Patterico's Pontifications

9/17/2021

Weekend Open Thread

Filed under: General — Dana @ 3:00 pm



[guest post by Dana]

Hello. Getting a jump start on the weekend. Here are a few items to get the conversation started. Feel free to add your own items. Make sure to include links.

First news item

President Biden warned:

[24] attorneys general sent a seven-page letter to the president Thursday warning that a lawsuit will follow the implementation of the proposed requirement on private-sector employees to either get a COVID-19 shot, submit to weekly testing, or be fired…The attorneys general say some workers will quit their jobs rather than comply, further straining an already tight labor market…“Your plan is disastrous and counterproductive,” they wrote. “From a policy perspective, this edict is unlikely to win hearts and minds — it will simply drive further skepticism.”

Second news item

Apparently, some out-of-towners reacted badly to New York City’s requirement for vaccination proof to dine indoors:

Three people were arrested for allegedly assaulting a New York City restaurant hostess on Thursday after she asked a group of diners visiting from Texas to show proof they had been vaccinated before seating them.

Cellphone footage obtained by NBC New York shows a brawl involving several people outside Carmine’s Italian restaurant on the Upper West Side. Staff and bystanders intervened to break up the melee after it broke out around 5 p.m. ET, the station added.

Third news item

White House tries to ease tensions with France:

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, said France remained a “vital partner” in the Indo-Pacific region in an attempt to calm the fury in Paris over America’s new naval security pact with Australia and the UK.

The agreement announced this week by Joe Biden, the US president, Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, and Scott Morrison, Australia’s prime minister, is seen as a landmark initiative to strengthen their defence co-operation in the face of a rising China.

But the deal faced a stinging backlash from France, whose own lucrative submarine contract and partnership with Australia was scrapped as a result of the new trilateral initiative.

Senior French officials have lashed out at the US for a “lack of coherence” in excluding France from the pact, bringing diplomatic relations between Washington and Paris to their lowest point of Biden’s presidency. US officials only discussed the pact with their French counterparts this week, on the day it was announced.

[Ed: Oof.]

Now France has recalled its ambassadors to the United States and Australia.

Fourth news item

Unfolding disaster:

Thousands of Haitian migrants have assembled under and around a bridge in a small Texas border town, presenting the Biden administration with a new and chaotic challenge Friday as it tries to manage large numbers of asylum-seekers who have been reaching U.S. soil.

Haitians crossed the Rio Grande freely and in a steady stream, going back and forth between the U.S. and Mexico through knee-deep water with some parents carrying small children on their shoulders. Unable to buy supplies in the U.S., they returned briefly to Mexico for food and cardboard to settle, temporarily at least, under or near the bridge in Del Rio, a city of 35,000 that has been severely strained by migrant flows in recent months.

The vast majority of the estimated 12,000 migrants at the bridge on Friday were Haitian…Some families have been under the bridge for as long as six days.

Some migrants built cave-like shelters within the reeds along the river, Owens said. Trash piles were 10 feet wide and at least two women have given birth, including one who tested positive for COVID-19 after being taken to a hospital, he said.

Mixed message chaos:

Gov. Greg Abbott said on Thursday that he directed state troopers and the Texas National Guard “to shut down six points of entry along the southern border” at the request of U.S. Customs and Border Protection — then reversed himself shortly after, blaming the Biden administration for flip-flopping in its request for state help.

But a CBP spokesperson said the federal government — which operates ports of entry at the U.S.-Mexico border — had no plans to shut down any ports of entry.

“I have directed the Department of Public Safety and the Texas National Guard to surge personnel and vehicles to shut down six points of entry along the southern border to stop these [migrant] caravans from overrunning our state,” Abbott said in an emailed statement. “The border crisis is so dire that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection is requesting our help as their agents are overwhelmed by the chaos.”

Renae Eze, Abbott’s spokesperson, added that the state “is shutting down the ports of entry at the request of and in collaboration with CBP.”

A few hours later, Abbott sent out a new statement saying that the Biden administration “has now flip-flopped to a different strategy that abandons border security and instead makes it easier for people to cross illegally and for cartels to exploit the border … I have directed the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas National Guard to maintain their presence at and around ports of entry to deter crossings.”

Fifth news item

Asking the question:

The suicide bombings that ripped through Kabul’s airport in late August and killed 13 U.S. troops and more than 160 Afghans upped the ante for the U.S. to thwart more terrorist attacks in the final days of its withdrawal.

The Biden administration said it prevented another suicide bombing a few days later with a drone strike that officials said killed a suspected Islamic State group driver and an associate near the airport. U.S. officials told reporters that the target had been under surveillance for hours and that people were seen loading explosives into the trunk of his car.

But two separate investigations by The New York Times and The Washington Post cast doubt on that narrative. These news reports must elicit a fuller explanation than what the Biden administration has offered so far.

Ahmadi’s family members said 10 people were killed, including seven children. The relatives showed reporters photos of burned bodies belonging to children, and neighbors confirmed that children’s bodies were removed from the site.

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Monday that the administration is looking at the matter “very, very, very carefully.” However, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters that while officials are investigating, he’s not aware of a plan to put investigators on the ground in Kabul. If two American newspapers can check out information on the ground, why can’t the U.S. government?

Ah:

No disciplinary action is expected but how about a resignation [by the one claiming full responsibility]?

Sixth news item

Yet another politician’s what they said vs. what they didpandemic moment:

In early August, [San Francisco Mayor London Breed] emphasized the need for the city to bring back its indoor mask mandate.

“We don’t want to shut down this city or this country down any longer than we have to. Our economy and our livelihood, and our kids going back to school, and everything in between depends on it,” she said.

In a news release about the mandate, the mayor’s office clearly spelled out the rules, stating, “The orders require all individuals, regardless of vaccination status, to wear face coverings when indoors in public settings, with limited exceptions.”

Among those exceptions are actively eating or drinking in a club, bar or restaurant.

What she did:

A photo posted, and later taken down, from the Black Cat Nightclub’s Instagram page shows a smiling Breed celebrating with friends Wednesday night.

The problem is, she’s clearly not wearing a mask as stated by the city’s rules she put into place.

There are a few cocktails on the table, but nobody appears to be actively drinking them – which would be a moment when it’s OK to remove your mask.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports Breed spent the night dancing, singing along and posing for pictures maskless.

Seventh news item

Closet capitalist infiltrates Met Gala:

After the gala, the congresswoman’s office sent out a fundraising email, encouraging supporters to buy Ocasio-Cortez-branded T-shirts and hoodies emblazoned with the same “Tax the rich” slogan she promoted at the Met. The T-shirts cost $27 apiece, while the hoodies cost $58.

You better believe James is likewise benefiting from Ocasio-Cortez’s supposed attempt to “break the fourth wall” for “working-class women of color.”

Brother Vellies’s website now offers a “customized” version of the $995 handbag Ocasio-Cortez sported at the one percenter party. The product listing for the “Tax the rich” handbag includes the line, “As seen at the 2021 MET Gala .” The product listing also includes a photo of the congresswoman modeling the handbag at the gala.

Just so we’re all on the same page: Ocasio-Cortez, a supposed advocate for the working class, attended a gathering best known for its flagrant displays of extravagant wealth. She attended wearing a designer dress borrowed from the girlfriend of the billionaire Seagram heir. The congresswoman, whose admission was waived by the taxpayer-subsidized Met, also showed up to the event toting a customized $995 “Tax the rich” handbag, likewise provided by the Canadian-born designer.

I opted not to post about the Met Gala kerfuffle involving AOC and a dress cut to perfection with a silly message emblazoned on it. The more she tried to explain, the more I lost interest. Politicians are, at the end of the day, looking to a) raise money b) raise their profile, and c) convince the public of their righteousness. It’s baked into the job. And not even my delight in designer fashion could shake me from my boredom at the hysteria coming from both sides of the aisle, which in turn, ironically, reminded me of an unpopular fashion maven’s messaging that really encapsulates my feelings on this latest public kerfuffle:

Eighth news item

Loud and clear:

Ninth news item

“Justice for J6” rally jibber-jabber:

The extremist forums that cheered on the Jan. 6 Capitol attack have soured on the planned Saturday rally in Washington, insisting without evidence that the event is a secret government plot to arrest more people involved in the riot.

Users in extreme far-right Facebook groups and extremist forums such as TheDonald and 4chan, which previously hosted pictures of users streaming into Washington hotel rooms and even maps of the Capitol tunnel system in the days before the Jan. 6 riot, are largely steering users away from the upcoming event.

Those posting on these forums say they largely believe the event to be a setup for a “false flag” event or “honeypot,” in which they’ll be entrapped and coerced to commit violence by federal agents.

You know who else thinks this? That’s right:

“On Saturday, that’s a setup,” Trump said in an interview with the Federalist. “If people don’t show up they’ll say, ‘Oh, it’s a lack of spirit.’ And if people do show up they’ll be harassed.”

Tenth news item

FDA on Pfizer boosters:

After hours of discussion and a request to revise the question they were being asked, a key federal advisory committee on Friday agreed to a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine six months after full vaccination for people aged 65 and older and those at high risk of severe COVID-19.

The initial question, posed by Pfizer, would have made the booster available to everyone aged 16 and up.

There isn’t yet sufficient evidence to show boosters for people under 65 are necessary, members of the Food and Drug Administration’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee said.

Have a great weekend.

–Dana

378 Responses to “Weekend Open Thread”

  1. Hello.

    Dana (174549)

  2. Update to the France-US-Australia submarine brouhaha:

    France recalls its ambassadors to the United States and Australia over submarine dispute

    Now you know France is serious…..

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  3. Sorry, #2 is my bad.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  4. Sirhan Sirhan paroled by Newsom? Probably not.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  5. Pentagon concedes drone strike did not destroy a car bomb.

    https://www.newser.com/story/311180/pentagon-drone-strike-was-tragic-mistake.html The Pentagon retreated from its defense of a drone strike that killed multiple civilians in Afghanistan last month, announcing Friday that an internal review revealed that only civilians were killed in the attack, not an Islamic State extremist as first believed. “The strike was a tragic mistake,” Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of US Central Command, told a Pentagon news conference, per the AP. McKenzie said the vehicle was struck “in the earnest belief” that the targeted vehicle posed an imminent threat. “I am now convinced that as many as 10 civilians, including up to seven children, were tragically killed in that strike,” he said.

    “Moreover, we now assess that it is unlikely that the vehicle and those who died were associated with ISIS-K, or a direct threat to US forces,” he added, referring to the Islamic State group’s Afghanistan affiliate. For days after the Aug. 29 strike, Pentagon officials asserted that it had been conducted correctly, despite numerous civilians being killed, including children. News organizations later raised doubts about that version of events, reporting that the driver of the targeted vehicle was a longtime employee at an American humanitarian organization and citing an absence of evidence to support the Pentagon’s assertion that the vehicle contained explosives. The next question is:

    What happened to the “ISIS-K”car bomb plan?

    Was there ever a car bomb?

    The Pentagon, in fact, says, it got wrong intelligence.

    Chalk one up for Pakistani intelligence. The ISI wins another round.

    They say they are going to offer the family compensation (like they did in the past. Under Islamic law, but not Judeo-Christian jurisprudence, this can even setle a case of deliberate murder.

    But how exactly can they do that, with Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban. I suppose they could offer relatives and family automatic approval for visas if they want it. But that would rwuire too much imagination.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  6. President Bolisario of Brazil to speak at UN General Assembly without being vaccinated.

    He says he already had Covid and has high levels of antibodies.

    He imitates Trump but not in this because Trump (and Melania) did quietly get vaccinated about three months after recovering from Covid

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  7. Laura Loomer, Who Once Said ‘Bad Fajitas’ Were Worse Than COVID, Says She’s Tested Positive
    ………
    In a post on the Trumpist social network Gettr, Loomer complained that she started suffering from “fever, chills, a runny nose, sore throat, nausea and severe body aches” on Wednesday that she said felt like “a bad case of the flu… So I took a COVID test and it came back POSITIVE.”

    She added: “I have not taken the COVID-19 vaccine, and I don’t plan on ever taking it because it is unsafe and ineffective. Today, I immediately started a treatment of Azithromyacin and Hydroxychloroquine. I’m also taking the OrthoMune dietary supplement.” She said she’s also received the Regeneron antibody treatment used by ex-President Donald Trump.

    Last year, Loomer expressed a wish that she could catch COVID to show everyone that it was no big deal. She wrote on Parler in December 2020: “I hope I get COVID just so I can prove to people I’ve had bouts of food poisoning that are more serious and life threatening than a hyped up virus. Have you ever eaten bad fajitas? That will kill you faster than COVID.”

    However, in follow-up messages on her Telegram channel late Thursday, she made it clear that she was suffering severe symptoms. “Just pray for me please,” she wrote. “Can’t even begin to explain how brutal the body aches and nausea that come with COVID are. I am in so much pain.”
    ………
    Sad.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  8. The Haitians came to Texas because deportations to Haiti had been suspended in August due to the earrhquake.

    A humane restrictive immigration policy is impossible.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  9. Biden admin to step up deportation of Haitians to address migrant surge, documents say
    …….
    Next week, ICE plans to fly eight deportation flights to Haiti and will then increase that number to 10 per week, according to one of the documents. A few deportation flights just restarted in the past few days in response to the surge of Haitians.

    The flights had previously been paused by the Biden administration in response to the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that devastated Haiti on Aug. 14. A single deportation flight can hold around 135 migrants, Department of Homeland Security officials said.

    In addition to deportation flights, ICE will also begin “lateral flights,” in which Haitian migrants will be flown to other sectors of the U.S. border for processing, in order to alleviate overcrowding in Del Rio, according to another document.
    ………

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  10. https://therightscoop.com/black-family-refused-service-by-nyc-restaurant-for-refusing-to-show-vaccine-passport-papers-video/

    NSFW, due to language, but properly shows the mindset of the modern day segregationist in NYC

    NJRob (3b2331)

  11. Death of Hillsborough (FL) GOP member from COVID-19 causes financial problems for party

    The Hillsborough County Republican Party alerted federal election regulators Tuesday that it may file its monthly campaign finance reports late because a key member of the organization died Saturday from COVID-19.

    Prior to his death, Gregg Prentice developed and maintained software that electronically tracked donations to the Hillsborough County GOP and supplied data for the organization’s monthly finance reports. None of the other officers knew how to operate Prentice’s software, the party told the the Federal Elections Commission.
    …….
    The party Prentice devoted many hours to had actively mobilized local residents lately against coronavirus mitigation measures, such as masks in schools. On Aug. 27, the party featured Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a leading skeptic of coronavirus vaccines, at its annual fundraiser. Pictures posted on the party’s Facebook page showed attendees celebrated at a maskless, indoor affair.
    …….
    Jason Kimball, who called Prentice a “mentor” on Facebook, wrote that Prentice had recently experienced “brain fog” and had difficulty breathing. After recording low oxygen levels, he went to Tampa General Hospital where doctors placed him on a ventilator, Kimball wrote. Prentice died the next day.

    Kimball went on to suggest that Tampa General was “not a safe place to go,” repeating a pervasive myth that the life-saving treatment at hospitals was the cause of many recent coronavirus deaths. Two days after Prentice’s death, Kimball called for an investigation into Tampa General during the public comment period of the Tampa City Council meeting and accused the hospital of “intubating people illegally.”
    ………

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  12. @5-
    Being America means never having to say you’re sorry.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  13. https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2021/09/16/florida-desantis-responds-to-biden-limiting-florida-covid-therapeutics-announces-monoclonal-antibody-purchases-directly-from-glaxo-smith-kline/

    Biden trying to murder Americans so he can blame the governor of Florida for not going along with his unconstitutional dictates.

    NJRob (ff16e2)

  14. Perhaps Biden should mess with Illinois and Michigan? Both blue states are lagging behind on vaxxes.

    It’s obvious why he messes with FLA and Texas.

    Colonel Haiku (fcab4b)

  15. If you are illegally breaking in to the United States, the solution is simple: shoot them.

    Wing a few willies, wonkers and woggers and they’d stop PDQ then head for the proper and legal entry points instead of wading ashore across the Rio Grande like it was Normandy beach.

    If 11,000 American citizen stormed the Capitol, Nancy would have the guards rat-a-tat-Babbitt them without losing speed.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  16. ‘There’s a hold-up with the shots;
    Kabul’s ended freedom flights;
    There’s a border glut in Texas;
    That’s backed up all crossing sites;
    Hunter’s hooker dropped a child;
    His laptop videos are wild;
    Joseph Robinette Biden where areeeee you?’

    Where else: vacationing in Delaware.

    Again.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  17. Amid COVID-19 overload, Alaska’s largest hospital is now prioritizing care under crisis standards

    Alaska’s largest hospital is now implementing crisis standards and rationing medical care amid a crush of COVID-19 patients and staff shortages that have forced providers to prioritize patients most likely to recover.
    ……..
    More than 30% of the adults hospitalized at (Providence Alaska Medical Center) were COVID-positive as of Tuesday. Patients with the virus demand more time-consuming care than most others, providers say.

    “The acuity and number of patients now exceeds our resources and our ability to staff beds with skilled caregivers, like nurses and respiratory therapists,” states the letter, signed by Providence Chief of Staff Dr. Kristen Solana Walkinshaw on behalf of the hospital’s medical executive committee, more than 1,000 doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants. “We have been forced within our hospital to implement crisis standards of care.”
    …….
    Hospitals around the state report operating at or near capacity, with very limited options for transferring patients to Seattle or other Lower 48 hospitals that usually provide care for patients from Alaska.
    …….
    “We’re out of beds. Life saving measures are not going to be possible in every case,” said Dr. Leslie Gonsette, an internal medicine hospitalist and member of Providence’s executive committee board who helped draft the letter. “And that’s what we’re trying to emphasize.”
    ……..
    “We are in a crisis at the hospital,” Solana Walkinshaw testified, meaning care had to be rationed. “That means when we have four patients and two machines, two people are not getting that care. It’s happening now.”
    ……..
    Out of 223 adult beds at Providence, two are unstaffed and one more is temporarily out of service because of a leak, (Dr. Ryan) Webb said. The rest are staffed. The hospital as of Tuesday evening had 10 people waiting in the emergency room for a bed, including three waiting for an ICU bed — with none available, he said.
    ……….
    The Providence letter describes an emergency room overflowing with patients waiting in their cars for hours and heart attack patients sometimes denied timely life-saving care. Providence now often declines transfer requests from outlying rural hospitals trying to move accident or stroke victims and has instituted strict visitor restrictions.
    ………
    If people need specialty care at Providence — from a cardiologist, trauma surgeon or neurosurgeon — “we sadly may not have room now. There are no more staffed beds left.”
    ……..
    The shift to crisis standards means the hospital must “prioritize scarce resources and treatments to those patients who have the potential to benefit most,” the letter states. That means enacting policies and procedures to ration care and treatments, including dialysis and specialized ventilatory support.
    ………
    Rationing care does not mean denying care for unvaccinated people, Gonsette said. Rather, it involves decisions based on where limited resources go and who benefits the most.
    ………

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  18. Imagine dick head cheney and the cellar dweller on a bird hunt.

    mg (8cbc69)

  19. Speakers at DeSantis event share vaccine misinformation

    Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis stood silently Monday as employees for the City of Gainesville repeated misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines during a news conference set up by his office.

    “The vaccine changes your RNA,” said Darris Friend, who said he’s about a year and a half away from retirement after 22 years with the city.

    Another implied that the vaccine could kill her.

    “I will not put my children through the possibility of losing another maternal figure in their lives,” said Christine Damm, who has worked for the city for 10 years.

    DeSantis shifted his feet in apparent discomfort but did not provide context or correct information as he championed efforts to fight a Gainesville city policy requiring workers to be vaccinated — or lose their jobs.
    ……..
    Attorney General Ashley Moody applauded after the “The vaccine changes your RNA” comment and appeared to tell the man “good job” as he walked away from the lectern. Moody later noted that Florida officials have told people to “strongly consider” the vaccine.
    ………..

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  20. You know who else thinks this? That’s right:

    “On Saturday, that’s a setup,” Trump said in an interview with the Federalist. “If people don’t show up they’ll say, ‘Oh, it’s a lack of spirit.’ And if people do show up they’ll be harassed.”

    Translation: There’s nothing in it for him, and to any extent that it is about him it’s all negative. Along with three-fourths of the country, many of the 1/6 arrestees themselves are blaming him for their predicament. While many others blame him for not pardoning them while he still could have. So make it non-news.

    nk (1d9030)

  21. Milley Willies:

    If you ‘accidently’ pop 10 illegals w/a Reaper drone strike along the Rio Grande, it could redeem your reputation– and ‘Make America Great Again,’ eh, General?

    Just be sure to ask China first.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  22. Imagine dick head cheney and the cellar dweller on a bird hunt.

    Howzabout a lion hunt?

    Heckle & Jeckle:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LL6Pf1pJxqw

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  23. Milley has no operational authority. Hasn’t had any since Trump appointed him to the Joint Chiefs of Staff in October, 2018. McKenzie is CENTCOM, and Major General Tracy R. Norris is the Adjutant General of the Texas National Guard.

    nk (1d9030)

  24. The good news is that weekly COVID cases, world wide, are down 8 percent, deaths down 3 percent.

    Unfortunately, the US did not share in this good news; our cases rose 0.3 percent, our deaths rose 14 percent.

    (Exercise for Trumpistas: Calculate how well the US would have done in the last week if Florida and Texas had the US average of cases and deaths, per capita. You can find state numbers over at the Washington Post.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  25. Oh, and Mississippi has passed New Jersey for the most deaths per capita, 310 per 100k, versus 306. It took them a while, but they have done it.

    (In 2020, Trump won 57.6 percent of the vote in Mississippi.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  26. I’d wait until 2025, DCSCA, just your luck they’ll do the pilot program/beta test at San Ysidro and the coordinates will be as “wrong” as the professor’s house in Real Genius (1985)

    urbanleftbehind (ff337e)

  27. Mississippi is a bad example…add to that Chicago is in many parts Mississippi North.

    urbanleftbehind (ff337e)

  28. @25. To a 4-star putz who want to act like a 5 star MacArthur, ‘operational authority’ is just something to ignore– or hide behind.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  29. Over the hill man guilty of over the horizon murder.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  30. We have to balance competing goods and conflicting rights in public policy. But whenever possible we should make reasonable accommodations for sincerely held religious objections. This doesn’t mean every sincere religious belief overrides the law. But I think exceptions to vaccination requirements for Christian Scientists may make sense.

    But it needs to be a sincere objection based on faith.

    Actions like this

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.businessinsider.com/pastor-offers-to-sign-religious-vaccine-exemptions-for-church-donations-2021-9%3Famp

    Make a mockery of faith and will likely erode public support of all such exceptions. If people think faith based objections are insincere or based on partisan politics support for all of them will diminish. Since we’re talking about balancing decisions public support is important.

    Time123 (acc2eb)

  31. One last point:

    For the first time in known history, Alabama in 2020 had more deaths than births in a single year.

    The state’s population shrinkage, which Alabama Health Officer Scott Harris attributed to deaths from covid-19, comes as officials in states across the South and West are tallying grim hospitalization and death numbers amid a fourth wave of infection due to the delta variant of the coronavirus.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  32. Office of Trump’s defense secretary held call with China on January 6, two days before Milley’s controversial call

    ……..
    According to two sources familiar with the matter, in a previously scheduled call on January 6, Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary for China Chad Sbragia spoke to his Chinese counterpart, in what one former US official described as a routine exchange leading into the impending transition between two presidential administrations.
    …….
    …… (Then-Acting Secretary of Defense Chris) Miller acknowledged he likely would not have been informed of such routine engagements that either his office or Milley would have had with China. Miller also clarified that his criticism of Milley wasn’t over the call he had in January, but the one he had in October 2020, under then-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper.

    “I don’t care about the coordination calls. It’s totally appropriate for him to call his counterparts,” Miller told CNN in a text message on Friday.
    ………
    As CNN reported on Wednesday, there were 15 people on both videoconference calls Milley held with his Chinese counterpart, one on October 30 and another on January 8 — including a representative from the State Department, according to a current defense official. Still, none of them were from the secretary of defense’s office, the former US official said.

    Multiple former US officials said there almost certainly was not a transcript of the call — just notes taken by staffers. Those notes, along with an official readout, were shared with the intelligence community and the interagency, according to the current defense official.
    ………
    In the lead-up to Milley’s January call, the first former US official said, “I discussed with his staff that this is a good opportunity to remind the Chinese that any transition period should not be viewed as an opportunity for Chinese adventurism. During this period, it was a good and responsible thing to do.”

    Miller had previously acknowledged to CNN that he likely received some “perfunctory” notification of the call, but raised questions about the level of detail he received before or after.
    ……..
    The (October) call was a “sophisticated and appropriate action taken to reduce risk with Chinese based on clear evidence and facts that Chinese had made a gross conceptual miscalculation,” the former US official said — not an offer by Milley to “tip off” the Chinese of an impending attack, as some critics have read the account of the call as laid out in “Peril.”
    ……..

    Rip Murdock (0aa613)

  33. Mississippi says Covid-19 deaths in pregnant women are rising — and it’s pleading with them to get vaccinated
    At least eight pregnant Mississippi women have died of Covid-19 since late July — none of them fully vaccinated — officials said, more than doubling the state’s pandemic total in just two months and spurring medical leaders to give this message:
    ……..
    “Please get vaccinated,” Dr. Thomas Dobbs, the state’s medical officer, said at one of two news conferences this month that addressed the topic. “You’ve got to protect yourself; you’ve got to protect your baby.”
    ………
    At least 12 of the fetuses survived, often through emergency C-section, and some were severely premature, said Dr. J. Martin Tucker, professor and chair of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. He spoke for the 12 cases that his system was involved with; information about the other three cases wasn’t available.

    Mississippi also is analyzing information on 72 stillbirths — deaths of a fetus in the womb after 20 weeks — that have affected Covid-infected pregnant women in the state since the pandemic began, Dobbs said. That appears to be twice the usual stillbirth rate.
    ……..
    Only about 25.1% of pregnant women age 18 to 49 in the US had received at least one dose of a vaccine during pregnancy as of September 11, according to the CDC.
    …….
    Nationally, 155 deaths of pregnant women with confirmed lab evidence of Covid-19 were reported to the CDC from the start of the pandemic through Monday.

    However, because only a third of case reports include information on pregnancy status and because it takes jurisdictions two to four weeks to confirm a Covid-19 case in a pregnant woman and report it to the CDC, that number likely is an undercount…….
    ………

    Rip Murdock (0aa613)

  34. ‘For the first time in known history, Alabama in 2020 had more deaths than births in a single year.’

    Might wanna cross-reference that w/available data between 1861 to 1865.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  35. #36 I’ll be glad to, as soon as you provide the data.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  36. @37. Big boys do their own homework, Jimbo.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  37. The campaign commercial writes itself:

    Pregnant California woman beaten by Taliban has left Afghanistan, Rep. Issa says

    A pregnant California woman who was left behind in Afghanistan has safely fled from the country, a Republican congressman said Friday.

    The woman, identified only as Nasria in recent media reports, “braved beatings and harassment by the Taliban” while she remained there, U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa said, according to FOX 5 in San Diego.

    That abuse included a kick to her stomach, Issa said last month during an appearance on Fox News.

    Earlier this month, Nasria spoke to Voice of America, claiming at the time that Taliban fighters were “hunting Americans” since U.S. troops left the country.

    “Apparently they’re going door-to-door … trying to see if anybody has a blue passport,” Nasria told the outlet.

    Nasria and her husband made attempts to leave Afghanistan via the chaotic airport in Kabul earlier this month but were unable to board a flight, she said.

    Drip … drip … drip …

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  38. Three people were arrested for allegedly assaulting a New York City restaurant hostess on Thursday after she asked a group of diners visiting from Texas to show proof they had been vaccinated before seating them.

    Remember when they starting banning smoking in bars? One person’s freedom is another person’s assault.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  39. Apologies to Julia Ward Howe…

    Mine eyes have seen the horror of the coming of the hordes;
    They are trampling ‘cross the border as the Rio Grande they ford;
    They are Covid laced, unstoppable by rifle, fist, or sword;
    The virus marches on!

    Glory! Glory! Joseph Biden!
    Glory! Glory! Joseph Biden!
    Glory! Glory! Joseph Biden!
    The virus marches on!

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  40. Three people were arrested for allegedly assaulting a New York City restaurant hostess on Thursday after she asked a group of diners visiting from Texas to show proof they had been vaccinated before seating them… Remember when they starting banning smoking in bars? One person’s freedom is another person’s assault.

    In Harlem that’s called a tip. 😉

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  41. Texas officials say that they are facing an invasion and the federal government is not honoring its duty under Article IV, Section 4, to defend the state from same.

    There is also this (Article I, Section 10):

    No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.

    In theory, Texas could put troops to the border, or even into Mexico to stop this invasion.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  42. Lost in AOC’s quest for righteousness were the scalding she took for photos showing the attendees maskless while all the help were required to be covered.

    The cherry on top was this:

    Design For AOC’s “Tax The Rich” Met Gala Dress Was Allegedly Stolen From “Female Street Artist”

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/design-aocs-tax-rich-met-gala-dress-was-allegedly-stolen-female-street-artist

    Obudman (4c6cec)

  43. Office of Trump’s defense secretary held call with China on January 6, two days before Milley’s controversial call

    Um, so what? The Defense Secretary is in the chain of command and is authorized to make this kind of contact. Milley is a glorified advisor (i.e. kicked upstairs) with utterly no portfolio whatsoever. He is like the head of state in a parliamentary system: Show up, cut the ribbon, answer questions if asked (but not to contradict anyone if at all possible).

    The two situations are not related at all.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  44. Alabama in 2020 had more deaths than births in a single year.

    Wow. Must have been those vaccines.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  45. “The vaccine changes your RNA”

    I hear that OJ got vaccinated and it changed his DNA.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  46. @46. Or the Union Army.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  47. Someone ought to write a book on the stupidest things people have said about Covid. Perhaps we are doing this all wrong. Instead of pleading and presenting facts, we should ahve gone straight to the scare-the-stupid playbook.

    Covid will make you infertile.
    Covid will make your penis smaller.
    Covid will give you terrible B.O. for the rest of your life.
    If you get Covid, the only thing that will save you is to eat cat feces.

    etc.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  48. Ahmadi’s family members said 10 people were killed, including seven children

    Yes, but check your watch–and remember… Joe lost his child Beau, too! 😉

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  49. @45, Kevin the “so what” is that it’s evidence that Miley’s call was part of a communication strategy.

    Time123 (acc2eb)

  50. @49. Someone ought to write a book on the stupidest things people have said about Covid. Perhaps we are doing this all wrong. Instead of pleading and presenting facts, we should ahve gone straight to the scare-the-stupid playbook.

    Repeating them is literally ‘more stupid,’ Kevin. 😉

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  51. Re: “Justice for J6″ rally jibber-jabber:

    You mean the rally in support of those who “actually assaulted police officers and broke through windows, doors, and barricades, and those who aided, conspired with, planned, or coordinated such actions ……”

    That rally?

    Rip Murdock (cef237)

  52. Time for RELEVANT data:

    26. Just drop the STATISTICS act. No one should care a single bit about whatever public DATA is released while things like this are going on:

    Mary Beth Pfeiffer
    @marybethpf
    I contacted
    @nytimes
    & they corrected 8/25 ivermectin article. “This article misstated the percentage of recent calls to the Mississippi poison control center related to ivermectin. It was 2 percent, not 70 percent,” says appended note. Sentence removed.
    Poof.
    But damage done.

    Here’s how to defeat a moderate seasonal flu like Covid:

    1. Stop reporting on it.
    2. Stop giving government bennies for theater against it.
    3. Get people’s immune systems active again by allowing them to go outside and talk to each other without government mediation again.
    4. Beat any civil servant or state representative who whines about it or demands holy data prior to granting basic American rights within an inch of their life.

    Hedron of Science (2c7508)

  53. Liz Cheney is making the only play she has left(so to speak) She will lose to “any functioning adult” in Wyoming and is stuck trying to get Meghan McCains old spot on the View

    steveg (e81d76)

  54. Insider – June 12, 2021 – French President Emmanuel Macron says ‘America is back’ after Biden’s first few months in office

    Insider – Sept 17, 2021 – France recalls ambassadors from the US

    Obudman (4c6cec)

  55. She will lose to “any functioning adult” in Wyoming and is stuck trying to get Meghan McCains old spot on the View

    In other words, she chose to take a stand on integrity rather than sell her soul in exchange for another term or four in Congress.

    Radegunda (569d33)

  56. Liz Cheney is making the only play she has left(so to speak) She will lose to “any functioning adult” in Wyoming and is stuck trying to get Meghan McCains old spot on the View

    Just what the pork chop needs: the television camera adds 10 lbs., too.

    Glorious.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  57. https://cis.org/Bensman/New-Beachhead-Opens-Biden-Border-Crisis
    The basement boob and his followers need a crisis to fix this crisis.

    mg (8cbc69)

  58. https://justthenews.com/government/security/biden-halts-us-border-wall-helps-former-soviet-republic-stop-afghan-refugees?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter

    hile the Biden administration halted construction of the border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, the United States is funding border security efforts for Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic trying to keep Afghan insurgents and refugees out.

    One day after the Biden administration’s Aug. 31 deadline to withdraw from Afghanistan, the U.S. Embassy in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, announced that it had launched a project to construct new facilities for a Border Guard Detachment in Ayvoj, along the Tajik-Afghan-Uzbek border.

    That facility is designed to help Tajik security forces better respond to Afghans seeking to flee Taliban rule or insurgents seeking to cause mischief to its neighbor.

    While the announcement was largely overlooked by the U.S. media, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) warned in August that it was “preposterous” for American tax dollars to be spent securing a foreign country’s border while the U.S. southern border remained wide open.

    Last month, nearly 209,000 illegal aliens crossed the U.S. southern border, a two-decade high and four times higher than the last August of the Trump administration, which had tightened border security.

    “So we are clear: your tax money is spent building a wall and securing the border in Tajikistan and hydro-power in Afghanistan, but our borders are open and the last large hydro power plant built by Army Corp of Engineers in U.S. was in 1979,” Gosar said.

    Biden is a clear and present danger to the United States and deliberately stoking an invasion on our southern border. What is it going to take to open the eyes of those who helped elect this traitor?

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  59. They had their “muh principles”, Rob.

    They got their norms…

    Colonel Haiku (fcab4b)

  60. Biden is a clear and present danger to the United States and deliberately stoking an invasion on our southern border. What is it going to take to open the eyes of those who helped elect this traitor?

    No hyperbole there.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  61. Here’s how to defeat a moderate seasonal flu like Covid:

    A “moderate seasonal flu” doesn’t kill over 688,000 Americans over an 18-month span, so I’ll pass on your “here’s how” because your comment isn’t credible.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  62. Biden’s vaccine mandate shouldn’t extend to the naturally immune and to private employers.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  63. Capitol Police officers face discipline for selfies with rioters, internal documents show
    ………
    The law enforcement agency announced Saturday that its Office of Professional Responsibility had recommended disciplinary action against six officers following 38 internal investigations, but did not release details of the investigations.

    Many of the cases that were dismissed involved officers who could not be identified by investigators, others that prompted a call for disciplinary action involved photographs and video.
    ……….
    The FBI alerted the Capitol Police in February of a photograph of an officer posing with a riot suspect as the agency sought an arrest warrant using the suspect’s social media posts.
    ……….
    The Capitol Police officer said the suspect appeared to be an “alpha male” leading a group of Trump supporters inside the Capitol, so he approached him. “I specifically took the picture so I can refer to that guy,” the officer told investigators.

    But the internal investigation noted that the officer did not use his own phone to take the photo or obtain any of the suspect’s information if that was his goal. “I didn ‘t want to know the guy,” the officer said, according to the documents.

    Investigators found the officer had committed “conduct unbecoming,” which is also the accusation against two other officers who allegedly posed for photos.

    One of those officers facing disciplinary action was filmed posing for photos with multiple rioters, the investigation found.
    ……….
    In addition to the cases of unbecoming conduct, a special agent in the department’s Protective Services Bureau faces disciplinary action on an allegation of improper dissemination of information

    The allegation stems from a conversation the officer had with a friend the week after the riot in which he allegedly revealed information about the secure location he helped evacuate lawmakers to during the riot.
    ……….

    Rip Murdock (cef237)

  64. Comparative Effectiveness of Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, and Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) Vaccines in Preventing COVID-19 Hospitalizations Among Adults Without Immunocompromising Conditions — United States, March–August 2021
    ……..
    Two-dose regimens of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccines provided a high level of protection against COVID-19 hospitalizations in a real-world evaluation at 21 U.S. hospitals during March–August 2021. Vaccine effectiveness (VE) against COVID-19 hospitalization for Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines was 93% and 88%, respectively, whereas the single-dose Janssen vaccine had somewhat lower VE at 71%. Persons vaccinated with Janssen vaccine also had lower postvaccination anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels than did recipients of mRNA vaccines. Although an immunologic correlate of protection has not been established for COVID-19 vaccines, antibody titers after infection and vaccination have been associated with protection. These real-world data suggest that the 2-dose Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine regimens provide more protection than does the 1-dose Janssen viral vector vaccine regimen. Although the Janssen vaccine had lower observed VE, 1 dose of Janssen vaccine still reduced risk for COVID-19–associated hospitalization by 71%.

    VE against COVID-19 hospitalization was slightly lower for the 2-dose Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine than the Moderna vaccine, with this difference driven by a decline in VE after 120 days for the Pfizer-BioNTech but not the Moderna vaccine. The Moderna vaccine also produced higher postvaccination anti- RBD antibody levels than did the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

    Differences in VE between the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine might be due to higher mRNA content in the Moderna vaccine, differences in timing between doses (3 weeks for Pfizer-BioNTech versus 4 weeks for Moderna), or possible differences between groups that received each vaccine that were not accounted for in the analysis.

    The findings in this report are subject to at least six limitations. First, this analysis did not consider children, immunocompro- mised adults, or VE against COVID-19 that did not result in hospitalization. Second, the confidence intervals for the Janssen VE estimates were wide because of the relatively small number of patients who received this vaccine. Third, follow-up time was limited to approximately 29 weeks since receipt of full vaccination, and further surveillance of VE over time is warranted. Fourth, although VE estimates were adjusted for relevant potential confounders, residual confounding is possible. Fifth, product-specific VE by variant, including against Delta variants (B.1.617.2 and AY sublineages), was not evaluated. Finally, antibody levels were measured at only a single time point 2–6 weeks after vaccination and changes in antibody response over time as well as cell-mediated immune responses were not assessed.
    …………
    Footnotes removed.

    Rip Murdock (cef237)

  65. @66, that was a very even-handed piece at the Dispatch…..and a lot of fair comments in the comment section. There’s still a question of quantifiability. Someone can claim that they got Covid in January and are now naturally immune. The argument is strengthened if they have an actual positive test….since people can still get sick without it being Covid. Second, there’s clear debate over how long natural (or acquired) immunity lasts….and whether that duration is consistent across a population. Third, the risk from vaccination needs to be put into perspective. Some will list heart damage and strokes as possible side effects. That’s fair but should be quantifiable after 5 billion world-wide shots. Fourth, immunity likely wanes both for the vaccinated and those that have acquired anti-bodies from previous infection. So it does seem more fair to have everyone get an anti-body test to prove immunity vice only assuming immunity for those vaccinated. But that will require blood draws, processing, and significant cost. Who pays?

    The vaccine isn’t doing something radical. It is just stimulating the immune system to produce anti-bodies. Obviously for people with medical conditions where this is problematic, they need to be identified and protected otherwise. My sense is that the side effects of vaccination are quite a bit less probable than getting covid and having bad symptoms….but I don’t have an easily digestible study that breaks that down…or breaks it down by population demographics. At this point does it make more or less sense for someone who believes that they achieved natural immunity to hope it continues or to boost it with the vaccination? I would go with the latter….but I also believe that one should also be allowed to prove natural immunity if one wants to avoid a legal mandate. The challenge is that we have at best probabilities….no certitude….but with death rates still at unacceptable levels, we shouldn’t just give up and open the door to more variants that will sacrifice the gains that we have made. Don’t let politics corrupt the decision-making process…..

    AJ_Liberty (a4ff25)

  66. I’m less interested in Macron’s whiny reaction to AUKUS and more interested in China’s, which was more subdued but also had more veiled threat.

    Zhao said the three countries “should abandon the obsolete cold war zero sum mentality and narrow-minded geopolitical concepts and respect regional people’s aspiration and do more that is conducive to regional peace and stability and development – otherwise they will only end up hurting their own interests”.

    Earlier, when asked for his response to the Aukus announcement, the Chinese embassy spokesperson in the US, Liu Pengyu, said countries “should not build exclusionary blocs targeting or harming the interests of third parties. In particular, they should shake off their cold war mentality and ideological prejudice”.

    If this puts us on confrontational footing with the Xi regime, so be it. F-ck ’em.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  67. Under G.O.P. Pressure, Tech Giants Are Empowered by Election Agency
    When Twitter decided briefly last fall to block users from posting links to an article about Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s son Hunter, it prompted a conservative outcry that Big Tech was improperly aiding Mr. Biden’s presidential campaign.
    ……….
    Now the [Federal Election Commission], which oversees election laws, has dismissed those allegations, according to a document obtained by The New York Times, ruling in Twitter’s favor in a decision that is likely to set a precedent for future cases involving social media sites and federal campaigns.
    ……….
    And in a second case involving a social media platform, the commission used the same reasoning to side with Snapchat and reject a complaint from the Trump campaign. The campaign had argued that the company provided an improper gift to Mr. Biden by rejecting Mr. Trump from its Discover platform in the summer of 2020, according to another commission document.
    ……….
    The Federal Election Commission said in both cases that the companies had acted in their own commercial interests, according to the “factual and legal analysis” provided to the parties involved. The commission also said that Twitter had followed existing policies related to hacked materials.

    The rulings appear to provide social media companies additional protections for making decisions on moderating content related to elections — as long as such choices are in service of a company’s commercial interests. …….
    ……..
    …….. [T]he Republican National Committee’s complaint stretched the boundaries of campaign finance law, [said Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, a law professor at Stetson University]. “The choice to delete or suppress certain content on the platform is ultimately going to be viewed through the lens of the First Amendment,” Ms. Torres-Spelliscy said. “I don’t think that type of content moderation by the big platforms is going to raise a campaign finance issue.”
    ……….
    In addition to rejecting the R.N.C. complaint, the commission dismissed other allegations that Twitter had violated election laws by “shadow banning” Republican users (or appearing to limit the visibility of their posts without providing an explanation); suppressing other anti-Biden content; and labeling Mr. Trump’s tweets with warnings about their accuracy. The commission rejected those accusations, writing that they were “vague, speculative and unsupported by the available information.”
    ……..
    Emma Vaughn, an R.N.C. spokeswoman, said the committee was “weighing its options for appealing this disappointing decision from the F.E.C.” Liz Harrington, a spokeswoman for Mr. Trump, said on Tuesday that “Big Tech is corrupt” and accused it of interfering in the 2020 election to protect Mr. Biden.
    ……….
    The election commission said it found “no information that Twitter coordinated” its decisions with the Biden campaign. In a sworn declaration, Twitter’s head of U.S. public policy said she was unaware of any contacts with the Biden team before the company made its decisions, according to the commission document.
    ………..
    Related:
    The FEC unanimously rejected Matt Gaetz’s complaint against Twitter over an alleged 2018 ‘shadow ban’

    Republican FEC Commissioners: Twitter Entitled to Press Exemption for Excluding NY Post Content on Hunter Biden

    Rip Murdock (cef237)

  68. W.Va. Gov. frustrated over vaccination rate: ‘We just are going to keep lining the body bags up’
    ……….
    [West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R)] made the comments during a COVID-19 news briefing on Friday, during which he implored West Virginians to get vaccinated. He said that 74 people had died in the state since Wednesday.
    ………
    “And they’ll keep dying. That’s all there is to it,” he continued. “We just are going to keep lining the body bags up, and we’re going to line them up and line them up.”
    ……….
    According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 40.1 percent of the Mountain State’s total population has been fully vaccinated. The state lags behind the nation’s total vaccination rate of 54.4 percent.

    Justice said he doesn’t think that vaccines should be mandated. ……..

    “At the end of the day, we’re going to do one of two things,” Justice said.

    “We’re going to run to the fire and get vaccinated right now. Or we’re going to pile the body bags up until we reach a point in time to where we have enough people that have natural immunities and enough people that are vaccinated,” he said. “Now, that’s all there is to it. I would really highly encourage you to get vaccinated.”
    >>>>>>>>

    Rip Murdock (cef237)

  69. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10002531/North-Carolina-judges-strike-state-s-voter-ID-law.html

    Leftist partisans masquerading in black robes scream racism and try and destroy voter integrity because it hurts leftist election chances.

    NJRob (10777c)

  70. NSFW, due to language, but properly shows the mindset of the modern day segregationist in NYC

    Black, white purple. Who the F cares. No vaccine, no service. As I’ve said before, we went through this when they started banning smoking in elevators, hospitals and grocery stores. All the whining about FREEDOM, disregarding the freedom of everyone else.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  71. the life-saving treatment at hospitals was the cause of many recent coronavirus deaths

    I cannot begin to tell you the number of people who have been killed by amoxycillin, chemotherapy and/or bypass surgeries. And did you know that hospitals and hospices are the most likely places to die?!

    Avoid all of this! Doctors kill!

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  72. It’s past high noon in Washington DC. Do you know where your rally is?

    nk (1d9030)

  73. Now that the recall is over:

    Gavin Newsom signs two bills aimed single family house neighborhoods

    Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday signed two bills meant to make it easier to build more housing in California.

    The first, Senate Bill 9, makes it possible to build more than one housing unit on land that was previously designated for only one unit. The second, SB 10, allows for denser development near public transit corridors, such as bus and train lines.

    Simply put, SB 9 would give many homeowners in single-family zones the right to divide their lots into two and build up to three additional homes on them, essentially turning a single-unit lot into a four-unit lot.

    That’s a noticeable shift from current law, which allows up to two large units — a house and an accessory dwelling unit — per single-family lot.

    ..,

    SB 10 does not mandate any changes in local land use. Instead, it enables local governments to change their zoning rules much more quickly to allow housing developments with up to 10 units if they’re located in areas well-served by mass transit or in urban areas that are already largely zoned for residential use.

    Local governments already have the power to make that sort of change in their zoning, but because the process is covered by the California Environmental Quality Act, it’s costly and takes years to complete. SB 10 allows such changes to be made without triggering a CEQA review.

    This has been an issue for some time in CA, with advocates for infill building in urban areas [read: developers] at war with long-standing communities of single-family housing. The developers seem to have won a big battle, going so far as to remove some environmental laws that allowed opponents to challenge their plans.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  74. It’s past high noon in Washington DC.

    Do you know where the citizens you fear are? Not a good look for a constitutional republic.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  75. 79… hence the rise in institutional and other investors scarfing up single family homes in the resale market.

    Colonel Haiku (a28946)

  76. @80-

    Do you know where the citizens you fear are? Not a good look for a constitutional republic.

    Hopefully in jail awaiting trial. The “rally” is in support of those who on 1/6 “actually assaulted police officers and broke through windows, doors, and barricades, and those who aided, conspired with, planned, or coordinated such actions ……, “ which the standard the courts are using to deny bail to the most egregious insurrectionists.

    See here for the link.

    Rip Murdock (cef237)

  77. Update to item 2:

    Three arrested for allegedly assaulting NYC hostess who asked for COVID-19 vaccine proof
    Three women have been arrested and charged for allegedly assaulting a New York City restaurant hostess after she asked the group to provide proof of vaccination against COVID-19 under the city’s new vaccine mandate for indoor public spaces.
    ……..
    “The individuals struck (the 24-year old hostess) multiple times with closed fists,” police added, noting that the hostess “suffered bruises and scratches to her face, chest and arm” and that her necklace broke during the altercation.
    ……..
    The NYPD added that it had arrested and charged three women from Texas in connection with the incident: 44-year-old Kaeita Nkeenge Rankin, 21-year-old Tyonnie Keshay Rankin and 49-year-old Sally Rechelle Lewis.

    Each of the women has been charged with assault and criminal mischief, police said.
    ……..
    The accused must have collectively out weighed the victim by 300 pounds.

    Not sure why NJRob thinks this has anything to do with segregation. It would be like blaming Texas for the assault.

    Rip Murdock (cef237)

  78. Kaeita Nkeenge Rankin, 21-year-old Tyonnie Keshay Rankin and 49-year-old Sally Rechelle Lewis.

    Sally? What kind of a name is Sally?

    nk (1d9030)

  79. @83, see 76

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  80. Sally? What kind of a name is Sally?

    Obviously a slave name.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  81. Do you know where the citizens you fear are?

    The Pentagon.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  82. No vaccine, no service. As I’ve said before, we went through this when they started banning smoking in elevators, hospitals and grocery stores. All the whining about FREEDOM, disregarding the freedom of everyone else.

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 9/18/2021 @ 9:26 am

    Sounds just like what the Jim Crow supporters sounded like.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  83. Capitol walled off to citizens; border wide open to illegals.

    Storm. The. Castle.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  84. Dont forget Fort Meade, Fort Detrick, and Langley.

    Rip Murdock (cef237)

  85. Rip Murdock (cef237) — 9/18/2021 @ 10:28 am

    Disparate impact. Hoist on your own petard.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  86. @90. ‘Dont forget Fort Meade, Fort Detrick, and Langley.’

    “Our fathers came across the prairies, fought Indians, fought drought, fought locusts, fought Dix. Remember when Richard Dix came in here and tried to take over this town? ”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cuy2cOGFfl0

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  87. Disparate impact. Hoist on your own petard.

    NJRob (eb56c3) — 9/18/2021 @ 10:42 am

    Not sure why my petard is involved, in the video one of accused was close to showing hers. I’d love to see them use disparate impact as a defense at trial. Oh, wait, they were caught on video.

    Rip Murdock (cef237)

  88. The Leftist Lincoln Project just came out with another ad attacking Governor Abbott.

    No surprise considering their agenda.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  89. Rip,

    considering the incident I posted has nothing to do with the incident you’re trying to link me to, you’re trolling.

    But the leftist courts have thrown out countless laws due to disparate impact. They can easily do the same for these NOT laws.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  90. Rip,

    considering the incident I posted has nothing to do with the incident you’re trying to link me to, you’re trolling.
    ……..

    Sorry, I misinterpreted your initial post. My bad.

    Rip Murdock (cef237)

  91. Pentagon Asks Public for Suggestions on Renaming Bases That Honor Confederate Soldiers
    ……..
    The Defense Department’s commission created earlier this year to look into renaming bases launched a new website Monday and is asking “interested citizens” for recommendations and suggestions as it faces an Oct. 1 deadline to brief Congress on its progress.
    …….
    The Naming Commission declined to comment on its progress Monday. The October briefing deadline was set by the defense authorization bill passed into law on New Year’s Day over then-President Donald Trump’s veto.

    Trump said his administration wouldn’t even consider scrubbing Confederate names from bases and called it tampering with history. But an overpowering bipartisan Capitol Hill consensus deemed the names a relic of past racism and discrimination and lawmakers overrode the veto in a major rebuke.
    ……..
    The Naming Commission faces a much more important deadline next year. Congress has asked that the eight-member panel provide a list of military assets to be renamed or removed and report back on how much the effort will cost by Oct. 1, 2022.
    ……..
    The list of assets to be renamed could number in the dozens, or even hundreds, and includes “any base, installation, street, building, facility, aircraft, ship, plane, weapon, equipment, or any other property owned or controlled” by the Defense Department, according to the legislation.

    [Retired Adm. Michelle Howard, Commission chair] announced in May that the commission would begin by focusing on 10 military bases, including Bragg, Benning, and Hood, each named after men who fought for the Confederacy. The other bases are Fort Rucker, Alabama; Fort Gordon, Georgia; Fort Polk, Louisiana; and four locations in Virginia, including Fort A.P. Hill, Fort Belvoir, Fort Lee and Fort Pickett.
    ………

    Rip Murdock (cef237)

  92. AOC’s ‘Tax the Rich’ dress designer Aurora James owes tax debt in multiple states

    Multi-year liens from both state and federal tax collectors plus withholding taxes from employees’ paychecks but not forwarding to govt.

    Plus: “While James apparently has no problem stiffing the Taxman, she isn’t shy about taking money from taxpayers — her company received $41,666 in pandemic relief aid.”

    https://nypost.com/2021/09/18/aocs-tax-the-rich-dress-designer-aurora-james-is-a-tax-deadbeat/

    Obudman (4c6cec)

  93. No hyperbole there.

    Likewise this gem of reasonableness from the same MAGA patriot: “Biden [is] trying to murder Americans so he can blame the governor of Florida”

    I always thought it was absurd to say that TFG “murdered” the hundreds of thousands of people who died of Covid under his watch, though I’m fairly certain that he was never much concerned about the deaths except insofar as they affected his reelection chances.

    I also believe that the governor of Florida has demonstrated less concern about preventing serious illness and death among his constituents than about courting political favor among those who have chosen to view Covid as a leftist plot. For political reasons, DeSantis has essentially sided with the anti-vaxxers, so Florida has a lot of gravely ill people in its hospitals, which is why it’s been using such a large share of available monoclonal antibodies.

    Just seven states — Florida, Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana — have accounted for 70% of orders, CNN reported.

    “Given this reality, we must work to ensure our supply of these life-saving therapies remains available for all states and territories, not just some,” the HHS spokesperson said.

    HHS will allocate the therapeutics to states and territories each week, rather than have administration sites order them directly.

    One of the manufacturers, Regeneron, announced that the U.S. government has contracted with the company for 1.4 million additional doses, making a total of 3 million doses ordered.
    ………
    The United States is paying Regeneron $2,100 per dose, which the government is then providing to patients at no cost.

    So: the administration is purchasing more monoclonal antibody treatments, and providing them to patients at no cost, and trying to make sure they are available across the country and the supply isn’t monopolized by the states whose populations have been most resolute in refusing to get vaccinated.

    It takes a special kind of cynicism to read that as Biden trying to “murder” Floridians so he can blame the governor who has openly opposed measures to slow the spread of Covid.

    Radegunda (33a224)

  94. Radegunda,

    You’re making excuses for Biden deliberately trying to kill Floridians. How far have you gone?

    NJRob (52d440)

  95. “You’re making excuses for Biden deliberately trying to kill Floridians.”

    You’re ridiculous.

    Davethulhu (017f04)

  96. #58

    Outside of this forum and the fevered left media, Liz Cheney isn’t considered a prinicpled person. Outside of this forum and amongst the 70% of Wyoming voters who chose Trump are some of the most principled people you will ever meet. This is a great place to gather and sniff down the nose at people from Wyoming who told Cheney “We elected you to represent us. If you don’t want to, be principled and resign” as if we are their betters.

    https://spectatorworld.com/topic/liz-cheney-imperiled-wyoming-harriet-hageman/

    “In brief, Liz Cheney is not Wyoming and never has been, even when it elected her to the House in 2016 owing chiefly to her party affiliation and incumbency. As for the lady herself, it is clear that she chose to run for US Senate in Wyoming in 2014, two years after purchasing a house in Jackson, precisely because she supposed its small population and social homogeneity made it an easy political base to seize and to hold — also because she assumed her absence would go unnoticed were she to spend scarce time in the state while amassing greater power and influence for herself in the Capitol.

    This explains why it appears to have been so easy for Liz Cheney to choose the Swamp over President Trump and her constituents. Wyoming has always been, to her, a small and remote Western butte in a vast desert, a stepping-stone up to the Magic Mountain on the Eastern Coast.”

    steveg (e81d76)

  97. You’re making excuses for Biden deliberately trying to kill Floridians.

    No hyperbole there either.
    Monoclonal antibody treatments are no substitute for vaccines.
    DeSantis hasn’t been anti-vax, but he could be described as anti-vax adjacent, and it is the un-vaxxed who are doing most of the dying in this current wave.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  98. This explains why it appears to have been so easy for Liz Cheney to choose the Swamp over President Trump and her constituents.

    I could swear that Cheney chose the Constitution and the rule of law–not this “swamp”–over Trump. And last I checked, she didn’t swear an oath to the big orange toad.

    “I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.”

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  99. @102, steveg, are you arguing that the great people of Wyoming are collectively not smart enough to see through Trump’s claim of an election steal….and that they see nothing wrong with Trump fomenting outrage that culminated in a siege of the Capitol…..where Trump failed to intervene or even convincingly condemn? You may be right that Wyoming may have had its integrity compromised….and they really just want to fluff Trump….and double down on incompetency, lawlessness, and manufactured drama. Maybe it’s already ordained….but I’ll hold out that Wyoming wants better than cowardice and Trump worship….at least they should

    AJ_Liberty (a4ff25)

  100. “Outside of this forum and amongst the 70% of Wyoming voters who chose Trump are some of the most principled people you will ever meet. ”

    What principle is being expressed here?

    Wyoming officials are facing mounting pressure to audit the 2020 election from pro-Trump activists asserting, without evidence, that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from the former president through widespread voter fraud.

    Activists across the state have flooded state lawmakers’ inboxes and voicemails with demands to investigate the state’s elections. These calls align with partisan efforts to relitigate election results in swing states like Arizona, Pennsylvania and Georgia.

    Davethulhu (017f04)

  101. You’re making excuses for Biden deliberately trying to kill Floridians.

    That is an utterly bizarre reading of what I said and what is actually happening. I’ve been accused of having a deranged hatred for TFG (your idol), but accusing Biden of deliberate murder is far worse than anything I have ever said about TFG, who is much more openly self-serving.

    Biden has nothing to gain politically from a higher number of deaths in Florida. If he wanted more deaths in red states, he wouldn’t be pushing vaccination.

    The administration is making more monoclonal antibody treatments available nationwide. Why do you prefer 1) a lower supply; and 2) hogging of the market by the states that are the most vaccine-resistant? Don’t the people outside AMGA-land matter?
    You are making excuses for the people who are discouraging others from taking the simple measures that would reduce their chances of dying or needing to be hospitalized to a tiny fraction of what it otherwise would be.

    Unvaccinated people accounted for 98% of COVID-related hospitalizations from June through August, costing billions of dollars, according to “conservative estimates of costs” from the Kaiser Family Foundation. KFF came up with the estimate using federal data that shows the average Medicare fee-for-service costs for treating COVID-19 in hospitals at about $24,033.

    About 81% of ICU beds are now occupied by coronavirus patients, and roughly 44,000 patients are being treated for conditions other than COVID-19.

    (That’s from that infamous leftist rag, the Washington Examiner.) Is maintaining a political narrative really worth the price of so much avoidable sickness?

    Radegunda (33a224)

  102. Radegunda,

    The supplier Regeneron said they can make enough as is needed.

    Biden deliberately took away the treatment from Florida to hold for potential future use at the expense of treating those who are currently ill.

    But you’ll make any excuse for your dear leader because you chose him over the Bad Orange Man.

    Now you love Big Brother.

    NJRob (02bc9c)

  103. “Outside of this forum and amongst the 70% of Wyoming voters who chose Trump are some of the most principled people you will ever meet.”

    Do you mean the people who have used muh principles as a term of scorn for all their former allies who still believe what they used to believe instead of going with “Trump is always right and always good and the people who criticize him are traitors”?

    The stories of Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Anthony Gonzalez, Brad Raffensberger, et al. demonstrate that a large segment of the GOP has subordinated all principles and issues to the lodestar of “Does it serve Donald Trump?”

    Radegunda (33a224)

  104. Here’s the Washington Post scorecard for those willing to face reality, when they compare how the states have coped with COVID.

    Anyone who can read a simple graph can see that some states began very badly — New York and Massachusetts, for example — but have since improved greatly. And, anyone who can read a simple graph, can see that some states — Hawaii and Vermont, for example — have done comparatively well all through the pandemic.

    An honest person looking at that data — and knowing nothing else — will suspect that states with fewer deaths per capita probably did more things right than other states, and that their leaders may deserve some credit.

    And an honest person looking at that data — and knowing nothing else — will wonder why some states, for example, Florida and Texas — seem not to have learned from experience.

    A dishonest partisan will either ignore the data, or use it very selectively. And then search for anything they can find to support the conclusion they had already come to — before looking at the data. (They may not be lying intentionally — but we often first deceive ourselves, before going on to deceive others.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  105. Apparently the DC Entrapment Festival was a huge fail.

    Maybe they should have called the FBI Kidnap-A-Governor helpline.

    Obudman (4c6cec)

  106. But you’ll make any excuse for your dear leader because you chose him over the Bad Orange Man.

    Rubbish. You have no idea whom (if anyone) I voted for. I don’t see Biden as “dear leader” by any stretch. I’m critical of him on many grounds, as I was many years ago.

    But it’s deeply cynical to claim that he is deliberately trying to murder Floridians — and it’s nasty to accuse me of making excuses for murder.

    And it’s rather ironic then to bring in the silly “Bad Orange Man” meme, which has always been a way of suggesting that any criticism of the orange man is just a product of blind hatred and that it marks the critic as a bad person. But I have never lobbed such as vicious accusation against Trump as you have thrown at Biden.

    Radegunda (33a224)

  107. Biden deliberately took away the treatment from Florida to hold for potential future use at the expense of treating those who are currently ill.

    Quote:

    Florida is one of a group of seven states that have received 70 percent of orders for monoclonal antibody treatments. The others are Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas and Louisiana.

    Rob, why should those seven states get preferential treatment, leaving the other 43 states in our Union with only 30% of the supply? Here’s a better idea than squabbling over MABs: Get the damn vax.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  108. I could swear that Cheney chose the Constitution and the rule of law–not this “swamp”–over Trump. And last I checked, she didn’t swear an oath to the big orange toad.

    … “but her heart belongs to Daddy.”

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  109. What exactly did the federal government decide about the distribution of monoclonal antibodies? This article in Fortune provides an answer:

    Under the new distribution mechanism, the largest shipments will be sent to Florida, Texas, Georgia, and Mississippi this week, according to data provided in the government announcement.

    The U.S. will deliver 18% of its allocation of therapies through next Tuesday to Florida, and 13% to Texas. Meanwhile, more than 30 states and territories will each respectively receive less than 1% of the supply. Vermont, where vaccination rates are high and cases are low, will be allocated less than 0.1%.

    HHS made the shift “to allow for a more consistent supply of [monoclonal antibodies] that is responsive to cases and utilization in all geographic areas of the country,” a spokesperson said.

    So Florida is getting by far the largest share. Two other points to note: The shipments are up 50 percent since the beginning of August, and some critics think this allocation is unfair to states that have high vaccination rates.

    (You can decide for yourselves whether these facts are consistent with the hyperbolic claims NJRobb linked to.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  110. Dishonest people are often willing to misrepresent “In pursuit of “A” I’m willing to Risk or accept “B” as a possible consequence.” As “They want B”.

    It’s annoying and in bad faith.

    Time123 (e2f207)

  111. “but her heart belongs to Daddy.”

    Simple memes for simple minds

    AJ_Liberty (a4ff25)

  112. #114 It is probably unaware of this, but most of the rest of you know that among the Ten Commandments is: “Honour thy father and thy mother”.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  113. @117. Shorter: Reaganoptics.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  114. If you know anything about real estate, you’ll be interested in this story:

    In August 2021, the Financial Times reported that Evergrande Group is facing a record number of cases filed by contractors in Chinese courts as pressure mounts on the company’s management to reduce its $300bn in liabilities, including around $100bn in debts.[8][9][10]

    In mid-September 2021 it was reported that the company was in danger of being unable to issue payments on loan interest due on 20 September.[11][12] It was estimated that around 1,500,000 customers could lose deposits on Evergrande homes that have yet to be built if the company goes under.

    (I had never heard of the company before this news, so I have no opinion on it — other than thinking it interesting — and, possibly, extremely important.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  115. Do you know where the citizens you fear are?

    You’re right but not in the way that you mean. Trumpcakes possess enough of a low animal cunning to realize that this was only going to make their orange rat**k look bad. To remind people that he fomented the Capitol invasion and then left the short buses high and dry, rotting in jail, while he plays golf and jerks off in Mar a Lago.

    nk (1d9030)

  116. @118. Ten, Jimbo??????

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZA2mBntrHk

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  117. Sounds just like what the Jim Crow supporters sounded like.

    Yeah, except for the choice part. People who haven’t been vaccinated are that way by stubborn choice. So, smokers or the shirtless are good analogy where ethnic groups are not.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  118. I’m going to get a mask that says: “Get vaccinated and I can take this off”

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  119. I’d have to get in your face to be able to read it. Come on over.

    mg (8cbc69)

  120. Inspiration4 is down safe.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  121. Yeah, except for the choice part. People who haven’t been vaccinated are that way by stubborn choice. So, smokers or the shirtless are good analogy where ethnic groups are not.

    “But fat people totally can’t control their own choices.”

    I’m going to get a mask that says: “Get vaccinated and I can take this off”

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 9/18/2021 @ 3:37 pm

    I’m going to get one that says: “You have to wear this mask because your “vaccine” is dead after 6-8 months.”

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  122. mg, some day I’m gonna buy you a drink.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  123. Splashdown.

    Congrats to SpaceX on bringing the can of spam home.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  124. “But fat people totally can’t control their own choices.”

    Some can, some can’t. A 20yo fat person probably has more choice that a 60yo who’s been slim their entire life until their body changed.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  125. I cannot tell you how much I envy those kids.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  126. I’m going to get a mask that says: “Get vaccinated and I can take this off”

    A bra would be more marketable, Kevin.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  127. Some can, some can’t. A 20yo fat person probably has more choice that a 60yo who’s been slim their entire life until their body changed.

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 9/18/2021 @ 4:11 pm

    Or a 60yo who shoved fast food down their mouth for four decades.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  128. https://www.hagemanforwyoming.com/

    Hand that woman her light saber; she’s got a Daughter Darth to easily slay.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  129. Hardcore Galleries with hot Hardcore photos
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    zacharyif16 (1e7e04)

  130. Mr. VPN keeps getting his computers mixed up. This site is supposed to get the QAnon spam, Christoph!

    nk (1d9030)

  131. Or a 60yo who shoved fast food down their mouth for four decades.

    Or didn’t for 40 years and wonders why his solid diet doesn’t work like it did. The body stops working well after a while. There is no one at all over 60 who has an easy time of it, except for the liars.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  132. Hand that woman her light saber; she’s got a Daughter Darth to easily slay.

    Kornbluth was prescient. I bet she marches, too.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  133. Once in a while I’ll partake in one of these, Kevin M. https://wellbeingbrewing.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI8qz8od2J8wIVE-TICh1QewsAEAAYASAAEgK1YPD_BwE

    mg (8cbc69)

  134. States learning how many Afghan evacuees coming their way
    ………
    States with a historically large number of Afghans who resettled in the U.S. over the last 20 years — including California (5,200), Maryland (1,350) Texas (4,500) and Virginia (1,200)— are again welcoming a disproportionate number of evacuees, according to the data. Many gravitate to northern Virginia, the Maryland suburbs of D.C. and northern California — some of the most expensive housing markets in the country.

    Oklahoma, which over the course of the 20-year war had resettled a relatively small number of Afghans, is slated to resettle 1,800 new arrivals.
    ……….
    Some of the recent Afghan arrivals could also face a tough road ahead if Congress doesn’t take action to treat them as refugees arriving in the U.S.

    The Afghan evacuees are not currently eligible for food stamps, cash assistance through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program for low income families, Medicaid or other traditional refugee services that are funded through the Department of Health and Human Services.

    Currently, each Afghan evacuee is slated to receive $1,225 to help with rent, furniture and food and provide a small amount of pocket money. ……
    >>>>>>>>>>

    Rip Murdock (cef237)

  135. Looks good, mg.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  136. Currently, each Afghan evacuee is slated to receive $1,225 to help with rent, furniture and food and provide a small amount of pocket money.

    That would be a sick joke in Los Angeles.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  137. What could go wrong with that $1225?
    https://online.worldcasinodirectory.com/afghanistan

    mg (8cbc69)

  138. Kevin @ 79,

    This is really going to harm lower-income communities and communities of color. It’s the rich developer’s dream come true. The advocacy group, Housing is A Human Right pushed back against it in a big campaign – which apparently fell on deaf ears:

    SB 9 and SB 10 invite predatory developers into moderate- and lower-income neighborhoods, where properties will be less expensive to buy. Developers will then build pricey, market-rate apartments, luring affluent tenants, driving up rents, and gentrifying a once-affordable community. Long-time, less affluent tenants will be forced out of the neighborhood, unable to pay rising rents.

    In addition, SB 9 and SB 10 will destroy working-class communities of color that are rooted in homeownership — a key way to build wealth. Since properties in these neighborhoods will cost less than in more affluent communities, predatory developers will go where land is cheapest. They’ll demolish large swaths of single-family homes, construct over-priced apartments, and dramatically reduce single-family housing stock. Homeownership for working-class communities of color will become endangered — so will their ability to build wealth.

    In the end, SB 9 and SB 10 will turn more individuals, particularly people of color, into permanent renters. Not only will they be forced to live with sky-rocketing rents and struggle to build wealth, but SB 9 and SB 10 will trigger a massive transfer of wealth that benefits corporate landlords and major developers, who will likely be the primary owners of the apartments.

    SB 9 and SB 10 will inequitably and irreversibly turn single-family communities of color and middle- and lower-income neighborhoods throughout California into overbuilt, poorly planned, mostly rental communities with few local owners and insufficient infrastructure without due process, environmental review, or local voter input.

    What makes this so sadly funny is that, while the progressives are clapping themselves on the back for a job they believe will help the poor and minority communities in the state, they didn’t do their homework, given that the SB9 & 10’s passage will make it easier for the wealthy to take away the very stepping stones these communities need to get ahead.

    Dana (174549)

  139. Dana,

    I hold out no hope for low-income people remaining anywhere in the L.A. city limits going forward. You would have to outlaw selling property at market prices and outlaw maintenance and improvement.

    Once upon a time, Santa Monica was fairly cheap and a lot of old folks rented apartments there. Then it became possible to live there and work, and the money flowed in. They tried rent control, but landlords decided if they couldn’t raise the rent, they’d get people who could pay it without question and would fix things themselves.

    What this will do is turn SFH areas into 4-plexes and do nothing to make prices to come down. THe tide is going to come in anyway, more so when you can live anywhere and work anywhere. Why not live where it’s nice?

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  140. Inglewood will be majority white by 2030 and the only way to stop it is use racial covenants.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  141. More:

    Bay Area and San Diego legislators are leading an attack on single-family zoning, reintroducing failed 2020 bills renamed SB 10 and SB 9. Bay Area legislator Scott Wiener repeatedly alludes to homeowners as elitists protecting yards and perpetuating redlining. He does not represent large areas of Black or Latino homeowners, and his ill-informed views threaten to force invasive urban renewal and market-rate density on Southern California and other highly diverse parts of the state.

    In Los Angeles County alone, Black and Latino homeowners number in the millions and many have fought against redlining. Now, they must face developer-backed state legislators. In Greater L.A., 36 heavily Black, Latino/Black and Latino suburbs and urban areas house 1.4 million people, 45% of whom live in homes they own, the average ownership rate across L.A County.

    If SB 9 and SB 10 become law, Greater L.A.’s most diverse working-class and middle-class homeowner areas will face an existential threat from developers, speculators and rental giants.

    South L.A. has more than two dozen neighborhoods (L.A. Times “Mapping LA” data) with significant homeownership. The surrounding, highly diverse suburbs bring to at least 36 the number of cities and communities in Greater L.A. with substantial Black and Latino homeownership (L.A. Times “Mapping LA” Black Neighborhood List). As the below list is not exhaustive, the number is likely higher.

    There is simply nothing like this breadth of homeowner diversity in [Scott] Wiener’s district. In recent decades, market-rate density and low wages have driven many people of color out of San Francisco. Yet SoCal‘s vast Latino and Black homeowner areas are treated as non-existent by Wiener Inc. He slams homeowners as elites who take up space that Wiener thinks should contain 6-unit to10-unit market-rate rental projects without garages or yards for families. Few of the market-rate units produced by SB 9 and SB 10, if put on the market, would cost less than $620K. That’s the average price of homes sold in South L.A. in January of 2021 (Redfin).

    It should be noted that neither SB 9 or SB 10 stipulate that the units must include affordable housing. New units are at “market rate”. SB 10 does not require additional parking. It also permits a city government to overturn any zoning restrictions passed by voters. SB 9 does exempt historic districts.

    Scott Weiner (so aptly named) said when discussing the *need* for SB 9 & 10 that “single family zoning is immoral”…

    Dana (174549)

  142. Heard there was an entrapment party in d.c. and nobody showed.

    mg (8cbc69)

  143. Disparate impact. Hoist on your own petard.

    NJRob (eb56c3) — 9/18/2021 @ 10:42 am

    “Moron who believes in conspiracy theories” isn’t a protected class, nor should it be.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  144. I have yet to hear any valid reason for not getting a vaccine other than “I don’t want to.” I feel the same way about taxes, yet there is a mandate I pay them.

    In fact, I will have a Covid vaccine every year if it means I don’t have to pay any taxes. Just re-upped the flu shot today and finished the Shingrix.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  145. @148: People don’t realize that Southern California is ALL ABOUT single-family housing and that cuts across all racial and ethic groups. That is the entry card for the middle-class.

    If SB 9 and SB 10 become law

    They have. Look for pushback, like a repeal of all anti-mansionization ordinances. Makes no sense when they will build a 6-story apartment building anywhere they want.

    As for getting more housing, it will be like adding lanes to the freeway. People will rush in when they can and very soon it’s the same old same old.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  146. @151, I think if you get vaccinated it makes Nikki’s cousins friends balls swell up. But maybe I misunderstood the Fox News story.

    Time123 (e2f207)

  147. 15.

    Biden trying to murder Americans so he can blame the governor of Florida for not going along with his unconstitutional dictates.

    I don’t think Biden is informed enough to understand that;s what he’s doing, but Tampa General may be if they are not giving emergency patients monoclonal antibodies, but Gregg Prentice may have gone to a hospital too late in any case.

    If the Republicans in Tampa don’t think much of that hospital, why did he go there? Was there no other hospital?

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  148. I am happy to be living in a place where single-family housing is the plan and will be the plan for as long as I live. Maybe the tofu-eating, bike-riding, shower-avoiding, low-footprint kids will find their dorm-room housing the bomb, but I doubt it will satisfy them for long.

    I keep thinking that the CA Democrats will take it too far, and they keep on trucking. Maybe when they ban bacon.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  149. The NY Times runs a congratulatory piece about how Orange County is turning blue (it went 52-48 against the recall). You don’t have to read past the first sentence before you discover the cause:

    When Gail Grigaux first moved to Ladera Ranch in Orange County from the East Coast

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  150. Inglewood will be majority white by 2030 and the only way to stop it is use racial covenants.

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 9/18/2021 @ 5:35 pm

    In nine years? LOL.

    According to the most recent ACS, the racial composition of Inglewood was:

    Black or African American: 40.90%
    White: 27.87%
    Other race: 23.48%
    Two or more races: 4.11%
    Asian: 2.07%
    Native American: 1.08%
    Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander: 0.49%

    Rip Murdock (cef237)

  151. Source for #157.

    Rip Murdock (cef237)

  152. @156-

    Not just East Coasters The overall demographics of Orange County have changed over the years. Non-Hispanic Whites are a distinct minority:

    The racial makeup of Orange County (2018) was 1,830,758 (60.8%) White (44.0% non-Hispanic white), 50,744 (1.7%) African American, 18,132 (0.6%) Native American, 537,804 (17.9%) Asian, 9,354 (0.3%) Pacific Islander, 435,641 (14.5%) from other races, and 127,799 (4.2%) from two or more races.

    Rip Murdock (cef237)

  153. Inglewood could change demographics in 9 years.
    By inviting all of the sports into the community, they are inviting change.
    Change of this sort usually involves people with lots and lots of money waving it at people who would like to have more money than they currently enjoy.

    steveg (e81d76)

  154. Yes, Rip. In 2009, Inglewood was 5% white.

    It lies on the historic color line of La Cienega Blvd — a line that has long been only historic. On the other side is Westchester, where the average home is $1.45 million and climbing at double digits. Can’t afford that? Move south. Affluent blacks, btw, are moving into once-lily-white Westchester along with historically black Ladera Heights.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  155. This map illustrates that in order not to change, Inglewood has “non gentrification zones”

    https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/6d4b22ee0df64a87a21670eb2cfae810

    steveg (e81d76)

  156. Probably the only thing keeping people from moving to Inglewood is the LAX flight path.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  157. This map illustrates that in order not to change, Inglewood has “non gentrification zones”

    Racial barriers, no matter how many other words you try to throw in front of it. BUt the point I was making, way back when, was that the squeeze the state is putting on single-family housing means that what there is is all there will be and the prices will go up and up, and the buyers will have to go wide.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  158. Rip

    You do know that “other race” must include a lot of Hispanics (as well as some of the “whites”)
    Hispanics from Mexico tend to see rich white people as a nice sized trickle down business opportunity, some African Americans often resent both. This presents a dilemna for the African-Americans in local government. Its why you see African American local leaders actively lobbying for perceived Hispanic causes like open border style immigration, even though it hurts young African Americans seeking entry level employment

    steveg (e81d76)

  159. Or didn’t for 40 years and wonders why his solid diet doesn’t work like it did. The body stops working well after a while. There is no one at all over 60 who has an easy time of it, except for the liars.

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 9/18/2021 @ 4:54 pm

    Maybe, but the US didn’t get a 40% obesity rate (with a childhood obesity rate of 20%) because a bunch of skinny Boomers watched their body “suddenly stop working” after they approached and then sailed past AARP status.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  160. Probably the only thing keeping people from moving to Inglewood is the LAX flight path.

    Traffic. There are plans for a stadium there.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  161. Scott Weiner (so aptly named) said when discussing the *need* for SB 9 & 10 that “single family zoning is immoral”…

    Dana (174549) — 9/18/2021 @ 5:37 pm

    There’s the crux; Scott’s lying when he says that single family housing is immoral as a general principle. He’s just fine with it in his district, for instance. But he’s certainly not going to complain if he can convince a few cities full of left-liberal flagellants to bulldoze single family neighborhoods and erect IKEA-looking condos in the interests of turning them into behavioral sinks.

    That’s the whole motivation of people like him. They aren’t actually opposed to single family housing, or Confederate statues, or automobile transportation, or whatever scapegoat they happen to be attacking. They only oppose them because their socio-political enemies benefit from them, and forcing those people to live in an environment they don’t want to be in is a power-flex for his class.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  162. There are plans for a stadium there.

    There is already a stadium there-SoFi, home of the Rams and Chargers. A second will be built by Steve Ballmer for the Clippers.

    Rip Murdock (cef237)

  163. The racial makeup of Inglewood (2010 Census)was 55,449 (50.6%) Hispanics or Latinos (of any race), 48,165 (43.9%) African American, 25,563 (23.3%) White (2.9% Non-Hispanic White), 751 (0.7%) Native American, 1,484 (1.5%) Asian, 350 (0.3%) Pacific Islander, 28,860 (26.3%) from other races, and 4,502 (4.1%) from two or more races.

    Source

    Rip Murdock (cef237)

  164. Wyoming Football fans chant for Liz Cheney.
    https://twitter.com/i/status/1439324965967482887

    steveg (e81d76)

  165. Obviously the hispanic/white numbers are fuzzy

    steveg (e81d76)

  166. steveg (e81d76) — 9/18/2021 @ 7:37 pm

    We’re probably going to be hearing that chant a lot at games this season–not necessarily because these students will vote Republican, but because they know that doing so will aggravate a lot of self-righteous authority figures and mass media bobbleheads.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  167. Gov. Kemp claimed mandating a non-existent AIDS vaccine didn’t work

    In a podcast episode of the Erick Erickson Show uploaded this week, Gov. Brian Kemp stated his belief that people need to be educated on the COVID-19 vaccine instead of being mandated or bullied into taking it.

    “That is basically how the AIDS vaccine worked. People wouldn’t take it early on because it was mandated, they started educating people and now it is doing a lot of good out there,” Kemp told Erickson. “Same scenario, different year that we are dealing with right now.”

    According to HIV.gov – a website maintained by the U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services – there currently is no vaccine for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
    ………
    The governor has made references to an AIDS vaccine on at least two other occasions.

    On Sept. 4, 2020, Kemp held a press conference ahead of Labor Day weekend to discuss the spread of COVID-19, and he mentioned why he didn’t believe a statewide mask mandate would work.

    “Dr. Toomey and I have talked about this,” Kemp said. “She has said when you look back at trying to mandate somebody taking the AIDS vaccine, it doesn’t work.”
    ………
    WFXG quoted Kemp (during a visit in July to south Georgia) stating, “Well we are not going to have a statewide mask mandate. Dr. Toomey and I believe that they do not work. They did not work with the AIDs vaccine and they’re not going to work with the corona vaccine.”
    ……..
    Once is a mistake, three times is a pattern.

    Rip Murdock (cef237)

  168. Wyoming Football fans chant for Liz Cheney.

    She was going to vote against forgiveness of student debt anyway.

    nk (1d9030)

  169. I blame Raffensperger. If he had found those 12,000 votes for Trump, Kemp wouldn’t have to grovel to the Trumpcakes this way.

    nk (1d9030)

  170. @169. Know the area; lived in Playa Del Rey 12 years; friend sold house in Inglewood because of the new stadium plans, traffic patterns, construction etc., to be hell there.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  171. https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/572861-clinton-lawyers-indictment-reveals-bag-of-tricks

    Anyone who believed the Russian collusion claim is a fool. This lays out many of the dirty tricks Hillary and her team did to fool the willfully ignorant.

    NJRob (64f7c6)

  172. Did the most recent ACS encourage it’s respondents to classify race under the new 2020 Census guidelines? The 2020 ACS breakdowns for Inglewood CA as compared to 2010 Census read as though the Hispanics largely looked in the mirror and took a paper bag test.

    urbanleftbehind (c073c9)

  173. NJRob – And they fell for the old urinating hooker scam.
    Sophisticated believers.

    mg (8cbc69)

  174. Her best trick was getting Trump to fire the head of the FBI and then go on TV to tell the country he did it to stop the investigation. That one was great. Almost as good as using mind control to get a staffer to get drunk and brag about their contact with the Russians on the DNC leak to a foreign diplomat

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  175. Rob, we keep reliving this fiction that the Steele Report was the lodestar for the Mueller investigation. The investigation was initiated because of George Papadopoulos’ claim (as reported by a foreign government official) that the Russians were marketing to the Trump campaign the release of information that would be damaging to Hillary. With the Wikileaks release, the claim had to be investigated.

    And…there was an actual meeting between team Trump and Natalia Veselnitskaya in Trump Tower in June 2016, Paul Manafort was knee-deep in bed with the Russians and money laundering, Michael Cohen was working the Trump Tower Moscow deal that involved Russian banks and Russian moguls, Sessions was meeting with ambassador Kislyak, and midwestern poll data was shared with Konstantin Kilimnik. Oh and there was a proven Russian social-media and voting penetration operation to interfere in the election. Finally, add in the bizarre positions Trump was taking during the campaign defending Putin while his VP candidate was saying the opposite…..and any reasonable person would wonder….was there a side deal….was Trump compromised?

    Now nothing was proven….but that does not somehow wipe away the legitimate need for an investigation…..and does not excuse either the appearance of collusion and the multiple attempts at obstruction of justice…..the worst, in my estimation, being when Trump pressured Don McGahn to create a false document about efforts to fire Mueller. Outrageous. It staggers me to understand why people continue to shovel manure to protect this guy. Move on. Find someone ethical, experienced, disciplined, and knowledgeable to follow and support. We don’t need P. T. Barnum in the White House…no matter how unethical Hillary is and incompetent Joe is……

    AJ_Liberty (a4ff25)

  176. The Fruit of the Poisoned Mind…

    Colonel Haiku (a28946)

  177. AJ, Excellent summary. Reasonable and respectfully delivered.

    Time123 (e2f207)

  178. The Washington Post makes an important point:

    This weekend, Russia goes to the polls. Yet voters who hope to register their resistance to the ruling party, amid its efforts to restrict who can appear on the ballot, have been deprived of a crucial tool — because Apple and Google gave in to the bullies.

    The jailed opposition figure Alexei Navalny has been laboring for years to help citizens in specific jurisdictions unite their protest votes in favor of the candidate most likely to snag a seat from President Vladimir Putin’s party. The “Smart Voting” tool, supported by a smartphone app called “Navalny,” released its recommendations last week — but the government banned the project in June and labeled its organizers “extremists.” This label has been the justification for demanding that Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store remove the app for containing illegal content. The two companies resisted this draconian stricture until, finally on Friday, they didn’t.

    Armed men appearing at Google’s Moscow headquarters on Thursday may have had something to do with Google’s cave-in. And, I suppose, Apple’s.

    (This is an excellent opportunity for Trump, and Trumpistas, to show that they support free elections, even in Russia.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  179. #182 AJ – That is, indeed, an “excellent summary”. I would be interested in what you think of this stray thought: When the stories about the Steele dossier came out, I concluded that it consisted of what intelligence experts call “raw intelligence”. Analysts take raw intelligence and try to verify it — or disprove it — using other sources of information, many of them secret.

    Since I have no access to those sources, I saw no way I could judge how many of those stories were true. And so I ignored the dossier.

    That was annoying, but an adult has to recognize that there are many things they will never know.

    (I think a few journalists did try to assess the dossier, but I didn’t pay any attention to their articles, either.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  180. Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI): Dramatic Partisan Differences On Blame for January 6 Riots

    According to new data from PRRI, majorities of Americans say white supremacist groups (59%), former president Donald Trump (56%), and conservative media platforms that spread conspiracy theories and misinformation (55%) shoulder a lot of responsibility for the violent actions of the rioters who took over the U.S. Capitol on January 6. These views have stayed remarkably stable since mid-January, when 62% placed a lot of blame on white supremacist groups, 57% on Trump, and 57% on conservative media platforms that spread misinformation. There are not significant differences between these numbers and January data within subgroups, either.

    Additionally, about four in ten Americans put a lot of the blame for the Capitol riot on Republican leaders (41%), and 29% put a lot of the blame on white conservative Christian groups. Despite the lack of any credible evidence that substantial numbers of liberal or left-wing groups participated in the riot, 38% put a lot of blame on these groups.

    Republicans assign blame for the Capitol riots very differently from most Americans. About three in ten Republicans hold white supremacist groups (30%) and conservative media platforms that spread conspiracy theories and misinformation (27%) responsible for the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6. Only 15% of Republicans place a lot of blame on Donald Trump, and less than one in ten say Republican leaders (9%) and white conservative Christian groups (8%) hold a lot of responsibility for the Capitol riots. Strikingly, six in ten (61%) Republicans place a lot of responsibility for the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol on liberal or left-wing activists. Liberal activists are the only group a majority of Republicans say bear a lot of responsibility for this event.

    Republicans’ blame attributions vary by which media sources they trust most to provide accurate information about politics and current events.………
    ……….
    The vast majority of Democrats assign a lot of responsibility for the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6 to Donald Trump (89%), white supremacist groups (83%), conservative media platforms that spread conspiracy theories and misinformation (78%), and Republican leaders (70%). About half of Democrats say white conservative Christian groups (48%) hold a lot of blame, and nearly three in ten (27%) hold liberal or left-wing activists responsible.
    ……….
    White Christian groups are much less likely to blame right-leaning people or groups than other religious groups. White evangelical Protestants’ attitudes closely resemble those of Republicans……..
    ……….
    Donald Trump’s favorability ratings remain about the same as they were in January: 34% of Americans hold favorable views of the former president, while 64% hold unfavorable views of him, including a 51% majority of Americans who hold very unfavorable views of him. In January, 31% of Americans viewed Trump favorably and 67% unfavorably, with 54% who viewed him very unfavorably.
    ………..
    ……….. Among Americans who view Trump favorably, six in ten (60%) assign a lot of responsibility for the attack on the U.S. Capitol to liberal or left-wing activists.
    ………..
    About one-third of Americans agree that “President Trump is a true patriot” (34%), compared to 63% who disagree, including nearly half (49%) who completely disagree. These views have not changed since January 2021. ………

    Views of Trump as a true patriot are highly correlated with low blame attribution for the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6. Among those who view Trump as a true patriot, only 10% blame him for the attack on the Capitol, compared to 83% of those who disagree that Trump is a true patriot.
    ……….
    Less than three in ten Americans (29%) agree that “The 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump,” compared to 69% who disagree, including 58% who completely disagree. These views have remained stable since March 2021. But Republicans hold views that are far outliers compared to the opinions of other Americans. More than seven in ten Republicans (71%) report that they believe the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, compared to 23% of independents and only 5% of Democrats.
    ………
    Not surprisingly, given the goal of the January 6 rioters was to keep Trump in the White House, only 7% of Americans who agree that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump blame him a lot for the violence that took place that day, compared to 78% among those who disagree that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
    …………

    Rip Murdock (2c90e9)

  181. They’re doing the same “single family zoning is immoral” business in Seattle, and it’s ridiculous. If they want to solve their housing supply shortage problem, they can expand their urban village zones and leave the single family neighborhoods out of it. They can also change their height limits. But the city council socialists will do something that’s polarizing and, at the same time, do basically nothing to get the hobos off the streets.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  182. Three people were arrested for allegedly assaulting

    Since race wasn’t mentioned does that imply it wasn’t white people assaulting a Black restaurant hostess?

    Bias isn’t just what is reported, it’s also what isn’t reported.

    BillPasadena (5b0401)

  183. Cheney demoted, Gonzalez down, McConnell next.

    WASHINGTON— Mitch McConnell’s record-long reign as Senate Republican leader has lasted long enough for former President Donald Trump.

    Mr. Trump has spoken recently with senators and allies about trying to depose Mr. McConnell and whether any Republicans are interested in mounting a challenge, according to people familiar with the conversations. There is little appetite among Senate Republicans for such a plan, lawmakers and aides said, but the discussions risk driving a wedge deeper between the most influential figure in the Republican Party and its highest-ranking member in elected office.

    This is all about Trump’s ego, for McConnell not exhibiting satisfactory loyalty, for not going along with Trump’s Big Lie. His wanting to depose McConnell is not about winning back the Senate.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  184. Prediction: AZ Republicans will nominate an all-Trumpist slate next year and the Democrats will sweep the state.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  185. McConnell has been in charge of republican senators since 2006. No budget in his years of questionable service. Orange Man Bad. What sort of leader in all those years could not get his side in line to offer a budget with teeth. And a leader with that many years in office should have a tool in his box to get some help from the other side. Orange Man Bad. His wealth since becoming a hack has to be in the tens of millions. Orange Man Bad. Republicans are in on the take. Big Time.

    mg (8cbc69)

  186. Traffic. There are plans for a stadium there.

    Another one? There already two new ones in Inglewood (football, basketball) and the old one still stands. But “traffic” isn’t a localized phenomenon in Los Angeles County. The only decision one makes with respect to traffic is “how far is my home from work” (and “over 10 miles” is usually unacceptable).

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  187. UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies: Newsom holds big early leads in next year’s gubernatorial election
    ……….
    …….. The Governor leads Elder, who received by far the most votes in the recall election’s replacement ballot, by twenty­-two points, 52% to 30%, with 18% undecided. Newsom also holds a 22-point lead when paired against Faulconer, 49% to 27%, with 24% undecided.

    Newsom’s lead over Cox and Kiley expands to 25 points, with Newsom leading Cox 51% to 26%, and 50% to 25% when paired against Kiley.
    ……….
    Voter preferences are highly partisan, with about eight in ten Democrats backing the Governor in each pairing, while large majorities of Republicans are backing each of the GOP candidates. Newsom also leads over each of the Republicans among No Party Preference voters by solid two-to-one margins, although relatively large proportions are undecided.
    ……..
    The findings show that the Governor’s early lead over Elder is broad-based and spans most major voting blocs, with Newsom holding large double-digit margins among voters across all major age, gender, racial and ethnic voter segments.
    ……..
    By contrast, the state’s conservatives, as well as those who backed President Trump’s re­election bid in 2020, favor Elder by wide margins.

    Elder also holds narrow leads or is competitive with Newsom among voters in several of the state’s more Republican-leaning areas, including the North Coast/Sierras region, the San Joaquin Valley, Orange County, the Inland Empire, and the Sacramento/North Valley region.
    ……….
    While Elder currently has 47% of replacement candidate vote, it is 47% of a far fewer number of voters that voted on the recall question, so the two are not directly comparable. So far, 10.5 million votes have been counted in the recall question race, while somewhere around 6 million voters selected a replacement candidate. Currently the “no” vote is at 63.4%, slightly higher than Newsom’s electoral percentage in 2018.

    Only 261 days until the June 7, 2022 primary! The good news is I won’t be posting any more polls like this until next year. 🤞😏

    Rip Murdock (2c90e9)

  188. #107

    They just want to make sure that the Denver to Laramie corridor stays free of Democrat vote corruption. Is prudence a principle or a virtue?

    One can Google Liz Cheney and the Constitution and boy is she pounding that drum.
    Its very kind of people to ascribe this to virtue.

    The people of Wyoming seem to have come to the conclusion that the impeachment was biased, unfair and the decision by Cheney was personal politics. She is claiming her decisions were based on following the Constitution and the people of Wyoming don’t believe her.
    Same goes for the other GOP reps touted. They chose Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi’s version and their constituents did not. It is unprincipled to use the the Constitution for cover when you really just don’t like someone personally.

    I think the FBI was unprincipled in how they handled the “pee tape”. The upper crust clearly didn’t like Trump and they twisted themselves into paragons of virtue standing against the barbarian when in reality they were humans who disliked someone, who held different beliefs and were too dishonest to say so.

    steveg (e81d76)

  189. Since race wasn’t mentioned does that imply it wasn’t white people assaulting a Black restaurant hostess?

    Bias isn’t just what is reported, it’s also what isn’t reported.

    Since video of the assault accompanied the article, seemed rather obvious that it was three black women assaulting a white woman.

    Rip Murdock (2c90e9)

  190. @170:

    You’re right, Rip. The 5% figure (on the same page) is asserted to be from 2009, but actually comes from the 2000 census. Still, there is quite a bit of movement into the once all black city, and I still believe it will accelerate, given the huge rise in housing prices in adjacent areas.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  191. friend sold house in Inglewood because of the new stadium plans, traffic patterns, construction etc., to be hell there.

    The tax-free cash he walked away with didn’t hurt. I guess he left the area entirely — you don’t move within L.A. to escape traffic, only to shorten your commute.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  192. The worse thing about Inglewood is the LAX flight paths. That will keep a lot of people away.

    Rip Murdock (2c90e9)

  193. This lays out many of the dirty tricks Hillary and her team did to fool the willfully ignorant.

    I doubt Sussmann will flip. If he gets a 20-year sentence he might, but that won’t happen. No Judge Siricas here. So he’ll take his medicine and get paid back with “consulting” work when he gets out.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  194. @182: Spot on about Trump, but not one word of it justifies the Clinton camp’s efforts in the same direction. They can both be crooks.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  195. The only decision one makes with respect to traffic is “how far is my home from work” (and “over 10 miles” is usually unacceptable).

    “How far is my home from work” must be coupled with the tough reality: Being 10-15 miles from work can easily mean a 45-minute drive anywhere in So. California.

    Dana (174549)

  196. McConnell is bulletproof.

    Davethulhu (017f04)

  197. (This is an excellent opportunity for Trump, and Trumpistas, to show that they support free elections, even in Russia.)

    Or Biden and his administration, being the actual voice of America. Have they? I see nothing that says that they have.

    Also, Apple and Google should leave Russia, at least physically.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  198. @188. Jim, yes, the Steele Dossier contained almost exclusively raw intelligence: reports of what sources said….without any verification or analysis of its trustworthiness. Many here can’t get beyond the allegations of pre-Presidential Trump sex-capades in Russia…and use that to dismiss everything else. The dossier reports a “well-developed conspiracy of co-operation between [Trump and his associates] and the Russian leadership,” including an “intelligence exchange [that] had been running between them for at least 8 years.” That’s explosive, but totally uncorroborated. Mueller was never able to prove what the Trump camp actually knew about the Guccifer 2.0 hackers or Russia’s involvement in the Wikileaks. The bulk of the evidence is a lot of claimed assistance by Russian operatives to help the campaign, but no evidence of reciprocity or collusion. The challenge is that Mueller did have meetings with Russians, he had business relationships up through the summer campaign…heavily including both Manafort and Cohen, and weirdly framed Trump comments about all of it. It complicates getting at the truth and disproving many of the allegations. But the Steele Dossier soon became the convenient whipping boy to distract attention from whether we should demand more transparency from our political candidates…especially about economic ties…and contacts with an enemy power. Cats like NJRob, mg, and CH simply don’t care…and not-Democrat will always get the bye. Eventually that attitude will kill the country…..and Putin knows it

    AJ_Liberty (ec7f74)

  199. Axios-Ipsos poll: 60% of voters back Biden vaccine mandates

    About the same numbers oppose flag-burning. The public is result-oriented and really doesn’t consider precedents. They applaud TV detectives who break and enter houses, but would be aghast if the same thing happened to them in real life.

    Shorter: So what.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  200. His wanting to depose McConnell is not about winning back the Senate.

    The GOP will not return to power as long as Trump is able to eff with it. I doubt that the Dems will try very hard to jail him either — he’s a gift that keeps on giving.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  201. The worse thing about Inglewood is the LAX flight paths. That will keep a lot of people away.

    Yes. See my 163.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  202. Being 10-15 miles from work can easily mean a 45-minute drive anywhere in So. California.

    At the end, I was 8 miles from work and my commute (entirely over surface streets) was 45 minutes to an hour. The freeways were worse.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  203. Biden on Trump: “What a f—ing —hole.”

    Hopefully, his epitaph.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  204. I’ve spent time a lot of time or lived in our 4 largest cities; LA, Chicago, NYC, & DFW.

    LA is the one I have the least desire to go back to or live it. I don’t know how people make it work.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  205. (This is an excellent opportunity for Trump, and Trumpistas, to show that they support free elections, even in Russia.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1) — 9/19/2021 @ 7:36 am

    This has to be a joke, considering the roots of the current relationship between the US and Russia, and the current state of politics there, can be found in the US interfering in Russia’s elections to ensure an incompetent drunk was put in to office in the mid-90s. Heck, Time Magazine bragged about it with a cover story.

    And of course Big Tech caved to the Russian government–these are globalist megacorps with no moral compass whatsoever, other than expanding their own digital footprint.

    Maybe instead of worrying about what “Trump and Trumpistas” might do in this particular vacuum, you should be a lot more cognizant of the utter failure of 30 years of neocon/neoliberal politicians and pundits to bend the planet to their delusions of grandeur.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  206. AJ_Liberty (ec7f74) — 9/19/2021 @ 9:59 am

    Complete BS and excuses your NeverTrump delusions that allowed you to support the leftism that is destroying our nation. But whatever helps you sleep at night.

    Everyone pretends that Manafort had some critical position when he was only briefly there, was told to be hired by the campaign because he was supposed to be able to get votes if the Republican nomination came down to a convention and he was summarily dismissed when he was proven to be inept.

    Comey and his crooked ilk used the Hillary dossier to try and bring down the President. That you try and muddle the waters doesn’t change the reality of the situation and as much as you want to rewrite history Soviet style, the truth is still out there for those who were alive just a few years ago.

    NJRob (ebf412)

  207. LA is the one I have the least desire to go back to or live it. I don’t know how people make it work.

    The politicians have ignored the problems (or created new ones) for the last 30 years. I loved LA in the 80s and 90s, less in the oughts, and much less thereafter. I still hope that the people will come to their senses, hang the bastards, and find a way out. But I no longer care to live there.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  208. I have little sympathy for residents complaining about noise around LAX. There has been an airport there since 1928.

    Rip Murdock (2c90e9)

  209. I loved LA in the 80s and 90s, less in the oughts, and much less thereafter. I still hope that the people will come to their senses, hang the bastards, and find a way out. But I no longer care to live there.

    Though apparently you can’t let go….

    Rip Murdock (2c90e9)

  210. NJRob: “Complete BS and excuses your NeverTrump delusions that allowed you to support the leftism that is destroying our nation”

    Yawn. Didn’t vote for Biden. Don’t support socialism. More RedState-like hyperbole.

    “Everyone pretends that Manafort had some critical position when he was only briefly there”

    He was only first the campaign convention manager (named Mar 29), then promoted to campaign chairman May 19th. The AP then reported on Aug. 18 that Manafort’s firm had lobbied in the United States on behalf of the ruling Ukrainian political party even though Manafort did not disclose his work as a foreign agent, as mandated by federal law (uh oh). The next day Manafort resigned from the campaign. Trump released a statement confirming Manafort’s exit and praising his work on the campaign. The idea that he got fired for ineptness…and not compelled to resign because of his Russian work….is a sloppy read on reality.

    But I put NJRob in the category of unpersuadable…his bubble is thick.

    AJ_Liberty (ec7f74)

  211. Anyone who believed the Russian collusion claim is a fool. This lays out many of the dirty tricks Hillary and her team did to fool the willfully ignorant.

    Only Hillary and her team?

    Many people still do not comprehend the true fiendishness of the four-year Russian collusion narrative.

    Lulled into a false sense of security that Putin would deliver the 2020 election to Trump like he did in 2016, Trump voters stayed home by the the millions and let Biden walk away with it.

    The biggest fake-out since Normandy Beach.

    nk (1d9030)

  212. Fauci Flips On Boosters, Now Says It’s Not A ‘Mistake’ For FDA To Limit Recommendations

    Our Covid guru has been on both sides of every issue.

    That’s pretty sexy.

    Obudman (4c6cec)

  213. No wonder Trump is so pissed at everyone that he did not even show up in DC yesterday to plead for his supporters who are rotting in jail for him.

    nk (1d9030)

  214. “I loved LA in the 80s and 90s”

    It was even better in the 60s and 70s.

    Democratic rule has rendered it unrecognizable.

    Obudman (4c6cec)

  215. There’s not enough data for boosters and the early numbers from Pfizer range from nugatory to negative for young people. The only data in favor are Pfizer’s projected profits.

    And, yeah, Fauci should have been put out to pasture long ago. Or stud … whatever.

    nk (1d9030)

  216. Kevin, wasn’t trying to insult the town or the people in it. Every place has its challenges. LA just isnt for me.

    Time123 (e2f207)

  217. Though apparently you can’t let go….

    No. Call me an ex-pat.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  218. Our Covid guru has been on both sides of every issue.

    The man has been an apparatchik his entire career. Why expect change? But don’t blame him for being who he is, blame the media for the pedestal.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  219. LA just isnt for me.

    I get that. Chicago doesn’t work for me due to weather. Most of the US doesn’t work for me due to weather. It may get hot here in ABQ (not nealy as hot as Phoenix), but it is never humid.

    If I were to move back to CA, it would be San Diego or south OC. I’d move back to L.A. only if they fixed it (ha!) or I had a working time machine.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  220. 5. More:

    The Pentagon did say it would have trouble giving compensation.

    There were 6 drones which did not however, offer continuous coverage. There are a kit of white Toyota Corallas in Kabul. The drones were probably operated by the CIA, rather than the Defense Department, and some children were observed approaching the car by the CIA – not sure the trigger person had visual access to that. The driver would beep his horn when he arrived home and children from his extended family – of which he was the main support – would come to his car for candy.

    The New York Times had someone on the scene even four days after it happened. The secondary explosion was probably that of a propane tank.

    I think the Pentagon knew less than it thought it did.

    Q. Was the safe house a terrorist safe house of any kind?

    What was that about hearing the driver getting driving directions, and one time being told he wold be approached by someone on a motorcycle and then seeing a motorcycle. That was the basis for identifying it as an ISIS-K car.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  221. Trump got more votes in 2020 than he did in 2016, but Trump voters tended to avoid absentee ballots because Trump was campaigning against them.

    Vote by mail possibilities (and the intense interest in the campaign) resulted is more votes being cast in 2020 than in 2016.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  222. Radegunda (33a224) — 9/18/2021 @ 11:53 am

    It takes a special kind of cynicism to read that as Biden trying to “murder” Floridians so he can blame the governor who has openly opposed measures to slow the spread of Covid.

    There has started to be an actual shortage, or potential shortage of the antibodies, which should be temporary. There wasn’t as much made as could be and what there was was underused. The Biden Adninistration decided to take control of the distribution because of course you can;t use requests to determine who gets it. If not in stock it takes three days, or maybe only two days to get more which is not a good thing

    The New York Times has a front page story whose theme is why are all those people who don’t want to take vaccines jumping at the antibodies. Aren’t they also new? But nobody is criticizing the antibodies and (which the NYT does not explicitly note) they are given to people who are already infected)

    https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/18/health/covid-antibody-regeneron.html

    They Shunned Covid Vaccines but Embraced Antibody Treatment

    Championed by doctors and conservative radio hosts alike, monoclonal antibodies for Covid are in high demand — even from those who don’t want a vaccine.

    ….Vaccine-resistant Americans are turning to the treatment with a zeal that has, at times, mystified their doctors, chasing down lengthy infusions after rejecting vaccines that cost one-hundredth as much. Orders have exploded so quickly this summer — to 168,000 doses per week in late August, up from 27,000 in July — that the Biden administration warned states this week of a dwindling national supply.

    The federal government, which was already covering the cost of the treatment — currently about $2,100 per dose — has now taken over its distribution as well. For the coming weeks, the government has told states to expect scaled-back shipments because of the looming shortages.

    With seven Southern states accounting for 70 percent of orders, the new process has unsettled some of their governors, who have made the antibody treatment central to their strategy for enduring a catastrophic wave of the Delta variant.

    But the truth is, if the prioritized research, it could be done cheaper – they are easier to manufacture and don’t really require an IV. And it is more efficient in the short run.

    Vaccines only affect things 3 to 6 weeks out – the antibodies affect things up to two weeks (better say 5 to 7 days) into the past.

    They sy, this is a lot more work for nurses than the vaccine.

    Raising vaccination rates, scientists said, would obviate the need for many of the costly antibody treatments in the first place. The infusions take about an hour and a half, including monitoring afterward, and require constant attention from nurses whom hard-hit states often cannot spare.

    “It’s clogging up resources, it’s hard to give, and a vaccine is $20 and could prevent almost all of that,” said Dr. Christian Ramers, an infectious disease specialist and the chief of population health at Family Health Centers of San Diego, a community-based provider. Pushing antibodies while playing down vaccines, he said, was “like investing in car insurance without investing in brakes.”

    I think is more like investing in brakes without investing in no skid tires or safer roads or seat belts or airbags.

    One thing bothering them is that they cost more (because they are still largely or entirely administered by infusion (easier administration is still in clinical trials) They cost $2,100 per person while the vaccine is 1% of this.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  223. One factor driving the demand is that many patients, including vaccine skeptics, have been spreading the word about their seemingly miraculous recoveries.

    “They’re like, ‘I have Covid, I want this treatment, my friend or family told me about this,’” said Jennifer Berry, the Houston Methodist nursing director of infusion services. “Now the word is out.”

    Why is that bad?

    Whatever happens with vaccines, these need to be made available. Now this is the easiest thing for the virus to mutate against, and the immunity is largely temporary – except that the body is probably also producing some antibodies of its own – this has probably not been studied much.

    After getting such treatment, a vaccine is likely to produce much less immunity until some time has passed.,

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  224. This has to be a joke, considering the roots of the current relationship between the US and Russia, and the current state of politics there, can be found in the US interfering in Russia’s elections to ensure an incompetent drunk was put in to office in the mid-90s. Heck, Time Magazine bragged about it with a cover story.

    That’s a silly moral equivalency. The US was nowhere near the “sweeping and systematic” effort by Putin.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  225. …he [Manafort] was summarily dismissed when he was proven to be inept.

    You’re revising history, Rob. Manafort had to quit because he was found to be feloniously corrupt when his dealings with Yanukokych and his Putin-friendly political party came to light.

    Comey and his crooked ilk used the Hillary dossier to try and bring down the President.

    More revising history. The IG investigated Crossfire Hurricane and concluded that it properly predicated.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  226. McConnell is bulletproof.

    Has he ever gone hunting with Daddy Darth?

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  227. LA is the one I have the least desire to go back to or live it. I don’t know how people make it work.

    A sewer with zip codes.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  228. @195. Another one…

    Yep. The proposed traffic patterns and the added hell of construction vehicles movin through the area for years was the kicker to sell and get out ASAP. There’s a number of elevated power lines and transmission towers too– bracketing the glide paths etc.,. It like was a comfortable neighborhood… for LA circa 1956.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  229. @228. If I were to move back to CA, it would be San Diego or south OC

    Don’t. You $ probably goes further where you are. The income differences in Southern California are increasingly striking- more gated communities peppered between look-alike strip malls and trailer parks full of retirees. It got so bad SD county residents couldn’t even support a NFL team anymore- locals couldn’t afford tickets to games; Padres facing similar issues. The cost of day-to-day living has made it increasingly prohibitive– the quality of life has severely dropped over 25 years, too. Roads are beat to hell, 1 in 4 ‘residents’ of SD County are Latino, now– so lwarn some Spanish. And the flood of illegals keeps growing– it has overwhelmed much of the infrastructure and local communities can’t handle it. Too many municipalities are ‘sanctuary cities’ now for illegals, too, who literally lay around in parks and on streets. Marine neighbor moved in from Texas a year ago due to transfer to Miramar and was shocked at the price of gas, electric, water and just general cost of living. He said once his hitch is up he’s out and moving back to Texas. And the climate has gotten much worse- unless you’re into literally months of no rain, 12-month wildfire season and so on. But if you can afford to live right along the coast in La Jolla it is still clinging to ‘nice.’ OTOH, if you hate snow, it is still the place to be… until you wise up and move to Hawaii. 😉

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  230. #214 – Since Trump is often accused of being “Czar” Putin’s poodle, the Apple/Google decision against Navalny gave Trump and Trumpistas a chance to (1) do the right thing, and (2) provide some evidence against that accusation.

    It would be a win/win for them. Assuming they don’t want to be Putin’s poodle, or Putin’s poodle’s poodle, respectively.

    The peculiar reaction I received to this rather obvious point makes me wonder whether they want free elections in Russia. (I certainly do.)

    (For the record: I know of no evidence that we installed Boris Yeltsin in power in Russia. If FWO wants to claim that, he ought to provide some evidence.

    Russia has had worse leaders, before and since.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  231. Some people worry about orange Man Bad. Its been the Kentucky Senator thats been mia. Again The budget is not a concern of this freeloading jack -ff. But hey make excuses for those urinating Russian hooker lies. Give me all the reasons that allowed McConnell to never make a budget his number 1 concern? Orange Man Bad since 2006…..

    mg (8cbc69)

  232. To give him credit, Yeltsin probably would have understood this Russian joke:

    In 1987, Boris tells his friend: “You know, Ivan, I think this must be the richest country in the world.”

    “Why do you say that?”

    “Because for seventy years, everyone has been stealing from it, and there is still stuff left to steal.”

    (I assume everyone knows that “Czar” Putin and his cronies have been stealing on a grand scale since he came to power.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  233. Some people worry about orange Man Bad.

    It’s as if Trumpers believe that assigning this label mitigates the impact of Trump, and erases what he has done. It’s a disingenuous way to try and have a discussion. But mostly, it’s always mind-boggling to see people really believe that this tactic will actually work.

    Dana (174549)

  234. #206 Kevin – Of course I agree with you that Apple and Google should stop kowtowing to tyrannies, and that all democratic leaders should speak out against “Czar” Putin.

    But, as I explained in #239, this was an excellent opportunity for Trump and company to show that they believe in democracy even for Russia — if they do. And I don’t expect Trump, or any of the Trumpistas who post here, to take up that opportunity — which is sad.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  235. Paul Manafort inept? I’d say he has proven himself to be fairly “ept”, for a white collar criminal:

    On October 30, 2017, Manafort was arrested by the FBI after being indicted by a federal grand jury as part of Mueller’s investigation into the Trump campaign.[183][184] The indictment against Manafort and Rick Gates charged them with engaging in a conspiracy against the United States,[16][185] engaging in a conspiracy to launder money,[16][185] failing to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts,[16][185] acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign principal,[16][185] making false and misleading statements in documents filed and submitted under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA),[16][185] and making false statements.

    True, he eventually got caught, but that was after years and years of dubious activities. And Trump did pardon him.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  236. @240/242 It’s as if Trumpers believe that assigning this label mitigates the impact of Trump, and erases what he has done.

    Face it: in fact, nearly a year in, he has done a much better job as CiC than the 50 year experienced watch-watching, brain-damaged, stumblebumed ‘what-his-name’ creature from deep ‘down under’ in the Swamp from Scranton– or is it Wilmington this week. 13 dead Americans, 7 dead Afghan kids and 3 adults would agree for starts.

    It speaks volumes about the caliber of stumblebums both these major parties recruit for office and then appoint to gum up the bureaucracies; why they put up fences around the Capitol to keep out U.S. citizens and leave the border wide open for illegals to walk in to America. And why Americans have hasd enough of these Royalists- from Nancy to Mitch and all the bungholes in between— and storm the castle.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  237. Fox News Missing Blonde Update: Gabby Petito found dead.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  238. It’s as if Trumpers believe that assigning this label mitigates the impact of Trump,

    They realize that it never took legs, but it took them a while to come up with “no more mean tweets”.

    nk (1d9030)

  239. That’s a silly moral equivalency. The US was nowhere near the “sweeping and systematic” effort by Putin.

    Paul Montagu (5de684) — 9/19/2021 @ 12:31 pm

    The moral equivalency being offered here is, “It’s okay when we do it,” especially when it comes to national elections of a former (and current) foreign adversary. Deflections toward “let’s see what Trumpers say about this” is nothing more than historical obtuseness in the interest of immediate-term, puerile point-scoring.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  240. #214 – Since Trump is often accused of being “Czar” Putin’s poodle, the Apple/Google decision against Navalny gave Trump and Trumpistas a chance to (1) do the right thing, and (2) provide some evidence against that accusation.

    They hardly need to address the strawman you’ve erected.

    (For the record: I know of no evidence that we installed Boris Yeltsin in power in Russia. If FWO wants to claim that, he ought to provide some evidence.

    Russia has had worse leaders, before and since.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1) — 9/19/2021 @ 1:28 pm

    You might want to read the Time Magazine article I referenced, then, and refresh your memory. It’s dated July 15, 1996.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  241. Putin is immune from criticism. Russia is his country, he is doing what is best for Russia.

    Clinton is immune from criticism (for grounding Russia’s face into the dirt when it was weak under Yeltsin). America is Clinton’s country, he did what was best for America.

    What’s Trump’s country? Slovenia?

    nk (1d9030)

  242. grounding = grinding

    nk (1d9030)

  243. The moral equivalency being offered here is, “It’s okay when we do it”…

    I never said that. The comparison between Clinton did for Yeltsin and what Putin did for Trump is a silly moral equivalency.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  244. There are plenty of nations that to seek to influence elections in other countries, but what Putin did in the 2016 election is unprecedented.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  245. Does QAnon recognize the concept of nationhood? Or are we all Q’s Children, whether in Moscow or Washington DC?

    nk (1d9030)

  246. I never said that. The comparison between Clinton did for Yeltsin and what Putin did for Trump is a silly moral equivalency.

    Paul Montagu (5de684) — 9/19/2021 @ 4:33 pm

    No, it’s not; you’re trying to frame it that way because it renders your efforts at taking the moral high ground to be a pose.

    There are plenty of nations that to seek to influence elections in other countries, but what Putin did in the 2016 election is unprecedented.

    Paul Montagu (5de684) — 9/19/2021 @ 4:35 pm

    No, it wasn’t unprecedented at all, actually. Just ask the Iranians.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  247. Just ask the Iranians.

    Or the Chileans. The Panamanians even. The point is that Eisenhower, Nixon, and Teddy Roosevelt were acting in America’s interests. Not their foreign puppet-master’s.

    nk (1d9030)

  248. Emmy Awards tonight. I wonder how many homeless they let in to watch. Or even remain near the downtown location. In case you don’t know, downtown L.A. has a lot of homeless. I wonder if they care panhandling out front. Maybe a sequin or two?

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  249. Or the Chileans. The Panamanians even. The point is that Eisenhower, Nixon, and Teddy Roosevelt were acting in America’s interests. Not their foreign puppet-master’s.

    nk (1d9030) — 9/19/2021 @ 4:45 pm

    IOW, “It’s okay when we do it.”

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  250. The moral equivalency being offered here is, “It’s okay when we do it,” especially when it comes to national elections of a former (and current) foreign adversary.

    No, it’s more like WE WON, and they hop to our tune if they want any breaks at all.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  251. No, it’s more like WE WON, and they hop to our tune if they want any breaks at all.

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 9/19/2021 @ 4:53 pm

    No, it’s more like the neocons and neoliberals bought in to Fukayama’s ill-informed thesis, and forgot that the arc of history continues as long as civilizations exist.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  252. No answer for McConnell having little concern for a budget since 2006. nk your Trump humor should be published.

    mg (8cbc69)

  253. No, it’s not; you’re trying to frame it that way because it renders your efforts at taking the moral high ground to be a pose.

    No, you’re trying to excuse Putin for helping your boy.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  254. So there are no nations and we all are Children of Q, after all. Can I get a large pepperoni with that?

    I heard this same sh!t back during the Vietnam War (when students threw real bombs that went boom and not f-bombs). It was juvenile and sophomoric (that’s what puerile means) then, and it’s juvenile and sophomoric now.

    nk (1d9030)

  255. We have been involved in removing leaders in the past during the Cold War, but the subject was elections.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  256. Despite misrepresentation in conservative media people accused in Jan 6 attacks have not been treated unfairly. Example below of prosecutors not opposing a request to attend a sporting event.

    Jan 6 defendant seeks court permission to go to Pittsburgh Steelers-Denver Broncos game on Oct 10

    Defendant has pleaded not guilty in case. Per defense court filing, prosecutors do not oppose the travel

    https://twitter.com/macfarlanenews/status/1439733629672906752?s=21

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  257. Oooo, this should tee-off all the teevee viewers in Utah: The Muddys on CBS!

    “Hey, where the white women at?!” – Sheriff Bart [Cleavon Little] ‘Blazing Saddles’ 1974

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  258. Obudman – confirms my thoughts on a preplanned crisis.

    mg (8cbc69)

  259. Comrades who insist that we, the Biden voters, voted for Biden because we like him must also believe that we got the Covid vaccine because we like getting stuck with needles.

    nk (1d9030)

  260. Fun fact; The Good Nazi: Colonel Wilhelm Klink [Werner Klemperer] won an Emmy for running Stalag 13.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1srtYvr-wQ

    Yes, television was, is and will always be a very promising medium.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  261. No, you’re trying to excuse Putin for helping your boy.

    Paul Montagu (5de684) — 9/19/2021 @ 5:03 pm

    If Putin was actually helping Trump (calling him my boy is particularly hilarious, considering I didn’t vote for him either time), he sure didn’t get much return on investment from it, which makes the lefist/neocon limpouts over it all the more ridiculous. I’m hardly going to weep when a long-time Dem operative falls prey a basic phishing scam, or when the receipts on the backroom scuzziness of the DNC get exposed. Maybe they shouldn’t have taken their cues from an arrogant, hyper-corrupt, entitled politico who was allowed to break basic cybersecurity regulations without penalty.

    We have been involved in removing leaders in the past during the Cold War, but the subject was elections.

    Paul Montagu (5de684) — 9/19/2021 @ 5:06 pm

    So we’ve gone from claiming that our interference in Russia’s 1996 election is a false equivalence, to claiming that bringing up that specific instance of election interference on our part is now off-topic.

    If you’re going to get your dander up about election interference as a general principle, it helps to not deflect from when we have done it in our own interests. It it’s okay to do it specifically at our convenience, we’re hardly in a position to act like we have the moral high ground if someone else does it to us. Better to just acknowledge it as typical realpolitick gamesmanship that’s taken place amongst powerful nations for millennia, try to improve security measures (or just claim that anything which hurts Democrats is “Russian interference,” since that narrative is particularly potent amongst the left-liberal cathedral classes), and move on.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  262. #249 FWO – Dana has some advice for you: “Make sure to include links.” For example, I think it likely that, had the US installed Boris Yeltsin in power, there would be some evidence in Yeltsin’s Wikipedia biography. (I read through it quickly and found none.)

    It is also helpful, when citing most sources to give the name of the author, the title, and, usually, a brief selection from the source.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  263. #249 FWO – Dana has some advice for you: “Make sure to include links.” For example, I think it likely that, had the US installed Boris Yeltsin in power, there would be some evidence in Yeltsin’s Wikipedia biography. (I read through it quickly and found none.)

    It is also helpful, when citing most sources to give the name of the author, the title, and, usually, a brief selection from the source.

    Jim Miller (edcec1) — 9/19/2021 @ 6:13 pm

    I cited the specific issue, which made the event a cover story. It’s easy enough to pull up through an internet search.

    The fact that you went to Wikipedia rather than the direct source I cited (which covers the activities in detail, and literally brags abou) smacks more of confirmation bias.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  264. forgot that the arc of history continues as long as civilizations exist.

    Tell that to the Nazis.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  265. #268 mg – This Wikipedia article is, as far as I know, a good summary of the trap usually known as Confirmation bias:

    Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one’s prior beliefs or values.[1] People display this bias when they select information that supports their views, ignoring contrary information, or when they interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing attitudes. The effect is strongest for desired outcomes, for emotionally charged issues, and for deeply entrenched beliefs. Confirmation bias cannot be eliminated entirely, but it can be managed, for example, by education and training in critical thinking skills.

    If you want to think rationally, you will look hard for ways to avoid that trap.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  266. Tell that to the Nazis.

    Tell that to Werner Klemperer. 😉

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  267. If you want to think rationally, you will look hard for ways to avoid that trap.

    Jim Miller (edcec1) — 9/19/2021 @ 6:28 pm

    Such as attending to the cited source rather than a Wikipedia article, or erecting strawmen to torch out of a puerile need to score internet points.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  268. A very quick reading of the Yeltsin biography would show you that it would have been impossible for us to “put” Yeltsin in power in 1996, since he had won power in 1990 and then confirmed his win in the 1991 presidential election.

    (NWO – If you don’t know how to do links and quotes, ask for help.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  269. Tell that to the Nazis.

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 9/19/2021 @ 6:24 pm

    Tell that to the Hittites.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  270. If Putin was actually helping Trump…

    You lost me right there, FWO. There’s no sense going further. From the Mueller report.

    The Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion. Evidence of Russian government operations began to surface in mid-2016. In June, the Democratic National Committee and its cyber response team publicly announced that Russian hackers had compromised its computer network. Releases of hacked materials-hacks that public reporting soon attributed to the Russian government-began that same month. Additional releases followed in July through the organization WikiLeaks, with further releases in October and November.

    The hacking and releases of emails and propaganda campaign all served to damage Hillary, thereby helping Trump. And this:

    As set forth in detail in this report, the Special Counsel’s investigation established that Russia interfere~ in the 2016 presidential election principally through two operations. First, a Russian entity carried out a social media campaign that favored presidential candidate Donald J. Trump and disparaged presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Second , a Russian intelligence service conducted computer-intrusion operations against entities, employees, and volunteers working on the Clinton Campaign and then released stolen documents. The investigation also identified numerous links between the Russian government and the Trump Campaign. Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.

    The clear meaning of “did not establish” was that evidence existed of an illegal conspiracy but insufficient to indict.

    So we’ve gone from claiming that our interference in Russia’s 1996 election is a false equivalence, to claiming that bringing up that specific instance of election interference on our part is now off-topic.

    I didn’t say that. You’re being dishonest. You were moving the goalposts away from elections and toward the Cold War, where both sides did attempt to change governments.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  271. France recalls its ambassadors to the United States and Australia over submarine dispute

    It came down to U.S. nuclear powered vs., French diesel powered… ‘course it didn’t help when the Frogs threw in free screen doors to sweeten the deal. 😉

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  272. A very quick reading of the Yeltsin biography would show you that it would have been impossible for us to “put” Yeltsin in power in 1996, since he had won power in 1990 and then confirmed his win in the 1991 presidential election.

    Still stubbornly refusing to read the actual cited source. Yeltsin was in danger of losing reelection in 1996, and the US interfered on his behalf. The economic chaos and general loss of prestige of Russia on the world stage in the late 90s is what ultimately led to Putin’s ascendancy after Yeltsin resigned.

    The lessons of the last 30 years show the general shortsightedness of taking “the end of history” seriously as a pillar of national policy, whether it’s the pretenses of communism, the conclusion of an existential ideological conflict, or a 20-year policy of overseas wars and nation-building that end in the regions we operate in being left worse off than they were before, or back to the pre-conflict status quo.

    (NWO – If you don’t know how to do links and quotes, ask for help.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1) — 9/19/2021 @ 6:38 pm

    I’ve attempted to post links before, but they haven’t gone through, so I found it easier to cite sources directly. Regardless, the reference to the cited source should be sufficient, since you clearly know how to do an internet search.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  273. You lost me right there, FWO. There’s no sense going further. From the Mueller report.

    I’m not really concerned with “gaining” you.

    The hacking and releases of emails and propaganda campaign all served to damage Hillary, thereby helping Trump

    I found the material released in those to be a lot more concerning than the fact that the Hillary campaign was practicing poor cybersecurity.

    The clear meaning of “did not establish” was that evidence existed of an illegal conspiracy but insufficient to indict.

    Which doesn’t really mean anything as a matter of substance. If an indictment can’t be brought, it undercuts the “systemic and sweeping” claims. A claim on that level should be more than enough to provide sufficient evidence for impeachment, which is what the Democrats were salivating for. Unfortunately, Mueller Claus’s hedge left them with a lump of coal in their stocking.

    I didn’t say that. You’re being dishonest. You were moving the goalposts away from elections and toward the Cold War, where both sides did attempt to change governments.

    The 1996 election was hardly a Cold War event.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  274. I’m not completely tracking this discussion about election meddling, but I’ll put in my two cents.

    The U.S. has generally stood for democracy, individual liberty, and capitalism…..and a good part of its meddling has been aimed at countries with an authoritarian or pro-communist candidate. The Russians swing the other way in terms of political liberties. There’s no doubt that each country seeks its own self interest….like the U.S. meddling in post WWII Italian elections to prevent Italy from getting pulled out of NATO and into the Soviet Bloc. I’m not sure that the conclusion is that since everybody does it, that all cases are morally equivalent.

    If not still an evil empire….Russia is at least a super-power competitor that generally opposes our interests….and oppresses its people through wide-spread corruption vice state-run communism. If they are picking sides in our election, our ears should be perked up and we should be asking hard questions as to why and what’s in it for them. If a candidate seems willing to accept Russian interference to gain an election edge, that too should make us worry that the candidate can then be compromised….and may have to provide a quo for the quid. But generally Russian support for Trump appears to be aimed at sowing maximum dysfunction into our political system….not to presume that Hillary was some sort of uniter or that Biden has plans to track to the middle….but Trump is willing to ignore and belittle basic rules…laws…and dare I say norms…..which errodes trust in the system itself….and builds a cynicism that will give rise to more law-breaking…as people are pushed to more and more extreme positions….fearing for the end of the country.

    Putin was betting on Trump being Trump….funny that many here see nothing significant about that…

    AJ_Liberty (a4ff25)

  275. The fact that you went to Wikipedia rather than the direct source I cited (which covers the activities in detail, and literally brags about) smacks more of confirmation bias.

    And the TIME article (the link, which you didn’t provide, is here) that approvingly referenced reveals your false equivalency. Yeltsin hiring American political advisors when Russia was a fledgling democracy is not an honest comparison to Putin’s “sweeping and systematic” attack on our democracy.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  276. The link here.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  277. ‘Wreck-It Ralph’ Star Sarah Silverman Suggests Conservative States Should Secede From The U.S.

    https://wegotthiscovered.com/movies/wreck-it-ralph-star-sarah-silverman-suggests-conservative-states-should-secede-from-the-us/

    “Who says I’m dumb?” – Corporal Randolph Agarn [Larry Storch] ABC TV, 1965-67

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  278. Paul, Russia broke our laws in an effort to get their preferred candidate elected in 2016. People who care about the US have a problem with that. Other people make excuses or justifications for Russia’s actions. You’re going to have a hard time convincing people to care about the US or our laws if they’re not already motivated to do so.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  279. If an indictment can’t be brought, it undercuts the “systemic and sweeping” claims.

    Actually, it doesn’t. That’s another dishonest assessment.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  280. In one of his first actions after surviving an election seeking to oust him from office, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday essentially abolished single-family zoning in California — and green-lighted a series of bills intended to bolster the state’s housing production.

    https://www.redbluffdailynews.com/2021/09/17/gov-newsom-abolishes-single-family-zoning-in-california-2

    Obudman (4c6cec)

  281. “Comrades who insist that we, the Biden voters, voted for Biden because we like him must also believe that we got the Covid vaccine because we like getting stuck with needles.

    “Those aren’t pillows needles!”

    —- Steve Martin, “Planes, Trains and Automobiles”

    Colonel Haiku (a28946)

  282. “Comrades who insist that we, the Biden voters, voted for Biden because we like him must also believe that we got the Covid vaccine because we like getting stuck with needles.

    They must also insist that they AREN’T getting the Covid vaccine because they like to be intubated.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  283. Yahoo news is reporting that insurance companies no long have to pay hospital bills of unvaccinated.

    asset (eda791)

  284. Stand up comic Chris Rock has announced he has Covid.

    He was vaccinated.

    =mike-drop=

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  285. @294 unlike many covid anti vaxxers he is still alive.

    asset (eda791)

  286. None of you republicans can explain McConnells nonsense since 2006.
    Conformation bias, no doubt.

    mg (8cbc69)

  287. @294 unlike many covid anti vaxxers he is still alive.
    asset (eda791) — 9/20/2021 @ 12:12 am

    True, just as the majority of those un-vaccinated who also have it, had it, or will get it, will likely survive. Of course, he’ll have milder symptoms – so there’s that – which is nice.

    felipe (484255)

  288. Mg,

    They don’t care. It would affect their cognitive dissonance to defend it so they’ll continue to ignore it or one will step up and minimize it.

    NJRob (070683)

  289. NJRob – must be the lawyerly thing to do

    mg (8cbc69)

  290. or nk, will make fun of it. which is always entertaining.

    mg (8cbc69)

  291. I suppose entertainers are elites when compared to the lower strata of their profession, such as streetwalkers, Asian masseuses, and pole dancers. But still not as elite as “models” who marry fat, old, bald billionaires and have it soft for the rest of their lives. If you can think of anything else that makes entertainers elite, I’d like to know too.

    BTW, was there a special award for “Best Reporting On The Swollen Testicles Of A Friend’s Cousin”, did you see?

    nk (1d9030)

  292. This article on Breitbart is insane on a number of levels.

    Do you want to know why I think Howard Stern is going full-monster with his mockery of three fellow human beings who died of the coronavirus? Because leftists like Stern and CNNLOL and Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi and Anthony Fauci are deliberately looking to manipulate Trump supporters into not getting vaccinated.

    For this to hang together there are number of things that must be true. It assumes
    -The vaccine is safe and effective.
    -Vaccine resistance is high among conservatives.
    -This vaccine resistance is motivated by tribal politics.
    -Conservatives political enemies want to kill them in order to achieve partisan advantage and have created a wide ranging conspiracy aimed at discouraging vaccine usage to that end.

    I hope that this is reverse psychology where the author is trying to persuade the resentful conspiracy theorists in his reader ship to get vaccinated. I’ve said it before; at the point where covid is no longer a highly fatal disease we get to go back to a more normal life. As long as covid outbreaks are the dominant cause of death in their area and threaten to overwhelm hospital capacity we will not.

    I hope that, but suspect this is just another writer looking for a new take and trying to get clicks by feeding his reader’s sense of persecution.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  293. Personally, I wouldn’t argue against speculation that refusing to get vaccinated is the Trump’s True Faithfuls’ way of throwing themselves on their swords for their failure to get him reelected. Covid-kiri?

    nk (1d9030)

  294. 234. Paul Montagu (5de684) — 9/19/2021 @ 12:36 pm

    The IG investigated Crossfire Hurricane and concluded that it properly predicated.

    How is that? It’s still under investigation.

    A lawyer being indirectly paid by Hillary was just indicted for lying to the FBI – he told a different story later to Congress – by claiming he was not representing a client when he called some “suspicious” possibilities to the attention of the FBI> I don;t think that allegation of a computer connection to Trump Tower was used or at any rate it didn;t last long.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  295. Colbert made a joke about a recall effort to withdraw a 2018 Emmy for Mrs. Maisel, but did not mention the real recall of Cuomo’s Emmy award from last year.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  296. It is impossible to argue that Russia had any kind of good intentions in 2016 or later – but any U.S. help for Yeltsin was well motivated.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  297. @306, NK you’re assuming a level of personal responsibility I haven’t seen in practice 😉

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  298. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-27/previous-covid-prevents-delta-infection-better-than-pfizer-shot

    People who recovered from a bout of Covid-19 during one of the earlier waves of the pandemic appear to have a lower risk of contracting the delta variant than those who got two doses of the vaccine from Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE.

    The largest real-world analysis comparing natural immunity — gained from an earlier infection — to the protection provided by one of the most potent vaccines currently in use showed that reinfections were much less common.

    Science that will be ignored because it obstructs the mission. The devout will always ignore facts that go against their beliefs.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  299. https://humanevents.com/2021/09/17/study-covid-vaccine-6-times-riskier-for-teenage-boys-than-covid-itself/

    Stop trying to sacrifice our children for your fear.

    NJRob (070683) — 9/20/2021 @ 4:20 am

    No one is seriously doing this. You’re tilting at windmills again.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  300. He who must not be mentioned might want to use one of his old US Airways lookalikes if he gets back in by ’25:

    https://www.businessinsider.com/boeing-investigating-2-tequila-bottles-found-air-force-one-report-2021-9

    urbanleftbehind (43bf33)

  301. The devout will always ignore facts that go against their beliefs.

    This was far more egregious pot/kettle, Time123.

    urbanleftbehind (43bf33)

  302. How is that? It’s still under investigation.

    It’s right there in the report, Sammy.

    As we describe in the report, all of the investigative actions taken by the Crossfire Hurricane team, from the date the case was opened on July 31 until October 21 (the date of the first FISA order) would have been permitted whether the case was opened as a Preliminary or Full Investigation.

    Durham is still investigating aspects but his single scalp (Sussman) speaks for itself.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  303. Time123,

    anyone demanding children get the COVID vaccine are doing just that. Stop making excuses for them.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  304. ULB,

    do you dispute the science in what I posted? Do you dispute people claiming those who have already have COVID must still take a vaccine that serves no purpose?

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  305. Rob, nothing I said supports requiring the vaccine where it’s not safe. Stop pretending otherwise.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  306. NJRob, he can speak for himself but I think he was pointing out the irony of you complaining people ignore facts they don’t like.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  307. Paul, technically he hans’t taken a scalp yet. But if the facts laid out in the indictment are correct I hope he does time.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  308. anyone demanding children get the COVID vaccine
    ….
    people claiming those who have already have COVID must still take a vaccine

    How many people is that? More than the shills peddling the still experimental (yes, it is) Regeneron at 100 times the price of the vaccine per dose?

    nk (1d9030)

  309. Serious question.

    If we stipulate getting a very high percentage of the population with some level of resistance is a public health goal how should we balance tracking who has had covid with medical privacy?

    I assume many of the people pushing natural immunity envision on honor system. Without a positive test it can be hard to tell. My daughter recently had all the covid symptoms but the tests showed it wasn’t Covid. A friend was sure he’d had it and then months later got a severe case.

    So if we use natural immunity how do you envision that being tracked?

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  310. Agreed, Time. The way I see it, the paltry results from Durham speak to the quality of the Horowitz investigation, who busted Clinesmith and handed it over to Durham.
    The only reason there was a Durham investigation is because Trump had a temper tantrum, that Horowitz didn’t get the results he wanted, and Barr relented to his boss.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  311. NJ Rob, I don’t dispute your particular findings, but unlike Felipe for example, you don’t seem to embrace the utility of the vaccines (which in all honesty is more of a prophylactic) in addition to monoclonal antibodies, regeneron or the properly administered anibiotics and antiparasitics post-infection.

    urbanleftbehind (43bf33)

  312. 323, I think you’re right. I don’t think Trump (or his supporters) wanted an honest investigation. Trump never cared if a thing were true or not and his supporters have convinced themselves, despite evidence, that the investigation was a witch-hunt. So they don’t want an investigation or accountability for bad action, they want a witch-hunt of their own.

    It seems like Barr got the assignment wrong by running an actual investigation. Barr turned out to be less corrupt then I had expected.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  313. Ulb,

    I dispute mandatory vaccinations. People can make their own choices .

    NJRob (0e3eba)

  314. @326 Do you also object to mandatory MMR vaccinations to go to school?

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  315. Barr turned out to be less corrupt then I had expected.

    For those taken aback with each instance of misapplication, this may prove useful:

    Q: What is the correct way to use then and than?

    A: The way to keep the pair straight is to focus on this basic difference: than is used when you’re talking about comparisons; then is used when you’re talking about something relating to time. Than is the word to choose in phrases like smaller than, smoother than, and further than.

    Colonel Haiku (a28946)

  316. That was a pertinent and accurate comment. Good job CH.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  317. Time123,

    When the amount of time and track record has gone by to show the efficacy and success of the MMR, get back to me.

    Also let me know when the companies are no longer indemnified for the harm their shots may cause.

    NJRob (0e3eba)

  318. Furthermore, measles, mumps and rubella can cause actual harm to children. COVID not so much.

    NJRob (0e3eba)

  319. Lastly,

    Does the government mandate that all business employees over 100 people must have an MMR shot? How about to travel on a plane, eat dinner outside, go to a concert, etc.

    Let’s compare apples with apples next time.

    NJRob (0e3eba)

  320. #322

    You may remember that Spectrum Health in Michigan got kudos for allowing an exemption for people who had COVID. Their exemption is pretty limited though. You need to have had a positive COVID test in the past PLUS a COVID antibody test in the past three months.

    I don’t see our resident mandate foes being ok with something like this

    Appalled (1a17de)

  321. Rob, so you don’t have a problem with Vaccines or mandates. You just have a problem with this vaccine and this mandate. But you’re not willing to own and defend why that is.

    Regarding liability, you can’t sue any vaccine manufacturer. It used to be possible but in the 1980’s we created the VCIP to pay out to people who were injured by vaccines because the number of claims was starting to impact the availability of vaccines. So the Covid vaccine isn’t unique in that.

    The Atlantic article has a really good explanation of that program.

    https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/05/vaccine-safety-program/589354/
    https://www.hrsa.gov/vaccine-compensation/index.html

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  322. I’ve laid out why in comparing the differences.

    Pretty dishonest to claim otherwise.

    NJRob (0e3eba)

  323. There’s another huge difference.

    The people in positions of power have made it clear over and over again that they have no intention of following the laws they are imposing on the rest of us.

    I don’t support royalists.

    NJRob (0e3eba)

  324. @336, I’m pretty sure that Biden etc. have been vaccinated. They’re not asking you to take a vaccine they haven’t taken. IIRC there’s was a theme for a while of mocking Biden for wearing a mask after he’d been vaccinated and was surrounded by vaccinated people.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  325. Somewhere over the horizon
    Way up high
    And the dreams that you dream of
    Killed in a missile strike

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. drone strike in Kabul last month killed as many 10 civilians, including seven children, a senior U.S. general said on Friday.

    “It was a mistake and I offer my sincere apology,” U.S. General Frank McKenzie, the head of U.S. Central Command, told reporters.

    Colonel Haiku (a28946)

  326. The Indictment of Hillary Clinton’s Lawyer is an Indictment of the Russiagate Wing of U.S. Media
    The DOJ’s new charging document, approved by Biden’s Attorney General, sheds bright light onto the Russiagate fraud and how journalistic corruption was key.

    A lawyer for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign was indicted on Wednesday with one felony count of lying to the FBI about a fraudulent Russiagate story he helped propagate. Michael Sussman was charged with the crime by Special Counsel John Durham, who was appointed by Trump Attorney General William Barr to investigate possible crimes committed as part of the Russiagate investigation and whose work is now overseen and approved by Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland.

    Sussman’s indictment, approved by Garland, is the second allegation of criminal impropriety regarding Russiagate’s origins. In January, Durham secured a guilty plea from an FBI agent, Kevin Clinesmith, for lying to the FISA court and submitting an altered email in order to spy on former Trump campaign official Carter Page.

    The law firm where Sussman is a partner, Perkins Coie, is a major player in Democratic Party politics. One of its partners at the time of the alleged crime, Marc Elias, has become a liberal social media star after having served as General Counsel to the Clinton 2016 campaign. Elias abruptly announced that he was leaving the firm three weeks ago, and thus far no charges have been filed against him.

    The lie that Sussman allegedly told the FBI occurred in the context of his mid-2016 attempt to spread a completely fictitious story: that there was a “secret server” discovered by unnamed internet experts that allowed the Trump organization to communicate with Russia-based Alfa Bank. In the context of the 2016 election, in which the Clinton campaign had elevated Trump’s alleged ties to the Kremlin to center stage, this secret communication channel was peddled by Sussman — both to the FBI and to Clinton-friendly journalists — as smoking-gun proof of nefarious activities between Trump and the Russians. Less than two months prior to the 2016 election, Sussman secured a meeting at the FBI’s headquarters with the Bureau’s top lawyer, James Baker, and provided him data which he claimed proved this communication channel.

    It was in the course of trying to lure the FBI into investigating this scam conspiracy theory when Sussman allegedly lied to Baker, by concealing the fact — outright denying — that he was peddling the story in his role as lawyer for the Hillary Clinton campaign as well as a lawyer for a “tech executive” hoping to be appointed as the top cybersecurity official in the soon-to-be-inaugurated Clinton administration. Sussman’s claims that he was just acting as a concerned private citizen were negated by numerous documents obtained by Durham’s investigation, including billing records where he charged the Clinton campaign for his work in trying to disseminate this story, including his meeting with Baker at FBI’s headquarters.”

    https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-indictment-of-hillary-clintons-b42

    Colonel Haiku (a28946)

  327. When you reward behavior, you get more of it, and we’ve been rewarding the shack babies for a year and a half now. Let’s just stop it! No more eviction moratoriums*, no more enhanced unemployment checks, no more enhanced SNAP and EBT cash, no more “paycheck protection” payola, no more “stimie” checks, no more free medical care, and most importantly no more paying them any attention. We outnumber them, so let’s just do what we need to do!

    *Did you know that the eviction moratoriums extended to mortgage foreclosures? Foreclosures are not self-enforcing. You need a separate proceeding and writ to evict the debtor and put the creditor in possession.

    nk (1d9030)

  328. Time123

    There are a lot of principled ways to complain about vaccine mandates. Here’s a good summary of them:

    https://reason.com/volokh/2021/09/11/a-backgrounder-on-the-proposed-osha-vaccination-mandate-and-likely-legal-challenges/

    I think you find a lot of folks are just uncomfortable with the Feds being able to demand people get vaccinated and force corporate HR to become an enforcement wing of the government. People like your friend frosty are concerned there is no limiting principle on something like this. And, really, they are right. The limiting principle is a politicians fear that an action might cost enough votes to lose an election.

    Speaking for myself, I like the mandate. It gives employers the authority to require vaccination, which was in question before. As usual, the President made the requirement more burdensome for employers than it needed to be. But the idea is sound.

    Famously, Ben Franklin was asked what type of government the Constitution provided. He said “a republic, if you can keep it”. What I would ask the vaccine resistant is this — are you keeping the Republic by putting yourself and spouse and children and random bystanders at risk for a disease that killed 1 in 500 of your fellow citizens?

    Appalled (1a17de)

  329. Appalled, I support the government-as-employer mandating vaccines for their employees and contractors. I think congress has the power to mandate it but having OSHA mandate it is an unacceptable increase in executive power. My preference would have been for Biden to use the bully pulpit and try to persuade companies to mandate the vaccine for employee’s.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  330. #342

    The job market is really weird right now and it is hard to fill lower level positions. Employers are loathe to impose a vaccination requirement that might cause somebody to quit and work for someone without a vaccination requirement.

    The mandate solves that problem and lets corporate hr say “not my problem, man”.

    As noted before, a lot of people are acting recklessly without due care to their fellow citizens. Society — which is represented by the government — has the right to make sure that these folks show some responsibility.

    Appalled (1a17de)

  331. Time123,

    It’s a clown nose on/clown nose off the politicians and media play for the cameras. They pretend to follow the rules on film, but then get caught time and time again ignoring them when they think it won’t be reported.

    Pelosi hairstylist, French Laundry, Obama birthday, Met gala, and on and on..

    NJRob (0e3eba)

  332. Put the weight on what they do, not what they say.

    Colonel Haiku (a28946)

  333. This should interest the lawyers out there…

    http://ace.mu.nu/archives/meme%2020210920%2000.jpg

    Colonel Haiku (a28946)

  334. California Enacts Two Important New Zoning Reform Laws
    ……..[Z]oning and other regulatory barriers are the main cause of housing shortages and resulting high prices that lock millions of people (particularly the poor and lower middle class) out of areas where they could otherwise find valuable job opportunities. In addition to preventing many people from “voting with their feet” and finding job opportunities, these policies also greatly diminish overall economic growth and productivity, thereby harming the nation as a whole, not just those immediately effected. Recent evidence suggests that the problem is even more severe than previously recognized.

    There is a strong cross-ideological case for ending exclusionary zoning. It would simultaneously massively expand opportunities for the poor and minorities, eliminate major violations of private property rights, and boost economic growth.
    ……..
    To briefly summarize, SB 9 allows owners of lots in areas currently zoned for single-family residences only, to build a second housing unit on the property. In addition, they can also divide the lot into two separate properties. A property owner who takes both steps can increase the number of units on his or her plot from one to as many as four.

    Significantly, SB 9 exempts the new housing it authorizes from a variety of constraints often used by local “NIMBY” groups to block new construction, such as the CEQA law, which local activists have leveraged to stymie all kinds of new development, including even forestalling an increase student enrollment at a major state university.
    ……..
    SB 10 is a much less sweeping bill. It allows, but, unfortunately does not require, local governments to upzone parcels located in “transit-rich” or “infill” areas for up to ten housing units. SB 10 is a considerably watered down version of previous reforms offered by its principal author, State Sen. Scott Wiener, California’s—and perhaps the nation’s—leading legislative advocate of “YIMBY” housing policies. The obvious limitation is that the decision on whether to proceed with upzoning rests in the hands of local governments—the very entities most responsible for blocking new housing construction in the first place.
    ………

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  335. @342

    Appalled, I support the government-as-employer mandating vaccines for their employees and contractors. I think congress has the power to mandate it but having OSHA mandate it is an unacceptable increase in executive power. My preference would have been for Biden to use the bully pulpit and try to persuade companies to mandate the vaccine for employee’s.

    Time123 (9f42ee) — 9/20/2021 @ 8:39 am

    I’d be okay with CONGRESS passing it as the law of the land mandating employers to vaccinate staff.

    That’s the proper method, rather than some unaccountable executive branch (ie, OSHA).

    But, because this is so polarized due to politics, the chances of that happening is next to nil.

    This all goes back to the idea that our elected officials, media and health professionals need to do a better job in de-polarizing this topic.

    whembly (1a398e)

  336. Col -339
    Republicans are in on it.

    mg (8cbc69)

  337. Greenwald gave a misleading assessment of Sussman’s crime. He was indicted because he lied about his relationship with US Technology and the Hillary campaign. It’s right here in black and white.
    The FBI stopped investigating the alleged Trump Org connections with Russia-owned Alfa Bank due to “insufficient evidence”, not for him lying about it.
    Oh, and prosecute him to the full extent of the law, for him pulling that sleazy Clintonesque sh-t.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  338. Land-use bill promotes freedom and property rights

    Conservatives promote the importance of property rights, free markets, regulatory reform, small businesses, family values and the need to reduce the power of unelected bureaucrats. In California, for instance, they want to exempt projects from the dreaded California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and streamline the permit process so builders can boost housing supply.

    They are completely right on all those points. Yet after a bill came along that promotes those concepts, many Republican legislators and right-leaning activists have opposed it. Apparently, these conservatives support freedom and property rights, but not when it affects their neighborhoods or intrudes on their personal preferences.

    [Senate Bill 9], according to the official bill analysis, requires “cities and counties to ministerially approve a proposed housing development project containing two residential units on parcels zoned for single-family residential development.”

    In plain English, that means property owners could – by right, rather than at the discretion of planning officials – subdivide their lots and build up to two dwelling units on each lot. ……..
    …….
    ……. SB 9 is the most robust pro-property-rights measure the Legislature has passed in ages. It allows owners to do more things on their land. By the way, property rights involve what you can do with your property. You have no “right” to your neighbor’s land or your “way of life.”

    ……… Free markets mean that individual investors decide what to build, not government planning officials. By reducing excessive restrictions, the profit motive will encourage people to build more housing. If you don’t like profits, you don’t like capitalism – and should reconsider using the conservative label.
    ………
    It promotes small business because mom-and-pop investors and builders will undertake these small-scale projects. …… It restricts CEQA, the abusive environmental law that invites lawsuits challenging virtually any project.
    ……….

    Rip Murdock (2c90e9)

  339. Put the weight on what they do, not what they say.

    Colonel Haiku (a28946) — 9/20/2021 @ 9:01 am

    they all got vaccinated.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  340. Non-paywall link to #352.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  341. Whembly @348, congress is broken. I blame gerrymandering. uncompetitive districts are won in the primary. Primary voters are passionate and reword people who loudly take extreme positions. If you try to actually do anything that’ involved compromise a primary challenger will attack you for your extreme flank.

    Because things have to get done the executive branch looks for whatever barely legal argument they can as an excuse and we move further away from rule of law.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  342. It’s a clown nose on/clown nose off the politicians and media play for the cameras. They pretend to follow the rules on film, but then get caught time and time again ignoring them when they think it won’t be reported.

    Pelosi hairstylist, French Laundry, Obama birthday, Met gala, and on and on..

    NJRob (0e3eba) — 9/20/2021 @ 8:50 am

    All of that is annoying, none of that has to do with getting vaccinated. For the Obama B-day party I believe everyone was Vaccinated and had provided a negative test result.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  343. @355

    Whembly @348, congress is broken. I blame gerrymandering. uncompetitive districts are won in the primary. Primary voters are passionate and reword people who loudly take extreme positions. If you try to actually do anything that’ involved compromise a primary challenger will attack you for your extreme flank.

    Because things have to get done the executive branch looks for whatever barely legal argument they can as an excuse and we move further away from rule of law.

    Time123 (9f42ee) — 9/20/2021 @ 9:35 am

    I don’t buy that “congress is broken” is a good argument. I think that’s a cop out.

    Affecting change via the political process at the federal level is hard, as it should be. Looking for the federal government to fix things is the problem. It’s the classic argument for federalism.

    Affecting change via the political process at the state/local level isn’t as challenging, but not as ‘sexy’. We have the power of the feet if we don’t like the direction of our state/local level. We do have choices. They may not be all the appealing, but the choices are there.

    Even when we’re talking about the pandemic. Not everything need to come from the federal government with a “one size fits all” policy.

    You may not like how Texas or Florida is doing. But, at least the constituents are held accountable in the next election. Whereas federally, it’s all crapshoot anyways.

    whembly (7c17c7)

  344. People who recovered from a bout of Covid-19 during one of the earlier waves of the pandemic appear to have a lower risk of contracting the delta variant than those who got two doses of the vaccine from Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE.

    This should be the default assumption.

    311. NJRob (eb56c3) — 9/20/2021 @ 6:03 am

    Science that will be ignored because it obstructs the mission. The devout will always ignore facts that go against their beliefs.

    It obstructs the propaganda.

    Now it hs been shown that ONE dose of Pfizer on top of a naturally acquired infection gives even more (speedy) immunity, but a second one at the usual separation of time from the first adds nothing more.

    It amounts to a booster – but the FDA panel just came out against boosters, as unnecessary or worse

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  345. 317. NJRob (eb56c3) — 9/20/2021 @ 6:32 am

    Do you dispute people claiming those who have already have COVID must still take a vaccine that serves no purpose?

    They come up with purposes, and not every one who got some kind of infection got the same immune effect, but the biggest reason is administrative convenience and the cost it would take to screen people out from the mandate.

    But at least say so!

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  346. 351. Paul Montagu (5de684) — 9/20/2021 @ 9:30 am

    The FBI stopped investigating the alleged Trump Org connections with Russia-owned Alfa Bank due to “insufficient evidence”, not for him lying about it.

    But did it start looking into this Alfa bank allegation because he lied about why he was informing them of it?

    That was not, however, the whole, or even a big part, of Crossfire Hurricane. Or maybe not a part of it at all?

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  347. 343. Appalled (1a17de) — 9/20/2021 @ 8:49 am

    The mandate solves that problem

    Maybe for certain types pf businesses like hotels, but it doesn’t eliminate the possibility of people quitting (or not taking the job) because it does not apply to businesses with less than 100 workers. But it minimizes it.

    Nobody is being forcibly injected with a vaccine and very very few by court order.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  348. Sammy,

    I rarely bring up family for privacy reasons, but my sister got a good bout of the bug early last year, February to be precise. She gets antibody tests every few months to prove to the vaccine fanatics that her natural response is all that is needed. She last got tested 2 weeks ago. Plenty of protection there over 18 months later and further proof that she’s been exposed to the virus multiple times, but her body does its job.

    She’s still considered a 2nd class citizen thanks to all those who demand vaccines or else.

    So yes, this is personal.

    NJRob (e0a29c)

  349. OT: That New Mexico State Assembly majority leader (D) who was being investigated for her business dealings with the ABQ public schools (where she world) has been indicted on 26 felony counts.

    Previously she resigned from the Assembly and was fired by APS. She still plans to clear her name.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  350. *where she worked.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  351. Rip, those bills are not about “freedom” they are about overriding local zoning laws and allowing monster 10 story apartment complexes abutting single family housing. They also override personal choices and endanger the single most important investment the middle class has — their houses.

    Under SB9, the owner of a R-1 lot can raze the house and put up a 4-plex, or subdivide the R-1 lot and put up $ micro-houses. Both of these destroy the value of the other properties in the neighborhood (and this is the whole point of the bill), destorying the expectations and life-savings investments of the neighbors.

    It is about “freedom” in the same way that allowing auto-body shops into a residential neighborhood is about “freedom.”

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  352. “Judge in case of anti-Trump mudslinger is married to attorney for ex-FBI lawyer Lisa Page.”

    Not to worry…

    Colonel Haiku (a28946)

  353. 365… 👍 typical BS Democrat legislation obfuscation… claim it has nothing but noble intent, while the almost guaranteed result has extreme negative impacts on true targets.

    Colonel Haiku (a28946)

  354. typical BS Democrat legislation obfuscation… claim it has nothing but noble intent

    Claiming that a Left Coast Democrat law is for economic freedom is like saying Republicans want to subsidize abortion clinics.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  355. @365: *put up 4 micro-houses

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  356. Any news on McConnell and his ignoring to get a budget since 2006?

    mg (8cbc69)

  357. NJRob (e0a29c) — 9/20/2021 @ 11:27 am

    I rarely bring up family for privacy reasons, but my sister got a good bout of the bug early last year, February to be precise.

    February was almost pst before it was known to have arrived in the United States. The counted cases or outbreaks one by one. It was mostly on the West Coast then, and the first version of the virus (probably a result of the first lab leak (I think there must have been at least two. The versions of the virus were not identical)

    She gets antibody tests every few months to prove to the vaccine fanatics that her natural response is all that is needed. She last got tested 2 weeks ago. Plenty of protection there over 18 months later and further proof that she’s been exposed to the virus multiple times, but her body does its job.

    That;s probably true. A person can get repeated exposures, and if they do, it acts like a booster. Do they know, or surmise, it was repeated expsoures because the antibodies changed or became more varied?

    I read this thing about the antibodies in people who recovered getting more varied with time and I think that can only be because of repeated exposures. Otherwise, that makes no sense.

    She’s still considered a 2nd class citizen thanks to all those who demand vaccines or else.

    So yes, this is personal.

    There ought to be an exception for antibody tests. Could insurance payments be a reason for not wanting them?

    But the science of measuring immunity is obvious. Something’s going on. The public health people are acting like immunology is a completely new field. Now new diseases can surprise them, but absent something special, they know, or should know, general principles.

    88888888888888888888888888

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  358. There was a contest on WOR radio 710 AM the other day, Friday or maybe Thursday. One question was how many states have names that end in an O.

    Now everybody thinks the same way.

    You think of Ohio, and maybe Idaho. Remember it’s the number of states not their names, so if you would guess the number of two, you should think that’s probably wrong.

    There seems to be no way to get the answer but to go over the names of the states one by one.

    There are four,

    The last two are Colorado and – a two word name = New Mexico. They don’t come to mind.

    Maybe somebody who lived in Utah would get it more easily.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  359. 17. DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 9/17/2021 @ 4:29 pm

    If you are illegally breaking in to the United States, the solution is simple: shoot them.

    As Nixon might say, maybe that would work, but it would be wrong.

    You’re only arguing my point with that: A humane restrictive immigration policy is impossible.

    Restrictive, enforced and humane. You can only pick two out of three.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  360. By the way, you’re going to get a mixture of all three.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  361. Bonfiire of the Vanities was a best selling nook, a flop as a movie, a well known book, “The Devil’s Candy,” – now used in film courses in collages about the making of that movie, and now there is a seven episode podcast about the writing of that book, or the making of that movie.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/10/arts/plot-thickens-podcast-bonfire-vanities.html

    Salamon had come looking for a box that contained material from her second book, “The Devil’s Candy,” published in 1991. She had recently agreed to adapt the book — a celebrated account of the making of the infamous box-office flop “The Bonfire of the Vanities,” based on Tom Wolfe’s sweeping social satire of 1980s New York — for the second season of “The Plot Thickens,” a Hollywood history podcast from Turner Classic Movies.

    Salamon was hoping to find a trove of mini cassette tapes, recorded on set over the entire course of the film’s production. Audio from the tapes contained unusually candid interviews with the director, Brian De Palma, his crew and the film’s stars — Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis, Melanie Griffith and Morgan Freeman — and would be a crucial component of the podcast.

    But when Salamon eventually found the “Devil’s Candy” box, the tapes weren’t there. Distraught, she returned to her apartment in SoHo and resumed searching. It was there, a couple of frantic days later, that she found several zip-lock freezer bags full of mini cassette tapes in the back of a large home office cabinet. The bags hadn’t been opened for 30 years….

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  362. It was only last October, for instance, that we learned that then-President Obama was briefed by his CIA director, John Brennan, on an intelligence report that Clinton planned to tie then-candidate Trump to Russia as “a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server.” That was on July 28, 2016 — three days before the Russia investigation was initiated…

    —- The Hill

    Colonel Haiku (a28946)

  363. Looks like BLM is mad about the vaccine mandates. They should use their influence to encourage ppl to get vaccinated. If not the anti-vaxers are welcome to them.

    https://www.nationalreview.com/news/after-altercation-at-restaurant-black-lives-matter-claims-nyc-vaccine-mandate-is-being-weaponized/

    Time123 (9f42ee)


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