Thursday, March 31, 2016
Never Read The Comments
It's one of those conventional wisdom things that one should never read the comments. And, yeah, you assholes are usually off topic and sometimes assholes to each other, but for the most part we manage to keep this stupid community together. I'm thankful for that.
The Worst Day On The Internet
That would be tomorrow. I actually think April Fools' Day jokes can be funny! But most of us aren't actually that clever or funny.
The Bigger Story
Many years ago I was a minor affiliate - not really a part of, just in the orbit - to a news story that ran that I knew, with as much certainty as one can know of these things, to be false. To be honest, I can't even remember what the story was. Brain is swiss cheese at this point. But I do remember the reaction of the journalist - and I also don't remember who that journalist was! - which was, essentially, sources don't lie to us because if they do we will burn them. In all of my years of media watching, I have seen precisely one source be burned. Oddly, that was Howard Kurtz burning Ann Coulter. Journalists never burn their sources, and so their sources are free to lie.
And that lying is quite often the bigger story. It never gets reported.
And that lying is quite often the bigger story. It never gets reported.
UNFAIR
Republicans/conservatives have two big tricks. One is that when they're being assholes, it's the fault of Democrats. They were mean first! They forced us to be mean back!
The other is that whenever one of them says something stupid in an interview, it's because the interview was UNFAIR.
The other is that whenever one of them says something stupid in an interview, it's because the interview was UNFAIR.
The Left Is Always Wrong
I'm much more of a Lefty than I used to be, but also retain enough of my economist brainwashing roots that I'm not going to be joining the communist party any time soon (this is a joke, The Left in America is not communist). I'm much more of a Lefty sympathizer than a Lefty (though a bit of both) because in a system where compromise tends to rule, it's important to pull that compromise position to the Left.
I'm struck by how everything The Left does is wrong. Not just in terms of policy, but tactics. Running a third party candidate is wrong (I actually agree with this generally!), running in a major party primary is wrong, protesting is wrong, protesting the wrong way is wrong, not protesting is wrong, having a journal of important Lefty ideas is wrong, not catering to the feefees of Real Americans is wrong, proposing legislation is wrong, objecting to racism and sexism is wrong. There's a longer list, I'm sure, but self-styled "moderates" chastise Lefties no matter what they do. Given that The Left might be represented by about 5 people in Congress (I made that number up, it's probably not even that large), it's pretty silly.
I'm struck by how everything The Left does is wrong. Not just in terms of policy, but tactics. Running a third party candidate is wrong (I actually agree with this generally!), running in a major party primary is wrong, protesting is wrong, protesting the wrong way is wrong, not protesting is wrong, having a journal of important Lefty ideas is wrong, not catering to the feefees of Real Americans is wrong, proposing legislation is wrong, objecting to racism and sexism is wrong. There's a longer list, I'm sure, but self-styled "moderates" chastise Lefties no matter what they do. Given that The Left might be represented by about 5 people in Congress (I made that number up, it's probably not even that large), it's pretty silly.
Nice Things
Why we can't have them.
The Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General (IG) determined “collectively, the DEA and DOD spent more than $86 million to purchase and modify a DEA aircraft with advanced surveillance equipment to conduct operations in the combat environment of Afghanistan, in what became known as the Global Discovery Program. We found that more than 7 years after the aircraft was purchased for the program, it remains inoperable, resting on jacks in Delaware, and has never flown in Afghanistan.”
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
Trump Said A Thing
Paraphrasing, there should be some form of punishment for women who have abortions. I differ slightly with some liberals over what anti-choicers want. I think many of them see pregnancy and childbirth as the appropriate punishment for the crime of having sex with someone other than me. They want to regulate abortion clinics out of existence, and then the punishment for having an abortion would be having an unsafe abortion like the good old days, but that isn't the same as wanting to jail women for having abortions. In other words, the punishment would be chance of death or serious injury. I don't get how this in any way makes sense, but it seems to be the basic worldview.
No not all anti-choicers have precisely the same views, of course, but the movement...
No not all anti-choicers have precisely the same views, of course, but the movement...
Trump Can Win
I find the liberal and usually more subtle conservative commentariat's assertions that Trump Can't Win (the general election) to be a bit weird. I wouldn't bet on him winning against Democratic candidate X. The polls certainly don't look very favorable for him. So, yes, I agree about betting against a Trump victory. But Trump can win. Don't kid yourselves.
Generation Lead
What the hell is wrong with people?
Police in Janesville, Wisconsin are searching for two men who attended Donald Trump’s raucous town hall Tuesday night in the small post-industrial town: one accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl who was protesting Trump, and another man who pepper sprayed the 15-year-old and a 19-year-old woman. Both women were taken to local hospitals.
What A Sucky Blog
Some days I get up and spend 2 hours trying to come up with something to write about or even just link and fail. I'm not as lazy as you think I am. Sometimes it's just a big fail.
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
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