Video: Donald Trump Says He’d Like to Punch a Protester in the Face

As the fascism gets more open
Politics • Views: 49,411

YouTube

In this video of Donald Trump’s rally tonight in Las Vegas, you’ll hear him say:

You know what I hate? There’s a guy, totally disruptive, throwing punches. We’re not allowed to punch back anymore. I love the old days. You know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this? They’d be carried out on a stretcher, folks. Ah, it’s true.

[…]

Honestly, I hate to see that, here’s a guy throwing punches, nasty as hell, screaming at everything else when we’re talking, and he walking out and we’re not allowed… you know, the guards are very gentle with him, he’s walking out like big high fives, smiling, laughing. I’d like to punch him in the face, I’ll tell ya.

[Crowd cheers wildly.]

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537 comments
1
retired cynic  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:15:11pm

Can you tell if the protestor was actually throwing punches, or is that a Trump Stretch?

2
retired cynic  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:18:22pm

(I can’t watch it myself; don’t have the bandwidth available to download that.)

3
Jay C  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:21:47pm

WTF is Trump going on about with this “old days” and “take him out on a stretcher” nonsense? He was brought up a rich man’s son in Rich New York affluence - does he think people are going to believe he grew up as one of the Bowery Boys? Or it is just meant to evoke the hoked up “violence” from the WWE??

4
danarchy  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:24:23pm

OT - I was just reading an article about NASA supporting research on photonic propulsion(ie. solar sails only with a big earth based laser providing the oomph)

I made the mistake of reading the comments. As much as anything political this makes me despair for the human race:

Won’t happen there is a dome also referred to in the bible as the firmament which we can’t get through NASA calls it the Van Allen belt. We have never left low atmosphere it’s all a hoax just like the moon landing. Why would they lie you ask? Go watch a series called “The War in heaven” Thank me later

5
jaunte  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:25:02pm

re: #3 Jay C

6
Stanley Sea  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:25:20pm

re: #4 danarchy

:((((((

7
teleskiguy  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:26:03pm

This is scary. The violent rhetoric from The Donald™ ratchets up more and more as time goes on. As a non-violent person I find all this rather horrifying.

Video

That’s a long time. How much more violent is the rhetoric going to get? I shudder at the thought.

8
Stanley Sea  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:27:51pm

re: #7 teleskiguy

This is scary. The violent rhetoric from The Donald™ ratchets up more and more as time goes on. As a non-violent person I find all this rather horrifying.

[Embedded content]

That’s a long time. How much more violent is the rhetoric going to get? I shudder at the thought.

Oh, this is just the primaries. He’ll float to the middle for the general election.

ha

ha

ha

9
worldknot  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:31:27pm

re: #7 teleskiguy

This is scary. The violent rhetoric from The Donald™ ratchets up more and more as time goes on. As a non-violent person I find all this rather horrifying.

[Embedded content]

That’s a long time. How much more violent is the rhetoric going to get? I shudder at the thought.

Rednecks will show up at the polls with assault rifles.

They will not scare us.

10
teleskiguy  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:31:28pm

re: #8 Stanley Sea

Oh, this is just the primaries. He’ll float to the middle for the general election.

ha

ha

ha

Will the Republican Party tear itself apart and go the way of the Whigs? It’s a question that I’ve been pondering.

11
Lidane  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:32:31pm

re: #10 teleskiguy

Will the Republican Party tear itself apart and go the way of the Whigs? It’s a question that I’ve been pondering.

Only after they nominate Trump and lose to Hillary.

12
Stanley Sea  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:32:45pm

re: #10 teleskiguy

Will the Republican Party tear itself apart and go the way of the Whigs? It’s a question that I’ve been pondering.

Calling Ojoe.

13
jaunte  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:32:54pm

Needs Trump voter Venn diagram.

14
retired cynic  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:35:47pm

re: #13 jaunte

It may seem odd, but I like Waffle House. Don’t throw things!

15
Single-handed sailor  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:37:27pm

What’s a Waffle House?

16
teleskiguy  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:38:31pm

re: #12 Stanley Sea

Calling Ojoe.

I saw that name in an old R.S. McCain thread tonight. Tonight Charles linked to some old good’uns in his post about Stacy getting the permanent heave-ho from Twitter.

Man, it’s a revealing thing looking through threads from 20friggin09 at LGF and see how much this place has evolved. It’s pretty cool too, ‘cause you can see *very clearly* that this is Charles’ place and if you don’t like it fuck off. It’s been that way, actually, since I first started reading LGF in 2004.

17
retired cynic  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:39:12pm

It’s a short order restaurant chain in the south that has a couple of cooks and a couple of waitresses behind a counter, open 24/7, that serves breakfast all day. Lots of eggs, lots of waffles, lots of coffee.

18
klys (maker of Silmarils)  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:39:34pm

re: #15 Single-handed sailor

What’s a Waffle House?

It’s a Southern thing.

I had no idea, mr. klys insists we go every time we’re back in NC.

19
Stanley Sea  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:40:45pm

re: #17 retired cynic

It’s a short order restaurant chain in the south that has a couple of cooks and a couple of waitresses behind a counter, open 24/7, that serves breakfast all day. Lots of eggs, lots of waffles, lots of coffee.

Quick, good & now retro.

20
teleskiguy  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:41:31pm

re: #15 Single-handed sailor

What’s a Waffle House?

Chunked and smothered! Oh yeah!

21
worldknot  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:42:18pm

re: #13 jaunte

In Atlanta, there are interchanges on I-85 with an Waffle House on each corner. If you peer through binoculars at the nearest location, you will see yourself looking back.

22
retired cynic  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:42:49pm

re: #20 teleskiguy

Grits! Either sweet or savory. There are none close. I have to go down south to get my fix.

23
klys (maker of Silmarils)  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:44:25pm

re: #22 retired cynic

Grits! Either sweet or savory. There are none close. I have to go down south to get my fix.

I am so not a Southerner. I don’t like grits, I don’t like overcooked veggies (or really most veggies cooked), and okra and I aren’t on speaking terms.

24
retired cynic  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:45:38pm

re: #23 klys (maker of Silmarils)

I am so not a Southerner. I don’t like grits, I don’t like overcooked veggies (or really most veggies cooked), and okra and I aren’t on speaking terms.

You can chase me down the street with okra. I like most other veggies, however, from raw to overcooked. No tastebuds, I guess.

25
Stanley Sea  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:45:48pm

re: #23 klys (maker of Silmarils)

I am so not a Southerner. I don’t like grits, I don’t like overcooked veggies (or really most veggies cooked), and okra and I aren’t on speaking terms.

If you go to waffle house, it’s breakfast or a patty melt. No veggies. nah.

26
teleskiguy  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:46:29pm

re: #23 klys (maker of Silmarils)

I am so not a Southerner. I don’t like grits, I don’t like overcooked veggies (or really most veggies cooked), and okra and I aren’t on speaking terms.

Fried Okra is da shizz. And you ain’t had yo’self some grits until you you’ve cooked them in plenty of lard and cheese!

27
retired cynic  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:47:33pm

re: #26 teleskiguy

Fried Okra is da shizz. And you ain’t had yo’self some grits until you you’ve cooked them in plenty of lard and cheese!

You can hold the lard and slather on the butter. Salt and pepper. Oh, my!

28
BeachDem  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:48:37pm

re: #19 Stanley Sea

Quick, good & now retro.

And don’t forget, it’s where a waitress got shot to death over Thanksgiving for asking a guy not to smoke.

sunherald.com

29
teleskiguy  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:49:08pm

I said it, a magic word of mine!!!

LARD

Lard | The Power of Lard

30
retired cynic  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:50:14pm

re: #29 teleskiguy

It does make the best pastry, without doubt.

31
klys (maker of Silmarils)  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:51:27pm

re: #25 Stanley Sea

If you go to waffle house, it’s breakfast or a patty melt. No veggies. nah.

I did a grilled cheese and side salad the last time. >.>

32
teleskiguy  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:51:28pm

re: #29 teleskiguy

Nowadays, most of us need someone to run our personal life.
Someone to see that the plant are watered.
Someone to make sure the place is clean.
Someone to make sure dinner is waiting.
Someone to call for theater tickets.
Some one to make up those cheap excuses.
What we need is Lard!

33
klys (maker of Silmarils)  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:52:22pm

re: #26 teleskiguy

Fried Okra is da shizz. And you ain’t had yo’self some grits until you you’ve cooked them in plenty of lard and cheese!

Grits is absolutely a texture issue. Just not happening.

34
Stanley Sea  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:52:32pm

re: #27 retired cynic

You can hold the lard and slather on the butter. Salt and pepper. Oh, my!

Heart attack in a bowl. I love grits exactly this way.

(I have a box of Albers here in my house. It works just fine)

Butter, S&P
35
teleskiguy  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:54:17pm
The country, right now, it wants to be soothed.
And told it doesn’t have to pay, or sacrifice, or learn.
No one is over the hill, when the mountain comes to Mohammed.
Lard! Lard! Lard!

We love to eat.
We love to pray.
Mold over mind. Hooray!

The Power of Lard!
The Power of Lard!
The Power of Lard!
The Power of Lard!

36
retired cynic  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:55:40pm

re: #35 teleskiguy

Settle!

37
klys (maker of Silmarils)  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:56:20pm

re: #24 retired cynic

You can chase me down the street with okra. I like most other veggies, however, from raw to overcooked. No tastebuds, I guess.

I really like raw veggies.

Dinner tomorrow night will be grilled cheese sandwiches with tomatoes and olive tapenade and then probably an avocado and cucumber salad with feta and balsamic vinegar. Possibly also a kale salad with shredded Brussels sprouts, but that might turn into lunch.

But come at me with cooked kale or Brussels sprouts and I’m really, really iffy.

38
retired cynic  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:57:11pm

re: #37 klys (maker of Silmarils)

Have you tried brussels sprouts steamed in chicken broth? Takes the bitterness out, and they turn sweet.

39
Single-handed sailor  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:57:16pm

I eat okra in jambalaya, it’s better than brussel sprouts. I don’t even like the smell of those things cooking in the house.

40
klys (maker of Silmarils)  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:58:12pm

re: #38 retired cynic

Have you tried brussels sprouts steamed in chicken broth? Takes the bitterness out, and they turn sweet.

I can do them shredded and pan-sauteed. In bacon grease, which probably covers lots of sins.

Roasted or steamed is still …iffy. I’ll have to keep that in mind though.

41
Charles Johnson  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:58:46pm

By the way, I replaced the video in this article with a much shorter clip of just the segment in question.

42
klys (maker of Silmarils)  Feb 22, 2016 • 9:59:15pm

re: #41 Charles Johnson

I suspect Brussels sprouts are probably still preferable to the clip in question.

43
retired cynic  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:01:04pm

re: #41 Charles Johnson

By the way, I replaced the video in this article with a much shorter clip of just the segment in question.

Thank you, kind sir!

44
BeachDem  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:01:08pm
45
Stanley Sea  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:01:19pm

I want grits. Will prob make tomorrow.

When I was down South over the holidays, I had shrimp & grits probably 4 times. Every time it was on menu I ordered. Grits every breakfast when at a restaurant.

I miss it terribly. But I do love rice & beans.

Same/different

46
retired cynic  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:04:19pm

re: #41 Charles Johnson

By the way, I replaced the video in this article with a much shorter clip of just the segment in question.

I am so tempted: I wanna punch that audience in the face. He’s playing to them. And I have never punched anyone in the face in my life, but if someone would hold them still, I’d be willing to give it a try.

47
klys (maker of Silmarils)  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:04:20pm

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

48
Cheechako  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:06:11pm

I’ll never eat at a Wafffle House ever again. Stopped at one North of Denver at 10 pm on Christmas eve one year. Only place open. The cook had all the eggs lined up on the lip of the exhaust vent. Guess he wanted to warm them up. Bug city.

49
goddamnedfrank  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:06:12pm

re: #45 Stanley Sea

I want grits. Will prob make tomorrow.

When I was down South over the holidays, I had shrimp & grits probably 4 times. Every time it was on menu I ordered. Grits every breakfast when at a restaurant.

I miss it terribly. But I do love rice & beans.

Same/different

Better than Bouillon has a really great looking Brazilian Shrimp and Grits recipe on their website.

Better than Bouillon is BETTER than bouillon!

I swear I’m gonna start a new religion, and its doctrine is going to be constructed entirely around that stuff.

50
Stanley Sea  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:08:48pm

re: #49 goddamnedfrank

Better than Bouillon has a really great looking Brazilian Shrimp and Grits recipe on their website.

Better than Bouillon is BETTER than bouillon!

I swear I’m gonna start a new religion, and its doctrine is going to be constructed entirely around that stuff.

I have the Better than Bouillon chicken & clam in me fridge. The clam was extremely successful with a chowder I attempted. Checking the grit recipe.

51
klys (maker of Silmarils)  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:10:07pm

re: #50 Stanley Sea

I have the Better than Bouillon chicken & clam in me fridge. The clam was extremely successful with a chowder I attempted. Checking the grit recipe.

I have the mushroom and roasted garlic ones in the fridge and should actually do something with it.

52
klys (maker of Silmarils)  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:10:49pm

re: #48 Cheechako

I’ll never eat at a Wafffle House ever again. Stopped at one North of Denver at 10 pm on Christmas eve one year. Only place open. The cook had all the eggs lined up on the lip of the exhaust vent. Guess he wanted to warm them up. Bug city.

My husband, bless his soul, would argue that to some extent that is the charm of Waffle House.

53
Stanley Sea  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:11:17pm

re: #51 klys (maker of Silmarils)

I have the mushroom and roasted garlic ones in the fridge and should actually do something with it.

Definitely. That stuff is pure.

54
klys (maker of Silmarils)  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:11:45pm

re: #53 Stanley Sea

Definitely. That stuff is pure.

I am on jars #2 of the chicken and beef. I know of what you speak.

55
retired cynic  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:12:20pm

re: #48 Cheechako

I’ll never eat at a Wafffle House ever again. Stopped at one North of Denver at 10 pm on Christmas eve one year. Only place open. The cook had all the eggs lined up on the lip of the exhaust vent. Guess he wanted to warm them up. Bug city.

Good lord, that’s what’s wrong. North of Denver? I have never seen an order cooked at a Waffle House that wasn’t cooked when you ordered it. I don’t see how they could stay open!

56
goddamnedfrank  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:16:47pm

re: #50 Stanley Sea

I have the Better than Bouillon chicken & clam in me fridge. The clam was extremely successful with a chowder I attempted. Checking the grit recipe.

Recipe calls for fist base, which I found at Albertson’s. I’ve made the following recipes off the website so far:
New England Clam Chowder
Lobster Bisque
Chicken Noodle Soup
Shells and Shrimp with Garlic Wine Lobster Sauce (subbed in capers for peas ‘cuz seriously, fuck peas.)
French Onion Soup (used chili bowls to melt the slice cheese in the broiler.)

They’ve all been super amazeballs.

57
retired cynic  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:16:59pm

The LGF Cooking Hour, presenting Lard, Grits and Better than Bouillon.

58
klys (maker of Silmarils)  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:17:29pm

re: #56 goddamnedfrank

Recipe calls for fist base, which I found at Albertson’s. I’ve made the following recipes off the website so far:
New England Clam Chowder
Lobster Bisque
Chicken Noodle Soup
Shells and Shrimp with Garlic Wine Lobster Sauce (subbed in capers for peas ‘cuz seriously, fuck peas.)
French Onion Soup (used chili bowls to melt the slice cheese in the broiler.)

They’ve all been super amazeballs.

Duh, everyone knows that peas are for guacamole.

59
goddamnedfrank  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:18:50pm

re: #56 goddamnedfrank

Also, I’ve used the Au Jus base to make Au Jus for roast beef sammiches.

60
retired cynic  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:20:57pm

re: #59 goddamnedfrank

OK, I give in. I’ll go get some! (Can I cook my grits in it?) /

61
klys (maker of Silmarils)  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:21:33pm

re: #59 goddamnedfrank

Also, I’ve use the Au Jus base to make Au Jus for roast beef sammiches.

mr. klys would just make this and drink it. Straight.

We didn’t get to Philippe’s this trip to LA because sister-klys is a vegetarian, but. Next trip. Again. >.>

62
goddamnedfrank  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:22:52pm

So much for the government’s request being a “one time only” thing.

63
Stanley Sea  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:24:04pm

re: #57 retired cynic

The LGF Cooking Hour, presenting Lard, Grits and Better than Bouillon.

Juante, we need new cover art.

Have you all seen the LGF cookbooks? Juante did the artwork, which beats the recipes, which are fab.

Roasted troll buttocks
64
Cheechako  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:25:56pm

re: #52 klys (maker of Silmarils)

My husband, bless his soul, would argue that to some extent that is the charm of Waffle House.

Nah…just a place to get food poisoning. Plus the place was filthy not only with dirt but with some very unsavory characters hanging around.

65
klys (maker of Silmarils)  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:26:18pm

re: #63 Stanley Sea

I have notes from when I talked about doing another round of it, but life happened and it hasn’t gone anywhere yet.

66
goddamnedfrank  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:26:52pm

re: #61 klys (maker of Silmarils)

mr. klys would just make this and drink it. Straight.

You totally could it’s that good. I probably would except the sodium level is pretty up there, which is something I’m supposed to at least nominally monitor.

67
Cheechako  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:27:16pm

re: #55 retired cynic

Good lord, that’s what’s wrong. North of Denver? I have never seen an order cooked at a Waffle House that wasn’t cooked when you ordered it. I don’t see how they could stay open!

i almost replied.

68
klys (maker of Silmarils)  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:27:20pm

re: #66 goddamnedfrank

You totally could it’s that good. I probably would except the sodium level is pretty up there, which is something I’m supposed to at least nominally monitor.

God help me when that happens.

69
teleskiguy  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:29:30pm

re: #47 klys (maker of Silmarils)

Hey Charles, Instagram embeds??

I feel ya, klys. I have an Instagram where I’m skiing and all of a sudden MOOSE!!!

Poor fuckers were up to their armpits in snow.

70
Stanley Sea  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:30:36pm

re: #63 Stanley Sea

I knew I had the spelling wrong.
Jaunte.

Forgives.

71
goddamnedfrank  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:31:32pm

re: #68 klys (maker of Silmarils)

God help me when that happens.

My high blood pressure is idiopathic and super controlled with medication, but as it’s the only real health hiccup I’ve encountered so far I try to listen to my cardiologist and not go out of my way to piss them off.

72
klys (maker of Silmarils)  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:33:02pm

re: #71 goddamnedfrank

My high blood pressure is idiopathic and super controlled with medication, but as it’s the only real health hiccup I’ve encountered so far I try to listen to my cardiologist and not go out of my way to piss them off.

There is a family history and so I am paranoid and doing my best to be in healthy shape (my cholesterol numbers were fucking fantastic at my last check-up) because I am the person who enjoys the entire salt rim of the margarita.

And then tackles the one on mr. klys’s glass as well.

73
SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:33:19pm

re: #62 goddamnedfrank

So much for the government’s request being a “one time only” thing.

[Embedded content]

Never heard or expected that it was to be a one time only thing.

74
Stanley Sea  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:34:15pm

xxxxxxxxxxxxxooooooooooo

75
goddamnedfrank  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:35:38pm

re: #72 klys (maker of Silmarils)

There is a family history and so I am paranoid and doing my best to be in healthy shape (my cholesterol numbers were fucking fantastic at my last check-up) because I am the person who enjoys the entire salt rim of the margarita.

And then tackles the one on mr. klys’s glass as well.

My problem is cheese. It’s just amazing how much sodium is in cheese.

SO unfair.

76
klys (maker of Silmarils)  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:36:09pm

re: #75 goddamnedfrank

My problem is cheese. It’s just amazing how much sodium is in cheese.

SO unfair.

No.

No no no no no no no.

NO.

New reason to stay in shape.

77
Stanley Sea  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:36:43pm

Cheese is the devil.

78
klys (maker of Silmarils)  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:37:20pm

re: #77 Stanley Sea

Cheese is the devil.

If by “the devil” you mean “to my ability to stay on track for weight loss,” yes, yes it is.

79
Stanley Sea  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:40:41pm

re: #78 klys (maker of Silmarils)

If by “the devil” you mean “to my ability to stay on track for weight loss,” yes, yes it is.

It is the best, bad, wonderful thing you cannot ever live without = the devil

Check this ultimate decadent mac & cheese recipe I’m going to make

kitchenistadiaries.com

80
Stanley Sea  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:42:31pm

I missed the beginning. Better Call Saul is great. Seeing Mike again is everything.

81
goddamnedfrank  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:43:13pm

re: #73 SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN

Never heard or expected that it was to be a one time only thing.

Comey definitely gave that impression.

The FBI is resorting to the courts to force Apple to unlock the San Bernardino gunman’s iPhone not to “set a precedent or send any kind of message,” but to conduct a complete investigation, FBI Director James Comey said Sunday.

In a plainspoken statement, Comey said that the scale of the San Bernardino attacks, which left 14 people dead and 22 people injured warranted the pursuit of all leads, including reviewing Syed Rizwan Farook’s iPhone 5c.

“I hope folks will take a deep breath and stop saying the world is ending, but instead use that breath to talk to each other,” Comey said.

“We simply want the chance, with a search warrant, to try to guess the terrorist’s passcode without the phone essentially self-destructing and without it taking a decade to guess correctly. That’s it,” Comey said. “We don’t want to break anyone’s encryption or set a master key loose on the land.”

…

“The government suggests this tool could only be used once, on one phone. But that’s simply not true,” Cook wrote. “Once created, the technique could be used over and over again, on any number of devices. In the physical world, it would be the equivalent of a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks — from restaurants and banks to stores and homes. No reasonable person would find that acceptable.”

The U.S. attorney’s office responded by filing a motion to compel Apple’s compliance with the judge’s order. The government said it was not asking for a “master key” to Apple’s phones but for software that opened this particular iPhone. Once created, the government said, Apple could keep the software and destroy it after the phone was unlocked.

82
goddamnedfrank  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:44:34pm

re: #77 Stanley Sea

Cheese is the devil.

The nasty, sexy, delicious, ripe devil.

I really have a problem.

83
Kragar  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:45:12pm
84
Stanley Sea  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:47:44pm

re: #83 Kragar

[Embedded content]

Beautiful.

85
goddamnedfrank  Feb 22, 2016 • 10:53:42pm

re: #81 goddamnedfrank

The government said it was not asking for a “master key” to Apple’s phones but for software that opened this particular iPhone. Once created, the government said, Apple could keep the software and destroy it after the phone was unlocked.

This is pretty disingenuous when you consider that the phone is in federal government custody and (the way I understand the order) they want an OS image (with security features disabled) that can boot the device from a external flash memory and that will allow rapid, unlimited, automated attempts to ender the password. Even if Apple destroys their copy of the OS after giving it to the government the government can just give it back in the future and order Apple to modify it to run on other devices.

Any way you slice it they really are working to wedge their foot in the door and keep it there.

86
Eclectic Cyborg  Feb 22, 2016 • 11:00:39pm

re: #85 goddamnedfrank

And it wouldn’t surprise me for a second if the courts side with the government on this.

87
goddamnedfrank  Feb 22, 2016 • 11:12:07pm

re: #86 Eclectic Cyborg

And it wouldn’t surprise me for a second if the courts side with the government on this.

Apple’s best hope is the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, but I don’t see even the liberals on the Supreme Court supporting them vs the FBI on an anti-terrorist hunt. Going forward they may have to implement the security features unassailably in hardware, make all communication via the cell and wifi antennas, charge via induction and seal any future iPhone models shut with epoxy, like an Apricorn Aegis Padlock Drive. This would essentially turn the iPhone into a throw away device if anything at all goes wrong with it, but it’s not far from that already.

If I had to guess I’d say that’s exactly what they’re going to do, make it are hardware requirement that a phone MUST be turned on and the correct password entered manually before it will accept any other input or power up its antennas. Then they’ll make the hardware itself physically inaccessible without destroying the device.

88
Stanley Sea  Feb 22, 2016 • 11:12:09pm

Night ya’ll. The Better Call Saul ended & then replayed. I get to catch the beginning.

It’s an excellent show. Keeping my ass up too late though.

89
goddamnedfrank  Feb 22, 2016 • 11:27:47pm
90
klys (maker of Silmarils)  Feb 22, 2016 • 11:32:43pm

I’m going back to the food discussion. Diced cucumber and avocado with feta cheese, salt, and balsamic vinegar. Yum.

91
Kragar  Feb 23, 2016 • 12:01:52am

“I was actually referencing the papacy. And what I wrote after that ‘do your research,’ if you read the Geneva Bible, which is the Bible I use when we study, the commentary is - actually by the founders of the United States actually, the Protestant Church - their commentary references the papacy as the anti-Christ,” DeLemus said.

92
wheat-dogghazi-mailgate  Feb 23, 2016 • 12:15:39am

re: #91 Kragar

[Embedded content]

The Protestant Church ≠ The Founders of the USA. One tiny detail

93
Kragar  Feb 23, 2016 • 12:22:56am

re: #92 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate

The Protestant Church ≠ The Founders of the USA. One tiny detail

Next you’re going to try and say Baby Jesus didn’t fly down from heaven and hand the Constitution to the Founding Fathers.

94
The Ghost of Bork Bork Bork Bork  Feb 23, 2016 • 12:27:57am

re: #90 klys (maker of Silmarils)

I’m going back to the food discussion. Diced cucumber and avocado with feta cheese, salt, and balsamic vinegar. Yum.

Blood oranges, butter lettuce, and avocado with a dressing of garlic, red chili, fish sauce, lime juice, sugar; garnished with peanuts and crispy shallots.

95
wheat-dogghazi-mailgate  Feb 23, 2016 • 12:28:23am

re: #93 Kragar

Next you’re going to try and say Baby Jesus didn’t fly down from heaven and hand the Constitution to the Founding Fathers.

Call me crazy, but I kinda doubt it happened that way. I think it was found under a rock somewhere, written in some arcane language. French maybe. Anyway, the founders translated it into English, argued a bit about some sticking points, signed it, and Bam! The USA was born!

96
Single-handed sailor  Feb 23, 2016 • 12:40:31am
97
jsrtheta  Feb 23, 2016 • 12:43:34am

re: #18 klys (maker of Silmarils)

Don’t you be dissing Waffle House. I’m from Boston, and I loves me some Waffle House.

Trump, nowhere near as much.

98
wheat-dogghazi-mailgate  Feb 23, 2016 • 12:50:44am

re: #96 Single-handed sailor

Embedded Image

In 17th century English, no less.

99
Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Feb 23, 2016 • 1:23:07am

re: #98 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate

In 17th century English, no less.

I guess there are people who believe that the King James Bible is divinely inspired and the only BIble you can trust.

100
Amory Blaine  Feb 23, 2016 • 1:23:45am

Green Grass and High Tides

101
Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Feb 23, 2016 • 1:24:51am

re: #100 Amory Blaine

After Lynrd Skynrd bit the dust, this was one of those southern guitar bands that stepped in to fill the void.

102
Amory Blaine  Feb 23, 2016 • 1:31:57am

Bad Romance Acoustic Piano

103
Decatur Deb  Feb 23, 2016 • 2:03:50am

Skipped over last night’s Snark Puppy—glad I went back. Made me think of Art Blakey.

Youtube Video

104
wheat-dogghazi-mailgate  Feb 23, 2016 • 2:30:55am

re: #99 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)

I guess there are people who believe that the King James Bible is divinely inspired and the only BIble you can trust.

The truly hardcore reject even the NAV and NIV, and some Catholics only trust the Vulgate.

105
Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Feb 23, 2016 • 2:35:11am

re: #104 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate

The truly hardcore reject even the NAV and NIV, and some Catholics only trust the Vulgate.

In other words, there is no reasoning with these people, we can only hope to limit the amount of damage they cause to education, politics and science.

106
wheat-dogghazi-mailgate  Feb 23, 2016 • 2:38:05am

re: #105 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)

It will take constant vigilance, because they are fanatical and well organized.

107
Ming5000  Feb 23, 2016 • 2:39:32am

re: #10 teleskiguy

I am beginning to imagine Trump planning a true political organization so that he can keep the game going long term. Right now the whole thing is just “Trump”. But, what if there were a whole slate of down ticket Congressional, state, etc., candidates? This idea must be bandied about on the private jet and in the hotel suites.
Something like, “I am making America Great Again at a national level. Now I want to transform America ROOT AND BRANCH!” (as they like to say)

Has anyone heard of another candidate mimicking the Trump style and talking points?

What would the Trump party be called?

108
goddamnedfrank  Feb 23, 2016 • 2:43:15am

Reading the proposed CA expansion of the Assault Weapon law and the way it’s written it even bans low capacity 3 and 4 round capacity semi-auto hunting rifles like the Browning BAR, Benelli R1, Remington Woodmaster and the out of production HK 940 I just put money down on.

I’m not sure what to say, I don’t want to oppose intelligent gun control efforts but this is so broad, and totally ignores the concealability of handguns. Basically the change makes it so any semi auto centerfire rifle with a detachable magazine is bad, no matter how small its capacity or if it was designed for hunting and only ever marketed for that purpose. However any semi auto rifle with a ten round or less fixed internal mag is okay even if it was explicitly designed for warfare, and can be reloaded super fast like the Garand and the M1941 Johnson.

109
wheat-dogghazi-mailgate  Feb 23, 2016 • 2:44:26am

re: #107 Ming5000

I am beginning to imagine Trump planning a true political organization so that he can keep the game going long term. Right now the whole thing is just “Trump”. But, what if there were a whole slate of down ticket Congressional, state, etc., candidates? This idea must be bandied about on the private jet and in the hotel suites.
Something like, “I am making America Great Again at a national level. Now I want to transform America ROOT AND BRANCH!” (as they like to say)

Has anyone heard of another candidate mimicking the Trump style and talking points?

What would the Trump party be called?

Thing about Trump is he could care less about the downticket, or the rest of the GOP. He’s in this purely for self-aggrandizement.

If anyone did organize a Trumpish national machine, it would be a truly scary thing.

110
goddamnedfrank  Feb 23, 2016 • 2:44:31am

re: #107 Ming5000

I am beginning to imagine Trump planning a true political organization so that he can keep the game going long term. Right now the whole thing is just “Trump”. But, what if there were a whole slate of down ticket Congressional, state, etc., candidates? This idea must be bandied about on the private jet and in the hotel suites.
Something like, “I am making America Great Again at a national level. Now I want to transform America ROOT AND BRANCH!” (as they like to say)

Has anyone heard of another candidate mimicking the Trump style and talking points?

What would the Trump party be called?

The Chameleon Party. It looks like whatever it feels it needs to in the moment.

111
wheat-dogghazi-mailgate  Feb 23, 2016 • 2:46:40am

The YUUUGE! party.

112
wheat-dogghazi-mailgate  Feb 23, 2016 • 2:53:43am

Happy Birthday, Georg Fridrich Handel!

Handel: Water Music, Suite I

113
goddamnedfrank  Feb 23, 2016 • 2:53:51am

The thing about Trump’s candidacy is that it’s a classic cult of personality built entirely around one man and his cancer riddled ego. It’s also what Umberto Eco described as Ur Fascism, but like fascism in Italy and Germany it’s inextricably tied to the worship of one man. Therefore it’s hard to imagine too many others really managing to franchise this mixture of bravado, scapegoating racism, clownshoes sexist machismo and drunk on power swagger. Out of all the things you can point to the religious intolerance towards Muslims is probably the one thing others will really be able to capitalize on. The other kinds of anti-immigrant, specifically anti-Mexican sentiment I think were really a horrible quagmire that Trump wandered into before he got a solid grasp on who the GOP base really wanted to hate.

114
Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Feb 23, 2016 • 2:57:29am

re: #106 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate

It will take constant vigilance, because they are fanatical and well organized.

and they are out to turn back all the progress we have made in the past 50 years in personal freedoms, women’s, minority and LGBT rights as well as worker safety and environmental protections. And they want to continue the erosion of labor rights we have seen since then, too.

115
Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Feb 23, 2016 • 2:58:15am

re: #112 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate

Happy Birthday, Georg Fridrich Handel!

[Embedded content]

Doncha just wanna grab one of lad’s Handels?

/

116
Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Feb 23, 2016 • 2:59:55am

re: #113 goddamnedfrank

Trump listened to the Tea Party when they said that they were not affiliated with any party, they simply tended to support the GOP because it contained some candidates who promoted their agenda.

DT realized that the TP was ready to turn on anyone it did not approve of, and stepped up to become their champion and spokesperson.

117
No Depression  Feb 23, 2016 • 3:02:22am

re: #107 Ming5000

I am beginning to imagine Trump planning a true political organization so that he can keep the game going long term. Right now the whole thing is just “Trump”. But, what if there were a whole slate of down ticket Congressional, state, etc., candidates? This idea must be bandied about on the private jet and in the hotel suites.
Something like, “I am making America Great Again at a national level. Now I want to transform America ROOT AND BRANCH!” (as they like to say)

Has anyone heard of another candidate mimicking the Trump style and talking points?

What would the Trump party be called?

Orange Dawn.

118
wheat-dogghazi-mailgate  Feb 23, 2016 • 3:04:14am

re: #114 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)

and they are out to turn back all the progress we have made in the past 50 years in personal freedoms, women’s, minority and LGBT rights as well as worker safety and environmental protections. And they want to continue the erosion of labor rights we have seen since then, too.

More like a 100 years, because they’re not too keen on women having the vote.

119
Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Feb 23, 2016 • 3:05:32am

re: #118 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate

More like a 100 years, because they’re not too keen on women having the vote.

They would have a hard time rolling that one back, but they sure wanna see Roe v. Wade and the Civil Rights Act overturned and repealed, as well as abolishing the EPA and OSHA.

120
goddamnedfrank  Feb 23, 2016 • 3:06:53am

re: #116 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)

Trump listened to the Tea Party when they said that they were not affiliated with any party, they simply tended to support the GOP because it contained some candidates who promoted their agenda.

DT realized that the TP was ready to turn on anyone it did not approve of, and stepped up to become their champion and spokesperson.

What he realized was that the Tea Party was deep down was a culturally revanchist and white nationalist reaction to the election of a black President with a foreign sounding name. Everything he’s done has been to exploit disaffected white, mostly male angst over not being able to put black people, brown people, women and gays in their place anymore. It’s entirely about a people who were raised to believe they were the Übermensch raging over their perceived loss of a rightful inheritance.

121
wheat-dogghazi-mailgate  Feb 23, 2016 • 3:07:36am

re: #119 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)

They would have a hard time rolling that one back, but they sure wanna see Roe v. Wade and the Civil Rights Act overturned and repealed.

Plus school prayer, bans on contraception, censorship of art, music, TV, films, etc.

122
Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Feb 23, 2016 • 3:10:59am

re: #120 goddamnedfrank

What he realized was that the Tea Party was deep down was a culturally revanchist and white nationalist reaction to the election of a black President with a foreign sounding name. Everything he’s done has been to exploit disaffected white, mostly male angst over not being able to put black people, brown people, women and gays in their place anymore. It’s entirely about a people who were raised to believe they were the Übermensch raging over their perceived loss of a rightful inheritance.

Exactly. Conservatives could have held Obama up as proof that the American Dream works: anyone who studies hard and applies themselves can achieve even the highest office in the nation. And that in itself is one of the big conservative arguments: individual initiative and effort as the determining factor in success

But that would have involved at least some degree of indirect praise for Obama, and they could not bring themselves to recognize that. Instead they made him out to be some sort of affirmative action privileged schemer who got elected as a result of “buying” votes by offering free stuff to freeloaders.

123
wheat-dogghazi-mailgate  Feb 23, 2016 • 3:11:39am

re: #120 goddamnedfrank

What he realized was that the Tea Party was deep down was a culturally revanchist and white nationalist reaction to the election of a black President with a foreign sounding name. Everything he’s done has been to exploit disaffected white, mostly male angst over not being able to put black people, brown people, women and gays in their place anymore. It’s entirely about a people who were raised to believe they were the Übermensch raging over their perceived loss of a rightful inheritance.

Obama’s election really made it clear to these people that the days of their dominance are over. In fact, the waning of their influence has been happening for decades. Obama was just the culmination of that erosion. A woman as president will drive them even more nuts.

124
Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Feb 23, 2016 • 3:13:38am

re: #123 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate

Obama’s election really made it clear to these people that the days of their dominance are over. In fact, the waning of their influence has been happening for decades. Obama was just the culmination of that erosion. A woman as president will drive them even more nuts.

Yeah, I am afraid that when Hillary gets the nomination, I will have to give up my favorite pastime, namely following politics, as it will get way to shrill and ugly. Even compared to the current state of hideousness.

125
wheat-dogghazi-mailgate  Feb 23, 2016 • 3:15:41am

re: #123 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate

Or rather I should say Obama’s election was the culmination of the very purpose of the American Republic — that anyone can become president, even if he or she is not one of the privileged classes.

126
wheat-dogghazi-mailgate  Feb 23, 2016 • 3:17:41am

re: #124 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)

The MRA pigs will have someone else to focus their hate on.

127
Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Feb 23, 2016 • 3:17:57am

re: #125 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate

Or rather I should say Obama’s election was the culmination of the very purpose of the American Republic — that anyone can become president, even if he or she is not one of the privileged classes.

But most conservatives turned out to be too cussed, ornery and racist to admit it.

128
goddamnedfrank  Feb 23, 2016 • 3:18:37am

re: #123 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate

Obama’s election really made it clear to these people that the days of their dominance are over. In fact, the waning of their influence has been happening for decades. Obama was just the culmination of that erosion. A woman as president will drive them even more nuts.

Hillary as President will definitely drive many of them to open displays of violence. They will have been fed a steady, mythological, 24 year diet of how evil she is. But the scariest scenario is Trump as President, that would open a floodgate of violence that might actually tear the country completely apart. He can’t possibly hold onto power without giving his base the Muslim and Mexican bodycount they crave, and by instituting a horribly repressive police state.

If Trump wins there will be pig blood.

129
wheat-dogghazi-mailgate  Feb 23, 2016 • 3:19:48am

re: #127 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)

But most conservatives turned out to be too cussed, ornery and racist to admit it.

Indeed. And they should be ashamed, but instead they just make it worse.

130
Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Feb 23, 2016 • 3:20:38am

re: #128 goddamnedfrank

My concern, especially if Trump goes 3rd party, is that Hillary will not receive a clear popular mandate and no Electoral College votes at all in broad swathes of the country.

Then things will really start to look like 1860.

131
wheat-dogghazi-mailgate  Feb 23, 2016 • 3:21:50am

re: #128 goddamnedfrank

Hillary as President will definitely drive many of them to open displays of violence. They will have been fed a steady, mythological, 24 year diet of how evil she is. But the scariest scenario is Trump as President, that would open a floodgate of violence that might actually tear the country completely apart. He can’t possibly hold onto power without giving his base the Muslim and Mexican bodycount they crave, and by instituting a horribly repressive police state.

If Trump wins there will be pig blood.

Trump or Cruz as POTUS scares me shitless.

132
Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Feb 23, 2016 • 3:27:45am

re: #131 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate

Trump or Cruz as POTUS scares me shitless.

I think it will take nothing less than a major natural and/or man-made catastrophe on or near the general election to get either one of those idiots into office, but it cannot be ruled out, which is scary enough…

133
wheat-dogghazi-mailgate  Feb 23, 2016 • 3:31:16am

Found on Twitter.

134
Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Feb 23, 2016 • 4:01:17am

re: #133 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate

Found on Twitter.

A Ted Cruz supporter just told me that they’ve taken cursive writing out of schools because the Constitution is written in cursive.

I have issues with taking cursive writing off school curricula, but not Constitutional issues.

135
wheat-dogghazi-mailgate  Feb 23, 2016 • 4:17:06am

re: #134 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)

I have issues with taking cursive writing off school curricula, but not Constitutional issues.

I suspect cursive was cut to make room for more test prep.

136
Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Feb 23, 2016 • 4:19:00am

re: #135 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate

I suspect cursive was cut to make room for more test prep.

exactly. but passive-aggressive post-it notes are so much more threatening when done in a meticulously neat cursive…

137
Barefoot Grin  Feb 23, 2016 • 4:22:42am

re: #21 worldknot

In Atlanta, there are interchanges on I-85 with an Waffle House on each corner. If you peer through binoculars at the nearest location, you will see yourself looking back.

We used to go to the Majestic late at night on Ponce de Leon. It was good (I think).

138
Barefoot Grin  Feb 23, 2016 • 4:26:55am

re: #83 Kragar

[Embedded content]

I saw that at 3:15 this morning. Lately I’m waking up at this time and start thinking about money and not having enough for retirement and for the kids’ college and for the new used car we have to buy because someone hit me and their insurance company declared my car a total loss and…. So this really took my mind off of my own problems for a few minutes. Why they have that loudmouth Harry Houck on I have no idea.

139
The Vicious Babushka  Feb 23, 2016 • 4:33:55am

re: #90 klys (maker of Silmarils)

I’m going back to the food discussion. Diced cucumber and avocado with feta cheese, salt, and balsamic vinegar. Yum.

That’s my lunch today. Also with: romaine lettuce, baby spinach, grape tomatoes, black olives and pepperoncini.

140
Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Feb 23, 2016 • 4:34:05am

re: #138 Barefoot Grin

I saw that at 3:15 this morning. Lately I’m waking up at this time and start thinking about money and not having enough for retirement and for the kids’ college and for the new used car we have to buy because someone hit me and their insurance company declared my car a total loss and…. So this really took my mind off of my own problems for a few minutes. Why they have that loudmouth Harry Houck on I have no idea.

How anybody could watch that Beyonce show and see anything other than a lot of hellacious booty on parade is beyond me, or does that make me sexist instead of racist?

141
The Vicious Babushka  Feb 23, 2016 • 4:36:29am

re: #104 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate

The truly hardcore reject even the NAV and NIV, and some Catholics only trust the Vulgate.

TaNa”Kh or GTFO!

142
goddamnedfrank  Feb 23, 2016 • 4:39:10am

re: #140 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)

How anybody could watch that Beyonce show and see anything other than a lot of hellacious booty on parade is beyond me, or does that make me sexist instead of racist?

What’s wrong with being sexy?
143
Barefoot Grin  Feb 23, 2016 • 4:39:12am

re: #140 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)

How anybody could watch that Beyonce show and see anything other than a lot of hellacious booty on parade is beyond me, or does that make me sexist instead of racist?

I’m far from a prude, and I thought the SB show was indeed sexy. But the video is also a powerful statement. And the commentator from Ebony who said basically “without police brutality you don’t have a Black Panthers” was right on; Harry could only blather about cop killers.

144
Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Feb 23, 2016 • 4:41:51am

So I guess the dispute is over the fact that the Super Bowl is supposed to be all about mindless escapism sprinkled with a bit of pro-American propaganda and Beyonce’s show kind of disrupted that accepted format?

145
Patricia Kayden  Feb 23, 2016 • 4:50:35am

re: #10 teleskiguy

Will the Republican Party tear itself apart and go the way of the Whigs? It’s a question that I’ve been pondering.

No. Republicans may not be able to win Presidential elections but they’re doing great at the state and local levels. Even my blue state of Maryland now has a Republican Governor because Democratic voters sat out the mid-terms in 2014. In fact, sitting out mid-terms in 2010 is why we have a gerrymandered Republican-dominated House.

146
Jay C  Feb 23, 2016 • 4:52:17am

re: #130 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)

My concern, especially if Trump goes 3rd party, is that Hillary will not receive a clear popular mandate and no Electoral College votes at all in broad swathes of the country.

Then things will really start to look like 1860.

Probably more like 1912.

147
Kent Dorfman  Feb 23, 2016 • 4:53:44am

re: #131 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate

We shall survive.

The Simpsons - Two party system | Treehouse of Horror

148
Rocky-in-Connecticut  Feb 23, 2016 • 4:53:52am

I can tell already it’s probably going to be a Trump/Rubio ticket. So, we will have a violence-touting wild haired open fascist supported by a robotic talking point dispenser….and 25%-35% or so of the country automatically voting for them no matter what.

25%-35% of this country is verifiably Insane.

149
Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Feb 23, 2016 • 4:54:36am

re: #146 Jay C

Probably more like 1912.

They are going to start impeachment proceedings against Hillary the second she is nominated. And if she fails to gain a clear majority of the popular vote, they will also contest the validity of her mandate (no point in bringing up Bush in 2000 here) and use it as further ammunition.

150
Dr. Matt  Feb 23, 2016 • 4:57:58am

Has the butthurt #FreeStacy cult started their “boycott” of twitter yet?

151
Joe Bacon  Feb 23, 2016 • 4:58:17am

re: #145 Patricia Kayden

No. Republicans may not be able to win Presidential elections but they’re doing great at the state and local levels. Even my blue state of Maryland now has a Republican Governor because Democratic voters sat out the mid-terms in 2014. In fact, sitting out mid-terms in 2010 is why we have a gerrymandered Republican-dominated House.

It all depends on whether or not the Kochs and their fellow pimp billionaires derail Trump. If there is an open convention where no candidate has a majority and the Kochs draft Romney to run again I expect a meltdown on the convention floor. I game 3 scenarios, either 1)They could conceivably split into 3 factions—Jesus, Wall Street and Libertarians. 2) Or there could be a rerun of 1912 where Roosevelt bolted and ran as a Progressive. 3) There’s also the 1964 scenario if Trump is nominated and “moderate” Republicans sit out or vote Democratic.

152
Patricia Kayden  Feb 23, 2016 • 4:59:15am

re: #149 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)

They are going to start impeachment proceedings against Hillary the second she is nominated. And if she fails to gain a clear majority of the popular vote, they will also contest the validity of her mandate (no point in bringing up Bush in 2000 here) and use it as further ammunition.

Republicans would have to keep the Senate for meaningful impeachment proceedings though and that’s not a given. Plus, threatening to impeach every Democratic President has gotten old.

153
MomSense  Feb 23, 2016 • 5:00:19am

re: #4 danarchy

The problem for people like that commenter is that the location of heaven is too specific. It sits in a flat place on top of the dome covering the flat earth. If there is no dome then the rest of what some people believe literally cannot be true.

154
Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Feb 23, 2016 • 5:00:20am

re: #152 Patricia Kayden

Republicans would have to keep the Senate for meaningful impeachment proceedings though and that’s not a given. Plus, threatening to impeach every Democratic President has gotten old.

Voting against ACA never got old…

Threatening to shut down the government over every budget bill never got old…

Benghazi never got old…

155
wheat-dogghazi-mailgate  Feb 23, 2016 • 5:01:40am

re: #154 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)

Voting against ACA never got old…

Threatening to shut down the government over every budget bill never got old…

Benghazi never got old…

In fact, they specialize in old.

156
Dr. Matt  Feb 23, 2016 • 5:01:57am
157
Patricia Kayden  Feb 23, 2016 • 5:01:59am

re: #154 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)

But aren’t you surprised then that they haven’t moved to impeach our current President? For what is a side question. They’d find a reason.

158
Joe Bacon  Feb 23, 2016 • 5:02:11am

re: #148 Rocky-in-Connecticut

I can tell already it’s probably going to be a Trump/Rubio ticket. So, we will have a violence-touting wild haired open fascist supported by a robotic talking point dispenser….and 25%-35% or so of the country automatically voting for them no matter what.

25%-35% of this country is verifiably Insane.

I don’t see a Trump/Rubio ticket. The “Trumpettes” won’t take to kindly to that. It could be a Trump/Ryan, Trump/Thune, Trump/Cornyn or Trump/McCarthy ticket.

159
Patricia Kayden  Feb 23, 2016 • 5:03:07am

re: #158 Joe Bacon

Trump/Palin for the win! A Democratic win.

160
MomSense  Feb 23, 2016 • 5:03:31am

re: #9 worldknot

In Maine we have a background check question on the ballot. They showed up at the polls last time with video cameras to capture people signing the qualifying petitions. We are literally worried they will show up with weapons this time, especially since they no longer even need a conceal carry permit. Ugh.

161
Danack  Feb 23, 2016 • 5:03:41am

re: #148 Rocky-in-Connecticut

I can tell already it’s probably going to be a Trump/Rubio ticket.

You’re probably right……but I can’t help but think that whoever is Trump’s VP is going to be in for a world of humiliation.

Trump doesn’t have a long term plan or set of policies that he wants to get implemented. He’s just throwing out red meat to his audience based on what his instincts are telling him to say.

Co-ordinating that with a VP is going to be …difficult. TBH I doubt Trump will even have the patience to sit down and instruct any VP pick in what Trump is going to be planning to do over the next couple of days, let alone sit down with the rest of the party to have an actual plan for the election.

That’s going to leave Trump saying whatever he wants to say, and with the VP and the rest of the party struggling to keep up with his level of bullshit.

For the record - I still think Trump will try to figure out a way to avoid becoming the nominee once it becomes more obvious that he’s going to get humiliated in the general election. I think it might be too late for him to avoid that though.

162
Smith25's Liberal Thighs  Feb 23, 2016 • 5:04:56am

My classes are having a Mock Election today. They took a political test, were placed in a Political Party, and nominated candidates to run for a fictional office. They went through some simulations of a political campaign, registered to vote(the real deal), and now it is time to decide the winner. Got a surprise when they walk into class today.

ROCK THE VOTE
163
Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Feb 23, 2016 • 5:05:12am

re: #155 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate

In fact, they specialize in old.

and outrage

164
wheat-dogghazi-mailgate  Feb 23, 2016 • 5:08:14am

Perusing some Berniebot accounts on Twitter and Facebook lately has me convinced that Bernie was once an Olympian god, or perhaps a Titan.
//

165
Not a Sparkly Vampire  Feb 23, 2016 • 5:11:40am

Hello.

166
SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN  Feb 23, 2016 • 5:18:21am

re: #135 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate

I suspect cursive was cut to make room for more test prep.

I’m a conservative guy, but I can understand why cursive is out of favor. People don’t use it enough because of all the typing they do, and the quality of cursive goes way down when you don’t practice. When I would sign paychecks I had to write my name a couple times on scrap paper so I would get into a groove. The first couple iterations were vastly different from the rest. Outside of my signature, my handwriting (mediocre at best) is almost illegible. I make so many mistakes because the pen is making bad strokes or going clockwise instead of counterclockwise, I just print instead.

167
wheat-dogghazi-mailgate  Feb 23, 2016 • 5:30:25am

OT, but I am now back in my university-provided domicile in Hunan, China, trying to warm up the place. I had a great month traveling, but I’m still looking forward to sleeping in my own bed.

For the record, it’s drizzly and about 40 degrees F here in flyover China. Most of the last month, I was enjoying sunny 90 degree weather. It’s going to take some time to adjust.

168
Big Beautiful Door  Feb 23, 2016 • 5:33:28am

re: #158 Joe Bacon

I don’t see a Trump/Rubio ticket. The “Trumpettes” won’t take to kindly to that. It could be a Trump/Ryan, Trump/Thune, Trump/Cornyn or Trump/McCarthy ticket.

The question is what serious politician would want the black mark of being Trump’s VP candidate. I expect Trump to pick someone obscure who wouldn’t otherwise have a shot at VP (Matt Bevin?) or someone from the business world.

169
wheat-dogghazi-mailgate  Feb 23, 2016 • 5:38:09am

re: #166 SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN

I’m a conservative guy, but I can understand why cursive is out of favor. People don’t use it enough because of all the typing they do, and the quality of cursive goes way down when you don’t practice. When I would sign paychecks I had to write my name a couple times on scrap paper so I would get into a groove. The first couple iterations were vastly different from the rest. Outside of my signature, my handwriting (mediocre at best) is almost illegible. I make so many mistakes because the pen is making bad strokes or going clockwise instead of counterclockwise, I just print instead.

Cursive could be included as a kind of art activity, but even the visual arts have been cut a lot in schools. As you say, it requires practice to develop decent handwriting skills, and most kids now are either keyboarding or touchscreening, even as grade school students. They learn manuscript letters first, which look very similar to the letters they see on screens, so the transition between reading and writing is not so difficult. Cursive looks quite different from machine text, especially for dyslexic kids or English language learners (ELLs), and there is not much need for it anymore. So, like Greek, Latin, German and rhetoric, it has passed from the typical school curriculum. Times change, but most conservatives ignore this basic fact of life and they want to saddle modern kids with old subjects because The Good Old Days™.

170
Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Feb 23, 2016 • 5:39:00am

re: #168 Big Beautiful Door

The question is what serious politician would want the black mark of being Trump’s VP candidate. I expect Trump to pick someone obscure who wouldn’t otherwise have a shot at VP (Matt Bevin?) or someone from the business world.

It is normal for the party to find and offer someone to “balance” the ticket, but Trump is too big a figure to be “balanced” in any sense, and nobody can count on him working productively with the GOP in the first place.

171
MsJ  Feb 23, 2016 • 5:41:57am

Conservatives…such a charming lot.

Because they didn’t like this:

172
wheat-dogghazi-mailgate  Feb 23, 2016 • 5:43:38am

re: #170 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)

It is normal for the party to find and offer someone to “balance” the ticket, but Trump is too big a figure to be “balanced” in any sense, and nobody can count on him working productively with the GOP in the first place.

Trump would need a Bible thumper to balance his less-than-stellar religious creds. Bevin has those creds, but I wonder if even he would deign to be Trump’s running mate. You’d need someone with absolutely no compunction and no ethics to play second-banana to The Donald.

Adam Baldwin seems to have more time on his hands nowadays …

173
The Vicious Babushka  Feb 23, 2016 • 5:47:08am

Gah. Just blocked a Trump sucker who called Donald a “self made billionaire”

When I pointed out he had $20 million inheritance, the Trump sucker said HE MADE BILLIONS FROM 20 MILLION!!!!!

When I pointed out $20 million would have done better just sitting in an index fund, he called me the C-word.

MATH FACT: It’s much easier to make $1 billion from $20 million that it is to make $1000 from $1.

174
Le Lapin Tueur  Feb 23, 2016 • 5:48:03am

re: #140 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)

Yes?

175
wheat-dogghazi-mailgate  Feb 23, 2016 • 5:50:55am

re: #173 The Vicious Babushka

Gah. Just blocked a Trump sucker who called Donald a “self made billionaire”

When I pointed out he had $20 million inheritance, the Trump sucker said HE MADE BILLIONS FROM 20 MILLION!!!!!

When I pointed out $20 million would have done better just sitting in an index fund, he called me the C-word.

MATH FACT: It’s much easier to make $1 billion from $20 million that it is to make $1000 from $1.

One of my FB friends was praising Trump’s business acumen the other day. I decided not to get into listing all of Trump’s failures as a businessman, as the man has already made up his mind the Trump is the only answer to America not being great, or something.

176
Le Lapin Tueur  Feb 23, 2016 • 5:52:09am

re: #145 Patricia Kayden

I think Hogan is going to be a one termer. He bamboozled enough folx in Montgomery County, but his stance on the Purple line and the Red line in Baltimore seem to be waking people up.

Personally, I know no one who voted for him, but I live in socialist hell that is SS and TKPK. ///

177
Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Feb 23, 2016 • 5:56:36am

re: #173 The Vicious Babushka

Gah. Just blocked a Trump sucker who called Donald a “self made billionaire”

When I pointed out he had $20 million inheritance, the Trump sucker said HE MADE BILLIONS FROM 20 MILLION!!!!!

When I pointed out $20 million would have done better just sitting in an index fund, he called me the C-word.

MATH FACT: It’s much easier to make $1 billion from $20 million that it is to make $1000 from $1.

If Trump had just quietly invested his money, he would not be in position to run for President (in a largely media-funded campaign) today.

178
The Vicious Babushka  Feb 23, 2016 • 5:58:22am

re: #177 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)

If Trump had just quietly invested his money, he would not be in position to run for President (in a largely media-funded campaign) today.

Then he would just be one of those “Citizens United” mega-donors who buy candidates, but the only candidate he wants to buy is HIMSELF.

179
lawhawk  Feb 23, 2016 • 5:59:42am

In any other presidential primary season, Trump would already be crowned the nominee since no winner of both SC and NH has ever gone on to lose the nomination for the GOP. It is a testament to the GOP’s party elites that they’re not quite ready to go down that rabbit hole just yet.

Rubio and Cruz are running a fool’s errand, and I’m starting to think that they’re more interested in being VP than president at this point, especially Rubio.

All three of them would be a disaster for the nation - the very opposite of the compassionate conservatism that the GOP trotted out just a few short years ago. People like GWB would be RINOs with this group, and no matter how far to the right these extremists tack, it wont be enough for the people voting Republican.

So, when they lose (and I hope they do) in November, the party’s response will be to move even further to the right, instead of understanding that the party’s problems stem from the extremism that the party spews forth on a daily basis from all levels of government.

180
Great White Snark  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:03:22am

Spike Lee is endorsing Bernie. Don’t think it’s gonna help much.

181
lawhawk  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:04:15am

re: #175 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate

Trump’s business acumen? In real estate? He’s on solid footing there.

He inherited his dad’s real estate fortune. All those apartment buildings throughout NYC metro area with the Trump name? That comes from his dad. Donald’s genius was using his name to signify a luxury moniker, and he went upscale. On real estate, he’s done well, though not nearly as well had he put his inheritance in a S&P tracking stock.

More to the point, any venture unrelated to real estate has been a failure outside of the TV show. His casinos? Multiple bankruptcies. Airline? Defunct. Wineries/liquor brands? Done. Kaput. Football league/team? Toast.

Outside the core competency of real estate, he’s not exactly a success. But like PT Barnum, he’s read the public well and knows suckers will ignore everything except what he says in the moment.

That’s why Trump’s statements don’t have a shelf life. And he rants endlessly because he knows no one can keep up with a steady stream of crazy.

182
wheat-dogghazi-mailgate  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:04:27am

re: #179 lawhawk

In any other presidential primary season, Trump would already be crowned the nominee since no winner of both SC and NH has ever gone on to lose the nomination for the GOP. It is a testament to the GOP’s party elites that they’re not quite ready to go down that rabbit hole just yet.

Rubio and Cruz are running a fool’s errand, and I’m starting to think that they’re more interested in being VP than president at this point, especially Rubio.

All three of them would be a disaster for the nation - the very opposite of the compassionate conservatism that the GOP trotted out just a few short years ago. People like GWB would be RINOs with this group, and no matter how far to the right these extremists tack, it wont be enough for the people voting Republican.

So, when they lose (and I hope they do) in November, the party’s response will be to move even further to the right, instead of understanding that the party’s problems stem from the extremism that the party spews forth on a daily basis from all levels of government.

Once again, it’s going to be the non-white voters who will determine this next election. Hispanics and African-Americans will have to see Hillary (who I assume will get the Democratic nomination) as a far better choice than whoever the GOP chooses. I also hope that the sane members of both parties outnumber the insane TPGOP voters to deliver a humiliating defeat of The Donald.

183
Belafon  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:08:49am

re: #134 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)

I have issues with taking cursive writing off school curricula, but not Constitutional issues.

Cursive would have never been created had typewriters existed 600 years ago.

184
GlutenFreeJesus  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:12:33am

re: #182 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate

Any margin less than 10%, and Trump will be screaming voter fraud. Ok. He will be calling voter fraud no matter the margin. I just hope Hillary wins by 20% or more. In a sane world, even that number would be too low.

185
ObserverArt  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:15:00am

re: #180 Great White Snark

Spike Lee is endorsing Bernie. Don’t think it’s gonna help much.

Idealism is nice. I just hope when reality comes around the idealists are able to accept it.

186
Belafon  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:16:55am

re: #156 Dr. Matt

The only reason anyone liked Jayne was you always wondered what it would be like to have a guy around who could be bought out.

187
Belafon  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:17:55am

re: #185 ObserverArt

Idealism is nice. I just hope when reality comes around the idealists are able to accept it.

I think idealism is great. I periodically have to adjust mine a bit, like a course correction.

188
Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:19:22am

re: #187 Belafon

I think idealism is great. I periodically have to adjust mine a bit, like a course correction.

In an ideal world, Bernie would be my candidate.

But then again, in a truly ideal world, we would not need a Bernie to straighten things out…

189
Great White Snark  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:20:02am

Would not Happen without government permission or support


Iranian Media Outlets Add To Bounty On Author Salman Rushdie
ANKARA (Reuters) - Iranian state-run media outlets have added $600,000 to a bounty for the killing of British author Salman Rushdie imposed in 1989 over the publishing of his book “The Satanic Verses.”

The leader of Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa, or religious edict, that called on Muslims to the kill the author after his book was condemned as blasphemous, forcing him into years of hiding.

huffingtonpost.com
Who would like Irans government to have a backdoor into cell phones when seized or Stingrayed? Would the FBI mind that much?
Famous But Incompetent.

190
HappyWarrior  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:21:57am

If we lived in an ideal world, Trump would have faded as soon as he opened his mouth but alas we don’t.

191
Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:22:44am

re: #190 HappyWarrior

If we lived in an ideal world, Trump would have faded as soon as he opened his mouth but alas we don’t.

he would have gone bankrupt years ago and faded into obscurity

192
HappyWarrior  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:24:05am

re: #191 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)

he would have gone bankrupt years ago and faded into obscurity

There’s that too. I’ve always found his entire schtick obnoxious as hell. To think that this guy has a very good chance to be a mainstream party nominee for President. Sweet Christ.

193
Belafon  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:25:24am

re: #189 Great White Snark

Would not Happen without government permission or support

huffingtonpost.com
Who would like Irans government to have a backdoor into cell phones when seized or Stingrayed? Would the FBI mind that much?
Famous But Incompetent.

I’m curious how those two - Rushdi and getting into a locked phone - have anything to do with each other.

194
nines09  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:25:45am

re: #179 lawhawk

If you follow the digression of the GOP you realize that it’s only going to get worse. If they lose, the next POTUS candidate will make Trump look like a rank amateur. They are really setting the stage for a truly horrible person to be named later. And that’s saying something. The base has gone insane from the lies and deceit of the party itself. They are sick. Very, very sick. I cannot think of one single solitary good thing for this nation that has been done by the GOP in the last 7 years. Not. One.

195
wheat-dogghazi-mailgate  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:26:41am

re: #189 Great White Snark

Would not Happen without government permission or support

huffingtonpost.com
Who would like Irans government to have a backdoor into cell phones when seized or Stingrayed? Would the FBI mind that much?
Famous But Incompetent.

On a related note, China’s President Xi has reminded the nation’s journalists that they should be responsible and remember they serve the Party, a not very subtle way of telling them don’t get too cocky and publish something like the truth. Foreign journalists who have crossed that line have had their work visas denied renewal.

196
Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:28:16am

re: #194 nines09

If you follow the digression of the GOP you realize that it’s only going to get worse. If they lose, the next POTUS candidate will make Trump look like a rank amateur. They are really setting the stage for a truly horrible person to be named later. And that’s saying something. The base has gone insane from the lies and deceit of the party itself. They are sick. Very, very sick. I cannot think of one single solitary good thing for this nation that has been done by the GOP in the last 7 years. Not. One.

Years ago, when the Tea Party was getting loud and extreme, the GOP mainstream did nothing to call these people out or at least distance themselves. That initiated an attention-grabbing race to the bottom to see who could come up with the most outrageous statements, which were tolerated or even defended if they were anti Obama/Clinton/Democrat in nature.

And we ain’t seen the worst of it yet.

197
ObserverArt  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:28:31am

re: #187 Belafon

I think idealism is great. I periodically have to adjust mine a bit, like a course correction.

That is the thing isn’t it. That often times is the big difference with the young and old voter.

And my comment about idealism meeting reality this go ‘round can be about both the primaries and the general elections. Bernie backers might be facing reality first with Hillary and if Bernie gets the nomination they will be facing harsher realities in the general.

It is hard to accept criticism within your own party and that can hurt some feelings.

But in the general election when the gloves are off, reality can really be tested.

So far, I get a bit of a feeling that even Bernie may be a hurt by some of the things being said, let alone his backers. Hillary has been battered with all kinds of criticism for so long it really doesn’t matter to her…full speed ahead. That is one of the major differences in the two candidates.

198
SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:29:36am

re: #189 Great White Snark

I am finding the arguments in support of Apple to consist of strawman arguments. The order is for Apple to provide reasonable technical assistance to unlock that phone, not to give the government a backdoor code or software key that would unlock all iphones that would then be used all over the world.
There isn’t much mystery about the requirements of the order, but Apple and its advocates are distorting it deliberately.

199
wheat-dogghazi-mailgate  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:30:43am

re: #194 nines09

If you follow the digression of the GOP you realize that it’s only going to get worse. If they lose, the next POTUS candidate will make Trump look like a rank amateur. They are really setting the stage for a truly horrible person to be named later. And that’s saying something. The base has gone insane from the lies and deceit of the party itself. They are sick. Very, very sick. I cannot think of one single solitary good thing for this nation that has been done by the GOP in the last 7 years. Not. One.

They’ve embarrassed themselves repeatedly in front of everyone who’s nominally sane.
* Birtherism
* Repealing Obamacare unsuccessfully scores of times
* “Death panels”
* The Ebola menace dooming us all
* Scary Central American children coming to take our jobs, or something
* Shariah everywhere!!

… to name but a few.

200
SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:30:45am

re: #193 Belafon

I’m curious how those two - Rushdi and getting into a locked phone - have anything to do with each other.

They don’t. Apple supporters are deliberately distorting anything that has anything to do with the issues around that court order.

201
Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:31:58am

re: #198 SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN

I am finding the arguments in support of Apple to consist of strawman arguments. The order is for Apple to provide reasonable technical assistance to unlock that phone, not to give the government a backdoor code or software key that would unlock all iphones that would then be used all over the world.
There isn’t much mystery about the requirements of the order, but Apple and its advocates are distorting it deliberately.

They are a private company and see this as an enormous publicity and marketing ploy. They will probably give in at some point, but not without having created the impression of putting up a struggle.

202
lawhawk  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:32:41am
203
wheat-dogghazi-mailgate  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:34:20am

re: #202 lawhawk

Yet another Florida man story.

204
SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:34:58am

Another fun fact about the phone in question: it wasn’t even Farook’s phone. It is owned by San Bernardino County Department of Public Health, which gave the FBI consent to examine the phone. Farook has no rights to privacy to anything on that phone, whether he was alive or dead.

205
Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:35:37am

re: #203 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate

Yet another Florida man story.

Just read the latest Carl Hiaasen novel (Bad Monkey). He really has a flair for writing about homo floridensis.

206
Belafon  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:36:21am

re: #202 lawhawk

I see a Store Are Firearms Everywhere (SAFE) Act in Florida’s future.

Edit: I could have used All.

207
The Engineer Lobuno  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:38:32am

re: #204 SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN

Another fun fact about the phone in question: it wasn’t even Farook’s phone. It is owned by San Bernardino County Department of Public Health, which gave the FBI consent to examine the phone.

And the FBI stupidly asked the Department of Public Health to change the account password. Had they didn’t change the password, they would have had many options to deal with it.

208
SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:39:09am

The thing that gets me about the gun humpers is that if you’re paranoid enough that you think you need to be armed 24/7, shouldn’t you also be paranoid enough not to let ANYBODY come within arm’s length of you?

209
KGxvi  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:41:00am

re: #206 Belafon

I see a Store Are Firearms Everywhere (SAFE) Act in Florida’s future.

Edit: I could have used All.

“Are” works better, because Florida.

210
SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:41:21am

re: #207 andres

Whatever that’s supposed to mean, it doesn’t address the philosophy of the sitch. Has nothing to do with who is right or wrong.

211
ObserverArt  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:41:48am

re: #194 nines09

If you follow the digression of the GOP you realize that it’s only going to get worse. If they lose, the next POTUS candidate will make Trump look like a rank amateur. They are really setting the stage for a truly horrible person to be named later. And that’s saying something. The base has gone insane from the lies and deceit of the party itself. They are sick. Very, very sick. I cannot think of one single solitary good thing for this nation that has been done by the GOP in the last 7 years. Not. One.

The only hope the GOP has is to finally come to terms they need to jettison the TeaParty and those candidates. That is a start. They need to admit they have to get back to cooperating governance built on give and take. They need to reject much of the religious trappings and reread the Constitution. They need to accept there are people of color and that White people will no longer be the majority in time. They need to grow the hell up.

Short of that, they need to shut the party down. If they stay on the road they are on the party name will be too tainted to be taken seriously in the future. Once the boomers are gone things are really going to change. That is the big reality for them.

Does anyone see any of those changes coming?

I don’t because they really need to be making them right now if they even think they have a hope to down Trump. By that I mean before March 3rd, the party leadership needs to get together and make some kind of a statement to America they realize their problems and they understand they may lose this election and they will take that as a lesson and learn from it. Then ask America to vote for anyone but Trump for the health of their party and for the good of the country.

That isn’t going to happen. No one in that party is in position to be respected enough to do it and has the gumption to pull it off.

212
Danack  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:42:37am

re: #198 SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN

The order is for Apple to provide reasonable technical assistance to unlock that phone, not to give the government a backdoor code or software key that would unlock all iphones that would then be used all over the world.

Well, it pretty much is.

The order is to provide a signed firmware that can be loaded into any model of that phone, which then removes the delay on trying different passcodes, and removes the “delete all data, if too many invalid passcodes are entered” feature.

That firmware could be used without getting a new court order each time.

So it really isn’t just “unlock this one phone”.

213
Belafon  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:45:22am

re: #212 Danack

Well, it pretty much is.

The order is to provide a signed firmware that can be loaded into any model of that phone, which then removes the delay on trying different passcodes, and removes the “delete all data, if too many invalid passcodes are entered” feature.

That firmware could be used without getting a new court order each time.

So it really isn’t just “unlock this one phone”.

If Apple keeps the software, then the government will have to get a court order, every time. And if the government doesn’t, then it runs into the same issues that it would have if it gathered evidence by entering a house without a court order.

214
lawhawk  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:45:55am

Ben Carson decided to wake up and see his shadow. The results? Questionable:

Carson questions Obama’s blackness, questioning authenticity.

What exactly about Ben Carson screams authentic? Being an authentic sociopath? Being a single issue expert surgeon?

Carson lied/exaggerated details of his growing up (including the so-called Popeye’s incident). He has the audacity to question how the President was raised as if he was subject to racism, built in bias, and had to overcome all of that in order to become President?

Ben Carson can’t go away fast enough. These people are not right in the head.

215
KGxvi  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:46:23am

re: #194 nines09

If you follow the digression of the GOP you realize that it’s only going to get worse. If they lose, the next POTUS candidate will make Trump look like a rank amateur. They are really setting the stage for a truly horrible person to be named later. And that’s saying something. The base has gone insane from the lies and deceit of the party itself. They are sick. Very, very sick. I cannot think of one single solitary good thing for this nation that has been done by the GOP in the last 7 years. Not. One.

If the GOP faces losing three presidential elections in a row, they may end up moderating. That’s mostly what happened to the Democrats in the early 90s - they lost three in a row and that lead to groups like the DLC and Clinton talking about the era of big government being over. It also happened to the Republicans in 1950, they’d lost five in a row and nominated Eisenhower even though they’d been trending conservative since the Depression.

Trump may be the peak/nadir (depending on your perspective). Plus, look at potential 2020 candidates if Clinton wins. Who do they have that won’t be damaged goods?

216
The Engineer Lobuno  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:46:30am

re: #198 SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN

I am finding the arguments in support of Apple to consist of strawman arguments. The order is for Apple to provide reasonable technical assistance to unlock that phone, not to give the government a backdoor code or software key that would unlock all iphones that would then be used all over the world.
There isn’t much mystery about the requirements of the order, but Apple and its advocates are distorting it deliberately.

You think the FBI would not take this chance to get a hold of a tool like this? Well, color me surprised.

Then, we have Snowden. You can certainly minimize hiring Snowden-eske people in your organization (whether the FBI, NSA or Apple), but the risk still exists that this tool might be leaked. I’m pretty sure Apple doesn’t want to have a tool that can be leaked.

217
Belafon  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:47:49am

re: #214 lawhawk

Ben Carson decided to wake up and see his shadow. The results? Questionable:

Carson questions Obama’s blackness, questioning authenticity.

What exactly about Ben Carson screams authentic? Being an authentic sociopath? Being a single issue expert surgeon?

Carson lied/exaggerated details of his growing up (including the so-called Popeye’s incident). He has the audacity to question how the President was raised as if he was subject to racism, built in bias, and had to overcome all of that in order to become President?

Ben Carson can’t go away fast enough. These people are not right in the head.

Is it 2008/2012? Who’s he running against?

218
Nojay UK  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:48:43am

re: #213 Belafon

It would be feasible for Apple to create a loadable image that would only load and run on that individual iPhone 5C using the serial ID number, MAC address etc. etc. so even if they were compelled to hand over the image it wouldn’t load onto on any other phone.

219
The Vicious Babushka  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:48:46am

Trump suckers are really, really offended by this meme==>

220
HappyWarrior  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:48:57am

re: #217 Belafon

Is it 2008/2012? Who’s he running against?

They’re all running against Obama. But yeah this is just getting sad.

221
wheat-dogghazi-mailgate  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:52:30am

re: #211 ObserverArt

The only hope the GOP has is to finally come to terms they need to jettison the TeaParty and those candidates. That is a start. They need to admit they have to get back to cooperating governance built on give and take. They need to reject much of the religious trappings and reread the Constitution. They need to accept there are people of color and that White people will no longer be the majority in time. They need to grow the hell up.

Short of that, they need to shut the party down. If they stay on the road they are on the party name will be too tainted to be taken seriously in the future. Once the boomers are gone things are really going to change. That is the big reality for them.

Does anyone see any of those changes coming?

I don’t because they really need to be making them right now if they even think they have a hope to down Trump. By that I mean before March 3rd, the party leadership needs to get together and make some kind of a statement to America they realize their problems and they understand they may lose this election and they will take that as a lesson and learn from it. Then ask America to vote for anyone but Trump for the health of their party and for the good of the country.

That isn’t going to happen. No one in that party is in position to be respected enough to do it and has the gumption to pull it off.

If the party had a respected elder statesman, a former president perhaps, who could speak for the moderates of the party, it could happen. There’s the rub. George H.W. Bush no longer has the respect of the party, and his son doesn’t either. Outside of those former presidents, there’s really no one.

And even if there were, the extremists are so extreme that they do not respect any of the elder members of the party leadership, especially the moderates (if any still exist — they’re a bit like Bigfoot, spoken of but rarely seen in the wild). Meanwhile, you’ve got Party First, Nation Second “leaders” like Mitch McConnell, who would rather bring the USA to the brink of collapse before he’d agree to cooperate with a sitting president.

The Republican Party brought this on themselves, by pandering to the extremists, the racists, and the hyper-religious nuts who see compromise as weakness.

222
KGxvi  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:52:59am

re: #220 HappyWarrior

They’re all running against Obama. But yeah this is just getting sad.

It’s always easier for the party out of power to run against the termed out incumbent (it especially helps when the incumbent party’s nominee appears to be a “legacy” nominee for the incumbent). Bush ran as much against Clinton as he did Gore in 2000, and Obama ran as much against Bush as he did McCain in 2008.

The termed out incumbent has a record you can run against. The new nominee doesn’t always have that record. Plus, the out of power party is pretty much always running to change something, so they have to contrast their positions and policies with the status quo.

223
Danack  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:53:16am

re: #213 Belafon

If Apple keeps the software, then the government will have to get a court order, every time.

I believe the court order says that Apple need to provide the new custom firmware to the FBI, which would allow the FBI to use it without consulting anyone. Please link to anything that says the software wouldn’t be leaving Apple’s control.

And if the government doesn’t, then it runs into the same issues that it would have if it gathered evidence by entering a house without a court order.

So…..none?

The FBI and police forces are known to use illegal searches to gather information and then use Parallel construction to gather enough information legally.

And there have been absolutely no consequences for doing that, or for the illegal NSA/GCHQ monitoring of huge numbers of phone calls.

224
wheat-dogghazi-mailgate  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:54:52am

re: #217 Belafon

Is it 2008/2012? Who’s he running against?

The Phantom Obama, running as a write-in candidate.

I think he wears a purple leotard and punches people with a skull-shaped ring. Totally badass for a guy running around in purple tights and black leather boots.

225
Belafon  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:55:09am

re: #222 KGxvi

It’s always easier for the party out of power to run against the termed out incumbent (it especially helps when the incumbent party’s nominee appears to be a “legacy” nominee for the incumbent). Bush ran as much against Clinton as he did Gore in 2000, and Obama ran as much against Bush as he did McCain in 2008.

The termed out incumbent has a record you can run against. The new nominee doesn’t always have that record. Plus, the out of power party is pretty much always running to change something, so they have to contrast their positions and policies with the status quo.

I understand. But he’s not even running against Obama’s record. He’s running against Obama’s blackness. Which would seem to me like Bush running against Clinton’s taste in cigars.

226
FormerDirtDart  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:55:21am

re: #202 lawhawk

Sheriff’s deputies say a Florida couple stored weapons and drugs within reach of a 5-year-old child:

I’d wager even money this pair is sovereign citizen/militia leaning.
Local media has images bombs, guns, couple
Sarasota deputies say a 5-year-old Venice child was found amid rifles, drugs, pipe bombs & grenades

227
GlutenFreeJesus  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:55:54am

re: #218 Nojay UK

Not like that couldn’t be hacked to load on any phone…

This is a slippery slope Apple must not be forced to go down.

228
Belafon  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:56:04am

re: #223 Danack

I believe the court order says that Apple need to provide the new custom firmware to the FBI, which would allow the FBI to use it without consulting anyone. Please link to anything that says the software wouldn’t be leaving Apple’s control.

So…..none?

The FBI and police forces are known to use illegal searches to gather information and then use Parallel construction to gather enough information legally.

And there have been absolutely no consequences for doing that, or for the illegal NSA/GCHQ monitoring of huge numbers of phone calls.

FBI has said that Apple can keep the software. And all it really wants is for Apple to turn off the “10 failed logins and we wipe the data” feature for this phone.

229
Belafon  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:56:55am

re: #227 GlutenFreeJesus

Not like that couldn’t be hacked to load on any phone…

This is a slippery slope Apple must not be forced to go down.

Oooh, I was avoiding bringing up slipper slope, but SLIPPERY SLOPE.

230
KGxvi  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:57:04am

re: #225 Belafon

I understand. But he’s not even running against Obama’s record. He’s running against Obama’s blackness. Which would seem to me like Bush running against Clinton’s taste in cigars.

Well Bush kind of did that, the whole “bring respectability back to the office” and the quip about how the GOP had already given Gore a shot at the White House via impeachment. Running a purely image based campaign is bad politics though, you’ve got to stand for something beyond “I’m not the other guy.”

231
The Engineer Lobuno  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:57:14am

re: #228 Belafon

FBI has said that Apple can keep the software. And all it really wants is for Apple to turn off the “10 failed logins and we wipe the data” feature for this phone.

And the fail delays too. Don’t forget that.

232
SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:57:19am

re: #216 andres

The court order repeatedly emphasized “subject phone”, and also give Apple the leeway to solve the problem itself without giving the software to the government.
“If Apple determines that it can achieve the three functions stated above in paragraph 2, as well as the functionality set forth in paragraph 3, using an alternate technological means from that recommended by the government, and the government concurs, Apple may comply with this Order in that way.”
The FBI has already said it will accept access to the “subject phone” only and not all iphones.

233
Decatur Deb  Feb 23, 2016 • 6:58:11am

re: #226 FormerDirtDart

I’d wager even money this pair is sovereign citizen/militia leaning.
Local media has images bombs, guns, couple
Sarasota deputies say a 5-year-old Venice child was found amid rifles, drugs, pipe bombs & grenades

Note the blue spoons, though the fuzes might have been “upgraded”. Just like terrorists not to follow the marking and color-coding regs.

234
FormerDirtDart  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:02:04am

re: #233 Decatur Deb

Note the blue spoons, though the fuzes might have been “upgraded”. Just like terrorists not to follow the marking and color-coding regs.

yeah, wouldn’t be surprised if “grenades” had no caps linked to fuse/spoon and are really just similar to pipe bombs

235
Big Beautiful Door  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:02:20am

re: #179 lawhawk

In any other presidential primary season, Trump would already be crowned the nominee since no winner of both SC and NH has ever gone on to lose the nomination for the GOP. It is a testament to the GOP’s party elites that they’re not quite ready to go down that rabbit hole just yet.

Rubio and Cruz are running a fool’s errand, and I’m starting to think that they’re more interested in being VP than president at this point, especially Rubio.

All three of them would be a disaster for the nation - the very opposite of the compassionate conservatism that the GOP trotted out just a few short years ago. People like GWB would be RINOs with this group, and no matter how far to the right these extremists tack, it wont be enough for the people voting Republican.

So, when they lose (and I hope they do) in November, the party’s response will be to move even further to the right, instead of understanding that the party’s problems stem from the extremism that the party spews forth on a daily basis from all levels of government.

Keep in mind that they keep moving farther to the right because its working. In terms of offices held, the GOP is riding at its highest level since the Depression. By making government dysfunctional, they make more people disgusted with the political process, voter turnout declines, which makes their rabid base an even higher percentage of the electorate. Its only a problem in presidential elections when a more representative sample of the people vote.

236
nines09  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:02:53am

re: #214 lawhawk

Ben Carson to room full of old white folks; “I’m more hood than Obama. Hell, he’s white.”

silence……chirp………..chirp……..chirp

237
GlutenFreeJesus  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:05:28am

re: #232 SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN

If you believe the FBI will cease with just this one phone….

wsj.com

And these aren’t even terror investigations.

238
Big Beautiful Door  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:05:39am

re: #184 GlutenFreeJesus

Any margin less than 10%, and Trump will be screaming voter fraud. Ok. He will be calling voter fraud no matter the margin. I just hope Hillary wins by 20% or more. In a sane world, even that number would be too low.

Not going to happen, as most Republicans will vote for Trump even if they have to hold their nose to do it. Best case scenario is probably 53-47, Obama’s margin over McCain, which he got thanks to pending economic collapse.

239
nines09  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:05:55am

Off to the dentist. Oh boy. Might be a 3 Zombie lunch.

240
ObserverArt  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:06:31am

re: #221 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate

If the party had a respected elder statesman, a former president perhaps, who could speak for the moderates of the party, it could happen. There’s the rub. George H.W. Bush no longer has the respect of the party, and his son doesn’t either. Outside of those former presidents, there’s really no one.

And even if there were, the extremists are so extreme that they do not respect any of the elder members of the party leadership, especially the moderates (if any still exist — they’re a bit like Bigfoot, spoken of but rarely seen in the wild). Meanwhile, you’ve got Party First, Nation Second “leaders” like Mitch McConnell, who would rather bring the USA to the brink of collapse before he’d agree to cooperate with a sitting president.

The Republican Party brought this on themselves, by pandering to the extremists, the racists, and the hyper-religious nuts who see compromise as weakness.

We are on the same page. They do not have someone to stop the current insanity, they lost those types of party leaders back some time ago and the current establishment got drunk on cheap Tea served by Rush and Fox. They have no guidance, that is how a Trump came to steal all their thunder as no one is actually in control of the Republican party. It is so clear right now.

I mentioned I would watch Morning Joke today because I wanted to see if he would get all defensive about being caught kissing Trump butt during breaks in the Morning Joke Town Hall with Trump. Instead it seemed the first half hour was about what we are talking about. How do you stop Trump and is it too late?

So, does anyone think there is anything the GOP can do to stop Trump at this late point? It is going to take something gigantic and earth shaking. Or, will they just accept their fate and maybe learn a lesson and change on down the road.

This is where it would be nice to have some comments from conservatives. Any suggestions on how to deal with Trump?

241
The Engineer Lobuno  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:06:54am

re: #232 SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN

The court order repeatedly emphasized “subject phone”, and also give Apple the leeway to solve the problem itself without giving the software to the government.
“If Apple determines that it can achieve the three functions stated above in paragraph 2, as well as the functionality set forth in paragraph 3, using an alternate technological means from that recommended by the government, and the government concurs, Apple may comply with this Order in that way.”
The FBI has already said it will accept access to the “subject phone” only and not all iphones.

Does Sony rings any bells? Snowden?

As I linked above, DoJ has already 10-12 cases lined up to take advantage of this ruling. Sure they are fighting just this one. That doesn’t mean they won’t try to use it again.

242
The Vicious Babushka  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:08:11am

Doesn’t have the “temperament” to be POTUS LOL

243
GlutenFreeJesus  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:10:13am

Demanding that a company to disable a series of key security features on their devices? I don’t care if you’re Apple/MS/Sony/Samsung/Huwei. Absolutely not.

244
wheat-dogghazi-mailgate  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:10:28am

re: #241 andres

Does Sony rings any bells? Snowden?

As I linked above, DoJ has already 10-12 cases lined up to take advantage of this ruling. Sure they are fighting just this one. That doesn’t mean they won’t try to use it again.

Governments and law enforcement don’t like encryption in the hands of private citizens, as a rule. They see the tiny fraction of people using encryption for nefarious purposes as reason to bust open everyone’s encrypted data.

245
Belafon  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:10:54am

re: #237 GlutenFreeJesus

If you believe the FBI will cease with just this one phone….

wsj.com

And these aren’t even terror investigations.

And that’s the wrong argument. It’s not that I don’t believe that the government won’t go ask for another phone to be unlocked. It’s that the government will have to go and get a court order every time it wants to.

Once again, to use my home analogy, the government can break into any house it wants to (for that matter, you could, too). The difference is that the government has to get permission or all sorts of other issues occur, like not being able to use evidence collected that way.

246
Belafon  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:12:42am

re: #241 andres

Does Sony rings any bells? Snowden?

As I linked above, DoJ has already 10-12 cases lined up to take advantage of this ruling. Sure they are fighting just this one. That doesn’t mean they won’t try to use it again.

‘cause Sony was caused by a government leak.

I think you’re getting this backwards. No system is perfectly secure. And, like Snowden, the vulnerabilities have more to do with the user than Apple. And security through obscurity is not security.

247
Charles Johnson  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:17:26am
248
Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:17:37am

re: #244 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate

Governments and law enforcement don’t like encryption in the hands of private citizens, as a rule. They see the tiny fraction of people using encryption for nefarious purposes as reason to bust open everyone’s encrypted data.

There was a Minister of the Interior in the 1990’s, Manfred Kanther, who tried to pass a law requiring all users of encryption to provide the government with a means to unlock them just in case they did something illegal.

Really.

The idea did not fly.

249
SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:18:12am

re: #237 GlutenFreeJesus

I’m talking about this court order. It’s pretty specific and it doesn’t let the FBI get into those other phones. Further, I don’t care whether they are terrorism or drug cases or whatever. The authorities must be able to execute a lawful search warrant. I don’t think that the possibility of abuse means that it should be impossible to execute a search warrant, whether it is for a phone or a house or a car.
The language of the order does not require Apple to give the government access to all phones.

250
Big Beautiful Door  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:18:20am

re: #215 KGxvi

If the GOP faces losing three presidential elections in a row, they may end up moderating. That’s mostly what happened to the Democrats in the early 90s - they lost three in a row and that lead to groups like the DLC and Clinton talking about the era of big government being over. It also happened to the Republicans in 1950, they’d lost five in a row and nominated Eisenhower even though they’d been trending conservative since the Depression.

Trump may be the peak/nadir (depending on your perspective). Plus, look at potential 2020 candidates if Clinton wins. Who do they have that won’t be damaged goods?

The difference is that the Democrats have never been a very ideological party. The Republican party is; its got lots of very ideological stakeholders who will fight to the death to prevent the Party from moving to the center. Its basically going to take a generational change in which the GOP’s aging base dies off and is replaced by less racist young people for the GOP to recover its sanity.

251
GlutenFreeJesus  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:18:51am

re: #245 Belafon

And Apple/other companies are supposed to start from scratch each and every time?

12 cases (not terrorism mind you… Please remember that) turns into hundreds. Then into thousands. And so on and so on.

If the government can find a sympathetic judge to issue a warrant, then they can demand to crack any phone for any reason. No. No. No.

252
SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:19:11am

re: #243 GlutenFreeJesus

Demanding that a company to disable a series of key security features on their devices? I don’t care if you’re Apple/MS/Sony/Samsung/Huwei. Absolutely not.

So if you lock the front door of your house the police can’t execute a search warrant?

253
The Engineer Lobuno  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:20:29am

re: #210 SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN

Whatever that’s supposed to mean, it doesn’t address the philosophy of the sitch. Has nothing to do with who is right or wrong.

It has a lot to do. Had they didn’t change the account password, there would have other options to extract the required information.

A bit more information here.

254
Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:20:33am

re: #250 Big Beautiful Door

The difference is that the Democrats have never been a very ideological party. The Republican party is; its got lots of very ideological stakeholders who will fight to the death to prevent the Party from moving to the center. Its basically going to take a generational change in which the GOP’s aging base dies off and is replaced by less racist young people for the GOP to recover its sanity.

That problem grew worse when the GOP tethered itself to the stake of the Tea Party.

255
GlutenFreeJesus  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:20:55am

re: #249 SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN

You’re talking about this one court order, ignoring all the others. They will not stop at just this one phone.

256
Belafon  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:21:37am

re: #251 GlutenFreeJesus

And Apple/other companies are supposed to start from scratch each and every time?

12 cases (not terrorism mind you… Please remember that) turns into hundreds. Then into thousands. And so on and so on.

If the government can find a sympathetic judge to issue a warrant, then they can demand to crack any phone for any reason. No. No. No.

So, you don’t think governments should be able to get court orders to go into houses, cars, or businesses either?

257
GlutenFreeJesus  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:22:35am

re: #252 SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN

People’s houses have only ever been searched by law enforcement with search warrants?

258
SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:22:55am

re: #251 GlutenFreeJesus

And Apple/other companies are supposed to start from scratch each and every time?

12 cases (not terrorism mind you… Please remember that) turns into hundreds. Then into thousands. And so on and so on.

If the government can find a sympathetic judge to issue a warrant, then they can demand to crack any phone for any reason. No. No. No.

The police are not that omnipotent that they’re going to search all iphones, one at a time. If you don’t respect the courts, then what institution of government do you respect? At some point you’re going to have to trust the peope in our government to do their jobs properly.

259
GlutenFreeJesus  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:23:21am

re: #256 Belafon

A phone isn’t a house, car, or business.

260
The Engineer Lobuno  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:23:59am

re: #256 Belafon

So, you don’t think governments should be able to get court orders to go into houses, cars, or businesses either?

Bad argument. It’s more like a safe with a failsafe to destroy whatever is inside. Would the FBI go to the manufactured and tell them, give us a key to open this?

261
SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:24:09am

re: #255 GlutenFreeJesus

You’re talking about this one court order, ignoring all the others. They will not stop at just this one phone.

They shouldn’t stop at this one phone. My argument is that they have to get an order each time, just as is they were getting a search warrant for a house.

262
Eventual Carrion  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:24:22am

re: #91 Kragar

[Embedded content]

I hope this shit opens many Catholics eyes to who they have gotten into bed with (or let get into their bed). I was raised Catholic (recovering) and my dad is totally into it. He has been on the side of these GOP holy rollers from the beginning. I keep telling him that they are only using them until they get enough power and then the Catholics are next on the chopping block. I tell him they consider them the “whore of Babylon” and not christian. I hope this hits home with many of them as to how these RWNJ’s see his religion.

263
Belafon  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:24:26am

re: #259 GlutenFreeJesus

A phone isn’t a house, car, or business.

And your point? Phones are magical devices that are not subject to the laws of the United States?

264
Belafon  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:24:58am

re: #260 andres

Bad argument. It’s more like a safe with a failsafe to destroy whatever is inside. Would the FBI go to the manufactured and tell them, give us a key to open this?

Why wouldn’t they?

265
Big Beautiful Door  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:25:47am

re: #240 ObserverArt

We are on the same page. They do not have someone to stop the current insanity, they lost those types of party leaders back some time ago and the current establishment got drunk on cheap Tea served by Rush and Fox. They have no guidance, that is how a Trump came to steal all their thunder as no one is actually in control of the Republican party. It is so clear right now.

I mentioned I would watch Morning Joke today because I wanted to see if he would get all defensive about being caught kissing Trump butt during breaks in the Morning Joke Town Hall with Trump. Instead it seemed the first half hour was about what we are talking about. How do you stop Trump and is it too late?

So, does anyone think there is anything the GOP can do to stop Trump at this late point? It is going to take something gigantic and earth shaking. Or, will they just accept their fate and maybe learn a lesson and change on down the road.

This is where it would be nice to have some comments from conservatives. Any suggestions on how to deal with Trump?

The how they will deal with Trump is line up to endorse Rubio and hope he can block Trump’s nomination. There really isn’t a Plan B. Mitt Romney isn’t going to ride in on a white charger and save the day; its going to be either Trump or Rubio.

266
SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:27:25am

re: #259 GlutenFreeJesus

A phone isn’t a house, car, or business.

What does a smart phone have that a home or business or car doesn’t? They are all repositories of records and data. If you kept secret files of the people you swindled out of money on your phone, or if you had them on paper on a file cabinet, it is the same data.

267
GlutenFreeJesus  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:27:39am

re: #258 SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN

Properly, like preventing the attack to begin with?

I just don’t see the government demanding a company break their own security measures as reasonable.

House/car etc. analogies are not equal.

268
The Engineer Lobuno  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:27:45am

re: #264 Belafon

Why wouldn’t they?

Any generic key that allows access is an unnecessary backdoor. It’s stupid to include one.

269
SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:29:24am

re: #267 GlutenFreeJesus

Properly, like preventing the attack to begin with?

I just don’t see the government demanding a company break their own security measures as reasonable.

House/car etc. analogies are not equal.

And why not? I already argued in #266 how they are similar. Show me your argument that shows a phone is different.

270
Eventual Carrion  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:29:33am

re: #92 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate

The Protestant Church ≠ The Founders of the USA. One tiny detail

The Baptist church are the ones that really pushed for the separation of church and state. They were afraid of being treated like they want to treat other religions (and lack of religion) now (by pushing to ignore the separation).

271
SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:30:10am

re: #268 andres

Any generic key that allows access is an unnecessary backdoor. It’s stupid to include one.

Strawman argument. The government isn’t asking for one, the order doesn’t require one.

272
GlutenFreeJesus  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:30:40am

re: #261 SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN

They get a court order from a sympathetic judge every time. Ok. So is Apple supposed to rewrite the code each and every time? If Apple finds a way around this, then you can guarantee someone else will. And the possibility of them not being beholden by the law is too great a risk.

273
Belafon  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:31:49am

re: #268 andres

Except the FBI isn’t asking for a generic key. They are asking Apple to do something to that phone to make it so the FBI can get into it. Could it be applied to every phone? Yes.

Could getting a locksmith to unlock a house be used to unlock every house? Yes.

274
SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:33:24am

re: #272 GlutenFreeJesus

How do you know every judge is an FBI stooge? Maybe the govt shows probable cause more often than you’d care to think. Neither of us know. Also, hackers don’t need Apple to comply in order to find their own work around.

275
Belafon  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:33:37am

re: #272 GlutenFreeJesus

They get a court order from a sympathetic judge every time. Ok. So is Apple supposed to rewrite the code each and every time? If Apple finds a way around this, then you can guarantee someone else will. And the possibility of them not being beholden by the law is too great a risk.

Other people are already looking.

276
lawhawk  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:33:39am
277
GlutenFreeJesus  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:33:53am

re: #269 SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN

A phone stores a series of ones and zeroes. Nobody is making a meth lab in the Lifestyle folder on your home screen.

278
SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:35:04am

re: #273 Belafon

Except the FBI isn’t asking for a generic key. They are asking Apple to do something to that phone to make it so the FBI can get into it. Could it be applied to every phone? Yes.

Could getting a locksmith to unlock a house be used to unlock every house? Yes.

NO. THe key a locksmith gives the police to get in my door doesnt open your door. It’s a strawman argument anyway, because for what feels like the millionth time the court order only applies to the “subject phone” and doesn’t require Apple to give the “key” to the government.

279
SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:37:14am

BTW if we want gun manufacturers and dealers to be responsible for the way their customers use their products, that burden also falls upon the manufacturers of other products too.

280
lawhawk  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:37:16am
281
Belafon  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:37:48am

re: #277 GlutenFreeJesus

A phone stores a series of ones and zeroes. Nobody is making a meth lab in the Lifestyle folder on your home screen.

And the universe is really just a series of quarks, gluons, and other fundamental particles. It’s exactly how we think of it.

//

282
GlutenFreeJesus  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:38:08am

re: #274 SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN

How do you know every judge is an FBI stooge? Maybe the govt shows probable cause more often than you’d care to think. Neither of us know. Also, hackers don’t need Apple to comply in order to find their own work around.

Then the FBI can hack it themselves.

283
SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:38:27am

re: #277 GlutenFreeJesus

A phone stores a series of ones and zeroes. Nobody is making a meth lab in the Lifestyle folder on your home screen.

And a file cabinet store lots of squiggly lines. Not all criminals are making meth. Is there a point to be made?

284
GlutenFreeJesus  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:39:08am

re: #279 SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN

Guns and phones. Another bad analogy.

285
SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:39:31am

re: #282 GlutenFreeJesus

Then the FBI can hack it themselves.

Then why get the court order in the first place?

286
William Lewis  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:40:29am

re: #278 SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN

NO. THe key a locksmith gives the police to get in my door doesnt open your door. It’s a strawman argument anyway, because for what feels like the millionth time the court order only applies to the “subject phone” and doesn’t require Apple to give the “key” to the government.

Sure they do - it’s in the phone (firmware) once they apply it. Then the FBI copies it out and boom, no phone of that model is safe. They also then have the code to reverse engineer. Soon no phone from the maker is safe.

As for why this is a bad thing, I’ll simply mention one word out of many: COINTELPRO

Anyone who thinks the FBI can be trusted with this is fooling themselves at best.

287
William Lewis  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:41:09am

re: #279 SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN

BTW if we want gun manufacturers and dealers to be responsible for the way their customers use their products, that burden also falls upon the manufacturers of other products too.

That is not an acceptable argument to me either. Do we hold Ford responsible for drunk drivers?

288
SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:41:23am

re: #284 GlutenFreeJesus

Guns and phones. Another bad analogy.

That’s the second time you complained about an analogy without actually showing why they are bad analogies. I’m making an effort here. The least you can do is make an effort too.

289
GlutenFreeJesus  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:41:24am

re: #285 SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN

Then why get the court order in the first place?

Yes. Exactly. Why demand Apple compromise one of their own products?

Let the FBI hack the phone themselves. They are in possession of it. It’s their property.

290
SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:42:44am

re: #286 William Lewis

Sure they do - it’s in the phone (firmware) once they apply it. Then the FBI copies it out and boom, no phone of that model is safe. They also then have the code to reverse engineer. Soon no phone from the maker is safe.

As for why this is a bad thing, I’ll simply mention one word out of many: COINTELPRO

Anyone who thinks the FBI can be trusted with this is fooling themselves at best.

Again, from the court order, “If Apple determines that it can achieve the three functions stated above in paragraph 2, as well as the functionality set forth in paragraph 3, using an alternate technological means from that recommended by the government, and the government concurs, Apple may comply with this Order in that way.”
Apple does not have to give the govt. total access to all iphones.

291
SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:43:20am

re: #289 GlutenFreeJesus

Yes. Exactly. Why demand Apple compromise one of their own products?

Let the FBI hack the phone themselves they are in possession of it. It’s their property.

I’m not the one who said the FBI could hack the phone. Don’t address that argument at me.

292
GlutenFreeJesus  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:43:37am

re: #288 SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN

That’s the second time you complained about an analogy without actually showing why they are bad analogies. I’m making an effort here. The least you can do is make an effort too.

The soul purpose of a gun is to kill someone.

How many uses does a phone have? How many people have been killed with a cellphone?

As William mentioned. Are you going to hold car companies responsible for drunk drivers?

Bad analogy.

293
danarchy  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:44:54am

re: #251 GlutenFreeJesus

And Apple/other companies are supposed to start from scratch each and every time?

12 cases (not terrorism mind you… Please remember that) turns into hundreds. Then into thousands. And so on and so on.

If the government can find a sympathetic judge to issue a warrant, then they can demand to crack any phone for any reason. No. No. No.

So your problem isn’t with the FBI abusing a tool, it is with actual legal search and seizure…

294
GlutenFreeJesus  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:45:42am

re: #290 SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN

You missed the “and the government concurs”. Sorry. But with issues of privacy, I prefer to not give the government a pass based solely on their word.

295
GlutenFreeJesus  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:46:38am

re: #293 danarchy

No. Abuse is at the very top of my concerns.

296
William Lewis  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:48:01am

re: #290 SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN

Again, from the court order, “If Apple determines that it can achieve the three functions stated above in paragraph 2, as well as the functionality set forth in paragraph 3, using an alternate technological means from that recommended by the government, and the government concurs, Apple may comply with this Order in that way.”
Apple does not have to give the govt. total access to all iphones.

Must be nice to have those rose colored glasses still fit. Outgrew mine decades ago.

The only way Apple will be physically able to comply is with a firmware upgrade and the FBI will not let them keep the phone afterwards. This is ALL about them being able to pretend it’s legal for them to look at anyone’s phone at anytime for PR purposes. You can bet they’ll be doing the same thing they’ve been doing since Hoover took over - anything and everything to corrupt the civil liberties of American citizens that they disagree with.

Not worth continuing this discussion.

297
GlutenFreeJesus  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:48:14am

re: #291 SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN

Why doesn’t the FBI hack the phone? They don’t need a warrant or anything to do that. It’s in their possession. They have bigger plans. If they didn’t, then they’d deal with the phone themselves. It really is that cut-and-dry.

298
Belafon  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:48:45am

re: #295 GlutenFreeJesus

No. Abuse is at the very top of my concerns.

There’s this system in place, called getting a court order. We use it for a lot of stuff in this country. The flip side to allowing anyone to refuse a court order is that there is now a place that is no longer under the laws of the United States. Wanna see abuse? Allow that to happen.

299
danarchy  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:48:45am

re: #295 GlutenFreeJesus

No. Abuse is at the very top of my concerns.

If they go through the process and get a judge to issue a warrant in what way is that abuse? Unless you don’t trust the whole system, which is a different problem entirely.

300
Belafon  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:49:41am

re: #297 GlutenFreeJesus

Why doesn’t the FBI hack the phone? They don’t need a warrant or anything to do that. It’s in their possession. They have bigger plans. If they didn’t, then they’d deal with the phone themselves. It really is that cut-and-dry.

So you want the government to hack the phone? And own the process for hacking one?

301
GlutenFreeJesus  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:49:48am

re: #296 William Lewis

Firmware upgrade = that cracked firmware is still on the phone, completely in tact. The only way to delete it is to wipe the phone clean, thus erasing all evidence the FBI thinks may be on the phone.

So now, that special firmware is in the hands of the FBI.

Is that acceptable, Steve?

302
GlutenFreeJesus  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:50:45am

re: #299 danarchy

Abuse of the tool which the FBI will be in possession of via firmware on the phone itself.

303
GlutenFreeJesus  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:51:41am

re: #300 Belafon

If they can figure out how to do it, so be it.

304
b.d.  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:52:01am

re: #297 GlutenFreeJesus

re: #299 danarchy

re: #300 Belafon

Didn’t Snowden say that the NSA was already able to and been doing this all along?

305
SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:53:07am

re: #292 GlutenFreeJesus

The soul purpose of a gun is to kill someone.

How many uses does a phone have? How many people have been killed with a cellphone?

As William mentioned. Are you going to hold car companies responsible for drunk drivers?

Bad analogy.

1, A gun has far more uses than simply to kill somebody. Is your tunnel vision that strong that you never heard of hunters, collectors, target shooters?
2. Cell phones can be used as triggers in bombs. Remember London and Madrid?
3. I missed the post from William that you reference, but car companies are responsible for drunk drivers. They are required to have seatbelts and airbags and other safety features to help prevent injuries.

306
SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:53:28am

re: #294 GlutenFreeJesus

You missed the “and the government concurs”. Sorry. But with issues of privacy, I prefer to not give the government a pass based solely on their word.

The government has already concurred.

307
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:54:28am
308
Tigger2  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:57:20am

This needs to be stopped fast. call your congressmen. Those lands belong to all of us.

309
FormerDirtDart  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:57:45am

It must be Tuesday in ‘Murica…again

Phoenix police said it appears that the suspect, who has not been identified, shot four of his family members inside the home near 47th Avenue and Cactus Road early Tuesday morning. Police said the suspect may be the brother or son of the victims.

Sigh

A child, between the ages of 8 and 12, was rushed to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, but sadly passed away…

310
GlutenFreeJesus  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:59:33am

re: #305 SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN

Guns weren’t invented so people can collect them. Their soul purpose is to kill. A gun is a tool. That’s what it does. Kill. Just because a gun is part of someone’s collection, that doesn’t somehow change it’s purpose.

What bomb is Syed’s phone suspected of triggering? Soda cans can be rigged to explode too. And teddy bears. Timers. Pressure cookers. Fuses. If your argument was valid, then the only use of a cell phone would be as a bomb trigger. Not as a necessary communications device.

No. Car companies are not responsible for drunk drivers. Has the CEO of Ford been arrested for any DUI deaths involving a drunk driver driving an Explorer?

311
SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN  Feb 23, 2016 • 7:59:59am

GlutenFreeJesus, it seems that the rush to stake out a philosophical position about the limits of governmental access has blinded you to the process of actually making any arguments to support your position. You repeatedly claim my analogies are bad without actually making an argument to show their deficiencies. (If I missed it above I apologize). Further your mistrust of government implies that governing itself is impossible. That flirts with teabagger philosophy. There are facts related to this case that you keep ignoring in your zeal to deny government its duty to function. You keep making conclusions without any supporting arguments other than government is bad.

312
lawhawk  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:00:32am

re: #309 FormerDirtDart

Wont get more than a passing mention. Mass murder (3 or more killed) simply happens too frequently to get noticed unless it’s involving double digit casualties.

313
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:00:36am
314
lawhawk  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:00:38am
315
GlutenFreeJesus  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:01:08am

re: #306 SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN

The government has already concurred.

using an alternate technological means from that recommended by the government

What alternate technological means has Apple come up with?

316
William Lewis  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:01:39am

re: #310 GlutenFreeJesus

Pssst: sole =/= soul. Though it could be an interesting philosophical argument within the context of using a metaphor of anthropomorphized firearms I doubt that’s what you’re trying to say here ;)

317
danarchy  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:01:43am

re: #302 GlutenFreeJesus

Abuse of the tool which the FBI will be in possession of via firmware on the phone itself.

But you said:

If the government can find a sympathetic judge to issue a warrant, then they can demand to crack any phone for any reason. No. No. No.

If they have a warrant the FBI isn’t abusing anything. If you have a problem with the judge issuing the warrant then you just don’t trust the system at all, which is fine, but then you should have the same issue for search warrants for anything else.

318
GlutenFreeJesus  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:03:14am

re: #311 SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN

See 310.

I trust Government to do many things right. But not all things. And not much when it comes to matters of privacy.

319
GlutenFreeJesus  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:06:23am

re: #317 danarchy

But you said:

If they have a warrant the FBI isn’t abusing anything. If you have a problem with the judge issuing the warrant then you just don’t trust the system at all, which is fine, but then you should have the same issue for search warrants for anything else.

I don’t trust the system with matters of personal privacy. Did you approve of the Patriot Act? Do you remember the warrantless wiretapping… Sorry, but I’m not willing to just give them a pass on this.

320
SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:07:07am

re: #310 GlutenFreeJesus

Guns weren’t invented so people can collect them. Their soul purpose is to kill. A gun is a tool. That’s what it does. Kill. Just because a gun is part of someone’s collection, that doesn’t somehow change it’s purpose.

What bomb is Syed’s phone suspected of triggering? Soda cans can be rigged to explode too. And teddy bears. Timers. Pressure cookers. Fuses. If your argument was valid, then the only use of a cell phone would be as a bomb trigger. Not as a necessary communications device.

No. Car companies are not responsible for drunk drivers. Has the CEO of Ford been arrested for any DUI deaths involving a drunk driver driving an Explorer?

Working from bottom to top: Did you actually read what I wrote about automobiles? Your analogy is insane because nobody is arguing that Tim Cook should be arrested over this. How does arresting the CEO of Ford have anything to do with this court order?
You are the one who asked how many people were killed with cell phones. I cited two major cases where many people were killed with cell phones. You didn’t say anything about teddy bears or soda cans then. I don’t know why you bothered now because they have nothing to do with your premise that cell phones can’t be used to kill people.
Finally, since none of us were there when the first gun was invented we don’t know purpose #1 for the invention of the firearm. However, I illustrated many uses for guns outside of killing people, but you ignore that bit of reality. I know plenty of people who skeet shoot and collect guns and still have not used them to kill anybody (although I guess there is still time).

321
Great White Snark  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:07:23am

re: #279 SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN

BTW if we want gun manufacturers and dealers to be responsible for the way their customers use their products, that burden also falls upon the manufacturers of other products too.

I agree. While some say guns are designed to only kill people, the fact on the ground is the extreme majority of guns and cell phones or cars never are used in a crime or violence. Most of our guns don’t get shot much, only get aimed at targets like paper, steel and game. Kinda lessens the assumptions that may come with the above assertion.

Cell phones are very handy as bomb timers/detonators. They are also used to ruin lives and careers and even blackmail tools by way of hacking. Cars are used to run people over. Getaways from robberies and murders. None of those manufacturers should be held responsible for criminal misuse. Cars, guns, cell phones and even apps can be used to cause harm. Alcohol anyone? Anybody suing the makers of Ripple over the damage done?

Laws such as this must apply equally across the board. Gets more murky with taxes but for criminal and civil liability there is a degree of control that goes with the liability. Remington and Glock can not sell to us directly outside of our FFL system. There might be a wholesaler before the retail store. Then we have the screening process for the buyers. The gun changed hands two or three times before the box was opened. A manufacturer can not control that. Not Colt, not General Motors or Samsung or Apple.

To hold gun makers responsible for criminal use is really consistent with a try at working around the 2nd Amendment by way of raising the liability risk so high as to end sales. To me that appears to fail the obvious test of constitutionality. Certainly a worthwhile argument to make proportional of course to how much liability and for what criminal uses.

322
SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:09:30am

re: #315 GlutenFreeJesus

What alternate technological means has Apple come up with?

What the hell? THe goverment has agreed to accept less that your nightmare scenario of Apple giveng the government the key to all cell phones. The FBI has said that it would accept assistance with this phone only and that Apple would retain complete control and wnership of anything they used to do it.
Are you capable of arguing from a basis of reality?

323
darthstar  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:14:21am
324
darthstar  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:14:50am

mornin’ everyone…a little drive-by humor. Back in a bit.

325
SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:15:31am

re: #324 darthstar

Me too

326
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:15:42am

yay Kentucky!

*spit*

327
GlutenFreeJesus  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:18:23am

re: #320 SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN

Sure, cell phones can be used to kill people. I am not in disagreement with that. What I am trying to get across is that a phone has more than one purpose. Remember why the phone was invented?

Again. A gun is a tool. It is a weapon. A weapon to kill people with. The history of the firearm is well documented. It wasn’t invented to collect or shoot paper targets with.

en.wikipedia.org

Holding gun manufacturers responsible for what someone does with their product? No.

Holding Apple responsible for what Syed did with their product? No.

Demanding Apple sabotage their own code which the FBI would be in possession of? No.

328
Brother Holy Cruise Missile of Mild Acceptance  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:20:06am

re: #326 Backwoods_Sleuth

yay Kentucky!

[Embedded content]

*spit*

ok knowing full well that not all Kentuckians or southerners are stupid, why is it that they seek to prove otherwise?

329
Tigger2  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:21:41am

re: #326 Backwoods_Sleuth

yay Kentucky!

[Embedded content]

*spit*

330
GlutenFreeJesus  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:22:22am

re: #322 SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN

What the hell? THe goverment has agreed to accept less that your nightmare scenario of Apple giveng the government the key to all cell phones. The FBI has said that it would accept assistance with this phone only and that Apple would retain complete control and wnership of anything they used to do it.
Are you capable of arguing from a basis of reality?

Easy there, chief.

If you believe the government in this case, you’re being foolish.

A new firmware has to be installed into that phone which the FBI possesses, in order for them to gain access. Therefore, the government would be in possession of code that would compromise every other iPhone 5C. A little reverse engineering, and soon, every other iPhone on the planet would be vulnerable.

If you’re fine with that, just say so.

331
Big Beautiful Door  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:24:33am

re: #329 Tigger2

[Embedded content]

Keeping in mind we still for the moment have a democratic controlled Kentucky House which will likely kill this bill. Unless the GOP gains control with the special elections coming up, which is entirely possible. Then Pandora’s Box flies open.

332
Great White Snark  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:24:56am

Apple Vs re: #327 GlutenFreeJesus

What is what invented for is a historical fact, if a bit subjective. After all guns changed hunting. Sustenance hunting back when. Be that as it may, ignoring how they are used in a proportional context is not fair to the debate.

333
Lidane  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:26:16am

*headdesk*

334
GlutenFreeJesus  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:26:58am

re: #332 Great White Snark

Hunting is killing, is it not? :)

335
Tigger2  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:27:50am

re: #331 Big Beautiful Door

Keeping in mind we still for the moment have a democratic controlled Kentucky House which will likely kill this bill. Unless the GOP gains control with the special elections coming up, which is entirely possible. Then Pandora’s Box flies open.

I hope some of the things Bevin has been doing will scare some people away from voting for more teabagger types .

336
ObserverArt  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:29:16am

re: #297 GlutenFreeJesus

Why doesn’t the FBI hack the phone? They don’t need a warrant or anything to do that. It’s in their possession. They have bigger plans. If they didn’t, then they’d deal with the phone themselves. It really is that cut-and-dry.

I am on the fence and watching this all develop. I do wonder though, can the FBI deal with it themselves and actually hack their way into the phone?

If they could, what are we talking about then? Because if they could, then they could hack into any phone and then Apple isn’t as secure as it is being sold?

Some of this argument I am not getting. A little clarity on actual ability to hack the phone would help.

337
Big Beautiful Door  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:31:41am

re: #333 Lidane

*headdesk*

[Embedded content]

[Embedded content]

Wow, Issa called for the US military to disobey the CiC’s order to close Gitmo. How much longer before the GOP asks for a military coup and rule by a Junta?

338
SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:31:58am

re: #336 ObserverArt

The FBI is worried that hacking into the phone will damage it.

339
Great White Snark  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:32:24am

re: #334 GlutenFreeJesus

Hunting is killing, is it not? :)

I took that to mean people as the point of concern. Most of us eat meat, sustenance hunting is a fact in rural and empty lands.

340
SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:32:33am

re: #337 Big Beautiful Door

Wow, Issa called for the US military to disobey the CiC’s order to close Gitmo. How much longer before the GOP asks for a military coup and rule by a Junta?

He’s entitled to do so. He’s a civilian.

341
Great White Snark  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:33:10am

re: #337 Big Beautiful Door

Wow, Issa called for the US military to disobey the CiC’s order to close Gitmo. How much longer before the GOP asks for a military coup and rule by a Junta?

Next January if we are not careful from here.

342
ObserverArt  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:33:45am

re: #307 Backwoods_Sleuth

[Embedded content]

Reminds me of my buddy the dog trainer’s one dog. Very touchy feely dog. He will come up and sit next to you and lay his head on your leg and give you those big brown eyes looking for pets. Lots of pets. Pets all the time. Not enough pets. More pets please.

343
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:34:06am

re: #180 Great White Snark

Spike Lee is endorsing Bernie. Don’t think it’s gonna help much.

344
Big Beautiful Door  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:34:13am

re: #335 Tigger2

I hope some of the things Bevin has been doing will scare some people away from voting for more teabagger types .

I am sorry to say you are probably hoping in vain. If you think the turnout for last year’s gubernatorial election was bad, my guess is that turnout for the March special elections will be in the teens. And most of them will be teabaggers.

345
Dr. Matt  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:34:30am

re: #338 SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN

The FBI is worried that hacking into the phone will damage it.

I’m actually surprised that the FBI (or some other alphabet soup agency) doesn’t have the technology to hack into a phone.

346
Lidane  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:35:39am

Facebook Post

347
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:36:25am

re: #344 Big Beautiful Door

I am sorry to say you are probably hoping in vain. If you think the turnout for last year’s gubernatorial election was bad, my guess is that turnout for the March special elections will be in the teens. And most of them will be teabaggers.

And the church buses will be taking them to the polls.

348
Big Beautiful Door  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:36:58am

re: #340 SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN

He’s entitled to do so. He’s a civilian.

Sure, he’s entitled to say anything. The point I’m making is that it is grossly irresponsible for a leading figure in one of the two major parties to call on the military to disobey the Commander in Chief and start making policy on its own.

349
Timothy Watson  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:37:05am

re: #345 Dr. Matt

I’m actually surprised that the FBI (or some other alphabet soup agency) doesn’t have the technology to hack into a phone.

My understanding was that they could try to brute-force it but the killers had enabled a function that would delete everything after 10 unsuccessful passcode attempts.

350
Great White Snark  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:37:13am

What is Apple supposed to do when China or Russia or Ghana demands the same thing to get into a human rights / dissdents phone ? That’s next if they give in today. Is the greater global public good best served by stronger encryption or stronger decryption? i.e. which technological side do we want to win out?

351
Whack-A-Mole  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:37:41am

re: #108 goddamnedfrank

Reading the proposed CA expansion of the Assault Weapon law and the way it’s written it even bans low capacity 3 and 4 round capacity semi-auto hunting rifles like the Browning BAR, Benelli R1, Remington Woodmaster and the out of production HK 940 I just put money down on.

I’m not sure what to say, I don’t want to oppose intelligent gun control efforts but this is so broad, and totally ignores the concealability of handguns. Basically the change makes it so any semi auto centerfire rifle with a detachable magazine is bad, no matter how small its capacity or if it was designed for hunting and only ever marketed for that purpose. However any semi auto rifle with a ten round or less fixed internal mag is okay even if it was explicitly designed for warfare, and can be reloaded super fast like the Garand and the M1941 Johnson.

You’re right. That is a pretty poorly written law, obviously written by people with little knowledge of guns. If only there were a national organization with credibility and plausibility who could stand up and speak to lawmakers and the public and help correct the wrongs in this law.

Alas, there isn’t since that national organization has spent the last 8 years pissing away any credibility it once had by shrieking their paranoid fantasies about the black man in the Oval Office coming to take away everyone’s guns. They’ve squandered their reputation in pursuit of pumping up the firearms makers’ profits and these laws are reaping what they’ve sown.

I am a gun owner, a concealed carrier, and an avid shooter and I have nothing but contempt for the NRA and for what they’ve done to themselves and to the culture of firearms ownership and shooting sports in America. I will never be a member. Every time I get a free membership offer along with a product, it goes into the burn pit.

352
danarchy  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:38:45am

re: #334 GlutenFreeJesus

Hunting is killing, is it not? :)

Flashback

re: #292 GlutenFreeJesus

The soul purpose of a gun is to kill someone.

I usually don’t refer to a deer as someone.

353
lawhawk  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:39:35am

re: #343 Backwoods_Sleuth

Guess Spike’s endorsement wont even gain a single vote in the Lee household.

354
ObserverArt  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:39:46am

re: #313 Backwoods_Sleuth

[Embedded content]

I bet Trump has Yooouuuge deliveries of daises dropped off to his house daily.

He needs them to help determine his popularity that day.

Picks a petal…they love me.

Picks another petal…they love me not.

Does Trump have any self esteem…at all? Damn it does seem this is all about him being ‘attacked’ by Obama at the Washington Press Dinner and he needs to make up for it by having the people make him a president.

He will not be whole until he gets the top job.

355
Jenner7  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:39:52am

WTF???

356
Big Beautiful Door  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:40:23am

re: #347 Backwoods_Sleuth

And the church buses will be taking them to the polls.

They know all the abortion restrictions of their dreams will start becoming law as soon as the GOP gains control of the House.

357
The Vicious Babushka  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:41:56am
358
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:42:39am

re: #355 Jenner7

359
Great White Snark  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:44:12am

re: #352 danarchy

Flashback

I usually don’t refer to a deer as someone.

Oh dear.

360
ObserverArt  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:44:35am

re: #338 SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN

The FBI is worried that hacking into the phone will damage it.

I got that. I wonder what GlutenFreeJesus means about the FBI hacking it.

361
lawhawk  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:49:04am

re: #355 Jenner7

362
ObserverArt  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:50:05am

re: #355 Jenner7

[Embedded content]

WTF???

Well, I doubt Issa’s humanness. Was he born this big a jagoff?

363
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:50:35am

Oh look, the Senate is actually going to do something resembling actual work???

364
Dr. Matt  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:50:40am

re: #349 Timothy Watson

My understanding was that they could try to brute-force it but the killers had enabled a function that would delete everything after 10 unsuccessful passcode attempts.

Has anyone tried the obvious?

365
BeachDem  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:52:42am

re: #199 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate

They’ve embarrassed themselves repeatedly in front of everyone who’s nominally sane.
* Birtherism
* Repealing Obamacare unsuccessfully scores of times
* “Death panels”
* The Ebola menace dooming us all
* Scary Central American children coming to take our jobs, or something
* Shariah everywhere!!

… to name but a few.

Speaking of Death Panels, the odious Betsy McCaughey has reared her ugly head again (not linking/not reading/just puking.)

Obama Is Looting the Treasury to Pay Off Insurers Betsy McCaughey, New York Post

366
Jenner7  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:52:55am

Word.

Yes, yes, it’s just primary whining, but we get enough of Hillary hate from the media AND GOP.

367
Lidane  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:53:25am

Gee. Ya think?

368
The Vicious Babushka  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:53:45am

Baby Whiplash will sue for his right to bully. What a special snowflake!

369
makeitstop  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:59:50am

re: #340 SteveMcGaziBolaGate RN

He’s entitled to do so. He’s a civilian.

He’s an elected representative. This is sedition.

Not that it makes any difference to assholes like Issa. They’d only be concerned if it was a Democrat urging military leaders to disobey a Republican president.

370
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 23, 2016 • 8:59:57am

re: #368 The Vicious Babushka

Baby Whiplash will sue for his right to bully. What a special snowflake!

[Embedded content]

Since CalStateLA cancelled his “lecture”, if he shows up anyway and starts jabbering then he’s trespassing. Correct?

371
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:04:34am
372
KGxvi  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:06:51am

re: #368 The Vicious Babushka

Best part of this is he cites the wrong section of the US Code. There is no 18 USC 1983, it’s actually 42 USC 1983 that he’s talking about, which says:

Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress, except that in any action brought against a judicial officer for an act or omission taken in such officer’s judicial capacity, injunctive relief shall not be granted unless a declaratory decree was violated or declaratory relief was unavailable. For the purposes of this section, any Act of Congress applicable exclusively to the District of Columbia shall be considered to be a statute of the District of Columbia.

Of course, the university hasn’t banned him, it cancelled this particular appearance with the intent of rescheduling as part of a panel discussion:

After careful consideration, I have decided that it will be best for our campus community if we reschedule Ben Shapiro’s appearance for a later date, so that we can arrange for him to appear as part of a group of speakers with differing viewpoints on diversity. Such an event will better represent our university’s dedication to the free exchange of ideas and the value of considering multiple viewpoints.

I think it’s a bad look for the university, but Shaprio isn’t going to get anywhere with a law suit.

373
The Vicious Babushka  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:07:54am

He is so self unaware==>

374
The Vicious Babushka  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:09:17am

re: #372 KGxvi

Best part of this is he cites the wrong section of the US Code. There is no 18 USC 1983, it’s actually 42 USC 1983 that he’s talking about, which says:

Of course, the university hasn’t banned him, it cancelled this particular appearance with the intent of rescheduling as part of a panel discussion:

I think it’s a bad look for the university, but Shaprio isn’t going to get anywhere with a law suit.

So they’re going to put him on a panel with “feminists” and “people of color” who will “bully” him and make him look like an entitled racist dweeb. Too bad, so sad.

375
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:10:10am
376
KGxvi  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:10:35am

re: #370 Backwoods_Sleuth

Since CalStateLA cancelled his “lecture”, if he shows up anyway and starts jabbering then he’s trespassing. Correct?

The university is still open to the public, so he wouldn’t necessarily be trespassing (anyone can walk onto pretty much any college campus in California). And if the club that he was going to speak to decides to hold a meeting and invite him, I’m not sure there’s much the university can do. But the university doesn’t have to give him a lecture hall or whatever it was he was going to get at an organized speaking event.

377
Belafon  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:12:21am

re: #369 makeitstop

He’s an elected representative. This is sedition.

Not that it makes any difference to assholes like Issa. They’d only be concerned if it was a Democrat urging military leaders to disobey a Republican president.

HIs analogy sucks. And any sedition charge would be met by his weasel words:

Issa said it was up to U.S. military leaders to decide whether to follow Obama’s plan, which he said was unlawful.

“Are they going to obey an unlawful order, an unlawful order to move people from Guantanamo, an unlawful order to close the base?” he said.

There are plenty of outs for him.

The problem for Issa is that the military leaders are headed by Obama, that whole CiC thing. And the base isn’t being closed, just the detention part.

378
Belafon  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:16:05am

re: #363 Backwoods_Sleuth

Oh look, the Senate is actually going to do something resembling actual work???

Obama should nominate that person for SCOTUS immediately afterwards.

379
Great White Snark  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:16:51am

re: #108 goddamnedfrank

Reading the proposed CA expansion of the Assault Weapon law and the way it’s written it even bans low capacity 3 and 4 round capacity semi-auto hunting rifles like the Browning BAR, Benelli R1, Remington Woodmaster and the out of production HK 940 I just put money down on.

I’m not sure what to say, I don’t want to oppose intelligent gun control efforts but this is so broad, and totally ignores the concealability of handguns. Basically the change makes it so any semi auto centerfire rifle with a detachable magazine is bad, no matter how small its capacity or if it was designed for hunting and only ever marketed for that purpose. However any semi auto rifle with a ten round or less fixed internal mag is okay even if it was explicitly designed for warfare, and can be reloaded super fast like the Garand and the M1941 Johnson.

California’s legislature is set to discourage at all times and ban as permissible. Or, arguably beyond the permissible. Our governor has more sense than that.

The growing handgun ban, one model at a time. That one will get to a point Heller v DC applies.

380
BeachDem  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:21:18am

re: #371 Backwoods_Sleuth

[Embedded content]

I love that picture because it looks like Cruz is picking his own pocket.

381
Barefoot Grin  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:21:42am

At both Illinois, where I grew up, and Indiana, where I did grad work, there was always one of a handful of itinerant crank preachers on campus outside telling the students the many reasons they were going to hell. I’m sure Ben will be fine if he gives his talk on the quad.

382
Kent Dorfman  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:24:14am

The government can get a court order to search your phone/house etc. Fine, they enter/break into your house and take what they want. If you are smart you let them in or you will have a door to replace. If they can’t get in? Guess what, too bad. Apple does not have to open the Iphone, that is not their problem breaking into the phone, it is the government’s problem. Don’t make your problem my problem.

383
Dr. Matt  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:24:48am

The #FreeStacy cult

384
MsJ  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:24:55am

re: #330 GlutenFreeJesus

Easy there, chief.

If you believe the government in this case, you’re being foolish.

A new firmware has to be installed into that phone which the FBI possesses, in order for them to gain access. Therefore, the government would be in possession of code that would compromise every other iPhone 5C. A little reverse engineering, and soon, every other iPhone on the planet would be vulnerable.

If you’re fine with that, just say so.

Not every other iPhone 5c but every iPhone with that iOS…which could be almost every iPhone on the planet. A phone would be hacked by its OS, not model.

I am for Apple breaking the phone and giving the feds the data. I am against Apple giving the feds the ability to do this on their own. That information is not safe in the hands of the government. Snowden showed us that.

I do not want this to migrate down to the local level (which it will), for the reasons McKesson stated.

385
Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:25:52am

re: #380 BeachDem

I love that picture because it looks like Cruz is picking his own pocket.

checking for a gun

386
MsJ  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:26:29am

re: #342 ObserverArt

Reminds me of my buddy the dog trainer’s one dog. Very touchy feely dog. He will come up and sit next to you and lay his head on your leg and give you those big brown eyes looking for pets. Lots of pets. Pets all the time. Not enough pets. More pets please.

That was two of my dogs to a T. They constantly give us the Pet Me command. As soon as the hand leaves their bodies, it’s more, More, MORE!

387
Romantic Heretic  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:26:50am

re: #309 FormerDirtDart

More human sacrifices to water the Tree uf Liburty!

388
Romantic Heretic  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:28:05am

re: #312 lawhawk

Or Muslims. Even ‘suspected Muslims’.

389
FormerDirtDart  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:33:08am

Here is a Link to the story that isn’t behind a registration wall

390
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:34:06am
391
Great White Snark  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:34:26am

UPDATE Apple V FBI/Justice dept
Justice Wants Apple to Unlock at Least Twelve Other iPhones

392
wrenchwench  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:35:16am

re: #386 MsJ

That was two of my dogs to a T. They constantly give us the Pet Me command. As soon as the hand leaves their bodies, it’s more, More, MORE!

One of my cats is like that. If I’m only using one hand to skritch him, he picks up my other hand with his teeth like, ‘Hey, this one isn’t doing anything!’

393
Romantic Heretic  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:37:59am

re: #389 FormerDirtDart

Here is a Link to the story that isn’t behind a registration wall

[Embedded content]

If I was living in Texas I would very shortly not be living in Texas.

394
Tigger2  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:38:00am

re: #389 FormerDirtDart

Here is a Link to the story that isn’t behind a registration wall

[Embedded content]

That’s pathetic.

395
FormerDirtDart  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:38:07am

Dog, I’m really starting to hate the “Selfie” generation

396
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:39:51am

A major incident has been declared following an explosion at Didcot Power Station in Oxfordshire.

South Central Ambulance Service said it has sent its hazardous areas response team to the site, as well as three ambulances and the air ambulance.

A spokesman, who said he thought there would be casualties, said: “We are describing it as a major incident.”

397
FormerDirtDart  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:43:09am

re: #396 Backwoods_Sleuth

[Embedded content]

I saw the large chunk of the building missing and exclaimed “Holy crap” loudly enough to wake both of my dogs, one of which was in a separate room

398
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:44:10am

sigh…

399
Barefoot Grin  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:44:17am

re: #389 FormerDirtDart

Here is a Link to the story that isn’t behind a registration wall

[Embedded content]

Professor: the Civil War was about many things, but undeniably slavery was the key issue….
Student pulls weapon, mumbles something about “states’ rights” and “war of northern aggression”
Professor pulls weapon from briefcase….
Other students draw….

I don’t see it happening, but it does sound like we’re close to peak idiocracy.

400
Eventual Carrion  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:45:47am

re: #336 ObserverArt

I am on the fence and watching this all develop. I do wonder though, can the FBI deal with it themselves and actually hack their way into the phone?

If they could, what are we talking about then? Because if they could, then they could hack into any phone and then Apple isn’t as secure as it is being sold?

Some of this argument I am not getting. A little clarity on actual ability to hack the phone would help.

They (FBI) wants the 10 invalid password try and lock limit taken away. That way they can try brute force break in without getting locked out after 10 tries.

401
FormerDirtDart  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:46:38am

re: #396 Backwoods_Sleuth

[Embedded content]

Video taken near power station shortly after blast

402
Great White Snark  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:47:14am

re: #392 wrenchwench

One of my cats is like that. If I’m only using one hand to skritch him, he picks up my other hand with his teeth like, ‘Hey, this one isn’t doing anything!’

My manx does that. Reaches out with a paw to pull on the other hand.

403
withak  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:47:24am

re: #395 FormerDirtDart

Dog, I’m really starting to hate the “Selfie” generation

[Embedded content]

People have always been this dumb; now there’s just photo/video evidence of it.

404
The Vicious Babushka  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:47:52am

re: #399 Barefoot Grin

Professor: the Civil War was about many things, but undeniably slavery was the key issue….
Student pulls weapon, mumbles something about “states’ rights” and “war of northern aggression”
Professor pulls weapon from briefcase….
Other students draw….

I don’t see it happening, but it does sound like we’re close to peak idiocracy.

We’ll be at Peak Idioicracy when President Camacho Trump pulls out an AR-15 while giving his Inaugural Address.

405
Jay C  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:49:14am

re: #371 Backwoods_Sleuth

[Embedded content]

How come DisgusTED has his hand in his coat? His Napoleon Complex coming out?

406
Eventual Carrion  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:50:51am

re: #371 Backwoods_Sleuth

[Embedded content]

Why does Cruz have his hand inside his jacket? So they can’t see he has his fingers crossed?

407
Eventual Carrion  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:54:18am

re: #389 FormerDirtDart

Here is a Link to the story that isn’t behind a registration wall

[Embedded content]

That should boost the value of their education for the money they spend.

408
BeachDem  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:56:12am

So now the Boston Globe is recommending that “unenrolled voters” vote in the Republican primary to STOP TRUMP. Pathetic. (The Globe endorsed Kasich, so I take their advice with a truckload of salt.) But, as TRUMP brags about how he’s expanding the GOP with YUUUGE voter turnout—this could explain it…

bostonglobe.com

409
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:57:48am

“He did not grow up in black America, he grew up in white America,” Carson said during an interview Tuesday with MSNBC host Thomas Roberts in Las Vegas.

“Doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with that,” continued Carson, who is also black. “It’s just that when the claim is made that he represents the black experience, it’s just not true.”

The retired neurosurgeon told Politico for a story published Tuesday that his upbringing in Detroit was “night and day” from that of Obama’s, who he noted spent “many of his formative years” in Indonesia.

“So, for him to, you know, claim that, you know, he identifies with the experience of black Americans, I think, is a bit of a stretch,” Carson said.

410
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 23, 2016 • 9:58:56am
411
lawhawk  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:00:02am

re: #409 Backwoods_Sleuth

Carson is the last person who should talk about authentic experiences. His biography is slim shady when it comes to his experiences.

412
MsJ  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:03:27am

re: #392 wrenchwench

One of my cats is like that. If I’m only using one hand to skritch him, he picks up my other hand with his teeth like, ‘Hey, this one isn’t doing anything!’

That’s the kind of cat I want…one whom is species confused and acts like a dog. :-D

413
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:10:30am
414
Belafon  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:12:34am

re: #413 Backwoods_Sleuth

Obama should nominate someone anyway, and keep pushing the fact that there are duties to follow.

At the same time, I am going to hang this on every Democrat that did not vote in 2014.

415
Dr. Matt  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:12:50am

re: #413 Backwoods_Sleuth

“We believe the American people need to decide who is going to make this appointment rather than a lame duck president,” said Majority Whip John Conryn.

The American people DID decide by electing Barack Obama TWICE, fucking do-nothing assholes.

416
lawhawk  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:13:24am

re: #413 Backwoods_Sleuth

417
Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:13:52am

re: #414 Belafon

Obama should nominate someone anyway, and keep pushing the fact that there are duties to follow.

At the same time, I am going to hang this on every Democrat that did not vote in 2014.

He is going to nominate someone whom the GOP once supported unanimously just to highlight that they are a party of cantankerous obstructionists.

418
Jenner7  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:14:00am

re: #414 Belafon

At the same time, I am going to hang this on every Democrat that did not vote in 2014.

YEEEEAAAAAASSSS!

And I will too.

419
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:16:48am
420
lawhawk  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:18:28am
421
darthstar  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:21:05am

I know she’s probably going to be the nominee and might squeak out a victory in November. I just think it’s important that we keep our eyes open to the fact that she’s a really fucking flawed candidate and not even a sure bet.

422
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:21:20am
423
Big Beautiful Door  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:21:42am

re: #413 Backwoods_Sleuth

[Embedded content]

Good. I want them to put their obstructionism on full display rather than playacting at giving the President’s nominee consideration before never voting.

424
wrenchwench  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:22:23am

re: #402 Great White Snark

My manx does that. Reaches out with a paw to pull on the other hand.

It’s my Manx that does it. He’ll do the paw-pull, too, claws out or in, depending on mood.

425
retired cynic  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:22:35am

re: #422 Backwoods_Sleuth

OMG!!!

426
lawhawk  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:22:36am

re: #419 Backwoods_Sleuth

Having followed real estate and construction in NYC metro for the past couple of decades, I can tell you that Trump is hardly a big mover/shaker.

He’s a minor player, especially in comparison to Tishman Speyer, Brookfield, Westfield, or even Silverstein Properties and other major real estate holding companies (REITs). His architectural style doesn’t have the prominence of say Norman Foster, SHoP or even Ingels. He’s hardly the biggest real estate developer in the region.

In other words, he’s a bit player who got in to the game thanks to his dad’s real estate holdings.

427
The Vicious Babushka  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:24:04am

re: #419 Backwoods_Sleuth

Butthurt tweets about the NY Times “failing” and “yooge losers!” and “dummies!” incoming

428
iossarian  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:26:33am

re: #389 FormerDirtDart

Here is a Link to the story that isn’t behind a registration wall

[Embedded content]

An armed university is a polite university!

429
Alephnaught  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:27:21am

re: #112 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate

Happy Birthday, Georg Fridrich Handel!

[Embedded content]

My goodness, I didn’t realise that! I saw one of his operas “Ariodante” the other week. It was a bit strange hearing something much older than any opera I’ve heard before, and much more formalised. It almost like a Rossini opera, only more “serious”, and at half the speed.

430
Big Beautiful Door  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:27:36am

re: #421 darthstar

I know she’s probably going to be the nominee and might squeak out a victory in November. I just think it’s important that we keep our eyes open to the fact that she’s a really fucking flawed candidate and not even a sure bet.

[Embedded content]

OTOH hypothetical general election polls in February are pretty meaningless. Other than Trump and Clinton, the other candidates are pretty much unknown to the general public so they can project their own beliefs onto them. Most people don’t really focus on the election until the Fall, and once they start learning about the actual toxic positions of the GOP nominee, Hillary will start looking a lot better in comparison.

431
MsJ  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:27:48am

re: #426 lawhawk

He’s a bit player with a big mouth and a bigger sense of self importance. He likes to think the entire world revolves around him.

I always disliked him but man, now I despise him. He is a horrible human being and, in general, one of the biggest assholes on the planet.

That he turns up the most base desires of his followers disgusts me. He is an id without a smidgen of super-ego and his followers are the same. There’s no morality in there to balance the inner, base and disgusting desires.

432
The Vicious Babushka  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:28:37am
433
Big Beautiful Door  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:30:25am

re: #432 The Vicious Babushka

[Embedded content]

Doesn’t mean they are sympathetic to the views. I read Mein Kampf; its an important, if virulently toxic, historical document.

434
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:30:42am
435
ObserverArt  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:31:26am

re: #421 darthstar

I know she’s probably going to be the nominee and might squeak out a victory in November. I just think it’s important that we keep our eyes open to the fact that she’s a really fucking flawed candidate and not even a sure bet.

[Embedded content]

I’ve seen you use the flawed candidate description before. Do you care to list some of those flaws?

436
Lidane  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:32:11am

re: #434 Backwoods_Sleuth

I’m not shocked by it. I’m more impressed that this is the hill the GOP has chosen to die on in 2016.

Giving this President AND the Dems such a powerful argument for breaking the gridlock and corruption in DC this far out from an election? I can’t tell if it’s suicidal or genius.

437
Romantic Heretic  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:32:29am

re: #415 Dr. Matt

The American people DID decide by electing Barack Obama TWICE, fucking do-nothing assholes.

Well, when we have power that will never happen again!

Oh wait. That’s not what it sounds like.

438
The Vicious Babushka  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:32:59am

re: #433 Big Beautiful Door

Doesn’t mean they are sympathetic to the views. I read Mein Kampf; its an important, if virulently toxic, historical document.

How does it compare to Die Kunst des Verhandlungs?

439
Alephnaught  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:34:26am

re: #422 Backwoods_Sleuth

[Embedded content]

This was a derelict coal-fired power station that was already partially demolished, and was about to get completely demolished later this year. I wonder what set that off.

440
BeachDem  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:34:48am

re: #415 Dr. Matt

The American people DID decide by electing Barack Obama TWICE, fucking do-nothing assholes.

So, if Obama is to be defined as a “lame duck” president, I guess the following GOPer senators should have NO say in the process, as they are, by that definition “lame duck” senators, so may they kindly shut the fuck up:

Richard Shelby
Lisa Murkowski
John McCain
John Boozman
Marco Rubio
Johnny Isakson
Mike Crapo
Mark Kirk
Dan Coats
Chuck Grassley
Jerry Moran
Rand Paul
David Vitter
Roy Blunt
Kelly Ayotte
Richard Burr
John Hoevan
Rob Portman
James Lankford
Pat Toomey
Tim Scott
John Thune
Mike Lee
Ron Johnson

(Ten Dems qualify as well, but they’re not the ones presenting this asinine definition of lame duck.)

441
Romantic Heretic  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:35:31am

re: #432 The Vicious Babushka

Hopefully that is for ‘Know your enemy’ reasons and not ‘I love this guy!’ reasons.

Hopefully.

442
lawhawk  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:37:07am

re: #435 ObserverArt

I’ve seen you use the flawed candidate description before. Do you care to list some of those flaws?

She’s got the baggage of being a Clinton in the same way that Jeb carried the baggage of being a Bush.

GOPers will use her time as a Secretary of State to attack her (Benghazi), whether it’s warranted or not. Other decisions made by her while she was Secretary of State will likewise be criticized.

They’ll also go after her for carpetbagging to become a senator in NY.

They’ll mention Whitewater and Rose Law firm and other Bill Clinton era “scandals” as though they attach to her.

But mostly, the baggage/flaws that the GOP will try to claim/expoit stems from the fact that she’s a woman.

443
MsJ  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:37:40am
444
Shiplord Kirel  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:38:10am

re: #396 Backwoods_Sleuth

[Embedded content]

Background: Didcot B at wikipedia
The station is natural gas fired and opened in 1997. It uses a combined cycle system, with gas turbines and heat recovery steam turbines. A major fire there in 2014 destroyed 2 of the cooling towers.

445
wrenchwench  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:42:05am

But the jury acquitted Bomgardner, 21, of misdemeanor commission of a hate crime by use of force and was deadlocked on hate crime charges against Warren and Beaschler, both 20, the Mercury News also reported.

Well, at least the jurors were deadlocked. They should have been bike-locked for 5 minutes, then be qualified decide whether it’s a hate crime.

446
MsJ  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:42:25am

Cats, man. Too funny. Well, not for some of the cats.

dose.com

447
iossarian  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:42:42am

re: #444 Shiplord Kirel

Background: Didcot B at wikipedia
The station is natural gas fired and opened in 1997. It uses a combined cycle system, with gas turbines and heat recovery steam turbines. A major fire there in 2014 destroyed 2 of the cooling towers.

I think the explosion/collapse was at the disused Didcot A plant.

bbc.com

Bad news and tragic for the casualties and their families, but not as bad as a live power station going boom.

448
Alephnaught  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:43:21am

re: #444 Shiplord Kirel

Background: Didcot B at wikipedia
The station is natural gas fired and opened in 1997. It uses a combined cycle system, with gas turbines and heat recovery steam turbines. A major fire there in 2014 destroyed 2 of the cooling towers.

That’s Didcot B. The explosion (if indeed it is an explosion, and not a collapse ) happened at Didcot A, which was a decommissioned coal-fired station. The Guardian has a clarification on this here.

449
Patricia Kayden  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:45:36am

re: #442 lawhawk

I don’t think anyone will care about Secretary Clinton’s so-called controversies (except extreme Rightwingers) when we are faced with the horrific prospect of a President Trump. I’m even seeing Republicans coming out and saying that they will not vote for Trump in November if he is their Party’s nominee.

Trump has written his own attack ads for Secretary Clinton and she will have no problems pounding him down with his own words.

450
lawhawk  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:45:55am

The “McConnell Rule” will come back to bite the GOP should the Democrats retake the Senate and a GOP wins the WH. It is a perversion of the Constitution’s Article 2, Section 2. Advice and consent does not mean obstruct and deny without even a hearing, let alone a vote.

The GOP must be held accountable for this - and that means that those seats up for reelection must be contested to the point of throwing the GOP out of power in the Senate.

The GOP is not even going to consider a hearing for the President’s nominations, and the President hasn’t even selected a nominee. It’s not like Obama’s picking someone unqualified. He could come out today and nominate Sri Srinivasan, who was confirmed 97-0 back in 2013. That makes him hardly a leftist by the GOP’s own vote. Most of the GOPers who voted in 2013 are still in the Senate. This makes their obstructionism even more craven and disgusting.

Hearings and an up/down vote. That’s what is expected of the Senate. It’s up to voters to hold the Senate accountable - and that means voting out those who refuse to do their jobs.

451
Nojay UK  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:48:20am

re: #444 Shiplord Kirel

Background: Didcot B at wikipedia
The station is natural gas fired and opened in 1997. It uses a combined cycle system, with gas turbines and heat recovery steam turbines. A major fire there in 2014 destroyed 2 of the cooling towers.

Ummm, not quite. Didcot started as a coal-fired power station and had a CCGT plant built on the site a few years ago as the coal-fired plant was gradually taken out of use. The section that collapsed was part of the older coal-fired plant that had been shut down for several years and is in the process of being demolished. It may be the demolition process (not necessarily explosive, I might add) went wrong and the roof section caved in.

Britain is getting out of the business of burning coal to generate electricity. There is little local coal left after two hundred years of mining and it’s a toxic way of producing electricity anyway. Some coal-fired power stations are being converted to biomass burning using wood pellets transported from the US in giant cargo ships (not really that ecological, I know). The rest will be supplied by gas (nearly all CCGT), some home-grown nuclear, seasonal hydro and a little wind and solar plus a steady import of about 2GW from nuclear plants in France via an undersea connector.

452
lawhawk  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:49:56am

re: #449 Patricia Kayden

I don’t think anyone will care about Secretary Clinton’s so-called controversies (except extreme Rightwingers) when we are faced with the horrific prospect of a President Trump. I’m even seeing Republicans coming out and saying that they will not vote for Trump in November if he is their Party’s nominee.

Trump has written his own attack ads for Secretary Clinton and she will have no problems pounding him down with his own words.

The problem is that Trump’s GOP adversaries had the ability to do the same - though they opted not to do so. And Cruz, Rubio, and Kasich seem to be going through the motions at this point since they’re not doing so either.

But does that even matter to voters? Trump’s racism and idiocies seem to endear him to GOPers more and more every passing day. He’s going to get the GOP vote, regardless of who the Democrat nominee is. People will vote for Trump over Hillary just because it’s Hillary (especially among GOPers who think she’s the second coming of Obama - crypto Marxist babbling bs), or Bernie (and watch for rabid anti Semites to spring forth if he’s the nominee too). Disgusting wont be too strong a word to describe the situation.

Attack ads aren’t enough.

Democrats must get out the vote. Not just in November, but in every election to come. Midterms and off year elections matter as much or more (since they can help sway the Senate/House).

453
withak  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:50:02am

Music break:

SUGAR - If I Can’t Change Your Mind

Heard this on the radio this morning; I had forgotten how great a song it is. (The video itself is typical early-90s boringness though.)

454
Belafon  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:51:12am

re: #450 lawhawk

I’m hoping Obama will come out with a nomination soon. I’d like to know why he hasn’t named anyone yet.

455
Patricia Kayden  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:51:17am

re: #445 wrenchwench

[Embedded content]

Well, at least the jurors were deadlocked. They should have been bike-locked for 5 minutes, then be qualified decide whether it’s a hate crime.

Well at least the 5 White students were expelled so that’s good, I guess.

456
Lidane  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:52:22am

Mental health break. You’re welcome:

The Walking Dead - Chase Scene From s6e10 With Benny Hill Music

:)

457
William Lewis  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:52:54am

re: #449 Patricia Kayden

I don’t think anyone will care about Secretary Clinton’s so-called controversies (except extreme Rightwingers) when we are faced with the horrific prospect of a President Trump. I’m even seeing Republicans coming out and saying that they will not vote for Trump in November if he is their Party’s nominee.

Trump has written his own attack ads for Secretary Clinton and she will have no problems pounding him down with his own words.

You’d be unpleasantly surprised by the anti-Clinton vitriol around here then. Even people who are otherwise Democratic leaning dislike her intensely. If it comes to a campaign between her and Trump, there are a lot of folks up here that will have a hard time deciding who they think is worse.

It shouldn’t be that way, but it is and it goes back to her health care initiative days during Bill’s first term.

458
Tigger2  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:53:11am

re: #421 darthstar

I know she’s probably going to be the nominee and might squeak out a victory in November. I just think it’s important that we keep our eyes open to the fact that she’s a really fucking flawed candidate and not even a sure bet.

[Embedded content]

To a lot of people in this Country Bernie calling himself a Socialist is going to make Bernie a really fucking flawed candidate.

459
Patricia Kayden  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:53:29am

re: #452 lawhawk

“People will vote for Trump over Hillary just because it’s Hillary (especially among GOPers who think she’s the second coming of Obama - crypto Marxist babbling bs), or Bernie (and watch for rabid anti Semites to spring forth if he’s the nominee too).”

I assume you are talking about Republicans in this sentence because I find it hard to believe that Trump is attractive to anyone who calls him or herself a Democrat. Sure he’ll get the Republican vote, but he has pissed off many Independents and most importantly pissed off Latinos. Republicans cannot keep winning national elections with just the White vote. Not anymore.

460
lawhawk  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:53:37am

re: #454 Belafon

I’m hoping Obama will come out with a nomination soon. I’d like to know why he hasn’t named anyone yet.

I think he was waiting until Scalia’s funeral before announcing. That and he wanted to speak with whoever he was considering (doing his due diligence) before announcing.

You want someone who is willing to take the position and deal with the crap that the GOP is likely to throw at them. And you’ve got to expect that the GOP will try to drag whoever it is through the mud - claim that the person is an extreme leftist, etc. or unqualified for the position.

But unless Obama nominates Harriet Miers, I doubt he’s going to select someone unqualified.

461
William Lewis  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:54:36am

re: #453 withak

Music break:

[Embedded content]

Video

Heard this on the radio this morning; I had forgotten how great a song it is. (The video itself is typical early-90s boringness though.)

Copper Blue was one heck of a beautiful surprise to this old old Husker Du fan.

462
Patricia Kayden  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:54:59am

re: #457 William Lewis

Secretary Clinton must have eaten a live baby on tv without my knowledge because I don’t get the vitriol directed against her from some Liberals. I don’t have to love someone to vote for them when the alternative is having a Trump presidency. It’s really that simple.

463
Eventual Carrion  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:55:38am

re: #413 Backwoods_Sleuth

[Embedded content]

Mitch McConnell:

“Any President’s judicial nominees should receive careful consideration. But after that debate, they deserve a simple up-or-down vote… . It’s time to move away from advise and obstruct and get back to advise and consent. The stakes are high … . The Constitution of the United States is at stake. Article II, Section 2 clearly provides that the President, and the President alone, nominates judges. The Senate is empowered to give advice and consent. But my Democratic colleagues want to change the rules. They want to reinterpret the Constitution to require a supermajority for confirmation. In effect, they would take away the power to nominate from the President and grant it to a minority of 41 Senators.” (States News Service, May 19, 2005)

“Because of the unprecedented obstruction of our Democratic colleagues, the Republican conference intends to restore the principle that, regardless of party, any President’s judicial nominees, after full debate, deserve a simple up-or-down vote. I know that some of our colleagues wish that restoration of this principle were not required. But it is a measured step that my friends on the other side of the aisle have unfortunately made necessary. For the first time in 214 years, they have changed the Senate’s ‘advise and consent’ responsibilities to ‘advise and obstruct.’ […]Given those results, many of us had hoped that the politics of obstruction would have been dumped in the dustbin of history. Regretfully, that did not happen.” [Senate Floor Speech, 5/19/05]

“What we’re talking about here is not the filibuster rule overall, but getting back to the practice of allowing judicial appointments for judge candidates who have a majority support in the Senate to have an up or down vote.” [CBS News, The Osgood File, 4/25/05]

“…I don’t want to get too technical here, but the point is, what Senator Frist is considering doing is not unprecedented. It was done by Senator Byrd when he was majority leader. What is unprecedented is the fact that the Senate, for the first time in 200 years, last Congress chose to filibuster judges for the purpose of defeating them. That had never been done before in the history of the Senate. That’s what’s new…What Senate Republicans are contemplating doing and what I think they should do is to get us back to the precedents that were established prior to the last Congress, in which judicial appointments were given an up-or-down - that is, a majority - vote.” [Fox News Sunday, 3/27/05]

“Let’s get back to the way the Senate operated for over 200 years, up or down votes on the president’s nominee, no matter who the president is, no matter who’s in control of the Senate. That’s the way we need to operate.” [Los Angeles Times, “The Nation; Clock Ticks on Effort to Defuse Senate Battle,” 5/23/05]

464
The Vicious Babushka  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:55:51am

re: #452 lawhawk

People will vote for Trump over Hillary just because it’s Hillary (especially among GOPers who think she’s the second coming of Obama - crypto Marxist babbling bs), or Bernie (and watch for rabid anti Semites to spring forth if he’s the nominee too). Disgusting wont be too strong a word to describe the situation.

I can’t see disgruntled BernieBros voting for Trump. Jill Stein maybe.

465
Belafon  Feb 23, 2016 • 10:56:19am

re: #457 William Lewis

It shouldn’t be that way, but it is and it goes back to her health care initiative days during Bill’s first term.

I thought pushing for universal healthcare would make someone popular.

466
William Lewis  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:00:14am

re: #462 Patricia Kayden

Secretary Clinton must have eaten a live baby on tv without my knowledge because I don’t get the vitriol directed against her from some Liberals. I don’t have to love someone to vote for them when the alternative is having a Trump presidency. It’s really that simple.

Well, not all that many middle america Democrats are especially liberal. It’s just in contrast to the far right freaks that center/right Democrats like Clinton and Obama seem particularly liberal. To the people out her in the boonies she seems like the typical big city anti-gun “Liberal” of attack ads. Bernie gets away with more because 1) he isn’t anti-gun and 2) he talks a populist line that reminds people that the middle class is gone with the jobs to overseas and it’s not coming back - and there again Clinton’s association with big banks and Wall Street, for right or wrong, hurts her deeply out here. There are a lot of purple and barely blue areas she will not do well in. All we can do is pray she carries Ohio despite that.

467
Le Lapin Tueur  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:01:06am

re: #445 wrenchwench

Guessing it wasn’t a Kryptonite lock…

468
klys (maker of Silmarils)  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:01:20am
469
William Lewis  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:01:32am

re: #465 Belafon

I thought pushing for universal healthcare would make someone popular.

GOP pushed the “you’ll die waiting in line for what few doctors are left” thing and that resonates out here where the insurance companies were closing and consolidating little hospitals and clinics left and right. Still are …

470
nines09  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:02:47am

re: #450 lawhawk

Unfortunately the GOP base considers that “part of their job.”

471
ObserverArt  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:04:53am

re: #442 lawhawk

She’s got the baggage of being a Clinton in the same way that Jeb carried the baggage of being a Bush.

GOPers will use her time as a Secretary of State to attack her (Benghazi), whether it’s warranted or not. Other decisions made by her while she was Secretary of State will likewise be criticized.

They’ll also go after her for carpetbagging to become a senator in NY.

They’ll mention Whitewater and Rose Law firm and other Bill Clinton era “scandals” as though they attach to her.

But mostly, the baggage/flaws that the GOP will try to claim/expoit stems from the fact that she’s a woman.

Thanks. I would like to hear Darthstar’s list. Much of what you list is well known and generates from the conservative side of things.

I am thinking Darth thinks she is flawed from a Democratic voter perspective. That is why I would like him to give us his examples.

472
Belafon  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:05:25am

re: #469 William Lewis

GOP pushed the “you’ll die waiting in line for what few doctors are left” thing and that resonates out here where the insurance companies were closing and consolidating little hospitals and clinics left and right. Still are …

I know. I was just making a reference to the whole “why didn’t Obama push harder for single payer?”

473
Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:08:24am

re: #432 The Vicious Babushka

Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” is now a best-seller in Germany

Because you can finally purchase a copy. State of Bavaria owned the copyright and was sitting on it until recently

474
GlutenFreeJesus  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:11:09am

re: #464 The Vicious Babushka

I can’t see disgruntled BernieBros voting for Trump. Jill Stein maybe.

I know many that will vote for him over her. And this is in Chicago.

475
Blind Frog Belly White  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:12:43am

re: #413 Backwoods_Sleuth

[Embedded content]

It’s getting really hard not to violate the ‘No Advocating Violence’ rule, when I see this shit.

476
ObserverArt  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:12:48am

re: #457 William Lewis

It shouldn’t be that way, but it is and it goes back to her health care initiative days during Bill’s first term.

Can you explain that a bit more? Is it a healthcare industry hatred, because she didn’t get it through or because she tried? You seem to say even Democrats are part of this thinking and I do not understand.

477
wrenchwench  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:13:59am
478
goddamnedfrank  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:14:22am

re: #421 darthstar

I know she’s probably going to be the nominee and might squeak out a victory in November. I just think it’s important that we keep our eyes open to the fact that she’s a really fucking flawed candidate and not even a sure bet.

[Embedded content]

It’s sad that you feel the need to dump this kind of thing but lately never stick around to defend it from comments here. Maybe if more of Bernie’s supporters would build him up and argue in favor of his merits instead of constantly tearing Clinton down he’d be in a stronger primary position right now and she’d be fairing better in hypothetical head to head matchups vs. Republicans.

I’ll grant you that in current polls he appears to be the stronger candidate for November if you grant that he’s also the candidate that Karl Rove and the rest of the Republican ratfuckers want to run against. Now maybe they’re idiots and the easy lines of attack they think they have against Sanders, such as casting him as an unrealistic socialist would fall flat in the general election, or maybe they’ve got an accurate sense of swing state sentiment. I honestly don’t know the answer, the answer seems ambiguous at best.

479
Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:16:03am

re: #421 darthstar

I know she’s probably going to be the nominee and might squeak out a victory in November. I just think it’s important that we keep our eyes open to the fact that she’s a really fucking flawed candidate and not even a sure bet.

Yes, she’s flawed. Keep in mind that the GOP candidates are flaws.

480
William Lewis  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:17:00am

re: #476 ObserverArt

Can you explain that a bit more? Is it a healthcare industry hatred, because she didn’t get it through or because she tried? You seem to say even Democrats are part of this thinking and I do not understand.

Because she tried. Only furinners have single payer. Only welfare people hate insurance. It’s only good for blah people. The way things are is good enough. I ain’t raising my taxes for THEM (whoever them is at the moment). And so on.

481
Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:17:53am

re: #480 William Lewis

Because she tried. Only furinners have single payer. Only welfare people hate insurance. It’s only good for blah people. The way things are is good enough. I ain’t raising my taxes for THEM (whoever them is at the moment). And so on.

And in the old days you used to bring a chicken.

482
wrenchwench  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:19:54am

re: #478 goddamnedfrank

I’ll grant you that in current polls he appears to be the stronger candidate for November if you grant that he’s also the candidate that Karl Rove and the rest of the Republican ratfuckers want to run against.

This. For months, we will have more of this.

483
Jay C  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:20:06am

re: #465 Belafon

I thought pushing for universal healthcare would make someone popular.

You would think so: but back in the day, Congressional Republicans made damn sure that anything even approaching an implementation of “Hillarycare” would be DOA from the get-go: basically hatcheted to death by adamant obstructionism and misleading BS (sound familiar?).

Mrs. Clinton didn’t help herself much, though: the plan that was finally proposed was hugely (if necessarily) elaborate: written pretty much in secret without “outside” input, easy to be (mis-)characterized as “socialized medicine”: i.e. Bulgaria 1955; and tarred by association with the Clintons, who were being, even then, cast as a couple of political lepers by the Gingrich Congress.

The GOP, for years, gloated over the failure of “Hillarycare”; sadly, the negatives are all that seem to have stuck in the public’s memory.

484
b.d.  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:21:03am

Just a thought:

If a president can’t name a justice in his final year then he shouldn’t be able to start a war in one either.

Any other things he shouldn’t be able to do?

485
Big Beautiful Door  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:21:39am

re: #438 The Vicious Babushka

How does it compare to Die Kunst des Verhandlungs?

Its excellent in the original Klingon./

486
Blind Frog Belly White  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:22:46am

re: #478 goddamnedfrank

It’s sad that you feel the need to dump this kind of thing but lately never stick around to defend it from comments here. Maybe if more of Bernie’s supporters would build him up and argue in favor of his merits instead of constantly tearing Clinton down he’d be in a stronger primary position right now and she’d be fairing better in hypothetical head to head matchups vs. Republicans.

I’ll grant you that in current polls he appears to be the stronger candidate for November if you grant that he’s also the candidate that Karl Rove and the rest of the Republican ratfuckers want to run against. Now maybe they’re idiots and the easy lines of attack they think they have against Sanders, such as casting him as an unrealistic socialist would fall flat in the general election, or maybe they’ve got a good of swing state sentiment. I honestly don’t know the answer, it seems ambiguous at best.

At the moment, Bernie is still a relative unknown. The Right has barely begun to attack him, but when they do, they’ll be brutal. Expect to see his favorability nosedive. Clinton, OTOH, is a known quantity. The only people who don’t know what they think of her are either dead or living in caves.

The galling thing is that if you’re going to govern a country and try to get anything done, you need what she has - connections. Connections in Congress, connections within government, connections with Wall Street. It’s great to dream of a firebrand coming in and getting stuff done by sheer force of personality - which is, of course, what Trump promises - but the reality is that there are many forces which resist change, and they can do so very effectively.

487
MsJ  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:23:24am

re: #460 lawhawk

I think he was waiting until Scalia’s funeral before announcing. That and he wanted to speak with whoever he was considering (doing his due diligence) before announcing.

You want someone who is willing to take the position and deal with the crap that the GOP is likely to throw at them. And you’ve got to expect that the GOP will try to drag whoever it is through the mud - claim that the person is an extreme leftist, etc. or unqualified for the position.

But unless Obama nominates Harriet Miers, I doubt he’s going to select someone unqualified.

To borrow a line from Zero Dark Thirty: “The president is a thoughtful guy.” He’s not going to do anything quickly without thinking everything through. As he has done throughout his presidency.

Has anyone ever seen him make decisions “from the hip” as many GOPers love to do? Obama thinks everything through and I, for one, value that enormously. Agree with him or not, I know he’s thought about what he is doing and making the best decision he can with the information he has.

I tell you what, if Hillary isn’t the next President, we are all going to miss that aspect of our POTUS.

488
The Vicious Babushka  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:23:43am

re: #483 Jay C

You would think so: but back in the day, Congressional Republicans made damn sure that anything even approaching an implementation of “Hillarycare” would be DOA from the get-go: basically hatcheted to death by adamant obstructionism and misleading BS (sound familiar?).

Mrs. Clinton didn’t help herself much, though: the plan that was finally proposed was hugely (if necessarily) elaborate: written pretty much in secret without “outside” input, easy to be (mis-)characterized as “socialized medicine”: i.e. Bulgaria 1955; and tarred by association with the Clintons, who were being, even then, cast as a couple of political lepers by the Gingrich Congress.

The GOP, for years, gloated over the failure of “Hillarycare”; sadly, the negatives are all that seem to have stuck in the public’s memory.

I remember that Denzel Washington movie “John Q” in which a desperate parent whose insurance runs out, takes a hospital emergency room hostage in order to get a heart transplant for his son.

The end of the movie has a Hillary voiceover about the need for single payer.

I don’t know how that would increase the number of tissue-matching hearts available for transplant.

489
Nyet  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:23:54am

re: #438 The Vicious Babushka

How does it compare to Die Kunst des Verhandlungs?

C’mon, all -ung are feminine, so the genitive is der Verhandlung ;)

490
Mike Lamb  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:23:59am

re: #484 b.d.

Just a thought:

If a president can’t name a justice in his final year then he shouldn’t be able to start a war in one either.

Any other things he shouldn’t be able to do?

President while Democrat.

491
Blind Frog Belly White  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:24:09am

re: #484 b.d.

Just a thought:

If a president can’t name a justice in his final year then he shouldn’t be able to start a war in one either.

Any other things he shouldn’t be able to do?

That depends. Is he white?

492
lawhawk  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:25:33am

Who controls Congress and who hasn’t come up with a plan that the GOP can even agree upon? Oh right. That’s the GOP. Move along….

493
MsJ  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:26:42am

re: #462 Patricia Kayden

Secretary Clinton must have eaten a live baby on tv without my knowledge because I don’t get the vitriol directed against her from some Liberals. I don’t have to love someone to vote for them when the alternative is having a Trump presidency. It’s really that simple.

Many liberals grew up in a time of Fox News/Rush/Et Al. The information may not be true but it is large and wide.

And god forbid a first lady accomplish something other than being a nice little lady (hat tip and bow at the waist) and having a nice little pet project like maybe literacy or eating well (not dissing those projects, but they don’t have the scope healthcare does). Hillary was raked over the coals for her attempt to do something about healthcare in the 90s. Because little ladies just don’t mix in where the men folk belong.

Ya know, the Clinton’s took all the W’s off all computers in the WH when they left. (I bet you 50% plus of people who hear that believe it.)

494
Nyet  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:27:35am

Today one of the leaders of the Russian opposition and a friend of Nemtsov, Ilya Yashin, has presented his report on Kadyrov entitled “The Threat to the National Security”. It’s a good report, there’s not a lot there that wasn’t known before but it’s a great summary. If and when it appears in English, I’ll make a page.

Report blames Chechen leader over killing of Kremlin critic

495
Blind Frog Belly White  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:28:13am

It’s a strange anomaly that while on the one hand, the GOP has always hated Hillary and saw her as a radical leftist, the Left tends to see her as insufficiently pure, ideologically; tainted by her association with exactly those groups one needs to work with to get anything done.

They call her a Communist for trying to get Universal Healthcare, while the Left calls her a traitor for not putting in Single Payer.

I sometimes wonder if we even WANT to win.

496
Belafon  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:28:41am

re: #480 William Lewis

Because she tried. Only furinners have single payer. Only welfare people hate insurance. It’s only good for blah people. The way things are is good enough. I ain’t raising my taxes for THEM (whoever them is at the moment). And so on.

And just wait for when Republicans point out Sanders is a socialist. Because if they believe what you wrote, socialist means grind your children into feed.

497
MsJ  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:31:12am

re: #482 wrenchwench

This. For months, we will have more of this.

Just imagine SOCIALIST! COMMUNIST! at every.single.commercial.break from the time the primary ends until election day. You will not be able to turn on a television without being inundated with bullshit.

Or a radio.

Or a website.

498
ObserverArt  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:32:47am

re: #478 goddamnedfrank

It’s sad that you feel the need to dump this kind of thing but lately never stick around to defend it from comments here. Maybe if more of Bernie’s supporters would build him up and argue in favor of his merits instead of constantly tearing Clinton down he’d be in a stronger primary position right now and she’d be fairing better in hypothetical head to head matchups vs. Republicans.

I’ll grant you that in current polls he appears to be the stronger candidate for November if you grant that he’s also the candidate that Karl Rove and the rest of the Republican ratfuckers want to run against. Now maybe they’re idiots and the easy lines of attack they think they have against Sanders, such as casting him as an unrealistic socialist would fall flat in the general election, or maybe they’ve got an accurate sense of swing state sentiment. I honestly don’t know the answer, the answer seems ambiguous at best.

I would think a Bernie Sanders supporter would want to comment about all the good they see in Bernie. This is a great political discussion blog/forum so what better place? I think the members are ready to listen and learn more.

One of my best friends is a Bernie supporter. We have our discussions and he realizes my points and I understand his. He basically thinks it is time to shoot high. I tend to think if elected he will be shot down. We get along just fine.

I hope Darthstar realizes that dump and run plays into what many people already think of Bernie’s supporters. And if you use “fucking flawed” as a description I would think you have a ready list of examples.

499
MsJ  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:33:20am

re: #490 Mike Lamb

President while Democrat.

That sums it up perfectly. Short but sweet, er, bitter.

500
Nyet  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:34:42am

re: #421 darthstar

I know she’s probably going to be the nominee and might squeak out a victory in November. I just think it’s important that we keep our eyes open to the fact that she’s a really fucking flawed candidate and not even a sure bet.

[Embedded content]

Yes, it’s important. I hope you understand that Bernie is also a really fucking flawed candidate and not at all a sure bet.

501
Big Beautiful Door  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:35:27am

re: #495 Blind Frog Belly White

It’s a strange anomaly that while on the one hand, the GOP has always hated Hillary and saw her as a radical leftist, the Left tends to see her as insufficiently pure, ideologically; tainted by her association with exactly those groups one needs to work with to get anything done.

They call her a Communist for trying to get Universal Healthcare, while the Left calls her a traitor for not putting in Single Payer.

I sometimes wonder if we even WANT to win.

Governing gets your hands dirty.

502
The Vicious Babushka  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:35:50am

Oh wow I haven’t seen a racial slur used against Elizabeth Warren for a long time!

503
Blind Frog Belly White  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:36:47am

re: #498 ObserverArt

I would think a Bernie Sanders supporter would want to comment about all the good they see in Bernie. This is a great political discussion blog/forum so what better place? I think the members are ready to listen and learn more.

One of my best friends is a Bernie supporter. We have our discussions and he realizes my points and I understand his. He basically thinks it is time to shoot high. I tend to think if elected he will be shot down. We get along just fine.

I hope Darthstar realizes that dump and run plays into what many people already think of Bernie’s supporters. And if you use “fucking flawed” as a description I would think you have a ready list of examples.

It’s interesting to watch - a campaign begins with the promise, and probably the intention of staying positive. Then it starts looking like it might actually succeed, and it becomes a zero-sum game where you can only go up by knocking the other candidate down. So you do. Inevitably.

504
EPR-radar  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:37:06am

re: #81 goddamnedfrank

That reminds me of copyright extensions. We all know copyright is forever, since Congress will emit copyright extensions as required by Disney et al. with all the drama of a properly functioning Pez dispenser.

As long as Congress never actually says in writing that copyright is forever, the courts will be content to view any extension as being constitutional.

505
Fourth Football of the Apocalypse  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:38:10am

re: #502 The Vicious Babushka

Oh wow I haven’t seen a racial slur used against Elizabeth Warren for a long time!

Wingnuts are so policy substantive in their fair and balanced criticisms.

//

506
ObserverArt  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:40:15am

re: #500 Nyet

Yes, it’s important. I hope you understand that Bernie is also a really fucking flawed candidate and not at all a sure bet.

See, that is part of the thing I’d like to know. Why is Bernie not flawed? To many Sanders supporters (not necessarily Darth) they never seem to acknowledge he has anything wrong. That scares me. Every candidate has flaws.

507
Mike Lamb  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:41:52am

re: #499 MsJ

That sums it up perfectly. Short but sweet, er, bitter.

It should be pointed out that the obstructionism is probably marginally worse because it was the conservative golden boy that passed away. If it was Ginsburg, as an example, they might have a hearing before filibustering. But with replacing Scalia, they are horrified that his legacy would be replaced by someone left of center.

508
Nyet  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:41:54am

re: #506 ObserverArt

You have set them all on fire
They think they’ve found the new Messiah
And they’ll hurt you when they find they’re wrong

509
Romantic Heretic  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:42:03am

re: #481 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)

One of my uncles is a lawyer. Back in the days before we had single payer here in Canada he’d get at least one doctor a week come in with a thick sheaf of unpaid bills asking, “What can I do about this?”

His advice was, “Hire a collection agency.”

Doctors no longer have to worry about unpaid bills, and they don’t have to waste their time with non-medical things like arguing with insurance companies.

510
jaunte  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:44:17am
511
darthstar  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:45:53am

Follow up from upthread where I said Hillary is a flawed candidate. There are a few things about her that concern me:

First, I think she’s too much of a hawk. In order to prove she’s strong, she’ll use the military (this is about proving she’s strong…not the country). I don’t want us to go into another war while the last ones are still fresh.

Next, She dismisses progressive ideas as pipe dreams. Free college? Never! That’s bullshit. The US is a rich enough country to make this a reality and it won’t cost Americans 95% income taxes to do it. We currently give out about 35 billion dollars a year in Pell grants. Free public education would cost around 70 billion dollars a year. That’s really fucking nothing in our economy. Less than an aircraft carrier.

On Obamacare and single payer - she’s now starting to make noises that she thinks the public option is still a good thing (this is a reversal from a few weeks ago and simply a way to stop hemhorraging voters to Bernie). Read the fine print and she says she supports the Public Option at the state level. Oh? Oklahoma’s governor won’t go along? Oh well. Fuck those poor rednecks.

Finally, I think she’s already giving away the farm before she’s even in office. She doesn’t want to have a ‘contentious debate’ over healthcare with Republicans as Obamacare was so contentious in 2009 and do we really want to put Americans through that again? Well, lady, yes, we do. If you don’t think we’re strong enough as a country to have a contentious battle for something that will benefit everyone, then you’re not someone I want “leading the fight.”

On a personal level, I think she’s disingenuous. Sure, you’ll say, aren’t all politicians? No. I think Joe Biden is genuine. I think Barack Obama is genuine. I think Bernie Sanders is genuine. I think Mitch McConnell is genuine - a genuine asshole, but genuine. At least you know where he stands. The reason she has negative ratings in polls is because she rubs people the wrong way. The presidential race is, at some level, a popularity contest in a country dominated by reality TV. Not a lot of people want her to find the immunity idol. And I think November will be a time of great butt-pucker for a lot of us.

512
darthstar  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:46:29am

re: #478 goddamnedfrank

Sorry…was busy on conference calls. Came back and followed up.

513
Blind Frog Belly White  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:46:30am

re: #510 jaunte

[Embedded content]

“You don’t bring a knife facts to a gunfight Republican primary, cowboy.”

514
Mike Lamb  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:47:48am

re: #506 ObserverArt

See, that is part of the thing I’d like to know. Why is Bernie not flawed? To many Sanders supporters (not necessarily Darth) they never seem to acknowledge he has anything wrong. That scares me. Every candidate has flaws.

As someone said upthread, the GOP hasn’t really focused on Sanders at this point because they don’t view him as a possible opponent in the general. If that changes, there is a lot of “low hanging fruit” that will be fodder for GOP attack ads. Now, maybe it’s not as effective because Sanders welcomes the socialist label, but it will make a dent.

And yes, Hillary has her flaws and it would be better if she appeared to be willing to push things a little more to the left, but the idea that she’s particularly flawed or divisive is just GOP bullshit that has become “common wisdom”.

515
Blind Frog Belly White  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:48:48am

re: #511 darthstar

It’s worth noting that Don Quixote failed in his quest.

516
darthstar  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:51:59am

re: #500 Nyet

Yes, it’s important. I hope you understand that Bernie is also a really fucking flawed candidate and not at all a sure bet.

I know he’s got issues - for one thing, he’s a 74 year old Jew who admits to being a Democratic Socialist - a word most Americans think means SATAN. For another, he’s pushing a progressive platform that a good 80% of elected Democrats are too afraid to touch with a ten foot pole. He doesn’t just have to fight the GOP, he has to fight the blue dogs.

But at least he’s willing to fight. And I’ll take someone who is being up front and honest about having an up-hill battle that isn’t going to be pleasant than someone promising to fight hard but not commit to any specific goals.

517
darthstar  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:52:48am

re: #515 Blind Frog Belly White

It’s worth noting that Don Quixote failed in his quest.

But he tried.

518
Blind Frog Belly White  Feb 23, 2016 • 11:57:36am

re: #517 darthstar

But he tried.

Cold comfort. If Obama had tried for single payer, we’d still be stuck with the old system with 15 Million more uninsured and anyone with preexisting conditions screwed.

We need dreamers - in Congress. In the White House we need people willing to get their hands dirty, even if that makes the purists cringe.

519
blueraven  Feb 23, 2016 • 12:00:45pm

If Bernie is so pure and hates the Dem establishment so much, why didn’t he run as an independent?

520
gwangung  Feb 23, 2016 • 12:01:16pm

re: #517 darthstar

But he tried.

That’s not a particularly good or cogent argument.

521
Not a Sparkly Vampire  Feb 23, 2016 • 12:01:48pm

re: #519 blueraven

If Bernie is so pure and hates the Dem establishment so much, why didn’t he run as an independent?

Because he needs the DNC apparatus to get anywhere.

522
Patricia Kayden  Feb 23, 2016 • 12:01:53pm

re: #511 darthstar

“The reason she has negative ratings in polls is because she rubs people the wrong way.”

So between her and Trump, who will you vote for? That’s really all that matters. You don’t have to love her or find her genuine to understand what a danger Trump would be for the U.S. and the world should he be elected.

523
darthstar  Feb 23, 2016 • 12:02:22pm

re: #514 Mike Lamb

As someone said upthread, the GOP hasn’t really focused on Sanders at this point because they don’t view him as a possible opponent in the general. If that changes, there is a lot of “low hanging fruit” that will be fodder for GOP attack ads. Now, maybe it’s not as effective because Sanders welcomes the socialist label, but it will make a dent.

And yes, Hillary has her flaws and it would be better if she appeared to be willing to push things a little more to the left, but the idea that she’s particularly flawed or divisive is just GOP bullshit that has become “common wisdom”.

Good point. I still have a gut feeling she’ll wind up being our first Margaret Thatcher but I’ll just keep that fear to myself for the time being.

524
klys (maker of Silmarils)  Feb 23, 2016 • 12:03:55pm

re: #518 Blind Frog Belly White

Cold comfort. If Obama had tried for single payer, we’d still be stuck with the old system with 15 Million more uninsured and anyone with preexisting conditions screwed.

We need dreamers - in Congress. In the White House we need people willing to get their hands dirty, even if that makes the purists cringe.

I’m still trying to figure out where this idea that only the President can propose and pass legislation comes from. I will grant you it is a lot easier to get people behind it with the bully pulpit, but I would think that a Congresscritter could work to get their colleagues behind it and move a bill forward for the President’s consideration.

525
darthstar  Feb 23, 2016 • 12:03:59pm

re: #522 Patricia Kayden

“The reason she has negative ratings in polls is because she rubs people the wrong way.”

So between her and Trump, who will you vote for? That’s really all that matters. You don’t have to love her or find her genuine to understand what a danger Trump would be for the U.S. and the world should he be elected.

Between Hillary and Trump I’ll vote for Hillary and keep my fingers crossed Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Virginia stay purple. I think it’ll be a very close election.

526
blueraven  Feb 23, 2016 • 12:04:08pm

re: #521 Not a Sparkly Vampire

Because he needs the DNC apparatus to get anywhere.

Exactly. Its OK to use the established party infrastructure while railing against it. Something is not right there.

527
Not a Sparkly Vampire  Feb 23, 2016 • 12:07:12pm

I will say this; Bernie is not prepared for the broadsides of bullshit from the right that they’ve been firing at Hillary for the past 30ish years. He’s been sheltered from that.
Not so when he becomes the nom and his faltering when challenged by people from our own side does not bode well for how he’ll fare against that..

528
ObserverArt  Feb 23, 2016 • 12:08:15pm

re: #516 darthstar

I know he’s got issues - for one thing, he’s a 74 year old Jew who admits to being a Democratic Socialist - a word most Americans think means SATAN. For another, he’s pushing a progressive platform that a good 80% of elected Democrats are too afraid to touch with a ten foot pole. He doesn’t just have to fight the GOP, he has to fight the blue dogs.

But at least he’s willing to fight. And I’ll take someone who is being up front and honest about having an up-hill battle that isn’t going to be pleasant than someone promising to fight hard but not commit to any specific goals.

Too afraid to touch or knowing the current lay of the political land smart enough to know it is going nowhere?

And if Bernie is being up front and honest about having an uphill battle that isn’t going to be pleasant, why isn’t Hillary saying going to single player would be an uphill battle that could cause a back slide to go back to what we had prior to the ACA/Obamacare?

As William Lewis said earlier, many democrats are scared of single player due to things like not being in control of who is your doctor and the like. Wouldn’t a strengthened ACA have a better chance since it does allow choices?

To me, we are a commercialized Democracy. Eliminating all insurance companies might be a bridge too far right now as it will eliminate private sector jobs and businesses. Strong regulation of the industry (which is how I see the ACA) might be best for right now as it keeps the businesses going. That is the American way. Add in bigger insurance pools encompassing many or all states and some other legislation might make Obamacare more successful and good for all sides of the debate.

529
Blind Frog Belly White  Feb 23, 2016 • 12:09:14pm

re: #524 klys (maker of Silmarils)

I’m still trying to figure out where this idea that only the President can propose and pass legislation comes from. I will grant you it is a lot easier to get people behind it with the bully pulpit, but I would think that a Congresscritter could work to get their colleagues behind it and move a bill forward for the President’s consideration.

It’s not a rule by any means. But what it does reflect is the President’s role as the leader of his Party. Nancy Pelosi as Speaker moved A LOT of bills forward that got stalled in the Senate by the filibuster process.

530
William Lewis  Feb 23, 2016 • 12:10:22pm

re: #515 Blind Frog Belly White

It’s worth noting that Don Quixote failed in his quest.

The Kennedy Administration loved Camelot: “one brief shining momoment.’

I always preferred Man of La Mancha “to dream the impossible dream”.

531
ObserverArt  Feb 23, 2016 • 12:12:36pm

re: #525 darthstar

Between Hillary and Trump I’ll vote for Hillary and keep my fingers crossed Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Virginia stay purple. I think it’ll be a very close election.

As an Ohioan I can tell you that Hillary likely stands a better chance at winning Ohio than Bernie.

Reason: See the criticism of Bernie in this thread.

532
Jenner7  Feb 23, 2016 • 12:12:55pm

re: #421 darthstar

Nope. I will not concede to the media’s bullshit narrative about Hillary’s electability or likability.

533
darthstar  Feb 23, 2016 • 12:16:35pm

Work beckons. Glad to see some people here explaining why they support Hillary. I think I’ve been spending too much time on Twitter and nobody says anything of substance there - but damn it’s convenient not having to think too hard.

Cheers, everyone.

534
Jenner7  Feb 23, 2016 • 12:25:47pm

I find it disingenuous to attack Hillary for things he ended up voting for.

I find it embarrassing that his foreign policy is “I voted against the war.”

I find it misleading when he says he takes no superpac money, but doesn’t say a word to the superpac that makes ads for him.

I find it more than insulting to switch parties to run, then not raise money for down ticket races.

He wasn’t prepared to run a Presidential campaign.

535
darthstar  Feb 23, 2016 • 12:26:20pm

One last thing…a tweet of course.

536
Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)  Feb 23, 2016 • 1:09:21pm

re: #489 Nyet

C’mon, all -ung are feminine, so the genitive is der Verhandlung ;)

One exception: der Dung

537
unproven innocence  Feb 23, 2016 • 2:01:21pm

re: #3 Jay C

WTF is Trump going on about with this “old days” and “take him out on a stretcher” nonsense? He was brought up a rich man’s son in Rich New York affluence - does he think people are going to believe he grew up as one of the Bowery Boys? Or it is just meant to evoke the hoked up “violence” from the WWE??

One of the Bowery Boys often bragged, I’ve got poisonal maggotism.


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