Disqus - Latest Comments for PBCliberal

Re: Gateway Pundit Deletes Mueller Smear Story: “We’re Looking Into Serious Allegations Against Jacob Wohl”

PBCliberal — Tue, 30 Oct 2018 23:16:55 -0000

Plus he's a public figure and it would be pretty hard to claim that his reputation has been damaged in any way.

Re: Scientists Discover 102 Genes Linked to Autism In Largest Study To Date

PBCliberal — Wed, 17 Oct 2018 23:33:26 -0000

Autism is currently an observational diagnosis, not a purely scientific one, which is a big reason driving gene-based identification. So we don't really know what the rate is. We also suspect environmental culprits like pesticides. Access to a diagnosis plays a big part in the increasing numbers. South Korea's autism diagnosis rate in children is 1 in 38, which is higher than the 1 in 55 or 1 in 68 which are the current estimates in the US.

Re: Mobile Template: Story

PBCliberal — Fri, 01 Dec 2017 00:05:18 -0000

So @Jack throws Trump off Twitter. He moves to a Twitter competitor. If they all throw him off he has a .gov site created. One way or another, Trump sends his daily missives. Now Twitter must decide if it will:
1. Allow the presidents "tweet substitute" to be promulgated on Twitter or suspend or ban anyone who does so
2. Allow the president's "tweet substitute" to be linked to on Twitter
3. Allow the president's "tweet substitute" to be debated on Twitter, and if so, what manner will be permissible to identify which "tweet substitute" is being referenced.

This is a lose-lose for Twitter. The underlying problem: Donald Trump is the President of the United States and nothing Twitter can do directly can change that. All they can do is make their own service less relevant by trying to act as if he doesn't exist.

Re: Fake News: Time Warner Cable Did NOT Decline to Renew CNN's Contract

PBCliberal — Sun, 26 Feb 2017 22:36:06 -0000

Time-Warner spun off Time Warner Cable in 2009. It was purchased by Charter Communication in 2016. It is always helpful when calling out others for fake news, to get one's own facts right.

Re: This Attack Ad Said Bernie Sanders Was In The Pocket of Big Child Molester - by Tommy Christopher

PBCliberal — Tue, 24 May 2016 00:05:32 -0000

Can we pull back on the personal attack and the assumptions just a bit? Thank you for the 50s "mighty Wurlitzer" metaphor, most young people wouldn't understand it because it describes a different world. (Wurlitzer doesn't even make organs any more.)
To most young people, you'd also have to explain how the right wing smear machine was made up of newspapers, AM talk radio and Fox News in a day where everybody had cable. I well understand how it WORKED, because I too saw the things you describe that took place beginning 20 years ago. (Remember, it was the Clinton administration that relaxed the ownership caps that let Clear Channel foul the airwaves with Limbaugh from stations numbering in the hundreds).
Newspapers are near death, AM right wing talk radio has lost its currency and cord-cutters are rapidly decimating cable and Fox News with it. Donald Trump's standing with his supporters comes from social media. He spits in the face of Fox News, as a tamed Megyn Kelly can attest.
And yes, the GOP has cried socialist about a moderate Democratic president so long that the word is more reclaimable now than at any point since the McCarthy era. All it takes is a Google search to realize most free-world countries have robust socialist parties. And one thing about millennials, is they know how to do google searches.
I recognize that you think you're doing me a favor by talking to me like I'm five years old. But you don't know what you don't know and frankly, I'm embarrassed for you.

Re: This Attack Ad Said Bernie Sanders Was In The Pocket of Big Child Molester - by Tommy Christopher

PBCliberal — Mon, 23 May 2016 22:31:46 -0000

I haven't seen translation this bad since the Nelson Mandela memorial. Being a female in politics does not confer upon her any special wisdom, or Sarah Palin would be a Churchill. My comments about Hillary deal with her positions, policies and political history not her gender nor do I espouse any violence. Nearly every one of your comments appear to be modeled on the rhetoric of Donald Trump.

Re: This Attack Ad Said Bernie Sanders Was In The Pocket of Big Child Molester - by Tommy Christopher

PBCliberal — Mon, 23 May 2016 21:25:03 -0000

It has been my experience that personal attack is the last refuge of a person who has run out of cogent arguments. Do you have anything substantive to bring to the table?

Re: This Attack Ad Said Bernie Sanders Was In The Pocket of Big Child Molester - by Tommy Christopher

PBCliberal — Mon, 23 May 2016 19:58:47 -0000

I voted for John Kerry in 2004. If I had known before I walked into the polling place that he would lose, I would still have walked in and voted the same way. Perhaps you would have voted for Bush? This is not a game. This is the future of our country.

Re: This Attack Ad Said Bernie Sanders Was In The Pocket of Big Child Molester - by Tommy Christopher

PBCliberal — Mon, 23 May 2016 18:05:47 -0000

I remember the assassinations of JFK, RFK and MLK, so I certainly remember the Clinton administration, which I voted for twice. But I don't make decisions about the future of this country based on sympathy for badly treated politicians. I base it on their records. What is significant for me is the revolving door the Clinton administration shared with Goldman Sachs and particularly Citibank. Robert Rubin left the secretary of the treasury to handle governmental relations for Citibank and even ran it for a while. Can we blame Hillary for Bill's actions? Up 'til last week, no. So we had to base her coziness with the big banks on her bankruptcy bill vote as a Senator and her quarter-million-dollar speeches she won't reveal. But now that Bill will be in charge of the economy, that's all fair game.

I'm sorry that the right wing was nasty to Hillary 15 years ago. I'm especially sorry that Bill lied about that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I don't care whom Bill screws but he got caught lying his ass off and that affects the optics even today.

Plus, back then, we were pretty nasty with the right wing too. During that time we geeks had the Internet and they didn't. It took them years to figure out how we could create a movement overnight on usenet.

So please don't stereotype me as a young dumb bernie bro. I've been around long enough to look beyond "us versus them" politics and see that on important issues like who really runs this country there's very little difference between corporate democrats like Clinton and corporate Republicans like Romney. I don't like all of Bernie's positions but I think he can win, I think Hillary's negatives mean she'll lose and I've thought that long before it became the conventional wisdom to say so. I'm guessing the machinations of DWS to keep Hillary out of debates at times people might actually watch them means she secretly agrees with me.

Re: This Attack Ad Said Bernie Sanders Was In The Pocket of Big Child Molester - by Tommy Christopher

PBCliberal — Sun, 22 May 2016 18:57:54 -0000

Yes, somebody who sat out the reign of the blue dogs as an independent, who voted against the disastrous war the party embraced, who predicted the financial disaster that the party aided by joining with republicans to repeal Glass-Steagall and deregulate everything in sight.
The man is a socialist, for gods sake, and was when the vast majority of the Democratic left said they were "progressives" to avoid the word "liberal."
I welcome your questioning of my logic. It gives me a chance to fully state it.

Re: This Attack Ad Said Bernie Sanders Was In The Pocket of Big Child Molester - by Tommy Christopher

PBCliberal — Sun, 22 May 2016 18:42:37 -0000

This is a very interesting issue, because I'll bet you're a Hillary supporter and we're both being hypocritical here. The company had the legal right to ask for it. It was the largest employer in the community at the time, and had the support of the majority of local government. A grassroots effort changed that; a little like where are now with Hillary, who has the majority of the votes and a big majority of the political infrastructure. At the convention, I'd like the majority to agree they're on the wrong side of history and nominate the guy with less support.
Meanwhile, in Sierra Blanca, you seem to be arguing that the local officials and the company should have sought to be on the right side of history and not allow the company to continue to operate even though it held majorities on the local governmental entities that allowed--in fact encouraged--it to solicit Vermont's business.
I'm not doing my local garbage collection company's bidding in paying them to take my trash, and Bernie's not doing a corporation's bidding by entering into a contract to take his community's. To get back to the original question, that's why Bernie would withstand attacks much better than Hillary. There was a clear reason he acted as he did; it was in his community's best interest. To try and tar him with a broad brush, you have to act as if he's anti-corporation, which he's clearly not.

Re: This Attack Ad Said Bernie Sanders Was In The Pocket of Big Child Molester - by Tommy Christopher

PBCliberal — Sun, 22 May 2016 17:32:59 -0000

At the time, Merco was operating a legal sludge dumping facility in Sierra Blanca, Texas, and actively sought the waste disposal contract. We may not like dumps, but we do like to get rid of our trash, and while it may not have been the best course of action in hindsight, the company running a legal dump solicited the business. Therefore, "asked for it at the time" is a statement of fact.

Re: This Attack Ad Said Bernie Sanders Was In The Pocket of Big Child Molester - by Tommy Christopher

PBCliberal — Sun, 22 May 2016 17:08:51 -0000

Hillary has endured a decades-long beating of great intensity because she's left herself open for it. So far, the best opposition research has revealed that Bernie sent nuclear waste to Sierra Blanca, TX, which asked for it at the time, and he wrote some articles during the sexual revolution that can be interpreted in novel ways.
I suspect Trump thinks his ace in the hole with Bernie is to red-bait him, which would backfire pretty spectacularly coming from a billionaire wanna-be.
I'll take my chances with Bernie, thank you, and if the party had an ounce of common sense, it would too. Hillary is damaged goods and the Democratic party just can't help itself from doubling down on a bad bet.

Re: Texas Teen Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to School

PBCliberal — Thu, 17 Sep 2015 04:36:35 -0000

I think you may be confusing the police with a lynch-mob. The police should act on things like probable cause and what we hope is a better understanding of what constitutes a threat than the average individual. When they don't know we hope they can consult an expert who does.

This has become a national story because the teachers at a high school (including an engineering teacher who knew what it was and apparently wasn't consulted) couldn't figure out what it was even when it was explained to them by a high school freshman.

Re: Running Rodger's video when covering Isla Vista shooting

PBCliberal — Sat, 31 May 2014 22:49:32 -0000

This is another example of the end of gatekeeper journalism. The "respected and respectable media" cannot agree that a greater good is served by suppressing information, because scribd has the 137-page manifesto, and YouTube has the final video. Even when YouTube removed it temporarily citing that it made a threat, it popped back up on other servers.

By not covering this story, a media outlet simply loses its audience and makes them wonder what else it's not covering for their own good.

Re: Florida Cops’ Secret Weapon: Warrantless Cell Phone Tracking

PBCliberal — Mon, 03 Mar 2014 19:33:33 -0000

Has anyone looked at this from the licensing perspective? If it is a cell site emulator and creates an active connection with a cell phone, does it do so by transmitting information? If so, it has the potential to disrupt the communications system of the license-holder.

We know most of the communications companies are in the pocket of the federal government (those that aren't have their CEOs prosecuted for insider trading because they know their companies are about to be screwed for failing to cooperate), so I doubt they're going to pitch much of a bitch when the police department overpowers their transmitters.

But we--the public--own this spectrum, just like we're the prime beneficiaries of the 4th amendment and theoretically these police departments serve at our pleasure. This idea that they get to form business alliances with defense contractors that usurp the public's rights to even understand unconstitutional activities directed against them is repugnant, and maybe some of these folks need to be prosecuted for civil rights violations.

Re: Like It or Not, Glenn Greenwald Is Now the Face of the 1st Amendment

PBCliberal — Fri, 07 Feb 2014 16:57:50 -0000

I don't understand what you're getting at, or why you didn't just directly say the Federalist Papers were written and published anonymously by several of the founding fathers before the ratification of the Constitution to argue for its approval and represent one of our better views into the minds of some of its most important framers.

It has become one of the leading examples of protected anonymous political speech and is also a great example of "press" in the first amendment not referring to employees of media conglomerates.

Re: Like It or Not, Glenn Greenwald Is Now the Face of the 1st Amendment

PBCliberal — Fri, 07 Feb 2014 05:35:38 -0000

It's not really the journalist that has the constitutional protection, it's the press, because the way the British government controlled what ideas were promulgated was by trying to license the right to print. A journalist is someone who exercises that right to freely express ideas through publishing without hindrance by the state.

The class of people who have special privileges are those who own (or control) a press, which in modern times is more often control of a web server. Greenwald is no better than a propagandist as you say, just like the ones that wrote the Federalist papers and went on to write the first amendment.

Re: Like It or Not, Glenn Greenwald Is Now the Face of the 1st Amendment

PBCliberal — Fri, 07 Feb 2014 05:19:35 -0000

There was no corporate press when the First Amendment was fashioned. There were pamphleteers and advocates and founding fathers publishing anonymous criticism of the current government in a series of tracts called the Federalist Papers.

Journalists writing blogs on the Internet are far closer to the kind of writer the founding fathers wanted to protect than the handsome blond news reader who came up in the ranks of a corporate television network formerly owned by a defense contractor to ask if Greenwald shouldn't be prosecuted.

Re: Snow Job

PBCliberal — Fri, 31 Jan 2014 23:46:35 -0000

As always, the devil is in the details. It depends on how it is transmitted. People who are willing to accept the burden of implementing secure systems should have the reasonable expectation that their government is not paying standards committees to weaken encryption standards without telling anyone; that cloud providers aren't acting under secret blanket warrants allowing full access to everything they store while the cloud company advertises its products as secure.

That the government doesn't install special secret rooms in common carriers that tap off the whole internet stream passing through it and make wholesale copies; that it does not require companies to sell hardware that has been crippled under secret orders from secret courts.

This is not an expectation of privacy; it is an expectation of fair dealing and honest business practices from our information technology companies and a reasonable expectation of transparency from the government that claims to govern at its citizenry's pleasure.

Re: Chris Christie Responds to ‘Bridge-Gate’ Allegations: ‘I’m Outraged’ to Learn ‘I Was Misled’

PBCliberal — Wed, 08 Jan 2014 22:32:47 -0000

I linked it downthread before I saw you had already played the Renault card. Didn't mean to steal thy thunder.

Re: Chris Christie Responds to ‘Bridge-Gate’ Allegations: ‘I’m Outraged’ to Learn ‘I Was Misled’

PBCliberal — Wed, 08 Jan 2014 22:30:48 -0000

The governor could have saved himself and the rest of us a lot of time by just linking here: http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Re: A&E Will Have the Anti-Gay Patriarch of 'Duck Dynasty' Back

PBCliberal — Fri, 27 Dec 2013 23:02:28 -0000

Disclaimer: I've only watched enough of this show to understand Phil Robertson's mindset in a stereotypical way. In the magazine interview he endorsed his own stereotype twice in quick succesion; first with the active mental imaging of a gay sexual act so that he could express personal revulsion, followed up with an "Old Man River" characterization of how happy black people were back in the Jim Crow days.

I don't like Robertson's views on either issue, but what amazes me is that the "arts and entertainment" network's reaction seems to have only two explanations: either they figured out he felt this way before they even put him on the air and did so anyway and then feigned outrage when he said things which belied the opinions they knew he held, or they were so disconnected with what is on their own air that his opinions came as a surprise.

I'm not nearly as insulted by Robertson, who isn't a bright light and that's why so many people want to watch him, as I am by A&E which either believes the public isn't smart enough to figure out their programming decisions and what drives them or is run by dimmer bulbs than even Robertson.

Re: Liberals and Conservatives Switch Positions on NSA Surveillance

PBCliberal — Thu, 26 Dec 2013 20:57:41 -0000

Nor was it intended to be (a ringing endorsement.) There is great agreement on this issue between the far left and the far right. I don't like most of what Justin Amash supports, and I don't share his view of government. But he almost got a majority with his bill to defund the NSA.

That was an epiphany for me, and I've stopped trashing him and much of the far right because I realized those of us who view this as unconstitutional activity are far more likely to stop it by giving limited support to those we otherwise disagree with, than to continue our support for people in my own party whom I now realize weren't interested in this issue when Bush was doing it for any reasons beyond it was a good club to beat him with.

Re: Liberals and Conservatives Switch Positions on NSA Surveillance

PBCliberal — Wed, 25 Dec 2013 20:25:48 -0000

You're referring to the enemies list during the Nixon administration?