Comments

1

'Merica, where the one Black senator can say there's no racism in the USA, and the party that supports racist policies can say, "See, a Black guy says there's no racism so it must be true!" with no sense of irony that the party only has one Black senator.

2

Jesus, the "unintended consequences" of the menthol cigarette ban that Matt scoffed at are things like the death of Eric Garner. So we are just seeing the light on drug decriminalization but criminalizing menthols, overwhelming preferred by blacks is a good move? This will create a massive black market that blacks will service and thus give cops one more reason to arrest and maybe kill another one of them. But those dumb blacks and there unhealthy menthols, jeesh. Right Matty?

3

Haha, Trump and Mike Lindell must be fa--ots. Zinger there Matt.

5

@2 black market menthols? Ell oh ell. New opportunity for the leaded gas and red dye #2 kingpins.

You could do with some remedial civics, though. Regulation of consumer goods has no connection to criminal law.

6

Apparently #5 was absent from civics class when regulatory crimes were discussed.

7

Lindell should embrace anyone entering the country, as illegals need pillows too! It's just good business!

Did Stadia really need a search bar before, what with their paltry collection of games?

Would Microsoft adding a PDF editor only fuel arguments that its OS is monopolistic and unfriendly to third-party developers? People had a huge issue with them pushing IE and other MS softwares integrated into their OS, or did you forget about that? Besides, Edge natively reads PDFs and actually isn't a terrible browser, try it.

And finally; really, Tim Scott?

8

@2: Yes, that seems to be the message. Smoking with menthol is far worse than the police murder of people like Eric Garner by enforcing stupid cigarette laws. We will save black people by destroying them, just as we did with the drug war.

Didn't we just have a story about how enforcing the bike helmet law the Seattle Times promoted about a year ago led to the kind of wide disparity in enforcement literally everyone but the Seattle Times realized would happen based on how the law has been enforced in every other State?

What was the lesson from George Floyd's murder by cops for committing the misdemeanor or passing a bad $20? How many times do we plan to repeat the failed over criminalization policies behind the drug war and every other attempt to use police violence to enforce a healthier lifestyle?

9

Tim Scott is a fine senator and is helping to to bring about a policing reform bill with the dems. People who disparage him for being a "token black" are the most disgusting racists of all.

11

@6 eyeroll

All these agents of Big Menthol around here. Sheesh.

12

Tim Scott’s just as gay as Lindsay Graham.... where do you think this level of cognitive dissonance comes from? Let’s be real folx...

Disavow your body, then anything dumb under the sun can happen. Like turning into a republican! Eek!!

Love your bodies and what they naturally do, everyone. Happy fucking Thursday!

13

Menthol is bad for you. Don't do it and let's make it illegal. You want to shoot up heroin? Here's a government supplied needle and we should open a safe consumption site so we can revive you when you inevitably overdose. Makes total sense.

14

@1 um there are more than one black Senators. There was this election. He's the one GQP Black Senator.

16

"The comment @13 has been brought to you by the American Tobacco, Narcotics, And Alcohol Manufacturers Association: Getting You High, Keeping You High, And Making Tons Of Cash While Killing You Since 1610. Drink Responsibly, Don't Do Drugs and - oh, who are we kidding, just get WASTED, Bro - those yachts and private jets aren't going to buy themselves!"

17

@14 Right, meant GOP senator.

@9 Don't think anyone has disparaged him as a "token black" here, but you must realize the cognitive dissonance in helping Dems to craft a police reform bill that targets racism in policing and making a statement that 'Merica isn't racist. That's the point. He can be a fine Senator but saying that is ridiculous and deserves ridicule.

18

@5: "You could do with some remedial civics, though. Regulation of consumer goods has no connection to criminal law."

"A Ban on Menthol Cigarettes Will Lead to More Confrontations Between Black People and Police"

https://reason.com/2021/04/26/a-ban-on-menthol-cigarettes-will-lead-to-more-confrontations-between-black-people-and-police/

19

Decidedly not Biden's first State of the Union address; that's likely to be in January 2022. Merely an address to a joint session.

Not sure why this little factual flub inspired me to comment, but hey!

20

"Any word on native PDF integration?"

The newest Microsoft Edge browser is an excellent PDF viewer, and this technology is available for developers as well with the WebView2 .Net component.

22

@21 With critical privacy differences. Happy to use Edge. Chrome has no place on my system.

23

@17: Yeah, but one black GOP senator is better than none, right? I know how much fun it is to tee-tee, but let's use bridges for political progress where they exist.

24

*tee-hee

25

How about no GQP senators?

That works for me.

26

The fact that the only thing the GOP has to offer this country are fearmongering about socialism and the continued flat out lie that this country isn't racist shows us everything we need to know (most of us have known for decades now, but they're not even trying to hide anything anymore).

The GOP just does not give one fuck about the reality of the 99.9999% in this country. They want to live in a white supremacist utopia where they have all of the power and all of the money and everyone else exists solely to provide them with those two things and if they don't fall in line to do so, they don't deserve to exist (and that includes their own - as shown by how they are going after every GOP representative who did not support Trump's attempted coup). FFS even Mike Pence is back in line and Trump very specifically attempted to have him murdered.

27

@16 get high, don’t get high. It’s your business. I only point out the absurdity of the progressive approach. Pick a lane. If Menthol is a public health crisis that warrants regulations and restriction one would think more harmful substances should be discouraged as well.

28

@26: But at least I hope you're gracious enough to not preclude your rage from getting one more vote in the Senate on a police or gun control measure (or anything else) just because he's black?

29

@23 Setting the bar pretty low, no? How about a Black GOP senator who acknowledges the racism in the USA? A bridge too far, I suppose. How can one expect him to solve problems he can't even see?

31

You know what would be a great public health measure that would reduce unnecessary suffering and premature deaths in this country on a massive, historical scale? Medicare for All! But sure, menthol cigarette prohibition, why not.

33

It makes no sense to ban menthol cigarettes and not ban ALL cigarettes.

34

@32 You should just change your username to Professor_Misery

35

@29: He doesn't need to solve problems he cannot see. He has a vote. A vote that might go along with Lisa (AK) and Susan (ME) even if Joe (WV) slips.

Only when politics becomes a game of subtraction, rather than addition, can we say the bar has gone too low.

37

@36 money

38

@32: The way countries with universal health coverage do it is they attach a tax to the sale of each package of cigarettes that funds the medical care you will need for the lung cancer and emphysema you will get from smoking them. Cigarettes are much more expensive in those places because with every pack you are paying for your future chemo.

39

@32: It's not the job of government to intrude into our private lives, telling us what we can or cannot smoke, eat, or drink as you would expect it not telling us we can do in our own bedrooms.

40

Mr. Baume - Jimmy Kimmel has been a relentless MyPillowGuy critic for a long time. He has a recurring skit about him and makes fun of his craziness. He challenged him to come on his show and he did. I only watch his stand up routine that gets posted on YouTube from time to time and I picked this information up. If you truly are a journalist, or at least aspire to become one, shouldn't you do just a modicum of research first?

42

@38 pretty sure that's how we do it here too. "In Washington, cigarettes are subject to a state excise tax of $3.03 per pack of 20. Cigarettes are also subject to Washington sales tax of approximately $0.49 per pack, which adds up to a total tax per pack of $3.52."

@34 I think Professor Hysterics is much more appropriate

44

@27:

Well, when we add "Narcotics" to the title of the "Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives" maybe that can happen. Until then, the DEA has purview over that aspect of public policy, and they need to keep drugs illegal, otherwise they'd all have to go out and get real jobs.

47

@43:

Don't you-all ever get tired of trotting out that old "Democrats of Today are just like Democrats from 170 years ago" canard? This hasn't been true since Goldwater, a Republican who voted against the 1964 Civil Rights Act, ran for president on an anti-desegregation platform that same year. So, your assertion has been demonstrably false for nearly one-third of that 17 decade span.

49

@45:

Some points for your edification:

Biden's speech last night wasn't a "State of The Union" address (given, this has been the case with newly-elected presidents going back to Reagan). In addition, the entire Congress wasn't present.

Trump's first SOTU only drew 45.5 million viewers.

Obama's first address to a joint session of Congress drew more than 48 million viewers. In addition, the ratings for first speeches to Congress given by Bush II (58.8 mm) and Clinton (45.8 mm) were higher than Trump's.

Other people know how to use teh Google to look up things on Wikipedia, too...

50

@48:

I'm hoping you intended to direct that @43 and not at me?

53

Also, I'd pay good coinage to see him bite the head off a live chicken - but no more than twenty-five cents - I'm no slack-jawed country bumpkin! And it better be followed by a beautiful lady transformed into a rampaging gorilla, or at least an alligator with a goat's head - and that doesn't even have to be alive.

55

@51 Poor sad Feebs. The past year has been hard on him. So much losing. His hero lost the Presidency (and cost his party control of the government), Covid didn't go away magically last Easter, and his Real Americans in the Heartlands turned out to be mostly a figment of his Parler riddled imagination. No wall. No Storm or Great Awakening. Sad.

At least he still has all of us here to laugh at him!

56

I'd personally not be even the slightest bit surprised to see any Trump speech, SOTU or otherwise, outdraw any that Biden gave. Biden is a relatively dull, responsible and rational public speaker. His speeches are predictably informative, but offer little chance that he'll get into a petty argument or physical confrontation with anyone in attendance. He's also far less likely to suffer a catastrophic coronary attack on stage than was his predecessor, and so much less likely to draw eyeballs form those like myself who would shamefully watch a locomotive barreling toward a crowd of civilians.

57

@54,

I'd think christians are the most evil murderous racist organization that has ever existed in America. They killed way more than those other groups you listed. Just look at the crusades alone.

59

@56 - a lot of people pay to see professional wrestling, too.


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