Thursday Open Thread [8.20.15]

Filed in National by on August 20, 2015

At this very moment, I am flying above your heads returning from a business trip to the Midwest. So have at it.

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  1. bamboozer says:
    August 20, 2015 at 10:11 am

    Trump has yet to go down in flames, must be giving the billionaires and Republican elite an assortment of fits. He’s got the pro ignorance vote at this point, usually a given for the Republicans but ever so much more so with Trump. As for the rest of the candidates ( admit it, you can’t remember them all) their all getting desperate and many are imitating Trump, the sincerest form of flattery but also a sure fire way to lose by 20 points in the general election. I knew it was going to be amusing and pathetic, but the current situation far exceeds my wildest dreams.

  2. mouse says:
    August 20, 2015 at 10:16 am

    I hate F-ing banks. I refinanced my mortgage a while back and had to have it taken out automatically to get the rate they offered and they even lied and raised the rate at the end saying my credit score didn’t meet the criteria. Now I have no bills but the mortgage, no car payment, no credit cards and a reasonably high net worth so my credit score should not be an issue. Then today I went on the account to look it over and discovered that the parasitic maggots were charging me 2 bucks a month for a paper statement. They are charging me to send me a bill. Had to make 2 calls and go through obnoxious info gathering to get to someone who said they would look at it and get back to me!!!

  3. Geezer says:
    August 20, 2015 at 11:24 am

    With Perry on his last legs, Paul’s campaign in disarray and Walker sinking, who will assume the mantle of dumbest GOP candidate standing? My vote goes to Carly “Fuck-up” Fiorina:

    http://thinkprogress.org/education/2015/08/20/3693426/carly-fiorina-says-no-one-knows-what-the-us-department-of-education-does/

  4. Prop Joe says:
    August 20, 2015 at 1:08 pm

    I sometimes wonder the following: If everyone in China with a cellphone called everyone in India who had a cellphone and all the Indian phones were set to ring and not mute… Would people in Nepal be able to hear the phones ring?

  5. Jason330 says:
    August 20, 2015 at 1:25 pm

    To the 7 people who like the idea of getting rid of birthright citizenship, please get out of this country forthwith.

  6. donviti says:
    August 20, 2015 at 1:38 pm

    Take a breather from all the Sanders, Hills, Trump nonsense and maybe cover something progressives care about like domestic spying?

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/us/politics/att-helped-nsa-spy-on-an-array-of-internet-traffic.html

    Hopefully our Progressive, Constitutional president will take action against these abusers of our privacy.

    or maybe he’ll just lock up the person that leaked the information that said our government broke the law. Wait, no…he wouldn’t do that…he’s Progressive Man!!!! Period!

  7. Jason330 says:
    August 20, 2015 at 1:42 pm

    lol. The only progressive who cares about that is you.

  8. pandora says:
    August 20, 2015 at 1:48 pm

    I’ve come to a conclusion about spying and privacy. Good luck getting a society that posts everything on social media to care. We have deliberately, willfully given up privacy. Don’t believe me? Check your FB feed.

    That’s not saying this is okay (it’s not)… just good luck getting FBers, etc. (of which many here are guilty of) to care.

  9. Prop Joe says:
    August 20, 2015 at 2:04 pm

    For you, Donviti… To escape Big Brother: Live off the Grid Anywhere In This Wind and Solar Powered Capsule (http://www.collective-evolution.com/2015/05/29/live-off-the-grid-anywhere-in-this-wind-and-solar-powered-capsule/)

  10. Dorian Gray says:
    August 20, 2015 at 2:32 pm

    I find myself again in the ridiculous and unenviable position of defending my old mate DV. Full disclosure, I don’t use any social media. None. I can’t check my FB feed or my Twitter. I have a profile on LinkedIn that I update for professional reasons, but I don’t do anything on that platform like send messages, etc. I’m social sans media.

    That said, shouldn’t you all have the right to make a phone call or carry your phone with the GPS location switched on without the authorities tracking you without warrant or probable cause… and with the full assistant of the mobile provider?

    I realize another post about Trump 4 full months ahead of the Iowa caucus would be loads of fun, but do you all really not think about this at all?

  11. Geezer says:
    August 20, 2015 at 2:37 pm

    Even if we somehow managed to get the government to pretend to stop all this eavesdropping, do you think they’d really do it? Let’s put it this way: The eavesdropping started years before they acknowledge it did. I believe it will continue long after they pretend to end it.

    Most people don’t worry about it because there’s nothing we can do about it.

  12. Jason330 says:
    August 20, 2015 at 2:45 pm

    Geez is right. My “I care about…” budget is stretched pretty thin.

  13. Dorian Gray says:
    August 20, 2015 at 2:52 pm

    First, this seems like it’d be closer to the top of the priority list than most of the stuff discussed here. Second, I think the idea of throwing up your hands and saying that the government will do it anyway is pretty weak. By that logic we shouldn’t discuss government or politics at all. They’re just going to do whatever so why bother…

    You can prioritized whatever you want – but that argument for why is terrible.

  14. Jason330 says:
    August 20, 2015 at 3:05 pm

    I know it is. I said it sheepishly on two levels.

  15. Prop Joe says:
    August 20, 2015 at 3:40 pm

    I prefer to devote my attention-ire-angst towards the acquisition of the following, even if it’s at the expense of Uncle Sam knowing where I am when I talk with my friends about fantasy baseball trades (in no particular order):

    1) livable wages for all Americans;
    2) Responsible Administration of 2nd Amendment Rights (i.e. No Guns for Psychos)
    3) Responsible taxation so that billion dollar corporations & Mitt pay more than my retired parents
    4) Protecting and improving the rights of women and minorities

    Those four things are things I care more about than the freedom to use my cellphone without the CIA tracking me. Perhaps I’m not seeing forests for trees and all that, but if I’m creating a hierarchy of shit that needs to be dealt with, NSA-Snowden shit falls lower on the list than those four things, and several more I couldn’t think of right away.

  16. Dorian Gray says:
    August 20, 2015 at 3:58 pm

    Point taken. I was just surprised how quickly the story about AT&T teaming up with NSA to track Americans whereabouts and communications was entirely dismissed out of hand.

    I agree with Joe, although, speaking of giving up, I have totally quit thinking about anything having to do with guns in this country. It’s more difficult the get a barber’s license. Automobiles require registration and insurance to operate. But classrooms full of kindergarteners are slaughtered and everyone just shrugs and moves on. Strange shit.

  17. mouse says:
    August 20, 2015 at 4:07 pm

    I care just not enough to give up flirting with women on FB

  18. mouse says:
    August 20, 2015 at 4:10 pm

    Oh come on. Just go on FB and find the girl you were in love with in 4th grade and you’ll never turn it off lol

  19. Prop Joe says:
    August 20, 2015 at 5:26 pm

    DG: Amen, brother… I could buy an AR-15 in less time than it takes for me to be approved to be a Little League coach.

  20. mouse says:
    August 21, 2015 at 8:30 am

    With that hundred round barrel on it

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