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.
All the damage done to him this week was self-inflicted. The arrows he’s taken are arrows he shot. We have in seven days witnessed his undignified and ungrateful reaction to a Gold Star family; the odd moment with the crying baby; the one-on-one interviews, which are starting to look like something he does in the grip of a compulsion, in which Mr. Trump expresses himself thoughtlessly, carelessly, on such issues as Russia, Ukraine and sexual harassment; the relitigating of his vulgar Megyn Kelly comments from a year ago; and, as his fortunes fell, his statement that he “would not be surprised” if the November election were “rigged.” Subject to an unprecedented assault by a sitting president who called him intellectually and characterologically unfit for the presidency, Mr Trump fired back—at Paul Ryan and John McCain...
...the fall campaign is not going to be about ideology or policy. It's going to be about whatever crazy things Trump says between now and Election Day.
Given where the race is headed, the most likely outcome of the election is this: Clinton wins as Americans reject Trump. But, despite a victory, she will still remain broadly unpopular and distrusted among a public that probably won't have paid much attention to her actual policy proposals.
Don't blame the press. Press hostility is assumed. Don't feed the trolls, stupid. Always think before speaking. Generally, that's a good idea in life.
Just ask Mrs. BD. If you are losing her, you are losing bad because nobody likes Hillary
Hey Donald, Got Some More Targets for You… Having insulted war heroes, firefighters and
babies, Trump may be running out of people to offend. Here are some
suggestions.
On August 1, Professor Hasia Diner of NYU and Professor Marjorie Feld of Babson College in Massachusetts took to the pages of Ha’aretz to denounce the world’s only Jewish state for being racist, colonialist, reactionary, aggressive, and – this above all – Jewish.
Please discuss. I have no answer. I vote for Mike Pence who I wish would slap some sense into The Donald who appears to be on some unhinged and uninformed ego trip. Politics is reality TV, but a certain kind of more serious reality TV which actually has effects on lives. I might be wrong...
He needs to know that he is a yuuuge target now. He signed up for that. Suck it up, Buttercup as Megan would say.
Haven't you heard? Top 10 lists are so 2010. Why, no one that doesn't eat their vegetables by scooping up mashed potatoes with a butter knife and smooshing them in the peas refers to TOP TEN lists any longer. It's just not done by our class of people, dear. We're busy, important people who don't have time to peruse ten entries on any topic. If we wanted a decalogue, we'd hire Moses and a headstone company. We live in a Snapchat society. Keep it under a half a dozen, will ya?
In order to get in the spirit of the exercise, we've come up with a sort of test pattern of TOP FIVE lists. Don't strain yourself reading them all at once. I tried, and my lips got really tired. My advice is to dip into this treasure trove of minutiae over a period of days. When you're all done, you'll have bulked-up reading muscles and can move on to reading the comment sections on the daily crop reports from the USDA. It's bracing stuff.
So without further ado, here's our TOP FIVE LIST OF TOP FIVE LISTS:
This is dedicated to all the people promising to leave the country if Donald Trump wins the election. It also works for all the preppers that are promising to leave the country if Donald Trump loses. It's also handy for Libertarians who promise to leave the country whether Donald Trump wins or loses.
It's against the law in Georgia to use foul language in front of a dead body in a funeral home? People in Georgia must know a different class of people than I do. There's no other reason to attend a wake in my social set.
Hmm. I didn't see clerk at the Quik-E-Mart on there. On the plus side, it's an infographic, which is great for people who think a TOP FIVE list is a workout.
I'm really dull, so I just bought 1,100 Neon Tetras and dumped them into a goldfish bowl. It saves a lot of time, because there's only room for 17 tablespoons of water, making it much easier to clean.
Bucket lists are things you're supposed to do before you die, aren't they? Well, my list only has one item on it. I want to move to Georgia so no one can tell me what they think of me after I croak.
If you're dissatisfied with our selection of TOP FIVE lists, suggest one in the comments. Remember, six or more is right out!
But even amidst the torrent of meaningless platitudes, it is possible to discern a political vision in this speech: It is a vision where government -- the federal government of the United States -- has the solution to every human problem, big, small and medium. A vision where the government can eliminate all down side risks from life by just spending a little more of the free money from the infinite credit card. A vision where the fundamental role of the politician is to promise goodies to pass out to buy the votes of the electorate. And a vision where we pretend that essentially everybody but a few bogeymen ("Wall Street, corporations, and the super-rich") can be a net gainer from the government handout game.
The almost total absence of public mourning for an 85-year-old Christian priest whose throat was slit by Islamicist terrorists while he led prayer in a small church in Normandy, France, is a scandal.
Let's grant that a hack—a way of obtaining information—and a leak—a means of disseminating information—are very different things. But, still, does the particular distinction Foer draws between the two make sense? Suppose, for example, that Russian intelligence, instead of feeding its trove of hacked secrets to WikiLeaks, had chosen to pass them along to an American investigative reporter, who then wrote about a selection of them in, say, the pages of the New Yorker or the New York Times. Would Foer have any grounds for objection?
Outside Plato's fantasies, the Philosopher Kings always turn out to be power-mad psychotics divorced from reality and morality. Governance by your moral and intellectual superiors, that is, by the genius experts: The Fourth Circle of Statist Hell
Higher min wage kills off Mom and Pop shops, benefits the big boys like McDonalds and WalMart who have the tools to adjust. Mom and Pop end up working at WalMart.
... as John Quincy Adams so profoundly observed, America’s security does not require that it search the world for monsters to destroy.
Apparently, Hillary Clinton does, however. For her Secretary of Defense-Designate is none other than Michelle Flournoy. Both share an obliviousness to Adams’ profound truth because they are credentialed member of the Washington War Party.
And as a team, they are as good a reason as any to give Donald Trump a shot at the commander–in-chief job.
The post-modern male has only his own strange and unaccountable package of appetites and lusts; and the strange and unaccountable restraints upon them, beyond self-regulation. He is pure consumer, and he is lost. That is what lies behind, “No more war!” It is not principled pacifism, ready to sacrifice — to die, rather than to kill — but a consumer choice, a lifestyle option.
Hillary Clinton Begins Building Her Coalition - The Democratic nominee for United States president made a play for progressives, moderates, and Independents alike during her address in Philadelphia on Thursday night.
Absent a beneficent deus ex machina, I will probably vote for Donald Trump. Since I live one of the brain-dead, deep-blue "progressive" states of the Northeast, my vote won't count. But it will be some small satisfaction to make a gesture, however futile, against the most corrupt person ever to run for the presidency.
Apex predators are necessary for a healthy ecosystem. An excess of ungulates is destructive to natural balance. But if a pack is destroying your herd of sheep, shoot 'em, or get some guard dogs. German Shepherds were bred to protect livestock from wolves.
The near total lack of traditional male leads today probably reflects the fact post-scarcity America has lost the will or ability to do the hard work of civilization. Maybe it’s simply no longer necessary. The people making TV and movies seem to think that’s the case. Hollywood is, after all, the agit-prop of the ruling class. The people in charge want docile males, who are willing to be bossed around by women in Lycra jumpsuits. For the same reason the schools dope up the boys, Hollywood promotes the ideal male as being the Stepin Fetchit for the womyn’s studies department.
America has no race problem other than the ones always ginned up in election years. America does have a problem with its dysfunctional underclasses, white and black, urban and rural. Definitely more white but blacks more violent. Maybe it's a problem, maybe it's just normal.
In fact, it is the wealthy Liberal elite's world - today's ruling class - and we all just live in it and try to cope. They control our politics, our economy, their crony businesses, and they design our education and our medical care.
The Clintons and Their Corruptocrats - In Hillary’s term at State, wealthy crooks, influence-seekers and tyrannical governments rushed to donate millions to the Clinton Foundation, its spin-offs, Bill Clinton personally or vague combinations of all/any of them. Figuring large on the donor list, Australia's taxpayers
I did not think that was their job, but times have changed. Now the MSM is an unashamed mouthpiece for the Democratic Party and the only MSM that offers balanced views of things is the dreaded FOX.
FOX is no Republican megaphone. Just ask Mrs. BD, who almost threw a string bean at the TV last night.
Why Can’t Hillary Stop Fudging the Truth? Email-gate is only the latest instance in a 25-year habit of dissembling.
Wikileaks:
What the DNC Really Thinks About Latinos - See more at:
http://silenceisconsent.net/wikileaks-what-the-dnc-really-thinks-about-latinos/#sthash.e8OyMBVr.dpuf
Wikileaks:
What the DNC Really Thinks About Latinos - See more at:
http://silenceisconsent.net/wikileaks-what-the-dnc-really-thinks-about-latinos/#sthash.e8OyMBVr.dpuf
Andy, you and your NR pals need to get over it. You do not own the Party. Times have changed. Primary voters nominated somebody they felt could be a winner. Simple as that. They might be right, after listening to Trump's speech. Nobody else could beat Hillary and her money + press machine.
Well, that's a tough one! Everybody must admit that is one impressive and appealing large family. The analogy with the Kennedys is apt, I think. Brains, glamour, street smarts, high energy, self-confidence to a fault, and new money. Tabloid fodder for sure.
Pedigree may be more high society, but new does more things. These days, I think, pedigree is dead and long dead except for dogs. The Bushies are ancient history already. Fine family, though. Good neighbors.
Haunting this year’s presidential contest is the sense that the U.S. government no longer belongs to the people and no longer represents them. And this uneasy feeling is not misplaced. It reflects the real state of affairs...
Being overweight 
The 
Is he a genius, a lunatic, or an idiot?
'Tacky' clothes and 'high society' weddings 
How archaeologists 
Haven't you heard? Top 10 lists are so 2010. Why, no one that doesn't eat their vegetables by scooping up mashed potatoes with a butter knife and smooshing them in the peas refers to TOP TEN lists any longer. It's just not done by our class of people, dear. We're busy, important people who don't have time to peruse ten entries on any topic. If we wanted a decalogue, we'd hire Moses and a headstone company. We live in a Snapchat society. Keep it under a half a dozen, will ya?
Why Verizon 
Why 
Image: Yesterday was early Mondrian, today late (c 1922) 
Image: Early Mondrian (1909)
Hillary Corrupts Everything: 
Free Inquiry vs. Social Justice 
Pic: Some of my relatives at Cahoon's Hollow