Not really related to Trump but still sort of about US politics: this is one of the dumbest hot takes I've seen in a while. Like, yeah, pulling a prank in NK isn't particularly smart, but man....

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/la-sha/on ... mg00000004

As far as I'm concerned, this is pretty much an extremist article. You have douchebags like this in every movement and I believe if people who fight for any form of progressive society fail to dissociate themselves from this kind of vocabulary and attitude, we will see more success from Trump types in the future. Unfortunately the people blaring out the most outrageous ideas are the ones most easily listened to.

Watching John Oliver yesterday I realized Trump played with the gender fear going around recently in a smart way. The coal miner is the ultimate symbol of manliness and the hard working man striving for the American dream with blood sweat and absolutely _NO_ tears (especially not liberal ones). Positioning himself as the polar opposite of the person writing the HuffPost article, he was able to gather many groups behind him who believed the American dream is still a viable idea, even if the market-radicalism neocon people and their bullshit trickle down promises ruined whatever was left of it in the 80s.
Trump is one of them and he will fuck everyone who voted for him and they will still defend him because on the surface he supports only the manliest of the manly men: coal miners.

Edit:
Here is an article in response to the Huffington post piece:

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/poli ... tice-left/

I can agree with this.
The extreme social justice approach is eating itself and perverting its own roots (a fight for equality amongst all people). People who write articles like this should be driven out of the progressive left with greatest ferocity. Stepping so much to the left that you end up on the far right is probably a fitting way to put it. It seems to me people like this are abusing actual progressive ideas in order to fight a revenge war against anything that oppressed them in the past (and may still be the source of some inequality), whatever that might have been. This won't get them far because a peaceful solution cannot be achieved by hating on people for being "cis".

Dumbest article I have read in a long time. The Huffington post one not the other article.

I sure wish the term "SJW" hadn't been fucking ruined by the far right to describe anyone to the left of Mussolini. Otherwise, it'd be the perfect descriptor for whomever that ghastly HuffPo article.

I agree, but I think the sentiment is less rare than implied by the word "extremist." I don't care for the term SJW but I understand why it hasn't and isn't going away. The movement's worst enemies are within it.




Back on topic: it appears that the US Attorney General has hired a personal attorney. http://www.nationallawjournal.com/id=12 ... 0520233906

I'm sorry, I would characterize pulling a prank in NK not as "not particularly smart" but as "suicidally stupid." I don't agree with the tone of the article, but it definitely raises some good points. Our justice system bends over backwards to protect affluent white men and gives them slaps on the wrist, while people of color (such as the black woman who wrote the article) are often punished to the fullest extent the law allows. Someone raised from birth in a bubble of legal privilege wouldn't necessarily understand that those privileges aren't universal.

I thought that was a bad article because, for some reason, I figured this Warmbier guy was some sort of military personnel or kidnapped for no reason - to hear it was apparently for stealing a poster, yeah, it's still awful that he died in that condition, but the article's point rings true about the kind of people raised in a bubble. But as I don't know Warmbier's personal life, I'd hesitate before condemning him myself is all.

Well the article was also written last year, before he died. I don't think he deserved what he got in a moral sense, but then I don't think people who poke crocodiles deserve to get bitten.

Ah yeah - it would be much more tasteless if it was written in the wake of his death.

But we don't actually know that he poked the crocodile in this case. The "evidence" is a videotape where we can't see the person's face and in any case nothing is actually stolen, the sign is just moved. The author's argument would be barely less ludicrous if the title was "white boy straightens hotel painting, gets privilege checked."

She would have a point if he had actually trued to steal it, and in any case I don't understand why non-diplomats visit North Korea, but this seems more like victim-blaming than any sort of helpful advice about being mindful of the laws of other countries. Laws which he may not actually have broken. If past cases of foreigners being detained in North Korea is any indication, he probably didn't actually do anything. North Korea doesn't detain people for breaking laws, it detains them to get leverage in negotiations.

This is the only time I can recall that media figures of any political persuasion have done the "well I'm not saying s/he deserved it, BUT" routine for someone arrested in a country that routinely arrests people for no crime whatsoever.

Yeah, that's true, we'll probably never know what actually happened. But calling something "victim-blaming" isn't some sort of talisman that invalidates arguments - if I poke a crocodile with a stick and get mauled, I'm the victim, but blaming me for ignoring common sense and putting myself in unnecessary danger would be entirely appropriate. As you say, NK has a history of detaining foreigners for questionable reasons, so even if Warmbler didn't actually try to steal anything, there's still a certain degree of victim-blaming that's appropriate here.

It's really unfortunate that his family declined a full autopsy.

Yeah, would have been nice to know more about that, but perhaps they feel whatever information the US government gave them was sufficient? Who knows, we could have had intel about how he got to be the way he was. The "he contracted botulism" story that the media spread usually forgot to mention that some countries have fielded botulism as part of a bioweapons program, so even if it was botulism it raises the question of whether it was deliberate or not.

@fails: Fair enough.




The Senate intel committee has apparently been promised financial intelligence about Trump's money. http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/20/politics/ ... index.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/20/us/m ... p=cur&_r=0



Just for closure...

And then someone set her memorial on fire.

http://www.fox5dc.com/news/local-news/262878455-story

Granted, the police say that the guy who did it was just randomly setting shit in the park on fire and her memorial happened to be one of those things, but still.

Actually now that I read the article again and concentrate on this I agree one hundred percent. This guy was indeed raised in a wealthy environment most minorities aren't so there definitely is that great point to ponder. And man why North Korea of all places North Korea?!?

Because he was in China and saw an ad for a "reputable" tour company that caters to foreigners wanting to visit North Korea and thought "why not." And, honestly, I could see the appeal and the rationale. He's young and with friends, and had apparently been convinced to go on an adventure. The tour company had reassured him and the others that they would be fine and safe. Many other foreigners have gone to North Korea - from Vice journalists to regular joes... Hell, even Dennis Rodman is a friend of the Supreme Leader... and they returned home right? To a lot of young people abroad - especially impressionable young people - the fact that you could end up a political prisoner doesn't cross your mind. In fact, outside of North Korea it probably doesn't cross your mind how easy it is to become a political prisoner abroad or just to get in trouble - sometimes not even by any fault of your own. You could be travelling through Tibet and get in trouble with China. You could be in Russia, and be at the wrong place at the wrong time and end up getting in trouble with the government and arrested and jailed. You could even be in Indonesia, and be captured by militants, or even jailed because someone snuck drugs into your backpack at the airport. Right now, for example, iamntbatman is in Thailand. If he even hints at saying, writing or texting anything remotely offensive about the monarchy - especially right now with the transition to the new King - he could be arrested and jailed. Even back in South Korea he has to be wary about any situations with Koreans where the police could get involved, because he runs the risk of being deported for no fault of his own. Is it stupid of him to be there? If something were to happen to him, should we blame him for his privilege for that happening to him? Or, instead, should we just accept that maybe - just maybe - the situation and the policies that led to that situation are fucked, and as a liberal society should be universally condemned regardless of the unfortunate victim?

This article is the type of thing that just seems like a bit too opportunistic for our own sake. Otto was unlucky. At a time when the US was imposing further sanctions on North Korea, and the Supreme Leader wanted to show his superiority, he was picked out as the victim of the day. Maybe it was his height. Maybe it was how American he looked or acted. Maybe he did try to steal a banner, though I don't - and you shouldn't - buy that propaganda story for a moment. North Korea's leadership fabricates stories to make themselves look good and is known for its over-the-top kangaroo courts and show trials; this was no exception. But in any case, he was chosen. The next day after his trial - or so North Korea claims - he apparently fell into a coma, which - from what American doctors have proven - was from a lack of oxygen to his brain. Symptoms you might get from trying to commit suicide from hanging, although there apparently was no physical evidence for that. But, who knows? Symptoms you also get from drowning, or even waterboarding. How lovely. And they kept him like that for a year - without telling anyone - until it likely seemed as though he was going to die and having an American prisoner die in North Korea was just too risky for the leadership. So they called Dennis Rodman over, and lo' and behold he's returned and you have the guy's parents giving a statement about "trying to make him comfortable" as he dies.

Was he stupid? Sure. Did he deserve it? No, I (and I hope you folks too) don't believe someone should have been treated the way he was, even for being stupid. Are we using his death to springboard personal agendas based upon what we think he was like as a person? You betcha. Honestly, the fact that this was used to try to fit a narrative is disturbing to me. It reeks of how utterly politicized things have become when someone is condemned by a brutal, authoritarian regime and a decision is made that the best course of action is to blame the person instead. How that is at all constructive, in any practical way... I just don't see it.

If more tourists are convinced not to go to North Korea, or at least made aware that they're rolling some pretty dangerous dice, that's constructive.

Thank you, you expressed my thoughts exactly. I failed to write up a similar post yesterday.
Any sentiment that makes its author take sides with North Korea to say something even remotely resembling "he got what he deserved" is highly questionable because he did not get what he deserved: He was UNDULY punished to the most extreme degree possible. To say this has anything to do with any respectable form of justice is absurd and using him as a stick figure for the whole "finally, this is what white man gets for his arrogance" thing is despicable beyond belief.

Speaking of unexpected legal problems. I recently heard on a podcast, told by an American about the US (or a state in it), that he almost got registered as a sex offender for pissing outdoors when drunk. So something that most would expect could result in a fine or something almost got him the same label as some of the worst criminals there are, with all the future problems that comes with it.


Isn't that true for most countries?

I believe tourists are safe in North Korea as long as they stay in the tourist areas and just behave neutral, meaning not acting like journalists or photographing stuff that may make them look bad if you bring out of the country. My impression is that they have way more Western tourists than alot of people expect. But obviously you don't deserve death or imprisonment for most stuff that will get you that.

Indecent exposure. Most cops will let that kinda thing slide if you've made an effort to be as far out of sight as you can, but a ticket quota's a ticket quota.

So.... Obamacare repeal imminent?

I still think it has a really low chance of passing, but if anyone could do it, McConnell could.

Here's CNN's breakdown of the key points of the House and Senate healthcare bills in relation to Obamacare, and it pretty conclusively shows that Obamacare is superior in almost every conceivable way to the Republican bills.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/22/politics/ ... index.html

And this article doesn't even fully mention how the Republican bills are planning to gut Medicaid and Medicare in order to lower taxes for the wealthy, among other wretched, terrible things that they want to do to make their dream of the country crumbling while they laugh over a giant pile of money a reality.

McConnell is a pile of rotting fish shoved into a slack-jawed meatsuit.

The Senate's health care bill might as well be called the Fuck Americans bill. It's brutal, and huge changes have nothing to do with Obamacare at all.

Turn Medicare into a block grant program? Republicans have been wanting to do that for 30 years. Nothing to do with Obamacare.
Remove the employer mandate for health insurance? Sure, ok, they said they were going to get rid of the mandate to...

...wait, employer health insurance? When did that get put on the table? So you don't want to just cancel Obamacare insurance, you want everyone else's too? Jesus Christ.

If anyone supports this, you're a goddamn idiot.

The GOP always argued against the employer mandate. They said the 50 full-time employee cut-off was too low, and would cause small/medium businesses with small profit margins to either fire people or reduce them to part-time employees to cut costs. They also derided the ACA's redefinition of full-time employee, which lowered the definition of a full work week from 40 hours to 30 hours. Not surprising at all that they would write a bill with no employer mandate.

Only thing surprising about this is that they seem to be so surprised by and unprepared for the pushback narrative about cutting taxes to reduce services to the poor and middle class. This was literally one of the arguments they used against the ACA in the first place; eg, if the ACA bill got passed, anyone who tried to repeal it would be attacked for cutting taxes for the rich at the expense of everyone else's healthcare, so their priority had to be to prevent it from getting passed. They argued this in 2010, they had 7 years to figure out a counter-narrative to repealing the bill (or, alternatively, just, you know, writing a better law).

I think their reaction to this makes it pretty clear they were totally unprepared for a Trump presidency. Which just makes the party's endorsement of him back at the GOP convention all the more bewildering. There were procedural moves they could have taken at the convention to keep him from the nomination, but they didn't go that route, even though they knew (in their minds) he would lose. They thought they were chaining themselves to a sinking ship and said "well, this is fine."

God, so many stupid and insipid things happened in 2016 all across the board.

And they're going to keep happening throughout 2017 and beyond until the Republicans get voted/thrown out of office.

Many years ago, Alan Grayson went on the floor of the House of Representatives and said that a potential Republican health care plan would consist of exactly 2 provisions: 1. Don't get sick; 2. And if you do get sick, die quickly. That's basically what these Republican health care bills are going to be. Cut everything and use that money to instead provide tax breaks for the wealthy, and if you do get sick, well, sorry! Should have been born into money like we were!

Stupid, insipid things will continue to happen even then as long as people like Pelosi are calling the shots and as long as they continue to learn the wrong lessons from the last 8 years.

At this point they might as well just stop calling it a healthcare bill, it's clearly a don't-care bill.

I have a knack for noticing when people look like celebrities. And Mitch McConnell looks like the guy whose face was eaten by dogs in Hannibal. After the bits of skin were glued back onto his face.


Also, while Trump wasted time trying and failing to save relatively small numbers of jobs with Carrier and coal, this healthcare bill is estimated to cost nearly a million fucking jobs over the next horrifying decade. For reference, when he was fighting for coal, he was trying to save something like 70,000 jobs. But murdering nearly a million jobs in this shitty bill is just fine.

An estimated 924,000 jobs to be lost.
An estimated 25 million people to lose health care.

This could really only be worse if it earmarked money to build detention camps to mass execute "poor and colored people."
http://www.businessinsider.com/study-ah ... red-2017-6


THEN, Trump went to Iowa to campaign for the job he already fucking has, and championed putting Wall Street bankers in charge of shit and said he didn't want a poor person running anything. THIS IS THE KIND OF SHIT HE USED TO MAKE PEOPLE HATE HILLARY.

It's so absurdly obvious that his supporters are just a bunch of fucking brainless drones who will agree with him no matter what.


And now Trump is also backpedaling on his months-long lie that he had secret tapes recording his conversation with Comey. This county is spiraling the drain at a remarkable pace.

Ah, it fucking kills me to be living in the only supposedly first world country and we don't give a shit about healthcare.

I see posts from people on FB who are laughing and saying it's hypocritical that democrats were pissed that this was all so secretive, because they think Obamacare was secretive, and don't understand why people are upset. People are upset at the idea of even more people being uninsured. And then you get the people who were healthy their whole lives and think that unhealthy people all brought it on themselves and don't deserve healthcare, as if being sick is some kind of moral failing. And apparently some Trump official is saying that diabetics don't deserve health insurance.

This was that thing.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/mulva ... le/2622843

And then this article goes deeper into why the guy who said it is completely full of shit.

https://thinkprogress.org/top-trump-off ... 88a1ded06b

Obamacare wasn't even secretive. It was extensively discussed and debated in Congress, for months.

Any source on that diabetics quote? That sounds so insane and evil. Like, chaotic evil.

Man, the US is ruled by a bunch of fucking Captain Planet villains. How the fuck can you be so transparently evil and still get away with it?

The closest thing I can think to compare the current Republican party to is the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot. Anti-intellectual, secretive, malevolent, seeking to undo decades of scientific, technological, and social progress, and wasting time trying to salvage obsolete, archaic jobs and sectors in stark contrast to what the country actually needs.

Man...I just feel so sad. (And irritated that I can't even say the word "sad" without thinking of Trump.)

All I can do these days is get my daily/hourly online fix of righteously indignant, cleverly written, sort-of-but-not-really hyperbole. And occasionally chime in with my own meaningless contribution. Here's some: The GOP is a greater enemy to America than any terrorist organization. The political right is a cancer to civilization. If only stupidity were painful.

One of my favorite people in the world, who has made and continues to make an enormous positive difference to me, is probably about to lose her health insurance. I have to ask myself how likely it is that she'll die an early death. I have to console myself by saying, "She has been an outstanding human being, and impacted the community in a greater way than I could begin to hope for on my part; she has worth, integrity, and beauty of a sort that transcend the fact that her government wants to kill her for petty personal gain. And she might get lucky and survive anyway."

I'm obviously not alone in this. Plus I'm one of the luckier ones, in that I and most of my family, due mostly to accident of circumstance, probably won't lose our health, home, and/or life; and I don't go through life daily having to be conscious of how many of my neighbors automatically revile me for being non-white, non-straight, non-male, etc.

The word chosen by an author/thinker I admire, to describe American politics and morality: ugly.

Words that Trump ruined, among others: sad, tremendous, crooked, and fake news. Can't even think of those terms without thinking of Trump now. "Sad!" indeed.


No lies detected. The harm they have inflicted on the US and its people, and the world at large, is incalculable.


I am so sorry to hear that. I hope your loved one pulls through somehow and this shitstain of a bill (that even Trump himself called "mean".... and that's saying something, coming from the guy who makes fun of the disabled) never passes.

Can you elaborate on Pelosi's lameness? Obviously the Democrats are disorganized and liberal capitalism is deeply fraught, but I'd like to hear more on this.

Also, this. NY Times's catalogue of Trump's lies.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/201 ... -lies.html