FairAndUNbalanced.com

 
From PZ Myers:

He may have joined a cult.

He’s the new executive director for a shiny new organization, Transformative Humanists of America, which may not be so new: their web pages sometimes refer to themselves as humanist.com, which seems to be some kind of generic humanist forum. But they’ve gotten together and put together a nearly unreadable mass of words. I’m not sure what they’re all about, but what they seem to consider their main selling point is their mediocrity.

Society is fracturing at an alarming rate with the right hemorrhaging integrity while the Left is cannibalizing itself. As a result the majority middle is increasingly apathetic, disillusioned and without a home. Most people are good, which means suffering is increasing at our own hand. Transformative Humanism can and will help reunify society so we can get back to the business of the Greater Good.

They’ve got a whole section on the Extremism Horseshoe. Yup. Horseshoe theory again. The idea that the left is just as evil as the right, but those who straddle the fence are the best people. Politics are just the worst.

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From Infidel753:

A specter is haunting this confirmation fight, one that Republicans are struggling mightily to ignore — the specter of Merrick Garland. When McConnell and his gang refused to even consider Garland, they crossed a very fundamental line, denying President Obama the exercise of one of the most important powers of the office with which he had twice been entrusted by the voters. (The claimed need to “wait for the election” was entirely specious — a President is elected to a four-year term and is expected to exercise the full powers of the office during that entire term. Senators who are up for re-election do not refrain from voting during their last year in office on such grounds.) They showed that the Constitution, tradition, and playing by the rules meant nothing to them — that it was all about power at any cost. They showed that they were dead to any sense of shame or honor.

And in doing so, they lost any right to be treated honorably.

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From driftglass:

Other than when he is on MSNBC promoting his book, “Holy Shit! The Republican Party Is Full Of Republicans!“ it is hard for me to know what my New Mandatory Republican Best Friend Charlie Sykes is thinking on an hour basis hour.

This is because my New Mandatory Republican Best Friend Charlie Sykes blocked me a long time ago for asking him impertinent questions about that Libtard four-letter word which we are never, ever supposed to mention in the presence of our new New Mandatory Republican Best Friends.

The P-A-S-T.

What was I thinking?!?!

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From jobsanger:

Trump is viewed more unfavorably than favorably by a 13 point margin.

The Democratic Party’s favorable and unfavorable percentages are even.

The Republican Party is viewed more unfavorably than favorably by a 12 point margin.

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From Andy Borowitz:

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Facing the daunting challenge of appearing to pay attention to a woman’s utterances during a televised hearing, Senator Charles Grassley spent the weekend rehearsing what aides are calling his “pretending to listen” face.

In round-the-clock practice sessions that aides characterized as “excruciating,” the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee struggled to simulate even a trace of interest in what a woman had to say.

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From Gregory B. Gonzalez at MadMikesAmerica:

I guess it’s no surprise to anyone with an IQ above fifty that Donald J. Trump, is a flat-out moron. Most of us with a thimble-full of common sense knew going in that his Presidency would be a shit-show from the second he took office. The only people who thought otherwise were his basket of deplorables and the shiny, happy, clueless idiots who decided to give him a chance. Kinda makes you wonder, now that Trump is in the second year of his four-year term if those idiots still feel the same.

Based on the latest polls, I think not. At the rate he’s going, Trump is only a few points short of getting garbage thrown at him. Yet, unbelievably, he thinks he’s still universally loved. Yeah, in the way most people love getting a case of crabs.

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From Iron Knee at Political Irony:

Republicans claim to be against tax increases. They attack anyone who they believe wants to raise taxes. And yet, they have ignored Trump’s tax increases. What increases? Donald Trump has, by executive fiat, levied taxes of up to 50% on goods being imported into the US, with the most common tariffs being 25%.

How does this differ from a tax? I can’t think of any substantiative difference. If you buy anything from China or other foreign nations, you will be pay what is basically a sales tax to the federal government. Can you imagine the uproar if the government levied a sales tax of 25% on mobile phones, televisions, washing machines, solar panels, and other goods? Well, they have basically done that, and are threatening to tax those things even more.

And here’s the really interesting point. Sales taxes (including tariffs) are mainly paid by the middle class.

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From Eileen M. Ahlin, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at Pennsylvania State University, writing for The Moderate Voice:

Everyone makes mistakes they would rather leave in the past. Whether it’s a missed opportunity, a failed relationship or an unwise investment, many people move on and leave life’s regrets behind.

This is not always true if the mistake is a crime, and you are caught.

When a juvenile, a person under 18 years of age, is arrested and charged with a crime, prosecutors can decide to transfer the youth to an adult court or keep their case in juvenile court. This decision is based on several factors, including the seriousness of the offense, the offender’s age and prior criminal history. Some research indicates that race plays a role in this decision.

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• A testament to the lyin’ times that have seized our national life: This week’s note in Trumpian ‘Alternative Facts’ comes from the Oakland Press as our president’s pattern of untruth takes a dark, dark turn in Puerto Rico.
   
• Libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara continues to oppose efforts to limit tall tales on social media, which tales are free speech and the only check on way too powerful mainstream media. I dunno. I think it depends partly on what might be an organized illegal effort by a foreign government. But that’s just me, a kneejerk liberal jerk taken in by fake Russia news perpetrated by mainstream media.
   
• About free speech: PZ Myers recounts the reaction of an author to an academic critic. Seems an assistant professor at Cornell characterizes a book as pretty much misogynistic. Also cruel and authoritarian. AND anti-feminist. So the author threatens to sue over the mean unfairness, anti-free-speech of it all. Dr. Myers is amused by the tough-guy fragility. Legal impotence kind of caps it.
   
• Jack Jodell at The Saturday Afternoon Post doesn’t much care for what seems to have become the Presidential Reality Show.
   
• In MadMikesAmerica, Glenn Geist wakes up in 2020 to find Alaska has seceded and a televangelist is on SCOTUS.
   
• As the Senate Judiciary Committee presumably, that would be presumably, ponders the evidence with great care, Frances Langum watches as the Republican Senate Majority Leader assures a cheering crowd that Judge Kavanaugh will become Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh no matter what. Now for the fair hearing.
   
• Andy Borowitz reports as Merrick Garland, in the spirit of forgiveness, says he’s still available in case there turns out to be a continuing Supreme Court vacancy.
   
• Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger brings the big, big news about mass shootings – that they are so common they are no longer big, big news.
   
• Dave Dubya is often a funny guy, with an acerbic, biting style. But this time, he begins and ends with self-deprecation. Between are stored up re-posts of acerbic, biting, Dave-type tweets.
   
• The Journal of Improbable Research finds a study on Fraunhofer diffraction patterns (don’t ask). The study devolves into a comparison of light filtering through holes shaped like specific countries. The things scientists do when they get bored. Illustrations and photographic images included. Beautiful, actually. Especially the one diffused … you know … America. Yay USA!!