ReeferMadness

Yeah. Sociopaths who assume that when things go to hell, they'll be spared are the same ones who whine and beg when it's too late. Karma.

Sure. Hitler was also credited with economic and employment growth. True story - I used to know people who were alive during WWII and claimed that "Hitler was a good man who did great things for Germany but just went crazy at the end". They were otherwise normal people. That's not to say Trump is like Hitler - Trump is a puppet and a moron. But it is to say it's amazing at how truly blind and ignorant people can be in the face of clear and present decline. It's how Hitler rose to power and it's how evil takes hold while people are oblivious to it.

When a supreme court nominee runs into problems with serious allegations of sexual predation, the president orders a sham investigation; a move right out of the playbook of Validimir Putin. As millions of the president's useful idiots (some of whom post right here on MLW!) concoct ridiculous rationalizations, the national law enforcement agency meekly follows the president's orders without a peep. Despite the fact that the nominee has obviously been lying to congress for weeks, he is confirmed anyway. What has happened this week is a stride towards a descent into authoritarianism, American style. With a supreme court justice installed in such a disgraceful and corrupt fashion, what intelligent, thinking person could believe that when he needs to rule on Trump's corruption, he will render and impartial vote towards the verdict? Unlike Russia, we are unlikely to see President Trump become president for life (although the way Trump lives and eats, that's unlikely to be long anyway). The USA is now an oligarchy and Trump is himself the ultimate useful idiot, a reality TV personality playing the role of president. Trump, a sad caricature completely lacking a moral compass who bumbles from issue to issue gathering headlines, makes the billionaires richer with huge tax cuts while simultaneously driving up military spending. The USA is a jet and he's pointed the nose straight down and pushed the throttle to the max. When he leaves or dies, there will be other useful idiots who come along right behind him.

Yes. In the spirit of tin pot dictators everywhere, Emperor Trump is dictating what will and won't be investigated. Why do you think he ordered it? The White House lawyers will ensure that nothing incriminating gets investigated. And Trump's minions rejoice at the feet of their great leader.

It's not an insult if it's true. There is solid research that says people of lower intelligence are significantly more likely to have conservative and racist views (funny how those two always seem to go hand in hand). Oh, I forgot. Right wingers don't believe in science either...

For a bunch of reasons, it will be very difficult to find a first hand witness to allegations of rape. Witnesses are likely to be the rapists themselves and collaborators. Nobody wants to step forward and admit they participated in something like that; or even that they knew about it and said nothing for 35 years. However, as per my previous post, Kavanaugh made plenty of other statements that are provably false. Lying to congress is a federal crime and he should be removed as a judge because of it. Clinton was impeached for lying to Congress when he should have been on trial in the Hague for war crimes. Likewise, Kavanaugh should be impeached for lying to Congress. Any right wingers who are not raving hypocrites (if such a thing exists) should instantly agree to this.

The FBI should be investigating whether Kavanaugh has been truthful in his testimony. Lying to Congress is a federal crime and it seems pretty easy to prove he hasn't answered honestly.

I'm not sure how things work on your planet, so let me explain how human teenage behavior can work. You're bored and underage. Your friends call and tell you they've gotten hold of booze. Or, more likely, an illegal intoxicant because they're significantly easier to get. You go over and get a little high. Someone says hey I know where there's a house party. Do you know in advance who will be at the house party? Almost no chance of that - you probably only know your friends and one or two other people. You go and score some more intoxicants. You spend several hours at the party. At the party, a girl has too much to drink (maybe she's helped along in that endeavor) and a bunch of guys have sex with her while she's too intoxicated to consent. Maybe she's unconscious. So what do you see? Do you think they're raping her on the coffee table in the living room??? Not very likely. It's happening in a bedroom somewhere, likely upstairs or downstairs of the main party. You might see a lineup of boys and the first few times you may not clue into what that means. You might hear about it indirectly or see some signs of what's going on. Or you might only hear about it later. At subsequent parties, you may see other things but unless you actually take part, you're unlikely to witness the actual rape. So, why do you go to another party? Well, I know it's tough for clueless right-wing aliens to wrap their tiny cerebral cortexes around this part but there are lots of possible reasons: Before you go to the party, you usually don't know who all will be there. If you know the perpetrators, you may think you're safe because they wouldn't do it to you. You might think it can't happen to you because your friends will look after you. This was the 80's. You might think that sort of thing only happened to "other" girls. This was the 80's. On the whole, consent was viewed differently. Honestly, it wasn't much of a topic at all in the media the way it was today. There's another element about this process that seems to be too difficult for teeny right wing cerebral cortexes. Kavanaugh is not facing criminal charges and there is no need to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. He's being assessed for a lifetime appointment to a position of enormous power where he can't be second guessed by anyone. Your behavior needs to be beyond reproach and his isn't even close.

Yeah. Because someone who witnessed a serious crime 35 years ago and did nothing to prevent or report it would be just itching to come out and talk about it now. Particularly if said person has the opportunity to make powerful enemies by doing so.

Your sociopathic disregard for what this woman has suffered is duly noted. My condolences to any actual humans who find themselves encountering you in real life.

Kavanaugh is credible only to blind partisans and blithering idiots. Much of what he said is provably untrue (he was of legal drinking age) , strains credibility (tens of thousands of dollars worth of credit card debt that was suddenly paid off was due to baseball tickets for friends) or consisted of statements that any 17 year old would instantly recognize as a blatant lie you tell your parents to stay out of trouble (boofing=farting, devil's triangle is a drinking game, yearbook reference to Renate was a gesture of respect). There is zero reason to believe him, over his accusers, regardless of how long ago it was or whatever detail may have faded due to the years. The mere fact that his handlers didn't even bother to come up with believable lies shows how the GOP holds its followers in utter contempt, a contempt that is clearly well deserved. The mere fact that this putz is a judge, much less nominated for the supreme court is proof of how far the US has sunk into moral decrepitude.

No. Read and educate yourself. The cheapest new electricity is unsubsidized solar and wind. And that link is over a year old.

Psssst. Wanna know why Rachel Notley and Jason Kenney are so panicked to get a new pipeline? Well, it's probably something to do with this graph, showing exponential growth in EV's. See that red part at the bottom? That's China, the country that Kenney thinks he's going to sell low quality tar sands sludge to. China is home to the vast majority of electric buses also. The fossil fuel industry is dead. It just doesn't know it yet. https://about.bnef.com/blog/cumulative-global-ev-sales-hit-4-million/ As Canada squabbles over dirty fossil fuels, China is planning to own the future. They've already taken control of the solar panel industry and are proceeding to do the same with electric batteries.

Ahhhh, the nuclear power industry - the place where slimey used car salesmen with PhD's go to swindle people. Remember when nuclear power was going to be "too cheap to meter"? Remember when we were going to have nuclear powered planes and cars? The entire industry has been one giant money sinkhole from the outset. It never would have gotten off the ground were it not for massive public subsidies and nuclear weapons. Do you even know what nuclear power costs? Of course not - nobody does. The reason is that nobody has come up with an acceptable scheme to store the waste for the ten thousand years required. So, Nuclear power is forever power. They take forever to plan, forever to finance, forever to build, forever to decommission and then, the waste has to be stored - forever.

So, deaths from cancer don't count? By that measure, the only people who've been killed by cigarette smoking are those clumsy idiots that tripped and broke their necks while lighting up.

ah, yes, base load. A critical concept in a modern power distribution system - assuming you live in the 1950's!

Your map shows the USA, where white supremacists regularly hold marches and rallies, as one of the least racist places on Earth. if that's true, we're all in big trouble. You go ahead and point the finger at other countries. There are plenty of racists right here in Canada. When we run out, then I'll point the finger elsewhere.

The next decade promises to be the most disruptive one ever and Canada appears to be suffering a major lack of creativity. One major party thinks we can build our future on 20th century energy and the other would like to take us back to 19th century labor conditions. Meanwhile, there are a number of mega-trends that will be painful for some of our core industries. Paris Agreement or not, the fossil fuel industry is a dead man walking. In the US, wind energy has recently dropped to $.02/KwH and solar is reportedly heading toward $.01 within the next few years. Wind and solar isn't just the cleanest new energy, it's now the cheapest as well. Yes, there is the intermittency problem but as battery and other grid storage technologies improve, this will be overcome. As batteries improve, the electric car will kill off the internal combustion engine (price parity for electric cars is expected before 2025). If all of that isn't enough new IMO sulfur content regulations slated for 2020 will lower demand for high sulfur fuel (like tar sands sludge). Kind of makes you wonder why Albertans are getting their shorts in a knot over a pipeline. There will be no market. The auto industry (and related industries such as insurance, auto dealerships, retail mechanics body shops, etc) is in for a massive shakeup. EV's have vastly fewer moving parts than ICE vehicles and so will ultimately be more more reliable, last longer and require fewer repairs. But the auto industry pain only starts there. The real challenge will be from transportation-as-a-service (TAAS) companies using electric self driving vehicles. With no driver to pay for and operating costs a fraction of ICE vehicles, costs per Km will plummet and this model will challenge the model of private vehicle ownership. With drunk and distracted drivers removed from the equation, accident rates will plummet and with them, industries that depend on accidents (auto insurance, body shops) will be crushed. As families give up first their second vehicle and then abandon vehicle ownership entirely, the auto manufacturing industry will contract to a fraction of its former size. The meat industry is also going to go through major changes. Due to a variety of concerns (including health, global warming and ethical treatment of animals), consumers are increasingly looking for alternatives. At the same time, an alternative is emerging. Lab grown meat is still in its infancy and far too expensive to be a threat to the meat industry today. But as the technology progresses, it's just a matter of time before prices drop and it will become cheaper than conventional meat. This will free up millions of acres around the world currently dedicated to range land. It will also prevent a massive amount of methane, a potent greenhouse gas from being released into the air. These are only a few examples - there are lots of others. Fishing will be threatened due to warming and acidifying oceans. Forestry could be hit hard due to climate-related droughts (and accompanying massive forest fires). Employment will become increasingly precarious due to self driving vehicles and other types of artificial intelligence. As these and other disruptive changes will challenge Canada over the next 20-30 years, what are our two major parties obsessing over? Twentieth century fossil fuels and and trade agreements. And, in BC's case, a 20th century technology dam. We need better leadership.

Trudeau was acknowledging the fact that racists and racism exists in Canada. And it should be called out. If that makes you sputter, deny and rationalize, chances are that you're a racist.

What unadulterated bullshit. Everywhere the IMF/World Bank goes, they leave a path of destruction. Huge increases in income/wealth disparities, privatized essential services, cutbacks in government services. But when it comes to Russia and the oligarchs robbing the country blind suddenly the IMF/World bank is a helpless kitten? They didn't impose conditions for transparency and corruption because they didn't GAF. It's that simple. In the eyes of capitalist zealots, a right wing kleptocracy is preferable to any form of socialism. The US (other countries too, but mostly the US) have a long track record of using their military to attack countries that have the temerity to elect leftist governments and replace them with repressive right wing regimes. It's telling that China is your idea of a success story.

Modern Russia is mess and that is largely the fault of the USA. In the 90s, Americans (other westerners too but mainly Americans) were so determined to kill socialism of any stripe, they used the IMF to push through brutal "reforms" that destroyed any economic stability that ordinary Russians had under communism. Things deteriorated so rapidly that Russians were set to re-elect communists in 1996. Under Clinton, the USA brazenly interfered in the Russian election and of course "the right candidate" won; amid widespread allegations of rampant electoral fraud. Then, Yeltsin turned around and handed the reins to Putin, who, by most accounts, has since run the country much the same way as a mafia boss runs a territory. So was Russia's interference in the 2016 American election blowback or simply payback? Trump was buddies with Bill Clinton in that era so it's far from inconceivable that Trump had some influence in the goings on in Russia. Politics is a dirty, incestuous affair, particularly when you throw crony capitalism into the mix. But hey. USA is chock full of morons who still believe that Trump is "draining the swamp".

I have read your posts. You seem to think that people will simply take what they need. In fact, if there is no mechanism to limit consumption (and that's what having a fixed amount of money does), people will consume wastefully. This is basic economic fact and observed behavior, not only in humans but in animals also. Watch grizzly bears feed when the salmon are plentiful. They eat the most nutritious parts and leave the rest for scavengers.

Yup. No thanks to white people who apparently would have been pleased to have a child molester for a senator.

It's not the same. If everything is free, people will take more than they need and waste things. You have a fixed amount of money, it forces you to make choices and be efficient.

Is it? I'm not an expert on US gun law but I didn't read anything in the wake of the shooting that indicated it would be illegal to own the arsenal he had. Certainly, there was (and still is) no ban on bump stocks (which is what he used to make his weapons automatic).