Prelude to the Apocalypse

[Mischief Maker]

Also it turns out gloating over people being murdered doesn't increase your poll numbers.

Who could have figured that one out, eh.

It also doesn't hurt that this came right after the week the Koch brothers took the leash off their servants in the media with regards to Trump in a show of force to bring him in line.

I guess he didn't kiss the ring when they sent their representative to talk to him this week.

Ancient history, I know, but I still can't get over how Scott Walker went to the mat for the Kochs with an insane budget that risked a historic recall, yet as that fake David Koch phonecall proves, he never even spoke to them in person.

If the Supreme Court is America's Popes, the Koch brothers are America's Medicis.

[quash]

When was the last time a major candidate dared to oppose both the Kochs and Soros?

Be mindful of this as the media continues to slam Trump and set him up for a screwjob at the convention.

[Mischief Maker]

When was the last time a major candidate dared to oppose both the Kochs and Soros?

Bernie Sanders.

As for Trump standing up to Koch, are you sure about that? He just fired his campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.

[Ed Oscuro]

Heard a bit of the video of Trump at the evangelical conference - there's one group he's not doing his "truth to power" routine with. We totally need those bozos running the country again.

[BryanM]

I know it's pretty redundant and boring to listen to someone whine about the media, but these stories claiming Liz is in consideration for Clinton's VP pick are just far beyond the pale of any reasonable basic human decency. They're more ridiculous than the North Korea media claiming Kim Jong Un shits gold out of his dick. At least shitting gold out of your dick is within the physical realm of possibility.

We all know Julian Castro was selected as her running mate like decades ago. A complete farce, everything is.

[Specineff]

Be mindful of this as the media continues to slam Trump and set him up for a screwjob at the convention.

He doesn't need the media to screw up. It would happen even if he was in a deserted island with one thousand Yes-Bots loyal to him.

[BulletMagnet]

One more for the pile: find yourself thinking "gee, that sure brings to mind numerous other similar instances of inexcusable behavior on his part", do a shot! Then keep doing shots until you're rendered incapable of drawing any reasonable conclusion from any of this!

[neorichieb1971]

News today he is braving a trip to Scotland at his Turnberry golf course reopening.

[BulletMagnet]

More media bias! Oh, and on a related note, from Trump's Big Speech the other day, emphasis mine:

It all started with her bad judgment in supporting the war in Iraq in the first place. Though I was not in government service, I was among the earliest to criticize the rush to war. And yes, even before the war ever started.

He said it again, and I have heard absolutely zero criticism from anyone about it, save on one small blog I read.

The fact that Trump still feels comfortable enough to keep repeating such an astoundingly well-documented and obvious lie means one of two things: 1) He is simply not living in the same reality as the rest of us and should seek help immediately, or 2) The media is indeed both pathetic and biased, but not in the way he insists it is.

[Mischief Maker]

The fact that Trump still feels comfortable enough to keep repeating such an astoundingly well-documented and obvious lie means one of two things: 1) He is simply not living in the same reality as the rest of us and should seek help immediately, or 2) The media is indeed both pathetic and biased, but not in the way he insists it is.

Actually there's a third explanation:

His mentor, mob lawyer Roy Cohn, has been coaching him in Richard Nixon's old tactics for corralling the media.

Be afraid, be very, very afraid.

[quash]

Don't tell me people are just now figuring out the parallels between Nixon and Trump. This has been painfully apparent from the first few months of his campaign.

[quash]

The fact that Trump still feels comfortable enough to keep repeating such an astoundingly well-documented and obvious lie means one of two things: 1) He is simply not living in the same reality as the rest of us and should seek help immediately, or 2) The media is indeed both pathetic and biased, but not in the way he insists it is.

It's almost as if there are greater and lesser lies.

[BulletMagnet]

It's almost as if there are greater and lesser lies.

Or, especially in a campaign supposedly built upon personality instead of hard numbers (since getting one's basic history and economics right totally isn't a major thing, right?), greater and lesser liars.

Even disregarding that (which certainly seems to be happening quite a bit...so he's like Nixon, what could possibly go wrong?), only if you still insist on believing the likes of the widely-debunked (though not to Trump) "stand down order in Benghazi" garbage...though then again Trump is still digging up Vince Foster, so the sky's the limit.

[quash]

As usual, you go after the most irrelevant of red herrings, unwittingly acting as Trump's controlled opposition. Good show.

In other news, looks like China is getting uppity sooner than I thought they would. The US just sent two carriers to the area in response to this. But please, tell me how this is all just routine diplomatic relations that will lead to nothing.

[Bitter Almonds]

I swear this guy has to be a shrillary plant. She looks "good" compared to this clown. Any other viable candidate would've trounced that loathsome twat, clint0n.

[BryanM]

We've already established that it's actually Hillary that's the Trump plant to make us accept Trump.

[Skykid]

As usual, you go after the most irrelevant of red herrings, unwittingly acting as Trump's controlled opposition. Good show.

In other news, looks like China is getting uppity sooner than I thought they would. The US just sent two carriers to the area in response to this. But please, tell me how this is all just routine diplomatic relations that will lead to nothing.

"It is no news to us that some western media sometimes call white black. But we know now that they also have problems with doing simple math."

Best answer ever

[quash]

While I do appreciate when other nations call out the BS in Western media, I can't exactly look to most non-Western countries as an example of what the media should be, either.

[Ed Oscuro]

Which is kind of the point, isn't it? We ought to be holding to at least that standard.

re: Shrillary...I was pondering my recent unfavorable feelings about her as a candidate, and asking myself why I felt that way. I think you guys are rubbing off on me.

I haven't looked at every issue yet, and certainly she's got to look closely at Brexit because just shoving Bern off to the wards isn't enough. But putting that aside she's still got a number of legitimately progressive policy views.

Do I care that she flipped to more rights for gays? Not at all, at least she did.
Do I care that she used the back channel stuff as Sec of State? Perhaps it's just a bad precedent but it started long ago, so I don't see that as disqualifying. This is more a matter of internal security.
So, what about that whole view that the Clintons just bend all the rules their way? Well, damn, show me any politician who didn't do that.

At the end of the day Hillary isn't the candidate I'd magically construct in my mind to be the next Callsign: Traveler (or as PC-E F~!X would say, POTUS) but neither is Bernie, neither is Trump, neither is Obama, #ThanksObama, selfies with the Galaxy Note 3, myself, or a blue ribbon panel of Abe Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and Albert Einstein. But the good news is that Hillary is here and she's better than that other guy.

I think the lesson from Brexit is simply this: Old people, and the world in general, are going to stick young(ish) people with The Way Things Are (Or Ought To Be) and so we have to keep fighting to get shit done. Not even Bernie was going to be able to see all the changes he wanted done in his lifetime, unless we got another Great Depression and the President was afforded all the relevant powers FDR had.

[BryanM]

Not even Bernie was going to be able to see all the changes he wanted done in his lifetime

That's only because he's old as fuck and is gonna die soon. : (

If he was elected president, nearly every single thing he proposed was going to pass within about 20 years.

re: Shrillary...

Woah hey now hey you gotta be careful bro when you call a woman shrill you're gonna come off as a woman hater, when there's 10 million billion other legitimate criticisms of Hillary to be made.

$hillary.

But the good news is that Hillary is here and she's better than that other guy.

Every single thing we're supposed to fear Trump for, we've already received the same from the Clintons.

I prefer having AIDs over cancer, thanks.

[Mortificator]

When was there a ban on Muslim immigration from Clinton? Or the recusal of qualified jurists on the basis of ethnicity?

[BryanM]

As you're all aware, HR-6407, also known as the Kill The Post Office Act, was passed in 2006. Its intention was and is to undermine the post office in order to ultimately destroy the competition it provides the likes of carriers such as FedEx. A company like FedEx absolutely cannot compete with the non-profit when it comes to light mail, and they WANT that money.

Like most things you should be ashamed of that you don't want people to know you do, they passed this thing in the dark. In the dead of night on a Friday. By an unrecorded voice vote. Only about 20 people in the house of representatives opposed it.

The other 500ish people are parasites on the working class, and need to subjected to BryanM's special "lose 10-pounds fast" weight loss program for the sake of democracy and freedom.

Which is a nice speedy guillotining.

When was there a ban on Muslim immigration from Clinton? Or the recusal of qualified jurists on the basis of ethnicity?

The Muslim ban is a soft policy she de-facto supports by exterminating all muslims off the face of the planet.

The journey there is a little more roundabout with more trees and lakes. The destination is exactly the same.

[BryanM]

The Muslim ban is a soft policy she de-facto supports by exterminating all muslims off the face of the planet.

It's gonna be really fuckin' confusing when they're making up reasons for us to bomb the shit out of Indonesia. I imagine by that point everyone will have forgotten why the christian jihad even started, just that it's the way things have always been and are and will be.

Thankfully we first have to chew through Iran first to get there, and we'll all be extinct before that finishes happening.

Always look on the bright side of life, I always say.

[BulletMagnet]

Or $10 trillion in upper-end tax cuts? Or "solving" the national debt by deliberately rendering the dollar near-worthless? Or taxpayer-funded house-to-house illegal immigrant hunts? Or deliberate increased global nuclear proliferation? Or making abortion a criminal act?

The Muslim ban is a soft policy she de-facto supports by exterminating all muslims off the face of the planet.

Like pretty much every other Hillary supporter (or "supporter") I'm hardly ecstatic about her candidacy, but even so, you're way down the rabbit hole at this point.

[Mischief Maker]

Bernie Sanders will still be a senator and still pushing for progressive reform, but now with a powerful active progressive movement behind him. You got WolfPAC, you got Democracy Spring, Rhode Island just became the fifth state to call for a constitutional convention for campaign finance reform, New York and California passed the $15/hr minimum wage, and a politician would have to be blind not to notice Bernie out-fundraised Clinton through small donors and therefore they have options.

Basically the activist left can't repeat the mistake of putting its feet up for eight years and assuming everything's gonna be taken care of like it did in 2008.

So whose presidential veto stamp (and SCOTUS nominees) would Sanders have an easier time getting his legislation past? Hillary "don't say anything without a preliminary focus group" Clinton, or Donald "yeah I lied, go fuck yourself" Trump? Who's the piñata likely to prove more productive after a solid beating?

[Bitter Almonds]

Or $10 trillion in upper-end tax cuts? Or "solving" the national debt by deliberately rendering the dollar near-worthless? Or taxpayer-funded house-to-house illegal immigrant hunts? Or deliberate increased global nuclear proliferation? Or making abortion a criminal act?

The Muslim ban is a soft policy she de-facto supports by exterminating all muslims off the face of the planet.

Like pretty much every other Hillary supporter (or "supporter") I'm hardly ecstatic about her candidacy, but even so, you're way down the rabbit hole at this point.

I firmly believe, based on hillary's voting record and support, that she hates Muslims, Latinos, black people, the youth, and the poor.

[BryanM]

The gun sit-in is pretty emblematic of the party's strategy of helping the GOP remain viable. It works thusly:

White people love the fuck out of guns. Republicans need white people to remain viable. Democrats need to lose white people to make sure a liberal coalition never acquires power. So. We have a sit in on a wedge issue that, like many other things, is mostly a symptom and not a cause of problems.

You'll never see the democrats doing a sit in on raising the minimum wage slightly to 9 bux an hour, or expanding medicare, or to protest a war, or to halt a bank bailout.

Basically the activist left can't repeat the mistake of putting its feet up for eight years and assuming everything's gonna be taken care of like it did in 2008.

The left got off its ass and screamed as loudly as it could in 2011. It isn't our fault we don't have revenue to advertise our platform now that all the unions were murdered and co-opted. It's only through the miracle of internet to bypass the brainwashing into a realm of actual discussion is there even a spark of potential here. Woulda been nice to have gotten $1 trillion in advertising bucks and therefore winning by seating a king, but what can you do. Back to being completely powerless for 4 to 12 years we go.

Though it does grate on me when reading comments of people proudly declaring they've left the democratic party. That's what They want people to do. They want it so badly, I'm not entirely certain those comments aren't part of their astroturfing.

[EmperorIng]

The sit-in is such a sham. Opportunistic political theater at its worst. And for what? Just to get trending facebook front page stories? To increase Dunkin Donuts revenue because Goofy Warren buys there (real progressive cred!!!!)? The Dems and Republicans deserve each other in hell, just like how Hillary and Bill deserve each other for the rest of their lives.

[quash]

Look at how much Hillary cares about your ideology. But she does this because she knows that most of you are programmed to vote for the "lesser evil".

[quash]

When was there a ban on Muslim immigration from Clinton?

Obama and Hillary already instituted a temporary ban on refugees until they could figure out what was going on.