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.
Grow up, Republicans. Your Party nominated Donald Trump and there must have been a reason for it.
The Dems did not do very well either, if you feel Trump is a loser. The Dems had only two plausible candidates, both elderly, and they are going with Bill's wife because she has a vagina - a compulsive liar and possibly the greediest and nastiest woman in America. In contrast, the Repubs selected the only one from their supposed-star roster who could have played Russell Crowe's role in Master and Commander.
The household Repub names who are sitting this one out are looking foolish and petulant to me. If they are mad at Trump they have to be mad at their own party too. Trump did nothing wrong, just offered himself as an option to the voters.
The size of his personality and his fearlessness made the other options appear overly-cautious, depressive, and small by comparison. Thus a candidate (like Andrew Jackson, Teddy Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan) who gets the disapproval of the elites. I thought the Bushies were bigger than that but low-energy Jeb was the heir-apparent. Rejection hurts, but come on! Get over it.
Black Lives Matter activists and their propagandists have waged a very effective War On Honesty. Black Lives Matter leaders employ vicious charges of racism to silence political opponents, or, failing that, deter media criticism of their radical tactics, which include violent language and occasional violent incidents. The goal is political provocation and divisiveness. Yes, Black Lives Matter benefits as an organization from divisiveness. It serves their political goals.
There are many dysfunctional and criminal subcultures in America, as there are everywhere. In the US, these are overwhelmingly white of course, and, it seems, disproportionately low among American Asians and Muslims (except for the Somalis in Minneapolis). They need to up their stats to keep up.
American blacks, however, have a lock on violent crime, with Hispanic immigrants (mostly gang-related) coming in as a distant second. Why this has evolved this way I do not know. History tells us it was not this way in 1960.
I do business with plenty of black and hispanic Americans, and they are fine, hard-working and pleasant people. There is almost no racism in America as far as I can tell. None. There is far more bigotry against white tattooed meth heads, white beggars, and whites with nose rings.
In the USA, there is a social contract. Obey laws, aspire to independence and integrity, and be a good contributing citizen. That is all that is required. Otherwise, expect to be poorly-regarded.
A powerful heart-felt comment from police officer Jay Stalien:
I have come to realize something that is still hard for me to understand to this day. The following may be a shock to some coming from an African American, but the mere fact that it may be shocking to some is prima facie evidence of the sad state of affairs that we are in as Humans.
I used to be so torn inside growing up. Here I am, a young African-American born and raised in Brooklyn, NY wanting to be a cop. I watched and lived through the crime that took place in the hood. My own black people killing others over nothing. Crack heads and heroin addicts lined the lobby of my building as I shuffled around them to make my way to our 1 bedroom apartment with 6 of us living inside. I used to be woken up in the middle of the night by the sound of gun fire, only to look outside and see that it was 2 African Americans shooting at each other.
It never sat right with me. I wanted to help my community and stop watching the blood of African Americans spilled on the street at the hands of a fellow black man. I became a cop because black lives in my community, along with ALL lives, mattered to me, and wanted to help stop the bloodshed.
As time went by in my law enforcement career, I quickly began to realize something. I remember the countless times I stood 2 inches from a young black man, around my age, laying on his back, gasping for air as blood filled his lungs. I remember them bleeding profusely with the unforgettable smell of deoxygenated dark red blood in the air, as it leaked from the bullet holes in his body on to the hot sidewalk on a summer day. I remember the countless family members who attacked me, spit on me, cursed me out, as I put up crime scene tape to cordon off the crime scene, yelling and screaming out of pain and anger at the sight of their loved ones taking their last breath. I never took it personally, I knew they were hurting. I remember the countless times I had to order new uniforms, because the ones I had on, were bloody from the blood of another black victim…of black on black crime. I remember the countless times I got back in my patrol car, distraught after having watched another black male die in front me, having to start my preliminary report something like this...
Canadian officials are also interpreting the results to mean an increase in Islamophobia. “There is an epidemic of Islamophobia in Ontario. Only a third of Ontarians have a positive impression of the religion and more than half feel its mainstream doctrines promote violence (an anomaly compared to other religions),” the survey said.
How George Soros Singlehandedly Created The European Refugee Crisis - And Why
The elites do not know any people like me, young not-millionaire entrepreneurs who like to go fishing and water-skiing, and drink beer, on weekends. People for whom the feds (can substitute EU) are more of an annoyance and obstacle than a benefit. The elites do not know any normal people.
Trump is such a narcissist he thought he could be a successful real estate developer. Then he was for decades. Trump is such a narcissist he thought he could be a successful author. Then he was, several times. Trump is such a narcissist he thought he could be a successful reality tv show host. Then he was, for many, many seasons. Trump is such a narcissist he thought he could be a successful national candidate, then he was, defeating 17 professional politicians, including Jeb! and $120 million.
As they might say in TX, it ain't narcissism if you do it.
Where is the evidence that a "majority" of Americans value "self-rule and freedom"? Thanks to several decades of poisonous and corrupting progressive propaganda combined with steadily increasing prosperity, I believe that most Americans now value security (i.e comfort) over freedom. Fortunately for them, it's a lot easier for the ruling class politicians to sell comfort than freedom, because freedom means responsibility and work. And they're not greatly interested in selling freedom anyway, because when you get right down to it, a free man really doesn't need much of a ruling class.
It sounds laughably ironic, but the modern progressive movement has argued itself into a position where people can be discriminated against on the basis of gender, skin colour and orientation.
That’s why you hear dismissive and in some cases even vituperative comments about “straight white males” in the media today: men are being ridiculed for things they cannot change about themselves. And it’s the political left doing the discrimination.
[R]arely has a presidency seen so many things go so badly for the U.S. in foreign policy. Obama’s track record is not looking good: at the end of his watch, the Middle East, Europe, and East Asia are all in worse shape than when he entered office, relations with Russia and China are both worse, there are more refugees, more terrorists and more dangerous terrorist organizations.
Cheery photo stolen from Pirate. I figger it's ok to steal from a Pirate. Technically, this is an abuse of the flag but we'll give them a pass for being so cute.
So claims the WaPo. It made me laugh because this is America's #1 barbecue weekend and only quite peculiar people are not grilling meat.
A few thoughts.
If cows and sheep and goats are killing the planet, what about all of the wild animals that roamed the globe before domestication? Should we kill all the farting deer, caribou, bison, wild pigs and Wildebeests?
Why do they always talk about Red Meat? What's so specially bad about it compared to pork or chicken? Not a thing, as far as I know. That old beef about red meat's health badness has long been disproven.
And how bad can red meat be, given that the human body is made of it? Are the cannibals worried?
Would Robert Reich be directing that warning to all new immigrants, or to the children and grandchildren of immigrants, who left everything behind to come to this lovely place for freedom and opportunity?
Lynch doesn't want her indicted. She doesn't want to be indicted. Bill Clinton doesn't want her to be indicted. The idea that rank partisans like this are going to let some process play out with no influence on it whatsoever and run the risk that somebody might actually indict Hillary Clinton, they're not gonna let that happen. That's not who these people are. And yet look at all the people who are holding all this hope out, thinking this might be the one. They say, "She is so guilty, they can't hide this. She's so guilty, they can't cover this up. This is so bad." What do you mean, they can't cover it up, they can't ignore it? They can do all of that, and they will. It's who they are.
Lynch’s plan to “remove herself” and “accept the FBI decision” over Clinton’s emails is probably a smokescreen
Anglo-American conservatism has never been a single thing. That was the whole point about conservatism, beginning with the British Glorious Revolution of 1699, which helped to define English rights and liberties against a power-grabbing royal house.
This is the drama we just saw play out again in Europe when the Brits revolted against the absurd new Juncker Class, trying to exert Franco-German power over Britain. That Sovietized political machine is not going to give up its drive to dictate the size of cherry tomatoes in Scotland: That is its only mission in life. Without those forty thousand regulations from Brussels, the Euro Soviets would have no function at all.
They are parasites. They do not produce anything useful, anymore than the Soviet Apparat did before the crumbling of the State. Vladimir Putin just pointed out the eerie similarities between the end of Soviet dominance and the end of the EU. That similarity is not an accident. It represents the eternal fight between self-serving power freaks and ordinary people trying to live their lives.
Ordinary Europe has wandered into the ancient trap of deceptive political con artists talking people into giving up their rights and powers. Obama has tried to do the same thing to us.
Dam Good! 
Japan's 
1930s New York 
How to
New book reveals
Cheery photo stolen
