7/16/2021

360 Responses to “Weekend Open Thread”

1. It’s a packed thread, and I opine…alot!

   Dana (fd537d) — 7/16/2021 @ 8:19 pm

   
   

2. Great article, I concur with wholeheartedly.

   Who Lost Afghanistan?
   In a word, politicians.

   In one sense, the problems with the war in Afghanistan date from its very inception. For the first time since Pearl Harbor, the United States went to war in October, 2001, as a direct response to an attack on American soil. Both Pearl Harbor and 9/11 caught the United States by surprise, but the U.S. government had anticipated and meticulously planned an eventual entry into World War II. The preparation for the Afghanistan War, however, consisted of less than a month of mobilization and strategizing. On such an abbreviated timeline, unpreparedness should be expected and perhaps even justified—but not after 20 years. H.R. McMaster, who served as the planning officer for NATO forces in Afghanistan and as special assistant to the president for national security affairs under President Trump, declared that Afghanistan hadn’t been a 20-year war, but rather “a one-year war fought 20 times over,” a blistering indictment of the failure of those who ran it to plan, adapt, and follow through…

   Colonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 7/16/2021 @ 9:33 pm

   
   

3. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gop-lawmakers-slam-marxist-black-lives-matter-for-blaming-u-s-for-cuban-unrest

   The statement angered several Republican lawmakers, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, the son of a Cuban immigrant, who accused Black Lives Matter of “standing with” communists.

   “Shameful,” Cruz tweeted. “The group Black Lives Matter (funded by major players in corporate America) was founded by avowed Marxists and—as millions of Cubans risk their lives to rise up for freedom—BLM stands with…the communist dictatorship.”

   Cruz’s colleague, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., also took issue with the tweet and called it “insane.”

   “The radical Left has gone insane,” Scott tweeted. “BLM is blaming America for the cruelty and oppression of the Castro Regime and their views are being echoed by prominent socialist Democrats. Freedom-loving Americans stand with the people of Cuba, not with the Regime that is oppressing them.”

   Marco Rubio, a Republican senator from Florida of Cuban descent, responded to the statement by accusing the organization of extortion.

   “The extortionist ring known as the Black Lives Matter organization took a break today from shaking down corporations for millions & buying themselves mansions to share their support for the Communist regime in #Cuba,” he posted on Instagram and Twitter.

   Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., also took to social media to criticize the Black Lives Matter statement and said the organization is defending a murderous regime.

   “It’s no surprise that the Marxists of BLM are defending a murderous communist regime,” Cotton said.

   NJRob (eb56c3) — 7/16/2021 @ 10:03 pm

   
   

4. https://www.takimag.com/article/the-flight-from-white-down-under/

   Granted, the concept of “white privilege” has already achieved mental hegemony, but is it true? It can be tested simply by measuring whether more people on the racial margins are attempting to pass from being considered nonwhite to white (as happened in the increasingly distant past) or instead from white to nonwhite.

   Today, we see an increasing number of white-looking individuals, especially leftist female professors of grievance studies, striving for the privileges of being officially nonwhite.

   This has become hilariously common in Australia, where the newspapers are full of the pathbreaking feats of the “first Indigenous” this or that, almost always with a photo of an extremely white-looking person. The number of Australians who identify as Aboriginal has been soaring, especially in the metropolitan areas of the east coast, far from Indigenous settlements in the Outback.

   Looks like the movie Get Out had them pegged.

   NJRob (eb56c3) — 7/16/2021 @ 10:06 pm

   
   

5. https://legalinsurrection.com/2021/07/im-a-middle-school-teacher-and-see-how-critical-race-curriculum-is-creating-racial-hostility-in-school/

   I love being a teacher and I care a great deal about my students, almost all of whom are non-white. This past 2020/21 school year was a sad and worrisome turning point for me as an educator. Providence K-8 teachers were introduced to one of the most racially divisive, hateful, and in large part, historically inaccurate curriculums I have ever seen in my teaching career.

   Yes, I am speaking about the controversial critical race theory that has infiltrated our public schools here in Rhode Island under the umbrella of Cuturally Responsive learning and teaching, which includes a focus on identities. You won’t see the words “critical race theory” on the materials, but those are the concepts taught. The new, racialized curriculum and materials focuses almost exclusively on an oppressor-oppressed narrative, and have created racial tensions among students and staff where none existed before.

   During fall 2020 semester, we were given our curriculum timeline on the Revolutionary War, and the Civil War. I noticed the stories and books seemed to focus almost exclusively on slavery and racism. Those are appropriate topics that we always have taught, but the focus has become narrow, excluding many other aspects of our history.

   …

   American history now is being retold exclusively from the perspective of oppressed peoples during the Revolutionary period through to the Civil War, and also in the literature of the Civil Rights movement. From my position in the classroom, it seemed that much of American history and literature was getting wiped out. No one of these new books, standing alone, would be problematic, it’s the new lack of diversity of perspective that is the problem. Although the 1619 Project itself has not yet been introduced, the historical perspective now has shifted to making slavery and racism the defining events of the founding and growth of America.

   This is how they get away with saying they aren’t teaching CRT. It’s just racism by a different name.

   NJRob (eb56c3) — 7/16/2021 @ 10:08 pm

   
   

6. https://legalinsurrection.com/2021/07/2020-u-s-drug-overdose-deaths-highest-ever-at-93331-an-increase-of-almost-30/

   Preliminary reports and numbers indicate in 2020, over 90,000 people died of a drug overdose in the U.S., an increase of almost 30%:

   The estimated 93,331 deaths from drug overdoses last year, a record high, represent the sharpest annual increase in at least three decades, and compare with an estimated toll of 72,151 deaths in 2019, according to provisional overdose-drug data released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

   “That is a stunning number even for those of us who have tracked this issue,” said Brendan Saloner, associate professor of health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “Our public health tools have not kept pace with the urgency of the crisis.”

   Lives destroyed for the sake of the lockdown.

   NJRob (eb56c3) — 7/16/2021 @ 10:10 pm

   
   

7. https://pjmedia.com/culture/robert-spencer/2021/07/09/texas-judge-says-muslim-woman-cant-get-divorce-according-to-u-s-law-has-to-abide-by-islamic-law-n1460711

   Ayad was trying to get a divorce from her husband, Ayad Hashim Latif. Sharia stipulates that while a man can divorce his wife simply by telling her three times that he is divorcing her, a woman has to seek the permission of Muslim clerics and make her case for a divorce before them. There is, of course, no such provision in U.S. law, but when Ayad told Latif that she was going to seek a divorce, he told her that she had signed an Islamic prenuptial agreement that stated the marriage, and any possible divorce, would proceed according to Sharia provisions.

   Mariam Ayad contends now that she was tricked into signing this agreement, and thought that what she was signing was something else altogether. Her lawyers state that American law should supersede it in any case. Thompson, however, ruled that the prenuptial agreement was binding, and thus Ayad will have to go through the Islamic Association of North Texas to get permission to divorce. According to The Blaze, this decision was in “complete disregard of both federal and state law.”

   This case isn’t over: Ayad is appealing at the Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas.

   Anyone explain this one? How can a court say she can’t use our legal system to divorce her radical Islamist husband?

   NJRob (eb56c3) — 7/16/2021 @ 10:11 pm

   
   

8. First news item

   Ah:…🤢🤮

   It is as if the actual hearing did not exist:

   https://www.azleg.gov/archivedmeetings/

   But.. Daily Beast.. The “conservative” life’s blood…

   BuDuh (7bca93) — 7/16/2021 @ 10:44 pm

   
   

9. https://morningconsult.com/2021/07/14/expiring-unemployment-insurance/

   The termination of federal unemployment insurance benefits is likely to produce an estimated 1.84 million jobs through the end of the year, particularly as more UI recipients begin actively looking for work.
   …
   Just under a third of UI recipients have turned down job offers during the pandemic, but under half of those rejections were directly attributable to the generosity of UI benefits. Forty-five percent of those who turned down a job offer cited the generosity of UI benefits as a major reason why they did not accept the job offer, meaning that over half of the jobs that UI recipients rejected would have been rejected even if they were no longer receiving benefits. Taken together, unemployment benefits directly contributed to 13% of UI recipients rejecting a job offer during the pandemic.

   Paying people not to work has real costs. 1.8 million unemployed just sitting around instead of working due to taxpayers paying them to do so. Thanks daddy government.

   NJRob (eb56c3) — 7/16/2021 @ 11:00 pm

   
   

10. Way to show remorse for all the soldiers you had killed, Klink.

    mg (8cbc69) — 7/17/2021 @ 2:55 am

    
    

11. https://www.newsweek.com/28-fully-vaccinated-people-contract-covid-homeless-shelter-california-1610485
    Thats where the yankees pitchers caught it!!
    What a scam.

    mg (8cbc69) — 7/17/2021 @ 3:08 am

    
    

12. https://www.bizpacreview.com/2021/07/16/arizona-state-senator-demands-electors-be-recalled-for-new-election-calls-for-audit-of-all-50-states-1104490/
    Go Baby

    mg (8cbc69) — 7/17/2021 @ 3:13 am

    
    

13. https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/07/the-week-in-pictures-dems-on-the-lam-edition.php
    hypocrisy…

    mg (8cbc69) — 7/17/2021 @ 3:31 am

    
    

14. But from what I’ve read about CRT, the definition seems to always be in a state of flux, which is problematic.

    It’s always in a state of flux because the slimy lefties pushing it need to keep a smoke screen around it. It’s just like Biden pretending socialism is something different than communism or the continual redefining of progressive and liberal.

    The rule on the left is if something starts taking flak change the name.

    frosty (f27e97) — 7/17/2021 @ 4:48 am

    
    

15. mg (8cbc69) — 7/17/2021 @ 3:08 am

    Here’s a fairly common and, I think neutral and objective, description of what the vaccine does:

    An effective vaccine will protect someone who receives it by lowering the chance of getting COVID-19 if the person encounters the coronavirus. More important is whether the vaccine prevents serious illness, hospitalization and death. At this time, all three vaccines are highly efficacious at preventing serious illness, hospitalization and death from COVID-19.

    There is a difference between the virus and the illness the virus causes. It’s possible the vaccine is shifting the numbers on asymptomatic carriers. There’s some evidence that the vaccine reduces the likelihood of transmission but it’d be ironic if the delta variant was still spreading anyway.

    frosty (f27e97) — 7/17/2021 @ 5:17 am

    
    

16. “The hearing is the latest example of how hard the USCP and Justice Department are fighting to keep more than 14,000 hours of surveillance video under wraps. Lawyers for the USCP insist the recordings can’t be released for fear doing so will give wannabe insurrectionists too much information about the inside of the complex; the Justice Department claims the footage is “highly sensitive” government material.

    Defense lawyers and media companies are fighting for fuller access to videos used as evidence by the Justice Department. Cherry-picked clips produced by the government are released to the media to support the narrative that January 6 was an armed, violent insurrection perpetrated by domestic terrorists who supported Donald Trump. The Biden Justice Department, in other words, has full control over a massive trove of recordings that shows exactly what happened on January 6.

    The selective clips only tell one side of the story—and that’s the story the Biden Justice Department wants the public to see. But in some cases, defense attorneys and news outlets are petitioning the court to make public potentially exculpatory video evidence that would dispute the government’s allegations.”

    https://amgreatness.com/2021/07/15/the-capitol-cover-up/

    Worse than 9/11, but the American people are not allowed to see it for themselves.

    Obudman (af0b8c) — 7/17/2021 @ 5:37 am

    
    

17. NJRob @ 7:
    I doubt very much that we are getting the whole story. Agreements for the divorce itself are against public policy everywhere. Its grounds are governed strictly by statute. What I’m pretty sure they are fighting about is the marital property. They can agree to have a Muslim court as the arbitrator as well as an arbitration association. But all arbitrators’ decisions are in the end enforced as judgments by the courts.

    nk (9651fb) — 7/17/2021 @ 5:50 am

    
    

18. Obudman at 16:
    That is pure jailhouse lawyer bullsh!t. Trumpmuffins blowing smoke. The defense is entitled to 1) video that the prosecution will use at trial and 2) video that could be exculpatory to the defendant. From the government that is. For the rest, they can go fish for it themselves from the media, bystanders, their client, and co-short bussers who were there videoing.

    nk (9651fb) — 7/17/2021 @ 6:11 am

    
    

19. Mishaps in Covid science, in two parts.
    One, the anti-maskers who touted a study in JAMA about CO2 content in mask-wearing kids now have to look elsewhere because JAMA retracted the study.
    Two, those Trumpists who are clinging to Ivermectin as a CV19 treatment option faced another setback because a huge study was canceled over ethical concerns (Orac has a harsher critique). It still remains that, when undertaken with proper randomized clinical trials, HCQ and Ivermectin are not effective treatments.
    There is an ongoing experiment involving hundreds of millions of vaccines administered in the US, and it shows that they’re safe and effective. It’s difficult to find anyone who has provably died from the vaccines, and only around 1% of those who’ve died from Covid were previously vaccinated.

    Paul Montagu (5de684) — 7/17/2021 @ 6:21 am

    
    

20. N.J. woman must remove anti-Biden F-bomb signs or face $250-a-day fines, judge rules
    ……….
    Roselle Park Municipal Court Judge Gary Bundy ordered the Willow Avenue homeowner to remove the signs with profanity within a week or face a $250-a-day fine. Patricia Dilascio is the property owner but her daughter, Andrea Dick, had the signs, three of which include the F-word, on display.

    “This is not a case about politics. It is a case, pure and simple, about language,” Bundy said. “This ordinance does not restrict political speech. Neither this town or its laws may abridge or eliminate Ms. Dilascio’s freedom of speech. However, freedom of speech is not simply an absolute right. It is clear from state law and statutes that we cannot simply put up the umbrella of the First Amendment and say everything and anything is protected speech.”

    Roselle Park Mayor Joseph Signorello III, a Democrat who is running for state Senate in Union County, previously said the home is close to a school and angered some residents. But Dick repeatedly said she would not remove the signs since they are political speech protected by the First Amendment.
    ………..
    The ordinance prohibits displaying “any obscene material, communication or performance or other article or item which is obscene within the Borough.” It defines obscenity as material that depicts or describes sexual conduct or lacks any serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.

    Michael Campagna, an attorney representing the homeowner, argued that standards for obscenity have changed over the years, stating that it was obscene for women to show their knees in the 1920s. He said using the f-word towards someone no longer has a sexual connotation in society and is simply a colloquialism.
    ……..
    He drew comparisons to the suppression of dissent in Nazi Germany.

    “In Nazi Germany, when Hitler didn’t like something, they burned the books and then they burned the people,” Campagna said. “I don’t think we want that to happen in Roselle Park.”
    ……..
    The judge, while handing down his ruling and sentencing, rhetorically asked if a balance could be found between the homeowner’s freedom of speech and a mother having to explain what the f-word means to their child. His ruling, he said, only meant that different words should be used to describe disappointment over the presidential election.
    ……..
    In other words, don’t be a Dick.

    Rip Murdock (0aa613) — 7/17/2021 @ 7:17 am

    
    

21. ‘Let them die!’: NAACP leader blasts parents who oppose critical race theory in fiery speech outside Virginia middle school board meeting – and PTA says they’ll send her to ‘sensitivity training’
    NAACP Vice President Michelle Leete made the inflammatory comments to a crowd at Luther Jackson Middle School in Falls Church, Fairfax County, Thursday
    The crowd had gathered to counter-protest a group of parents who were holding a ‘Stop CRT rally’ at the school

    In the video, Leete hits out at people who she accuses of being ‘anti-equity, anti-history, anti-racial reckoning.’

    ‘So let’s meet and remain steadfast in speaking truth, tearing down double standards, and refuting double talk,’ she says.

    ‘Let’s not allow any double downing on lies. Let’s prepare our children for a world they deserve.

    ‘Let’s deny this off-key band of people that are anti-education, anti-teacher, anti-equity, anti-history, anti-racial reckoning, anti-opportunities, anti-help people, anti-diversity, anti-science, anti-change agent, anti-social justice, anti-health care, anti-worker, anti-LGBTQ+, anti-children, anti-health care, anti-worker, anti-environment, anti-admissions policy change, anti-inclusion, anti-live and let live – let them die!’

    If they weren’t doing the things they were being accused of, they wouldn’t be lashing out like this. They wouldn’t be starting up Facebook groups to harass parents, their kids, and community members pushing back against their agenda. They wouldn’t be arguing that anyone pushing back on this is a racist who wants to hide America’s history. They wouldn’t be accusing their opponents of every left-liberal sin under the sun as justification for their agenda. They wouldn’t be talking out of both sides of their mouth that “CRT isn’t being taught” and “we’re going to defend CRT and the teachers who instruct it.”

    They do this because it’s what they always do when the left’s agenda is resisted with any real energy and purpose.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 7/17/2021 @ 7:41 am

    
    

22. “CRT, the definition seems to always be in a state of flux,”

    One of the problems is the linkage of slavery to segregation to discriminatory practices….to now a fairly loaded term, systemic racism. Systemic Racism is generally used to make white people feel guilty and absolve black people of agency….that statistical differences between whites and blacks are at their core explainable by…primarily…legacy racism…..not overt racism because public opinion no longer tolerates it and anti-discrimination laws back that up….but by the status quo itself perpetuating inequality. Now, the reality is that all of this is pretty heady stuff….whatever your viewpoint…and most adults are ill-prepared to defend their own opinions about causation and correlation. Our guts tell us that there is work to be done in policing….and probably criminal justice….but they’re tough problems that are often over-simplified.

    The questions becomes how should this discussion happen in K-12? What is age appropriate…..and when does it over-inject politics? It’s probably approached differently in inner-city schools than in the suburbs. For me, education is a local issue…to be hashed out by parents, teachers, principals, and school boards…with an emphasis on developing skills necessary to be productive citizens. National discussions are important….but ultimately local people need to decide how to allocate limited classroom time and resources to matters of race…..

    AJ_Liberty (a4ff25) — 7/17/2021 @ 8:11 am

    
    

23. Texas Senate Votes to Remove Required Lessons on Civil Rights
    ……….
    Among the figures whose works would be dropped: Susan B. Anthony, Cesar Chavez, and Martin Luther King Jr., whose “I Have a Dream”speech and “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” would no longer make the curriculum cut.

    The bill (S.B. 3), which was passed on a vote of 18 to 4, now is stalled because the House can’t achieve a quorum while a breakaway group of Democrats is out of the state. The special session is set to end on Aug. 6.
    ……….
    (H.B. 3979, which bars the teaching of critical race theory) included a list of historic figures, events and documents required for inclusion in social studies classes. The Senate-passed bill would remove most mentions of people of color and women from those requirements, along with a requirement that students be taught about the history of white supremacy and “the ways in which it is morally wrong.”
    ……….
    The bill would prohibit teachers from being compelled to talk about current events or controversial issues, instructing those choosing to engage with students to discuss without “giving deference to any one perspective.”……..
    ………
    

    The reading list In HB 3979 being banned by S.B 3 include the writings by or about:
    Frederick Douglass; the Book of Negroes; the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850; the Indian Removal Act; Thomas Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists; William Still’s Underground Railroad Records; the history of white supremacy, including but not limited to the institution of slavery, the eugenics movement, and the Ku Klux Klan, and the ways in which it is morally wrong;

    The history and importance of the civil rights movement, including the following documents: Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” and “I Have a Dream” speech; the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. Section 2000a et seq.); the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education; the Emancipation Proclamation; the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution; the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decision in Mendez v. Westminster; ……the life and work of Cesar Chavez; the life and work of Dolores Huerta;

    The history and importance of the women’s suffrage movement, including the following documents: the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. Section 10101 et seq.); the Fifteenth, Nineteenth, and Twenty-Sixth Amendments to the United States Constitution; Abigail Adams’s letter “Remember the Ladies”; the works of Susan B. Anthony; and the Declaration of Sentiments; the life and works of Dr. Hector P. Garcia; the American GI Forum; the League of United Latin American Citizens; and Hernandez v. Texas (1954).
    ………

    Rip Murdock (0aa613) — 7/17/2021 @ 8:13 am

    
    

24. Riverside rally with Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene canceled
    ………
    The abrupt cancellation capped a day filled with outrage and demands to cancel the event as well as plans to protest the planned appearance of Republican Reps. Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene in an “America First” rally at the Riverside Convention Center.

    City officials reported late Friday they were notified by operators of the convention center that the rally planned for Saturday evening, July 17, won’t take place.
    ……….
    The rally, part of a nationwide tour featuring two out-of-state lawmakers with reputations for far-right politics and spreading misinformation, had been moved to the city after being kicked out of an Orange County venue earlier this month.

    Organizers on Thursday announced the rally would take place in Riverside, and while they withheld the location citing security concerns, the CEO of the company that runs the city-owned convention center confirmed the downtown facility was scheduled to play host.

    The news shook up Riverside County’s largest city, which has become more liberal politically in recent years as Democrats overtook the GOP in countywide voter registration — a plurality of Riverside city voters are registered Democrats — and a more left-leaning, diverse City Council replaced a set of predominantly White male Republicans.
    ………
    In an email, Scott Megna, the convention center’s general manager, said the facility was contacted the evening of Friday, July 9, “regarding holding a political speech/event” on July 17.

    “ … At that time they were informed the space they required for the event was available,” Megna said, adding that the convention center didn’t learn Gaetz and Greene would speak at the planned event until Monday, July 12.
    ………..

    Rip Murdock (0aa613) — 7/17/2021 @ 8:21 am

    
    

25. Biden should have anticipated the DACA ruling. In the past, courts have permitted this kind of executive action in anticipation of imminent changes to the law; there is a desire not to enforce a law that is about to change when the enforcement can do great harm to an individual.

    But there is no change to immigration law on the horizon, and until there is, DACA is unconstitutional.

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/17/2021 @ 8:24 am

    
    

26. Among the figures whose works would be dropped: Susan B. Anthony, Cesar Chavez, and Martin Luther King Jr., whose “I Have a Dream” speech and “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” would no longer make the curriculum cut….The reading list In HB 3979 being banned by S.B 3 include the writings by or about:

    These are flat-out falsehoods. Nothing in the text of either of those bills bans the writings being listed, or removes them from curriculums. In fact, in the HB text, it explicitly says: “In adopting the essential knowledge and skills for the social studies curriculum, the State Board of Education shall adopt essential knowledge and skills that develop each student’s civic knowledge, including an understanding of:,” followed by the list of works to be studied.

    Nowhere in either of those bills does it state that those works aren’t to be taught, which is apparent when reading the actual bills. If Paul Stinson is going to be such a brazen liar, he should probably not link directly to the bills themselves which show that he’s lying.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 7/17/2021 @ 8:34 am

    
    

27. I don’t disagree that people who remain unvaccinated are putting themselves, their family and their neighbors at risk. I think that anyone who posts some of the stupider claims (e.g. tracking chips in the shots) should be confronted and verbally abused.

    But I do NOT think that Facebook should be pulling down people’s opinions just because they are effing idiots. Not only does that lead to a very slippery slope, but it’s counter-productive.

    As in “SEE!!!1! They are afraid fo our Truth!”

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/17/2021 @ 8:35 am

    
    

28. “Redemption”

    Those that came late to civil rights came late to civil rights. They did not redeem themselves. They simply failed to continue to be assh0les. No points for that. Sorry.

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/17/2021 @ 8:37 am

    
    

29. liz cheney, you go girl

    like a boss!

    such war stories you have now, you deserve combat pay

    takes you back to when you sent boys over to find your wmd

    including the ones who didn’t come back, or lost eyes and limbs

    you f*cking did that

    how the press hated you then, but so loves you now

    JF (e1156d) — 7/17/2021 @ 8:43 am

    
    

30. Caitlyn Jenner heads to Australia as recall campaign intensifies in California

    California gubernatorial candidate Caitlyn Jenner has flown to Australia just two months before the recall election of Gov. Gavin Newsom, a crucial stretch in which candidates are buying airtime and campaigning before mail balloting starts next month.

    A spokesperson for Jenner’s campaign confirmed the trip abroad with POLITICO after Australian tabloids reported that she was in Sydney to appear on “Big Brother VIP.”
    ……..
    Jenner’s spokesperson said Friday that she will be back in time to campaign across California on a “bus tour” ahead of the Sept. 14 contest.

    But it’s unclear exactly how long Jenner will be in Australia, which has imposed much tighter restrictions than California and the U.S. as the country tries to contain outbreaks due to the Delta variant. Sydney remains under a lockdown until at least July 30. Jenner’s arrival has angered some Australians, according to media reports, because the country has strictly capped the number of citizens who can return home due to Covid-19 concerns.
    …….
    …..The trip could reportedly last a month because of quarantine requirements and taping.
    ……..

    The freak show is now even freakier.

    Related:

    ‘More Gary Coleman than Arnold Schwarzenegger’: Caitlyn Jenner’s historic run struggles

    Caitlyn Jenner’s campaign says they’re ‘documenting history’ with a camera crew, but the footage could be sold for a documentary or reality show

    Rip Murdock (0aa613) — 7/17/2021 @ 8:50 am

    
    

31. I have problems cancelling an event held in a public arena, due to the message being conveyed or to the threat of violence against the speakers and their audience. Unlike Facebook, the city and/or county of Riverside is not a private business and free speech rules apply to them.

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/17/2021 @ 8:52 am

    
    

32. https://trackbill.com/bill/tennessee-senate-bill-623-education-as-enacted-deletes-several-obsolete-provisions-and-makes-various-substantive-changes-to-education-laws-establishes-parameters-for-the-teaching-of-certain-concepts-related-to-race-and-sex-amends-tca-title-4-and-title-49/2022055/

    The Tennessee bill linked above has two provisions that will likely lead to historically inaccurate education

    The most concerning is this one emphasis mine

    This amendment does not prohibit an LEA or public charter school from including, as part of a course of instruction or in a curriculum or instructional program, or from allowing teachers or other employees of the LEA or public charter school to use supplemental instructional materials that include:

    (1) The history of an ethnic group, as described in textbooks and instructional materials adopted in accordance with present law concerning textbooks and instructional materials;

    (2) The impartial discussion of controversial aspects of history;

    (3) The impartial instruction on the historical oppression of a particular group of people based on race, ethnicity, class, nationality, religion, or geographic region; or
    

    This would appear to require schools that teach about. Slavery, Jim Crow and other unpleasant aspects to do so ‘impartially’. That isn’t defined in the bill, and has no specific legal meaning that i can find. Absent some clear standard I think the most likely outcome will be that schools avoid anything that might upset sensitive parents. Which is likely the point, to get schools to stop teaching parts of our history.

    They second concerning part of the law is

    This amendment also prohibits any LEA or public charter school from including or promoting the following concepts as part of a course of instruction or in a curriculum or instructional program, or allowing teachers or other employees of the LEA or public charter school to use supplemental instructional materials that include or promote the following concepts:

    (1) One race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex;

    (2) An individual, by virtue of the individual’s race or sex, is inherently privileged, racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or subconsciously;

    This may be less of a problem depending on wording and interpretation. My concern is that it’s fair to read this as prohibiting inlcusion of historical writing an statements that include racial supremacy. Which would make it harder for students to understand just how horrible and evil some of the figures from history really were.

    For context, I’m not sure what people mean when they say CRT. One of the more common usages i see from the anti-CRT crowd is the indoctrination or emotional abuse of students. I don’t think widespread indoctrination or emotional abuse of children is happening. I think the Anti-CRT people are wildly exaggerating the issue and that this law will be applied to a current practices that would mostly already meet the stated end state of the anti-CRT crown. I think specific examples of bad teaching can be handled on an exception basis. If there’s another, more widely accepted definition it would be useful to get it on paper. But as Chirs Ruffo has laid out, the ambiguity about the definition makes it easier to stroke a moral panic.

    Time123 (9f42ee) — 7/17/2021 @ 8:58 am

    
    

33. Absent some clear standard I think the most likely outcome will be that schools avoid anything that might upset sensitive parents. Which is likely the point, to get schools to stop teaching parts of our history.

    Considering the states already are responsible for crafting school curriculums under explicit state standards, it’s unrealistic to believe that this won’t be addressed if and when the bill is passed.

    One of the more common usages i see from the anti-CRT crowd is the indoctrination or emotional abuse of students. I don’t think widespread indoctrination or emotional abuse of children is happening.

    If it wasn’t, a board member of the Virginia state PTA wouldn’t be having a conniption fit over it being resisted, members of the Louden County school board wouldn’t be participating in Facebook groups compiling Enemies Lists of parents, their kids and community members pushing back against it, and Bloomberg writers wouldn’t be lying about what’s in state bills related to the teaching of history.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 7/17/2021 @ 9:05 am

    
    

34. FWO, Based on the first part of your comment am I correct that you agree with my concerns about the bill as it currently stands.

    Time123 (9f42ee) — 7/17/2021 @ 9:09 am

    
    

35. @32 yeah, you’re concerned about the wording of the law

    if it were perfectly worded, you’d still be against it

    so it has nothing to do with how these laws are written or how crt is defined

    JF (e1156d) — 7/17/2021 @ 9:09 am

    
    

36. FWO, Based on the first part of your comment am I correct that you agree with my concerns about the bill as it currently stands.

    Time123 (9f42ee) — 7/17/2021 @ 9:09 am

    No, I don’t agree with your concerns. You’re asserting that this will likely lead to a “chilling effect” on the teaching of certain parts of our history. Since the states are already responsible for crafting curriculums and teaching standards, this concern is unfounded.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 7/17/2021 @ 9:12 am

    
    

37. One of the more common usages i see from the anti-CRT crowd is the indoctrination or emotional abuse of students. I don’t think widespread indoctrination or emotional abuse of children is happening.

    If it wasn’t, a board member of the Virginia state PTA wouldn’t be having a conniption fit over it being resisted, members of the Louden County school board wouldn’t be participating in Facebook groups compiling Enemies Lists of parents, their kids and community members pushing back against it, and Bloomberg writers wouldn’t be lying about what’s in state bills related to the teaching of history.

    This is a logical fallacy I want to address. What is “it”. Because to me it looks like the anti-CRT side and the anti-anti-CRT side don’t have common definition.

    Here’s an example that might resonate. If someone says “you’re racist” when they think racist means that you benefit from a societal structure that has in any way privileged members of your race and you think racist Means that you hate people not of your race you’re talking about completely different things. Also, it’s *very* reasonable that you would be angry at the accusation.

    Time123 (9f42ee) — 7/17/2021 @ 9:17 am

    
    

38. JF, Please don’t lie about me.

    Time123 (9f42ee) — 7/17/2021 @ 9:18 am

    
    

39. This is a logical fallacy I want to address. What is “it”. Because to me it looks like the anti-CRT side and the anti-anti-CRT side don’t have common definition.

    This is deflection. Why do you think the supporters of CRT are doing these things?

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 7/17/2021 @ 9:18 am

    
    

40. @38 lol, choose one:

    1) reword the tenn law so you’d approve

    2) tell me which of the many other state laws (tx? nh?) you like

    JF (e1156d) — 7/17/2021 @ 9:21 am

    
    

41. Because they believe they’re accurately teaching history and are being dishonesty accused of indoctrination and emotional abuse of children by grifters, opportunists, and snowflakes.

    I tried to illustrate that in the second part of that comment. The fact that someone angrily reacts to an accusation isn’t proof that it’s true.

    Time123 (9f42ee) — 7/17/2021 @ 9:24 am

    
    

42. JF, I’d delete that entire section as I think it’s unnecessary. I’d simplify the first to prohibit telling children they’re inferior/morally flawed based on their race.

    Seems like we can all agree on that.

    Time123 (9f42ee) — 7/17/2021 @ 9:26 am

    
    

43. Because they believe they’re accurately teaching history and are being dishonesty accused of indoctrination and emotional abuse of children by grifters, opportunists, and snowflakes. I tried to illustrate that in the second part of that comment. The fact that someone angrily reacts to an accusation isn’t proof that it’s true.

    And I’d say a coordinated effort on social media that involved members of the school board against parents and community members is pretty eloquent proof. As is deliberately lying in a mainstream media organ about what’s in the bills being proposed.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 7/17/2021 @ 9:34 am

    
    

44. I feel the same way about a dishonest attempt to portray an argument denial as proof.

    Time123 (9f42ee) — 7/17/2021 @ 9:39 am

    
    

45. You didn’t answer my question on if you thought the TN bill was flawed and needed to be fixed prior to passage.

    Time123 (9f42ee) — 7/17/2021 @ 9:40 am

    
    

46. I feel the same way about a dishonest attempt to portray an argument denial as proof.

    Which is irrelevant to the fact that these things were actually done and said. Journalists don’t have to lie about what’s in bills to discuss them. School board members don’t have to become involved in private Facebook groups to slag people who are pushing back against their agenda. PTA board members don’t have to dishonestly tar their opponents with the full spectrum of left-liberal shibboleths.

    You didn’t answer my question on if you thought the TN bill was flawed and needed to be fixed prior to passage.

    I’d say our respective positions are pretty clear on this.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 7/17/2021 @ 9:46 am

    
    

47. Sounds like you’re OK with it. But that for some reason aren’t willing to say that. Probably because you recognize that the concerns I’ve raised are valid.

    Time123 (9f42ee) — 7/17/2021 @ 9:51 am

    
    

48. Sounds like you’re OK with it. But that for some reason aren’t willing to say that. Probably because you recognize that the concerns I’ve raised are valid.

    Time123 (9f42ee) — 7/17/2021 @ 9:51 am

    No, I don’t recognize them as valid.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 7/17/2021 @ 9:53 am

    
    

49. ‘“That fvcking guy Jim Jordan. That son of a b-tch. … While these maniacs are going through the place, I’m standing in the aisle and he said, ‘We need to get the ladies away from the aisle. Let me help you.’ I smacked his hand away and told him, ‘Get away from me. You fvcking did this,’” Cheney reportedly told the general.’

    Ever the Daddy Darth in drag:

    “Always the class act, VP Cheney admitted to Chris Wallace that he did indeed tell Patrick Leahy to “go f*ck himself” on the Senate floor four years ago when the Vermont Senator chided him about his connection to Halliburton’s war profiteering.’ – source, crooksandliars.com

    Them there Cheneys do love that guttural vocabulary, don’t they.

    “You fvcking did this,’” is on the tombstones of ever dead American pilot, aviator, contractor and soldier this family of cowardly, evil neocons sent to their deaths while they deferred and dodged service or failed to volunteer as they profited off the cannon fodder.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/17/2021 @ 9:54 am

    
    

50. “Never once did I have a discussion with him about bringing in the Military, or a ‘coup,’ which makes sense, because I lost total confidence in him.”

    In other words:

    “If I was going to do a coup, one of the last people I would want to do it with is General Mark Milley.”

    Which is long way from “I never said or did anything after the election — such as firing the SecDef and replacing him with someone more personally loyal to me — that might have led Milley (among others) to worry that I would take extreme measures to stay in power.”

    Radegunda (33a224) — 7/17/2021 @ 9:54 am

    
    

51. FWO, I think you just don’t want students taught American history as it actually happened so you like the parts I’ve flagged.

    Time123 (9f42ee) — 7/17/2021 @ 9:56 am

    
    

52. Election officials in Arizona announced Friday that they had identified just 182 cases of potential voter fraud

    DEEP STATE!!
    When have Trumpublicans believed or respected any “officials” who are not devoutly loyal to Trump?

    Radegunda (33a224) — 7/17/2021 @ 9:59 am

    
    

53. This is the problem with CRT: because there is no consistent definition, it’s difficult to make any real accurate assessment of it. We get snippets and opinions and it continually seems to be in a state of flux. That is where the emotional responses come in, whether it be proponents of teaching children about all aspects of race (even in an impartial way) or whether it be opponents who want things to stay the way they are (which, if the push to ban Ruby Bridges is a measuring stick of any kind (and I think it is), this means a whitewashing of history may be preferable to some.

    Dana (fd537d) — 7/17/2021 @ 9:59 am

    
    

54. Dana, really well said. Thank you.

    Time123 (9f42ee) — 7/17/2021 @ 10:01 am

    
    

55. What the hell has Cuba ever done for America– or the world– for that matter, other than harbor mobsters for decades, help bring the planet to brink of thermonuclear Armageddon, shelter an over-rated, drunken writer, wreck Miami, spawn a few baseball players and a womanizing band leader married to a redheaded actress once registered as a communist. The hell with them; piss on Cuba.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/17/2021 @ 10:07 am

    
    

56. FWO, I think you just don’t want students taught American history as it actually happened so you like the parts I’ve flagged.

    Here’s another of the standard tactics that CRT/cultural Marxism supporters engage in when their agenda is challenged, and have done so for roughly 40 years–when their opponents don’t accept their premises as conventional wisdom, they deflect, accuse them of intellectual dishonesty, being “divisive,” or wanting to hide “uncomfortable truths.” If they were sincere, they wouldn’t have to resort to such methodology.

    Johnny Carson was far better than you at reading minds, and he was just playing a part for laughs.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 7/17/2021 @ 10:07 am

    
    

57. 53.This is the problem with CRT: because there is no consistent definition, it’s difficult to make any real accurate assessment of it.

    It’s the “Faucian Bargain”— “It evolves.” 😉

    DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/17/2021 @ 10:13 am

    
    

58. My method was to read the actual law to see what it does.

    Time123 (9f42ee) — 7/17/2021 @ 10:15 am

    
    

59. My method was to read the actual law to see what it does.

    And you inferred what would happen based on your own biases.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 7/17/2021 @ 10:19 am

    
    

60. Follow the money: Gavin Newsom recall edition
    …….
    As of Jul 17, 2021, $36.0 million has been raised specifically for the recall election.

    Supporters of the recall have raised approximately $5.0 million and opponents have raised about $31.0 million…… Supporters of the recall have raised about $745,000 and opponents about $1.4 million from ……small-dollar donors.
    ……..
    In the last 30 days, the supporters of the recall have raised $165,000 while opponents of the recall have raised $14.4 million.
    ………
    ………[T]he vast majority of the money is coming from within California. ……Pro-recall committees raised 91% of their itemized contributions from within California and about $369,000 from other states. …….Meanwhile, the anti-recall committees raised 94% of their itemized contributions from within the state and about $1.9 million from elsewhere.

    Unlike contributions to candidates, there are no limits on how much donors can give to the recall committees. Here are the top ten contributors to each side.

    Top pro-recall contributors:
    …….
    Top anti-recall contributors:
    ……..
    Unlike the campaign defending Newsom against the recall, the candidates are under the usual limits of $32,400 from any single contributor. Still, eight candidate committees registered for the 2021 election have reported donations exceeding $100,000.
    ……..
    Top five Republican recall candidates:

    John Cox-$5.2M, of which $5M is a loan from himself.

    Kevin Faulconer-$924,000

    ________Jenner-$356,000

    Larry Elder-$237,000

    Doug Ose-$158,000

    Rip Murdock (0aa613) — 7/17/2021 @ 10:20 am

    
    

61. For reference, here is the quote in “Ruby Bridges Goes To School” that the Moms for Liberty parent points to as a reason for banning the book:

    Some people did not want a black child to go to the white school. They stood near the school. They yelled at me to go away.

    It is accompanied by a black and white photo below with a crowd of white people – angry white people -and two noticeable signs being held by two protesters that read: WE WANT SECREGATION and WE DON’T WANT TO INTEGRATE. There is a third sign but the writing is faint and partially obscured by the sign in front of it.

    Dana (fd537d) — 7/17/2021 @ 10:21 am

    
    

62. @51.’FWO, I think you just don’t want students taught American history as it actually happened so you like the parts I’ve flagged.’

    ROFLMAOPIP

    “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” – Maxwell Scott [Carleton Young] ‘The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance’ 1962

    DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/17/2021 @ 10:22 am

    
    

63. @55-

    What the hell has Cuba ever done for America– or the world…….

    Excellent rum and cigars.

    Rip Murdock (0aa613) — 7/17/2021 @ 10:24 am

    
    

64. this means a whitewashing of history may be preferable to some.

    As when Pompeo said it’s “dangerous” to “teach that the founding of the United States of America was somehow flawed.”

    No, it’s honest to say it was “somehow flawed” — which doesn’t mean it was thoroughly corrupt to the core.

    Aside from teaching about slavery and segregation, my K-12 education didn’t give me a full enough understanding of how much racial bigotry and injustice there really was in the United States. OTOH, I’m not sure it taught me about black Africans capturing people from other tribes and selling them as slaves.
    I think it’s intellectually wrong and morally evil to teach white children that they are all innately racist while “people of color” are innocent, and that they share in the guilt of other white people who did cruelly racist things in the past. I haven’t done a deep study of CRT in particular, but I’ve seen lots of evidence that many of its supporters believe that all white people are innately oppressors of other people, who are always the victims; and that any disappoints and defeats felt by a black person are probably caused by white racism.

    Radegunda (33a224) — 7/17/2021 @ 10:27 am

    
    

65. This morning, a local TV station (KIRO) showed the International Space Station crossing the moon at, we were told, 17,000 mph. The anchor, who I hadn’t seen before, said he wouldn’t want to go that fast.

    No one told him how fast the earth moves around the sun, or the solar system moves around the center of the Milky Way. I don’t know whether others in the studio were being kind, or whether they don’t know junior high science, either.

    But I fear it is the latter. We really need to improve our schools — and our news readers.

    (You should be able to work out a rough answer to the first in your head, if you remember that the earth is about 93 million miles from the sun.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1) — 7/17/2021 @ 10:27 am

    
    

66. FWO, Ok, so what’s your interpretation of what the law means? As I recall you said they’d fix it. But you’re fine with it as is. As Dana has pointed out, some anti-crt advocates in TN seem to be explicitly asking to white wash history.

    Time123 (9f42ee) — 7/17/2021 @ 10:27 am

    
    

67. But.. Daily Beast.. The “conservative” life’s blood…

    And they wonder why Cali is effed up…

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 7/17/2021 @ 10:27 am

    
    

68. My method was to read the actual law to see what it does.

    And you inferred what would happen based on your own biases.

    Now that was just mean, man.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 7/17/2021 @ 10:30 am

    
    

69. CH, do you have substantive response to the concerns I listed with the TN the law? Or just your typrical snark?

    Time123 (9f42ee) — 7/17/2021 @ 10:33 am

    
    

70. For example, I think the inspiring story of George Washington Bush ought to be taught in our classrooms.

    I would be interested to know how many of you agree or disagree with me on that.

    Jim Miller (edcec1) — 7/17/2021 @ 10:38 am

    
    

71. FWO, I think you just don’t want students taught American history as it actually happened so you like the parts I’ve flagged.

    Time123 (9f42ee) — 7/17/2021 @ 9:56 am

    This is gaslighting to the extreme. CRT, William Zinn, the 1619 Project, etc are not history. They are propaganda masquerading as history trying to get people to hate the nation as founded and turn it into something unrecognizable. Claiming people who get privileged positions in school, in government, in jobs, etc are discriminated against is absurd to the extreme. If there was even a whiff of bigotry towards a privileged group aka minorities, the Civil Rights Division would be all over them.

    So you clearly embrace this revisionist history. I’m not surprised.

    NJRob (eb56c3) — 7/17/2021 @ 10:42 am

    
    

72. CH, do you have substantive response to the concerns I listed with the TN the law? Or just your typrical snark?

    What??? I meant what I wrote. That cut to the bone and was just plain mean.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 7/17/2021 @ 10:43 am

    
    

73. As I recall you said they’d fix it

    I didn’t say that, because I don’t think there’s anything to fix.

    As Dana has pointed out, some anti-crt advocates in TN seem to be explicitly asking to white wash history.

    It’s not up to them what the curriculums are going to look like.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 7/17/2021 @ 10:43 am

    
    

74. It would be very easy to present a syllabus of history covering various facts we know about racism. Just the facts, the basic lessons.

    I see quite often school teachers I’m friends with defend CRT with the most basic historical fact, saying teaching that is “CRT”. I took “Race and the Law” from a CRT proponent in law school. The difference between teaching history to middle school kids from teaching that free speech is a weapon of oppression because of inherent racism of all whites is so obvious that when I see CRT defined innocently I know someone is either ignorant or dishonest.

    So like I said, assemble a history syllabus. A huge one, spanning western civilization. Vote that sucker as acceptable curriculum and allow public schools to break it down into appropriate years. Ban racism as a method of teaching. I’d go so far as to ban the collection of information about race by any institution of education, or the reference to a student by race under any circumstance. Give some folks an inch, and they will take a mile. Race is off limits when teachers look at students and decide how to teach them (in my book).

    Dustin (93f2dc) — 7/17/2021 @ 10:44 am

    
    

75. Paying people not to work has real costs. 1.8 million unemployed just sitting around instead of working due to taxpayers paying them to do so. Thanks daddy government.

    NJRob (eb56c3) — 7/16/2021 @ 11:00 pm

    They are setting it up so we’re entitled to our $300 a month in kid pay, and lavish unemployment, so any politician who curbs it is kicked out of office. The lack of personal dignity this creates will lead to addiction, crime and enormous waste of productive life. I got my letter from Biden bragging he’s giving us this monthly cash. It wasn’t any different from Trump’s letter about the check with his name on it. We need a constitutional amendment banning this form of raiding of the treasury, or it’s going to get worse and worse, and a gallon of milk will cost $20.

    Dustin (93f2dc) — 7/17/2021 @ 10:47 am

    
    

76. @65. Well, considering that not only is the ISS moving at an orbital velocity relative to the Earth and the Earth itself was moving at an orbital velocity relative to the Sun and the solar system within the Milky Way is ‘orbiting’ relative to the center the galaxy and the galaxy itself is moving through space relative to other galaxies in space– and the hands move on Brick Tamland’s watch, why is it that Ron Burgundy never suffers motion sickness? Let’s ask Baxter.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/17/2021 @ 10:49 am

    
    

77. They are setting it up so we’re entitled to our $300 a month in kid pay, and lavish unemployment, so any politician who curbs it is kicked out of office. The lack of personal dignity this creates will lead to addiction, crime and enormous waste of productive life. I got my letter from Biden bragging he’s giving us this monthly cash. It wasn’t any different from Trump’s letter about the check with his name on it. We need a constitutional amendment banning this form of raiding of the treasury, or it’s going to get worse and worse, and a gallon of milk will cost $20.

    Dustin (93f2dc) — 7/17/2021 @ 10:47 am

    Voting, the public, the treasury, the end of the Republic. Now where have I heard that before.

    And I did link how drug OD’s are massively up thanks to the way the government has handled this debacle.

    NJRob (eb56c3) — 7/17/2021 @ 11:16 am

    
    

78. @53 this is the way the game gets played with books like ruby bridges

    if you think it’s maybe age appropriate for 5th and 6th graders, who might be on the cusp of understanding concepts like race and segregation and thinking for themselves, then the push suddenly shifts to teach it to k-2 grades, for which the tennessee educators had to go out and get waivers for

    and, if you push back at that point, then you’re just “whitewashing” history

    we don’t teach certain subjects to k-2, and k-6 for that matter

    we don’t teach the holocaust, or 9/11, or kent state, or tulsa or hiroshima

    it’s a concept called age appropriateness, which some can’t process even as college educated adults

    best to dumb it down as “whitewashing” so people don’t have to think too hard about it

    JF (e1156d) — 7/17/2021 @ 11:22 am

    
    

79. https://thepostmillennial.com/1619-project-founder-believes-cuba-has-least-inequality-end-codified-racism

    In a podcast with Ezra Klein, of Vox and The New York Times, Hannah-Jones was asked: “Are there candidates right now—or even just places—that you think have a viable and sufficiently ambitious integration agenda, and if so, what is it?”
    Hannah-Jones laughed, and Klein noted “that laugh says a lot right there.”
    “I mean why don’t we just—I’m definitely not an expert on race relations internationally,” Hannah-Jones told Klein in the 2019 podcast found by The National Pulse’s Natalie Winters. “And it’s also hard to look at countries that didn’t have large institutions of slavery and compare them to the United States.”
    “The answer is probably going to be surprising that I’m going to give,” said Hannah-Jones, “which is if you want to see the most equal multi-racial demo—it’s not a democracy,” she said, correcting herself and laughing.
    “The most equal multi-racial country in our hemisphere, it would be Cuba. Cuba has the least inequality between black and white people anyplace really in the hemisphere. I mean, the Caribbean, most of the Caribbean it’s hard to count because the white population in a lot of those countries is very, very small. A lot of those countries are run by black folks. But in places that are truly at least biracial countries, Cuba actually has the least inequality. And that’s largely due to socialism—which I’m sure no one wants to hear,” Hannah-Jones continued.
    “Yes,” Klein agreed.
    Hannah-Jones praised Cuban communism for its equity practices in 2008 in an op-ed in The Oregonian. In the article, called “The Cuba we don’t know,” she praises the “scrappy” island’s dictatorship, educational infrastructure, low HIV rates, and spirit, saying that the US should not have such tight sanctions on the country.
    “Black Cubans especially,” she wrote, “are wary of outsiders wishing to overthrow the Castro regime. They admit the revolution has been imperfect, but it also led to the end of codified racism and brought universal education and access to jobs to black Cubans. Without the revolution, they wonder, where would they be?”

    Once again, the goal isn’t to teach history, but to replace history with some corrupt version to install their vision upon the nation. They know people won’t willingly accept socialism because it brings, misery, poverty and suffering. But if they say the nation you live in isn’t worth defending, then it’s easier to take it over. Demoralization is the tool to do such things.

    NJRob (eb56c3) — 7/17/2021 @ 11:29 am

    
    

80. Bright Line Watch Poll: Still miles apart: Americans and the state of U.S. democracy half a year into the Biden presidency

    Our key findings are:
    ……..
    Distressingly high proportions of respondents say they would be willing to secede from the United States to join a new union of states in their region. Support is higher among Republicans in Republican-dominated regions and among Democrats in Democrat-dominated regions, but the idea’s popularity has risen in some partisan groups and regions of the country since Biden’s inauguration.
    …….
    Summary of poll results:

    Bright Line Watch constructed five prospective new unions and inserted the relevant states for respondents into the question “Would you support or oppose [your state] seceding from the United States to join a new union with [list of states in new union]?”.

    Pacific: California, Washington, Oregon, Hawaii, and Alaska
    Total Support: 39%
    Democrats: 47
    Independents: 33
    Republicans: 27

    Mountain: Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico
    Total Support: 32%
    Democrats: 17
    Independents: 35
    Republicans: 43

    South: Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee
    Total Support: 44%
    Democrats: 20
    Independents:50
    Republicans: 60

    Heartland: Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, and Nebraska
    Total Support: 30%
    Democrats: 19
    Independents: 43
    Republicans: 34

    Northeast: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and the District of Columbia
    Total Support: 34%
    Democrats: 39
    Independents: 35
    Republicans: 26

    Rip Murdock (80e6b4) — 7/17/2021 @ 11:44 am

    
    

81. it’s a jan6 party going on every day at the border, and the biden administration wants you to know they really really aren’t cheering it on

    largest democrat voter registration drive in history

    From January to May, 711,784 migrants were encountered by Customs and Border Protection at the southern border – five times the amount during the same period in 2020 – and the Biden administration is on track to encounter 1 million by the end of July.

    CBP’s latest data, released in June, show that there were 180,034 encounters with illegal crossers in May, the highest of any month in the last 20 years. The spike in migration under President Joe Biden’s administration continues to grow with no signs of it coming to a stop any time soon.

    These statistics just account for the apprehensions, and doesn’t include the migrants who cross undetected.

    According to reports that is up to 1,500 people every day.

    It is still not immediately clear where exactly these asylum seekers and illegal crossers are being sent after they are transferred out of federal immigration agencies’ custody.

    The June numbers mean that almost 1.2 million migrants could have already entered the US since the beginning of the year and more than 2.3 million people could cross into the US by the end of 2021, if the pace of apprehensions and those who avoid detection remain the same.

    JF (e1156d) — 7/17/2021 @ 11:57 am

    
    

82. @79 ultimately, everyone votes with their feet

    whether it’s the cuban on a makeshift raft dodging sharks or hannah-jones and klein spewing nonsense over stuffed shells and pinot noir at spago

    JF (e1156d) — 7/17/2021 @ 12:02 pm

    
    

83. JF: “it’s a concept called age appropriateness”

    I agree wholeheartedly. But this is generally handled every day by teachers, principals, and school boards. I’m guessing most middle and upper-middle class predominantly white schools have no CRT crisis or issue. Some people aren’t sensible….but I see no evidence that this is widespread.

    AJ_Liberty (a4ff25) — 7/17/2021 @ 12:33 pm

    
    

84. NJRobb – So, could you give me one single example of what should be taught in our public schools?

    Would you agree with me that students in Washington state should learn about George Washington Bush?

    Do you think students in Alabama should learn about the Republic of Winston?

    Should students in New Jersey learn that a new constitution in 1776 allowed women (and probably a few free blacks) the right to vote? (As long as they met the property qualification.)

    (It is interesting, and terribly sad, that people here, and probably in much of the nation, are willing to argue endlessly over what should not be taught, but are unwilling to give even a single example of what should be taught. No doubt that preference for fighting over thinking makes Putin, and his fans, happy, but it should distress every patriotic American.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1) — 7/17/2021 @ 1:01 pm

    
    

85. @83 school boards dictate what happens even at upper middle class schools and board members are voted in by everyone, including the clueless who don’t have grade school kids

    if you live in a blue district, good luck getting local control even if all the parents are fed up

    other than private school your only choice is to move out, vote with your feet, which is exactly what we did this past year

    JF (e1156d) — 7/17/2021 @ 1:17 pm

    
    

86. “a one-year war fought 20 times over,” a blistering indictment of the failure of those who ran it to plan, adapt, and follow through…

    This is what happens when generals are politicians first. Vietnam went the same way. I see no sense of change either; at least we got that after Vietnam.

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/17/2021 @ 1:25 pm

    
    

87. Paying people not to work has real costs. 1.8 million unemployed just sitting around instead of working due to taxpayers paying them to do so. Thanks daddy government.

    This is Biden’s back-door $20 minimum wage.

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/17/2021 @ 1:30 pm

    
    

88. Perhaps military leaders should study how to better fight – and win – wars instead of CRT and Wokism.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 7/17/2021 @ 1:32 pm

    
    

89. So how do dumb-assed Cubans demand freedom? By freely disrupting the freedom of American citizens in Miami, USA’s ‘Little Havana,’ blocking traffic, disrupting daily life and diverting city resources. Why doncha ‘burn down the town’ too?!?! Yeah, that’s hurting Cuba all right; that’s telling’em: “I’ll show you- I’ll hurt me!”

    DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/17/2021 @ 1:34 pm

    
    

90. JF, what were your kids being taught that caused you to pull them out? School boards generally don’t like negative press…especially if there is even the appearance of indoctrination…and its compounded if the Board response is arrogance.

    AJ_Liberty (a4ff25) — 7/17/2021 @ 1:50 pm

    
    

91. JF – What do you think your kids should be taught about American history? I have given three examples, can you come up with even one?

    Jim Miller (edcec1) — 7/17/2021 @ 2:02 pm

    
    

92. 89-DC, that does seem a bit dumb considering they are the most vocal subgroup about “not being like the lacks-bay” and how but hurt they were during the Forge Gloyd protests with all the Che Guevara swag being worn. Life is good when you are one state’s margin of GOP dominance. I thought you could put up with the Cubans, at least compared to what raises its legs daily on your lawn, but I guessed wrong.

    urbanleftbehind (37ecb9) — 7/17/2021 @ 2:08 pm

    
    

93. @90 my point was about school boards not about any current indoctrination efforts

    we left because there was no in person instruction option and my kids were forced into distance learning, which did not go well with one of them

    we moved in the middle of the school year to a district that had in person instruction with no restrictions

    that said, we did have issues with the sex ed curriculum and a teacher walk-out, and it would be hard to miss the trend

    i’m certain the district we left is absolutely horrified by anti-crt

    a fed up neighbor decided to run for school board and I said good luck with that

    i know how our district votes

    JF (e1156d) — 7/17/2021 @ 2:26 pm

    
    

94. @91 i recall doing a revolutionary war bio report in 4th or 5th grade and choosing Crispus Attucks

    i recall reading “across 5 aprils” and the issue of slavery getting discussed

    someone mentioned in another thread the trail of tears, and i clearly recall watching one of those national geographic re-enactments about it with character interviews and such and watching it in class, maybe 7th grade

    hard to believe that got discussed when the assumption is that was all whitewashed

    we didn’t go over how certain tribes like the comanche and sioux got to be so dominant

    i’m sure it was cuz they were super nice and won people over

    maybe our kids could learn more about that

    but i think the teaching i and most others received was pretty good and hard to improve on

    JF (e1156d) — 7/17/2021 @ 2:39 pm

    
    

95. Especially after Justice Ruth Ginsburg lost her bet on her own longevity, with the rest of us forced to pay, it’s astonishing that Justice Stephen Breyer would court the same risk,” Samuel Moyn, a Yale Law School professor who signed a letter with several other academics calling on Breyer to retire, said by email. [. . .] “We’ve seen egregious consequences of a Supreme Court justice who was gambling on her own health and misjudged the extent to which she would be able to serve on the Supreme Court,” [Miranda Yaver of Oberlin] said.

    Man, I’m so old I remember when Ruth Bader Ginsburg was absolutely revered by left-wing law professors. Now she’s apparently the selfish bitch who brought them Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

    JVW (ee64e4) — 7/17/2021 @ 2:39 pm

    
    

96. JF – What do you think your kids should be taught about American history? I have given three examples, can you come up with even one?

    Jim Miller (edcec1) — 7/17/2021 @ 2:02 pm

    The Texas bills provide a whole list of people and events that can be taught, contrary to what Stinson asserted. There’s even direct links to them in the article that Rip pasted.

    It’s funny that there’s this implication by the supporters of CRT and cultural Marxism that the warts of American history were never taught. They erect a strawman that it’s been all uncritical jingoism until the Great Awokening, but anyone with a functioning memory knows that’s a straight-up lie. I grew up in the 80s and attended college in the 90s, and my history classes throughout that whole period were dominated by people who had come up in the New Left during college, or were taught by these people when they went through college themselves. Their curriculums were steeped in the pretenses of the New Social History movement, from which CRT and other facets of cultural Marxism were nourished in academia during this period. In grad school towards the end of the decade, we were assigned texts on “whiteness” studies and intersectionality, which had become the new fashion of the discipline. Now such studies dominate the field to the point that they are dogma, which is plainly obvious to anyone who attends academic conferences these days.

    There’s no basis in reality for the implication that America’s problematic history has never been taught, or that anyone pushing back against the Great Awokening wants a sanitized, jingoistic version of history. At the same time, the radical left seems particularly allergic to the idea that pride in one’s country (civic nationalism) can co-exist with an acknowledgement that it’s not “perfect” and that we need a broad understanding of its history to understand where we and where we are going. As Rob asserts, it’s a direct, undisguised effort at demoralization and subversion.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 7/17/2021 @ 3:16 pm

    
    

97. Pot, meet Kettle without the sprinkles of Spaniards, Indios and Soviet Agents:

    https://sports.yahoo.com/germany-walks-off-field-after-player-allegedly-faced-racist-insult-from-opponent-on-honduras-164655133.html

    urbanleftbehind (37ecb9) — 7/17/2021 @ 3:38 pm

    
    

98. Well, this is interesting.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/14/us/politics/marijuana-legalization-schumer.html

    Gawain's Ghost (ef1cde) — 7/17/2021 @ 4:22 pm

    
    

99. @32 Time123 quoted this part of the TN bill, which states that the following is permitted:

    (2) The impartial discussion of controversial aspects of history;

    (3) The impartial instruction on the historical oppression of a particular group of people based on race, ethnicity, class, nationality, religion, or geographic region; or

    How does one “impartially” discuss “controversial aspects of history”. A controversy implies that there are different takes on a topic. So what does the teacher do to be impartial, give equal time to all parties? Discuss the Holocaust, and then present the Holocaust-deniers side, without giving an opinion as to the validity of the latter?

    I agree with Time about these bills being problematic.

    norcal (baad4b) — 7/17/2021 @ 4:34 pm

    
    

100. we left because there was no in person instruction option and my kids were forced into distance learning, which did not go well with one of them

     JF, my youngest really struggled with distance learning. He just couldn’t focus and really hated it. I’m sorry that your son had to go through that. I have friends whose districts didn’t f all for the students. Even if the district or the school is doing everything they can it can be rough. I hope the new situation is working for him.

     Time123 (b0317d) — 7/17/2021 @ 4:42 pm

     
     

101. Thanks norcal. I’ve only read the TN one so far. I’m planning to read the TX one next. I want to see what the practical impact of the changes on mandatory content is.

     Time123 (b0317d) — 7/17/2021 @ 4:44 pm

     
     

102. Cute and funny.

     lurker (59504c) — 7/17/2021 @ 4:47 pm

     
     

103. Man, I’m so old I remember when Ruth Bader Ginsburg was absolutely revered by left-wing law professors. Now she’s apparently the selfish bitch who brought them Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

     JVW (ee64e4) — 7/17/2021 @ 2:39 pm

     You know the left-wingers are mumbling “die already” to all the old coots on the bench.

     Dana (fd537d) — 7/17/2021 @ 4:52 pm

     
     

104. JF and Factory Working Orphan – Thank you for your responses.

     And I might add that there is no reason we all can’t do a little teaching on our own. This week, I dropped in on the closest Chase branch, and since there was no one waiting in line, told the two young cashiers a little about Salmon P. Chase, for whom the bank is named. I even threw in a story which I read years ago, probably in a Bruce Catton book — and think I remember correctly. Chase, hearing that a young woman was being put up for auction in Kentucky, sent an agent down with ample funds. The agent won the auction, and then told the woman she would be freed. (I assume she went back with him to Ohio.)

     (The cashiers were receptive because months ago I had told one of them the clumsy counterfeiter joke, and he wanted me to tell it again, so the other young man could hear it:

     We all have bad days. A counterfeiter was having a particularly bad day and accidentally printed some counterfeit 18 dollar bills. He was thinking he had wasted all that work, but then had an inspiration: Maybe, he thought, I can find a rube who will take one of these bills.

     So he drove up and up and up into the hills until he spotted an old farmer plowing with a mule. There’s my man, thought the counterfeiter. He went over to the farmer, and said to him: “Excuse me, sir, but I wonder if you can give me change for this 18 dollar bill.”

     The old farmer looked at him a bit, and said: “Sure. What would you like, two nines, or three sixes?”)

     I hope all of you have a good evening.

     Jim Miller (edcec1) — 7/17/2021 @ 4:53 pm

     
     

105. Hello Gawain’s Ghost,

     I’m glad to catch a glimpse of you! Hope things are going well for you, and that your mother’s estate is settled.

     I read your NYT article about marijuana legalization at the federal level. I’m all for it, but of course Schumer, instead of a simple legalization bill, had to tart it up with other things. This part was especially amusing:

     Though libertarian-leaning Republicans have generally supported ending the prohibition of marijuana, party leaders are likely to oppose the Democrats’ plan, particularly with its emphasis on restorative justice and government intervention in the cannabis industry.

     Gee, Chuck, have you considered dropping the add-ons so that you can win more support for the bill? Duh.

     Maybe he’d rather have the issue than a law.

     norcal (baad4b) — 7/17/2021 @ 4:54 pm

     
     

106. I love that joke, Jim Miller!

     norcal (baad4b) — 7/17/2021 @ 4:56 pm

     
     

107. You know the left-wingers are mumbling “die already” to all the old coots on the bench.

     Dana (fd537d) — 7/17/2021 @ 4:52 pm

     Just like Mormons revere their “General Authorities” (church leaders, including the Twelve Apostles and a Prophet), and Catholics look to The Vatican, many lefties see the Supreme Court as the path to all that is right and good.

     norcal (baad4b) — 7/17/2021 @ 5:15 pm

     
     

108. #97

     Take a look at this team photo.

     https://inter.hn/deportes/honduras-podra-llevar-22-jugadores-tokio-2021

     Huh. Honduras is officially 2% African. Unofficially 10% African.

     steveg (ebe7c1) — 7/17/2021 @ 5:22 pm

     
     

109. Not saying Hondurans are not prejudiced against Africans. They are. Tell mestizo people from High crime Tegucigalpa and Comayaguela you are traveling to San Pedro Sula and they’ll tell you all about African people and crime

     steveg (ebe7c1) — 7/17/2021 @ 5:25 pm

     
     

110. “Sure, judge, we’re officers of the court and don’t have evidence, but we do have good-faith beliefs!!”
     I doubt that feelings about a “stolen” election are enough to avoid sanctions.

     Paul Montagu (5de684) — 7/17/2021 @ 5:32 pm

     
     

111. Third strike: Anaheim venue latest to cancel Reps. Gaetz and Greene’s America First rally

     Less than 10 hours before Reps. Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene were scheduled to host an America First rally in Anaheim, the city announced that the planned venue had canceled the event.

     “We as a city shared our public safety concerns with the operator and the operator shares the concerns,” Anaheim spokesman Mike Lyster said Saturday morning.

     This is the third time Gaetz and Greene’s planned rally Saturday night has been canceled, with protesters and city leaders speaking out against allowing the controversial Congress members to host an event in Southern California.

     “We respect free speech and we are capable of holding events,” Lyster said. “But it was the lack of advance notice for an event that would attract the attention at the level this one would that has raised issues for our city.”
     ………
     Late Friday, city officials reported they were notified by operators of the convention center that the rally wouldn’t take place in Riverside. Gaetz is now tweeting about plans to file a potential lawsuit over the Riverside cancelation.

     Shortly after 10 p.m., organizers announced the event was slated to be held in Anaheim at the M3 Live Anaheim Event Center on Harbor Boulevard.

     “You can’t cancel us, you can’t stop us, we’re going to save America,” Greene said in a tweeted video.
     ……..
     By 10 a.m. Saturday, the city said the operator had pulled out.
     ………,
     Too bad.

     Rip Murdock (1c44e0) — 7/17/2021 @ 5:42 pm

     
     

112. https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_breakingnews/3-texas-house-democrats-test-positive-for-covid-19-after-fleeing-to-dc_3906290.html?utm_source=newsnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking-2021-07-17-3&mktids=e6d4dcba006c71cf3da91db5cf785745&est=gRFd%2F%2
     oh my, more vaccinated people getting the china flu.

     mg (8cbc69) — 7/17/2021 @ 5:53 pm

     
     

113. norcal – Thanks. I have sometimes thought of changing the punch line to this: “No, but come back tomorrow, and I can give you three sixes, or two nines, whichever you prefer.”

     (It’s a fun joke to tell to bank employees, but you can’t tell it when there are long lines. If there is no one behind me, I ask the teller if they want to hear a joke. If there is just one person behind me, I ask them if they mind if I tell the teller a joke.)

     Jim Miller (edcec1) — 7/17/2021 @ 6:05 pm

     
     

114. Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene are to Donald Trump what Charles “Tex” Watson and Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme were to Charles Manson.

     Cultists gonna cult.

     norcal (25df9b) — 7/17/2021 @ 6:26 pm

     
     

115. > Anyone explain this one? How can a court say she can’t use our legal system to divorce her radical Islamist husband?

     I haven’t read this case, but it is *well established* contract law in the US that if you sign a contract waiving your right to use the courts to resolve contract dispute, that clause is binding *even if it was printed in a tiny font and no effort was made to call it out in the 200 pages of contract involved*.

     If that’s true for consumer contracts, why couldn’t it also be true for marriage contracts?

     aphrael (4c4719) — 7/17/2021 @ 6:45 pm

     
     

116. > Election officials in Arizona announced Friday that they had identified just 182 cases of potential voter fraud among the 3.4 million ballots cast in the 2020 presidential election. Of the 182 cases referred to investigators, only four have led to charges against those involved, and no one has been convicted. That’s .005 percent of the votes cast.

     This is about what everyone sane expected. The Trumpists, mean while, will believe it’s a lie and insist on another audit.

     aphrael (4c4719) — 7/17/2021 @ 6:46 pm

     
     

117. > This ordinance does not restrict political speech. Neither this town or its laws may abridge or eliminate Ms. Dilascio’s freedom of speech. However, freedom of speech is not simply an absolute right. It is clear from state law and statutes that we cannot simply put up the umbrella of the First Amendment and say everything and anything is protected speech.”

     Cohen v. California, 403 US 15, would beg to differ.

     This ban should fail its first contact with the federal courts.

     aphrael (4c4719) — 7/17/2021 @ 6:48 pm

     
     

118. Good to see all the Anti Trumpists are still talking to each other. Biden is really great isn’t he? We got rid of that horrible trump and finally got a REAL conservative in Joe Biden.

     woo hoo!

     rcocean (fcc23e) — 7/17/2021 @ 6:58 pm

     
     

119. Same 12 people talking to each other. Maybe if we get more libertarians we can make the rest of the USA like California. the land of libertarianism.

     LOL!

     rcocean (fcc23e) — 7/17/2021 @ 7:00 pm

     
     

120. Most of the ones I run into up here in Waukegan/Gurnee are that ambiguous brown hue of the center of the picture. To think 25 years ago this was largely a braser (derived from Bracero) town with old school Ricans thrown in the mix. But I married into a family up here, I ll take it over the east half of the Chicago south side anyday.

     urbanleftbehind (37ecb9) — 7/17/2021 @ 7:12 pm

     
     

121. They also used to say the same thing against recent French national teams, Steve.

     urbanleftbehind (37ecb9) — 7/17/2021 @ 7:14 pm

     
     

122. In canceling the Gaetz event at a city-owned venue, the Anahiem city spokesman said:

     “As a city we respect free speech but also have a duty to call out speech that does not reflect our city and its values.”

     Now, maybe I’m just old fashioned but I though that public officials were not allowed to stop speakers that don’t “reflect our city and its values.” If only favored speakers are allowed, there is no such thing as freedom of speech. Blaming the heckler’s veto is cowardly.

     I hope the two idiots sue.

     Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/17/2021 @ 8:24 pm

     
     

123. Cultists gonna cult.

     So the F what. They still have the same rights you do.

     Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/17/2021 @ 8:25 pm

     
     

124. @122

     The venue is private.

     lurker (59504c) — 7/17/2021 @ 8:31 pm

     
     

125. Cultists gonna cult.

     So the F what. They still have the same rights you do.

     Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/17/2021 @ 8:25 pm

     Where did I say they didn’t have the same rights? It’s disappointing to see a strawman coming from one of my favorite commenters.

     I’m calling these two idiots out for their cult-like subservience to a megalomaniac. I can’t believe you would defend their kissing of Trump’s ass.

     norcal (25df9b) — 7/17/2021 @ 9:32 pm

     
     

126. Jim Miller (edcec1) — 7/17/2021 @ 1:01 pm

     How about the US Constitution, the Federalist Papers, Shelby Foote’s Civil War compendium, MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Those are for starters.

     We’re only talking US history, right?

     NJRob (eb56c3) — 7/17/2021 @ 9:54 pm

     
     

127. Where did I say they didn’t have the same rights? It’s disappointing to see a strawman coming from one of my favorite commenters.

     I’m calling these two idiots out for their cult-like subservience to a megalomaniac. I can’t believe you would defend their kissing of Trump’s ass.

     norcal (25df9b) — 7/17/2021 @ 9:32 pm

     It’s not difficult to defend speech you like and doesn’t serve the purpose of the 1st Amendment to only permit popular speech. What don’t you get?

     NJRob (eb56c3) — 7/17/2021 @ 9:56 pm

     
     

128. Rcocean,

     good to see you.

     NJRob (eb56c3) — 7/17/2021 @ 9:57 pm

     
     

129. Good to see all the Anti Trumpists are still talking to each other. Biden is really great isn’t he? We got rid of that horrible trump and finally got a REAL conservative in Joe Biden.

     woo hoo!

     rcocean (fcc23e) — 7/17/2021 @ 6:58 pm

     Biden is neither great nor a conservative, but far be it from me to rain on your riff.

     norcal (25df9b) — 7/17/2021 @ 9:58 pm

     
     

130. @92. On the contrary, ulb, gf in HS was a lovely little hot-blooded Cuban girl and her brother a great pal. But disrupting Miami isn’t a way to win friends and influence people a more than it was burning down businesses in Watts in 1965. Peopl who stop traffic only piss off the very ‘folks’ they’re trying to win over.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/17/2021 @ 9:59 pm

     
     

131. It’s not difficult to defend speech you like and doesn’t serve the purpose of the 1st Amendment to only permit popular speech. What don’t you get?

     NJRob (eb56c3) — 7/17/2021 @ 9:56 pm

     Let me put this as simply as I can. Of course they have the right to engage in speech I don’t like, just as I have the right to criticize their odious support of a megalomaniac.

     norcal (25df9b) — 7/17/2021 @ 10:03 pm

     
     

132. Maybe if we get more libertarians we can make the rest of the USA like California. the land of libertarianism.

     LOL!

     rcocean (fcc23e) — 7/17/2021 @ 7:00 pm

     California is many things, but libertarian isn’t one of them. It’s partly why I moved to Nevada.

     norcal (25df9b) — 7/17/2021 @ 10:07 pm

     
     

133. @114. Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene are to Donald Trump what Jimmy Swaggart and Phyllis Schlafly were to Ronald Reagan.

     FIFY

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/17/2021 @ 10:08 pm

     
     

134. In Anaheim and Riverside the facilities are owned by the cities but they have turned management over to private companies.

     Rip Murdock (1c44e0) — 7/17/2021 @ 10:14 pm

     
     

135. @107. Nah. Conservative ideologues no longer can sucker voters out for win by election so they try to rig the election system as their track record of failed ideas falls on deaf ears as well — so they retreat to that last bastion of defense- the courts– for an Alamo last stand, which didn’t go well… they died in the end, too. 😉

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/17/2021 @ 10:19 pm

     
     

136. @133 The resemblance between Reagan and Trump is uncanny, isn’t it? Like when Reagan took the side of foreign dictators against his domestic political opponents, and badmouthed the U.S. intelligence services at international forums, and told people born and raised in the U.S. to “go back where they came from”, and said ahead of time that if he lost to Carter or Mondale it would be because of fraud, and made fun of the how his primary opponents and/or spouses looked, and said a certain judge couldn’t render a fair verdict because of his ethnicity.

     I mean, who can’t see the likeness?

     norcal (25df9b) — 7/17/2021 @ 10:30 pm

     
     

137. I mean, who can’t see the likeness?

     Reaganoptics.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/17/2021 @ 11:05 pm

     
     

138. @137 Yeah, that’s the ticket!

     norcal (25df9b) — 7/17/2021 @ 11:13 pm

     
     

139. @138. Yeah, THAT’S the ticket:

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5wfPlgKFh8

     Or perhaps you “don’t recall” either.. just like you know who.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/17/2021 @ 11:33 pm

     
     

140. My brother in law works for a major pharma company in advertising. He would never take the serum. He knows about trial time.

     mg (8cbc69) — 7/18/2021 @ 3:21 am

     
     

141. If you operate a city facility as a private contractor for the city, there’s First Amendment.
     If you lease it from the city, there’s no First Amendment.
     A tenant’s rights to possession, use and enjoyment are exclusive even of the landlord.
     So which is it in Anaheim?

     nk (9651fb) — 7/18/2021 @ 5:34 am

     
     

142. Trump is irrelevant now. Talking about his policies is a waste of turd polish.
     Biden is the President. Talk about his policies.

     nk (9651fb) — 7/18/2021 @ 5:44 am

     
     

143. Donald Trump, Queen Elizabeth, and Vladimir Putin all die and go to hell.

     While there, they spy a red phone and ask what the phone is for.

     The devil tells them it is for calling back to Earth.

     Putin asks to call Russia and talks for 5 minutes.

     When he is finished the devil informs him that the cost is a million dollars, so Putin writes him a check.

     Next Queen Elizabeth calls England and talks for 30 minutes.

     When she is finished the devil informs her that the cost is 6 million dollars, so she writes him a check.

     Finally Donald Trump gets his turn and talks for 4 hours.

     When he is finished the devil informs him that the cost is $5.00.

     When Putin hears this he goes ballistic and asks the devil why Trump got to call the USA so cheaply.

     The devil smiles and replies, “Since Biden took over, the country has gone to hell, so it’s a local call.”

     Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 7/18/2021 @ 6:18 am

     
     

144. 141. I was just going to say that. A master lease means the company can refuse Gaetz-Greene for whatever reason they choose. If they’re under a management agreement, they’re agents for the city and they’re still under the public municipal umbrella.
     As much as I detest that dynamic duo, they had the right to use that venue which is owned by The People, just like the KKK has the right to march down a street (with proper permits) and grouse about Jews.

     Paul Montagu (4fb393) — 7/18/2021 @ 7:45 am

     
     

145. @141-

     Generally in these contracts the facility operator pays the owner (the city) an annual fee based on how much is received in annual rentals.

     Rip Murdock (1c44e0) — 7/18/2021 @ 7:49 am

     
     

146. Trump is irrelevant now. Talking about his policies is a waste of turd polish.
     Biden is the President. Talk about his policies.

     I would agree, but a) Trump is not irrelevant when Republican incumbents and candidates continue to seek his approval (for example, J. D. Vance deleting his past anti-Trump tweets and going on an apology tour); and b) making issues like “critical race theory” and other cultural issues the forefront of Republican election campaigns.

     Rip Murdock (1c44e0) — 7/18/2021 @ 7:55 am

     
     

147. Norcal, clearly Reagan stole DCSCA’s girl, ran over his puppy, and bankrupted his S&L….this blood feud is personal….objectivity is lost at the proverbial Hatfield property line. Think of the rants as a glorious toll for driving along the Patterico freeway of commentary.

     AJ_Liberty (a4ff25) — 7/18/2021 @ 8:04 am

     
     

148. After third venue cancels, Gaetz, Greene take ‘protest against communism’ to Riverside
     ……..
     In a video posted to Twitter on Saturday afternoon, (Rep. Matt) Gaetz (R-Insurrectionist) called on all California “patriots” to join him and Greene outside Riverside City Hall for a “peaceful protest against communism.” A group of loyalists joined them there.

     “These folks they tried to cancel our venues but they can never cancel our patriotism or our American spirit,” Gaetz said in a video filmed outside Riverside City Hall. “They’ll hear us all throughout Southern California.”
     ……..
     (Rep. Marjorie Taylor) Greene (R-Insurrectionist) blamed the inability to maintain a venue on Democrats, which she called “the party of hate,” in a post on Twitter early Saturday.

     “They organized to attack, threaten, & harass every venue we booked in CA to hold an America First rally, which celebrates our great country & freedoms,” she wrote. “They think their vicious hate will stop me, but I never give up.”
     >>>>>>>>>>>

     Rip Murdock (1c44e0) — 7/18/2021 @ 8:07 am

     
     

149. California recall candidate lineup revealed, but generates less excitement than 2003
     ………
     The tentative candidate lineup revealed by state election officials appeared to do little to change the dynamics of the race, where a group of mostly Republicans face an uphill battle to unseat Newsom in a solidly Democratic state, at least for now.

     “Except for the ‘Godfather’ movies, the sequel is never as good as the original,” said Dan Schnur, who teaches political communication at USC and UC Berkeley. “We’ve done this before. In 2003, this was an unprecedented political event.”

     State elections officials announced late Saturday that 41 candidates had filed valid paperwork and met other requisites to appear on the recall ballot to replace Newsom, kicking off the final phase of campaigning before the Sept. 14 election. Secretary of State Shirley Weber will release a certified list of names that will appear on the ballot on Wednesday.
     ………
     Recall backers argue that the race is closer than it appears in public polling, and point with pride to the GOP field of 21 candidates, which includes 2018 gubernatorial nominee John Cox, former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, former Rep. Doug Ose, Assemblyman Kevin Kiley and Jenner. Conservative radio host Larry Elder, who said he filed papers to run, did not appear on the state list. His campaign objected.
     ………
     Based on numbers alone, Newsom has little to fear at the moment. In addition to polls showing voters oppose the recall, Democrats have a 22-point advantage over Republicans in voter registration, and the anti-recall campaign has raised over $28 million, more than all of the GOP candidates combined.
     ………
     Republicans are debating whether to allow the state GOP to endorse a candidate, a proposal that is causing friction between party leaders, who say the party needs to weigh in on the race, and grass-roots activists, who believe the process is being rigged to favor Faulconer, a favorite of the party establishment including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
     ………
     The lack of a major Democratic candidate on the ballot is a precarious strategy for Democrats — if the recall is successful, the next governor will almost certainly be a Republican.

     “The odds are overwhelmingly in Newsom’s favor in this election. But not allowing another Democrat on the ballot is an extraordinary risk,” Schnur said. “All it takes is an unexpected twist in a low-turnout election and Democrats are left with no fallback plan at all.”
     ……….

     Rip Murdock (1c44e0) — 7/18/2021 @ 8:15 am

     
     

150. rcocean: “Good to see all the Anti Trumpists are still talking to each other. Biden is really great isn’t he? We got rid of that horrible trump and finally got a REAL conservative in Joe Biden.”

     So why come back….and contribute so little? Yeah, we’re stuck with Biden….because the GOP never took seriously the high negatives of Trump….and didn’t have the backbone to cultivate an opposition voice and offer a true alternative. The lesson should be….move on…..find a new messenger….re-brand to stop the hemorrhaging of suburban and educated voters….drop the conspiracy nonsense and the serial whining….develop some conservative policy initiatives that resonate with voters….stop excusing the inexcusable and get back to insisting on character first. Biden exudes weakness and bad ideas. He’s set up as a one termer…..if the GOP has the courage to not make this about Trump. It’s not looking promising at this early point…..

     AJ_Liberty (a4ff25) — 7/18/2021 @ 8:20 am

     
     

151. rcocean: “Good to see all the Anti Trumpists are still talking to each other. Biden is really great isn’t he? We got rid of that horrible trump…….

     Sadly, Trump is still around wreaking havoc in the Republican Party, engaging his vendettas against those who voted against him and causing otherwise qualified candidates to either bend to his will (J. D. Vance) or forgo entering the campaign at all.

     Rip Murdock (1c44e0) — 7/18/2021 @ 8:29 am

     
     

152. Sadly, Trump is still occupying vacant craniums. Rent-free, of course.

     Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 7/18/2021 @ 8:54 am

     
     

153. He’s set up as a one termer…..if the GOP has the courage to not make this about Trump. It’s not looking promising at this early point…..

     Exactly this.

     Radegunda (33a224) — 7/18/2021 @ 9:00 am

     
     

154. Read the Texas bill. Bans nothing outright. Eliminates a ton of US history from the required section, all of which pertained to women or brown ppl. Net effect seems to be a significant whitewash of US history.

     Another anti-crt bill that has nothing to do with indoctrination or emotional abuse of children.

     When I look at what they’re doing it bears little resemblance to what they say they want to do.

     Time123 (9f42ee) — 7/18/2021 @ 9:06 am

     
     

155. Sadly, Trump is still occupying vacant craniums. Rent-free, of course.

     Unfortunately, too many Republicans are still insisting that the GOP is “Trump’s party” and too many others are still competing to demonstrate how Trump-loyal they are. Most of them are defending his effort to overturn an election, and many are trying to make it easier next time.

     Some people would like Harris’s opponent in 2024 to be someone who’s not a sociopath without a conscience or empathy or any capacity to distinguish truth from self-interest, and someone who’s not such a maniac that the people around him are frequently trying to find ways to circumvent his nuttier instructions. J. Kushner’s strategy was to slow-walk his father-in-law’s insane orders until he forget about them.

     But the great bulk of the GOP right now want the narcissistic maniac back in the White House, and far too many are still tarring his critics as traitors or RINOs or Deep State hacks.

     When GOP pols and conservative pundits and “intellectuals” stop promoting a Trump-centric vision of patriotic virtue and stop painting him as the gold standard of heroic leadership, then the rest of us can happily forget about him and simply discuss policy instead of the dangers of a weird personality cult at the highest level of power.

     Radegunda (33a224) — 7/18/2021 @ 9:26 am

     
     

156. Radegunnda,
     The GOP is Trump party. You may not like that (I don’t) but it’s silly to pretend otherwise.

     Time123 (9f42ee) — 7/18/2021 @ 9:28 am

     
     

157. The argument that people shouldn’t pay attention to the leader of the Republican Party is good. It’s not accurate, but it at least hints that the person making the argument recognizes that Trump is a pile of garbage.

     Time123 (9f42ee) — 7/18/2021 @ 9:29 am

     
     

158. Sadly, Trump is still occupying vacant craniums. Rent-free, of course.

     Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 7/18/2021 @ 8:54 am

     True. His defenders’.

     DRJ (03cb91) — 7/18/2021 @ 9:40 am

     
     

159. @158 you misspelled “lickspittle”

     Time123 (9f42ee) — 7/18/2021 @ 9:55 am

     
     

160. @147. Tolls on a “freeway,” AJ????

     Reaganomics.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/18/2021 @ 9:55 am

     
     

161. @155. Conservative whine; bitter dregs. Neutering the modern ideological conservative movement merits the Medal of Freedom. Only for the publicity and televised ceremony, of course. Can’t devalue it any lower than by pining one on Rushbo.

     Glorious.
     _______

     BTW, seems news is surfacing that Squinty McStumblebum’s vaccine has a few holes in it an ‘folks’ are still getting sick after getting pricked by your goo. ‘Say it ain’t so, Joe’: is Facebook killing people— or you?

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/18/2021 @ 10:05 am

     
     

162. The GOP is Trump party. You may not like that (I don’t) but it’s silly to pretend otherwise.

     I’m certainly not pretending otherwise — quite the contrary. I was responding to the charge that the people who notice it and don’t like it have “vacant craniums.” (“Rent-free, of course” is an ironic touch: Of course Trump wouldn’t pay rent if he could get away with it.)

     I’m annoyed and frustrated that the GOP and the conservative movement are fixated on pleasing Trump and trying to reinstall him in power — and trashing the people who were clear-eyed about him — instead of being a serious and credible opposition to the Dems.

     Radegunda (33a224) — 7/18/2021 @ 10:32 am

     
     

163. As long as the GOP is Trump’s party, there can be no credible opposition to the Dems. And that is what Trumpers miss. Outside of their little bubble, no one takes Trump (or his loyal base) seriously. Why should we? A former president who fights tooth and nail to push the Big Lie deserves nothing but contempt.

     Unfortunately, it’s true: a sucker is born every minute and as long as he can keep running his grift, too many Americans continue to be willing to play the sucker.

     Dana (fd537d) — 7/18/2021 @ 10:40 am

     
     

164. ReTrumplican Party.

     Dana (fd537d) — 7/18/2021 @ 10:41 am

     
     

165. Crap. A good friend of ours who ran this winery died this morning. Great guy, generous spirit, brought people together, brother in Christ, I could go on.

     Paul Montagu (5de684) — 7/18/2021 @ 10:42 am

     
     

166. Dana, He did raise like a quarter of a billion dollars of that lie and it’s a legal. Gotta admire the marketing

     Time123 (9f42ee) — 7/18/2021 @ 10:46 am

     
     

167. I’m sorry to hear that, Paul Montagu. Comfort to his family.

     Dana (fd537d) — 7/18/2021 @ 10:51 am

     
     

168. Thanks, Dana. He had a series of medical setbacks, but we thought he’d pull through, so we were surprised to hear the news.

     Paul Montagu (5de684) — 7/18/2021 @ 10:56 am

     
     

169. 163. As long as the GOP is Trump’s party, there can be no credible opposition to the Dems.

     OTOH, give credit where credit is due: he and ‘his party’ opposed and defeated the most formidable machine ‘opposition’ in multiple cycles: Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has waddled across the public landscape since her first summer essay ran in LIFE magazine back in the summer of 1969. Weeping feminists and butch broads on camera at the Javits Center w/a faux ‘glass ceiling’ full of undroppable balloons the night of her smackdown by The Donald as he then paraded his lovely brood of model wife and hot daughter babes on a victory stage was and remains a magnificent piece of television imagery. Glorious.

     Now you’ve got ‘The Joe Show’: Shuffling Squinty, doddering Jill, Kamala the Maid– and Hunter for comic relief.

     “Shrinkage!” – George Costanza [Jason Alexander]- ‘Seinfeld’ NBC TV

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/18/2021 @ 11:00 am

     
     

170. @165. Sorry to read that Paul. Hope it was not the Covid.

     Condolences. It is never easy dealing w/death.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/18/2021 @ 11:02 am

     
     

171. I would also add to my comment at 63: There are only a few realistic options for non-Trump Republicans going forward. Given that he still has a stranglehold on the party, reasonable Republicans, like Kinzinger, Romney, Meijer, etc., can stay in the party and keep fighting for and until sanity returns or leave the party. Starting a third party is a possibility but it seems like that would be a really difficult rock to push uphill. I think for sanity to return to the GOP, those Republicans who have kept their heads down and not publicly come out against the co-opting of the party, need to make their public stand sooner rather than later. The midterms make that tricky, of course… But with more voices pushing back, that will inspire even more to stand up for GOP principles and not Trump junk. The more voices, the more push back, and the greater chance that the MAGA wing of the party will scuttle back to their corners. They are certainly the counterpart to the hard left-wing in the Democratic party.

     I use to believe that, eventually, everyone comes to a fork in the road where their conscience no longer allows them to remain in a party where a crazed egomaniac remains in control. I no longer think that way.

     Dana (fd537d) — 7/18/2021 @ 11:03 am

     
     

172. There are only a few realistic options for non-Trump Republicans going forward.

     Revisit 1964 and assess the options facing Rockefeller Republicans as they fielded decisions when the Goldwater inmates infected the party and took control of the asylum.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/18/2021 @ 11:07 am

     
     

173. Thanks, DCSCA.
     Not Covid. He had back surgery a few months back, then a month or two later was diagnosed with lymphoma, then had a heart attack a couple days ago, which was what claimed him. It was one bad break after another. Hold your friends and family close.

     Paul Montagu (5de684) — 7/18/2021 @ 11:09 am

     
     

174. @100 thank you, Time123!

     things are better for my kids, and i sincerely hope for yours too

     it’s a shame that local control reality doesn’t always conform to theory

     “it’s up to the school boards” is not a workable solution in many cases

     JF (e1156d) — 7/18/2021 @ 11:12 am

     
     

175. @163 the “little bubble” got the guy elected

     what is nevertrump then, who can only count electing democrats as their single trophy?

     but don’t let the mask slip too far

     it’s never been about trump, it’s about his supporters

     JF (e1156d) — 7/18/2021 @ 11:19 am

     
     

176. JF, my son is doing great. We got him some extra help for the summer. I really can’t fault my local system. From what I saw they did everything they could given the situation.

     Time123 (9f42ee) — 7/18/2021 @ 11:20 am

     
     

177. @171 lol we’re suckers and lacking a conscience

     this is rich

     JF (e1156d) — 7/18/2021 @ 11:23 am

     
     

178. Paul, I’m very sorry for your loss.

     Time123 (9f42ee) — 7/18/2021 @ 11:24 am

     
     

179. Democratic schism on display in Ohio special
     ………
     A once-sleepy primary between a stalwart Bernie Sanders ally, former state Sen. Nina Turner, and Cuyahoga County Councilwoman Shontel Brown has suddenly turned into an all-out civil war between the party establishment and the progressive Left. Numerous national party figures, from Hillary Clinton to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to the mother of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge (whose resignation opened up the seat), have made endorsements in the run-up to the Aug. 3 primary that will all but determine the next member of Congress in the Northeast Ohio district.

     Turner, a high-profile Sanders surrogate during his two presidential campaigns, started out as the clear front-runner, raising huge sums of money after announcing her candidacy. Her campaign released polling in the spring showing her with a commanding lead over lesser-known candidates in the crowded field. But her past antagonism towards party leaders, including President Biden, and her outspoken criticism of Israel, have eroded her once-imposing advantage over Brown.

     Brown’s campaign released a poll last week showing the councilwoman trailing Turner by 43 to 36 percent—a much closer race than it was in April, when a poll showed the former state senator leading by 30 points. A subsequent poll commissioned by the conservative Washington Free Beacon, surveying 300 likely Democratic primary voters on July 8-10, found the race tied, with both Turner and Brown tallying 33 percent of the vote. The poll found that Biden is a more popular figure in the district than Sanders.
     ……….
     Most significantly for the race, the district has a sizable Jewish community around Cleveland, which is mobilized for the low-turnout primary because of Turner’s history of antagonism towards Israel. Democratic Majority for Israel, an organization that backs Democratic pro-Israel candidates, has invested heavily in the race for Shontel Brown, blanketing the local airwaves with ads attacking Turner for her past criticism of both Biden and Hillary Clinton. (One DMFI ad quotes Turner’s comment in The Atlantic in 2020, when she said that choosing between Biden and President Trump was like having “a bowl of s**t in front of you, and all you’ve got to do is eat half of it instead of the whole thing. It’s still s**t.”)
     ……….
     “It’s very clear that you have one candidate that’s pro-Israel, that’s been to Israel, that’s backed the president’s agenda on Israel at a time when the Democratic Party is being rumbled on that issue,” said Rabbi Pinchas Landis, a Shontel Brown supporter. “You have the other candidate with allies like Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, who have made disgusting comments on Israel—especially at a time of rising anti-Semitism.”
     ………
     The Democratic Party has its own lunatic fringe.

     Rip Murdock (1c44e0) — 7/18/2021 @ 11:24 am

     
     

180. JF, if you gave money to Trump to stop the steal, or Bannon to build the wall, or whatever you are absolutely a sucker.

     Time123 (9f42ee) — 7/18/2021 @ 11:24 am

     
     

181. Paul Montagu – You have my sympathy for the loss of your friend.

     Jim Miller (edcec1) — 7/18/2021 @ 11:31 am

     
     

182. “Tolls on a “freeway,””

     Emotional, maybe psychological toll….always free…..except for the substack

     AJ_Liberty (ec7f74) — 7/18/2021 @ 11:31 am

     
     

183. @180 that narrows it down quite a bit from what @163 and @171 asserts

     and, no i didn’t

     JF (e1156d) — 7/18/2021 @ 11:32 am

     
     

184. The more voices, the more push back, and the greater chance that the MAGA wing of the party will scuttle back to their corners.

     Like insects… amirite, Dana?

     Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 7/18/2021 @ 11:46 am

     
     

185. Pretty much every “conservative” comment here from Trumpservitors is how Trump was better. Whitewashing orange needs a lot of coats.

     nk (9651fb) — 7/18/2021 @ 11:59 am

     
     

186. ATHENS, July 17 – Greece banned music in restaurants and bars, back-shaving, butt sex and imposed a nighttime curfew on its popular holiday island of Mykonos on Saturday after a rise in STD infections there.

     Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 7/18/2021 @ 12:13 pm

     
     

187. “lol we’re suckers and lacking a conscience”

     Trump came to the table with no political experience, not much understanding of policy, no great history of fighting conservative battles (unless you credit his foray into Birtherism), and with a spotty reputation for business and personal ethics …..what he did come with is a keen understanding of marketing….of course less about marketing conservatism and Republican principles….and more about just marketing himself and his brand. He became the brawler…the guy who will say the things on everyone’s mind (about Mexicans and Muslims)…..he might not win a battle of facts, but he would win every insult fight and let others worry about facts. He was ratings gold for right-wing media who (along with the Evangelical heavy hitters) slavishly fluffed him into respectability, not realizing in for dime, in for a dollar. And he lucked out in facing possibly the worst candidate in Hillary Clinton.

     So suckered is probably too harsh….he started with a pretty decent cabinet…and with a promise to be a down-right boring President. Of course the former gradually morphed…and the latter was just an empty vessel from the get go. He gave us tax cuts, conservative justices, tough immigration enforcement, and tough words about China, trade, global warming treaties, Iran agreements, and even our allies and their commitments. For some that and not being Hillary was more than enough. Mission accomplished…the rest is just squeamishness with the sausage making. Borrowing from DCSCA, except it’s not. The President being serially unethical, incompetent, undisciplined…and in some ways unhinged….is frightening…especially with Generals Mattis, McMaster, and Kelley no longer their to check him….and for law-and-order, Constitutionalist “conservatives” to simply not care is beyond disturbing….because it’s a recipe for tyranny and instability….it has all the potential to make Jan 6th look like a dress rehearsal.

     So do I think you lack conscience? No, but I certainly think the right-wing gatekeepers who chose opportunism over principle do…..and they provided the cover many needed. Fox News and Rush wouldn’t lie to us, would they? They spun dutifully so that many good Republicans just threw up their hands and said, maybe the emperor is wearing clothes….of sort. We are conditioned to hate MSNBC and liberals like Pelosi….and have to choose a side…in what we are told is an existential struggle. I think it’s much easier….just pick good people where the record is clear…..that ain’t Trump….[Sorry for the length Noel!]

     AJ_Liberty (ec7f74) — 7/18/2021 @ 12:34 pm

     
     

188. @147/@182 …clearly Reagan stole DCSCA’s girl…

     Dutch cheated on Nancy, AJ?!?! Lordy- those ‘do-as-I-say-not-s-I-do’ GOP ‘family values!’ No wonder she scooby-doobee-dooed w/Frank! Which is likely better than getting screwed over and over by Gingrich. 😉

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/18/2021 @ 12:58 pm

     
     

189. ‘Trump came to the table with no political experience’

     So the country went back to being run by a 50-year career swamp creature- the very reason Trump was elected in the first place.

     Trump had political experience bobbing and weaving through NYC and NJ politics cutting deals through the ’80s–or did you miss those times when he was spawned in the Reagan cesspool. Trump is a Reagan Creation. He won because ideological conservatives repeatedly suckered and failed the very voter base they’d court and abandon. It has been building for years–seduced and abandoned one time too many. If not Trump it will be someone else to carry the flag. It’s why socialism is so popular w/t kids, too– ideological conservatism failed them an their parents- denying climate change, cliging to gun and Bibles, fighting idiotic neocon wars on Uncle Sam’s credit card, etc., etc., The smart Republican w/a fresh POV has a chance and will be the one who acknowledges the Reagan wreckage; the failure of trickle down, the snookering and sucker baiting. It ain’t the Cruz and Romney types. And especially not Wyoming’s Darth Daughter in drag.

     “She’s a man, baby!” – Austin Powers [Mike Myers] ‘Austin Powers’ 1997

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/18/2021 @ 1:16 pm

     
     

190. AJ – I think you also have to debit characters like Les Moonves, who said he disagreed with Trump on most issues, but gave him TV time because Trump drew viewers. To me, that’s something like a food company selling poison because there is a strong demand for it.

     Moonves was not the only “mainstream” TV person who made that kind of decision in 2016, but he was more honest about his motives than many others.

     Jim Miller (edcec1) — 7/18/2021 @ 1:27 pm

     
     

191. ‘Yeah, we’re stuck with Biden….because the GOP never took seriously the high negatives of Trump….and didn’t have the backbone to cultivate an opposition voice and offer a true alternative.’

     Cultivate opposition? The GOP had 25 years of self-created hip-deep fertilizer to plant fresh ideas but the crop of candidates they harvested and took to market grew in Reagan poop and were the very reason Trump triumphed and them in the primaries then won the general in the first place. Trump is your doing; Trump is the GOP today.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/18/2021 @ 1:32 pm

     
     

192. AJ, we’ll said. I’d add that for conservatives who highly prioritized fighting back against the lack of respect they felt they, and those like them, were owed probably got a lot of what they were looking for.

     Time123 (9f42ee) — 7/18/2021 @ 1:34 pm

     
     

193. @190. Rating$ count, Jimbo.

     We called it “capitalism” at CBS.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/18/2021 @ 1:35 pm

     
     

194. Borrowing from DCSCA, except it’s not.

     Thanks for not plagiarizing; it’s very “in” these days. 😉

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/18/2021 @ 1:38 pm

     
     

195. The way forward for the Republican Party seems straightforward to me: Candidates should find ways to improve the lives of ordinary Americans, and strengthen this nation. We voters should praise successes like Phil Scott, and support those who are now trying to do the right thing, for example, Asa Hutchinson.

     For example, candidates should be looking hard for ways to reduce overdose deaths, that other plague. If either of our two narcissists, Obama and the swamp-dwelling bullfrog, did anything effective about it, I missed it. (American life expectancy was already falling by the last year or two of Obama’s time in office.)

     There is, by the way, a foreign policy aspect to the drug overdose problem, since so much fentanyl originates in China.

     It will require some discipline on our part to ignore the swamp-dwelling bullfrog as much as possible, but that its what we should do — if we love our country.

     Jim Miller (edcec1) — 7/18/2021 @ 1:50 pm

     
     

196. DCSCA – I appreciate your frankness in admitting that providing poison to Americans is fine with you. “Emperor” Xi and “Czar” Putin would applaud if they knew of your efforts.

     Jim Miller (edcec1) — 7/18/2021 @ 1:55 pm

     
     

197. The singular reason the country has to endure this plagiarizing, racist-swamp-creature-of-a-stumblebum, who was repeated rejected for the shot at the top spot by his own party and drummed out of a presidential race for literally stealing other “folks” words is because GOP NeverTrumpers, the out-of-power- Lincoln Project types hated Trump’s persona and the changes of the voter base in their own party that they abandoned their party and voted for someone they’d never support. You bought him; you own him.

     ______

     he started with a pretty decent cabinet…

     Second and third stringers; hell, Casey Stengel had a better roster on the ’62 Mets.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/18/2021 @ 1:55 pm

     
     

198. @196. Free will: let the buyer beware, Jimbo.

     AKA: Reaganomics.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/18/2021 @ 1:56 pm

     
     

199. 196.DCSCA – I appreciate your frankness in admitting that providing poison to Americans is fine with you.

     Jimbo, don’t think you should ever see three long running CBS television shows: ‘Green Acres,’ ‘Hogan’s Heroes,’ or ‘Gilligan’s Island’ They provided “poison” to American culture and the citizenry. Just awful! Brain dead stuff! And made the CBS Television Network a helluva lot of $ in their lengthy runs. Someday you’ll ‘appreciate’ that in the modern era, Americans don’t want to be governed; they wish to be entertained.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/18/2021 @ 2:09 pm

     
     

200. “they abandoned their party”

     Yeah I remember Jim Jones making similar comments about malcontents

     I wrote-in a Republican who I could respect and trust….and slept wonderfully. Owning either Trump or Biden was a bridge too far. Following impeachment and all of the assorted gaffes and weird behavior, the GOP could have dumped Trump…heck with some balls they could have removed him. The party left me and then proceeded to lose to a guy that stayed in his basement for much of the campaign. The GOP and Trump gave us Biden….they made it clear that they didn’t want/need my vote. Sa la vie…..

     AJ_Liberty (ec7f74) — 7/18/2021 @ 2:18 pm

     
     

201. 3. Senatr Rick Scott of Florida:

     “The radical Left has gone insane,

     Not true.

     They did not “go insane” – they were insane from the very beginning.

     The statement by BLM about “Cubans’ having the right to choose their own government is standard left wing rhetoric said about the Soviet Union and other dictatorships going back to at least to the 1950s and probably much earlier.

     In their imaginary universe, when a Communist dictatorship exists, the people have chosen it.

     People always want to make things sound fresh.

     Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 7/18/2021 @ 2:21 pm

     
     

202. 7. Except in Louisiana, you can’t sign a prenuptial agreement creating difficulty in getting divorced, ad hat’s by state law.

     17. nk (9651fb) — 7/17/2021 @ 5:50 am

     What I’m pretty sure they are fighting about is the marital property. They can agree to have a Muslim court as the arbitrator as well as an arbitration association. But all arbitrators’ decisions are in the end enforced as judgments by the courts.

     It might be they would rule that if she goes ahead without them, she gets nothing. Also the father gets custody of all children over the age of 6.

     Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 7/18/2021 @ 2:30 pm

     
     

203. This made me laugh.

     https://spectatorworld.com/life/guide-conservative-commentators/

     Caricatures are obviously limited but if I fit into one of these it would be the Wonk, although obviously not as well as Sammy. 😀

     Time123 (9f42ee) — 7/18/2021 @ 2:54 pm

     
     

204. Sammy, in case it wasn’t clear that was meant with fondness and respect.

     Time123 (9f42ee) — 7/18/2021 @ 2:55 pm

     
     

205. Sammy #201 – I found Paul Hollander’s book instructive when I read it years ago.

     (I see from Barnes and Noble that he has written a more recent book (2017), From Benito Mussolini to Hugo Chavez: Intellectuals and a Century of Political Hero Worship, on the same general subject.)

     Jim Miller (edcec1) — 7/18/2021 @ 2:58 pm

     
     

206. Jim Miller (edcec1) — 7/17/2021 @ 4:53 pm

     The agent won the auction, and then told the woman she would be freed. (I assume she went back with him to Ohio.)

     I think Ohio had laws at the time against “Free Negroes” moving to the state.

     They were largely not considered citizens (Dred Scott did not strike novel ground in that respect) and at the time immigration laws were the province of state governments, not the federal government.

     I’d check into it. He likely paid for her to settle somewhere else. Or, she might have been someone’s wife,

     I can;t find out about it, but I did find out about the Matilda case.

     https://case.edu/law/sites/case.edu.law/files/2019-09/Barnett%20From%20Antislavery%20Lawyer%20to%20Chief%20Justice_%20The%20Remarkable%20but%20Forg.pdf

     ..Chase’s argument failed to convince the local judge who remanded Matilda to the slave catchers. She was swiftly taken “down the river” to be sold at auction in New Orleans, her fate then lost to history.32

     Birney was then prosecuted and convicted on the charge of harboring a fugitive slave in violation of Ohio’s black code.33 The Supreme Court of Ohio reversed his conviction on the narrow ground that Birney lacked knowledge of Matilda’s legal status, rather than the constitutional grounds asserted by Chase in his appeal of Birney’s conviction.34

     Chase’s argument in the Matilda case was published as a pamphlet and distributed widely throughout the country where it elevated his visibility and provided the legal basis for other challenges
     to the constitutionality of the Fugitive Slave Act. In Wisconsin, for example, it constituted the main line of Byron Paine’s successful defense of editor Sherman Booth, who had been charged under the Fugitive Slave Act of assisting in the escape of a captured slave.35 Payne’s challenge was successful, 36 that is, until the ruling was reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Abelman v. Booth in an opinion by Chief Justice Taney.37

     Chase’s legal defense of Matilda and other fugitives earned him the nickname the “attorney general for runaway negroes” from his critics in Kentucky.38 “Chase soon was using the title with pride,
     although it was not meant as a compliment, for ‘I never refused my
     help to any person black or white.’

     ——-

     From Note 31: Chase made his argument in Matilda well before Spooner shifted the interpretive methodology of constitutional abolitionism from focusing on framers’ intent to the legal or objective meaning of the text.

     See Barnett, supra note 1, at 199–205 (describing Spooner’s interpretive approach).

     When, after Spooner’s book was published, Chase made his argument in Van Zandt the next year, his
     methodology had changed..

     Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 7/18/2021 @ 3:11 pm

     
     

207. 204.

     Sammy, in case it wasn’t clear that was meant with fondness and respect

     I’m lost. What does that refer to?

     Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 7/18/2021 @ 3:15 pm

     
     

208. Radegunda @!55,

     J. Kushner’s strategy was to slow-walk his father-in-law’s insane orders until he forget about them.

     H.R. Haldeman did that with Nixon, too.

     And the Secretary of State (Henry Kissinger) and the Secretary of Defense (James R. Schlesinger) had the same kind of worries about Nixon in 1974 as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had about Trump after he lost the election. Neither of these two oresidents actually said anything to them about doing that.

     Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 7/18/2021 @ 3:22 pm

     
     

209. I wrote-in a Republican who I could respect and trust….and slept wonderfully.

     And lost the general– and your party.

     Glorious.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/18/2021 @ 3:25 pm

     
     

210. http://radio-weblogs.com/0105910/2003/05/16.html

     What the U.S. needs is an 18-cent coin

     There are mostly four kinds of coins in circulation in the U.S: 1 cent, 5 cents, 10 cents, and 25 cents. But is it the most efficient way to give back change?

     He discovered two sets of four denominations that minimize the transaction cost. The combination of 1 cent, 5 cents, 18 cents, and 25 cents requires only 3.89 coins in change per transaction, as does the combination of 1 cent, 5 cents, 18 cents, and 29 cents….

     What about adding a coin to the existing ones?

     It turns out that the greatest improvement in change-making efficiency would occur with the addition of a 32-cent coin.

     Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 7/18/2021 @ 3:27 pm

     
     

211. The GOP and Trump gave us Biden….

     No- the GOPers who abandoned their party in a fit-of-pique for discovering they no longer represented the bulk of that party base gave us President Plagiarist. You took your ball nd went home– only to discover you no longer have a home. So rent space and work w/t new landlords- or find yourselves evicted a la the Birchers.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/18/2021 @ 3:30 pm

     
     

212. Previous comment where I said you were an absolute wonk

     Time123 (9f42ee) — 7/18/2021 @ 3:30 pm

     
     

213. I’d add that for conservatives who highly prioritized fighting back against the lack of respect they felt they, and those like them, were owed probably got a lot of what they were looking for.

     ‘Kick Me’ signs make them 1950’s conservatives an easy mark– ask George McFly.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/18/2021 @ 3:35 pm

     
     

214. BTW Jimbo, the most ‘conservative’ television network around is Fox; purveyor of the highly profitable family values ‘poisons’ like… ‘Married With Children,’ ‘Family Guy,’ and ‘The Simpsons.’ And with -OMG- socialist propaganda no less:

     “Share the wealth, boy!” – Homer Simpson

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/18/2021 @ 3:43 pm

     
     

215. Hurricane names:

     https://www.wsj.com/articles/hurricane-katrina-wasnt-the-first-storm-to-use-that-name-but-it-was-the-last-11626427802

     The National Hurricane Center chooses Atlantic storm names from one of six rosters. Each has 21 names, and the lists rotate annually—so this year’s selection will recur in 2027, next year’s in 2028, and so on. There’s one exception: If a storm is especially destructive, its name will be retired. Since 1953, when the system was implemented, there have been 748 named Atlantic storms, including 419 hurricanes. Of that number, 93 have been retired.

     They skip the letters Q, U and the end of the alphabet, X, Y and Z. Till this year if there were any more (and there were in 2005 and 2020) they went to the Greek alphabet but now have a second list of names. Men’s names were added in 1979.

     There is a separate list in other parts of the world and there was another Maria in 2018 in the western Pacific. They are called typhoons there (and cyclones in India)

     Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 7/18/2021 @ 3:50 pm

     
     

216. I’ll cop to a cross between Reagan Misser and Wonker.

     Paul Montagu (5de684) — 7/18/2021 @ 3:54 pm

     
     

217. Sammy – I may have made a mistake attaching that story to Chase; it has been many years since I read it. But it was the kind of thing he might do, as you learned from your own researches.

     Jim Miller (edcec1) — 7/18/2021 @ 3:54 pm

     
     

218. There’s Bramhall cartoon in the Friday, July 16, 2021 New York Daily News that shows what looks like agigantic Post-it note on the left saying:

     HOW TO
     GET RED
     AMERICA
     VACCINATED

     That really should be a caption. Maybe he can’t syndicate captions any more?

     It shows Biden speaking at a podium and surrounded by mikes.

     And he is saying:

     VACCINES ARE BAD

     https://twitter.com/billbramhall?lang=en (dated July 15.)

     Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 7/18/2021 @ 4:02 pm

     
     

219. College Republicans Poised for Splinter after ‘Stolen’ Election
     ……..
     Courtney Britt, the candidate who incumbent College Republican National Committee Chairman Chandler Thornton hoped would succeed him, triumphed today over Judah Waxelbaum. Only about 60 percent of CRNC affiliates cast ballots, though: A consequence of the maneuvering detailed earlier this week by National Review.
     ……
     She spent much of the day, however, voting not to allow numerous states — which had been sidelined over disputed credentialing issues — representation in the chairman’s race. It is widely believed that Waxelbaum would have had a sizable majority had all 52 eligible federations cast ballots. Just over 30 were actually allowed to.
     ………
     At one point, a debate broke out over Arkansas being stripped of its votes last Sunday under allegations of voter fraud in its state chairman election; the state’s actual party chairman has weighed in on the matter, assuring the CRNC that everything was on the up and up. Nevertheless, Britt — a graduate of Richmond Law School — argued that the state should remain disenfranchised since it hadn’t presented evidence that fraud had not occurred.

     Ty Seymour, national treasurer on Thornton’s board, delivered perhaps the most memorable speech of the day: A searing indictment of national leadership that laid at their feet allegations of “flagrant constitutional violations,” “intimidation,” and bribes. Seymour also told the audience that members of the board had manufactured false charges of sexual assault to take down their political opponents.
     ……..
     “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely and I want to thank Chandler Thornton, our national chairman and Courtney Britt, the candidate for national office for affirming that belief,” he finished.
     …….
     ……..Within minutes of her election, both the New York and Texas federations announced that they would be meeting to discuss secession. Brandon Kiser, chairman of the Texas federation, was adamant in a statement he provided to National Review:

     “I don’t want to get into the details of this stolen election. My focus now is on TXFCR, our chapters, our members, and our future. Texas doesn’t tolerate corruption and fraud. We are going to vote on leaving the CRNC to ensure moral leadership of our organization, and a focus on winning in 2022.”

     Augustus LeRoux, Kiser’s counterpart in New York, was equally sure that secession was around the corner, …….

     Students from multiple other federations have also told National Review that they are considering leaving. One person connected with the Waxelbaum campaign implied that Florida and California are likely to withdraw from the CRNC. That would mean the organization would lack representation in the four largest states.
     >>>>>>>>
     ”The job of College Republican National Committee (CRNC) chairman is a significant one. College Republican chapters around the country are vital to GOP get-out-the-vote efforts, and the job provides networking opportunities that often serve as a launching pad for a career in the party and conservative movement. …..” Source

     Courtney Britt and Chandler Thornton have learned from the best.

     Rip Murdock (1c44e0) — 7/18/2021 @ 4:05 pm

     
     

220. 217. Jim Miller (edcec1) — 7/18/2021 @ 3:54 pm

     – I may have made a mistake attaching that story to Chase; it has been many years since I read it. But it was the kind of thing he might do, as you learned from your own researches.

     You might be right. Stories drop out of circulation. I can;t say it was someone else. Or garbled in some other way.

     It was a common enough practice by some abolitionists.

     Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 7/18/2021 @ 4:10 pm

     
     

221. Norcal, clearly Reagan stole DCSCA’s girl, ran over his puppy, and bankrupted his S&L….this blood feud is personal….objectivity is lost at the proverbial Hatfield property line. Think of the rants as a glorious toll for driving along the Patterico freeway of commentary.

     AJ_Liberty (a4ff25) — 7/18/2021 @ 8:04 am

     I don’t think that sufficiently explains DCSCA’s grievance with Reagan. It’s more like Reagan stole DCSCA’s puppy and ran over his girl. 🙂

     norcal (25df9b) — 7/18/2021 @ 4:16 pm

     
     

222. I’m calling these two idiots out for their cult-like subservience to a megalomaniac. I can’t believe you would defend their kissing of Trump’s ass.

     I am defending their right to use a public auditorium, just as I would defend any other citizen. I would defend the right of the Nazis to march through Skokie, as the ACLU used to.

     If you start saying “oh, no, not them, they are saying bad things” then you have just wiped out the first amendment for everyone. They’ll just come for you later.

     Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/18/2021 @ 4:18 pm

     
     

223. Both major political parties seem to be saying things about the Texas bill that aren’t true. The Republicans are not steamrolling vote prevention because they’ve changed things, but some of the provisions don’t seem to have much of a motive for them.

     Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 7/18/2021 @ 4:19 pm

     
     

224. Let me put this as simply as I can. Of course they have the right to engage in speech I don’t like, just as I have the right to criticize their odious support of a megalomaniac.

     Well, yes, of course. But the city fathers of Anaheim don’t get to choose you and not them. Perhaps your argument got caught in the crossfire.

     Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/18/2021 @ 4:20 pm

     
     

225. California is many things, but libertarian isn’t one of them.

     Libertarians would be happy if a state had no laws regarding social issues, so long as people were not being harmed. But California isn’t that state. They simply replaced anti-sodomy laws with laws saying people had to accept sodomy. There’s a difference. In a libertarian world individuals get to choose what they accept. They’d be at “bake your own cake.”

     Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/18/2021 @ 4:23 pm

     
     

226. In Anaheim and Riverside the facilities are owned by the cities but they have turned management over to private companies.

     So what. Agents are still bound by the rules of their employers. That would be like a city employing a private police force and saying it’s OK to beat suspects.

     Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/18/2021 @ 4:25 pm

     
     

227. And lost the general– and your party.

     The party was lost in 2016 and as long as the general is alive it seems it will be.

     Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/18/2021 @ 4:27 pm

     
     

228. Courtney Britt and Chandler Thornton have learned from the best.

     I take it that they are trying to rid the organization of Trumpists? It’s really hard to tell.

     Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/18/2021 @ 4:36 pm

     
     

229. Courtney Britt and Chandler Thornton have learned from the best.

     I take it that they are trying to rid the organization of Trumpists? It’s really hard to tell.

     Britt and Thornton rigged Britt’s election by disqualifying her opposition’s chapters. They are Trumpists.

     Rip Murdock (1c44e0) — 7/18/2021 @ 4:44 pm

     
     

230. Ms. Goldberg has a nice piece on Julia Brown, the investigative reporter who did more than anyone to put Epstein back in a jail cell.

     Paul Montagu (5de684) — 7/18/2021 @ 4:49 pm

     
     

231. KM@226-In Anaheim and Riverside the facilities are owned by the cities but they have turned management over to private companies.

     So what. Agents are still bound by the rules of their employers. That would be like a city employing a private police force and saying it’s OK to beat suspects.

     I never said that banning Gaetz and Greene was ok based on the contractural relationship between the cities and their convention center operators. I was merely describing their relationship. You read too much into my comment.

     However, there is a discussion of this on The Volokh Conspiracy:

     Now a private venue doesn’t violate the First Amendment by cancelling a rally based on “public safety concerns.” (The cancellation might be a breach of contract, depending on whether or not the contract has a provision for that.) And it isn’t generally a First Amendment violation for government officials to simply try to persuade private parties not to participate in distributing certain kinds of speech (see, e.g., Hammerhead Enterprises, Inc. v. Brezenoff (2d Cir. 1983), Penthouse Int’l Ltd. v. Meese (D.C. Cir. 1991), and X-Men Security, Inc v. Pataki (2d Cir. 1999)).

     But when the government tries to coerce private entities into suppressing speech, that may well violate the speakers’ First Amendment rights (see, e.g., Rattner v. Netburn (2d Cir. 1991), Okwedy v. Molinari (2d Cir. 2003), and Backpage, Inc. v. Dart (7th Cir. 2015)). …….

     Rip Murdock (1c44e0) — 7/18/2021 @ 5:01 pm

     
     

232. ‘I don’t think that sufficiently explains DCSCA’s grievance with Reagan. It’s more like Reagan stole DCSCA’s puppy and ran over his girl’.

     Bush League. 😉

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/18/2021 @ 5:09 pm

     
     

233. @227. ‘The party was lost in 2016 and as long as the general is alive it seems it will be.’

     Long before that:

     “All I want from bankers is a new calendar every year and all I care about lawyers is they’re back in their coffins before the sun comes up.” – F. Ross Johnson [James Garner] ‘Barbarians At The Gate’ 1993

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/18/2021 @ 5:22 pm

     
     

234. Britt and Thornton rigged Britt’s election by disqualifying her opposition’s chapters. They are Trumpists.

     The Texas letter here accuses them of kicking out groups that were supportive of Trump. As I said, it’s confusing. It appears to be a proxy war, but the sides are unclear.

     Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/18/2021 @ 5:29 pm

     
     

235. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/danish-muhammad-cartoonist-kurt-westergaard-dies/ar-AAMixxn
     Rip

     mg (8cbc69) — 7/18/2021 @ 5:44 pm

     
     

236. https://thefederalist.com/2021/06/30/how-a-10-year-old-girls-mom-saved-her-from-going-transgender/

     I was a transgender child who “transitioned” to female as an adult. I lived as female for eight years, until I woke up and admitted it wasn’t working. Counseling led to emotional healing and my feelings of gender dysphoria dissipated. Hormones and surgery were unnecessary and physically harmed me. Now I use my experience to mentor others who want to reclaim their biological reality.

     So, when a mother who watched the panel discussion wrote me, saying, “The video gave me the courage and helped me to take control of my 10-year-old daughter’s wellbeing,” I knew I needed to speak out again to expose the manipulation that causes vulnerable children to think they have a transgender identity.

     With this mother’s permission, I share her terrifying experience of almost losing her young daughter in a few short months. I’ve shortened her emails for space and clarity. Her story illustrates how easily a ten-year-old girl can be groomed into a cross-sex identity, but for the intervention of her mindful parents.

     Ten-year-old Mindy (a pseudonym) changed schools and left behind her friends just before the school lockdowns, then attended school virtually for the rest of fourth grade and all of fifth grade. When she exhibited overwhelming stress, her concerned parents took her to a counselor at the pediatrician’s office. That started their nightmare.

     The “doctor” should’ve been arrested for child abuse.

     NJRob (eb56c3) — 7/18/2021 @ 5:51 pm

     
     

237. “All I want from bankers is a new calendar every year and all I care about lawyers is they’re back in their coffins before the sun comes up.” – F. Ross Johnson [James Garner] ‘Barbarians At The Gate’ 1993

     I’d go one step beyond: a mandate that lawyers keep to their coffins 24x7x365.

     Just think how much more enjoyable – and less expensive – life in the USA would be. The list of activities that would be significantly improved is near endless.

     Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 7/18/2021 @ 6:16 pm

     
     

238. DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/18/2021 @ 5:09 pm

     Yes, little do they realize that you are John Wick. Well, they got the puppy right.

     felipe (484255) — 7/18/2021 @ 6:29 pm

     
     

239. AJ,

     Your comment at 187 was excellent, as usual.

     norcal (25df9b) — 7/18/2021 @ 7:22 pm

     
     

240. This made me laugh.

     https://spectatorworld.com/life/guide-conservative-commentators/

     Caricatures are obviously limited but if I fit into one of these it would be the Wonk, although obviously not as well as Sammy. 😀

     Time123 (9f42ee) — 7/18/2021 @ 2:54 pm

     That was a very amusing article, Time. Anybody who enjoys discussing politics should read it.

     Trigger warning for DCSCA: Avert your eyes NOW!

     I see myself as a Reagan Misser.

     norcal (25df9b) — 7/18/2021 @ 7:29 pm

     
     

241. #238/@221. ‘I don’t think that sufficiently explains DCSCA’s grievance with Reagan.’

     Behold— the thespian begat the showman who begat the plagiarist.

     “Hello, Parson, welcome to Hell!” – Ben Rumson [Lee Marvin] ‘Paint Your Wagon’ 1969

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/18/2021 @ 7:35 pm

     
     

242. @240. This made me whistle past the graveyard; for ‘Reagan Missers’: TRIGGER WARNING- Do not view this if you are diabetic, hate Hollywood or prone to necrophilia:

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYeNuISN4Dc

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/18/2021 @ 7:50 pm

     
     

243. @242 Thank you for that, DCSCA, and I mean it sincerely. That Reagan event took place during my two-year black hole a.k.a. Mormon mission, during which television watching (and radio, and newspapers) was not allowed.

     norcal (25df9b) — 7/18/2021 @ 8:14 pm

     
     

244. @243. All kidding aside, norcal, you know what’s amazing about that piece of 1985 television, which doesn’t seem all that long ago BTW, is that pretty much everybody there- even seated guests who didn’t sing or speak- like Merv Griffin, Eva Gabor, Robert Mitchum and so on… is dead.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/18/2021 @ 8:20 pm

     
     

245. @244 Yeah, even Maureen Reagan. 🙁

     It appears there were several non-Republicans in attendance. Nice to see. Wish that kind of thing could happen today.

     norcal (25df9b) — 7/18/2021 @ 8:51 pm

     
     

246. Behold— the thespian begat the showman who begat the plagiarist.

     Yeah, all Reagan did was take us back to sound money, cut the top income tax rate from 70% to 28%, restore hope to America, take the shackles off capitalism, and win the Cold War.

     We’ve been going down hill ever since.

     Reagan > HW > Clinton > W > Obama >> Trump > Biden.

     Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/18/2021 @ 9:24 pm

     
     

247. @242: Any network interview with any Democrat is just as lame.

     Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/18/2021 @ 9:26 pm

     
     

248. Sometimes, Reagan took on a tougher room:

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lutYGxMWeA

     Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/18/2021 @ 9:29 pm

     
     

249. @245. Play the game- ‘spot the still living.’ Short list.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/18/2021 @ 11:33 pm

     
     

250. Yeah, all Reagan did was take us back to sound money

     ROFLMAOPIP.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/18/2021 @ 11:34 pm

     
     

251. @246. =yawn= Reagan turned America from a creditor to a debtor nation, Kevin.

     And his hero was frigging Coolidge- who set America on course for the Great Depression. Perhaps you missed the Reagan Recession and the crash of 1987 on Ronnie’s watch and ignored the Reagan cesspool that spawned Trump.

     You can live high on the hog w/a credit card, die- and leave mess for the living. It’s called Reaganomics.

     And FYI, Reagan did not win the Cold War– in fact, if Trump did what Reagan did w/Iran-Contra he’d have een impeached again. The Cold War was ‘won’ on GHWBush’s watch… and w/no ‘peace dividend’ it wasn’t much of a win– considering communist Red China is propping up U.S. capitalism today— and to suggest Reagan ‘won’ it is an insult to every U.S. president who maintained containment as U.S. policy since HST— begun back when Ronnie was still play-acting in Hollywood BTW- including your hero, The Big Dick. And the first person to agree would be Reagan himself.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/18/2021 @ 11:50 pm

     
     

252. Nco a private international malware company that sales malware to spy on cell phones of activists, journalists and politicians has been caught selling their malware to people and organizations here in the u.s. Over 50,000 have been targeted here so far.

     asset (57779f) — 7/18/2021 @ 11:58 pm

     
     

253. @247. Any network interview with any Democrat is just as lame

     That video is from that Democrat bastion: The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Kevin.

     _________

     @245. It appears there were several non-Republicans in attendance. Nice to see. Wish that kind of thing could happen today.

     Reagan was a non-Republican for decades, norcal; voted for FDR 4 times. Heston was a Dem, too. That video is a display of the false glitter, faux glamour and faked insincerity– at which those folks excelled–of that glitzy excessive era dripping saccharin: Reaganoptics. See if you can spot how many boob jobs, toupees and hair pieces you can find among the dead and the few still living. Start w/Sinatra and Stewart… 😉

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/19/2021 @ 12:04 am

     
     

254. “Yeah, all Reagan did was take us back to sound money”

     I don’t think DCSCA understands that you are talking about contracting the money supply and taming runaway inflation, which hit 14% under Carter. Granted, this is Volcker and the Fed, but Volcker’s plan to contract the money supply was supported by Milton Friedman and George Shultz….and when the inevitable recession struck in 1982….unlike past Presidents in similar situations….Reagan stayed the course and did not publicly throw the Fed chief under the bus or call for expanding the money supply. He later reappointed Volcker. Inflation fell from a high of 14.8% to 4.7% when Reagan left office. There is no question that stabilizing inflation, lowering tax rates, and cutting regulations were key to the economic growth realized in the 1980’s, the expansion of new technological industries, and over 19M new jobs. Yeah, we were better off after 8yrs of Reagan.

     But what about deficits and debt? Of course DCSCA never mentions that both Obama and Trump added over 3x the debt that Reagan did….some due to crisis….but much of it voluntary. In DCSCA’s eyes, Trump’s tax cut is dandy…and deserving of a second term. Reagan’s cut (followed by many corrective increases that Reagan signed into law) is characterized in dire terms….forever making us a debtor nation. Leaving the hypocrisy aside, context matters. First, Reagan & Republicans never controlled the House in his 8yrs in office, so bipartisanship was required to get anything done. Second, the country was unified to oppose the spread of communism. From the fall of Saigon, twelve countries had slid over to the Soviet bloc and the Soviet Union was building bigger and more powerful weapons. Reagan re-initiated a hard-line stance that required a military buildup. Later like Nixon going to China, Reagan was the one positioned to sit down and get arms reductions…and set the stage for the collapse of the Soviet Union. Did the military buildup payoff? Were we able to scale down the military during the Clinton years and run a surplus? The answers seem to be “yes”. Have lower tax rates been thoroughly repudiated….were they rescinded during 8yrs of Clinton or 8yrs of Obama…..or do they remain much lower than what Reagan inherited? I’ll let objective readers decide.

     Reagan’s arguments and ideas won…..DCSCA is left to complain about boob jobs and toupees….I’ll leave that to him….

     AJ_Liberty (a4ff25) — 7/19/2021 @ 5:51 am

     
     

255. #237 You may want to apologize to our gracious host who is, after all, a lawyer. And a fine one, so far as this non-lawyer can tell.

     Jim Miller (edcec1) — 7/19/2021 @ 6:54 am

     
     

256. Interesting that the Biden administration isn’t pursuing charges here. I don’t have a problem with it, my assumption is that they would do so if they felt the offense could be proven and rose to the level that would typically be charged.

     It is a data point around the politicization of the DOJ under Biden however.

     https://www.govexec.com/management/2021/07/doj-will-not-prosecute-trump-officials-after-ig-referred-findings-false-testimony-census/183843/

     The Biden administration has declined to prosecute former Trump administration officials, including former Commerce Department Secretary Wilbur Ross, after an inspector general confirmed they provided false testimony regarding the origins of the proposed citizenship question on the 2020 census.

     Time123 (9f42ee) — 7/19/2021 @ 7:04 am

     
     

257. 256. Nobody wants to create a precedent. Too many people do it.

     Sammy Finkelman (b434ee) — 7/19/2021 @ 7:14 am

     
     

258. #143 Some of you may have wondered about the original hell/telephone joke. Here is a likely candidate:

     Ford was visiting Brezhnev in the Kremlin. Brezhnev was delighted to see that his guests were impressed by the opulence around them, and he couldn’t resist trying to impress them still further.

     He invited them to his private office. There on his desk was a golden telephone.

     “Is that a hotline to Washington?” Ford asked.

     “No, my friend,” replied Brezhnev. “As a matter of fact, it’s my personal line to Satan.”

     So saying, he picked up the phone and within seconds was asking the Devil to have a few words with his guests. Satan agreed, and on Ford’s behalf Kissinger negotiated a similar line for the White House.

     Just after they had hung up, the phone rang and Brezhnev answered it.

     “Satan?” enquired Ford.

     “No,’ said Brezhnev, “just the operator telling me how much the call cost.”

     “And how much was it?”

     “Two rubles,” Brezhnev replied.

     Back in Washington, Ford could hardly wait to make a call to his new connection. In front of his Cabinet, he spoke to the Devil, then put the phone down, saying the operator would soon ring back with the cost of the call.

     The phone rang and the operator said: “200 dollars.”

     “200 dollars? But it cost Brezhnev two rubles!”

     “Maybe,” said the operator, “but that was a local call”

     Source (pp. 107-108)

     (It would be easy to make a modern version of it, substituting Putin for Brezhnev, and Biden for Ford. Even better, I think, would be a version substituting Trump for Ford.

     Incidentally, No Laughing Matter is a fine collection of jokes, and one you can learn from.)

     Jim Miller (edcec1) — 7/19/2021 @ 7:28 am

     
     

259. You know, I think the coronavirus epidemic really is growing exponentially. (of course it still is at relatively low levels)

     Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 7/19/2021 @ 8:24 am

     
     

260. I had a small book tthat was a collection of jokes from/anout the Soviet Union

     One of the jokes (approximately)

     Stalin dies and is taken to a place where he sees people drinking and enjoying themselves. He is told this is hell. He is also shown heaven and heaven is [boring – I forgot the details]

     He is told he has a choice between heaven and hell.

     He chooses hell.

     Immediately he is plopped in a boiling pot on fire.

     Wait, he complains, what about what I saw:

     That, he is told, was just propaganda.

     Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 7/19/2021 @ 8:32 am

     
     

261. “but that was a local call”

     Source (pp. 107-108)

     (It would be easy to make a modern version of it, substituting Putin for Brezhnev, and Biden for Ford. Even better, I think, would be a version substituting Trump for Ford.

     No, because that joke only works for before they broke up AT&T.

     Most people have plans under which long distance calls don’t cost more.

     Still there is a higher charge for international calls.

     Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 7/19/2021 @ 8:35 am

     
     

262. DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/18/2021 @ 11:50 pm

     And his hero was frigging Coolidge- who set America on course for the Great Depression.

     What set America on course for the Great Depression was the Federal Reserve Board not knowing what it had once known – what J. P. Mprgan had known in 1907.

     This was a mistake that Ben Bernanke was determined not to repeat in 2008.

     crash of 1987 on Ronnie’s watch

     That was caused by the Fed tightening capital requirementts for banks. Interest paid to ordinary depositors dropped down to practically zero at that point. Banks; margins increased, as they had to.

     Reagan didn’t know whom to trust, and he didn’t know that he didn’t know. REAGAN WAS TERRIBLE AT PERSONNEL. The head of the FSLIC from 1983 to 1987 never contacted Reagan because he was told (falsely, I believe) that Donald T. Regan was against him)

     And FYI, Reagan did not win the Cold War…The Cold War was ‘won’ on GHWBush’s watch…

     In his farewell speech in January, 1989, Reagan had no clue that the Cold War was about to end, or that the Berlin Wall would come down in less than a year.

     They attribute it to Reagan on the idea that increased military spending by the U.S. and his refusal to give up on StarWars bankrupted the Soviet Union (which isn’t really true) and somehow caused the collapse of Communism. (a non sequitor)

     Actually it was because Brezhnev died, and Kosygin died, and all the members of his Politburo (except the new guy, Gorbachev)

     Russian Communism died of systemic Alzheimer’s. Putin knows that.

     Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 7/19/2021 @ 8:50 am

     
     

263. Interesting that the Biden administration isn’t pursuing charges here. I don’t have a problem with it, my assumption is that they would do so if they felt the offense could be proven and rose to the level that would typically be charged.

     It is a data point around the politicization of the DOJ under Biden however.
     ……
     The Biden administration has declined to prosecute former Trump administration officials, including former Commerce Department Secretary Wilbur Ross, after an inspector general confirmed they provided false testimony regarding the origins of the proposed citizenship question on the 2020 census.

     Not sure how not pursuing prosecution is “politicization of the DOJ under Biden.” Prosecutors do have discretion on who to charge. Pursuing charges against a former Trump cabinet member could also be seen as “politicization of the DOJ.” Perhaps they feel the report is damning enough to Wilbur’s reputation, and any sentence for an 83 year old man would be limited to probation.

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 7/19/2021 @ 9:03 am

     
     

264. You know, I think the coronavirus epidemic really is growing exponentially. (of course it still is at relatively low levels)

     Almost all serious disease is among the unvaccinated. Think of it as God’s way of increasing the average IQ.

     Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/19/2021 @ 9:37 am

     
     

265. @263

     Administrations are generally unwilling to prosecute their predecessors. Not only is it bad Karma, but it keeps the old regime in the headlines. They’d rather just bury them and proceed with their own agenda.

     Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/19/2021 @ 9:39 am

     
     

266. And FYI, Reagan did not win the Cold War…The Cold War was ‘won’ on G

     And FDR had nothing to do with winning WW2 — that all happened on Truman’s watch!

     The truth is that Reagan and Shultz’ beautifully executed plan to squeeze the financial bejeezus out of the USSR worked. The US could borrow to finance its military rebuilding and the Soviets had to pay in hard cash (which they did not have). So they took resources from every part of the Soviet economy — at the end they were spending over 50% of GDP — in order to keep up with Western economies that had much more to work with. The Soviet did not collapse so much as imploded as their entire economy fell into the sinkhole they created with their spending.

     Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/19/2021 @ 9:46 am

     
     

267. Fixing italics

     And FYI, Reagan did not win the Cold War…The Cold War was ‘won’ on G

     And FDR had nothing to do with winning WW2 — that all happened on Truman’s watch!

     The truth is that Reagan and Shultz’ beautifully executed plan to squeeze the financial bejeezus out of the USSR worked. The US could borrow to finance its military rebuilding and the Soviets had to pay in hard cash (which they did not have). So they took resources from every part of the Soviet economy — at the end they were spending over 50% of GDP — in order to keep up with Western economies that had much more to work with. The Soviet did not collapse so much as imploded as their entire economy fell into the sinkhole they created with their spending.

     Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/19/2021 @ 9:47 am

     
     

268. I actually think that SDI (“Star Wars”) was the best swindle since the Trojan Horse. A fanciful defense system that no one could build, but the Soviets lived in fear of Western technology and could not take the chance. They broke themselves on that rock.

     Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/19/2021 @ 9:49 am

     
     

269. #261 Well, traditionally, calling Putin’s friend was very expensive, and even now would require some sophisticated equipment.

     But you could change the punch line to something like “special rates for friends and family” if that will make you feel better.

     Jim Miller (edcec1) — 7/19/2021 @ 10:33 am

     
     

270. @267.And FDR had nothing to do with winning WW2 — that all happened on Truman’s watch!

     Again: to suggest Reagan ‘won’ it [the Cold War] is an insult to every U.S. president who maintained containment as U.S. policy since HST— begun back when Ronnie was still play-acting in Hollywood BTW- including your hero, The Big Dick. And the first person to agree would be Reagan himself.

     Fix your glasses instead.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/19/2021 @ 10:38 am

     
     

271. @254. I don’t think DCSCA understands that you are talking about contracting the money supply and taming runaway inflation…

     Reagan turned America from a creditor nation to a debtor nation, AJ. Carter’s world -inherited from Jerry ‘whip-inflation now’ Ford, the Big Dick/LBJ Vietnam debacle and OPEC’s ball squeezing, was the reality of the true beginning of American global decline. Stemming it off w/false prosperity on a credit card only extended the fantasy– as only a Hollywood thespian could. ‘Voodoo Economics’— hell, his own VP called him out for what it was and his budget director ‘went to the woodshed’ for exposing the sham as well. Check the price of gold in mid 1980 and what it is today.

     Reagan’s arguments and ideas won… Except they didn’t. Ask Ollie North.

     Debt and deficits for decades to come are now the rule- validated by the likes of neocons Darth Cheney and Daughter Darth, who pleasure themselves putting neocon follies on Uncle Sam’s credit cards. [Bought or sold and Gulf War Bonds lately?] It’s in part why socialism has taken root with youth– because trickle down only meant their parents got pissed on – and them as well. And the first Republican who has the guts to admit Reaganomics damaged America is the GOPer who’ll succeed in the 21st century. Trump once quipped that, ‘Reagan was along time ago.’. He won. But do encourage you to break glass in your party’s emergency and keep shouting “Reagan!” The kids will love being reminded of the comedy and the errors– a time when Deaver’s ‘Reaganoptics’- when image over substance – a time when saccharine and junk bonds ruled the land:

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYeNuISN4Dc

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/19/2021 @ 11:12 am

     
     

272. Incidentally, No Laughing Matter is a fine collection of jokes, and one you can learn from.

     Much like ‘The Wit and Wisdom of Spiro Agnew.‘ It’s a quick read-

     150 empty pages.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/19/2021 @ 11:14 am

     
     

273. is an insult to every U.S. president who maintained containment as U.S. policy since HST

     Containment was working pretty poorly under Johnson, Nixon, Ford and Carter. But except for them, you have a point.

     Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/19/2021 @ 11:41 am

     
     

274. I guess we just have to accept that DCSCA is a truther on the Reagan topic.

     Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/19/2021 @ 11:42 am

     
     

275. @268. ‘Deep thinker’ Reagan was inspired to invent ‘SDI’ by ripping off a fictional secret weapon, ‘the inertia projector’ – a ‘ray-gun’– the focus of a B-flick when he played treasury agent ‘Brass’ Bancroft in ‘Murder in the Air,‘ a movie he made at WB in 1940, Kevin. The bulk of his life experience was in the world of make-believe, where image over substance ruled. Hell, he even created ‘fake news’ when sportscasting.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/19/2021 @ 11:42 am

     
     

276. @273. =sigh= It worked. Period. Ask a South Korean.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/19/2021 @ 11:44 am

     
     

277. Old anti-vaxx: It’s just the flu, so why should I get the shot?
     Less old anti-vaxx: If the vaccine works we’ll have herd immunity, so why should I get the shot?
     New anti-vaxx: It doesn’t work for Delta, so why should I get the shot?

     Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/19/2021 @ 11:46 am

     
     

278. @246. We’ve been going down hill ever since.

     =yawn= The ‘American Century’ was born 12/7/41- peaked on 7/20/69- and died 9/11/01.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/19/2021 @ 11:51 am

     
     

279. Ask a South Korean.

     But not people in Vietnam, Cambodia, Nicaugua, Yemen, Congo, Somalia, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Angola, Benin, Grenada and, strictly speaking (under Truman) all of Eastern Europe.

     Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/19/2021 @ 11:51 am

     
     

280. Oh, yes, Cuba. How did I forget that one.

     Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/19/2021 @ 11:52 am

     
     

281. @275: As I said “truther”

     Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/19/2021 @ 11:53 am

     
     

282. @279/280. =yawn= Cuba’s been pretty well contained, Kevin. Have you seen the valuable car lots there? Classics. 😉

     ‘Vietnam, Cambodia, etc.,’– so your hero Nixon failed you?! The Vietnmese are quite happy now trading w/t USA, etc., etc. The containment policy worked.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/19/2021 @ 11:59 am

     
     

283. @281. You’ve never seen ‘Murder in The Air’ have you- nor heard Reagan himself admitting multiple times to faking radio sports casts. Ronnie B-flicker: ‘True Brass.’

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/19/2021 @ 12:04 pm

     
     

284. @262. The structure was doomed from within, Sammy. You could see it at street level. Case in point- was in the CCCP in 1971- stopped by the famed GUM Department Store off Red Square– the ‘Macy’s of Moscow.’ We passed through ‘the shoe department’ — it literally was a large, ping-pong-sized table with a big pile of unboxed shoes and a sign stuck in the middle of it w/t price. All you had to do was comb through the pile and find the mate and size to match. Unreal. At the food court they served ice cream. Problem was, turns out it was made w/unpasteurized/unhomogenized milk. Several folks got sick from it after returning to London requiring those who ate it to get gammaglobulin shots. There were even old women pulling wooden carts w/their belongs along unpaved roads near the czar palaces. In 1971 no less. Anybody who saw the place first hand at day-to-day-life levels could see it was decaying from within.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/19/2021 @ 12:21 pm

     
     

285. Not worth responding to.

     Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/19/2021 @ 12:33 pm

     
     

286. @285. Reaganaurics.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/19/2021 @ 12:47 pm

     
     

287. 268. Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/19/2021 @ 9:49 am

     I actually think that SDI (“Star Wars”) was the best swindle since the Trojan Horse. A fanciful defense system that no one could build, but the Soviets lived in fear of Western technology and could not take the chance.

     It deterred them from trying to build the capability to win a nuclear war.

     They broke themselves on that rock.

     I don;t believe financial problems had anything to do with the end of the Soviet empire. People have just talked themselves into that belief.

     It died of senility. The people running the system made mistakes. Gorbachev tried to replace the Communist leaders of Eastern Europe.

     Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 7/19/2021 @ 12:50 pm

     
     

288. 270. And the first person to agree would be Reagan himself.

     I think that’s true.

     https://ap.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/age-reagan/essays/ronald-reagan-and-end-cold-war-debate-continues

     …What Reagan himself did say on the end of the Cold War after he left office is revealing. Here, significantly, one finds no sense of the triumphalism that later characterized some more conservative accounts of 1989. Nor, in fact, can we detect much effort on his part to overplay his own role. He accepted that his own policies contributed to the erosion of Soviet power; and that the ideological offensive he unleashed against the USSR in particular (and socialism in general) contributed to changing the terms of the debate about the East-West relationship. But others played their part, too, he insisted: one being Mrs. Thatcher with whom he was so politically close; and the other of course being Mikhail Gorbachev, whose reformist policies he recognized as being genuine when others in his administration were far more sceptical.

     Indeed, Reagan even carried on a debate with the skeptics immediately after he left office. He was certainly very critical of his immediate successor….

     This doesn;t have any direct quote of Reagan himself.

     Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 7/19/2021 @ 1:00 pm

     
     

289. Another point of view: The Soviet Union already lost the Cold War before Reagan (except that end of the Cold War we mean end of the strong dictatorship and the grab for more territory)

     Article by Leslie H. Gelb

     https://www.nytimes.com/1992/08/20/opinion/foreign-affairs-who-won-the-cold-war.html

     Republican claims this week that they won the cold war prompt me to reveal an off-the-record conversation I had with the Chief of the Soviet General Staff in 1983. Marshal Nikolai Ogarkov told me at that time — before President Reagan’s increases in military spending fully took hold, six years before the Soviet empire in Eastern Europe crumbled and eight years before the Soviet Union itself collapsed — that the cold war was already essentially over, if not finally won by the West….e talked on a wintry March afternoon, just days after Mr. Reagan’s speech aptly described the Soviet Union as “an evil empire.”

     I began that afternoon by attacking Moscow for amassing forces that far exceeded defensive needs. He waved me off with a tolerant smile. Then he proceeded to make the most astonishing argument I had ever heard from a Soviet official.

     Numbers of troops and weapons mean little, he said. We cannot equal the quality of U.S. arms for a generation or two. Modern military power is based upon technology, and technology is based upon computers.

     In the U.S., he continued, small children — even before they begin school — play with computers. Computers are everywhere in America. Here, we don’t even have computers in every office of the Defense Ministry. And for reasons you know well, we cannot make computers widely available in our society.

     Then came his portentous punch line: We will never be able to catch up with you in modern arms until we have an economic revolution. And the question is whether we can have an economic revolution without a political revolution….

     He says the Soviets lost the cold war because of the rot of the Communist system far more than we won it by the policy of containing Soviet power, but containment was an essential ingredient. After the Vietnam War, however, Democrats emphasized diplomatic and economic means over military power, and Republicans stressed the reverse. The Reagan military buildup did add to Soviet economic woes.

     I just think that it made the achievement of Soviet military superiority look even more hopeless by building in some more room for error in U.S. military policy, and that that was worth doing, and in the long run, had Soviet efforts gone on, would have saved money. But the collapse happened because new people were in charge..

     Explaining looking more hopeless.saving money. To give a contemporary example, we don’t worry about the Venezuelan army and Venezuela never tried to build anything because the disparity is so great. And to a considerable degree we can say that about Iran. It’s not so great with China.

     Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 7/19/2021 @ 1:15 pm

     
     

290. 277, Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/19/2021 @ 11:46 am

     New anti-vaxx: It doesn’t work for Delta, so why should I get the shot?

     Latest anti-vaxx:

     From the New York Times no less (guest editorial by Elisabeth Rosenthal, editor in chief of Kaiser Health News) :

     It does work for Delta. The drug companies are trying to make money by asking for approval of a booster shot. The FDA should deny it unless they can prove that the new vaccine is not only safe and effective, but necessary or better. They’re going to approve it anyway but people shouldn’t use it.

     https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/18/opinion/covid-vaccine-booster-shot.html

     …Ultimately, the question of whether a booster is needed is unlikely to determine the F.D.A.’s decision. If recent history is predictive, booster shots will be here before long. That’s thanks to the outdated, 60-year-old basic standard that the F.D.A. uses to authorize medicines for sale: Is a new drug “safe and effective”?

     …Is a higher level of antibodies needed to protect vaccinated Americans? Though antibody levels may wane some over time, the current vaccines deliver perfectly good immunity so far.

     What if a booster is safe and effective in one sense but simply not needed — at least for now?…

     ….In 2014, for example, the F.D.A. approved a toenail fungus drug that can cost up to $1,500 a month and that studies showed cured fewer than 10 percent of patients after a year of treatment. That’s more effective than doing nothing but less effective and more costly than a number of other treatments for this bothersome malady….

     ….For example, should drugmakers prove their drug is significantly more effective than products already on the market? Or demonstrate cost-effectiveness — the relative health value of a product compared to its price — a metric used by Britain’s health system? And in which cases is effectiveness against a surrogate marker — like an antibody level — a good enough stand-in for whether a drug will have a significant impact on a patient’s health?

     …They could, for example, as Dr. Anthony Fauci has suggested, eventually green-light the additional vaccine shot only for a small group of patients at high risk for a deadly infection, like the very old or transplant recipients who take immunosuppressant drugs, as some other countries have done.

     But until the United States refines the F.D.A.’s “safe and effective” standard or adds a second layer of vetting, when new products hit the market and manufacturers promote them, Americans will be left to decipher whose version of effective and necessary matters to them.

     Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 7/19/2021 @ 1:28 pm

     
     

291. Exagggeated argument for getting vaccinated: If you don’t get the vaccine, you;re sure to get Covid.

     (that would mean you don;t reach herd immunity until 100% of the people are immune.)

     Dr. Scott Gottlieb was more careful:

     https://www.cbsnews.com/news/transcript-scott-gottlieb-on-face-the-nation-on-july-18-2021

     …The bottom line is that many people are no longer susceptible to COVID more than 50%, about 50% of the population has been fully vaccinated. Probably another third of the American population has been previously infected with this virus. So many people aren’t susceptible to the virus. [this takes you to 67%, but Dr. Scott Gottlieb allows 75%]

     But if 25% of the population remain susceptible to the virus in absolute terms, that’s still a lot of people. And this virus is so contagious, this variant is so contagious that it’s going to infect the majority [Note: only the majority, not all] that most people will either get vaccinated or have been previously infected or they will get this Delta variant. And for most people who get this Delta variant, it’s going to be the most serious virus that they get in their lifetime in terms of the risk of putting them in the hospital.

     Most serious?

     I guess so, since other more serious viruses are rarer, or the vast majority of people have immunity by the time they are 20. Measles is more serious to an unvaccinated person, I think, if they’ve passed the age of 12, but they are either vaccinated or can gamble in herd immunity. Smallpox is extinct, although a mad scientist could recreate it. We can hope that nothing more serious than Covid will come down the pike in the medium term future.

     Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 7/19/2021 @ 1:42 pm

     
     

292. Im Nicarauga, the government was defeated in an election that took place in 1990, when Communism was falling all over the world, and the defeat was acknowledged, but Daniel Ortega managed to come back about 15 years later by making a corrupt deal not to have a runoff election if a candidate won over 35% of the vote. This was much more a one-man dictatorship. (his vice president is his current wife)

     Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 7/19/2021 @ 1:51 pm

     
     

293. About 1 in 5 unvaccinated (adults) wwho get measles are hospitalized.

     ‘https://www.cdc.gov/measles/symptoms/complications.html

     It’s less for Covid.

     But there’s herd immunity for measles, so Dr. Scott Gottlieb can legitimately say that if they get Covid (or the Delta variant) it’s likely going to be the most serious virus they get in their lifetime in terms of putting them in the hospital.

     Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 7/19/2021 @ 1:59 pm

     
     

294. In DCSCA’s eyes, Trump’s tax cut is dandy…and deserving of a second term.

     =yawn= Conservative whine; bitter dregs. Never said anything such thing, AJ. The singular Trump Triumph was and reman the neutering the modern ideological conservative movement. You collapsed into irrelevancy like a house of cards– and now find yourselves on the bottom of the deck.

     Glorious.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/19/2021 @ 3:32 pm

     
     

295. Adrift on a heady boat cruise with Kristol?

     mg (8cbc69) — 7/19/2021 @ 3:47 pm

     
     

296. @295. Kristol’s a floater alright. 😉

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/19/2021 @ 5:28 pm

     
     

297. Not worth responding to.

     Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/19/2021 @ 12:33 pm

     I wish there was a feature that allowed me to block any DCSCA comment about Reagan, Trump, or Biden, because when he talks about other things he can be quite interesting.

     norcal (25df9b) — 7/19/2021 @ 5:37 pm

     
     

298. it’s likely going to be the most serious virus they get in their lifetime in terms of putting them in the hospital.

     I never got a shot for chicken pox (I was an adult by the time they had it), as doctors said I’d almost certainly not be exposed, due to herd immunity, so they wouldn’t sign off on the vaccine.

     Guess what.

     Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/19/2021 @ 5:40 pm

     
     

299. Kevin M,

     how was shingles?

     I’m actually curious about that myself. Never had Chicken Pox as far as I know. But I was around my sister and cousins when they had it.

     NJRob (eb56c3) — 7/19/2021 @ 5:56 pm

     
     

300. @297. …Reagan, Trump, or Biden… because when he talks about other things he can be quite interesting.

     Even a Mormon should know it’s blasphemy to diss talk of The Three Stooges, Norcal. ‘Course it’s up for grabs whether Romney or Cruz is fresh or frozen Shemp.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/19/2021 @ 5:59 pm

     
     

301. @300 Jack Mormon, fyi

     norcal (25df9b) — 7/19/2021 @ 6:03 pm

     
     

302. It’s hard to take anything Faucci says as fact any more.

     Pop Quiz: who starred in ‘The Delta Variant’

     [ ] Lee Majors

     [ ] Charlton Heston

     [ ] John Belushi

     Choose.

     ______

     Next month, Fauci will be hyping the insidious ‘Invasion of the Sigma Spores’

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/19/2021 @ 6:06 pm

     
     

303. Lee Majors is still alive. Wonder if he was at that Reagan bash.

     norcal (25df9b) — 7/19/2021 @ 6:09 pm

     
     

304. Why is the California Attorney General trying to disqualify Larry Elder from running for Governor?

     NJRob (eb56c3) — 7/19/2021 @ 6:16 pm

     
     

305. @303. It’s a challenge to find anybody there who is still alive– or is wearing their own hair. Why don’t you watch it and see… Betty White was there– she’s still kicking.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/19/2021 @ 6:24 pm

     
     

306. @303. Here’s the guest roster. They’re all pretty much dead now.

     https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1193453/fullcredits/

     Majors wasn’t on the list; he had his Six-Million-Dollar plunger plumbing the Fawcett that night.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/19/2021 @ 6:37 pm

     
     

307. 304, he has a “bloc” in reserve that the other R candidates cant “relate to”, that’s what might also make the Allen West candidacy interesting (do enough blacks sick out on the D primary to get him to the final 2 and if its he and McConaughey, is there a pronounced electorate swap?)

     urbanleftbehind (8fee61) — 7/19/2021 @ 7:10 pm

     
     

308. @306 That’s pretty damn funny, DCSCA. 🙂 I’m going to repeat that one.

     norcal (25df9b) — 7/19/2021 @ 10:38 pm

     
     

309. Kevin M,

     how was shingles?

     I’m actually curious about that myself. Never had Chicken Pox as far as I know. But I was around my sister and cousins when they had it.

     NJRob (eb56c3) — 7/19/2021 @ 5:56 pm

     I don’t know what Kevin had, but why assume it was shingles? Yes I know they’re the same virus, but my understanding, which may be mistaken, is that shingles is usually (always?) contracted by adults who, unlike Kevin, had chickenpox as children. (I had both in that order.) If you didn’t have juvenile chickenpox and you’re unvaccinated, I think you’re more likely to get adult chickenpox, which is serious business.

     lurker (59504c) — 7/19/2021 @ 11:47 pm

     
     

310. @308. LOL.

     Read down that list of guests. It is stunning how virtually all those ‘folks’ kissing ‘Reagan Rawhide’— are now dead.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/19/2021 @ 11:56 pm

     
     

311. @310- postscript; Of the Tinseltown guests on that list who were at that Hollywood Reagan videotaping in December, 1985,– 200 or so are now dead– and maybe 20 or so are still alive at best.

     Reaganoptics. 😉

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/20/2021 @ 12:15 am

     
     

312. @311 The prettiest woman in attendance is still alive. Take you best guess, DCSCA.

     norcal (25df9b) — 7/20/2021 @ 12:35 am

     
     

313. @312. Linda Evans, of course.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/20/2021 @ 5:19 am

     
     

314. 52 years ago today, the pinnacle of the American Century– Sunday, July 20, 1969–when America truly was great:

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBdyzTvA3oA

     So why isn’t this a national holiday, President Plagiarist? Too male? Too Methodist? Too Jewish? Too German? Too Texan? Oh. Right.

     Too white.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/20/2021 @ 5:31 am

     
     

315. Liberal bastions university of Illinois and University of Wisconsin have made Covid-19 vaccinations optional. Orange orchard University of Indiana has made it mandatory (and a Trump-appointed judge just upheld it, the policy, against a challenge from students). Can anybody guess why?

     nk (9651fb) — 7/20/2021 @ 5:54 am

     
     

316. DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/19/2021 @ 11:56 pm.

     It is stunning how virtually all those ‘folks’ …are now dead.

     That was 35 1/2 years ago. Reagan was almost 75 years old.

     Those people are mostly his contemporaries, and certainly almost all people who knew him 25 years before.

     Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 7/20/2021 @ 5:57 am

     
     

317. @316. 200-plus, Sammy. His ‘contemporaries’ were in a glitzy bubble and as old as dirt.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/20/2021 @ 6:02 am

     
     

318. Kudos to Bezos; luck to Funk. Enjoy the computer-controlled ride atop the NewShepard.

     Coincidentially, 60 years ago tomorrow, July 21, 1961– Gus Grissom piloted his Mercury spacecraft alone- Liberty Bell 7– to space a top the Mercury/Redstone 4 in a sub-orbital spaceflight reaching an altitude of 118 miles. There was no computer aboard his spacecraft.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/20/2021 @ 6:12 am

     
     

319. And Grissom botched his landing.

     Rip Murdock (1c44e0) — 7/20/2021 @ 6:29 am

     
     

320. Congrats to Blue Origin on a successful flight; outstanding. Well done, Jeff.

     What goes around comes around- 60 year ago tomorrow:

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYiW3cMocNQ

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/20/2021 @ 6:29 am

     
     

321. @319. Except he didn’t. As the IB report concluded. And the spacecraft has been found, recovered and refurbished and on display.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/20/2021 @ 6:31 am

     
     

322. Trump fanboys disappointed in successful Blue Origin flight.

     Rip Murdock (1c44e0) — 7/20/2021 @ 6:39 am

     
     

323. @322. How so- merely billionaires at play. It’s not an NFL team with dual ‘national anthems’ — one for the blacks and one for the rest of America– nor is it owning your own island. The technology advance in HSF operations is splendid– but 11 minutes up and down at those prices ain’t got much of a future w/a low to no ROI in a quarterly driven marketplace- particularly for for ‘space tourism.’ That’s why governments do it. OTOH, DCSCA launched a grasshopper aboard his Centuri Micron rocket in 1966– when the bug was recovered, it jumped sideways for several minutes.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/20/2021 @ 6:50 am

     
     

324. https://citizenfreepress.com/breaking/rip-mary-jo-kopechne/
     52 years ago today.

     mg (8cbc69) — 7/20/2021 @ 6:58 am

     
     

325. 323-
     @322. How so……

     They loath Bezos. Sample comments:

     Our best chance to get rid of Bezos. Fingers crossed.

     I hope he goes off like a Roman Candle then explodes like a Cherry Bomb.

     Bezos is an evil man that has played a significant role in destroying this country. He is as bad, if not worse, than many others that are villains on this site – Hillary, Obama, etc. He deserves every possible bad thing to come to him. ……..

     Rip Murdock (1c44e0) — 7/20/2021 @ 7:03 am

     
     

326. Is a Proud Boy of Cuban descent precluded from participating in Cuba Libre demonstrations for deigning to give a spit in another “lesser” nations affairs? Does he at least get to sell t-shirts?

     https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/proud-boys-leader-pleads-guilty-burning-blm-banner

     urbanleftbehind (c0d74b) — 7/20/2021 @ 8:51 am

     
     

327. how was shingles?

     It was actually the pox itself, at age 41. Very high fever for several days, delirium, lots of sleeping, weakness for a week after. Not fun and probably did my gametes no good at all.

     Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/20/2021 @ 9:28 am

     
     

328. They loath Bezos.

     They loath the WaPo, which was really not very even-handed wrt Trump. “Donald Trump: Threat of Menace?” was pretty much their line. JJ Jameson was fairer to Spider-man.

     Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/20/2021 @ 9:34 am

     
     

329. It was actually the pox itself, at age 41. Very high fever for several days, delirium, lots of sleeping, weakness for a week after. Not fun and probably did my gametes no good at all.

     Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/20/2021 @ 9:28 am

     Lovely. Is there anyway to test for dormant antibodies? Reading that makes me want the chickenpox vaccine.

     NJRob (64f36c) — 7/20/2021 @ 10:07 am

     
     

330. https://legalinsurrection.com/2021/07/south-african-activist-critical-race-theory-the-same-toxic-and-demented-racial-politics-that-set-afire-my-homeland-in-recent-years/

     South African writer and journalist Rian Malan scorches the “toxic and demented racial politics,” which has caused his country to explode last week, in a New York Post op-ed.

     South Africa witnessed riots and looting. People demolished private businesses as cargo vessels stayed away “because it’s too dangerous to unload them.” People are hungry and left without jobs, especially young back men. The riots have left 63% of them jobless.

     South Africa and CRT in America
     Malan, who traced the origin of the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” sees those politics entering American society through critical race theory (CRT) and race-baiter Ibram X. Kendi.

     The politics sprout from what Malan calls the Beautiful Idea, which we hear from “the sermons of critical race theorists trying to force you to take the knee and atone for your supposed sins.” This idea “pushed South Africa to the brink.”

     Kendi “blames all racial disparities on racist policies.” But Kendi cannot find a specific policy:

     NJRob (64f36c) — 7/20/2021 @ 10:17 am

     
     

331. CSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/20/2021 @ 6:29 am

     Congrats to Blue Origin on a successful flight; outstanding. Well done, Jeff.

     It had both the oldest (age 82) and the youngest (age 18) person so far in space.

     The oldest is alink too the Mercury program. A woman – actually below the planned minimum age – who was among 13 women considered for the Mercury program. She tried to get into subsequent recruitments in 1962 and 1966 but by that time they’d raised the qualifications so that a person needed an engineering degree. In 2010, she bought a ticket for Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic spacecraft for $200,000, but it still hasn’t happened. Some say putting her on the flight was an attempt by Jeff Bezos to show up Richard Branson.

     The 18-year old, Oliver Daemen, is the son of a man who bought a ticket but decided he had a scheduling conflict and gave it to his son. The first paying passenger (not sponsored by a government) in space.

     The other two were Jeff Bezos and his brother Mark. This craft had no pilot – unless you count the 82-year old woman, named Wally Funk. I don;t know if that’s her legal name. She is one of only 2 surviving female candidate astronauts from 60 years ago. The other had to give up flying in 2017 because of macular degeneration.

     Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 7/20/2021 @ 10:42 am

     
     

332. @325. Never have used Amazon so no dog in that fight; OTOH, thing is, his ‘perfectly legal’ years of tax avoidance is their own fault.

     Reaganomics.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/20/2021 @ 10:48 am

     
     

333. Lovely. Is there anyway to test for dormant antibodies? Reading that makes me want the chickenpox vaccine.

     There is a test for immunity to varicella zoster virus. If you test negative, you should get the chickenpox vaccine.

     https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/varicella/public/index.html

     If you test positive, you should get the Shingrix vaccine.

     https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/shingles/public/shingrix/index.html

     Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/20/2021 @ 10:51 am

     
     

334. Never have used Amazon

     Explains a lot.

     Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/20/2021 @ 10:51 am

     
     

335. 330. I read this in the New York Post and thought of posting something about it.

     https://nypost.com/2021/07/19/how-equity-ideology-plunged-south-africa-into-inequality-and-chaos

     Interesting; So CRT theory holds that’s it’s not the legacy and consequences of racism, but continuing racism that is responsible for divergences in life between blacks and whites?

     They went fir equity. The result: corruption and

     Blind pursuit of equity began to achieve its opposite: a staggering equality gap among blacks themselves, with a fortunate few benefitting hugely and the masses sinking into abject misery.

     Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 7/20/2021 @ 10:54 am

     
     

336. KM @328-
     It’s more than just the Post. They loathe Bezos for WaPo, Amazon Web Services for deplatforming Parler, destroying local businesses, and his politics.

     Rip Murdock (1c44e0) — 7/20/2021 @ 11:23 am

     
     

337. Fox News host compares unvaccinated to cliff divers, says it’s ‘their choice’ to die
     ……..
     The assertion came as co-host Steve Doocy urged those who have resisted getting the vaccine to get the shot — and as the highly contagious delta variant surges across states with low vaccination rates, filling hospital beds and alarming public health officials.

     “Listen, if you didn’t get a vaccination, that’s your choice,”(Brian) Kilmeade said, adding that he and his co-hosts had all gotten the shot and were no longer wearing masks.

     “If you want to go cliff-diving this weekend, you don’t have to check with me,” Kilmeade said. “It seems a little dangerous, but I’m not going to judge you. And if you go ahead and put yourself in danger, and you feel as though this is not something for you, don’t do it. But don’t affect my life.”

     “99 percent of the people who are dying from Covid are unvaccinated,” Doocy interrupted.

     “That’s their choice,” Kilmeade said.
     ……..

     Rip Murdock (1c44e0) — 7/20/2021 @ 11:28 am

     
     

338. Cliff diving makes it sound adventurous. Licking bathroom door handles is a better analogy.

     Time123 (9f42ee) — 7/20/2021 @ 12:16 pm

     
     

339. @338-
     Touchè!

     Rip Murdock (1c44e0) — 7/20/2021 @ 12:28 pm

     
     

340. In the infrastructure bill, they persist in trying to waste money – spend more, and get less and later

     https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-edit-gateway-tunnel-20210712-jo7ps7uyefbjfplpjkx5i5ztmq-story.html

     Yesterday, we annotated Amtrak’s bridge and tunnel tour for Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, exposing how the railroad is hiding the truth about the proposed $1.8 billion Portal North Bridge, part of its $33.7 billion Gateway boondoggle.

     Even though state law obligates New York to split with New Jersey the local share of the bridge, a two-track waste that instead could be four tracks built at a fraction of the cost, Gov. Cuomo is correctly paying zero towards the stupid project. He must do the same with the even more wasteful $9.8 billion new Hudson tunnel and $1.8 billion old tunnel repair: not a cent unless it’s done smart. As important as new Hudson tubes are, there are too many other vital infrastructure projects to squander billions on a wrong-way solution.

     Today we’ll dissect Amtrak’s tunnel deceptions using the London Bridge Associates report and new Amtrak documents obtained under the federal Freedom of Information Act.

     https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-edit-amtrak-gateway-northeast-corridor-20210718-barfv4lvbnd2ld736tx7xpuu64-story.html

     Digging deeper: New evidence the Gateway tunnel plan is costly and slow, and there’s a better way

     The staff of the New York-New Jersey Gateway Development Commission tried to show last week the need to spend $33.27 billion on Amtrak’s boondoggle by arguing that train delays under the Hudson can only be remedied by digging a new tunnel for $9.8 billion before fixing the old one for $1.8 billion. ..

     …LBA proved, contrary to Amtrak’s assertions, that repair-in-place is quite achievable. But this is the same Amtrak that only did supposedly urgent repairs over just four weekends out of the last four years.,,

     ,,,Amtrak dominates the NCC, and, with the feds, can outvote all the eight states from Massachusetts to Maryland along with DC, even though Amtrak carries only a tiny share of riders compared to the state-run commuter lines. Will commuter passengers really benefit from this spending, especially if the states have to pay a big chunk?

     One NCC member, Amtrak chief engineer Gery Williams, told a May 7 New York State Senate hearing that on repairs, “We need a minimum of three years notice, between hiring and training.” That’s no way to run a railroad.

     Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 7/20/2021 @ 12:50 pm

     
     

341. But npbody reads the New York Daily News.

     https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/19/opinion/biden-inflation-tax-credit-olympics.html

     Bret: My basic criterion is that I’m for programs that create jobs and leave enduring benefits, particularly large and essential infrastructure projects like the Gateway tunnel project under the Hudson River.

     Gail: Go, Gateway tunnel!

     Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 7/20/2021 @ 12:54 pm

     
     

342. @334. Yep– never contributed to that tax-avoiding billionaire’s wealth– and damn proud of it.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/20/2021 @ 1:13 pm

     
     

343. TO BE FAIR, THIS IS THE NEWSPAPER THAT DECLARED “WE ARE ALL SOCIALISTS NOW” WHEN OBAMA CAME TO POWER: WaPo Writer Says the Quiet Part Out Loud: Democrats Agree With Cuba Socialism.

     https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/462823/

     Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 7/20/2021 @ 2:01 pm

     
     

344. The problem with that cliff diving analogy should be obvious — but apparently isn’t to the self-centered. Ordinarily, there is no one who can be struck by a cliff diver, but there are people around us who might get the disease if we become infected.

     So, for example, “Typhoid” Rand probably gave COVID to other people, and it is nearly certain that “Super spreader” Donnie gave it to many more, perhaps directly, certainly indirectly. (For evidence on the “Super spreader”, check out how many members of the Secret Service got it.)

     And, as far as I can tell from the evidence, the Delta variant spreads much more easily than earlier strains of the disease.

     (If you haven’t read about “Typhoid Mary”, you should.)

     Jim Miller (edcec1) — 7/20/2021 @ 2:29 pm

     
     

345. Cliff diving is fun. I’ve done it. So are plenty of risky behaviors. I went on a hiking trek last week with a friend in Palisades National Park to take on the Giant Stairs and didn’t get out till well after dark, exhausted and drenched. Was it risky, sure. Was it fun dn worth it? You bet.

     NJRob (fbe422) — 7/20/2021 @ 2:53 pm

     
     

346. Never tried cliff diving, but I love hiking. I like dirt sports also (4 wheelers and such) that’s also risky, but doesn’t have a public health implication.

     Time123 (9f42ee) — 7/20/2021 @ 2:58 pm

     
     

347. https://twitter.com/JesseKellyDC/status/1417471659628449795?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

     Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 7/20/2021 @ 3:25 pm

     
     

348. https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1415797783529992195?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1415797783529992195%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ace.mu.nu%2F

     Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 7/20/2021 @ 3:56 pm

     
     

349. @313 Are you kidding me, DCSCA? Linda Evans isn’t worthy to touch the hem of Angie Dickinson’s garment.

     norcal (a6130b) — 7/20/2021 @ 4:54 pm

     
     

350. @349. You haven’t seen Angie lately, have you.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/20/2021 @ 5:14 pm

     
     

351. Good news- Swanson TeeVee Dinner heir Tucka Carlson is jealous of Jeff Bezos.

     “He doesn’t write books. He sells them.” – Tucka

     You would know, chub-o-gut.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/20/2021 @ 5:22 pm

     
     

352. @350 At the time of the event, DCSCA.

     norcal (a6130b) — 7/20/2021 @ 5:30 pm

     
     

353. Delusional at best. #scratchafascist

     https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/462940/

     Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 7/20/2021 @ 6:11 pm

     
     

354. @352. ‘Police Woman’ days? Okay- will give you a tie w/Linda Evans. Joan Collins was still a hot tuna in the casserole of life then, too.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/20/2021 @ 6:24 pm

     
     

355. @354 Aha! An amicable resolution. 🙂

     norcal (a6130b) — 7/21/2021 @ 3:39 pm

     
     

356. Kevin McCarthy names 5 Republian members of Congress to the Jan 6 cp,,ottrr. twp of whom had voted to reject Electoral votes. Speaker Nancy Pelosi declines to appoint the two who votes that way. Keevin McCarthy says that’s an abuse of power – won;t name anyone

     Liz Cheney had previously been put on the committee by the Democrats.

     Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 7/21/2021 @ 4:16 pm

     
     

357. CNN and others think Pelosi needs to rethink. Without some Election Truthers on the panel there is no chance it will be viewed as non-partisan.

     Kevin M (ab1c11) — 7/21/2021 @ 4:24 pm

     
     

358. @357. CNN and others think Pelosi needs to rethink.

     Even at $12 a pint, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream still causes brain freeze.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 7/21/2021 @ 4:34 pm

     
     

359. On Tuesday it was reported – but not noticed too much, although the moon did look orange – that smoke from the California and other western state wildfires had drifted, high in the atmosphere, to New York city. It wasn’t clear to me if some of the particles had come down to the ground. In any case, new systems pushed it out to sea by now.

     The soot, it was said, is actually more harmful than when near the origination point – four times as toxic – since it undergoes a chemical reaction, the details of which they did not specify.

     Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 7/22/2021 @ 7:26 am

     
     

360. AJ Liberty @ 187 writes: “[Sorry for the length Noel!]”

     That’s OK. I am just not into Cliff Clavin lectures, AJ.

     But since you are still referring to those few pithy sentences that I wrote months ago, you might want to note that you are making my point… every time you use my name. Longer isn’t necessarily better.

     If you can’t handle an opinion about the length of comments, so be it. But I have retired from commentary here. Try to resist the cheap shots while I am away.

     noel (9fead1) — 7/22/2021 @ 8:06 am