Althouse: "Clinton’s message has been that America is divided by race and gender, and suddenly we see a horrifying uptick in police shootings because it fits that world view."

July 19, 2016

"Clinton’s message has been that America is divided by race and gender, and suddenly we see a horrifying uptick in police shootings because it fits that world view."

"That blood is on team Clinton’s hands (my side), in my opinion. My guess is that the genders also have a more negative view of each other than at any time in history. That’s coming from my team as well. Trump, on the other hand, is drawing us a picture of America as one team and everyone else as the competing teams. In terms of persuasion, this is a super-strong message.... Just tell us we’re on the same team, and that we’re in a friendly competition with the rest of the world. I don’t care what gender and ethnicity you are, so long as you’re with me on the American team and helping to compete against the rest of the world. The words 'Team America' would be the strongest persuasion this country has ever seen. That framing loses the xenophobia and hate, and defines us as part of a friendly competition with the world that is good for all. The only downside is that Team America is the name of a hilarious puppet movie. But I think we can get past that. I’m on Team America. If you’re on my team, I don’t need to know anything else about you. We’re good."

Says Scott Adams.

I don't think you really get past the hilarious puppet movie. You plunge more deeply into it until the hilarity evolves — matures, blossoms — into truth.

84 comments:

YoungHegelian said...: Fuck, yeah!

(Sorry. Someone was going to say it...); 7/19/16, 9:19 AM
David Begley said...: Make it "The American Team." Like The Ohio State University. Problem solved.; 7/19/16, 9:20 AM
PB said...: The Democrat strategy is to divide people.; 7/19/16, 9:27 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Make it "The American Team." Like The Ohio State University. Problem solved."

Add the.

People love that.

The people love that.

The people have the love for the that.

The Donald.; 7/19/16, 9:27 AM
Gahrie said...: The whole strategy of the Left is to make everyone else fear and hate the straight White man. Divide and conquer...and it seems to work for them.

Hispanics - immigration

Blacks - BLM

women - war on women, abortion

Freaks - gay marriage, transgender bathrooms; 7/19/16, 9:28 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Ever notice how Melania often leaves out "the"? Even when reading a speech written by someone else.; 7/19/16, 9:28 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: Any kid who pays attention to politics in the media can sense that the grownups are full of anxiety, fighting with each other over scarce resources as if their lives depend on it. One big, long, omnipresent, verbal food riot.

My advice would be: Pay no heed. Don't get played. Stay focused on what you can do.; 7/19/16, 9:29 AM
Inga said...: I thought as I got into the meat of the blogpost, "Who the hell wrote this drivel?" Then I saw Scott Adams, I thought "Of course". He's trying to persuade us that Trump has convinced folks to follow him because he portrays his "movement" as being on Team America. Who believes what Trump sells as being on a team that represents America? Trump's Team America is comprised of old white men and fewer older white women, not exactly representative of True America.; 7/19/16, 9:31 AM
n.n said...: Men and women are equal and complementary. It was Mother Nature's choice.

Denying individual dignity and intrinsic value of human life are first-order causes of Catastrophic Anthropogenic Class Diversity (CACD) (e.g. racism, sexism, Affirmative Action). CACD causes mass abortions and nurtures prejudice.

Clinton has a Pro-Choice problem.; 7/19/16, 9:34 AM
TreeJoe said...: Once upon a time, the Presidency was about ascending from a party to a cross-partisan position. This was why incumbents became so powerful short of scandal - because they tended to grow their fanbase by working across ideologies. And when a President took on the presidency, they left behind them the shackles of needing to be partisan. Similarly, when a President transitioned, the old president went quietly into the night for some period of time to give the new president space to breath.

That was about teamwork and what's best for America.

Somehow we lost that 8 years ago, and now we see a President staying in Washington DC post-term for the first time in, what, 90-100 years and that was for a dying president who stayed local.

As a father, I understand the desire not to remove a high school daughter from school. As a president, I'd hope I'd put country first. An ex-president sticking around is not good for the way our government is set up.; 7/19/16, 9:34 AM
traditionalguy said...: No wonder Adams keeps saying he is on Clinton's side. He is helping her out like Comey did. And telling that much truth is dangerous.; 7/19/16, 9:36 AM
Heartless Aztec said...: Where have you gone Mr Coolidge?
Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you,
Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo.

How how about a competent executive who minds the store and keeps his mouth shut for thee most part.; 7/19/16, 9:39 AM
Inga said...: How does it hurt the country to have Obama living in DC? He won't be living in the basement of the White House. If the new President is so insecure that an old President resides in the same city, that doesn't speak well for the competency of the new President. If the new President is Hillary Clinton, I doubt she would mind.; 7/19/16, 9:42 AM
rhhardin said...: The rules for articles are insanely complex for English, which means that the same rule is wrong for other languages. Melania probably fixes the mistake for her language.

The rules for articles actually reverse in titles.; 7/19/16, 9:43 AM
rhhardin said...: Managers have little idea what teamwork is.

Actual teamwork is suppressed when found, in favor of a managed team.; 7/19/16, 9:45 AM
rhhardin said...: You can't have teamwork without cheerleaders.; 7/19/16, 9:47 AM
Gahrie said...: If the new President is Hillary Clinton, I doubt she would mind.

Wanna bet?

It used to be that ex-presidents had the class to move home, write their memoirs and stay out of politics. Carter had trouble with this, and from what I can tell, Obama is going to be a complete disaster, second guessing the new president and trying desperately to hold onto what power and prestige he can. If the new president is smart, he'll make him an ambassador somewhere....hell make him an roving ambassador and let him travel the rest of his life...anything to get him out of Washington.; 7/19/16, 9:47 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: TreeJoe said...

Similarly, when a President transitioned, the old president went quietly into the night for some period of time to give the new president space to breath.
...
Somehow we lost that 8 years ago, and now we see a President staying in Washington DC post-term...

We lost that more than 15 years ago when Hillary Clinton became a Senator, resulting in the former President staying involved.; 7/19/16, 9:49 AM
rhhardin said...: Trump should promise that when he leaves the White House, he won't take the silverware.; 7/19/16, 9:50 AM
shiloh said...: "Ever notice how Melania often leaves out "the"?"

Trump didn't marry her because she could give a good speech.; 7/19/16, 9:53 AM
Nonapod said...: A lot of people on the right have been arguing for years that the messages on the left are all about division, breaking everyone up into grievance groups based on ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender ect... with the ultimate source of all grievance being the absolute paragon of all repression, the white heterosexual male. In the minds of many leftist, the white heterosexual male seems to be the only being with prime agency in the world, everyone else is a victim without much real agency. It's a sad way to view the world, but at least it absolves these victims of any responsibility beyond raging against these oppressors.; 7/19/16, 10:01 AM
Bill Peschel said...: "Team America" (the thought, not the movie) works as a message if there was anyone out there articulate and powerful enough to spread it.

This country, idealistically (and I have to stress that), was founded on the idea that Americans were those who agreed to share the values expressed in the Constitution. If you swear to it, you're an American. Doesn't matter what skin color you are, what language you speak, what beliefs you hold.

Yes, it's easy to poke holes in that argument: Indian wars, Chinese exclusion, "No Irish Need Apply", segregation, etc.

But we always spoke of that standard, and those who fought to implement those ideas had something to point to. The Abolitionists could say, "We must put into practice this belief that all men are created equal, or it means nothing at all." They were a minority, but they were passionate, and their argument propelled us into the Civil War.

In the past few years, Obama has done his best to denigrate that idea. We're just like other countries, and ideals don't matter. What you see is the result. And we can expect four more years of it under a Hillary Clinton administration.; 7/19/16, 10:04 AM
The Godfather said...: "We're all in this together" sounds great; it's the way we'd like it to be. Obama said pretty much that when he was running for President the first time. But if you want power you have to divide us, "our side" against "their side". That's what Obama has done with great success ever since he took office. What will Tromp do? It would be hard for him to run on a "togetherness" theme, but he may try. But he'll never govern that way (and certainly Hillary! wouldn't).; 7/19/16, 10:10 AM
DrMaturin said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/19/16, 10:11 AM
Brando said...: Good luck selling Trump as the American Uniter--I get that (according to Adams who seems to amazingly have hypnotized himself) in this worldview, Trump loves all Americans, it is only the foreign elements (Muslims, Mexicans who are here illegally or who are here legally but should not be, and of course anyone who dissents against the Donald) that he is against. But when you're constantly on the attack, and that attack includes much of your own party and supposed ideological allies, and your attacks on "foreign" elements are understandably going to disturb native born Americans, then you're not selling that message at all.; 7/19/16, 10:12 AM
Brando said...: Which is a shame, because Hillary and Co. have in fact been quite divisive, and there is an opening for the GOP to take the mantle of a return to normalcy and a "we're all one" and put them on the defensive. Apparently this isn't the year for that.; 7/19/16, 10:13 AM
Sebastian said...: @BP: "founded on the idea that Americans were those who agreed to share the values expressed in the Constitution. If you swear to it, you're an American" Sorry, that's gone (as you imply). And of course no one knows what those "values" are, unless it is that love wins, or some such thing. Plus we know that some values in the Constitution are outdated, so those are not things right-thinking people would agree to share anyway. Pretty soon, Progs, following he Tushnet corollary, will end the charade that being American means having to believe anything.; 7/19/16, 10:14 AM
MadisonMan said...: Somehow we lost that 8 years ago

We did? George W. Bush is living a quiet life.

The problem is that Clinton didn't want to stop suckling at the Federal Teat, especially when all the other dangerously lactating foreign governments are also there, presenting engorged, milk-filled breasts to her. Is it any wonder her bank account has grown fat.

(Maybe that metaphor went crazy); 7/19/16, 10:23 AM
MadisonMan said...: In my defense, this is the dairy state.; 7/19/16, 10:24 AM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: "If the new President is Hillary Clinton, I doubt she would mind"

Gracious, you couldn't be more wrong. But I'm sure they'll reach some kind of agreement that keeps Bark out of D.C.

Loved Team America. I remember feeling a sort of disbelief as I watched it in a theater in a very liberal town. Wouldn't have thought it possible to get it on a screen there. This was in a town where Rachel Corrie is a kind of secular saint.; 7/19/16, 10:27 AM
LYNNDH said...: OK Ann, just read your latest post and now this post and see your post on Rudy. Just say it "I'm for Hillary".; 7/19/16, 10:27 AM
David said...: 1. Scott Adams is consistently wrong about everything.

2. Trump is tremendously divisive. He openly flirts with white nationalists. He wants to deport millions of Americans of Latino descent. He impugns Muslim Americans. He says they know about terrorist plots and don't warn authorities. His Twitter posts anti-black and anti-jewish neonazi memes, and retweets white supremacists. When Trump says Team America, it will be rightly understood as Team White America, and that is unlikely to help his cause.; 7/19/16, 10:29 AM
Inga said...: The idea plagiarized from Hillary. Her slogan is "Stronger Together", she also expounded on how we are "better together". "Team America" is a joke coming from Trump who has demonized segments of the population. The parts make the whole.; 7/19/16, 10:31 AM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: "Trump is tremendously divisive. He openly flirts with white nationalists. He wants to deport millions of Americans of Latino descent."

You mean millions of Mexicans of Latino descent. No fear, I'm happy to correct your mistakes.; 7/19/16, 10:31 AM
n.n said...: The Democrats and minority factions are desperate to project the prejudice nurtured through promotion of [class] diversity (e.g. racism, sexism) and selective exclusion (e.g. "=") under the religious doctrines of their Pro-Choice Church.; 7/19/16, 10:35 AM
Patrick Henry was right! said...: Trump has never said he would deport any AMERICANS!!! That would be quite the impossibility.; 7/19/16, 10:37 AM
n.n said...: The anti-native policies of Clinton et al that condone and promote the mass exodus of men, women, and children from second and third-world nations is matched only by the refugee crises caused her and Obama's pursuit of progressive wars and opportunistic regime changes... and, of course, the mass abortion and recycling (e.g. Planned Parenthood) of million of wholly innocent human lives under the religious pro-choice doctrine pulled from the twilight zone and preached by liberal judges.; 7/19/16, 10:38 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: First and foremost, Adams is for Trump, his disavows to the contrary. Somewhat akin to some of the leftists here claiming to be Eepublcans. He swore personal allegiance to Crooked Hillary purportedly for personal safety reasons. I say "purportedly" because I think that he was mostly trying to make a point.

That said, I do believe that history is not on her side this election. I think that a lot of the current violence is a direct result of the devisiveness of President Obama, esp his feeding of Black lawlessness and ignoring the dangers and violence posed by militant Islam (And in Baton Rouge, we had both rolled into one package). Law and order are under attack, and he just seems to be egging it on. She is trying for Obama's third term, and is using the same tactics and tricks that got him elected. Even if the general populace don't see directly why things have gotten so much more unsettled over the last eight years, they feel it. She can't put the majority at ease and still run as a divider like she almost has to here.; 7/19/16, 10:41 AM
Anonymous said...: rhhardin beat me to the same point.

Ann Althouse said...
Ever notice how Melania often leaves out "the"?

She is not an native English speaker. I'm not a native German speaker. I guess at many definite articles in German. She makes guesses in English. Some are wrong.; 7/19/16, 10:42 AM
YoungHegelian said...: @Unknown, David,

Yoo-hoo, luvvies, take a gander at this.

You know, if you're Hispanic & live in a border state, I can imagine why you'd get sick & tired of having your country being seen by Mexico & Mexicans as their combination corn larder/pressure valve.

If you can speak Spanish, unlike us Anglos, you know the bullshit that gets played out in Latino media on immigration. "Sure, we got the right to be here. We work hard. Why do you ask?"; 7/19/16, 10:47 AM
Anonymous said...: MadisonMan said...
Somehow we lost that 8 years ago

We did? George W. Bush is living a quiet life.

He was making two points in the post.

1. presidents, upon assuming the office attempted to work beyond their base and unite the country. Clinton and both Bushes tried. Obama talked a good game, pre-election, but his opening move as president was "I won, live with it suckers"
2. ex-presidents left town and generally shut up for a while

He was talking about point 1, you are talking about point 2; 7/19/16, 10:48 AM
bbkingfish said...: I disagree with Scott Adams.

I think the blood is on the hands of the NRA and gun rights dead-enders who have wallowed in Second Amendment rhetoric for more years than I care to count.

These outfits preach in a constant stream that we must be armed to the teeth as a last resort against government "tyranny," and that it is the right of every man to decide what constitutes that tyranny.

Then military veterans demented by PTSD, or other crazed individuals, see their fellow citizens being gunned down in the streets by government "enforcers," (i.e., the police) and conclude that it is time for them to take NRA-style "patriotic" action.

These killers, some professionally trained in military tactics, see themselves as the last line of defense against government oppression, as the NRA and other right-wing hate groups (including both white and black separatist/nationalist movements) have been preaching for decades.

Scott Adams is a pretty good cartoonist. But he is way out of his element as a political philosopher, or even political analyst.

I have noticed that he is fascinating to some bloggers, but without fail they are writers who approach political matters with the sensibilities of a small child.

As a writer, Scott Adams probably is at his best when he sticks to captions of seven words or fewer.

Beyond that, I guess he has value as clickbait to bloggers who act out of the slightest and most temporary pecuniary advantage.; 7/19/16, 10:49 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: I agree that with the other posters. Crooked Hillary shill David (with no Blogger profile except that he had been there since last year) claimed that Trump wanted to deport Hispanic Americans. Obvious mischaracterization by a Crooked Hillary troll, because Trump only wants to enforce the immigration laws as written, which means shipping back illegals, not Americans. Critical difference - the illegals aren't Americans, which is obvious by their name "illegal immigrants".; 7/19/16, 10:50 AM
YoungHegelian said...: @bbkingfish,

I think the blood is on the hands of the NRA and gun rights dead-enders who have wallowed in Second Amendment rhetoric for more years than I care to count.

Please tell us an act of terrorism or mass murder that has been committed by an NRA member in the past 30 years.

If you can't name any, why don't you be a good little putz & delete that post.; 7/19/16, 10:53 AM
Owen said...: MadisonMan @ 10:23: "...(Maybe that metaphor went crazy)"

I will be sending you a bill for an emergency shipment of mind-bleach.; 7/19/16, 10:56 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: Crooked Hillary shill babies nudist (no profile information) - whoops - that was Apple spell check, I meant " bbkingfish", tries to blame it on the NRA and 2nd Amdt proponents. Good godh. Leftist lunacy at its most blatant. A small fraction, probably in the single digits, of the gun owners in this country belong to that organization. If I ever join, it will most likely be to become certified by them as a firearms instructor. Which is the big thing that they provide to the gun community - training in gun safety. Too bad those violent thugs seemingly now running the inner city lower income neighborhoods in long term Dem controlled cities haven't taken those classes, because if they had, their death toll might be significantly lower. Few besides their mothers and President Obama really miss the violent thugs killed by others of their kind in their incessant turf wars. But the tragedy is all the innocent lives that they take. Esp the women and children. Esp the children.

Sorry, the 2nd Amdt is a fundamental part of our social contract known as our Constitution. Just as is the 1st and 5th Amdt (latter mentioned here because of the flagrant violation of it in the recently proposed Dem gun control legislation). You have three real choices here: move away; work to amend our Constitution; or accept it. No one here cares if you do the first. The second isn't going to happen. Not even close. And esp not in this environment.; 7/19/16, 11:17 AM
Brando said...: "Somewhat akin to some of the leftists here claiming to be Eepublcans."

What leftists are you referring to that call themselves Republican? I've heard it about Chuck, but I think he's pretty clearly an anti-Trump conservative Republican. The leftists here seem pretty open about being leftists.

"He swore personal allegiance to Crooked Hillary purportedly for personal safety reasons. I say "purportedly" because I think that he was mostly trying to make a point."

Adams is being tongue in cheek--if he was really afraid of Hillary fans he wouldn't state on his blog that his endorsement was just for self-protection. Anyway, it's not Hillary fans (or Trump fans) that we should watch out for. The dangerous people aren't the sort that vote.; 7/19/16, 11:22 AM
bbkingfish said...: The correct answer to the question “how many were NRA members” would be - impossible to tell.

Only the NRA itself can confirm whether or not shooter X was a member, and the official policy of the NRA is that they will not disclose membership status of any individual to a third party. The membership lists are considered private property of the NRA, and are not bound by any disclosure laws.

Therefore, the answer is that it cannot be determined whether or not any one individual is a member of the NRA.; 7/19/16, 11:22 AM
Anonymous said...: The genders got along better when they were the sexes. "Gender" should be relegated to grammar , where it belongs.; 7/19/16, 11:22 AM
YoungHegelian said...: @BBK,

Therefore, the answer is that it cannot be determined whether or not any one individual is a member of the NRA.

Oh, sure, BBK. Nobody knows. Not the NRA member's spouse, children, extended family, friends, neighbors, pastor, fellow gun nuts down at the shooting range, the gun store in town where he buys his ammo, credit card purchase history that a reporter with sources could get off the record from law enforcement.

There's just no one an intrepid reporter could ask to find out that information.

Try again.; 7/19/16, 11:34 AM
jr565 said...: "Clinton’s message has been that America is divided by race and gender, and suddenly we see a horrifying uptick in police shootings because it fits that world view."
<Br. This is because the Dems ahve been stoking these fires since Obama was in office. And not just the dems, but libs in general. The entirety of their world view is an us vs. them mentality
Feminists have been talking about the patriarchy and rape culture and systemic sexism. Blacks have been pushing BLM and systemic racism.
Gays have been pushing transgenderism and an almost literal, Emperor has no clothes denial of biological reality which, if you disagree, makes you a hateful homophobe.

Furhte, the left has used every crisis to push things like gun control and shaming of white people (read, white men) for the actions of lone individuals All the cops are out targeting men.
Dylan Roof proves that white society is inherently racist, and we need to have discussions about conferate flags. And not only discussions, but we need to remove all confederate flags from the public square. If the Dukes of Hazard show had a confederate flag on a car, we have to stop playing Dukes of Hazard. Apple bans all civil war games from their app store.

When its one crazy white guy who lives in a shack in the woods with no electricity who is obviously bat shit insane who shoots up an abortion clinic, suddenly Republicans are to blame for their violent rhetoric,becasue they had video that showed Planned Parentood harvested organs. When Sarah Palin targets districts to remove RINO's suddenly she is responsible for Giffords shooting beucase of "eliminationist rhetoric".
When a single person calls someone an N word on a college campus, the whole campus is racist and the president needs to step down, becuase he didnt' do anything or enough, even though the person who experienced said issue never in fact reported it to campus security but instead wrote about it on campus.

Campuses are rape centers, and there is a rape culture and rape epidemic, which men (most likely white men).
And the left wonders why there might be divisiveness. maybe because they are finding bogeymen to attack and foment divisiveness over? Racism/sexism/homoophobia. Endless race cards/sexism cards/homophobia cards.

But of course, when the BLM movement says "PIgs in a blanket" or "death to cops" or when those that do kill cops say "they take one of ours, we'll take two of theirs" or say they are killing cops specifically because they are mad about black lives matter, suddenly Obama says "We can't ascertain why these people are doing what they're doing" Same with muslim terrorism. We cant know why they are commiting these acts, even if they are saying Allah Akbar while doing them.

The left has so much blood on its hands its ridiculous.; 7/19/16, 11:41 AM
Curious George said...: "Bruce Hayden said...
Crooked Hillary shill babies nudist (no profile information) - whoops - that was Apple spell
Sorry, the 2nd Amdt is a fundamental part of our social contract known as our Constitution... You have three real choices here: move away; work to amend our Constitution; or accept it. No one here cares if you do the first. The second isn't going to happen. Not even close. And esp not in this environment."

That sounds good until you have a liberal majority on the SCOTUS. Then are you so sure?; 7/19/16, 11:47 AM
Owen said...: Young Hegelian: If I understand BBK's complaint, it takes too much shoe leather to actually interview people involved in a shooting incident. Reporters should be able to click on a database faithfully curated by their favorite Bogeyman in order to prove the truth of their favorite Narrative. Is that it?; 7/19/16, 11:47 AM
n.n said...: Contrary to urban myths, the preferred tool to commit elective abortion is not a gun, but rather a scalpel... and high capacity trucks, too. The former is known for ending (and cannibalizing - Planned Parenthood) over one million [wholly innocent] human lives annually in America and millions more globally.

Paul Zrimsek:

Sexes, sex, love, and babies, too. It's the natural order.; 7/19/16, 11:55 AM
jr565 said...: David wrote:
2. Trump is tremendously divisive. He openly flirts with white nationalists. He wants to deport millions of Americans of Latino descent.

ANd hillary and the dems openly flirt with black separatists who have advocated cop killing. Here's the difference though? Despite all this talk about white nationalists, where have white nationalists disrupted society in the last few years? The only thing I read about the Klan is that they tried to hold a rally recently and got attacked by gang bangers who beat the crap out of them. Its bizarre where average people woudl side with the klan who got all their permits for their march and are marching peacefully over people that have no problem pulling out knives and attacking people who are peacefully assembling. But the klan was actually in the right, there.

And on the other side we have BLM. Who are blocking bridges. blocking streets, walking into restaurants where people are eating brunch and then lecturing people about how racist they. Disrupting Bernie sanders rallies by trying to take the mic, Disrupting speeches by people like Milo, (gay conservative) by storming the stage and taking over the event. More importantly the are completely racist. They have in their literature that white people who want to contribute can't talk have to just stand there as support but let the black people speak. They are kicked out of libraries who have rules that require that any assemblies there not be segregated. And BLM woudnt allow white people into the meetings.

And lets not forget how BLM is protesting and causing riots, while demagoging cops every time there is a shooting. Check out Twitter every time a cop is killed to hear all the BLMers justifying why the cosp were shot. You can link a clear path from the rhetoric of BLM to the assaults on cops, many of whom have been shot in the past week. or who have been lured to locateions to be ambushed.

So, which group is really causing problems here? the KKK and white natioanlists? WHERE? Give me some examples? Or Black LIves Matter.

And after cops get killed Obama has to lecture us about OUR racism at the memorial for the cops. And Hillary has to tell white people we need to understand blacks better.

I dont want to hear about WHite nationalists when the media and the libs are sucking up to BLM and pushing people and are in solidarity with people who are essentilay pushing for armed struggle against cops.
You are projecting. The issue is not White Nationalism, but democratic support of black racism and revolutionary action.; 7/19/16, 11:56 AM
n.n said...: Owen:

Not even a database. The preferred evidence of JournoLists (and scientific mystics) is derived from statistical models molded to fit the narrative.; 7/19/16, 11:57 AM
Fred Drinkwater said...: Owen:
Hell, just ask the mailman. He probably can give you a list of everyone on the route receiving the NRA mailings.; 7/19/16, 12:00 PM
bbkingfish said...: LOL.

LaPierre, playing against type, is virtually in hiding. Police organizations all over the country are pleading for the suspension of open carry. Roger Ailes is getting canned at Fox. Two living GOP ex-Presidents have announced they are voting for Hillary. Movement conservatives jumped off the GOP bus months and months ago. The GOP Governor of Ohio isn't attending the party convention that he moved heaven and earth to bring to Cleveland. The wife of the GOP presidential candidate plagiarizes from Michelle Obama. Trump's campaign manager was an adviser to Putin and the puppet government Vlad pushed on Ukraine.

RINOs have been banished from the Party. Conservatives have flown the coop. The libertarian wing is embarrassed and using words like "fascist" and "brown shirts" on the convention floor to describe their new leaders.

The GOP coalition of the last 50 years is kaput.

Have a nice day.; 7/19/16, 12:03 PM
todd galle said...: BBK -
I'm NRA, CCW, and fairly innocuous. I was going to the range today, but some plumbing issues held me up, so that trip will have to be postponed. 250 rounds of 9mm to keep sharp. Please tell me how I am responsible for anything done by others. Plus, as to how knowing someone is an NRA member, look for the window stickers for cars that they give out with memberships. I don't personally use them, much like anti-gun folks don't put a "No Guns Here" sign outside their houses.; 7/19/16, 12:09 PM
YoungHegelian said...: @bbkingfish,

RINOs have been banished from the Party. Conservatives have flown the coop. The libertarian wing is embarrassed and using words like "fascist" and "brown shirts" on the convention floor to describe their new leaders.

Yo-hoo. That's pretty much the whole party, isn't it? Yet, somehow, Trump legitimately won the votes in the Republican primaries. How could that be without those Republican sub-groups? The pundits said that the Republican support that went to the other 16 candidates would not go for Trump. But, in those later primaries where Trump was the only candidate or running against Kasich & Cruz, Republican turnout went strongly for Trump & often had record numbers of Republican voters.

BBK, in the Republican primaries, the outsider won. Trump won fair & square. The insiders are not happy, not happy at all. Their livelihoods are on the chopping block here. What you are seeing on the Republican side is what you would (& perhaps still might) see on the Democratic side if Sanders had won.; 7/19/16, 12:14 PM
furious_a said...: Will there be puppet sex in Trump's "Team America"?; 7/19/16, 12:17 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: @curious George - you have a point. But the gun nuts aren't going to give up their guns, and there is little chance that the government will be able to make them do so. Despite what the left wants, the reality is that for many here, the Constitution is not a living document. It is a social contract entered into by our ancestors over 200 years. The right to keep and bear arms, and, in particular, for self defense, is an inherent fundamental right. The 2nd Amdt did not create the right, but rather was enacted to protect it against government for future generations. This has been learned at the knees of parents, esp by the Scotts-Irish in their swath across the middle of the country once the founding, in the south since the end of the Civil War, and in the intermountain west since it settled. A 5-4 decision by the Supreme Court isn't going to change this historical understanding. It will just delegitimize the Supreme Court. My guess is that the civil disobedience would dwarf what we saw with prohibition. We are at a point technologically where the govt couldn't disarm the populace if they tried - for example the new law in CA that was supposed to eliminate changible magazines for long guns was legally bypassed in hours after the law was enacted. Serial number free 80% complete AR lower receivers are the rage, but expect that they will be replaced soon by the rapidly evolving rapid protyping tools. And that ignores the reality that more guns are in civilian hands here than in much of the rest of the world, combined. It can't be done, and the police delegated to try aren't going to help.; 7/19/16, 12:32 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "1. Scott Adams is consistently wrong about everything...."

That's irrelevant to the point he is making.

Consistently.; 7/19/16, 12:41 PM
I Callahan said...: Trump is tremendously divisive. He openly flirts with white nationalists.

He hasn't done any thing.

He wants to deport millions of Americans of Latino descent.

They're not Americans if they're not citizens. Nice attempt at wording, though.

He impugns Muslim Americans.He says they know about terrorist plots and don't warn authorities.

There is evidence of this actually happening, and you know it.

His Twitter posts anti-black and anti-jewish neonazi memes, and retweets white supremacists.

Examples, or you're making things up.

When Trump says Team America, it will be rightly understood as Team White America, and that is unlikely to help his cause.

Maybe. But that's because the country's citizenry has become so unbearably stupid as to not see the forest for the trees - that it's being transformed into a welfare society where you have only rich and poor. Kind of like San Francisco, New York and Boston.

Nice try at flinging poo on the wall.; 7/19/16, 12:45 PM
Achilles said...: "RINOs have been banished from the Party. Conservatives have flown the coop. The libertarian wing is embarrassed and using words like "fascist" and "brown shirts" on the convention floor to describe their new leaders."

Exactly. The corrupt pols trying to guard their rice bowls are getting the boot. The voters in the republican party have taken the party over. Other members of the political elite are aghast and calling us little people all sorts of names.

The democrat voters tried to take their party back from the oligarchs too> But a combination of corruption in the DNC and stupidity of the average democrat leaves the party beholden to Soros and Goldman Sachs. They keep black people poor, ginned up a race war, and are doing everything in their power to keep black people angry and desperate. The democrat party is going to be outed as a disgusting tool of the oligarchs.; 7/19/16, 12:50 PM
I Callahan said...: Police organizations all over the country are pleading for the suspension of open carry.

Hah! That's so funny as to be laughable. The only ones pleading are police CHIEFS, who are political appointments (in big cities, anyway). Rank and file cops have NO problem with people with gun possession, and anyone who infers otherwise is talking out of his ass.

My old man was a cop in a big city for 25 years. So please smell what you're shoveling.; 7/19/16, 12:50 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: @Todd - how do you afford it. At roughly $250 for a case of 1,000 rounds of range 9mm, a quarter case at every outing gets expensive. I know I need to build up to it. By late spring, I was shooting 150-200 rounds a trip, at least once a week, and I could see my accuracy drop off after 100 rounds. Then a month or so without shooting, after we moved back up to MT for half the year, and when I went out Thursday, my accuracy started to suffer at around maybe 75-80 rounds.

For any of you freaking out here with talk about shooting - try it. You may like it. Amazing number of confirmed leftists have found that it is great fun. Put on a birthday expedition for my kid, their SO, a friend from HS and his SO. Three had never shot handguns, and one never even a .22 rifle. They shot maybe 350 rounds of 9mm and 150 of .223 in an AR-15, and had a gas. By the end, they were trying to play battleship (but weren't good enough shots to sink much). Despite living in Boulder, my kid willingly agreed with my offer to buy them a handgun - as long as it has a safety (which my Glock does not).; 7/19/16, 12:50 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: Rank and file cops have NO problem with people with gun possession, and anyone who infers otherwise is talking out of his ass.

Be a bit more accurate. Most cops are happy with law abiding citizens with guns, but not the criminals. Indeed, the instructor of my CO CCW class was a cop, and the instructors and range officers at the range I belong to in CO are almost all either past or present LEOs or former military. More of the former than the latter.; 7/19/16, 12:58 PM
exhelodrvr1 said...: "Somehow we lost that 8 years ago, and now we see a President staying in Washington DC post-term..."

Not 8 years ago - Bush has done that perfectly, arguably to an excess.

Clinton hasn't been as good, although he hasn't been terrible about it.; 7/19/16, 12:59 PM
Martin said...: Call it "Team USA" and you capture allusions to Olympic hockey and basketball... not puppet movies.; 7/19/16, 1:04 PM
bagoh20 said...: I like "The Collective". Are you with me, comrades?; 7/19/16, 1:07 PM
traditionalguy said...: Melania still translates inside her head before she answers. The is a hard one for Slavic languages. The is na, which inserts no into our English minds. So she drops it.; 7/19/16, 1:07 PM
Dr Weevil said...: I haven't heard the speech, but I gather Melania Trump omits a lot of definite articles. Why should that be a surprise? Native speakers of languages that lack the definite article tend to do exactly that. One of the main things that made Boris and Natasha on the Bullwinkle show sound Russian was dropping articles. Slovenian is a Slavic language. . . . Quick check of Wikipedia (which calls it 'Slovene', by the way) . . . bingo! "There are no definite or indefinite articles as in English (a, an, the) or German (der, die, das, ein, eine)." A Slovenian immigrant who drops her articles is no more surprising than a French immigrant turning her demonstratives into 'zis' and 'zat' and 'zese' and 'zose'.; 7/19/16, 1:10 PM
buwaya said...: "1. Scott Adams is consistently wrong about everything"

Scott Adams is the greatest writer on business management since Peter Drucker.

He faithfully documents the increasing sclerosis of the Fortune 1000, a Schumpeter in the trenches. But, unfortunately, like Cassandra he can only predict disaster, as the forces driving us all to destruction are greater than the collective influence of all his fans.; 7/19/16, 1:11 PM
n.n said...: The police, as all Americans, invite people to carry arms, but draw the line at actions with the intent of intimidation or provocation for special and peculiar causes. The issue is not arms, or trucks, or even scalpels, which are all dual-use, even multi-use items, but rights and responsibilities, and their reconciliation among 300 million people.; 7/19/16, 1:19 PM
mikee said...: Dear bbkingfish, what you produced there in your comment is called a "Blood Libel" and I repudiate it completely.

While the producer of a Blood Libel is unlikely to be able to experience shame for their actions, I can't think of anything else you should feel.

At least you are in good company. Every speech on firearms rights made by Hillary or Obama includes a simlilar illegitimate conflation of legal, law-abiding, rights- respecting firearm owners and criminals who misuse firearms. So you have that going for you, which is nice until you realize that, too, should be a cause for you to feel shame.; 7/19/16, 1:45 PM
Quaestor said...: Matt Damon.

BLAM!!; 7/19/16, 2:23 PM
walter said...: Martin said...
Call it "Team USA" and you capture allusions to Olympic hockey and basketball... not puppet movies.
--
Better: Team US

Beer summit across the country..; 7/19/16, 2:58 PM
Quaestor said...: Don't trust her! She's acting.; 7/19/16, 3:03 PM
Achilles said...: Bruce Hayden said...

"@Todd - how do you afford it. At roughly $250 for a case of 1,000 rounds of range 9mm, a quarter case at every outing gets expensive."

Press your own ammo. Get a progressive ammo press. Start with this:

https://www.dillonprecision.com/reloading-machines_8_1.html

Watch some youtubes. This will cut your ammo costs easily in half. If you shoot enough the XL650 by my calc's would pay for itself in about 13,000 rounds. If you have friends you shoot with a month of shooting can easily do that.

Here is a random video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D6gVSwNOsU; 7/19/16, 3:04 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: @Achilles - thanks.; 7/19/16, 8:44 PM
Kirk Parker said...: rhh:

Slovene, like other Slavic languages (Russian, Ukrainian) has no articles. Of course this aspect of English is going to present difficulties for the adult learner of the language.

Gahrie,

Great idea! Appoint Obama Ambassador to Antarctica, or (in a nod toward Scott Adams) Elbonia.

bbk,

"Police organizations all over the country are pleading for the suspension of open carry"

WTF?

1. Who cares if they are?

2. WTF does "open carry" have to do with those who are ambushing police officers?

Bruce,

" It will just delegitimize the Supreme Court."

You really think there's any legitimacy left to lose?; 7/20/16, 4:05 AM
Rusty said...: Press your own ammo. Get a progressive ammo press. Start with this:

https://www.dillonprecision.com/reloading-machines_8_1.html

2nd that. Like having your own factory.; 7/20/16, 7:24 AM
Sir Lags Alot said...: Heh. Reloading your ammunition will not save you money. It will just allow you to shoot more.; 7/20/16, 8:47 AM