Weekend Open Thread
[guest post by Dana]
Yay for the weekend! Here are a few news items to talk about. Feel free to share anything that would interest readers. Please make sure to include links.
First news item
As JVW noted, Boston Public Schools be crazy. (I think the post deserves to be widely read):
There is more at the Boston Globe article about these manipulative people plying their cultish psychobabble on impressionable young minds, all on the taxpayer dime. Read it at your own peril. It’s in equal measure aggravating and depressing and it serves as a sad reminder that so much of the education of our nation’s youth — especially in large urban bureaucratic wastelands — has been given over to credentialed chuckleheads. BPS has commissioned a report of the fiasco and key administrators are busy insisting that they knew nothing about any of this, so don’t expect any real repercussions just as long as BPS keeps the teachers’ union happy. Maybe some school systems really were better off over the last year when kids were kept away from campus and generally out of the clutches of ideologically-driven lunatics.
Second news item
They took her life. They could not take her pride. #onemoreinthenameoflove https://t.co/i4u5HTNzSi
— Paul Gosar (@DrPaulGosar) May 28, 2021
Third news item
Oh, stop it. We see what you’re doing and it isn’t what you’re saying:
Customers at one Northern California cafe were taken aback Monday morning after they got a glimpse of the new store policy that greeted them at the door.
“$5 FEE ADDED TO ORDERS PLACED WHILE WEARING A FACE MASK,” read the poster on the glass window at Fiddlehead’s Cafe in Mendocino…
Just below the large print were two additional notes on the poster that warned guests if they were “caught bragging” about their vaccines “an additional $5 fee” would be added to their bill. The sign claims the fees will be donated to local charities assisting domestic abuse victims…
Owner Chris Castleman…says that some customers have paid the $5 fee, while others have been outraged. Castleman blamed this outrage not on his mask fee but on the charitable component.
“I’ve been told this whole time that wearing a mask is a small price to pay,” Castleman said. “Some people get shocked by the sign but to see them turn around and get disgusted … when they’re asked to pay $5 [for charity], it’s not in their wheelhouse. It’s not something they’re choosing to do.”
Fourth news item
Rep. Liz Cheney (R., Wyo.), said she views her re-election bid as a referendum on the future of the Republican Party, with voters potentially facing a choice between what she sees as traditional conservative values and loyalty to former President Donald Trump.
Fifth news item
City residents should demand an audit. Help the homeless, but don’t line some bureaucrat’s pockets while you’re doing it:
In Los Angeles, city officials grappling with an ongoing homelessness crisis have turned to an idea that for decades was politically unpopular and considered radical: a government-funded tent encampment.
…
But the high public cost of LA’s first sanctioned campground — more than $2,600 per tent, per month — has advocates worried it will come at the expense of more permanent housing.
The campsite opened in late April on a fenced-in parking lot beside the 101 freeway in East Hollywood. The lot-turned-campground can accommodate up to about 70 tents in 12-by-12-foot spots marked by white squares painted on the asphalt.
According to a report by the city administrative officer, the new East Hollywood campground costs approximately $2,663 per participant per month. That’s higher than what a typical one-bedroom apartment rents for in the city, according to the website RentCafe. While the per-tent cost covers services, meals, sanitation and staffing, some are concerned that the city is investing too much in short-term Band-Aids over long-term solutions.
“If you can paint lines on a sidewalk for the same cost that you can give someone the rent for an apartment,” says Shayla Myers, an attorney with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, “I’m concerned that our city is making the choice to paint the lines rather than actually get people into housing.”
Sixth news item
U.S. President Joe Biden’s proposed 2022 budget omits a ban on federal funding for most abortions that has been part of government spending bills for decades.
The budget, released Friday, makes no mention of the “Hyde Amendment,” first passed in 1976, which has been included in federal spending bills since.
The amendment, which restricts abortion coverage for recipients of Medicare, Medicaid, federal employees, servicewomen and Washington, D.C., residents, could still be added to any final 2022 spending bill as it moves through Congress.
Biden, a life-long Catholic, supported the Hyde Amendment for most of his political career, but changed his position in 2019 while campaigning for president, saying the right to abortion was under assault in many states and increasingly inaccessible to poorer women.
Seventh news item
“Not Vaccinated”. JUST STOP ALREADY:
Eighth news item
President Biden on the continuing rise of anti-Semitism:
“In the last weeks, our nation has seen a series of anti-Semitic attacks, targeting and terrorizing American Jews,” Biden said. “We have seen a brick thrown through a window of a Jewish-owned business in Manhattan, a swastika carved into the door of a synagogue in Salt Lake City, families threatened outside a restaurant in Los Angeles, and museums in Florida and Alaska, dedicated to celebrating Jewish life and culture and remembering the Holocaust, vandalized with anti-Jewish messages.”
Biden signed into law earlier this month legislation addressing anti-Asian hate crimes, which have increased during the Covid-19 pandemic, but legislation on antisemitic crimes has yet to pass. Several bills have been introduced by lawmakers on the issue.
…an analysis of Twitter posts between May 7 and 14 found more than 17,000 tweets that used variations of the phrase “Hitler was right,” the group said earlier this month. In addition, the ADL said, it received more than 190 reports of possible antisemitic incidents in the week after the fighting began, up from 131 incidents in the previous week. Last year, there were 327 reported incidents at Jewish institutions, including synagogues, schools and community centers, up 40 percent from 234 in 2019, according to the group.
…
“I will not allow our fellow Americans to be intimidated or attacked because of who they are or the faith they practice,” Biden said, noting that May is Jewish-American Heritage Month. “We cannot allow the toxic combination of hatred, dangerous lies, and conspiracy theories to put our fellow Americans at risk.”
MISCELLANEOUS
Do not miss Patterico’s stellar work at the Constitutional Vanguard: Police Shootings Are Said to Be “Disproportionate” for Certain Groups . . . But Disproportionate to What? The series is well worth your time.
Have a great weekend.
–Dana
Hello.
Dana (fd537d) — 5/28/2021 @ 8:39 pmIf you are already committed to spending the equivalent to the cost of an apartment, just pay for the apartment (or halfway houses with drug and/or mental health treatment, which is what homeless street people generally need anyway).
My personal viewpoint is that the Hyde Amendment violates the 1st amendment by tacit establishment of a governmental religious preference and thus shouldn’t ever be included in anything. We pay for all kinds of stuff this group or that group is morally against and they don’t get catered to.
Nic (896fdf) — 5/28/2021 @ 9:57 pmShort bus lives matter!
Dave (f8ea99) — 5/28/2021 @ 10:51 pmICYMI, Allahpundit argues persuasively that this is the worst play in baseball history.
Dave (1542be) — 5/28/2021 @ 11:16 pmMegan McArdle finds an important research paper:
Many Black Americans understand this relationship and would like to see more (and better) police in their neighborhoods.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 5/29/2021 @ 4:28 amNic (896fdf) — 5/28/2021 @ 9:57 pm
You make a strong case for catering to your preferences by hiding it as an argument to not cater to people you disagree with. It’d be much more compelling if there was an actual argument somewhere in there besides taxpayers should fund abortions otherwise people who don’t want to fund it win.
BTW; that’s not how the establishment clause works. Your belief that abortion is good and should be federally funded is no less religious than mine that it isn’t and shouldn’t.
frosty (f27e97) — 5/29/2021 @ 6:21 amThird News Item:
For a lot of people, not least the chronically-struggling petit bourgeois, the pandemic has been a windfall. They don’t want it to end. They want another stimulus.
nk (9651fb) — 5/29/2021 @ 6:28 amAn unarmed woman murdered by the police and not a single protest?
Some lives don’t matter.
BillPasadena (5b0401) — 5/29/2021 @ 7:30 amI’m glad at least someone realizes how important Liz is. The republic is at risk if she isn’t re-elected. We stopped the rising oceans with BO but if we don’t keep LC they’ll start rising again with a vengeance. We’ve also got to think of the children. And true conservatism with its unending commitment to spend just a little less than the D’s while waiting it’s turn in whatever weird three way it’s got going with the D’s and the CCP. All of these things are vital and must be preserved.
If the Republican Party rises or falls on any single person, much less Liz freaking Cheney, then let it fall.
frosty (f27e97) — 5/29/2021 @ 7:53 amHorst Wessel. If anybody knows about him, Paul Gosar does.
Young and naive Brownshirt who developed a fondness for a prostitute and tried to “take her away from all this”. Her pimp killed him. The Nazis put out the legend that he was killed by Communists and made him their Star Spangled Banner.
Das Ashli Babbitt Lied, Kameraden! Sieg Heil!
nk (9651fb) — 5/29/2021 @ 8:03 am@9 – And here I found myself in agreement with Liz Cheney 100%. This is indeed a referendum on the future of the Republican Party, and I for one long for the good old days of Bob Dole, Arlen Specter, John Boehner, John McCain and Mitt Romney, when Republicans knew how to lose with honor, grace and dignity as they fought for Democratic principles, just not as much and not as fast.
Jerryskids (999ce8) — 5/29/2021 @ 8:14 am@Frosty@6 It’s always interesting to read what someone’s assumptions are by reading what they project onto what you said. What are my preferences, frosty?
My argument was that I don’t think the Hyde amendment should be attached to any bill because I think it is a tacit establishment of a governmental religious preference. Your only attempt to address that was to just go, basically, “nuh uh.” and, instead, you chose to attack what you’ve assumed my morality is. Which is not a great basis for disproving my point.
Nic (896fdf) — 5/29/2021 @ 8:19 amDomestic terrorists in a mob attempting to overthrow democracy and install an unelected fascist regime, for instance.
Dave (1542be) — 5/29/2021 @ 8:20 amRepublicans won 5 out of 7 presidential elections between 1980 and 2004.
Between 2009 and 2015, they gained over 1000 seats in congress, governors’ mansions and state legislatures.
Unfortunately, despite this impressive domination of American politics at all levels for three and a half decades, the eight-year interregnum of the sui generis – and almost totally ineffective – Obama caused the party to completely lose its mind.
Dave (1542be) — 5/29/2021 @ 8:29 amYou think the Republicans would have backed a 1/6 Commission where they could grill witnesses about Ashli Babbitt‘s death. Guess not.
Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/29/2021 @ 8:48 amImagine that an angry mob of hundreds, many wearing tactical gear, had forced their way into your home after neutralizing your guard dogs, and were calling for you and your family to be punished as traitors (“Hang Bill Pasadena!”), and one of them was just starting to enter your safe room after bashing down the door, despite a warning that you had a gun. Is there any Trumpist Republican who would not say you had a perfect right and even a duty to shoot the person in defense of yourself and your family?
You don’t even need to make the analogy personal. Just switch around the party labels, imagine that any losing Dem had behaved as Trump did after losing an election and encouraged a mob to stop the transfer of power with a “wild” protest and to “fight like hell” for him/her. Imagine it really was Antifa and assorted leftists who stormed the Capitol.
Every single person who’s trying to make Ashli Babbitt an innocent martyr would be saying that a leftist who did exactly the same thing an effort to force or intimidate Congress into overturning an election and met the same end as a result had it coming.
Just as they will probably defend the police shooting of an unarmed person in any situation where the totality of circumstances presents an immanent threat to people the police are bound to protect.
But when Trumpers are determined to maintain the proposition that Trump and his fanatical supporters are all innocent victims of the Deep State, the rules of moral judgment have to be changed.
Radegunda (2a2f56) — 5/29/2021 @ 10:03 amYou’d also think the 3/4 of Republicans who believe the riot was caused by “left-wing protesters trying to make Trump look bad” would be demanding a bipartisan commission to expose the truth.
Radegunda (2a2f56) — 5/29/2021 @ 10:06 amYeah but Trump’s serial buffoonery and disregard for the Constitution is no answer….and is arguably worse. He barely beat the worst candidate in modern history and then lost to a guy who was down in his basement for much of the campaign. Yet, the GOP won’t even start considering that maybe a new horse…new look…a new message…..a new politics is in order. The Trump Party has lost any real credibility on spending….embarrassed us on the international stage with our allies….accomplished little with a trade war….bungled a pandemic response….and couldn’t even change the narrative on a border wall that shrunk as much as its Presidency shrunk. Cheney is running for coherence….and against the attitude that the emperor is fully cloathed. It’s sad here that many are so shortsighted……
AJ_Liberty (a4ff25) — 5/29/2021 @ 10:12 amI remember when Republicans liked to boast about how many state governments they controlled, and how it demonstrated the great strength and popularity of the party. And they boasted about regaining the House and then the Senate during the Obama administration.
Then along came Trump, and the new narrative was that Republicans had been losers for ages, and only Donald the Great could save the party from the feckless RINOs and save the country from the commie Dems.
Radegunda (2a2f56) — 5/29/2021 @ 10:15 ambush was a great president, like his recession
he was super, like the democrat majority he left us with
such halcyon days of yore
JF (e1156d) — 5/29/2021 @ 10:24 amWhere’s the establishment of religion? It’s about murdering the unborn.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 5/29/2021 @ 10:45 amhttps://pjmedia.com/uncategorized/kevindowneyjr/2021/05/27/communists-have-45-goals-to-take-over-the-u-s-without-firing-a-shot-here-are-the-shocking-goals-they-have-already-achieved-n1450032
and on and on.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 5/29/2021 @ 10:49 amhttps://spectator.org/blm-biden-blinken-state-department/
NJRob (eb56c3) — 5/29/2021 @ 10:52 amhttps://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/05/27/new-jersey-democrats-seek-ban-on-police-handing-criminal-illegal-aliens-over-to-ice-agents/
NJRob (eb56c3) — 5/29/2021 @ 10:53 amhttps://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/2021/05/27/justice-departments-kristen-clarke-all-about-skin-color-n1450172
Biden is having a go at appointing racists and anti-American bigots all throughout his administration.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 5/29/2021 @ 10:55 amhttps://fee.org/articles/rand-paul-has-won-every-single-round-against-fauci/
The media should collapse over this.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 5/29/2021 @ 10:58 amUnderstanding QAnon’s Connection to American Politics, Religion, and Media Consumption–
Public Religion Research Institute
………
To understand how this loosely connected belief system is influencing American politics, religion, and media, we fielded three questions, each containing a tenet of the QAnon conspiracy movement.
A nontrivial 15% of Americans agree with the sweeping QAnon allegation that “the government, media, and financial worlds in the U.S. are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global child sex trafficking operation,” while the vast majority of Americans (82%) disagree with this statement. Republicans (23%) are significantly more likely than independents (14%) and Democrats (8%) to agree that the government, media, and financial worlds in the U.S. are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global child sex trafficking operation.
……….
Fifteen percent of Americans agree that “Because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country,” while the vast majority (85%) disagree. Republicans (28%) are twice as likely as independents (13%) and four times as likely as Democrats (7%) to agree that because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence.
………
Around four in ten Americans who say they most trust far-right news outlets such as OANN and Newsmax (40%) for television news agree with the statement that “the government, media, and financial worlds in the U.S. are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global child sex trafficking operation.”
………..
Nearly half of Americans who trust far-right news (48%) and one-third who trust Fox News (34%) agree with the statement that “There is a storm coming soon that will sweep away the elites in power and restore the rightful leaders.” ……..
………..
Around four in ten Americans who most trust far-right news sources (42%) and around one in four who most trust Fox News (27%) agree that “Because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country.”
……….
Hispanic Protestants (26%), white evangelical Protestants (25%), and other Protestants of color (24%) are more likely than other religious groups to agree that the government, media, and financial worlds in the U.S. are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global child sex trafficking operation…….
……….
With the exceptions of white evangelical Protestants (24%) and Mormons (24%), less than one in five members of all other religious groups agree with (the) idea……..that true American patriots may have to resort to violence.
………..
Republicans (23%) are notably more likely than independents (12%) and Democrats (7%) to be QAnon believers. A majority of Republicans (55%), nearly half of independents (48%), and over one-third of Democrats (35%) are QAnon doubters. A majority of Democrats (58%) are QAnon rejecters, compared to 40% of independents and 21% of Republicans.
About one in five white evangelical Protestants (22%), Hispanic Protestants (21%), and Mormons (21%) are QAnon believers. ……… Religiously unaffiliated Americans (9%) and Jewish Americans (2%) are least likely to hold these beliefs.
Conversely, Jewish Americans (60%) and religiously unaffiliated Americans (57%), are the most likely to be QAnon rejecters.
…….
Americans without a college education are three times as likely as Americans with a college education to be QAnon believers (18% vs. 6%).
……..[T]hose who trust far-right news sources most (48%) are by far the most likely to be QAnon believers. One in five of those who most trust Fox News (20%) or do not watch television news (18%) are also QAnon believers, compared to fewer of those who most trust local news (12%), CNN (10%), public television (8%), broadcast networks (5%), or MSNBC (5%).
Americans who trust public television (65%) are most likely to be QAnon rejecters, followed by those who trust MSNBC (60%), broadcast networks (55%), and CNN (51%).
Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/29/2021 @ 11:07 am………
Interestingly, even after controlling for partisanship and ideology, media news consumption is by far the strongest independent predictor of QAnon beliefs. Remarkably, those who report most trusting far-right media sources are nearly nine times more likely to be QAnon believers compared to those who most trust broadcast networks such as ABC, CBS, and NBC. Those who most trust Fox News and those who do not watch television news are 2.3 and 2.5 times, respectively, more likely than those who watch broadcast networks to be QAnon believers.
………..
Those who believe in QAnon conspiracy theories are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories generally. While 29% of all Americans agree with the “big lie” that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump, 73% of QAnon believers say this is true. QAnon doubters (37%) are still more likely than average to believe the election was stolen, but only 7% of QAnon rejecters agree that the election was stolen from Trump.
………….
“Biden is having a go at appointing racists and anti-American bigots all throughout his administration.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/vote-fraud-crusader-j-christian-adams-sparks-outrage-n796026
I think the article author is lying or exaggerating.
Davethulhu (69e65f) — 5/29/2021 @ 11:10 amI remember when Republicans were eager to talk about the ways that Democrats, including Obama, set up the dynamics that led to the mortgage crisis, and how Republicans at the repeated urging of George Bush tried to fix the problem but their legislation was filibustered by Democrats, including Obama.
Then along came the Trump cult, bringing us the line that every Republican before Trump had been corrupt or callous or spineless or inept, or all of the above, and that Bush and Romney were practically the spawn of Satan.
Then Trump loses the House, loses the presidency, loses the Senate (largely through his self-centered peevishness), shrinks the GOP — and the Trump cultists keep insisting that only Trump or a devout Trump acolyte can win.
Radegunda (2a2f56) — 5/29/2021 @ 11:18 amYahoo News/YouGov Poll: 73% of Republicans blame ‘left-wing protesters’ for Jan. 6 attack. Just 23% blame Trump.
………
The survey of 1,588 U.S. adults, which was conducted from May 24 to May 26, found that less than half of Republicans (41 percent) say supporters of then-President Donald Trump who gathered on Jan. 6 at the Capitol to rally against the certification of Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory bear “some” or “a great deal” of the blame for the subsequent riot, which left several people dead and more than 140 injured. Less than a quarter (23 percent) blame Trump himself, and most (52 percent) say he is “not at all” to blame.
Yet a full 73 percent of Republicans pin “some” or “a great deal” of responsibility on “left-wing protesters trying to make Trump look bad,” even though both the FBI and Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy have rejected the falsehood that leftist protesters were involved.
………
In late January, nearly three-quarters of them (71 percent) told Yahoo News and YouGov that the Capitol attack was “not justified”; today that number has fallen 14 points, to 57 percent. Nearly a quarter (21 percent) now think the attack was justified; another 22 percent aren’t sure. And a majority of Republicans (52 percent) say the people who participated on Jan. 6 were “primarily peaceful and law-abiding,” even as most Americans (51 percent) view the same participants as “primarily violent and lawless.”
………
……[J]ust 10 percent of Republicans want to “hold Trump and others accountable for their role in the attack”; why 62 percent say “there have been enough [Jan. 6] investigations already”; and why less than a quarter (23 percent) now favor “the creation of an independent commission modeled after the 9/11 Commission.” ……..
Pluralities of Americans see the issue differently. More support an independent commission (44 percent) than oppose it (34 percent). More believe “we still need to find out the truth of what happened” (47 percent) than believe there have been enough investigations already (34 percent). And more would prefer to hold Trump and others accountable (43 percent) than to “put the attack behind us” (41 percent).
Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/29/2021 @ 11:19 am………
The Republican “big lies” are taking hold.
@NJRob@21 “Where’s the establishment of religion?” It might help you figure that out if you parse your own statement: “It’s about murdering the unborn.”
Nic (896fdf) — 5/29/2021 @ 11:24 amNic,
do you think only the religious feel murdering the unborn is wrong? Do you think human life has no value?
NJRob (eb56c3) — 5/29/2021 @ 11:27 amI think thou dost protest too much.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 5/29/2021 @ 11:28 am“I think thou dost protest too much.”
This doesn’t even make any sense.
The author is a piece of sh*t.
Davethulhu (69e65f) — 5/29/2021 @ 11:37 am@30 that’s very worrisome
the media and educational system need to put truth on blast, in between telling us a covid lab leak is loco and 1619 not 1776
JF (e1156d) — 5/29/2021 @ 11:37 amFor years, Trump defenders have said we should disregard what we see and hear directly from Trump — that he’s really the opposite of what he clearly appears to be; that what he says isn’t really what he means; etc. Now they’re telling us to disregard mountains of evidence — most of it recorded by the Trump-faithful themselves — showing what happened on 1/6 and leading up to it. We’re not to trust our eyes and ears, but to trust the Trumpers who find some slender bit of evidence they say is proof of a very different fact base.
Jonathan Rauch said that Trump has mimicked Putin’s disinformation tactics. And Trump is on record, pre-presidency, boasting about his business strategy of making people believe anything just be repeating it often enough.
Put the Trumpian cynicism and congenital dishonesty together with a large part of the population who long for a superhero devoted to their well-being and want to believe his “unfiltered” style is proof of honesty, and with a wing of the media and “intellectual” commentariat with an interest in declaring the patriotic hero always right and always noble of purpose — and you have a recipe for mass delusion.
One result of the Trump era is to make me question the reliability and good faith of many who claim to be exposing the sins and lies and omissions of the Democrats and their media cheerleaders. It isn’t that I’ve come to trust the latter, but I’ve lost a measure of trust in many of their influential critics. I’m now asking myself: What are they covering up or slanting to their benefit?
Radegunda (2a2f56) — 5/29/2021 @ 11:53 amRIP, Mark Eaton. Apparently, he crashed his bicycle (it would’ve been a sight to a 7’4″ guy riding one).
Paul Montagu (a05eda) — 5/29/2021 @ 11:54 amI don’t see it that way, Nic, because a non-religious person can also be pro-life. I personally know several pro-life atheists (and they’re also anti death penalty).
Paul Montagu (a05eda) — 5/29/2021 @ 11:57 amMs. Babbitt was “murdered” just like Michael Brown was “murdered”, i.e., they weren’t. The officer was cleared. She was a poor deluded soul who paid with her life for believing a stupid lie.
Paul Montagu (a05eda) — 5/29/2021 @ 12:00 pmI’ll never forget when I ran into Mark Eaton at the UCLA student store. I never felt so small (and I’m 6-3).
Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/29/2021 @ 12:03 pm@Rob@32 Generally speaking, almost all arguments against abortion end up based in religion (generally some flavor of conservative Christianity), even the libertarian ones.
My personal moral opinion on the value of human life isn’t relevant to what is or is not legal and/or constitutional. Legally speaking, this country doesn’t place human life at the pinnacle of it’s values pyramid anyway.
@38 There are a few pro-life atheist, but the very large majority of anti-abortion proponents are religious people using religious based reasoning. Given the number of things we pay for that various groups view as immoral and the value we- universal we Americans, not us, here, specifically- generally place on the opinions of atheists, which is almost none, I’m pretty sure that it’s religion, not atheism, or even non religion base ethics, being preferenced by the Hyde amendment.
Nic (896fdf) — 5/29/2021 @ 12:05 pm“You have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero.”
“I think we’re going to be very good with the coronavirus. I think at some point that’s going to sort of just disappear.”
“We use the word ‘herd.’ Once you get to a certain number, it’s going to go away. … It goes away, and it goes very quickly.”
“I think I’m doing very well.”
As for the lab leak theory (which I have never dismissed): Why were the Trump officials unwilling to release evidence in support of their claims? Such as the cables that U.S. embassy officials sent to State in 2018 conveying their worries about the activity at the lab and the insufficient security. Even some of the Chinese scientists were concerned about it. The Trump administration chose to do nothing.
Radegunda (2a2f56) — 5/29/2021 @ 12:09 pmIn a new book, mainstream journalist Edward-Isaac Dovere calls Obama a “parasite” on the Democratic Party.
I had come to the same conclusion, tentatively.
And I think any honest person will recognize that his fellow narcissist, DJT, is a parasite on the Republican Party. Example: DJT would not have won in 2016, except for “reverse coat tails” in key states. He was pulled over the line by more popular Republican leaders, who ran ahead of him in those states.
Now there is an interesting fact about parasites that ought to be better known: Some take control of their hosts and cause them to behave in self-destructive ways. (For a recent example, search on cicadas and fungus.)
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 5/29/2021 @ 12:09 pmICYMI, Allahpundit argues persuasively that this is the worst play in baseball history.
That clip was all over Twitter earlier this week. As a guy of extremely modest athletic ability, it pains me to no end to see people who have won the genetic lottery yet have absolutely no understanding of how the game is played or what to do in various situations. Everything about that play, from the inexplicable decision to chase after the runner to the stupid flip to the catcher to the second baseman not moving over to cover first base to the catcher failing to lead the second baseman to the bag with his throw to nobody apparently screaming at the first baseman to go step on the damn bag or at least tag Baez, all of it just absolutely sets me apoplectic. And the first baseman, Will Craig, played three years in college at Wake Forest and has spent four years in the minor leagues, so even though this is only his second season in the majors, he has to have a better understanding of the damn game.
JVW (ee64e4) — 5/29/2021 @ 12:15 pm“The Republican “big lies” are taking hold.”
Reaganomics.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 5/29/2021 @ 12:18 pmReaganoptics.
Reaganaurics.
Nic (896fdf) — 5/29/2021 @ 8:19 am
Yes, it is. And you’re doing this when you frame this as a religious issue. Somone can have secular reasons, and I do, in addition to religious reasons for being in favor of banning this type of funding. Your assertion that it’s an establishment issue says something about your preferences and you are projecting in your original comment.
Do you think I responded to your comment because of the abortion component? I didn’t and if you think I did you might be projecting onto that too.
This is hard to answer given the vague nature of the assertion of an establishment clause violation. But it’s reasonable to infer that you’ve chosen to comment on the Hyde amendment because it relates to abortion, which you are in favor of, and you see that in a religious context, which you disagree with. The establishment argument you’re trying to make doesn’t have much else going for it. Are there some other reasons you didn’t mention in your comment?
First, I’d disagree with your framing this as an attack. Deflecting doesn’t support your position. If you can support a point do it. If you were just expressing your feelings then you’ve expressed yours, I’ve expressed mine, and hopefully, we both have a nice day.
Second, my only attempt was to point out that you aren’t making a point. You are making an assertion based on a difference in preferences. I don’t need to disprove a point that you haven’t made. An unsupported assertion isn’t a point.
But maybe you can help me be better informed. Are you saying that you don’t care one way are the other about federal funding for abortions but your real issue is that people make political decisions based on their religious views? Or is there some other issue, unrelated to abortion or federal spending, with the Hyde amendment that you haven’t mentioned yet?
frosty (f27e97) — 5/29/2021 @ 12:19 pmI once heard someone opine: “If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament.”
I view abortion as taking a life, but it’s hard to disagree.
Dave (1542be) — 5/29/2021 @ 12:20 pmNow I am mostly joking here, but could COVID explain Typhoid Rand’s decision to go exercise in the Senate exercise facilities — without a mask — when he suspected he had the disease? (That would be good for the virus, though not for the humans he came in contact with.)
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 5/29/2021 @ 12:22 pmIsrael Is Unsure It Deterred Hamas, and the Military Is Preparing for Renewed Gaza Fighting
…….
In contrast to assertions by Israel’s political leadership about the successful deterrence of Hamas, senior IDF brass have said in closed-door meetings that it is not yet possible to gauge the extent to which Hamas has been staved off, and how the damage in Gaza will affect a decision by Hamas on whether to embark on another round of fighting in the near future.
……..
Those in the IDF Intelligence Corps describe the accomplishments of this month’s confrontation as “nearly perfect” and “operatively decisive,” but Israel’s deterrent capabilities remain unclear. The Intelligence Corps is of the opinion that this tactical victory was achieved mainly due to the IDF’s ability to foil every attempt by Hamas to stage wide-scale aerial, naval or ground attacks that that could have handed it a clear victory.
Israel’s victory was “nearly” perfect due to the army’s difficulty damaging the rocket launching network that Hamas and Islamic Jihad deployed. It is estimated that only about 10 percent of the network was damaged, and Hamas still has thousands of rockets of various ranges at its disposal. The Intelligence Corps personnel’s described the fighting as “operatively decisive” but, in their estimation, fell short of a clear victory, as it did not lead to Hamas’ collapse.
Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/29/2021 @ 12:23 pm………
Despite the Israeli defense establishment’s efforts to present a clear picture of victory from its military operation, there is unanimity among Israel’s defense organizations that if the country’s political leadership doesn’t quickly embark on a long-term arrangement with Hamas, the accomplishments of this month’s military operation will dissipate.
……….
Israel failed to press its advantage and completely destroy Hamas. It should have leveled Gaza completely and forced the population out.
R.I.P. Gavin MacLeod
Icy (6abb50) — 5/29/2021 @ 12:24 pmIve never understood why pro-life laws always put the onus on doctors and not equally on the women seeking an abortion. They are equally guilty in the crime.
Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/29/2021 @ 12:27 pmThat was also Donald Trump’s position (for a few hours) in 2016, when he articulated five different versions of his “deeply-held” views on abortion in the space of two days.
Dave (1542be) — 5/29/2021 @ 12:33 pmNJRob (eb56c3) — 5/29/2021 @ 11:27 am
Is there another way to read
than as yes and yes?
Is yes to the first and
is just a way to say yes to the second. It’s also not true, moral values are relevant to what is legal and/or constitutional, but that’s a different discussion.
Here’s the problem. I can still be in favor of the Hyde amendment even if I agreed with you on the morality of abortion. You can believe abortion is awesome and still be against spending federal tax dollars on it.
frosty (f27e97) — 5/29/2021 @ 12:35 pmI haven’t seen any explanation from him. It almost looks like he was amused by the batter’s decision to run back toward home, and decided to play along for fun.
Dave (1542be) — 5/29/2021 @ 12:44 pmAre Voters in the Mood to Recall Their Governor?
………. The May PPIC (Public Policy Institute of California) survey finds that 40% of California likely voters say they would vote yes to remove Newsom as Governor if a special election were held today. This is unchanged from the 40% who said this in our March survey. While the state’s Democratic leanings drive much of the current opposition to the recall, voter expectations also play a critical role. And in 2021, the voters’ mood is very different from what it was in 2003, during the successful recall of Governor Gray Davis.
What do voters expect a recall to do? In 2003, many expected it to make things better. In our August 2003 survey, 47% of likely voters said that things would get better if Davis were removed from office, while 17% said that things would get worse. This trend was replicated in the September 2003 PPIC Survey—and in the October 7, 2003 recall election, 55% voted to remove Davis and 49% voted to replace him with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Today, when asked what would happen if Governor Newsom were recalled, just 29% say that things would get better, while 34% say things would get worse—and 28% say it would make no difference. For a recall election to gain traction this time, many more voters need to believe that things would get better afterward. ……..
Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/29/2021 @ 12:45 pm………..
………..[A]majority of California likely voters approve of the way that Newsom is handling his job as governor (54% May PPIC Survey, 53% March PPIC Survey, 52% January PPIC Survey). ……..[S]upporters of a recall have their work cut out for them.
…………
Of course, this early reading on the 2021 governor’s recall is clearly impacted by the improving conditions of the COVID crisis and the economy. Governor Newsom is on a year-long streak of majority approval among likely voters for handling the pandemic (61% May PPIC Survey). Likely voters overwhelmingly believe that the worst of the crisis is behind us (90% May PPIC Survey, 46% May 2020 PPIC Survey) and that the state government is doing an excellent or good job with the vaccine distribution (70% May PPIC Survey, 28% January PPIC Survey).
………..
……….. The burden of proof is on the proponents to make the case that a “yes” vote will make things better and not worse. The history of initiatives tells us that voters are risk averse and more often choose to vote “no” as the default option. Right now, the majority of California likely voters are not in the mood to alter the status quo……..
……….
Don’t tell nic this, but the anti-slavery movement was largely religious, especially in the early years.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 5/29/2021 @ 12:50 pmI haven’t seen any explanation from him. It almost looks like he was amused by the batter’s decision to run back toward home, and decided to play along for fun.
I could almost believe and even appreciate that, were it not for that completely boneheaded decision to flip the ball to the catcher to try and tag the runner from third. It honestly looks like he has no clue what is going on.
JVW (ee64e4) — 5/29/2021 @ 12:58 pm@47 a pregnant man and a talking fetus would probably have an fascinating discussion
JF (e1156d) — 5/29/2021 @ 1:00 pmMajority Say January 6th Was An Attack On Democracy,
Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; About A Quarter Of U.S. Still Not Planning To Get Vaccinated
……..[A] majority of Americans (55 percent) say they view the events of January 6th as an attack on democracy that should never be forgotten, while 39 percent say too much is being made of the storming of the U.S. Capitol and it is time to move on…….
Democrats say 84 – 12 percent and independents say 54 – 42 percent that the January 6th storming of the Capitol should never be forgotten, while Republicans say 74 – 18 percent that too much is being made of it and that it is time to move on.
Asked whether each political party is acting in the best interests of democracy, Americans say …
Republican Party: 59 percent no, 34 percent yes;
Democratic Party: 49 percent no, 44 percent yes.
………..
………..[S]lightly less than 1 in 4 Americans (23 percent) say they do not plan to get vaccinated, and 72 percent say they plan to or have already been vaccinated. That compares to an April survey which found 27 percent of respondents said they did not plan to get a COVID-19 vaccine, and 68 percent said they planned to or had already been vaccinated.
……….Republicans represent the largest listed group saying they do not plan to get vaccinated at 37 percent. Last month, that number was 45 percent.
……….
Today, 25 percent of Americans think abortion should be legal in all cases, 32 percent say it should be legal in most cases, 23 percent say it should be illegal in most cases, and 14 percent say it should be illegal in all cases.
In June 2003, 21 percent of adults said abortion should be legal in all cases, 33 percent said it should be legal in most cases, 24 percent said illegal in most cases and 17 percent said illegal in all cases.
Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/29/2021 @ 1:09 pm………
Poll details.
And probably then said “I never said that!” regarding each statement.
Radegunda (2a2f56) — 5/29/2021 @ 1:16 pmLike Radegunda, I never dismissed the lab leak theory of the COVID origin. In fact it has always seemed the most probable of the three possibilities. (Though not much more so than the natural jump from some animal, something that happens all the time with viruses.)
But, it also seemed to me that, if it was a lab leak, we would almost certainly never be able to prove that, without the cooperation of “Emperor” Xi and company — which we wouldn’t get.
That uncertainty is, admittedly, unsatisfactory — as the real world often is.
(Oh, and it is just possible that we — or the Taiwanese — have definite evidence, that can’t be revealed without disclosing sources.)
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 5/29/2021 @ 1:27 pmOath Keepers allegedly were brewing a plot to ferry heavy weapons across the Potomac on a boat on 1/6, in the event that Dear Leader “calls us up as part of the militia to assist him inside DC.” I’ve seen Parler posts by Trumpers saying they had an armed contingent on standby just outside D.C. Prosecutors have now revealed this message from Thomas Caldwell to another militia group member:
Yeah, it was all a bunch of patriotic Americans just trying to make their voices heard — while wearing T-shirts saying “Civil War” and calling for a “1776 moment” and vowing to punish “traitors” and to execute the VP and the Speaker, and physically fighting through a police force.
And the Trumpian right says that the police are lying, the videos are meaningless (except the few they like), the sworn testimony of participants is of no consequence, all the Parler chatter is irrelevant — and Trump’s own words irrelevant too, except when he said “peacefully” with a wink and a nod.
Seriously, the willful blindness of the Trumpified right is amazing to behold.
Radegunda (2a2f56) — 5/29/2021 @ 1:33 pmThat is true, Nic, but it’s also irrelevant, IMO. The Hyde Amendment doesn’t claim to be withholding funding for religious reasons. The procedure is politically controversial, and the government can appropriately decide that federal taxpayers aren’t obligated to pay for something so contentious.
Paul Montagu (a05eda) — 5/29/2021 @ 1:34 pmThat is a real possibility. I don’t discount the idea that responsible people in the Trump admin. had legitimate reasons for keeping quiet about certain things they knew — even while Trump will blurt out whatever he thinks will serve him at the moment. But there might also be less honorable reasons for trying to keep some details secret.
Radegunda (2a2f56) — 5/29/2021 @ 1:38 pmChanging the subject completely, according to multiple reports, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson just married his live-in girlfriend, Carrie Symonds. (No, I don’t know how he managed to have a Catholic ceremony, given his two previous marriages. The first one may have been annulled, but I am fairly certain the second one wasn’t.)
No word yet on whether their son, Wilfred, attended.
(No link since the story is not yet official, so you will almost certainly be able to find better stories with a routine search, soon.)
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 5/29/2021 @ 1:43 pmNuts not shell. 74,000,000 republican voters have already made that choice. Despite manipulating the polls to make it look like more then 10% of republicans are never trumpers, 74,000,000 voters say to pollsters the figures don’t lie ;but liars figure! Every day it is the same thing the republican party is divided. Except you don’t mention the divide is 90% vs 10%.
asset (7a3f79) — 5/29/2021 @ 2:03 pm@63 Where in the bible does it say abortion is murder or a fetus is a human being (baby) Read Exodus 21:23-25 It explains it is not.
asset (7a3f79) — 5/29/2021 @ 2:07 pmIf most of your friends are parroting crazy lies, the sheer numbers not a good argument for joining them.
A lot of longtime Republicans left the party when it became defined by cult-worship.
Only an unserious party would say its platform is We support Dear Leader wholeheartedly.
Only an unserious party would reject someone who pretty consistently voted for the policies they claim to favor but drew the line at fomenting an insurrection to steal an election — and instead promote someone who was much less consistent in supporting the supposedly favored policies but enthusiastically kissed up to the cult-figure who tried to overturn an election.
Radegunda (2a2f56) — 5/29/2021 @ 2:27 pmA religious reason for how the voters, the tax-paying voters, want the government to spend their money is as good a reason as any and better than most, and not any of anybody else’s business too. You want to fund abortions? Donate to your local Planned Parenthood clinic.
nk (9651fb) — 5/29/2021 @ 2:29 pmThere’s Jeremiah 1:5, asset: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart for my holy purpose. I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations.” God’s chosen aren’t just limited to prophets.
Paul Montagu (a05eda) — 5/29/2021 @ 2:52 pmAnd Psalm 51:5: “Indeed, I was born guilty. I was a sinner when my mother conceived me.”
And Psalm 139:13: “You alone created my inner being. You knitted me together inside my mother.”
And Isaiah 49:1: “Listen to me, you islands. Pay attention, you people far away. Before I was born, the Lord chose me. While I was in my mother’s womb, he recorded my name.”
@frosty@46 And you’re doing this when you frame this as a religious issue. It is not, in fact, what I am doing. It is argued as a religious issue, therefore, I would state that it is a religious issue.
Somone can have secular reasons, and I do.
What are your secular reasons?
Your assertion that it’s an establishment issue says something about your preferences and you are projecting in your original comment.
Yep, my preferences are that we don’t codify religious belief into law, since it isn’t constitutional.
Do you think I responded to your comment because of the abortion component? I didn’t and if you think I did you might be projecting onto that too.
I do not seem to be projecting.
What are my preferences, frosty?
But it’s reasonable to infer that you’ve chosen to comment on the Hyde amendment because it relates to abortion, which you are in favor of,
Not particularly.
and you see that in a religious context,
Yep.
Are there some other reasons you didn’t mention in your comment?
Er, what reasons other than thinking a law is based primarily in religion might one have for thinking that it violates the establishment clause? That’s pretty much the argument regarding the establishment clause.
First, I’d disagree with your framing this as an attack.
From your viewpoint is it a morally good or even a morally neutral position to think that abortion is good?
Are you saying that you don’t care one way are the other about federal funding for abortions but your real issue is that people make political decisions based on their religious views?
(I am not talking about planned parenthood below)
If the federal government doesn’t fund a program that includes an abortion component because the program is ineffective, then that is equitable. If the federal government doesn’t fund a program that is effective because it includes some kind of abortion related component then that is not equitable, that is a religious test IMO. The motivation is not to fund abortion, it’s to not defund otherwise good ideas just because someone has a religious issue. If there are two equally good community health programs, one which has an abortion component of some kind, one which doesn’t, they should be treated equally. The government also should not favor worse programs because they meet a religious test.
@frosty@53 You didn’t read my comment to Paul. Also, seeing someone point out an objective truth and assigning them a personal moral opinion based on that is an interesting method of interpretation, though not actually particularly likely to be accurate one way or the other. Do you think that the value of human life is the highest value enshrined in our laws?
@Rip@51 Because it’s a losing argument. Logically speaking, if a doctor is guilty of murder for performing an abortion, a woman has solicited that murder, but the idea of throwing women in jail for getting an abortion is deeply unpopular.
@Paul@63 “I am not the least embarrassed to say that I believe one day each of us will be called upon to render an account for what we have done, and maybe more importantly, what we fail to do in our lifetime, and while I believe in a merciful God, I believe in a just God, and I would be terrified at the thought of having to explain at the final judgment why I stood unmoved while Herod’s slaughter of the innocents was being reenacted here in my own country.” -Henry Hyde
Nic (896fdf) — 5/29/2021 @ 3:28 pmSir, I don’t accept your apology.
Paul Montagu (a05eda) — 5/29/2021 @ 3:30 pmNic, I agree that Hyde stated his religious reasons, but his amendment did not.
Paul Montagu (a05eda) — 5/29/2021 @ 3:32 pm68. ROFLMAOPIP
Goldwater/Miller ’64. =mike-drop=
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 5/29/2021 @ 4:54 pmTrumpers constantly told us that we needed to overlook egregious character flaws and terrible public behavior in the interest of policy. They’ve now proved that they like the character flaws and terrible behavior more than they care about policy.
Radegunda (2ba443) — 5/29/2021 @ 5:59 pmThey took her life. They could not take her pride.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Pretty much a Darwin nominee.
As for Goser, we need to cross the beams on that guy.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/29/2021 @ 6:04 pmRep. Liz Cheney (R., Wyo.), said she views her re-election bid as a referendum on the future of the Republican Party, with voters potentially facing a choice between what she sees as traditional conservative values and loyalty to former President Donald Trump.
Every last person who supports her view over, say, Goser’s ought to be contributing to her campaign.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/29/2021 @ 6:05 pm“$5 FEE ADDED TO ORDERS PLACED WHILE WEARING A FACE MASK,” read the poster on the glass window at Fiddlehead’s Cafe in Mendocino…
I hope there are other places to eat in that town, with or without a mask.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/29/2021 @ 6:08 pm“If you can paint lines on a sidewalk for the same cost that you can give someone the rent for an apartment
There is no landlord who will accept such a renter, unless the normal rent is far lower to begin with. Why not buy a ghost town somewhere and build a giant housing complex? Then you can ship do-gooders out there to help.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/29/2021 @ 6:16 pm“Not Vaccinated”
I believe in choice. Round them up and let them choose which shot they want: Covid vaccine? Or Covid? After all, there is no danger from Covid.
Alternatively, sell “I’m with Stupid ->” T-shirts next door.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/29/2021 @ 6:19 pmDonald Trump: Satan’s gift to Democrats.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/29/2021 @ 6:24 pmYahoo News/YouGov Poll: 73% of Republicans blame ‘left-wing protesters’ for Jan. 6 attack. Just 23% blame Trump.
I think the numbers would be different if you asked the 2015 GOP members.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/29/2021 @ 6:28 pmGoldwater/Miller ’64. =mike-drop=
If you subtract Miller’s IQ from Goldwater’s, it’s still higher than Trump’s.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/29/2021 @ 6:39 pmFor me, the two most interesting things about Paul Gosar are that: “Six of his nine siblings endorsed his opponent in congressional races.”
And, though a Roman Catholic: “He has criticized Pope Francis’s papacy as “inconsistent with Christianity” and skipped Francis’s 2015 address to Congress in protest.”
I can’t think of anything in his political career that suggests that he believes in the Golden Rule.
(He may have been a good dentist.)
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 5/29/2021 @ 6:42 pmAnyone who got dental work from Gosar should check their fillings for mini-transceivers.
Paul Montagu (a05eda) — 5/29/2021 @ 6:45 pm@83. If you subtract Miller’s IQ from Goldwater’s, it’s still less than the number of votes either got in 1964 and the number of years Trump served as President of the United States of America.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 5/29/2021 @ 7:13 pmThey’ve now proved that they like the character flaws and terrible behavior more than they care about policy.
Which is why so may so-called “conservatives” bolted and voted for a proven plagiarist of low character.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 5/29/2021 @ 7:17 pmI’ve thought a bit about the Hyde Amendment since Nic brought it up. My first inclination was that these laws have the legitimate secular purpose of encouraging childbirth over abortion….as for the many valid reasons that countries worry about birth rates and attitudes about birth rates. Further, the Hyde restrictions don’t give an overt benefit to religion and are not aimed at propagating a religious belief over another…no one is compelled to believe all life must be respected from conception for instance. Science can tell us what is happneing during the developmental process; it can’t tell us how and why we value it or not. That’s more the role of philosophy, ethics, and perhaps religion. So I can’t imagine that the a person motivated in part by religion would have to recuse himself from every major political decision because religion has some connection to what he feels is right or wrong. I doubt the framers of the 1A would seek such a recusal.
Still, though I believe that a “right” to abortion does not carry with it a right to a taxpayer funded abortion, does Hyde survive neutrality: once the government distributes benefits, even if it is not constitutionally obligated to act, it must do so in a neutral manner? Is government required to not favor childbirth over abortion? The taxpayer’s concern, being complicit in a form of murder, is fairly remote compared to the woman who may be compelled to endure the physical and emotional consequences of an unwanted pregnancy and birth. We don’t generally hear people howling about the employer tax exlusion for providing health insurance even though many plans may directly provide subsidized abortion benefits. Hyde targets indigent women who must absorb all of the costs…if anything….an Equal Protection challenge seems more promising than a 1A one….but that’s not what Nic is arguing,
However, I tend to come down that this a prototypical political matter that should be settled at the ballot box and not by judges rendering creative constitutional interpretations…weighing in on the culture war without any particular expertise. What other basic right might imply a responsibility for government to provide a subsidy…because a person is indigent? Would the 1A require government to provide a voucher to a private school if the person wants to exercise his religious faith and not have their child attend a public school? Foundations and non-profits can raise money from like-minded individuals that feel passionately about the topic…and subsidize abortions for the indigent…not everything can be done through government…..
AJ_Liberty (a4ff25) — 5/29/2021 @ 9:25 pmNic (896fdf) — 5/29/2021 @ 3:28 pm
My definition of what should be federally funded is very limited and it excludes far more than abortion. If you want to fund it donate to it yourself. The purpose of federal funding isn’t to redistribute money from taxpayers to things you think are a good idea. Here are some good ideas; Van Morrison songs should be played instead of “elevator” music everywhere “elevator” music is played, doughnuts and coffee should be ready for me in the morning, there should be a cure for the health effects I’ll have from my morning doughnuts, etc. As much as I think those are good ideas I don’t think they should be federally funded.
So, my secular reasons? Stop f’ing spending my, and everyone else’s, f’ing tax dollars on f’ing bulls41t and f’ing pet projects and f’ing graft. Did you notice that the national debt is $23T? Do you think I’m a religious nut for thinking maybe, just maybe, we should stop f’ing spending money on things everyone thinks is a “good idea”?
Are you against other laws that would also meet this definition? Should we remove the laws against murder and rape because some people have religious beliefs about that? Oh, wait, you’re talking about federal funding. Are you thinking not funding murder and rape is an establishment clause problem?
Maybe supportable reasons? The simple assertion that you think other people are in favor of this because of their religious beliefs doesn’t get you to an establishment clause violation. So, the “establish” part of the establishment clause; how does not providing federal funding “establish” religion?
Based “primarily in religion”? We’re moving the goalpost now? I get that you have some strongly held beliefs about that. But the fact that some people are making political decisions based on their moral values doesn’t trigger an establishment clause violation. What’s more, even if every single person was against federal funding based on their religion it wouldn’t be an establishment clause problem.
I don’t think it is morally neutral or good to think abortion is good. But even if I thought it was I can be against federal funding of it.
This line of reasoning seems so inverted that I’m possibly misunderstanding it. Funding good ideas isn’t some sort of inherent right and not funding something isn’t somehow a violation of the constitution. I can be in favor of or against funding a program for whatever reasons I want. There’s no such thing as the reasons for a law being unconstitutional (and yes, I noticed that you moved the goalposts to “equitable”).
I did. I just don’t agree with your opinion.
Where do you think you stated an objective truth in Nic (896fdf) — 5/29/2021 @ 12:05 pm? Did you state one someplace else? Can you highlight what you are referring to?
It seemed like an accurate interpretation of your response. You could clarify your response, which would help, or you can just assert that it’s wrong, basically deflect. Oddly, you don’t actually assert that I misinterpreted your response. You’re just trying to imply it and opining on the quality of that method. Ok, fair enough you don’t think it’s the best method.
Highest? I don’t know. I’d rather not assign moral opinions to something like Americans as a whole or “laws” generally. But I suspect this is a subjective question that can’t really be answered the way you’ve asked it. Are you trying to say that because you don’t think Americans collectively value human life we should federally fund abortions? Even if I agreed that human life isn’t the highest enshrined value I can still be against federal funding of abortion.
frosty (f27e97) — 5/29/2021 @ 10:09 pm@83. If you subtract Miller’s IQ from Goldwater’s, it’s still less than the number of votes either got in 1964 and the number of years Trump served as President of the United States of America.
Pretty sure you are wrong both times. Maybe Sammy knows.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/29/2021 @ 10:26 pm“Always wrong; never in doubt.”
Dave (1542be) — 5/29/2021 @ 10:51 pm@70 none of these passages refute exodus 21:23-25 None say fetus is a baby and abortion is murdering a baby. Poor try.
asset (005c8e) — 5/30/2021 @ 12:27 amDemonstrators gather at shop that offered ‘not vaccinated’ Star of David badges
Dave (1542be) — 5/30/2021 @ 12:37 am@AJ@88 That was a thoughtful response, thank you.
@frosty@89
My definition of what should be federally funded is very limited… Stop f’ing spending my, and everyone else’s, f’ing tax dollars on f’ing bulls41t.
The Hyde amendment in a bill doesn’t reduce the funding in a bill, it just redistributes it to other places. The bill still costs just as much.
Should we remove the laws against murder and rape because some people have religious beliefs about that?
Theoretically speaking, we could with the right legal steps, but it would likely severely disrupt the functioning of society, which is why there are laws against them in the first place (well, and property for the rape issue, men didn’t want to pass their property down to someone else’ kid, which I suppose counts as disrupting society’s functions as well).
how does not providing federal funding “establish” religion?
Because it creates a defacto religious test by disqualifying organizations that do not share a religious belief against abortion.
I don’t think it is morally neutral or good to think abortion is good
And that’s why it was an attack.
I can be in favor of or against funding a program for whatever reasons I want
Sure, but if you create a law that favors one type of religious belief for funding and disfavors another or non-religious, then you’ve created an establishment clause problem.
Did you state one someplace else? Can you highlight what you are referring to?
Sure. It’s objectively true that the US does not hold human life as the highest value in the land. The legal system considers many things more important than a human life. It is legal in many places to kill someone over property (a commenter here often states that he will shoot anyone who steps foot on his property 😛 ). It is legal to stand and watch someone die while not helping them. It is legal to refuse insurance coverage for a procedure that could be life saving. One of the most common ways to die by gun shot wound is suicide, but it is legal to buy guns. Cigarette smoking often results in fatal illnesses, but it is still legal to smoke. It is legal to refuse to give blood for your dying child.
You could clarify your response
I could, but the only value in it is in helping you make a personal argument instead of actually addressing the topic, so I’m not going to. You don’t need to know my moral opinion on abortion or the value of human life for the purposes of this discussion and the fact that you keep trying to make it about my morality is not useful.
Are you trying to say that because you don’t think Americans collectively value human life we should federally fund abortions?
Rob asked me if I believed that human life has no value (apparently under the idea that if one values human life one must be for the Hyde amendment and/or anti-abortion). My answer was that my personal opinion on the value of human life isn’t relevant. You followed that by saying that that means I must believe that human life has no value. How much value I personally place or do not place on human life is not relevant for anything except as a probe to see if I’m open to a personal attack. You also attempted to use what was essentially a throw away line that the country isn’t too interested in human life anyway as a way to attempt a personal attack. My question to you was an attempt to get you to see that stating that the country doesn’t place human life as it’s highest value doesn’t mean that the person making the statement doesn’t value human life.
I thank your for at least attempting to address my question, but it isn’t the main course of my argument. I don’t think it really has anything to do with the Hyde amendment other than there probably being some hypocrisy there for some supporters of the Hyde amendment and their purported reasoning, but it’s politics, what would it be without a sprinkling of hypocrisy?
Nic (896fdf) — 5/30/2021 @ 1:34 amDid somebody say that men passed laws against rape because they did not want another man’s child inheriting their property?
Now, hypothetically speaking of course, if such a person offered such an opoinion, would any other opinion they expressed be worth a plugged nickel?
nk (9651fb) — 5/30/2021 @ 6:26 amAnd let us assume, for the sake of Extra-Radical Feminism On Mutated Progesterone, that such is the case, does this Critical Systemic Phallocratic Eugenics theory hurt women or benefit them?
nk (9651fb) — 5/30/2021 @ 6:41 amThe root cause is the idea of having credentials.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/30/2021 @ 6:57 amThey don’t want to create real estate competition and/or lower the value of housing. For instance, they could build pre=fabricated houses, or make something out of shipping containers. But building anything acceptable as housing would reduce property values.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/30/2021 @ 7:01 amDisproportionate to the percentage of certain groups in the population. People fear that it is racist to argue that there is a disproportion in the number of bad apples between different subcategories of the population, so they get away with this false syllogism. There is actually a reasonable explanation for this ( under policing and the influence of a person’s friends) but they never get that far.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/30/2021 @ 7:06 amIf any one remembers the debate about clearing Lafayette square there was a lot of back and forth another of they used tear gas on protesters.
Turns out they did use tear gas as was clear at the time but denied by the lying Trump administration.
https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/investigations/mpd-admits-it-tear-gassed-protesters-june-2020/65-b91a5d65-b683-4e22-b30a-7a740e9cf61d
Time123 (9f42ee) — 5/30/2021 @ 7:07 amSammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/30/2021 @ 7:01 am
When the gov pays more for less, it is not because they are being careful not to disrupt market mechanisms. It is, in my opinion, so they can increase the funds over which they control. If they overspend and run out of funds, they create the argument that more funds are needed.
felipe (484255) — 5/30/2021 @ 7:21 amnk (9651fb) — 5/30/2021 @ 6:26 am
I’d like to see this other opinion before deciding but I’d agree this hypothetical person has earned a certain amount of skepticism. Especially, when that’s hypothetically not the only hypothetically questionable hypothetical opinion.
frosty (f27e97) — 5/30/2021 @ 7:51 amnone of these passages refute exodus 21:23-25 None say fetus is a baby and abortion is murdering a baby. Poor try.
asset (005c8e) — 5/30/2021 @ 12:27 am
frosty (f27e97) — 5/30/2021 @ 7:53 amJustice Dept. asks judge to toss lawsuit against Trump, Barr for violent clearing of Lafayette Square
………..
Trump and other U.S. officials are immune from civil lawsuits over police actions taken to protect a president and to secure his movements, government lawyers said of the actions taken ahead of a photo op of Trump holding a Bible in front of the historic St. John’s Church. A crowd of more than 1,000 largely peaceful demonstrators were protesting the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis before the park was cleared.
A year to the week after Floyd’s death, Justice Department lawyers argued that the lawsuits should also be tossed because last November’s presidential election made future violations unlikely. The government said the square has been reopened, and President Biden’s administration does not share Trump’s stated hostility toward Floyd and the racial justice movement.
……….
Lawyers for the ACLU said that despite legal precedents, the government’s defense would “authorize brutality with impunity” in the heart of Washington at one of the most symbolic spaces within the seat of the federal government.
If their defense was upheld, U.S. authorities “could have used live ammunition to clear the park, and nobody would have a claim against that as an assault on their constitutional rights,” said Scott Michelman, legal director for ACLU-D.C.
In response, Justice Department attorneys for current and former U.S. officials and Park Police officers in their official and individual capacities, called presidential security a “paramount” government interest.
……….
U.S. District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich of Washington held nearly three hours of joint oral arguments over several motions to dismiss four overlapping lawsuits on behalf of more than 100 U.S., D.C. and Arlington County defendants. She promised rulings “in the near future.”
In questioning, Friedrich appeared open to the government’s request.
“How do I get over the clear national security concern over the president’s safety?” the judge asked the plaintiffs at one point. Earlier she asked, “It seems to me you have to clear the square before he [Trump] walks to the church. Why is that not reasonable?”
……..
Randy M. Mastro, co-chair of the Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s litigation practice, called security the latest in a series of “shifting explanations” after-the-fact by the government to explain its actions in a place used for decades for public protest.
……..
“Now we hear defendants saying, ‘Oh, this was about security for the president,’ ” Mastro said, “but no defendant suggests the president was at any time in any danger.”
Instead he pointed to Trump’s own statements.
Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/30/2021 @ 7:55 am………
@103 Arg; that posted accidentally.
The full quote for that verse implies that “serious injury” includes the death of the baby. It’s true that this verse doesn’t literally say anything about a “fetus” because it assumes life for life includes the life of the baby.
Are you going with the clump of cells idea and thinking the baby is the tooth for tooth part of this verse? Do we have a rabbi who can give us a ruling on this one? Because I don’t think that’s how that verse is interpreted.
frosty (f27e97) — 5/30/2021 @ 8:03 amAmy Cooper, White Woman Who Called 911 on Black Birder, Sues Over Firing
Amy Cooper, a white woman who last year became an international symbol of the routine racism that Black people face in their daily lives, is suing her former employer for firing her, arguing that she is a victim of racial discrimination.
Ms. Cooper makes the claim in a lawsuit filed this week against the investment firm Franklin Templeton, which terminated her employment a year ago after she was captured on a widely shared video in a tense encounter with a Black bird-watcher.
………
……… Franklin Templeton initially suspended Ms. Cooper, who was head of insurance portfolio management at the firm and had worked there about five years, before firing her.
Despite what the video shows, Ms. Cooper argues in her suit that she was not motivated by racial animus when she called the police on Mr. Cooper.
She says in the suit, which was filed in federal court in Manhattan, that she “did not shout at Christian Cooper or call the police from Central Park on May 25, 2020, because she was a racist — she did these things because she was alone in the park and frightened to death.” She goes on to say that Mr. Cooper had selected her as a “target” and describes him as “overzealous.”
And the suit argues that Franklin Templeton did not thoroughly investigate the situation because of Ms. Cooper’s own race and gender, effectively reaching its decision to terminate her because she is a white woman.
………..
The suit’s characterization of Mr. Cooper’s behavior appeared to be at odds with a statement Ms. Cooper posted online the day after the episode, apologizing to him “for my actions when I encountered him in Central Park yesterday.”
“I reacted emotionally and made false assumptions about his intentions when, in fact, I was the one who was acting inappropriately by not having my dog on a leash,” Ms. Cooper wrote in the statement.
……….
Damon T. Hewitt, the executive director of the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said that the civil rights arguments in Ms. Cooper’s suit seemed to him to be fairly meager. He expressed concern that the suit, and others like it, could weaken the cause of stronger cases.
“I think it’s frankly inappropriate to hijack civil rights statutes with these kinds of claims,” he said. “I’m not going to say a white person can never face discrimination. I would not say that. But in this instance, there just seems to be no claim at all.”
Another civil rights attorney, Richard D. Emery, agreed and said that the weakness of the civil rights claim was likely to doom the entire suit in federal court.
“They have not alleged any plausible facts that connect Templeton’s actions to race discrimination,” he said. “The only thing it does plausibly allege is that Templeton was reacting to what they perceived as a racist act on her part. But that doesn’t mean that they’re racist in regard to her.”
Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/30/2021 @ 8:18 am………..
Cooper is seeking back pay and bonus, loss of unvested funds and other benefits, front pay or reinstatements, emotional distress damages, attorneys’ fees and costs, and interest and punitive damages in an amount to be determined at trial.
Medicine being on the primitive side in those days, “eye for eye, tooth for tooth, etc.” i.e anything short of homicide, meant monetary compensation in actual practice since taking out a malefactor’s eye or tooth might result in an infection or schock that killed them. Only homicide could not be bought off.
nk (9651fb) — 5/30/2021 @ 8:19 am@104 “largely peaceful”
JF (e1156d) — 5/30/2021 @ 8:34 amRIP Faye Schulman (101). Saved photographs of Nazi officers and their atrocities and served with Russian guerrilla Resistance fighters in Poland.
For a vague idea of the atrocities committed by the Wehrmacht in Belorussia during World War II, (as no film can truly recount the horrors of war), see the 1985 Russian film “Come and See”. Some have considered it among the greatest films ever made, and rarely seen.
Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/30/2021 @ 9:01 amThe City of LA spent over $2000 per square foot to build 39 8′ X 8′ 64SF structures for the homeless on City land (so land is not included in the SF cost just to get that out of the way)
$120K plus per unit.
You can go online and buy a 8 X 8 backyard office kit for $4200
steveg (ebe7c1) — 5/30/2021 @ 9:13 amPlus you could probably get Habitat to assemble them for free
steveg (ebe7c1) — 5/30/2021 @ 9:15 am@103 That’s if the mother dies. Causing a mother to miscarry is a fine.
Davethulhu (69e65f) — 5/30/2021 @ 9:59 am“none of these passages refute exodus 21:23-25 None say fetus is a baby and abortion is murdering a baby. Poor try.”
The challenge is that the Bible is not a book about science….and is a product of its times. It is not a guide to unlocking how the physical world works….but it does offer broader principles from ancient times that could be applied to new situations and for new contexts. One could certainly mine the Old Testament for a whole lot of brutality….by man at God’s direction (Canaanites, Jericho, Amalekites, Midianites, Ai, forced slavery, etc)….and by God directly (world-wide flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, killing Egyptian first born, and let’s not even get started with Job). At times, it’s difficult to square it with Jesus’ more basic message of loving one another and turning the other cheek.
But what would Jesus say about abortion if he understood fetal development and our differing socio-cultural times? First, he would probably say “wait, 2000 years and still no end times….doooh!” He might then launch in about “what was unclear about the parable of the goats and sheep….and not storing up treasures on earth…..and what-the-frankincense is up with worshipping an orange grifter…just NO….and who said anything about doing Hail Mary’s!” Eventually, I do believe he would get to abortion….and he would find that both sides are missing an opportunity to love. Are pro-life people doing enough to love that woman in a difficult time….are the pro-choice people giving up on love and the miracle and promise of life? He would then be promptly and simultaneously banned from Twitter and chased out of the GOP caucus for divisiveness…..
AJ_Liberty (ec7f74) — 5/30/2021 @ 10:18 am67. asset (7a3f79) — 5/29/2021 @ 2:07 pm
In conjunction with Exodus 21:12 and Numbers 35:31. It is not identical to murder. But nobody believes that it is.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/30/2021 @ 10:26 am“Maverick”, An Autobiography of Thomas Sowell by Jason Riley is worth the time.
mg (8cbc69) — 5/30/2021 @ 10:28 amIsraeli opposition parties reach agreement to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
………
Under their agreement, reached after weeks of negotiations spearheaded by centrist opposition leader Yair Lapid, former Netanyahu defense minister and ally Naftali Bennett will lead a power-sharing government.
“We could go to fifth elections, sixth elections, until our home falls upon us, or we could stop the madness and take responsibility,” Bennett said in a televised statement Sunday evening. “Today, I would like to announce that I intend to join my friend Yair Lapid in forming a unity government.”
……..
Their announcement follows the 11-day conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip this month, which some analysts speculated would help bolster the embattled Netanyahu. ……
But after an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire took hold May 21, criticism of Netanyahu surged again. Some 47 percent of Israelis opposed the cease-fire and 67 percent said they expected another round of fighting with Hamas within the next three years, according to opinion polls published last week by Israel’s Channel 12. Netanyahu’s rivals said the operation lacked a coherent or long-term strategy and that Netanyahu’s failure to stop Hamas rocket fire from raining down on Israel or secure the remains of Israeli soldiers was further proof of his need to leave office.
Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/30/2021 @ 10:40 am……….
RIP B. J. Thomas (78).
Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/30/2021 @ 10:44 am@90. ROFLMAO -as all home schooled right wing zealots know, President Goldwater defeated President Johnson… and Hillary Clinton was America’s first woman CIC, defeating Donald Trump.
@91. “Always wrong. Never in doubt.”:
Reaganomics.
“It’s true. I read it. It’s in za history books.” – Werner the Ferret [Robert Graf] ‘The Great Escape’ 1963
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 5/30/2021 @ 11:21 amNBC News, 5/30/21- Two people were killed and over 20 injured in a mass shooting in Miami early Sunday, the Miami-Dade Police Department said in a statement.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 5/30/2021 @ 11:27 am@nk@95 You know, nk, we’ve had a lot of good discussions over the years, sometimes agreeing, sometimes disagreeing, but generally respectful and on point. I’m not sure why you’ve chosen that particular kind of dismissive response, but since you have, I will just say that I hope you have a good day and continue on with mine.
Nic (896fdf) — 5/30/2021 @ 11:47 amhttps://thebulletin.org/2021/05/the-origin-of-covid-did-people-or-nature-open-pandoras-box-at-wuhan/
Interesting read.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 5/30/2021 @ 11:57 am@119: At a rap concert. This shows two things: Rap leads to violence, and rappers can’t shoot.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/30/2021 @ 11:59 amOccam’s Razor says it was a lab mishap.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/30/2021 @ 11:59 amYour statement was more uncharitable than mine, Nic. In depth and scope. And offhandedness too.
nk (1d9030) — 5/30/2021 @ 12:02 pmAbortion is freedom of choice; sorta like mass shootings. Which makes a preachy Catholic plagiarist the last person on Earth to dictate how cows should each cabbage– or bats- to leaders of other lands.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 5/30/2021 @ 12:20 pm@nk@124 I’m sorry you were offended. It wasn’t directed to you or intended as a personal statement toward you. I hope you have a good day.
Nic (896fdf) — 5/30/2021 @ 12:23 pmBrazilian Hélio Castroneves wins his record 4th Indianapolis 500.
Another American institution, like Congress, where going in circles, no place, fast is celebrated.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 5/30/2021 @ 12:30 pmCastroneves shares the record of most Indy 500 wins (4) with AJ Foyt, Al Unser, and Rick Mears.
Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/30/2021 @ 12:45 pmJVW @44. I guess they were not familiar with the rules of baseball.
The rules of baseball provide that when a batter failing to get to first base would be the third out, then, even if a runner scores, and scores before the batter touches first base, the run does not count.
So all the Pirates needed to do was make sure the batter was out. No need to tag the runner at Home Plate.
And to get the batter out, all that is needed for a Cub player to step on the base while holding
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/30/2021 @ 1:12 pmthe baseball in his hand before the batter gets to first base. So when the batter was trapped between First base and Home plate, all the Pirate had to do was go back to first base.
I mean that to get the third out and end the inning, a Pirate player had only to step on the base while holding the baseball in his hand before the batter gets to first base. Had it been the second out then Home Plate could be stolen.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/30/2021 @ 1:15 pm“Mass Shooting” and “Breaking News” are terms that besides being symbiotic, have largely been denuded of their shock value.
urbanleftbehind (71d992) — 5/30/2021 @ 1:23 pmSo, the most likely source is a lab, not nature. That’s not really how likelihood works. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, or even some, or even a little. Supposition and conspiracy theories really don’t count.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 5/30/2021 @ 1:34 pmThey didn’t want anyone else to to rule it out, keeping people away, with varying excuses, from the possible source in the abandoned copper mine shaft in the town of Tongguan in Mojiang Hani Autonomous County, in Yunnan Province, 7 hours by rail from Wuhan, China.
One time, a BBC crew on its way to the mine shaft found the road blocked by a parked truck that “broken down.” Later, a checkpoint was set up, and foreign journalists were stopped by unidentified men, and, on one occasion, warned that there were wild elephants up ahead. A Wall Street Journal reporter reached the site by mountain bike, but was later detained and questioned by police for five hours, and a cellphone picture was deleted. The Wall Street Journal says the mine was so overgrown that it appeared to be inaccessible. He managed to talk to some villagers who told him that they had been warned by local officials not to discuss the mine with outsiders (simple people, they didn’t realize they were not supposed to mention that either.) The Wall Street Journal reporter also found out that no nearby villagers had been evacuated, nor was there any sign of research activity.
Now you see what is secret here, is that the bats who lived in or near the mine were not the answer. Even if they were a source, what they had did not and could not cause a serious communicable disease. Otherwise the nurses and doctors in the hospital where 6 people hired to clear out bat guano in the spring and summer of 2012 would have become sick and the epidemic would have started there.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/30/2021 @ 1:44 pmOr, let me guess, the obtuse excuse will be that it’s a lab “oopsie”, not an infection from a wet market.
From 17 years ago.
Like SARS-Cov03, or H5N1, or monkeypox.
When you hear hoof beats, think ungulate, not a minotaur.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 5/30/2021 @ 1:48 pmColonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 5/30/2021 @ 1:34 pm
And that it was created in a lab.
If it came from nature, you would need to explain why the sequence had not been published.
Possible explanation other than genetic engineering include
1) it was too soon after they first got it
OR
2) The people who had custody of the virus were conducting secret research.
The point of the scientists who pushed for the laboratory leak is that it is not extraordinarily improbzble at all. There is extraordinary lying and concealment going oon, but we know that to be a fact. China claimed for weeks, against all evidence, that it was not contagious from person to person. The outbreak was attributed to a “wet market” that wasn’t a “wet market” (fish don’t bleed when killed) but was a seafood market that contained very few animals that breathed air, but was about 300 yards away from a lab. There is a lot of other concealment going on. The extraordinary evidence threshold for the plausibility of a cover-up by China has been met.
The longer it takes to find an intermediate host, the weaker the case gets. And another argument against a natural source is that two different significant mutations would need to occur: A furin-like cleavage site on the spike protein, and the ACE2 receptor binding domain.
It hasn’t really been possible until recently.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/30/2021 @ 2:15 pm121.
Short answer: Joanna Because Ralph Baric, Peter Daszak, and Jonna Mazet are mad scientists, whom other scientists have been trying to stop for ten years.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/30/2021 @ 2:29 pmColonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 5/30/2021 @ 1:34 pm
It’s not actually an extraordinary claim. Coronaviruses generally are not new viruses and this general type of virus has a natural source. But it’s misleading to use that to discount the idea that viruses can also be modified. Also, the phrase “disease known to infect humans” should be “virus known to infect”. Whoever gave this quote is causally mixing up terms like virus, variant, and disease. This sort of bait and switch doesn’t inspire confidence in the source.
No one is claiming that SARS-CoV-2 is an entirely lab made virus, i.e. that the source of the virus is a lab. The claim is that the source of the modification is a lab.
The question is where did the SARS-CoV-2 variant originate and it’s also where did the pandemic originate. These are slightly different questions. For example, it’s possible SARS-CoV-2 was found in an intermediate host prior to any outbreak, was researched in the wuhan lab, and accidentally escaped. That wouldn’t involve any modification and would be a simple lab leak. The CCP could easily prove this if it were the case. It’s possible SARS-CoV-2 is a modified variant from an original that didn’t infect humans or wasn’t as deadly but it leaked. They could prove this too. There are a variety of alternatives that aren’t extraordinary.
But, so far, there is zero evidence for an intermediate host for SARS-CoV-2. The animal crossover hypothesis is based on previous examples but there is no actual evidence for it in this instance. People who favor it tend to ignore the fact that no intermediate host has been found after extensive searching.
The lab leak hypothesis is based on the idea that we know the wuhan lab was modifying coronaviruses and we’ve had previous outbreaks from accidental lab leaks. That doesn’t mean it happened but the response to this hypothesis is starting to discredit a lot of individuals and institutions.
Both of these hypothesis have little hard evidence to support them but the current propaganda against the lab leak is CCP propaganda. It’s also borderline criminal that US authorities haven’t investigated the lab leak hypothesis more thoroughly and have played along with the CCP.
frosty (f27e97) — 5/30/2021 @ 2:33 pmA coverup of what? That they didn’t want an(other) outbreak to interfere with the negotiations for the trade deal with Trump that was happening in December and January, hey, it worked? That the nasty wet markets were the source of another global pandemic, you know like the last few, including SARS-CoV from nearly 20 years before, from bats to civet cats, or bird flu…nah.
Instead you’re claiming that instead of the obvious and likely things, it was instead the worlds dumbest biologic attack, that hurt the attackers first and quite badly. Sure, sure, that’s likely.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 5/30/2021 @ 2:49 pmIt’s almost like you guys are both not scientists, and don’t want to bother with a simple search.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 5/30/2021 @ 2:57 pmColonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 5/30/2021 @ 1:48 pm
It’s stupid to think lab leaks happen?
Things like previous SARS outbreak or the smallpox outbreak in 1978? Or the Soviet anthrax outbreak in 1979? I think we’ve had six SARS lab leaks since 2003.
I’d say it’s stupid to ignore the dangers posed by these lab leaks and dangerous to ignore that China doesn’t have a good track record for running virology labs.
frosty (f27e97) — 5/30/2021 @ 2:58 pmIt’s pangolins, btw. And oddly enough, when the mayor of Wuhan order the the wet market closed and the animals destroyed to cover up the source…the infected animals that were killed and incinerated, then didn’t get tested after the incineration, you know, because they were incinerated. Like burning is really effective at destroying infections. Who knew.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 5/30/2021 @ 3:00 pmEbola, smallpox, chickenpox, AIDS, influenza, common cold, encephalitis, botulinum, toe fungus, jock itch…
Colonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 5/30/2021 @ 3:04 pmColonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 5/30/2021 @ 2:57 pm
I don’t think this says what you think it says. It’s almost like you read that and imagined that they found a link to the specific SARS-CoV-2 variant for COVID-19. I wish that guy who’s always saying one thing isn’t like another thing would visit this thread because this is a perfect time.
The key line here is
Hypothesized is fancy scientist speak for something that hasn’t been established. A hypothesis and some fancy grant writing might get you some research funding but the hypothesis by itself doesn’t tell you where SARS-CoV-2 came from.
No one is saying that SARS variants don’t exist in other animals. No one is saying that SARS-CoV-2 couldn’t have jumped from an intermediate host. But so far there is no evidence for that.
frosty (f27e97) — 5/30/2021 @ 3:22 pmMaybe find out what a scientific hypothesis is, because you seem think it means just guessing.
You see when patterns exist like 1-2-3-4-x-6-7-8 you a scientific hypothosys would be that the pattern suggests that x=5. Now if you see ?-x-?, the pattern suggests nothing, because there is actually no data to suggest anything.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 5/30/2021 @ 3:32 pmColonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 5/30/2021 @ 3:04 pm
That’s a list of things. Congratulations. Encephalitis is a hard to spell word. I’d have had to copy and paste that one. Did you have to copy/paste or did you just type that in like a boss?
frosty (f27e97) — 5/30/2021 @ 3:32 pmYou mean a list of things that exist in nature?
Also, being literate is a bare minimum of intercourse. If you don’t know how to spell a word, look it up. Like encephalitis, it’s actually a very simple word to spell, or the scientific method. All things you could learn, but nah.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 5/30/2021 @ 3:40 pmColonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 5/30/2021 @ 3:00 pm
No it isn’t. I think that has mostly been debunked.
The market was closed that way, to cover up the fact that it was not the source, and to convince people in Wuhan and other places that the government was taking it seriously.
And it wasn’t a wet market!
It was a seafood market.
Which can only have been chosen as a scapegoat because it was near a source of infection.
Which would be the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
They could have found plenty of real “wet markets” in Wuhan. They later did fnd one to blame, for a while.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/30/2021 @ 3:44 pmColonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 5/30/2021 @ 2:49 pm
That’s why an intentional release can sort of be ruled out.
But not an unintentional one.
BTW, China was closest to not censoring things about this from about January 23 through February 12, 2020.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/30/2021 @ 3:49 pmHere’s the story of the Sverdlovsk_anthrax_leak.
Note that Harvard Professor Matthew Meselson was fooled in his initial investigation. Which reminds me of the restricted tour “Emperor” Xi arranged for outside scientists, recently.
And, if I may make a very general point, it is not uncommon for bureaucracies, especially in dictatorships, to cover up their mistakes.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 5/30/2021 @ 3:49 pmBut is a weapon leak or a lab leak, more likely than the general coverup of China being the source of the 3rd or 4th species jump outbreak in 20 years…right in the middle of negotiating a trade deal with the US?
Again, hoof beats=ungulates, not Lucifer walking the earth.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 5/30/2021 @ 3:55 pmLikely: having a high probability of occurring or being true : very probable
Colonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 5/30/2021 @ 3:58 pmrain is likely today
@150, @151 let’s mull the probability that out of the hundreds of exotic wet markets in china the virus chose the one near the lab to make the jump
JF (e1156d) — 5/30/2021 @ 4:05 pmColonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 5/30/2021 @ 3:32 pm
I don’t seem to think it’s a guess. For someone making claims about science you should be more careful guessing what people think. I’d say a hypothesis is better than a guess if it’s got some evidence and it can be tested. If you can’t test it then it’s not a scientific hypothesis and if there’s no evidence for it then it’s no better than a guess. So, to correct your reduction, you’d see the pattern and say “a” hypothesis is that x=5, and if you could construct a valid test of the hypothesis then you could claim it was “a” scientific hypothesis. Anyone who sees the pattern and immediately says they have a scientific hypothesis, and skips the test part, doesn’t, as you say, know what a scientific hypothesis is.
You seem to be trying very hard to say I’m saying something I’m not. To use your example, I’m not saying the pattern doesn’t suggest five. I’m perfectly willing to acknowledge that it suggests five but I’m also acknowledging that there are other possible values.
For someone claiming to rest their position on “science” you’re undermining your argument by making the claim that five is the only reasonable answer, again to stick with your overly simplistic reduction.
This is actually an odd example to reduce to given that it’s possible to construct an algorithm to produce an arbitrary observed sequence. This is a textbook example of why you don’t draw conclusions from limited data without testing and validation. We had this exact discussion in my high school calculus class and you’d have not gotten any credit for suggesting that five was anything more than a guess. I had this same discussion in my intro to logic class in college. I’ve been told they don’t teach this stuff anymore. Maybe you missed out.
frosty (f27e97) — 5/30/2021 @ 4:12 pmColonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 5/30/2021 @ 3:55 pm
Now I’m really curious why you’re so invested in the wet market propaganda. You’ve gone out of your way to mischaracterize the lab leak theory, to mischaracterize comments here, and to insult people. All based on very weak or non-existent circumstantial evidence. That’s an odd hill to try to conquer while taking self inflicted wounds.
frosty (f27e97) — 5/30/2021 @ 4:24 pm“I want to know why what happened in Myanmar can’t happen here” – Gen Michael Flynn
https://twitter.com/MC_Hyperbole/status/1399129297240084489
Davethulhu (69e65f) — 5/30/2021 @ 4:37 pmThe 10 Senate seats most likely to flip in 2022
……..
……[T]he GOP’s fidelity to former President Donald Trump could complicate their ability to defeat Democrats in demographically changing Biden states. Even months after he left the White House, the ex-President looms over the GOP. Look no further than congressional Republicans’ unwillingness to establish a commission to investigate the January 6 insurrection. And across the country, primaries continue to look like Trump loyalty contests.
……….
1. Pennsylvania-Incumbent: Republican Pat Toomey (retiring)
Pennsylvania remains the seat most likely to flip with Republicans trying to defend an open seat in a state that Biden won last fall. The primary fields on both sides are still in flux, with Republicans recently picking up a new candidate in Army veteran Sean Parnell,…….. Trump loyalty is a salient factor in the GOP primary. ………Having run with the GOP President’s backing in 2020, Parnell may occupy a Trumpier lane than [Jeff] Bartos, a wealthy businessman who loaned his campaign $400,000 during the first quarter, but Bartos carefully namedrops the former President in his announcement video. ……..
The Democratic field is crowded with Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta and Montgomery County Commissioner Val Arkoosh and a handful of other state and federal elected officials still looking at the race. Republicans like their odds against Fetterman, the progressive former mayor of Braddock — and the biggest fundraiser so far. ……..
2. Georgia-Incumbent: Democrat Raphael Warnock
Warnock, who flipped this seat blue in a January runoff, is in the enviable position of raising money for his quest to win a full six-year term while waiting for a Republican challenger. He started the second quarter with $5.6 million in the bank…..[F]ormer NFL running back Herschel Walker — who doesn’t even live in Georgia — has frozen the GOP field because he has Trump’s backing. Other potential Republican candidates, knowing how important Trump’s support would be in a GOP primary, don’t want to run until they see whether Walker, a political novice, actually dives in. …….
3. Wisconsin-Incumbent: Republican Ron Johnson
Johnson continues to be the biggest variable in this race: Will he run again? ……. His indecision is making it hard for any other Republicans who might be interested in the race……Democrats feel good about their options here and like the idea of running against Johnson………
4. North Carolina-Incumbent: Republican Richard Burr (retiring)
Republicans aren’t as worried about defending North Carolina as they are Biden states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, but the open seat created by Burr’s retirement is giving Democrats an opening — potentially with more diverse candidates who could help them drive minority turnout. ……..
5. Arizona-Incumbent: Democrat Mark Kelly
……… Republicans have had trouble landing a candidate, and more than anywhere else, their lack of a big name here is concerning to some Republicans, in part because this should be a hotly contested race — one that the GOP needs to win if the party is going to have a realistic shot at the majority. ……..
6. Nevada-Incumbent: Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto
Republicans are also waiting for a candidate to take on Cortez Masto, a first-term senator. All eyes remain on former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, who, as a former statewide elected official, Republicans hope would give them a good shot. Democrats will be eager to tie him to Trump and his efforts to overturn the election. ………
7. New Hampshire-Incumbent: Democrat Maggie Hassan
…….. Republicans are eager for Gov. Chris Sununu to run against first-term Sen. Hassan, believing he’d give the Democratic former governor a real race. But Sununu has said he won’t make a move until the end of the legislative session, which is next month, so until he decides what to do, the Republican field is in a holding pattern……..
8. Ohio-Incumbent: Republican Rob Portman (retiring)
While an ever-growing field of Republicans dukes it out to replace Portman, the question in Ohio is whether Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan will be able to recreate Sen. Sherrod Brown’s magic. ……..
[Republicans running include] former state Treasurer Josh Mandel, former state party chair Jane Timken and several wealthy businessmen running. “Hillbilly Elegy” author J.D. Vance has formed an exploratory committee, and while it’s not clear how much his Silicon Valley connections would endear him to Ohio voters, the $10 million super PAC commitment from Peter Thiel certainly wouldn’t hurt. ……..
9. Florida-Incumbent: Republican Marco Rubio
…….. Democratic Rep. Val Demings has shaken up this race with the news — confirmed by sources familiar — that she’s planning to run for Senate against Republican Sen. Marco Rubio……..
10. Missouri-Incumbent: Republican Roy Blunt (retiring)
Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/30/2021 @ 4:39 pm……..[T]he candidacy of former Gov. Eric Greitens, who resigned from office following a probe into allegations of sexual and campaign misconduct, could give Democrats just enough of an opening that this race is on the list for the second month in a row now. Greitens’ candidacy — and his connections to Trump world — are concerning to Republicans, who worry that much like Todd Akin in 2012, he could endanger this seat if he’s the nominee and force other GOP candidates around the country to answer for him. That may be one reason why state Senate Republicans tried to create a runoff rule that would apply for next year…….. Mark McCloskey, …..could appeal to similar voters as Greitens, potentially splitting the former governor’s base……..
……..
it is not uncommon for bureaucracies, especially in dictatorships, to cover up their mistakes.
Or their biological warfare programs. There will tnever be a definite answer to the question of the COVID-19 will ever be resolved to the West’s satisfaction, unless the Chinese political system would completely collapse a la the CCCP.
Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/30/2021 @ 4:45 pmit is not uncommon for bureaucracies, especially in dictatorships, to cover up their mistakes.
what’s uncommon is for the western media to help them
JF (e1156d) — 5/30/2021 @ 5:07 pmSo, the most likely source is a lab, not nature. That’s not really how likelihood works.
It is less likely that a disease that silently infests one organism leaps not one, but two species and becomes remarkably virulent in people as a result. Most viruses that spread this way are not usually long-lived. Even Ebola, which is truly terrifying, does not spread very far from its origin, whatever that is.
The animal hypothesis requires a chain of events, all unlikely and ending in something that is surprising in its ability to infect.
The lab theory requires only “oops.” That it behaves indistinguishably from a weaponized strain increases this likelihood. I do NOT believe that it was released intentionally because nobody is that stupid. But I do believe that national labs have “just-in-case” research teams. Pretty sure we do too.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/30/2021 @ 5:28 pmThe other things about the lab/nature discussion:
Why would China have lied for so long, and continued to stonewall investigators, if this was a natural occurrence?
Why have they not banned all wet markets? It can’t be because they respect the rights of the people.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/30/2021 @ 5:32 pmWhy would anyone want to create a novel virus capable of causing a pandemic?
Why does anyone build thermonuclear bombs?
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/30/2021 @ 5:35 pmThe only evidence for either theory is that we haven’t found much to prove the other theory. The main evidence for the nature theory is that we think that’s what usually happens. But it’s not really evidence at all.
Most of the time a car fails to stop because the driver failed to brake. But sometimes the brakes failed. The first thing does not disprove the second, even if you find no solid proof the brakes failed.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/30/2021 @ 5:40 pmChina had Trump by the short hairs from the start. He was afraid to ruin his “beautiful trade deal” with Xi. The intelligence services tried to tell him “Mr. President, we have a problem” and he blew them off all the way to May. It was not until the cases and deaths mounted and he needed a scapegoat that he started to “China virus”. More than enough time for the Chinese to erase the evidence.
nk (1d9030) — 5/30/2021 @ 6:16 pm@163 uh, more likely swallowing the CCP line on the lab leak theory for fifteen months gave china more time than they needed
JF (e1156d) — 5/30/2021 @ 6:41 pm163.China had Trump by the short hairs from the start.
Trump??
“Start” with The Big Dick:
‘Nixon dubbed his visit “the week that changed the world”, a descriptor that continues to echo in the political lexicon. Repercussions of the Nixon visit continue to this day; while near-immediate results included a significant shift in the Cold War balance—driving a wedge between the Soviet Union and China, resulting in significant Soviet concessions to the U.S.—the trip spawned China’s opening to the world and economic parity with capitalist countries.
The relationship between China and the U.S. is now one of the most important bilateral relationships in the world, and every successive U.S. president, except Jimmy Carter, has visited China. The trip is consistently ranked by historians, scholars, and journalists as one of the most important—if not the most important—visits by a U.S. president anywhere.‘ -source, wikiwatergatgescumbag.expletivedeleted.republicanbackedbyconservatives.oops
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 5/30/2021 @ 6:48 pmYou’re right, JF. The media should have done what Trump willfully refused to do.
nk (1d9030) — 5/30/2021 @ 6:54 pmAnd just to put DCSCA’s mind at ease, if Richard M. Nixon runs for President in 2024, I’ll think twice before voting for him, I promise.
nk (1d9030) — 5/30/2021 @ 6:55 pmAgain, evidence of what? A conspiracy to leak a virus that seriously impacted their economy, and the economies of all of their trading partners, either by action or accident. Or, covering up the fact that another outbreak came out of China’s nasty wet markets, again, another one, after the other one, and that other one.
The only difference between Ebola/AIDS/Monkeypox and Covid2, Covid1, and the bird flu, is that travel to/from China is widespread with an unfathomable population and from Central Africa is not.
Again, again…while negotiating with a man who likes to be buttered up and flattered, that maybe they’d just quiet up that whole outbreak thing…ssshhh…let him announce that trade thing in January.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 5/30/2021 @ 6:58 pmKerrville (TX) man arrested after officials intercept plans for mass shooting at Walmart
The FBI, Texas DPS and FBI have arrested a Kerrville man they say planned to carry out a shooting at a Walmart.
Coleman Thomas Blevins, 28, popped up on the Kerr County Sheriff’s Office radar last week and reached out to Blevins. According to the KCSO, it confirmed Blevins was planning a mass shooting after speaking with him.
……….
Blevins was arrested Friday on a Terroristic Threat warrant, then officials got to work on a search warrant at his home.
There, deputies say they found firearms, ammo, electronic evidence, concentrated THC and “radical ideology paraphernalia,” which they said included books, flags and handwritten documents.
Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/30/2021 @ 7:10 pm……….
Blevins is on federal probation, so he was not allowed to possess firearms.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 5/30/2021 @ 6:58 pm
Why are you continuing to lie about the lab leak theory? This
is not the lab leak theory. We normally disagree on issues so that I understand. You’re often abrasive and rude so that’s not new either. But this intellectual incontinence is new.
frosty (f27e97) — 5/30/2021 @ 7:14 pm@166 well who to believe, you or maggie?
that’s a tough one
JF (e1156d) — 5/30/2021 @ 7:14 pmbtw, trump first used “china virus” on march 16, four days after china accused the us army of having patient zero who spread it in wuhan, a claim twitter let stand even after censoring trump
it was retaliation, having nothing to do with the timing of a trade deal
JF (e1156d) — 5/30/2021 @ 7:24 pmDefinition of willful
1: obstinately and often perversely self-willed
a stubborn and willful child
2: done deliberately : INTENTIONAL
willful disobedience
Trump saying fifteen mutually contradictory things in fifteen minutes is the hallmark of his administration. Along with alternative facts. But here’s the deal about malarkey: Plausible deniability is only possible when coming from a plausible person.
nk (1d9030) — 5/30/2021 @ 7:35 pmIt’s mostly a matter of saying whatever seems expedient at the moment, but there could also be a strategy to cover all the bases to allow any number of claims to be made subsequently as needed: “I said such-and-such!” And all the contrary statements are pushed aside. Like throwing one “peacefully” in the mix along with 20 or so “fights,” so the flacks can later pretend that the one “peacefully” is all that counts.
Radegunda (2ba443) — 5/30/2021 @ 8:45 pmIf the Chinese said that it was released as an oopsie from the collection of the Wuhan lab, then it obviously was an attack and all the deaths were on porpoise. If they confirmed it came from a bat named Ralph who pooped on a cat named Margie and rubbed up on a guy named Bob, then it was obviously an attack, and all the deaths were on porpoise, or at from an oopsie.
So the Chinese told the obvious lie that it wasn’t so bad, you know, the obvious thing that obviously happened and now the obvious boobs in the US are making up the obvious lies about the obvious thing…obviously.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 5/30/2021 @ 8:52 pm@174 yeah covering the bases, for sure, like when those who mocked trump and discounted the lab leak theory for over a year are now out in front of it
JF (e1156d) — 5/30/2021 @ 9:02 pmOnly the double D’s
Colonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 5/30/2021 @ 9:23 pmI thought our election was supposed to be the fraud of the century?
nk (1d9030) — 5/30/2021 @ 9:33 pmTexas Democrats block restrictive voting bill by walking off the floor to deny GOP-majority House a quorum
Texas Democrats staged a dramatic walkout in the state House late Sunday night to block passage of a restrictive voting bill that would have been one of the most stringent in the nation, forcing Republicans to abruptly adjourn their legislative session without taking a vote on the measure.
The surprise move came after impassioned late-night debate and procedural objections about the GOP-backed measure, which would have made it harder to vote by mail, empowered partisan poll watchers and made it easier to overturn election results. Republicans faced a midnight deadline to approve the measure.
………
The exodus from the floor came after Chris Turner, the House Democratic chairman, sent instructions to colleagues at 10:35 p.m. Central time instructing them to exit the House, according to an image shared with The Washington Post.
“Members, take your key and leave the chamber discreetly,” Turner wrote, referring to the key that locks the voting mechanism on their desks. “Do not go to the gallery. Leave the building.”
…….
As the night wore on, it became clear that House Democrats intended to do everything they could to block Senate Bill 7, pushing the legislation perilously close to the body’s midnight deadline to act. More than two dozen Democrats were absent for a procedural vote, prompting a flurry of speculation that they might try to block a vote by denying the House the necessary quorum.
……..
According to the final text approved Sunday, the Texas bill would:
● Impose state felony penalties on public officials who offer an application to vote by mail to someone who didn’t request it.
● Allow signatures on mail ballot applications to be compared with any signature on record, eliminating protections that the signature on file must be recent and that the application signature must be compared with at least two others on file to prevent the arbitrary rejection of ballots.
●Impose new identification requirements on those applying for mail ballots, in most cases requiring a driver’s license or Social Security number.
● Impose a civil fine of $1,000 a day for local election officials who do not maintain their voter rolls as required by law, and impose criminal penalties on election workers who obstruct poll watchers.
● Grant partisan poll watchers new access to watch all steps of the voting and counting process “near enough to see and hear the activity.”
● And require individuals to fill out a form if they plan to transport more than two nonrelatives to the polls, and expand the requirement that those assisting voters who need help must sign an oath attesting under penalty of perjury that the people they’re helping are eligible for assistance because of a disability and that they will not suggest for whom to vote.
Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/30/2021 @ 9:45 pm>>>>>>>
Again, evidence of what? A conspiracy to leak a virus that seriously impacted their economy
I think it is extremely unlikely that this was an intentional act. So many reasons not to, from “harming themselves” to “getting into a war with America.” It would be an incredible miscalculation, and nearly every outcome is bad.
But they may have created a virus for “what if” for the same reason we build bombs we can never use. The suspicion is there because a crippling-but-rarely-lethal virus that is incredibly virulent would be the kind of thing to use in a conventional war, with little risk it would turn nuclear. We probably have something like that ourselves. Things like Ebola kill the host before they can spread it; Covid is quite happy just to make them cough.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/30/2021 @ 9:49 pmTexas Democrats block restrictive voting bill by walking off the floor to deny GOP-majority House a quorum
I will point out that you need 51 Senators to have a quorum under the Constitution. It’s quite clear, and the VP does not count.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/30/2021 @ 9:50 pmColonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 5/30/2021 @ 8:52 pm
So, colonel, we’re all stupid and should just worship you?
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/30/2021 @ 9:54 pmI never mocked the lab theory. But it’s folly to see Trump as a credible source on anything. It’s not unreasonable to think that Trump’s assertion of any proposition makes it more likely to be false.
Radegunda (2ba443) — 5/30/2021 @ 10:48 pmWell, if the the Cheeto master gets his worshipers , I don’t think it’s too much to ask to get some of my own.
Also, this happened. Wait is there free speech restriction exceptions for sedition only if your an idiot Trump treason fan?
Colonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 5/30/2021 @ 11:21 pmHow in the world is this compatible with the First Amendment?
“Get rid of the ballots.” – Donald J. Trump
Dave (1542be) — 5/30/2021 @ 11:25 pmSign me up!
Dave (1542be) — 5/30/2021 @ 11:29 pm@181-
I will point out that you need 51 Senators to have a quorum under the Constitution. It’s quite clear, and the VP does not count.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/30/2021 @ 9:50 pm
Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/30/2021 @ 11:33 pmYour comment is a non-sequitor. This is the Texas legislature (House), not the US Congress.
Trump’s Ex-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn Calls For Myanmar-Type Coup In U.S.
……….
Flynn presented his dark vision of a military coup and dictatorship in the U.S. in response to a question from the audience at the conference.
″I wanna know why what happened in Myanmar can’t happen here?” an unidentified member of the audience asked Flynn, though he pronounced the nation as “Minnimar.”
“No reason,” Flynn responded to wild screams of approval. “It should happen.”
Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/31/2021 @ 12:08 am………
It’s been a wild ride this week for Flynn, the star speaker at the four-day, ironically named “For God & Country Patriot Roundup” QAnon conference at the Omni Dallas Hotel.
………
Earlier in the conference Flynn insisted that he’s “not a conspiracy theorist,” but then declared: “Trump won! He won! He won the popular vote, and he won the Electoral College vote.” (He didn’t.)
……..
Critics on Twitter were appalled by Flynn’s call for violence against the government.
………
Video at link.
Flynn and Trump both belong in Gitmo.
Dave (1542be) — 5/31/2021 @ 2:56 amTrump needs to win a house seat and become Speaker of the house. To see him sitting behind basement joe would be JUSTICE.
mg (8cbc69) — 5/31/2021 @ 3:03 amGood news, mg:
You don’t need to be elected to the House to serve as Speaker.
Dave (1542be) — 5/31/2021 @ 3:10 amQuorums can be compelled. In Congress and in Texas. I seem to kind of remember some years (decades?) back, the Texas Governor sent the Texas Rangers to bring back AWOLs.
nk (1d9030) — 5/31/2021 @ 4:17 am@192-
Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/31/2021 @ 4:25 amI believe it was the last day of the session.
Well-played by the Democrats, then.
nk (1d9030) — 5/31/2021 @ 4:29 amShouldn’t that type of invective- an outright call for a coup as opposed to making calls to SOSs of contested states – generate a letter of marque or at least free portraiture at institutions that are closed today?
mg- he’d be better off saving Joisey or NYC from themselves.
urbanleftbehind (17720b) — 5/31/2021 @ 4:36 amWhitmer’s call to violence. Beat those that oppose her in the streets.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 5/31/2021 @ 5:00 am— “Yeah, man, we wuzn’t gonna do nuthin’, we jist wanted to kidnap her cause we heerd she liked masked-man dates.”
— “That’s mask mandates, Cletus. Mask mandates.”
— “That’s whut I said!”
— “No, it means … oh, never mind!”
nk (1d9030) — 5/31/2021 @ 5:19 amLeftists once again show their hypocrisy by supporting Democrats in Texas walking out instead of voting. So spare the outrage next time a Republican uses another legal procedure to advance their cause.
Thankfully Governor Abbott will call a special session forcing the vote where legislators can show where they stand on the voter integrity bill.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 5/31/2021 @ 6:51 amnk (1d9030) — 5/31/2021 @ 4:17 am
That’s right, nk. But flighty pols are not unique to TX, I believe Il. has a a history of such behaviour as well. I’m too lazy to link a famous example. I’ll leave the honors to another.
felipe (484255) — 5/31/2021 @ 6:53 am@160:
Why would China have lied for so long, and continued to stonewall investigators, if this was a natural occurrence?
Obviously, this is a rhetorical question, but generally speaking, if it came out that this was the result of a lab leak, China would be massively embarrassed on the international stage. The country is thisclose to making the jump to global superpower on par with the US, and the last thing they need is the rest of the planet pointing the finger at them for starting a pandemic, whether intentionally or not. If it was an accident, then people start talking about sanctions and they go through a loss of face. If it was intentional, then that could be considered an act of war–and China is notorious for not caring if a bunch of their people die off if it advances Chinese civilization. Mao once remarked that they could lose ten percent of their people in a war, and they’d just get back to making babies again after it was over.
Why have they not banned all wet markets? It can’t be because they respect the rights of the people.
The biggest reason to me that the wet market narrative wasn’t credible is because these things are quite common throughout the Pacific Rim and have been for centuries. I went to them when I was stationed in South Korea, for example. While I suppose it’s possible for it to happen, if it was a capable virus vector then logically something like this should have happened several times by now in several of these countries.
@165:
Repercussions of the Nixon visit continue to this day; while near-immediate results included a significant shift in the Cold War balance—driving a wedge between the Soviet Union and China, resulting in significant Soviet concessions to the U.S.—the trip spawned China’s opening to the world and economic parity with capitalist countries.
Nixon opening up trade with China, while it made sense at the time, has turned out to be the biggest strategic mistake the country has made in the last 50 years. Tiananmen would have been the perfect excuse to end what has been a multi-decade sellout to Chinese interests, but instead we rewarded them by giving them Most Favored Nation trade status and our military tech.
Factory Working Orphan (a6f340) — 5/31/2021 @ 7:03 amColonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 5/30/2021 @ 8:52 pm
So, all that yakking about science and likelihood and you land on “what evidence is needed” and “it was obvious”.
Did you see Nic’s establishment clause thread and tell the voices in your head to hold your beer? You didn’t just undermine your argument you’ve shown you’re more committed to the narrative than to common sense and reason.
Makes things like @184, aka accusing people of cult behavior, laughable. Project much Mr Pot?
frosty (f27e97) — 5/31/2021 @ 7:12 amDave (1542be) — 5/30/2021 @ 11:25 pm
The first part about driving people to the polls is sketchy but how exactly is this a violation of the first amendment? And you can’t use “it’s obvious” or “because I said so”. Those have been claimed already earlier in the thread.
We get it. You’re a member of party. You’ve got right-think. You’re a Level Five Laser Lotus. What does that have to do with this proposed law?
frosty (f27e97) — 5/31/2021 @ 7:27 amFactory Working Orphan (a6f340) — 5/31/2021 @ 7:03 am
They’ve actually got a number of structural problems that make this very unlikely, the biggest ones being their water and demographic issues. They can’t really jump up to superpower status. They’re only real strategic option is to reduce US influence.
That doesn’t undermine your point though. China went with wet market then claimed any comments about wet markets were racist as a way to change the narrative, which is the most important issue. They need their own people upset about an external problem. I’m not sure why so many Americans enthusiastically embraced and contributed to the propaganda though.
The Chinese people themselves have called this into question. Maybe a war would let them more forcefully revoke the one child policy but right now the Chinese people have shown they won’t start breeding again based on a request. What the CCP really needs is a solution to their growing population of elderly people. New babies now is only going to make that problem worse.
frosty (f27e97) — 5/31/2021 @ 7:45 am@200. …Nixon opening up trade with China, while it made sense at the time, has turned out to be the biggest strategic mistake the country has made in the last 50 years…
Only surpassed by electing a brain-damaged, coughing corpse of a plagiarist, CIC.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 5/31/2021 @ 7:55 amAnd just to put DCSCA’s mind at ease, if Richard M. Nixon runs for President in 2024, I’ll think twice before voting for him, I promise.
Although if Ronald Reagan is on the ballot in 2024, I’d certainly vote for him over Trump. Probably vote for “Dead Dick Nixon” over Trump.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/31/2021 @ 8:06 amSeems about right
frosty (f27e97) — 5/31/2021 @ 8:10 amWait is there free speech restriction exceptions for sedition only if your an idiot Trump treason fan?
There are speech restrictions for sedition now. For example, you cannot advocate the violent overthrow of the US government, nor can you incite to riot or other unlawful action.
I will point out that I want Trump tried on charges of this sort.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/31/2021 @ 8:12 amYour comment is a non-sequitor. This is the Texas legislature (House), not the US Congress.
Yes I know that. Sorry you are not agile enough to make the jump.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/31/2021 @ 8:13 amThe point, Rip, is that this could happen in the US Senate, too, and would happen if they tried to get rid of the filibuster.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/31/2021 @ 8:14 amJohn Locke wrote: “In the Beginning, All the World Was America” which meant, in addition to the idea that nobody owned land, that it was a forest.
That is they also thought there was the primeval forest – also now called “old growth” But this was not true – most of the forest was new – not before maybe the mid 1500s. Many Indians had died of smallpox or other diseases, outside of the presence of white men.
When settlers, like the Pilgrims, heard of a case of a village practically completely wiped out, they didn’t generalize about it.
https://theconversation.com/how-the-modern-world-was-shaped-by-epidemics-500-years-ago-145905
Probably wild pigs that escaped from the Spaniards, spread smallpox.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/31/2021 @ 8:15 amState legislators typically leave the state to avoid being compelled to meet a quorum call. (In this case, it wasn’t necessary since the legislative session ended)
Congress would have to leave the country
Dave (1542be) — 5/31/2021 @ 8:15 amState legislators typically leave the state to avoid being compelled to meet a quorum call. (In this case, it wasn’t necessary since the legislative session ended)
Congress reps and senators would have to leave the country to avoid the long arm of the law, so maybe Ted Cruz will finally be able to complete his vacation in Acapulco…
Dave (1542be) — 5/31/2021 @ 8:18 amSorry for messed up post…
Dave (1542be) — 5/31/2021 @ 8:19 amThe first part about driving people to the polls is sketchy but how exactly is this a violation of the first amendment?
In general, political activity that is not fraudulent, or does not advocate the overthrow of the government (CPUSA cases), is protected by several clauses (speech, association, petition).
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/31/2021 @ 8:20 am@205. Nothing is stopping you; put ink to paper: write ’em in.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 5/31/2021 @ 8:20 amWilliam Shakespeare had a son named Hamnet, who died st age 11 in 1596. for a long time, the similarity of the name to Hamlet has been treated as a coincidence, but there is an argument that it is not.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamnet_Shakespeare
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/31/2021 @ 8:24 amfrosty – The Chinese regime dropped the one-child rule a few years ago. It caused a brief blip in the birth numbers, but then they continued their long decline.
The regime just announced that three children were acceptable, but the experience of the first change suggests that the new rule will have little effect.
(The problem of too few kids is found in other East Asian countries, too, including Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore. It is strange to see nations that are so good at making other things unable to make enough babies to keep their populations stable.
Those who are interested in this subject — as we all should be — may want to read the “demographics” articles in Wikipedia on the various nations. For example, Demographics of China).
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 5/31/2021 @ 8:24 amCoughing President Plagiarist both looks and sounds off at Arlington. Most memorable moment: the cicadas.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 5/31/2021 @ 8:25 amRel advvance warnnings; I heard on the radio that the spproximate minimum number miles a car can still travel when the indicator says E or empty is 25 or 30 miles, and some cars have 70 or even more miles left. This works because people don’t really catch on how much they have left.
That’s why you don’t see cars stuck on a highway because they have run out of gas.
Similarly, there is always a little bit time left for a pedestrian to finish crossing the street when the light or the sign turns red – the hand goes on, or whatever. The cars do not yet have a green light.
It’s not so good with smartphones.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/31/2021 @ 8:30 amGun Church That Worships With AR-15s Bought a 40-Acre Compound in Texas for Its ‘Patriots’
A religious sect known for worshipping with AR-15s and its MAGA politics has purchased a sprawling, 40-acre compound in central Texas, which it hopes will offer a safe-haven for “patriots” from what they believe is an imminent war brought by the “deep state,” VICE News has learned.
The property, located in the small community of Thornton, 40 miles from Waco, was listed at just under $1 million. It’s been dubbed “Liberty Rock” by its new owners, the Sanctuary Church aka Rod of Iron Ministries, led by Pastor Hyung Jin “Sean” Moon. Members of the congregation often refer to him as “King.”
While Moon’s congregation, estimated to number in the hundreds, is relatively fringe, it’s a direct descendant of the much larger Unification Church, founded by his father, Rev. Sun Myung Moon…….
The younger Moon, who set up shop in 2017 in Newfoundland, Pennsylvania, follows the doctrine of his late father—with a twist. Moon says he was inspired by a biblical passage in the Book of Revelation that talked about Jesus using a “rod of iron” to protect himself and others. He concluded this was a reference to AR-15s, and integrated high-powered firearms into regular church services, including wedding ceremonies. He founded the church with the support of his brother, Kook-jin “Justin” Moon, the CEO of Kahr Arms, a gun manufacturing company headquartered nearby.
……. Moon told VICE News in late 2019 that he believed God was working through Trump to rid the world of “political satanism” (for example, the “deep state” and “the swamp”) and restore Eden. Through his gun-centric, MAGA-friendly outlook, Moon has been able to establish some fringe political alliances. …….
……….
………. “It’s a dangerous time, and this is a place of refuge and retreat if our community needs it,” Moon said in one of his recent sermons, titled “The King’s Report,” which he typically delivers wearing a crown made of bullets and a golden AR-15 displayed before him. “Of course, in worst-case scenarios.”
………
“The internationalist Marxist globalists are trying to start a civil war here, so that they can bring in the U.N. troops and Chi-Com Chinese military to come in and destroy and kill all gun owners, Christians, and any opposition, i.e., Trump supporters,” Moon said matter-of-factly in a recent sermon. “We are in the death of America right now, and that’s why, of course, God is allowing for our expansion.”
………
A spokesperson for the church said that as far as they’re aware, no one from their congregation went inside the Capitol…..but that Moon likes to compare the events of January 6 to the Boston Tea Party of 1773. “Though initially controversial even among patriots, the Boston Tea Party came to be known as one of the seminal events leading to America’s independence from the tyranny of the British crown.”
Since January 6, Moon’s sermons have taken on a greater intensity and urgency. In a broadcast from February titled “Danger coming for Trump supporters,” Moon warned viewers that the Biden administration was plotting genocide against its political opponents–or planning to round up Trump supporters and put them in “reeducation camps.”
Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/31/2021 @ 8:31 am……….
The Sanctuary Church made headlines for the first time in 2018, when news outlets covered a mass wedding ceremony featuring AR-15s. To an outsider, the fact that so many people were willing to take the unusual—and radical—step of integrating high-powered firearms into their spiritual life was perplexing. It appeared a giant psychological leap to go from, as was the case for many “Moonie” families, not having much to do with guns to suddenly worshipping with them in church.
………
Oh, and I should add that the Chinese preference for sons makes their problem worse. There are about 114 boys (younger than 15) for every 100 girls.
(One of the reasons for that preference is that, by long custom, first Chinese sons have the obligation to support their aged parents. A baby boy, in other words, is social security.)
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 5/31/2021 @ 8:32 amBetween 2004 and 2009, there were 120 boys born in China for every 100 girls. This is abnormal (typically the number is 107 to 100) and indicates sex-based abortions.
Now, there are fewer women than one would expect in the population, and women determine the maximum birth rates. Add to this the urbanization of the population and need for women to work and you get far less fertility than you had in a rural setting.
Dictatorships can get things done in a hurry, because they neither ask permission nor forgiveness, but when they get things wrong the do that in a hurry, too.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/31/2021 @ 8:38 amBut it is obvious:
If I, as an act of peaceful political expression, volunteer to help get like-minded voters to the polls, it is an absurd over-reach to require me to fill out forms, under penalty of perjury, and to try to impose prior restraint on my freedom of speech.
Dave (1542be) — 5/31/2021 @ 8:44 amAh, but that’s where the Trump-approved Uighur rape camps come in.
Dave (1542be) — 5/31/2021 @ 8:48 amYour obtuse analogy still is irrelevant to the story.
Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/31/2021 @ 8:56 amIf Sikhs can have the Kirpan, I suppose the Church of Armalite can have the AR-15.
Eric Clapton (kind of) opines.
nk (1d9030) — 5/31/2021 @ 8:56 amIt is strange to see nations that are so good at making other things unable to make enough babies to keep their populations stable.
It’s very common that industrialized/wealthy nations have declining birth rates. The US birth rate is 1.7 below replacement levels, along with most Western European countries.
Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/31/2021 @ 9:08 amYour obtuse analogy still is irrelevant to the story.
You keep using that word….
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/31/2021 @ 9:16 amMike Flynn, seditionist:
He would’ve made a fine Russian general.
Paul Montagu (a05eda) — 5/31/2021 @ 9:17 amLong Slide Looms for World Population, With Sweeping Ramifications
………
Like an avalanche, the demographic forces — pushing toward more deaths than births — seem to be expanding and accelerating. Though some countries continue to see their populations grow, especially in Africa, fertility rates are falling nearly everywhere else. Demographers now predict that by the latter half of the century or possibly earlier, the global population will enter a sustained decline for the first time.
………
The global population saw its greatest increase in known history, from 1.6 billion in 1900 to 6 billion in 2000, as life spans lengthened and infant mortality declined. In some countries — representing about a third of the world’s people — those growth dynamics are still in play. By the end of the century, Nigeria could surpass China in population; across sub-Saharan Africa, families are still having four or five children.
But nearly everywhere else, the era of high fertility is ending. As women have gained more access to education and contraception, and as the anxieties associated with having children continue to intensify, more parents are delaying pregnancy and fewer babies are being born. Even in countries long associated with rapid growth, such as India and Mexico, birthrates are falling toward, or are already below, the replacement rate of 2.1 children per family.
………
Some countries, like the United States, Australia and Canada, where birthrates hover between 1.5 and 2, have blunted the impact with immigrants. But in Eastern Europe, migration out of the region has compounded depopulation, and in large parts of Asia, the “demographic time bomb” that first became a subject of debate a few decades ago has finally gone off.
South Korea’s fertility rate dropped to a record low of 0.92 in 2019 — less than one child per woman, the lowest rate in the developed world. Every month for the past 59 months, the total number of babies born in the country has dropped to a record depth.
……..
…….. Birth projections often shift based on how governments and families respond, but according to projections by an international team of scientists published last year in The Lancet, 183 countries and territories — out of 195 — will have fertility rates below replacement level by 2100.
Their model shows an especially sharp decline for China, with its population expected to fall from 1.41 billion now to about 730 million in 2100. If that happens, the population pyramid would essentially flip. Instead of a base of young workers supporting a narrower band of retirees, China would have as many 85-year-olds as 18-year-olds.
Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/31/2021 @ 9:18 am……….
Demographers warn against seeing population decline as simply a cause for alarm. Many women are having fewer children because that’s what they want. Smaller populations could lead to higher wages, more equal societies, lower carbon emissions and a higher quality of life for the smaller numbers of children who are born.
………
It’s very common that industrialized/wealthy nations have declining birth rate
The moment that women are part of an industrial workforce, birth rates decline.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/31/2021 @ 9:18 amThe moment that women are part of an industrial workforce, birth rates decline.
Also when economies allow people to have large amounts of disposable incomes, they decide to spend it on quality of life rather than additional children.
Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/31/2021 @ 9:24 amDave (1542be) — 5/31/2021 @ 8:44 am
You picked the driving to the polls part and ignored
which is basically an electioneering prohibition. We’ve got other prohibitions on electioneering and it’s possible to make an unconstitutional one. But it’s not obvious that it’s unconstitutional and if it is it’s not obvious that’s it’s a first amendment issue.
So, all these prohibitions about campaigning at the polling place, you’ve suddenly discovered that you can just wave the first amendment at them, stomp your feet, and say it’s obvious and they’ll just disappear? That’s an amazing discovery. You’d think some smart legal eagle would have thought of that already.
frosty (f27e97) — 5/31/2021 @ 9:27 amRip – The total fertility rate for the US is closer to 1.6 currently.
It is true that urbanized countries have lower fertility rates; it is also true that those rates have varied widely in the US since World War II, ranging from 3.77 down to the current 1.64. For what it is worth, most American families would like to have more children than they do.
Note, please, that the decline was not steady, and that the total fertility rate rose during the George W. Bush administration to a peak of 2.11 in 2007. (It fell steadily during the Obama years.)
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 5/31/2021 @ 9:36 amI addressed it directly. It’s prior restraint of free speech.
And not at a polling place, but in the privacy of my car or even my home.
Dave (1542be) — 5/31/2021 @ 9:40 amFrosty,
we saw them do that when they tried to harp on giving out water with the Georgia law. It created a momentary stir, but then they got distracted by the new shiny object.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 5/31/2021 @ 9:46 amIt’s okay, Texas can just declare it’s a state of emergency to prevent people from catching a virus… voting for leftism.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 5/31/2021 @ 9:48 amRip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/31/2021 @ 9:18 am
For China, given the size of the problem, it’s going to be hard for them to avoid the economic consequences.
frosty (f27e97) — 5/31/2021 @ 9:49 amMike Flynn, seditionist
Indeed. I don’t believe that his speech is protected there, although maybe he could claim that there was no liklyhood of incitement.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/31/2021 @ 9:52 amAlso when economies allow people to have large amounts of disposable incomes, they decide to spend it on quality of life rather than additional children.
And they no longer need many children to ensure their old age survival.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/31/2021 @ 9:53 amFor what it is worth, most American families would like to have more children than they do.
But more children is an expensive luxury, not the survival necessity it is for the poor and rural.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/31/2021 @ 9:56 amIt’s okay, Texas can just declare it’s a state of emergency to prevent people from catching a virus… voting for leftism.
Require a 60-day quarantine for people coming from California or the Northeast.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/31/2021 @ 9:57 amhttps://www.bizpacreview.com/2021/05/29/michigan-teen-will-now-be-able-to-mention-god-in-valedictorian-speech-thanks-to-law-firm-1081168/
A small blessing.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 5/31/2021 @ 9:57 amJim Miller (edcec1) — 5/31/2021 @ 8:24 am
Maybe. There’s different versions of making things. It took them a long time to steal the technology to make ball point pen tips. If you want an interesting read look into the ongoing comedy that is the engines on their new stealth fighters.
frosty (f27e97) — 5/31/2021 @ 9:58 am@228-
I wasn’t part of analogy wars. I never posted about it.
Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/31/2021 @ 10:00 amI don’t know if Flynn’s expressed desire for a takeover of the United States by a military junta meets the legal definition of sedition, but his QAnon audience could take it that way.
Paul Montagu (a05eda) — 5/31/2021 @ 10:01 amDave (1542be) — 5/31/2021 @ 9:40 am
Are you thinking they can stop at a distance from the polling place and the disabled person would walk the rest of the way on their own?
frosty (f27e97) — 5/31/2021 @ 10:03 amI wasn’t part of analogy wars. I never posted about it.
Yeah, sorry. Don’t mean to start a fight.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/31/2021 @ 10:11 amFlynn’s expressed desire for a takeover of the United States by a military junta
If pressed, I could see reasons why someone might thing a coup would be a good idea — we have some really dangerous problems that the politicians cannot seem to handle. But not only is there no guarantee that a junta could solve them, but a coup to put Donald Trump back in power seems like the worst idea possible.
At least pick an Augustus; don’t start with Nero.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/31/2021 @ 10:16 amThere’s nothing that can be said about Mike Flynn that has not already been said by his superiors and by prosecutors. That he’s reduced to giving speeches to QAnon, instead of to armaments industry executives, says a lot too. A fitting comeuppance.
nk (1d9030) — 5/31/2021 @ 10:28 amWhat makes you so sure the QAnon gigs don’t pay better?
Dave (1542be) — 5/31/2021 @ 10:39 amfrosty – Singapore’s long-time leader Lee Kuan Yew thought that Singapore’s birth rate was too high early in his career, so he encouraged birth control measures. Then when it kept sinking below replacement rate, he reversed policies.
Singapore even began arranging social activities so that young men and women could meet each other. That hasn’t worked so far, either.
Given how smart Lee was, and how pragmatic, his failure to stop the decline in birth rates is, in its own way, impressive.
Biologists might say that a large part of the problem is that men and women are finding it harder and harder to form the “pair bonds” needed for reproduction.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 5/31/2021 @ 10:43 amQAnon’s Wildest Moments From Their Massively Disturbing Conference
……..
The “For God and Country: Patriot Roundup” event took place over Friday, Saturday and Sunday in downtown Dallas with thousands of QAnon supporters paying at least $500 for a ticket to the event.
……..
The event was a coming-out party for many well-known figures in the QAnon world, but also highlighted just how far the conspiracy movement is bleeding into mainstream Republican politics, with one sitting Congressman, Rep. Louie Gohmert, speaking on stage, along with the chairman of the Texas GOP, Allen West.
The event continues on Monday morning with more speakers addressing the crowd but for now, here are the wildest moments from the Dallas event:
Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn called for a coup
……..
…….. Sidney Powell spoke on Saturday night in a question and answer session with right-wing talk show host Doug Billings.
The topic of conversation quickly got around to what Powell sees as her area of expertise, election fraud. And Powell had a surprising revelation to make when asked about the possibility of Trump returning to office:
“He can simply be reinstated,” Powell told a cheering audience, adding that a new inauguration date will be set “and Biden is told to move out of the White House.”
Sadly for Trump however, Powell revealed that Trump won’t get credit for time lost.
………
Having spoken about QAnon’s “80 million followers” (a recent survey suggests the figure in the U.S. is closer to 30 million) and spreading some anti-vax content, (Jason Sullivan, Roger Stone’s social media advisor) got around to speaking about Hilary Clinton.
Referring to her as that “godawful woman” Sullivan then made a noose gesture around his neck, which was greeted with wild applause by the audience.
……..
In addition to ubiquitous police at the event, there was additional protection provided by a shadowy group of ex-US military personnel known as the 1st Amendment Praetorians.
The Praetorians are a group who claim to provide protection for “patriotic and religious events” across the U.S. They were founded by Robert Patrick Lewis, an ex-Green Beret……
………
Several members of the group had pugs on leashes with them while they patrolled the event, though it was unclear whether or not they were killer pugs.
………
(Rep. Louie Gohmert R-TX Insurrectionist) didn’t specifically address QAnon while on stage, spending his time instead attacking Nancy Pelosi and trying to claim that the Jan. 6 riots were not that big a deal when compared to things like 9/11 and Pearl Harbor.
………
Off-stage Gohmert mixed freely with the QAnon crowd, including Zak Paine, known online as RedPill78, who took part in the Jan. 6 riots.
……..
Among the items up for auction was some 1776-themed fan art, and a blanket with a Q logo on it, which was signed by Flynn as well as pro-Trump lawyer Lin Wood and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. It sold for thousands.
Also sold on the night was a baseball bat, again signed by the disgraced former national security adviser. Flynn told the audience that he and his wife call the bat “the Department of Just Us.” It sold for $8,000.
Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/31/2021 @ 11:36 am……….
@253 yes, quite disturbing
JF (e1156d) — 5/31/2021 @ 11:48 amhow many businesses were vandalized and how many dallas cops shot dead?
JF (e1156d) — 5/31/2021 @ 11:49 amSo, Dave, what do you think about this:
Galactic rotation curve and dark matter according to gravitomagnetism
I have always had difficulty with dark matter, starting with “shouldn’t there be some local effect?”
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/31/2021 @ 11:59 amhow many businesses were vandalized and how many dallas cops shot dead?
JF (e1156d) — 5/31/2021 @ 11:49 am
None as far as I know, but that wasn’t the point of the post. It was an insight into an influential segment of the Republican base.
Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/31/2021 @ 12:04 pmTexas Democrats seem to be resting their case now on the claim that there was a provision inserted into the bill late that would enable a judge to more easily nullify an election or something, which they mean would enable Republicans to do what Donald Trump wanted to do. They’re not talking so much about their previous complaints such as that it stops Sunday voting before 1 pm (the excuse for that is that poll watchers might want to be in church or restrictions on absentee voting or that ot puts an end to the new practice, first used in 2020 in Democratic Harris County, of 24-hour voting and drive through voting.
What it did with regard to throwing out an election is change the burden of proof from clear and convincing evidence to a preponderance of evidence and change the number of fraudulent votes needed to throw out an election from proof that they resulted in a wrongful outcome to being more than the margin of victory.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/31/2021 @ 12:14 pmGOP frets behind the scenes over potential Trump 2024 bid
………
The former president is making clear he isn’t going anywhere.
Trump is confiding in allies that he intends to run again in 2024 with one contingency: that he still has a good bill of health, according to two sources close to the former president. That means Trump is going to hang over the Republican Party despite its attempts to rebrand during his exile and its blockade of a Trump-centric investigation into January’s insurrection.
…….. But he may face skepticism from surprising corners of the GOP, as some Republicans who supported him consistently during his presidency have mixed opinions about the possibility of a Trump 2024 campaign, according to interviews with 20 Republicans in both the House and Senate.
………
“President Trump did a lot of good. But he squandered a lot of his legacy after what happened after Nov. 3. And I think that’s a shame,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who was the GOP whip for Trump’s first two years in office. “Running for president, you’re under a lot of scrutiny. And all I can say is there’s a lot to talk about.”
………
“It’s more likely than not that he does” run, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C. Insurrectionist) said. “How we do in 2022 will have a big effect on his viability. If we do well in 2022, it helps his cause. I want him to keep the option open.”
………
……..[I]f it were up to me, I would never have Trump on any ballot ever again because it’s such a distraction,” said another House GOP member, who also insisted on anonymity to speak candidly. “I would love for him to play a behind-the-scenes role and not be on the ballot.”
There’s no shortage of possibilities who could carry a Trumpian mantle to the nomination in 2024: In the Senate, there are Floridians Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, Texan Ted Cruz, Missouri’s Josh Hawley or South Carolina’s Tim Scott. GOP governors from Ron DeSantis in Florida to Kristi Noem in South Dakota are also on everyone’s radar. Then there’s former Trump Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley or even Trump’s embattled House acolyte, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida.
…….
……..[S]ome conservatives argue that if 2024 candidates are going to just replicate his platform, why not go with the man himself? Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), one of Trump’s fiercest allies, said: “I’m for Trump, period. I don’t care who else is running.”
“Why have a carbon copy?” said Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.). “Why would we not support the original?”
But some congressional Republicans fear a Trump comeback will freeze the GOP field and potentially deter other potential 2024 candidates from laying the proper groundwork to challenge President Joe Biden, if he fulfills his vow to run again. This means that most eager GOP hopefuls must wait to see what the former president decides, particularly those who have grown their national profiles in Trump’s political shadow.
Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/31/2021 @ 12:22 pm………
Of course, with all of his posturing toward another run, Trump may be feinting. Floating his name as a presidential contender keeps him relevant and in the news, while also making his allies eager as ever to kiss his ring in Mar-a-Lago.
……..
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/05/armed-black-supremacists-tulsa-will-come-time-will-kill-everything-white-sight-video/
Just a friendly rally with BLM and the New Black Panther Party in Tulsa.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 5/31/2021 @ 12:23 pm157. Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/30/2021 @ 4:45 pm
Well, there’s also the possibility of a defector.
Yesterday, Scott Gottlieb said in part:
I think this could be comparable to the Katyn Massacre where the quality of the cover-up wasn’t very good but it wasn’t finally admitted until 1990 by Mikhail Gorbachev. Or the arrest and death of Raoul Wallenberg, where the criticism if Stalin brought an admission he was arrested but a false claim that he had died in 1947, and where even now the truth is not admitted. Or there’s the release of anthrax in Sverdlovsk in 1979, which was sort of proven by Zhores Medvedev writing in New Scientist in 1980, by carefully studying published scientific papers and drawing reasonable conclusions from them, and which was finally confirmed by Boris N. Yeltsin in 1992.
The more people believe anyway that it was a lab leak, the more likely the Chinese government is to admit it.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/31/2021 @ 12:41 pm234. Jim Miller (edcec1) — 5/31/2021 @ 9:36 am
It’s easier to reduce it than to increase it.
Wealth increases it.
But education decreases it.
So does urbanization.
Dictatorship decreases it.
But a low level of apprehension of terrorism increases it.
Friends of females having children increases it.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/31/2021 @ 12:50 pm252. Jim Miller (edcec1) — 5/31/2021 @ 10:43 am
He must have believed these projections that had the decline stopping at replacement rate. They’ve stopped making projections like that. It took them some time.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/31/2021 @ 12:54 pm“Just a friendly rally with BLM and the New Black Panther Party in Tulsa.”
Where does it say BLM was part of this rally?
Davethulhu (69e65f) — 5/31/2021 @ 1:30 pmJordan: “I’m for Trump, period. I don’t care who else is running.”
Mast: “Why have a carbon copy? Why would we not support the original?”
Graham: “I want him to keep the option open.”
Pathetic, pathetic, and disappointing. The GOP: party of see-no-evil lawlessness, orange-calf worship, and high-octane conspiracy theories….it’s unrecognizable
AJ_Liberty (ec7f74) — 5/31/2021 @ 1:49 pm100th anniversary of the destruction of the black warsaw ghetto. Greenwood section of tulsa ok. I grandmother told me about the planes dropping bombs on the black people living their.
asset (11eb84) — 5/31/2021 @ 2:17 pmWell, there’s also the possibility of a defector.
Telling us what we want to hear?
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/31/2021 @ 2:24 pmPathetic, pathetic, and disappointing. The GOP: party of see-no-evil lawlessness, orange-calf worship, and high-octane conspiracy theories….it’s unrecognizable
Is it the politicians, or is it the people? If there are 10s of millions of citizens who believe this stuff that should concern everyone, and not just that they believe it. Mass disaffection with the political system — and that’s what this is — signifies deep instability. Bad things happen when a political system destabilizes.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/31/2021 @ 2:28 pm“Mass disaffection with the political system — and that’s what this is — signifies deep instability. ”
I’m going to jump in ahead of DCSCA here and propose that disaffection with the political system has been a Republican party plank since the 80s.
Davethulhu (69e65f) — 5/31/2021 @ 2:59 pm“Bad things happen when a political system destabilizes”
No doubt this is what polls are telling these politicians to support….and it is worrisome. There isn’t much to the GOP agenda at this point….this election security focus has the taint of the “big steal”….and a strong whiff of bullying people just trying to vote. I favor voter ID but much of this is just hyperbolic nonsense that has little hope of growing the party. What does the GOP really want to do…other than try to cull its own herd and wait breathlessly for word from the Mar a Lago bunker?
There’s just no self awareness that the system is breaking…..and its mainly being stressed by exaggerated slights and irrational anger. I read what perpetually agitates NJRob, mg, Frosty, and JF….and am lost at finding true commonality….and I’m a life-long Republican that has worked on GOTV and fund raising. A changing of the guard is one thing….Rockefeller to Goldwater (1964!!!!)….but Trumpism isn’t anchored in much….and it comes at the cost of jettisoning from the GOP an appreciation for the law, honor, expertise, knowledge, and discipline. The new GOP is willing to drive full speed into the ditch…provided they can mow down a liberal…it’s pathological….
AJ_Liberty (ec7f74) — 5/31/2021 @ 3:11 pmWell, there’s also the possibility of a defector.
267. Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/31/2021 @ 2:24 pm
It wouldn’t be a thin story.
The defector would come with details, corroborate things heard other ways, and possibly include some documentary evidence – just being able to solve mysteries would carry with it enormous credibility. And there is information U.S/ intelligence agencies have that has not been analyzed.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/31/2021 @ 3:30 pmAJ,
that it doesn’t animate you concerns me. I focus on issues beyond Trump. Issues that actually affect our culture.
As Breitbart so astutely said, “politics is downstream of culture.” If we don’t fix the culture the balkanization of society will continue.
NJRob (769c8a) — 5/31/2021 @ 3:57 pmTulsa Race Massacre Sidelined Legacy of Black Wealth in Greenwood
………
Characterized by bustling streets with hotels, theaters and doctors offices, it later became known as “Black Wall Street.” A significant chunk of the district was razed during Tulsa’s urban renewal efforts, which local officials began roughly 70 years ago. An interstate highway was built over the district’s main strip, pushing residents further north.
Today North Tulsa, where many of the Greenwood residents’ descendants migrated, has a dearth of medical services available. A few weeks ago, a new full-service grocery store opened there, funded by Tulsa’s city government and various philanthropic organizations. It was the first in the area in 14 years.
……….
The massacre’s legacy is also economic. Less than 60 years after the Civil War ended, Greenwood had become one of the nation’s most prosperous Black communities. It had luxury stores, hotels, jewelry and clothing retailers, restaurants, billiard halls and offices for doctors and other professionals. It had its own library, hospital, schools and post office.
The riots destroyed much of that. They caused at least $1.5 million in economic damage, according to the 2001 commission report—about $22 million in today’s dollars, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Some assessments place the damages far higher, noting that record-keeping was spottier a century ago and many losses were unreported.
………
Ever since, Tulsa has been a symbol of the challenges facing many Black communities in building and sustaining wealth. The gap in median wealth between Black and white Americans is wider today than it was in 1983, the first year it was measured in the Survey of Consumer Finances. A 2019 survey by the Federal Reserve found that a typical white family had eight times the wealth of a typical Black family.
The ability to pass down assets over generations plays an important role in the gap. Black people, who are projected to be about 14% of the population by 2030, will pass down only 2% to 3% of the $68.4 trillion in wealth expected to be inherited over the next 25 years, according to a study by Boston-based research and consulting firm Cerulli Associates.
……
But decades of postwar government policies, including desegregation, urban renewal, housing discrimination and the highway project, took their own toll, whittling away at Greenwood in ways that proved more difficult to recover from.
As Tulsa desegregated, Black-owned businesses often found it hard to compete on price and supply with white-owned counterparts. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Tulsa Urban Renewal Authority used funds from a federal program to demolish buildings in the name of blight removal. Government decisions to relocate businesses and run a highway through Greenwood helped empty out the neighborhood years ago. The effect, Black leaders say, has been to diminish their ability to enact policies like those potentially directing more capital to Black businesses.
Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/31/2021 @ 3:58 pm………
Today’s Greenwood is a fraction of its former size and bears little resemblance to its earlier years. Plaques commemorate many of the businesses that thrived in the area before the massacre. But property in the neighborhood is largely owned by large institutions or white real-estate developers. There are relatively few Black entrepreneurs compared with the hundreds that used to live in the district. Some Tulsans say Greenwood represents something that was taken and never fully returned.
………
Contrary to asset’s comment @266, Greenwood was a thriving community, not a ghetto. However, due to insurance policy exclusions that prevented payouts for rioting, and government policies 50-60 years later, Greenwood ceased to exist as a community and North Tulsa did become a ghetto.
If you had a diagramless crossword puzzle that you couldn’t solve, and someone came to you with the solution, you’d know it was the correct solution because it fit the clues. One answer could be wrong but not the whole picture.
WE really can almost certainly say at this point that it was a lab leak – we just can’t say where or when or how, but if someone supplied the correct answer, we’d know it.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/31/2021 @ 4:06 pmA changing of the guard is one thing….Rockefeller to Goldwater (1964!!!!)…
No. A just a bad thing.
Accordingly, ‘As you sow, so shall you reap.’
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 5/31/2021 @ 4:07 pm@269. 1964.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 5/31/2021 @ 4:08 pmThere is a book Riot and Remembrance: The Tulsa Race War and Its Legacy by James S. Hirsch copyright 2002. There is more to this than what happened on May 31 and June 1, 1021 – there were the attempts to contain it, and prevent it from impacting the way other states and others dealt with Tulsa – that, to cover it up, to conceal it from history – and its rediscovery.
CBS will have a special on it at 10 pm Eastern
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/31/2021 @ 4:11 pmThe GOP: party of see-no-evil lawlessness, orange-calf worship, and high-octane conspiracy theories….it’s unrecognizable
It’s wholly recognizable- if you were alive in 1964; ‘Ike the pinko,’ water fluoridation; impeach Earl Warren… you’re ‘the bright young men, who want to go back to 1910; you’re Barry’s Boys.’
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 5/31/2021 @ 4:14 pm@277. Two things not to give a damn about on Memoria Day:
1. Tulsa Race Riots
2. Dead Beau Biden.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 5/31/2021 @ 4:15 pmFormer National Security Advisor Michael Flynn called for a coup
Memo to President Plagiarist and fellow potato-heads:
To paraphrase Dean Wormer, ‘Irish, Catholic and stupid is no way to go through life.’
Drunk is a given.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 5/31/2021 @ 4:19 pmIt wasn’t the only such riot.
There were indictments of blacks, but almost no prosecutions. The insurance companies cited riot exclusions. There’s a lot to this story. It had to take place under a general framework of equal protection of the laws. It is probably difficult to figure out the true full story. There was some KKK involvement. A black mythology also developed in places.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/31/2021 @ 4:21 pmNot just Tulsa: Racist mobs were ‘widespread and a constant concern’ 100 years ago
………
Between 1917 and 1923, more than 1,100 Americans were killed in such racist attacks, according to William Tuttle Jr., a retired professor of American studies at the University of Kansas and author of “Race Riot: Chicago in the Red Summer of 1919.”
That violence peaked over the course of 10 months in 1919 when more than 250 African Americans were killed by white mobs in at least 25 riots across the country.
……….
The bloodshed occurred during a period of racial, social and political turmoil in the wake of World War I. Black veterans returned from the war demanding the constitutionally promised rights they’d fought for in Europe, and African Americans were migrating and competing with whites for jobs, McWhirter explained.
In response, white people who sought to uphold deeply entrenched white supremacy through the Jim Crow laws of the South and de facto segregation of the North seized on opportunities to react violently.
……..
Here’s a look at four tragedies of this era that haven’t gained the same national recognition as the Tulsa Race Massacre:
East St. Louis, Illinois 1917: ‘Black skin was a death warrant’ after cops killed
Racial tensions had already been simmering for weeks in the industrial town of East St. Louis, Illinois, when white men in a Ford shot into Black homes on the night of July 1, 1917, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Another Ford drove past the homes and armed Black residents shot into it, killing two police officers. Over the next two days, white people beat and burned African Americans to death and destroyed homes and businesses.
…….. Post-Dispatch reporter Carlos Hurd wrote in his eye witness account of the massacre “There was a horribly cool deliberateness and a spirit of fun about it.”
……….
A Congressional investigation found the death toll was nine white and 39 Black Americans, although historians believe the true number could be as high as 100.
………
Chicago 1919: Teen killed, Black neighborhood attacked
……..[A] week of terror in Chicago started on a hot day in July of 1919. Eugene Williams, a Black 17-year-old, was floating on a raft in Lake Michigan when he drifted toward the informally segregated white section of the beach.
White beachgoers hit him with rocks and the teenager drowned. Black residents demanded police arrest the person responsible and the police refused. Violence erupted. In total, 23 Black and 15 white people died and more than 500 people injured.
……….
Elaine, Arkansas 1919: Violence follows Black farmers attempt to unionize
On Sept. 30, 1919, Black farmers gathered at a church in Hoop Sur, just outside of Elaine, Arkansas, to unionize. Black sharecroppers were the majority of the population in Phillips County, but white cotton brokers controlled the cotton industry.
A white railroad security officer showed up, shots were fired and the officer was killed. What followed was a rampage, in which hundreds of people from surrounding cities flocked to the area to quash what was called an “insurrection” by Black residents.
……..
More than 200 Black men, women and children were killed, according to recent research from the Equal Justice Initiative, a Montgomery, Alabama-based nonprofit. Five white people were killed.
……….
Rosewood, Florida 1923: White mob destroys Black town after alleged assault
During a particularly cold winter in the majority-Black town of Rosewood, a 22-year-old white woman named Fannie Taylor from a neighboring town claimed she was assaulted by a Black man.
Although Taylor’s story was disputed by Black residents, the news spread and a posse of hundreds of men formed under the direction of the local sheriff in January 1923. As the mob, which reportedly included members of the Ku Klux Klan, searched for a suspect, they tortured, shot and hanged a Black man named Sam Carter.
Days later, a shootout erupted in the community and the white mob began burning Black homes and buildings as residents fled into the swamps. A 1993 report commissioned by the Florida Legislature recorded eight deaths – six Black, two white – but the true total may be higher. Black residents of the town never returned.
Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/31/2021 @ 4:24 pm……..
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/31/2021 @ 4:11 pm
PBS has a documentary at 9-10:30 tonight.
Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/31/2021 @ 4:26 pmI’ve known about this foraa few years. About the general wiping out of some black communities in the south for longer. I think the first such case was Wilmington, North Carolina in 1898. It happened in Atlanta in 1906 and that’s what led to the formation of the NAACP which was tolerated under the condition that blacks would never talk about the riot. The last were in the 1920s.
Ot is probably not a coincidence that the KKK moved its headquarters to Indiana. There was some conspiracy in the works to destroy it. Mount Rushmore was commissioned to take the sculptor away from Georgia – well, first they got him to Texas. His work on Stone Mountain was dynamited. Rich white businessmen knew the whole thing wasn’t good for them – and they had feelings too.
It was the 1920 U.S. Census that probably put an end to these American pogroms. Southerners in Congress prevented redisrtricting but they knew they couldn’t stop it forever.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/31/2021 @ 4:29 pmAll this is generally told these days without historical context. It belonged to a particular time.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/31/2021 @ 4:31 pmThe New York Times tried to give an account of the destruction the other day. The street grid is not the same – they worked to locate what was where.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/30/insider/greenwood-tulsa-massacre-3d.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/30/arts/television/tulsa-race-massacre-documentaries.html
By the way Jim Crow came late to Oklahoma. It wasn’t a state till 1907. That’s why so many blacks therewere well off.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/31/2021 @ 4:36 pmCommunist China just gave [ermission for couples to have three children
Except maybe for the Uighurs and some other minority groups. Who, in the past, were never impacted by the one child rule because the government of China considered that a violation of the genocide treaty which they were then interested in avoiding being accused of.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/31/2021 @ 4:41 pmIt’s hard to believe that there are actually still three living survivors of the Tulsa race riot. A 100-year old man, and two women, one aged 106 and one aged 107. Blacks live longer, all other things being equal.
A commemoration fell apart this year.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/28/us/tulsa-race-massacre-commission.html
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/31/2021 @ 4:46 pmAJ – There is a similar problem in the Democratic Party, though it hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves. Democratic primary voters (and many contributors) pay little attention to the competence of candidates.
Or even their electability.
When I started thinking about the presidential choices in 2020, out of curiosity I looked for a Democrat I could support, and I found one with no difficulty: John Hickenlooper, with his science degree (geology), successful business career, and experience as mayor of Denver and governor of Colorado.
He got nowhere in his brief campaign for the presidency.
I disagree with him on many issues, but, unlike most Democratic voters (and journalists), I admire his competence.
The Democratic Party lost many of its best leaders during the Clinton and Obama administrations, just as the Republican Party lost many during Trump.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 5/31/2021 @ 4:53 pmThere are things I want to write concerning the coronavirus.
Item 1: The Eki Lilly monoclonal antibodies which I have been telling people don’t work against the variants, has been taken off the market by the FDA – or rather distribution has been stopped. It still can legally be used (which should be any doctors who have it and know where it works) It has been replaced by something new from Smoth Glaxo Klein which works against all variants. The Regeneron antibodies (of partial effectiveness against some variants) are still available.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/31/2021 @ 4:54 pmNot my area of specialization, but it has all the hallmarks of a crackpot.
The guy’s entire career (he looks to be over 70, and retired in 2015) was related to plasma physics. The only citations of his three recent papers on astrophysics this year are by his other papers.
With that said, the journal is a reputable one with peer review. I am not competent to review work in the field in question, but it definitely triggers my bulls*t detectors.
Dave (1542be) — 5/31/2021 @ 6:15 pmThere are some people exploding fireworks. I knew this was done for the 4th of July, and some days before, but on Memorial Day? (or Memorial Night)
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/31/2021 @ 6:22 pmSammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 5/31/2021 @ 6:22 pm
The fireworks industry has product to move. No reason to pass up a holiday if they don’t have to.
frosty (f27e97) — 5/31/2021 @ 7:11 pmGlum to Gleeful, Israeli Media React to Possible End of Netanyahu Era
……..
Israeli media were replete with coverage of (Naftali) Bennett’s statement and (Bibi) Netanyahu’s rebuttal speech.
……..
“Bennett’s was a speech by a leader who thinks about the country and people,” wrote Ben Caspit, a columnist for Maariv and a vocal critic of Mr. Netanyahu. “It was an embracing, responsible, judicious and at times even a moving speech. Benjamin Netanyahu mounted, as he usually does, a belligerent attack that brimmed with lies and incitement — one of a man trying to perpetuate at any cost the chaos that has allowed him to rule for two years without winning an election.” …….
……..
“Right-wing stomachs turn at Bennett’s remarks. Every single word in his speech was like a punch in the gut to those who believed him. Ever since he entered politics, Bennett made sure to surround himself with members of the right, ideologues, members of the religious Zionist sector, and supporters of Judea and Samaria,” wrote Mati Tuchfeld, a political commentator for Israel Hayom……..
……..
“Netanyahu, if he leaves the Prime Minister’s Office, will go into the opposition and make this government’s life hell. His supporters will follow him and won’t hesitate to use any word, curse or form of protest……. wrote Ravit Hecht, a columnist for Haaretz…….
“The Bibi-ists won’t abandon Netanyahu,” she added, speaking of Mr. Netanyahu’s most loyal supporters. “Addicted to feelings of inferiority, fantasies of persecution, to blood libels with little basis in reality and especially to speculation and conspiracy theories, they will not accept a regime change that was achieved as a result of a democratic election. They will not leave him because this is how they love him best. A tragic hero, a noble victim, who redeems them from the condescension of the entire world.”
……..
……..“That’s how it is: For every hegemon, there is an automatic resistance. The partners of the next government will try to make sure he is removed from the stage completely. Some kind of legislation limiting his term or potential to run for office in the future will do the job,” he said. “There is something tragic, even unfair, in this game, but that’s how it works” (wrote Doron Matza, a frequent columnist for Makor Rishon.)
………
“Netanyahu is going to make the most of every single hour out of the numerous hours left to try to set a fire. Every hour that passes only makes him more desperate, more inciting and more dangerous. That is sad, especially since he is one of Israel’s most talented statesmen,” wrote Ben-Dror Yemini, a columnist for Yediot Ahronot.
………
………
“Fear and worry” about the establishment of an “anti-Jewish government whose members are declaring their commitment to harming ultra-Orthodox community,” Yated Ne’eman reported in a headline. “A government of malice,” read a separate headline.
>>>>>>>>>>
“The Bibi-ists won’t abandon Netanyahu,” she added, speaking of Mr. Netanyahu’s most loyal supporters. “Addicted to feelings of inferiority, fantasies of persecution, to blood libels with little basis in reality and especially to speculation and conspiracy theories, they will not accept a regime change that was achieved as a result of a democratic election. They will not leave him because this is how they love him best. A tragic hero, a noble victim, who redeems them from the condescension of the entire world.”
Sounds like the supporters of a recently former President?
Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/31/2021 @ 7:13 pmAJ_Liberty (ec7f74) — 5/31/2021 @ 3:11 pm
I’ve noticed an increase in people who can imagine a thing out of thin air and then pretend it’s real. They can read something and pretend it said something else entirely. They can ridicule a bias while demonstrating the bias. They can accuse someone of doing something they themselves are doing. They can state an opinion and claim it’s an objective truth. Some of the people self identifying as life long republicans fall into this group. The last few years have broken their brains and they are incapable of any self reflection. Self reflection would be a challenge to their already fractured egos. One of the ways you can spot this is they go around saying there’s nothing wrong with the traditional GOP and all of these other people are the problem.
Is that what you think perpetually agitates me? Or do you imagine something else?
frosty (f27e97) — 5/31/2021 @ 7:37 pmRip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/31/2021 @ 7:13 pm
Of course it does. That’s how propaganda works. You create a framing device, establish it as a media narrative, and then reuse to manipulate opinion. It sounds like Trump because the same language was used to elicit the response you gave.
Do you think what you quoted was anything other than political propaganda? Is there anything in what you quoted that could be called objective journalism? It’s an article about other media articles. Are you thinking it says something objective about Netanyahu? At best it’s telling you what some media outlets in Israel want you to think about him.
This sort of propaganda doesn’t bother you?
frosty (f27e97) — 5/31/2021 @ 7:58 pmYou seem easily irritated.
DRJ (03cb91) — 5/31/2021 @ 8:26 pmThe Chinese people themselves have called this into question. Maybe a war would let them more forcefully revoke the one child policy but right now the Chinese people have shown they won’t start breeding again based on a request. What the CCP really needs is a solution to their growing population of elderly people. New babies now is only going to make that problem worse.
frosty (f27e97) — 5/31/2021 @ 7:45 am
Mao wasn’t really addressing fertility rates; he was arguing that the Chinese people would willingly die in droves for the sake of the CCP (and they had their participation in the Korean War to prove it). He was also implying that the CCP itself viewed its people as entirely expendable, and that 10% of its population dying wasn’t a big deal for them in the long run.
Sixty-two percent of Whites who classify themselves as “very liberal” or “liberal” have been told by a doctor they have a mental health condition, as compared to 26% of conservatives and 20% of moderates, the study found.
frosty (f27e97) — 5/31/2021 @ 8:10 am
I wish they had shown the actual chart for that–what’s notable isn’t the overall figure, it’s that the numbers for Gen Zers are far higher than retirees. Conservative oldsters are in the single digits, for example.
Studies have shown that social media use correlates with increased depression and mental illness rates, and it’s hardly a coincidence that Gen Z is almost constantly hooked in to a digital umbilicus and playing on social media, whether it’s Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, or whatever. The advent of the smartphone has been one of the most socially derogatory events in the nation’s history.
Factory Working Orphan (490897) — 5/31/2021 @ 8:28 pmDRJ (03cb91) — 5/31/2021 @ 8:26 pm
Maybe. Easy relative to what? You think I’m more or less easily irritated than someone who can’t make it through a comment thread without making an orange man bad comment. It’s possible that some of what you’re thinking is irritated I see as spending some free time poking at ridiculous comments. It’s also more likely that I’m not irritated as much as I’m irritating. This is where I reference my previous comments on projection and fractured egos.
frosty (f27e97) — 5/31/2021 @ 9:01 pm“They can read something and pretend it said something else entirely.”
I bore of you talking in circles…perpetually misunderstood….always doubling back
AJ_Liberty (a4ff25) — 5/31/2021 @ 9:02 pmfrosty @296-
Were the quotes “objective journalism”? No, it is opinion journalism, which reflects a reality that Israel is even more divided than the US, since Israel has had three elections with results closer than any US election (the result of multiple parties). Do the quotes say something objective about Netanyahu? No, the quotes show that Netanyahu is a divisive figure, like Trump.
Obviously the quotes were from columnists expressing both pro and anti-Netanyahu opinions. Just because one of the writers described Bibi supporters using the same language others have described Trump supporters (such as those who believe the election was stolen, want a military coup, or mass arrests of political opponents) doesn’t mean it isn’t valid. And like Trump, Netanyahu is under investigation.
Opinion journalism isn’t the same as propaganda. Personally, I have no real opinion about Netanyahu, but if he loses power, it is a big story.
Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/31/2021 @ 9:06 pmFrosty-
Sorry you get so irritated about negative references to Trump. I’ll stop when he disappears from the political scene.
Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/31/2021 @ 9:10 pmI would say those that always feel the need to reference Trump in every situation to excuse their own actions would be those that seem irritated. Biden is the President. It’s people who constantly need to prove to themselves that they were right that always seem triggered.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 5/31/2021 @ 10:24 pmhttps://thepostmillennial.com/blm-activist-steps-down-from-school-board-after-allegations-he-molested-up-to-62-children
62 souls damaged, but he was an activist for BLM. What’s more important?
NJRob (eb56c3) — 5/31/2021 @ 10:45 pm“62 souls damaged, but he was an activist for BLM. What’s more important?”
Your article includes this tweet: https://twitter.com/BLM5280/status/1375502106866544643
So it seems your question was answered.
Davethulhu (69e65f) — 6/1/2021 @ 12:11 amTrue to form, Mike Flynn denies saying what he said, despite the recordings of him saying it.
Dave (1542be) — 6/1/2021 @ 12:29 am@285 A particular time? It was ok to massacre black people a 100 years ago? The same thing is said about lincoln’s debate speech with douglas. He was a person of his time. So was john brown who the south is still scarred of today. During the 150 anniversary of the civil war they came out with people of the civil war stamps. Lincoln, grant, lee fredrick douglas ect. including a bunch of women some of which I had never heard of. I tried to buy a roll of john brown stamps ;but was told john brown wasn’t approve. 150 years and the they are still scared of him and rightly so!
asset (fda6fb) — 6/1/2021 @ 1:16 amasset (fda6fb) — 6/1/2021 @ 1:16 am
No. This was going on 100 years ago. Some people were like that at a particular time – they weren’t before and they weren’t later. There;s atendency to say that things stay the same.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 6/1/2021 @ 4:06 amBecause of the 2020 election I got interested in election fraud and accuracy. There is a state rep race in NH that had a very high rate of error, about 1000 votes. It didn’t effect the presidential race, or the outcome of this race, but it’s still interesting.
The fact that an error of several hundred votes in a local race, that didn’t impact the outcome, lead to a pretty thorough audit is a good thing, it implies that fraud on a level to impact the presidential race would likely be detected and the investigated.
Time123 (457a1d) — 6/1/2021 @ 4:34 am@299, You don’t seem irritated here. I can think of exchanges in the past where you did seem irritated (with some justification) and that looked different.
Time123 (457a1d) — 6/1/2021 @ 4:35 amLike much of the Trumpublican platform it was un-patriotic and undemocratic but I don’t think it was unlawful because it didn’t seem likely or intended to create imminent lawless action.
Had he said the same thing moments from the Jan 6 terrorist attack on the capital I’d feel differently.
Time123 (6e0727) — 6/1/2021 @ 4:40 amFrosty,
In a previous thread you asked me if I had any problems with how large tech companies were using their property to impact speech. I told you that I did and that I owed you a more detailed answer.
I think free speech as a value is important and I’m angry and disappointed at the lack of transparency and poor decision making shown by Facebook and Twitter. I don’t think my feelings justify taking their property or having the government step in to regulate speech and I have hope that the free market will eventually find solutions. My 14 year old says that Twitter is pointless; “a place where old people that don’t matter go to share opinions no one cares about. ” is her description.
I use facebook because it provides some value to me, but I was pleased to see that Apple’s new iOS is causing FB some pain by given apple users an opportunity to better control what’s known about them.
Final point, I know you and Kevin are motivated by an honest desire to fix actual problems that can plainly be seen in the intersection of Tech and Speech. I don’t think most the GOP base shares your concerns. I think they’re mostly angry and looking to punish someone they feel has disrespected them. I think most of the ‘solutions’ that I’ve seen proposed are worse then the problem they want to fix. Because the people proposing them are smart enough to know that I assume they’re performative and I have no more respect for them, the people proposing them, or the people cheering them then I do people who get all excited about performative environmental regulations.
Time123 (457a1d) — 6/1/2021 @ 4:50 am“Flynn facts”.
But, no, he did not commit a crime. This time. Although he may very well have when he proposed it in person to Trump in December.
nk (1d9030) — 6/1/2021 @ 5:18 amTime123 (457a1d) — 6/1/2021 @ 4:50 am
Thanks for the response. I think the difference in our opinion is more relative than fundamental. To use your phrasing we take corporate property and regulate their speech more in other contexts. In a lot of cases it’s been going on for so long it’s taken for granted. So, I’m not reluctant to talk about options. We could debate whether the reasons are more compelling or if the options are effective but I haven’t suggested any sort of “censorship” that is different in kind from other examples that people generally agree are fine.
To your other point, thanks, and this is an example of that. I’m obviously interested in free speech issue but I’m not irritated by people being on the other side of an issue. I’m irritated by people who say things that simply aren’t true, stick their fingers in their ears and shout nonsense, and then claim they’re having a reasonable conversation.
frosty (f27e97) — 6/1/2021 @ 6:12 amRip Murdock (dd79dd) — 5/31/2021 @ 7:13 pm
Maybe it tries to sound like it, but the part where they supposedlyo resemble Trump supporters isn’t really true.
What’s all this about?
If there had been direct elections for Prime Minister, as there was between 1999 and 2003, Netanyahu would have been the Condorcet choice. But there wasn’t. And everybody knew the rules.
But you cam’t stay the removal of Netanyahu, if it takes place, was achieved as the result of an election. People who voted for parties voted also on the basis of whom they would form a coalition with. Naftali Bennett appealed to the right. In a new election, he would now lose two thirds of his support maybe.
Bennett’s explanation for his deal is that a right wing government isn’t possible, so a “national unity” government was necessary in order to avoid yet another round of elections, which probably would not lead to anything different.
Bennett’s goal probably is to merge his small party with Likud eventually, with himself as its head.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 6/1/2021 @ 6:15 am306. Dave (1542be) — 6/1/2021 @ 12:29 am
What Mike Flynn is denying is the implication of his words – that he was calling for a coup. (He agreed with a questioner that there’s no reason what happened in Myanmar shouldn’t have happened here. Of course, the reason is that the U.S. military is not a law onto itself, and hadn’t specially written the constitution to give itself a special role. In the recent election, their party lost badly..)
Verdict: Mostly false.
That said, Mike Flynn is really bad. (although what he I wonder who’s paying him, or promising him money (or prestige?) He;s not a good propagandist.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 6/1/2021 @ 6:26 am312. Time123 (457a1d) — 6/1/2021 @ 4:50 am
That;s where antitrust comes in. You could have more platforms. And maybe Facebook wouldn’t have bought Instagram. The loss to the public is the variety of platforms, and even types of platforms.
That’s fairly obvious.
I wonder if some people proposing that actualy have hopes – that things might be rigged to their advantage. Or that the threat of destructive regulations could cause the tech platforms to change their policies.
What I haven;t heard mentioned is the shopping mall petition case.
PruneYard Shopping Center v. Robins 447 U.S. 74 (1980)
But it was based on the California constitution. The federal issue was could use of a shopping center be regulated so that, once the general public was being freely admitted, the owner could not prevent people from doing certain activities.
In Lloyd Corp. v. Tanner, 407 U.S. 551 (1972) the Supreme Court had held that the shopping mall could prevent the distribution of leaflets because there were so many other places they could have done that.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 6/1/2021 @ 6:41 am316. Mike Flynn says he meant there is no reason it should have happened. It is possible (and likely) he just got confused.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 6/1/2021 @ 6:43 amFrosty, this will be a little hasty;
When we talk about tech bias there are a lot of things that come into play. I think the big ones are:
1. Banning people and taking down objectionable material.
2. Fact Check labels
3. How they prioritize what is shared in your feed.
In my mind 3 is the heart of their business. 2 is clearly their speech, and as such may not be protected by Section 230.
It’s the first one where there’s debate. What I haven’t seen is a proposal on how to handle 1 that doesn’t seem to make the cure worse then the problem. I don’t want some sensitive jerk with deep pockets to due critics into silence (see Devin Nunes suit against Liz Mair for an example). I also don’t want my Twitter feed or this comment section filled with neo-nazi/trolls spewing profanity and racial slurs for the Lolz.
I can see other possible solutions. An individual right of action with strong anti-SLAP provisions and steep penalties for frivolous claims and vexatious behavior might work. But I don’t think forcing FB to be a common carrier is a great idea, Only Fan accounts have enough places to advertise, i don’t need it there, or on the message boards for my church.
Time123 (6e0727) — 6/1/2021 @ 6:51 amI think this is very much part of it.
Time123 (6e0727) — 6/1/2021 @ 6:52 amFact Check: Fact checkers only offer alternative facts and nothing more.
nk (1d9030) — 6/1/2021 @ 6:58 amEither way, Flynn needs to be made an example of. As one poster is wont to state, Italian fascism did not end until…
urbanleftbehind (a699fa) — 6/1/2021 @ 8:17 amTime123 (6e0727) — 6/1/2021 @ 6:51 am
This isn’t really a social media issue though. If we decided that comments, for example, are owned by the commentators and any libel claims had to be made against the person you’d have a standard libel case. Why create different rules for the internet?
So, you say you want a market solution? You don’t need section 230 for this. If this were a thing twitter and facebook could respond by allowing you to ban individuals, or create your own content filters, from your feed and you wouldn’t have to see them. Other sites could choose to use software that provided similar features and if they didn’t you could choose whether you wanted to frequent the site. But like you, I’m suspicious of some of the people who comment on this. I suspect that this isn’t really the issue for some people. In my example, that content would still be out there and that’s still a problem because what they really want to do is to prevent other people from seeing it.
The neo-nazi example keeps coming up. That was a good example before twitter and facebook made it obvious that “offensive” content is anything other than a fairly narrow political/social agenda. This stopped being about real neo-nazi’s a long time ago.
frosty (f27e97) — 6/1/2021 @ 8:59 amAJ_Liberty (a4ff25) — 5/31/2021 @ 9:02 pm
You passed up a perfect chance to use a quote from Cool Hand Luke. It would have been both a more creative and more accurate way of expressing yourself.
frosty (f27e97) — 6/1/2021 @ 9:09 amFrosty, I picked Nazi because it’s an easy floor to agree on. No one likes Nazi, or NAMBLA, or pick your bad guy. My point is that there’s a clear demand for a user experience that involves some type to decision making, either by person or farmed out to a software. I think the people who create the platform should have the right to establish that and common carrier treatment would eliminate it.
One of the problems that 230 was created to address was around the incentive to avoid liability by having no moderation.
There will be people that want to make every space terrible, for the LOLZ if nothing else.
IANAL but I believe this is already the case. If you feel my comment defamed you, you have a legal right to sue me for damages. Section 230 means that you can’t sue Patterico for hosting the site, and I can’t sue him if he choses to moderate it.
Again, this is what Devin Nunes did to Liz Mair. He sued her over her tweet, but section 230 prevents him from suing twitter.
Time123 (6e0727) — 6/1/2021 @ 9:57 amTime123 (6e0727) — 6/1/2021 @ 9:57 am
I’m not suggesting making everything be made common carrier but I do agree that using those rules should prevent platforms like twitter and facebook from establishing arbitrary limits of content on your behalf. I really don’t understand this belief that corporations should manipulate content for you. It’s creepy. They aren’t acting in your best interests.
This mythical destruction of forums is no more real than neo-nazi’s interrupting your dinner with phone calls. There’s a simple technological solution to this that wouldn’t require censorship or some oppressive regulatory interference.
frosty (f27e97) — 6/1/2021 @ 10:26 am325. Time123 (6e0727) — 6/1/2021 @ 9:57 am
To encourage censorship, and the development of censorship software.
I think that’s why, circa 2006, there was so much spam.
Political messages can no longer be sent to random email addresses.
Gmail seems to have developed a system for getting rid of spam based mainly n how many people get the same message (they have enough users for that to work- with some other additional criteria.
This isn’t really a social media issue though. If we decided that comments, for example, are owned by the commentators and any libel claims had to be made against the person you’d have a standard libel case. Why create different rules for the internet?
IANAL but I believe this is already the case. If you feel my comment defamed you, you have a legal right to sue me for damages. Section 230 means that you can’t sue Patterico for hosting the site, and I can’t sue him if he choses to moderate it.
Again, this is what Devin Nunes did to Liz Mair. He sued her over her tweet, but section 230 prevents him from suing twitter.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 6/1/2021 @ 10:54 amMike Flynn says he meant there is no reason it should have happened. It is possible (and likely) he just got confused.
Given the number of times he has called for martial law (a coup by any other name) himself, I doubt he was confused.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 6/1/2021 @ 10:56 am328. I know that he said that Trump should declare martial law in a meeting he had with Trump that he had been brought to by Sydney Powell but the question is would he want to say that a military coup should have happened in public. That was, however, before I listened to the video.
You can tell by the way he said those words, that he’s agreeing with what the questioner seems to think: that there no reason that a coup should not happen in such circumstances. First he says, “No reason” and then, gauging that the reaction is favorable, he adds, quickly and half sotto voce: “I mean, it should happen.”
He was just currying favor with the audience, though
If you parse his words differently, what Mike Flynn said can be interpreted as saying that there is no reason it should happen, but the emphasis is in the wrong place for that.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 6/1/2021 @ 11:28 amMy best interests? No, not at all..
To make the information they have on their platform relevant and engaging for me so that I stay longer and view adds? Yes.
You say this, but I haven’t seen details on it, and it doesn’t seem to be part of what’s been proposed by conservative leaders.
Time123 (6e0727) — 6/1/2021 @ 12:21 pmhttps://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/victoria-taft/2021/05/31/theyre-trying-to-kill-me-a-portland-antifa-death-squad-goes-head-hunting-for-andy-ngo-and-somebody-gets-a-beatdown-n1451079
Why it’s almost like their name is a lie and antifa is just another terrorist group.
NJRob (fbe422) — 6/1/2021 @ 1:31 pmAbout robocallls:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/scammers-and-fraudsters-from-sea-to-shining-sea-11621804820
The one that everybody has gotten is the car warranty. I guess they hope it’s answered by a family member.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 6/1/2021 @ 1:36 pmit definitely triggers my bulls*t detectors.
Well, the whole “dark matter” thing triggers those too. I await evidence of the non-luminous aether. I would like to believe that the universe acts reasonably without having to invent such a huge fudge factor.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 6/1/2021 @ 1:56 pmTime123 (6e0727) — 6/1/2021 @ 12:21 pm
Of course it’s not being proposed by conservative leaders. They don’t want to give you any more control than the “liberal” leaders. It’s not going to be proposed by anyone that is currently, or wants to be, in charge of the content moderation button.
I mentioned this earlier:
How exactly would neo-nazi comments overwhelm twitter even with the current setup? I’m not a common user of twitter but I only see comments from people I follow or things I search for. A more sophisticated blocking ability there would make that even better. It’s not the solution that allows you to do nothing though. So, it’s up to you whether you having more control is a bug or a feature. And before you say this would be fine for some high-tech company like twitter but not for smaller content sites, I’d disagree. Basic blocking and filtering isn’t Google-level tech.
But there’s no incentive to do any of that. It’s easier to claim any change to the status quo is censorship because that content moderation button is just so tasty.
frosty (f27e97) — 6/1/2021 @ 2:53 pmApproaching a deadline:
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/06/02/world/israel-government-netanyahu-bennett
Actually, if they miss, they can still get another chance.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 6/2/2021 @ 12:56 pm