lost highway

Lemonheads- Tenderfoot

I assume you're talking about public opinion here which seems likely, but I'd love to see some polling on the topic. The more I think about it, the more it seems like where we need to go. The machine gun, and it's relative scarcity, seems symbolic to me of how as a country we draw lines and aren't by nature an anything goes, elemental-gun-country.

One of the biggest challenges in this national conversation is the anti-gun group is often (naturally) not totally gun literate. In reality, the pro-gun side of things is correct: the AR15 isn't unlike several other models of semi-automatic rifles. Assault rifle is not a very formally defined term. Pragmatically, what would reduce casualties in a mass shooting is a ban on all semi-automatic weapons. A country of only double-barrel shotguns, 6 shooter revolvers, and bolt action rifles is not a murder-free one. But it's one where sportsmen can effectively hunt, make-my-day fantasy obsessives c

Guided By Voices- Game of Pricks

Sweet holy fuck! The Russians are using the NRA to manipulate American politics. Old Ronnie Reagan is rolling in his grave. If this were from a less reputable source I'd call it tin-foil hat, conspiracy theory fodder. https://www.npr.org/2018/03/01/590076949/depth-of-russian-politicians-cultivation-of-nra-ties-revealed

I'm betting a mixture. Half robots, half stars and stripes waving ignoramuses.

So many cops assigned to schools who are really great people and care a lot about the students at their schools- those folks must be really pissed at this statement.

Good lord, I mainly have terrible things to say about Marco Rubio, but for him to get up and share a mic with these victims and their families, live, in front of an audience, being filmed..... it's pretty courageous. He's in a really shitty position, and I'm eating that up, but I have to admit he's brave.

Could it be a crack in the dam?

Which is a challenging charge and it's good of you to remember it here to keep this from being a choir convention. I do find it ironic that the party of "law and order" is suddenly fatalistic and hands off since the gun laws probably can't ever work, and no one should ever try to make a law if it's hard to enforce.

I agree. I think being the lone conservative in the age of Trump is a really tough position to be in.

Exactly. The cliched "Can't we let the families grieve before we politicize' argument (which doesn't make sense for many reasons) was countered in a meme that I saw. It had the faces of the Sandy Hook victims and said that if we can't talk about gun control until people have had time to grieve the Florida massacre, then maybe it's been sufficient time to talk about it in the context of Sandy Hook. The real point is, it's not the worthlessness of our arguments, it's how short-lived they are. Our news cycle is wiped out by Trump scandals every week or so. When was the last time you heard someo

Don't give up, Kevin. You're a good dude.

Well at least John Smith is trying to get things right.

So it turns out the shooter has links to white supremacist groups. Another reminder that extremist whit nationalism is just as dangerous as extremist Islamic ideologies. In fact, I gather in this country it's statistically more dangerous.

Seriously. What a bunch of disingenuous hot wind from a bunch of people who sold their humanity to an industry and a pointless mythology.

So I've been thinking about this: the immigration debate by every indication is coming down to a kind of Sophie's choice for democrats. Will they accept a wall in exchange for DACA? Every time this trade has come up in the news cognitive dissonance has made me stop thinking about it. Maybe there's some other way for it to go down, but that might just be it. Obviously the moral answer is yes, but it's a tough pill to swallow. It would be such an expensive, ignorant, and disgusting symbol to his perception of success.

He went with the more likely looking-corrupt-for-not-releasing-the-memo, approach. I think the suits call this "bad optics". In other news, I won't be the first to point out that the party of fiscal responsibility passed a tax bill that adds $1.5 trillion to the deficit, and followed it with a $400 billion spending bill edging us very close to an even $2 trillion of new debt. Most economists agree that it will have a modest boost for GDP, but that's a tiny fraction of the magical number the white house invented for growth projections.

You mean the one with the acerbic wit? That was on Mirror Traffic, which I kind of remember feeling kind of B- about. There was Wig Out at Jag Bags after that, which for whatever reason I don't remember at all. Love that guy. 'Flag Decal' is still socially relevant today.

Just noticed this. Thanks for sharing. This is another from their "smooth jam" side. I like it. Lot's of space.

On top of the stock market plunge, now the House panel has approved the Democrats rebuttal memo. Trump has to decide if he wants to be seen silencing information, or if he's going to let another side of the story come out. Not that the original memo really helped him all that much.

The best part of Trump saying it "totally vindicates" him is it allows any of us who read the memo, or even carefully read about the memo to know more than he does on the topic. And Trump was the one who released it. I know more than the president about the memo he released, because as you said it's 6 pages long which is beyond his current reading comprehension level.

I'd say it's not quite a nothing burger, and not for the reasons the GOP intended. The memo shows that they were able to renew their surveillance through the FISA court multiple times. According to law they had to present evidence that the initial warrant was yielding evidence of illegal activity or they couldn't renew it. So now they've published a memo proving that the courts have evidence of wrongdoing. It also shows that the warrant wasn't gotten on the problematic Steele dossier alone, but also on evidence against Papadopolous, and since he's already been indicted we know that was a sub

It's so interesting the way the Fed as a power has entered into the checks and balances ecology. Watching Oliver Stone's "The Untold History of the United States", it was easy to see how the growth of our intelligence agencies in the McCarthy era was a way for Executive power to increase in an underhanded and immoral way. Now intelligence agencies are functioning as our primary safeguard against the perversion of power by the Executive Office (the same one that originally empowered them). Power is always a double edged sword in politics. This is some Game of Thrones shit.

My co-workers and I were discussing if it's better to watch it and see the spectacle/keep track of the national conversation, or better to skip it and not give the pig better ratings.