To a man who only believes in racism, every problem appears to be someone else's fault.

Touche'

Actually, I think Newt is the only person who has the street cred to keep Trump from self-immolating.

Newt =  Chief of Staff
Rudy = Sec DHS
Chrispy = AG

Who else for his Cabinet?

Not official until tomorrow but looks like Trump and his team have settled on social conservative Mike Pence (Gov, IN-R) as their VP pick.

Better choice than Christie or a few others, not as 'diverse' as I had suspected, and comes with pros and cos as a well-known social conservative and outward Christian.

Gonna be interesting to see how this plays out over the weekend and into the convention.

'Gimp

Funny how there's been no real speculation on Shrillary's pick.

An "owner maintained" category would be handy.

I have a MS in electrical engineering. I can't swap out a balky PTT, legally.

JB, I respect that you attempt to discuss these things, but I have to say that you and your lady friend are ascribing a reason for her detention or your own experience that is colored (pun not intended) by your own biases. 

Could it be there are/were other legitimate reasons for the cops action with your lady friend, maybe a policy or other guidance?  You will never actually know for certain why any other human being does anything they do, either they tell you why and you take it at face value, or you choose what to ascribe their action to, either you give them the benefit of the doubt or you don't. 

Seems like many people of color choose to ascribe ill motive when LEO's are involved and simply reject the possibility there are other legitimate reasons for their actions.  Worse, they seem to assume that whites and other non-blacks don't experience the same issues. 

I've been asked rather aggressively if I was drinking at a sobriety stop and had the cop argue with me about my being a non-drinker (never had alcohol of any kind, ever).  Was it because I am white?  Because I am an amputee?  Because I was in a Dodge?  Or could it be because he was at a sibreity checkpoint in Albuquerque NM and had been finding drunk after drunk that night?

I have had my own experience regarding motorcycles and the police, and while not exactly the same as yours most cops don't like bikers in my experience and give us a hard time period, and when you are armored up and under a helmet they can't tell what color you are.

This is the problem I see with what strikes me as a victim mentality where one always assumes the worst and ascribes the most base and awful motive to anything their fellow man does.

'Gimp

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, and sometimes an asshole cop is just an asshole cop.

The part where we presuppose that being a nation of factory workers and farmers is right and good, and the current state of affairs is not.

The fact of the matter is that modern America no longer needs a substantial portion of the population to know how to build log cabins or work the factory line. We need people who can build software, circuit boards, and space ships, among others. This is not a sign we've lost our mojo, it's a sign of growth and modernization.

Where the hell did I say that?

When I was a kid, we built go carts and and tree forts from scrap wood. We graduated to hot rods, chemistry sets and Heathkits. Now we have a generation that can't design themselves out of a paper bag, don't know what end of a hammer to hold. Now we have a generation of "smart" phone USERS who don't build anything and have absolutely no idea how any of it works, much less how to make anything. If it stops working, toss it, and buy a new one. If the one they have works fine, but the marketers shipped a shiny new one, toss the old reliable out.


BTW, we only need a few hundred thousand people to build software, circuit boards, and space ships, What's everyone else going to do?

Did you oppose George H.W. Bush's "New World Order"?

No, that was necessary groundwork for the pulling of WTC7, Marv.

In a word, yes.

The very exceptionalism and rugged individualism that made America such a great place and a land of opportunity has been under constant assault for decades from nearly every direction, cultural, philosophical, educational, and governmental - we have regulated and PC'd ourselves into a pale imitation of the greatest generation and the current situation in the EU and UK is a grey foreshadowing of our future of managed decline and ever more limited personal liberty, all in exchange for 'the common good'.

It is very depressing and disheartening since we are willingly doing it to ourselves as a people when instead we should raging against the dying of the light.

'Gimp

Yep.  This is no longer a nation of builders, it's a nation of users.