Weekend Open Thread
[guest post by Dana]
Let’s go!
First news item
Rep. Liz Cheney works to save the Republican Party from itself:
Almost every one of my colleagues knows in your hearts that what happened on Jan. 6 was profoundly wrong. You all know that there is no evidence of widespread election fraud sufficient to have changed the results of the election. You all know that the Dominion voting machines were not corrupted by a foreign power. You know these claims are false. Yet former President Trump repeats them almost daily, and he has now urged Republicans not to vote in 2022 and 2024. This is a prescription for national self-destruction.”
More Cheney (addressing fearful Republicans):
Cheney made the remarks in her opening testimony at the House Rules Committee ahead of an expected Thursday vote to hold Steve Bannon, an “alt-right” activist and former President Donald Trump’s one-time chief strategist, in criminal contempt of Congress for his refusal to cooperate with the select committee.
“Let me address my Republican colleagues specifically,” Cheney began.”I’ve heard from a number of my colleagues in the last several days who say they just don’t want this target on their back,” Cheney said. “They’re just trying to keep their heads down.”
…
“They don’t want to anger Kevin McCarthy, the minority leader, who has been especially active in attempting to block the investigation of events of January 6th,” Cheney went on to say. “Despite the fact that he clearly called for such a commission the week after the attack.”
“I ask each one of you to step back from the brink. I urge you to do what you know is right, to think of the long arc of history,” she said. “We are told that it bends towards justice. But it does so only because of the actions of men and women in positions of public trust.”
P.S. About Bannon and Jan. 6:
Listen to Steve Bannon talking about #January6th. The American people deserve to hear his testimony. pic.twitter.com/JDnotq5eDr
— Rep. Liz Cheney (@RepLizCheney) October 21, 2021
The House of Representatives voted on Thursday to hold Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist and a close confidant of former President Donald Trump, in criminal contempt of Congress. The vote will trigger a referral to the Justice Department, which will then decide whether to bring formal charges against Bannon.
The final vote was 229-202, with 9 Republicans joining Democrats to hold Bannon in criminal contempt.
Here are the Republicans who broke party lines:
Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney
Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger
Michigan Rep. Peter Meijer
Ohio Rep. Anthony Gonzalez
Michigan Rep. Fred Upton
New York Rep. John Katko
South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace
Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick
Washington Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler
Second news item
NBA player on the Boston Celtics boldly denounces China’s treatment of the Tibetan people:
Dear Brutal Dictator XI JINPING and the Chinese Government
Tibet belongs to the Tibetan people!#FreeTibet pic.twitter.com/To4qWMXK56
— Enes Kanter (@EnesKanter) October 20, 2021
On the heels of Kanter’s protest, the CCP announced that the Boston Celtics games would no longer be aired in China.
Third news item
After Kamala Harris’s less than impressive trip to El Paso, could President Biden do any worse?:
President Biden tonight said he will consider visiting the southern border, suggesting he has not visited so far because he has been busy visiting the sites of disasters around the country.
“I know it well,” said Biden, when asked if he had plans to visit the area. “I guess I should go down, but the whole point of it is I have not had a whole lot of time to get down.”
Biden noted that he has travelled the country and the globe since taking office in January, adding he has “not had a whole lot of time to get down” to the border.
“I have been spending time going around looking at the $900 billion worth of damage done by hurricanes and floods and weather and traveling around the world,” he said.
Clearly, President Biden doesn’t believe the humanitarian crisis at our Southern border is worth his time, nor does he really have any intention of getting control over the border. So what’s new?
Fourth news item
The genocide of the Uyghurs goes on unabated:
A recent State Department report on admissions details countries of origin for refugees who were resettled from the beginning of October 2020 through the end of September 2021. According to that document, not a single refugee of Chinese nationality—including Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities from Xinjiang—was resettled in America through the program in that time.
Asked why no Uyghur refugees were resettled, a White House spokesman referred The Dispatch to the State Department and said it is “something we take very seriously and something the president is committed to.”
…
Despite the genocide designation, Uyghur refugees have dealt with delays and a lack of urgency in their asylum requests. The admissions program on the whole has also suffered from drastic decreases in the total number of refugees admitted to the United States.
During his one term, former president Donald Trump repeatedly set records for granting the fewest refugees entry since the modern resettlement program began in 1980. In fiscal year 2020, the United States let in just 11,841 refugees, which is far lower than the historic average of 90,000 annually. The massive drop in admissions that year was partly due to the coronavirus pandemic—but Trump slashed admissions to historic lows in his prior years in office as well. The United States admitted 30,000 refugees in 2019, 22,560 in 2018, and 53,716 in 2017.
President Joe Biden says he supports admitting more refugees, but his actions in office have not matched his rhetoric.
Boston Celtic player Enes Kanter again speaks out against persecution. This time it’s against the genocide against the Uyghurs and President Xi’s draconian measures, as well as the CCP, and boldly name-checks Muslim leaders in the region for their complicity (through silence):
Heartless Dictator of China,
XI JINPING and the Communist Party of China.I am calling you out in front of the whole world.
Close down the SLAVE labor camps and free the UYGHUR people!Stop the GENOCIDE, now!#FreeUyghurs pic.twitter.com/eEoiw5Uz2K
— Enes Kanter (@EnesKanter) October 22, 2021
What a man, what a man, what a mighty fine man.
P.S. Let’s see if the NBA and its players will have the courage to get behind Kanter, or if lucrative endorsement contracts will continue to rule the day…
Fifth news item
CDC may change the definition of “fully vaccinated”:
Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Friday the U.S. “may need to update” its definition for what it means to have full vaccination against COVID.
The CDC and the FDA have officially approved boosters with every authorized vaccine in the U.S. for people who meet specific requirements. Walensky explained that since not everyone is eligible for a booster, the definition has not been changed “yet.”
Currently, the CDC’s definition is the following: “Fully vaccinated persons are those who are ≥14 days post-completion of the primary series of an FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccine.”
“We have not yet changed the definition of ‘fully vaccinated.’ We will continue to look at this. We may need to update our definition of ‘fully vaccinated’ in the future,” Walensky said during a press briefing.
Sixth news item
More than a thousand people crowded the front steps of the California Capitol on Monday to protest Gov. Gavin Newsom’s decision to require all children to get the coronavirus vaccine to attend public and private schools.
Newsom’s mandate, announced earlier this month, made California the first state in the country to say it will require the COVID-19 vaccine for schoolchildren once the vaccines receive full federal approval.
California has one of the highest vaccination rates in the country — over 85% of people 12 and older have gotten at least one shot, and 72% are fully vaccinated. But as in other places, the state has a vocal minority skeptical of both the vaccine and the government’s assurances of its safety.
Many parents at the rally in Sacramento had pulled their children out of school to attend the rally, hoping the absences send a message to state officials.
Seventh news item
There is not, and never will be a kinder and gentler Taliban. Only delusional fools would ever consider it a possibility:
An Afghan volleyball player on the girls’ national team was beheaded by the Taliban — with gruesome photos of her severed head posted on social media, according to her coach.
Mahjabin Hakimi, one of the best players in the Kabul Municipality Volleyball Club, was slaughtered in the capital city of Kabul as troops searched for female sports players, her coach told the Persian Independent.
She was killed earlier this month, but her death remained mostly hidden because her family had been threatened not to talk, claimed the coach, using a pseudonym, Suraya Afzali, due to safety fears.
Eighth news item
SMDH:
During a segment of his podcast — “Louder with Crowder” — on Wednesday, Steven Crowder said, “Oh, that is an aggressively Asian face” when describing [Betty] Yu, a reporter for KPIX-TV, a local CBS affiliate.
He made multiple remarks about Yu’s features with comments like, “that just means if you were a skier, it would be like a black diamond. You’d have to drop in on a chopper.”
Crowder ended the segment by saying, “By the way, the reason I say that is because usually with the reporters, they’re, like, they’re kind of like Americanized Asians. So I think it’s a good thing. It’s a good thing, it’s full Asian.”
Have a great weekend.
–Dana
Liz cheney is dead woman walking in wyoming primary. Save the republican party? She can’t save herself!
asset (8057c0) — 10/22/2021 @ 2:46 pmThis is very good to see. It’s hard to say too many positive things about this. Kanter should be supported and encouraged. Hopefully this will create room for other players to speak out.
Thank you for posting it.
frosty (f27e97) — 10/22/2021 @ 3:17 pmThree cheers for Kanter.
He also has ten arrest warrants from Turkey for his mean tweets about Erdogan.
Regarding Biden, his one and only official visit to the southern border was a drive-by.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 10/22/2021 @ 3:27 pmBiden not only said he’s been too busy to visit the border as President, he apparently lied multiple times about going there before:
Cooper: “Do you have plans to visit the southern border?”
Biden: “I’ve been there before.”
Joe Concha: “Ok… this is an easy one to fact-check, fact-checkers paid to handle this stuff (answer: Biden has never been to the border in 50 years as a politician)”
More Concha: “Biden on the border: “I’ve been there before and I haven’t — I mean, I know it well. I guess I should go down. But the whole point of it is I haven’t had a whole hell of a lot of time to get down.”On top of an incredibly light schedule, Biden has gone to Delaware 25X as POTUS.”
Maria Bartiromo: “”I was [at the border] three times.”. President Biden at a CNN town hall last night claiming that he’s been to the border. When?
It is still unclear if he actually has. Is this another lie?”
Imagine voting for this.
Obudman (cef237) — 10/22/2021 @ 3:48 pmRIP Peter Scolari (66).
Rip Murdock (141030) — 10/22/2021 @ 3:52 pmRIP Ron Tutt (83).
.
Rip Murdock (141030) — 10/22/2021 @ 3:58 pmSpeaking of Kanter and the Xi regime, the Trump-Biden administrations admitted zero Uigher refugees in fiscal year 2021, even though Pompeo declared (on 1/19/2021) the Uigher situation a genocide.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 10/22/2021 @ 4:08 pmFacebook employees sounded the alarm about misinformation, but their bosses took no action. The story about the Carol Smith account should have raised red flags.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 10/22/2021 @ 4:26 pmOn a personal level, I know several friends who’ve gotten swayed to the Q side, and you can see the devolution in their Facebook posts. A guy in my men’s group just turned 71 but won’t get vaccinated and I blame his Facebook feed. He’s saying the same things about vaccines that I’ve been reading in Hotair comment sections.
House Ethics Committee issues detailed reports on allegations against four congressmen
……..
The Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), an independent body that reviews ethical complaints and makes recommendations to the House Ethics Committee, investigated Republican Reps. Mike Kelly (Pa.), Alex Mooney (W.Va.), and Jim Hagedorn (Minn.), as well as Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski (N.J.).
……..
The OCE found that Kelly, a six-term congressman, may have inappropriately used information he received during his official job duties for personal gain. According to the report, there is “substantial reason to believe” that Kelly’s wife, Victoria, purchased stock in steel company Cleveland-Cliffs based upon confidential information that the lawmaker received.
……..
The lawmaker and his wife refused to cooperate with the OCE investigation. The watchdog, however, did receive third-party information concerning the stock purchase through witness interviews and emails.
……..
In the report on Mooney, the OCE found that the three-term West Virginia Republican probably used campaign funds for personal purchases, mainly for “small-dollar meal expenses and in-district travel.” The OCE noted that Mooney did cooperate in the investigation and passed remedial measures to correct the violations and prevent future mistakes.
It was Mooney’s penchant for fast-food meals that raised eyebrows at the ethics office. …….
…….
In Malinowski’s case, the OCE found that the New Jersey Democrat did not file reports for stock trades made in 2019 and 2020. Malinowski has already admitted to the misstep, saying the failure to report the transactions was “carelessness on my part” that he regretted and took responsibility for.
…….
In Hagedorn’s case, the OCE found that the two-term Minnesota Republican improperly awarded contracts to firms connected to two of his aides. ……
…….
The OCE also found that Hagedorn received campaign office space from a political donor at below market value. The watchdog found that Hagedorn also knowingly made false statements to the public about the use of that office space when confronted with the allegations.
……..
Related:
GOP Rep. Jeff Fortenberry pleads not guilty to federal charges and steps down from committee assignments
Rip Murdock (141030) — 10/22/2021 @ 4:43 pmCalifornia Accounts for 12% of U.S. Students, but Only 1% of Covid School Closures
……,,,
…….,. California’s new student vaccination requirements haven’t yet begun, but the state already has a remarkably low number of outbreaks at schools.
Of the 2,321 nationwide school closures since August because of Covid-19, about 1 percent have been in California — even though the state accounts for 12 percent of the nation’s K-12 students, according to data from Burbio, a technology company that monitors outbreaks.
……..
…….. Vaccinating children will not only confer them protection from infection, but also limit virus spread that can lead to new mutations.
Statewide, 71 percent of Californians 12 and over are fully immunized, one of the highest rates in the nation, according to a tracker by The New York Times. The percentage is lower for the youngest age group eligible for vaccines, those between 12 and 17, at around 57 percent.
……..
Counties where multiple schools have closed this fall include Kern (where 43 percent of people 12 and over are fully vaccinated), Tehama (41 percent) and Lassen (32 percent).
There aren’t uniform guidelines across the state for when a school must shut down in response to an outbreak, so the closure numbers aren’t a perfect measure of how many students and teachers are falling sick. Still, they provide a snapshot of where and how often big outbreaks are overwhelming districts.
Statewide, the student vaccine requirement isn’t expected to take effect until July — first for seventh grade and up, followed by kindergarten through sixth grade — and only after the vaccines get full approval from the Food and Drug Administration for those age groups. (Currently, only the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has received full F.D.A. approval — and that’s only for people 16 and older.)
Rip Murdock (141030) — 10/22/2021 @ 4:55 pm………..
Texas GOP Lt. Gov. Patrick offered $25,000 for election-fraud tips. The first payout was for a Republican’s illegal vote.
Rip Murdock (141030) — 10/22/2021 @ 5:15 pm……..
……..(Lt. Gov. Dan) Patrick’s campaign sent a $25,000 check to Eric Frank, a Democratic poll worker from Pennsylvania whose tip led to the recent conviction of a 72-year-old registered Republican who cast a second vote in his son’s name last November, the Morning News reported.
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…….. In Pennsylvania, at least three Republicans were among the targets, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. The list included Ralph Thurman, whom (Eric Frank, a Democratic poll worker) caught voting a second time at a Chester County, Pa., polling station.
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On Election Day, Thurman, a registered Republican, cast his own ballot and then asked Frank, a poll worker, if he could vote on behalf of his son, the Daily Local News reported. Frank told Thurman that would be illegal, but Thurman showed up later wearing sunglasses and proceeded to vote again. When Frank noticed, he alerted his father, an elections judge. Thurman quickly fled the building as the father and son tried to speak with him, the paper reported.
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…….. (I)n September, Thurman pleaded guilty to a charge of repeat voting, a felony for which he was sentenced to three years of probation and was barred from voting for four years, the Inquirer reported.
……..
Related:
(Nevada): Man who claimed dead wife’s mail-in ballot showed voter fraud accused of voting twice
Kanter would make a great name for a tennis shoe company.
mg (8cbc69) — 10/22/2021 @ 5:31 pmDonald trump announces he will have a cameo role in new movie “I shot the sheriff!” directed by alec baldwin.
asset (571576) — 10/22/2021 @ 6:16 pm‘You’re a joke’: Greene clashes with Cheney, Raskin on House floor
……..
(Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene, R-GA, Insurrectionist) , a top Trump loyalist, crossed the aisle and approached Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) as voting began on a resolution holding a former adviser of former President Trump, Stephen Bannon, in contempt for defying panel subpoenas.
Greene first pressed Raskin – who led the Democrats’ prosecution of Trump during his impeachment trial after the Jan. 6 attack – asking him when he would investigate the violence surrounding the Black Lives Matter protests, according to Raskin.
“Like with Kyle Rittenhouse who went and killed two Black Lives Matter protesters?” Raskin replied to her. “I’m sure there will be an opportunity for us to get to that.”
“This is a joke,” Greene said, her voice rising, referring to the Jan. 6 investigation and the Bannon contempt vote. “Why don’t you investigate something people actually care about?”
Cheney shot back that Greene was “a joke” and that she should be focusing on Jewish space lasers, a reference to a conspiracy theory Greene previously had promoted on Facebook blaming “space lasers” controlled by a powerful Jewish family for starting wildfires in California.
“I never said that! (She did). You’re done. You’re a joke!” Greene yelled at Cheney, according to CNN. “Why don’t you go investigate something that matters to the American people?”
Rip Murdock (141030) — 10/22/2021 @ 6:16 pm……..
Virginia parents pushed back too:
Breaking: In the wake of yesterday’s @FreeBeacon report, National School Board Association announces “we regret and apologize for the letter” to Biden admin characterizing concerned parents as potentially domestic terrorists
Mighty nice of them to apologize for a letter to the admin that the same admin helped them write.
https://dailycaller.com/2021/10/21/nsba-biden-white-house-letter-domestic-terrorists/
Obudman (cef237) — 10/22/2021 @ 6:34 pm@14 Nothing says US House of Representatives like some good middle school playground trash talk. I was hoping for a good round of yo mamma jokes.
frosty (f27e97) — 10/22/2021 @ 6:37 pmhttps://en-volve.com/2021/10/06/watch-fauci-makes-scary-declaration-to-canadians-its-time-to-give-up-your-individual-right-of-making-your-own-decisions/
Freedom is just a word to some people.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 10/22/2021 @ 6:43 pmhttps://dailycaller.com/2021/10/21/senator-rand-paul-i-told-you-so-national-institutes-of-health-funding-gain-of-function-research/
The most important news this week.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 10/22/2021 @ 6:49 pmhttps://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/10/21/afghan-u-s-biden-accused-raping-teenage-girl-montana/
Ugh
NJRob (eb56c3) — 10/22/2021 @ 6:50 pmSinema bathroom confrontation: ASU police recommend charging 4
Rip Murdock (141030) — 10/22/2021 @ 7:04 pmThe most important news this week.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 10/22/2021 @ 6:49 pm
Not this?
Rip Murdock (141030) — 10/22/2021 @ 7:06 pmAnyone see Biden’s CNN town hall? He seemed to be really struggling to remember the Port of Long Beach. Hopefully he doesn’t have to go there considering his busy schedule.
frosty (f27e97) — 10/22/2021 @ 7:07 pmA bully calls a girl a bully.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 10/22/2021 @ 9:34 pmMs. McCain was brave enough to go on a show surrounded by bullies like Behar and Whoopi, working for a network surrounded by liberals. To me, that’s the opposite of being a bully. She went into a left-wing lion’s den and held her ground.
The funny thing is that Trump expended a lot more words on Meghan McCain, who held no elective office and quit her talking-head job months ago, than on telling Republicans not to vote for the next two election cycles if he doesn’t get his way on solving his Election Fraud Hoax. And of course he made it about himself. This is the leader of my party, folks.
I’m curious, Paul, if Trump runs in 2024 and ends up the nominee, do you see yourself remaining in the Republican Party?
Dana (174549) — 10/22/2021 @ 9:57 pm“I ask each one of you to step back from the brink. I urge you to do what you know is right, to think of the long arc of history,”
And it does so regardless of who is standing in the way. Which Congressman wants to be the next Charles Wiggins?
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/22/2021 @ 11:13 pmOn the heels of Kanter’s protest, the CCP announced that the Boston Celtics games would no longer be aired in China.
Further that pirated copies of them would be removed from all stores.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/22/2021 @ 11:15 pmClearly, President Biden doesn’t believe the humanitarian crisis at our Southern border is worth his time, nor does he really have any intention of getting control over the border. So what’s new?
I believe that the state of Texas has the constitutional right to defend itself from invasion. It might be the only way to get Biden to take an interest. Of course he would not be siding with Texas.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/22/2021 @ 11:17 pmCalifornia requires many vaccines to attend public or private schools, and does not allow “personal belief” exemptions, like they are (foolishly) doing with this one.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/22/2021 @ 11:21 pmI’m curious, Paul, if Trump runs in 2024 and ends up the nominee, do you see yourself remaining in the Republican Party?
If there is no other workable alternative to the Democrats? Yes, I would. That does not mean I would vote for Trump or anyone like him.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/22/2021 @ 11:22 pmCOVID making a comeback? The Worldometer weekly trends shows an increase in deaths, world wide, of 3 percent. For the United States, there was no change — which is bad news, considering how many people have been vaccinated. (The case count is down, but that is not as reliable a measure.)
The death toll for the United States, which Worldometers gives as 755,721, is far greater than any of our wars. The case fatality rate is, so far, about 2 percent.
(Note: I am, of course, aware that the numbers in Worldometers are not to be relied upon, for many nations, but I do think we can still — with care — discern trends in them, by assuming that the lying and incompetence in collecting the numbers are, roughly, constant in those nations.)
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 10/23/2021 @ 4:12 amAssuming Jim Miller.
mg (8cbc69) — 10/23/2021 @ 4:26 amIn particular, we can’t trust the COVID numbers from China, because we can’t trust any of their numbers, as demographer Yi Fuxian explains.
For example:
The differences between what is reported and what is real are not small:
Clever researchers may be able to tease out estimates of the COVID toll in China, by looking for similar inconsistencies — and it is possible that our intelligence agencies may already have decent estimates, but there is no reason to expect the ChiComs to tell us the truth.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 10/23/2021 @ 4:26 am15 – Tar with no feathers for the NSBA. These dolts need to be put in a cell.
mg (8cbc69) — 10/23/2021 @ 4:28 am#31 mg – If you have a better method for discerning the trends, share it with us. (And we should recognize that many of the nations have, by now, reasonably accurate counts.)
It is like intelligence in war: You often do not have good counts of the forces opposing you, but you can still often can tell whether they are increasing or decreasing.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 10/23/2021 @ 4:34 amMy method is on my shoulders, bub. I wouldn’t trust any gubmint and the numbers they make up. You sophisticated vaxers are a trip.
mg (8cbc69) — 10/23/2021 @ 4:42 amhttps://dailycaller.com/2021/10/22/tulsi-gabbard-warning-elites-will-cain/
mg (8cbc69) — 10/23/2021 @ 4:54 amThe truth from a lefty.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/22/2021 @ 11:17 pm
Can we dig into that a little? Protection from foreign invaders was delegated to the federal government. If TX asserts a right and claims it’s being invaded wouldn’t that be also claiming the feds we’re violating the constitution? I’d say at that point TX taking action to defend its border would also be unconstitutional.
The only constitutional remedy for TX seems to be petitioning the federal government to secure the border and stop illegal immigration. But I don’t see a legal remedy there. Not securing the border is an option allowed by the constitution.
frosty (f27e97) — 10/23/2021 @ 5:16 am“Let it be clear, in Florida your right to earn a living is not contingent on whatever choice you make concerning the vaccine.” – Ron DeSantis
America still surviving in pockets.
Obudman (cef237) — 10/23/2021 @ 5:19 amThe Seattle election is entertaining — unless you happen to live in Seattle. One of the two candidates for mayor, Lorena González, began her campaign by saying she had worked picking cherries, and so she should be elected mayor. When I first saw the commercial, I thought I had missed something, so I watched it again to check — and that really was the argument in the commercial.
(If the polls are correct, she’ll probably lose to a more rational, and accomplished, candidate, Bruce Harrell.)
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 10/23/2021 @ 5:19 amJim Miller (edcec1) — 10/23/2021 @ 4:12 am
COVID’s comeback potential is limited by some competing natural processes. COVID can only mutate into a finite set of variants and the new variants no longer have the advantage of being novel. So, the collective immune response can start to keep it in check.
Then you’re dealing with region by region differences in population health in general, quality of the various health care systems, etc.
So, it’s possible for there to be another uptick. But it’s unlikely that there will be another global uptick like the last delta wave.
frosty (f27e97) — 10/23/2021 @ 5:25 amJim Miller (edcec1) — 10/23/2021 @ 5:19 am
I noticed a recent ad that also gave me a chuckle. It started out with something like “Big pharma and CEOS are racking in the cash” and I immediately thought, jeez not some nutjob anti-vax agitprop, but it was immediately followed by something like “so why are R’s” fighting Joe Biden’s plans. Now I’m thinking, why is Joe calling attention to the megabucks big pharma is making, those vaccines aren’t actually free after all, and isn’t populism bad.
frosty (f27e97) — 10/23/2021 @ 5:34 amThe death toll in Florida is substantially above the national average (2729 deaths per million versus 2283), with the largest peak coming after vaccines were widely available.
Some, believe it or not, consider that Florida death toll a success.
(This reminds me of a famous US failure in World War II. After Pearl Harbor, Hitler declared war on the United States, and the German U-boats began attacking American shipping. They had great success off the Florida coast because the resorts did not want to turn off the lights — which were illuminating the ships passing Florida. The resorts finally agreed to darken late in the spring of 1942 — after the main tourist season.)
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 10/23/2021 @ 5:37 amI’ll remain in the GOP if there’s no other viable conservative party to join, and I can’t be a Democrat for ideological reasons. If a traditional conservative wing or caucus emerges, that’s where I’ll be. Jonah calls my kind the Remnant, which is his kind, too, and I’m okay there.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 10/23/2021 @ 5:39 amI did the independent thing for a few years and decided I’d rather work from within, doing what I can to to rid the party of Trump and Trumpism from the GOP, as quixotic and unlikely as it is, and take it back to a GOP that isn’t laced with Pat Buchanan’s populist-nationalist-xenophobic schtick.
If Trump is the nominee, then it’ll be my third protest vote in a row (I pulled the lever for Gary Johnson in ’16 and Larry Hogan in ’20). If the nominee is not Trump but too Trumpy for my liking, protest vote. I’ve never voted for a Democrat for president nor plan to.
Jim, I would say that we can’t trust CV19 numbers from India, Russia and Iran either. The excess death numbers show that Russia is lowballing by almost a third, and India by an order of magnitude.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 10/23/2021 @ 5:43 amhttps://victorygirlsblog.com/covid-unvaxxed-teen-boy-denied-medical-treatment/
Denying kids medical treatment because you want to rule over them. This is the world some have created.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 10/23/2021 @ 6:14 amIf a Florida Man runs a Florida business and concludes that he can make more money by requiring his workforce to get vaxxed, how would DeSantis’ mandate forbidding Florida Man from this policy a business-friendly act? Seems to me that Biden’s vaccine mandate on private employers is just as anti-business (and anti-conservative) as DeSantis efforts to mandate the opposite.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 10/23/2021 @ 6:15 am#44 Paul – Agreed.
(For those who are willing to look at excess death numbers, the Economist is a good source. They are now requiring you to register.)
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 10/23/2021 @ 6:19 amThe Biden DOJ has not charged one 1/6 defendant with insurrection, sedition or plotting to kidnap or kill. Democrats need Adam Schiff and Liz Cheney to satiate liberal anger.
“Underlying so much of the anger and resentment surrounding 1/6 is the complete dissonance between the narrative fed to the citizenry by Democrats and their media allies on the one hand, and the legal realities on the other.
It must be infuriating and baffling to a large sector of the population to have been convinced that what happened on January 6 was an unprecedentedly dangerous insurrection perpetrated by an organized group of seditious traitors who had plotted to kidnap and murder elected officials, only for the Biden DOJ to have charged exactly nobody with any criminal charges remotely suggesting any of those melodramatic claims.
This was the same frustration and confusion that beset a large portion of liberal America when they were led to believe for years that Robert Mueller was coming to arrest all of their political enemies for treason and criminal conspiracy with Russia, only for the FBI Superman to close his investigation without charging a single American with criminal conspiracy with Russia and then issuing a report admitting that he could not find evidence to establish any such crime. How to keep the flock loyal when the doomsday prophecies continue to be unfulfilled, as the World-Ending Date comes and goes without so much as a bang, let alone an explosion?
Adam Schiff’s new book — which essentially claims that Mueller is senile and was suffering from pitiful dementia — is obviously intended to provide some solace or at least a framework of understanding for disappointed liberals to keep the faith, but deep down, they know what they were expecting. The endorphin-producing fantasies on which they fed for years — of Trump and Trump, Jr. and Jared and Bannon and Ivanka being frog-marched out of the White House by armed, strapping FBI agents — were way too viscerally arousing for them to simply forget that none of it happened.
But the manipulative political design of this spectacle should not obscure how threatening it nonetheless is to core civil liberties. Democrats in politics and media have whipped themselves into such a manic frenzy ever since 1/6 — indeed, they have been doing little else ever since Trump descended the Trump Tower escalator in 2015 — that they have become the worst kinds of fanatics: the ones who really believe their own lies.“
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/feeding-the-liberal-flock-the-real
It’s not just Democrats. There are still conservatives who will insist that Jan 6 was worse than the riots of 2020, or even 9/11.
Obudman (cef237) — 10/23/2021 @ 6:40 am#48 Obudman – Have you ever seen Greenwald disagree with “Czar” Putin? (I haven’t.)
(I assume everyone knows that Greenwald worked with that traitor, Edward Snowden. But people seem to believe Greenwald, anyway. Old-fashioned fellow that I am, I find it hard to trust a man who was once a part owner of a pornographic web site, originally named “Hairy Jock”.)
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 10/23/2021 @ 7:05 am#40 “So, it’s possible for there to be another uptick. But it’s unlikely that there will be another global uptick like the last delta wave.”
frosty – Naturally, I hope you are right — but I wasn’t expecting the delta variant, which came as a very unpleasant surprise. And I think it likely that the current surge in cases in formerly east-bloc countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Poland, and Rumania, will only get worse as the weather gets colder.
And people almost everywhere get tired of taking precautions.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 10/23/2021 @ 7:18 amBTW, DPRK News was suspended by Twitter because their administrators are unthinking idjits, but now they’re back, with a righteous vengeance, and my home state is not exempt from their glare.
And this.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 10/23/2021 @ 7:37 am@49, ““Hairy Jock”!!!
Well, that sure puts “whistleblower” in a whole different context. I wonder if Greenwald was intimately involved with titling his porn productions — perhaps if he gets back into the business, future productions will include, “Top-Secret Penetrations”, “Snowden Does the NSA”, “The Rise of the Insatiable Russian”, “The Devil in Mr. Snowden”, “Putin Sucks”, “Snowden’s Back Door”…..and my favorite “Glenn Greenwald: Up and Coming!”. Sorry….but the overly pious Greenwald deserves a bit of lampooning….and this reveal is just priceless…made my weekend.
AJ_Liberty (3cb02f) — 10/23/2021 @ 7:52 amThe Willard Hotel, where Bannon was ensconced, is described as “command central” for stealing an election and stomping on our democracy. Other characters who showed up were Giuliani, Eastman, Kerik, OAN reporter Christina Bobb, among others.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 10/23/2021 @ 7:52 amASU Police asks prosecutors to charge 4 people for Sinema bathroom protest
……..
(Adam Wolfe, spokesman for ASU Police Department) said all four people allegedly committed disorderly conduct and disruption of an educational institution, which are both misdemeanors. He said the investigation concluded within the past week.
……..
The (Maricopa County Attorney’s Office) MCAO declined to share the names of the people ASU police referred for charges.
“To protect privacy, we typically don’t release names of individuals who have not formally been charged by our office,” said Jim Dettmer, spokesman for MCAO, in an email. “It is usually up to the law enforcement agency whether or not to release the identities of suspects in a submittal.”
Rip Murdock (141030) — 10/23/2021 @ 8:12 am>>>>>>>>
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 10/23/2021 @ 7:05 am
Speaking of Snowden; how do you feel about Clapper lying to congress under oath about the wide spread surveillance by the NSA? Or about the NSA surveillance itself?
frosty (f27e97) — 10/23/2021 @ 8:31 am@52 it certainly must be embarrassing that a hairy jock dude who ran a porn site has a better grasp of the facts
JF (e1156d) — 10/23/2021 @ 8:37 am42, the former poster Narciso used to ask if the Mexican Cession of 1848 was “worth it” on account of California’s perfidy. Now I wonder if the 1819 purchase and subsequent Seminole Wars were worth it.
urbanleftbehind (f29851) — 10/23/2021 @ 8:49 amMy method is on my shoulders, bub. I wouldn’t trust any gubmint and the numbers they make up. You sophisticated vaxers are a trip.
I’m not sure I’m reading this right, but are you saying that you prefer the numbers YOU make up?
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/23/2021 @ 9:47 am#45 In Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman describes a very common class of errors: We humans all too often draw statistical conclusions from individual examples.
For example: In the United States, with our population of more than 330 million, there will be, every day, some interactions between police officers and others that go wrong. Anyone who wants to can find an example of police being too hard — or too soft — every day. But it is irrational to make policy on the basis of those single examples.
(Mark Twain understood this. “We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it and stop there lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove lid again and that is well but also she will never sit down on a cold one anymore.”)
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 10/23/2021 @ 9:48 amCan we dig into that a little? Protection from foreign invaders was delegated to the federal government.
Article I, Section 10, Clause 3:
That “unless” grants authority to the state.
Article IV, Section 4:
If they are not fulfilling their guarantees to the states, or even if they are just taking too long, the states can act. The feds have the power to call out the militia to do this (Art I, Section 8), or to use the military. But it is not an exclusive power.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/23/2021 @ 9:56 am#55 frosty – That example didn’t interest me enough to learn the details, and then form an opinion*.
If you are interested in those general questions, I would recommend Michael Hayden’s Playing to the Edge.
(*I apologize for doing things in that order, since that violates an informal rule in Internet discussion, but that’s just the way I am.)
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 10/23/2021 @ 9:57 amAmerica still surviving in pockets.
Mostly vaccinated pockets. But you are right. Everyone has a God-given right to be stupid, or take risks of death. They do not have a right to put others at risk, however.
You do not have the right to swing your fist into my nose.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/23/2021 @ 10:00 am‘My god what an idiot’: J.D. Vance gets whacked for past Trump comments
………
Club for Growth Action and USA Freedom Fund, both of which back former state Treasurer Josh Mandel, are each spending $470,000 to make Republican primary voters aware of Vance’s harsh rhetoric toward the former president. Vance has publicly said he did not cast a vote for Trump in the 2016 election
………
Vance has sought to dramatically reinvent himself as all in for Trump while embracing a Republican message of economic populism — and allies of Mandel are on the offense to prevent Vance from closing the gap in the race to replace retiring GOP Sen. Rob Portman.
“I’m a Never Trump guy,” Vance said in an interview with Charlie Rose in 2016, a clip used in both the new ads. “I never liked him.”
Both ads also feature a screenshot of a Vance tweet from October 2016. “My god what an idiot,” he wrote, referring to Trump.
Vance expressed a similar sentiment in other interviews and since-deleted tweets from that time, including publicly mulling the idea of supporting Hillary Clinton, calling Trump “noxious” and “reprehensible.”
…….
Vance has said that he regrets his criticism of Trump.
……..
While internal Mandel polling this summer showed the former state House member with a 28-percentage-point lead in the race, a poll commissioned by a pro-Vance super PAC put Mandel just 3 points ahead of Vance, at 19 percent and 16 percent, respectively. That survey, released Thursday, was done by Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio.
Club for Growth PAC’s own updated polling still shows Mandel with a significant lead, however. The newest poll, conducted by WPA Intelligence Sept. 27-30 and obtained by POLITICO, reported Mandel leading with 35 percent of the vote as Vance and investment banker Mike Gibbons are tied at 12 percent. Former state GOP Chair Jane Timken, technology company executive Bernie Moreno and state Sen. Matt Dolan registered in single digits.
Rip Murdock (141030) — 10/23/2021 @ 10:05 am……..
Speaking of Snowden; how do you feel about Clapper lying to congress under oath about the wide spread surveillance by the NSA? Or about the NSA surveillance itself?
Clapper should have been charged. His proper response was that the details of NSA surveillance cannot be discussed in a public setting. His lie was not for security purposes, but for bureaucratic and political ones. He wanted to mislead and used secrecy as an excuse.
Snowden was not a whistleblower. He was a spy. He hired onto NSA for the premeditated purpose of gathering up damaging information and disseminating it. He lied when he took his oath. He signed the clearance documents and was contractually bound to follow them, but this too was fraudulent.
He was a spy.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/23/2021 @ 10:07 am@63: Vance would have been better off running as NeverTrump.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/23/2021 @ 10:09 amMy mother, too, has exploited her youthful cherry-picking job. But only to explain how she got broken arches.
Radegunda (27012e) — 10/23/2021 @ 10:12 amThreatening judges, also not good for our democracy.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 10/23/2021 @ 10:38 am@67 judge reggie walton is a joke
much was made of his takedown of bill barr, including here, yet nothing ever came of it
zilch
just the usual grandstanding
JF (e1156d) — 10/23/2021 @ 10:59 amKevin M (ab1c11) — 10/23/2021 @ 9:56 am
I would interpret the “unless” clause differently
I think the intent of invaded was to cover armed incursions by a hostile power.
I think TX has sat on this long enough that they’ve shown it would admit of some delay.
TX needs to do something about the problem because the federal government isn’t. But this isn’t really a case of the federal government taking to long. For all practical purposes what’s going on is the policy of the federal government. TX wouldn’t be acting instead of the feds. They would be acting in opposition to the feds.
frosty (f27e97) — 10/23/2021 @ 11:17 amReggie Walton was appointed by GHW Bush and GW Bush, but since Trumpists are all about derogating past Republican presidents to make their guy look better, I expect that fact to be unthinkingly dismissed.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 10/23/2021 @ 11:24 amAnd Walton was right. Barr misled the American people by the way he mischaracterized the Mueller report.
@70 more than a year and a half later, walton has nothing on barr
and he has nothing now
but he knows certain folks will take the ball and run with it
JF (e1156d) — 10/23/2021 @ 11:34 am@63: Vance would have been better off running as NeverTrump.
LOL!
Rip Murdock (141030) — 10/23/2021 @ 11:36 amYes, it shows that AGs can get away with lying when they’re not under oath. “Lack of candor” is not a crime, but it can be a fireable offense if you work under Barr. Quite the irony.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 10/23/2021 @ 11:45 amThis is not new.
#66 Radegunda – Any chance that your mother would be interested in being mayor of Seattle?
Fair warning: It is not a job I would wish on anyone I liked — and I am sure that being police chief in Seattle is forbidden by the 8th amendment’s prohibition against “cruel and unusual punishment”.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 10/23/2021 @ 12:07 pm#74 Jim — it’s a bit late for that, but not a chance, in any case.
Radegunda (7f4ba9) — 10/23/2021 @ 12:25 pmHer story was a useful lesson about standing on a ladder for long stretches of time, though.
For those afraid of needles, an example illustrating why you shouldn’t be: On Thursday, I got my Pfizer booster shot. My first shot, in March, had so little effect that I almost wondered whether I had gotten it. The second shot, in April, did hurt a bit — but not enough to impress a badminton player, much less a football player. This last shot hurt a bit more, but not as much as a dentist’s novacaine shot usually does. And yesterday, my stomach was a bit upset, but that’s not terribly unusual at my age.
And from everything I have read, my experience is typical.
So, if fear is holding you back, overcome it. The experience really isn’t all that bad.
(The Microsoft volunteers at the first shot were so cheerful and pleasant that I brought them some cookies and mint teas when I came back for my second shot.
If Google, which is closer to where I live, has done anything to help the community during this pandemic — and I would like to think they have — I’ve missed it)
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 10/23/2021 @ 12:31 pm72, 63, laugh but if I recall correctly, Ohio primaries are open in the same manner as are Illinois’s – that is you don’t register by party prior to, thus you can declare party ballot at the registrar’s table when you arrive on election day. Back in 2018, Bruce Rauner eked out a 2 point win against a more conservative challenger because Dems in the capital and in the public uni towns would rather kept the devil they survived.
urbanleftbehind (c073c9) — 10/23/2021 @ 12:45 pmArticle IV, Section 4:
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.
If they are not fulfilling their guarantees to the states, or even if they are just taking too long, the states can act. The feds have the power to call out the militia to do this (Art I, Section 8), or to use the military. But it is not an exclusive power.
Source
Rip Murdock (141030) — 10/23/2021 @ 12:45 pmJust got J&J booster 4 hours ago, groggy but not nauseous.
urbanleftbehind (c073c9) — 10/23/2021 @ 12:47 pmThe Washington Post editorial board is usually more sensible than this:
If college students are afraid of make-up, they should be getting some exercise, and getting some help from a cognitive psychiatrist, not wasting time in a serious class.
I’ll be looking for a letter making these rather these obvious points, or even a column from one of their more sensible columnists.
(Incidentally, the students should be honored even to meet Bright Sheng, much less take a class from him.)
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 10/23/2021 @ 1:23 pmOh, but just wait till the AIDS-causing parasites emerge.
Radegunda (7f4ba9) — 10/23/2021 @ 1:29 pmBiden bank regulator nominee reveals her plan to radically transform US economy
“While running for president, Joe Biden campaigned as a lunch-pail-carrying, blue-collar moderate from Scranton, Pa. But during his short tenure in the White House, Biden has proven himself to be a far-left champion of bureaucracy, reckless government spending and the centralization of economic and political power.
The most recent example is Biden’s nomination of Cornell law professor Saule Omarova to head the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a branch of the Treasury Department.
Omarova is a controversial choice. Born in the former Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan, Omarova was educated in the Soviet Union, graduating from Moscow State University in 1989, and as recently as 2019 openly praised various Soviet policies.
Omarova’s university thesis has raised alarm bells. Although no one knows exactly what she wrote in the thesis, its title, “Karl Marx’s Economic Analysis and the Theory of Revolution in The Capital,” coupled with her refusal to hand the paper over to members of the Senate Banking Committee, has led many to believe Omarova’s views on Marx are out of step with Americans’ largely pro-market sentiments.
According to past statements, Omarova’s vision for transforming the U.S. economy involves significant centralization of investment and banking, putting a new public institution in charge, directly or indirectly, of virtually all economic activity. In an extensive interview with MSNBC host Chris Hayes in 2020, Omarova outlined some of her most expansive proposals to reshape the United States.
After complaining that the current financial system does not do enough to ensure private institutions prioritize issues such as climate change, Omarova told Hayes that a new federal agency should be created to restructure the American economy to make it “more resilient in the face of shocks, big pandemics, big climate change, big whatever kind of shocks we experience that we have resources that we can mobilize and reapportion in the way we need it.”
Omarova imagines the NIA to be America’s “public manager” that “will select” investment projects for the country, but “not on the basis of what is the most profitable in the next five years, in the next seven years.”
The federal government is in “a position to make that kind of a decision,” Omarova added, because it doesn’t have to worry about financial losses in the near term; it can simply finance the debt through money-printing and taxes.”
https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/578153-biden-bank-regulator-nominee-reveals-her-plan-to-radically-transform-us?amp&_
There are conservatives who voted for this.
Obudman (ff7852) — 10/23/2021 @ 1:39 pmJim, that’s a terrible story. Makeup for acting, with no racist intention, is just craft. And it’s interesting and worth conversation, even if it was from a different time.
More and more it’s obvious these ‘you offended me’ outrages are just about power. The power to control whether I say ‘he’ or ‘she’ or discuss a concern about a medical treatment, or really anything. They want more than conformity. They want to be angry and superior, all the time.
It’s no wonder Trump was viable. These kind of thing demands resistance. It’s a shame any sincere, honest leader on this kind of thing will be wiped out by all the outrage on both sides.
Dustin (ac10ed) — 10/23/2021 @ 1:59 pmRe “CDC may change the definition of “fully vaccinated””….
The US regime has already fraudulently changed this term. Dr. Mercola explained in an article how the CDC FRAUDULENTLY reclassifies deaths of Covid-VACCINATED people to deaths of Covid-UNvaccinated people falsely attributing deaths to unvaccinated while DEflating the GREAT harm from Covid jabs to the vaccinated people.
The most vital urgent and DEEP understanding everyone needs to gain is that a network of psychopaths ARE governing big businesses (eg official medicine), nations and the world (the evidence is irrefutable) and that the Covid Scamdemic is a VERY DESTRUCTIVE WAR AGAINST NON-RULING PEOPLE EVERYWHERE — you and I. But that’s only ONE part of the equation that makes up the destructive human condition.
The true, WHOLE, but “politically inconvenient” and “culturally forbidden” reality is more encompassing. Review “The 2 Married Pink Elephants In The Historical Room –The Holocaustal Covid-19 Coronavirus Madness: A Sociological Perspective & Historical Assessment Of The Covid “Phenomenon”” by Rolf Hefti at w w w dot CovidTruthBeKnown dot c o m
Without a proper understanding, and full acknowledgment, of the true WHOLE problem and reality, no real constructive LASTING change is possible for humanity.
Then … SPREAD THOSE TRUTHS FAR AND WIDE.
“Finding individuals who can think for themselves now is like finding diamonds in a sewer.” — Unknown
Jazzu (423a9f) — 10/23/2021 @ 2:03 pmThere are “conservatives” who voted for someone who had made it clear that he would regard an election loss as illegitimate and that his acceptance of the result was conditional upon whether he liked the result — and who afterward tried to get the result overturned in his favor.
There are “conservatives” who see nothing wrong with all that, and who are now busy engineering ways to overturn the next election that doesn’t go their way.
In the past 25 years, self-identified Republicans have never outnumbered self-identified Democrats. But the political system — especially but not only the Electoral College and the Senate — gives Republicans disproportionate political power.
In 2000 and 2016, Republicans won the presidency while losing the popular vote. In 2020 the R. candidate lost the popular vote by a wider margin, yet Republicans across the land are howling that the result of the election was an outrageous crime against “the American people,” a term typically used in a way that excludes the majority of the population.
I’ve been a Republican for most of my voting life, but it’s embarrassing to see so many R’s and conservatives believing that the system isn’t skewed enough in their favor.
Radegunda (7f4ba9) — 10/23/2021 @ 2:20 pm#83 Dustin – I agree, and that’s why I posted those first two paragraphs.
They bothered me enough so that I just went back and read the top 40 or 50 comments. I didn’t count but I would say that at least 80 percent of them agreed with you. So I feel a little better.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 10/23/2021 @ 2:24 pm@84, “The most vital urgent and DEEP understanding everyone needs to gain is that a network of psychopaths ARE governing big businesses”
They appear to be running loose on the internet as well
AJ_Liberty (3cb02f) — 10/23/2021 @ 2:28 pmIt’s time for Trump fans to start working out why that is.
Why did conservatives, millions and millions of conservatives, reject Trump? Why did Trump never win a popular vote, ever, after running for president several times?
Well, it’s because he’s a horrible person. He’s had an impact on his fans. They often behave like frosty (no more need be said, right?). He predictably tried to reverse the outcome of an election (a lot of people thought he would).
Work out why Biden was a better option for people who disagree with Biden on everything and knew Biden would be terrible. Work that out.
Why would someone choose to total their car by hitting a guardrail instead of driving off a cliff.
If you can, you will be well on your way to making Biden and Kamala losers. If you can’t, you’re making those guys smile, and making conservatives grit their teeth at the future. But I genuinely wonder if y’all love your country more than you hate nevertrumpers.
Time will tell!
Dustin (ac10ed) — 10/23/2021 @ 2:36 pmGen. Michael Flynn’s Brother v. CNN Libel Lawsuit Over Allegations of Being a “QAnon Follower”
The detailed recommendation from Magistrate Judge Sarah Cave (which District Judge Gregory Woods will now consider) came in Flynn v. CNN (S.D.N.Y.). The plaintiffs (the brother and sister-in-law of the retired Lieutenant General, who served briefly as President Trump’s National Security Advisor) prevailed on some issues: The Magistrate Judge concluded that they weren’t limited public figures, and that CNN’s statements were “of and concerning them.” But the Magistrate Judge ultimately concluded that they couldn’t show that the statements were substantially false:
……..
Rip Murdock (141030) — 10/23/2021 @ 2:42 pmloudoun’s lying liars
Email shows Loudoun County schools superintendent knew about sex assault in bathrooms
A bombshell this week out of Loudon County Public Schools: after Superintendent Scott Ziegler said in a school board meeting in June he had no knowledge of any sexual assaults in school bathrooms a just-released email appears he did.
The email was sent to school board members on the same day of the assault in May. It says a female student alleged that a male student sexually assaulted her in a restroom. Earlier this week, Ziegler said at the board meeting in June he answered no when asked if any assaults had happened because he wrongly interpreted the question and apologized.
JF (e1156d) — 10/23/2021 @ 3:16 pm#90
This is why I think we should really sit back and wait when the media and NASB start wailing and moaning about threats by parents.
steveg (e81d76) — 10/23/2021 @ 3:36 pmIf my son or daughter was sexually assaulted on school grounds and it was swept under the rug and then lied about… then I get removed by police?
I’m calling some people some names, including the PD. I’d be outraged because the people who should be arrested are the school board members. It would take a lot of self control and that is one of those cases where parents are heavily wired towards fight.
Petty tyrant bureaucrats climbing the party ladder are currently valued more than the families they are supposed to serve. Vote the jerks out or move. Better yet vote for vouchers
Oh
steveg (e81d76) — 10/23/2021 @ 3:47 pmGarland should be ashamed of himself
The NASB sent a letter and he didn’t consider the source might have a bias toward its members and do a little due diligence?
A letter with all the correct liberal/conservative alphabet soup on the letterhead is not automatically an unbiased source.
If the SPLC tell us the host is really a QAnon racist for his recent series, hopefully we’d all laugh at the SPLC and support him even though the extent of media due diligence would be “oh my goodness, its the Southern Poverty Law Center… it must be all true.”
A GOP lawmaker in Oklahoma referred to Asian Americans as ‘yellow’ immediately after a presentation about racism
……..
State Sen. David Rader, who has served in the state Senate since 2016, made the comments in an exchange with Damion Shade, a policy analyst at the Oklahoma Policy Institute, who had just concluded a presentation on the history of racism in the US and how that history has created the racial wealth gap.
Video of the exchange uploaded by the Oklahoma Senate shows Rader questioning Shade following his presentation.
“Well into your presentation did you go to yellow families?” Rader asked.
“You left yellow families out for quite a while,” he added.
Shade quickly corrected Rader on his use of the term.
“You mean Asian Americans?” Shade responded.
Rip Murdock (141030) — 10/23/2021 @ 4:07 pm…….
Good observation, Dustin @ 88.
Dana (174549) — 10/23/2021 @ 4:31 pmI dunno, it’s seems like Mr. Shade might have gamed out that response by Rader, with Rader unwittingly providing sound bite material for a particular gubernatorial challenger.
urbanleftbehind (c073c9) — 10/23/2021 @ 4:39 pmOne curiosity: In Britain, when they say “Asian”, they usually mean south Asian, people who come from Pakistan or India, whereas we almost always mean east Asian, people from China, Japan, or Korea.
(To be fair, David Rader may have been thinking of that old Sunday school song, Jesus Loves the Little Children”, which begins this way:
When George Frederick Root wrote the song, it was understood as an anti-racism song — as I think it still should be.)
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 10/23/2021 @ 4:45 pmI think the intent of invaded was to cover armed incursions by a hostile power.
Pancho Villa wasn’t a state actor at the time in invaded New Mexico, just a bandit or guerilla leader, depending on who you ask, with a few hundred men. It was treated by the US as an invasion and was followed by an incursion deep into Mexico in an attempt to capture Villa.
In any event I am not saying that Texas should invade Mexico, but it should marshal its national guard, or state police, at the border to put pressure on Biden.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/23/2021 @ 5:25 pm@80: Can you imagine being a professor in the drama department when it comes to makeup? Can a white student apply a false tan? And what about tanning salons, for that matter?
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/23/2021 @ 5:30 pmIt’s time for Trump fans to start working out why that is.
Why did conservatives, millions and millions of conservatives, reject Trump?
Screaming “TRAITORS!!1!!” isn’t likely to bring them back into the fold.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/23/2021 @ 5:32 pmThis piece from The Atlantic earlier in the week was outstanding. It details how a nastier version of meth is fueling the homeless problem. It’s long, but good.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/11/the-new-meth/620174/
After I read it, I realized that it just might have explained the young, good-looking, not-slovenly-dressed woman I saw pushing a homeless-style cart and going through the trash outside Reno’s biggest mall a few days ago. She was muttering loudly, and throwing out the n word over and over.
norcal (b9a35f) — 10/23/2021 @ 5:43 pmsteveg (e81d76) — 10/23/2021 @ 3:36 pm
Eight days later they arrested the non-boy in question. But the (female) DA was a Soros-backed DA, and, possibly because of that, he was kept out of jail for the time being.
He was only 14 years old. The principal, or whoever, did not admit him back to the school, and he was transferred to another school, where he raped another girl.
Source: Bill O’Reilly on his radio/TV program one say last week.
O’Reilly doesn’t know (he said nobody knew) what happened to the boy after the second rape. If he’s now in yet another school, or what. The father of the girl got something like a suspended sentence of 10 days in jail. She’s at least consistent about not wanting to jail anybody.
The superintendent had to claim it never happened, (because if he admitted it did, it would be going against his ideology, and the medical professionals who said the boy was a girl.)
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 10/23/2021 @ 5:43 pmSet aside Steve Bannon. I would like to hear from Alex Jones, who, according to news reports, told the people at the Capitol that Trump was going to appear there. Was that planned?
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 10/23/2021 @ 5:47 pm#98 Kevin – That’s exactly what happened to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He had put on some dark makeup while a teacher at West Point Grey Academy, and confessed that he had also worn dark makeup when he went to a party in high school.
He survived that horrific scandal, partly because of his name, and partly because of Canadians not caring much about it.
I’m not a fan of the man, but I thought the scandal about 99 percent absurd.
(For the record: He isn’t half the leader that Stephen Harper is.)
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 10/23/2021 @ 5:48 pmMan who claimed dead wife’s mail-in ballot showed voter fraud
He was right, except for one detail he left out.
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 10/23/2021 @ 5:51 pmMaybe it is not OK, (you can argue about it) but it should not be a firing offense.
hat;s the problem with woke people – they don’t believe in censorship – they only believe in “cancelling” people.
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 10/23/2021 @ 5:59 pmi wonder if SNL will do an alec baldwin skit
JF (e1156d) — 10/23/2021 @ 5:59 pmKevin M (ab1c11) — 10/23/2021 @ 5:25 pm
Agreed. I’m just not sure that constitutional angle will work. If it does all the better.
frosty (f27e97) — 10/23/2021 @ 6:32 pmOn the heels of Kanter’s protest, the CCP announced that the Boston Celtics games would no longer be aired in China.
This is not, I think, so much as to punish the Boston Celtics or the NBA, so much as to keep the people of China ignorant of what;s going on in Tibet (so they will feel that the government is not horrible – and be disloyal.
The idea is that that Enes Kanter should no longer be famous in China. Because, if he is famous, then people might cite him as being against Chinese policy in Tibet. But, if he’s just another nobody, then what he tweets almost doesn’t matter. It;s like Gary Kasparov being against Putin. If nobody in Russia knew who Gary Kasparov was, then what he says would not get any circulation.
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 10/24/2021 @ 2:00 amhttps://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/10/california-drove-truckers-out-business-now-store-daniel-greenfield/#.YXNDol7ADoQ.twitter
mg (8cbc69) — 10/24/2021 @ 3:33 amUnfortunately still the land of fruits and nuts.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/10/the_teachers_unions_fumbled_play.html
mg (8cbc69) — 10/24/2021 @ 3:59 amBust this inept union, Teachers are pawns for the worse than Trump voters.
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2021/10/23/twitter-suspends-gop-congressman-for-saying-rachel-levine-is-a-man-n1526403
No different than Big Brother or Soviet demoralization where they will force you to say something you know is a lie in order to exist in society. And once you accept that lie, you’ll believe anything.
You will love Big Brother.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 10/24/2021 @ 9:48 amhttps://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/10/california-drove-truckers-out-business-now-store-daniel-greenfield/
California insanity harming the rest of the nation.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 10/24/2021 @ 9:52 am106, Well I found this article about comedians after the Dick Cheney non-fatal) hunting accident in 2006 when he shot his friend Harry Whittington.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB113988242820273069
But the Monday night shows had a good number of jokes: David Letterman, Jon Stewart, Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 10/24/2021 @ 10:18 am111. Item: twitter-suspends-gop-congressman-for-saying-rachel-levine-is-a-man
This is considered medical misinformation or hate speech – probably both. These are the two categories they are most comfortable censoring.
But Facebook would probably not do that, since he’s a VIP.
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 10/24/2021 @ 10:24 amI saw in the 2004 book by Jophn M. Barry about the 1918 flu (which by the way, traces its origin to Kansas and apparently disagrees with Gina Kolata’s 1999 book which seems to say it really was in Spain in the spring)
Pae 252:
This gave me the idea that when they said that Colin Powell died from “complications” of Covid, they probably meant a secondary infection.
I got the idea from the fact that the two books differed that maybe there was a precursor in 1917 or earlier or 1916 or earlier that spread around the world that was very contagious but not deadly, and it may have mutated more than once in widely scattered places, although one probably took over.
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 10/24/2021 @ 10:40 amOne of the biggest problems I see is the political nature of school boards and other boards like water, sewer boards etc.
steveg (e81d76) — 10/24/2021 @ 11:00 amIn the cities closest to where I live, the majority of those positions are filled by political beasts, primarily progressive idealoogies. They get the approval of the local party and then the audition for higher office is on. The competition starts and every one tries to out progressive the other. LA is even worse. People there fail up in direct proportion to their progressivism. Never mind the schools are failing, the sewer runs raw into the ocean, DWP has slush funds worth multiple millions for “training” at resorts in Hawii and Mexico. Your next City Councilperson will be a termed out politician elevated from a failing elected board who checks all the right progressive boxes
School board should not be a political resume builder, but it goes way lower down the scale.
steveg (e81d76) — 10/24/2021 @ 11:06 amI have a 70 year old buddy that was on a local cemetery board who told me everyone new there was being plugged in by the dominant local party
One of the biggest problems I see is the political nature of school boards and other boards like water, sewer boards etc.
In the cities closest to where I live, the majority of those positions are filled by political beasts, primarily progressive idealogies.
The solution to this is for conservatives to drop the “government is the problem” pretense and start getting more involved in their local communities. Run for school boards, attend city council meetings, volunteer for planning commissions and local cultural boards, participate in PTA functions. Leftists have relied on conservative apathy towards government for the last 40 years or so to gradually take over these places and implement their agenda a piece at a time.
Many of America’s suburban towns after World War II were run and built by conservatives who participation in their local governments as a civic duty. Because of that, the suburbs were largely spared the worst of 60s radicalism, and led the cultural Marxists like Marcuse to shift their focus in the ensuing decades from the working class and replacing them with the white educated bourgeoisie as its vanguard. It’s not an accident that the concept of “white privilege” was popularized by a white woman, Peggy McIntosh, who came from a family of academic elites.
It’s also not an accident that there’s so much heartburn on the left right now about the school board fights. The last thing these people want is any sort of dedicated pushback by the right, or for them to take government participation seriously again. The minute that conservatives start taking back these places at the local level, the easier it will be for them to become more relevant at the state and national level as well.
And yeah, that’s going to involve some heated rhetorical conflict at times. People are just going to have to accept it. Because any time the left’s agenda is resisted, they start whining about “divisiveness” and adopting the false claims of the Jon Stewart crowd that the country can’t survive if strong political disagreements are part of the process. Political disagreement is healthy for any complex society, because that’s actually how compromises are worked out. The principle of discomfort shouldn’t go in just one direction, but the left has been very successful in portraying even relatively benign, non-culture war initiatives like the Contract With America as an attack on the foundations of the country, when it’s nothing of the type.
The society portrayed by mass media and academia is one that at least half the country wants nothing to do with, but because of their reach, it’s considered the civic consensus. Until conservatives start becoming more active and vigorously challenging these shibboleths from the ground-up, they’re going to continue to be marginalized, and the left will continue steamrolling their agenda down everyone’s throat like they do on the West Coast and places like Colorado.
Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 10/24/2021 @ 11:44 amhttps://twitter.com/TrumpJew2/status/1452249687155748864
Obama on the stump accusing Republicans of trying to rig elections.
Projection at its finest.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 10/24/2021 @ 11:51 amhttps://www.theepochtimes.com/185-employees-leave-los-alamos-nuclear-weapons-lab-due-to-vaccine-mandate_4065465.html
This will certainly turn out well.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 10/24/2021 @ 11:53 amMost underreported story of the week:
Haiti gang leader threatens to kill kidnapped missionaries in video
Rip Murdock (141030) — 10/24/2021 @ 12:06 pmCalifornia’s recall election officially ends as Newsom prepares for 2022
……..
With all the votes tallied, the recall failed by a substantial margin: 61.9% of the votes were to keep Newsom in office through the end of 2022 while only 38.1% of voters cast ballots to remove him.
The final election returns released by Secretary of State Shirley Weber show an outcome for Newsom that was largely unchanged from 2018, when he won the most lopsided California governor’s race since 1950. Recall supporters failed to capitalize on the dissatisfaction of some voters with Newsom’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis, having successfully used the pandemic as a catalyst for their longshot bid at getting a recall on the statewide ballot.
………
Conservative talk show host Larry Elder, who led the field of candidates hoping to become California’s next governor, emerged as the perfect foil for Newsom. Among the field of 46 men and women running to replace Newsom, Elder came out on top with more than 3.5 million votes. His tally bested that of established GOP candidates such as former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and pop culture celebrities including reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner.
………
……… But the most popular choice was to reject the replacement candidates. Almost 5.5 million voters left their ballots blank on the question of who should take Newsom’s place if the recall passed. …….
Orrin Heatlie, a retired Yolo County sheriff’s sergeant who was the official proponent of the effort to recall Newsom, blamed the election loss on a combination of factors. Elder, he said, did some “really stupid things” during his campaign that allowed Newsom to cast him as a right-wing extremist.
Heatlie also said voter apathy, driven in part by Trump and others attacking the nation’s elections systems as rigged and brimming with fraud, also undercut the recall effort.
………
………(T)he governor acknowledged during the event that his own “personal stupidity” helped provide the political fuel to ignite the recall effort — a comment likely referring to his decision to attend a lobbyist’s birthday party at the upscale French Laundry restaurant in the Napa Valley last November, at times unmasked in photos that later surfaced after he had pleaded with Californians to avoid similar gatherings.
…….. Compared to the 2018 gubernatorial election, Newsom increased his margin of support in several large Bay Area counties. He also made smaller but noticeable gains in Orange and San Diego counties, partly reflecting the Republican Party’s continued weakening in those areas.
Final results show 58.4% of California voters cast ballots in the recall election, down slightly from the 2018 race but still the third-highest percentage in a nonpresidential statewide election since 1994………
Rip Murdock (141030) — 10/24/2021 @ 12:18 pm……..
Obama on the stump accusing Republicans of trying to rig elections.
Projection at its finest.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 10/24/2021 @ 11:51 am
Trump arguing that elections are rigged (like the California recall) doesn’t help……
Rip Murdock (141030) — 10/24/2021 @ 12:24 pmhttps://www.theepochtimes.com/185-employees-leave-los-alamos-nuclear-weapons-lab-due-to-vaccine-mandate_4065465.html
This will certainly turn out well.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 10/24/2021 @ 11:53 am
Were they involved in weapons design? Do you expect they automatically become traitors?
Rip Murdock (141030) — 10/24/2021 @ 12:42 pmRip, I expect leftists like those you support will automatically accuse them of being traitors. Interesting that you jumped to that word.
BTW Rip, I see you’re no longer posting Biden’s polling when you used to look for every favorable poll to pretend he had support. What’s happened?
NJRob (eb56c3) — 10/24/2021 @ 12:59 pmTrump arguing that elections are rigged (like the California recall) doesn’t help……
Trump learned his lessons early in life:
nk (1d9030) — 10/24/2021 @ 1:17 pmYou said that firing those from Las Alamos would end “badly”. Just wondering what you meant by that.
It was made clear by many here they weren’t interested in my poll posting, so I stopped.
Rip Murdock (141030) — 10/24/2021 @ 1:21 pmRip, I like data and enjoy when you provide it in your comments.
Time123 (9f42ee) — 10/24/2021 @ 1:27 pmWhere I live the school board is mostly staffed by people who passionately care about and like our city. It’s not a big city, you wouldn’t likely recognize the name. But it has *great* schools and the people that ran did so because they want to keep them great. They’re the kind of people that volunteer at concession stands and sell 50/50 tickets at football games.
It’s been mostly civil here and everyone seems to take for granted that people are trying to the best they can.
The rage and vitriol people are brining to what are the least powerful elected officials is gross. But par for the course for MAGA conspiracy theorists.
Time123 (9f42ee) — 10/24/2021 @ 1:32 pmThis is an older story, bit funny in the stupidity it highlights.
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/574567-woke-multiculturalism-equity-wisconsin-gop-proposes-banning-words-from
It’s wisonsin, not hogwarts. Banning words doesn’t ban concepts, no matter how much you’d like it to.
Time123 (9f42ee) — 10/24/2021 @ 1:36 pmI think it’s pretty obvious what I mean. When you fire qualified people who work at a nuclear power plant to promote a political agenda, you’ll end up with less qualified partisans.
Guess you don’t mind that.
NJRob (8a4f08) — 10/24/2021 @ 1:42 pmBust this inept union, Teachers are pawns for the worse than Trump voters.
The most effective thing that can be done to remove power from these unions, at least in local government, is to move local elections to the state and national election schedule. Instead of 10% turnouts, heavily weighted towards government employees, there is at least a cross-section of the voters who have more on their mind that what is good for the unions.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/24/2021 @ 1:46 pmCalifornia insanity harming the rest of the nation.
I was in L.A. a few months ago, the first time since Covid, and was surprised that Uber/Lyft cost as much as taxis (and rather more than here in ABQ). At my hotel, taxis were more convenient, and I used them almost exclusively. I suspect this is not a surprise to the taxi operators, who also hated Uber and Lyft.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/24/2021 @ 1:50 pmNJRob (eb56c3) — 10/24/2021 @ 11:53 am
Two things, one surprising, the other not.
1) This link is to the Epoch Times
2) The link is immediately overlaid by a request for payment.
I guess if you pay for something you value it more.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/24/2021 @ 1:53 pmI think it’s pretty obvious what I mean. When you fire qualified people who work at a nuclear power plant to promote a political agenda, you’ll end up with less qualified partisans.
Guess you don’t mind that.
NJRob (8a4f08) — 10/24/2021 @ 1:42 pm
Not knowing if they were engineers or secretaries I have no opinion. Also Los Alamos is not a nuclear power plant but a weapons laboratory. And a 185 out of thousands of employees is small beer.
Rip Murdock (141030) — 10/24/2021 @ 1:55 pmConservative talk show host Larry Elder, who led the field of candidates hoping to become California’s next governor
And this is why the CA Republicans continue to fail. Third-party purist politics. Instead of looking for someone who might win, the opt every time for the True Believer who best embodies the resentments and petty demands of the loudest members. And they lose. Badly. Again.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/24/2021 @ 1:57 pmhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-politics-decision-making-documents-11635100195
More.
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 10/24/2021 @ 2:00 pm@135: Anyone who works at Los Alamos in a technical field understands statistics rather well — it’s the basis of nuclear weapon design — and is fairly comfortable with science and technology.
What does surprise me is that 185 people would quit in a place where there are not a lot of other jobs, and most of those other jobs will have similar requirements.
I admit that I don’t get the militancy of this argument at all. My issue — and the expressed attitudes of most everyone I know — was that the vaccine was taking too damn long to become available. I guess seeing people I knew die from Covid biased my thinking, but you could also call that “having information.”
But I never expected the “It’s a trap!” reaction.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/24/2021 @ 2:04 pmFacebook’s Internal Chat Boards Show Politics Often at Center of Decision Making
Oh, bollocks. Do a search on Facebook or Google for “Truth about 9/11” and you’ll get millions of hits. Some things they police and some things they don’t and it is no more in favor of the Right than college admissions favor men.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/24/2021 @ 2:08 pmThe same people who say that Facebook favors the Right complain about Fox News, even though it is almost the sole outlet not repeating a monolithic MSM message.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/24/2021 @ 2:11 pm….In many of the documents reviewed by the Journal, employees discussed whether Facebook was enforcing its rules evenly across the political spectrum. They said the company was allowing conservative sites to skirt the company’s fact-checking rules, publish untrustworthy and offensive content and harm the tech giant’s relationship with advertisers, according to records from internal Facebook message boards.
In part this is because the company’s fact-checking relied on the leftist’s talking points as the reference. As in “Everyone knows that minimum wage laws help workers” so anything that disputes that fails the fact checking.
The crazy stuff from the left-leaning members (we all have them on our feeds) is considered OK and needs no exemption from the (biased) fact-checkers. Just see all the folks talking about the good stuff in Biden’s plan when neither they or anyone else knows what’s in it. But it gets a pass anyway.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/24/2021 @ 2:18 pmHow did California go from COVID-19 epicenter to lowest statewide transmission rate?
With the lowest COVID-19 infection rate among all states as of Friday, California, which has some of the strictest mask and vaccination mandates in the country, has managed to flip the script as the former U.S. epicenter of the pandemic.
…….
As of Friday evening, California had an infection rate of 61.1 cases per 100,000 over the past week, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state was briefly the only to be classified with a “moderate” rate of transmission — 10 to 49.99 cases per 100,000 over seven days — before it went back up to “substantial,” meaning 50 to 99.99 cases per 100,000 over seven days.
Over the previous week, Hawaii, Florida, Louisiana, Connecticut, New Jersey, Mississippi, Maryland, Georgia and Washington, D.C., each also reported “substantial” rates.
A rate of at least 100 cases per 100,000 is labeled as “high.” Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Alaska, as of Friday, had the highest rates over the previous seven days, with each above 450 cases per 100,000 people. The U.S. average over that span was 150.9.
Experts said California’s journey from worst to first is likely due to a combination of things.
Rip Murdock (141030) — 10/24/2021 @ 3:30 pm…….
More than 70% of California’s population has received at least one dose of vaccine, according to the CDC, and the state also leads in total vaccinations administered, roughly 53 million doses. As of Friday, the national average rate was 66.2%.
……..
Given that vaccines are the most powerful tool we have in curbing the spread of COVID-19, experts said they believe you California’s emphasis on immunizations has provided big dividends.
……..
Additionally, experts told ABC News, having endured the harshest waves of infections last winter and the delta surge in July, formerly infected Californians may have acquired antibodies and more of a natural immunity to COVID-19 — both factors that, in concert with vaccines, could be driving down case numbers.
……..
In addition to strict vaccine mandates, California has been unwavering on face-coverings, testing and social distancing policies.
……..
Despite having a higher vaccination rate than California, states like Vermont are still falling behind on transmission rate rankings, which experts said points to the importance of distancing and masking. Breakthrough cases seen in Vermont can be further explained by its higher proportion of residents 65 and older.
………
Rightwing pundit Candace Owens suggests US invade Australia to ‘free an oppressed people’
Outspoken conservative political commentator Candace Owens has suggested the US military invade Australia in order to free its people “suffering under a totalitarian regime” while drawing comparisons to Hitler, Stalin and the Taliban.
Owens made the comments on her self-titled Daily Wire TV show earlier this week, declaring Covid-19 had propelled the planet into an “ideological and psychological” global war.
“When do we deploy troops to Australia? When do we invade Australia and free an oppressed people who are suffering under a totalitarian regime? When do we spend trillions of dollars to spread democracy in Australia?” she asked.
……
When do we deploy? Of course, I ask that in jest because we all know the real answer. What is happening in Australia under the guise of a virus … is federal overreach, tyranny, totalitarianism – the kind that gives birth to evil dictatorships and human atrocities,” Owens added.
“We are watching a replay of the early ambitions of Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez.”
The ardent Trump supporter questioned whether the Australian government is “any better or any nobler than the Taliban” declaring that they both “believe that they have a right to oppress and a right to imprison people for their own good”.
Rip Murdock (141030) — 10/24/2021 @ 3:48 pm………
Related:
Australians react to Candace Owens’ call for US to invade over Covid restrictions
Requiring employees to get vaccinated is a public/workplace heath decision. All available data indicates it’s a good decision. MAGA has chosen to make it political, which is unfortunate for many reasons.
Time123 (9f42ee) — 10/24/2021 @ 4:15 pmhttps://www.foxnews.com/politics/mcauliffe-stacey-abrams-should-be-governor-of-georgia
Oh look, so called moderate Terry McCauliffe is spreading another “Big Lie.”
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mcauliffe-stacey-abrams-should-be-governor-of-georgia
NJRob (eb56c3) — 10/24/2021 @ 4:26 pmTime123,
you are pushing propaganda again. Biden is the one that has weaponized it and turned it into a political issue. But you know that. It just coincides with your personal social beliefs.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 10/24/2021 @ 4:28 pmhttps://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/san-francisco/exclusive-two-sf-prosecutors-quit-join-effort-to-oust-former-boss-district-attorney-chesa-boudin/2698511/
If you want to go after real terrorists and those trying to overthrow the Constitution of the United States…
NJRob (eb56c3) — 10/24/2021 @ 4:29 pm@146, data shows that it reduces the likelihood of a severe outcome by /at least/ an order of magnitude and has a rate of serious side effects of less then 5 in a million. That’s all I care about. The culture war is your obsession.
Time123 (9f42ee) — 10/24/2021 @ 4:42 pmNot for children. The risk of this virus to kids is negligible. But you want to force them because of politics. Period.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 10/24/2021 @ 6:02 pmVP Harris: “President Biden and I released the first ever National Gender Strategy. This is our vision for the future of our nation—one that is bold in strategy and one that this moment calls for.”
Comments:
“None of the people who support the “National Gender Strategy” can even define the word woman”
“The White House has no interest in solving inflation, the border, or rising gas prices. But plenty of time for a 42-page “National Gender Strategy” with an “intersectional” focus on climate change.”
There are conservatives who voted for this.
Obudman (ff7852) — 10/24/2021 @ 6:22 pm“Ventura County nurses from different sectors and specialties are coming forward to blow the whistle on what they deem serious lapses in local health care practices, mostly related to COVID-related protocols, “vaccine” mandates and politically and financially motivated bullying of medical staff, which these health care workers say is seriously compromising the general quality of local care.
The Guardian spoke with multiple nurses of various ages and at different stages in their careers, all of whom work in medical care settings or hospitals in Ventura County. Each preferred to speak under a pseudonym for now. Each described seriously declining standards of care, atmospheres of intimidation and fear in hospitals, and distrust and disillusionment among medical professionals.
“Before COVID, nurses, staff and the community were confident in treatment modalities and in doctors’ competencies,” says one nurse. But now, “People are confused.”
“They’re very confused,” agrees a veteran Ventura County nurse. “I think doctors are confused. … I don’t think the community’s confident. I’m not. … Because where’s the truth?”
Most shocking, perhaps, is how doctors and administrators refuse to report the rising number of unexplained medical problems in otherwise healthy people as potential adverse reactions to COVID-19 experimental vaccine shots. To suggest that these shots are the cause of any medical problem — or that they are contributing to the alarming rise in non-COVID-related hospital populations — invites professional ridicule.
“Nobody is considering that [these medical problems] could be vaccine-related,” says an ICU nurse in a county hospital. “It’s not even in question. You might as well say you want to start treating people with crystals and burning sage. If you say it’s the vaccine, they look at you and say, ‘It’s the safest thing ever produced. Why would you say that?’”
Yet, doctors are at a loss to explain the increase in non-COVID-related ailments, including a reported increase in heart attacks in young people, mainly men, who received the COVID-19 vaccines.”
https://www.conejoguardian.org/2021/10/21/ventura-county-nurses-blow-the-whistle-on-crisis-in-local-health-care/
Obudman (ff7852) — 10/24/2021 @ 6:30 pmThink “Never Trumpers” here are tough on Trump, and his supporters? You should see what some British bettors think:
For the record: That seems more than a bit extreme to me, though I am waiting with interest to hear if any charges are filed against Gaetz.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 10/24/2021 @ 6:53 pmIf you can read not-too-complicated charts, you’ll find this UK article instructive.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 10/24/2021 @ 7:00 pmThe only ones playing politics are the Trumpcakes and the QAnonuts. The only ones.
There is no political upside to vaccine, masks, and social distancing mandates. Sane people go along with them but they would rather not have them at all.
But Trumpcakes and QAnonuts see a political cause to unite them as they put lipstick on their orange pig.
nk (1d9030) — 10/24/2021 @ 7:00 pmAnother environmental success:
According to one long-time watcher, the otters compete like people do in “Game of Thrones”.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 10/24/2021 @ 7:07 pmOk, now that we’ve heard from the Conejo Guardian, is there any any word from the Cojone Guardian?
nk (1d9030) — 10/24/2021 @ 7:10 pmNk,
assertion is not evidence. You know better. Why you say otherwise says a lot.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 10/24/2021 @ 7:11 pmExperts said California’s journey from worst to first is likely due to a combination of things.
You left out “crushing small business and restaurants mercilessly”
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/24/2021 @ 7:19 pmRightwing pundit Candace Owens suggests US invade Australia to ‘free an oppressed people’
OK, you win today’s craziest link contest. I cannot top that.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/24/2021 @ 7:20 pmyou are pushing propaganda again. Biden is the one that has weaponized it and turned it into a political issue. But you know that. It just coincides with your personal social beliefs.
I would be pushing it no matter who is President. Facts are not dependent on politics. Now, maybe, if Trump were President and was pushing vaccines, I’d still be arguing it’s just a good idea. Even if Trump agreed and Biden didn’t.
I wonder though if you’d be opposed.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/24/2021 @ 7:23 pm*
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/24/2021 @ 7:24 pmmaybeA healthy population and a healthy economy is not politics. It’s good government.
Nutjobs trying to sabotage those goals because their orange loser is not now the head of the government is either politics or treason. Choose one of the two words because there is no other word for it.
nk (1d9030) — 10/24/2021 @ 7:24 pmThe only ones playing politics are the Trumpcakes and the QAnonuts. The only ones.
No, that’s also not true. The Netroots are using this to bash all Republicans, even the vast majority who are vaccinated. Some people pick up any club they can.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/24/2021 @ 7:25 pmThe Republican Party in its current form is the political equivalent of catamites that will do anything to service Donald Trump’s wishes and happiness or do his bidding
No, they seem more like Trusties at Auschwitz, not wanting the boss mad at them.
I’ve said it before. Nothing will save the GOP while Trump is alive.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/24/2021 @ 7:28 pmI’m not Netroots and I’ll gleefully bash any vaccinated Republican, like Abbot and DeSantis to name two, who panders to the Trumpcakes and QAnonuts. They are purely playing politics.
nk (1d9030) — 10/24/2021 @ 7:41 pmKevin – I should have said this before: I am so sorry to hear of your personal losses from COVID. And I can not imagine how much sorrow has been caused by the hundreds of thousands of other losses in America.
So far, no one close to me has even been sick, but I have relatives that I worry about every day.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 10/24/2021 @ 7:43 pm“In light of the NIH now admitting, after months of bitter denials, that they funded activity which could’ve produced the COVID virus, recall that the official censors’ position not long ago was to ban and punish speculation to this effect on social media”
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/10/nih-admits-funding-risky-virus-research-in-wuhan
They were purely playing politics.
Silencing critics is not how freedom works.
How much damage they have done at this point can only be speculated.
Obudman (ff7852) — 10/24/2021 @ 8:03 pmWuhan research theory ‘molecularly impossible’: Fauci
………
Stephanopoulos also pressed Fauci on the controversy over to what extent the U.S. was funding bat coronavirus research in Wuhan after the NIH released a letter this week about a New York City-based nonprofit’s research on bat coronavirus spike proteins. The letter states that the subcontractor had not disclosed some results in a timely manner.
“Now, some critics and analysts have seized on that to say you and others have misled the public about U.S. funding of this so-called gain-of-function research. The NIH says that’s false. Our medical unit backs that up,” Stephanopoulos said. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has called for Fauci’s firing over the controversy.
“Well, I obviously totally disagree with Senator Paul. He’s absolutely incorrect. Neither I nor Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the NIH lied or misled about what we’ve done,” Fauci responded.
“What did we learn from the letter? Does it show that some of the research we were finding was riskier than we know?” Stephanopoulos pressed.
Fauci said they knew what the risk was and there’s “no denial” that they should have put their progress report in a timely manner, but that the implication that the research led to COVID-19 is “unconscionable” and “molecularly impossible.”
“There’s all of this concern about what’s gain-of-function or what’s not, with the implication that that research led to SARS-CoV-2, and COVID-19, which, George, unequivocally anybody that knows anything about viral biology and phylogeny of viruses know that it is molecularly impossible for those viruses that were worked on to turn into SARS-CoV-2 because they were distant enough molecularly that no matter what you did to them, they could never, ever become SARS-CoV-2,” Fauci explained.
“And yet when people talk about gain-of-function, they make that implication which I think is unconscionable to do, to say, ‘Well, maybe that research led to SARS-CoV-2’,” Fauci added. “You can ask any person of good faith who’s a virologist, and they will tell you, absolutely clearly, that that would be molecularly impossible.”
Rip Murdock (141030) — 10/24/2021 @ 9:54 pm>>>>>>>>
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2021/10/24/anthony-fauci-and-nih-funded-grotesque-research-on-beagle-puppies/#more-218951
mg (8cbc69) — 10/25/2021 @ 3:13 amFauci is a sick puppy.
I am no fan of Fauci, but I’ll believe him over a pandering poseur like Rand Paul.
nk (1d9030) — 10/25/2021 @ 3:19 amSoft serve Joey is a demented fool. And those that voted for him need help.
mg (8cbc69) — 10/25/2021 @ 3:36 amSoft serve Joey to the rescue
mg (8cbc69) — 10/25/2021 @ 3:37 amhttps://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/experts-demand-our-silence-while-they-experiment-on-us/ar-AAPVkxY?ocid=msedgntp
mg (8cbc69) — 10/25/2021 @ 4:20 amLoch them up
https://legalinsurrection.com/2021/10/branco-cartoon-nurse-ratchet/
mg (8cbc69) — 10/25/2021 @ 4:21 amAnd Trump didn’t? The guy who wanted it called Trump Vaccine? Pffft.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 10/25/2021 @ 4:24 am@153 Jim, I don’t know if that was directed at me, but it clearly shows my claim that all the data supports the vaccine having an order of magnitude impact in reducing serious cases was incorrect. I should have said it cut them in at least half or specified which data.
Thank you for sharing btw
Time123 (9f42ee) — 10/25/2021 @ 4:36 amNJRob I thought we were taking about the impact on adults since it came out of a discussion on the mandates impact on staffing at a nuke lab. Nice Motte and Bailey tough.
Time123 (9f42ee) — 10/25/2021 @ 4:40 amAll I have to say about the Baldwin accident is – Load your own firearm.
mg (8cbc69) — 10/25/2021 @ 4:50 amhttps://pjmedia.com/culture/kevindowneyjr/2021/10/23/f-your-god-antifa-sallies-attack-praying-pro-lifers-again-n1526377
Just a reminder that antifa is just the shock troops for the radical left.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 10/25/2021 @ 5:21 amTime123,
take the clown nose off. What vaccines are mandated to work there?
NJRob (eb56c3) — 10/25/2021 @ 5:24 amhttps://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/dhs-spends-half-million-on-biden-beach-house-fence/
A wall the Biden junta supports using taxpayer funds to build.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 10/25/2021 @ 5:25 am@180, The covid Vaccine that’s mandated for federal employees and contractors. This is the mandated behind your comment in 120 that started the conversation. Did you forget, or are you just lying?
Time123 (9f42ee) — 10/25/2021 @ 5:29 amAnd Time123,
it’s Biden’s unconstitutional mandate causing the distress.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 10/25/2021 @ 5:29 amYou support a wannabe dictator because his views align with your own.
Every time you insult Trump supporters remember that.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 10/25/2021 @ 5:30 amThen why did you support a “wannabe dictator”, Rob? Trump is a guy who so refused that the people spoke against him that he lied for months on end and made multiple attempts to overturn millions of popular votes. That’s what fascists do.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 10/25/2021 @ 5:41 amThe only mandate currently in effect is for employees and contractors. I don’t think that’s unconstitutional.
Time123 (9f42ee) — 10/25/2021 @ 5:50 amBiden’s views don’t align with mine on many issues. I’d love to see him lose to a more limited government, competent, and ethical candidate. But that seems unlikely atm.
I could have said the same thing about Trump FWIW.
Time123 (9f42ee) — 10/25/2021 @ 5:53 amI think Rob somewhat believes the stolen election conspiracy theories tbh.
Time123 (9f42ee) — 10/25/2021 @ 5:54 am#176 Time123 – No, I wasn’t directing it at anyone in particular, and I am glad you were able to find some useful data there.
I think almost all the readers here can learn something from it — except, of course, those who refuse to be confused by mere facts.
(It is one of the clearer explanations of the benefits of COVID vaccines I’ve seen — and creating such clear explanations, with the right graphs, is harder than many think.)
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 10/25/2021 @ 8:00 amRIP David Blatt, aka Jay Black (82). Lead singer of Jay and the Americans.
Rip Murdock (141030) — 10/25/2021 @ 8:12 amJim agree completely, did you see this one from Israel last month?
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israel-unvaccinated-booster-65-serious-covid-19-cases-death-delta-1.10208784
Time123 (9f42ee) — 10/25/2021 @ 8:27 am170. nk (1d9030) — 10/25/2021 @ 3:19 am
Where they disagree, Fauci is closer to the truth. And Rand Paul uses words to try to make it sound like Fauci did something he didn;t – and then he says he is not saying it.
Ranf Paul ignores (beyond indicating that he is not disputing it) Fauci’s claim that, whatever he did, or whatever he helped fund. that did not lead to the virus we all know. To say it matters is to argue that the United States encouraged research that could cause the Chinese to do their own independent dangerous research – but that’s an argument he is not making. He’s trying to say the NIH funded research that created the virus.
Rand Paul and Fauci have their own dispute as to just what is “gain of function” research. Fauci, I think, says it is only gain of function research where that is a required element of the research, not when you are trying to see what happens when you mix viruses in humanized mice and you don;t know what you will get.
One thing getting lost here is that the Wuhan lab (or the Chinese government) was striving for double reimbursement. All their expenses were in Chinese currency. They were getting money from the People’s Liberation Army. I think that’s an acknowledged fact. By lookimng for foreign fnding, they were looking for valuta, or possibly so that they wouldn’t have to try to get it out of the Chinese military budget. Every single thing they did must have been approved of by a higher authoriry in China.
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 10/25/2021 @ 8:33 am178. mg (8cbc69) — 10/25/2021 @ 4:50 am
Or, like the NRA likes to say: Never point a gun at any human being, whether you think it is loaded or not, and still less press the trigger.
Now they are saying we have computer effects now – there’s no need to use real guns, even if a person familiar with guns could detect it was a computer effect, and having guns on a set should be outlawed..
There was a walkout that day – settled – but they wouldn’t let them work anyway, but this may not have affected who was the prop person. The prop person was a 24-year old woman, the daughter of a very experienced person, who initially thought she wasn’t good enough for this job.
Alex Baldwin was practicing cross drawing the gun. He had been tld t was a cold gun. It wasn’t.
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 10/25/2021 @ 8:40 amThey never tell you how soon after getting vaccinated people died.
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 10/25/2021 @ 8:44 amThere was a demonstration outside the Nets opening game yesterday at Barclays Center protesting the exclusion of Nets basketball player Kyrie Irving from the game because he wouldn’t get vaccinated, without even giving him a chance to take tests instead during which some people broke off to storm the building but only burst through barricades. The doors were shut for a little while to all but ticket holders. No members of the mob got inside Barclays.
People in the mob shouted “Let Kyrie Play” and “No vaccine mandate’ and “Stand with Kyrie: and “Nazi passports” and had signs saying “Don’t Tread on Me”
Some wore “Black Lives Matter” T shirts.
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 10/25/2021 @ 8:57 amThe successors to Rush Limbaugh (same theme music) think that Fauci is denying the lab leak theory – but he’s not. Anybody who paid a little attention – and who paid less attention to talking points that are apparently being circulated – would realize that he’s not.
He’s just saying that the virus they were funding research on in China could in no way have turned into Covid, no matter what you did with it – it was too distant.
he Wuhan lab had – what? – hundreds and hundreds of bat viruses.
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 10/25/2021 @ 9:21 am#121 Time123 – I glanced at it, but didn’t take the time to study it, as I should have.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 10/25/2021 @ 12:19 pmNew York Times magazine article about the perils of voting machines from the beginning of 2008.
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/magazine/06Vote-t.html
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 10/25/2021 @ 12:19 pmIn Germany, they are destroying villages and farms to mine coal. And they don’t plan to stop, soon:
There are serious health costs to Germany’s coal addiction:
The foreign nations that suffer most from that German addiction to coal are probably Poland and France, given their locations and sizes.
I have never understood German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to close Germany’s nuclear power plants, since she is certainly smart enough and educated enough to understand the argument above. (Her advanced degree is in quantum chemistry.) Or, to put it differently, I have been unable to think of a reason for her decision that did not cast doubts on her character.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 10/25/2021 @ 12:52 pm193. SF: The prop person was a 24-year old woman, the daughter of a very experienced person, who initially thought she wasn’t good enough for this job.
Alex Baldwin was practicing cross drawing the gun. He had been told it was a cold gun. It wasn’t.
Not by the prop person. By the assistant director, who has now been fired. He caused an incidnet at another movie too,
But in general, it sounds like the place was disorganized.
The movie has been put on pause, and the people who work there collected their belongings.
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 10/26/2021 @ 2:55 am195. There were only somewhere between a few dozen and a hundred demonstrators, and, of these, only a handful tried to go into the arena. It was quite a coalition of different anti-vaxxers. The Barclay Center became the place to make an anti-vaccination protest.
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 10/26/2021 @ 2:59 amOne anti-vaxxer at the Barclays demonstration had a sign or a flag with a swastika.
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 10/26/2021 @ 3:09 amhttps://retractionwatch.com/2021/10/25/covid-19-vaccine-myocarditis-paper-to-be-permanently-removed-elsevier/
Medical research is a snake pit. I can’t say what’s going on here. There could be truth to the claim and there could be false opposition. If it;s true it would be because the Moderna vaccine works too well with some people. t is also a reversible condition.
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 10/26/2021 @ 11:48 amhttps://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/it-time-start-paying-peer-reviewers
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 10/26/2021 @ 2:03 pm#203 Sammy – Thank you for bring that retraction to our attention.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 10/26/2021 @ 2:41 pmOn the plus side, I think this filtration finding looks both promising and plausible:
The systems they used were not complex or — by hospital standards — very expensive.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 10/26/2021 @ 2:46 pmIn addition to Gottlieb, another good source for CV19 information and trends is David Leonhardt, who knows his way around numbers. His latest shows we’re still lagging way behind our Canadian and European counterparts in deaths per million, although it is good news that new cases falling and will probably continue to do so.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 10/26/2021 @ 3:16 pm205. Jim Miller (edcec1) — 10/26/2021 @ 2:41 pm
But I am nit sure what the truth is. It may be sort of true, but not a big problem, and more infrequent than the study tried to make it out to be. That would be my first guess. because this is ot the only source about such an issue.
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 10/27/2021 @ 3:32 amOdd that a judge would not allow trial participants to say that the people Rittenhouse shot were “victims”, apparently because “victim” is a “loaded” or prejudicial term. However, it’s still okay for the defense to say that the recipients of unwanted high-speed metallic projectiles into their bodies were “arsonists” or “looters” or “rioters”, because apparently those terms aren’t “loaded” or prejudicial?
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 10/27/2021 @ 10:49 amPerhaps Patterico might have some direct experience on this subject.
Er, prosecution, not defense.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 10/27/2021 @ 10:55 amPaul Montagu (5de684) — 10/27/2021 @ 10:49 am
I noticed something on this but haven’t read the details.
My best guess is the “recipients” are not on trial. Most of the rules around this are related “to the defendant”. For example.
There is also the objection against counsel testifying.
If this bothers you don’t read up on rape cases.
frosty (f27e97) — 10/27/2021 @ 11:05 amI have never understood German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to close Germany’s nuclear power plants, since she is certainly smart enough and educated enough to understand the argument above.
It’s worse than that. They did it after Fukashima, in a fit of irrationality. Among things they ignored was that Germany is subject to neither earthquakes or tsunamis.
So, they mine coal, which is the dirtiest of all fuels and actually puts measurable radioactives into the environment.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/27/2021 @ 11:13 am212/ And they probably have a different kind of reactor, and the most dangerous thing to do is to shut it down..
It’s probably the Green Party and its voters and they are allergic to anything nuclear = radioactivity,
It’s potentially dangerous, yes, but so is open heart surgery or airplane flight, but there’s a large amount of study and experience so it becomes safer than burning coal.
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 10/27/2021 @ 12:44 pmReasonably good late night talk radio show:
https://wabcradio.com/podcast/the-other-side-of-midnight-with-frank-morano
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 10/27/2021 @ 12:45 pm#213 – I haven’t seen formal surveys, but it is my impression that Green superstition is even stronger in Europe generally, than it is in the United States.
And I believe that is especially true of Germany. In the September federal election, the Green party received 14.8 percent of the vote, and, at 118, the third largest number of seats in the Bundestag.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 10/27/2021 @ 1:13 pmGermany also has the Left, a front for the “former” Socialists in the East, and AfD, a hard-Right nativist party. Put together they have 30% of the seats, making coalitions difficult with the three center-ish parties.
The only two possible coalations that do not cross the center are SPD/Green/Left (2 votes short of majority) and CDU/FDP/AfD (4 votes over a majority).
But no one wants to deal with AfD or the Left, so a more centrist SPD/FDP/Green coalition seems most likely, although the FDP seems the odd man out there.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/27/2021 @ 1:27 pmGreenism, like Socialism, is based on belief, with some sciency trappings. More dogma though than anything.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/27/2021 @ 1:28 pm214. The Oct 27 show has alot about the New York City mayoral election. It was just a few hours after a debate.
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 10/27/2021 @ 2:09 pmMort Sahl died. He was notable as a sardonic sort of liberal stand up comedian who liked plays on quotes (the examples cited in the NYT obituary) who was extremely well known from about the mid-1950s to about 1964, when he started to campaign against the Warren Commission.
His career floundered for the next 55 years till the cornonavirus outbreak.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/26/arts/television/mort-sahl-dead.html
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 10/27/2021 @ 2:36 pmThere are some other news stories and columns I noticed
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 10/27/2021 @ 2:37 pmMort Sahl and L.A.’s own George Putnam attempted a Crossfire show called “Both Sides Now” back in 1975. It didn’t last long. This meltdown might explain why: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqIeYLSMDew
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/27/2021 @ 4:06 pmI never heard of George Putman, but evidently, he was a (conservative or Republican) news anchor who was the principal model fr Ted Baxter on the Mary Tyler Moore show, except they made him ridiculous. They mstly used his mannerisms. He later on became friendly with Ted Knight, the actor who played Ted Baxter, He died at age 94, the same age Mort Sahl died 13 years later.
Mort Sahl seems to hae alienated peoole, and not just because people thought he was wrong many times. It was what might be called his in your face attitude, daring people to disagree almost.
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 10/28/2021 @ 8:08 amDonald Trump wrote a letter to the Wall Street Journal in which he gives all sorts of arguments that the election was stolen from in Pennsylvania.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/president-donald-trump-2020-election-fraud-pennsylvania-ballots-11635280347
I consider this a good thing as it gives specific claims to grapple with. (even though he added that there was more and said something incoherent about wanting a full forensic audit in Pennsylvania.
Most of the arguments are statistical and some are maybe true facts but misinterpreted and some are just nonsensical complaints. A few are half truths.
I think the Wall Street Journal should prepare a point by point response. It doesn’t matter if it takes a few days, although of course it might have been a bit better if they prepared a 4 page response published simultaneously – it’ll take that because a lot will need to be explained- but it doesn’t matter, and I’m sure someone will prepare a response. I hope it is good, and not short. Nobody should be lazy about this.
A delay makes no difference at this point just about one year after the election and in the middle of nothing. Now there is something to work with.
One I know can’t possibly mean what tries to make it mean.
What’s this? Is he claiming that 21 people registered Republican in Pennsylvania for every one who registered Democrat? This is impossible. And what direct connection would there be to aelection night lead, which we all know was because Trump discouraged mail in voting.
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 10/28/2021 @ 2:23 pmHere’s Trump’s entire letter, in which he makes almost two dozen claims:
In your editorial “The Election for Pennsylvania’s High Court” (Oct. 25), you state the fact that a court wrongly said mail-in ballots could be counted after Election Day. “This didn’t matter,” you add, “because Mr. Biden won the state by 80,555, but the country is lucky the election wasn’t closer. If the election had hung on a few thousand Pennsylvanians, the next President might have been picked by the U.S. Supreme Court.”
Well actually, the election was rigged, which you, unfortunately, still haven’t figured out. Here are just a few examples of how determinative the voter fraud in Pennsylvania was:
• 71,893 mail-in ballots were returned after Nov. 3, 2020, at 8 p.m., according to Audit the Vote PA. None of these should have been counted according to the U.S. Constitution and the state Legislature, which didn’t approve this change.
• 10,515 mail-in votes from people who do not exist on the Pennsylvania voter rolls at all.
`• 120,000 excess voters are not yet accounted for by the Pennsylvania Department of State—far more votes than voters!
• From 2016 to 2020, during my term as president, Republicans out-registered Democrats 21 to 1. This translated to a 659,145-vote lead at 12:38 a.m. on election night, with “Trump” up a full 15 points.
• Hundreds of thousands of votes were unlawfully counted in secret, in defiance of a court order, while Republican poll watchers were thrown out of buildings where voting took place.
• 39,771 people who registered to vote after the Oct. 19, 2020, deadline, still voted in the 2020 election—simply not allowed.
Highly respected Audit the Vote PA found numerous data integrity problems the Pennsylvania Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors (SURE) system, including:
• 305,874 voters were removed from the rolls after the election on Nov. 3rd.
• 51,792 voters with inactive voter registrations at the end of October 2020 nevertheless voted.
• 57,000 duplicate registrations.
• 55,823 voters who were backfilled into the SURE system.
• 58,261 first-time voters 70 years and older.
• 39,911 people who were added to voter rolls while under 17 years of age.
• 17,000 mail-in ballots sent to addresses outside of Pennsylvania.
• Another analysis of Montgomery County, Pa., found 98% of the eligible voting population in the county was already registered to vote—not possible.
• A canvass of Montgomery County has identified 78,000 phantom voters, with roughly 30% of respondents unaware that there are people registered and voting from their address.
• One nursing home in Lancaster County had 690 registrations and an extremely high turnout rate of 85% in 2020, while nursing homes were closed due to Covid. One of these residents said she had not voted in the past 3 years, but had a mail-in ballot cast in her name.
• 25,000 ballots were requested from nursing homes at the exact same time.
• Numerous reports and sworn affidavits attested to poll watcher intimidation and harassment, many by brute force.
• Attorney General Bill Barr ordered U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain to stand down and not investigate election irregularities.
• Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook poured over $17 million to interfere in the Pennsylvania election, including $5.5 million on “ballot processing equipment” in Philadelphia and $552,000 for drop boxes where the voting pattern was not possible.
And so much more! This is why Democrats and the Fake News Media do not want a full forensic audit in Pennsylvania. In reality, 80,555 ballots are nothing when there is this much corruption or voter irregularities.
Donald J. Trump
Palm Beach, Fla.
`
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 10/28/2021 @ 2:27 pmDonald Trump makes this sound lik a large number.
It could consist mostly of people who moved (maybe to retire) to Pennsylvania, amazing as that might sound; people who had not voted in years, or newly naturalized citizens. What does Trump suggest this really was? And if they were fake why did so many people register as Republicans like he says?
I would guess because many of them did not vote. What does he suggest? Fraudulent registrations were discovered?
The law was probably altered by a judge. He can claim illegally and unconstitutionally, but it doesn’t indicate rigging.
He has half acomplaint here, but it doesn”t indicate fraud. Many poll watchers weren’t officially registered as poll watchers. They also were forced to stand too far away.
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 10/28/2021 @ 2:34 pmAn official editorial page response just prepared: (not really to Trump, but to their critics for publishing his letter although they go into some of the places Trump can be shown to be wrong and imply strongly they don’t credit any of it.)
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-facts-on-donald-trumps-fraud-letter-2020-election-11635449578?mod=article_relatedinline
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 10/28/2021 @ 2:43 pmWhat all this goes to show you is how many charges can be made u when there’s nothing at all behind it.
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 10/28/2021 @ 2:45 pm#227 Sammy – It’s not terribly important, but do you think Trump believes his own accusations? We know he does believes some weird things, so he might. Andd we know he sometimes lies, and knows he is lying, so he might not.
My own opinion is that he doesn’t care whether they are true or not — but I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on the question. And the thoughts of other informed Trump watchers.
(Thanks for posting the WSJ reply.)
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 10/28/2021 @ 4:21 pmhttps://www.atlanticcouncil.org/insight-impact/ahmad-in-wall-street-journal-how-pakistan-won-in-afghanistan/
https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-pakistan-won-in-afghanistan-taliban-india-borders-11635263372
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 10/28/2021 @ 4:40 pm228. Jim Miller (edcec1) — 10/28/2021 @ 4:21 pm
I didn’t answer this last night because I wanted to watch the CBS line-pp of comedy shows – and then I watched Bull too. (improbable scenarios)
The short answer to this is that Trump is citing claims that point to different ways of cheating, and he can;t possibly believe all of them. And if he doesn’t believe all of them, he doesn’t believe any pf them, because if he did, he’d focus on what he thought was true.
I think, at this point, Trump is trying to save face. It doesn’t help him any more to claim the election was stolen – but it may help him avoid losing credibility among his staunchest supporters.
I don’t think he cares about this – but he does care if people believe it or not. Because he said it, and was all in.
If the proportion of people in the United States who think the election was stolen from Donald Trump drops below, say, 20%, he’ll drop the subject and say he won’t argue any more about this.
The WSJ reply was printed as the third and bottom editorial today, Friday
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 10/29/2021 @ 12:31 pm