TheDarkness

Given the history involved, a KKK rally or Nazi march by definition constitutes intimidation.  The entire point of these gatherings is to frighten non-white people and call for their ejection from the country (or worse).  Burning a cross is not free speech, it's a threat.  Wearing KKK colors is a threat.  Waving Nazi flags is a threat.  Parading around in riot gear with shields, clubs, and guns is a threat. 
 
I know the fascists don't represent the entire right wing, but I've also noticed that the right wing is not particularly vigorous in disavowing the fascists, or refusing their votes.

2018: Where did this wall come from, and what is 'Amontillado', anyway?

You know, for years I've responded to people who assert the moral superiority of Western culture by pointing to activities by a minority of extremists among "other" people from "over there," that it's easy to act magnanimous when you belong to the group that's on top. Now we're seeing the truth of that. When some white, self-proclaimed Christians in this part of the world are feeling their previously-privileged status threatened, their worst instincts come to the fore, and a minority of them express the same fear, hatred, and violence they decried those others for.
 
The swinging pendulum always eventually reveals that human nature is human nature, and the struggle to transcend the baser parts of it is fought everywhere.

You know you're on the internet right?

Was the 9th Legion destroyed by native tribesmen in Scotland ?
 
Picts ! Or it didn't happen !

Condemning both sides empowers the side willing to be worse. Because no matter what they do, "both sides do it".

I think everything in Canada comes from Tim Horton's now.

I think everything in Canada comes from Tim Horton's now.

But a true geek would claim to have known a woman on the internet, so it's inconclusive.

I've seen the British comedy/satire Yes, Minister show up a lot on my Youtube queue lately. I've found this clip, for some reason, really compelling in lighnt of what's going on in the USA.
 


 
Sir Humphrey Appleby (Nigel Hawthorne), the chief aide to the Minister of Administrative Affairs (who later became PM) is usually portrayed as an appalling cynic. But in this scene he makes a surprisingly impassioned defense of the idea that government should be done by people who know what they're doing -- in his case, a professional civil service. As the scene goes on he becomes more impassioned and more demanding until near the end he is in a state of righteous fury. And as the scene goes on the studio audience, who usually find Sir Humphrey's cynicism comedy gold, get audibly more and more uncomfortable as the scene hits closer and closer to home.
 
"If the right people don't have power, the wrong people will." A prescient warning not just for Britain but for the Americans as well. We are currently governed (after a fashion) by demagogues who play to Americans' basest instincts. They are worse than cynics -- they are True Believers who genuinely think they are saving the nation from itself.

Trump Jr. has admitted that he met with a Russian official for the express purpose of undermining the Clinton campaign. The email has been released, and it's pretty damning. It's a clear cut case of conspiracy to commit election fraud.
 
Trump Jr. also failed to list this meeting on his SF-86 application for security clearance--at least twice. That's perjury and it says so on the form.
 

Trump admitted to obstruction of justice in a live interview on prime time TV. That's more than they had on Nixon. That and his blatant, ongoing violations of the emoluments clause of the Constitution are absolutely impeachable. And there's still the question of how much he colluded with Russia.
 
Whether a GOP-controlled Congress will impeach is a different question.
 
 

The Democrats do have a lot of work to do. On that we are in full agreement.

Recommended: The July 1 issue of The Economist has a special report on "Donald Trump's America," looking at his base in several parts of the country -- what motivates them, how they differ from other Americans, and what underpins his popularity with them.
 
Short form: They tend to be deeply alienated from a culture and political system that they think doesn't respect people like them. Charts and graphs to back it all up. *Not* caused by economic hardship; it's pure status anxiety.
 
Dean Shomshak

The claim that it's early in the GOP healthcare process is false. They've sworn to repeal since it was put in place, it's no one's fault but theirs if they didn't actually make a plan in all that time.

The claim that it's early in the GOP healthcare process is false. They've sworn to repeal since it was put in place, it's no one's fault but theirs if they didn't actually make a plan in all that time.

Yes, because GOP-controlled states opted out of the Medicaid expansion starting in 2012.
 

  Yes, because people in those states that opted out of the Medicaid expansion are not eligible for subsidies, which means they can't afford insurance, which means the risk pool is smaller than it's supposed to be, which means premiums go up for everyone.
 

Yes, it is not profitable for them because risk pools are smaller than designed, and because constant chatter about repealing Obamacare drastically increases uncertainty. Uncertainty is a BFD in the insurance industry, for obvious reasons.
 
 
It's funny that the Republicans have been promising to repeal Obamacare for eight full orbits but still don't have a plan. I'd be perfectly willing to give them another two years or four years to try and come up with one though.

I think one of the reasons you hear this more about Republicans is that, since a while before the Tea Party came around, it has been fairly common for GOP members who go against the party to be labelled as RINOs and face running against other Republicans seeking to replace them. There really isn't an equivalent that is nearly as common for the Democrats as the RINO label, and that seems to be entirely a purity test. Heck, the last Democrat I can even remember being called a traitor with any frequency was Lieberman.
 
Democrats, on a number of issues, have members who vote the other way. Gun control is one example. Health care was another, getting them on board for the ACA was a long process, and not all went with it. I think the main problem with the Democratic Party is that they concede influence in the name of getting along with people who only want to undo the programs the Dems are implementing, and thus allow things to creep into their legislature that is later used against them. They are not a party who can exert strong control on the voting of its members, but I don't think this is actually a bad thing. Their voting base is much broader, demographically, than the GOP, and so they have to play a broader game.

All of this just emphasizes how incredibly important it is -- and I can't stress this enough -- that everyone starts being really, really careful when it comes to picking their parents.

Oh, it isn't really that much of a stretch if you think back to when these actually started.   Not AD&D but D&D, specifically the supplement Blackmoor in 1975.  Cable wasn't really available "everywhere" and even if you had cable you had at best 20-25 channels.   This is relevant because until the 80's I had never seen a "martial arts" movie and had only heard of Bruce Lee in magazines.  When the little black and white book Blackmoor introduced the Monk as a subclass of the Cleric we didn't have much more than that to go on. Where I lived the TV stations didn't even show Kung Fu on TV.  I missed Battlestar Galactica till years later too
 
But it was only the fact that I ran across D&D at an old wargaming shop before my Dad retired from the Army and we all moved back, that I even knew what a RPG was and had a copy. It wasn't until I joined the Navy in 81 that I actually got exposed to Asian Cinema and the often confused 70-80's martial arts action shows.  Since I was a apprentice at the time (being a seaman or airman in the Navy was synonymous to dead broke in the 80's) I took advantage of the MWR at the time.  The rec center on base had hobby rooms you could reserve, a cheap restaurant and a two screen theater. We used to go there and reserve a room where we played wargames, D&D and Champions all weekend long only taking breaks to eat and watch movies.  On Sat and Sun from 9am to 6pm they had free action theater where they showed end to end Martial Arts flicks and so on.   In the evenings they showed movies like Philadelphia Experiment, Top Gun, Flash Gordon and so on for $1 fo the night.
 
By the time I saw Enter the Dragon or Master of the Flying Guillotine, the Monk was firmly a Friar like the Robin Hood Tuck with cooler abilities.

The first time I saw the Monk class  was in the Blackmoor book back in the old days.  For some reason we always envisioned them as the Friar Tuck type. 
 
It wasn't until years later that we made the Far East connection. 
 
Weird right?

Kansas's Trickle Down Economics Experiment Ends. 
 
Turns out you can't run a state without taxes. 

Some monster decides to kill another man over comic books. I wish that I could say I'm surprised, but I am not. I am incredibly sad about it. Perhaps because the victim was, in some way, part of my extended tribe. Perhaps because I visited his shop a time or two when I was stationed at Fort Leavenworth and KC was only a 45 minute drive away. It's not like I knew him or cared for him personally, but there it is. 

Being pro-Russia is one thing, but being pro-spam is worthy of an entirely new circle of hell.

I think the range stats listed can be misleading.
 
A lot of engagements have a range defined not by the rifle's capabilities, but by the distance at the time the firefight starts. In jungle and urban settings, whoever initiates the combat has a great capacity to force the shooting to start at point blank range.
 
Further, hunting is a bit different. A good hunter stalks their prey and fires on a commonly non-moving, unaware target, usually not under appreciable cover, and most often not attacking.
 
Shooting something that is attacking is a whole different ballgame. I forget the name of the statistic, but within 21 feet, statistically speaking, knives have tended to be deadlier in actual cases of gun vs. knife scenarios. Combat situations do a number on aim possibly being one of the factors, although drawing the weapon itself is an issue as well. Adrenaline dump is far more a factor in combat scenarios than in hunting scenarios.
 
Hunting accuracy is closest to the skill of a sniper not under fire aiming at a target. It is not a good measure for firing under other combat situations, no one shoots as well when being fired upon as when not being fired upon unless they are simply aiming and not caring about whether they are shot.
 
Regardless, modern firearms are more accurate at further ranges.

Interlude:
 

I don't like David Tennant, or more specifically, consider him a character actor of no particular note.
 
Can't stand Heinlien's juvenile fiction(meaning, the stuff written for young boys).
 
Don't like Star Trek DS9.
 
Have yet to see a sequel to a comic book based movie that was not worse than the original, and always derivative of it.
 
I am only tolerating the very idea of something called a speed force because I'm enjoying the flash show.
 
Oh, yeah, the last time I liked Wolverine was in the 1980s.
 
And I don't have any particular opinion either way regarding the back to the future movies, which is apparently unheard of.
 
Finally, I can't stand Stan Lee.