MetaFilter

I don't think Manafort's behavior here was motivated by a desire to stay out of prison, nor did he hope for a presidential pardon. Instead I think it affirms many people's prior suspicions that he fears the Kremlin to a mortal degree.

When I first learned he would cooperate I was pretty confused because of the implication that he was no longer afraid for either himself or his family members, and I concluded that the Mueller people must have been able to offer credible... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by InTheYear2017 at 6:39 PM on November 26, 2018

And that leads to Republican GenXers like Cruz and Rubio and Sasse and Cotton living their political lives as cosplay Boomers.

Noah Smith: "'Nixonland' has taught me that America has invented essentially no new political ideas since the late 1960s. We just took all the 60s ideas, recycled them for a generation that mostly didn't know how old they were, and spread them over social media."

The complete and utter... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by The Whelk at 7:55 AM on November 26, 2018

I mean... we're not just tear-gassing refugees, we're shooting into another country to do it. This is a real "Hans, are we the baddies?" moment, or at least it should be. But of course, the cruelty is the point.
posted by Etrigan at 12:05 PM on November 26 [10 favorites +] [!]

My last heavily excerptive comment got deleted by the mods, fair, but I still want to make one more stab at this to say Mexico has been putting up with... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by saysthis at 9:18 PM on November 25, 2018

The HRC quote is so infuriating and odious because she's acknowledging a problem in a specific frame meant to bolster a particular policy prescription for that problem, and that policy prescription is one that implicitly advocates letting billions die. She's not just saying "the way the migration crisis has been handled has led to Nazis," she's saying "migration has led to Nazis, lets stop migration."

Only you can't stop migration. It's coming. The... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by schadenfrau at 3:26 PM on November 22, 2018

Does fracking make any sense except in context of post-peak extraction?
posted to MetaFilter by scalefree at 12:11 AM on November 23, 2018

this strikes me as fairly extraordinary.

It is extraordinary, and I have to think if you're a highly educated and basically well-respected jurist like Justice Roberts, if you start to find the attacks on the judiciary so egregious and insulting that it actually spurs you to take positions you might not have otherwise taken, just to prove that you're actually independent.

Time will tell, I guess.
posted to MetaFilter by anastasiav at 10:27 AM on November 21, 2018

Soooooo...... Taler, anyone?
posted to MetaFilter by sfenders at 9:16 AM on November 20, 2018

Gen Wesley Clark has a WaPo op-ed

Brief aside: Back in my reporter days, I interviewed Gen. Clark shortly after 9/11. I'll never forget that this guy, who had spent his entire life in the military, had so many troops and weapons at his disposal, told me that the proper response to the terrorist attacks was a police action -- investigate, follow the sources and the money, and capture the ringleaders. Given all our talk above about the $6 trillion... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by martin q blank at 10:24 AM on November 19, 2018

Hey, were either of those people white men, by any chance?
posted to MetaFilter by contraption at 11:18 PM on November 17, 2018

I'm in the bottom 80% of income earners, and I want to see my taxes approximately double. That's because paying for medicare for all would require approximately doubling everyone's taxes. The thing is, though, that if you double my taxes and in exchange, my employer simply pays me the amount currently being spent on my healthcare, I come out about $10,000 a year better off than I am right now.
posted to MetaFilter by Jonathan Livengood at 2:10 PM on November 17, 2018

I don't follow? No matter how much the overall cost savings of single payer are (and I agree they would be considerable) you still have to raise taxes in order for the federal government to collect that money rather than having it be paid to private corporations in the form of premiums.

We basically print money to pay for military spending. No one ever says, "how on earth shall we pay for our enormous and yet oddly low functioning military"... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Frowner at 12:55 PM on November 16, 2018

It's punctuated equilibrium. The sessile spineless priapulid worms that have been dominant are about to be replaced with a dazzling diversity of trilobites and other arthropods that can respect a woman's right to choose and condemn white nationalism.
posted to MetaFilter by XMLicious at 10:44 PM on November 13, 2018

“In Rowan County, Kentucky, Kim Davis (R) — who made headlines for refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses in 2015 — is currently trailing in her re-election race.“ (via 538)
posted to MetaFilter by Barack Spinoza at 4:15 PM on November 6, 2018

holy shit i just figured out why they call it gattaca
posted to MetaFilter by logicpunk at 6:27 AM on November 6, 2018

So, uh, MetaFilter. I know self-promotion is frowned upon and all but this is more of an announcement so. Offered as a counterpoint to the 12 "oh but it's hard to mail in a ballot" stories, although in all fairness, I am An Old.

Last Thursday I attended my Naturalization Ceremony and became a US citizen.

Last Friday I registered and voted because you can register on the same day in Maryland if you're doing early voting, and there's... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by seyirci at 4:24 PM on November 2, 2018

I need to move somewhere, and it doesn't seem like back to Canada is far enough away...

It’s not. There’s nowhere far enough away that you won’t be affected by the complete implosion of the US. You could definitely avoid the worst of it, but then you’d be in exile forever, probably in a place that is about to get even more fucked by global warming.

I tried to game out escape scenarios after 2016. I might even have one,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by schadenfrau at 7:25 AM on October 26, 2018

ALSO REAL HCAKERS DONT HAVE CAPTSLOCK BECAUSE THEY HABE REMAPPED IT TO CTRL OR IF THEYRE SUPER COOL TO ESC

:WQ

:WQ

:WQ

ZZ
posted to MetaFilter by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 4:49 PM on October 22, 2018

How did Brazil get here? The Dig Radio Talks To Alfredo Saad-Filho, a Professor of Political Economy at SOAS University of London, explains the roots of right-wing reaction and left-wing collapse.
posted to MetaFilter by The Whelk at 4:58 PM on October 21, 2018

One problem is that there is no good model for funding peer reviewed journals.

Sure, there's a good model. Journals should be open-access and produced in-house at universities; universities should pay knowledge workers for their labor; and rich people should be taxed at appropriate rates to fund the universities, since they are a public good.
posted to MetaFilter by demonic winged headgear at 6:43 AM on October 18, 2018

The sea of red still makes me panicky.

It's not a sea of red, it's a very shallow puddle.

Is the US Leaning Red or Blue? It All Depends on Your... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha at 7:14 PM on October 8, 2018

I completely understand why she did that because, yes, she's running. But it's disgusting to see good people forced to jump through these hoops by assnozzles like Trump. It's like if Obama was forced to publish his birth certificate to prove he was an American to a bunch of racist assholes and that... oh, wait that happened too. It's all bullshit and if she thinks Trump will stop hitting her on this or calling her Pocahontas she will be disappointed. (Of course I strongly suspect she doesn't... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Justinian at 3:13 AM on October 15, 2018

Notably, Michael Avenatti hasn't committed any crimes that I'm aware of

Avenatti has money troubles and it's entirely possible he committed fraud in order to relieve some of that pressure when a convicted felon conveniently forced his law firm into bankruptcy two days before arbitration covering a $15M debt.

It's very obvious Michael Avenatti isn't doing what he's doing because he cares so deeply about America. He's doing... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Room 101 at 5:18 AM on October 11, 2018

SCHUMER: if Dems take over the Senate, we will have to look at setting the SCOTUS nominee requirement back up to 60 votes

As a strategy this isn't bad. While Trump is president, even if we take the Senate we're not appointing judges, just approving them. So why have Jones or whatever red state D having to hang in and be the one vote that stops a Trump judge when with a 60 vote margin, the Rs are nowhere close to what they need so no single D takes... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by chris24 at 1:21 PM on October 2, 2018

> We're moving backwards at warp speed. Even when Rump is outta here, it's going to take the rest of our lives just to get back to where we were in 2015.

There is no going back. The political constellation that we had in 2015 will never, ever, ever exist again. It was broken and we'll never put it back together. However, this is not necessarily a bad thing.

No, really, it's not necessarily a bad thing. And, like, I'm saying... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 10:37 AM on October 1, 2018

When does a joke become a dad joke?
When it's apparent.
posted to MetaFilter by avocet at 8:51 AM on September 29, 2018

“Hey guys, I found the red herring!!” - Whelan

It's like he didn't understand the concept so he went on twitter and fucked an actual rat
posted to MetaFilter by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 10:03 PM on September 20, 2018

Eh, from my point of view the investigatory power is important because it creates a damning record of all the people who are not Trump who are involved in the destruction of the rule of law and of our civic institutions. The push for impeachment leads too easily into the narrative that it is Trump alone who is an aberration and a stain on good governance, when he's really simply the most extreme part of a widespread movement to cannibalize our society.

Admittedly,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jackbishop at 8:16 AM on September 16, 2018

Cody Wilson, Austin man behind 3D-printed gun company, charged with child sex assault

It's almost like all these alt-right psychopaths are alt-right psychopaths.
posted to MetaFilter by Rust Moranis at 9:07 AM on September 19, 2018

As for Ernie and Bert being gay, I stand by my opinion of stop forcing adult issues onto preschool children.

Being gay isn't an adult issue.

We don't try to hide the existence of straight relationships from preschoolers.
posted to MetaFilter by Secret Sparrow at 8:31 AM on September 18, 2018

Sounds like his "I don't care" bag got full, heavy, and didn't stretch to accommodate some sharp phases he kept tossing into it. As he kept walking, it started bumping his calves and shins, cutting them along the way. A bag you can't put down or drop. You carry it lifelong. It slows your daily walks and makes them miserable. You have to unpack it.
posted to MetaFilter by filtergik at 3:54 AM on September 17, 2018

Ohohoho ... if the Trump Reality Distortion Bubble is a factor in taking down Trump ... *kisses fingers* Delicious!

That's a nice fascist goverment you got there, shame if it were to be constitutionally incapable of objectively evaluating the force of the enemy.
posted to MetaFilter by mrjohnmuller at 7:54 AM on September 17, 2018

But North Carolina is not just a bunch of backward hicks and Trump goons. We voted for Obama in 2008, and then had our legislature stolen from us. The courts have ruled over and over again that our legislature is based on unconstitutionally drawn maps, but then they won't do fuck-all about it before an election. We're doing what we can. We go into the legislative chambers and get arrested. We tear down statues they make laws to protect. The least you could do is not threaten us in our hour of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by rikschell at 8:55 AM on September 14, 2018

You can't leverage emergency relief as a hostage negotiation

Republicans can and do literally every fucking time something happens to a blue state

They fucking did it after 9/11
posted to MetaFilter by schadenfrau at 8:48 AM on September 14, 2018

Rice in the salt shaker isn’t weird. If you live someplace humid and don’t have ac, the rice absorbs ambient moisture so the salt doesn’t clump too tight for the shaker holes.
posted to MetaFilter by toodleydoodley at 7:35 AM on September 14, 2018

no act of terror can ever change who we are

Yeah, I'd like to get out in front of this: we love you, Barack, but sometimes you're blinded by your own faith in humanity. 9/11 was the single most effective military operation ever conducted in the history of the world. It was a major covert operation, planned over the course of several years by a few dozen confederates and possibly with some state backing, which was then executed flawlessly, in the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Mayor West at 5:05 AM on September 12, 2018

The department of homeland security has been a disastrous, costly mistake.

"Homeland" becoming common official and cultural terminology overnight in 2002 was my very first why is nobody else blinking an eye at this obvious Nazi shit moment. Like the first point of an exponential function.
posted to MetaFilter by Rust Moranis at 5:50 PM on September 11, 2018

Just kicked $50 in to the "Collins votes no or else" fund, which is nearly up to half a million.

I very strongly am opposed to this fund or any sort of fund like it. I can't imagine it getting much worse than having federal and state legislators across the country looking at the their phones before casting votes so they can see what vote will directly put more money in their pockets. Don't think for a moment that is not exactly where... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by flarbuse at 12:41 PM on September 6, 2018

BuzzFeed fired up the satire machine: I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the New York Times Opinion Desk: "I work for the Gray Lady, but my loyalty is to the Take."

To walk through the turnstiles on Eighth Avenue is to feel the solemn silence, the slow contemplation, the unshakable self-confidence that has always defined great American opinion journalism. And to imbibe a sacred duty to the Take. The Take — the sanctity of an exquisitely mixed Tom Friedman... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by zachlipton at 7:37 PM on September 5, 2018

It isn't a constitutional crisis when the process for removing a president is in the Constitution. I

This is the same as the 2000 election - there is a perfectly clear process for settling a disputed election, right there in the Constitution: the House Of Representatives votes. It's even been done before. But "everyone" knew that it would be a "Constitutional Crisis" and that it was intolerable that there was no immediate settlement.
posted to MetaFilter by thelonius at 1:04 PM on September 5, 2018

[People.]
posted to MetaFilter by LobsterMitten at 2:45 PM on September 4, 2018

People need to cut DeSantis a break. It was just an ofaylure to communicate.
posted to MetaFilter by Lentrohamsanin at 9:15 AM on August 29, 2018

I find some satisfaction that this is all happening on the day that prisoners across the country have started a labor strike.
posted to MetaFilter by mcduff at 2:02 PM on August 21, 2018

40% is Incredible.
posted to MetaFilter by Cyrano at 1:09 PM on August 13, 2018

Look, it would be ridiculously simple to slice the Gordian Knot that is Trump's tweets in half. He has two accounts, @POTUS & @realDonaldTrump. Let one be official orders & one be personal commentary. Done.

But Trump clearly doesn't want that, it would hamper his freedom to do anything the hell he wants at any given moment & making him stop & think which account he's using or even tell us which tweets belong in which category would be an... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by scalefree at 1:02 PM on August 1, 2018

Hey everybody, check it out! I've got a new current events podcast. The first half is just someone reading the US news feed from Reuters for the day while I sob uncontrollably and the second half is just me shrieking in horror until I lose my voice. Each episode is eight hours long.
posted to MetaTalk by DirtyOldTown at 6:52 PM on June 25, 2018

@bradheath: NEW: The FBI seized *12* audio recordings from President Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen. A special master reviewing the evidence turned them over to federal prosecutors on Friday.

Lordy, Lordy, Lordy, Lordy, Lordy, Lordy, Lordy, Lordy, Lordy, Lordy, Lordy, Lordy
posted to MetaFilter by zachlipton at 11:47 AM on July 23, 2018

> Some proposed actions are so morally and ethically wrong that the supposed justification doesn't need to be firmly established.

Understanding is not at all the same thing as justification. When you understand you maybe able to find ways to correct it, or deal with it. It isn't justification.

It's their justification, and I stick by my position that much of our current divide is so intractable that... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by phearlez at 2:17 PM on July 20, 2018

Email, Shmemail.

I'm much more excited about the Manafort exhibits having a comprehensive list of companies that the prosecution has financials and ledgers for. Yeah, I'm weird, but this has always been a cluster of cases that revolve around good-old-fashioned money laundering as well as bank and tax fraud.
posted to MetaFilter by mikelieman at 10:01 AM on July 19, 2018

Scott Walker accepted $1mil from a Russian oligarch via a super pac in 2016, and then his state went to Trump. Mitch McConnell received $2.5mil from the same Russian oligarch in 2016 and then refused to release a bipartisan statement warning Americans their election integrity was under attack by Russia.

It's all coming out, finally. Fingers crossed that people care. I also heard a scary statistic that a significant number of Americans don't value democracy...
posted to MetaFilter by jbenben at 9:52 PM on July 18, 2018

> We're working really hard to make this sound reasonable.

After Trump won the election I made a comment here about how a lot of people were going to get a crash course in emotional labour, but even so I vastly underestimated the lengths to which millions of people would be willing to go to in order to prop up this grotesquely incompetent rich white man. Not that I sympathize with them or would ask anyone else to, but...can you imagine? It must be *exhausting*.
posted to MetaFilter by The Card Cheat at 10:15 AM on July 18, 2018