The Swamp

This story about dams failing in Texas could have been in the weather thread...

But These Are Privately Owned Dams...

And many, many of them are unregulated. The phrase "unregulated, privately-owned dams" is one of the most terrifying things I have come across in a while.

By the end of the session, facing pushback, the Legislature passed a compromise bill that exempted low and significant hazard dams in rural areas. Lake Deerwood was among the 3,516 dams — 45 percent of the statewide total — that would no longer be regulated.

I guess they didn't learn much from another privately owned dam.

Before the flood, speculators had bought the abandoned reservoir, made less than well-engineered repairs to the old dam, raised the lake level, built cottages and a clubhouse, and created the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club. Members of this exclusive and secretive retreat in the mountains were 61 wealthy Pittsburgh steel and coal financiers and industrialists, including Andrew Carnegie, Andrew Mellon, Philander Knox, John George Alexander Leishman, and Henry Clay Frick. Daniel Johnson Morrell, of the Cambria Iron Works of Johnstown, also became a member, ostensibly to watch the Pittsburgh members' activity.

If you need to laugh, 13 years ago Elizabeth Hasselbeck nearly quit The View during a commercial break because Barbara Walters dared to calm her down over...the morning after pill.

1) This show needs to be cancelled.

2) I forgot that Meghan McCain is the spiritual successor to this dum dum.

3) She literally said "this is just a slippery slope to eliminating life." Plan B still exists these days. Is her world that much dimmer for it existing? Has America trended toward a negative birth rate over the last 13 years? Did the population reduce significantly? How has her life been directly impacted by women taking this type of both control?

4) White women seriously bogart the "uppity, entitled, expert in nothing but their opinion needs to be taken seriously or else" market. Especially the hardcore Christian ones who think that because they find something unsavory that their whole existence needs to be placated in every way, shape, and form. Utterly Insufferable pomposity from this nobody. Her claim to fame before this was being the hot blonde on Survivor and QB Tim Hasselbeck's wife. At least Meghan McCain has a politician father.

5) This show seriously, seriously needs to be fucking cancelled.

Mother fuck this piece of shit garbage human.

That guy went into a hair salon, handed them a script of what he was going to say, and said "make me look exactly like the type of person who would say this."

Johnny Carwash wrote: ↑Sat Apr 06, 2019 1:37 pm That guy went into a hair salon, handed them a script of what he was going to say, and said "make me look exactly like the type of person who would say this."

This is fucking hilarious.


As for the segment, WTF do thy think is going to happen when we fight two continuous wars for 18 years? The other issue is that in WWII, if you were wounded, you were much more likely to die. In today's wars with our improved field medical care, the survival rate for soldiers coming up with limbs blown off and severe head trauma is much higher, so yeah, of course we have much higher rates of disabled vets. And still, the Right claims to be the pro-military party. Send more kids off to war, send them without proper protective equipment, and bitch that they require government funds to care for them when they return. Fuck right off.

And here's the thing. He's talking about military members foregoing VA rating. That's fucking gross. Your VA rating is for injuries and issues directly connected to your service in which you get paid tax free money as an additional stipend to any other separation related pay you get.

My supervisor is 90% disabled because of stuff suffered through his 22 year career. My coworker had a heart issue that forced him from remaining in the service. He gets 70%. My sleep apnea? 50% once I separate.

You fucking mean to tell me that all of us should forego being compensated in these ways because we should be above asking for government handouts? Motherfucker what? We all gave our prime years to Uncle Sam. If we got hurt while doing that, we're being given something back. This is basically trying to label us "Welfare Queens."

I'm sure this chucklefuck was all about the Trump tax cut that put 1.5 trillion into the hands of the richest of the rich. But yet us peons need to "have integrity" and not lean on the government? FOH.

What makes this even worse is that he was a Major in the Army National Guard. And he's Harvard and Princeton educated. He's a pathetic excuse for a military member. Total bullshit.

Twitter is hilarious.

This story about losing people to the Fox News vortex his pretty close to home, especially the final quote.

This is clearly my crack.



Joy wanted to slap the soul out of that bitch.

This dude nails it:

Holy shit:

Johnnie wrote: ↑Tue Apr 09, 2019 7:46 pm Holy shit:

An article about today's hearing...

The American Government Is Completely Fucked Up

This shit is so far beyond satire.

Candace Owens is such a fucking idiot. I dunk on her stupidity and that other moron Charlie Kirk on Twitter, but it's not even sporting. I only do it so if someone who doesn't know their shtick reads them then there will be at least on person clapping back to show a critical eye.

Steve of phpBB wrote: ↑Thu Mar 14, 2019 1:05 pm

Joe K wrote: ↑Thu Mar 14, 2019 8:28 am So if Netanyahu does not support the two-state solution and believes that “Israel is not a state of all its citizens,” then where does that leave him? The obvious answer is a permanent occupation and apartheid state. We know Trump supports this but I would like to see every Presidential candidate asked to address these comments. I think that’s a moral imperative, given the scope of the US’s financial and military support for Israel.

The only alternative to permanent occupation and apartheid is ethnic cleansing.

Looks like apartheid or ethnic cleansing is what we’re getting, because Netanyahu got re-elected. This is a warning for US politics that far-right extremism is much more persistent and resilient than people would like to think. Trump’s buffoonery and incompetence may cost him re-election in 2020 but the political xenophobia and cruelty embodied by Trumpism isn’t going anywhere.

Joe K wrote: ↑Wed Apr 10, 2019 9:30 am

Steve of phpBB wrote: ↑Thu Mar 14, 2019 1:05 pm

Joe K wrote: ↑Thu Mar 14, 2019 8:28 am So if Netanyahu does not support the two-state solution and believes that “Israel is not a state of all its citizens,” then where does that leave him? The obvious answer is a permanent occupation and apartheid state. We know Trump supports this but I would like to see every Presidential candidate asked to address these comments. I think that’s a moral imperative, given the scope of the US’s financial and military support for Israel.

The only alternative to permanent occupation and apartheid is ethnic cleansing.

Looks like apartheid or ethnic cleansing is what we’re getting, because Netanyahu got re-elected. This is a warning for US politics that far-right extremism is much more persistent and resilient than people would like to think. Trump’s buffoonery and incompetence may cost him re-election in 2020 but the political xenophobia and cruelty embodied by Trumpism isn’t going anywhere.

The Israeli system is so fucked up - Likud got 29% of the vote. Imagine a system where a party that gets 3% of the vote is a major player when it comes to forming coalitions. Ridiculous.

L-Jam3 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 10, 2019 7:32 am Candace Owens is such a fucking idiot. I dunk on her stupidity and that other moron Charlie Kirk on Twitter, but it's not even sporting. I only do it so if someone who doesn't know their shtick reads them then there will be at least on person clapping back to show a critical eye.

Your comment on some FB page came into my feed, and I deeply regret reading the other comments. Did't realize how deep the adoration of Candace Owens runs. I heard her on Rogan's podcast, and she might be the only person Rogan argued against and shot down her ideas. When he disagrees, he lets his guests say their opinion, and pushes them to expand, but with Owens, he flat out said her ideas don't make sense. She seems very intelligent on the surface, but she is nothing but empty platitudes and misunderstanding a lot of what she talks about. To someone uneducated on specifics, she seems really intelligent, because she speaks with such confidence and authority, and I think she is genuinely passionate and believes what she says, but she is woefully ignorant and short-sighted. Scary that so many people support her. I actually had two rightwing friends post different videos of Owens "owning" Dem Congressmen.

As for the video LJam responded to, Owens freaked out that Lieu intentionally cut off the question Owens answered on the recording, but that changes nothing. She was asked if she supports he concept of Nationalism, and she said Hitler's nationalism would have been good if it didn't extend beyond Germany's borders, and he just decided to "make Germany Great Again." Yes, she actually used Trump's slogan to tie him to Hitler. I think she neglects to understand that Hitler started off by exterminating Jews, Communists, homosexuals, etc... within Germany before expanding beyond. She said German Nationalism wouldn't lead Hitler to kill his own people because they are all Germans, but she has no fucking clue what nationalism means, especially in the ethnic cleansing sense of nationalism. Hitler wanted Germany with "racial purity," and so do the White Nationalists, KKK and Neo-Nazi's she supports. Talk about useful idiots, she is a pretty black face making their argument for them, normaling their beliefs and existence, and if they ever came to power, they would start by oppressing Candace Owens and all black people. Fucking moron.

Pruitt wrote: ↑Wed Apr 10, 2019 9:48 am

Joe K wrote: ↑Wed Apr 10, 2019 9:30 am

Steve of phpBB wrote: ↑Thu Mar 14, 2019 1:05 pm

Joe K wrote: ↑Thu Mar 14, 2019 8:28 am So if Netanyahu does not support the two-state solution and believes that “Israel is not a state of all its citizens,” then where does that leave him? The obvious answer is a permanent occupation and apartheid state. We know Trump supports this but I would like to see every Presidential candidate asked to address these comments. I think that’s a moral imperative, given the scope of the US’s financial and military support for Israel.

The only alternative to permanent occupation and apartheid is ethnic cleansing.

Looks like apartheid or ethnic cleansing is what we’re getting, because Netanyahu got re-elected. This is a warning for US politics that far-right extremism is much more persistent and resilient than people would like to think. Trump’s buffoonery and incompetence may cost him re-election in 2020 but the political xenophobia and cruelty embodied by Trumpism isn’t going anywhere.

The Israeli system is so fucked up - Likud got 29% of the vote. Imagine a system where a party that gets 3% of the vote is a major player when it comes to forming coalitions. Ridiculous.

True, but if you add in the percentage of the vote that went to various far-right parties that are allying with Netanyahu then it’s much closer to 50%, if not higher.

Is there a way not let comments on FB pages show up on people's pages? When I was bored I used to constantly rip on the idiots on right-leaning pages, but then I saw you guys following up. I decided to just move political thought to my Twitter feed and not clog FB with politics unless something really egregious happens, like sticking kids in concentration camps.

Joe is absolutely right. But big picture for me is that whenever people whine that there should be proportional representation I always think about Israel or Italy where the lunatic fringe gets to make or break governments.

Pruitt wrote: ↑Wed Apr 10, 2019 10:08 am Joe is absolutely right. But big picture for me is that whenever people whine that there should be proportional representation I always think about Israel or Italy where the lunatic fringe gets to make or break governments.

True, that is definitely the downside. Avigdor Lieberman serving as kingmaker, which appears to be where this is headed, is pretty terrifying.

Joe K wrote: ↑Wed Apr 10, 2019 10:16 am

Pruitt wrote: ↑Wed Apr 10, 2019 10:08 am Joe is absolutely right. But big picture for me is that whenever people whine that there should be proportional representation I always think about Israel or Italy where the lunatic fringe gets to make or break governments.

True, that is definitely the downside. Avigdor Lieberman serving as kingmaker, which appears to be where this is headed, is pretty terrifying.

It can't be argued that the Jewish citizens of Israel are safer now than at almost any time in the state's history. (For now)

But what should be argued is whether this is the country that Israel's founders envisioned. They were a secular bunch who would not have been held in thrall to fundamentalists who would be happy living in a Jewish state with the ethics of Saudi Arabia.

The Sybian wrote: ↑Wed Apr 10, 2019 9:52 am

L-Jam3 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 10, 2019 7:32 am Candace Owens is such a fucking idiot. I dunk on her stupidity and that other moron Charlie Kirk on Twitter, but it's not even sporting. I only do it so if someone who doesn't know their shtick reads them then there will be at least on person clapping back to show a critical eye.

Your comment on some FB page came into my feed, and I deeply regret reading the other comments. Did't realize how deep the adoration of Candace Owens runs.

I was coming here to post the same thing. All those other comments about how awesome she was...and how she 'put Lieu in his place', and how 'the libs can't handle a smart black person', blah blah blah.

She actually sat there and said 'there was never a Southern Strategy' for the Republican party. WHA????

Here's historian Kevin Kruse (a history professor at Princeton, and a great follow on twitter) knocking this down.



About once a month he has to go at it with some right wing nut, usually Dinesh D'Souza, to point out how completely ridiculous they are.

L-Jam3 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 10, 2019 9:59 am Is there a way not let comments on FB pages show up on people's pages? When I was bored I used to constantly rip on the idiots on right-leaning pages, but then I saw you guys following up. I decided to just move political thought to my Twitter feed and not clog FB with politics unless something really egregious happens, like sticking kids in concentration camps.

https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-stop-my- ... -connected

Oh lord... that is hilarious and disturbing.

Speaking of hilarious and disturbing...

Julian Assange was finally arrested.

Free avocados to own the libs!

PAGING JOE MANCHIN!!!

Herman Fucking Cain. To steal a quote from John Oliver's show - "How is this still a thing?"

mister d wrote: ↑Thu Apr 11, 2019 2:50 pm PAGING JOE MANCHIN!!!

I’m sure he’s on it!

What explains Sinema's vote?

I know my "final boss" burn of Meghan McCain was decent, but this is exceptional:

Johnnie wrote: ↑Mon Apr 29, 2019 12:57 pm I know my "final boss" burn of Meghan McCain was decent, but this is exceptional:

So that POS McCain is implying that a white supremacist acted because of what a Black Muslim Woman said? Straight out of the demagoguery handbook. Fuck her.

She's doing it with "both sides"-ism, yes. It's fucking disgusting.

This is an interesting read:

The forgotten history of how Abraham Lincoln helped rig the Senate for Republicans

By 2040, according to a University of Virginia analysis of Census population projections, about half of the country will live in just eight states — which means 16 senators for one half of America and 84 for the other half. Meanwhile, according to Stanford political scientist Jonathan Rodden, partisanship closely correlates with population density — “as you go from the center of cities out through the suburbs and into rural areas, you traverse in a linear fashion from Democratic to Republican places.”

Theresa May: I can make a Liverpool-style comeback in Europe

God help the UK.

May said: “I actually think that when we look at the Liverpool win over Barcelona last night, what it shows is that when everyone says it’s all over, that your European opposition have got you beat, the clock is ticking down, it’s time to concede defeat, actually we can still secure success if everyone comes together.”

May’s green benches were notably emptier than usual at prime minister’s questions, a sign that backbench support for her leadership is ebbing away.

Worth noting is that Liverpool's Coach is German, and the team's goals were scored by a Belgian and a Dutch man.