REPUBLICAN: [seeing an image of profoundly emotional racial harmony in service of both democracy & preventing gun violence] well this is disgusting, we should blow up the country to prevent this from happening
— Hemry, Local Bartender (@BartenderHemry) April 12, 2023
this guy is idaho’s solicitor general and is not legally allowed to practice law in idaho but does believe that red states should stop try to curb their own economic growth, in case you wonder what the next generation of deep red state politicians look like. https://t.co/uo5cSNSLBC
— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachi) April 12, 2023
These people are… not well:
this is also the case with a large number of republican members of congress.
— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachi) April 12, 2023
Bruce K in ATH-GR
I’m getting a real “Tomorrow Belongs To Me” vibe off those people, and it’s only slightly helpful to me to remember that the path they’re trying to re-create ends at the gallows under Nuremberg.
Redshift
The most charitable reading of the idiot from Idaho is that he was responding to the WSJ article rather than the photo from it, and was too big an idiot to realize how it would make him look. (You have to click through to the tweet to see the headline.)
And it’s so very Murdoch Wall Street Journal to use that photo to illustrate an article entitled “Tennessee’s Political Divisions Deepen Between State and Its Cities“…
Chetan Murthy
I know there are some who think Bud Light is like sex in a canoe [even Colbert will attest only to liking Bud Light Lime] but their parent company AB InBev makes a ton of yummy beers: my favorite is Abbaye de Leffe, though I am not averse to a Negra Modelo with lime. Lots of ways to celebrate Bud doing the right thing.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
And as for Mr. Campbell? If I go down on my knees before him, it’s only because I’m looking for a better angle for the knife to stab him where he thinks it matters.
(I suspect it is a very, very small target.)
Chetan Murthy
@golikehellmachine got a negative too many in his tweet, yes?
pat
I am in Austria (that’s why I am up at this..in the states… ungodly hour.) I have never understood Austrian politics.
At least we have it easy: Dems good, Reps bad.
piratedan
and as I read these “hot takes” I’m reminded that these are coming from people of “responsibility” in the GOP machine; a pol holding a position at the state level, and a guy with a national media voice.
It’s truly disturbing that in the case of the former, he’s getting his salary from tax dollars and in the latter, someone thinks this guy has anything to say and that they have to pay him to say it.
the closest these two dudes have ever been to a meaningful encounter with racial overtones is a rerun of Good Times….
JaySinWA
Well yes, we need to keep them poor and barely able to survive. Once they get a little money and some free time you know what kind of uppity ideas those people will get.
Hell, next thing you know they’ll be taxing the rich./s
Chetan Murthy
@piratedan: @JaySinWA: There’s that term we’ve learned in the last 7yr: “producerist populism”, referring to producers of raw materials (or those who imagine themselves to be that) and populist movements based among them. The “salt of the earth” who imagine somehow that they are the ones who actually create all the value, and hence they should be the ones to run things. As if any of them could survive a hot minute without the fruits of industrial civilization — the stuff that is created and invented and maintained in those “fetid Leftist urban vote sinks”.
dm
Back in the day we called that sort of thing a “colony”. Which might explain some of the rage — they’re colonials, and they’re pissed at the distant empire, even though the government of that empire is heavily skewed to advantage them, and, if the raw material were “tax dollars”, the flow is toward them, not away from them.
Tony Jay
So… what does Mr My Own Private Idaho see as the solution to the GOP’s problem? An hard end to urban expansion? But then you’ve still got all of these ‘Leftist vote-sinks’ polluting the waters of his White Free State. Take away the franchise from urban dwellers? Forcibly resettle these ‘Leftists’ in rural areas where they, or at least their kids, can be re-educated? That’ll cost money, money that they won’t have any more thanks to the bulldozing of industrial hubs. So I guess the resettled urban hordes will have to work for a living. Something rural and out in the open where Real Americans, armed, naturally, for everyone’s safety, can keep an eye on their antics. Out in the fields, maybe? Picking crops?
I mean, maybe it’s been tried somewhere before? They should definitely look that up, see if they can get any hints from places that have this kind of set-up in their heritage.
Tony Jay
@Chetan Murthy:
Bud own Leffe? But… Leffe is really nice beer and the taste of holidays in France. I am troubled by this revelation and will need to ruminate on it, probably over a six-pack of Leffe.
Chetan Murthy
@Tony Jay: I’ll trouble you even further: for a while there, Leffe was continuing to (brew &) sell their beer in Russia. But they recently discontinued that. I had sworn off Leffe until I read that they’d exited the Russian market; I immediately got two more six-packs, which are sitting wating to be consumed (slowly, b/c I’m olllld).
And yeah, I remember when they got bought: I had a teeny-tiny sad. Or more precisely, when they bought Bud.
Chetan Murthy
@Tony Jay:
ding ding ding aaaaaand you get the prize!
NotMax
To be concise, FUBAR.
Matt McIrvin
Kneel, son of Jor-El! Kneel before Zod!
Jeffg166
The Nazis have always been with us. They will always be with us. They felt or feel freer to express their Nazi feelings at this moment. The only thing we can do is out vote them to make the retreat back under the rocks they slithered out from under.
Barbara
@Tony Jay: I think this is a fear that is growing in Idaho because of an influx of people from California. First they transformed the Pacific Northwest, then Nevada, then even NM and Arizona. Now they are coming to Idaho and before you know it Boise will be like Portland!
Matt McIrvin
@Barbara: Boise is already more like Portland than these guys are comfortable with.
Betty Cracker
WaPo has an exclusive on the recent intel document leaks, and wow. The Post doesn’t have the perpetrator’s name, but if the story they’re getting from a teenage gamer who was a member of a Discord server run by the perpetrator is accurate (and it rings true), the leaker is a 20-something, fascism-curious dickhead who works on a military base and leaked the docs to impress the teenagers on the server. It almost sounds like he was creating his own mini-Q cult:
If WaPo was able to track a kid from the group down and get him to talk (though he refused to reveal the perp’s name), maybe the Pentagon and/or DOJ has figured out who the leaker is. Could be he’s already in custody
ETA: Gift link to article.
Geminid
@Barbara: If those Righties think Antifa’s bad, wait ’til they take on the land developers, building contractors and real estate agents. That’s the real Deep State!
gene108
@Matt McIrvin:
Doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.
lowtechcyclist
Wait, I thought that conservative Christians (the non-Catholic ones, anyway – evangelicals and all them) didn’t let alcohol touch their lips in the first place. “I’d boycott your product if I used it to begin with” doesn’t make much of an impact.
And given the stress he places on Christians and people of faith, maybe he should read his Bible a bit more. As Paul says in I Corinthians, “What business is it of mine to judge outsiders? God is their judge. You are judges within the fellowship. Root out the evil-doer from your community.”
Maybe people like him should put more effort into making sure their youth pastors aren’t there to have sex with their teenagers (seems this happens a lot), rather than trying to enforce their code of sexual conduct on the larger world.
lowtechcyclist
@Matt McIrvin:
Ha! Onward to Coeur D’Alene! We are unstoppable!!
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
Seriously! Especially at the local and state level. Mr. W-O-L-D-D-D-D has no idea what he’s up against if he picks a fight with them.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Great Baud! 20XX! slogan.
raven
@lowtechcyclist:
Standing barefoot on a cold wood floor
Looking out the window of my back door
If it keeps on raining I think the whole damn house is gonna float away
The alarm was buzzing at the break of dawn
My husband’s asking, “Is the coffee on?”
And easy’s gettin’ harder every day
I’ll drop the baby off at school at nine
And bust the lights to get to work on time
Where I’ll be staring at the clock just waiting to knock off another day
When supper’s done we’ll watch some TV show
Of a bunch of folks who’ve never heard of Idaho
Where easy’s gettin’ harder every day
I had a garden but my flowers died
There ain’t much living here inside
Lately, I don’t know what I’m holding on to
Wished I could run away to Coeur d’Alene
Take nothing with me, not even my name
‘Cause easy’s gettin’ harder every day
Matt McIrvin
@lowtechcyclist: You know the joke: if you go fishing with them, take two because if there’s only one he’ll drink all your beer.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
👍
gene108
@Betty Cracker:
Scary how much our intelligence system relies on expected good behavior to keep things out of the public domain.
Seems like any disgruntled government employee with access to classified documents could leak a bunch of classified info, before the government noticed.
Frankensteinbeck
@Tony Jay:
Exactly why they’re sabotaging schools.
@lowtechcyclist: and @Matt McIrvin:
That’s Mormons. Evangelicals are Saved, and can sin all they want.
Frankensteinbeck
@gene108:
Well, expected good behavior enforced by serious punishments, and the knowledge that you will get caught.
Geminid
@gene108: It looks like the government relies on deterrence to keep people with access to classified materials in line. I think we’ll see some deterrence in this case. That “OG” cat might as well change his handle to “UJ,” as in “Under the Jail.”
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Given the amount of information that is in that article, I’d be surprised if the guy wasn’t arrested soon.
Matt McIrvin
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: In the original case, that only happened because an international coalition of outsiders was willing and able to invade, wreck and conquer the country to stop their evil plans. I don’t see anyone waiting in the wings in our case; there’s just us.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
We are all we need.
Geminid
@raven: The mention of Coeur d’Alene reminded me of the 31 Patriot Front members who got rousted from their U-Haul truck last June while on their way to a Coeur d’Alene Pride Festival. They were all charged with misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to riot. They claimed their intentions were to peacefully protest the Pride event, and they had the helmets, riot shields and clubs to prove it!
The first one had his court date last November and was given two years probation. I think more have been sentenced since, but the Daily Dot reports that there are warrants out for 5 of them for skipping their court dates.
Baud
@Geminid:
Assange is going to be screwed when he gets to the U.S. Leaks aren’t as popular as they once were.
RobArt
@raven: I appreciate this comment and will listen to this song for the first time as soon as my ears are awake.
As for this thread, I have an obtuse take (realizing the risk of sharing such on my third day ever commenting in years of lurking). GOLIKEHELLMACHINE tweets:
My reaction is that I don’t think making it in the movies is due to talent or work ethic. (I said it was an obtuse take!) I appreciate my news with a point of view. It’s why I check two liberal political blogs (and now Mastodon) and nothing much else for my online news. I have seen this account and know it’s a good source for honorable takes. The poster may even be a regular here, in which case: Hi!
My comment isn’t intended as any kind of take down—unless it’s a take down of take downs. People do things that hurt others and make us mad. We respond with emotion. It feels good to insult. This observation may not feel like an insult. I mean, for instance, Kid Rock and Ted Nugent and whoever this guy is aren’t great artists. But what about Roseanne? Was she good before she was bad? (Or in her case maybe bad then good then bad then good then bad?) I myself dashed off an observation on instagram yesterday that identified right wing activists as “crazy people”! I feel sure that I’m not supposed to use the word “crazy”—though I honestly wonder if there is a crazy community, and if so I would most certainly be a member.
Sigh. My comment is long and nitpicky. And that’s probably why I haven’t commented for years and probably shouldn’t.
P.S. I am not a failed actor. I am an artist who is unable to make a living in art. My last job was for a former “friend” whose income includes a massive amount of theft via false records—theft from clients, from government, and from exploiting employees, especially hundreds of undocumented workers. I got fired (with no severance after years). He’s a millionaire. He and his wife are celebrated for “giving to the community.” I complain in liberal blog comment sections while I contemplate my alienation from society. I don’t criticize the man and his wife for their appearances or personalities.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: This wasn’t in the WaPo article, but I read a rumor online (so it must be true!) that alleges other members of the Discord group are threatening to release another cache of material they downloaded if OG is arrested. Supposedly something like 100 pages of docs are in the wild out of a 300 page stash.
Now, if true, these folks making the threat are probably kids. And even if they are legally grownups, they are the disciples of someone dumb enough to believe the docs he shared on his server with a bunch of strangers would stay secure, i.e., not the sharpest knives in the drawer.
So if that rumor is true, the people making the threats have likely implicated themselves in a buttload of major felonies.
Gin & Tonic
@Betty Cracker: Pity they don’t credit Bellingcat’s Aric Toler, who got there two days before they did.
RobArt
@RobArt: And oh! As for the specific point in the post, we all know it’s racism. The GOP “crazies” (please tell me a better word) happily count every urban/suburban vote for their side and are only mad when they don’t win. They do not think votes against them count anywhere.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
That may be why there hasn’t been an arrest yet. The Intel community wants to get a handle on the docs before making an announcement. Pure speculation though.
CliosFanBoy
@gene108:
you can put an awful big load of documents on a small thumb-drive to smuggle out.
Suzanne
How long until they figure out that urban areas have higher property values and productivity?
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: That may be why the feds haven’t picked up “OG” yet. He’s ripe for the picking, but authorities need to identify and as best they can “freeze” the other people with unreleased documents.
This to me is further proof that computer games are tools of the Devil. That’s how we lost Martin!
Matt McIrvin
@RobArt: The tweet rubbed me a bit the wrong way too–there are a lot of YouTubers I enjoy whose shtick would simply never work in traditional TV or movies, and I think they tend to be more essayists or teachers than actors. In pre-Internet days they’d have gravitated to print media that, today, people don’t read. In the early 2000s they’d just have had a blog, but it’s harder these days to get noticed that way. The textual social media that won out favored short formats and even that is dying in favor of video.
And right-wing cranks always operated in those environments too. The ones on YouTube might have been AM radio screamers back in the day.
gene108
@Betty Cracker:
If any of those making threats are in the U.S., they could possibly get a visit from the Feds. If WaPo can track you down, the Feds can too.
gene108
@CliosFanBoy:
Secure facilities allow thumb drives? That’s just highly irresponsible for a number of reasons, including having someone bring malware on thumb drive that compromises the entire facility.
Another Scott
@Betty Cracker: Is the guy another contractor for BAH??? I guess that we’ll find out soon enough.
(sigh)
Cheers,
Scott.
Kathleen
@Baud: Were you aware of this development?
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3944700-democrats-call-for-garland-to-drop-charges-against-assange/
Geminid
@gene108: Yes, and if they are in many European countries they could get a visit from state security officers. And I’m not sure they even have to threaten to release the files; mere possession might be a criminal act.
Baud
@Kathleen:
No. Sad.
Shalimar
@Geminid: If computer games are a tool of the devil, then praise Satan. There is a section of the young male game-playing demographic that is very misogynistic/anti-social though. And games can be a happy way of avoiding society.
Geminid
@Kathleen: Those dopes. Now my “Squad” squishing impulse is back.
lowtechcyclist
@Frankensteinbeck:
I haven’t hung around with Mormons much, but I’ve spent a good deal of my life around white evangelicals.
Yes, they’re saved, and they can sin all they want and be forgiven by God. But they rather strongly disapprove of consumption of alcoholic beverages, and if you consume them, they aren’t so much going to question whether God will forgive you, as they are to question whether you’re a real Christian by their standards.
Yes, they’re weird. Trust me, I know that all too well.
Citizen Alan
@gene108: Hell, I worked in a bankruptcy court where the IT guys talked about bringing in thumb drives as if they were biological weapons.
Baud
@Geminid:
Yeah. Reminds me of that dumb Ukraine letter a few months ago.
Shalimar
@gene108: They don’t. And the documents posted to the Discord were pictures of actual paper documents, some of them crumpled up. He seems to have smuggled them out a few pages at a time under clothes or in something.
Baud
@Shalimar:
Probably in his crotch.
Shalimar
@Baud: explains the stains
Matt McIrvin
@Kathleen: What the fuck? The Squad is way off base here, verging on red-brown-alliance suckerdom.
Geminid
@Shalimar: I don’t play computer games, but I’m not going to knock people who do.
I was just joking about how after all the disputes Martin’s had here over EVs, land development patterns, California chauvinism etc., he left because of an argument over a Harry Potter game.
But Martin said he’d see us in a few weeks, and I hope he meant it. I want to argue with him some more.
Matt McIrvin
@lowtechcyclist: I knew a lot of Southern-type evangelicals when I was in high school and college. There seemed to be two distinct categories: the serious straight-arrows who were teetotalers and never swore, and the ones who were the biggest boozer fratboys you ever saw, but would still talk your ear off about Jesus.
Shalimar
@Matt McIrvin: It’s bizarre. Were any of them even in the House when Assange still had a shred of credibility? It’s been very obvious he has been a Russian agent the whole time for at least 7 years.
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
Maybe so, but it sure gives the lie to all that crap we heard last summer when TFG’s document cache was in the news, about how access to sensitive classified materials is tightly controlled on a ‘need to know’ basis. Clearly a lot of people can get their hands on a wide array of documents.
Which Snowden demonstrated ten years ago, but clearly the Feds haven’t cleaned up their own act, or made intelligence contractor (and Snowden’s employer) Booz Allen clean up its act, in the decade since then.
Maybe this time people will see that the problem isn’t just OG, unlike last time where nobody bothered to wonder how this 29 year old employed by a contractor, not even directly employed by the NSA, could have gotten his hands on such a plethora of stuff.
But I doubt it.
Another Scott
@lowtechcyclist: Snowden lied to get passwords and access to computers he wasn’t supposed to access. There were controls in place, but ultimately you have to have some trust in the people doing the job.
If you let liars work for you, then you are in for a world of hurt.
Grr…,
Scott.
lowtechcyclist
@Matt McIrvin:
Gotta admit I’ve never run into the latter category. I’ve run into plenty of types who consider themselves good Southern Baptists because that’s the milieu they live in, but drink and swear and almost never darken a church door.
But they don’t talk your ear off about Jesus. If someone else does in their hearing, they’ll nod and agree with what that person’s saying, and then go back to what they were doing before he turned their head.
Geminid
@Matt McIrvin: Well, five of those Representatives are members of the Democratic Socialists of America. They often disappoint the DSA on votes, so this is a way to maintain some credibility with their “Comrades.”
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@CliosFanBoy: Thumb drives and CD drives were disabled on all DoD computers after the last little incident of this type. Made it a royal pain to move info around legitimately. So I’m real curious about how he managed it.
Edit: Just thought of a workaround. All you have to do is carry the whole classified computer out of the protected area. Which hadn’t occurred to me because I obey the rules.
Another Scott
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: All the reporting I’ve skimmed said that the stuff was photos of paper documents. No USB stick or CD needed.
Grr…,
Scott.
lowtechcyclist
@Another Scott:
I work for a government statistical agency. We get frequent training about confidentiality, and it includes training about making sure a co-worker can’t get your passwords and stuff. Sounds like we protect against that sort of stuff better than the intelligence agencies do, and all we’re protecting is the identities of those who might have responded to our surveys.
And once again, what information a contractor had should have been tightly limited to begin with. I could see an NSA employee at Fort Meade somehow getting into a co-worker’s computer and accessing stuff that wasn’t in his remit. But a Booz Allen facility on Hawaii – why did they have access to this wide world of intel to begin with, rather than just whatever the NSA shared on a need-to-know basis? Sounds sloppy as hell to me.
lowtechcyclist
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Same thing at the statistical agency I work for.
Ghost of Joe Liebling’s Dog
@Geminid:
wait – has Martin-who-comments-here gone missing? I hope not … it’s been a while since I’ve seen their nym though.Never mind; I hadn’t read further down before posting. Apologies.
Another Scott
@lowtechcyclist: I too would hope that lots of careful thinking about who gets to touch computers with sensitive stuff on them was done after Snowden.
But contractor/government distinction seems to be gone forever – especially with the push to put so much of the government on “The Cloud” (AKA Someone Else’s Computer) (for good and bad reasons).
Ultimately, it’s people. A good and sensible system will be broken by bad people.
Grr…,
Scott.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: That sure went down the memory hole, didn’t it?
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
I remember!
Geminid
@Ghost of Joe Liebling’s Dog: Martin got dog piled one night when he defended the latest Harry Potter-themed computer game. He’d played it with his daughter and did not see what the problem was. Martin got frustrated and said something like “that’s it, I’m out of here, see you guys in a few weeks.” I’m hoping he returns.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: That makes two of us.
Geminid
@Gin & Tonic: I remember that letter too. The story might have gotten more play if the letter had not been retracted in less than 24 hours.
I’d still be very interested in a behind the scenes look into how and why the letter was released. But the participants and their House critics decided to turn the page and not air this matter out in public.
Kathleen
@Geminid: I never abandoned mine LOL!
Kathleen
@Matt McIrvin: Which is an alliance Steve Bannon is advocating.
Kathleen
@Geminid: The DSA has also promoted its desire to destroy the Democratic Party, as did the Justice Dems, whom I believe have since deleted their tweets claiming that.
different-church-lady
If they somehow manage to destroy Bud Light it will have all been worth it.
Geminid
@Kathleen: Justice Democrats leader Walid Shahid deleted those bragging tweets soon after he posted them, but there are people who watch the JDs like hawks and their screenshots are widely distributed. That’s one reason the JDs switched much of their activity to Brand New Congress, their parallel outfit
The DSA’s posture towards the Democratic Party is complex, and controversial among DSA members. It will be a bone of contention at their biennial convention in Chicago this summer.
montanareddog
@Matt McIrvin: I was very disappointed to see that Caroline Lucas, the only UK Green MP and, normally, a politician with good instincts, has gone there, too. Joined by maverick libertarian Tory David Davis, various nationalist MPs and quite a few Labour MPs.
Caroline Lucas – Mastodon – Julian Assange
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@Kathleen: Fuck Assange. That red/brown douchebag can rot in prison.
Frankly, I hope he gets shivved. He knows EXACTLY what he did, and in whose behalf he did it.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@lowtechcyclist: Do they really believe in abstaining anymore? I recall growing up in West Michigan there were some dry townships around the city I grew up in (Grand Rapids) but now some of those townships have jumped on the craft brewing bandwagon and have breweries.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Chetan Murthy: AB Inbev also owns Stella Artois and Hoegaarden (and Becks, and Lowenbrau, and Spaten, and St. Pauli Girl, and several other globally known brands though I’m not going to list the rest).
WaterGirl
@Kathleen: Once again, that group is not covering themselves with glory.
GSV Sleeper Service
@Barbara: All those people moving from California are coming here (and CdA) because Idaho is the new conservative refuge state – it’d be nice to think they’ll turn Idaho into Oregon or Washington, but that’s not happening, it’s why our legislature gets crazier every year.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Yes. Angering, too.
And now I’m mad all over again at that stupid Ukraine letter that was released before the election, and then the subject was never heard about again.
edit: I see that I’m not the only person who immediately thought about that awful letter.
Manyakitty
@RobArt: so blow the whistle on your corrupt former boss.
WaterGirl
@lowtechcyclist:
What? Did you read the post I did on that, explaining the details?
Classified Documents: A Primer
WaterGirl
@Manyakitty: Agree!
Geminid
@WaterGirl: I think Ayanna Pressley did not sign the Assange letter. She often diverges from “Squad” positions. Of the four original members, Pressley probably owed the JD’s the least for her election.
Geminid
@WaterGirl: Democrats swept that dubious Ukraine letter under the rug ASAP, because it was 3 weeks before the election. Now they seem to want to leave the affair behind them. I still want to know how that letter release went down, but it’s an “inside baseball” story for most people I think.
We may have seen some fallout last December, in the Democratic Caucus leadership elections. Right around the time the letter was released, I saw an item in a Seattle paper saying that Progressive Caucus Chair Jayapal was considering a run for the second spot behind Hakeem Jeffries. In the event, she did not, and Jeffries, Clark and Aguilar were elected unanimously.
Kathleen
@Geminid: She signed it.
Kathleen
@WaterGirl: Yup.
The Moar You Know
@Geminid: We lost Martin by treating him like shit and with an absolute and total lack of respect, for him having a slightly differing opinion. That loss is wholly the fault of this community.
Geminid
@The Moar You Know: Yeah, I thought people got pretty personal and vehement, especially for an argument over a computer game.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for US?
What I don’t get about the guy from Idaho is…what policy the GOP is pushing is annexing rural areas? Like, that’s a local decision not something the GOP at large is doing anything about, pro or con. But let us pause to marvel at the fact that Nashville, TN, home of the Grand Ole Opry, is now apparently too “woke” for these people. When Nashville is too far gone for you, well, maybe it’s time for you to ponder whether it’s you who are too far gone.
Origuy
@Chetan Murthy: In the US, Modelo and Corona are produced by Constellation Brands, not InBev. This was a result of an anti-trust case brought against InBev.
Ruckus
@gene108:
Scary how much our intelligence system relies on expected good behavior to keep things out of the public domain.
If it worked only on suspected bad behavior it would be a total police state where everyone is assumed guilty until proven to be.
The reality is that any system with more than one user has to question leaks and theft of information. Get the system as big as ours and add in not trusting a single soul and it becomes a disaster. And this is why we have levels of security. And even then it can get iffy. In the navy I had very high clearance to go into one space because my department had equipment in there. In 2 yrs I never had to go in to fix anything but still, someone had to have clearance. And that clearance had limits and always would have. I didn’t have clearance to go anywhere else. It was and had to be specific. And it ended the moment I stepped off that ship for the last time. Clearance is never completely wide open, a person gets clearance for x, not a-z.
Ruckus
@gene108:
The feds likely already know who and where they are. They don’t tip their hands early.
agorabum
Neo-Confederates want to blow up the country for some terrible and anti-democratic reason?
Color me shocked.
Miss Bianca
@The Moar You Know: Man, you take a BJ break for Lent (and to quell an insane urge to reach through the screen and slap the crap out of one particular commenter) and you end up missing all kinds of drama. Sorry to hear about Martin.
Paul in KY
@Tony Jay: I think the word he is looking for is ‘Lebensraum’, Tony
Paul in KY
@Barbara: I read an article recently that claimed that all the people moving to Idaho from Cali are MAGA nutwads. Maybe a Cali MAGA nutwad is like a leftist twink in Idaho?
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: I hope 20 years in Federal Pen is where his next ‘server’ will be.
Geminid
@Miss Bianca: This happened a couple months ago, but it was a weekend, nighttime thread so it wasn’t much noticed.
I hope Martin returns, but I will not be surprised if he doesn’t. He’s reordering his life some now that he’s retired, and may decide to turn the page on this blog.
Denali5
Sorry to hear about Martin. Although I did not always agree with him, I thought his thoughts were worthwhile. Sometimes the hive mind overtakes this blog.
Geminid
@Denali5: It was just two or three people riding Martin. No one sided him, but I saw it as an isolated event involving someone who could stand up for himself.
I have regretted a couple times when I did not side someone here who was essentially run off. I’ve noticed that there is a lot of bigotry and intolerance in this group. But people like to think that they’re just being bigoted towards bigotry and intolerant of intolerance, and sometimes if other people don’t go along they get targeted.
I am a very argumentative person (I attribute a lot of that to X-chomosome Deficiency Disorder). But one thing I try to keep in mind is that I don’t really know the person I’m talking to, and their level of self confidence. And sometimes the people who seem very self confident are not at all.
WaterGirl
@Geminid: Good. I’m in favor of consequences.