Lurker > Suprak the Stud

I've just never heard any one look at someone and go "I can't tell you what skin color they are yet until I hear about what sort of power dynamics they experience in their day to day life".

Maybe I just don't get invited to the cool parties.
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

(I fully admit I have never taken a graduate level history course so you are far more informed that I am on the subject matter, but I am also fairly certain that the majority of people using "white" and "black" when describing people are talking primarily about skin color.)
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

White and black describe power relationships, not skin color

wat
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

Corrik posted...

xp1337 posted...

oh

well carry on i guess

If you did I was going to point out a current member of the Senate won a write-in campaign (after losing their primary!)

What is the Alaska vote totals in comparison to say the average states vote totals?

Murkowskis last senate election had like 300k votes total. Sessions last one had 800k for comparison.

Its a larger state, obviously, but Murkowski won against significantly worse odds. I guess Sessions couldve turned it down, but I feel like most reasonable republicans (a.k.a. almost every single one outside of Donald Trump) wants nothing to do with Roy Moore in the senate because they are aware of how bad that makes them look.
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

Mm good counterpoint.

But that isn't representative of the full Republican electorate in Alabama . Moore got something like 160k to win while Sessions got 800k in his last Senate race in 2014 (an off presidential election year) running against literally no one. A push for a popular politician like Sessions with Trump's backing would have likely resulted in a landslide.
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

Of all the things I've been disappointed about over the Trump presidency, the fact that he doesn't have single shred of decency and couldn't distance himself from Roy Moore is amongst the worst.

All he had to do was say "I endorse Sessions as a write in candidate and implore all Republicans to vote for him". He'd win by 10+ points even against a second Republican. Trump's endorsement means something in a state like Alabama and Sessions is already very well liked. Instead we're going to have Roy Moore, which is a tremendous downgrade over even Sessions.
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

trdl23 posted...

FFDragon posted...

yeah I'm actually on corrik's side for this one

This also seems like a bad hill to die on. Like you seem to agree other groups of people can do things that are inherently bigoted against other races, but want to argue thats not racism based on the academic definition of institutional racism instead of the more colloquial usage that Corrik is clearly using.

Institutional racism can still exist and Asian/Middle Eastern/Hispanic individuals can still be anti-Black. Just because sociology professors use one definition of racism in their writings, it doesnt make other usages of the word that predate that definition obsolete.
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

Suprak the Stud posted...

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/22/politics/texas-joe-barton-apology-graphic-picture/index.html

I literally dont understand what hes apologizing for here. If hes being honest in his statement currently, hes the victim here who had a nude photo leaked.

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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/22/politics/texas-joe-barton-apology-graphic-picture/index.html

I literally dont understand what hes apologizing for here. If hes being honest in his statement currently, hes the victim here who had a nude photo leaked.
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

Rape worms does kind of sound like what a militant feminist might call a penis.
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

Well that was an unfortunate typo.
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

Corrik posted...

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/21/asia/north-korea-defector/index.html

Pretty crazy.

However at the end... Did they say he had parasites in his body and some were nearly a foot long in length??? Wtf.

I mean tape worms can get much much longer than a single foot so that isnt crazy at all!

Just gross.
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

Looking around the_donald...I'd say it is more 80% that want Net Neutrality ended and 20% that support it. They are largely in the first camp. Some choice comments at the moment:

"The hypocrisy of Reddit to want free net for all while they censor T_D from the front page is pathetic. All you have to do is ask yourself Why George Soros is backing NN? Why do the globalists want it? We won't be tricked by shills."

"I mean, they want the government to have complete control of the internet for a reason...
The same reason they want the government to take control of our guns.
They want to wear the Ring of Power. They are Boromir in this analogy."

"Reddit is waking up. After months of this bull shit and todays overwhelming shillathon, Ive seen more and more commenters starting to question and do their own research."

"What does Obama really want that freedom hates?

Among many many other things, Net Neutrality.
'member the Patriot act?
Are you a patriot if you don't like it?
The powers that be have one thing going for them. Branding."

"If Ive learned one thing over the last two years its, If Reddit is vehemently against it, take a good hard look at it because its probably something theyre wrong about.....again."

"I had bought in to the net neutrality thing but seeing the people who are pushing it so hard has been making me question it the past week. Then I saw something about John Oliver promoting it and it really got me thinking about it. I honestly don't know who is right on this one but I seriously doubt this guy is on the same page I am."

Now, there are actually a lot of deleted comments on these threads, so the actual amount of supporters/dissenters could be closer than my initial guess. But there are a TON of comments that are just basically like "if libs support this then we know its bad haha stupid libs". Very few people are actually against it based on its merits, and the ones that are tend to have a tenuous understanding of it (I've seen several "uh if they jack up their prices or do something bad the customers will just go elsewhere" when clearly they can't, where are you living where you have a plethora of ISP choices?).
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

In more Moore news, a retired cop is confirming he was banned from a specific mall and that they were instructed to keep him away from the cheerleaders.

https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/retired-alabama-cop-on-roy-moore-we-were-also-told-to-make-sure-that-he-didnt-hang-around-the-cheerleaders/

Im sure this is just yet another attempt by the globalists to besmirch this mans good name.
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

I just checked back and youre right! Some people are complaining that the mods were deleting dissenting posts for a while so perhaps the opinion is more split that I thought from first glance. There is certainly a large number of people there that support ending net neutrality though.
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

r/conservative is actually for net neutrality. While they dislike it in principal, they seem to realize it is a "necessary evil" since ISPs are effectively monopolies and the free market can't do anything in this situation. Many still blame the democrats for allowing these monopolies to form in the first place.

r/the_donald is 100% all on board with ending it because OBAMA LIKED IT and NET NEUTRALITY is just something that sounds good to trick the SHEEPLE into liking it. This was literally their stickied post as of like an hour ago.

They will basically support everything and anything that comes out of this administration.
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

"When I was deputy district attorney, many years before we got married, I saw her at a dance recital and I was standing, oh, at the back of the auditorium and I saw her up front," he recalled at the time. "I remember her name, it was Kayla Kisor. KK. But I remember that and I didn't meet her there ... it was, oh gosh, eight years later or something, I met her. And when she told me her name, I remembered."

"I knew Kayla was going to be a special person in my life," Moore wrote about when he first saw her when she was 15 years old. He wrote he began dating her when she was 23, a year before they married, according to the memoir.

"Anxious to meet her, I began with the line, 'Haven't we met somewhere before?' 'I don't think so,' she replied," he said, recalling the moment they met at a church Christmas party.

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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

Not_an_Owl posted...

Jakyl25 posted...

Ive been out of the recon scene for awhile. I wonder what Trumps internet troll army thinks about the impending end of net neutrality

Probably somewhere between "he's undoing something OBUMMER did so it's good" and "there's NO WAY our internet hives of scum and villainy would ever be affected by this foundation-shaking change to the way the internet is regulated and monetized".

It is almost entirely in the first camp. I haven't even seen any reasons for it. Just things like BASED AJIT PAI SAVING OUR INTERNET without any reasoning for liking it.
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

Ashethan posted...

Suprak the Stud posted...

The "he killed the turkey" thing was 100% supposed to be a joke and I am slightly confused as to multiple people thought that was serious and wasn't at the top of every news station.

Asking if it was a joke, was itself a joke. This Presidency has just gotten so bad, that if the jokes about them came true nobody would be surprised.

JOKECEPTION

Actually, my reply to your joke about my joke was also a joke, so in reality the joke was on you all along.
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

So I mean the conflict isn't over and possibly never will be due to the nature of ISIS, but this is a very good step imo.

I don't know why you are dismissing this as insignificant.

At the height of their power, ISIS had almost taken over two middle eastern nations. Now they have no actual territory left in either and almost all of their active fighters surrendered. Of course it isn't over, but this is a huge improvement over how things were just a couple of years ago.
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

Jakyl25 posted...

What all has happened in the last 48 hours?

Oh, sorry, was this in response to something specific? I thought it was just a general question.
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

The "he killed the turkey" thing was 100% supposed to be a joke and I am slightly confused as to multiple people thought that was serious and wasn't at the top of every news station.

Peace___Frog posted...

Nelson_Mandela posted...

Jakyl25 posted...

What all has happened in the last 48 hours?

literally won the war against ISIS in Iraq, but no one apparently gives a shit anymore because ass-grabbing is more interesting news

Hahaha you actually believe that a war has been won

They have been defeated militarily in Iraq, yes, but they are still active in other parts of the world. So I mean the conflict isn't over and possibly never will be due to the nature of ISIS, but this is a very good step imo.
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

Charlie Rose outed as a serial sexual harasser, fired by CBS.

John Conyers accused of settling sexual harassment claims, initially denies, eventually says they're true, but the accusations themselves are false. Multiple women and former staffers corroborate the claims. Also he used taxpayer money to fly out women to have affairs with.

Trump designates NK a state sponsor of terror.

Formal plan to end net neutrality introduced to congress.

Second Franken accuser comes out saying he grabbed her butt at a state fair.

Trump pardons a turkey. Later in the day he slaughters it with his bare hands because he didn't think it was acting grateful enough for its pardon.

I'm sure there is a bunch of other stuff I'm forgetting. Those were all the biggest of the past two days I think!
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

FFDragon posted...

"He denies it. Look, he denies it," Trump said of Moore. "If you look at all the things that have happened over the last 48 hours. He totally denies it. He says it didn't happen. And look, you have to look at him also."

"We don't need a liberal person in there, a Democrat, Jones. I've looked at his record. It's terrible on crime. It's terrible on the border. It's terrible on military," Trump said. "I can tell you for a fact we do not need somebody who's going to be bad on crime, bad on borders, bad for the military, bad for the Second Amendment."

"Well, he denies. I mean, he denies. I mean, Roy Moore denies it. And by the way, it is a total denial. And I do have to say 40 years is a long time. He's run eight races and this has never come up. Forty years is a long time," Trump said

How many races did Clinton run before Juanita Broderick made her accusations? Enough for Trump to acquit him, I'm assuming! And Franken ran two different races before these accusations were made, so I'm sure Trump will be defending him on Twitter shortly.

Phew, I was worried all these guys were sleaze bags.
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

Moore was going to win regardless. Alabama was never electing a guy who was pro choice. "Moore might be a child molester, but hey, at least he isn't a democrat."
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

Corrik posted...

I have heard if "their is grass on the field play ball" from perverts and in joking at least 500 more times than I have heard of this dividing rule (which I have never heard of until today).

The only thing I have ever heard regarding age disparity in dating every socially beyond what is above is basically if it's legal go for it.

You hang out with way too many perverts. Or possible with one very talkative pervert. Either way though, that's too many perverts.

You should watch Parks and Rec. It's a good show as long as you don't watch the final season and a half or so.
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

MoogleKupo141 posted...

oh hey, I may have figured out specifically why I know it

In Parks and Recreation Andy (29) asks Tom how young is too young to date. Tom quotes the half-your-age-plus-seven rule, which in Andy's case would be 21 and a half, causing Andy some consternation when he realizes this technically puts the 21-year-old April in the "too young" range. He gets over it. It helps the audience that the age gap between the actors is only five years instead of eight (and that Andy's mental age at best is around 21).

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AgeGapAlgebra

This is where I heard it too!

Good ol' classic Parks and Rec
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

Jakyl25 posted...

I am not reading this whole argument, but the point is not to use this anecdote alone to say anything one way or the other. The point of making a thing out of this description from his book is that it very neatly fits a pattern of behavior by Moore.

In and of itself its nothing. As part of a mounting pile of evidence that Moore was after teenage girls, its fuel to the fire.

I mean this was my initial point. Not that it was illegal, or damning, but when taking in context of everything else we know of Moore and everything he has been accused of, it certainly fits a pattern.

And it is weird.
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

The thing is... Let's just say the 15 year old in question here looked like a damn super model. I mean, she is going to stand out if you like women. He did not do anything wrong by thinking she is attractive and thinking later down the line she was "going to be special to him in life" when she was legal.

It doesn't matter. She's 15. She's not mentally mature. Also there aren't any 15 year olds that look like super models. Also, if you're 30 date someone your own damn age instead of prowling the mall and church plays for kids is my general point, I suppose.

And the crimes he's actually accused of aren't just weird. They're way beyond weird. Weird is eating a candy bar with a fork and knife. Molesting a 14 year old is grotesque, abhorrent, etc.
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

http://time.com/5033861/congress-sexual-misconduct-al-franken-roy-moore-john-conyers/

No reason to believe this is any where near close to ending. We're probably going to get a lot more politicians weeded out before this is all over.
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

Nothing different then meeting a girl in your 30s who is 25 and being like...yeah you used to date my little brothers best friend back when you were 15. I saw you once. There always seemed to be something about you that made me feel we would cross paths again down the rode. Not weird in a vacuum. You are just trying to make it weird to support your narratives.

What is weird is going on a date with a girl who is 14 when you are 30 when the age of consent is 16 in your state.

What is weird is roughing up a girl who denied your advances or trying to..
If true, those are what the real issue is.

I mean that's very different. If a guy is 18 and remembers someone his brother knew who was 15 at the time, and then they meet ten years later or whatever, yeah, that's fine.

This age gap was way bigger. 30 and 15. And it wasn't like she was some family friend, she was just some 15 year old at a church play. There was no initial connection like their was in your scenario.

AND all of this is irrelevant because as you admit there are other factors in play, which is what makes this really weird in the first place. (Also the other two things aren't "weird" as much as they are "abhorrent". You gotta get your weird barometer checked, man.)

I will say though I never heard of the half plus seven rule until I saw it in an episode of Parks and Rec. Most likely because none of my friends were weird enough they ever had to justify the little kids they were interested in romantically!
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

In "not illegal but really freaking weird" news, Roy Moore basically admitted in interviews he specifically remembers first meeting his wife when he was like 30 and she was 15.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/21/politics/roy-moore-kayla-kisor-15-years-old/index.html
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

I mean Franken is a democrat too so the comparison should be apples to apples even if you want to allege bias.

Could just be he has less name recognition I suppose.
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

I am still not entirely sure what the argument for it, other than "the ISPs can now make even more money" or "Obama was for it so it has to be bad".
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

CBS fired Charlie Rose.

http://money.cnn.com/2017/11/21/media/cbs-news-fires-charlie-rose/index.html

trdl23 posted...

Corrik posted...

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/11/21/powerful-dem-rep-john-conyers-
hit-by-report-on-sexual-conduct-with-ex-staffers.html

Shit is getting out of control.

Gfaqs is dumb and thinks link is a censor bypass

Jfc, thats my congressman.

I'm kind of surprised this didn't immediately blow up like the Franken stuff did since this is like 100 times worse. He needs to be removed immediately.
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

Originally reportedly on by buzzfeed of all places.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/paulmcleod/she-complained-that-a-powerful-congressman-harassed-her?utm_term=.nxNyk2Oll#.ugQOMoDmm

Good to see that even in important political stories that buzzfeed sticks to clickbait titles. You would think John Conyers accused of sexual harassment and misusing taxpayer funds would be enough.
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

I never really "got" the first movie. All my friends loved it, but I did not enjoy it at all. The second one was much better though, although I might enjoy it less now considering the third movie they were clearly setting up there will never come to fruition.

The cast looks good though, although no Perlman is a bit disappointing (IIRC he said he wasn't going to do it without del Toro). Tentatively interested!
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

The details that are already out are pretty damning. This is way more than "making any sort of advance on a woman".

Kyle Godfrey-Ryan, one of Roses assistants in the mid-2000s, recalled at least a dozen instances where Rose walked nude in front of her while she worked in one of his New York City homes. He also repeatedly called the then-21-year-old late at night or early in the morning to describe his fantasies of her swimming naked in the Bellport pool as he watched from his bedroom, she said.

It feels branded into me, the details of it, Godfrey-Ryan said.

She said she told Yvette Vega, Roses longtime executive producer, about the calls.

In a statement to The Post, Vega said she should have done more to protect the young women on the show.

I should have stood up for them, said Vega, 52, who has worked with Rose since the show was created in 1991. I failed. It is crushing. I deeply regret not helping them.

Godfrey-Ryan said that when Rose learned she had confided to a mutual friend about his conduct, he fired her.

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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

Corrik posted...

Who?

Derrick Rose's estranged grandfather.
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

Lopen posted...

I'm pretty skeptical of the Charlie Rose one tbh. Man has always seemed like an utmost professional to me, and it shows even in his reaction to the accusations.

I mean certainly could be wrong as I don't know the guy on any sort of personal level but yeah he just really doesn't seem the type.

You think that eight different woman from the 90's to 2011 all got together and fabricated similar stories about Rose? Or what do you mean by being skeptical of it?

He also half apologized for it, so there is something there more than "nothing" imo.

It is essential that these women know I hear them and that I deeply apologize for my inappropriate behavior. I am greatly embarrassed. I have behaved insensitively at times, and I accept responsibility for that, though I do not believe that all of these allegations are accurate. I always felt that I was pursuing shared feelings, even though I now realize I was mistaken.

I have learned a great deal as a result of these events, and I hope others will too. All of us, including me, are coming to a newer and deeper recognition of the pain caused by conduct in the past, and have come to a profound new respect for women and their lives.

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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

WaPo was once again the one that broke the story, same outlet as the Moore accusations.

I'm sure the hardcore Donald Trump supporters out there will rally to his defense and possibly elect him senator from Alabama.
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

http://deadline.com/2017/11/charlie-rose-unwanted-sexual-advances-report-1202212678/

Was going to use WaPo but apparently they don't post articles URLs less than 700 characters.
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

If the girl accusing Moore of some impropriety with her when she was 14 ends up being a prostitute who slept with men from 30-100 regularly and molested a 6 year old boy, that does not lessen her claim against Moore. The claim remains the same and is just as wrong of him if true.

This, 100%.

When I first saw the headline, I thought there were going to be photos from other angles proving he wasn't touching her, or maybe one right after showing she was feigning being asleep.

Her engaging in behavior with other men does not give Franken permission to do whatever he wants. That's dangerously close to "well, she was asking for it". Unless I'm missing the point the author was trying to make.

The only thing in any of those pictures remotely relevant was her going to a ball in his honor, like SEP said. I don't see how the rest has any bearing on the discussion.
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

MN, PA, NJ, and VT have clothing as non taxable.

NY, MA, RI have clothing as non taxable, but only up to a certain limit.

NH, OR, MT, and AK have no sales tax all together.

All the other states tax clothing.
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

I just checked and Pennsylvania is one of only four states in the country where clothing is not taxable (a handful of other states have no sales tax at all).
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

Not where I live! Not in most of the country, actually.

MN is tax free with clothing, but thats the only place anywhere around here.
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

What a time to be alive.
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH-VSWSDfxY&feature=youtu.be

There's a very good chance that December 12 we will have a Senate that has both Roy Moore and Al Franken in it.

So that's cool.
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

HaRRicH posted...

Woman says Franken inappropriately touched her in 2010

Then, as her husband held up her phone and got ready to snap a photo of the two of them, Franken "pulled me in really close, like awkward close, and as my husband took the picture, he put his hand full-fledged on my rear," Menz said. "It was wrapped tightly around my butt cheek."

"It wasn't around my waist. It wasn't around my hip or side. It was definitely on my butt," she said, recalling that the brazen act lasted three or four seconds. "I was like, oh my God, what's happening."

"He reached around her and kind of pulled her into him," said her husband Jeremy Menz, who didn't see what happened behind his wife. "He pulled her in and pushed his head against her head. It was over pretty quick."

Lindsay Menz told CNN that she walked away as soon as the photo was taken, without saying anything to the then-first term senator. When she reconnected with her husband moments later, she told him: "He totally grabbed my butt." Jeremy Menz described that conversation the same way to CNN.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/20/politics/al-franken-inappropriate-touch-2010/index.html

Yeah, it seemed like only a matter of time before there were additional allegations. It was part of the reason I wanted him out of the Senate ASAP.

I can only assume there will be more of these to follow, but at this point it doesn't seem like Franken is going to do the right thing and step down.

"I take thousands of photos at the state fair surrounded by hundreds of people, and I certainly don't remember taking this picture," Franken reportedly said. "I feel badly that Ms. Menz came away from our interaction feeling disrespected."

Yeah, getting fondled by a sitting senator might make you feel disrespected for some reason.
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."

Corrik posted...

banananor posted...

argument about the flat sales tax strategy: a flat sales tax quite literally taxes poor people at a higher rate than rich people

poor people spend 100% of their income on the things they need

as people earn more and more, they are able to save and end up spending a smaller and smaller percentage of their income

So if the flat sales tax were 30% or something, poor people would have an effective tax rate of 30%, while people like me would have an effective tax rate of something like 15%, because I save half of the money I earn.

Not true. You wouldn't have sales tax on utilities, rent, most foods.

Income tax always seemed like the fairest way to me, but it is true that the very wealthy in this country get off paying very little taxes because they know the tricks of the tax code. If we are going to do a flat sales tax, I would want certain other essentials to be tax free as well. Things like clothes, specifically. I obviously would be fine with things like designer clothing being taxed, but there should be some amount families should be allowed to spend on clothing/necessary items.

Again, the idea would be to minimize the tax burden on poor/lower middle class families.

What would you do about corporate taxes? Remove them entirely and only tax them for materials they are buying?
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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."