Stable Genius Liberal

John Boehner just confirmed everything liberals suspected about the Republican Party

John Boehner was the Speaker of the House as recently as a single year ago. He is, himself, a conservative Republican. And he is saying, flatly, that the Republican Party has been captured by morons, goofballs, and “Lucifer.” He is saying that the party has moved so far to the right that Ronald Reagan wouldn’t recognize it.

Boehner is validating one of the most persistent and controversial critiques of the modern Republican Party. And he has the authority to do so.

24% Opt Out of a Clinton-Trump Race – Rasmussen Reports™

Trump is more toxic within his own party than Clinton is in hers. If Trump is the Republican nominee, 16% of GOP voters say they would choose a third-party candidate, while five percent (5%) would stay home. Sixty-six percent (66%) would vote for Trump, but 10% would vote for Clinton instead.

If Clinton is the Democratic nominee, 11% of Democrats would vote third-party, while three percent (3%) would stay home. Seventy-five percent (75%) would support the nominee, but 11% say they would vote for Trump.

Among voters not affiliated with either major party, nearly one-third say they would opt out: 21% would choose a candidate other than Trump or Clinton, and 10% would stay home. Trump leads Clinton 38% to 27% among unaffiliated voters.

Number.

Here are the many ways Trump’s big foreign policy speech made no damn sense

We have to be both stable and completely unpredictable: Trump repeatedly said the United States had “no coherent foreign policy” and needed to again become a stable and dependable ally. How to do that? “We must, as a nation, be more unpredictable.”

I don’t think Trump understands the difference between platitudes and policy.

Wrath of the Conned

Both parties make promises to their bases. But while the Democratic establishment more or less tries to make good on those promises, the Republican establishment has essentially been playing bait-and-switch for decades. And voters finally rebelled against the con.

…

One possible explanation is the decadence of the G.O.P. establishment, which has become ingrown and lost touch. Apparatchiks who have spent their whole careers inside the bubble of right-wing think tanks and partisan media may suffer from the delusion that their ideology is actually popular with real people. And this has left them hapless in the face of a Trumpian challenge.

Worth a read.

How To Tell When Statistics Are Bullshit With A 99 Percent* Success Rate | VICE | United States

Worth a read.

Donald Trump says illegal immigration is at a record high. He’s wrong

According to recent estimates by the Center for Migration Studies, the number of immigrants living in the country without authorization has fallen to the lowest level since 2003, thanks in part to a major buildup of border security started by President George W. Bush and continued by President Obama.

The decrease among Mexicans has been particularly stark, with net migration of Mexicans to the U.S. falling to lows not seen since the 1940s, according to Pew Research Center.

Which all begs a question: Why has Trump focused on illegal immigration now, given that it’s a less significant phenomenon than it was in the past?

It’s possible that he just doesn’t know and it doesn’t occur to him to ask.

One of Trump’s defining features is that he thinks he is right about everything all the time and never considers that he might be wrong. When reality doesn’t line up with his beliefs he attacks the messenger as being politically correct or a lightweight or for the way they talk or look.

College Kids Aren’t the Only Ones Demanding ‘Safe Spaces’

conservatives who get hysterical about the “delicate snowflakes” on campus should take a look at their own media-consumption habits. It’s hard to imagine anything funnier than a 70-year-old who watches 90 hours of Fox News a week and then rails against college kids who are afraid of new ideas.

But it’s not just Fox viewers. Most of the cable TV news industry is just a series of safe spaces. There are conservative channels and liberal channels, all of them huge seas of more or less unanimous opinion. Viewers tune in, suckle their thumbs, and wait to have their own opinions vomited back at them.

The ones complaining about political correctness the loudest and longest are the ones most guilty of missing the point.

Universities: Suspend Social Justice in Universities

Once again, there is absolutely no difference between anti-pc outrage politics and the worst excesses of the straw SJWs that imagine themselves in battle with. If saying something offensive is free speech worthy of protection, even if you disagree; then saying “that’s offensive” is also free speech worthy of protection, even if you disagree.

That neither side seems to see this is really disappointing.

Octopus slips out of aquarium tank, crawls across floor, escapes down pipe to ocean

This ends with it summoning Cthulhu

Goldman Sachs Finally Admits it Defrauded Investors During the Financial Crisis

This resolution holds Goldman Sachs accountable for its serious misconduct in falsely assuring investors that securities it sold were backed by sound mortgages, when it knew that they were full of mortgages that were likely to fail

The real story here is that Goldman can no longer get away with paying a fine while admitting to no wrong doing.