He’s less a local dick, and more a regional dick trying to be a nationally relevant dick - cutting off Planned Parenthood’s funding for a state the size of Texas is more than just local dickishness.

Exactly. Let’s not forget this is a guy who’s always cultivated a relationship with ESPN to a point where they build a segment around his NCAA bracket each year. He (or at least his team) have always gotten niche marketing and micro-targeting in a way the rest of the political universe is just picking up on - hence…

Because, following up on the last 30 years of Presidents he’s looked for ways to get media exposure without relying on the press. I mean, you can go back to FDR’s fireside chats, but especially since Reagan and Clinton it has been about using soft free media wherever possible, and even with paid media reaching out…

While libel per se (which is what you are talking about) presumes damages as an element of the case - and thus you can’t get a case dismissed on summary judgment for lack of damage, you still aren’t going to recover a meaningful amount without proving up significant harm. Especially since the Supreme Court has…

As a man I would be jealous of such a card - Scottish folds (or really any of the silly ass kittens of the world) are worth becoming a crazy cat person.

I don’t think it is a majority of attorneys who are assholes (and I say this as someone who hasn’t practiced in nearly a decade because of just shitty experiences) but it is definitely an over-represented trait in the profession. Especially among litigators, since we largely self-select for our argumentative,…

Well, they didn’t seem germane to the initial post but to your particular (and completely understandable) view of the issue. I have a compulsive need to educate, and I don’t mind if the audience is just one person. But thank you.

What they’ve been conditioned to think is the core liberal (in the classic political sense, not a modern left/right sense) idea that the individual is the key unit of defining any issue, that the individual should have as close to complete autonomy over their decisions as possible and that the role of government…

Just to be clear, it is a contested issue in the US to even have a federal Department of Education, as for ridiculously over-strict interpreters like Bevin will tell you there’s nothing in the Constitution about it (never mind 200+ years of precedent clarifying that not every power had to be spelled out). Local…

Yes, but under our Supreme Court you at least have nearly unfettered access to weapons to defend your rights against tyrannical clawbacks. At least until the GOP reinstates the idea of PMS as a disqualifying mental illness that prevents you from obtaining a license (one form of gun control I bet smarmy Ted Cruz would…

Yeah, people should really just call them “Reaganites” or even “Nixonites” to a) enrage them more fully and b) more accurately convey that they are talking post Southern Strategy, empower the Southern/Christian evangelical base GOP, not the GOP of Lincoln, Roosevelt or even Eisenhower.

That is absolutely the logic - fungibility of money and the inherent assumption that PP must be making money off all its other services for the purposes of subsidizing its provision of abortion services. Which is probably true at the extreme margins - namely that some fraction of the administrative fees built into…

Probably were using runners or other street agents to recruit clients. There was a time when, to discourage litigation, attorneys were theoretically barred from advertising or contacting potential clients in any way that was seen as encouraging litigation. Now you can advertise, but generally attorneys aren’t supposed…

Utah is the heart of the US supplement industry in no small part because a common interpretation of the Book of Mormon is to support “natural” approaches to health wherever possible.. More broadly Mormons are at the heart of many Multi Level Marketing systems because their tight social circles can be readily exploited…

The system is already programmed against a truly open process on the RNC side. After the last couple of cycles, the RNC has shifted dates, tightened the primary schedule and moved to more winner take all or winner take most primaries, while also arguing for more closed primaries - all of which is to make the process…

Diabetes, though, that’s the universal language (granted with different accents).

I’m thinking the two issues are linked. These guys think its going to be a bunch of pretty young things showing up and wanting to touch their guns, when in reality these will be the women who can and will drink with them and have their own guns. They aren’t going to be looking to break up marriages because that would…

While I understand your concern, I’d argue that those are the exact same reasons people do any task involving risk and sacrifice, not just combat. From sports to research teams to law firms, the best groups are the ones where people respect one another and don’t want to let their colleagues down. And we have a lot of…

That is such a Rebecca/Wonkette story. Not up there with her epic “first date” that involved a reader meet and greet tour, relocating to Montana and an unplanned pregnancy, but a Wonkette tale. I don’t know if it will make for a better or worse working environment but it won’t lack for interesting twists.

If it is the same “14 words” it has been around for decades as code for white supremacists. Sorkin had the Secret Service agents do an expository bit on it in the West Wing fairly early in the show. I also feel bad that you are related to such people.