13. “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions.

https://twitter.com/jihadwatchRS/status/1029494892412596224

Omarosa does have a mileage, doesn't she?

https://twitter.com/1776Stonewall/status/1029553313493200898

Now Twitter has suspended Alex Jones -

https://www.apnews.com/076883058c33447584699909c0d938d7/Twitter-suspends-conspiracy-theorist-Alex-Jones-for-1-week

Reminder - Hamas still has their Twitter account.

Report Indicates Gender, Ethnic Studies Profs Make More Than Math and Science Peers

https://legalinsurrection.com/2018/08/report-indicates-gender-ethnic-studies-profs-make-more-than-math-and-science-peers/

Bokhari: Why Tech Giants Aren’t the Same as Christian Bakeries

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2018/08/14/bokhari-why-tech-giants-arent-like-christian-bakeries/

You think about him when you you're in the shower, don't you, Snooples?

We are so screwed.

Timing is important.

As they say in the state motto over there, Show Me some lunch!

The first selection will be mine.

Guess.

Wimp puppies.

No secrets for you.

Guess. ~ Crid at August 15, 2018 5:56 AM

Careful there.

Personal dislike should not be the basis for an important decision. Plenty of other politicians, on both sides of the aisle, can and have done actual damage or need to get out and see the world as it really is and should not get a pass because that one is an arrogant gasbag.

With backroom deals for uranium, home-brew servers in the basement, Chinese spies on staff, and Arab spies doing IT security, we've got way too many politicians who think national security is little more than lip service put on for the voters.

We've got politicians trading on inside information, diddling the help, groping the voters, and worse. There may not be enough ostraka to get the job done.

And why limit it to national politicians? We've got states going broke as their politicians refuse to enforce federal law, chase boondoggles with federal money, and fiddle as cities fall into anarchy.

We've got mayors declaring themselves above federal law, attorneys general letting violent predators walk because they're too busy suing the federal government over a policy dispute, and an entire state supreme court impeached for fiscal profligacy.

For the most part, our system works, as we're aware of these indiscretions and we, the voters, can cast our normal votes to oust them from office. That we refuse to is already evidence that exiling one politician per year would not even begin to get at the root of the problem, us. We vote the dirtbags in because that one's "our dirtbag."

Besides, if we exiled a politician every year, who'd take 'em?

> Personal dislike should not be
> the basis for an important
> decision.

Au Contraire, Jacques. I think personal dislike is a fine metric for many of the big choices. The electors of the Orange Goofmaggot were quite often enthused by a foaming, gurgling hatred for Hillary, weren't they? Certainly they were, as represented by Amy's visitors. Even today, they're unable to separate their loathing of her from any other sensory or intellectual input in their environment.

As the election happened —and thoughtful readers are welcome to check my comments here in those days— I carried substantial respect for the disruptive power of Trump's election. As a mere expression of voter displeasure, it suggested a genuine and too-little-seen American capacity for engagement against expansive government power and the bedrock human frailties that nourish it. And I had no idea it could happen. Y'know, I was never going to vote for either of those clods, but Tuesday night was a big surprise. I was humbled by this thunderclap from the electorate, have little respect for anyone who wasn't, and said so at the time.

And days later, you (Coney) pointed out that there had been shitty presidents in earlier days. And given the array of technocratic inertia & resistance from the institutions he is said to 'lead' (how about that new wall?); given the obliviousness of his own team and of his strongest supporters (Hi Amy Boy-bots!); and given the constraint of his imagination to television tropes and similarly naive sustenance (McDonald's, Diet Coke), there was chance that adult forces from some corner would overwhelm his incompetence.

It's not going well. Similarly shallow and inept people inside the United States and elsewhere are presuming that illiteracy and naked (if incompetent) self-interest are not hindrances to those who seek to spend the public dollar in a modern democracy.

And still I respect the expressive power of the election. Trump will fade, whatever humiliation and suffering he brings, and those with more brains and resources than you and I will do what they need to in order to keep Western Civ in motion.

But more than I hate Trump, and I certainly do, I detest those who admire him on a personal level. I don't know how they could have lived through the last thirty-five-ish years of American achievement (the period of his emergence as a celebrity) and believe that he's qualified to serve them in public office, or to be admired in any case. How much teevee did they watch, exactly? Did they spend their mornings watch Hanna-Barbara cartoons instead of reading newspapers? Did they compare every encounter at the school, office, or job site with that night's episode of "Friends" or "Matlock" rather than talking with smarter people, or reading an occasional book, or considering the difficult lives of people of achievement?

How fucked up do you have to be to admire Donald Trump?

Very fucked up, but it's not as uncommon as it oughta be.

No. It's far too late in the project to pretend this isn't personal. People don't have the right to be so stupid.

I don't have to agree with it... It's brilliant.

Like one of your little French girls....

The cost of Black America

If you are a white American, over the course of your lifetime the federal government will, on average and on your behalf, transfer $384,109 of your wealth and income to a single black individual.

https://voxday.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-cost-of-black-america.html

Mastercard strong armed Patreon into removing Richard Spencer -

https://twitter.com/nickmon1112/status/1029733702862086145

> The cost of Black America

Off all the atrocities in public budgets, all of them, it's striking that the one about black people earns a bogus headline from you.

It's almost like you have things on your mind besides your money.

Attack of the clones

https://twitter.com/Zeles123/status/1029430564435238912

Check if you are on blocklist

https://twitter.com/unblock_list/status/1010153682749526016

See the lack of self-awareness

https://twitter.com/jordylancaster/status/1029418597523881985

Crid, Clinton told investigators she hit her head so hard she forgot 40 years worth of protocol on handling classified materiel, and that she could only remeber an hour or two of what she did any given day as Sec of State

So yeah Trump is a lying piece of shit, so was everyone else. So what

But more than I hate Trump, and I certainly do, I detest those who admire him on a personal level. ~ Crid at August 15, 2018 9:54 AM

I get that. I do.

He's simply not admirable as a person, even if his election is admirable as an expression of voter dissatisfaction with ever-expansive government. It's important to separate the two.

I'm afraid Trump's election has widened the divisions in this country that have been opening for a long time, since identity politics started creeping into the the modus operandi of the American political left. Trump, the man, has done little to bring about unity, that is if anyone even could at this point. Manning the partisan battlements and hoisting the blood flag may be all a politician can do these days.

I fear that the upheaval from Trump's presidency, both what can be blamed on him and what is not his fault, will lead to the election of a "democratic socialist" using the promise of calm with an "adult" in charge, but will instead result in the empowerment of strong-arm opposition-suppression groups like Antifa and BLM and the implementation of speech codes, leaving any opposition effectively silenced. We'll be headed for one-party rule and economic and political chaos.

While Trump's election had to happen, to disrupt the established political class, the long-term result will not be pretty as the political classes claw back their lost power and clamp down so such a loss can never happen to them again.

If, in 2020, we have another close election with a losing candidate who leaves doubts in the minds of supporters about the outcome, we'll have a riot on our hands. Al Gore demanded recount after recount, with differing standards for each recount, in 2000. Hillary held off her 2016 concession speech until the next day, instead of delivering it that night when it could have calmed the frayed nerves and raised ire of supporters who never conceived their candidate could lose and were dealt a body blow when she did. After the election, she went public with charges that the election was stolen from her, inciting even more chaos and anger.

I'll admit that I breathed a sigh of relief when Trump was elected. Yes, I feared a Hillary presidency that much, mostly on account of whom a victory by her would have empowered. And her behavior afterward did nothing to convince me she would have been a better choice. Ironically, those types whose empowerment I feared have stirred violence and chaos to empower themselves during the very presidency that was supposed to deny them that power.

Neither of the major parties currently has a candidate on deck who holds promise to restore calm and order. Trump may have been the disruption needed, but he's not the long-term solution; and, without a rational and calm president, we risk going the way of Venezuela or Weimar Germany.

This continuing chaos is going to let the American political class lay the foundation for an argument in favor of a strongman presidency, of whichever political stripe.

We're at the end of a long string of imperial presidencies, a trend made worse by the last two. Obama essentially negated Congress during his presidency with agency decrees, executive orders, and policy czars. Trump, although not negating Congress, has shown only slight resolve to restore Congress to its rightful position in our system of checks and balances. To be fair to Trump, no one in Congress shown much resolve toward that either. Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi would rather go on TV and call Trump a "Nazi" than actually debate issues and govern the country. Paul Ryan has prematurely checked out (greatly disappointing me).

Note, I'm not blaming Trump for this - he's a symptom, not the disease. A well-functioning country would never have elected a Donald John Trump; would never have had to.

Sorry for the long-winded response but, for the first time in my life, I fear for the future of representative democracy in this country and I felt that was merited more than a passing comment.

There may not be enough ostraka to get the job done.

Oh, I think we can manage.

https://amzn.to/2MuNlp0

Trump, the man, has done little to bring about unity, that is if anyone even could at this point.

He can't. No Republican can. Keep in mind the Republicans the progs like best are either dead, dying, attack other Republicans, or are no longer in office. And even then they're not really liked.

No Democrat can, either. Any reaching across the aisle is seen by a vocal part of the base as treason. Anyone hear from Joe Lieberman lately?

Add to that when the progs speak of compromise, what they mean is that you need to drop your principles and adopt their platform. Anything less than that, and they'll accuse you of wanting to throw Granny off a cliff, or send undocumented immigrants to death camps.

You're LITERALLY HITLER!!!!111!!

Crid: Conan actually beat you to the finish line vis-a-vis personal outrage…
“We demand perfection of those admired by others.”

Why Snoopy can goad you into abandoning your command of our language in favor of your own flavor of schoolyard angst I can only ascribe to your possessing less reason than you profess.

Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump - Of course you are permitted to throw tantrums at the mention of each or all of them, but in such cases the logical objections to their behavior are lost, and it isn’t “someone else” that suffers from that lack.

If you're on the right, you know the left calls all of us racist, sexist and homophobes. The thing is, they are like peculiarly ideologically blind morons. They really can't tell the difference between libertarians and Storm Front. Because they themselves are so deeply racist – i.e. they think minorities need the help of "allies" to achieve anything in an equal society – they honestly believe that we who want individual rights, individual striving and individual achievement are profoundly racist. Because they know that them poor little colored people can't make it on their own. (As a person of passable tan, I'd like them to contemplate the Tao of the upraised middle fingers.)

https://pjmedia.com/trending/silencing-the-opposition-is-like-tamping-down-a-powder-keg/

But those 525.2 grams of carbs..

A 2500-calorie whole wheat, all-bagel diet is more nutrient adequate than a 2500-calorie all-ribeye diet.

https://twitter.com/kevinnbass/status/1027891487781076993

Hostility unabated: Colorado seeks to punish cake artist Jack Phillips again

Although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that Colorado cannot treat cake artist Jack Phillips differently than others, state officials have continued to do just that in response to a more recent complaint filed against him. Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing Phillips and his cake shop filed a federal lawsuit late Tuesday against those officials for doubling down on their anti-religious hostility.

http://www.adfmedia.org/News/PRDetail/10601

The only issue on the 2018 ballot is “do you believe in borders?”

If you do, vote for Republicans.

If you want America to be Guatemala in 10 years, #VoteBlue

https://twitter.com/steph93065/status/1029816048416043008

Aspirational pursuit of mates in online dating markets -

"In keeping with previous work, there is also a clear and consistent dependence on ethnicity (15, 20), with Asian women and white men being the most desirable potential mates by our measures across all four cities."

http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/8/eaap9815#ref-15

Something nice for a change

https://twitter.com/Fck_Miguel/status/1028318494037880837

> the finish line vis-a-vis
> personal outrage…
> “We demand perfection of
> those admired by others.”

Oh, Muffin... You doughy little morsel...

1. You needn't worry for a flickering moment that Trump is expected, in any context, to approach perfection.


2. He's the fucking President. Of the United States. Dim Bulb teevee addicts liked the music on that one show and the lighting on the other and you chose him to lead the Executive branch, including all the spending thereof. What exactly COULD be demanded of such a combed-over doorknob? You wouldn't read any well-documented appraisals of his life or work. What were you thinking?

And you as you sat watching in the snuggling comfort of your rubber-footed jammies, a dream for his future stirred quietly in the back of your mind.

"What were you thinking?"

That he's better than Hillary. And he is! A whole lot better. And far better than most of us predicted he would be.

But you keep on never-Trumping Crid. It worked so well and has convinced so many people. Like . . . ummm . . . oh look over there.

> So yeah Trump is a lying
> piece of shit, so was everyone
> else. So what

Teenage Nihilism is aka butthurt: See "foaming, gurgling," above.



> Trump, the man, has done little
> to bring about unity

Forgivable. A favorite line via CH—

...those familiar with Hitchens’s work know that he has always thrived on sectarian battles, and always looked for “encouraging signs of polarization,” a phrase he has borrowed from his late friend Israel Shahak, the Israeli activist.

1,400 lawsuits, though... Before he ran for office.

> those types whose empowerment
> I feared have stirred violence
> and chaos to empower themselves

Yeah. Dude. Poignant moment in American history...

(Sniff)

Shame there's no one at the forefront of public consciousness to give this dynamism purpose & direction.

> That he's better than Hillary.

You tikes simply don't know how to read.

More importantly, you can't imagine why it matters: "Ugg!," you affirm.

And far better than most of us predicted he would be.

I admit I was surprised at how well he is doing in policy, I expected him to be worse than Carter and expected that congress would have been forced by circumstance to take back their enumerated powers they had been foisting on to the executive branch for decades

I.e., see "foaming, gurgling" above. AND FOR CHRISSAKES WILL SOMEONE PLEASE TAKE THE POINT.

Crid as I have said on numerous occasions, and others have said without such stunningly visual descriptions your arguments are spun together of gossamer bullshit

Hows about if you want to make a point you state it plainly in a succinct terse manner using no thesaurus, nor a short novella to state what could easily be stated with no more than FIVE words in total

Your MO seems to be fashioning multi paragraph statements comprised of shit cleverly designed to pointedly refuse to make your point so you can whine like a bitch that no one got your point

I think it was Patrick who years ago stated that speaking with you was like playing chess with a pigeon, cause of your propensity to knock all the pieces about, shit on the board and leave convinced you 'won' the argument

Do you not find it odd that even the people you say agree with you in addition to everyone else can never get your point?

One or two or even ten people sure? But when its literally the whole of creation maybe its time to consider the problem is you and not the rest of the universe?

"You tikes simply don't know how to read."

Nope. Can read just fine. Just disagree with you. Funny how you can't present a coherent argument against me. Of course as Lujlp points out you can't present a coherent argument in general. So at least I've got company for what that's worth.

"Company"

Wow Crid. You really don't know how to communicate?