaining.

Also: if you don't think we should do anything you are insane.

[...]

but if you don't mitigate it at all it'll go way beyond the point where it's possible to adapt.

No evidence has ever been provided for this assertion. Actual predictions indicate relatively small temperature changes less than what the Earth experienced 50 or so million years ago (I see a graph that estimates peak temperature increase was 12 C over present day (the year 1999) for the region (present day arctic ocean). Solar activity hasn't changed that much over that period of time.

This is a standard chicken little threat. What's going to happen now that will be worse than what happened then?

Oh I don't think there's any lack of outrage at the Republicans for this stunt they're pulling.

So you drink ze kool-aid? The Republicans have voted 11 times to fund the government. Each bill have been blocked by the Senate or Obama.

Tell me something: How long have our congress critters known this day was approaching? Why not settle this a month ago? Two months ago? Of course if that had happened, there wouldn't be any political grandstanding.

There's also a chain of privately managed campgrounds; again, NO Federal employees. They've been ordered to close - even though they've stayed open in previous "shutdowns".

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2013/10/02/shutdown-white-house-ordering-privately-run-privately-funded-parks-to-close/

“It’s a cheap way to deal with the situation,” an angry Park Service ranger in Washington says of the harassment. “We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting.”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/3/pruden-the-cheap-tricks-of-the-game/

The "Cliff House" restaurant in San Francisco is a privately owned and operated restaurant which is built on Federal land. It has no Federal employees. They _PAY RENT_ to the Feds.

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2013/10/03/sf-shutdown-theater/

There is in fact a genuine left in American politics, here is one example. The Left in the US regularly engages in various marches and protests. The hard Left in the US isn't very successful at the ballot box. Few Americans will vote for communists if they understand that is who is running. As a result it isn't that uncommon for the far left to mute their rhetoric and run as Democrats or otherwise engage with the Democratic party where "progressive" ideas are generally welcome.

Apparently written by someone that has never really looked into politics in the US. The US has a full political spectrum, including communists* and socialists just like Europe. The thing is that most Americans won't vote for communists if they understand that is who is running for office.

SEIU drops mask, goes full commie
William Ayers' forgotten communist manifesto: Prairie Fire (Who is BILL AYERS ?

*Including the "eliminationist" variety. See William Ayer's manifesto above.

I, too, would be amused by folks who used the 1970s as a baseline for global warming data. So, just for the heck of it, I googled images for global warming hockey stick and it seems most of the graphs start at the year 1000 or before. However, among the top four there is one graph that starts at 1970; amusingly, it was created by a global warming sceptic. I suppose you can cite example an example somewhere of someone who bases their global warming theories only on the last 45 years, but it certainly isn't the mainstream.