Well that settles that.

The lawsuit against the DNC has been dismissed. The court didn't rule on any of the substantive grounds, simply decreeing that the plaintiffs lacked standing. If you want to join the rabble-rousers, visit Tim Black's Facebook page.

So I guess that settles it. As Caitlin Johnstone told us in April:

A recently-released transcript of Florida court documents has revealed that the Democratic National Committee’s first line of defense in their motion to dismiss a lawsuit against them by defrauded Bernie Sanders supporters is to state that they are under no contractual obligation to provide the American people with real party primaries.

Yes, really. That’s their Plan A. In order to avoid a situation where they could be forced to return some of the small-dollar campaign donations of Sanders’ base, representatives of the regulatory committee for the Democratic party have tacitly admitted in a court of law that they are running a fake political party using the lie of legitimate primary elections to manufacture political engagement, and that democracy is officially dead in America.

So I guess they aren't under any contractual obligation to provide the American people with real party primaries. Y'know, I kinda miss the old smoke-filled rooms, in which the nominations were decided for us. They were at least honest.

So here's my idea. When the next Democratic Party primary rolls around, we should hold the Smoke-Filled Room Campaign. We put up smoke-filled rooms as stage props at the rallies of Democratic Party candidates, dressed as 1920s mobsters, and smoke mugwort or sage cigars (no, this isn't about cannabis, nor is it about tobacco) while dramatizing the rigged nature of the whole process in short skits.

Whaddaya think?

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WaterLily's picture

(Still, I'm ripshit).

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WaterLily's picture

@WaterLily I like 1920s fashion. Count me in on the SFR campaign.

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divineorder's picture

@WaterLily

Brand New Congress and 2 others follow

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Cassiodorus's picture

@divineorder Smoke-filled rooms say "We've selected a candidate; either like it or fuck off." What we have now are "election" patrons telling us "here's this charade. It will elect a candidate and we will make you believe that it was the will of the people." That's a lot worse.

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“Those who make Bernie Sanders impossible will make Luigi Mangione inevitable." - Dan Berger

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Cassiodorus Agreed.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Wink's picture

@Cassiodorus
wonder why BernieBros and Berniecrats - who were totally fucked over by the Ones dragging HRC across the finish line - didn't vote for "the Primary winner," Her Highness. Well, at least it's official.
"That's right, Democrats, we will pick the candidate, and if you don't like it you can suck it!" Well, fine, then. Run your Kamala. I'll vote for none of the above. Again.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

@Cassiodorus

that sounds familiar. goes well with

"Now's not the time."

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went to court and argued that they have no obligation to tell the truth and they won? Remember how Democrats thought there was something unseemly about winning by proving you have the right to lie? Better days...

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I don't intend to donate any money or to vote in their stupid primary.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

divineorder's picture

@dkmich

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

@dkmich This should really help their fund-raising.

Bye bye Democrats. The next insurgent candidate will have to be from a new party.

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Mary Bennett

divineorder's picture

Besides his FB page which some here would never go to because FB, seems there are other opportunities to interact about this with TB

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

detroitmechworks's picture

Voters aren't allowed to complain, candidates aren't allowed to complain...

I guess a Corporate Sponsor might have standing to complain. So I guess we just have to convince them that the Democrats stole money from them. Seems to be the only way a trial ever gets actually RULED on nowafuckingdays.

See, you're ALLOWED to steal money and defraud the little guy. Of course, that's why the little guys need to remember their place...

Because it's not about Justice, or elections, or lies... it's keeping those ants in line.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@detroitmechworks Well, candidates might be allowed to complain, but everyone knows they're either in on the game or having their arms twisted in private.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Steven D's picture

@detroitmechworks would have had standing the way I read the Judge's opinion. He would have been the only one who could claim a specific (as opposed to a general) injury from the DNC's violation of its charter.

I'd like to see Beck appeal this, but I'm not surprised at the outcome. There was very little case law on people suing political parties based on the idea those organizations owed a fiduciary duty to voters.

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"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

Amanda Matthews's picture

https://disobedientmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Screen-Shot-2017...

I expected this. And I figured the reason would be something bullshit as 'no standing'. How can the cheated and defrauded have 'no standing'?

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

Dibs on playing that bookstore gal from The Big Sleep.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

snoopydawg's picture

was Bernie's silence on the whole rigged primary. There is no way that he didn't know about the number of people who had their party affiliation changed, kicked totally off the voting rolls, what happened at the Nevada caucus and how his supporters were treated at the convention. How he could have stayed silent when huge areas of his supporters had the lights turned off, had huge placards from Hillary's supporters that blocked them from view or they weren't allowed into the convention altogether.
The final nail was when he was asked if Hillary had won the election fair and square and he answered yes. No taking time to think about it, but an unequivocal "yes".

This is why I don't care what new group of progressive democrats are trying to accomplish, I will never vote for a democrat again. They do not deserve my vote.
Not after they insisted on running the only candidate that would lose to Trump.

My sigline has never been more true than after what the democrats did to us.
Starting with the Empty Suit.

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The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt

Amanda Matthews's picture

@snoopydawg
he should have taken a stand on. INCLUDING putting the skids to him and his supporters being blamed for the Clinton Creature's loss.

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

Wink's picture

@Amanda Matthews
the cards he was dealt about as well as he could have played them. It's not what any of us wanted, including me, but when you're dealt a $h!tty hand... well, you don't push your pile to the middle of the table, double dog daring the table to beat your pair of threes, 8 high. And, I love that he and "we" are blamed for Her loss. Fuck her, and fuck them.
And, despite all that happy horse$h!t Bernie still is America's favorite politician. By a lot. Now, that and a dollar 75 might get him a cup of coffee, but there's No Doubt - Zero - that he's all in on 2018 and, if healthy, 2020. That's NOT to say he's running, just to say he's the major player, likely king maker.
Not bad for somebody that got spanked but good just a year ago! Could he have done better by flipping off the party and "going rogue?" We'll never know. But I like where he is. And, given the Judge's -ahem- "decision," he Totally is in the driver's seat! This is his ballgame.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

Amanda Matthews's picture

@Wink
supporter and advocate for the DNC and the people who cheated us during the election on the one hand and maintain this fraud of caring about what happens to his 'supporters'. A lot of people put their faith in the guy and stood behind and gave him their money to fight for them. What did he do (and is STILL DOING)? He turned into nothing more than their obedient sheep dog. He defends them, something he's never done for his supporters. He can stay just where he is because we need someone who won't end up pandering for the people he spent his entire campaign telling us were unfit to govern.

He"s the Clinton DNC's biggest advocate. His word isn't worth shit.

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

lunachickie's picture

@Amanda Matthews - Til the day I die, IMO, Sanders is doing what he's told to do, because he likes breathing. And he likes his family breathing

But I'm not arguing with you on this, you've made your feelings abundantly clear as often as possible, using that word, since last year. So you go have your belief and I'll have mine. And one of these days, real soon, we're gonna see which one of us is closer to reality. If I were a betting woman, however, I'd never put money on that "sheepdog" shit. That always hits me as a contrivance worthy of that woman "I can't win so HE can't EITHER! Let's start a hate campaign in the press...." History shows that is exactly that's the kind of petty, childish, fucked-up bullshit buzzword Her Heinous and her little minions would contrive. And not for nothin', but it's one of the reasons I took a break from this place--every time I turned around, there was that little whisper campaign, even here.

Let me be clear--you are absolutely entitled to your opinion. But IMO, this particular opinion with that buzzword is beyond obnoxious and dead-wrong, to boot. I say Sanders is coerced. The end.

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@lunachickie That doesn't mean I will trust him again.

If elected, will he just turn around and prove himself a liar like Obama?

I'm afraid to pin any hopes on him.

TPTB have gotten too big for their britches and can only be overthrown, not voted out.

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Amanda Matthews's picture

@lunachickie
That's mighty kind of you.

And it's not like we haven't seen all that "he's been threatened" stuff from you a multitude of times. Did someone give you permission for your over-the-top opinion?

I don't kindly to snide,underhanded, petty insults. So my not going along with all this Secret Squirrel shit makes me sound like WHO???

If I were a betting woman, however, I'd never put money on that "sheepdog" shit. That always hits me as a contrivance worthy of that woman "I can't win so HE can't EITHER! Let's start a hate campaign in the press...." History shows that is exactly that's the kind of petty, childish, fucked-up bullshit buzzword Her Heinous and her little minions would contrive.

You really need to get a grip and tone down your nonsense. I didn't compare you to Alex Jones, did I?

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

Wink's picture

@Amanda Matthews @Amanda Matthews
being Bernie he had to keep his fucking mouth shut during the DNC lawsuit.
He couldn't have done anything else without looking like a whiney pants librul.
The judge in that DNC case just did him a favor. The judge's decision no longer beholds Bernie to the DNC or the party. He finally has cards to play. He can walk away from it all and no one will blame him. Or he can stay, continue to be an unwelcomed player in their cess pool. Either way, he's the elephant in the room. The one ignored at your own risk. I think he rather enjoys his status as the big dog with the cold nose, whether or not he chooses to stay in the cess pool or flip it off and run his own show. I suspect he stays in the cess pool, becuz as stinky as it is it's the game he knows how to play, the outside world too much of an unknown. He wins either way. Both 2018 and 2020 are his. And, you just know that frosts DWS' granny panties.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

Amanda Matthews's picture

@Wink
Country, but considering what a bunch of greedy self-serving shits most of them are, that's not a hard task for a honest man. But as the Special Elections showed, a Sanders endorsement doesn't mean anything. He is PERSONALLY popular but his continued pandering for the 'Democratic' Party is going nowhere, just as his endorsements in the recent Specialy Elections went nowhere.

He's never going to be allowed to run as a Dim. So unless he finally puts his butt on the line and runs Third Party, he won't be running for anything. Establishment Dims will see to that. It's Harris/Booker or another pair like that who are TRUE Third Wayers.

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

Wink's picture

@Amanda Matthews
on Bernie for abandoning The Left all they want, I'm not so fast to cut his legs out from under him. I have no idea where Bernie takes this, or if he takes this anywhere. Doesn't really matter either way. What can't be taken away is he is the Only politician in 50 years to get as many people off their dead asses as he did. And there is nobody - Nobody - that can sustain what he has generated. Nobody. Not sure what happens in 2018, but not convinced it's a Dem party tsunami, and not so sure if it matters that Bernie is involved or not.
Sorry that Bernie did not meet expectations - not - but the amount of Bernie hate is amazing.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

Amanda Matthews's picture

@Wink
Bernie 'hate' if you don't trust the guy for his 180 degree support for the 'party' that cheated and (continues) to denigrate him and the people that supported him. You can have an opinion but if someone disagrees with you, it's Bernie hate.

Sound familiar?

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

@snoopydawg @Amanda Matthews It's simply beyond my understanding how you can expect to work with a party or enact change from the inside when you can't even acknowledge your supporters got cheated by an unrepentant party who all but promise to do the same next time. You can't tacitly accept the same system you're looking to change.

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Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

Wink's picture

@Dr. John Carpenter
There are tons of pro-Bernie Pages on Facebook waiting to see what happens next.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

@snoopydawg

Makes me wonder how much of Bernie's run perhaps was to let those infiltrating/running government against the public interest show the American people exactly what pathetically venal and corrupt inimical enemies of democracy, the American people and the country itself the two Trade-Off Corporate/billionaire 'political parties' and paymasters really were... Given the opportunity, they certainly - very blatantly and thoroughly - proved that.

The problem is it's looking even more as though the wrong sort of revolution would be needed to try to get the corruption out of the US government in all related areas, which doesn't seem any more likely to end well for anyone than would continued passive submission...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Socialprogressive's picture

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I'm great at multi-tasking. I can waste time, be unproductive, and procrastinate all at the same time.

gulfgal98's picture

the DNC own the lawsuit and lost their last cintilla of credibility. They may still suck up big donor dollars until they are no longer worth the investment, but as a party of the people, the Democrats are dead. They showed they have no soul.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Cassiodorus's picture

@gulfgal98 when their lawyers argued in front of said judge that the Democratic Party was and is under no obligation to host fair primary elections. This argument appears to have won the day with today's decision, since they were somehow able to intimidate Bernie Sanders into accepting the results and since nobody else has "standing" to challenge the whole charade.

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“Those who make Bernie Sanders impossible will make Luigi Mangione inevitable." - Dan Berger

WaterLily's picture

@Cassiodorus Back in the heat of the "election," I argued against this, repeatedly. Then I started noticing the phenomenon of "We don't want you voting in our primaries, but wait! You owe us your vote in the general!" BS.

This is the final nail in the coffin. Close your damn primaries while I point and laugh at the abysmal turnout you'll command.

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Wink's picture

@gulfgal98
as a major Player.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

lunachickie's picture

@Wink That's the part we have to get the word out on--quote that stupid DNC lawyer, saying they didn't have to follow their own rules. That's the DNC in a nutshell.

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Just horrible.

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The Aspie Corner's picture

Given they're already shoving Harris, Patrick and Booker down our throats, it seems to me they're already doing the smoke-filled back room deals bit. Same with Tom Perez as DNC chair too.

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

gulfgal98's picture

@The Aspie Corner but champagne and caviar at the Hamptons. Wink

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

whither (what you do to your enemies) and spine (when you have principles). Once, established, the bullshit is now self-cloning. It is not hopeless, it is temporarily problematic, force the wrong path to the direct path. Pray, even if your god, sits eside you. Take every opportunity to guide them. Walk a mile, return the whirlwind.

Change Fate. If you can't have friends that love you, maybe you are not a true friend.

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Fighting for democratic principles,... well, since forever

Mark from Queens's picture

Most of us know he defended some of the biggest national cases from the 1960's on. He basically concluded that the law is a farce, intended and used to protect rich white people and their property. And, I would add, cops.

After the farce of the Chicago 8 conspiracy trial, which they heroically and creatively challenged, he said flat out that the law in the United States was "all a living lie." He'd seen enough throughout his career: the lies, deception and conspiratorial nature of the government to crush dissent, liberty and truth.

I have absolutely no faith in the U.S. Justice system. Yeah, there may be an aberration here and there. But overall, like every institution fronting for the Stars & Stripes, it's a sleazy, corrupt, captured entity beholden to their donors.

Even the fucking black Attorney General couldn't indict the cold-blooded murderer cops for the senseless deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.

Wall St banks dealing in robo-signing fraudulent mortgages, laundering drug cartel money, fixing global interest rates through LIBOR, creating more and more esoteric scams that are nothing more than business model of leaving some dupe holding an empty bag while they get filthy rich; and corporations permitted to merge and acquire more and more further consolidating their monopolies and destroying competition/diversity - face no charges or are not regulated. The law is a limp, languishing dress-up for a dead and dying democracy.

Is there anything left to believe in?

They've got to do everything they can to have cases like these never see the light of day, or the jig is up.

If people really dwelled on that for a while, that the cornerstone of society, the so-called, highly-touted whenever very serious people get very serious, "rule of law," is a complete and utter lie - then what would be holding back a serious revolution against such a fraudulent system?

Count me in for the street theater too.

The Occupy Tax Dodgers are good example of how its done:

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

@Mark from Queens I just heard on the radio Trump has pardoned sheriff Joe Arpaio in light of his " selfless public service " what a fucking joke !

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Mark from Queens Aw, c'mon, Mark. They gave those kids from Ferguson such a nice field trip. Photos with the President! And a task force too!

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Wink's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal
lunch.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

When they market you and me, do they call us "doormats"? psst, ATM machines are passe.

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Fighting for democratic principles,... well, since forever

Outsourcing Is Treason's picture

as far as the Supreme Court if necessary where Judge Gorsich would get the deciding vote.

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"Please clap." -- Jeb Bush

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

we're not billionaires and we don't have friends in the CIA.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver