Mini-Movie Review

Creed's good if you like that kind of thing. Showed Philly, warts and all, without it being poverty porn. A bit like the new Star Wars in that it's kind of the same movie as the original, but in a good way.

Late Night

Rock on.

Inside the Minds of Gun Gropers

I read too much of the internet and I can't remember where I saw this, but somewhere there was a discussion of people carrying guns and some self-proclaimed liberal made the argument that the fact that he carries a gun makes it less likely for violent situations to escalate because the fact that he has a gun and knows he has a gun means that the price of escalation is too high. The example he gave was that if someone bumped his supermarket cart he would de-escalate the situation because if he didn't then the fact that he has a gun could lead to things getting out of hand.

Okay, so, uh, what the hell? I don't go through life worrying about whether someone bumping my supermarket cart might lead to violence. I don't go through life worrying about any situation leading to violence. I don't think I have since my drunken frat boy days when, yes, I knew people who liked to get drunk and fight. If someone bumps my supermarket cart I assume it's an accident and maybe they say excuse me or maybe we just smile and nod and go our merry way but whatever it's just a supermarket cart bumping and what the hell? I don't think every interaction with other humans - even if they piss me off - might lead to a violent confrontation. Because I'm not a rageaholic and assume most people aren't? I don't need to carry my detachable death penis to make me behave?

What the fucking fuck.

America's Worst Humans

Anthony Coskey.

Let's Arse It Up Some More

If only there was a simple and effective existing program which worked really well that we could make more generous. Maybe we could call it Social Security? No, we must create an entirely new plan because fucking hell I have no idea.

There is a retirement crisis. There's a simple fix. Make current and future social security benefits more generous, and lift the income cap on contributions. I have no idea why people think that adding an exciting new plan which is basically the same as an existing plan but it is new! and exciting! is progress. Social Security is awesome. Build on it. Until then, everyone get ready to take care of your parents (or, for parents, get ready to beg your kids to take care of you).

Social Security is popular with everybody except DC-centric pundits and journalists. Pretty sure it'll be popular with most of them once they near 65ish, too. But it makes Fred Hiatt, History's Greatest Monster, have a sad, so nobody has the guts to propose the obvious thing. MOOOOOOAAARRRR SOCIAL SECURITY.

The World's Worst Humans

David Cameron.

We can trust this, because if there’s one phrase that springs immediately to mind when we think of this Government’s attitude towards public services, it’s “money is no object”. Every community project and youth club ends up screaming at the Prime Minister to stop giving them money. “Please, Mister Cameron, there’s nowhere in the old people’s home to hang another Rembrandt. Keep a bit for yourself.”

Yet, strangely, Cameron’s Government had scrapped a flood defence plan in Leeds because it was “too expensive”. If you were a pedantic sort, I wonder if you might spot a contradiction between the two phrases “money is no object” and “too expensive.”

Buddy Pine

I'm not even that much of a Schumer hater (he certainly has his flaws) but this is hilarious.



Yes, the chief villain. Right wing talk radio and blogs do nothing but talk about Chuck Schumer all day long. Kudos to getting the NYT to type this up, though I suppose that isn't really so hard.

Taking My Head Out of the Sand

I admit I've mostly been ignoring primary season. Not entirely, of course, but doing my best not to focus on it at least. But, well, 2016 is here and I can't pretend it doesn't exist anymore. Let the games begin!

Friday Night

It's alright.

Assholes

We have this weird New Year's tradition here in Philadelphia, the Mummer's Parade. Parts of it are fun if mostly stupid, but a few of the clubs bring on the racism and the homophobia every year. That's made worse by the fact that most club members don't live in the city these days, they come in from South Jersey and DelCo to spit in the faces much of the city. Signs with Bruce Jenner on a Wheaties box and Caitlyn Jenner on a Fruit Loops box, side by side. Go home, assholes, you're drunk assholes.

America's Worst Humans

Rahm Emanuel.

Too Slowly

Still it's something to be thankful for.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics has released new evidence that mass incarceration continues to unwind in the United States. The rate of U.S. adults under some form of criminal justice supervision declined for the seventh straight year, dropping to a level not seen since 1996.

Morning Thread

Didn't make it till Midnight, but that's okay. The New Year came in anyway.

2016: The Year We Make Contact

Or something like that.

2016 Already?

Not quite in this time zone, but soon enough. 2015 was a weird year for me, though mostly good weird. But, wow, 2016 man, we're living in the freaking future.

Your Liberal Media

Still not liberal.

Afternoon Thread

Enjoy.

Lunch thread

Still traveling, or maybe untraveling.

Cosby

No deep thoughts, but if pattern of allegations is true then the guy was a serial predator for decades. (Innocent until proven guilty under our legal system. The court of public opinion is not our legal system.)

Morning Thread

The NY Daily News has certainly been bringing on its "A" game lately

Midnight Thread

Meanwhile, in the Races

Which Republican candidate will drop out next?  Could Trump become the next president of the United States?

Afternoon Thread

Here ya go for some end of the year charm.  Echidne on IS and Women, Part 2: Sexual Slavery and Rape of "Non-believers"

Travel Day

So this sucky blog is going to be about as sucky as it gets.

Pierce Speak

You listen.

Late Night

Rock on.

License To Kill

If it's just s.o.p. for cops, then something is very wrong.

I've written a few times that once upon a time the great myth of the 80s/90s cop drama was the all powerful Internal Affairs. Sometimes IA were the good guys, nailing corrupt cops. Sometimes they were the bad guys, stopping cops who did what needed to be done to stop the bad guys. But whatever the storyline, Internal Affairs was SUPER POWERFUL. They would destroy your life and career as a cop if they got into your shit.

hahahahahahaahahahahaha

Afternoon Thread

enjoy

The Displacement Problem

A problem with gentrification-led involuntary displacement is that it makes being poor even more unaffordable by pricing people out of areas where there's at least semi-decent public transit available.

In my urban hellhole there's a lot of talk of gentrification and displacement. I think it's somewhat overblown, which is not to say it doesn't happen at all, just that to a great degree if your apartment becomes unaffordable then if you move 5 blocks in some direction it's affordable. But if trends continue for several more years, poorer people might be forced out of transit rich neighborhoods. Cars are expensive.

Time To Get A Passport

It's hard to imagine people from so many states being essentially blocked from flying, but if flying is something you need to do, might be time to consider getting that passport if you don't have one.

Morning Thread

America's Worst Humans

Timothy McGinty and Matt Meyer.

Evening Thread

Don't enjoy. Be mad.

Open Carry Of AK-47s For White People, Execution By Cop For Black Kids Carrying Toy Guns

That's what gun nuts support. Put a few black guys in camo or hoodies and have them walk down the street with guns, legally, in an open carry state, and they'll be gunned down in minutes. Gun nut patriots will say they deserved it, because their mere existence constituted a threat, unlike good white guys with guns.

Shit Is Fucked Up And Bullshit

And sadly unsurprising.

We Will Increase The Number of Substitutes By Paying Them Less

And giving the rest to a private company, of course.

I think it's cute that anybody pretends that the plan was supposed to succeed.

The World's Worst Humans

Katie Hopkins.

Maybe Another 28 Friedmans

That'll probably take care of it.

In private, top Afghan and American officials have begun to voice increasingly grim assessments of the resurgent Taliban threat, most notably in a previously undisclosed transcript of a late-October meeting of the Afghan National Security Council.

“We have not met the people’s expectations. We haven’t delivered,” Abdullah Abdullah, the country’s chief executive, told the high-level gathering. “Our forces lack discipline. They lack rotation opportunities. We haven’t taken care of our own policemen and soldiers. They continue to absorb enormous casualties.”

Arming and training. Arming and training. Arming and training. Arming and training.

Morning Thread

Evening Thread

enjoy

Birthright Citizenship

One reason it's the only sensible and humane way to approach the issue.

Shit Is Fucked Up And Bullshit

Make a large neighborhood unlivable, and, well, bygones.

I know, don't read the comments, but I guess I will never stop being surprised by the number of people in this country who truly believe that anything bad that happens is the victim's fault.

Just Add Gasoline

Where did all of those weapons come from. Such a mystery.

WASHINGTON — Foreign arms sales by the United States jumped by almost $10 billion in 2014, about 35 percent, even as the global weapons market remained flat and competition among suppliers increased, a new congressional study has found.

Feeling The Webbmentum

A lonely nation cries out for his leadership.

Webb Attacks Clinton With Eye on Independent Run
If he declared an outsider presidential bid, the former Democratic candidate could have an outsize effect on the race.

Or, you know, not.

Happy hols

I thought the Christmas ep of Doctor Who could have been better written, y'know?

Watched Peter & Wendy and was tearing up almost from the beginning.

And, of course, I ate too much.

It was after midnight before I finally got around to putting up what used to be the Christmas post, but was reduced to just a quick list of the traditional links and a bunch of political stuff with a bit of other froth, but of course, there is music, too. Anyway, it'll give you something to read while waiting to either hide from drunks or be one of them on New Year's Eve.