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.
“His advantage is he’s unencumbered by values and unencumbered by a conscience. It’s an enormous advantage when you’re willing to make the end justify the means always. He’s willing to do anything as we know including lie repeatedly. It’s very disarming literally If you’re up against that- it’s very hard for people because they’re scared of his emotion. They’re frightened by his emotion. They don’t recognize that he’s throwing them off their game. They don’t necessarily recognize that he’s pushing them into their own emotion as opposed to the capacity to think more reflectively and as a result they’re not coming forward with their best.”
"Back when Trump came down the escalator and started talking like Pat Buchanan, I recall thinking, “I can’t imagine a scenario where I vote for him, but I never imagined anyone saying these things again either.” Trump is turning out to be the most consequential president in our lifetime, which is not something any sane person could have imagined two years ago. I think we have to withhold judgement on him until these great events of this age unfold."
Trump is the Honey Badger. That's why he was elected. He was not elected to be a role model:
One continues to wonder why, if they wanted to "protect" Trump, they didn't offer him a "defensive briefing," as it's called, to alert him to suspicions about believed bad actors infiltrating his campaign.
They actually decided not to brief a presidential candidate that their were people possibly compromised by Russia at or around his campaign, choosing instead to... spy on him.
Yes, that is some "protection" they were offering.
Strange that the faculty and students haven’t demanded that Lee’s name be dropped from the university. And just wait until they learn that George Washington owned slaves, and shot people dead during the Revolutionary War.
"Socialism and the looting of capitalism are not the same thing." Commenter at Althouse
This whole case just goes to support my frequent contention that the only labor model the US government will fully accept is an hourly worker working 9-5 punching a time clock. Every new labor model that comes along eventually runs head-on into the government that tries to pound that square peg into the round hole of a time-punching factory worker. The Obama administration even did its best to force a large number of salaried workers into punching a time clock.
The big story today, and it's a biggie yet it really comes as no surprise (which is both big and tragic) is the report that leakers to Slim's Slimes (the NY Times for you rookie morons [new readers]) are confirming that the FBI essentially ran a completely illegal spy operation against the Trump presidential campaign. There were no warrants, there was no judge. The FBI at its highest levels went out and spied on a US presidential candidate for the purposes of gathering information that could be used to either sabotage his campaign or to take him out, politically or by prosecution in court. I suppose the question is did Obama and Clinton know of, authorize, approve of or even plan and initiate this or did we (and still do) have a group of "little Eichmanns" committing crimes all on their own merely because they were fellow travelers? And all things considered, is that even an important question to ask anymore considering the nature of these revelations which, frankly, we all have suspected for quite a long time now? Fact: We have a bureaucracy that lords over us no matter who we elect. Fact: we have a rogue judiciary that mostly exists to violate the Constitution in order to move the country ever leftwards. Fact: we have one political party that is hell bent on overthrowing the nation as founded and another whom elect to oppose it, yet do the exact opposite of what they promise and what we elect them for.
It certainly seems so. In retrospect, Watergate was not a big deal because political spying and oppo research is always done. The cover-up was the thing that got them. It wasn't worth covering up, really. In this case, it was the government itself, not a campaign.
Good discussion. The racism theme seems mainly to be applied to native black Americans, but not to other races and not to the Africa-born either. Is it mostly just politics at this point?
It's one thing for political campaigns to spy on each other. That's normal because politics is an ugly business. When government does it, it's criminal. I hope all of this evil deep state conspiracy comes to light, and that the people are held to account. Jail time.
I suspect the mole was Carter Page, but who knows? He had done odd jobs for the FBI in the past. This feels like CIA business, done on American soil.
Photo is the Lemon Squeeze in Mohonk's Labyrinth Trail. See why you leave your daypack behind. No worries - nobody will steal it. Only nice people there.
Liberals are perpetually offended by just about everything. Why? Because liberals have decided that being offended trumps logic, fact and every other argument that anyone can make. If it were up to liberals, we would not have free speech because too many people say things that contradict liberal ideas. So, they may not be able to put you in jail for believing that you can’t change genders or that it’s not smart to send gay men who may be sexually interested in teenagers out into the woods with them overnight as scout masters, but they can use a variety of different tactics to silence you. Outrage is one of those tactics because again, according to liberals, the second someone is outraged, the debate is over and they’ve won (Of course that only applies to liberals. If conservatives are offended by something, that doesn’t count.)
3.5 Billion-Year-Old Fossils
Giant Flatworms
The Invention of 
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This is a big deal: 
Photo is the Lemon Squeeze in Mohonk's Labyrinth Trail. See why you leave your daypack behind. No worries - nobody will steal it. Only nice people there.