June 23, 2019

At the New Life Café...

d3Jqvz0+RcyGwR4TwTHcyw

... you can talk all night.

108 comments:

Seeing Red said...

If you showed that new life being aborted, it would be more fitting today.

MayBee said...

I'm so upset about the Ravelry announcement. Instead of having a place where Trump supporters and Trump haters can just find a place where we can all join together , they had to announce that being a Trump supporter means you support white supremacy. You can post Trump-hating projects, but no Trump supporting projects or comments.

It's not that I go there to discuss politics. I don't and I wouldn't. But I do hate it that some are slowly convincing themselves they don't have to deal with people that they disagree with at all. They can just declare them haters and racists. To the point where a knitting website proactively makes this decree. And finds themselves quite brave for doing it!

Not supporting Obama was racist. Supporting Trump is racist. I don't know, I'm just sick of being hated in the name of love. We are losing our ability to be disagreed with, or to ignore the things that divide us.

Original Mike said...

New Life

What is it?

rcocean said...

I think people need to start fighting back instead of thinking they can reason with the Left.

If they're banning 50% of the USA for supporting the President of the USA, then they're the radicals - not you.

J. Farmer said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
n.n said...

Ravelry announcement... announce that being a Trump supporter means you support white supremacy

Diversitists languish in color judgments, including racism, sexism, etc.

Ralph L said...

I'm so upset about the Ravelry announcement.

Don't tie yourself in knots.

narciso said...

So were coming on three days and theres no I dictation what the target list was, it's rather striking the news cant figure this out

J. Farmer said...

It was bad enough when we started accepting immigrants with zero expectation of assimilation (you evil xenophobes!). Now we encourage them to have a deep, abiding hatred for white people and their culture (take that you white supremacist!). There is one area, it seems, where white supremacy does prevail. White countries are some of the most masochistic in history. I can think of few other places in the modern world that would permit huge numbers of foreign ethnics to move to their countries and subject their local populace to an endless lecture about how evil they are. Sounds like a killer strategy for a peaceful, well functioning society. Literally.

Ralph L said...

What is it?

Looks like potting soil, so it must be pot.

YoungHegelian said...

@MayBee,

they had to announce that being a Trump supporter means you support white supremacy.

I just don't understand this kind of mentality. Actually, I guess I do -- it's all about virtue signalling & not about any sort of real political action. Because, if someone seriously believes that 46% of the American voting population are white supremacists, then it's time to stop knitting and start buying guns. At least, start buying guns & donating them to black people.

But, of course, when pressed, the SJW's would never admit that the situation is so serious that drastic political action of the sort that actually might put them & theirs at risk is required. They'd waffle & talk about how, really, American history & society itself is white supremacist, blah, blah, blah. In other words, what sounds like a moral judgement is in reality a politico-philosophical judgement. It's just that admitting that fact dulls the hyperbole & deprives the accusation of its shock value. So, the issue is left deliberately clouded.

narciso said...

Hey maybe it's called the little tail, something the Castro regime did when it took power although I'm sure he wasnt the pioneer, you mark something so the source is put of bounds, not the content.

buwaya said...

It is indeed disgusting about Ravelry. My wife was active there for a long time.
Its weird, all these connections, no? That even I know about Ravelry.
These are all manias of a small active minority in each place.

buwaya said...

Its not that there is any politics worth mentioning in Ravelry in the first place.

Narr said...

J.Farmer, it's less the permitting than the encouraging. I'm no lawyer but what Merkel did in Germany was create an attractive nuisance, maybe an attractive catastrophe. (I never hear much about how the older Turkish migrants feel about the newcomers . . . but I plan to read up before I go.)

You get a lot of shit. I don't always agree with you (or have enough info myself to agree or not) but you handle it well.

BTW, is it really necessary for people to gay-bait, and insult each other continuously? It's hard enough trying to read 500 comments--many of real substance--without all the invective.

Narr
OK, I'm not perfect either

walter said...

Berno's Medicare For All (cough, cough), covers those illegal immigrants.
He also wants to cancel $1.6 T of student debt.
But he's a suitable runner up if Trump doesn't deliver on all his agenda.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

is spartacus getting married?(RD?) Will it help?

Howard said...

No decent people want to think they are associating with Trumpsters. Stop shitting yourself and society will welcome you back. Until then, expect to be ostracized.

rcocean said...

This just in: Toronto Raptors will NOT - Repeat NOT -visit Trump white house. Its not clear if anyone cares. Outside of Canada. Added: Toronto Red Hawks have agreed to visit if given live fish.

walter said...

That's good Howie.
I see you took Laslo's advice about embracing humor.

rcocean said...

BTW, when did this NBA Sports teams visit white house thing begin? Did Magic visit Reagan in 1985? I don't recall that.

rcocean said...

NO NBA team has visited white house since Obama left office. Sads. Looking forward to 6-10 guys hitting their heads on door entrances.

Original Mike said...

Howard - were decent people willing to associate with Bush supporters?

narciso said...

Hes young, younger than I am and most on this board, are Iranian engineers just not that ac accomplished

StephenFearby said...

Troubling Catch-22 story linked to by Drudge...

I’M A JOURNALIST BUT I DIDN’T FULLY REALIZE THE TERRIBLE POWER OF U.S. BORDER OFFICIALS UNTIL THEY VIOLATED MY RIGHTS AND PRIVACY
Seth Harp
June 22 2019

'...Austin is where I was born and raised, and I usually get waved through immigration after one or two questions. I’m also a white man; more on that later. This time, when my turn came to show my passport, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer was more aggressive than usual in his questioning. I told him I’d been in Mexico for seven days for work, that I was a journalist, and that I travel to Mexico often, as he could see from my passport. That wasn’t enough for him, though. He wanted to know the substance of the story I was currently working on, which didn’t sit right with me. I tried to skirt the question, but he came back to it, pointedly.

I was going on three hours of sleep, and I hadn’t had anything to eat in the last 12 hours besides some popcorn and peanuts and a Monster energy drink. Had my blood sugar been higher, I might have cheerfully told him. Instead, I muttered something about not having a legal obligation, under the circumstances, to disclose the contents of my reporting.

The agent, whose name was Moncivias, said we would see about that. He asked me to follow him into the secondary screening area.

“Oh, come on, man,” I said, checking the time on my phone. It was just after noon. “This is going to be a huge waste of time.”

“I’m here all day,” Moncivias said.'

'...IN GENERAL, LAW enforcement agents have to get a warrant to search your electronic devices. That’s the gist of the 2014 Supreme Court case Riley v. California. But the Riley ruling only applies when the police arrest you. The Supreme Court has not yet decided whether the same protections apply to American citizens reentering the United States from abroad, and federal appeals courts have issued contradictory opinions. In the absence of a controlling legal authority, CBP goes by its own rules, namely CBP Directive No. 3340-049A, pursuant to which CBP can search any person’s device, at any time, for any reason, or for no reason at all. If you refuse to give up your password, CBP’s policy is to seize the device. The agency may use “external equipment” to crack the passcode, “not merely to gain access to the device, but to review, copy, and/or analyze its contents,” according to the directive. CBP can look for any kind of evidence, any kind of information, and can share what it finds with any other federal agency, so long as doing so is “consistent with applicable law and policy.”

I had my doubts as to whether they could actually crack my iPhone and MacBook, but I didn’t doubt that they would be happy to confiscate them. So I decided to take another tack: I told the officers I had nothing to hide, but I felt I had a professional obligation to call an attorney for further advice. Pomeroy said I could not because I wasn’t under arrest; I just wasn’t allowed to enter the United States. I wasn’t allowed to leave the Homeland Security zone, either.'

https://theintercept.com/2019/06/22/cbp-border-searches-journalists/

Rory said...

How long before the Howard person realizes that he/she isn't engaging in ostracism?

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

We are losing our ability to be disagreed with, or to ignore the things that divide us.

I just posted on Facebook that I am enjoying a couch night with my sweetie, planning the week ahead and watching Nine to Five. . A friend chimes in that she loves that movie, I reply that Dolly Parton might be the greatest living American, and one of my friends from church says Until you consider her political views before her fan base chimed in. Now I generally agree with this church friend's points of view on politics and society but oh my freaking GOD can we just STOP with this crap ALL THE TIME. I don't care what Dolly Parton's political views are or aren't. I am just enjoying her charm in a movie from 39 freaking years ago.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

was carlos danger recruiting for nxivm?
was his infamous laptop entered as evidence in the trial?

and re: laptops-- what ever happened to one of hill's that an aide "lost in the mail"?

walter said...

Passage from Fearby's link, without the truncation:
“I’m here all day,” Moncivias said. He might have been 30 years old, clean cut, with dark hair and light skin. He and I were close enough in age that there was definitely some male primate posturing going on between us. At one point, I told him that I had been in the Army. “Thank you for your service,” he retorted.In retrospect, I was naive about the kind of agency CBP has become in the Trump era. Though I’ve reported several magazine stories in Mexico, none have been about immigration. Of course, I knew these were the guys putting kids in cages, separating refugee children from their parents, and that Trump’s whole shtick is vilifying immigrants, leading to many sad and ugly scenes at the border, including the farcical deployment of U.S. troops."
Maybe the guacamole story wasn't going to light his career on fire.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

J.Farmer...You get a lot of shit. I don't always agree with you (or have enough info myself to agree or not) but you handle it well.

In my opinion J. Farmer is one of the best commenters here. Articulate, informed, insightful, and unflappable. I always enjoy his contributions and look for his avatar.

(Signed, fangirl. :) )

effinayright said...

Howard said...
No decent people want to think they are associating with Trumpsters. Stop shitting yourself and society will welcome you back. Until then, expect to be ostracized.
******************

Just what is it you suffer from, Howard?

Is it microcephaly, or full-blown anencephaly???

narciso said...

Um he still doesn't realize this was happening under Obama in 2014-5, also wasnt the intercept the site that was leaked the drone tapes as well as the ditzy flower air force analyst at nsa

walter said...

At one point, Pomeroy was standing over my laptop on the desk. I couldn’t see the screen, and he had such a puzzled expression on his face that I stood up to see what he was looking at. “Get back,” he said, clapping a hand on his sidearm. “I don’t know if you’re going for my gun.” At another point, Pomeroy had taken my laptop to the desk in the waiting area, and I thought I heard him call for me to come over, so I did. “Stand back from my gun,” he said, when he saw me approaching; it turns out he had been talking to someone else. Three times during the course of the secondary screening, Pomeroy pronounced words to the effect that he was subjectively forming a reasonable belief that I might grab his service weapon.

It was an implicit death threat and a rhetorical move on part of the police that will be familiar to people of color: I’ve got a gun on you, ergo, you’re a threat to me. Speaking of which, I’m certain this whole experience would have been worse had I been black or brown instead of white. And that is to say nothing of migrants and refugees, whose treatment at the hands of CBP on the U.S.-Mexico border is another matter altogether. But it does go to show that you can’t contain a culture of aggression to one part of an armed agency.

I was being physically submissive, keeping my hands visible at all times, not making any sudden moves, but Pomeroy would not let me see the laptop screen. I told him I at least had the right to know what files he was reviewing. “All of them,” he said, giving me a hard stare. “I’m going to look at all of them.”

“Please don’t look at the one called ‘Secret ISIS Confession,’” I said.

There was a South Asian couple detained along with me, a husband and wife with their luggage. Neither of them would have been able to get away with a crack like that. In my case, Pomeroy just determined to proceed even more painfully slowly."

narciso said...

Maybe it wasnt the smartest move for him:
https://www.rollingstone.com/author/seth-harp/

J. Farmer said...

@Howard:

No decent people want to think they are associating with Trumpsters. Stop shitting yourself and society will welcome you back. Until then, expect to be ostracized.

So Obama gets hundreds of innocent children killed in his drone assassination campaign, destroys Libya, which helped destabilize Mali and cause a massive refugee crisis in the Mediterranean, supported sunni radicals in Syria to make war against Assad, made massive arms deals with Saudi Arabia, and gave them the initial greenlight to launch their war against Yemen, but he still gets to dance on Ellen to thunderous applause. Trump says that some illegals are rapists (which they are), and he is persona non grata.

Gotcha.

narciso said...

He may have a law degree, but his researching skills are lousy
https://www.linkedin.com/in/seth-harp-204516118

Most likely he takes the story straight from qataes feed

walter said...

narciso,
I see no guacamole reviews there...

J. Farmer said...

@Narr and @I Have Misplaced My Pants:

Thank you both for the kind words.

narciso said...

Yes but he mostly supported the Assad govt because of Iran, he supported the occupation of Ukraine for much the same way.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

The funny thing about the Racist White Bull Connor Border Patrol Agent meme is that, in nine years of living in south Texas and going through the checkpoints at Falfurrias or Sarita on average a couple times a month, I have rarely seen a white guy. Most of them are Hispanic.

narciso said...

It's with a spicy couscous sauce walter,

He struck some targets in Pakistan but avoided many he did nothing against Islamic state till 2014 'Jay vee l' dont you know, he crossed the kingson by allowing Mubarak to be deposed, the Iran deal notably made them amctios

J. Farmer said...

@narciso:

Yes but he mostly supported the Assad govt because of Iran, he supported the occupation of Ukraine for much the same way.

He supported Assad by giving money and guns to groups that were attacking him? With friends like that, who needs enemies.

he supported the occupation of Ukraine for much the same way.

Not being able to stop or undo something is not the same thing as supporting it. Russia did not support our invasion of Iraq but couldn't really do anything about it. There is not much we can do to Russia to get them out of Ukraine.

narciso said...

As for khashoggis you know inconsiderate our Chilean allies were with letelier, they blew him up in the middle of the street along with an American researcher (that was 1976)

narciso said...

It's a wonder where that money from the kingson ended up since the ostensible recipients the free Syrian army got little. We learned little from Afghanistan thd first time and Libya twenty five years laterm

J. Farmer said...

@I Have Misplaced My Pants:

The funny thing about the Racist White Bull Connor Border Patrol Agent meme is that, in nine years of living in south Texas and going through the checkpoints at Falfurrias or Sarita on average a couple times a month, I have rarely seen a white guy. Most of them are Hispanic.

Recall the Freddie Gray case in Baltimore. A majority black city, a black mayor, a black police chief, three out of the five officers involved were black. The problem? Too much white racism.

Rory said...

"I don't care what Dolly Parton's political views are or aren't."

We made a huge mistake in embracing Hollywood for the WWII effort. An industry stuffed to the gills with narcissists and endless cash flow and idle time. What could go wrong, treating them like they have anything to say?

J. Farmer said...

@narciso:

It's a wonder where that money from the kingson ended up since the ostensible recipients the free Syrian army got little. We learned little from Afghanistan thd first time and Libya twenty five years laterm

It reminds me of when McCain flew over in secret for a photo op and then started telling us how we needed to support the "moderate" forces. McCain was less clear on how in the fog of war we would identify such sources (Okay, all moderates raise your hands) or how we could guarantee that the arms provided them would stay with them and not be handed over to other groups, which is precisely what happened.

narciso said...

Well there were more than a few who contributed to the war effort, Jimmy Stewart among the most notable.

walter said...

Harp's account does seem a bit couscous.

narciso said...

Well he was so enthusiastic he hired one of the researcher for the Syrian and Libyan task forces (it's the same group)

narciso said...

If they started making allusions to Michael hastings now you know you're in trouble

narciso said...

He also wrote for the basilisk about Islamic state in Turkey as well the bomber in Austin was it a year ago.

narciso said...

Oops:

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Datawatch/Quiet-capital-flight-dents-China-s-sway-as-1.2tn-disappears?fbclid=IwAR0VoJIe70BDdV2InTM2pxBwaDhk4CJ0wovCGlLFwpO5kSkilYWbzOAkPp8

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

The United States is again ranked as one of the worst countries in the world for human trafficking. According to a recently released report by the State Department, the top three nations of origin for victims of human trafficking in 2018 were:
United States,
Mexico
Philippines.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered the Trafficking in Persons report.

narciso said...

That seems odd, his many people from the us traffic info these countries

David Duffy said...

It is good to see the rise of Christianity in Asia. As the West declines, Asia is rising economically and with it are converts to Christianity.

narciso said...

I dodnt think Kissinger particularly. Brilliant
https://mobile.twitter.com/michael_stumo/status/1142813752695427072

narciso said...

The Permian basin is now a greater oil producer than the ghawar fields

narciso said...

Theres a 25th candidate admiral Joe sestak?

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

@narciso
yes the hydra grew another head
DEM AT CENTER OF OBAMA-CLINTON SCANDAL BECOMES 25TH 2020 CANDIDATE

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/274107/dem-center-obama-clinton-scandal-becomes-25th-2020-daniel-greenfield

Joe Sestak, a former congressman from Pennsylvania and Navy admiral, became the latest Democrat to join the crowd of 2020 presidential hopefuls.

walter said...

About Joe!

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

he went with the DIY logo template.

Frugal, but insipid.

Sad.

J. Farmer said...

Joe Sestak, a former congressman from Pennsylvania and Navy admiral, became the latest Democrat to join the crowd of 2020 presidential hopefuls.

Sestak will certainly become a forgotten footnote in the campaign, but I have to say that in terms of scandal, the effort to get him out of a race by offering him a job in the administration is pretty yawn-inducing.

walter said...

Twitter link Joe! posted re Iran (or Iraq as he misspoke)

walter said...

(May 22nd clip)

Gospace said...

StephenFearby said...
Troubling Catch-22 story linked to by Drudge...


I believe the Supremes a long time ago issued a ruling to the effect that the Constitution breaks down at the border. The rule has moved inland with border patrol checkpoints being set up quite a distance from the border. There's a permanent border patrol checkpoint on I5 in San Clemente. I've been through it several times- last time in the 1980s.

Rusty said...

J. @ 10:51
Don'twaste your breath. He's a true believer. His leftism is a matter of faith.

Fen said...

Farmer: So Obama gets hundreds of innocent children killed in his drone assassination campaign, destroys Libya, which helped destabilize Mali and cause a massive refugee crisis in the Mediterranean, supported sunni radicals in Syria to make war against Assad, made massive arms deals with Saudi Arabia, and gave them the initial greenlight to launch their war against Yemen, but he still gets to dance on Ellen to thunderous applause. Trump says that some illegals are rapists (which they are), and he is persona non grata.

Thank you for being fair to a man I know you don't like. It's a rare thing for Trump critics these days, and is noteworthy enough that it deserves to be pointed out and commended.

AllenS said...

Farmer @ 10:51 PM

YES!

Howard said...

Fen: Stop eye-fucking me maggot or I'll make you put your dick in the dirt.

BUMBLE BEE said...

So, as Drudge Reports, the "wealthy" are fleeing New York and Illinois. Another case of what was called "white flight"? With illegals voting, what does that portend? It's good to be old.

Bruce Hayden said...


The White Nationalist stuff is getting quite tedious. Supporters of the party of slave owners and their apologists, who fought against freeing the slaves, of the Klan and Jim Crow, that voted against the Civil Rights laws, that destroyed the Black Family with the War on Poverty welfare dependency, etc, lecture those of us whose ancestors freed those slaves , jailed the Klan, voted for the Civil Rights acts, etc on being White Supremists. This is like that those left wing Dem Congresswomen calling ICE detention centers “Concentration Camps”. The White Supremists for almost two centuries were Democrats. They were never really accepted in the Republican Party. When most people in this country think White Supremacy, they think the KKK, which on and off, for much of a century, was the militant arm of the Democratic Party. Who, along with their union thugs, formed the Dems’ Brown Shirts and Black Shirts (replaced most recently by their unselfconsciously named Atifa).

What they attack is the pride that European descendants have in the world that they have led 8n developing. It is just fine for Chinese to look down on every other ethnicity, due to their long history of civilization, despite the culture that grew up with it ultimately turn8ng inward, stifling much innovation. It is fine that Muslims use “Crusader” created technology against Christians and Jews, despite that culture’s seeming inability to invent themselves out of a wet paper bag. And despite 1400 years of armed Jihad against Christianity, conquering land after land with the sword in the name of their Prophet. Of that 1600 years, we had maybe a 300 year respite, where European technology and colonization of the New World made us safe from depredations, but Islam is again on the march, and we are, somehow White Nationalists to oppose it. Right now, the left seems happy for us to succumb to the inevitability of communism, or of Islam, just so long as the culture that gave them the freedom and technical tools to attack it, succumbs.

BUMBLE BEE said...

OOOOH Howard goes "Butch".

tim in vermont said...

I don’t get why a Federal Judge said that Arizona couldn’t help ICE because immigration was a Federal Issue, but Massachusetts can prevent ICE from doing their jobs. It’s almost as if the Democrats are depending on the votes of illegals to win elections without being forced to compromise to the right! ... Naah!

tim in vermont said...

“Instead of creeping or trotting liberalism, the Democratic candidates for president are virtually all running on galloping liberalism bent on fundamentally and permanently changing the basic structure of the American system of democratic capitalism. That raises the stakes on ousting Trump tremendously.”. - H/T Insty

Basically it’s abandon capitalism or suffer "Moar Trump!” This should be good.

Robert Cook said...

RE: Steven Fearby——

More proof we’ve become a police state, albeit still in a “soft” stage, largely hidden from view for most of us.

tim in vermont said...

Drudge isn’t worth the visits anymore, BTW. I would rather go to the NYT, at least I can make adjustments to what I read there, kind of like that little adjustment you make to a compass every year as the magnetic north pole moves.

BTW, It looks like magnetic north might be shifting from Canad to Russia! And people thought that Cheney’s hurricane machine was somthing.

Bruce Hayden said...

Anyone else notice how almost lily white the now 25 announced Dem candidates for President are. In the past the Dems could at least put a real Black on stage, as the Republicans did in 2016. Since 2008, all that they have been able to do is to field some mocha candidates, with a little Asian blood (presumably including Warren’s 1/1024 Native American). But otherwise very White, and predominantly male. I guess that they way that they get around being called White Nationalists, is that most of them seem to be open borders internationalists, eager and willing to destroy our economy and our culture, as long as they can get their cut of the loot by leading in the looting.

tim in vermont said...

“I was going on three hours of sleep, and I hadn’t had anything to eat in the last 12 hours besides some popcorn and peanuts and a Monster energy drink. “

Isn’t this the kind of thing somebody says right before they cop to being an asshole?

You don’t have any rights until the border guy says you do, BTW. It’s best to be respectful when crossing. I cross a lot from Canada and some of those guys will chat your ear off, talking about your trip and what you should have seen wherever you went. This story as he tells it seems unreasonable, but I would like to hear the other side of the story.

Humperdink said...

New Life Cafe. I thought it might the name of an Evangelical church.

Bruce Hayden said...

“More proof we’ve become a police state, albeit still in a “soft” stage, largely hidden from view for most of us.”

Interesting interpretation on what is going on right now. From the point of view of much of the country, the problem is just the opposite, that the left, the Dems, are trying as hard as they can to destroy law and order in this country. Police in big city after big city, run, inevitably, by Democrats, are giving their police stand down orders, to not pursue ever more significant crimes. So, as the murder rates soar in these big cities, the cops stand by, hobbled by the Dem politicians. For the left, for many Dems today, illegal entry into this country is somehow a Get Out Of Jail Free card. They can skate on crimes that the rest of us would go to prison for. All, apparently, because they violated the law to come here, and continue to do so by staying. That law breaking somehow justifies, in the weak minds of leftists, ignoring their other lawbreaking.

tim in vermont said...

Susan Rice is wondering how we came so close to war with Iran. I am wondering why we destabilized Syria right after having a wave election in 2006 the mandate of which was to stay out of the affairs of states like Syria, and how we overthrew the govt in Libya, and, as noted above, how the vast wave of refugees which has destabilized Europe came into being.

But no, we are instead subjected analysis based on invidious headlines.

tim in vermont said...

It’s amazing to me how Robert Cook takes the side of the people abusing the surveillance powers of the state in knee jerk fashion. I think Glenn Greenwald may be one of the only honest lefties, and they are working hard at dragging him back into the fold.

Somebody should ask Granny Warren how she feels about the abuse of the Patriot Act, for example. The Democrats were only against it after 2001 because they knew exactly how they would use it. Once they got control of it, they leaned to love it.

Robert Cook said...

"It’s amazing to me how Robert Cook takes the side of the people abusing the surveillance powers of the state in knee jerk fashion."

?????

What people "abusing the surveillance powers of the state" am I taking sides with? That is completely the opposite of my views.

Humperdink said...

Boy, Mayor Pete had a rough weekend. But he's young, he'll grow from it. *cough* Definitely presidential timber.

n.n said...

how almost lily white the now 25 announced Dem candidates for President are

No diversity or color judgments, which risk reducing people to persons, baby to fetus, to colorful clumps of cells, and a handmaid's utopia.

Fen said...

Cook: That is completely the opposite of my views.

Maybe he missed your opinion piece defending Trump for being spied on by your fellow Democrats.

Fen said...

Howard: Fen: Stop eye-fucking me maggot or I'll make you put your dick in the dirt.

Hah. That was cute. Now get back to work, that grave isn't going to dig itself. Or would you rather I let the crows have you?

Paco Wové said...

Almost a decade old, but still evergreen:

"In 1972, Sir John Maddox, editor of the British journal Nature, noted that though it had once been usual to see maniacs wearing sandwich boards that proclaimed the imminent end of the Earth, they had been replaced by a growing number of frenzied activists and politicized scientists making precisely the same claim. In the years since then, liberalism has seen recurring waves of such end-of-days hysteria. These waves have shared not only a common pattern but often the same cast of characters. Strangely, the promised despoliations are most likely to be presented as imminent when Republicans are in the White House. In each case, liberals have argued that the threat of catastrophe can be averted only through drastic actions in which the ordinary political mechanisms of democracy are suspended and power is turned over to a body of experts and supermen."

Howard said...

Up in a tree, facing west, being eaten by crows... that's the ticket to a grand funeral.

MayBee said...

Thank you all so much for your comments about Ravelry. You know what I wish? I wish the two people who own and run the site would have said, "We personally hate Trump so we don't want our website used to talk about him in any positive way. You are here for free and this is one of our conditions"
What would have been bad about that? It would have been true.

Pants, about the Dolly comment- right? It's everything! Just enjoy other people when you can!
And yes, J Farmer, I too think you are great.

Humperdink said...

One thing for sure, there would be many attendees at the funeral. All of them feathered. No need for food to be served afterward. The eyeballs are considered a rare delicacy by our feathered friends.

MayBee said...

Steven Fearby and Robert Cook- I think about the abuse of the border control wrt electronics devices frequently. A lot of people have perfectly legal but very sensitive information on their laptops, and I don't see why it should all be available for the taking at the border.

Another law enforcement issue I've been hearing about lately (including on the This American Life episode Althouse referred to lately) is preliminary tests for crack cocaine cops can do. People plea because they can't afford to defend themselves, and often the real tests can be delayed for months, and the results prove the preliminary tests wrong. Why aren't the preliminary tests illegal? Someone with a small amount of crack aren't such a threat to humanity that we can't risk letting them go, but such a flawed tests is hurting perfectly innocent people.

Fernandinande said...

but such a flawed tests is hurting perfectly innocent people.

Drug warriors are generally sadists.

narciso said...

Rice who was a point person on the Iran deal, shirley she cant be serious.

narciso said...


The new corporate vp of facebook:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/was-nick-cleggs-great-aunt-a-soviet-agent-9954799.html

Robert Cook said...

"Steven Fearby and Robert Cook- I think about the abuse of the border control wrt electronics devices frequently. A lot of people have perfectly legal but very sensitive information on their laptops, and I don't see why it should all be available for the taking at the border."

I don't think anyone's laptops should be allowed to be viewed or searched by any border authorities without a search warrant based on probably cause. NONE of it should be available on demand.

Robert Cook said...

"Another law enforcement issue I've been hearing about lately (including on the This American Life episode Althouse referred to lately) is preliminary tests for crack cocaine cops can do. People plea because they can't afford to defend themselves, and often the real tests can be delayed for months, and the results prove the preliminary tests wrong. Why aren't the preliminary tests illegal? Someone with a small amount of crack aren't such a threat to humanity that we can't risk letting them go, but such a flawed tests is hurting perfectly innocent people."

As I said...the USA is already a police state.

Professional lady said...

When Ravelry posted the pussy hat knit and crochet patterns, I refrained from posting about how stupid and degrading I thought the whole pussy hat thing was. I figured, if people wanted to make them and wear them and look stupid (in my opinion)it was up to them and I wasn't going to add insults/controversy etc to a site that's basically about crafting and de stressing through relaxing and creative activities. Guess they couldn't return the favor.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

"If they're banning 50% of the USA for supporting the President of the USA, then they're the radicals - not you."

This is what democracy looks like -- only one side allowed to campaign for an election.

narciso said...

A police state is erdogans Turkey where harp had been.

MayBee said...

I don't think anyone's laptops should be allowed to be viewed or searched by any border authorities without a search warrant based on probably cause. NONE of it should be available on demand.

I completely agree.

Narr said...

Police state is just a term for one face of the Cybermoloch that is slouching toward us, with the Left in particular assuming the willing-participant position. So foolish and short sighted.

The most extensive border check I ever got was about 1975, when two friends and I drove up through the NE to Quebec, and then back home through Toronto and Detroit. The US border guys, having us come through about 1am in a POS car that had been slept in a few times, had us take everything out, and we had to open random containers at their whim. No dogs that I recall, but they separated us from the car for about an hour, and asked about our trip and intentions.

They didn't find anything of course; not even in the tube containing the Soviet poster of Lunkhead Ulyanov I bought so I could flirt with a drop-dead-gorgeous Russian girl at some USSR exhibit somewhere.

Narr
Detroit, halfway through our non-stop 33 hour drive home

Professional lady said...

My 1967 VW bug was extensively searched on the Canadian side in the 1970s. Last summer, before I got my Nexus card, my car was randomly chosen for a search coming back from Canada on the American side. Maybe because a check of our passports (not needed in the 70s) showed us to be an late middle aged lawyer and physician, instead of barely out of high school teenagers, the American search went much faster.

Jim at said...

As I said...the USA is already a police state.

Yet Cookie has no problem posting his opinion freely ... without the slightest fear the shock troops will knock down his door for doing so.

Worst police state ever.

Narr said...

Jim@212: Just because Cook isn't important enough for The Organs to bother with (none of us are, for what we post here) doesn't mean the groundwork isn't laid, and the practices--invented charges, star-chamber processes, sadistic abuse of alleged criminals, obvious contempt for civilians--of a police state aren't being honed before our eyes.

For those who care to look.

Narr
Of course, 'police state' has been the reality for most of human history--or at least an ideal

Robert Cook said...

"Worst police state ever."

A nation in which travelers can be strip-searched and manhandled simply to go on vacation, where a search warrant results in one's home being smashed to bits by marauding SWAT teams, or worse, where one can be beaten to a pulp or shot to death in public or at home for being insufficiently deferential(or quick to submit) to "peace" (sic) officers, (or simply because they broke into the wrong house), and where all our daily activities (online and in the physical realm) are accessible to or under active daily surveillance by the government, is a police state.

Robert Cook said...

P is for POLICE, S is for State .