Patterico's Pontifications

1/21/2022

Weekend Open Thread

Filed under: General — Dana @ 6:25 pm



[guest post by Dana]

Let’s do it!

First news item

In a follow-up to my post about NPR’s Nina Totenberg claiming that Justice Robert’s asked his fellow colleagues to mask up (on behalf of the diabetic Sotomayor), NPR has responded to the controversy, and we now have a case of a noted media outlet telling readers that what you read and heard isn’t really what you read and heard In other words, it’s fake but accurate news… And to make it even more ridiculous, it doesn’t even matter that the main character in this fiction has denied doing what he was accused by Totenberg of doing.

What she claimed in her NPR piece:

Now, though, the situation had changed with the omicron surge, and according to court sources, Sotomayor did not feel safe in close proximity to people who were unmasked. Chief Justice John Roberts, understanding that, *in some form asked the other justices to mask up.

At the writing of that post, I noted that the bolded part was strangely worded and likely to give Totenberg wiggle room if the whole of the statement was proven untrue. Boy, was I right. After Chief Justice Roberts released a statement denying that he had asked anyone to mask up, Totenberg and NPR doubled down:

On Tuesday, NPR reported that Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a longtime diabetic, had indicated to Chief Justice John Roberts that because of the omicron surge, she did not feel safe being in a room with people who are unmasked, and that the chief justice “in some form asked the other justices to mask up.”

On Wednesday, Sotomayor and Gorsuch issued a statement saying that she did not ask him to wear a mask. NPR’s report did not say that she did. Then, the chief justice issued a statement saying he “did not request Justice Gorsuch or any other justice to wear a mask on the bench.” The NPR report said the chief justice’s ask to the justices had come “in some form.”

NPR stands by its reporting.

Now NPR’s public editor, employing some weaselly word gymnastics, is trying to defend Totenberg while appearing to simultaneously hold her (and the outlet) accountable for the writer’s “inaccurate verb”. Said public editor summed it up this way:

Totenberg and other Supreme Court watchers know that executive messages are conveyed with subtlety and diplomacy, not by clear edict. Adding that small detail, along with more information about her sourcing and a more accurate verb, would have provided a fuller picture. As she acknowledged the justices’ statements on Wednesday, the veteran reporter further explained her wording choice at the end of her segment on ATC.

In the absence of a clarification, NPR risks losing credibility with audience members who see the plainly worded statement from Roberts and are forced to go back to NPR’s story and reconcile the nuances of the verb “asked” when in fact, it’s not a nuanced word.

The way NPR’s story was originally worded, news consumers must choose between believing the chief justice or believing Totenberg. A clarification improving on the verb choice that describes the inner workings of the court would solve that dilemma.

So why not reveal the sources and have them go on the record with what they said? Wouldn’t that clear things ups?

But here’s another problem with the public editor’s piece: She asserts that there is dissension among the justices, which would appear to fly in the face of the statement released yesterday by Justices Gorsuch and Sotomayor:

No one has challenged the broader focus of Totenberg’s original story, which asserts that the justices in general are not getting along well. The controversy over the anecdotal lead, which was intended to be illustrative, has overwhelmed the uncontested premise of the story.

Shame on Totenberg, and shame on NPR. You may think us dumb, but it’s not us who assumed readers everywhere would buy your inaccurate verb nonsense.

Second news item

Asking evangelicals:

Some people in her own party want Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) to lose her membership on committees and even her place within her party’s conference in the United States House of Representatives, all because she won’t “move on” from her beliefs that the attempts to overturn the last election—leading up to last January’s attack on the Capitol—are a clear and present danger to democracy.

Whatever you think of Cheney (as you can imagine, I am a fan), there’s a larger point here—one that applies to many evangelical Christians in a thousand different situations in their churches and communities: At what point will you stop conserving your influence?

Third news item

A progressive case against abortion:

First, the pro-life movement gives increasing weight to science. In 1973, the Supreme Court told us that there has “always been strong support for the view that life does not begin until live birth.” Today, 95 percent of biologists affirm the view that human life begins at fertilization. Modern advances in ultrasound technology and discoveries in prenatal development have laid the Roe Court’s view to rest, rendering the decision obsolete.

Second, the pro-life movement is increasingly calling out the anti-feminist assumptions of the abortion-industrial complex. It is anti-feminist to suggest that women need abortions to succeed in a world that still hasn’t upended patriarchal assumptions in families and the workplace. Moreover, it is inconsistent with the non-violent instincts of feminism to tie the liberation of women to the elimination of any group of human beings. Girls, furthermore, are disproportionately the targets of abortion—especially in places like China, India and parts of Eastern Europe.

Third, the pro-life movement increasingly points out the economic interests of the abortion-rights movement. We respect the personal sincerity of abortion rights proponents. Sadly, however, this social movement is inextricably tied to the interests of Big Abortion, a $3 billion industry.

Fourth news item

Looking at Biden’s and Trump’s polling numbers:

Democratic voters are looking for someone other than Biden to carry their standard in 2024: 41 percent want “someone else,” while only 32 percent want Biden and 27 percent aren’t sure. But for the 68 percent of Democrats who’ve either gone off Biden or are at least starting to look around, there is not much to pick from. Gaffe-prone Kamala Harris is polling as badly as Biden with a FiveThirtyEight approval average of just 36 percent. When the University of Massachusetts at Amherst asked Democratic voters their preferences for 2024, 40 percent remained loyal to Biden — with 80-year-old Bernie Sanders the most popular choice after Biden at 18 percent, and Harris tied with Elizabeth Warren in third at just 10 percent. In a Harvard/Harris poll, Biden retained just 36 percent loyalty and Harris came in second at 16 percent. If Biden were not to run in 2024, Harris led Sanders in that poll 31 percent to 15 percent as Democrats’ first choice — with no one else in double-digits.

Trump has generally pulled ahead of Biden in the 2024 ballot test. The RealClearPolitics average has Trump leading Biden by nearly 5 points at 46 percent to 41 percent, with Insider Advantage giving Trump a lead of 8 points. Polling from YouGov and Redfield and Wilton has vacillated, but show Trump — on average — with a small lead.

And Trump does not appear to have a problem within his own party. Most Republicans want Trump to run (53 percent, according to YouGov). Trump leads significantly in all putative GOP primary polls with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis taking second across the board. The Dec. 13 YouGov poll is closest with Trump leading DeSantis 44 percent to 23 percent, but other YouGov polls have Trump in the mid 50s, leading DeSantis by over 35 points. TIPP gives Trump a 60 percent to 11 percent advantage.

But then there is this:

When you dig into the numbers, he has significant problems. For one thing, his approval rating is just as bad as Biden’s. The latest FiveThirtyEight average has Trump at 43 percent approval. In addition, most Americans don’t want to see Trump run again — even more than oppose a Biden candidacy. According to YouGov, 59 percent do not want Trump to run, while 57 percent are against Biden running.

In that same YouGov poll, 30 percent of Republicans want someone other than Trump to seek the GOP nomination — which points to a worrying trend among Republican voters. Simply put, Trump’s support is not as strong as it seems. Trump routinely polls approval in the 80s among Republicans. The most recent January YouGov poll has Trump at 81 percent favorable among Republicans. Morning Consult has Trump at 83 percent favorable. Yet in both polls, Biden’s overall approval numbers are better than Trump’s — although both are negative.

Fifth news item

Accepting arrest warrants as ID:

Sixth news item

Oh:

Among the records that Donald Trump’s lawyers tried to shield from Jan. 6 investigators are a draft executive order that would have directed the defense secretary to seize voting machines and a document titled “Remarks on National Healing.”

The draft executive order shows that the weeks between Election Day and the Capitol attack could have been even more chaotic than they were. It credulously cites conspiracy theories about election fraud in Georgia and Michigan, as well as debunked notions about Dominion voting machines.

The order empowers the defense secretary to “seize, collect, retain and analyze all machines, equipment, electronically stored information, and material records required for retention under” a U.S. law that relates to preservation of election records. It also cites a lawsuit filed in 2017 against Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

Additionally, the draft order would have given the defense secretary 60 days to write an assessment of the 2020 election. That suggests it could have been a gambit to keep Trump in power until at least mid-February of 2021.

Seventh news item

It’s 2022, this fool doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt from me. There’s a reason why he deleted this tweet:

Untitled

Sort of related:

New York Democratic congressman Mondaire Jones said on Thursday that “we are living through the worst assault on the right to vote since Jim Crow. And yesterday, on the Senate floor, white nationalists used the Jim Crow filibuster to block voting-rights legislation.”

Last week, a different New York House Democrat, Jamaal Bowman, called Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema a “traitor” to “our democracy.”

Nice inclusive party the Dems have there…

Eighth news item

Postively, I’d be waaaaaayy more upset that a parent at my kid’s school felt okay about making this threat rather than my kid having to mask up:

The Luray Police Department charged a woman who made a perceived threat at Thursday night’s Page County School Board meeting.

According to police, Amelia King, 42, was charged with a violation of the Code of Virginia 18.2-60 Oral Threat While on School Property.

The Page County School Board met Thursday night to vote in favor of Governor Glenn Youngkin’s executive order, making masks a choice for students.

During the public comment period, King said, “No mask mandates. My child, my children will not come to school on Monday with a mask on. Alright? That’s not happening. And I will bring every single gun loaded and ready.”

Video below:

MISCELLANEOUS

Simply the best:

Have a great weekend!

–Dana

580 Responses to “Weekend Open Thread”

  1. Happy weekend!

    Dana (5395f9)

  2. Thank you, Dana!

    nk (1d9030)

  3. Gavin Newsome is apologizing for calling groups of thieves who break into railway cars and steal packages ‘gangs’.

    I’m surprised he hasn’t also apologized for saying the scene looked like a ‘third world country’.

    Congratulations California, you not only voted for it, you rejected the recall.

    Obudman (18ecb6)

  4. Boston College flunky Totenberg was fired from her first job in writing for plagiarism. Should not surprise anyone what spews out of her mouth.

    mg (8cbc69)

  5. Sweet Baby.

    mg (8cbc69)

  6. Cheney is in such horrible political shape in Wyoming she is begging for money in Oklahoma.

    mg (8cbc69)

  7. Boston University, home of Bill OReilly, Howard Stern and AOC. Boston College would have physically tossed Totenberg out the front gates, not merely flunked her.

    urbanleftbehind (c073c9)

  8. The TSA policy makes sense. It’s one DHS agency recognizing a document issued by another DHS agency.

    norcal (d4ed1d)

  9. Yes, Reich is a fool. And a tool. His “feelz” often overpower any reason he may possess.

    norcal (d4ed1d)

  10. Inclusive? Yes if your a corporate establishment democrat like clinton/biden. No if you are the democratic party progressive base. AOC: biden and I would not be in the same party in europe. Older white liberal women believe this and older black women want to play it safe with the deep state. Everybody else p.u.m.a.

    asset (3aeb44)

  11. All of a sudden I feel sorry for Trump. He has no future. No last hurrah. There is only a specter which frightens some, and remains which feed others. And I think he knows it too, but what else can he do except keep walking towards nowhere?

    nk (1d9030)

  12. Apologize for this apology, Weber Grills:
    https://abc7chicago.com/meat-loaf-weber-grills-recipe-apology/11496966/

    As far as Meat Loaf the musician, my daughter, self taught in piano and guitar and the sheet music skills to compose songs, “discovered” this guy recently for Bat out of Hell and for Paradise by the Dashboard Light, not the other song. She texted me from school about his death

    urbanleftbehind (c073c9)

  13. On the 8th item: I’m not sure how it could have been perceived in any other way than as a threat?

    Some tech news:

    Congress takes a look at big tech

    Amazon thinks that bill would let you buy more non-amazon products equally with amazon products from people who pay amazon to be their marketplace.

    Google is worried people won’t be able to find google products when they search on google’s search engine. Because google stuff is really hard to find. *snicker*

    And Apple thinks their users are idiots who need protecting from big bad internet (or, really, thinks they won’t pay Apple’s extra 30% if they don’t have to).

    And…

    At least some good is coming from all the logistics chaos.

    New intel fabrication plant going in in Columbus Ohio.

    Nic (896fdf)

  14. One of Saturn’s moons, known as the “Death Star moon”, could have an underground ocean.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  15. @15. “The findings suggest Mimas is a “compelling target for further investigation…”

    ‘Follow the water’ “out there” often surfaces around this time of year “down here”– budget time. Mission planning takes years– and lots of dollars.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  16. This will out eventually, and this was a good week toward outing.
    One, Trump lost his case to withhold documents, and George Conway describes how badly he lost.
    Two, a special master released 3,000 Giuliani communications and were sent to the Manhattan US Attorney, mostly to do with his mischief in Ukraine.
    Three, the Fulton County DA is requesting a special grand jury to gain cooperation from reluctant witnesses, as part of investigating Trump’s attempt to strong-arm the GA SecState into cheating on the election.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  17. There’s a story going around that the feds will stop requiring hospitals to report covid deaths. The story has been “debunked” because there are perfectly acceptable sources of data other than these numbers hospitals are reporting to the feds.

    Not answered in the debunking is why these were required if the alternate sources are acceptable, ie why require that data in the first place, and if there was a reason why stop now.

    It’s not like the covid response is making D’s and the media look bad and we’ve got midterms coming up and ratings various outlets want to recover.

    In other news; in the UK only 2.7% of deaths in Q3 2021 were people under 65 with no comorbidities.

    frosty (8bb357)

  18. It took a day or so for the consensus to work itself out but it sounds like the most impressive part of Brandon’s presser was that he stood up for two hours. The second most impressive part is that he walked in unaided. Rounding out the list was that he was able to follow and respond to the prearranged questions.

    I think the more impressive part was green lighting Russia, the gutsy play of admitting he doesn’t believe the polls, and explaining that the task with the midterms is convincing people they will be illegitimate. I’m also impressed with the attempts to rewrite the story on his GA voting rights speech.

    I’m glad we’ve got norms restored and POTUS can yell at reporters for disagreeing with him. I’m also glad we’ve stopped talking about that nonsense with the 25th amendment.

    frosty (8bb357)

  19. According to police, Amelia King, 42, was charged with a violation of the Code of Virginia 18.2-60 Oral Threat While on School Property.

    i can’t believe the local authorities handled the situation without garland and the fbi walking them through it

    JF (e1156d)

  20. Siena College (NY) Poll 1/18/22
    ……….
    “New Yorkers are not overly optimistic about our nation’s future as the world’s oldest continuing democracy. Only one in three Democrats and one in four Republicans and independents thinks it very likely that the United States will still be a democratic republic in 2030,” ( said Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg). “One-third of Republicans, one-quarter of independents and 17 percent of Democrats don’t think it very or at all likely that the republic as we know it will continue. New York City voters are more optimistic than the rest of the state; men more optimistic than women.

    “While Siena has never asked this question before, it’s hard to believe that a decade ago nearly one in four New Yorkers would say American democracy was not likely to exist a decade later,” Greenberg said. “Voters think the country is currently headed in the wrong direction by nearly two-to-one and hold a rather glum assessment of the nation’s future. New Yorkers’ level of optimism in America appears to be lower than a January thermometer.”
    ………..
    “With a clear partisan divide, New Yorkers strongly support requiring Trump to testify in the James civil investigation into the Trump Organization. Eighty-one percent of Democrats and 51 percent of independents say Trump should be required to testify, and while Republicans say Trump should not be required to testify, they do so by only a 47-40 percent margin,” Greenberg said. “At least 55 percent of voters from every region, race, gender, age group, and income level support compelling Trump to testify in the investigation.”
    ……….
    President Joe Biden’s rating held steady in the last month. His favorability rating is 52-42 percent, from 52-44 percent last month. His job performance rating is 39-60 percent, from 39-59 percent.
    ………..
    Poll cross tabs.

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  21. And regarding the Fulton County special grand jury, it looks like they have a good case.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  22. When I was taking HS Espanol, my teacher said that a Spaniard can speak to an Italian and that the non-Espanol speaking Italian would understand him, and vice versa.
    This thread raises the same mutual intelligibility question with Ukrainians, Belurusians and Russians. The verdict: Ukrainians and Belarusians, pretty easily, but not so much with Russians.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  23. From the majority opinion by Chief Justice Collins Seitz in Page v. Oath:

    Dr. Carter Page, a public figure with ties to President Trump’s 2016 campaign, claimed that Oath Inc.’s online news organizations published eleven defamatory articles about him in 2016 and 2017. Michael Isikoff authored a Yahoo! News article that forms the backbone of the amended complaint …. [Ten] other articles were written by employees at TheHuffingtonPost.com … and refer to the Isikoff Article …. The remaining seven articles were written by HuffPost non-employee “contributors” …. The articles discuss an “intelligence report” from a “well-placed Western intelligence source” with information that Page met with senior Russian officials and discussed potential benefits to Russia if Donald Trump won the presidential election.

    The Superior Court granted Oath’s motion to dismiss. It found that the Isikoff Articles and Employee Articles were either true or substantially true; Page was at least a limited purpose public figure, meaning he was required to plead actual malice by the individuals responsible for publication, and he failed to meet that standard; the fair report privilege for government proceedings applied; and Oath was protected for the Contributor Articles under the federal Communications Decency Act. Page appeals the Superior Court’s judgment except the Superior Court’s ruling that the Employee Articles were true.

    We affirm the Superior Court’s judgment. The Isikoff Article describes a federal investigation into a report about Page—an investigation that existed and was being pursued by the FBI. At a minimum, the article is substantially true, and as such, Page did not state a claim for defamation based on that article. Page also fails to state a claim for defamation with respect to the remaining articles. At oral argument, Page conceded that if the Isikoff Article is not defamatory, he loses on his remaining claims.

    Page also failed to allege that the individuals responsible for publication of those articles acted with actual malice. Finally, Page does not contest the Superior Court’s holding that the Employee Articles were true. Because these grounds dispose of Page’s defamation claims, we do not address any of the Superior Court’s other grounds for dismissal.
    …………

    In 2017, Page sued Oath in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Page focused on online articles discussing the federal investigation of Page during Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, including the eleven articles in this case. He raised two claims for defamation and tortious interference under state law and a federal claim alleging international terrorism. Oath successfully moved to dismiss the federal terrorism count, which led to the dismissal of the state law claims on jurisdictional grounds. Relevant to this appeal, the court made several observations about the truth of the statements contained in the Isikoff Article:

    The Article does not say that Plaintiff actually met with the two Russians, but rather that U.S. officials had received reports of such meetings. The substance and even headline of the Article express uncertainty about the occurrence and substance of any such meetings. That some readers may have assumed that the meetings occurred does not constitute fraud by the Article’s publisher. The Complaint also does not dispute that “reports” were received, and instead confirms their existence . . . .

    The district court also rejected Page’s argument that the Isikoff Article “created a ‘deceitful implication that the documents referred to were actual U.S. Government reports’” and observed that “the Article merely states that ‘U.S. officials have . . . received intelligence reports[,]’” which the court determined was true.

    Page filed suit on July 27, 2020, in the (Delaware) Superior Court and an amended complaint on September 1, 2020. He alleged that Oath had negligently published false and defamatory statements regarding Page with actual knowledge of their falsity or a reckless disregard for the truth or falsity of the statements. Page alleged generally that the Isikoff Article was “replete with false and defamatory statements about [Page].” He specifically claimed the article merely repeated allegations from the report that he had met with high-ranking Russian individuals, but he also disputed the description of Steele as “a well-placed Western intelligence source,” and the description of the Steele Dossier as an “intelligence report.” Page alleged that the articles, especially the Isikoff Article, were meant to convey the sense that the report was from a “high-level government employee in a three-letter [government] agency,” rather than an intelligence “source” who merely provided information. But Page did not dispute other parts of the article, including the description of briefings with senior members of Congress about his connection to Russian officials, quotes from members of Congress, quotes from law enforcement officials, or the lengthy description of Page’s “extensive business interests” in Russia. Nor did Page dispute or mention the sections of the Isikoff Article discussing his prior statements regarding U.S. policy decisions about Russia.

    With respect to actual malice, Page claimed that “Isikoff and Yahoo! failed to perform any form of investigation into the veracity of the article,” and that Yahoo! and Oath were motivated by financial gain in publishing defamatory statements. He also discussed the role of Fusion GPS, a strategic intelligence firm involved in creating the intelligence report that underlies the articles, and the background of Tim Armstrong, the former CEO of Oath, as a Hillary Clinton supporter.

    Oath filed a motion to dismiss the amended complaint. Oath argued that the Isikoff Article’s statements were “literally true, or, at a minimum, substantially true,” or were protected under the privilege for “fair reports” of government proceedings; and with respect to the other articles; Oath was not the proper defendant; Page had failed to plead actual malice; and Oath was immune from suit regarding the Contributor Articles under 47 U.S.C. § 230. Oath argued that “[a]ll the article [said] is that U.S. intelligence agencies were investigating ‘reports’ of his meetings with Russian officials, which Page admits is true.” With respect to actual malice, Oath contended that Page had at most argued that Isikoff and Oath’s former CEO had actual malice, not the authors of the Employee Articles and Contributor Articles—and that the arguments for actual malice against Isikoff and Oath were legally deficient.

    The Superior Court granted Oath’s motion to dismiss………
    ………..

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  24. Tennessee-based adoption agency refuses to help couple because they’re Jewish
    A Knoxville couple is suing the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services, saying a state-sponsored Christian-based adoption agency refused to help them because they are Jewish.

    It is the state’s first lawsuit to challenge a new law that allows religious adoption agencies to deny service to families whose religious or moral beliefs aren’t in sync with the provider’s, the family’s attorney told Knox News on Wednesday.

    The adoption agency, the Holston United Methodist Home for Children based in Greeneville, Tennessee, denied Elizabeth and Gabriel Rutan-Ram from acquiring Tennessee-mandated foster-parent training and a home-study certification as they attempted to adopt a child from Florida last year, the Rutan-Rams say.
    ……….
    The Home for Children’s president and CEO Bradley Williams could not be reached for comment ……..
    ………

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  25. @24-

    But former President Trump’s call was perfect!

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  26. https://notthebee.com/article/this-is-gonna-be-the-end-of-your-cushy-government-bureaucratic-careers-watch-bethany-mandel-rip-into-her-countys-council-over-their-proposed-vaccine-passport-system

    So everyone here is going to tell you why this is bad for businesses and for residents. I’m here to tell you why this is bad for you as politicians. This is gonna be the end of your cushy government bureaucratic careers.

    Here’s the thing. The seats for this council are up for a primary vote in June. That’s the deciding election in this county. An election the only truly motivated people bother to vote in during off-election years. Unfortunately for you, you’ve made us care. And we’ve filled these speaking slots within three minutes of them opening.

    For those of you who are facing term limits, we’re coming for your seats. For those of you who plan to run again, we’re coming for yours. This resolution is the final straw for a number of businesses, groups and individuals in this county who have seen you come close to destroying everything they’ve built.

    They’re willing to put money behind getting a council who won’t try to bankrupt them and, by extension, the county. If you’re a business or individual looking to make change, contact me. And if you’re interested in running for one of these seats, contact me too.

    We’ve started contacting lawyers about a legal challenge to this poorly thought out law if you pass it. The SCOTUS just knocked down the OSHA mandate. Do you want the black eye involved in national tension on this amateur attempt at lawmaking?

    They’ll ask you, “Who’s responsible for determining exemptions? Why require a five-year-old to be vaccinated for an indoor playground but not require them in senior centers?” It’s a joke, but so are you.

    What’s the objective here? The vaccine doesn’t stop transmission. The county is already one of the most vaccinated in the country. The burden is on you to prove that this is necessary. And it’s not.

    Get back to doing what you do best: Passing meaningless statements of support for made-up holidays. Go to cut some ribbons outside shopping malls. Go talk to a disgruntled residents about sidewalks or biplanes. Better yet, deal with the astronomical increase in crime in this county instead of putting police resources to enforcing this mandate, before we have a vaccine mandate version of Eric Garner.

    This kind of mandate is wholly inappropriate and not within your job descriptions, even if you call yourself the Board of Health. You’re unskilled bureaucrats and nothing more. Stay in your lane.

    People are waking up.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  27. https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2022/01/18/this-story-about-seattle-public-schools-director-of-ethnic-studies-is-pretty-remarkable-n442524

    In Seattle in 2013, Tracy received a master’s degree in education and became a substitute teacher. She increasingly inhabited a Second Life-style parallel universe. The Seattle area is one of the most progressive and wealthiest in America, but in Tracy’s version, “white supremacy” was omnipresent. The reason she was “so angry all of the time” was that “our students are dying from violence, because they are dismissed regularly in their classrooms.” She was tired, but “I think I figured out why. I am under attack. All women, but especially womxn of color, are under attack.”

    …“My name is Tracy Castro-Gill,” she proclaimed. “I am Xicana, chingona, and pissed off.” In this world, she was the hero. Teachers gravitated toward her as she laid out an inspiring story…

    In this telling of her life story, Castro-Gill grew up in poverty and was homeless. Her father, she said, was a Hispanic who betrayed his identity by being what she called a “U.S. nationalist,” which made their home “intolerable.” To avoid “assimilation” and show that she was authentically Hispanic, her new history went, Castro-Gill joined a gang and began using drugs.

    None of this was real, her father Rick Castro told me. He and his wife, Rita, had provided for Tracy a conventional, stable middle-class upbringing. Rick eventually earned a six-figure income, and Rita was a stay-at-home mom.

    Mentally ill people pushing “social justice” is a toxic mix.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  28. 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th Booster,Jim Miller?

    mg (8cbc69)

  29. I agreed with the Supreme Court about Biden’s mandate on private employers, but I think this one goes too far. This ruling could apply to any employer, private or government or non-profit, effectively banning them from requiring their workforces to get vaxxed.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  30. But former President Trump’s call was perfect!

    Trump has a tell, Rip. When he says his phone call was “perfect”, means he committed a crime.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  31. > When I was taking HS Espanol, my teacher said that a Spaniard can speak to an Italian and that the
    > non-Espanol speaking Italian would understand him, and vice versa.
    > Paul Montagu (5de684) — 1/22/2022 @ 8:29 am

    Your teacher was correct. My fluently Italian-speaking parents visited Spain during a particularly tense time after the liberation of Kuwait. They wanted to avoid speaking English, and found they were able to make themselves understood in Italian, and any patient Spaniard could make himself understood in Spanish. But they also benefited from Pre-Vatican-II Catholic School Latin.

    Marco (7bed92)

  32. Continetti extends Sullivan’s remarks on Biden.

    The country — not to mention the president — could use a reset.

    We’re not getting one. Instead, on January 19, we got Biden’s combative, discursive, and delusional mess of a one-hour-and-51-minute press conference. Among the reasons the occasion was notable — and notorious — was that it forced the White House to clarify later Biden’s comments on not one but two issues: Biden’s ambiguity over America’s response if Russia launches a “minor incursion” into Ukraine, and Biden’s repeated assertion that the Senate’s failure to pass his election-takeover bills throws the legitimacy of the midterm elections into doubt. To watch Biden at the lectern was to experience shock and dismay interspersed with moments of alarm and dark humor. No wonder he hides from the media. It was the worst presidential press conference since Donald Trump stood next to Vladimir Putin in Helsinki in 2018.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  33. Rep. Madison Cawthorn polished his gun during a Veterans’ Affairs hearing, and attendees were reportedly furious
    ……
    While veterans and lawmakers discussed how toxic chemicals are killing US soldiers, the Daily Beast reported that the 26-year-old Republican was busy cleaning his gun on the Zoom call.

    His polishing became visible to attendees during the testimony of an Afghanistan veteran, two people familiar with the hearing told the Daily Beast.

    According to former 9/11 first responder John Feal, several attendees were furious with Cawthorn.

    “It was immature. He’s a child. He lacks common sense,” said Feal, who was on the Zoom, per the Daily Beast. “I think the congressman was overcompensating for something that he lacks and feeling inadequate among the heroes on that call.
    ……..
    Cawthorn appeared to be in his congressional office during the hearing, but his location was not confirmed.
    ……..
    In a statement to the Daily Beast, (Cawthorn’s communications director Luke Ball) said: “What could possibly be more patriotic than guns and veterans?”
    ……..
    So that’s what they’re calling it now.
    .

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  34. Cases in Israel versus 4th shot. Hmm.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  35. So Democrats now join Republicans in censuring women who stick to their principles, no matter the political cost by refusing to cave into party members who demand loyalty to party over principle:

    The Arizona Democratic Party’s executive committee formally censured Sen. Kyrsten Sinema on Saturday morning as a result of her inaction on changing the filibuster rules to pass voting rights reform.

    “…on the matter of the filibuster and the urgency to protect voting rights, we have been crystal clear. In the choice between an archaic legislative norm and protecting Arizonans’ right to vote, we choose the latter, and we always will,” Chairwoman Raquel Teran said in a statement.

    Dana (5395f9)

  36. Big companies are reducing their exposure to Communist China.
    (Note: The article is one of those annoying “slide shows” that you have to click on over and over, but the information is important, and some of the names may surprise you.)

    As the US-China trade war and dispute over Taiwan rumbles on and relations between other liberal democracies and Beijing deteriorate due to everything from intellectual property (IP) theft to human rights violations in Xinjiang and the eroding away of Hong Kong’s autonomy, many globally-renowned companies are deserting China. In fact, research firm Gartner revealed that a third of supply chain leaders had plans to move at least some of their manufacturing out of China before 2023. Coronavirus-related sales slumps and supply chain disruption, as well as rising production costs, have also hastened the exodus. Read on to discover which world-famous firms are partially or completely pulling out of the People’s Republic.

    We can encourage these companies by buying products made in friendly nations or, even better, democratic and friendly nations.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  37. In a statement to the Daily Beast, (Cawthorn’s communications director Luke Ball) said: “What could possibly be more patriotic than guns and veterans?”

    So a childish 26-year old plays a silly game that essentially exploits vets. Yeah, that’s really patriotic there, champ.

    Dana (5395f9)

  38. Jim Miller @ 42,

    Thanks for the link. Good slide show info there. Unsurprisingly, the major reason the majority of companies leaving China isn’t due to human rights issues but the bottom line. I thought this was telling from Nike. The report suggests their faltering bottom line (a result of their expressed concerns/review of Xijiang/Uyghurs) factored into their decision:

    Nike’s suppliers have been relocating production facilities to southeast Asia and Africa for some time now, and the company reviewed its supply chains in Xinjiang too following stories of the mistreatment of Muslim Uyghurs in the region. Swaths of Chinese people then boycotted international brands such as Nike who chose to speak out against what was happening in Xinjiang. Sales were down by 59% in April 2021 compared to the previous year as shoppers turned to domestic companies instead, according to Morningstar Inc.

    Nike’s full statement on Xijiang can be found here. In part:

    Nike is committed to ethical and responsible manufacturing and we uphold international labor standards. We are concerned about reports of forced labor in, and connected to, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). Nike does not source products from the XUAR and we have confirmed with our contract suppliers that they are not using textiles or spun yarn from the region.

    The Nike Code of Conduct and Code Leadership Standards have requirements prohibiting any type of prison, forced, bonded or indentured labor, including detailed provisions for freedom of movement and prohibitions on discrimination based on ethnic background or religion. We continue to regularly engage with all of our suppliers to evaluate compliance with Nike’s Code of Conduct and Code Leadership Standards.

    Dana (5395f9)

  39. “Those tweets were really beyond the pale though, right?”

    Maybe let’s wait for the indictments. The sad thing is, my entire life I’ve voted for the Republican for President…up to Trump….so my general preference for policy aligns with you. Yet, when many of us bring up not just Trump’s un-presidential temperament, but his general incompetence and his disregard of norms of conduct…and even the appearance of lawlessness….we get the collective yawn….the what-about-isms…and the complete lack of concern for the direction of the party or that Trump is an early favorite for 2024. I’ll be clear: I will never, ever, ever vote for Trump…absent some body-snatching or mind-transplant event. I can list scores of Republicans that I could support…some with real enthusiasm…but if my choice is a liar, cheat, and narcissist….no thanks, I’ll wait for better.

    AJ_Liberty (ec7f74)

  40. AZ democrat party censors sen. cinema for supporting filibuster. A few years ago az republican party censored sen. mccain for not being far enough right.

    asset (c1933e)

  41. Regarding Trump’s certain nomination:

    In 1918, TR was the presumptive Republican nominee, having beaten the Old Guard into submission. Then he dropped dead in 1919 and the 1920 Convention took 10 ballots to select Warren G Harding and Calvin Coolidge as their ticket. The Democrats took 44 ballots to nominate James Cox. Cox chose FDR as his VP mostly due to his name.

    Harding won in a massive landslide (60%-34% in popular vote), mostly due to the GOP having supported the 19th Amendment and women’s votes, and President Wilson and many Democrats having been opposed. Cox won most of the Confederacy plus Kentucky, lost everything else.

    So, Trump may have the GOP locked up right now, but he has to live to 2024 and be in reasonable health before he gets the crown. And, of course, he might be in prison, or have accepted an “Agnew” deal where he stays out of politics in order to avoid it.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  42. Cases in Israel versus 4th shot. Hmm.

    We never see the data on who gets the breakthrough cases, but the betting has to be on people who get the shots more as a “Hail Mary” than as a hope for immunity. If you find that these breakthroughs are among AIDS patients, heart transplant patients, cancer patients undergoing chemo and/or radiation, or others with severely degraded immune systems, that would be far different than if the breakthroughs were in healthy 30 year-olds.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  43. Michael Benson has a good (if late) suggestion for TV news folks: Stop showing all those vaccination injections:

    And if I, as a vaccine proponent and science advocate, find myself looking away from the screen, how many thousands of others out there who have a deep-seated horror of needles, or who have doubts about science and vaccines, or both — how many of them have been put off by that shot of a shot, endlessly reshot?

    Quite a lot, as it turns out. If you thought that only a small percentage of the population suffers from trypanophobia, think again. (The term combines the Greek word “trypano,” for piercing or puncturing, and “phobia,” meaning fear.) Something like 25 percent of adults have an irrational antipathy to needles.

    What should they show instead of injections (and little bottles going around on belts)? Simple graphics showing the odds for people who are not innumerate — and, for everyone, shots of hospitalized patients who did not get vaccinated.

    (Marilyn vos Savant made a similar point a month or so ago.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  44. I’m betting that Sinema will get a far-left challenger in 2024. It is unlikely that a far-left candidate would win a general election in Arizona.

    Manchin is the most liberal candidate who can win in West Virginia. Really the only question there is whether they can drive him into the GOP, which would not hurt his re-election changes one little bit.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  45. What should they show instead of injections (and little bottles going around on belts)? Simple graphics showing the odds for people who are not innumerate — and, for everyone, shots of hospitalized patients who did not get vaccinated.

    The Penn & Teller video bit would be a good thing to run, although there might be some bleeping.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  46. US faces wave of omicron deaths in coming weeks, models say
    ……
    The seven-day rolling average for daily new COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. has been trending upward since mid-November, reaching nearly 1,700 on Jan. 17 — still below the peak of 3,300 in January 2021. COVID-19 deaths among nursing home residents started rising slightly two weeks ago, although still at a rate 10 times less than last year before most residents were vaccinated.

    ……… If the higher end of projections comes to pass, that would push total U.S. deaths from COVID-19 over 1 million by early spring.
    ………
    The wave of deaths heading for the United States will crest in late January or early February,……In early February, weekly deaths could equal or exceed the delta peak, and possibly even surpass the previous U.S. peak in deaths last year.

    “This is omicron driven,” (Katriona Shea of Pennsylvania State University) said of the coming wave of deaths. The combined models project 1.5 million Americans will be hospitalized and 191,000 will die from mid-December through mid-March. Taking into account the uncertainty in the models, U.S. deaths during the omicron wave could range from 58,000 to 305,000.
    ………
    A study, posted online and cited during a recent White House briefing, found patients with omicron had a 53% lower risk of hospitalization with respiratory symptoms, a 74% lower risk of ICU admission, and a 91% lower risk of death. The study, which has not yet been peer reviewed, comes from researchers at Kaiser Permanente and University of California, Berkeley.
    ……..
    Overburdened hospitals could also contribute to more deaths, said Marc Lipsitch of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and scientific director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s forecasting center.
    ………

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  47. Some will continue to vote worse than Trump, even if he isn’t on the ticket. Tis the rino DNA.

    mg (8cbc69)

  48. Lara Logan Dropped By UTA Over Fauci Nazi Doctor Comments
    ………
    UTA chief communications officer Seth Oster confirmed to Mediaite that the agency cut ties with Logan several weeks ago.
    ………
    A UTA insider confirmed to Mediaite that Logan was let go over her “highly offensive” and “unacceptable” comments, which sparked outrage within the agency.

    Logan was never employed by Fox News, but hosted a show on the network’s streaming platform Fox Nation (Lara Logan Has No Agenda), and appeared regularly on the cable network as an unpaid guest.

    That is, until she compared Fauci to Auschwitz’s Angel of Death.

    After that comment, which Logan made on Fox News Primetime on Nov. 29, she disappeared from the air at Fox News, and hasn’t been booked since.

    The network has remained publicly quiet on Logan’s fate, amid outrage and calls for her firing. Logan herself apparently remains in the dark regarding her standing at the network.
    ………
    Logan did not respond to requests for comment.
    #########

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  49. Congratulations California, you not only voted for it, you rejected the recall.

    They rejected the recall because the GOP wanted to fly the freak flag instead of trying to win.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  50. I would have probably taken Ms King’s statement as hyperbole since she did not say what she might do with those guns.

    I can see others taking them as a threat, and I can see them wanting to take the words as a threat even if they thought otherwise.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  51. I wonder how many “personalities” UTA has dropped for praising Castro, Che or Chavez, or saying that Marxism just hasn’t been done right yet.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  52. AJ_Liberty (ec7f74) — 1/22/2022 @ 12:05 pm

    As long as old-line Republicans continue to be manically allergic to fighting the culture war, it really doesn’t matter whether it’s Trump, DeSantis, or whomever else gets put at the head of the party. Just as man cannot live by bread alone, a society cannot live by economics alone.

    You stubbornly refuse to see that economics, culture, and politics don’t exist in vacuums. You endlessly complain that any pushback against left-wing culture advancement and entrenchment is “divisive.” You’ll never accept it, but I’ll point it out to you again–culture is far more important to the preservation of a society than consoooooooooooomerism, and man is not solely an economic creature.

    I don’t give a single rip how low my taxes are if teachers are inculcating “pedagogical discomfort” and telling me to sit down and shut up if I object to the content of their curriculums, or their obstinate insistence on closing schools and implementing mask mandates; if Hollywood is telling me how evil and stupid I am for not treating climate change like a threat to all human life and a bigot for being against transgendering kids; and hysterics in the media are stating that they’ll dance on my unvaccinated wife and kids’ grave if they die of COVID, or that the National Guard should have prevented them from ever leaving the house in the first place.

    Just because Trump is too arrogant to accept that he’s the modern equivalent of the Gracchi brothers, not Augustus, and that will ultimately be his downfall, doesn’t mean that the nation he was in charge of doesn’t have a serious illness of social corruption that needs to be addressed. The excesses of the Gilded Age and the labor wars that followed through to the 1920s could very well have resulted in America becoming like the Soviet Union, if the US did not have a functionally solid culture in place that encompassed far more than just base devotion to capitalism. The communists finally recognized this, too, which is why they’ve worked so hard to subvert American culture in the post-World War II era and why they continually try to deflect complaints about their subversion as “divisiveness” whenever they get called out on it.

    Populism does not emerge by accident, and I’ve noticed the people who hand-wave it away tend of the type who will never have to worry about their own kitchen table being empty.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  53. The Hollywood Blacklist continues, it’s just on the other side.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  54. As long as old-line Republicans continue to be manically allergic to fighting the culture war

    Oh, we don’t mind fighting it, it’s just that we’re not always on your side.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  55. #51 Kevin – That Penn and Teller video is good visual demonstration, the kind we need.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  56. Biden’s repeated assertion that the Senate’s failure to pass his election-takeover bills throws the legitimacy of the midterm elections into doubt.

    Imagine that! A president suggesting the upcoming election will be illegitimate if he doesn’t win. Will his party refuse to recognize the newly elected Republicans and attempt to have their majority continue with 37 seats vacant due to “unlawful elections.”

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  57. If you find that these breakthroughs are among AIDS patients, heart transplant patients, cancer patients undergoing chemo and/or radiation, or others with severely degraded immune systems, that would be far different than if the breakthroughs were in healthy 30 year-olds.

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 1/22/2022 @ 12:45 pm

    You could say the same thing without even mentioning the shot.

    Young and healthy versus multiple comorbidities.

    NJRob (4ffc49)

  58. Well said FWO.

    As Breitbart wisely noted, “politics is downstream of culture.”

    NJRob (4ffc49)

  59. I’m betting that Sinema will get a far-left challenger in 2024. It is unlikely that a far-left candidate would win a general election in Arizona.

    The irony is that she IS far-left and votes like it, she just has a better sense of future-time orientation than her Democratic colleagues and doesn’t want them losing what is going to be a valuable tool when her party gets wiped out this fall.

    Manchin is the most liberal candidate who can win in West Virginia. Really the only question there is whether they can drive him into the GOP, which would not hurt his re-election changes one little bit.

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 1/22/2022 @ 12:55 pm

    After this fall, he might as well go over, because he’s going to be persona non grata in a minority party and thus will no longer have the clout he currently enjoys. He’s also 74 years old, and I’d be surprised if he ends up serving more than one more term anyway, even if his health allows it. At this point, he’s looking to get exiled the same way Tulsi was if he doesn’t switch.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  60. Oh, we don’t mind fighting it, it’s just that we’re not always on your side.

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 1/22/2022 @ 1:40 pm

    I guess that would explain why Democrats now control the entire educational system from the universities on down, the mass media complex, government offices from the federal down to the local level even in nominally conservative areas, the Tech Trust, and corporate boards that now spout the slogans of their neomarxist liberation activist groups.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  61. #52 Rip – The 7-day moving average of COVID deaths in the US is now 2024 and trending upward, since about the middle of November.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  62. I agreed with the Supreme Court about Biden’s mandate on private employers, but I think this one goes too far. This ruling could apply to any employer, private or government or non-profit, effectively banning them from requiring their workforces to get vaxxed.

    I agree it’s surprising. But it’s not the first one. At least one circuit court (and THREE Supremes) ruled against the Medicare/Medicaid mandate which was even clearer. I’m guessing it’s that “permanent” vaccine that isn’t actually permanent. Maybe it’s the never-seen-but-suspected long-term effects that are being worried over.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  63. FWO,

    You conflate things there. “Culture war” describes things like gays, women in the office, abortion, drugs, religion, etc. Not economics, wealth, speech, taxes, size of government, choosing, etc.

    One can actually be in favor of SSM while wanting the federal government cut by 2/3rds.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  64. One of the most effective attackers against American culture, especially families, was the late Hugh Hefner. He was, of course, a pro-abortion Democrat, but hardly a Marxist.

    (I assume everyone knows that Trump has followed Hefner’s “philosophy” for all his adult life.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  65. As Breitbart wisely noted, “politics is downstream of culture.”

    NJRob (4ffc49) — 1/22/2022 @ 1:50 pm

    -Marxists since Gramsci recognize that the proletarian revolution failed because western cultural institutions provided an antidote to their political poison.
    -They set out to subvert those institutions and did not hide the fact at all that they were doing it–in fact, they openly publish their strategies in academic essays and journals for everyone to see.
    -Cultural conservatism has its last gasp in the 1980s before the largely secular neocons panic that conservatives are losing “the MTV generation,” and try to make the party strictly an economic-focused concern (MUH TAX CUTZ, MUH BALANCED BUDGETS), without any of the icky Christianity that had been the moral foundation of the country since before its founding.
    -The Current Year: “Hey, how come all these global megacorporations are pimping an organization that says it wants to get rid of the nuclear family and that 2+2=5, and all these cities have turned in to crime-ridden cesspools dominated by anarcho-communists?”

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  66. Young and healthy versus multiple comorbidities.

    More conflation. Obese, COPD and diabetes are comorbidities. AIDS and heart transplants are on rather a different level. People with the latter die of a bad cold with some regularity.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  67. As long as old-line Republicans continue to be manically allergic to fighting the culture war, it really doesn’t matter whether it’s Trump, DeSantis, or whomever else gets put at the head of the party.

    As usual, I can’t get beyond your first sentence, FWO. I have no idea what “old-line Republicans” you’re talking about and what exactly they’ve said that shows they’re “manically allergic to fighting the culture war”.
    Why don’t you name a couple of them and show me some quotes.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  68. FWO,

    You demand that everyone who believes part of what you believe, must believe all of it or F off. The you get pissed off when they choose option #2. I watched the GOP in California become this kind of small-tent. A largish 3rd party, capable of winning some elections, but never enough to matter.

    Now some want to take this sh1tshow national. It’s just posturing for the donors. I prefer candidates who can win with the voters that exist, not ones who pander to the little crowd that sends them money so they can continue their grift.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  69. The Message in the Polls: Trump’s Done
    ……..
    No one wants Trump. He’s fading faster than Sarah Palin did — and she was second place on a losing presidential ticket. In case you don’t remember, for three years following that loss, Palin was packing stadiums with tens of thousands of Trump-like fans.

    But by 2011, even she — a far smarter politician than Trump who did not spend her time whining about the last election, wallowing in self-pity or endorsing candidates because they once said something nice about her golf course — had faded. She was fun, but Republicans were starting to think seriously about the 2012 presidential election.

    Trump is already two years ahead of Palin’s fade-out schedule. After his petulant endorsements this year deliver loss after loss in midterm elections that ought to be a blowout landslide for the GOP, he’ll be as popular as former Missouri Rep. Todd Akin.
    ……….
    Nate Silver’s respected website fivethirtyeight recently announced: “Republicans remain loyal to Trump even after Jan. 6 attack,” citing a poll that shows Trump’s approval among Republicans at nearly 80%.

    But there’s a lot more to the story. The poll allows readers to view Trump’s approval not only among all voters (-14%) but among specific subgroups of all voters: men, women, Blacks, Hispanics and whites, as well as any combination of these demographic subgroups. And get this: Trump doesn’t have as much as 25% net approval among any subgroup — other than “Republicans.”

    Females have a negative 24% net favorable opinion of Trump. OK, fine, women don’t like him. Show me “men.” Men have a negative 3% net favorable opinion of Trump. That’s pretty much a full set. Who’s left?

    ……… Whites have a meager 4% net favorable opinion of Trump.
    ………
    ……… Hispanics: negative 44% net favorable for Trump. Blacks? Negative 85% net favorable.

    White men? Fourteen percent net favorable opinion of Trump……..

    Non-college graduates? Negative 12% net favorable.

    How about non-college-educated white men? The beating heart of the Trump base is only 23% net favorable toward Trump.
    ……….
    The only explanation is that an awful lot of Republicans are now calling themselves “Independents.”
    ………
    Thanks to the media’s lies, the only people calling themselves “Republicans” these days are the Trump die-hards. In other words, the blockbuster conclusion of this poll is: Trump die-hards like Trump!
    ……….

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  70. You conflate things there. “Culture war” describes things like gays, women in the office, abortion, drugs, religion, etc. Not economics, wealth, speech, taxes, size of government, choosing, etc.

    One can actually be in favor of SSM while wanting the federal government cut by 2/3rds.

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 1/22/2022 @ 2:14 pm

    Yeah, I was supportive of gay marriage at one time, too, and even legalizing marijuana. Then pop culture started promoting transgenderism for 5-year-olds, and every promise made the “legalize it” crowd about weed turned out to be wrong.

    Trying to split the baby is why the GOP has neither the economic nor cultural high ground anymore. They have to rely solely on the Democrats shooting themselves in the foot to maintain any kind of political beachhead.

    If “principles matter,” and conservatives continually back down when it comes to the cultural battleground, then you get what we have today–a dysfunctional, sick nation with no common purpose or identity to see it through when economic times actually do get tough. What really cracked the Marxists’ acorns in the post-war economies in the US and Europe didn’t result in the economic revolution they expected, and that was entirely due to that homogenous sense of cultural identity that went back centuries.

    Economics is irrelevant without culture. The former without the latter is just a bunch of cheap traders who couldn’t hold a bake sale together, much less a complex society. The latter without the former can still rebuild based on a common understanding of who they are, where they came from, and what it takes to survive through difficult periods. That’s something that can’t be filled with cheap junk from WalMart.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  71. As usual, I can’t get beyond your first sentence, FWO. I have no idea what “old-line Republicans” you’re talking about and what exactly they’ve said that shows they’re “manically allergic to fighting the culture war”.
    Why don’t you name a couple of them and show me some quotes.

    Paul Montagu (5de684) — 1/22/2022 @ 2:19 pm

    Pretty much every comment on this board in recent weeks lamenting the prevalence of “cultural bugaboos” and the call to “refocus on policy” should suffice.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  72. Kevin – There’s nice example of the separation of culture from economics in the changes from Lenin to Stalin in the old Soviet Union. Stalin shifted cultural policies back toward more traditional values, and was contemptuous of “liberated” women.

    He also, as I assume most of you know, shifted economic policy sharply to the left.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  73. The republican party isn’t allergic to fighting to culture war, it’s loudest proponents just have trouble finding the long-term winning issues. Careening from hot controversy to hot controversy creates a really weird optic. The republican party has lost their narrative, so much that they didn’t even have a platform in 2020. And the political situation has changed since they last tried to figure out what their platform really was. The top tax rate isn’t 80% any more. Most people aren’t really worried about working moms, or gay people. Even the most noisy supporters of “the family” have gotten divorced. We are less of a manufacturing nation. Social security hasn’t gone bankrupt. The party really needs to sit down and figure out their basic platform for a modern age should be. Both parties talk about how kitchen table issues are important and then don’t really address them. And the R party tends to forget that kitchen table issues are far far more than just taxes and being mean to their gay brother-in-law or their sister who is a single mom and trying to go to college is an anti kitchen table issue at this point.

    Nic (896fdf)

  74. You demand that everyone who believes part of what you believe, must believe all of it or F off. The you get pissed off when they choose option #2.

    I’m not “demanding” anything. All I’m doing is pointing out that the failure of the neocons and Bush-era GOP to engage in the culture war, particularly the ideology of the neomarxist left, now dominates the nation’s cultural institutions.

    Now some want to take this sh1tshow national. It’s just posturing for the donors. I prefer candidates who can win with the voters that exist, not ones who pander to the little crowd that sends them money so they can continue their grift.

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 1/22/2022 @ 2:20 pm

    And here is the implicit argument that “culture doesn’t matter.” Well, if you’re not willing to fight for the culture, why should I fight for tax cuts and cutting back on government spending programs?

    That “F off” can go in more than just one direction, you know.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  75. The Democrats who are all upset about Sinema, Manchin and the 60-vote cloture rule would be well to consider what kind of legacy jamming through massive change on a 51-50 vote in the Senate would be, after nuking the rulebook to accomplish it. There is also some question on whether a non-Senator can vote on a rule change; the VP is not part of the Senate quorum.

    An interesting take on the role of the VP in the Senate, and how RICHARD NIXON invented the nuclear option in 1957.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  76. Good news. Intel picked the Columbus, Ohio area for a massive whopping chip-making plant on a 3,190-acre tract, thanks in part to efforts by Republican Gov. DeWine.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  77. The Big Tent Republicans (you know, the “Real” R’s + the “RINOs”) rarely demand anything of each other, except that they vote for anyone nominated by the party. This gets broken sometimes, and one faction rejects another. That usually leads to losses. Do it long enough and it leads to insignificance, as it did ion California. The CA GOP is still split — in a state where Hispanics are 40% of the population — over whether to accept that Hispanics should be courted.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  78. Pretty much every comment on this board in recent weeks lamenting the prevalence of “cultural bugaboos” and the call to “refocus on policy” should suffice.

    Yeah, no one has used the phrases “cultural bugaboos” or “refocus on policy” in a Patterico comment thread in “recent weeks”. Are you sure you understand how quotes are supposed to be used?
    And you still haven’t answered my question, so again: Who are these “old-line Republicans” you mentioned? What exactly have they said that triggered you?

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  79. Good news. Intel picked the Columbus, Ohio area for a massive whopping chip-making plant on a 3,190-acre tract, thanks in part to efforts by Republican Gov. DeWine.

    Intel has been on hard times, after living with a bean-counter as CEO and seeing all their R&D and expansion cut to zero. TSMC, Nvidia and AMD have eaten their lunch. Now they have a steely-eyed semiconductor man back in charge, and all the engineers who quite under the previous regime are coming back. I’m long on INTC even though my heart belongs to AMD.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  80. The republican party isn’t allergic to fighting to culture war, it’s loudest proponents just have trouble finding the long-term winning issues.

    No, that’s mainly because they don’t have the energy to stick with it and keep activist groups dedicated to maintaining cultural conservative norms.

    Let’s not forget, Phyllis Schlafly managed to defeat the Equal Rights Amendment at the height of the influence and visibility of second-wave feminism, while California’s anti-immigration and anti-gay marriage laws were ended by judges and had been APPROVED by voters in fair elections.

    It’s mainly the politicians who don’t want to stick their neck out for these things, not because they may not have been popular at the time, but because they simply don’t want the hassle of having to continually argue with the Dems’ Squealer brigade in the media or get mocked by Hollywood airheads. These guys are all haunted by Reagan’s relative popularity and his ability to easily straddle both cultural and political lines, but they forget that Reagan was largely elected on an upsurge of cultural conservatism that was also populist in nature–one that stood against the conventional wisdom at the time that the US was on a downslope and that it needed to accept its potential status as a secondary power.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  81. Yeah, no one has used the phrases “cultural bugaboos” or “refocus on policy” in a Patterico comment thread in “recent weeks”. Are you sure you understand how quotes are supposed to be used?

    And you still haven’t answered my question, so again: Who are these “old-line Republicans” you mentioned? What exactly have they said that triggered you?

    Paul Montagu (5de684) — 1/22/2022 @ 2:49 pm

    AJ_Liberty does quite frequently, Paul. And I really shouldn’t have to list the failure of the GOP over the last 30 years again–you know, the one that got you so bent out of shape that you immediately flew off the handle and tried to make your big comeback argument all about me.

    As for being triggered, it’s telling that you and Kevin are in this very thread trying to deflect from any acknowledgement that culture matters at all.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  82. I hope Robert Gates is right, that Putin has overplayed his hand with Ukraine. The final paragraphs.

    Since becoming president in 1999, Putin’s objectives have been straightforward: to restore and expand central government authority (not to mention enhancing his personal dominance and wealth), and to return Russia to its historical role as a major power. In short, authoritarianism at home and aggression abroad.

    The restoration of Russia’s role as a great power began with a return to its historical policy of creating a buffer of subservient states on the periphery — the so-called near abroad. Putin’s embrace of this strategy of securing the near abroad is seen in his actions in Belarus, Moldova, Transnistria, Georgia, the 2020 Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, Kazakhstan and, most dramatically, Ukraine.

    He has no desire to recreate the Soviet Union — he does not want to be responsible for the problems of former Soviet republics. What Putin wants is subservience, and for those now-independent states to bend the knee to Moscow — and to be a bulwark against the west and democracy.

    Former US national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski observed that without Ukraine, there can be no Russian empire. Putin fears a Ukraine that is economically and politically orientated towards the west with an ever-closer security relationship with the US and other members of Nato — even if it is not a member of the alliance. He regards that as a critical security risk and, just as bad, an alternative economic and political model likely to be increasingly attractive to Russians — a dagger pointed at the heart of Russia.

    Putin seems determined, therefore, to take whatever measures he deems necessary either to destabilise and bring down the current western-orientated government of Ukraine or to try to seize the country by military force.

    Putin’s restoration of Russia as a great power has also involved significantly strengthening the country’s military capabilities, as well as pursuing an aggressive foreign policy, especially in the Middle East and Africa. He sees the US as the primary enemy and is determined to do whatever he can to exacerbate American tensions at home, disrupt relationships with our allies even as he interferes in their internal affairs, and weaken the US position internationally. In these endeavours, he has enjoyed an increasingly close partnership and commonality of purpose with the Chinese.

    Because of Russia’s stunted economy, demographic challenges and other weaknesses at home, Putin has dealt himself a poor hand — but until now he has played it rather skilfully. He has received a great deal of unintended help from the US. Our domestic divisions and near-paralysis in Congress, our perceived withdrawal from the Middle East and, more broadly, from our six-decade-long global leadership role, and ignominious scuttling out of Afghanistan — together these have led many countries to hedge their bets and develop closer economic, political and security ties with both Russia and China.

    Putin’s problem is that, as dictators are wont to do, he has overplayed his hand. His aggressive threats against Ukraine have galvanised Nato and reaffirmed its clarity of purpose. His menacing policies have made Ukrainians even more anti-Russian and driven the country further into the arms of the west. Any Russian military action will result in Ukrainian resistance as well as larger Nato military deployments on Russia’s western border, potential suspension of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and painful economic sanctions.

    Moscow has deployed some 100,000 troops to the borders of Ukraine. What now? Putin finds himself in a situation where Russian success is defined as either a change of government in Kyiv (with the successor aligned with Moscow) or conquest of the country. The 18th-century French diplomat Talleyrand is meant to have said: “You can do anything you like with bayonets except sit on them.” Putin must use those troops soon or face the humiliation of withdrawing them without achieving anything except pushing Ukraine closer to the west. In either case, he has placed himself in a difficult position at home and abroad. The US and its allies must do what they can to exacerbate his difficulties.

    We can “exacerbate his difficulties” by (1) not making gaffes that greenlight “minor incursions” into Ukraine, where Putin gets to define what these “minor incursions” are, and (2) spelling out the economic price he’ll pay if he invades more of the country than he already has.
    If I were Biden, if Putin makes demands about NATO, our appropriate counter-offer is not only a “no”, but to tell him get the f-ck out of eastern Ukraine and the Crimean region of Ukraine.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  83. Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 1/22/2022 @ 1:39 pm

    You are correct about the importance of culture, FWO, but the devil is in the details. I suspect I may differ from you when it comes to three questions:

    1) How much of a role should government, versus private entities, have in ensuring a healthy culture? (For example, should flag burning be illegal, or should flag burners be shamed by private actors?)

    2) Which politician is a good candidate to push back on harmful leftist ideas? (Is the culture war worth all the malignancy a Trumpy leader would inflict on society?)

    3) Should those on the right engage with political opponents using traditional methods, accepting that there will be setbacks and losses, or should they seek geographical secession from those they disagree with?

    I think you are a little too alarmist and pessimistic in your outlook, akin to people on the left who worry about a Handmaid’s Tale scenario being enacted by the right.

    norcal (d4ed1d)

  84. FWO, much of the cultural battles are fundamentally local…..if San Francisco parents have different values about acceptance of gays and transvestites, and about sex education and Darwin’s evolution, then provided no one’s civil rights are being abused…..it seems like that is the heart of a pluralistic society that is a democratic Republic. I too lived in California for a time and was very active in GOP politics…but as Kevin agrees…much of the effort went into cultural grievances where you simply didn’t have the votes…..we might as well have been the Libertarian Party for the effect.

    Yes, the Supreme Court has weighed in on matters of culture….most notably with same-sex marriage and abortion…..Constitutionally I opposed both…thinking both should be determined locally….though with same-sex marriage that arguably would have been rather difficult for a couple considered married in Massachusetts to move to Utah and what? There’s a basic fairness there that most of the country now sees. Abortion will be an equally high hill for absolutists if the court sends Roe back to the states. Most people support some period of time when abortion is legal…..and if GOP candidates push too far, especially in purple states, I think party influence will shrink.

    Transgender stuff is local…it’s generally ridiculous….and it’s a very small issue. Yes, there can be a rights issue but it will start locally…and that’s where it should be debated….not by putting an utter jack-a$$ in the White House. One whose serial adultery, lewdness, and lying is hardly modeling the conservative culture that you want. Trump has probably done more harm to civil discourse and institutional integrity than anyone in my lifetime…..but I guess he fires you up.

    Culture is important…..but this great lament about losing everything…and that politics will fix that doesn’t sound right to me. Should more conservatives seek advanced degrees in political science, history, and law? Probably, but a law ain’t going to change that. Should more conservatives go and make more family entertainment shows, movies, and music? Sure, but it’s not really political. If you don’t like the NBA’s stance on China or BLM, should Congress try to punish them? We are certainly able to speak out and vote with our pocket books. To say I need to elect an incompetent like Trump so his VP can leave a football game to object to kneeling, welllllll. I believe social media, 24/7 media, and sensationalized news has made some of us drama queens. What really does pluralism, liberty, and freedom of speech mean here………

    AJ_Liberty (ec7f74)

  85. As for being triggered, it’s telling that you and Kevin are in this very thread trying to deflect from any acknowledgement that culture matters at all.

    Like I said, FWO, I haven’t gotten to your thing about “culture matters” because I’m stuck at your first sentence.
    I’ll leave AJ–rather than you–to tell us whether he’s an “old-line Republican” but, for the sake that he is one of those sods, what “culture matters” did he bring up that triggered you?

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  86. And he answered, one minute before I hit the “submit” button. Perhaps you can answer his comment.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  87. FWO,

    The reason why they won’t fight for the culture is because they desire the left’s cultural goals. They aren’t bothered by the end result of the destruction of our Christian culture or children indoctrinated to think boys can be girls and vice versa. They agree that homosexual marriage is a real marriage and think that anyone who disagrees is a bigot.

    Those values matter more to them than anything the Republican Party offers so they pretend to be fiscally conservative while supporting the left as it counts.

    NJRob (24e8a0)

  88. “They agree that homosexual marriage is a real marriage and think that anyone who disagrees is a bigot.”

    A real marriage is when have multiple affairs and divorces and have sex with a prostitute while your current wife is recovering from childbirth, and anyone who disagrees is a communist.

    Davethulhu (17e89a)

  89. @FWO@86 Phylis Schlafly was mainstream. 2nd wave feminism wasn’t even a majority of women. Prop 8 passed at 52% of the vote 14 years ago. It wouldn’t pass today despite the last 14 years of religious Rs being vocally upset about gay people. Reagan was successful in a very different set of circumstances and my impression is that in much of the country he mostly ran on economic issues.

    @NJRob@93 It isn’t the government’s job to foist your particular flavor of religiously based community on the entire country. Nobody thinks that the government should outlaw electricity in order to maintain Amish values in everyone else, the Amish maintain their own community values without the government forcing their values on them or anyone else.

    Nic (896fdf)

  90. NJRob (24e8a0) — 1/22/2022 @ 3:24 pm

    They aren’t bothered by the end result of the destruction of our Christian culture or children indoctrinated to think boys can be girls and vice versa.

    Those are legitimate concerns, NJRob. Should the government outlaw any religion that isn’t Christianity, or make transgenderism illegal? If not, what exactly do you propose that the government should do? Should it be done on a federal level, or should states and municipalities be free to enact different policies? Should governments pick sides on these issues, or should citizens and businesses be free to choose for themselves?

    norcal (d4ed1d)

  91. A real marriage is when have multiple affairs and divorces and have sex with a prostitute while your current wife is recovering from childbirth, and anyone who disagrees is a communist.

    Davethulhu (17e89a) — 1/22/2022 @ 3:31 pm

    Literally LOL!

    You don’t weigh in a lot, Davethulhu, but you make good points when you do.

    norcal (d4ed1d)

  92. Nic: “The republican party isn’t allergic to fighting to culture war, it’s loudest proponents just have trouble finding the long-term winning issues…”

    I think Nic’s full comment resonates the most for me. The GOP has careened from fighting for Mr. Potato(e) Head….to fighting against a publisher not wanting to carry culturally-insensitive Dr. Seuss’ books…..to CRT bills where the plain english ain’t always so plain. We seem to want a President to be our TV and Twitter equivalent to Oprah….telling us what he feelz, driving up the animosity and divisions (yes, that would include Obama who failed often in the same regard…but not nearly as blatant). Nic is right that the failure of the GOP to produce a platform in 2020 was jarring….as was Trump’s answer to Hannity when he asked him why he wanted a second term. The GOP needs to decide what is wants to do…and find things that will resonate…complaining about trannies might feel good…and has justification…..it’s just not something that will resonate nationally….

    AJ_Liberty (ec7f74)

  93. According to British intelligence, Putin will invade Ukraine, depose the democratically elected Zelensky and replace him with a Putin-approved puppet. It sounds like something Putin would do.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  94. Putin’s problem is that, as dictators are wont to do, he has overplayed his hand.’

    And wins.

    Rather than contract or dissolve, NATO has expanded since the CCCP broke up. And it ain’t cheap to maintain– especially when member states don’t cough up [thank you Mr. Trump!] But old farts like Gates are stink in the wind these days- lest you forget his intimacies and hypocrisies w/t Iran-Contra of Reagan times and his misjudgments w/Afghanistan- which he copped to publicly on 60 Minutes last year. It’s the costly, deadly misjudgments and incompetence of his bureaucratic ilk- so called “experts”- which ran U.S. foreign policy aground in changing world at the expense of American lives and treasure– not on behest of so called ‘freedom and democracy’ – [mere sucker bait terms chummed to the masses.] But ventures as a front on behalf of lucrative victories by the MIC. Win, lose or draw, they profit. WW1. WW2. Cold War. Three times in a hundred years they’ve been bailed out by Uncle Sam. No more. Save Detroit, not Kyiv. High time Europe tended to itself – they can bloody well afford it.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  95. Putin will invade Ukraine, depose the democratically elected Zelensky and replace him with a Putin-approved puppet. It sounds like something Putin would do.

    And something America has done:

    Mapped: The 7 Governments the U.S. Has Overthrown

    https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/08/20/mapped-the-7-governments-the-u-s-has-overthrown/

    And BTW- from personal knowledge and expedrience- advocated to attempt in Libya in 1969.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  96. Ah, the joys of CA R’s lecturing the rubes on what it means to be an R. If you don’t live in CA just know that they’re leaving CA because their ideas worked so well and they want to spread their success.

    There’s also the problem of

    much of the cultural battles are fundamentally local

    and not that many paragraphs later

    the Supreme Court has weighed in on matters of culture….most notably with same-sex marriage and abortion…..Constitutionally I opposed both…thinking both should be determined locally….though with same-sex marriage that arguably would have been rather difficult for a couple considered married in Massachusetts to move to Utah and what? There’s a basic fairness there that most of the country now sees

    So things are local except the things that shouldn’t be because D’s, and R’s in places like CA, are on the same side of these issues and are in agreement that they need to be pushed on everyone else.

    frosty (8bb357)

  97. You are correct about the importance of culture, FWO, but the devil is in the details.

    The devil will always be in the details. That doesn’t mean the larger issue should the be shirked.

    1) How much of a role should government, versus private entities, have in ensuring a healthy culture?

    I think setting it as a public vs. private issue really isn’t the proper framing. If conservatives believe that abortion is wrong, then that’s not something with a free-market solution. If they don’t want psychiatrists and Munchie-by-proxy parents brainwashing their elementary-age kids that they’re anything other than what was established by biology and genetics, that’s not something with a free-market solution, either. Public vs. private doesn’t address to what extent the government should be able to snoop in to our lives, because both entities are working together to grow that as much as they possibly can.

    I think it ultimately boils down to those things that are necessary to maintain a functioning, stable, high-trust society. Political disagreements can still happen in societies like this, but having a common culture and identity is what holds it together through the discussion over those disagreements.

    In fact, I think one of the most poisonous pretentions to come to the fore in recent years, thanks in no small part to the Daily Show’s influence on mass media, is the idea that political disagreement is something to be avoided at all costs. That’s why left-liberals are always complaining about divisiveness when someone pushes back against their arguments with any kind of vigor.

    2) Which politician is a good candidate to push back on harmful leftist ideas? (Is the culture war worth all the malignancy a Trumpy leader would inflict on society?)

    I wish I didn’t have to keep bringing this up, but Trump is not the be-all/end-all of what to look for in a politician as far as fighting on the culture front. Someone like him emerges as an influential figure PRECISELY because the party’s establishment keeps dropping the ball and thumbing their nose at the people who put them in office.

    If the GOP didn’t want Trump to be their 2016 nominee, they should have pushed far harder on the immigration front, started talking about getting our overseas adventures wound down, admitted that doing business with China had been deleterious for our national security overall, and acknowledged, “Yeah, these ivory tower eggheads and the credentialed class have nothing but contempt for you. You’re just cattle to them with no agency of your own, which is why they’re always arguing that you vote against your own interests. Well, no one knows your own interests better than you do, so vote for the guy who these people, who hate your guts, will vote against.”

    3) Should those on the right engage with political opponents using traditional methods, accepting that there will be setbacks and losses, or should they seek geographical secession from those they disagree with?

    As I’ve said before, this goes both ways. If the left is not going to accept that there will be setbacks and losses themselves–something that’s been going on since Bush vs. Gore ended–I’m certainly not under any obligation to go that route. The moral high ground doesn’t mean a thing if any success you might have is automatically deemed due to “voter suppression” and “fear-mongering.”

    Any society seeing itself dominated by two irreconcilable ideologies is going to find itself going through a severe existential conflict regardless, and that things are not going to settle down until one side ultimately wins out over the other. The whole point of Lincoln’s “House Divided” speech wasn’t that disagreement over slavery in the US was bad–it was that the country wouldn’t hold together when it was dominated by two fundamentally different worldviews. At some point, the US needed to either be all slave-holding, or slavery needed to be completely abolished.

    If the culture war is something that we should ignore, as seems to be the consensus by most of the commenters here, then in effect that’s already been lost, and there’s little point in even debating on the policy side at that point. If the left has been correct on all the cultural fights, then why bother resisting them on the economic or political front?

    I think you are a little too alarmist and pessimistic in your outlook, akin to people on the left who worry about a Handmaid’s Tale scenario being enacted by the right.

    norcal (d4ed1d) — 1/22/2022 @ 3:09 pm

    If the political ideology of the people I regularly encounter at the academic conferences I attend hadn’t been mainstreamed in the last ten years, I’d probably be less pessimistic. But the more radical these people get, the more they influence the country to become something that’s quite different than the one that managed to conquer an entire continent and then defeat a global superpower.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  98. DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 1/22/2022 @ 3:52 pm

    I don’t care what happens in the neighborhood. I just tend to my own house.

    norcal (d4ed1d)

  99. Like I said, FWO, I haven’t gotten to your thing about “culture matters” because I’m stuck at your first sentence.

    Should I put it in single-syllabled words for you, then? You don’t really seem to be capable of engaging in much beyond Twitter-length comments.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  100. And he answered, one minute before I hit the “submit” button. Perhaps you can answer his comment.

    Paul Montagu (5de684) — 1/22/2022 @ 3:14 pm

    What’s to answer? It’s the same old “oh well, nothing we can do about it, I guess.”

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  101. @NJRob@93 It isn’t the government’s job to foist your particular flavor of religiously based community on the entire country.

    Nic (896fdf) — 1/22/2022 @ 3:34 pm

    But it seems that it is the governments job to foist a particular flavor of religiously based community on the entire country. There is no anti-religion option. It’s just a choice between different ones.

    The Amish are only safe because they’re a relatively small group and they’re further down on the list.

    frosty (8bb357)

  102. If they don’t want psychiatrists and Munchie-by-proxy parents brainwashing their elementary-age kids that they’re anything other than what was established by biology and genetics, that’s not something with a free-market solution, either.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 1/22/2022 @ 4:01 pm

    I believe there is a free-market solution. Vouchers and school choice.

    norcal (d4ed1d)

  103. I don’t care what happens in the neighborhood. I just tend to my own house.

    norcal (d4ed1d) — 1/22/2022 @ 4:01 pm

    Except neighborhood is where community and those trust-bonds that help hold society together are built. You don’t need to be up in your neighbors’ chili all the time or there personal lives to still take its safety, cleanliness, and orderliness seriously so your children and grandchildren are provided with a legacy of civic engagement and social stability. That’s something that’s been lost in the post-Internet era, and it’s something we need to get back to, if mitigating social conflict is really the goal here.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  104. I believe there is a free-market solution. Vouchers and school choice.

    norcal (d4ed1d) — 1/22/2022 @ 4:08 pm

    A voucher paid for by tax dollars is not “free-market,” and this is a glib response to a far larger social issue.

    That kind of stuff doesn’t even come close to addressing biological males shattering NCAA women’s swimming records.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  105. Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 1/22/2022 @ 4:10 pm

    My statement was a sarcastic paraphrase of what DCSCA said upthread.

    I actually agree with you.

    norcal (d4ed1d)

  106. NJRob@93 It isn’t the government’s job to foist your particular flavor of religiously based community on the entire country. Nobody thinks that the government should outlaw electricity in order to maintain Amish values in everyone else, the Amish maintain their own community values without the government forcing their values on them or anyone else.

    Nic (896fdf) — 1/22/2022 @ 3:34 pm

    You espouse your faith on dismissing concerns of leftist ideology in school as well as mentioning your faith in the devastating effects of Global Warming. How is that different or is it that you consider those to be “facts ” and not beliefs?

    NJRob (1cdd0e)

  107. A voucher paid for by tax dollars is not “free-market,”

    It is in the sense that the money you pay in property tax for the purpose of education is being refunded to you for the purpose of education.

    Another way to look at it is those with children in private school don’t pay property tax.

    norcal (d4ed1d)

  108. A real marriage is when have multiple affairs and divorces and have sex with a prostitute while your current wife is recovering from childbirth, and anyone who disagrees is a communist.

    The way to win a culture war is by changing hearts and minds. That’s difficult for a group of people who anoint as their hero a person whose life story basically says “The way to be a winner in life is to ignore all those pesky, moralistic rules, and just do whatever gets you on top.” And when those people are adamant that it’s totally unfair to judge their hero by the rules they want other people to live under.

    Radegunda (112198)

  109. The 7-day moving average of COVID deaths in the US is now 2024 and trending upward, since about the middle of November.

    Jim Miller (edcec1) — 1/22/2022 @ 2:05 pm

    Keep fear alive.

    frosty (8bb357)

  110. It is in the sense that the money you pay in property tax for the purpose of education is being refunded to you for the purpose of education.

    Another way to look at it is those with children in private school don’t pay property tax.

    norcal (d4ed1d) — 1/22/2022 @ 4:17 pm

    That’s fine, but it doesn’t have anything to do with the social issue in question.

    It wasn’t the schools that convinced Jazz Jennings that he needed to get his genitals cut off or put him up in the Smithsonian as an example of what it means to be female in the US today, or decided that Coy Mathis was actually a girl instead of a boy at the age of three despite all physical reality to the contrary.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  111. The way to win a culture war is by changing hearts and minds.

    Radegunda (112198) — 1/22/2022 @ 4:18 pm

    Absolutely. And the government shouldn’t be the one trying to change hearts and minds.

    norcal (d4ed1d)

  112. The way to win a culture war is by changing hearts and minds. That’s difficult for a group of people who anoint as their hero a person whose life story basically says “The way to be a winner in life is to ignore all those pesky, moralistic rules, and just do whatever gets you on top.” And when those people are adamant that it’s totally unfair to judge their hero by the rules they want other people to live under.

    Radegunda (112198) — 1/22/2022 @ 4:18 pm

    Which means that the people who used to run that need to wake up and figure out a way to fight the culture war themselves, and not fall for the left’s misdirection that doing so is “ignoring bigger issues,” because they may not like the direction the base goes if those leaders decide to sit on the sidelines or shrug their shoulders.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  113. That’s fine, but it doesn’t have anything to do with the social issue in question.

    I thought you were arguing about how the schools push certain viewpoints:

    teachers are inculcating “pedagogical discomfort” and telling me to sit down and shut up if I object to the content of their curriculums, or their obstinate insistence on closing schools and implementing mask mandates

    And that there was no free-market solution.

    I pointed out how there was.

    norcal (d4ed1d)

  114. Bungles! On to the AFC Championship.

    urbanleftbehind (2ebe3d)

  115. What’s to answer? It’s the same old “oh well, nothing we can do about it, I guess.”

    I get your feeling, FWO. When I see your long generalized rants that offer zero prescriptions, I get that same old “there goes FWO again” sensation.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  116. I wish the Mess Coast would clean up its cultural disaster. Mess coast republicans are leaving. Read that Uhauls are tough to find. Wherever these people go – they will destroy. Its what Mess Coast people do.

    mg (8cbc69)

  117. @FWO@103 If someone believes that abortion is wrong there is in fact a free market solution. You have to reduce the demand for abortion so that abortion providers go out of business. You can do that in several ways: convince people it is wrong so that they do not purchase abortions, convince people that they should not have sex unless they want a baby so that there aren’t unwanted pregnancies, provide a society in which an unwanted pregnancy does not create any economic, mental, or social impacts on the mother, or make birth control so available to so many people that there aren’t enough unwanted pregnancies causing people to purchase abortions to keep the abortion providers in business. However, they all have a risk of being unsuccessful (and historically none have been 100% successful).

    If they don’t like what is being taught in the school system, they can home school or send their children to private school, and then their student’s ADA money doesn’t go to the school (depending on how your state funds schools)

    @frosty@107 Allowing people who believe differently to live their beliefs is not the same as allowing them to force their beliefs on you, even if you are offended by seeing them live their beliefs. And the Amish have been significant populations in various states in the past.

    @NJRob@112 I’m sorry, your 1st sentence doesn’t make any sense. Also, I don’t think we’ve ever discussed global climate change and what I do or do not believe about it in any substantial way, which leads me to believe that you are either making assumptions or confusing me with someone else.

    Nic (896fdf)

  118. #31
    Her parent are wishing they’d sent her to plumbing trade school instead of UW

    steveg (e81d76)

  119. Another way to look at it is those with children in private school don’t pay property tax.

    That one’s not clear to me, norcal. Assuming you own a home and have school-age kids in private school, you’re double-paying for your kids’ education if there weren’t vouchers.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  120. I get your feeling, FWO. When I see your long generalized rants that offer zero prescriptions, I get that same old “there goes FWO again” sensation.

    Paul Montagu (5de684) — 1/22/2022 @ 4:40 pm

    Considering your class has led the country to the point that it is now, I’ll take that criticism for what it’s worth.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  121. mg (8cbc69) — 1/22/2022 @ 4:42 pm

    We welcome Californians here in Nevada, mg, as long as they don’t vote like the people who turned California into a less than golden state. 😄

    norcal (d4ed1d)

  122. Another way to look at it is those with children in private school don’t pay property tax.

    That one’s not clear to me, norcal. Assuming you own a home and have school-age kids in private school, you’re double-paying for your kids’ education if there weren’t vouchers.

    Paul Montagu (5de684) — 1/22/2022 @ 4:48 pm

    Perhaps I wasn’t clear. I meant that it’s your money for you kids’ education, whether it takes the form of a rebate of your property taxes (voucher) or not paying property taxes at all if your kids go to private school. All roads lead to Rome.

    norcal (d4ed1d)

  123. The people’s failure to protect their minds from dilettantism, egocentric devotion to the self instead of the state, and disordered thought is no laughing matter, comrades. We need a People’s Committee For The Preservation Of American Purity and we do not have a moment to waste.

    nk (1d9030)

  124. Can states exclude from the ballot congressional candidates they deem lack the qualifications for office?
    Some private plaintiffs have sued to try to exclude Representative Madison Cawthorn from the North Carolina congressional ballot on the grounds that he engaged in “engaged in insurrection or rebellion,” which disqualifies him from office under the Fourteenth Amendment. ……. I’m skeptical the state has the power to exclude congressional candidates from the ballot.

    ……… (S)tates may, but not must, exclude candidates (on the basis that they lacked the qualifications for federal office.) The state legislature’s power to “direct” the “manner” of appointing electors, I think, extends to some qualifications determinations. Many states don’t have rules like this, and many ineligible candidates have appeared on the ballot……..

    The same is not true, in my judgment, for congressional candidates.……. As the Constitution provides, “Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members . . . .”……(I)t is the right of the people to choose their representatives unimpeded by ex ante state determinations–even the right to choose someone the people know or suspect is not qualified for office. ……..Roudebush v. Hartke, a 1972 Supreme Court case emphasiz(ed) that recounts in a state were okay, as long as they did not thwart Congress’s role in being the “judge” of its elections at the end of the day. A state’s determination that a candidate is not qualified thwarts that role.

    While states have the power over the “manner” of congressional elections, that power does not extend to adding qualifications for office, or the related power of adjudicating qualifications. …….. A state can develop rules over the mechanics of appearing on the ballot, including threshold levels of support, but cannot extend to substantive evaluation of candidate……….
    ………..
    Related:

    North Carolina Voters Challenge Rep. Madison Cawthorn’s Candidacy for Reelection Under Fourteenth Amendment’s Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause

    NC delays challenge to Madison Cawthorn’s eligibility for Congress

    …………
    North Carolina law says that in election challenges it’s the accused who has to prove he or she did nothing wrong. So for Cawthorn to be allowed on the ballot, he can’t just sit back and let things play out — he will have to argue why he shouldn’t be banned from running again. That might include letting his accusers, whose attorneys include two former N.C. Supreme Court justices, question him under oath and force him to provide emails, text messages or other documents. “Challengers intend to depose Representative Cawthorn before the hearing, and request subpoenas for witnesses and documents, including documents that Representative Cawthorn or his staff may possess involving the planning of the January 6 events that could shed light on his qualification for office under Section Three,” their legal challenge states.
    ……….
    In North Carolina when someone challenges a candidate’s eligibility for office, the first step is for state elections officials to create a special panel to hear the arguments. That panel has to be made up of people from within the district the candidate is seeking to represent. And that’s why the case against him has now been delayed.
    ……….

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  125. And, Paul, I’m not describing it as it is, but as it COULD be.

    norcal (d4ed1d)

  126. If the spectacular Amish growth rate continues, they will be a substantial part of the population in many states, in a few decades. (Their population was about 166,000 in 2000, and is now about 361,000.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  127. nk (1d9030) — 1/22/2022 @ 4:53 pm

    🤣

    I can’t decide if you are the reincarnation of Mark Twain, H.L. Mencken, or George Orwell.

    norcal (d4ed1d)

  128. If the spectacular Amish growth rate continues, they will be a substantial part of the population in many states, in a few decades. (Their population was about 166,000 in 2000, and is now about 361,000.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1) — 1/22/2022 @ 4:57 pm

    Well, when you don’t have electricity, entertainment options devolve into certain areas.

    norcal (d4ed1d)

  129. I’ve told this before, but when I was traveling in Central America, people would ask me how I learned Spanish. I said from working with Mexican people. They said: We know. Spaniards understand me, but the snooty ones constantly correct me.

    That said, I can’t speak Italian, but I can figure it out unless its technical.

    I don’t want the Ukranians subject to the Russians again, but in my view the Ukranians, Russian and Belarus(skis) deserve each other.
    I look at it and wonder how it could be worse and think for about an hour and come to the conclusion that its better when stupid corrupt orders to come from a fellow countryman?

    Bloomberg says we are preparing to move the bulk of our Embassy people out of Kyiv. First response, duh. Standard procedure. Second response. Standard or not, it still sends a green light

    steveg (e81d76)

  130. Nic.

    Food prices and gas prices are winners.
    Suburban moms are horrified by talk that the state should be in charge of their kids, not the moms. Tha is a bridge too far for most moms. These are moms that don’t want their own mother to tell them how to raise their kids. White mothers of boys are also not going to be thrilled.
    With Hispanics, I’d drive a wedge between intellectuals pushing “Latinx” political correctness and gender fluidity and the working class.

    steveg (e81d76)

  131. dc has poisioned the field of knowledge, comrades.

    mg (8cbc69)

  132. A combo of Homer and Tommy Lee, norcal.

    mg (8cbc69)

  133. If someone believes that abortion is wrong there is in fact a free market solution. You have to reduce the demand for abortion so that abortion providers go out of business. You can do that in several ways: …

    If someone believes that murder, robbery, and rape are wrong there is a free market solution. You have to reduce the demand for those so that there isn’t a market. You can do that in several ways …

    Allowing people who believe differently to live their beliefs is not the same as allowing them to force their beliefs on you, even if you are offended by seeing them live their beliefs

    Nic (896fdf) — 1/22/2022 @ 4:47 pm

    Now that we’ve gone generic and it’s beliefs I’d say you’re preaching to the choir. I’m the one saying live and let live and I’m the one being told that won’t work because people are offended by my beliefs. But I suspect this wasn’t what you intended?

    And this really is the running joke. This deal about how some group just wants to live their truth and that means everyone else has to agree completely and affirm said truth or they’re hate filled haters literally attacking people with bad thoughts and speech is violence and so on is the same old bully tactics playing out as they always have.

    frosty (8bb357)

  134. He should have his own humor column, or at least a political column like Mike Royko, mg.

    norcal (d4ed1d)

  135. If someone believes that murder, robbery, and rape are wrong there is a free market solution.

    frosty (8bb357) — 1/22/2022 @ 5:21 pm

    Everybody agrees that murder, robbery, and rape are wrong. Roughly half of people think that abortion is wrong. Why do you think that is?

    norcal (d4ed1d)

  136. frosty (8bb357) — 1/22/2022 @ 5:21 pm

    And many of the people who think abortion is wrong don’t propose long-term imprisonment for it.

    norcal (d4ed1d)

  137. KevinM

    I don’t think it was the “freak flag”
    It more resembled Trumps primary win… too many candidates and the guy with the bigger audience won.
    The GOP has zero power in CA over its candidates and it showed.

    steveg (e81d76)

  138. If the spectacular Amish growth rate continues, they will be a substantial part of the population in many states, in a few decades. (Their population was about 166,000 in 2000, and is now about 361,000.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1) — 1/22/2022 @ 4:57 pm

    When roughly do you think they will be a substantial part of the population in many states?

    Follow up question; what do you think substantial, spectacular, many, state, and growth rate mean?

    frosty (8bb357)

  139. Everybody agrees that murder, robbery, and rape are wrong.

    Not to nitpick (ok, I will) but not those who commit those crimes, and there are a lot of them. Why do you think that is? Where does the notion that those acts are “wrong” come from besides religion and the associated cultural beliefs? Certainly not rational thought stemming from a libertarian or Objectivist argument.

    Horatio (26bb50)

  140. Jim Miller,

    The 7 day moving average for COVID infections is down. Deaths are a lagging indicator and will soon mirror the current decline in infection

    steveg (e81d76)

  141. 132, the Amish population might be a beneficiary of a larger Congress with at-large seats (as Kevin M suggests from time to time).

    urbanleftbehind (2ebe3d)

  142. The Amish have electricity, but they generate it themselves. With internal combustion generators. They also have battery-powered devices. It is the grid that they do not want to be part of.

    nk (1d9030)

  143. Paul,

    regarding Putin overplaying his hand, what Gates is not accounting for is the underlying problems. Hitler overplayed his hand by invading Russia. Millions died.
    Putin slaps down two in a pincer and two down the middle. Overplayed? Maybe. Possession is hard to overcome

    steveg (e81d76)

  144. @steveg@136 Unfortunately for Suburban moms, in my experience many of their children are mostly being raised by the internet.

    @frosty@139 FWO said there weren’t any freemarket solutions to abortion. There are. I think you missed the earlier part of the conversation regarding the government and religion. The conversation was about beliefs was around the idea that the government should enforce a Christian society. I posited that it wasn’t the government’s responsibility to make people be whatever flavor of Good Christian is currently the correct flavor and instead that should be a non-governmental process. I suspect no one is telling you you have to either get gay-married or remain unmarried. 😛

    Nic (896fdf)

  145. Where does the notion that those acts are “wrong” come from besides religion and the associated cultural beliefs?

    I think it’s innate.

    https://nypost.com/2021/12/17/rampaging-monkeys-kill-250-dogs-in-india-in-revenge-massacrerampaging-monkeys-kill-250-dogs-in-india-in-revenge-massacre/

    norcal (d4ed1d)

  146. And many of the people who think abortion is wrong don’t propose long-term imprisonment for it.

    norcal (d4ed1d) — 1/22/2022 @ 5:28 pm

    Decades of propaganda works.

    frosty (8bb357)

  147. Everybody agrees that murder, robbery, and rape are wrong. Roughly half of people think that abortion is wrong. Why do you think that is?

    norcal (d4ed1d) — 1/22/2022 @ 5:26 pm

    Based on the increase in the crime rates and what I see from some DA’s I’d say not everyone agrees with that.

    frosty (8bb357)

  148. Decades of propaganda works.

    frosty (8bb357) — 1/22/2022 @ 5:45 pm

    Does it have to be propaganda? Can’t it be people’s organic views on the subject?

    I was raised in a conservative Mormon family. I came to my pro-choice views on my own, not because of propaganda.

    norcal (d4ed1d)

  149. I don’t care what happens in the neighborhood. I just tend to my own house.

    Which is why over the past 100 years and three wars, Kyiv, Ukraine has done sooooooooooo much to improve housing in– Detroit, Michigan.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  150. “The 7 day moving average for COVID infections is down.” True, by about 10 percent.

    However, they are still almost three times as high as they were at the previous peak in January 2021.

    We can — and should — hope that the Omicron wave will decline as rapidly as it rose. But we should recognize the large uncertainty in any forecasts. Let me quote from Rip’s comment #52:

    “This is omicron driven,” (Katriona Shea of Pennsylvania State University) said of the coming wave of deaths. The combined models project 1.5 million Americans will be hospitalized and 191,000 will die from mid-December through mid-March. Taking into account the uncertainty in the models, U.S. deaths during the omicron wave could range from 58,000 to 305,000.

    That’s some range!

    (And I am more cautious since I have thought twice, wrongly, that we were seeing the end of this nasty pandemic, early in July, with summer weather and vaccinations reducing COVID incidence, and then again near the end of October, when the worst of the delta variant seemed to be over.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  151. Nic (896fdf) — 1/22/2022 @ 5:41 pm

    And I noticed that this view is limited to Christian beliefs. There are numerous other groups who do think it’s the government’s job to enforce their beliefs and there are plenty of people happy to play along.

    I suspect no one is telling you you have to either get gay-married or remain unmarried.

    The way things are going I think that falls into the category of things that might be subject to change.

    frosty (50a664)

  152. Which is why over the past 100 years and three wars, Kyiv, Ukraine has done sooooooooooo much to improve housing in– Detroit, Michigan.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 1/22/2022 @ 5:56 pm

    It doesn’t matter if autocrats take over the world. We have a housing problem in Detroit.

    norcal (d4ed1d)

  153. Turned on the NFL game for a bit, and realized that I wanted Green Bay to win — and Aaron Rodgers to lose. (I don’t think I can resolve that dilemma.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  154. America was never an ordered place where everybody thought the same.

    nk (1d9030)

  155. Paul: “When I see your long generalized rants that offer zero prescriptions”
    Exactly….I thought it was just me….I guess we just need laws against trannies…..round ’em up like all the Mexicans…put ’em in the box cars….out they go….Trump’s the man.

    DCSCA: “And [Putin] wins.”
    So does Kim in N. Korea…..beating the masses down and starving them. Russia is a Kleptocracy with a GDP smaller than Italy or Canada (and smaller than California). Yes, rich in natural resources, but few are sneaking in looking for work or “the Russian dream”

    Radegunda: “The way to win a culture war is by changing hearts and minds.”
    Exactly
    nic: “You have to reduce the demand for abortion so that abortion providers go out of business.”
    This is the change hearts and minds language of Reagan et al. Some people only know the stick.

    frosty: “You have to reduce the demand for those [murder, robbery, and rape] so that there isn’t a market.”
    Norcal: “Everybody agrees that murder, robbery, and rape are wrong.”
    Exactly, another flawed frosty analogy…let’s call it a flostogy

    nic: “Allowing people who believe differently to live their beliefs is not the same as allowing them to force their beliefs on you”
    Way to fend off that flostogy

    AJ_Liberty (3cb02f)

  156. the Amish population might be a beneficiary of a larger Congress with at-large seats (as Kevin M suggests from time to time).

    urbanleftbehind (2ebe3d) — 1/22/2022 @ 5:37 pm

    It might. But you’d have the devil’s own time getting their representative to respond to your email.

    Demosthenes (fdbac3)

  157. @95. Phylis Schlafly was mainstream.

    Except she wasn’t.

    ‘[Schlafly] came to national attention when millions of copies of her self-published book, A Choice Not an Echo, were distributed in support of Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential campaign, especially in California’s hotly fought winner-take-all-delegates GOP primary.’ – source, wikibio

    AUH2O got his non-mainstream ass kicked.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  158. NJRob’s “Christian culture” in action.

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  159. DCSCA,

    I don’t know if you play the lottery or not, but I’m thinking 1964 should be in whatever number you pick.

    norcal (d4ed1d)

  160. @frosty@157 Well, the conversation I was having was about Christian beliefs. I am perfectly happy to tell evangelical atheists that religion shouldn’t be outlawed, but I don’t see any around here ATM.

    Nic (896fdf)

  161. Does it have to be propaganda? Can’t it be people’s organic views on the subject?

    I was raised in a conservative Mormon family. I came to my pro-choice views on my own, not because of propaganda.

    norcal (d4ed1d) — 1/22/2022 @ 5:52 pm

    It doesn’t have to be. Most often it is. I really don’t want to rehash a generic abortion debate but I can’t recall any of the common justifications I hear that aren’t.

    Having children is a naturally occurring process. I’m not sure how anyone would organically come to the conclusion that killing the unborn is perfectly acceptable.

    I also don’t want to try to argue you out of that rationalization.

    frosty (8bb357)

  162. It doesn’t matter if autocrats take over the world. We have a housing problem in Detroit.

    Bought or sold any Gulf War or Afghan War Bond lately? =crickets=

    Kyiv ain’t ‘the world’; certainly not part of Detroit’s world. But it’s certainly in wealthy, rich, bullet-trained, top drawered infrastructured and well-heeled, lathered social services, cozy Europe’s neighborhood of the world. A neighborhood bailed out three times in 100 years by the likes of Detroiters, Newarkers and East St. Louis folks.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  163. Horatio: “Not to nitpick (ok, I will) but not those who commit those crimes, and there are a lot of them.”

    How about a nitpick back……what constitutes a lot of them? Norcal’s “everybody” is reasonably interpreted as the overwhelming majority of society….with few statistical differences going from state to state, city to rural community, east coast to west coast, atheist to born again Chirstian. There may be different laws about self defense and the best response to riots, but there is simply no rising minority pushing to legalize rape. Even most of the criminals who aren’t sociopaths understand that it’s wrong….they just think they can get away with it….

    AJ_Liberty (3cb02f)

  164. norcal @151. The place being India, I suspect that those are “sacred” monkeys and the people are not allowed to shoot them.

    It would be the other way around in Tibet. There, dogs are sacred, they are believed to contain the souls of dead monks. There would be monkey sauteed in yak butter for dinner as long as they lasted.

    nk (1d9030)

  165. Kyiv ain’t ‘the world’

    DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 1/22/2022 @ 6:24 pm

    And neither is Taiwan, Japan, or Australia. If China attacks them, it’s no skin off our nose. Is that your view?

    norcal (d4ed1d)

  166. We could give Ukraine back a couple of dozen of the nuclear missiles that Clinton conned them out of. Putin knows that a half-megaton warhead can ruin your whole dacha.

    nk (1d9030)

  167. It would be the other way around in Tibet. There, dogs are sacred, they are believed to contain the souls of dead monks. There would be monkey sauteed in yak butter for dinner as long as they lasted.

    nk (1d9030) — 1/22/2022 @ 6:27 pm

    No wonder Tibet wants to be independent. I once knew a Han Chinese from northeast China who told me how her father went hunting and scored three dogs.

    norcal (d4ed1d)

  168. @161. “And [Putin] wins.” So does Kim in N. Korea…..beating the masses down and starving them.

    Kim’s not a winner; barely a player– and too short to sit at the table or to ante up to be in the game; hence the craving attention. Vlad has the chops and the chips— which is all nukes are for anyway. Give him the credit he’s due; winning pots w/a pair of deuces for decades.

    It’s called confidence and competence… Joe.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  169. Putin knows that a half-megaton warhead can ruin your whole dacha.

    nk (1d9030) — 1/22/2022 @ 6:32 pm

    And with that belly laugh I am signing off!

    norcal (d4ed1d)

  170. @171. And neither is Taiwan, Japan, or Australia. If China attacks them, it’s no skin off our nose. Is that your view?

    Unfortunately, America has a treaty to defend Taiwan or it’s ‘goodbye Mr. Chips’… But laws and treaties mean little these days. See America’s Southern border for details, or any mayor of a sanctuary city for starters.

    Japan can defend itself: ‘Japan’s Self Defense Force, the country’s current military, was founded in 1954. Today, Japan is ranked fifth globally in overall military power after the United States, Russia, China…‘ -source, ABCNews.com.

    And Australia? Well, as a cold Foster’s is the largest-selling Australian beer brand in the world– and especially tasty in the hands of a hot Aussie lady, in honor of Meat Loaf, I’ll give you that one. 😉

    “Two out of Three Ain’t Bad” – Meat Loaf, 1977

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  171. It is strange to see someone claim to be fond of the Russian people — and still support “Czar” Putin’s kleptocratic oligarchy.

    “Every country has its own mafia. In Russia, the mafia has its own country”.

    Considering how much suffering Putin’s predecessors inflicted on the Russian people, a little mercy seems in order.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  172. I don’t think it was the “freak flag”
    It more resembled Trumps primary win…

    Po-TAY-to
    Po-TAH-to

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  173. 168, those places haven’t chipped in since LBJ had his twin hammer attack (Great Society, Vietnam, with Ted Kennedy lending a screwdriver) on black fatherhood. And aren’t they the ones that crap about spending money on the space program?

    urbanleftbehind (c2e573)

  174. As for being triggered, it’s telling that you and Kevin are in this very thread trying to deflect from any acknowledgement that culture matters at all.

    The problem is that people who focus on cultural matters — regardless of whether they have a hope of winning, like those trying to float initiatives to ban abortion in California — are often uninterested in, or even at odds over, the conservative fiscal position. But they have no problem asserting to everyone, as loudly as possible, that social issue are at the center of GOP thinking and everyone who disagrees with them is a “RINO”.

    That these folks are then handed a megaphone by liberals does not seem to phase them.

    Useful idiots.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  175. A voucher paid for by tax dollars is not “free-market,”

    Why? All decisions about how to spend it are on the part of the citizen, including not spending it. You seem to be saying that government taxing someone means nothing that follows can be “free market”, but that is just ideology, not reality.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  176. God works in mysterious ways; so thank the Lord that Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., was not POTUS on April 12, 1861; December 7, 1941 or October 16-29, 1962… when a few ‘minor incursions’ occurred.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  177. And aren’t they the ones that crap about spending money on the space program?

    We should ask a Russian. Or maybe they’ll just duke it out w/t Americans aboard the ISS after fifteen 90 minute rounds… of Earth. And, of course, the European Space Agency will naturally referee… while Japanese place bets.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  178. It’s good to see our government defending traditional American values:

    When I was 15 years old and living in Arizona, I was forced by my family to become a visa bride.

    But Sasha K. Taylor eventually escaped that marriage, and even became an FBI analyst for a time. (Given her last name, it seems likely that she has had another marriage, this time consensual.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  179. They aren’t bothered by the end result of the destruction of our Christian culture or children indoctrinated to think boys can be girls and vice versa. They agree that homosexual marriage is a real marriage and think that anyone who disagrees is a bigot.

    No, I believe that the civil contract that is called marriage is different than the union before God that is also called marriage, but which I will call “matrimony” to keep it separate. I believe that the Catholic Church has made this distinction for some time, at least as far as divorce is involved.

    The moment a religious officiator says “… by the power invested in me by the state of ______” they have stepped from God’s world to Caesar’s.

    And in Caesar’s world, there is this equal-protection thing that makes the religious argument null and void. To say that “oh, they can marry anyone they want, so long as they are different sexes” does not argue for equality at all. At one point it was “…the same races”, too.

    If you really really want to protect Christian values, get your church out of the government officiating business. Differentiate the ceremony and status of Holy Matrimony from the State’s legal contract of marriage. The church holds its ceremony as it sees fit, and binds the couple in the eyes of God. If they also want the benefits that the State confers on the legal status of marriage, they probably should go get a license and see a judge.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  180. I also believe that this non-binary crap is part of the slippery slope that we were assured would not happen. Rather than fighting it though, I would rather sell them more rope.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  181. Nic (896fdf) — 1/22/2022 @ 6:21 pm

    I guess we’ll have to wait until some show up for you to give them the what for

    frosty (8bb357)

  182. Question:

    If a couple marries in a civil ceremony and then cohabits, are they married in the eyes of their church (if any) or are they living in sin?

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  183. Chicken Kiev.

    Russian or Ukranian cuisine?

    Now that’s a tasty bird worth going to war over.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  184. Even most of the criminals who aren’t sociopaths understand that it’s wrong….they just think they can get away with it….

    AJ_Liberty (3cb02f) — 1/22/2022 @ 6:26 pm

    Most people understand that abortion is also wrong. They’ve just been told that it’s ok and that they can get away with it by sociopaths.

    This is why pro-abortion people get upset when you call it that.

    frosty (8bb357)

  185. If you really really want to protect Christian values, get your church out of the government officiating business.

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 1/22/2022 @ 7:32 pm

    I was good with this approach right up until it became clear that proponents of gay marriage wouldn’t be satisfied with that and would try to force the church to marry them anyway.

    And given the ease with which someone can setup a church and become an ordained minister this is probably one of the better arguments for letting churches discriminate, aka if you don’t like a church that does that start your own.

    The entire point is to force the beliefs of one group on another.

    frosty (8bb357)

  186. And the Pelosi Flag Burners beat Ron Johnson’s Anti-Vaxxers, 13-10.

    There’s your culture war.

    lurker (59504c)

  187. Why? All decisions about how to spend it are on the part of the citizen, including not spending it. You seem to be saying that government taxing someone means nothing that follows can be “free market”, but that is just ideology, not reality.

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 1/22/2022 @ 7:21 pm

    The problem is this isn’t true. If the government is using this tax and return policy they’ve still got their finger in the pie. There is still a government interest involved and it’s most likely a substantial interest.

    Could citizens use these vouchers to send their kids to a segregated school? Can these vouchers be used to send kids to a school for religious training that provided no other courses?

    If not then all decisions on how it’s spent aren’t up to the citizen. Is your definition of free market restricted to those things considered to be for the common good?

    frosty (8bb357)

  188. Another Packer choke job. Thank you, Niners.

    urbanleftbehind (c073c9)

  189. To be fair, the Niners do have a Bosa brother and Kyle Shanahan’s dad is a prolific rally-goer.

    urbanleftbehind (c073c9)

  190. Unfortunately, America has a treaty to defend Taiwan…….

    No we don’t. The Mutual Defense Treaty between the United States of America and the Republic of China expired in 1979, though internal US politics will probably force the US to intervene (I’m sure the senior Senator of Kentucky will support US intervention). Prospects of success are dim, however, as noted here and here.

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  191. It is my opinion that anybody who takes the side of a foreign country against the President of the United States, whatever that country or whoever that President may be, should be shipped to that country, and not necessarily in one package.

    nk (1d9030)

  192. Typical Green Bush
    💣

    mg (8cbc69)

  193. 4-0, looks like the 49ers still own Aaron Rodgers…cue Pedro Martinez

    AJ_Liberty (3cb02f)

  194. Why? All decisions about how to spend it are on the part of the citizen, including not spending it.

    In theory, that’s true. I agree with you that things should be this way.

    In practice, the government will say that since school A accepts government vouchers, it is subject to no end of government rules. Uncle Sam has done this to colleges accepting students who have federal scholarships or grants.

    Voice In The Desert (6fff93)

  195. 59% of adults think abortion should be legal in all or most cases; 39% think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases

    https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/05/06/about-six-in-ten-americans-say-abortion-should-be-legal-in-all-or-most-cases/

    47% think abortion is morally acceptable; 46% think abortion is morally unacceptable

    https://news.gallup.com/poll/350756/record-high-think-abortion-morally-acceptable.aspx

    Clearly there are those that think the practice is morally unacceptable, but still believe it should be the woman’s choice in most circumstances. The same might go for adult pornography, drinking, marijuana, eating to unhealthy excess, vulgarity, adultery, premarital sex, divorce, etc. Actions can be wrong and not generally made unlawful. The stubborness of the numbers might suggest that current tactics aren’t changing hearts or minds.

    AJ_Liberty (3cb02f)

  196. AJ_Liberty (3cb02f) — 1/22/2022 @ 8:58 pm-

    Great post and link!

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  197. @196. ‘The act does not recognize the terminology of ‘Republic of China’ after 1 January 1979, but uses the terminology of “governing authorities on Taiwan”. Geographically speaking and following the similar content in the earlier defense treaty from 1955, it defines the term “Taiwan” to include, as the context may require, the island of Taiwan (the main Island) and the Pescadores (Penghu). Of the other islands or archipelagos under the control of the Republic of China, Kinmen, the Matsus, etc., are left outside the definition of Taiwan.’ – source, wiki.hairsplitter.sputteringbureacraticjargon.todiefor

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  198. It is my opinion that anybody who takes the side of a foreign country against the President of the United States, whatever that country or whoever that President may be, should be shipped to that country, and not necessarily in one package.

    Hmmm…

    Sweden says Trump criticism of virus strategy ‘factually wrong’

    Sweden’s Foreign Minister Ann Linde on Wednesday hit back at U.S. President Donald Trump’s criticism of the Swedish approach to fighting the spread of the coronavirus, saying he was wrong to claim authorities were trying to achieve “herd immunity”.

    https://news.yahoo.com/sweden-says-trump-criticism-virus-115036838.html

    When you’re right, you’re right: Agree! Banish me to Sweden:

    https://medium.com/@Thrillist/remembering-the-swedish-bikini-team-beer-advertisings-forgotton-first-ladies-5b223fee68dd

    “Blondes Have More Fun.” – Clairol, 1956

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  199. Tell it to the baker that’s been the victim of a devil worshipper and the Colorado government for near a decade now. Tell it to the countless other Christian’s that have been attacked by bigots with the force of power by the state.

    The slippery slope has become an avalanche.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  200. @206 The bible says render unto caesar what is caesar. Selling bakery goods is not in the bible. Fundos cause more trouble then they receive. If they give you covid by not being vaxxed tough! To this day religious zealots are killing each other in the name of their “true” religion!

    asset (dd176d)

  201. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

    John Adams

    To the crazy communist, you’re welcome.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  202. And yet he helped write a document that allows for the worship of the devil and does not allow free reign to those of us who would’ve fit in well in 17th century Salem.

    Nic (896fdf)

  203. If there was ever a leader more snakebit from Minute One, it’s Volodymyr Zelensky, president of Ukraine.
    Think about it. He was elected president of the country in April 2019 and assumed office a month later. This was at a time when Putin had already invaded and annexed a part of his country–the Crimean region of Ukraine–five years ago and, at the time of his inauguration, Putin was still engaged in a proxy war in eastern Ukraine, trying to slice off that part of the country.
    And then two months after Zelensky assumed office, the most powerful man on earth (that would be Trump) called him, congratulated him on his new job and then extorted him to look into Biden or else not receive highly important javelin missiles, the kind of weaponry that would protect his country against Putin’s attacks in eastern Ukraine. Fortunately, that powerful man was impeached and Zelensky got his weapons.
    Which brings us to January 2022, where Putin is threatening to throw a democratically elected president out of office, to replace him with a Kremlin-controlled puppet. Seriously, if there was a democratic president more snakebit than Zelensky, someone tell me.
    Also, tell me why freedom-loving Americans should be defending the autocratic Russian instead of the democratic Ukrainian.
    Also, tell why Putin has any right to intervene in the internal affairs of a sovereign state that is not Russia.
    Also, why would China not invade and annex Taiwan if President Biden does not give a commensurate response to Putin’s imperialistic land grab?

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  204. @208. Our Constitution was made only because the Articles of Confederation failed.

    – DCSCA

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  205. Also, tell me why freedom-loving Americans should be defending the autocratic Russian instead of the democratic Ukrainian.

    You did: ‘If there was ever a leader more snakebit from Minute One, it’s Volodymyr Zelensky, president of Ukraine.’ Competence is very in these days. But apparently not in the Ukraine– or the United States.

    Also, tell why Putin has any right to intervene in the internal affairs of a sovereign state that is not Russia.

    Mapped: The 7 Governments the U.S. Has Overthrown
    https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/08/20/mapped-the-7-governments-the-u-s-has-overthrown/

    Also, why would China not invade and annex Taiwan if President Biden does not give a commensurate response to Putin’s imperialistic land grab?

    They’ll be invited in– to b part of a growing future, especially when China whispers about American debt and the increasing chances of the dollar losing its status as the world’s reserve currency; happen to the UK as the Empire gradually disintegrated over the course of the 20th Century, and the pound was supplanted by the US dollar as global reserve currency.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  206. Also, tell me why freedom-loving Americans should be defending the autocratic Russian instead of the democratic Ukrainian.

    Freedom-loving? Ukranians aren’t even participating in the ‘negotiations’ to save their own ‘democracy/freedom’ thingy.

    Play the pair of deuces and roll those tanks, Vlad. European real estate doesn’t come any cheaper, kid. And really piss off Joe: don’t wear any masks!

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  207. The hypocrisy on this site keeps me coming back, you people are a riot.
    Thanks for the laughs.

    mg (8cbc69)

  208. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

    So what was the wig-wearing poofter’s point? Draft another Constitution or find another people to give it to? Sheesh!

    nk (1d9030)

  209. DCSCA (1) roots for authoritarians, (2) minimizes their actions through false equivalencies, (3) rages how this is payback against politicians he despises (Biden, Gates), (4) throws in blame for the free-loading Europeans, (5) ignores the real pain and suffering of the Ukrainians, reducing the potential moral outrage to simply “winners and losers”, and (6) all the while deflecting and rationalizing. It’s like having our very own Mr. Trump mimicry….maybe to help tide those over who miss him so much…and of course reminding the rest of us why we don’t need sociopaths as leaders.

    AJ_Liberty (3cb02f)

  210. The hypocrisy on this site keeps me coming back, you people are a riot.
    Thanks for the laughs.

    mg (8cbc69) — 1/23/2022 @ 3:00 am

    Don’t forget the gaslighting.

    frosty (8bb357)

  211. Now that the war in AF has wrapped up any bets on whether the AUMF gets shut down?

    frosty (03a093)

  212. @150: Unfortunately for Suburban moms, in my experience many of their children are mostly being raised by the internet.

    Nic, schools prefer you call it “distance learning”

    JF (e1156d)

  213. You did: ‘If there was ever a leader more snakebit from Minute One, it’s Volodymyr Zelensky, president of Ukraine.’ Competence is very in these days. But apparently not in the Ukraine– or the United States.

    False and false, DCSCA.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  214. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

    It’s notable that John Adams ultimately became a Unitarian, meaning he did not believe in a trinity. Unitarian Christians believe that Jesus was inspired by God, but that he was not a deity or God incarnate. They also reject concepts like original sin, predestination, or the infallibility of the Bible. In a letter to Jefferson, Adams wrote about his study of religious documents/writings: “I have learned nothing of importance to me, for they have made no change in my moral or religious creed, which has, for fifty or sixty years, been contained in four short words, “Be just and good.””

    As most know, Jefferson in his own right was a deist….rejecting prophecies, miracles, divine revelation (including those referenced in the Bible), and anything that strayed from empirical reason and observation. Meaning the Genesis accounts of creation and original sin were irrational beliefs, as was the resurrection of Jesus. The deist God was remarkably distant. After creating the universe….like a clock maker….he wound it up and let it run. All injustices would be corrected in the following life….God wasn’t poking about.

    I’m guessing that NJRob wasn’t conjuring either of those manifestations of “Religion” in his lament and…might not be comfortable with morality being driven by reason and not supernatural revelation…but I certainly don’t want to put words in anyone’s mouth. I think Adam’s quote is saying that democratic Republics only succeed when the majority is good and just….and doesn’t trample on the rights of the minority….and seeks compromise. Compromise is at the heart of the Constitution…and it’s something that we’re failing to appreciate….

    AJ_Liberty (3cb02f)

  215. 47% think abortion is morally acceptable; 46% think abortion is morally unacceptable

    AJ_Liberty (3cb02f) — 1/22/2022 @ 8:58 pm

    Again, propaganda works.

    Have you ever been sitting at a restaurant and overheard a conversation at another table where someone is casually telling an obviously pregnant woman she should get an abortion as if they were discussing what to order? Would you consider that normal?

    I suspect that 47% contains a lot of men and women responding out of selfishness and a lot of women who’ve had an abortion that are in justification mode.

    frosty (5ec0ff)

  216. Let’s switch gears and get non-political. Just amazing

    Khatia Buniatishvili – Rhapsody in Blue

    Horatio (26bb50)

  217. “Have you ever been sitting at a restaurant and overheard a conversation at another table where someone is casually telling an obviously pregnant woman she should get an abortion as if they were discussing what to order?”

    No

    AJ_Liberty (3cb02f)

  218. The US Must Prepare for War Against Russia Over Ukraine
    President Vladimir Putin is more likely than not to invade Ukraine again in the coming weeks. ……

    ……… [T]he scale and type of force arrayed by the Russian military, the ultimatums issued by Putin and his officials, the warlike rhetoric that has until recently saturated Russian airwaves, and the impatience with talks expressed by his foreign minister. Add to that the likely anxiety produced in Putin by the demonstrations last week in Kazakhstan—and Moscow’s success in tamping them down.

    But the basic reason I think talks with Russia will fail is that the United States and its allies have nothing they can immediately offer Moscow in exchange for a de-escalation.
    ………..
    If Russia prevails again, we will remain stuck in a crisis not just over Ukraine but about the future of the global order far beyond that country’s borders. Left unrestrained, Putin will move swiftly, grab some land, consolidate his gains, and set his sights on the next satellite state in his long game to restore all the pre-1991 borders: the sphere of geographical influence he deems was unjustly stripped from Great Russia.
    ……….
    I believe Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine is even more likely after watching Russian forces quell the current round of demonstrations in Kazakhstan. The demonstrations in Almaty and throughout the country likely only intensified Putin’s alarm for democratic uprisings, or what he calls “color revolutions,” and renewed his commitment to use armed forces against them throughout the region.
    ………..
    We are now, as a former U.S. ambassador put it in a recently, “at a moment of truth.” If Putin refuses to negotiate about things that are negotiable, like arms controls, and insists on curtailing NATO membership and military basing and operations, we will be a diplomatic standstill. If that happens, our best bet is a new Cold War.

    The only way to reassert the primacy of international law and sanctity of international borders, and contain Russia, may be to issue our own ultimatum. We must not only condemn Russia’s illegal occupations of Ukraine and Georgia, but we must demand a withdrawal from both countries by a certain date and organize coalition forces willing to take action to enforce it.
    ……….
    The horrible possibility exists that Americans, with our European allies, must use our military to roll back Russians—even at risk of direct combat. But if we don’t now, Putin will force us to fight another day, likely to defend our Baltic or other Eastern European allies.
    ………

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  219. @226. The US Must Prepare for War Against Russia Over Ukraine

    Bull.

    “We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex.” – President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  220. Horacio @ 224,

    Gershwin fan here. Great link. Thanks.

    Dana (5395f9)

  221. I disagree with Ms. Farkas, Rip, about sending American forces into Ukraine, but there’s nothing wrong with giving defensive weapons to Ukrainian freedom fighters.
    I don’t see what any good comes from a hot war between two nations with large arsenals of atomic bombs.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  222. Before the industrial revolution, many societies had first and second sleeps. Doesn’t work for me.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  223. AJLiberty (1) celebrates incompetence wrapped in the sucker bait of red, white and blue, (2) minimizes their actions through faux outrage w/deflection, (3) clings to a firmly rejected party ideology, (4) denies reality of free-loading Europeans, (5) feigns worry for Ukrainians ignoring the real pain and suffering of legitimate citizens of the USA in Detroit, Chicago, Newark even El Paso by reducing the costly transient of moral outrage to a charge to Uncle Sam’s credit card (6) all the while planning to spend other people’s money borrowed from Red China. It’s like having our very own Policeman of the World… not Pittsburgh– without making a single arrest, issuing plenty of parking tickets– but no desk appearances, war bonds or taxes raised 40% to pay for any of it… maybe to help tide those over who miss Goldwater so much… and of course reminding the rest of us why we don’t need Reagan-retread types as leaders to peddle the fakery of a shining city on a hill when the smoke and mirrors – and creative bookkeeping- hide the tarnished realities of that is a rustbelt empire in decline.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  224. “Have you ever been sitting at a restaurant and overheard a conversation at another table where someone is casually telling an obviously pregnant woman she should get an abortion as if they were discussing what to order?” No

    Howzabout the loading zones at the airport:

    “Oh really, Vernon? Why pretend, we both know perfectly well what this is about. You want me to have an abortion. It’s really the only sensible thing to do, if it’s done safely. Therapeutically there’s no danger involved.” – ‘Airplane!’ 1980

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  225. I would add a #7 to AJ’s comment. The gaslighting. Don’t forget the gaslighting.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  226. @221. Exhibit A: Joe; exhibit B: Kamala; exhibit C; Zelensky; exhibit D: Sherman; exhibit E: Blinken; exhibit F: Milley; exhibit G: Austin; exhibit H: 7% inflation; exhibit I: Afghanistan debacle; exhibit J: failure to ‘stop the virus cold’ exhibit K: etc., etc., etc…

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  227. Don’t bogart the borscht, comrade!

    nk (1d9030)

  228. I disagree with Ms. Farkas, Rip, about sending American forces into Ukraine, but there’s nothing wrong with giving defensive weapons to Ukrainian freedom fighters.

    Pffft. July 26, 1950- United States military involvement in Vietnam begins as President Harry Truman authorizes $15 million in military aid to the French.

    First comes love; then comes marriage; then comes the Marines w/the gun carriage.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  229. Every time DCSCA talks about Nixon or 1964…DRINK!

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  230. @237. Howzabout warm ale from a leded-pewter mug toasting GW instead:

    ‘Washington goes on to urge the American people to take advantage of their isolated position in the world, and to avoid attachments and entanglements in foreign affairs, especially those of Europe, which he argues have little or nothing to do with the interests of America.’

    https://janetpanic.com/which-president-warned-that-we-should-avoid-entangling-alliances/

    “Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.” – Santayana/Burke/Churchill, etc.

    If only Ukraine was sitting on a huge oil field… 😉

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  231. I don’t see what any good comes from a hot war between two nations with large arsenals of atomic bombs.

    It’s happened several times between India and Pakistan.

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  232. Every time DCSCA talks about Nixon or 1964…DRINK!

    1960s? Try the 1950s!

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  233. If (When) Putin attacks Ukraine, he will succeed where his Communist forebears failed-driving a wedge between the US and Europe and fracturing NATO.

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  234. Americans are reading fewer books, according to Gallup:

    Americans say they read an average of 12.6 books during the past year, a smaller number than Gallup has measured in any prior survey dating back to 1990. U.S. adults are reading roughly two or three fewer books per year than they did between 2001 and 2016.

    Which Americans are less likely to read books? Here are some answers from an earlier Pew survey.

    So, to help change that, I’ll offer some book suggestions here. First, two political books, Edwin O’Connor’s classic novel, “The Last Hurrah”, about an aging political boss, and Mike Royko’s biography of the first Mayor Daley, “Boss”. (I believe that I can predict most of what Nancy Pelosi will do, and much of what Joe Biden will do, just from reading those two books, carefully.)

    Second, two wildly different books on science, Charles Sheffield’s “Borderlands of Science”, an excellent reference, and Peter D. Ward’s “Out of Thin Air”, in which he describes the changes in animal life, as the levels of oxygen changed. For instance during the Carboniferous, the oxygen levels were much higher, allowing many animals to flourish that could not, currently, such as meganeura.

    (I didn’t link to any sites where you can buy these books, but you should be able to find them easily enough. As I have mentioned before, I am currently avoiding buying books from Amazon, as much as possible, after they banned “When Harry Became Sally”.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  235. Every time DCSCA talks about Nixon or 1964…DRINK!

    I assumed DCSCA was playing the opposite game….every finished bottle required one more brave visit to 1964! Now let’s not ever contemplate what actually precedes an eruption of GLORIOUS! 🙂

    AJ_Liberty (ec7f74)

  236. …and Montagu smiled, AJ.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  237. South Florida man pleads guilty to threatening violence against Nancy Pelosi, AOC
    A 60-year-old Palm Beach Gardens man pleaded guilty Friday to three federal charges of making threats after authorities said he left phone messages with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and two other Democratic government officials in which he vowed to shoot or decapitate them.

    Paul Vernon Hoeffer pleaded guilty during a hearing at the federal courthouse in Fort Pierce to three counts of interstate transmission of a threat to kidnap or injure. …….
    ……….
    Federal prosecutors alleged that in March 2019, Hoeffer called Pelosi’s Washington, D.C., office and left a message in which he “threatened to come a ‘long, long way’ to rattle her head with bullets and cut her head off,” according to court documents.

    Authorities said Hoeffer also made multiple calls that month to the office of Foxx, state’s attorney for Cook County, Ill., which includes the city of Chicago. Hoeffer’s messages included racial slurs — Foxx is Black — and threats that bullets were going to “rattle her brain,” authorities said.

    In November 2020, he made calls from an unspecified location in Palm Beach County to the New York office of Ocasio-Cortez, authorities said. He reportedly left voice messages stating he would “rip her head off” and warned that Ocasio-Cortez, who represents parts of the Bronx and Queens in New York City, should sleep with one eye open.

    Hoeffer faces up to 15 years in prison, serving as many as five years on each count.
    ……….

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  238. “The US must prepare for war…”

    As this article outlines, potential responses depend on what Putin’s end objective is. If Putin gets territorially greedy…looking to absorb all of Ukraine..or extending his reach to Odessa, then it is likely that NATO will back Ukraine with air power and munitions and you will likely see a permanent NATO presence in the western part of the country (whereas as of now, there had been no discussions about Ukraine even joining NATO). Any aggression will likely see Nord Stream 2 cut off. For Russia whose per capita GDP is about $10.8k, a bit below Costa Rica and a bit above Turkey and Malaysia (the US is about $60k)….this could be an expensive gambit. Team Biden can’t afford to send the wrong message to China. So as little confidence as I might have in Biden, I don’t think he or the Germans can afford not to act. Maybe a hot war is avoided, but even an annexation of the Donbas region (already quasi-occupied) will sow the seeds for a cold war. This is the problem with aging authoritarians like Putin…..they keep looking for that last hurrah, at the expense of ordinary Russians and Ukrainians…..

    https://www.defensenews.com/opinion/commentary/2021/12/07/how-might-allies-respond-if-russia-invades-ukraine/

    AJ_Liberty (ec7f74)

  239. I read DCSCA’s link to Janetpanic, and it’s a nice piece of confirmation bias for him, such as this…

    The United States now casually collects allies, like Montenegro, which became the twenty-eighth member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) last year after the faintest of Senate debates, as if they are friendship badges rather than promises to defend states, risk nuclear war, and possibly kill millions of …

    I’m sure there is some room to question which nations should be in NATO, but the only person right now who is justifying the ongoing existence and strengthening of the alliance is none other than the ex-KGB thug in charge of Russia, a country that already has the largest landmass on earth, yet Putin is still yearning for more.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  240. Monkey is like a really lean cut of pork, so the yak butter idea is sorta like Tibetan carnitas.
    Tibetans move the yaks in the hut for the winter which ups the convenience of the recipe
    Hard to get fresh monkey to the Tibetans who live up the hill. One way I’ve seen it done is to trap the monkeys, sedate them and then strap them together and backpack them.
    They also do that and stuff the bundle in the overhead bins in the internal 1980’s Chinese knock off of a Russian “airliner”. The monkeys usually relax and pee. It sloshes a bit in turbulence, and just generally leaks out. Empty seats are filled with cargo, the overhead bins drip monkey pee.
    The attendant comes by with a tray of hard small candies. You are told take one and they do mean one.

    steveg (e81d76)

  241. El Paso…not quite Barrio Logan, Chula Vista or National City, but you’re starting to get it (#231).

    urbanleftbehind (6ec22e)

  242. Could citizens use these vouchers to send their kids to a segregated school? Can these vouchers be used to send kids to a school for religious training that provided no other courses?

    Can there even BE a segregated school? Pretty sure that it’s illegal on its face.

    Can your child attend a school that does not meet the state’s requirements for compulsory schooling? Again, I don’t think you can.

    Whether or not the state is “paying” for it doesn’t matter a great deal if they can cite some significant interest.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  243. The ever-relevant David French discusses the dynamics of our major political parties, that the real debate isn’t between the parties, but within each party. For this on-the-outs Republican, that sounds true. He also links to this informative Twitter thread.

    Also, that Republicans are more attracted to personality (especially a personality that fights) and Democrats to ideology, which also sounds true.

    While I’d prefer to have Larry Hogan or Ben Sasse as that GOP fighter and standard-bearer, the reality is that the most viable 2024 challenger to Trump is DeSantis, who is smart enough to have taken a page on fighting, and for out-Trumping Trump. While Trump himself is nearly always measures at 1,000 millitrumps, DeSantis is trying to amp it up to 1,100. Actually, with his endorsement of vaccines and boosters, Trump temporarily lowered his intensity down to 900 millitrumps, which gave DeSantis a political opening.

    To me, it looks probable that DeSantis is going to run, and the best thing he can do is to double down, not back down, but he has to do it carefully, in a manner either attracts or does not turn off the Trump Base, and so far he’s doing pretty well. His proposal to start a completely unnecessary election police force (in a state that fewer than 300 illegal ballots in 2020) is just the kind of punchy virtue-signaling that the Trump Base wants, IMO.

    Personally, and as much as I’m a non-fan of DeSantis, I’d pick him over Trump on any day that ends in “y”, for the sake of the country and party, in that order, because he’s smarter, more mentally fit, and hinged. For who say that he’s kind of a jackass, I say so what. The American people were okay with one in 2016.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  244. Prospects of success are dim, however, as noted here and here.

    Well, define “success.” To me, it would be successful if every last chip-making facility on the island was destroyed in the operation. After that, China can have it. I think the Taiwanese might have the same attitude.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  245. It is amazing to me that Kinmen Island, sitting at the mouth of a major Chinese bay, remains the property of Taiwan. It is utterly indefensible and, sitting as it does inside Chinese territorial waters, obviously Chinese territory.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  246. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

    John Adams was such a nice guy. But the people who wrote the Constitution were mostly scoundrels, and they wrote something that they thought would stand up against scoundrels like them. If you look at the debates that were recorded, you will see that they thought that crooks and schemers would abound.

    John Adams wasn’t there.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  247. @242-
    Great recommendations-But sorry, I just bought “ Out of Thin Air” from an independent book dealer listed on Amazon, because it was the best price.

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  248. “We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex.” – President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961

    A mundane notion from another, more innocent time. I’m far more worried about the political-academic complex, among others.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  249. I disagree with Ms. Farkas, Rip, about sending American forces into Ukraine, but there’s nothing wrong with giving defensive weapons to Ukrainian freedom fighters.

    The distinction between defensive and offensive weapons is sophistry. Most weapon systems are dual use, and they should be transferred immediately to Ukraine. No such distinction was made when we resupplied Israel in 1973.

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  250. The US Must Prepare for War Against Russia Over Ukraine

    But wait. Hitler Putin only wants part of Czechoslovakia the Ukraine. Why not just let him have it? We can have peace in our time!

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  251. I almost didn’t use the word “defensive”, Rip. The point is that Ukrainians do their own fighting without Americans involved in such combat.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  252. We should be sending defensive cluster-bombs, defensive GAU-12s or Vulcans, and the traditional defensive MANPADS.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  253. It is really too bad those systems we left in Afghanistan aren’t available.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  254. Not good, officials trampling free speech rights at the Australian Open.

    MELBOURNE, Australia — Fans at the Australian Open were asked by security to remove T-shirts featuring the slogan “Where is Peng Shuai?” which references the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the Chinese former tennis player’s well-being and whereabouts.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  255. …….. As I have mentioned before, I am currently avoiding buying books from Amazon, as much as possible, after they banned “When Harry Became Sally”.

    Also, don’t use AbeBooks, which provides thousands of independent booksellers worldwide a portal to sell their books, as it is owned by Amazon.

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  256. 242.

    two wildly different books on science, Charles Sheffield’s “Borderlands of Science”, an excellent reference, and Peter D. Ward’s “Out of Thin Air”,

    “Borderlands of Science”, is available on eBay and “Out of Thin Air” on Biblio.com. Also eBay.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  257. Putin is trying to get a coup first in Ukraine – he doesn;t want any resistance. At this point, Putin will blink.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  258. Biden didn’t believe in “nation-building” but in Ukraine the nation/government is already functioning.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  259. It is really too bad those systems we left in Afghanistan aren’t available.

    The US purchased Mi-7 Hip helicopters for the Afghans but never delivered them, apparently they will be transferred to Ukraine. In addition, there are a several dozen ex-Afghan helicopters at the aircraft boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base or in locations outside Afghanistan that can be transferred.

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  260. 196.

    The Mutual Defense Treaty between the United States of America and the Republic of China expired in 1979,

    No, it was unilaterally cancelled by Jimmy Carter. However, he indicated there would be no change in the real world and it was not a green light to Peking/Beijing (they’d changed the spelling three years earlier).

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  261. The lawyers arguing before the court, were not requiring to wear masks during oral arguments. Are we to suppose that Justice Sotomayor was worried about Gorsuch but not the lawyers? (maybe if only the lawyers had to produce a negative test but in that case her problem was more than masks.)

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  262. “Borderlands of Science”, is available on eBay and “Out of Thin Air” on Biblio.com. Also eBay.

    Meh. I prefer new hardcover books, not previously owned or paperback editions.

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  263. Last night NBC had a misleading story. It reported that someone who had ordered tests on the government web site on Tuesday had received them on Saturday.

    But it was reported elsewhere that they on;y had a limited stock.

    The rest are back ordered.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  264. Representative Liz Cheney has been censured by the Wyoming GOP and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema by the Arizona Democratic party. Censure is a moral condemnation, not merely a statement of opposition to their continuing in office. It shouldn’t be used for disputable things.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  265. However, (Carter) indicated there would be no change in the real world and it was not a green light to Beijing. ……

    Anything Carter said expired with his Administration. US political exigencies will govern any intervention. Taiwan’s political lobby is second only to Israel.

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  266. @241. If (When) Putin attacks Ukraine, he will succeed where his Communist forebears failed-driving a wedge between the US and Europe and fracturing NATO.

    Pfft. NATO’s worst enemy is… NATO itself. Want Americans to risk life and limb to protect the likes of Montenegro and North Macedonia? Nope. From a page on NATO’s own mission statement on their own website [which needs updated BTW:] “The North Atlantic Alliance was founded in the aftermath of the Second World War. Its purpose was to secure peace in Europe, to promote cooperation among its members and to guard their freedom – all of this in the context of countering the threat posed at the time by the Soviet Union. The Alliance’s founding treaty was signed in Washington in 1949 by a dozen European and North American countries…

    The Alliance started with 12 member countries in 1949. However, the founding treaty allows for other European nations to join the Alliance, as long as all existing Allies agree. Any prospective member must share NATO’s core values and have the capacity and willingness to contribute to security in the Euro-Atlantic area. Today, NATO has 29 members [30 now], who are stronger and safer together.”

    Expanded from 12 to now 30 members [many of which, deadbeat$- thank you Mr. Trump]– to fend off a boogie bear which ceased to exist just over 30 years ago! All on Mother Russia’s doorstep. Which gives legitimate leverage to Putin’s POV.

    https://www.nato.int/wearenato/why-was-nato-founded.html

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Member_states_of_NATO

    Ever heard of SEATO? ‘The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) was an international organization for collective defense in Southeast Asia created by the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty, or Manila Pact, signed in September 1954.

    Primarily created to block further communist gains in Southeast Asia, SEATO is generally considered a failure because internal conflict and dispute hindered general use of the SEATO military; however, SEATO-funded cultural and educational programs left longstanding effects in Southeast Asia. SEATO was dissolved on 30 June 1977 after many members lost interest and withdrew. –
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southeast_Asia_Treaty_Organization

    … and Jinping grins– while Putin smiles.

    ______

    @243/244

    LOL! 1964… it was a very bad year. For today’s Ashamed Conservatives.

    Drink up, fellas!

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  267. 270. Rip Murdock (d93e1f) — 1/23/2022 @ 1:18 pm

    Meh. I prefer new hardcover books, not previously owned or paperback editions.

    Many of these books are in like new condition and the listings will generally tell you when they are or if they are hardcover or softcover,

    You can try also https://www.barnesandnoble.com

    $30 for a paperback

    barnesandnoble.com

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  268. the most viable 2024 challenger to Trump is DeSantis, who is smart enough to have taken a page on fighting, and for out-Trumping Trump.

    I’ve said before that the way around Trump is to make a case that you can deliver what Trump talks about, where all Trump can do is talk.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  269. “The US must prepare for war…”

    ROFLMAOPIP. She outta the budget for the DoD.

    But then Afghanistan is now well prepared for war, isn’t it– thanks to Joe. 😉

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  270. @276. I’m holding out for my Darlin’ Nikki if The Donald doesn’t run, but if he does- as any ringmaster would- given the current flavor of the month, DeSantis may have a chance to edger her out as his VEEP- the Florida thing aside. A woman VP to fawn over would help him. But then a year ago the other team was touting Cuomo as a POTUS in waiting, too. That imploded. 2024 is a long way off. How the midterms go will shape the battlefield for The Donald.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  271. Kevin on Kinman Island.

    https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/will-kinmen-taiwans-frontline-become-next-crimea

    “”Shortly after local elections in Taiwan last November, the FPGP released a public opinion poll claiming that 80 percent of Kinmen people “wish to become a ‘Cross-Strait Peace Experimental Zone,’” which is reminiscent of the “one country, two systems” model in Hong Kong”

    The Chinese more or less have it already

    steveg (e81d76)

  272. @256. A mundane notion from another, more innocent time.

    Except it’s not. And certainly not ‘more innocent,’ in fact, it was more dangerous.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  273. Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 1/23/2022 @ 1:30 pm

    I’m not one boycotting Amazon. As a Prime member, I spend at least $100 a month on books other stuff. I don’t care whether Amazon carries certain books or not. As a private business Amazon has the right to do that, and Jim Miller has the right not to use Amazon.

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  274. @267. It is really too bad those systems we left in Afghanistan aren’t available.

    The US purchased Mi-7 Hip helicopters for the Afghans but never delivered them, apparently they will be transferred to Ukraine. In addition, there are a several dozen ex-Afghan helicopters at the aircraft boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base or in locations outside Afghanistan that can be transferred.

    Very Iran-Contra-ish. Congress allocated the $$ for weapons intended for X; so shifting to Y will likely take some fresh ‘Charlie Wilson legislating’ and not an arbitrary directive by DoD– or Joe.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  275. But then Afghanistan is now well prepared for war, isn’t it

    Except that’s it not. Besides suffering existential financial/public health crisis, they don’t have anyone to conduct either routine or long term maintenance-no more US-funded contractors.

    Too bad.

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  276. From factory to boneyard… $$$$$$$

    …and the MIC smiled.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  277. @283. Gee, guess Afghans are so dumb after kicking American butt, they can’t maintain $$$$ worth of equipment — or hire help from outside— like a very interested China.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  278. I wouldn’t be real confident in my survival riding around in a Ukrainian helicopter.

    Also not real confident there won’t be US special forces, CIA embedded with the Ukrainians. In Syria the anti tank missles we donate are closely monitored and quite often the guys shooting them look American.
    The Americans also collect empty Javelin tubes and run an exchange. Turn in your old tube, get a new missle…
    Wouldn’t be shocked to find anti air missles very closely monitored and the Vindmans keeping an eye on the chow.

    One, its common caution, two, Ukraine is corrupt.

    steveg (e81d76)

  279. I’m doubtful there are many people want to go to Afghanistan and work for the Taliban.

    steveg (e81d76)

  280. Ukraine is corrupt.

    Very.

    All the more reason to let Vlad deal w/’em. Rest easy on the ‘Afghan choppers’ – as w/everything else in the world these days, they’ll be maintained w/parts stamped ‘Made In China.” 😉

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  281. I’m doubtful there are many people want to go to Afghanistan and work for the Taliban.

    ‘Want’ has nothing to do w/it. Chinese techies will go where ordered to get in there and pick through American equipment.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  282. Rams defeat Tampa Bay 30-27 on last minute field goal after very nearly giving the game away. Wow-both Tom Brady and Aaron Rogers out of the playoffs.

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  283. Gee, guess Afghans are so dumb after kicking American butt, they can’t maintain $$$$ worth of equipment …..

    You got that right.

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  284. Ukraine is corrupt.

    Russia is more corrupt. Does this therefore mean that Zelensky has more of a right to invade Russia?

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  285. All 3 divisional round games thus fardecided on walkoff FGs, Rip.

    urbanleftbehind (aa4418)

  286. All 3 divisional round games thus fardecided on walkoff FGs, Rip.

    I know, I watched them al.

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  287. The games have looked great on my wall-size TV. Just like being there, except it’s not cold.

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  288. Biden is making Putin rich with his disastrous energy policies.

    NJRob (dd53c3)

  289. Last night NBC had a misleading story.

    In other words, a night like ANY other night…

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  290. Was living in Europe in August, ’68 when Russians rolled into Czechoslovakia. You know who was spooked? Europe- not the U.S. Saw it first hand. Per wiki:

    “The United States and NATO largely ignored the situation in Czechoslovakia. While the Soviet Union was worried that it might lose an ally, the United States had absolutely no desire to gain it. President Lyndon B. Johnson had already involved the United States in the Vietnam War and was unlikely to be able to drum up support for a potential conflict in Czechoslovakia. This is an accurate summary.

    Ukraine is a faux ‘crisis’ for Joe’s America to meddle with as well, post the Afghan debacle; the true crisis for the U.S. is the porous southern border. But hey, ignore that. Distract with Ukraine instead, eh, Joe?! It’s too bad Blinken isn’t dickering w/t OAS over managing that– but then, that’s Kamala’s plate of beans. The only fresh issue this time will be the famously Biden ‘transient’ spike in everything– like already high energy prices slamming Europe- and oil prices worldwide. But petroleum is ubiquitous once in the marketplace so source, through middle man to middle man becomes irrelevant and prices will stabilize albeit Biden-higher for a time. Besides, Americans have been enduring Biden’s rising ‘transient’ petrol prices now for a year. Love that Joe, eh Vlad?!

    … and Putin smiled.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  291. @291. Don’t know if you noticed, but many of the Afghan choppers still zipping through the August skies were Soviet vintage whirlybirds from the last set of butts kicked as well. Funny how they seem to keep’em flying.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  292. Czechoslavakia was Warsaw Pact, not NATO, so there was little free Europe could do when the Soviet tanks rolled in. That experience is probably why Czechia and Slovakia are now NATO members.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  293. Biden is making Putin rich with his disastrous energy policies.

    Oil prices are not only higher, but the US is importing more oil from Putin. Like the sticker says, “I did that”.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  294. Aircraft carrier sold for 1 cent for scrap headed to eBay after Navy rejects $5m museum bid

    The Kitty Hawk, along with the USS John F Kennedy, was sold to International Shipbreaking Limited in Texas for 1 cent each. Both were launched in the 1960s before being decommissioned in 2009 and 2017 respectively, according to the Naval History and Heritage Command.

    The deal was made after the Navy rejected a bid from the USS Kitty Hawk Veterans Association to convert the ship into a museum to be stationed at Long Beach, California, next to the retired ocean liner Queen Mary. While the association raised $5m in donation pledges for the project, it was estimated to be about half the amount needed for decontamination, development and maintenance of the ship as a museum… The 1 cent contract reflects the sale of scrap steel, iron and non-ferrous metal ores, while more sentimental pieces could end up on eBay.

    https://news.yahoo.com/aircraft-carrier-sold-1-cent-225001701.html

    Yet the U.S. found money to waste on this: Ukraine has received a second shipment of weapons from the United States as part of $200 million in defensive aid.

    https://thehill.com/policy/international/590986-ukraine-receives-second-batch-of-weapons-from-us-and-this-is-not-the-end

    Given the size of the Pentagon budget, both these large carriers could have been refitted as emergency response vessels for a few decades more use, stationed on the East and West coasts respectively, to respond as natural disaster relief platforms.

    ‘Course the Afghan Taliban would have taken them for a nickel each— and they’re landlocked.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  295. @300. ROFLMAOPIP B-b-b-ut Alexander Dubcek was a ‘freedom fighter’ seeking western style reforms piushing against the big, bad bear! The whole point of NATO was to check moves by the WP. They did nothing because the U.S. wasn’t interested. So Europe shook in their boots. Saw the empty streets first hand.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  296. Biden Weighs Deploying Thousands of Troops to Eastern Europe and Baltics

    ROFLMAOPIP. Anything to distract from incompetence. Wrong border, too.

    Who pays? When does Joe start selling them there Ukraine War Bonds?! SING IT, BUGS!!!!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFFl4FPDc0A

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  297. The whole point of NATO was to check moves by the WP.
    The whole point of NATO is provide collective defense against the Warsaw Pact invading a member country, not against Warsaw Pact actions in Eastern Europe. The people of East Germany (1953), Hungary (1956), Czechoslovakia (1968) and Poland (1980) may have thought they would be rescued by the West, but the West was never going to risk a confrontation over their freedom.

    Rip Murdock (d93e1f)

  298. Given the size of the Pentagon budget, both these large carriers could have been refitted as emergency response vessel

    hahahahahaha

    Anything to distract from incompetence.

    That’s what Putin is doing. His people don’t even consistently have plumbing. Worst COVID performance in the world.

    I doubt Biden’s up for this, but literally all he has to do is blow something Russian up and he wins. Russians have no balls. We’ve been through this a few times now. Just punch the bully in the nose. Call it an accident.

    Biden’s an angry, senile old man. A bitter, small man. He looks like a punk, and he knows it, and really I’m not surprised for a second. But if we’ve learned anything over the past 20 years, it’s that he neo-cons were right all along. Being a coward and lacking perspective and follow through is ruinous. Walking away from Afghanistan made all the nazi and commie sympatheizers happy and destroyed American prestigue. It didn’t serve any purpose and here we are, facing the consequences as a bully thinks we’ll give him our lunch money. Truly a ‘both sides’ issue.

    Peace through superior firepower.

    Dustin (0ee127)

  299. @306. Again: b-b-b-ut Alexander Dubcek was a ‘freedom fighter’ seeking western style reforms pushing against the big, bad bear! Just as Ukraine strains to do. Worse, from 1922 to 1991, Ukraine and Russia were both members of the Soviet Union, an even closer tie. But NATO’s raison d’être, the WP- like the CCCP itself- ceased to exist in 1991. Yet over those 30 years, NATO has expanded. Which serves to legitimize Putin’s rationale and concern from his POV.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  300. @307. Russians have no balls.

    Whistle past the graveyard much? Tell that to Napoleon; the Nazis; the Hungarians; the ol’ Czechs, the Crimeans… even Cubans when they bristled Russian missiles in ’62.

    More than 15 countries have been invaded and violated by the Soviet Union and its heir Russian Federation since 1917.

    https://www.numbers-stations.com/articles/soviet-and-russian-invasions-since-1917/

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  301. Tell that to Napoleon; the Nazis; the Hungarians; the ol’ Czechs, the Crimeans… even Cubans

    Exactly.

    They usually lose and you have to go way back to show a time they managed… even those efforts they usually were losing but were saved by another nation.

    Open your history book, DCSCA. You’ll stop being so amazed by the obvious.

    Dustin (0ee127)

  302. Honestly, all that effort building weapons and copying American greatness like our space shuttle, they still use outhouses commonly. Russia’s the laughing stock of the world, taking their opportunity now that Trump and Biden were cowards about Afghanistan, to punk us. I don’t blame them. Bully gonna bully. But there’s a reason Putin’s a bully. He’s fundamentally a loser, running his country into the ground.

    All Biden’s got to do is stand up to him, bust his lip, and we’ll have peace. It’s common sense.

    Dustin (0ee127)

  303. Tell that to Napoleon; the Nazis; the Hungarians; the ol’ Czechs, the Crimeans… even Cubans

    Exactly.

    Dustin, you do realize Russia was the victor over Napoleon, the Nazis, crushed the Hungarians and Czechs, occupied Crimea and kept Cuba in their sphere of influence. Remember East Germany and the Berlin Wall/ Mother Russia has balls, Dustin: and lest you forget, were America’s ally in WW2.

    Maybe it’s you who should read a history book, rather than merely open one.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  304. @307. Our Russian allies lost 25 million or so in WW2 defeating the Nazis.

    But then, Russians have no balls.

    Do they.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  305. All Biden’s got to do is stand up to him…

    Seems, per his presser, about two hours is his limit.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  306. @303. Up to 5,000 U.S. troops to Eastern Europe NATO nations?

    WTF. Per the Military Times & CNN, Russia has 120,000 troops bracketing Ukraine.

    WHO presented Captain Afghanistan D. Bachle these sort of idiotically sophomoric options?

    Advisor names, please.

    And Congress is out, too, as usual. Chuck? Nancy? Where the hell are you?

    Go for the real estate, Vlad. It’ll never come cheaper.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  307. Here we go again. Pretty soon it will be the soccer story at the Russian Embassy again.

    Things never change.

    Simon Jester (63f19c)

  308. @317. Jealous.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  309. The borscht must flow!

    nk (1d9030)

  310. @319. 120,000 gallons! From 3 sides!

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  311. Well, I’ve been watching football all weekend, and I have to say that I am fairly well satisfied with the NFL’s product of late. After three nailbiters they finish off the weekend with a cluster-nailbiter.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  312. Kevin on Kinman Island.

    Did you know that DCSCA’s peace-loving anti-defense industry President Eisenhower threatened Mao with nuclear weapons should he try to take Kinmen (Quemoy) or Matsu?

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  313. stationed on the East and West coasts respectively, to respond as natural disaster relief platforms.

    Yeah, right. So, where exactly would they be steaming to, to arrive in time to do anything but annoy? First, you would have to fuel them, and that alone would get you several environmentalist suits. Hell, you’d get suits over them sitting in the harbor rusting.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  314. Mahomes and Allen were both awesome. It’s too bad one of them had to lose.
    The Bills defense choked. They had 13 seconds to keep Mahomes out of field goal range.
    Great weekend for the NFL, especially since Brady lost and we have two NFC West teams left.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  315. Our Russian allies lost 25 million or so in WW2 defeating the Nazis.

    Stalin survived, so what’s the issue?

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  316. OT: “Michael Avenatti says courtroom mask mandate infringes on constitutional right to face accuser”

    I’m wondering if Patterico has come across this stupidity before.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  317. The Bills defense choked.

    The Bills coach made a mistake, one that the CBS commentators noted in real time. That kickoff should have been short and bouncy, making them burn 5-10 seconds dealing with it.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  318. Kevin, there is no reason to engage this DCSCA individual when he gets into this groove. After all, years ago he was caught lying on any number of topics about his own background, for reasons that continue to make me shake my head. I’m glad he likes space and rocketry, but claiming to know von Braun was a bridge too far. And that is just one silly example.

    Sometimes he is decent, but he remains Commander McBragg to me.

    I like him better when he actually tries to discuss issues.

    Simon Jester (63f19c)

  319. FWIW, the Soviets lost about 27 million; the Russians lost about 14 million.

    Ukraine lost about 7 million, a higher percentage of its total population than Russia lost (16.3 versus 12.7). (The highest percentage among the Soviet Republics, 25.3 percent, was in Belarus.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  320. If DCSCA thinks Putin is up for losing millions over this issue, that’s hilarious. Putin’s people are getting real sick of him, his power base is crumbling, and he painted himself into a corner being the tough guy… now he’s uniting the world against him for no reason. He can’t back down, but there’s no upside.

    He’s an idiot.

    Dustin (0ee127)

  321. The highest percentage among the Soviet Republics, 25.3 percent, was in Belarus.

    Profound and horrible.

    The Russians (their leadership anyway) desperately wanted to be allies with the Nazis. Russian leaders were stupid. Allying with evil means a sure knife in the back.

    Watch enough 80s movies and you might think the Russians are impressive, an adversary, a superpower. President Reagan sized them up, started speaking plainly about them. They fell apart quickly. They are pretty good at trolling on the internet (and are admired by trolls).

    We are safer if we stand up to them now.

    Dustin (0ee127)

  322. From the Twitter…
    “Chiefs seriously moved 44 yards to set up the game tying field goal in less time than a Dak QB draw lmao”

    Kevin, the question I have is whether the clock starts when the ball hits the ground or when the player touches the ball.

    Paul Montagu (f6c5a7)

  323. @328. there is no reason to engage this DCSCA individual when he gets into this groove. After all, years ago he was caught lying on any number of topics about his own background, for reasons that continue to make me shake my head

    ROFLMAOPIP. Jealous. Do get over yourself someday.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  324. @322. General Eisenhower, peace-loving?? Nazi Germany would have loved that characterization. Yet, Kevin, you said yourself up thread ‘it was a more innocent time.’ Back when MacArthur and Goldwater wanted to toss nukes around like cigarette butts out of the window.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  325. @330. Putin’s people are getting real sick of him…

    Hmmmmm. Did you advise Biden about the reliability of the Afghan military, too, Dustin? 😉

    In December, 2021, around 2/3rd of Russian people approved of the activities of Russian president Vladimir Putin.

    https://www.statista.com/statistics/896181/putin-approval-rating-russia/

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  326. @325. The issue was a ‘whistling-past-the-graveyard-assertion’ that ‘Russians have no balls.’

    History to the contrary.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  327. Yup, DCSCA. I am very jealous of your fleet of cars you claimed to own.

    Then there was the rock throwing contest you got into with the Border Patrol. The von Braun thing made me laugh then, and now. Remember, friend, that you were spanked by a number of commenters quite thoroughly—I miss JD, who had your number big time. I still have the time line we came up with.

    I have no trouble with you expressing your opinion. Heck, you are amusing when you trip over your own puffery. And you often do write some things worth reading. Except when your meds wear off.

    So please play nice.

    Simon Jester (63f19c)

  328. now he’s uniting the world against him

    “The world?” That would be news to China– and the energy-hungry Europeans hooked up to his oil and gas feeds… besides, little ol’NATO isn’t even “united” over dealing w/him.

    As if it really bothers him…

    https://defenceforumindia.com/threads/putin-leaves-g20-after-harper-and-other-leaders-press-him-on.65039/

    Confident and competent.

    … and Biden cried.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  329. @337. ROFLMAOPIP You said that.

    But do get over yourself someday.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  330. If DCSCA knew this iconic author, I’m duly impressed.

    lurker (59504c)

  331. @340. Spring, 1974.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  332. Russians have no balls.

    They have quite a few Chechen balls, from what I understand. In Lucite.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  333. Kevin, the question I have is whether the clock starts when the ball hits the ground or when the player touches the ball.

    The latter, I think, but you can’t just sit and watch a kickoff ball bounce — it’s a live ball.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  334. Sanctions that would really bite:

    If Moscow invades Ukraine, the United States may impose export restrictions on any product containing semiconductors made with American tools or designed with American software, Biden administration officials say.

    That’s everything that doesn’t still have tubes. Of course, Russia can use their home-grown semiconductors. BWAAAHAHAHA!

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  335. @342. LOLOLOL

    @344. These are a people who think nothing of rolling tanks over fields full of the bodies of their frozen dead comrades. Joey Sanctions only elicits an opportunity for public whining– while masking a firm Russian resolve.

    Kill 13 Americans and the country bugs out.
    Kill a few Russians and you’ll see Ukranian balls crushed into gravel.

    Confidence and competence.

    … and Biden cried.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  336. 81 million morons voted for biden/harris – deport these fools.

    mg (8cbc69)

  337. Russians eat their borscht one spoonful at a time just like everybody else.

    nk (1d9030)

  338. It is my opinion that anybody who takes the side of a foreign country against the President of the United States, whatever that country or whoever that President may be, should be shipped to that country, and not necessarily in one package.

    nk (1d9030) — 1/22/2022 @ 8:22 pm

    So, you’re saying Fauci should be shipped to China in separate packages?

    frosty (f27e97)

  339. Dustin, great points. Always enjoy your comments.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  340. Whether or not the state is “paying” for it doesn’t matter a great deal if they can cite some significant interest.

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 1/23/2022 @ 11:41 am

    And you just explained why that wouldn’t be a free market. Taking money and turning it into a voucher that can only be spent as part of approved transactions isn’t a free market.

    frosty (f27e97)

  341. Is there any indication whether the European countries in NATO care more about Ukraine or natural gas and energy prices?

    Maybe Brandon can organize the largest airlift of natural gas in history.

    frosty (f27e97)

  342. “Why does CNN think the biggest annual homicide increase on record, costing thousands of lives mostly poor or disadvantaged people, is some big exaggeration but they think an unarmed q anon shaman almost ended democracy?”

    https://twitter.com/zaidjilani/status/1485317981982892035?s=21

    Obudman (e03271)

  343. #351

    “Brandon”, the NASCAR guy, does not deserve the notoriety he is stuck with so that you guys can cuss in public and tee hee to yourselves.

    Appalled (1a17de)

  344. Is the “Let’s go Brandon!” reporter who originated it a blonde? She has to be a blonde.

    nk (1d9030)

  345. Appalled (1a17de) — 1/24/2022 @ 7:01 am

    Was that soapbox heavy or did you have it already handy? You also may want to check the height and make sure you’ve got a secure tie-off system or guardrails.

    frosty (f27e97)

  346. 351, Brandon and Jerome Nadler can have an all you can eat meal on a transatlantic flight…that should get western Europe through the rest of winter.

    urbanleftbehind (35fff1)

  347. “81 million morons voted for biden/harris – deport these fools.”

    At least mg is trying to come up with a GOP platform….it may need some tweaking…but in the end it would really simplify self governance.

    AJ_Liberty (ec7f74)

  348. The whole Brandon thing reminds me of a bunch of fifth grade boys snickering over a well thumbed Playboy one of us kids swiped from our Junior High older brother, and then engaging in a little cussing contest.

    It’s juvenile. (Felt the same way about the whole Teabagger thing, in case you are curious)

    (Yes, this example shows my age.)

    Appalled (1a17de)

  349. https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/5665/text

    An “Islamophobia” bill pushed by Rep Omar and passed by the House. What happened to the law prohibiting establishment of religion?

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  350. This was hilarious. Any guesses what prompted it?

    1. Tucker is proudly owning his Kink for animated candy cartoon characters (Let that freak flag fly!)
    2. Tucker has truly lost his mind and all sense of perspective?
    3. Slow news combined with the cynical knowledge that his audience tunes in seeking a sense outrage?

    My money is on number 3.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  351. @359, Congress still can’t establish a religion, and this bill does nothing even remotely like establishing a religion. I did notice that it specifically calls out wheat China is doing to the Uyghur. But i’d rather the bill label that ‘genocide’.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  352. @344, Sanctions hit mostly normal people. I don’t think Russian leadership cares much about what happens to the average citizen.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  353. One or more of Rashida’s staffers needs a civil service job. That’s why half of any federal agency exists, and that’s why the bureaucrats (see e.g. Anthony Fauci) have so much power, privilege, and immunity in their relations with Congress. Patronage, spoils, and featherbedding.

    nk (1d9030)

  354. nk
    https://reason.com/2022/01/19/a-tiny-alabama-town-is-growing-its-police-force-by-fining-everybody-in-sight/

    This goes on and on and on. If the cops could charge “fees” on utility bills, permits etc like regular thieving government scum we’d all pay without thinking

    steveg (e81d76)

  355. Taxes haven’t been enough for this crowd since day two after they decided tariffs (import VAT) were insufficient for the lifestyle they aspired to be comfortable in. And they all want to live like Bezos

    steveg (e81d76)

  356. steveg @364 Most towns have police forces; that’s a police force that has a town. I first read the quip about the Prussian army and Prussia. And most recently, about the Russian Mafia and Russia.

    nk (1d9030)

  357. @364, How absolutely infuriating.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  358. Is Brunswick stew like borscht?

    nk (1d9030)

  359. Classic. Anti-vaxxer Palin tests positive on the eve of her defamation trial. Natural immunity didn’t save her.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  360. Sanctions hit mostly normal people. I don’t think Russian leadership cares much about what happens to the average citizen.

    The “hardship” of standing in line for hours, waiting for necessities, is SOP w/ “average citizen Russians”- whereas Americans complain parked at a Mickey Dees drive-thru for ten minutes.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  361. #368

    No. Brunswick Stew is designed to make squirrel meat taste good. Can they say that about borscht?

    Appalled (1a17de)

  362. I can only guess, Appalled. Beets are very high in MSG.

    nk (1d9030)

  363. Natural immunity didn’t save her.

    Paul Montagu (5de684) — 1/24/2022 @ 9:29 am

    Save her from what? Did she die? Does she even have any symptoms? Or are you now thinking natural immunity is supposed to keep you from testing positive?

    This might be news to you considering your other comments but did you know that the vaccine won’t save you from testing positive either?

    frosty (f27e97)

  364. This might be news to you considering your other comments but did you know that the vaccine won’t save you from testing positive either?

    What “other comments” have I made that claimed vaccines were 100% effective? Show me.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  365. Insipid? The Daily News hits Donald hard:

    One of the best presidents, Teddy Roosevelt, was the only native of New York City to become president until the worst, Donald Trump, won the high office. Now, the state of New York is helping to bring down this miserable, insipid, democracy-threatening horror of a man who we inflicted on the nation and the world. In devastating legal papers filed last week, New York Attorney General Leticia James reveals that the cheating con man we’ve known all these long decades cheated and conned in illegally misrepresenting the finances of his real estate firm. Whouda thunk?

    Judging by his previous behavior, the adjective that would bother him the most in that list is “insipid”. (I’m thinking, of course, of his reaction to the “short fingered vulgarian” description.)

    Is the News hitting below the belt with “insipid”? No, though it isn’t an adjective I would use to describe him.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  366. https://kdvr.com/news/coronavirus/covid-19-vaccine/cdc-report-natural-immunity-stronger-than-vaccines-alone-during-delta-wave/?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=socialflow

    Natural immunity was six times stronger during the delta wave than vaccination, according to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
    The report, published Jan. 19, analyzed COVID outcome data from New York and California, which make up about one in six of the nation’s total COVID deaths.

    The study has limits — namely, it was done before the omicron wave and doesn’t factor in any information about boosters. It does, however, broadly agree with studies from other countries.

    Vaccines were more effective at preventing infection or serious illness than natural immunity from prior infections before the delta variant became the dominant strain. After delta became the main strain, vaccines alone grew weaker against the virus and natural immunity got much stronger. This could be due in large part to the fact that vaccines began wearing off around the time delta spread, according to the study.

    Completely destroys the mandatory vaccination argument for the previously infected.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  367. NJRon Vaccination protection status Isn’t a rhetorical position or political argument. From wiki Moving the goalposts is an informal fallacy in which evidence presented in response to a specific claim is dismissed and some other (often greater) evidence is demanded. That is, after an attempt has been made to score a goal, the goalposts are moved to exclude the attempt.

    Applying the concept of “moving the goalposts” to vaccination status is stupid. It makes about as much sense as applying it to how many sandbags you need when the river is rising. If the conditions change and the water keeps rising our response will need to change also. We’ve learned that vaccination protection weakens after about six months. The latest variant isn’t as dangerous but it’s crazy contagious and the sheer volume of cases is again overwhelming hospital capacity in hard hit areas.

    But, being vaccinated (and boosted) still dramatically decreases the chance of contracting covid and provides even more protection against severe outcomes.

    Time123 (bdd372)

  368. What “other comments” have I made that claimed vaccines were 100% effective? Show me.

    Paul Montagu (5de684) — 1/24/2022 @ 10:42 am

    Let’s see, I didn’t say you claimed they were “100% effective” but you’re going to try this little schtick were you say I’m the one claiming you said something you didn’t? If you’re going to try this game of show me the claim you at least need to try it with a case were I actually made the claim.

    Unless you actually think 100% effective literally means never testing positive. Do you think that’s what it means? Because it doesn’t mean that.

    Before we move on to the strawmaning and the goalpost shifting let’s not forget

    Save her from what? Did she die? Does she even have any symptoms? Or are you now thinking natural immunity is supposed to keep you from testing positive?

    Did you think natural immunity was supposed to save someone from testing positive?

    frosty (f27e97)

  369. @378

    But, being vaccinated (and boosted) still dramatically decreases the chance of contracting covid and provides even more protection against severe outcomes.

    Time123 (bdd372) — 1/24/2022 @ 11:14 am

    Not trying to pick this nit, but I think it’s an important distinction worthy of discussion.

    As the omicron strain has shown, the vaccine barely, if at all, decreases the chances of contracting covid. The best mitigation strategy in that regard is isolation, and you can only isolate the public so much.

    That’s DISTINCT from the fact that the vaccines does provide protections against severe outcomes…. that’s indisputable.

    So, again, this goes back to the poor communications strategy by our health policy folks, as they’re still wrestling for some silverbullet to manage this outbreak.

    Frankly, we’re witnessing a pandemic evolving into an endemic and at that point, we should be considering a full rollback for all restrictions at this point.

    whembly (ae61f7)

  370. Whembly, I posted it in another thread and I’ll try to dig up the link to the study on vaccine efficacy with Omicron. I think the data out of NYC for December will be interesting also. All that said I agree with your broader point that vaccination offers less protection against contracting Omicron then previous variants.

    I think “let it rip” becomes a more viable policy when doing so isn’t likely to overwhelm the medical system. Oklahoma, Maryland, and MI all reported significant challenges with the volume of covid cases with Omicron.

    Time123 (bdd372)

  371. NJRob, I think you’re overstating what conclusions can be drawn from study you quoted

    Vaccines were more effective at preventing infection or serious illness than natural immunity from prior infections before the delta variant became the dominant strain. After delta became the main strain, vaccines alone grew weaker against the virus and natural immunity got much stronger. This could be due in large part to the fact that vaccines began wearing off around the time delta spread, according to the study.

    “Importantly, infection-derived protection was greater after the highly transmissible Delta variant became predominant,” reads the report, “coinciding with early declining of vaccine-induced immunity in many persons.”

    Time123 (bdd372)

  372. frosty, you’re parsing. You said “did you know that the vaccine won’t save you from testing positive either.” If the vaccine did save you from testing positive, it would be 100% effective. That’s a common sense interpretation of what you said. Your denial is silly.

    And let me be clear. I’ve never said that vaccines would save you from testing positive. I don’t expect you to do so, but you should take your insinuation back, because it’s wrong. You should also take back “This might be news to you” because it’s patronizing and a jackass thing to say.

    To answer your other question, isn’t it obvious? Palin’s not dead. She caught the virus. Her natural immunity didn’t save her from catching it. The vaccines do lessen your chances of catching it (even for Omicron, example here), yet Palin drew her line in the sand when she said, “I am one of those White, common-sense conservatives, I believe in science, and I have not taken the shot.” The science is pretty clear that immunity is only enhanced with the vaccines, including for those who already caught it.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  373. Applying the concept of “moving the goalposts” to vaccination status is stupid. It makes about as much sense as applying it to how many sandbags you need when the river is rising.

    Yes, but this isn’t what happened. Using your analogy; experts said that we needed X sandbags and no other remedies. After X sandbags were found to not be enough the experts reverted to just more sandbags (and pretended that’s what they had said all along). They also said other things that we now pretend weren’t said because they were wrong. When asked if opening a bypass for a floodgate (whether natural immunity should be considered as part of covid protocols) the answer was no. So, yes, the experts moved the goalposts and people are now saying that the goalposts didn’t move but rather the fields has someone altered in some way.

    If the conditions change and the water keeps rising our response will need to change also.

    Continuing to say the conditions have changed is just an argument from hindsight and it’s a poor one given that the conditions changing didn’t actually result in a change in tactics. The conditions changed and the response didn’t. We’re basically told to continue doing things to stop the virus that we know haven’t, and won’t, stop the virus.

    The latest variant isn’t as dangerous but it’s crazy contagious and the sheer volume of cases is again overwhelming hospital capacity in hard hit areas.

    Time123 (bdd372) — 1/24/2022 @ 11:14 am

    Hospital capacity is more than a function of cases (demand). Hospital’s have an incentive to keep spare capacity low and after two years haven’t shown an ability to ramp up as fast as they can scale down (supply). And no one has shown any desire to fix that. This is also a function of the covid protocols on staffing which is a response that should have changed based on changing data but hasn’t until recently (also supply).

    frosty (f27e97)

  374. It is sad to hear that about Palin — and it reminds me of a piece by Noemie Emery during the 2008 presidential campaign. Emery concluded that both Obama and Palin showed promise — but that neither was ready for the position they were running for.

    The years since have shown us just how wise her conclusion was.

    (It is an open question whether either could have been ready had they spent more time in the minor leagues, before making the big jump. Sadly, I have my doubts that either could have grown that much. And I am sorry to say that about Palin, who was treated most unfairly by the media. But that doesn’t excuse her joining the anti-vaxxers.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  375. Paul Montagu (5de684) — 1/24/2022 @ 12:04 pm

    You wanted to be snarky and get in a clever dig on Palin. You didn’t appreciate my and now you want to talk about how me poking at your snark is silly and patronizing and a jackass thing to say.

    Is that about the long and short of it?

    frosty (f27e97)

  376. It occurs to me that the world needs an anti-corruption video game, or perhaps a series of them, starting with Grand Theft Russia:

    For the past year I’ve been putting together a podcast series, The Big Steal, trying to figure out why the world’s biggest country, Russia, spanning 11 time zones and with extraordinary natural wealth is so seriously under-developed in economic terms. Russia’s GDP per head is about a quarter of that of the UK. The simple answer is that so much of Russia’s wealth has been stolen by what were described to me as a “clique of bandits” who have turned Russia from communism to kleptocracy in a generation. At their heart is President Putin himself.

    Only in the game I am thinking of, the player would be an investigator trying to stop the theft, and save the Russian people.

    I’ll bet it would be popular in Moscow, especially after the “Czar” banned it.

    (Alas, there is no shortage of possibilities for follow-up games.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  377. The neo-cons are forming an abraham lincoln brigade of vietnam war draft dodging chicken hawks like bill kristol. Not to fight ;but to question the patriotism of those who don’t want to send americans over their.

    asset (e0d8be)

  378. Kurt schlichter is suggesting who should be in the abraham lincoln brigade if you have suggestion on who should join.

    asset (e0d8be)

  379. You wanted to be snarky and get in a clever dig on Palin.

    Funny that my offhand remark triggered you so.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  380. Time,

    The efficacy of the vaccine plummets rapidly. Natural immunity is a proven success.

    NJRob (4d4221)

  381. British bettors now think Prime Minister Boris Johnson will not last out 2022:

    Why? A host of reasons having to do with his defective character. He was fired from two jobs for lying, and he has acted as if the rules he was giving the British people did not apply to him. And he has at least tolerated corruption — not on the Putin scale, or even the Trump scale, but enough so that voters have noticed.

    Sound familiar?

    (Similarly, the British bettors think the “short-fingered vulgarian” has less than a 30 percent chance of winning the presidency in 2024.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  382. @391, That’s not true for Omicron. Efficacy with a booster is between 55%-80%. Protection from reinfection is much lower. Studies are preliminary so data may change, but what’s known so far doesn’t support your assertion.

    https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/232698/omicron-largely-evades-immunity-from-past/

    Looking at the Dec Data from the CDC we see that vaccinated people still do dramatically better then unvaccinated for both cases and, especially, hospitalizations .

    https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#rates-by-vaccine-status
    https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#covidnet-hospitalizations-vaccination

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  383. Frosty; This assertion of yours is false.

    Yes, but this isn’t what happened. Using your analogy; experts said that we needed X sandbags and no other remedies.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  384. To be clear; I’m saying that you’re assertion. That experts said we needed vaccination and no other remedies is false.

    It’s a misstatement you’ve made repeatedly so I wanted to point that out.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  385. Good news on booster shots:

    During the four months after a booster shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, antibodies against the omicron variant did drop, the study found. But they remained high enough that, at least inferring from comparisons with other variants, they should continue to provide a layer of protection, Shi said.
    . . .
    A study from Britain found that while protection against symptomatic infections is lower than for the delta variant, even after a third dose, protection against hospitalization remains high. That study found that protection against hospitalization dropped from 92 percent in the month after the third dose to 83 percent for people at 10 or more weeks after that shot.

    Oh, and Pfizer hopes to have an omicron-specific booster available soon.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  386. Jim, I’ve been wondering why there wasn’t more of a push to come up with variant specific boosters. As rapidly as this mutates and has harmful as even the milder variants are that seems like a necessary tool.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  387. Funny that my offhand remark triggered you so.

    Paul Montagu (5de684) — 1/24/2022 @ 12:44 pm

    I thought the same thing

    frosty (f27e97)

  388. Sheldonn Silver died. in prison.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  389. With apologies to the great Chuck Berry:

    Deep down in Eastern Europe, close to the Ukraine scene,
    Way back up in the woods among the evergreens
    Stood ready tank battalions made of men and steel
    A rush in by the Russians all seemed so very real
    Led by an ex-KGBer who reads the world so well
    And could play ol’Joey Biden just like a-ringin’ a bell

    Go, go
    Go, Putin, go, go
    Go, Putin, go, go
    Go, Putin, go, go
    Go, Putin, go, go
    Putie You’re Good

    He carried Cossack dreams in his potato sack
    And sat inside the Kremlin plotting Russia’s way back
    Oh, the West would see him sittin’ throwing pipeline shade
    Strummin’ with to rhythm of the capitalists he’d played
    And Muscovites, they would stop and say
    “Oh my, that little Russian, he will lead us some day”

    Go, go
    Go, Putin, go, go
    Go, Putin, go, go
    Go, Putin, go, go
    Go, Putin, go, go
    Putie You’re Good

    His mother told him, “Someday you will be a man
    And you will be the leader of this big ol’ land”
    Confidence and competence known the world around
    Crushing all resistance before the sun go down
    A poker player, Vegas odds in neon lights
    Flashing “Vladimir Putin you be da man tonight”

    Go, go
    Go, Putin, go
    Go, go, go, Putin, go
    Go, go, go, Putin, go
    Go, go, go, Putin, go
    Go
    Putie You’re Good!

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  390. #337 Time – I don’t know. The mRNA vaccines are new to me, and I have no idea what the practical limitations are for producing new versions. In principle, if I understand it correctly, they can devise a version within weeks of spotting a variant — but I don’t know what happens after that and where the bottlenecks are.

    Heck, I had to review ribosomes, which will show you how far behind I had gotten on vaccines.

    (One odd example of the bottlenecks (pun intended). At one point the Japanese were short of the special syringes to get the 6th dose out of the Pfizer bottles.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  391. Jim, I have a good basis in statistics and research methods but the details of the Chemistry and process are outside my area of expertise. But from what I’ve read in the last year this seems like a knowable problem/opportunity. My assumption is that current public health professionals are biased towards less risk on vaccine development and are more concerned of a mistake int he approval process then in not having a vaccine available.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  392. For entertainment, and perhaps some education, here’s a Star Wars explanation of mRNA vaccines from Randall Munroe.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  393. That was hilarious! Thank you for sharing

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  394. #402 Time – I suspect you are right that public health professionals are biased toward risk avoidance on vaccines, and new medicines generally. (And I suspect the opposite is true, oddly enough, on new surgical procedures.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  395. To be clear; I’m saying that you’re assertion. That experts said we needed vaccination and no other remedies is false.

    It’s a misstatement you’ve made repeatedly so I wanted to point that out.

    Time123 (9f42ee) — 1/24/2022 @ 1:22 pm

    Yes, they’ve said vaccination, masks, and social distancing. And pretty much nothing else. And they focus almost exclusively on vaccination. This is a distinction that you keep trying to make that doesn’t make much of a difference.

    When a new variant arrives the recommendation is always get vaccinated or get a booster, which is just another dose of the vaccine, (and wear a mask and social distance) correct? Do you have an example of a different answer that has ever been given? What other than the vaccine (and wear a mask and social distance) has been given as the long term solution for the covid pandemic?

    You think because I’m not careful enough to itemize the complete list that is always the same that you’ve got me pinned down saying this single thing and that in fact they been saying several different things that have changed as conditions change.

    But this avoids the actual point; they keep saying the same things even when data and conditions change. And I suspect that this is why you’re avoiding that point. You keep saying they’ve changed something (recommendations? I’m not sure because you don’t say other than that the goalposts haven’t moved) when conditions change but the only thing that has changed is the success criteria.

    frosty (f27e97)

  396. Thank you for correcting your error. You missed the funding and work on therapeutics in your list, so far those haven’t been shown to be super effective, but the effort is worth noting.

    You also failed to recognize last summers relaxation of mitigation efforts when conditions appeared to be improving and then the renewed push when the delta wave started.

    Also, recommending a booster when data showed that was helpful and effective is a reaction to changing conditions.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  397. frosty —

    Vaccination is an easier fix because it makes the social distancing and the masking unnecessary. Not because that the transmission is reduced, but because if you get hit with the bug, you are very unlikely to get seriously sick. Biden lost this plot line because — well, I’m not really sure. Neither is he.

    There was a hope that vacciations would curtail transmission. That hasn’t been borne out. I still think anti-vax agitation is foolish. The harm, though, is mostly to people bear the full brunt of COVID because of their refusal to get the vacine. (RIP Meatloaf). Which, at this point, means mandates don’t make much sense and have passed their sell-by date.

    Appalled (1a17de)

  398. #402 Time – I suspect you are right that public health professionals are biased toward risk avoidance on vaccines, and new medicines generally. (And I suspect the opposite is true, oddly enough, on new surgical procedures.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1) — 1/24/2022 @ 1:59 pm

    I suspect that it might have something to do with the stockpile of vaccines in the G7 countries that are still on the books. If a new vaccine is developed the value of those takes a hit. Also the manufacturers would incur operational costs that would eat into projected profits.

    It’s more profitable to run what they’ve got until the effectiveness falls below an acceptable limit and they’ve got good press they’re paying to modify that acceptable limit as needed.

    frosty (f27e97)

  399. @408, The impact to hospital capacity unfortunately changes this from a private health issue to a public health issue.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  400. @409, you should work the Illuminati or the Rothschild’s into that theory

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  401. @408, Yup. Vaccination is (so far) the best solution we’ve found yet. (Links on efficacy in previous comments. Frosty doesn’t seem to like that solution so he comes up with all these convoluted ways to attack it indirectly. This one is “they only talk about vaccines and don’t talk about different solutions.” Except they do; masks, social distancing, and therapeutics.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  402. Joe Biden Snaps, Calls Reporter ‘Stupid Son of a Bitch’

    https://townhall.com/tipsheet/spencerbrown/2022/01/24/joe-biden-calls-foxs-doocy-stupid-son-of-a-b-n2602303

    Hey Joey, takes one to know one!!!

    IDIOT.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  403. Thank you for correcting your error.

    I correct them when I make them. You should give it a try.

    You missed the funding and work on therapeutics in your list, so far those haven’t been shown to be super effective, but the effort is worth noting.

    The therapeutics haven’t been pushed at the federal level and states like FL that have pushed it are mocked in the media and by the “experts”. This certainly isn’t something Fauci, the CDC, or this administration are pushing. The “experts” have actively suppressed or criticized anything that was thought a risk to the likelihood of someone getting the vaccine. It didn’t make the list because it’s not something that was recommended. When I google “covid therapeutics” the top item isn’t even a search result. It’s a statement by google

    Treatments
    Get vaccinated. Vaccines are widely available. cdc.gov

    Self care
    If you have possible or confirmed COVID-19:
    Stay home except to get medical care.
    Monitor your symptoms carefully. If your symptoms get worse, call your healthcare provider immediately.
    Get rest and stay hydrated. Take over-the-counter medicines, such as acetaminophen, to help you feel better.
    If you have a medical appointment, notify your healthcare provider ahead of time that you have or may have COVID-19.
    Stay in a specific room and away from other people in your home. If possible, use a separate bathroom. If you must be around others, wear a mask.

    and then another block

    Medical treatments
    Treatments used for COVID-19 should be prescribed by your healthcare provider. People have been seriously harmed and even died after taking products not approved for COVID-19, even products approved or prescribed for other uses. Your healthcare provider will decide on what approach to take for your treatment.
    Your healthcare provider also may recommend the following to relieve symptoms and support your body’s natural defenses.
    Taking medications, like acetaminophen or ibuprofen, to reduce fever.
    Drinking water or receiving intravenous fluids to stay hydrated.
    Getting plenty of rest to help the body fight the virus.
    If someone is showing emergency warning signs, get medical care immediately. Emergency warning signs include:
    Trouble breathing
    Persistent pain or pressure in the chest
    New confusion
    Inability to wake or stay awake
    Bluish lips or face

    I can scroll down a little and I get something on Remdesivir “in hospitalized adults and hospitalized pediatric patients at least 12 years”. But you’re thinking therapeutics have been part of the changing covid response landscape?

    I’m starting to suspect that your definition of experts is shifting as needed.

    You also failed to recognize last summers relaxation of mitigation efforts when conditions appeared to be improving and then the renewed push when the delta wave started.

    The Biden admin thought it was over and tried to claim success and run some victory laps because they needed the good press. When that turned out to be wrong, and there were already indications it was when Biden tried it, they went back to the same plan even when we knew that the existing vaccine wasn’t going to get us out of covid. This seems to be the general things changed situation you keep getting back to but this isn’t “experts” changing recommendations to fight covid. This is just them being wrong about whether we still needed to do anything and then not adjusting to new facts.

    Also, recommending a booster when data showed that was helpful and effective is a reaction to changing conditions.

    Time123 (9f42ee) — 1/24/2022 @ 2:06 pm

    They recommended the same tactic of get vaxed or boosted in the face of declining effectiveness while denying for as long as possible the declining effectiveness. There are still people convinced that we’ll get herd immunity even after seeing omicron. Do you know that omicron did not descend from delta? Do you understand what that means for the vaccine (and wear a mask and social distance) only policy?

    frosty (f27e97)

  404. Biden’s State Department orders evacuation of U.S. staff/dependents from U.S. Embassy in Ukraine [second U.S. embassy lost in six months by Joe;] no airlift for Americans OUT planned. Yet some how, they managed to airlift IN 80 tons of lethal munitions/aid. WTF. How are they supposed to get out of town, Joey…

    Oh.
    Right.
    Amtrak.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  405. (RIP Meatloaf)

    Appalled (1a17de) — 1/24/2022 @ 2:13 pm

    I can’t find a source for this other than a TMZ report that says he had it before he died. From what I can tell no official cause of death has been released. He’s had a long series of health issues.

    frosty (f27e97)

  406. Dementia Joe could shoot someone in Times Square and 81 million don’t care.
    Voters are highly overrated.

    mg (8cbc69)

  407. If Russia Invades Ukraine does Hunter collect hazard pay from Burma?

    mg (8cbc69)

  408. Burisma

    mg (8cbc69)

  409. RFK Jr. Spews Conspiracy Theories About Vaccines, 5G, Satellites: ‘Even in Hitler’s Germany, You Could Hide in an Attic Like Anne Frank’
    ……..
    “What we’re seeing today, what we’re seeing today, is what I call turnkey totalitarianism,” Kennedy told the rally audience. “They are putting in place all of these technological mechanisms for control we’ve never seen before. It’s been the ambition of every totalitarian state from the beginning of mankind to control every aspect of behavior, of conduct, of thought, and to obliterate dissent. None them have been able to do it. They didn’t have the technological capacity.”

    “Even in Hitler’s Germany, you could cross the Alps into Switzerland, you could hide in an attic like Anne Frank did,” Kennedy continued. “I visited in 1962 East Germany with my father, and met people who had climbed the wall and escaped, so it was possible — many died doing it, but it was possible.”
    ………
    Otto Frank was the only member of the immediate family to survive. Anne and Margot died at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in early 1945. It is not possible to determine an exact date and cause of death, but both sisters are believed to have succumbed to typhus or one of the other diseases that were epidemic in the camp at the time. Multiple women who survived Bergen-Belsen and remembered Anne Frank from their time there described her in those last tragic weeks of her life as weak and emaciated, her head shaved, “delirious, terrible, burning up” from fever.

    That is what Kennedy thought was a valid situation to compare to people refusing to take a safe and effective vaccine. …….

    “Today, the mechanisms are being put in place that will make it so none of us can run and none of us can hide (said Kennedy). Within five years, we’re going to see 415,000 low-orbit satellites — Bill Gates and his 65,000 satellites alone will be able to look at every square inch of the planet 24 hours a day. They’re putting in 5G to harvest our data and control our behavior. Digital currency that will allow them to punish us from a distance and cut off our food supply. Vaccine passports.”

    If Kennedy could have just added a mention of chemtrails in that wacky little rant, he would’ve gotten Tinfoil Hat Bingo.
    ………
    (John Avlon of CNN) commented that the Holocaust comparison was sadly common among anti-vaxxers, and called out Kennedy’s words as the direct antithesis of the philosophy of his father, Robert F. Kennedy, who had said in a now-famous statement on the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. that “what we need in the United States is not division” or “lawlessness” but “love.” Kennedy had “lost the plot for a long time” on this issue, said Avlon, and his speech earlier today was “just a sickening sign of it.”
    ………..

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  410. When I google “covid therapeutics” the top item isn’t even a search result. It’s a statement by google

    That makes sense. Grifters and charlatans have been proposing all manner of things that don’t work and convincing a of gullible fools that those will lead to better health outcomes then vaccines. Looks like google is trying to provide users with accurate data in response to that.

    In nov the US signed up for 10 million courses of a Pfizer covid treatment. It’s not approved yet, and I think we should be accepting more risk here. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-govt-buy-10-mln-courses-pfizers-covid-19-pill-529-bln-2021-11-18/

    I guess you missed news about that.

    Regarding vaccine effectiveness WRT Omicron, you should check out the links I already posted.

    We’re going in circles. My point is that recommendations change based on the data. I’ve shown examples of of that; changes in social distancing and masking last summer and the recommendation of the booster (which is pretty effective against Omicon). The fact that you don’t seem to like the vaccine and want them to stop recommending it doesn’t change it’s efficacy or the fact that there have been changes based on data.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  411. @420. ‘Scatterbrained’ must run in the family.

    Wot? Too soon? 😉

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  412. Orbital Insertion Burn a Success, Webb Arrives at L2
    Today, at 2 p.m. EST, Webb fired its onboard thrusters for nearly five minutes (297 seconds) to complete the final postlaunch course correction to Webb’s trajectory. This mid-course correction burn inserted Webb toward its final orbit around the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point, or L2, nearly 1 million miles away from the Earth.

    The final mid-course burn added only about 3.6 miles per hour (1.6 meters per second) – a mere walking pace – to Webb’s speed, which was all that was needed to send it to its preferred “halo” orbit around the L2 point.
    ………
    Now that Webb’s primary mirror segments and secondary mirror have been deployed from their launch positions, engineers will begin the sophisticated three-month process of aligning the telescope’s optics to nearly nanometer precision.
    ………

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  413. @422 Okay that was funny.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  414. Disgraced NY political powerhouse Sheldon Silver dies in prison

    No pardon from the guv’nor.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  415. Eric Clapton claims people vaccinated against COVID-19 are under ‘hypnosis’
    ……..
    The 76-year-old musician went on the Real Music Observer YouTube channel to discuss how his life has changed since reluctantly taking AstraZeneca’s therapy in 2021. Clapton has since become outspoken about his anti-vaccination stance.

    He claimed that he’d been duped into getting the COVID-19 jab by subliminal messaging in pharmaceutical advertising — and urged others not to fall for it.

    “Whatever the memo was, it hadn’t reached me,” he said, referring to the “mass formation hypnosis” conspiracy theory, which gained traction in 2021 as part of anti-vaccine propaganda. (In related circles, it’s also been called “mass formation psychosis.”)
    ………
    Clapton recalled “seeing little things on YouTube which were like subliminal advertising,” he said.
    …….

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  416. Frosty doesn’t seem to like that solution so he comes up with all these convoluted ways to attack it indirectly.

    You’ve shown yourself adept at convincing yourself you can read minds.

    This one is “they only talk about vaccines and don’t talk about different solutions.” Except they do; masks, social distancing, and therapeutics.

    Time123 (9f42ee) — 1/24/2022 @ 2:40 pm

    Here’s the unfortunate thing about a conversation with you. The claim you made was that they changed recommendations based on new data and that this wasn’t moving the goalposts. But instead of backing that up when challenged you’ve shifted to a different claim you think I’m making that sounds like something I said but isn’t.

    I can’t tell whether you realize that or not. It would be one thing if you were doing that on purpose but it’s not clear. Are you doing that because you gave up on your original point?

    frosty (f27e97)

  417. From my comment in 421: My point is that recommendations change based on the data. I’ve shown examples of of that; changes in social distancing and masking last summer and the recommendation of the booster (which is pretty effective against Omicon).

    Maybe you cross posted.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  418. My point is that recommendations change based on the data. I’ve shown examples of of that; changes in social distancing and masking last summer and the recommendation of the booster

    Time123 (9f42ee) — 1/24/2022 @ 3:26 pm

    This is not the same thing. If you go back to your flood example this is them saying there’s no longer a flood. That is not the same thing as changing the recommendations for how to deal with a flood.

    frosty (f27e97)

  419. Once again Time you completely ignore natural immunity.

    You focus on Vax vs unvax, but not a word about recovery. Why is that?

    NJRob (2036cd)

  420. I didn’t ignore it. One of the links I posted specifically discussed it.

    Time123 (bdd372)

  421. frosty @214.

    This certainly isn’t something Fauci, the CDC, or this administration are pushing.

    And we’re reading: The antivirals will stop working because of a mutation, just like the anti-virals stipped working against HIV ntil they gave several different ones at one time.

    Not so fast. Covid doesn’t mutate so fast and the antivirals have hardly been used so far.

    t’s hard to hunt ehm down right now.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/19/business/covid-pill-treatment-pfizer.html

    When My Mom Got Covid, I Went Searching for Pfizer’s Pills

    …My mother, Mary Ann Neilsen, is fully vaccinated, including a booster shot, which sharply reduced the odds that she would become seriously ill from the virus. But she has several risk factors that worried me. She’s 73. She has twice beaten breast cancer.

    [This misunderstands the cancer risk factor. It’s a risk factor because someone might be receiving chemotherapy. WEll, maybe also if itdamaged the immune system]

    ….The trouble, as I knew from my reporting, was that these treatments — including monoclonal antibody infusions and antiviral pills — are hard to come by.

    Demand for the drugs is surging as the Omicron variant of the coronavirus infects record numbers of Americans. But supplies are scarce. The two most widely used antibody brands don’t appear to work against Omicron, and the antiviral pills are so new and were developed so quickly that not many have reached hospitals and pharmacies….

    …One of my first steps was to search online for lists of pharmacies and clinics near my mother’s home in Santa Barbara, Calif., that might have one of the drugs in stock. (I live in Washington State, so my quest was conducted, like so much else these days, remotely.)

    .. I checked a federal database, which had only one listing within 25 miles of my mother.
    When I called that health system, I was told that it had run out.

    I also hunted for Paxlovid. From my reporting, I knew about a federal database of pharmacy chains, hospital systems and other providers that have placed orders for the pills. A Times colleague downloaded the data, as anyone can do, and sent it to me in a more easily searchable format.

    The list turned up only a few possibilities, mostly pharmacies, near my mother. I dialed the closest one, a CVS, but an employee informed me that the store had quickly run out of the first shipment of pills and didn’t know when more would come.

    After a few more calls, I found a Rite Aid, more than an hour’s drive from my mother’s apartment, that had Paxlovid in stock. The pharmacy warned me that the supply was going fast.

    …I had already asked my mother to call her doctor’s office and request a phone call with her physician so she could ask for a prescription for one of the treatments. She reported back to me that the receptionist had told her that they “don’t do” either the Glaxo or Pfizer treatments…

    [probably the result of large medical practices toes to big organizations]

    …..That didn’t make sense to me: The Food and Drug Administration has authorized the drugs. Why wouldn’t doctors be prescribing them? Frustrated, I called her doctor’s office to get an explanation. (I did not identify myself as a Times reporter, in that phone call or the others I made that day, in part because I did not want to create the appearance of seeking preferential treatment.)
    The employee who answered the phone told me that the doctors there had yet to conduct their own medical review of Paxlovid and, as a matter of policy, could not yet prescribe it. Moreover, the employee told me, my mother would need an appointment to speak to a doctor, and there were no slots until a week later.

    I began hunting for another doctor who would promptly write a prescription.

    I tried scheduling visits with several telemedicine providers, including CVS and Teladoc, but I kept seeing a similarly worded notification on the intake forms: They were not writing prescriptions for Paxlovid or molnupiravir, a similar antiviral pill from Merck.

    (Later, I asked both companies about these policies. A CVS spokeswoman said providers were prescribing the antiviral pills to patients they saw in person at some stores but not via telemedicine. A Teladoc spokesman said the company believed at this point that “it’s most appropriate” for the antiviral pills to be prescribed in person.)

    I started calling urgent care clinics and health systems near my mother to see if they would write her a prescription. At one point, we even got her on a video call with a doctor at a nearby health system.

    I tried scheduling visits with several telemedicine providers, including CVS and Teladoc, but I kept seeing a similarly worded notification on the intake forms: They were not writing prescriptions for Paxlovid or molnupiravir, a similar antiviral pill from Merck.

    (Later, I asked both companies about these policies. A CVS spokeswoman said providers were prescribing the antiviral pills to patients they saw in person at some stores but not via telemedicine. A Teladoc spokesman said the company believed at this point that “it’s most appropriate” for the antiviral pills to be prescribed in person.)

    I started calling urgent care clinics and health systems near my mother to see if they would write her a prescription. At one point, we even got her on a video call with a doctor at a nearby health system.

    I tried scheduling visits with several telemedicine providers, including CVS and Teladoc, but I kept seeing a similarly worded notification on the intake forms: They were not writing prescriptions for Paxlovid or molnupiravir, a similar antiviral pill from Merck.

    (Later, I asked both companies about these policies. A CVS spokeswoman said providers were prescribing the antiviral pills to patients they saw in person at some stores but not via telemedicine. A Teladoc spokesman said the company believed at this point that “it’s most appropriate” for the antiviral pills to be prescribed in person.)

    I started calling urgent care clinics and health systems near my mother to see if they would write her a prescription. At one point, we even got her on a video call with a doctor at a nearby health system.

    In any case, this was a nonstarter, because my mother lives alone and doesn’t drive, and the clinics weren’t within walking distance. She would not consider taking a taxi or a bus and risk exposing others to the virus.,,,

    ….Other medical facilities I called that afternoon provided me with information that was just plain wrong. One person told me that no monoclonal antibody treatments were available in California. Another insisted that Paxlovid was only for hospitalized patients.

    [finally, a deus ex machina]

    In the end, my scramble to find a prescriber turned out to be unnecessary. In the early evening, my mother got an unexpected call from a doctor with her primary care provider. She told the doctor about her symptoms and about the Rite Aid I had found with Paxlovid in stock.

    The doctor told her that he was surprised that we had been able to track down Paxlovid. He phoned in a prescription to the Rite Aid.

    [on his own initiative]

    Now we just needed to pick up the pills before the pharmacy closed in about an hour.

    Uber came to the rescue. I requested a pickup at the Rite Aid and listed the destination as my mother’s home, some 60 miles away.

    Once a driver accepted the ride, I called him and explained my unusual request: He’d need to get the prescription at the pharmacy window and then drive it to my mother’s. I told him I’d give him a 100 percent tip.

    The driver, who asked me not to use his name in this article, was game. He delivered the precious cargo just after 8 p.m. My mother swallowed the first three pills — the beginning of a five-day, 30-pill regimen — within minutes of the driver’s arrival….

    …..The federal government has bought enough Paxlovid for 20 million Americans, at a cost of about $530 per person, to be distributed free of charge. But I spent $256.54 getting the pills for my mother. I paid $39 for the telemedicine visit with the provider who told my mother that she would need to visit in person. The rest was the Uber fare and tip. Many patients and their families can’t afford that.

    She’s not counting the telephone calls, or maybe there were no extra chrges.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  422. Lsast week, 60 MInutes ran a story about who informed the Nazis (in the Netherlands) about the hiding place of the Frank family, and there were also newspaper stories about it. Somebody has beeen investigating this for several years,

    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/anne-frank-betrayal-investigation-60-minutes-2022-01-16/

    At frstm they thouht the most likely suspect was an employee in the warehouse where the Franks were hiding,, who had been suspected after the war. He was a thief. But because he was a thief he would have had a real incentive not to.

    It turns out the most likely person responsible was a member of the Netherlands version of the judenrt, He had obtained numerous exemption but they all ran out. Otto Frank had received an anonymous note in 1945 or 1946 naming him, but he kept it mostly to himself. He mentioned it in a interview durig the 1963 investigation, The man was dead then.

    The investigators don’t understand him. This was not a person with qualms. He had probably named people to e=be arrested, The reason he hadn’t informed before was probably because he wanted the option of being able to hide himself. He had a list of many hiding places, and it was places he turned over to the Nazis. He probably had it for a long time, and he probably doled them out in stages pretending he had just found out. Otherwise the Nazis would have had no further use for him. He and his wife and children were not arrested in all the time Suess Inquart ruled Holland.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  423. https://www.fox5ny.com/news/new-york-judge-overturns-states-mask-mandate

    More unconstitutional mandates overturned.

    NJRob (ff16e2)

  424. 330. Dustin (0ee127) — 1/23/2022 @ 8:54 pm

    … now he’s uniting the world against him

    He made an alliance with Iran. And maybe China.

    https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/iransource/irans-new-president-just-met-with-vladimir-putin-in-russia-what-to-make-of-it

    Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on January 19. It was the first meeting by an Iranian president with his Russian counterpart since 2017. Both leaders and their governments emphasized the importance of the meeting and the friendliness of the Russian-Iranian relationship in the face of what they see as implacable US hostility. This Putin-Raisi meeting took place just prior to the start of a joint Russian/Chinese/Iranian naval exercise in the Gulf beginning January 21. But despite the high-profile nature of this summit, little of substance seems to have been agreed upon.

    Well, they wouldn’t announce plans to attack two places at the same time, if that’s what they’re contemplating.

    Common themes in press coverage of the meeting emphasized how Russia and Iran support the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria in what they refer to as an “anti-terrorist campaign,” share concern about events in Afghanistan, bemoan being the objects of unjustified American sanctions, and express a desire to boost their economic relationship.

    In 1956, he oviet Union invaded Hungary, right when at the same there was a conflict in the Middle East, with Great Britain, France and Israel attacking Egypt, in an attempt to remove Egyptian control of the Suez Canal.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  425. And you just explained why that wouldn’t be a free market. Taking money and turning it into a voucher that can only be spent as part of approved transactions isn’t a free market.

    But by that rule, there is no free market. There are a number of transactions that you cannot do legally even with money. Buying crack cocaine, for example.

    As long as the education vouchers can be spent on education, and there are a wide variety of choices there, it is a free market. The fact that you cannot spend them on jet skis does not mean the education market is not free.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  426. 409. frosty (f27e97) — 1/24/2022 @ 2:16 pm

    It’s more profitable to run what they’ve got until the effectiveness falls below an acceptable limit and they’ve got good press they’re paying to modify that acceptable limit as needed.

    It’s the companies that continually want to prosduce a more effective vaccine. (everything stockpiled has already been sold)

    It looks likw they’ll have to authorize a substitute vaccine by March. Eother Omicron specific, or maybe good against all variants.

    Governments don’t like to change anything, And they don’t want to admit there are other possibilities if only they would allow it.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  427. This might be news to you considering your other comments but did you know that the vaccine won’t save you from testing positive either?

    Well, natural immunity won’t, for sure.

    This is not the first time Palin has had Covid, nor is it clear that her sense of smell (that she reported losing last March) has returned.

    And, to quote the judge: “She is, of course, unvaccinated.”

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  428. For entertainment, and perhaps some education, here’s a Star Wars explanation of mRNA vaccines from Randall Munroe.

    Hmmph. I’ve posted that link half a dozen times now.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  429. I’ve got your school vouchers ….

    Look, comrades, we either have a nation-state or we don’t. And if public schools, and especially elementary schools, are not a legitimate exercise of the state’s tax and spend power then nothing is.

    You want to take your kids to the savannah and teach them to weave brush huts and defend themselves from hyenas with the thighbone of an antelope … ah, aw, forget it! You’re a waste of pixels!

    nk (1d9030)

  430. She’s not counting the telephone calls, or maybe there were no extra chrges.

    Many people have never paid extra for a phone call.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  431. Look, comrades, we either have a nation-state or we don’t. And if public schools, and especially elementary schools, are not a legitimate exercise of the state’s tax and spend power then nothing is.

    That’s not the point. You are conflating taxing for public schools with delivering public education. There are places those two things are disconnected.

    There are places that the public schools would be improved by taking the kids to the savannah and showing them how to use that thighbone.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  432. Kids need to learn how to put a condom on a banana to graduate kindergarten, nk.

    mg (8cbc69)

  433. Covid shots provide immunity to the manufacturers of the serum.

    mg (8cbc69)

  434. Everyone in the world is laughing at demented joe, except you 81 million morons.

    mg (8cbc69)

  435. “Kids need to learn how to put a condom on a banana to graduate kindergarten, nk.”
    “Everyone in the world is laughing at demented joe, except you 81 million morons.”

    Just think, pre-internet, you would have had to hang out in the alleyway, drinking a tall boy, to hear these pearls. Yeah internet.

    AJ_Liberty (3cb02f)

  436. Charlie Sykes covers the arc of Patrick Howley’s career in “journalism”. I never heard of the racist, probably because he couldn’t stay at any particular right-wing outlet long enough, but good to know the disinformationists out there.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  437. Paul, The guy seems noxious, but relatively unimportant. Also, people who think like that being a welcome part of the MAGASphere isn’t a new discovery. Milo, Brannon, Spencer and their sort have been a central part of that movement.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  438. Toujours la politesse, Kevin, and I hope you took it as a given that “waste of pixels” did not refer to you.

    nk (1d9030)

  439. 441. Kevin M (ab1c11) — 1/24/2022 @ 10:26 pm

    Many people have never paid extra for a phone call.

    I think they no longer do, but 29 or 25 years ago this was common, at least for cell phones, and/or there were limits on minutes after which either time ran out till the next monthly cycle, or you had/have to buy more.

    It all depends on whether or not unlimited, or more than you could ever use is already included. In most cases, it is now.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  440. 447.

    Howley is credited with breaking the story about former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam’s blackface yearbook picture; and the story about a Democratic candidate’s sexting, which may have cost him a seat in United States Senate.

    Is he an outlet for leaks? In return for which, he’s got to push lies, too?

    Except that the second of these two stories was a lie too.

    Who, or what os he connected with? Who, or what, is supplying his material? Does anyone have any idea, or theory?

    That he’s getting his material from other sources (which strive to have no plagiarists or imitators they do not control) is, of course a conspiracy theory, but some conspiracies are true. I don’t anyone can be such an idiot or independent troll as Patrick Howley pretends to be.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  441. And speaking of disinformationists, Michael Flynn is at it again, equating a defensive alliance in his defense of Putin, to Russians putting ballistic nuclear missiles on Cuba, among other idjit equivalencies.
    Tucker Carlson is also a purveyor of Putin propaganda. It wasn’t that many decades ago that we were in a Cold War against Russian imperialism.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  442. Amazon has not banned this book, though they did refuse to allow the publisher to advertise it on the Amazon site.

    (That wiki entry appears to be written by someone who wishes Amazon had banned it. Or at least wouldn’t object if they did. It is worth reading if you want to understand how a certain passionate minority thinks — or, perhaps I should say, feels.)

    Full disclosure: When the “trans” craze came along, I thought it was so obviously nutty that it would disappear in gales of laughter, since it is inconsistent with both most traditional religious beliefs — and the theory of evolution. Obviously, I was wrong.

    (There are some birth defects that produce intermediate types. Heinlein took advantage of that (and time travel) in his famous short story, “‘—All You Zombies—'”.

    And, in the real world, there are birth defects such as the Androgen insensitivity syndrome.

    We should, of course, sympathize with those who suffer from AIS and other, similar birth defects, and we should not discriminate against them, but we shouldn’t make policies assuming they are normal.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  443. Sammy, I think he, and people like him, are performers. He might be legitimately hateful but he’s not selling news, analysis or insight. He’s selling attention. Don’t think of him as a reporter like Connor Friedersdorf or a blogger like Patterico. He’s similar to a super market tabloid in that he sells entertaining stories that people can pretend are true if they want. But he doesn’t care. Except instead of aliens it’s racism, anti-Semitism and lies.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  444. So, they are removing TR’s statue from the Museum of Natural History.
    As goes TR, so goes the nation.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  445. The book endorses the contentious concept of rapid-onset gender dysphoria,[1][2][3] which is not recognized as a medical diagnosis by any major professional institution

    This single sentence tells you all you need to know about the Wiki “editors.” I’d say “F ’em if they can’t take a joke” but clearly they can’t even spot one.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  446. Back in the day, one became a hippy to be different. Later, it was green hair and nose rings. Later still, Goth. Now teenagers go “non-binary.” For most it’s a phase. For some, like the 70-yo hippies in their grossly-polluting VW van, it will become a way of life on their way to loser-ville.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  447. Cross-dressing is as old as Hercules. Of not much lesser vintage, are feminized catamites — attiredly and cosmetically, and some “surgically”. It was the 20th century medical quackery racket which culminated in Obama declaring it “science” and the elevation of one as the head public health officer of the United States. But you can’t fool Mother Nature. It will always be a leisure activity dependent on disposable income.

    nk (1d9030)

  448. https://thefederalist.com/2022/01/24/christians-stand-trial-in-finland-today-for-affirming-men-and-women-are-different/

    This is the end result when you cede the culture and decide it isn’t worth fighting for.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  449. @459, what a horrible infringement on free expression. Glad our 1st amendment prevents that here.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  450. The number of businesses destroyed where the owners are Christian proves your remarks false and hollow.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  451. @461, BS.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  452. Hit submit too soon.

    BS, I’ll bet you can’t name 3 that were destroyed by the government because they were Christian.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  453. 454. Time123 (9f42ee) — 1/25/2022 @ 7:38 am

    He’s similar to a super market tabloid in that he sells entertaining stories that people can pretend are true if they want. But he doesn’t care. Except instead of aliens it’s racism, anti-Semitism and lies.

    No, he reserves the anti-semitism and racism to specific forums. But he’s got different versions of lies everywhere, targeted for different audiences.

    Even when he’s onto something, like the Governor Ralph Northam picture, it is probably accompanied by some form of lie or unwarranted assertions.

    I’m saying he’s not coming up with all his tropes and all his material himself. And he’s probably not stealing it, because it would be hard to do that all the time. He’s being given it. He possibly may even be being paid to do some of the worst things, or does it in exchange for more useful material for use elsewhere. Someone may be trying to build up a cult or movement.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  454. ???

    https://ktla.com/news/nationworld/loss-of-smell-from-covid-most-likely-means-youve-got-a-mild-case-study-finds

    More associated with mild cases could be because it’s the body’s own immune system that knocks out the sense of taste and smell (by killing infected cells – and maybe others?) and because when the worst of the infection is in the nose, it’s mild, as defined by this study. (no hypoxia for instance)

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  455. The book endorses the contentious concept of rapid-onset gender dysphoria,[1][2][3] which is not recognized as a medical diagnosis by any major professional institution

    These professional societies would be condemning themselves, or their members, of they did. (the reviewer wants to deny it can start abruptly. The book probably also states it is seemingly contagious)

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  456. Here’s a start for you Time. Stop being so anti-Christian when you dismiss the bigotry experienced by Christian businesses.

    NJRob (0d2627)

  457. https://www.fox5ny.com/news/new-york-judge-overturns-states-mask-mandate

    More unconstitutional mandates overturned.

    NJRob (ff16e2) — 1/24/2022 @ 6:20 pm

    New York State’s mask policy is back in effect after a judge granted a stay.

    Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  458. NJRob (0d2627) — 1/25/2022 @ 2:16 pm-

    Your link doesn’t work.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  459. @467 It’s hard to dismiss claims of bigotry when you haven’t provided any examples of business destroyed because of their Christian faith. Let alone destroyed by the government.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  460. @452. Ms. Kielar, an ex-‘Morning Zoo’ radio DJ type, who led the CNN cicada coverage by eating the insects boiled in a seaweed wrap with rice live on camera is hardly a go to source on assessing geo-politics. It ‘bugs’ her that Swanson TeeVee Dinner heir Carlson has tastier entrees.

    And given her attire, she clearly can’t tell the difference between a blouse and a table cloth.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  461. And given her attire, she clearly can’t tell the difference between a blouse and a table cloth.

    Substantive. Criticizing her wardrobe. Not even a little sexist.
    And yet, Kielar still laps Tucker in credibility and gravitas.
    Here’s a pretty good answer to Tucker’s latest propaganda lovefest for Putin. He’s an embarrassment to America.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  462. The lovefest of 81 million for the cellar dweller is something to behold.

    mg (8cbc69)

  463. Good info, NJ Rob! Keep exposing the lies and misinformation.

    BTW… when human remains from thousands of years ago are dug up, they are easily determined to be either male or female. Differences between the sexes are identifiable in bones and the skeletal structure. You see, sex is identifiable by inspection of what’s actually there, not what the corpse may have been thinking or identifying as.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  464. See how they run, mg.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  465. The basis of the negotiations going on with Russia now (or last week anyway) is that Putin is irrational and changes in form or side issues will satisfy him.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  466. The UK sent humanitarian aid to Ukraine on planes that flew over Germany but it aviided German air space for military aid. They didn’t want to ask.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  467. And yet, Kielar still laps Tucker in credibility and gravitas

    ROFLMAOPIP. disk jockey bug-muching Kieler is totally Zucked in her air head– and in wardrobe Nobody at CNN laps anybody at any of the other cablers on any level, Paul:

    Scandal-ridden CNN sees ratings dive by 90% after 2021 coverage

    https://nypost.com/2022/01/12/cnn-sees-ratings-dive-by-90-from-2021-coverage/

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  468. Paul, thanks for your upthread link to a story about first and second sleeps. My 90-year-old mother has a tendency to wake up a couple of hours after going to bed and then freaking out about it. I will point this story out to her, and maybe she go with the flow (adopt the habit of the people who preceded the Industrial Revolution).

    norcal (d4ed1d)

  469. This is priceless:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu11f4ndnv4

    What a “stupid son-of-a-bitch,” indeed.

    ‘Nothing personal, pal’ … eh, Joey?

    He’s such an idiot.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  470. Substantive. Criticizing her wardrobe. Not even a little sexist

    Hmmmm.

    Joe wears a hankie in his suit breast pocket- jussssssssst like my grandfather did in his burial suit– when he was dead and planted 40 years ago. Feel better now? 😉

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  471. You’re welcome, norcal. You too, DCSCA, though I can’t say why.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  472. I wonder how Tucker is going to put lipstick on this pig.

    WASHINGTON — As the United States issued warnings last month about the Russian troops on Ukraine’s borders and President Biden threatened President Vladimir V. Putin with sanctions if he launched an invasion, researchers noticed an uptick in social media posts accusing Ukraine of plotting a genocide against ethnic Russians.

    In one example, an arm of the Moscow-controlled broadcaster RT circulated a clip of Mr. Putin saying that events in eastern Ukraine “resemble genocide.” News Front, which the State Department has called a disinformation outlet with ties to Russian security services, followed with an article on Dec. 13 that said the United States did not consider the massacres to be a genocide.

    In the months since the Russian troop buildup began, Moscow and its online army of allies have pushed out old arguments about western Ukrainians being aligned with Nazism, falsely accused the United States of using proxy forces to plot a chemical attack and claimed that Russia’s planned military operations were intended to protect ethnic Russians or pre-empt action by NATO, according to researchers.

    It’s not that different from 2014, when the US was accused of masterminding the “coup” (which was really a popular revolution) and that neo-Nazis were in charge of the new Ukraine government, and that ethnic Russian Ukrainians actually wanted to be absorbed into Russia.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  473. Brian Williams turned down offer to anchor ‘CBS Evening News’: report

    https://news.yahoo.com/brian-williams-turned-down-offer-152424547.html

    Walks away from the seat that Cronkite warmed.

    Brian William has a lot on common w/Joe Biden after all: he’s one dumb son-of-a-bitch too.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  474. #481 norcal – About 10 years ago, I started falling into a “two-sleeps” routine. (I’m 78 now, so I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that it’s more common among us older folks.) The key to coping with that change to two-sleeps, I think, is to have something to do during that in-between time.

    Exercise helps with almost every sleep problem, of course. For me, it is best done in the mornings.

    And there is one thing that I no longer can do, and very much wish I could: Take a 15 minute nap. I used to be able to lie down, tell myself to wake up in 15 minutes — and then do just that. Very handy, at times.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  475. About 10 years ago, I started falling into a “two-sleeps” routine. (I’m 78 now, so I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that it’s more common among us older folks.) The key to coping with that change to two-sleeps, I think, is to have something to do during that in-between time.

    Jim- I’m nearing 70 and that two-sleep ‘hour afternoon nap’ thing has begun to appear as well. Getting old does suck.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  476. Dominion Story #1: Lindell and his lawyers are dodging meetings and stonewalling discovery.
    Dominion Story #2: They’re not going to settle with Giuliani and Powell. The judge consolidated the three defendants into one case, and a trial looks likely. Actually, this isn’t really two stories, it’s one, but with all three defendants not cooperating.

    To use an Intolerable Cruelty analogy, Lindell and Giuliani and Powell are Rex Rexroth and Dominion is Gus Petch, and Dominion gonna nail their a$$es.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  477. Jim, you may find it interesting that I am nothing like my mom. I just don’t have problems sleeping. Plus, if I go to bed later than normal, then I wake up later than normal. It’s roughly +8 hours no matter the time I go to bed. Not my mom. If she stays up late, then she still wakes up at the same time (around dawn).

    I’m 20 years younger than you, so that may account for it. I hope my sleeping skills stay intact as I get older. 😉

    norcal (d4ed1d)

  478. As long as the education vouchers can be spent on education, and there are a wide variety of choices there, it is a free market. The fact that you cannot spend them on jet skis does not mean the education market is not free.

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 1/24/2022 @ 7:09 pm

    You’ve already stipulated that people wouldn’t be able to spend it on whatever education they choose even if it was otherwise legal.

    You’ve described a regulated market in which the government takes fungible goods that can be used for unspecified transactions and turns them into a permit for pre-approved transactions with pre-approved parties. This is literally nowhere near the definition of a free market and your best justification is that something’s are always illegal? The cocaine example isn’t even on point since there used to be a free market until it was regulated.

    I’m not saying vouchers are a bad idea. But why are you compelled to claim this is a free market? At least call it what it is.

    frosty (f27e97)

  479. NJRob @ 472, thank you for providing the link. I agree that mistakes are being made on the line between “free expression” and businesses open to the public WRT to Christian’s who oppose gay marriage. I don’t think about case a year going to court supports your initial claim. There’s s substantive difference between “operating a business open to the public requires you to make compromises around your faith” and “Your business is being destroyed because of your faith.”

    For example; telling Muslim cab drivers they have to accept fares from drunks, people with dogs, single women, or other people they find immoral isn’t the same things as putting a cab company out of business because the owner is Muslim. There were a number of such cases a few years ago and the courts found that requiring the people in question to provide fairs wasn’t an unfair burden.

    Some of the incidents in your list seem equivalent to me. But as I’ve said in the past forcing someone to make speech they disagree with is a violation of their rights and some of the cases listed clearly do that.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  480. Tucker Carlson and Alex Berenson are un-American and wrong for spreading anti-vax disinformation, Carlson doubly so for his slobbering all over Putin.
    Their anti-vax propaganda will only increase the number of dead Americans from the virus. Brianna Kielar is right: They are committing the “ultimate moral crime”.

    Keilar then played clips in which infamous anti-vaxxer Alex Berenson tells Fox News host Tucker Carlson he believes Covid vaccines are dangerous and should be banned.

    “The mRNA Covid vaccines need to be withdrawn from the market,” Berenson said. “No one should get them. No one should get boosted. No one should get double boosted. They are a dangerous and ineffective product at this point.”

    Keilar noted Berenson was banned by Twitter months ago and said “he’s lying there about the vaccine and the protection that it provides. But Fox, Fox has had this mad non-scientist on all pandemic.”

    After rattling off a ream of scientific information about the efficacy of vaccines, Keilar ripped Fox some more.

    “None of the coverage at Fox Entertainment, of course, is aimed at the real and most urgent issue, which is people not getting the protection of the vaccine,” Keilar said, observing that “anti-vaxxers are just fine with getting COVID treatments. Amazing miracles of science, once they get COVID and they are staring down the odds, but they don’t want the vaccine, also a miracle of science.”

    Keilar concluded by saying “Again, the daily double question is why is Rupert Murdoch, who was one of the first to get vaccinated, allowing this anti-science B.S. on the air? Because it is killing people. But, you know, ratings. And that is the ultimate moral crime.”

    Un-patriotic and un-American. More here.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  481. This might be news to you considering your other comments but did you know that the vaccine won’t save you from testing positive either?

    Well, natural immunity won’t, for sure.

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 1/24/2022 @ 7:17 pm

    I certainly never said it would. I haven’t seen Palin or other people making the claim either. It’s almost as if the original comment was tilting at an imaginary windmill.

    frosty (f27e97)

  482. There were a number of such cases a few years ago and the courts found that requiring the people in question to provide fairs wasn’t an unfair burden.

    Some of the incidents in your list seem equivalent to me. But as I’ve said in the past forcing someone to make speech they disagree with is a violation of their rights and some of the cases listed clearly do that.

    Time123 (9f42ee) — 1/26/2022 @ 5:57 am

    You seem to be making the distinction that if you agree with the burden then it’s fair and then concluding that those situations aren’t cases of it being based on their faith.

    This is similar to the free-market redefinition Kevin is trying out. The business owners who do not want to comply with these burdens are put out of business. The original business that does not meet the burden no longer exists. That they may go on to operate another similar business doesn’t change that. Like the free-market redefinition I think there’s a desire to avoid calling it what it is.

    It would be better to simply say that, yes, some people are not allowed to operate a business consistent with their faith.

    frosty (f27e97)

  483. Paul, Tucker has been pushing Anti-Vax for a long time, it’s just getting more explicit now. Anti-vax seems to be a growing part of the populist right. Which is sad, because the data for Covid (and every other disease I’m aware of) shows that vaccines are extremely effective at preventing spread and reducing harm.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  484. Frosty, should have written ‘fare’ not ‘fair’. My bad, I can see how it was confusing.

    My point is that as a society we regularly require people to to make accommodations to their faith when they run a public business. For instance Jesuses teaches that god’s plan for us is one man and one woman together in marriage but hotels can’t refuse to rent rooms to people who violate that teaching by being unmarried, or same same sex.

    Exercise of religious liberty is a right, and like all rights it can be in conflict with other competing rights and in some cases religious liberty will lose. That fact doesn’t support the claim that people of faith are having their businesses destroyed because of their faith.

    In the example i sited muslin cab drivers who didn’t want to transport people when they felt doing so would violate Islamic law. https://www.mprnews.org/story/2008/09/09/muslim-cab-drivers-lose-round-in-court

    They lost in court and have to accept fares that violate Islamic law or face legal consequences. That’s not the same thing as being put out of business because of anti—Muslim bigotry.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  485. Time123 (9f42ee) — 1/26/2022 @ 5:57 am

    provide fairs wasn’t an unfair burden.

    Payment for travel is spelled fares.

    It’s spelled:

    “provide fares wasn’t an unfair burden.”

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  486. Thanks Sammy. I really messed that up

    Time123 (bdd372)

  487. And if public schools, and especially elementary schools, are not a legitimate exercise of the state’s tax and spend power then nothing is.

    This is often setup as a false choice between unlimited federal regulation and no regulation. There are other options and people complaining about the former aren’t necessarily in favor of the later.

    You want to take your kids to the savannah and teach them to weave brush huts and defend themselves from hyenas with the thighbone of an antelope … ah, aw, forget it! You’re a waste of pixels!
    nk (1d9030) — 1/24/2022 @ 7:33 pm

    As far as I know neither hyenas or antelope are native to Savannah.

    frosty (f27e97)

  488. Time123 (9f42ee) — 1/26/2022 @ 7:10 am

    You are still arguing the justification for prohibiting certain forms of business that are tied to a persons faith and then claiming that this isn’t because of the faith.

    I’m not trying to argue for or against these types of prohibitions. I’m just pointing out that you should call it what it is.

    Exercise of religious liberty is a right, and like all rights it can be in conflict with other competing rights and in some cases religious liberty will lose. That fact doesn’t support the claim that people of faith are having their businesses destroyed because of their faith.

    This is simply an attempt to redefine the issue semantically. Either people’s businesses are getting shutdown or they aren’t. If they are getting shutdown because these conflicts need to be resolved and the conflicts are rooted in a persons faith it doesn’t somehow become about something other than their faith.

    Again, just call it what it is.

    frosty (f27e97)

  489. Frosty, I’ll take one more effort at making my point clear.

    I see an important difference between consequences of a behavior motivated by faith and targeting a person or their business because they’re a members of that faith.

    Limiting expressions of faith when they conflict with other rights is an unavoidable consequence of a pluralistic society and neither bigotry nor persecution if it’s carried out equally for all faiths.
    Targeting members of a faith because they’re members of that faith is bigotry.

    Hopefully that makes my point clear.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  490. As far as I know neither hyenas or antelope are native to Savannah.

    With Biden’s open borders policy, they could be anywhere.

    nk (1d9030)

  491. #500

    Considering some of the politicians we get from South Georgia, I challenge your comment about whether hyenas might be native down there.

    Appalled (1a17de)

  492. Breaking news: Breyer is retiring, and he timed it just right. Biden will be able to nominate and confirm a replacement before he loses the Senate in ten months.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  493. Hopefully that makes my point clear.

    Time123 (9f42ee) — 1/26/2022 @ 8:12 am

    It’s not unclear. It’s that you are arguing a different point. You’ve switched this to targeting and you’re trying to make a distinction between being a member of a faith group and acting consistent with the beliefs of the faith. If something is a consequence of acting consistent with a faith the membership is part of that. In other words, you’re saying it’s fine to be a member of a faith group but there are restriction on acting consistent with the beliefs of the faith and this isn’t somehow a restriction on the group it’s just a restriction on all of the members.

    This is a distinction without a difference. I’m against plural marriage and FGM and selling women into marriage. I’m not interested in arguing whether those are cultural or faith based or whether that is biased against groups or individuals. I don’t have a problem saying we should prohibit those business transactions. It’s a joke to say those prohibitions are being applied equally knowing that other groups aren’t engaging in those practices.

    And I suspect this group issue is what’s behind your semantic work. It’s important that this appear unbiased and not group based so you need to rationalize it. But prohibiting something like FGM is biased against all of the people, aka those groups, engaging in it. And that’s perfectly acceptable.

    frosty (f27e97)

  494. Considering some of the politicians we get from South Georgia, I challenge your comment about whether hyenas might be native down there.

    Appalled (1a17de) — 1/26/2022 @ 9:00 am

    Are you sure you aren’t thinking of coyotes, coypu, or jorō? They aren’t native to GA either though. I suspect some of them showed up with carpet bags.

    frosty (f27e97)

  495. About that claim that nobody said you wouldn’t get covid if you’re vaccinated.

    So, lies and then lies about the lies.

    frosty (f27e97)

  496. Alpha, delta and omicron they say did not develop one from another, but have different mutations. (but didn;t Omicron develop after Delta became dominant? How long could have it been present in some clinic with HIV positive people in Botswana?)

    he CDC now says that Omicron accounts for 99% of Covid cases in the last reporting week. This would seem tpo indicate, it made Delta go away by infecting people first.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  497. Soot (particulate matter) may be mpre dangerous than you think, and even small reductions may make a significant difference, it’s so bad.

    Soot comes mainly from automobile exhaust, coal burning and wildfires.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/26/climate/air-pollution-study-epa.html

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  498. The person who sold the gun to the Texas hostage taker has been arrested. It turns out that the man owning a gun himself was itself illegal. He is a convicted felon.

    This is an illustration of the fact that a person can be severely prosecuted and punished for a crime he would not normally be, if it is an essential preliminary factor in another crime even one totally unknown and unanticipated by him.

    The hostage taker spent time in at least two different homeless shelters, and met the seller in one or in connection with that.He was driven to the first one by some unknown person he appeared to know.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  499. @508, couldn’t find the fauci quote at the MSNBC transcript. https://www.msnbc.com/transcripts/transcript-all-chris-hayes-5-17-21-n1267740

    He did say this though

    Well, you know, it`s important to point out, Chris, that these are certainly breakthrough infections. Breakthrough infections mean, you have been vaccinated, but you still get infected. But the critical point is that I think seven out of eight or eight out of nine of them had no symptoms at all, which means it is very likely that the level of virus in their nasal pharynx is low, and they won`t transmit it.

    So, although you don`t like to see breakthroughs, the fact is, this is one of the encouraging aspects about the efficacy of the vaccine. It protect you completely against infection. If you do get infected, the chances are that you`re going to be without symptoms, and the chances are very likely that you`ll not be able to transmit it to other people.

    He repeats several times that break though infections are possible but rare (true at the times he said it)

    Appears that your meme was at least partially created based on a transcription error then dishonestly taken out of context.

    You should retract it.

    Your broader point about misinformation seems more applicable to the people you quoted. I think distrust in public health leaders is more attributable to dishonest messages like the one you shared.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  500. https://thepostmillennial.com/bidens-surgeon-general-joe-rogan?utm_campaign=64487

    About as clear a first amendment violation as you can imagine. And when these corps shut down free speech it’s due to political pressure which is a clear violation of the law.

    NJRob (bff93e)

  501. Only it actually happens. If Spotify (or whomever) censors Rogan, no violation.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  502. Where did Murthy call for the government to censor Rogan?

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  503. This is an illustration of the fact that a person can be severely prosecuted and punished for a crime he would not normally be, if it is an essential preliminary factor in another crime even one totally unknown and unanticipated by him.

    This is the flip side of “no harm, no foul”

    Kevin M (38e250)

  504. I really wish they would not be so obstinate about “privacy”, even with aggregate data. It would be good to know what the underlying conditions, if any, were for those breakthrough infections that resulted in death or serious illness.

    It’s one thing if immunized people with severe immune system deficiencies are infected and die, and quite another if otherwise fit immunized Type 1 diabetics are dying.

    I suspect though that the most common comorbidity at this point in time is “not immunized.”

    Kevin M (38e250)

  505. Where did Murthy call for the government to censor Rogan?

    He’s a government official calling for social media companies to censor someone. That *IS* government attempting to censor. That they use a willing or coerced proxy doesn’t change that.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  506. He doesn’t have the authority, Kevin. A Surgeon General is a glorified advisor.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  507. couldn’t find the fauci quote at the MSNBC transcript

    Of course you couldn’t. I’m not surprised. You can hear it here at around the 3:30 mark.

    You should retract it.

    You should save this for another gotcha attempt when you’ve done better research. He was referencing the CDC statement and he was endorsing, and it’s clear he approves of, the sentiment. It is something he said. His basic point is that breakthroughs are so rare as to be essentially zero. He certainly wanted the audience to infer that if they got the vaccine they wouldn’t get infected and wouldn’t transmit the virus, both things he knows to be false when this was said.

    I think distrust in public health leaders is more attributable to dishonest messages like the one you shared.

    Time123 (9f42ee) — 1/27/2022 @ 11:58 am

    Why can I find this quote in the video after searching for a few minutes and you couldn’t find it in the transcript and now believe it was a transcription error? Maybe that’s got something to do with the distrust. Maybe the distrust in public health leaders is attributable to them lying, especially Fauci, them lying about lying, and people like you gaslighting for them. Why do you want to cover for Fauci given the sheer volume of serious lies he’s told?

    frosty (f27e97)

  508. He doesn’t have the authority, Kevin. A Surgeon General is a glorified advisor.

    No one has the “authority” to censor a newspaper or social media. But if your definition of “censoring” is they have soldiers round up all the copies and burn them, then the 1st Amendment has no meaning.

    Government has power over these companies. For anyone in a government office (that requires Senate confirmation at least) to say that people ought to be censored is an implicit threat that such power might be exercised.

    You claim the official is too petty, but that is just your opinion. I’ll bet you that the matter was discussed at the offices of the company(s) in question. Whether or not they DID censor does not change the fact that a government official asked them to do so.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  509. It’s one thing if immunized people with severe immune system deficiencies are infected and die, and quite another if otherwise fit immunized Type 1 diabetics are dying.

    I suspect though that the most common comorbidity at this point in time is “not immunized.”

    Kevin M (38e250) — 1/27/2022 @ 2:22 pm

    The CDC, et.al., certainly want you to conclude that. It’s part of why they don’t collect the data even though they’ve had 2 years. The UK has done better with this and “not immunized” isn’t a comorbidity. The UK data is interesting. The number of people with no comorbidities was ~1/8th the overall reported death numbers. The average age of those dying was higher than the life expectancy in the UK.

    frosty (f27e97)

  510. No one has the “authority” to censor a newspaper or social media. But if your definition of “censoring” is they have soldiers round up all the copies and burn them, then the 1st Amendment has no meaning.

    Kevin M (38e250) — 1/27/2022 @ 3:21 pm

    I’m pretty sure that if this did happen there would be people here claiming that this wasn’t “censoring” at all. After all the speakers were allowed to speak and this burning didn’t prevent that.

    frosty (f27e97)

  511. The ‘Confluence of Incompetence’ today is wholly the fault of these two major parties who’ve so gummed up and damaged our political system, that people rightly have had enough and storm the castle.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  512. Here’s the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, for those who need a review:

    Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

    An example: Suppose I think Nick Cannon’s views on families are destructive. I can ask the local Fox affiliate to take him off the air. I could do that, even if I were a member of Congress. Otherwise, my freedom of speech would be restricted. What I could not do as a member of a majority in Congress is pass a law forcing him off the air.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  513. @520, You’re lying about what he said (he never said that part as quoted) and you’re taking a short statement out of context, which is dishonest.

    Around 3:15 he says that chances are low, which is not what you quoted him as saying. Just after the 3:30 mark he makes clear that you can still get a breakthrough infection but will be very safe. Additionally his statements are in line with what was known at the time. New learning and new variants have changed that, but he’s clearly talking about what was known at the time.

    I have no expectation that you’ll be honest but wanted to show anyone who cares that your quote was false. He didn’t say what you assert.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  514. Love the semantic games played by people who would be screaming if their ox was gored.

    But by the time the government comes for you there will be no one left because you didn’t speak out against obvious abuses by the government .

    NJRob (23a86a)

  515. Love the semantic games played by people who would be screaming if their ox was gored.
    But by the time the government comes for you…

    It’s not “semantic” when you say when say that someone committed a “first amendment violation” but did exactly nothing to infringe on that right, nor had any power to. It seems that when you’re not engaging in hyperbole, Rob, then it’s another raft of fear-mongering.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  516. You’re lying about what he said (he never said that part as quoted) and you’re taking a short statement out of context, which is dishonest.

    He said the quotes attributed to him in the graphic in that video. It’s also clear from the context that his goal is to completely dismiss any concerns about getting infected, sick, or transmitting the virus after a vaccine.

    I have no expectation that you’ll be honest

    Ditto

    but wanted to show anyone who cares that your quote was false.

    I suspect the irony here is lost on you but for this statement to be correct you’d need to be doing what you’re saying is dishonest when I do it.

    He didn’t say what you assert.

    Time123 (9f42ee) — 1/27/2022 @ 4:17 pm

    I suggest anyone go watch the video and decide for themselves.

    I’ll ask again

    Why can I find this quote in the video after searching for a few minutes and you couldn’t find it in the transcript and now believe it was a transcription error?

    Now I’m wondering why you’re claiming the quotes aren’t there when they clearly are.

    The effort you’re putting into this isn’t just from a personal grudge is it?

    frosty (43cdc6)

  517. Love the semantic games played by people who would be screaming if their ox was gored.

    NJRob (23a86a) — 1/27/2022 @ 4:43 pm

    It’s even better; what do the kids say? tell me you don’t know jack about 1st amendment law and just found a clown saying what you wanted to hear without telling me …

    frosty (43cdc6)

  518. Well, so far, it’s Joe Rogan 7, Neil Young 0. Good for Spotify, and I hope they keep up the good work. That’s the way it’s supposed to work, and they did it right.

    I’m no fan of Joe Rogan, in fact I barely know who he is, but I know who the Surgeon General’s boss is, and I have no respect for “them” (sic). When Vivek Murthy is appointed Minister of Public Entertainment and Propaganda, he can use his government position, his government resources, and the taxpayers’ dime to give us his two cents on what the people can be trusted to listen to and what should be kept away from their shell-like ears. Until then, he should limit himself to things like “Turn your head and cough!”.

    nk (1d9030)

  519. What I could not do as a member of a majority in Congress is pass a law forcing him off the air.

    But, according to your cramped reading, it would be OK for the Attorney General to say “Either you stop letting _______ use your social media site, or we will being an anti-trust investigation into your firm’s activities.”

    After all, they are passing no law.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  520. *begin

    Kevin M (38e250)

  521. Never listened to Spotify. But Sirus/XM has turned one of its channels into Neil Young Radio.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  522. Jim Miller (edcec1) — 1/27/2022 @ 3:59 pm

    Kevin M gave a perfectly good example of the executive branch violating the 1st without the need to pass a law and you changed that to a member of congress and something about passing a law so that you can score points.

    Are you even a little embarrassed about that?

    frosty (d0164d)

  523. Neil Young’s Radio Channel on SiriusXM Is Revived After Spotify Removal
    ……..
    The channel was launched in December on a limited run and now it has returned for seven days to SiriusXM satellite radio and will stream for a month on the SXM app.

    With Mr. Young music’s no longer on Spotify, his economics have changed.

    While he said he is losing out on 60% of his streaming income, the market is adjusting as other services take steps to capitalize on courting the folk-rock singer and his loyal listeners. The dustup drew supporters and detractors to social media voicing their views on Mr. Young and Spotify.
    ……..
    In another post on his website Wednesday, Mr. Young made a plug for other services, pointing to Amazon Music, Apple Music and Qobuz, which “present my music today in all its high-resolution glory—the way it is intended to be heard.”

    Other streaming services this week promoted that they carried Mr. Young’s music.

    Hi-fi streaming service Tidal, which Mr Young has championed for its sound quality, retweeted a fan’s observation: “Love that Neil Young is trending on Tidal” …….
    ………
    Any piece of music is attached to multiple types of copyrights. Warner Music Group’s Warner Records is the licensor to Spotify and legally has control over how and where Mr. Young’s music is distributed. However, a label often takes into account the wishes of a major star such as Mr. Young.

    Publicly traded music investment firm Hipgnosis Songs Fund Ltd. , which last year said it purchased a 50% stake in Mr. Young’s songwriting catalog, bought publishing copyrights that don’t include control over his distribution to Spotify. Mr. Young’s sale to Hipgnosis fetched a price between $40 million and $50 million, according to people familiar with the deal.
    ……….

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  524. Kevin M gave a perfectly good example of the executive branch violating the 1st……

    What is the enforcement mechanism against this “violation”?

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  525. The late Nat Hentoff‘s book title, “Free Speech for Me—But Not for Thee: How the American Left and Right Relentlessly Censor Each Other”, is, alas, all too accurate, especially in recent years.

    Me? I am, like Hentoff (and the old ACLU), close to a free speech absolutist. I think Rogan should be free to say what he likes, his company free to get rid of him if they think he is damaging the nation, Murthy free to criticize Rogan and ask that he be taken off the air, and commenters here free to criticize Murthy.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  526. CNN REPORTS BIDEN CALL TO ZELINSKY “DID NOT GO WELL.”

    Invasion highly likely and anf for Kyiv to ‘prepare for impact.’

    How many U.S. embassies can Joe lose in a year?

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  527. The Natural gas company, Nordstream 2, is one of the reasons “Czar” Putin has influence in Germany.

    The man who heads the company, Matthias Warnig has worked with Putin for many years:

    Matthias Warnig is, in various ways, an exceptional person. The 65-year-old is the oldest German friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the most active German in Russian business circles. He is a former Stasi agent who became a banker in the 1990s. Since then, he has sat on the supervisory boards of numerous German-Russian banks and companies.

    He is currently the CEO of Nord Stream 2, and happens to play a part in the latest YouTube video by Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), in which Russian opposition activists uncover an extensive network of corruption around the construction of a palatial estate for the Russian president on the Black Sea coast.

    As Navalny has said, in Russia, the Mafia has a nation.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  528. @540. Confident– and competent.

    … and Putin smiled.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  529. Oddly enough the commenter on the call between Biden and Zelensky left this paragraph out:

    A spokesman for Zelensky also disputed the Ukrainian official’s characterization of the call. Zelensky tweeted that he and Biden had a long call where they “discussed recent diplomatic efforts on de-escalation and agreed on joint actions for the future.” The Ukrainian President said he thanked Biden for the ongoing military assistance and said “possibilities for financial support to Ukraine were also discussed.”

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  530. Confident– and competent corrupt. Fixed that for you.

    I do not understand why anyone who wishes the Russian people well, would admire a man who, with his cronies, has stolen so many billions from the Russian people.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  531. @543. Confident and competent.

    Pretty understandable.

    … and Biden cried.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  532. What is the enforcement mechanism against this “violation”?

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/27/2022 @ 5:26 pm

    The soldiers burning stuff? There isn’t one at that point. That’s why it’s important to push back against petty government authoritarians and their quisling enablers before it gets that far.

    frosty (f27e97)

  533. I saw the dumb son of a b, biden at justice Breyers press conference hand the justice his used mask and then mumble and stumble off the stage. 81 million are the dumbest sons of b’s period.

    mg (8cbc69)

  534. Kneel Young is a Class A Canadian turd.

    mg (8cbc69)

  535. Confident and competent.

    Pretty understandable.

    … and Biden cried.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 1/27/2022 @ 7:09 pm

    Most trolls on the internet worship Putin.

    His performance as a leader is not acceptable and he is not competent beyond his ability to commit organized crime (particularly murder).

    His citizens do not all have plumbing, their mortality from covid was worse than any other nation that’s remotely modern, and their progress economically is terrible.

    Sure, a dozen guys have superyachts and castles and some of their nukes work, but on every level, including militarily, Russia is pathetic.

    Anyone praising Putin’s performance is a troll, just hoping to upset people so they get some attention. No one is dumb enough to believe that.

    Dustin (0ee127)

  536. Dustin, I think it has to do with a few things
    1. Ethnic Nationalism is a significant part of the right. Putin is all about it so that part of the right finds it appealing. They don’t identify as Russian but the like the principles.
    2. Many on the right view ‘the left’ as an existential threat so the enemy of my enemy thing applies. Russia has been brilliant at using social media to strengthen this.
    3. Trump either sold or tapped into an existing idea that we’re being taken advantage of so there’s a desire to walk away from our international commitments.
    4. Important leaders on the right, (Tucker, & Hannity being the most prominent) are openly supportive of Putin and other right wing dictators such as orban. Plenty of people take their cues from them. Seems like the Putin/Orban model is what they’d like for the US going forward.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  537. More Keilar, this time slamming Ron Johnson for his lies about “athletes dropping dead on the field” after getting vaxxed.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  538. Incompetent and Snakebit

    It was a controlled demolition!

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  539. Kevin & Jim, There’s a balance between public officials exercising their right to speak and having a chilling effect on the speech of others.

    In the current context we have a highly effective vaccine against covid and a large number of people spreading lies and misinformation about it. The surgeon general is correct that it’s having an impact on vaccination rates and that has an impact on public health. It seems appropriate for him to say so openly and call on people with powerful platforms to use those platforms in a responsible way.

    It would be inappropriate to make statements that might appear to threaten them with government sanction for their speech and unlawful to actually make such threats.

    I read his statement in context and I don’t see that he’s making anything that looks like a threat. But it’s fair to be cautious about calls for people to use their platforms responsibly.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  540. Ukrainian president Zelensky reportedly (which may not be true) asked Biden to not say that Ukraine will be invaded in order not to panic them.

    Reportedly, according to CNN, relying on “a senior Ukrainian official,” President Biden told Ukrainian president Zelensky that an invasion of Ukraine is “virtually certain” in February once the ground freezes. (The official readouts of the conversation say nothing like this.)

    This report was denied by the White House, which said that Biden merely said an invasion was “distinctly possible.”

    Biden is also reported to have said that:

    1) Kyiv could be sacked (!)

    2) Prepare for impact

    3) The U.S. will send no more military aid

    4) The U.S. will not intervene itself (something nobody expects)

    5) There will be no pre-emptive sanctions (no ahead of time sanctions)

    Meanwhile Ukraine and Russia are negotiating – for at least two more weeks – on implementation of the Minsk 2 agreement of 2015, which was supposed to completely stop the war in eastern Ukraine. (Mink 1 de-escalated it). Among other things, it treated the Russian backed government of Donbass as an independent entity.

    There also seems to be an alliance between Russia, China and Iran (especially according to Iran) Maybe North Korea can be thrown in.

    Possibly Xi wants, or contemplates, a number of countries starting different things all at one time.

    But the dictatorships will probably all double cross each other. Everyone wants to see the other go first, alone.

    One bad thing Biden maybe did was answer Russia’s questions. That reduces uncertainty – which is probably not a good idea in these circumstances.

    Sammy Finkelman (b434ee)

  541. In New York City, we escaped almost all the snow until now, but there is a small snow storm this morning and a big one expectee tonight and tomorrow (but worse the further east you go, otr in Bioston)

    Sammy Finkelman (b434ee)

  542. If I were Zelensky, I’d go to the UN General Assembly and take an hour to plead his nation’s case. We’re hearing way too much from Biden and Putin, and nowhere near enough from the guy whose country has been invaded in 2014 and is about to get invaded some more. He needs to be at any negotiating table and speaking publicly at least daily.

    What we don’t want is something similar to when Trump and the Taliban shut out Afghan officials completely from the negotiation process while hammering out that pitiful surrender agreement. The victim gets a vote. Christopher Miller (AP reporter who’s been covering Ukraine for years).

    Ukrainian President Zelensky meeting with foreign media now. He says regarding the Russian threat and call with Biden yesterday, “I’m the president of Ukraine and I’m based here and I think I know the details better here.”

    Zelensky on talks with Biden and Russian threat assessment: It’s important that the president should know the situation from me, not intermediaries. He knows the situation from me personally. We’ll have another conversation in a couple weeks.

    Zelensky: It’s important not to get information based on intelligence gathering. It’s important to be here.

    I don’t think the situation is more intense than in 2014.

    Zelensky: Do we have tanks on the streets? No. When you read media, you get the image that we have troops in the city, people fleeing…That’s not the case. But I’m not saying escalation is excluded. Escalation already happened. Part of our country is already temporarily occupied

    Zelensky on the Russian threat getting closer to what the US is saying. But his point is that the threat has been here since 2014. “The threat is imminent. The threat is constant.”

    Zelensky: I don’t want Ukraine to be a result between president Biden and President Putin. President Biden assured me that nothing will be decided behind Ukraine’s back about the destiny and future about our country.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  543. https://www.foxnews.com/media/venezuelan-border-fbis-terror-watchlist-michigan

    Michigan investigative journalist Charlie LeDuff told Fox News on Thursday that a Lebanese-born Venezuelan national listed on the FBI’s terror watchlist was released into the United States after crossing the border illegally.

    According to LeDuff’s reporting for Deadline Detroit, Issam Bazzi, who was caught near the Rio Grande River in Texas last November, was released on his own recognizance ahead of his March asylum hearing in Detroit. Bazzi reportedly traveled to the U.S. illegally with his wife and daughter, said LeDuff.

    Restoring those norms by allowing criminals and terrorists into the nation. Thanks Biden voters.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  544. I read his statement in context and I don’t see that he’s making anything that looks like a threat. But it’s fair to be cautious about calls for people to use their platforms responsibly.

    The problem here is that, at this point, no one is convinced by anything they hear of read about vaccines. Saying that vaccines help (or hurt) is just preaching to the already-convinced.

    The ONE THING that someone could do to change opinion is for one side to be forcibly hushed. In an America awash with naive cynicism, it would have the opposite effect of what seems to be desired (e.g. “They are silencing the TRUTH!”).

    Kevin M (38e250)

  545. The surgeon general’s opinion about the effect of misinformation at this point is a lot like a preacher trying to connect pornograpy and sexual assault, or someone else trying to connect TV violence with crime rates. The connection might not be there, or it may operate in the other direction.

    The only thing that is sure about censorship is that it is a power that is inevitably abused.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  546. #554 Time123 – I agree with everything you said in that comment. (Perhaps I should have been more nuanced in my own, earlier comment.)

    And there are certainly times when presidents have abused the First Amendment, for example, the Wilson administration imprisoning Debs.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  547. Kevin, You might be right. A lot of anti-vax types don’t really seem to be basing their decisions on things that can be reasoned with. But this seems to be within their job description. If there were a similar amount of lies about cholesterol medicine I’d expect the same thing.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  548. There were a lot of lies about cholesterol and other things connected with diet originated by the government and.or others favored by regulators after about 1957 – that you should’t eat eggs, for instance. (but there wasn’t a incessant moronic counter campaign there)

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  549. Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 1/28/2022 @ 12:10 pm

    I’d guess this was because no one really thought the government would lie about eggs.

    frosty (470cf8)

  550. Kevin, You might be right. A lot of anti-vax types don’t really seem to be basing their decisions on things that can be reasoned with. But this seems to be within their job description. If there were a similar amount of lies about cholesterol medicine I’d expect the same thing.

    Time123 (9f42ee) — 1/28/2022 @ 11:51 am

    Edited for clarity

    Kevin, You might be right. A lot of anti-vax types don’t really seem to be basing their decisions on things that can be reasoned with. But this seems to be within the surgeon general’s their job description. If there were a similar amount of lies about cholesterol medicine I’d expect the same thing.

    Time123 (9f42ee) — 1/28/2022 @ 11:51 am

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  551. Sammy, claims about things we eat is an area where the government does place limits on speech. If you want to sell a supplement you have to note when claims haven’t been evaluated by the FDA. Haven’t looked it up to see if that’s a requirement or done as a liability shield.

    Nutrition also presents a great case study for where advances in knowledge have resulted in changes in recommendations.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  552. https://www.newser.com/story/316254/pentagon-pressures-russia-to-walk-away.html

    Ukraine Worried About ‘Panic’ in the West

    ….All these warnings that an attack could happen at any minute don’t thrill Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. One of his concerns is the effect on the nation’s economy, the BBC reports. “There are signals even from respected leaders of states, they just say that tomorrow there will be war,” Zelensky said at a press conference. “This is panic—how much does it cost for our state?” He said the US, UK, and Australia made a mistake when they pulled the families of their diplomats out of Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said again on Friday that his country doesn’t want war, per CNN. Zelensky said the biggest threat to Ukraine now is “the destabilization of the situation inside the country.”

    A new threat to Russia, should it cross the border, surfaced Friday. The US is planning sanctions against large banks that could cause more problems for Russia than any economic penalties ever have, per the New York Times. Enforcing what’s called extreme sanctions could prevent US financial institutions and Americans from doing business with Russian banks. That could suspend Russian banks’ interactions with foreign financial institutions. (Read more Russia-Ukraine conflict stories.)

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  553. There was a whole false theory promoted about obesity for over 50 years. There have been some books written about it.

    https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/good-calories-bad-calories-challenging-the-conventional-wisdom-on-diet-weight-control-and-disease_gary-taubes/246410/item/3876047

    One review:

    I’m a researcher by trade. Not a medical researcher, but an analyst nonetheless and I have been waiting for a very long time for this kind of work to come out. This isn’t advocacy whatsoever. It’s a look at what everyone says, and what the science says, and the politics that led us to ignore the science. The research level is staggering and evidence so overwhelming that portions of the book are downright infuriating. I personally found reading the one-star reviews here interesting because there is not a single, negative review here that remotely suggests the reviewer actually read the material. On to my own rating, here’s what I think you should know when considering this purchase: This is unlike any book you’ve ever read on the subject of diets. It is not a diet book. It is not a lifestyle book. It is not an advocacy book. It is a look at the science that has been ignored as our country has rolled toward the low-fat religion and what the consequences of this have been. It is a look at how and why overwhelming science and evidence was ignored. Society has needed someone to do what Taubes did here — to strip away what is popular, to dig into claims and recommendations, and see what the EVIDENCE shows us for claims on both sides of the diet argument. It will give you clarity where there has never been any, while explaining why it has been absent. If you are looking for a book that lays out a diet plan and recipes and sample meals and such, this is not for you.

    This is a work of scientific journalism, not a diet plan. On a final note, it is noteworthy that there have been no real rebuttals to this work whatsoever from the “experts” and “authorities” who have, because of politics and money and cowardice, advocated dietary guidelines that have driven our society into our miserable states of health and obesity. That silence is shame.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  554. They experts were losing after about 40 years, by the late 1990s, but they fought a holding operation.

    The FDA sent someone to porison on the grounds that he was also selling something. His boook, which was abest seller in 1961, disappeared.

    Calories Don’t Count by Herman Taller. (Two years later, Dr, Robert Adkins adopted some of his thinking and added abit of nonsense about fruit, and pretended later it was original. It wasn’t even original with Taller.)

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  555. 366. Time123 (9f42ee) — 1/28/2022 @ 12:43 pm

    Sammy, claims about things we eat is an area where the government does place limits on speech. If you want to sell a supplement you have to note when claims haven’t been evaluated by the FDA.

    They’re not allowed to advocate that it may be a cure for any disease, even though it may be.

    Independent doctors or people selling books may, but not anyone selling a supplement.

    Nutrition also presents a great case study for where advances in knowledge have resulted in changes in recommendations.

    After many many years. And there are, I think, also studies sponsored, to mislead.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  556. 558. If they really believed he was (still) associated with terrorism, they could have detained him. Now it may be they just ignored the probability.

    There’s a lot of dishonesty going on in the immigration police,

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  557. Another thing is the list of people not allowed to buy a gun. Most of them are not dangerous active criminals. There’s every reason not to prosecute failed attempts.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  558. Just unreal: at site of Forbes Ave., bridge collapse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania today, the stupid SOB says this:

    “I didn’t realize there are literally more bridges in Pittsburgh than any other city in the world,” said Biden, adding, “We’re going to fix them all.”

    This from an imbecile who boasts he’s from Scranton, Pennsylvania. Guess he’s from Wilmington this week.

    IDIOT.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  559. Biden says he’ll send troops to eastern Europe in ‘near term’

    ‘President Biden said Friday he plans to send a small number of U.S. forces to eastern Europe in the “near term” amid growing fears of a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine.

    “I’ll be moving troops to eastern Europe and the NATO countries in the near term,” Biden told reporters at Joint Base Andrew upon returning from a trip to Pittsburgh. “Not too many.”

    The Pentagon has put 8,500 troops on heightened alert for potential deployment to NATO countries in eastern Europe.’

    source- https://news.yahoo.com/biden-says-hell-send-troops-230220084.html

    Where’s our lazy-azzed Congress?

    Who the hell is going to PAY for this saber-rattling crap?

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  560. DCSCA (#573):

    Scranton is nearly 280 miles from Pittsburgh. Wilmington is about 300 miles away.

    All those places are in very separate media markets, and the affairs of Pittsburgh citizens probably don’t mean a hill of beans to your juvenile Scrantonian. I know they don’t mean a thing to this former resident of the Akron area (and thats only 112 miles away).

    Seems that Sleepy Joe has taken residence in your head and you ought to get him to pay rent…Good thing it isn’t Trump. We know he never pays his bills.

    Appalled (03dfa0)

  561. https://www.foxnews.com/world/freedom-truckers-convoy-records-protest-vaccine-mandate-canada

    Truckers to the fascist government, “let freedom ring!”

    NJRob (3037a8)

  562. @575. So? It’s in Pennsylvania. My grandmother was born and raised in Scranton, lived, died and is buried in Pittsburgh– and even she knew where the Allegheny meets the Oh-HI-o is the city of bridges. And for Christ’s sake, Allegheny County went for Joe. The man is truly a stupid son of a bitch.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  563. Seems that Sleepy Joe has taken residence in your head and you ought to get him to pay rent…

    He certainly has taken up residence in the head alright– a turd over due to be flushed.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  564. Just spoke w/my neighbor- a USMC Lt., – as he just got back from a 6 month deployment it Palau– it was meant to be 3 but extended as they were ‘war gaming’ situations w/China – especially in case Taiwan is ‘liberated’ by China. Asked if he’s on any kind of alert due to the stupid SOB saber-rattling w/Ukraine. He said the East coast Marines are on their toes but it is more likely an Army show w/t NATO folks but if Taiwan gets threatened at all, he said he’ll definitely be alerted to be deployed toward the Far East.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)


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