Nope.. You spelled it right.. S A N T A N A

:D

heh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJKythlXAIY

it's also worth watching the Rube Goldberg video for the same song. OK Go really makes impressive videos.

http://theworleys.net/temp/MeCaitlynn.jpg

She is the cutest thing!!! :D

You can be a stone-cold racist anti-semite and do well in business (Henry Ford). You can even be a complete lunatic about everything and still do great in business (Howard Hughes).

Yes you can. In the 1920s thru the 1950s...

But in the here and now??

You simply can't... Trump simply CANNOT be the person ya'all describe and have accomplished these 3 things..

1. Be a YUGELY successful business man...

2. Bested the best that the GOP had to offer...

3. Bested THE biggest and meanest political juggernaut in the history of history...

It's not possible for the man you describe to have accomplished those things..

Wait... what? Putin wanted Hillary to be president?!?

I am not saying it's factual because I don't know what goes on in Putin's mind..

But it's clear that, for Putin's agenda, Hillary would have been his first choice for POTUS.. Putin has enjoyed nearly carte-blanche in having his way with the Middle East and Europe with little to no repercussions from the West... So, it stands to reason that Putin would want Obama 3.0 in office. Which means Hillary Clinton..

"Simple logic."
-Admiral James T. Kirk

Don't get me wrong, while my wife is a 49ers (and, this year, a Raiders) fan, I am actually a Ravens fan, so it all worked out just peachy, as far as I was concerned. But that is the sports reference used in these parts just FYI....

I will endeavor to be more regionally correct.. :D

What could be the worst possible scenario under President Trump? I think Ellen Ripley said it best in Aliens..."I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit -- it's the only way to be sure."

:D

"My god, Bones.. What have I done??"
"What you had to do. What you always do. Turn certain death into a fighting chance to live."
-Star Trek III

:D

Oh, heck yea! President Jerry Brown... President Gavin Newsom... President Barbara Boxer...

President Dianne Feinstein.. President Arnold Schwarzennegar, President Gray Davis, President Moon Unit Zappa, President Kim Kardashian, President Bruce/Caitlin Jenner...

Do you want the horror to stop?? :D

And, hey, admit it -- the last president from CA is probably on your list of the best presidents ever, right?

Kinda partial to JFK, but yea.. Saint Ronald was awesome.. :D Best Commander In Chief I ever had...

There's another lefty on Fox other than Juan Williams? Really? Who?

Alan Colmes still has a FoxNews Radio Show..

And then there is Bryan Dean Wright...

I'm a Democrat and I'm ashamed at how tone deaf we've become | Fox ...
http://www.foxnews.com/.../im-democrat-and-im-ashamed-at-how-tone-deaf-weve-become.ht...
Dec 3, 2016 - I'm a Democrat and I'm ashamed at how tone deaf we've become. Bryan .... Bryan Dean Wright is a former CIA ops officer and member of the ...

His stuff is imminently quotable.. :D He's a Democrat, but not a fanatic... Much like most of the Weigantians here.. :D

Just sayin'... I mean, ask michale, even -- "Hasn't HuffPost gotten a lot less raving lefty, lately?"

Less raving.... I don't think so... Ya gotta admit, their position on reporting Trump as entertainment news was pretty hysterically raving...

396

Don't know if you were intentionally paraphrasing it, but the "Animal House" quote "fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son" was flitting through my head earlier today, on a subject totally unrelated to politics.

michale [3] -

Really?

How about "spent years chasing the idiocy of birtherism"? Reality, meet Trump. Trump, meet... oh, wait, reality's left the building in horror...

You can be a stone-cold racist anti-semite and do well in business (Henry Ford). You can even be a complete lunatic about everything and still do great in business (Howard Hughes). As long as you keep your reality-denying separate from your business enterprises, there's really no problem at all.

Business sense has nothing to do with denying political realities, sorry.

michale [6] -

Wait... what? Putin wanted Hillary to be president?!?

Um, OK. I have to say your entry for "Best Political Spin" is an intersting one, that's for sure...

Heh.

Side note to all readers not named michale -

OK, gang, michale's been busy with the new addition to the family and all, but 'tis the season to get under his skin in the worst way and goad him into as many unhinged comments as possible, until the end of the year. See that number at the bottom of his comments? That's how many he's done so far.

This is important, because he ponies up 50 cents for ALL of these comments. Now, I don't know about you, but knee-jerk anti-liberals are pretty common on the internet, but one who pays for the privelege to a very liberal site are as rare as hens' teeth. So go ahead -- poke him with a stick! You can ignore him (and even filter him out) the other 11 months of the year to your heart's content, but NOW is the time to engage in a battle of wits with him, for the good of the site.

OK, people named michale can now start reading again

Heh. Let's see... where was I? Oh, right... right...

michale [7] -

See now, in this neck of the woods, the example used is: "If the 49ers had managed to score when they had 1st-and-goal at the end of the freakin' Super Bowl, they could have sent the Ravens home losers..."

Don't get me wrong, while my wife is a 49ers (and, this year, a Raiders) fan, I am actually a Ravens fan, so it all worked out just peachy, as far as I was concerned. But that is the sports reference used in these parts just FYI....

:-)

Note to readers not named michale, again -

See, you can even bait him with jokes! Want to guarantee he'll respond? Try a sci-fi movie refernce.

Like this --

What could be the worst possible scenario under President Trump? I think Ellen Ripley said it best in Aliens..."I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit -- it's the only way to be sure."

See? It's easy!

We return to our regularly scheduled michale-can-read-it comment.

neilm [8] -

OK, I want to see a Super Bowl that has 3,000,000 points in it -- that'd be pretty freakin' awesome!

:-)

Don Harris [10] -

OK, I just have to stick this in here, for you:

http://www.chrisweigant.com/2009/07/10/friday-talking-points-85-roll-up-see-the-show/

Read the segment up to the awards, you'll love it!

Also, here's a bonus -- best "high school jazz band" video OF ALL TIME!!! AWESOME!!!

Part 1 and Part 2

Man, school bands never did anything that cool when I went, that's for sure!

Don Harris [11] -

You see what Maine just did? Ranked-choice ballots for all elections!

Whaddya think? An improvement, maybe? I tend to think so. I have a far-flung correspondent in Maine, so I'll be interested to hear how it works out.

:-)

michale [12] -

Do you REALLY want California electing our President???

Oh, heck yea! President Jerry Brown... President Gavin Newsom... President Barbara Boxer...

Now, that'd make ME happy.

And, hey, admit it -- the last president from CA is probably on your list of the best presidents ever, right?

Heh.

:-)

altohone [13] -

You have a point, but I'm going to wait and see what the report Obama ordered up has to say, next month. I bet it's going to be pretty damning. We'll see, though, you're right.

I haven't responded to any earlier comments, because I've been a flake about ALL comments for the past few weeks. Xmas prep, and all that.

Good point about always keeping a healthy degree of speculation, but from the interviews I've seen and read, this seems to be a slam-dunk. Details such as "we know they were using Cyrillic keyboards" have leaked out.

Granted, the whole Iraq War/WMD thing was also seen as a sure thing, so it's always good to keep an open mind. I'm now trying to get through some back comments, so I'll check out the links and cites you've posted.

Check in on the Tuesday article comment thread:

http://www.chrisweigant.com/2016/12/20/thank-you-seth-meyers/#comments

As I'll be posting specific permalinks to all of my comments for previous articles' threads...

And seasonal apologies to you -- I wasn't ignoring you specifically, I've been behind for EVERYone.

:-)

neilm [15] -

I will check that link out. The one that interested me the most in the past was:

Older workers retiring going up; younger workers a smaller workforce = Social Security going bust.

The only way to fix this is to increase immigration, which means more younger workers to pay into the system. That balances the equation, and is likely a good reason why legal immigration has been increasing in the past two decades.

Anyway, I'll check the link out -- I always love long-term predictions, no matter what thesis the author is trying to prove.

neilm [16] -

HuffPost has gotten a lot less liberal than its freewheeling days of youth. I think I'm one of the only regular liberals left on the Politics page -- and I used to compete with DOZENS of them for getting articles featured...

michale [18] -

There's another lefty on Fox other than Juan Williams? Really? Who?

altohone [20] -

I don't even think Arianna has anything to do with her namesake publication, anymore. It's become a lot more corporate since all the mergers...

Just sayin'... I mean, ask michale, even -- "Hasn't HuffPost gotten a lot less raving lefty, lately?"

[Sorry for HuffPost fans, but I have to pitch the question to the audience...]

OK, that's it for this thread, for now... y'all play nice now, hear?

:-)

-CW

No worries.
I'll keep an eye out.

A

Ah, who could forget the early days?
(Inside joke for CW and Liz)

"No shit, Sherlock.. That's what I have been saying for a year now.."

Odd.
I must have missed those comments.
You've been saying it for a whole year and I missed them all?
Any idea when you made them?

So, how does this square with your opinion on HuffPoop?

"I am also the only one who pointed out the blatant hypocrisy of the Left Wingery who supported the corporatist/militarist mentality"

Really?
The only one?
And, again, when did you say this?

Maybe somebody else will remember if you can't gramps?
Anybody?

A

I am also the only one who pointed out the blatant hypocrisy of the Left Wingery who supported the corporatist/militarist mentality when it was THEIR guy who was President...

394

Fair point. I'm swamped today and just winging it here to take a 2 sec break. I will answer your question when I get time.

N.

Asshole,

Hillary Clinton is a Wall Street coddling corporatist warmonger... right wing economic and foreign policies.
HuffPoop supported her.

No shit, Sherlock.. That's what I have been saying for a year now..

You've been in denial about the reality of corporatist and militarist Democrats. I don't think you are capable of admitting the truth, so I'm really just futilely engaging you for the sake of others.

Son, I have been saying the reality of corporatist and militarist Democrats for six years now, long before you 'graced' us with your presence..

Yer late to the party, pal... :D

393

Hillary Clinton is a Wall Street coddling corporatist warmonger... right wing economic and foreign policies.
HuffPoop supported her.

Attempted regime change in Syria via a proxy war is right wing militarism.
HuffPoop supports it.

The question at issue is-
Does their support for left wing issues offset their support for right wing issues.

Note-
You've been in denial about the reality of corporatist and militarist Democrats. I don't think you are capable of admitting the truth, so I'm really just futilely engaging you for the sake of others.

A

Way to ignore what I wrote completely.

I quoted you, and asked a specific question.
Who are the leftist extremists to whom you are referring?

And since you can't take a hint, what policies are they supporting or opposing that makes you consider them left wing extremists?

(I promise to answer your question if you answer mine first.)

And nice strawman on HuffPo.
(I wasn't defending them btw, I was attacking them)

Let me see if I can clarify for you.
Since you are a centrist on economics, someone who supports the leftist economic policies that have the support of the majority, the publications who support the status quo right wing trickle down economics and the politicians who've embraced it should by all accounts be to the right of center.

In other words, if you're in the center, they aren't.

Get it?

A

Word.... :D

Actually, Fox News has many MANY Left Winger people...

Is there ANY Right Wingers on HuffPoop???

I don't think so, but I could be wrong...

It's been known to happen...

391

Word.... :D

So you think that only the right wing in this country has a problem with extremists?

I can think about this chart with economics in mind. Or Syria. Or Putin. However whichever angle I take I see the BBC in the center, The Economist to the right where I am on economics (and you, by our earlier mutual agreement). I have daily subscriptions for the NY Times, the Guardian and the Washington Post, and think they are pretty accurately placed. I stopped my Wall St Journal subscription because, while the front page is valuable, the editorials are asinine.

I think HuffPo is as "fair and balanced" as Fox News.

So which of these is in the wrong place on the chart?

Is Infowars mainstream? Occupy Democrats? How would you redraw this?

1. Working population growth (e.g. women moving into the workforce, immigration, more kids turning 18, etc.)

plus

2. Productivity increases

Thus GDP = Workers + Productivity

Workers:
The increase in workers is leveling out. Women are leveling off and men are declining as a percentage of active workers. We are at or below replacement rate for kids. Trump wants to not only slow immigration but throw millions of workers out of the country.

Productivity:
Productivity has been about 1% for the past ten years. It might grow significantly with AI coming online however

All of this is outlined in a paper below, and they also have some interesting stats on wealth balancing:

https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/the-trump-administrations-claim-it-can-double-long-term-gdp-growth-is-unrealistic/

"the loons on the left"
"the yahoo brigades of the left"

Again, who are you talking about?

Do you mean the loons on the left who support the guaranteed minimum income that was too radically left for even Bernie?

Or do you mean the yahoo brigades who support universal healthcare and a strong safety net like you?

-
-

I checked out the chart in your link.
Seriously problematic.

Look at it again with one topic in mind.
Economics
- remember who you are
And yet, the outlets who purvey the right wing trickle down economics of the status quo are called centrist.

And which ones supported the Wall Street coddling corporatist warmonger?

Look at it with the topic of Syria in mind.
The Huffington Post has been right wing rah rah for regime change in their journalism and more than half their editorials.

Maybe they're somehow averaging gay marriage and gun control with economics and militarism?
But they must be using some funky math.

A

"just continue to redefine reality"

"sober-minded people who do believe in hard cold reality"

"as opposed to the reality on the ground"

"just because Trump offers up an alternate reality, then maybe Trump can be convinced of the actual facts"

"Denial of problematic reality is comforting"

-
-

Until evidence of Russian government involvement in the hacks is publicly presented, your "reality" is actually just faith, based on assertions.

And faith in professional liars no less.

Professional liars who may well have conflicts of interest where having Russia as an enemy is very profitable for them.

It is undeniable that if Bush had been skeptical of unproven assertions about WMD's and Iraqi involvement in 9/11 our country and our world would be far better off.

-
-

So, the gist of your post is fine if facts are presented that actually prove the reality.

Until that happens, it's not actually reality.

In which case, you may be the one redefining reality, not being sober-minded, living in an alternate reality, and denying reality. In other words, it's not impossible that you may be wrong... not Trump. (sorry)

CW, you should be joining the call to release the evidence so we know the actual facts, rather than just presuming that what has been leaked to the media by anonymous sources is true. Unsubstantiated assertions are NOT FACTS and do not create the REALITY you are claiming that Trump is denying.

It is also undeniable that these unsubstantiated claims were used for political purposes... first to shift attention away from the content of the leaked information and then in a futile attempt to deny the presidency to the winner of the election.

That puts this all into a context where a sober-minded person should be skeptical until actual proof exists.

You've chosen not to engage on the previous comments and a suggested article that raises doubts about these claims. Assuming that you aren't privy to secret evidence, it would be nice for you to at least explain why you believe these assertions despite the lack of public evidence.

A

That is not factually accurate....

The voting machines themselves are a hard system with no connections to the Internet..

Any "hacking" must be done locally...

and the corruption of the process itself.

Now this is factually accurate... But "corruption" is a loaded term and can mean many different things...

For example, the "corruption" of a "corrupt" process could actually be a GOOD thing.. :D

But as I mentioned, the time to change the Electoral College is BEFORE an election...

Not AFTER an election that did not produce the desired outcome..

But what would you change it to?? A OnePerson/OneVote is unwieldy and would give the more populous states more power than the less populous states..

Do you REALLY want California electing our President???

386

So, they lost according to the rules...

And if you take away California, then TRUMP would have been ahead by 2 million votes in the vanity vote...

But you really can't compare voting under the Electoral College system to the voting under a straight up one-person/one-vote system...

The candidates would have campaigned a LOT differently and the voter psyche would be markedly different under a straight up OP/OV election...

The Democrats had 16 years to change the Electoral College system since the last time they won the vanity vote but lost the election..

They did nothing...

The rules are the rules and you don't change the rules after the game has been played....

Regardless, if Hillary had been a better candidate instead of insulting millions and millions of Trump supporters, she might have GOTTEN that 40,000 votes..

But she figured scoring political points with her base was more important.. She now has to live with that bonehead decision...

385

It is more like the Panthers had 3 million more points but lost because they needed 3 million AND another 40,000

And if the Carolina Panthers had scored just 15 more points, they would have beat the Denver Broncos and put the Broncs on the trash heap of history..

But they didn't and the Broncos are the world champions for 2016...

And if Hillary had actually listened to Bill and stepped foot in Wisconsin and actually listened to Trump supporters instead of insulting them as "irredeemable deplorables" then Hillary might have actually been ABLE to get those 40,000 votes...

But she didn't so she is now a has-been... a never-was....

382

I am also constrained to point out that there is STILL no factual evidence that conclusively points to Russian involvement in the "hack"..

And, let's be clear on our terms here. This wasn't a "hack"... It was a bone-head move by Podesta based on a bonehead typo from Camp Clinton's IT guy...

Regardless, if you believe that Russian "hack" theory, then you MUST believe that Putin WANTED Trump to be President..

And yet, there is not a single scintilla, a single iota of evidence to support the claim that Putin wanted Trump to be president..

Yet, there is a PLETHORA of evidence to support that idea that Putin would have preferred Hillary as President...

I am sure that Putin was surprised as anyone (except me, of course :D ) when Trump won...

This Russian "Hack" story is just another snipe hunt.. A way to for the Left to justify the belief that it's not them...

"WE'RE OK... Everything we did was good and right... It MUST be Russians.. Mitt Romney was right!!!"

I mean, if you want to talk about denial of reality..

THERE is your denial of reality..

377

‘Fake News’ Is The Legacy Media Shaking Down Facebook
The 'fake news' hysteria is an attempt to intimidate Facebook into setting up the 'legacy media' as gatekeepers and toll collectors for the digital media.
http://thefederalist.com/2016/12/19/fake-news-legacy-media-shaking-facebook/

Can't find any fault with the logic....

Fake news has been with us since the advent of the tabloids...

It's just another lame excuse for the Left so they don't have to face reality..

They picked a REALLY lame candidate who lost to frakin' Donald Trump...

It's the Left who is in a denial-of-reality tailspin...

Not Donald Trump...

376

But maybe 2017 is the year enough people realize that reality can't be taken for granted, what with Trump, the Brexiteers, and the yahoo brigades of the left and the right running rampant.

Congrats! You have finally learned how to talk to me.. :D

"Why John Shepard! You DO know how to talk to me!! hahahahahahahaha"
-Todd, STARGATE ATLANTIS

:D

You've nailed it CW. The Trump fanboys will worship their demigod as infallible, but it would have only taken 40,000 people for n the right place to have put Trump on the trash heap of history. Blundering through unreality is a tough way to run a country.

Oh, com' on, Neil..

Do you think that ya'all are REALLY in a position to complain about TRUMP's fanbois???

Considering how many fanbois Obama has, I mean... :D

Let's face reality, since reality is the topic de' jour.....

The reality is, is that the Left had their Obama demigod and now patriotic Americans have THEIR demigod...

374

That's what the facts clearly show..

Trump rejects the consensus of what is now the entire intelligence-gathering apparatus of the federal government,

It's not the entire intelligence gathering apparatus..

It's the CIA... Alone... DNI doesn't believe it.. FBI doesn't believe it...

Some foreign policy crisis will erupt, which is when Trump's refusal to believe the intelligence experts could become very dangerous indeed. If Trump really believes (just to pick an example from the campaign) that Russia isn't already in the Crimea, that is going to have real consequences.

I don't see that as a problem...

Trump just doesn't believe OBAMA'S intelligence services...

Can't says I blame Trump, considering Obama's proven penchant for using government agencies to attack political foes..

Some have voiced concern over the number of generals Trump will have in his cabinet. I actually think it'll be a good thing for Trump to be hearing from them on a regular basis. Generals tend towards the pragmatic -- they know that some things work, and some do not. They know the limits of military power, for the most part. They also know that presidential decisions can put a whole lot of lives at risk within the military.

Exactly..

The ONLY reason those who voice concern do so is because they hate anything Trump...

Obama can do no wrong and Trump can do no right...

That's their entire existence...

Ya'all ignore some salient facts...

Like the fact that this denier of reality you describe could not have been the successful businessman he is..

If Trump was the denier of reality you claim, he could not have wiped the floor with 16 GOP candidates who allegedly have their feet grounded in reality...

If this denier of reality actually existed, he DEFINITELY could not have bested the BIGGEST and MEANEST Political Juggernaut in the history of the world...

Trump didn't rise to the top of the Business ladder and become the leader of the free world by being a denier of reality...

373

http://ritholtz.com/2016/12/fake-real-spectrum/

Of course, the loons on the left reading "Occupy" or on the right believing "Infowars" will claim this is just a conspiracy by the other side and those naive fools in the center.

But maybe 2017 is the year enough people realize that reality can't be taken for granted, what with Trump, the Brexiteers, and the yahoo brigades of the left and the right running rampant.