I see that "illegal" has replaced the word "thug" as the go-to dehumanization term. https://phd9.blogspot.com/2014/12/beware-word-thug.html

We are rare. Act like it!

There are 8.7 million species on earth and they are all to the exact same degree 'evolved' Yet there's only 1 that developed speech and intelligence. Don't think for a minute that if we don't make it that there's anything waiting in the wings to take over. That's not how it works.

Two links I'd like to preserve.

An Explainer

Remembering that OTHER internment......

The Intercept busts the NSA

What I find fascinating is that Glenn Greenwald (and hence the Intercept) has been repeatedly denying the connection between the Russians and the Wikileaks dumps. After all, he' s utterly dependent on Putin to make sure that Edward Snowden remains safe and well fed. I suspect that Ms. Winner's leak was actually motivated by a desire to get him to shut up.

The latest from Wikileaks

Some people are making note that among the revelations in the latest Assange release is the fact that the CIA can forge digital footprints and therefore make their malware appear to have come from the Russians. They are therefore using this discovery to suggest that Russia didn't really work in concert with the Trump campaign.

The trouble with this comes from thinking it though.

We are now to believe that the CIA itself worked tirelessly to elect Donald Trump so they could immediately turn on him and work to undermine his Presidency by selectively leaking their own strategy. I wonder why I didn't think of that!

The trouble with bias.

A Facebook friend recently suggested that if he swaps the identities of people in news stories and it changes his reaction to the story then it's a sign of bias on his part. here is my response: The trouble with that whole exercise is that there is no mythical center wherein truth lies. While politicians from all parties can get in trouble for similar reasons (self dealing and lying), there are issues where one party or the other is just flat out wrong in their beliefs. Your views are not biased if they are based in ascertainable factual information.

Concerning Reince and The FBI

"If the White House chief of staff can make public claims about the supposed conclusions of an FBI investigation, then Director Comey can come clean with the American people," Wyden said.

Here. Let me help!

Although we did not find clear evidence that President or his colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of information stolen by a hostile foreign power,, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, hacked information. In our system, the prosecutors make the decisions about whether charges are appropriate based on evidence the FBI has helped collect. Although we don’t normally make public our recommendations to the prosecutors, we frequently make recommendations and engage in productive conversations with prosecutors about what resolution may be appropriate, given the evidence. In this case, given the importance of the matter, I think unusual transparency is in order.

Re the Flynn resignation.

In tweet form: I couldn't help notice that they put a lot of emphasis on Pence being "misled" So he can be left standing when the rest crumbles. Longer: Not only has the press been operating as if it's possible that Flynn was acting without Trump's knowledge (and direction) but they've given particular credence to the notion that Flynn flat out lied to Pence about the nature of his communication with the Russian ambassador and therefore left him hanging when the media pressed him on the subject. All I can say is that when it comes time for impeachment hearings, Pence's so called innocence is going to come in really handy.

I respond to an "All politicians are the same because the corporations run everything" claim.

So your saying that Al Franken is indistinguishable from Paul Ryan? And that they're both indistinguishable from Ron Paul Jr? Nonsense. Who we vote in makes all the difference in the world and believe it or not, constituent phone calls can affect votes. But that requires that people PAY ATTENTION at all times every day to what's happening in Congress. It's not something that we should wait every 4 years to think about. The worst outcomes for America were pretty much all decided in midterm elections. Think about it.

The plot thickens:

The article may be overwrought but there's not a single word in it that I don't know to be true from other sources: Seth Abramson

Regarding fake news sites:

Just my opinion: The people I am describing have immunized themselves from the possibility of being proven wrong. Having written off all 'fact checking' sites as being corrupt, they are then free to believe whatever makes them feel good. It happens on both sides of the Political spectrum. I think the thing that unites all the people who are susceptible to such manipulation is that they start by identifying an enemy first and then filtering everything else they know through how it relates to their particular battle. If your enemy is drug companies or Monsanto, then you are susceptible to Natural news. If your enemy is Hillary, then you are susceptible to US Uncut. If your enemy is Obama, the you are susceptible to the Daily Caller and Briebart. What these sites all have in common other than spreading lies, is the fact that they regularly attack legitimate news sites as biased and incomplete.

Trump voter lost home, blames incoming Treasury secretary

I suspect we'll be seeing a lot more 'buyers remorse' stories as the term wears on: Oops

Sigh......

It's truly disturbing that we whenever Trump makes an appointment, we sigh in relief when "not insane" is among their qualifications.

Riddle me this

Q: When is a Nazi Klansman a 'controversial figure'?
A: When he's being described on CNN.

 Q: How do you know that a scandal is being manufactured out of thin air.
 A: When it 'raises questions'.

Compassion's Not In Fashion Anymore

'Spreading' Freedom

In the past, one of the most difficult quandaries the US faced was that it saw it's role as a Protector of Freedom elsewhere in the world. The problem with this is that it's difficult to impose 'self-determination' when the only tool at your disposal is weaponry. Self determination is pretty much the antithesis of the threat of force. As we enter the Trump era, however we con look forward to this problem disappearing. Seeing as his first act will be to ally ourselves with Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad, we can suddenly forget about the idea of self-determination in Syria. The Balkans? Sorry. Having decided that it's now okay to not only prop up dictators, but to not even have to pretend to care about their legitimacy, we can enter into a Brave New World of Peace and Prosperity, where the only meaningful conflicts are WITHIN nations rather than between them.

Left on a thread concerning our current predicament and it's Historical roots.

Clinton's 3rd way was a direct result of Reaganism. Reagan was direct response to the Great society. The Great Society was a direct response to Jim Crow. Jim Crow was a direct response to Emancipation. You CANNOT separate the present form the past in any meaningful way.

Left on a comment thread somewhere: re Trump

Here's the deal. His announced goal is to increase infrastructure and military spending while drastically cutting taxes. He claims he wants to balance the budget but he's relying on magical growth fairies to do that part for him. And with single party control of that House, the Senate and the Supreme court, our whole system of checks and balances is now inoperable. He has plenty of time (at least 2 years) to do lasting damage and that's precisely what we can expect. In other words, the people who are going to be most thoroughly screwed over by his Presidency are the people who voted for him.

Taboos and Trump

The entire project of warfare requires that we keep certain conversations taboo. We insist on honoring the fallen but it's the survivors who actually 'win' the battle. We insist that our soldiers are defending freedom when they are in fact deployed thousands of miles away and are fighting people who themselves are defending their own homes. The inherent immorality of engaging in indiscriminate killing renders honest conversation about warfare utterly taboo. Apparently Donald didn't get the memo. But of course he's enough of a sociopath to regard indiscriminate killing to be a feature, not a bug.

I don't know whather to be upset over the blatant racism that took place in McKinney TX or heartened by the fact that anybody who comes out publicly in support of the officer gets either immediately fired or is outed as felon. Teacher fired Oops