Re: Interesting Perspective
 

I'll skip the first part. Your point there, if there is one, is too blunt and silly to address. (And the last sentence of it contradicts the first part of it.)

Regarding Obama commuting sentences, I applaud it. But it's not enough. The laws that cause these stupid sentences remain largely unchanged. Holder asked for serious reform, but so far as I see, it hasn't resulted in what's needed. Even if Obama commutes 1000 before his departure, it's not undoing the moronic codes by which these people were wrongly jailed for extraordinary periods of time for non-violent crimes.

But thanks for citing that article. I'm glad to hear of it, and I give him huge praise for it.

When Hillary's elected, she'd better follow through with not only more of that, but also a serious push to free all individuals incarcerated for non-violent drug crime.

And rest assured, I'll bitch about her lack of effort on that part as well.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Are you still sore "down there?"

Re: We're in Bat(shit) Country
 

Trump is the epitome of Gonzo Campaigning. Everything in the campaign and post-election days is about him personally. Look for Trump casinos and golf courses ("beautiful courses!") to gain Historic Landmark status.

Re: We're in Bat(shit) Country
 

I tell a story about getting my dad (working class guy who golfed, but on beat public courses) out to play a pro course.

"you've heard of 8 mile Road, i live near 11 Mile, on 15 mile is Oakland Hills, one of the best courses in the world, all the major tournaments have been played there..... I suppose if Trump wins we'll get an executive order that his courses are now the best in the world, but for now Oakland Hills is still up there......"

Re: We're in Bat(shit) Country
 

So the party of Lincoln will end as the party of John Wilkes Booth.

Why is any sane person still a Republican?

Re: We're in Bat(shit) Country
 

Good question. At this point he appears to be devoting himself to establishing the legitimacy of the Never Trump movement.

My favorite recent account of Trump refers to him as "whistling the tune of lunatics as loudly as possible like a douchebag pied-piper drawing the worst of America out of their holes to come out and vote for a border wall."

But things like Sean Hannity getting into a Twitter war with a WSJ editor have been keeping it light.

Re: We're in Bat(shit) Country
 

I'm actually enjoying the twitter account of Amanda Carpenter, who came to fame spreading manure on behalf of Ted Cruz.

The heavy-duty schadenfreude mixed with occasional glimpses of a realization that this is HER monster as much as anyone's are priceless.

Re: Interesting Perspective
 

Right. Too blunt. My response is what's too silly. Oh yeah, and contradictory. Sure.

I honestly do not know what the fuck you expect him to do to change state laws. I don't think you know either, so I'm going to drop it.

TM

Re: Interesting Perspective
 

I'm back on the organ funk. Long intro on this one, but it is worth waiting it out. The Daily Dose is by Larry Ellis and the Black Hammer. Funky Thing, Pt. 1:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zfe2qTYfleo

Re: Interesting Perspective
 

I think perhaps Secret Service should reassign some of the folks protecting Trump to protect Clinton.

After his statement, she clearly needs more protection, and I don't see why our government should have to go to additional expense.

Re: Interesting Perspective
 

Part of his logic in picking Mike Pence - no one would ever harm a hair on Trump's head to put that fucking lunatic in charge.

Re: Interesting Perspective
 

Oh yeah, keep it coming! Today's Daily Dose is Richard 'Groove' Holmes with "Groovin' For Mr. G." Beastie Boys fans may recognize the name as the inspiration for their track "Groove Holmes." Dig it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yLJU6j_YEc

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

A reminder that torture doesn't produce good information, and in this case thank God:

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

You've decided to no longer give your blog quotes cites?

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Aw, I didn't realize you cared! That was from Wikipedia.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

wanting to make a point about people believing something that had no certain factual basis you link to Wiki?

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

As you have probably already figured out, Wikipedia cites to: Jerome T. Hagen. War in the Pacific: America at War, Volume I. Hawaii Pacific University, ISBN 978-0-9762669-0-7. Chapter, "The Lie of Marcus McDilda", 159–162. That, too, could be fictitious. How do we know? None of us were there.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Also, what torture techniques did Japan use? It occurs to me they might not have used the best bright new shiney ones?

Re: We're in Bat(shit) Country
 

I'm on the Gary Johnson train. I could almost see myself voting Hillary, but she's going to win my state anyway, and she's such a fucking scumbag. Additionally, she wants it too much. If you want power as badly as she clearly does, you're an unparalleled creep, with terminal and dangerous character flaws. I can't vote for the spawn of Reese Witherspoon's character in Election and Spiro Agnew.

I also can't vote for someone who's nakedly playing to Sanders' voters and is going to fuck them over on every policy point the minute she takes office. Even if her doing so benefits me.

And Trump's just too fucking stupid. And it's clear he stands for nothing but his own self interest.

I'm going to enjoy watching Trump crater, and seeing Putin and Assange annihilate any last shreds of respect Hillary has left. Trump will disappear and be discredited as a dim, low rent PT Barnum, as should have happened years ago, and Hillary will be our corrupt, quasi-criminal Degenerate in Chief. The GOP will attack her like a swarm of fire ants for four years, she'll exit due to "exhaustion" (after her fourth stroke), and hopefully some true, non-insane outsider will emerge in 2020, running on the platform, "The Lesser of Two Evils is Still Evil. Let's All Forget 2016, Together."

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

A. If they weren't, they'd be the just like U.S. interrogators who torture KSM, et al.

B. Do you really think there are new techniques in something as ancient as torture?

Re: Interesting Perspective
 

The only person she needs protection from is Putin.

This DNC email stuff is appetizers. The October surprise is going to be a hack of of the Clinton Global Initiative.

I love the argument that to support further disclosure of information hacked from Clinton, or Trump (the tax records have to be coming at some point) is unpatriotic. Where a campaign for President is being waged by two so uniquely grotesque individuals, supporting dissemination of such information is the very definition of patriotic. Putin's doing us a service. My only criticism is that it should be done to both sides.

Re: We're in Bat(shit) Country
 

So you're voting for Trump then. Why am I not surprised.

Tell me again how you're not a misogynist? How do you write this stuff without asking yourself why you don't apply this lens to the men?

Start by reading this. Then read it again.

Unless the Dems get a majority in the House and 60 in the Senate, she isn't going to get the chance to fuck them. And as I think she genuinely shares some of their values, I honestly don't know if she would if given the opportunity.

Re: Interesting Perspective
 

Which will undoubtedly uncover shocking details of.... sucking up to rich people in an effort to do good things in the world.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Do you really think there is anything less than a small industry devoted exclusively to torture?

Re: We're in Bat(shit) Country
 

She's got my state. It's done. Trump is cooked. I'm voting for a party I want to see have a bigger say in our government.

I would, but I can't. Trump clearly doesn't want power. If he did, he'd work for it. He'd be disciplined. He's obviously just a clown who loves adulation.

All that I said about Hillary applies exactly the same way to Ted Cruz. Were he running, I'd level exactly the same charges against him. Except the corruption. He's many things, but so far as we know, he's not corrupt.

You want me to reread that silly, slanted garbage? I'll tell you what I tell people who cite right wing blogs to me: Send your drivel to a fellow traveler.

TPP's going through. She'll "evolve" on it. All that free college and student loan forgiveness: She won't even attempt it. And getting money out of politics? She's the last person on earth who'll try that.

Re: Interesting Perspective
 

Hillary's already disclosed her returns.

Re: We're in Bat(shit) Country
 

He's said the same of Trump a multitude of times, at least twice in the last 24 hours. Read, then react.

Re: We're in Bat(shit) Country
 

Of course he's corrupt. If your wife works for Goldman Sachs, You speak to Goldman Sachs and then they give you a fucking boatload of money, that's corrupt. You shut the government down for a couple of days, depriving ordinary, working people of a day's earnings, not to mention the idiots in the State of Texas who voted for you being deprived on a Senator who gleefully flouts his vow of office, you're corrupt. You have your slimy little rat pawprints on the Yoo Memo, you're, if not corrupt, a minion of Satan, and that's just as bad. Cruz is Trump with a bigger set of insecurity issues and less of a conscience.

Re: Interesting Perspective
 

Did you really just write this?

Look, I'm sure CGI does much good. But if you think the quid pro quos done there are limited to the benign and noble, and aren't countered by many bad things resulting from its peddling of influence, well-- Actually, fuck that. It's impossible for you, or any sane person, to think that.

Re: Interesting Perspective
 

Who gives a fuck about an Oxford Comma? Apparently you do.

(I know she released hers [30 years worth, I think]... That shot was directed at Trump.)

Re: We're in Bat(shit) Country
 

Oh, you're going to spoil all the fun of having Adder call me a misogynist. He still thinks this place works like the comment section in DailyKos: Offer emotional argument rooted in identity politics/Claim moral high ground/Create pile-on by non-thinking emotional knee-jerkers.

ETA: Sometimes it does. But everyone knows when that sort of shit is happening, and skips over it.

Re: We're in Bat(shit) Country
 

I'm suspect of Goldman as anybody, but I can't call him corrupt on that basis alone.

The Yoo Memo is perhaps corruption, but like the rest of what you've cited, it's more ideological than for self-benefit. It's true that Cruz's ideological inflexibility aids him politically, as being an obstinate ass is his brand, but that form of corruption is a very different thing than the sort of sleazy self-interest, and sometimes outright graft, exhibited by Trump and Clinton.

Re: We're in Bat(shit) Country
 

No, he's not said the same of Trump. He's equated Hillary, who at worst is a typical politician, with the absolute, objective insanity of Trump. That cuts exactly in the opposite direction that you imply.

Hillary is not in any way comparable to Trump. Heck, she's barely comparable to Cruz. She's Lindsay Graham or Jim Gilmore but gets rounded up to Trump or Cruz, well, just because. Surely, gender has nothing to do with it. :rolleyes:

Re: Interesting Perspective
 

You don't even know when you've adopted the deranged. It's fascinating.

I'm sure there are mildly embarrassing things in the CGI's emails. There are in literally every orgs.

I'd lay money there's nothing there that would shock Fox News if it was in the Koch's emails.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Hard to imagine what could be worse than being born with that last name.

Re: We're in Bat(shit) Country
 

The level of personal animosity that you and many other people have towards Hillary is just weird to me. I'm certainly not crazy about her. She is not great in front of a camera or in front of a crowd, and I think she's very conscious of this and doesn't like those parts of what she does and this compounds things, and makes her seem inauthentic. I don't get "scumbag" at all. And I don't see how she's more ambitious than any other politician around.

Re: We're in Bat(shit) Country
 

You're right. I called Trump corrupt, stupid, and incompetent. Hillary is not stupid or incompetent.

See above.

They're both corrupt.

Different brands; same power obsessed character. I will say this... If forced to pick one of those two, I'd take her.

Graham's history of scandals, dodgy answers, and controversial Graham Global Initiative are indeed comparable. Gilmore's use of a private email server and destruction of 20,000 emails relevant to a corruption investigation are close. But it's not 30,000, so "apples and oranges."

Oh look, I've gone and engaged in misandry. And Graham may be gay. Homophobia to boot!

You keep waiting for that pile-on. I'm hearing crickets. (But I've no doubt, some fool will bite sooner or later and give you an 'atta boy... at least one always does.)

Re: We're in Bat(shit) Country
 

I think you're right about her instincts on TPP, but given that anti-trade sentiment has some traction on both sides of the spectrum, we'll have to see what actually happens.

I think she will (1) do something small, or (2) propose something bigger than won't pass.

Sadly, it can't be done.

Re: We're in Bat(shit) Country
 

Too much dirt. It's like these people can't help themselves.

In 2008, she and Bill behaved like petulant children when Obama became a serious challenger. They thought then and still think now that they're entitled to the White House. (And they didn't mind playing racial politics back then, as I recall.)

And her taking on all of Bernie's positions, and basically plagiarizing his speeches, knowing full well she's going to give his followers nothing? It's as bad as Trump telling rubes in WV he's going to bring coal jobs back, or that he plans to rein in free trade.

She's too pure a politician. She stands for nothing. Pure politicians like her should pay dearly - brutally - to ascend to the office. The gauntlet should be so grueling it discourages such nakedly poll-driven power-mongers from attempting to reach it (or all but kill them in the process), and attracts outsiders with outside-Beltway vision.

I also detest neocons. I believe Wolfowitz, Perle, and all the other followers of Irving Kristol who crafted the Bush Doctrine are murderers. There's very little daylight between Hillary's and Bill Kristol's foreign policy.

Re: We're in Bat(shit) Country
 

Again, that you're crediting right-wing bullshit doesn't help you look any better here.