Lately we’ve had some commenters jumping ship and/or complaining that the Glibs is becoming a Team Red Trumpista echo chamber. I’m going to attempt to explain why I think this is not true; judge for yourself how successful you think I have been in the comment section. Or skip reading it entirely and go to the comment section to worship/condemn Trump. The tone of this piece will be exceedingly serious* and you’ll be able to tell because I’ll only have one cheesecake pic at the end.
The political internet has come up with the concepts of right-libertarianism and left-libertarianism. The reason for this, as far as I can tell, is to lend an air of legitimacy to people who are not libertarians because as a philosophy, libertarianism sounds great on paper to lots of people who want nothing to do with it in practice. IE: if you’re a Communist, it sounds a lot nicer to call yourself a “left-libertarian” because it emphasizes how you really, really, really like freedom (except for all these freedoms over behind the curtain, don’t look behind the curtain, shut up thought-criminal off to the gulag with you).
My personal political philosophy is well documented (see first vignette). Beyond that, I believe the entire concept of “right” vs. “left” is a bullshit artificial concept designed to discourage independent thought. I recognize that it gets used as a kind of shorthand in modern debate but, to be honest, it’s never made sense to me anyway. It seems as though a random constellation of beliefs was assigned to each side and we call it good; both sides have authoritarianism baked in, it’s just about different stuff. If political philosophy must be projected into a binary concept (problematic in its own way, but let’s put a pin in that), I think it can mostly be boiled down to liberty vs. control. Either you value individual autonomy or you don’t. If we must, I suppose we can change it from a Boolean to a spectrum though I struggle to make sense of that as well. BUT, for the sake of simplicity, let’s go with that. I think that, philosophically, most/all of the Glibertariat falls squarely on the liberty side of the coin.
For Glibs, however, philosophy is the easy part. Respect for liberty is what brought us here in the first place. What’s more complicated, and where the diversity of opinion lies, is in the application of said philosophy. This is where I think we can say with some certainty that Glibs is definitely not an echo chamber. The most obvious application of political philosophy is in voting patterns. For most people, that’s as far as it ever goes, though for some it goes further; eg: volunteering for a campaign, writing petitions, donating money, etc. If we again must project this into a spectrum, the poles of that spectrum could be modeled as principle vs. practicality.
The unfortunate reality of our situation is that we have two political parties that don’t respect individual liberty. One has embraced international socialism and one is in the process of embracing nationalism with a law-and-order bent. Both sides rejected any semblance of fiscal responsibility long ago. The upshot is we have the proverbial Giant Douche vs. Turd Sandwich choice across the board every election. These are your only realistic options for who will be in charge. Beyond that, there are third parties that may or may not align more closely with individual liberty, but (let’s be honest here) they cannot and will not ever win an office of consequence. If they ever do win, it’s usually for some irrelevant position as a short-lived curiosity. Finally, there are those who look at this fiasco and say, fuck it, I ain’t voting at all if I can’t vote for someone that I agree with on principle who might actually win.
Some fear international socialism so much that they will vote for anyone that opposes it and has a realistic chance of winning. Call this maximum practicality. Some will say, I hate both major candidates so I’m going to go third party and “throw my vote away”. Of course, it’s not really throwing your vote away; it’s valuable as a protest vote and as a way to stay true to your conscience. Call this partial principle. Then, because no matter what, whoever you vote for (even Vermin Supreme) will necessarily not align perfectly with individual liberty there are the abstainers. Call this maximum principle.
Here’s the rub: we have people representing all of these camps here at Glibs and each and every one can articulate rationally why they arrived at their conclusion. Here’s another rub: I don’t begrudge anyone their position. I completely understand why someone would look at the absolutely disastrous history of socialism and conclude that it must be stopped at any cost, even if that means embracing Team Red out of convenience. I completely understand why someone can’t hold their nose hard enough to block out Team Red’s stink and votes for a better alternative. I completely understand why someone would look at the whole thing and be too disgusted to participate. And while it may be true that, of late, Glibs has a plurality of those who chose option 1, it’s far from an echo chamber. So to those who have chosen options 2 and 3, please don’t abandon Glibs in disgust, we need and want true diversity: diversity of thought and opinion. Or tell me to fuck off and leave of your own volition. It’s your life.
*not really
See, I told you. Only one.
The rest of you are really just making a list of people who aren’t First.
This is not the links, therefore, you’ve been disqualified. I’m first!
By Tonio’s stupid on topic rule, he is disqualified and you win.
Great post Q! Would the cheesecake too. Yes I’m right leaning and see Trump not as a hero, more as a giant fuck you to the progressive/leftist/commie/whatever you want to call them elites. I don’t even blame the voters who vote prog simply because they have been brainwashed, coerced, incentivized to be that way. The left has/had won, they control the Government, the media, education and countless others. That’s why they hate Trump so much…he shouldn’t have won but did anyway and has been successful despite their best efforts. I’ve always thought having the system we do has been workable, the left and right constantly battling and mouthing yet did little actual changes because the system prevented one side or the other from taking over. The left however has been winning bit by bit and the right was failing to keep up. I see this cycle coming to a violent and turbulent end soon and hope enough individualistic liberty loving mofos like all you Glibs are around to make the next reiteration of America(and the world too for that matter) better. Had a lot more to say but this is all I can spout out currently.
Why did it post it here? Freakin’ squirrels.
Why would I ever listen to a born seconder and noted homosexual?
If this is your only shtick, we can just call you Fist instead of first.
You can call him Broketard or Broccolitard, he loves that!
Where is FoE?
I don’t think he ever made the leap over here.
He has about 3.
Being first is racist
I’m Trans-first. STOP OPPRESSING ME!
“Lately we’ve had some commenters jumping ship and/or complaining that the Glibs is becoming a Team Red Trumpista echo chamber.”
What?…. MAGA! SPACE! MAKE SPACE AMERICAN AGAIN! SHUT THE FUCK UP, LIBTARDS!
^^^THIS^^^
Or something….
The site that runs Hat and Hair – a Trumptardium? Who the ever loving fuck thinks that?
I just dead-threaded the morning links, but here was a response for Pie:
—
“I am not an athlete [takes puff on cigarette], I am a baseball player.” — John Kruk, sometime in the 90s.
He was smoking on the sideline during spring training, and some woman got onto him about athletes shouldnt smoke and etc.
He also showed up at spring training wearing a “If you don’t let me play, I will take my ball and go home” t-shirt after his testicular cancer surgery.
See these people wound not last a day in 2020
That Kruk quote was from the 1990s, not the 1890s.
May as well have been the 1890s – with the idiot mobs of today.
He’s a Siren now.
I do think there are too many of you in Camp #1. I just don’t understand how you can consider voting for the man who destroyed the USFL?
And no one has even engaged me on that vital issue (and I am serious about it, because the reasoning behind it underlies everything that is wrong with Trump – when I first mentioned it 4 years ago on TOS, I was kidding, but now I realize I was dead serious).
I have no idea what you’re talking about.
https://www.amazon.com/Football-Buck-Crazy-Crazier-Demise/dp/0358118115
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1501756/
In 1984 Trump bought a USFL team and tried to sue the NFL for some kind of monopoly thing. The court ruled in his favor, but he was such a dick he was only awarded $1 in dmages.
Technically $3
I believe it was the Steelers owner who pulled out his personal checkbook in court and wrote the $3 check. It was never cashed.
Speaking of checks that were never cashed. One of the local bars has been family owned for over 100 years. They have pictures (and stories) of the great baseball players (Cobb, Ruth, Colavito, Gehrig, etc.) coming in to drink over the years. One of the tales was that Babe Ruth rarely paid for his drinks, but when he did, it was by check. Signed as “The Babe”, expecting few people to cash the checks. The current owner confirms that he still has the check that was given to his grandfather was still in their safe.
‘That check is signed The Babe, that’s not my name, I dispute these charges!’
But what’s sportsball got to do with anything?
I don’t know, it’s a funny story.
I think there’s a “it’s the principle of the thing” in there somewhere.
There is. Its hard to explain it all in a short post.
It provides a (mostly) safe, and (sometimes) entertaining way to engage in tribalism with (in the US) fairly little physical violence between the tribes. We can all agree that Yankees fans are terrible people, but we’re not going to attack them in the streets for their pinstripes.
Tell that to the Baseball Furies!
And the Sportsmaster!
Also, Casey Jones.
very well put
Camp #1?
Is that Camp Concentration?
That’s been a running joke for me at Burning Man, which has theme camps, of many forms (and questionable taste), but so far as I know has not had a Camp Concentration. I’d love to do it, and now more than ever.
Your theme song.
I do despise international socialism. I also strongly suspect that the American experiment is winding down like all old empires. Maybe a Trump reelection buys a few more years of stability before shit really gets bad. Biden winning but Congress still split probably means things don’t change much immediately, but as people notes this morning, the Deep State is completely off the leash.
How’s that for some high expectations?
Kind of in this camp. I find Trump to be an annoying douche, sometimes entertaining in his asshatery, but way more often just an old democrat type that now has been abandoned by the reborn internationalist globalist collectivist cabal of cuntes. So far the guy annoys me one out of four tries, when he does shit. But the people he is fighting right now – especially the entrenched deep state previous administrations worked hard to create and the Obama admin weaponized for Hillary’s coming – are going to kill America (you never talk about transforming anything you don’t hate) and turn it into another fucking shithole. I am in the camp that you don’t roll over for them (unless you want to be their bitch while they rearrange the deck furniture on the Titanic-like new country they will transform us into and constantly make you play Ned Beaty’s Deliverance role) and that they must be stopped, or slowed down if you believe it is already too late, unless we are all happy to live as I already mentioned as their bitches. I am not a fan of the systems they like, like the Chinese one with social scores and all that encompasses for the serfs of the CCP.
or slowed down if you believe it is already too late
I agree with you except this one part. to me it’s like saying “let’s slow down a forest fire”. not gonna happen, and it’s more likely to get you killed than make a difference.
How do you defeat a forest fire that has jumped the fire breaks? You don’t. you protect what is important to you as best you can, and hope it burns out before it destroys everything and everybody you know and love.
Hopefully this was just my pessimism talking.
I don’t vote as I find the entire idea of voting absurd. I’ve been more troubled by the people around here lately who have made claims along the lines of that people who don’t vote have no right to complain or that people who live in deep blue areas get what they deserve just by virtue of living there.
That said, there’s going to be an election with one of two winners in November. When you look at the issues or policies that are realistically up for debate in this country, there’s barely a single one where team blue comes out ahead of team red in terms of advancing liberty. Team red doesn’t even have the same war boner that it did all of a decade ago in large part thanks to the cult of personality built around Trump. Even when it comes to the issue of policing, it’s impossible for me to get behind the inane nonsense being pushed by Democrats and the left. What they’re pushing is guaranteed to lead to the exact opposite of what most libertarians want to see long term because it’s going to create a massive backlash eventually.
One side of the spectrum has control of nearly all major American institutions and is basically enacting its own version of the Cultural Revolution. They desperately *need* to be rebuked for any sort of sanity to be restored to American politics. Trump basically has no impact on your everyday life. The other side is going to be up your ass regarding everything. And it’s not just the politicians and bureaucrats. It’s their corporate lackeys and media propagandists.
Team red seems fairly neutral / indifferent on the issue of liberty.
Team blue is adamantly against it.
People who vote have no right to complain about the system they voted for.
Actually, it’s people who don’t vote have no right to complain about the system they end up with.
The right to complain is a right, and is therefore absolute.
Your complaining offends me and I have a right to not be offended.
OFF WITH HIS HEAD!!
Maybe it’s just my extreme revulsion for the fascist left, but I find it difficult to take most complaints about Trump or Trumpistas very seriously. That’s not to say I approve of him or them, just that the stakes are so low (what, a moratorium on immigration from problem countries vs wholesale open borders and no citizenship requirements for most civic functions? Dropping bombs on an empty airfield in Syria vs what Obama did to Libya?) that it’s humorous/irritating the pretense of imminent calamity with which Trump is treated by his enemies. In fact it’s exasperating: they should be jumping for joy with how hemmed in his own bureaucracy has kept him, not to mention the judiciary. If they wanted to test the limits of the last gasping remnants of liberalism against the onslaught of aggressive lefty fascism, Trump has proved there’s little resistance to be had.
Given that both parties pretty much agree that you have no rights anyway…
I too am in Camp 3. I voted for Reagan in 1980, realized that dreams aren’t true and quit. While I try to use my explanations on the few people I know locally, most ignore me and just want to do their “Civic Duty” from the brainwashing in high school. While they (we) didn’t learn any readin’ or writin’ some did learn that votin’ gets a person stuff that someone else pays for.
I enjoy the Glib discussions, makes me think, a little, some times. I need the laughs because the 2 parties are laughable but down right scary. Only when the money runs out will there be some real change and not for the better, I’m afraid.
I used to believe avoiding the system completely – it is rigged and useless – was a fine way to go about things, but then realized I was just grandstanding. Vote, don’t vote. Your choice. Just don’t start acting all butt-hurt when people tell you that since you didn’t participate you can’t complain. To me at least, when you act that way it implies your real gripe with them is that they don’t see how cool you are for making the choice you did. I would respect your stance far more if you tried to act less indignant about it. After all, your message is that you don’t care enough to bother (whether you believe it matters or not), right?
No. My position is that I can’t legitimately grant some politician powers that I myself don’t have. If I don’t have the right to do something as an individual, than neither does the government. Voting would be giving my consent to a system that I don’t support. I acknowledge the reality that I’m going to be governed good and hard no matter what I do, but it doesn’t mean I have to add legitimacy to it no matter how insignificant that protest is.
“<No. My position is that I can’t legitimately grant some politician powers that I myself don’t have. If I don’t have the right to do something as an individual, than neither does the government.”
Some old honkey slave-owners wrote a 100 year old document or something that enumerated the powers government could have, specifically so that it created a body that would be granted/made responsible for common laws we as a society would jointly agree upon (and not be able to implement individually), and set us on a course of prosperity and created an era never before seen in man’s history. The fact that somewhere along the way people corrupted this system and forgot it was not only supposed to have limits, but not be a means for some parasitic types to make a living robbing Peter to buy votes fro Paul – because too many people just stopped being vigilant enough or got on the “free shit for me” bandwagon -doesn’t mean we are left with just anarchy as the alternative.
I had no idea Paul had a ‘fro. I thought he was the walrus?
Paul didn’t but the actor playing him in the new Lin Manuel Miranda musical “Imagine This Yo’ “ does.
Voting would be giving my consent to a system that I don’t support.
Exactly. I refuse to indicate my acceptance of the results by participating in the process.
That’s what third-party voting is for. And since NY is going TEAM BLUE by 30 points anyway, I can vote as close to on principle as possible, depending on how much you think the Libertarian candidate fits my principles (OK, you can stop laughing).
^This. I sent my ballot selfie indicating that I was NOT voting for Trump to some friends last election. Every one of them, proggie and socon alike had a shitfit.
There’s a small part of me that really wishes this was an organized campaign, instead of just selfish, short-sighted ignorant reactive idiots grabbing power for themselves.
Lately we’ve had some commenters jumping ship and/or complaining that the Glibs is becoming a Team Red Trumpista echo chamber. – becoming? always been
SHUT THE FUCK UP LIBTARD!!
We need more of this to be a DU counter part…
More eating your own for perceived slights as well…
More eating your own
*triggered *
My mother was eaten by cannibals, you bastard!
*begins reading wikiHow article on how to cancel Alex*
MAGA, bitches.
*wanders off to Gunbroker*
Given the recent insanity, I was surprised to see this gem at below list price. If I had the cash and lived in a free state, I would be tempted.
I can hold it for you in my safe.
Hey thanks! I’ll order it along with a nice scope and a couple thousands rounds of ammo!
On my watchlist: https://www.gunbroker.com/item/871918354
Super tempting.
Pro-tip: Never guy anything where the seller uses the word ‘rare’ in their sales pitch. Especially if they use an exclamation point.
I already have a P226 in .40 S&W.
It’s very nice.
I own zero Sigs with a K-kote finish.
(Excuse to buy another Sig)
That’s just the starting bid. I don’t see a buy it now price. In 11 days, when the auction closes, it will be above list.
Nice. Seekins makes good stuff.
Ron Jeremy playing the piano? That video hasn’t been cancelled?
I’m in Nashville this week for a short vacation and can confirm that Kid Rock’s Big Ass Honky Tonk is still shut down. And lot’s of mask wearing.
one cheesecake pic at the end. – and substandard as well
As if you wouldn’t
Is the cheesecake reference about the built-in flotation devices, or some metaphor for going down on yeast infected areas?
I would but I do not have the sens of pain I feel when I see a really hot chick and realize I newer will
if you’re a Communist, it sounds a lot nicer to call yourself a “left-libertarian”
the difference between a libertarian ommie and a totalitarian commie is 3 weeks in power
When you are defined entirely by Trump
https://twitter.com/ryanlongcomedy/status/1280132154421370881?s=19
I’ve always thought most of the positive Trump comments on this site were more of a comment on how he trolls the left not necessarily on how he governs. I can’t stand Trump, I think he has done more harm than good. The left is about to get a senile demented old man elected in response. Mitt Romney could even dominate Biden.
In the end given we all know it’s going to be one of the two horrible people. I’ll take the one that’s going to take away fewer liberties.
“Mitt Romney could even dominate Biden.”
What do the odds makers say?
I feel partly to blame. I made the Hat and the Hair (Hillary and Extended Universe segments notwithstanding) more family friendly because it’s funnier than making a cartoon about a rapist sex pervert like SF’s initial stories and he seemed to follow my lead into more buffoonery. So, I guess stock up on brain bleach, because to prove I’m not a Trumptard I’m going full on SF for the cartoon, I guess. Peer Pressure FTW! I’ll Swallow Your Soul!
Next you’ll tell me that The Road Runner and Ol’ Wiley aren’t true.
I like the H @ H just the way you do them, I enjoy your work CP. Keep it up!
Portraying Trump as an utter buffoon makes you a MAGAt because… it’s not hateful enough? Is that really where things are now?
I don’t even know anymore. Maybe I just didn’t tear down enough statues today. I’m old and confused. Is 37 too young to start collecting SS? I can do nothing real good.
37? AHHAHAHHAHAH… we’ll never see SS.
I gotta tell ya’ CP…the one with Biden doing a reach-around on Ocasio-Cortez had me rolling.
, I think it can mostly be boiled down to liberty vs. control.
“Political tags — such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth — are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.”
to quote the classics
YES
It is a rare man that values his neighbor’s freedom as much as he values his own….
“…And the second is like unto the first, love thy neighbor as thyself.”
Well said, Swiss.
Seconded.
Both team red and team blue want to control the serfs. They just have different objectives and means to get there. Unfortunately, I believe (human ?) nature makes this sort of shit inevitable. The experiment with the monkeys in a cage with a banana that hangs from the roof, electrified floor/sides that shock those in contact, and a ladder that is insulated and used to reach the banana, that results in the pack beating the shit out of any one of them that goes for the banana and causes them to get jolted, even after they replace out all monkeys and stop the electrocution, tells me group behavior will always result in those that want forced compliance, and often for stupid or even ludicrous reasons that might no longer be applicable.
Actually it divides into the 65 percent that want to control others, the 34 percent that want to be told what to do and the 1 percent that want to be left alone.
Nearly everyone wants to be left alone. Very few want others to be left alone.
I would have agreed with this 6 months ago. After Corona panic, I’m not so sure.
Q gave me rubs without my consent.
Twice.
Maybe he’s trying to send a message about your cooking.
But did you say ‘no?’
Respect for liberty is what brought us here in the first place – I though you were in it for the chicks. disappointed.
Look, it’s pretty simple to see the Democrats hate middle America. Their socialist, crime-ridden shitholes is what they want for all of us.
Fuck the Democrats good and hard. In the ass. Steve Smith style.
Trump is our weapon against those people. And the RINOs too. *Stares at Mittens*
I think that sums it up pretty well.
I completely understand why someone would look at the absolutely disastrous history of socialism and conclude that it must be stopped at any cost, even if that means embracing Team Red out of convenience. I completely understand why someone can’t hold their nose hard enough to block out Team Red’s stink and votes for a better alternative.
Every election in which I’ve been old enough to vote I’ve either voted Libertarian or not at all. Up until now, I couldn’t bring myself to hold my nose and vote Republican.
This time it’s different. I think Trump needs to win or the country is fucked. I don’t like Donald Trump, but, “We need this man. He fights.”
Maybe some Libertarian or other Republican will learn from the Trump playbook.
Agree – although if he wins we’re fucked in 4 years.
“although if he wins we’re fucked in 4 years.”
Maybe not. Why do I say this? Because if Trump wins, the dems response will be to move further left and their next candidate will be a hardline leftist who makes Bernie look like a champion of liberty. There will also be constant rioting and even independent middle of road voters are going to eventually turn against democrats because it’s obvious they are the ones cheering this on and even enabling it at times.
I envy your optimism.
Yeah, we’re pretty much in the same boat on this issue. Frantically pailing out the water but knowing that you’re going to sink eventually…at least it passes the time.
Cheer up, you get to see all those cancel culture idiots in the camps also, for thinking their free speech was not only protected, but favored.
Schadenfreude rings a little hollow when you’re assigned the next round of bullets. 😉
My optimism is not that high, actually. We’re probably in for a civil war, with lots of death and destruction. And the wall, that was to keep us in.
I’m hoping for a peaceful secession, but I don’t see how the peaceful part will be possible.
My feeling is it’s better to inspire the commie lunatics to a full frenzy by denying them, so society can see exactly what it is they want to do to us.
Putting them in charge isn’t an option for me.
Same opinion here. They get all 3 branches again and that will be the last elections we will ever see. The globalists will appoint a Xi like Chairman for them, and that will be it. Republic was good while we could keep it. I’ll probably be off to the camps just for typing that.
The Republicans in ’24 (probably win or lose, but certainly if Trump is re-elected) will be in worse shape than in ’16.
How can anyone think otherwise?
Trump has been a disappointment. The number of things he’s actually shaken up vs. the number of things he could have shaken up is pretty small. Yes, the bureaucracy has stymied him at every turn and they and the political class have an utterly irrational hatred of him. He’s “poisonous” for reasons having little to do with actual policy and much to do with his temperament and appearance. He has revealed much more about his enemies than he has about himself, and none of it is good.
And yet, for what? To what end? As Q notes, it is possible he has slowed the advance of international socialism. But we all know that that “accomplishment” is temporary. There is no broad anti-communist consensus like there was in the Cold War, and the cultural rot is already widespread. People need to realize it and fight back but Trump is, if anything, sucking all the energy out of the room and preventing it from happening. It’s not wholly or even mostly his fault but he is too scatterbrained and self-absorbed to care. Civil liberties are in retreat across the board, in a way not seen in a long time and not fathomable 10 years ago.
And to capture this moment, the Democrats have nominated… Joe fucking mindless Biden. He was already an empty-headed idiot, now he is losing what little mind he had. He is a puppet waiting for a puppet master and that is scary. So he is worse than Trump, on that I agree, but that does not make Trump the right choice.
While Jorgensen has been better than Johnson so far, she has not shown enough culturally immunity to the leftward tilt infesting everything.
And so, I think, the only rational choice is to write in John McAfee.
I’m writing in SugarFree. He will outdo McAfee in the entertainment department.
Tonight, on Bureaucracy Stories: we follow the poor FEC man who’s been tasked with tracking down who this “SugarFree” is and whether or not he’s eligible to be President of the United States.
OT: Mask craziness in Massachusetts
A 59-year-old man is accused of pointing a gun at a man in a Walgreens parking lot because he did not wear a mask inside the store amid the coronavirus mask order, Bridgewater Police said on Wednesday.
Todd Goulston, of East Bridgewater, was arrested and charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace.
Bridgewater Police on July 3 at around 5:20 p.m. responded to Walgreens Pharmacy, located at 4 Central Square, for a report of two men arguing inside the store. The argument was about one of the men not wearing a mask.
The squabble continued into the parking lot where Goulston is accused of pulling out a gun from his car and pointing it at the man who had not been wearing a mask, police said. Goulston then got into his car and left.
Related. Male Karen in NY loses it when manager at Dairy Queen refuses to remake his order with a mask on.
Dairy Queen took an odd route. They actually didn’t fire the manager, but demoted her. But caved on making all their employees wear masks.
Food service is one place where facemasks should have been standard all along.
The wife loves the Burger King and other commercials boasting about taking basic hygiene steps. “…so your employees weren’t washing their hands before?…”
“…so your employees weren’t washing their hands before?…”
It’s BK, dude. Of course not.
Special sauce….
? I hold my pickle, then touch the lettuce…?
That’s why the wife doesn’t eat fast food.
See Beavis and Butthead’s “Tainted Meat” episode.
Just saw a caught a news blurb that a local Wisconsin county passed a mask ordinance. 917 people were recorded to have died of the flu/pneumonia in 2017 in Wisconsin. Another 2,834 due to ‘Chronic Lower Respiratory Disease’. 818 have been thus far attributed to Covid-19.
Thats just whataboutism. You must hate science
*hoists the Partial Principle flag, brandishes cutlass*
STFU AND VOTE DRUNK!!!
Wait, I think I screwed that up…no, this works too.
Getting blitzed on Election Day was how our Founding Father did things.
This is where I think we can say with some certainty that Glibs is definitely not an echo chamber. – some think scotch is better than bourbon and some are wrong
Here’s another rub: I don’t begrudge anyone their position – I do. Especially UCS and wine.
I completely understand why someone would look at the absolutely disastrous history of socialism and conclude that it must be stopped at any cost – oh yall don’t know the half of it
Also, do fuck off Q
You can drink your subpar alcohol and pretend it’s good all you want. Just don’t expect me to endorse your choices.
some think scotch is better than bourbon and some are wrong
Huh. I like both.
Yeah I ride the fence between those…they equally get my love
Don’t forget about the Irish and Rye as well.
But fuck the Canadians.
I’ll drink all three of those.
Easy, Pie….
You didn’t live under Nazi occpation, but I think you could easily say you wouldn’t want it.
You and yours had to suffer the Warsaw Pact, and we have learned from all of you how bad it was. No need to go into the “you haven’t lived my struggles” – that is a prog, shut down the debate thing. (On the right it usually came from vets knocking antiwar folks).
that was mostly humor
I laffed out loud
It didn’t come across as funny…but I will take your word for it.
Some of us here lived under socialism even longer than Pie. It’s not a big deal when some people in the West might get a few details wrong about the life in a socialist country. In some ways the life there was not as bad as they imagine, in other ways it was much worse. There were also significant differences among socialist countries in Europe. My partner and I have had plenty of conversations about them.
I know. Sometimes this place is a realy tragedy. Some asshole was talking about drinking wine with his steak this morning. WTF!?!?
Who TF drinks wine in the morning?
I do… just not with my steak.
I can see beer, cider, any number of cocktails with breakfast. I guess champagne is a wine and would go with eggs Benedict.
Winos?
This one time, I saw a wino eating some grapes. I told him “hey, you have to wait!”
/Hedburg
Heh.
Like a wino on the street.
Authority vs Liberty
https://twitter.com/TimeTrench/status/1280949354048651264?s=19
I don’t want to be in an echo chamber. I also separate snark, which is rampant here (which is a good thing IMO), from the true beliefs of most people here.
There has been some cases where my dislike of a group makes me instinctively want to “support” or “excuse” the behavior of another group. Antifa vs police for example. The same goes with the tactics of Cancel Culture being applied to unliked group member or former champion of CC. This can feel satisfying, but the CC environment we live in is still a problem we need to resist.
I don’t think using the tools of CC or Wokeness against those promoting them will change minds and makes all of us worse as a culture in the end. I don’t feel we do that, but it can sometimes be celebrated here. This I see as a potential trap that we have to be careful of.
I have been tempted to vote for the orange man, for the reasons mentioned many times here (SCOTUS picks, Less likely restrict 2A, reducing regulation, attacking the deep state, etc). I will still likely vote for a 3rd party or protest vote. That could change at any time.
This is my 2p use it as you will.
Antifa vs police for example.
We can situationally hate both. At least root for both to lose?
That’s is my point. Situationally I hate the behavior of both We need to address the things that are wrong and right about each group.
In the case of ANTIFA, there is little to like about them, but they have a right to their opinion. Just as I don’t hate all cops. I have several in my family.
If antifa only had opinions, nobody would care about them. Unfortunately they also have bricks, bike locks and lighters.
No doubt, their actions are what makes me despise them. They are also given cover by less radical progressives. It is similar to the “acceptance” and support given terrorists in the middle east by less radical governments and populations.
My point is I don’t want to cheer when one of them is beaten up by police when they arrest them or violate their rights.
I cheer like the Yankees just won the World Series every time I see an antifa shitbird getting xer ass beaten regardless of who is doing it – cops, righties, other antifa scumbags, doesn’t matter. Don’t feel the least bit bad about it, either.
See, as I said earlier. Yankees fans are terrible people. 🙂
Although I’ll admit to some schadenfreude watching someone start a fight and getting beat down quick.
We are, yes.
I feel bad that I don’t feel bad, if that makes any sense. I just really, really hate commies.
Thanks for the proof we don’t have an echo chamber.
I aim to please!
No doubt, their actions are what makes me despise them.
I despise them for their beliefs as well.
Antifa are evil people with evil goals and evil tactics and cannot be allowed to win or even continue.
Police are sometimes, arguably often, guilty of exceeding their authority and violating the trust given them. They need reform.
I don’t see an equivalence here at all.
*Smashes Jarflax in the face with a bike lock*
Take that, Fascist!
See my point above. I don’t see them as equivalent, but I don’t want to celebrate when one’s rights are violated by the other because I dislike one so much more.
‘Police are sometimes, arguably often, guilty of exceeding their authority and violating the trust given them.’
It’s the covering for and/or ignoring of the organized criminal activity by their fellow Blue Meanies that really sticks in my craw. If I didn’t despise the concept of RICO laws I’d say 90% of active law enforcement should be brought up on charges.
If you create a job where you can beat, rob, rape, and murder people and get away with it, you will attract people who want to beat, rob, rape and murder people and get away with it.
Bad people are vastly overrepresented in police ranks compared to the population they are drawn from. Though the fraction is undoubtedly higher in antifa.
“Cancel Culture” or whatever you want to call it, is essentially this: BOOK BURNING. The same shit Jerry Falwell was doing 40 years ago. And wherever books are being burned, it’s only a preamble to burning people.
It doesn’t matter if the “left” or the “right” is the side doing it – it’s “two wrong make a right” bullshit that I will never, ever endorse and never ever stop insulting.
I agree, I don’t want to resort to using these kinds of tools to make social change.
Or as I say on the movie fora, it’s a rerun of the Blacklist, only with the communists doing the blacklisting.
I made a poor attempt recently to explain what I think the difference between civilization and savagery is.
Shit, I can’t even write this comment without having to stop, get up and do something for a dog. BRB.
Back…
I want to write a series of articles on it but I have trouble concentrating. TV is ten feet from the computer and wife keeps it on constantly. Dogs are always nagging me for something. I need 3 weeks in a cabin in the woods with dead silence. I will get it soon when wife goes with buddies to the beach…well for only one week, but still, I will be able to focus and write.
I couldn’t give a rat’s ass who holds what office. I dont have loyalty to any person. I dont hero worship. I care about ideas and how they bear out in reality. I want lower taxes. I want to be left alone. I want to make my own decisions and bear the fruits and consequences of them whatever they are. I know full well that for me to enjoy that everyone else must also and that is fine with me.
Civil vs barbarous is important because the defining difference, in my view, is that barbarism is based on taking from others while civil society is based on mutual cooperation. Want to know who the savages are? Look to see who wants to take from you by force. I can assure you, those people are not going to leave you the fuck alone. You may be more conformable with the labels collectivist vs individualist. Collectivism is just a premise for getting up your ass about every aspect of your life and in the end that is just a pretense for taking from you. Taking your wealth, stomping your rights.
Whoever advances civility/individualism the most, I will vote for them. I dont let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Trump? I never paid much attention to the guy. I am not a fan but I dont hate him either. He is not my friend, I am not having him over for dinner. I dont know the guy and will probably never meet him in person. Right now he is getting in the craw of the warmongers and that suits me fine. I will put a finger in their eye at any opportunity.
I use the word warmonger because war is about looting. Historically one would loot other countries but technology has made that unprofitable. The establishment here is all in on looting and the only profitable looting is to loot their own country. That is what all of these pointless wars are about…looting the American people in the form of diddling around in some fucking sandbox half-way round the world with military contracts and taxes. That is why the wars are never won and never end. The establishment has declared war on America. Trump became persona non grata when he said he was going to end those wars.
For now I will vote Trump.
I’m pretty much in the same boat.
I will add that I would be inclined to vote Libertarian as a protest vote, but the Deep State’s illegal attempts to get Trump at any cost have changed my mind. The tactics they used must be soundly rebuked.
They’ve made it clear that they have no respect for any principle except power acquisition. If they win, they’re going to turn the country into an authoritarian shithole like China or Russia or worse.
Will 8 years of Trump prevent that? Not necessarily, but he causes his opponents to drop the mask completely, and that’s a valuable thing that stands a slight chance of turning this ship around. Public trust in the mainstream media has been plummeting, and I think that’s one positive sign.
For now I will vote Trump. – RACIST. Do you even know any black people?
One or two…or a hundred.
Have I got a deal for you, Suthen. Price is right, boat accidents available as required or not. Any Glib that needs a little R & R, there a quiet spot in the woods available.
I heard there’s a hotel somewhere in Colorado where you can find peace and quiet to finish writing. I have the same dilemma. My wife and 7 y/o keep me heavily distracted, not to mention my full time job.
I vote for max freedom every time. The (L) party is no longer the front runner for more freedom after ’16. It really looks like the Orangeman is the best choice for that. Sad but true.
BTW, I voted for gayjay last time. I thought both of the real candidates were apt to constrain and confiscate. 4 years later it’s clear that Trump should have been my choice. I don’t need a pres that only gives soothing platitudes, I need less taxes and less regulations. Trump has delivered more of both than any other president in my lifetime, Saint Reagan included. I’ve never once felt that a democrat could offer anything but less freedom and more taxes.
I’d wager that Jo Jorgenson is the best LP candidate… ever? Disband the ATF? Yes, please.
Well done, Q. I like your division of philosophical camps 1, 2, and 3, practical, medial, and maximal.
1. I am sad to see people leave, whatever their reason.
2. I see “civic duty” as an idea, a concept. So yes, I’m going to do my “civic duty”, the same way I don’t try to get out of jury duty. I will admit I’m susceptible to nationalistic patriotic sentimental treacle and I’m okay with that. To me, America is a concept and I have no problem paying homage to a concept I hold dear.
3. Saying things like “people deserve whatever they voted for” is different from saying “you [person] deserve whatever you voted for” insofar as it sparks discussion and dissent. It’s useful.
4. I don’t see many actual personal attacks.
5. I think everybody’s stressed and distressed, with a short fuse that’s lit, and ready to blow over anything, big or small. That may be projection on my part.
6. We are an echo chamber insofar as everybody here has a commonality: love of liberty. But aren’t all groups and gatherings self-selected for a commonality? A bowling league needs people who like bowling, and bowling alleys are very echoey.
I miss bowling every Sunday.
I like bowling, although I haven’t done it in years (rotator cuff).
I took a belly dance class. I want to do that again.
I want to learn how to golf.
I need to get back into tango. And not just because of the great things it did for my sex life. But primarily that.
4. I don’t see many actual personal attacks. – Mormon pirates who fight demons are gay
*lets skull-and-crossbones freak flag fly*
Bring up the SLT and we might have some….
Thats is because all of you all cant handle how right I am.
Part of the reason (a very small part) I havent written part 2 of my SLT series yet is that I really want it to live up the standard of the first. Getting it called “the most hated article in glibs history” or whatever was said about it is a high standard to live up to.
Yeah, the only echos in that article were the retorts and volleys of insults…oy.
“Mormon pirates who fight demons are gay”
But they are the coolest gays ever.
Nope. I’ve on board with 5. Constantly needing to watch my tone in work e-mails, chats, and notes as well as making sure I don’t say something that could be considered badthink (mask mandates bad, lockdowns bad) doesn’t help.
I joined a Spite Bowling League.
I bowl with dudes (including my dad) that are all 10-35 years older than me. The ball busting is epic and it is fun as hell.
Yeah, the amount of that which goes on in shooting groups is impressive — even more so considering how everyone there is armed.
That is what my own group of friends do. They are also shooters.
Facebook, which bans people to the right of Hoxha (bored with Mao and Stalin, sue me) for the crime of fake news is for the 3rd day in a row showing me an ad for an $80 bottle which makes something called hydrogen rich water.
“hydrogen rich water”
My factchecking service calls this true.
Well, it is 2 to 1 so….
Maybe a little D2O?
It’s just an extra neutron. Won’t hurt you a bit.
“Everybody could stand a hundred chest X-rays a year. They ought to have them, too.”
Apologies for answering questions with a youtube video. I hate it when I’m looking for how to do something and only videos show up.
This USB bottle generates surface sanitiser from water and salt.
This channel usually rips cheap Chinese electronics to bits trying to figure out efficacy and safety. Usually it comes up a treat, but there are some honest and useful products too.
All politics are local, and there’s nothing more local than how politics affect _me_. I have taken a personal philosophy to do everything within my power to insulate my day to day life from the never-ending partisan war that I feel too many people (who should know better) have become caught up in. Not only do I like neither Trump nor Obama, I have, until recently, not really cared whether either was president. Obama did some horrific things that I philosophically object to, but almost none of them had much of an effect on my life. The one that did (sending my health insurance premiums through the roof) pissed me off. Interestingly, the Trump administration did manage to get me an outlet on that front: temporary health insurance plans that I could renew and extend indefinitely, and at costs similar to and in some cases lower than policies before the ACA.
But it really was small potatoes, It’s money, which is important, but it amount to roughly 10 grand over 5 years. Enough to piss me off, not enough to send me off the deep end. Kinda like the masks.
Long about summer 2012, a rational evaluation of where I was in life suggested I was heading for an early grave. Weighing 375 pounds a month away from 41st birthday, I went into the local gym, and handed them a bunch of money for a years worth of personal training. Surprisingly, I found I really enjoyed the gym, enjoyed everything about it. I even began to enjoy the exercise. The work in the gym the first month or so motivated me to address my diet as well. By the same time the next year, my weight was 255. I also had established many healthy habits, had ingrained gym going as a critical part of my daily ritual, and, as importantly, had made a whole host of new friends from other regular gymgoers, most of whom wanted to talk to me and congratulate me on what they could clearly see I was achieving.
In the next six to seven years, I kicked things into overdrive eventually becoming engrossed in the finer details of strength training. My bloodwork and my health markers upset my doctor, because he said “my bloodwork is really not great when compared to yours.” In 2012, among my friends and family at the time, I was likely the unhealthiest person I knew. Of those same people, I am quite likely the healthiest. I’m now about a month away from my 49th birthday and am 185 pounds (roughly). Maybe 17% body fat, hard to say.
So you might wonder how I feel about all of this being taken away from me for most of the last four to five months, and then having the world call my going to the gym as “inessential” being told you can “get a workout anywhere” and being mocked for being some sort of “meathead.” Right now in the State of Arizona pretty much every single regularly operating business is free to be open, except gyms.
And if all politics are local, you better damned well be sure I’m paying attention who has done this _directly to me_. Ducey, spineless shitweasel that he is, signed off on this, but he did it because he’s been bullied into it by a cacophony of blue state politicians and media members who remain pissed that he didn’t do it sooner. Philosophy? Libertarian pricniples? Personal judgment? Someone is actively trying to take away something that might be the most critical thing in my life right now, and it isn’t Donald Trump. So who would you vote for if you were me?
Obama directly affected my family’s finances quite negatively.
*looks at health insurance premium balefully*
I’m there with you. I can’t even plan a fucking vacation, because who knows when things will next change. I was looking at doing a bike ride through Ohio, and now there’s rumblings that bars and restaurants will be forced to close again. Well shit, while I can carry snacks, and resupply at grocery stores, I’m not going to go a week without a hot meal. And if it gets announced while I’m half way through the ride, I’m boned.
I don’t see how a vote for President is a vote against a governor. On the other hand, a significant portion of my career and my passion is international education, and the current fuckery concerning international students is tied directly to Donald Trump.
So war it is then.
HM: I saw your post the other day about OS students but I haven’t been paying much attention to the details. My understanding is that a number of international students are being denied visas b/c all their classes in the fall are online. Is that about it? I’m a little curious how this will play out for the following reason. My school doesn’t have a large number of international students, but nor is it completely insignificant. A group if intl students who hail from a particular ME location are not allowed – by THEIR government – to take online classes while enrolled in the US. I’m curious to see if that govt. is more lenient in the fall.
The visa denials for people not yet here aren’t the problem. That has always been the status quo. The problem is that students already in country on an F-1 visa will have to either transfer to a school that is having in person classes or be forced to go home.
A few examples, one of my grad students has been here for 3 years, she transferred as senior to finish up her Bachelor’s as part of a 3+1 program and then was accepted into our grad program. She just finished her 1st year, and wasn’t expecting to have to return home for another year and a half. Now she’s faced with the prospect of disrupting her education by finding and being accepted into a program before the end of August, transferring to that program, probably moving across country, and then having to pay for any classes she has to retake because the credits don’t transfer over or finding a flight home before September 1st, finding a place to live and taking her last year of classes at 3 in the morning, 4 days a week. Another student is just returning from a semester off on maternity leave*, in addition to all the disruption above, she is also now faced with the probability of having to expose a, at that time, 3-month-old to airports and air travel during a pandemic. (That is if she doesn’t use him as an “anchor-baby” ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)).
All of this is due to the capricious fiat of the executive. And to Q’s point, I do find it exasperating at times that, in some corners of the internet (not necessarily here), those who would recognize and decry regulatory overreach in any other industry seem to justify this ruling, which was issued as a temporary USCIS rule specifically to by-pass the mandatory public comment period and be instituted immediately….because Trump, WWF1WWE, and/or owning the libs/China/Harvard/People who wear masks when driving.
*
OK, that makes sense.
It struck me as bizarre for two reasons: (i) they happily signed off on people transitioning to online back in March. So what happened, did those people suddenly become scary monsters; (ii) whatever you think about Trump’s rhetoric on immigration, why would you be concerned about people here on student visas who are not “taking American jobs.”
He is simply kicking a political enemy in the balls – there is no principle or such about it.
My fear back at the start was that USCIS would have done this at the beginning and I was pleasantly surprised at the ruling that allowed F-1s to maintain their full-time status during the period of emergency remote instruction. What is shocking is that they announced the end of this temporary ruling abruptly and specifically pulled some procedural nonsense to get around the public comment period (which is usually a month or two) before a ruling goes into effect.
From the civil servant’s point of view, I understand their logic. An international student is not entitled to attend a particular institution, if an institution doesn’t meet SEVP standards and there are now comparable institutions that do, then the student must transfer their to maintain legal status. However, the government did their typical half-assed way of rolling out the end of the temporary ruling and caused more confusion and distress than needed.
Two reasons, a.) people conflate Indians’ penchant for using the Optional Practical Training program to try to get an H1-B visa with all international students. The vast majority of international students desire to return home after their studies. Particularly because they are often from the elite sectors of their societies and have little to gain materially from starting fresh in the US. B.) For the past 4 years, the FBI and CIA have been trying to convince the world that Chinese international students are some 5th Column embedded in the US planning to steal our body fluids and impregnate Taylor Swift with an inscrutable Eurasian baby. While I do believe it makes sense not to have a Chinese grad student at the California Institute of Technology doing research at the JPL, the majority of Christopher Wray’s testimonies to Congress is hyperbolic nonsense, cynically designed to shovel more tax dollars into the intelligence community’s coffers.
The problem is that students already in country on an F-1 visa will have to either transfer to a school that is having in person classes or be forced to go home.
The rule requiring students to have in person classes to go to originated due to the number of student visa overstays; it was always targetted at people already here.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it in principle – they are issued to allow people to come to the US to go to school. If you don’t need to come to the US to go to school, you don’t need a student visa. To me, its not a capricious fiat. The environment that the rule is applied in changed rather abruptly.
Should they have gone through notice-and-comment? Sure, agencies abuse their rule making authority all the time. I do find the courts sudden interest in the Administrative Procedure Act amusing – it was an irrelevance until agencies started doing a few things OrangeManBad wants, and allofasudden its holy writ. I’d think this was a good development if I believed it would continue after OrangeManBad is gone.
The schools panicking is the proximate cause of this problem. I wouldn’t worry, though, HM. There’s plenty of federal district judges with a hardon for setting national immigration policy and running our immigration system. This rule will get blocked, have no fear. Besides, its a ridiculously easy rule to get around.
As I noted above, I can see USCIS’s point of view. I would push back on the statement that the environment has changed abruptly. At least from the temporary ruling in March. No one had the expectation that international students would be able to stay in country while taking a fully online program indefinitely. (Even if we felt that was desirable. Most instructors don’t; most students don’t either. They came to be immersed in the language and culture. Those who would want a fully online program are the ones trying to commit visa fraud.) As far as the situation of international students in country, nothing much has changed from March to now. From what I can tell, most institutions of higher education are making decisions about whether to stay remote in the Fall or open traditional or hybrid programs based on regional facts on the ground. Those places still remote are most likely still in places that have a large number of infections. There are a little over 1 million international students in the country, most of them are in NY, MA, and CA. I think it would be more disruptive to have a mass movement of international students from those states to colleges in states that have a lower number of cases than to just extend the temporary rule 3 more months. Likewise, even with online programs, the responsibility of the sponsoring institution to report student movements to SEVP has remained. It is not as if the danger of visa overstay is any greater than before. We still take attendance, we still want to see their face on video, we still maintain their home address, and if a student is not present for more than 3 classes, we investigate and if need be report to ICE.
I hope so, but the time frame is short. If my students have to go home, they need to start making their arrangements now. The worst would be that they start these arrangements, contacting moving companies, selling their cars, ending their leases, etc. and in late August the rule is blocked and they are faced with having to find a new place to live, canceling flights, etc..
I hope so, but the time frame is short.
Harvard and Yale have already filed their lawsuit. I expect the rule to be blocked this week, maybe early next.
As far as the situation of international students in country, nothing much has changed from March to now.
I think what changed is that, in March, nobody expected this thing to drag out this long, and for so many schools to be online only in the fall.
It is not as if the danger of visa overstay is any greater than before.
True, and the in-person class requirement was never going to do anything about it.
People who wear masks when driving ARE fucking ridiculous, though.
Agreed. That’s why they are at the level of libs, China, and Harvard!
I want to know if her ass is worth eating. That should get her some leeway….
It is a long-standing policy of the US government not to issue visas to foreign students if they take only online courses. The universities knew it. It’s on them.
I agree with you, in that those institutions that made the decision to stay remote in the Fall probably didn’t communicate with their international student faculty, staff, stakeholders, etc. to learn of the consequences of their decision. (I know mine didn’t!)
That having been said, why was this rule not announced when the first institutions announced they would be remote in the Fall. The USCIS ruling came too close on the heels of Harvard’s long-awaited announcement for me to not conclude there is an element of political game-playing.
I’m definitely sympathetic to the plight of international students who are in the US right now. I used to be one myself. Renewing a visa in Canada was never fun. I’d love if that part of the ruling was changed. But I’m not sympathetic to college professors and administrators who were among the first to spread the corona panic back in March and continue to stir it by whining that their health is in danger with in-person classes. Elderly cashiers kept working in grocery stores.
I think it’s an attempt to force the universities to open in person classes.
I bet there’s something to that. DeVos is putting a lot of pressure on government schools to open this fall.
I agree with you. But the joke’s on them. Most administrators don’t give a shit about international student programs. Particularly because the market has been in a downswing since 2016 (for economic reasons, not necessarily political).
Most administrators don’t give a shit about international student programs.
I thought they were quite the cash cow. Maybe only at a few schools, though.
It’s a vote against the party driving these shutdowns. They’re livid at Ducey for not doing this sooner. The local mayors and the senator not currently up for re-election, have been screaming about all the blood on his hands for “opening early” for a month now. And he caved, knowing he’s got a limited political future regardless.
And again if Donald Trump is directly hurting you, that’s fine, I applaud you voting against him. You should vote against him in that case. I don’t like the guy, and have been begging for him to go away for 30 years. I have no allegiance to him at all.
But team blue wants to shut down the things that are important to me indefinitely, and then get indignant with me when I complain about it (the state health department is now going to try and “make an example of” the gym owner who filed a suit against the state to keep his gym open). I can’t reasonably vote for them, can I?
Just don’t piss on my leg and tell me it’s raining with Trump being the regulation-busting ‘most libertarian President ever’ bullshit, is all I ask. OMWC and Warty can tell you some horror stories too of how their industries have suffered under the Trump/Miller agenda.
Of course not, but you don’t have to vote straight ticket either. Vote R for governor and write-in John McAfee for President like a true OG.
write-in John McAfee for President like a true OG
great minds or something…
Ducey (Idiot-AZ) is a great example of why the Repubs are so useless (at best). Not only has he proven to be a herd animal, calculating his every response to the ‘Vid to keep his position in the middle of the herd of governors (nice leadership, there), when agencies who report to him do shit like threaten to retaliate against somebody for challenging them, even when they knuckle under, he does nothing.
I didn’t mind him before the ‘Vid. Now I despise him.
But do I want him replaced by a Dem? Hell no. Why go from bad to worse?
So kinda like Trump, in many ways. If voting is an indication of which of the only two realistic options you prefer, then holding your nose and voting for Trump or Ducey makes sense.
For me, there’s a point at which I won’t hold my nose. I doubt I’ll vote for Ducey, because his weakness has directly impacted me and because if he wins, it’ll be more of the same weak shit. Win or lose, I don’t he makes much of a difference.
Trump has done plenty I don’t like, mostly around spending and more spending, but at least he’s pointed in the right direction at times. Win or lose, I think makes a difference. Because if he loses, then the Overton window goes hard left, both for policy and the practice of politics (meaning, the hard left tactics of corrupting election and using street violence to get their way).
Dealing with that here in Ohio. I didn’t like DeWine to begin with, didn’t vote for him, and sure as shit won’t vote for him next election. But based on past experience, the Dems will put up someone just as bad.
Ducey’s term limited and not up for re-election in 2022, which likely has a huge effect on everything that’s going on. If he needed re-election, he’d have to obey his base and fight this shit. He’s trying to figure out what to do with himself post-governor and apparently has calculated this is the way forward for his “career.”
He must get along swimmingly with MD’s governor Larry Hogan (R-Chamber of Commerce), then.
Lol
https://twitter.com/PeterRQuinones/status/1281207778103701508?s=09
WTF?
I have been in all three camps, often on the same day.
Slut.
Sounds like a camp follower, amirite?
Great article, Q.
Then, because no matter what, whoever you vote for (even Vermin Supreme) will necessarily not align perfectly with individual liberty there are the abstainers. Call this maximum principle
I’ve never understood this position. During the wars ushering in Israel’s status as a country, many of the ultra-Orthodox Jews refused to defend Jerusalem from the Arab hordes invading Israel to slaughter them. Their stance was that the non-orthodox Jews were equally bad as the Arabs literally invading to kill them. The practicalities of the other Jews maybe not being perfect but also not actively trying to kill them didn’t matter one bit. The Hasidim just said a pox on both houses and were only saved from annihilation by the blood of the others who dirtied their hands.
This obviously is extreme, and I’m not suggesting it is a mirror of our own situation. I am reminded of it though whenever I hear there is no difference between Trump and Hilary or Trump and Biden. I can’t think of anything Trump has done that has negatively affected my personal life that isn’t already a continuation of past policy. Contrast that with the financial ass-raping I took from Obamacare. Or the higher taxes and draconian gun control we can expect from Biden. Those are shaping up to be the least of our problems in the ushering in the great new socialist utopia.
That said, I think this country is done and there will be no stopping the downward course. The best I can hope for is a stall or deceleration in the decline long enough to see my family in the best possible position for that. If voting Republican buys another 5, 10, or even 50 years then that would make an exponential difference in my own personal life though I would agree it’s essentially meaningless in the longer historical view.
Also, apropos of nothing, I see a Uhaul rental from Houston, TX -> Los Angles is $800 while going from LA to Houston is $4,200.
Price signals – such a mystery!
I figured they would be paying people to bring them back to LA.
Had neighbor moved from SoCal to N. Carolina. He went to Phoenix to get a uhaul, because it was so much cheaper.
That’s my issue. The Left is openly gunning for a China or Russia style authoritarian regime with even stronger opinion and information control.
As you said, Trump’s bad policies are mostly continuations of what was already done and what will be done anyway under a Democrat. I used to think the Democrats were better on war and national surveillance, but Obama’s presidency followed by Hillary’s nomination showed me that this is not the case. Even on the things where they seem to be in favor of greater personal liberty, they’re actually not – “Gays should be allowed to marry” has turned into “Anyone who is asked will be forced to participate in a gay wedding if they are asked”.
Rumor is our shit-for-brains governor is going to shut us down again at 4:00 today.
Where at?
New Mexico.
I’ll hold my tongue until it’s confirmed, but we JUST reopened restaurants and retail at limited capacity a couple weeks ago. Does this dumb bimbo think businesses are just endless fonts of cash to pay for her powertrips?
Remember back in March when all the people screaming “if you don’t have cash reserves for a month then you are a bad business leader!” Wonder where they are at now….
Be more like Serbians.
In what way? Beat up more Croatians?
That would not go over well in the Croatian areas of Cleveland.
Coronavirus: Serbia scraps curfew plan for Belgrade after protests
Last night we watched like every youtube video about it.
Yeah. All those supplies you bought? Wasted money. But you’ll be ready to open up again next time, right?
I’m not sure Hanlon’s razor applies anymore.
I think it still does.
The issue is we are so far into total rule by “professional” politicians. These people do not work. Not ever. They go from Model UN in high school, to college, to internships with politicians and media types, to entering politics.
None of them have ever pumped gas, flipped burgers, run a cash register, let alone actually balanced the books or managed a small business.
George McGovern started a business after leaving the Senate, and was flabbergasted at the red tape, red tape he voted for every single time it came up.
I am expecting one here in Louisiana as well. Lots of murmering about it and cases up etc.
It won’t affect me but it will be death to a lot of businesses. Pretty soon Taco Bell will be the only restaurant left.
3 shells!
Ironically, the biggest supporters of the progs / socialists / communists running Austin are the ones getting fucked over royally by the draconian measures taken against the entertainment industries.
At least there’s some grim satisfaction to be had. Eat shit, dummies.
This is why I’m not more politically active, I’m just not very persuasive.
For some reason the political message – I’ll leave you the fuck alone, you leave me the fuck alone – it just doesn’t seem to resonate.
My wife wanted me to drove her to the voting station yesterday. Which is located in the building that houses the police station. I pointed out how third world banana republic it is to have the police in such close proximity to voting, and declined to drive to the epicenter of statism in Dripping Springs.
My wife just doesn’t get my political views.
There is a reason we use VFWs, churches, and schools for voting locations. It gives the appearance of community. Placing voting next to the seat of power is a show of strength and intimidation in my opinion.
I thought it’s because they had big parking lots?
Know what they say about big parking lots…
Compensating for small dicks?
So Nevada legislature had their special session and they were too weak and scared to call their own, which they could have under the State Constitution. They waited until the governor called it which allows the Executive to determine the agenda. What spineless weasels. One of my State representatives basically told me “we are waiting for the governor to call it” and the other refused to even give me a “shut your piehole citizen” form letter.
On the agenda, 1.2 billion shortfall in the budget. Only things considered (which aren’t all that bad, but application is key) are: Education, Health Services, Police. That is all political and not a single damn reporter or anyone with any balls is willing to ask “So, there is nothing else in the budget that you can cut? Nothing at all?” Luckily because of our constitution, they won’t be able to shove a new tax down our throat for their shutdowns…yet. They have all the votes in the house, but senate needs to swing at least one person from the other aisle to pass a tax increase.
You need to catch up to Ohio. DeWine is expecting to spend the entire $2.7 Billion rainy day fund.
So I see the same tactic going on in Ohio as here: Cut education (selling point on new taxes), cut Medicaid (selling point on new taxes) and corrections (not so much as selling point with Antifa….er….BLM….er….reform!).
Same script it seems between governors…all political hot-button issues and no real cuts to extraneous line items.
LOL that’s a rounding error in my city’s budget. Of which I think they just passed one and with nary a word from the media about it nor where do they think the money to pay for it is going to come from.
Back from the grocery store. I apparently encroached on Karen’s social bubble. Her shit was all rung up and on the other side of the checkout, so I put my milk and crackers up on the counter.
She turned and said, “i’M NOT DONE YET!” I think that’s what she said, her mask muffled it.
So I said, “okay” and put whatever else I had on the counter, which elicited some sort of angry grumbling to the cashier. Then she stuffed her groceries into a filthy germ-infested cloth bag, and went away in a huff.
I’m going to start saying, “What? I can’t understand you. WHAT?” every time somebody in a mask starts talking to me.
You’re Lil’ Jon?
Cloth bags? Those are verboten in the grocery stores around here. Which led to some fun shortages since there was a plastic bag ban that was starting to roll out at the beginning of the year.
Never understood the cloth bag ‘ban’. You, yourself, is coming into the store. If the virus is on you, it is already there and no random bag that you had stuffed in the corner of your pantry or hanging on some hooks is going to be the death of your community. Fucking retards. Sorry for the language, that is all I got.
There’s no logic in most of the bans. If I’m riding a bike outside, I don’t need a mask. If I decide to stop for a bite to eat, I now need to put a mask on to go from my bike to a seat in the restaurant/bar. I can take the mask off to eat/drink. Then I need to put it back on to walk to my bike, where I can take it off again. So the masks, which you’re not supposed to touch will be getting touched a minimum of twice (unless it’s got a hole cut in it where I can eat/drink), most likely several more times.
Don’t understand bans on trying on clothes, shoes, or furniture either. I can still molest the food, toiletries, books, and appliances? ‘K.
Early AIDS panic all over again.
Also, apropos of nothing, I see a Uhaul rental from Houston, TX -> Los Angles is $800 while going from LA to Houston is $4,200.
Speaking of which- maybe U-Haul will pay ME to drag a trailer away from Bozeman.
This has been a rough year for quite literally billions of people. This virus and the predictable government reactions has led to some really predictable outcomes. Regardless of who wins in November there will be a large crash across the board, probably around January when everyone’s unemployment and 401k withdrawals run out. Needless to say, there is already a lot of pent up aggression. No one seems to know where to focus it, especially those who lean left. How can their savior be the one doing this to them? It can’t be! So…. it must be that Orange man over there.
People can give Trump a lot of shit about a lot of things. But between the Russia thing and now the COVID thing, I can say I’m heavily a Trump supporter. The Democrats are responsible for doing some historically horrific stuff in recent history. They’ve even gone so far to accuse Trump of being a dictator, when he has to be the only president in US history since George Washington to not seize ridiculous amounts of power when the opportunity presents itself. That’s the undeniable reality of the situation. For all of his crass buffoonery, I really believe Donald Trump gives a shit about America.
Then there is the other side. The Democrats weaponized the Federal Government using evidence they created to attack a political opponent in a Presidential election. Then they used their influence in the media to attempt to cover it up and lie for almost 3 years. HOW!??? HOW!?!?! can ANYONE see this, admit to it and still vote for the Democratic party? Heads should literally be rolling… yet here we are.
TRUMPTARD CONFIRMED!!!111!!
Everyone always thinks you have to have a “team”. Once you select that “team”, you cannot venture from its core tenants. You must follow closely and not stray outside of its well tailored thoughts.
What’s worse? The one of the men who was integral in the weaponizing of the US government intelligence and force is LITERALLY the Democrats Presidential Candidate adn there is nothing, NOTHING about this on the main stream media.
What is funny about it is that the first thing totalitarians do when they consolidate power is to round up all of the useful idiots and shoot them. Who are the useful idiots you ask? Why, academics and journalists.
Every. Fucking. Time.
Please, please inform Comrade Stalin of this terrible mistake!
“Hydrogen rich water”
H3O? I don’t think that’s legal over the counter.
Of course it is. Just ask where they keep the “club soda” and wink.
I think a lot of libertarians are stuck in the previous decade. It’s perpetually September of 2008 for them.
In the previous decade, for those who don’t remember, Barack Obama was about to bring our troops home, end the War on Drugs, and dismantle the massive unconstitutional surveillance state. School choice was percolating among progressive Democrats. Yes, there would be socialized medicine, but there were legitimate reasons to think the Obama administration would be good on some libertarian issues.
Meanwhile, the Republican Party was still desperately trying to stop gay people from getting married, and John McCain was just plain itching to bomb Iran, and North Korea, and probably fucking New Zealand at some point.
I remember thinking how contentious things were at the time. OH BOY was my scale of things skewed.
Aint that the truth. When I got out of the military in Dec 2008, my view was that things are going down hill but American’s did what they always do. Complain and moan but worked the system. Now? I don’t even know how to describe it other than we have become one large daycare center and there are no employees to keep the riotous ankle bitters at bay.
A quick glance at Obama’s record as a state senator would have told anyone that everything Obama said was bullshit. He is a socialist, always was. That he would do anything to advance liberty was about as likely as winning the lottery.
What you say about the R’s is absolutely correct.
It was, as always, a giant douche and a shit sandwich.
I fully expected Obamacare and the green bullshit. But I did actually think he would bring the troops home, that was a huge split point between him and Hillary in that campaign: the Iraq War, and the general Clintonian interventionism.
Yes: which way lean? People campaign one way in a primary, another in a general, achieve nothing in their platform in their first term, coast out in their second. So what are we voting for? Hair? Height? Principle and platform are missing and meaningless respectively, so the sanest folk probably don’t vote at all.
The other thing is he was a Chicago machine politician, though no one wanted to see that.
Goddamn that part used to drive me nuts at the time. Used to say that all the time – on what planet is a Dem from the Chicago machine going to be anything but corrupt and terrible on liberty?
I didn’t think he’d be dedicated to liberty for its own sake, I thought he’d legalize weed for political reasons, and end the wars for political reasons.
I don’t think Republicans have a deep love of letting me keep my money, I think they know tax cuts are politically popular.
Heh. Remember the consensus (or near-) among TOS’s contributors in their ’08 straw presidential poll?
Cloth bags? Those are verboten in the grocery stores around here.
Not here, I guess; but the cashier can’t/won’t load them. I found this out a few days ago when I got stuck behind some dummy loading 250 dollars worth of stuff into cloth bags. Veeeery carefully.
I have a system when I load groceries up on the belt. I expect the bag-kid to understand what he is getting and load accordingly. Never works…always get a single item of beef in a bag and then another single item of beef in another bag. They are the same you retard, put them together, I don’t need 10000 plastic bags at home.
I usually just do the self-checkout, and they thankfully usually don’t try to bag for me. I organize by where things will go when I get home. Quick glance at the bags, this goes into the chest freezer, this goes into the fridge, this goes into the pantry, this goes into the cupboards, etc.
There is a reason I like you Neph.
Yeah, I do self-checkout but my reason is to specifically avoid interacting with cashiers. Too many times, I’ve had some 17yo punk want to strike up a conversation with me about my plans for the weekend and/or examine some of my purchases.
You misspelled 70.
The oldsters are as likely to question and judge your purchases as a kid trying to alleviate his boredom.
Another hot move is to place a single item that already has a handle on it into a plastic bag.
Too many people don’t realize that the plastic beer holders (4/6 pack) have plastic handles on to carry them. Then they double bag it…
Look at this guy pretending that he doesn’t shop at Aldi’s.
Leave Aldi Alone!
*bursts into tears*
Ain’t no shame in shopping at Aldi’s!
Although Lidl is the better of the two German bargain grocers.
I go frequently and buy in small batches. I dont really care how it is bagged. When the clerk tries to segregate the items I tell them to just throw it all willy-nilly into as few bags as possible. I want to get out as fast as possible and it means fewer trips car to kitchen.
These people suck at social distancing.
How many people in favor of this are typically bitching about all the potholes and poor road conditions in and around NY. Would be an interesting study.
One of those workers? Al Sharpton. Hope he doesn’t get his panties in a bundle after being called a “worker”. Sounds a little racist to me.
I love the premise of this post, and I really like all of the replies. I am, of course, the pox-on-both-their-houses pox of poxes, my journey is also well documented. I’m a little hot-headed, often wrong but pretty sure of myself, and a bit brittle and defensive, so I’ll take this chance to say thanks again to all who put up with me.
But I think I understand the recent self-jettisoned users, and I don’t think anyone is to blame. The biggest part of my career turns on basic principles and recognizing poor judgment; of delusions, self-delusion of the confirmation bias type is normal, a universal war that any of us can succumb to on any given day. And I think I understand some over-reaction and even recommend approaches to it.
While I’d agree that Republicans are less dangerous in the short run that Democrats, I still resent them; my libertarian streak was born as a reaction to SoCons, and so it remains. A guy who doesn’t cheat on his women and has never used illicit drugs still stands for others going to hell in whatever fashions they accord to themselves: knock yourself out and leave me out of it, whatever your passions be.
But let me stick to confirmation bias: my brooding over Republicans and hatred of Trump in particular is stoked by my sensitivity to it (insert you-dont-know-what-its-like-to-be-black-music-here); if you didn’t evolve hating SoCons, you wouldn’t much (necessarily) mind their buzzing in the background. I hear the stupid Democrat garbage elsewhere, of course, but it just hits me differently: it’s really stupid and dangerous but just preposterous and rejectable out of hand (insert ironic CHAZ-on-fire gif here). A lot of my problem is culture: I get the FoxNews head-nodding from people in my meatspace all the time who are total morons; at least these types have actually read second Corinthians and are sincere. I’m never around AOC types because you don’t run into them at places full of the gainfully employed; they’re not part of my world, so I’m not, as chemists and immunologist say, sensitized to them. Truckdrivers NTTAWWI) and people with very, very low tooth-to-tattoo ratios are my relatives and neighbors, and they are often deplorable and stunningly tolerant of racism and I try to avoid them a lot. (Tangent: my favorite things about Glibs is the absolute absence of racism or homophobia).
But that doesn’t mean that all Republicans or conservatives are like that; some of my best friends are conservatives FWIW. So I know what can happen: lumping everyone into easy piles and then getting overwhelmed (out of proportion) by the argument. We do reject purity tests, and we do read here conservatives being endorsed; that’s fine. But if you hate a lot of (American) conservative thought (I absolutely do), the little tidbits and the celebrating of trolling and the laughing off of the various Republican missteps add up like flea bites until some just obsess about it and become miserable clawing at themselves. It’s a challenge to weigh the conservative shots because they don’t reconcile nicely for some of us: oh that silly Trump just misspoke or is tone-deaf or (insert whatever throat-clearing needed here), and then also hear that he and his are really our best (only?) practical answer; that can be hard to process without becoming more than a little depressed.
So all this is not a knock on Glibs, but it is something of a warning to folks with weak stomachs. Ours is a skittery medium, so several adjustments are necessary.
/ keep the sarcasometer tweaked to full filter: assume everything is a joke because it usually is
/ don’t take things personally and assume the best intentions of others: pretty much everyone here is of hard-working and decent stock, ideal neighbor material
So I agree that it’s a weird experience to commit to a website because of libertarian inclinations and then wade through more than a few conservative apologies. I think it’s affordable overhead; everyone has to decide how much arguing and rehashing of the same points he needs to get through the day. Every day someone will say Republicans are our best hope for now; every day we’ll spend a lot of time on how-derp-is-whatever (of course, no one argues that); the question is whether a Glib will hit his Trump-is-a-clinical-case hotkey 20 times an hour or just let it go. It is okay here to lean conservative; it is okay to hit the Trump hotkey; after a decade (including TOS, of course), I’ve had to decide how much FoxNewish headnodding I can take as the cost of hanging out with the very few people with whom I agree 90% of the time.
So I’ll hang my hat on confirmation bias and recommend a prayer: enjoy the good stuff and try not to obsess with the rest. Everyone is sensitive in his own way (insert missing-EH gif here): it’s an intellectual challenge to honestly weigh how little we disagree with here and not let those other tiny bits overwhelm the emotional centers.
“…my favorite things about Glibs is the absolute absence of racism or homophobia…”
Side effect of believing in self-ownership and inalienable rights for all.
I’m in the opposite boat. I’ve been surrounded by the Democratic party my whole life. All of my friends and friendly colleagues are left wing (some becoming dangerously so). Most of the people around me who advertise themselves as right-wingers often say some abhorrent shit that I want no part of. I get that the knucklehead right is regressive and scary.
But for the most part they’re leaving _me_ alone, which is quite clearly not what the left is doing right now. I’m locked in my house, have to wear a mask, can’t see my parents and can’t go the gym, all thanks to them. The only thing Trump’s done that has directly affected me, the temporary health insurance thing, has been a net positive for me.
I mean I have and can vote LP, but my vote is “symbolic” at best. The real issue is I want a certain group of people off my back, right fucking now. And for all the problems with the troglodyte right, it ain’t them.
Makes sense
and maybe makes a point I implied but didn’t make: most folk feel the things we dislike all out of proportion to the things we like. That’s why some folks bail: Glibs runs, maybe, 10% conservative apology, but anti-conservatives feel that more like 30 or 60%. It’s so hard to say where things are, what was intended, and what folks feel: I laughed at Pie above; Swiss got bent out of shape. The thing about this medium is how we read the the emotional content is at least half projection, so whether I give others the benefit of the doubt will almost entirely determine whether I enjoy the experience and whether I stay (TPTB willing) .
Projection?
BBZZZZZT. Wrong.
It’s so hard to say where things are, what was intended
wasn’t gunning for you at all: just a great example of how people perceive things differently
weirdly meta, though
I thought he was genuinely upset, and
“I completely understand why someone would look at the absolutely disastrous history of socialism and conclude that it must be stopped at any cost – oh yall don’t know the half of it
Also, do fuck off Q”
doesn’t come off as a laff riot.
If he had a couple of glasses of wine and saw someone talking about something he lived through and didn’t like the causal air of said description, or that it was understating something deeply, personally distressing, etc – I can see a burst of anger coming to the fore.
I like Pie and just wanted to make sure he wasn’t going off, angry, into a bad place.
“mostly humorous.”
Late reply so you may not see it, but the “Also, do fuck off Q” was a reference to Q’s 2nd to last line.
Bravo Zulu, to both Don for the comment and Q for the post.
Good comment, Don.
Its interesting – I grew up in the buckle of the Texas Bible Belt, and I guess I just tuned them out so thoroughly they just don’t bother me. In that case, exposure led to immunity.
I work with a bunch of partisan Democrats. In that case, exposure led to sensitivity.
From inside my confirmation bias bubble, the Repub wishlist looks mostly annoying and kind of meh, in part because I have zero confidence they will pursue any parts of it that I actually like. The Dem wishlist is horrifying, and I have a hard time believing they aren’t going to jam a lot of it down the first chance they get. That both parties are equally bad on foreign wars and interference means that issue pretty much cancels itself out.
Great post Q! Would the cheesecake too. Yes I’m right leaning and see Trump not as a hero, more as a giant fuck you to the progressive/leftist/commie/whatever you want to call them elites. I don’t even blame the voters who vote prog simply because they have been brainwashed, coerced, incentivized to be that way. The left has/had won, they control the Government, the media, education and countless others. That’s why they hate Trump so much…he shouldn’t have won but did anyway and has been successful despite their best efforts. I’ve always thought having the system we do has been workable, the left and right constantly battling and mouthing yet did little actual changes because the system prevented one side or the other from taking over. The left however has been winning bit by bit and the right was failing to keep up. I see this cycle coming to a violent and turbulent end soon and hope enough individualistic liberty loving mofos like all you Glibs are around to make the next reiteration of America(and the world too for that matter) better. Had a lot more to say but this is all I can spout out currently.
*Looks carefully at bacon-magic’s portrait*
Where is your monocle? Dont tell us you have lost it again.
Never had it…I was happy enough that they put a top hat on my avatar.
Trump isn’t just a fuck-you to the left, he’s a fuck-you to the Republican establishment almost as much. His trash-talking march to the nomination was a demonstration of a party that not only has lost its way, it doesn’t even know it is lost.
Yeah the Republican base hates the Republican politicians, because they don’t actually ever do anything. That was the thing with the primary, the GOP establishment tried to claim that he wasn’t a movement conservative, not understanding even a little bit that the GOP voter was tired of falling in line for the electable movement conservative who would give a great concession speech.
What could you possibly find wrong with Bob Dole, John McCain and Mitt Romney?
It is true that Republican outsiders win more than insiders: Reagan is the classic example, and W – despite the family name – was not a creature of DC. In that regard, Trump fits the pattern.
I know people that even as party insiders find the party to be insufferably stupid. That’s why I think in ’24 there’s no way in hell they have a chance at the White House (particularly with Trump winning). If Trump loses, the rebuilding could begin… will it? Probably not.
I look forward to him winning and then fuck you’n all the R’s too. The Deep State would be my favorite target though, they’ve had control for too long.
The problem with Deep State theory is, that in reality it is far more groupthink than the conspiracy of some cabal. I’ve had nearly 20 years of fairly close observation. If you look at Obama’s complaints about the foreign policy blob, they’re just about indistinguishable from Trump’s complaints. And that bureaucratic inertia for the most part stymied whatever either of them wanted done (or avoided). There was a good piece over at Responsible Statecraft on this.
Don’t understand bans on trying on clothes, shoes, or furniture either. I can still molest the food, toiletries, books, and appliances? ‘K.
“Cover your mouth when you cough!”
Then pick through the tomatoes to find a nice firm one.
*Euphemism? You decide.
Man trying to donate some good furniture to the local Veterans and they don’t have pickup service until August and need approval from some manager to drop it off. Im done being charitable.
Was that you that left the dirty recliner and hassock on the corner of my property yesterday? Still there today, rained 2 inches last night and obviously soaked. I’m gonna leave it there for a few more days, no one will pick it up but I don’t want the donor to think someone needed that piece of worn out dirty junk.
Its rather comical, not in a haha mode, but I’m adjacent to state owned property where a lot of discards can be found.
Re: Don and mrfamous
I grew up in the Deep South at aa time when it was infested with what you might call the religious right but my parents both got their craw full of that shit and kept us kids away from that.
I hate both sides but the left I hate with the burning passion of a thousand suns. If the conservatives try to stick their noses in my business I know how to make them go away with minimal effort. The left? not so much. There is only one way to deal with them because fucking with you is their reason for living.
What you said. I despise both major parties and wish to doG the Libertarians (or somebody) would stand up for individual liberty. Nonetheless, I’ll probably end up voting for Orangeman in the fond hope that the Democrats will recognize that most of the country isn’t marching to their tune and if they wish to get elected they’ll have to change their prinicples. Don’t hold out much hope of that.
Yes I’m right leaning and see Trump not as a hero, more as a giant fuck you to the progressive/leftist/commie/whatever you want to call them elites.
Me too.
Trump is the giant flaming bag of dog shit on the Establishment’s front porch. I don’t lean all that hard, to the right, but I believe in kkkapitalism. That makes me a borderline Nazi, I guess.
They’re too dumb and narcissistic to ask themselves, “What did we do to piss those guys off?” They just think President Cartoon Villain and everybody who doesn’t hate him are stupid assholes.
I get enough of that on FB, I’d bail on here if that was a dominant theme.
Lately we’ve had some commenters jumping ship
I thought it was just one?
I believe it was two flounced out after denouncing us as Trumpaloos.
I write about Catalonia, Swiss news, cryptids and once or twice on being a Godbag, Xtian Christfag. Don’t see where I would get labeled a follower of a 1990s Democrat, reality TV host. Feh.
I only notice JB. Didn’t see anyone else echoing him.
Ah well. I’m sorry he feels that way, and I don’t think his charges are completely groundless, but I do think it was a major exaggeration, and I hope he gets over it soon and returns.
exactly
And, I’m not sure JB left for good. My impression from that post was that he was taking a break.
I come here because it isn’t an echo chamber. And ya’ll’s perspectives are typically informed and reasoned. You take the time to explain things, and I need that.
http://keprtv.com/news/local/umatilla-county-politician-wrote-racist-letter-to-himself-police-say
Another hoax but no mention of party affiliation that I saw in skimming the article. How do people look themselves in the mirror or face family after pulling crap like this?
It’s not clear from this article but he’s candidate for county commissioner in Oregon.
That hotbed of white supremacy. Real white supremacy, none of them castoff Spaniard wannabe whites.
There was a time that was not any hype. In the early-to-mid 20th century, the Klan held more sway in Oregon than any state outside the deep south.
Finally, there are those who look at this fiasco and say, fuck it, I ain’t voting at all if I can’t vote for someone that I agree with on principle who might actually win.
A bumper sticker I saw, long long ago:
Don’t vote- it only encourages them.
You can “throw your vote away”, or just keep it in your pocket, as I do. They don’t give a shit. I don’t know where it stands now, but as i recall from the past, fewer than half of the eligible citizens vote, but the politicians, having received a razor thin majority of a minority, immediately set to work bringing forth the Good Works required by the Mandate of the People. Fuck ’em.
Please, please inform Comrade Stalin of this terrible mistake!
Wait! I’m on your side!
Oh, you saw that Yankee Marshall video too?
I’m really torn on weather to vote this time, and if so, who to vote for. Last time I voted LP for the first time and it felt good. But even though I’m in a red state I think it’s better to give Trump as many popular votes as possible. I wouldn’t call myself a fan of his, I see him as a blowhard and I tried to watch his press conferences but just can’t get through them. But I do like a lot of what he’s done with education and rolling back regulations.
And I should add, just like a lot of you, the direction the left is taking is terrifying.
the Republican base hates the Republican politicians, because they don’t actually ever do anything
I watched the February appeal by the Lincoln Project folk on C-SPAN recently. Team Lincoln had a lot of classy things to say about dignity and principle that I could embrace, but they spent a lot of energy on being a bigger house. Well, what is the Republican agenda and who, therefore, ought feel welcome? If kissing everyone’s ass is the vector to displacing Democrats, that’s little to recommend Team Red.
If they did ever move towards drastically reducing the side of the federal government, reinforced federalism, and, one would think, got the budget and debt in order, it would be easy to embrace them, but the $T bills zinging through Congress are going through via unanimous consent or something near it. So if you’re not reducing the federal government now, how possibly can inviting more people with other agendas and needs into a bigger tent create a better (so far as I might vote for) party?
Absent a very clear and narrow agenda, I’m not sure that Team Lincoln is anything more than some pissed-off consultants who the Republicans just aren’t paying much lately.
Don, that’s exactly what Team Lincoln is – apparatchiks used to getting their turn when the Repubs cycled through. Trump had no use for them, so they didn’t their turn. He tipped over their rice bowl and they hate him for it. That’s why they want a Democrat to win.
The Lincoln Project is a bunch of swamp creature types who raise a bunch of money so they can pay each other’s companies to produce ads. Plain and simple.
Yeah, The Lincoln Project is a bunch of the worst people who think it’s their job to rule you.
Lincoln project: reminding people that Republicans can be as shitty as Democrats.
I live in California. It doesn’t matter who I pull the lever for; my vote is going to Biden.
Illinois here. Same problem.
Nevada going that route
It doesn’t matter who I pull the lever for
TN = red like people think TX is
I can vote as close to on principle as possible, depending on how much you think the Libertarian candidate fits my principles (OK, you can stop laughing).
#MeToo
I used to live in CA – same here.
This is probably a dead thread now that the PM links are up. I too live in CA (all my life) and I’ve seen first hand how this state has gone to shit. As you say, it doesn’t matter who you vote for, it is a very blue state. Personally, I’ll be voting for Trump (didn’t vote the last election), but overall I view Trump as a net positive, especially, when it comes to the SC. Yes, both Kavanaugh and Gorsuch haven’t been perfect, but I believe we are miles ahead of where we’d be if Clinton won. And the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings really showed how far the democrats would go. I was glad that when Trump was campaigning, he made it a point of policy to select from approved Federalist Society Judges, something he’s followed through on. Seeing how the liberal block of the SC dissent, really makes me think we dodge a bullet, but I know that is only temporary.
Why aren’t my comments showing up?? Did the squirrels eat them?
Team Lincoln had a lot of classy things to say about dignity and principle that I could embrace
Talk is cheap.
Not always.
Y’all are a bunch of infighting douches! The left and right never fight themselves like we do. This is why we don’t have control. We need to unite! Unite behind one representative. I nominate the one true libertarian.
The prominent forest lawyer?
Bill Weld?
M. Hihn?!!!!
I can’t believe SCOTUS fell for the sovereign citizen bullshit in OK. Clown world.
Que?
Half of OK is reservation land would be my guess.
Yeah. It’s the same as regular sovereign citizen folks. Laws don’t apply to me because of this one weird trick.
I do like that Gorsuch led the liberal wing in a decision that screams originalism, and abuses the hell out of the oh, well, we just decided to change things without ever legally changing them and that’s the way it is, so nah.
I’m guessing if he didn’t get to write it, he probably would have voted the other way.
More sparks smoldering.
https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/07/driver-shoots-handgun-into-air-after-confrontation-with-protesters-in-downtown-portland.html
“Police said they looked for the driver, but were unable to locate them.”
Lol, I’ll bet:)
Gonna be a new thread dropping soon but Q…this is for you and I found your new party to affiliate with
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/fired-ukraine-minister-dons-bikini-launch-new-party-fight-corruption-pants-wearing-idiots
Klitina *snickering*
I don’t think many are opposed to it
Definitely better than that Speedo-wearing moron dancing at the previous LP convention.