We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
What we are seeing here is something about how the Cloud People view the Dirt People. Loyalty to a society has always been anchored in loyalty to the people in that society. A man is willing to take up the sword on behalf of the king, because the king is doing the same for his subjects. In other words, you’re not fighting for the king, you’re fighting for what the king embodies, what the king represents. Loyalty flows in both directions.
What Marco Rubio is all about is Warfare State republicanism. When he talks about restoring American Greatness it is through the agency of Imperial Washington. He has no kinship with Harding, Coolidge or Eisenhower. None of them were intent on searching the earth for monsters to destroy, as does Rubio in every single speech.
And make no mistake. Every time this naïve smart aleck chastises Obama for weak leadership and alleged failure to get the job forcefully done in Syria, Libya, Iraq, Yemen and countless elsewheres, the ghost of John Quincy Adams should be hollering in his grave. Stalking the globe for monsters to destroy is exactly what this wanna be little Napoléon is all about.
Thunderdome: Gone Savage For Trump - The
Trump phenomenon is neither a disease nor a symptom – he is instead the
beta-test of a cure that the American people are trying out.
Heard somewhere today, paraphrased: "Since all of the geniuses in Washington for the past 7 years screwed up almost everything they touched, maybe it makes sense to elect a semi-bozo with common sense like Trump."
Acknowledgement of the inconvenient truth of the global warming "pause" - even by Michael "Hide the Decline" Mann, injects some realism into the hysteria. Not that there is anything more than tiny islands of hysteria out there anyway. Nobody really cares unless there is money to be gotten.
Basically, computer models of complex systems, eg economics or climate, are never reality - just conjectures.
As for me, I do not give a damn what the "climate" does as long as we do not have another Ice Age soon. That would make me feel sad about my descendants because they might have to emigrate downhill to Florida or Mexico.
It's not the intention, but it has been the result because, for each event since 9-11, government feels called upon to "do something." In addition, governments rarely refuse opportunities to have power over the citizen.
Hence the Patriot Act, the absurd DHS, etc. Even the arguments against $100 bills include terror fears.
Since Trump has never held public office and seems to have few firm beliefs about anything aside from his own unparalleled competence, it’s hard to predict what he would do as president. Clinton, by contrast, has a long, almost uniformly awful record of public service. Whether Americans decide to be stabbed in the stomach or shot in the kneecaps, the consequences will be painful.
If Sweden and Germany were the only countries wanting these 5 million Middle Easterners and Africans, they should have flown them all directly to Berlin and Stockholm.
In European 1930s street-brawling fashion, no one knows quite whether Trump is a 1990s Clinton Democrat, a 1980s Reagan Republican, or a Perotist misfit. He has thrown a ball and chain through the pretentious glass of American campaigning. Trump excites voters because he can profane, smear, interrupt, fabricate, and be profane—on the premise that as a performance artist he reifies what they think but don’t dare say about a corrupt political class and its warped, politically correct values. Trump reminds Americans what deterrence is: the supposedly courageous media, the so-called truth-to-power leftists, and the sober and judicious careerist politicians are all terrified how he might reply or react to their criticism. None of them want to spend 2-3 days trading smears with Donald Trump.
A dramatic and impressive argument against Brexit by PM Cameron. Watch it.
Good arguments, but count me a skeptic. Why vote for serfdom to Brussels? I do like the Parliamentary system though, compared with ours. Much more fun.
The dreams of a United States of Europe never made sense. The Common Market did, but it was meant to be just a stepping stone towards the reconstruction of a bigger, better Holy Roman Empire run by grey technocrats in gigantic office towers in Brussels.
It should be no surprise that the colonies are feeling restless as all forms of local sovereignty are slipping away.
9:28 Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray.
9:29 And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white.
9:30 Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him.
9:31 They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.
9:32 Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him.
9:33 Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, "Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah" -- not knowing what he said.
9:34 While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud.
9:35 Then from the cloud came a voice that said, "This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!"
9:36 When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.
9:37 On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him.
9:38 Just then a man from the crowd shouted, "Teacher, I beg you to look at my son; he is my only child.
9:39 Suddenly a spirit seizes him, and all at once he shrieks. It convulses him until he foams at the mouth; it mauls him and will scarcely leave him.
9:40 I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not."
9:41 Jesus answered, "You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here."
9:42 While he was coming, the demon dashed him to the ground in convulsions. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father.
9:43a And all were astounded at the greatness of God.
P.C. fatigue:
When I Seafood, 
Bring Back Dueling!