Weekend Open Thread
[guest post by Dana]
Let’s go!
First news item
Why not just leave well enough alone? I know it’s just a simple yet challenging word game that I look forward to playing on a daily basis and comparing notes and strategies with our host and JVW. And while you can currently play Wordle for free, it was just purchased by the New York Times, so get ready to pony up:
Wordle is a game in which once a day players get six chances to guess a five-letter word. It has had a meteoric rise: It first appeared in October; had 90 users on Nov. 1; and now millions play the game daily…
On Jan. 31, The New York Times Company announced that they had acquired it, and that, at least initially, it would stay free.
About the acquistion:
Wordle was acquired from its creator, Josh Wardle, a software engineer in Brooklyn, for a price “in the low seven figures,” The Times said. The company said the game would initially remain free to new and existing players…
“The Times remains focused on becoming the essential subscription for every English-speaking person seeking to understand and engage with the world,” a company statement said. “New York Times Games are a key part of that strategy.”
Since The Times put up a paywall in 2011, its business strategy has revolved around persuading readers and users, the overwhelming majority of whom get Times content digitally, to buy subscriptions. The traditional newspaper business model is centered on advertising.
Second news item
Pence positioning himself for a comeback while looking ahead to 2024:
Former Vice President Mike Pence called out his former boss by name on Friday, saying that “President (Donald) Trump is wrong” in claiming that Pence had the right to overturn the 2020 election on January 6, 2021.
Speaking at the Federalist Society Florida Chapters conference near Orlando, Pence delivered his strongest response yet to Trump’s ongoing efforts to relitigate the 2020 presidential election, calling it “un-American” to suggest one person could have decided the outcome…
“Under the Constitution, I had no right to change the outcome of our election, and (Vice President) Kamala Harris will have no right to overturn the election when we beat them in 2024,” Pence said…
“This week, President Trump said I had the right to ‘overturn the election.’ But President Trump is wrong,” Pence said. “I had no right to overturn the election.”
Trump responded to Pence as you would expect him to:
This statement is Carrie Mathison-chart level in terms of getting to the part where he says he was right pic.twitter.com/1R7f1WpheN
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) February 5, 2022
Third news item
Nancy Pelosi wants US Olympic athletes to remain silent in the face of China’s human rights abuses:
Pelosi noted that while the US has an obligation to call out Beijing over human rights violations committed against Uyghurs and other Muslim minority groups, Olympic athletes should steer clear of doing so.
“If we do not speak out against human rights violations in China because of commercial interests, we lose all moral authority to speak out against human rights violations anywhere,” said Pelosi, who then told the athletes: “Do not risk incurring the anger of the Chinese government, because they are ruthless.”
She again clarified that her concern is for the safety of the athletes:
“As I wish the athletes well, I do not encourage them to speak out against the Chinese government there because I fear for their safety if they do. [To] remove all doubt about why I said they shouldn’t speak out, it’s because I fear for their safety.”
[A]n American snowboarder reached out to Yahoo Sports to talk China. She’d been reading about the government’s mass detention of Uyghurs; about forced sterilization and sexual assault; about crackdowns throughout the country. “These things are insane,” she said, and she was eager to speak about them.
But not on the record. The Olympics, she said, were a “life goal.” And activism, she worried, could jeopardize her pursuit of it.
“If I were to protest and become a big voice in this movement,” she said, “China could block me from even going.”
She didn’t have proof of that, she acknowledged. But she was afraid — and not alone.
…”There’s a lot of us athletes who are super upset about the genocide in China,” she said. “We’re upset about it. But we’re struggling to figure out, what can we do?”
“The IOC is the group that picks the host country,” she reasoned. She couldn’t fathom how such a powerful organization that claims to serve athletes could choose such a problematic host, then refuse to comment on its crimes against humanity, and then, most spinelessly of all, not even assure athletes they’ll be safe in it.
Fourth news item
Good:
Last night at my direction, U.S. military forces in the northwest Syria successfully undertook a counterterrorism operation to protect the American people and our Allies, and make the world a safer place. Thanks to the skill and bravery of our Armed Forces, we have taken off the battlefield Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi—the leader of ISIS. All Americans have returned safely from the operation.
Fifth news item
A devastating read about an absolutely devastating situation:
it took four presidencies for America to finish abandoning Afghanistan. George W. Bush’s attention wandered off soon after American Special Forces rode horseback through the northern mountains and the first schoolgirls gathered in freezing classrooms. Barack Obama, after studying the problem for months, poured in troops and pulled them out in a single ambivalent gesture whose goal was to keep the war on page A13. Donald Trump cut a deal with the Taliban that left the future of the Afghan government, Afghan women, and al‑Qaeda to fate. By then most Americans were barely aware that the war was still going on. It fell to Joe Biden to complete the task.
…
The advocates omitted one person from their calculations: the president. But Biden’s history in this area should have troubled them.
On April 14, 1975, as North Vietnamese divisions raced toward Saigon, the 32-year-old first-term senator from Delaware was summoned to the White House. President Gerald Ford pleaded with him and other senators for funding to evacuate Vietnamese allies. Biden refused. “I feel put-upon,” he said. He would vote for money to bring out the remaining Americans, but not one dollar for the locals. On April 23, as South Vietnam’s collapse accelerated, Biden repeated the point on the Senate floor. “I do not believe the United States has an obligation, moral or otherwise, to evacuate foreign nationals” other than diplomats, he said. That was the job of private organizations. “The United States has no obligation to evacuate one, or 100,001, South Vietnamese.”
Sixth news item
Republican Senator Rob Standridge has introduced a bill that would allow people to sue teachers if they offer an opposing view from the religious beliefs held by students.
The proposed act, named the “Students’ Religious Belief Protection Act” means parents can demand the removal of any book with perceived anti-religious content from school. Subjects like LGBT+ issues, evolution, the big bang theory and even birth control could be off the table.
Teachers could be sued a minimum of $10,000 “per incident, per individual” and the fines would be paid “from personal resources” not from school funds, from other individuals or groups. If the teacher is unable to pay, they would be fired, under the legislation.
The act will be introduced into the Education Committee next week, but it doesn’t specify which religious beliefs will be used to prosecute offending teachers.
Seventh news item
Hmmm…Black woman sentenced to six years in prison over a voting error:
Moses did not believe the judge had correctly calculated her sentence. So she went to the local probation office and asked an officer to figure it out. An officer filled out and signed a certificate confirming her probation had ended. In Tennessee, people with felony convictions who want to vote need that document from a correction official. Moses submitted it to local election officials along with a voter registration form.
But the day afterwards, an official at the corrections department wrote an email to election officials saying a probation officer had made an “error” on Moses’ certificate. Moses was still serving an active felony sentence, they wrote, and was not eligible to vote. The department offered no explanation for the mistake.
…
Moses is currently in custody and an appeal is expected. But the case highlights the byzantine maze that people with felony convictions have to go through to figure out if they can vote. And it shows the harsh consequences prosecutors can bring if people with felony convictions make a mistake.
Eighth news item
University of Pennsylvania swimmers say enough is enough despite fears of retaliation:
“We fully support Lia Thomas in her decision to affirm her gender identity and to transition from a man to a woman. Lia has every right to live her life authentically,” the letter read. “However, we also recognize that when it comes to sports competition, that the biology of sex is a separate issue from someone’s gender identity. Biologically, Lia holds an unfair advantage over competition in the women’s category, as evidenced by her rankings that have bounced from #462 as a male to #1 as a female. If she were to be eligible to compete against us, she could now break Penn, Ivy, and NCAA Women’s Swimming records; feats she could never have done as a male athlete.”
Thomas’s teammates did not identify themselves in the letter. It was sent by Nancy Hogshead-Makar, a 1984 Olympic swimming gold medalist, lawyer and chief executive of Champion Women, a women’s sports advocacy organization. She said in a telephone interview that she sent the letter on the swimmers’ behalf so they could avoid retaliation; in the letter, the swimmers claim they were told “we would be removed from the team or that we would never get a job offer” if they spoke out against Thomas’s inclusion in women’s competition…
“When it became clear, all this new science was coming through, transgender advocates were saying: ‘Oh, but it’s never going to happen. Nobody’s ever going to come and break women’s records. … You’re not going to see that at the Olympics or at nationals.’ And then Lia came along. It just shows the need to update the NCAA rule.”
Have a great weekend.
–Dana
Hello. Happy weekend!
Dana (5395f9) — 2/4/2022 @ 4:37 pmRIP Monica Vitti (90). The “queen of Italian cinema.”
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 2/4/2022 @ 4:48 pmA tale of two companies:
Amazon Breaks Record for One-Day Gain in Market Cap
……… Amazon is the fourth-biggest company in the U.S. by market value, behind Apple Inc. , Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc., with a market capitalization of about $1.6 trillion……
Shares surged 14% Friday, their biggest one-day jump in almost seven years. The added $191 billion to Amazon’s market value, eclipsing the record Apple set just last week when it added $181 billion after posting quarterly results that shattered previous records.
……..
Facebook Parent Meta’s Stock Plunges, Loses More Than $200 Billion in Value
Shares of Facebook FB -0.28% parent Meta Platforms Inc. plunged Thursday, wiping about $232 billion from the technology giant’s market value, the biggest one-day decline for a stock in U.S. history.
………
With Thursday’s close, Meta now has a market value of about $647.17 billion, making it the seventh-largest stock in the S&P 500. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., with a market value of about $703.8 billion, replaced Meta as the sixth-largest Thursday.
……..
Related:
Mark Zuckerberg’s Net Worth Drops by $31 Billion. He’s Now the 10th Richest Person in the World.
Sad!
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 2/4/2022 @ 4:56 pm“Black woman sentenced to six years in prison over a voting error…”
Voting error? There’s 81 million who could do life for that. 😉
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/4/2022 @ 4:57 pmLast night at my direction, U.S. military forces in the northwest Syria successfully undertook a counterterrorism operation to protect the American people and our Allies, and make the world a safer place. Thanks to the skill and bravery of our Armed Forces, we have taken off the battlefield Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi—the leader of ISIS. All Americans have returned safely from the operation. – Joe Biden
Huh? Moved from stealing speeches to stealing kills now, eh Joe?!?!:
He BLEW HIMSELF UP, Joe.
Terrorist leader blows himself up as US special forces raid house in Syria
https://presslasvegas.com/news/world/terrorist-leader-blows-himself-up-as-us-special-forces-raid-house-in-syria/
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/4/2022 @ 5:19 pmWhen has Oklahoma not been an embarrassment to the White race in the last 200 years?
nk (1d9030) — 2/4/2022 @ 5:26 pmWhen has Oklahoma not been an embarrassment to the White race in the last 200 years?
March 21, 1956:
It was nominated for 4 Oscars and won 2:
Best Scoring of a Musical Picture & Best Sound Recording, 😉
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/4/2022 @ 5:36 pmElizabeth the Steadfast: Queen marks 70 years on throne
LONDON (AP) — Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor wasn’t born to wear the crown. But destiny intervened.
The woman who became Queen Elizabeth II will mark 70 years on the throne Sunday, an unprecedented reign that has made her a symbol of stability as the United Kingdom navigated an age of uncertainty.
https://news.yahoo.com/elizabeth-steadfast-queen-marks-70-072516969.html
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=ERIJzay-sCU&list=RDAMVMERIJzay-sCU
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/4/2022 @ 6:02 pmPence positioning himself for comeback. Comeback to what? Trumpsters detest him and never trumpers loathe him. Pelosi is worried about the safety of hers and the democratic establishments investment in the silicon valley billionaire donor class. China might punish chinese invester donor class not to mention hunter biden. Billionaire donor class money is the only thing fending off the lefts take over of the democrat party. Biden remembered the pictures of americans evacuating danang and saigon (now ho chi minh city) then forgot about them. Item 7 Its the south what do you expect from states run by ignorant southern white trash.
asset (c7356a) — 2/4/2022 @ 6:12 pmI was curious about why Beijing was picked for 2022 and who the hell voted for them, and here’s an article on the subject.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 2/4/2022 @ 7:16 pmBasically, all but two candidates withdrew so the choice was between Beijing and Almaty, Kazakhstan, both of which are in unfree countries but the Xi regime is the worst in terms of civil liberties and political rights.
Beijing was supposed to be the “safe” choice but it hardly snows there and any skiing is 100 miles away where they have to manufacture the snow. How sucky is that.
If the choice was between two sh-thole countries, why not pick the one has the superior ski venue, which is clearly Almaty. But no, they picked “safe”, whatever the hell that means.
The IOC vote was 44-40 with one abstention, definitely not a ringing endorsement for Beijing. The vote is secret, including the four US votes, but were there issues with how it was carried out and they changed their voting procedures after that.
One small thought. There shouldn’t be an Olympics in an unfree country. It’s a violation of the Olympic spirit to hold games in environments like that.
I found Wordle a few weeks ago. I have no doubt the NYT will screw it up. Here is a link to the old archived Wordles that go back to June of last year. https://metzger.media/games/wordle-archive/?levels=select
Mattsky (55d339) — 2/4/2022 @ 8:37 pmJan. 6 Defendant Seeks to Subpoena Trump as Witness at Trial
………
“It is anticipated that, when called as a witness, Donald J. Trump will testify that he and others orchestrated a carefully crafted plot to call into question the integrity of the 2020 presidential election and the validity of President Biden’s victory,” the lawyer, Samuel H. Shamansky, said in court papers filed on behalf of his client, Dustin Thompson.
“Moreover, it will be established at trial that Mr. Trump and his conspirators engaged in a concerted effort to deceive the public, including defendant, into believing that American democracy was at stake if Congress was permitted to certify the election results,” the papers said.
………..
Mr. Shamansky notified Judge (Reggie B. Walton of Federal District Court) that he intended to mount what is known as a public authority defense when Mr. Thompson goes on trial in April. The strategy involves defendants arguing that they were authorized to commit crimes on the advice of a federal official.
At the hearing last month, Mr. Shamansky told Judge Walton that he wanted to subpoena not only Mr. Trump, but also several of his former aides and advisers, including Rudolph W. Giuliani, Stephen K. Bannon, Stephen Miller and John Eastman.
……….Mr. Shamansky told the judge that he wanted testimony from Mr. Trump and the others in order to establish Mr. Thompson’s mind-set that day and to prove that his client had effectively been duped into breaking the law.
………..
In an interview on Friday, Mr. Shamansky said if he succeeded in obtaining the subpoenas, he would not only ask Mr. Trump about his speech that day, but also seek to get his hands on private notes or messages that were used in drafting the address. He added that he knew of no legal prohibition against trying to get testimony from a former president as a material witness in a criminal case.
………
“Based on the precedent of United States v. Nixon, as well as President Reagan’s testimony in the Poindexter trial, I think there is a plausible case that Trump could be required to produce documents or otherwise testify, at least in some form, in some of the Jan. 6 trials,” said Alan Rozenshtein, a former Justice Department official who teaches at the University of Minnesota Law School.
………
Thompson (and a co-defendant) are charged with stealing a coat rack and obstructing an official proceeding before Congress in which lawmakers were certifying the final count of the Electoral College vote.
Bring on the 🍿!
Rip Murdock (d93e1f) — 2/4/2022 @ 8:44 pmI was curious about why Beijing was picked for 2022 and who the hell voted for them…
Even more curious is how the hell NBC makes $ on them as viewership keeps dropping. Is creative bookkeeping a summer and winter Olympic event?! 😉
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/4/2022 @ 10:08 pmIt looks like Pamela Moses was sentenced to 6 years in prison on the basis of the probation officer’s error. That sounds pretty extreme to me. I recall cases of people who knowingly voted in someone else’s name, besides their own, and only got a slap on the wrist.
Radegunda (e99c47) — 2/4/2022 @ 10:35 pmI just updated the post with Trump’s response to Pence. Bottom line: He says he was right and everyone knows it.
Dana (5395f9) — 2/4/2022 @ 11:01 pmMy two favorite cartoons from this week’s Politico collection:
Bill Bramhall
and
David Horsey.
(That first one is real, by the way. I checked.)
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 2/5/2022 @ 4:06 amhttps://redstate.com/nick-arama/2022/02/04/biden-tells-the-most-shameless-lie-yet-and-descends-into-babbling-n517605
mg (8cbc69) — 2/5/2022 @ 4:11 am81 million morons voted for this dolt. You people need help.
Here’s a question for those more in touch with schools than I am: Is this book used in many high schools?
(I see there are study guides for it, so I assume it must be used in some schools.)
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 2/5/2022 @ 4:35 am“an unprecedented reign that has made her a symbol of stability as the United Kingdom navigated an age of uncertainty”
And here I thought she was just a lousy royalist…
AJ_Liberty (3cb02f) — 2/5/2022 @ 4:42 amThe US job market is strong;
In January, the preliminary estimate is that almost a half million jobs were added — and the estimates for December and November were revised upward:
In my area — a suburb of Seattle — help wanted signs are everywhere and, ironically, a few businesses appear to have failed because they could not get necessary workers. (Example: a nearby 7/11.)
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 2/5/2022 @ 5:02 amGreat piece by Jonah at the Dispatch on how both sides distort the culture war
https://gfile.thedispatch.com/p/it-takes-two-sides-to-fight-a-war
AJ_Liberty (3cb02f) — 2/5/2022 @ 5:23 amHere on Cape Cod I’ve been seeing the same thing for a couple of years. Some of it has been caused by the lack of foreign students coming to the US for work since Covid. During the tourist season Cape Cod normally fills a lot of seasonal jobs with college students from Europe. Some restaurants had to close two days a week during the tourist season because they couldn’t staff the place seven days a week. But businesses all over the Cape are short staffed year round. I have seen supermarkets advertise starting pay at $18 an hour.
Mattsky (55d339) — 2/5/2022 @ 6:03 amAre those “saved or created” jobs Jim?
What color are the “jobs” Biden’s wearing?
NJRob (5147eb) — 2/5/2022 @ 6:15 amTucker Carlson continued his pro-Putin campaign when he showed a snippet of his interview Dave Kovalik, who opposed our role in the Cold War, supports the Chavez-Maduro regime (calling it “the most benevolent revolution in history”), supports Putin and opposes any American engagement with Ukraine.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 2/5/2022 @ 6:54 amKovalik has a 2017 book The Plot to Scapegoat Russia: How the CIA and the Deep State Have Conspired to Vilify Russia, which I won’t read but I’ve heard this same left-wing mantra back in the 80s.
The FoxNews link.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 2/5/2022 @ 6:57 am#23 Rob – If you are interested in the details of the job report, go over to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and look them up. And then come back and tell us what you learned.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 2/5/2022 @ 7:07 amhttps://www.jsonline.com/story/opinion/2022/02/04/milwaukees-people-color-must-united-win-fair-representation/9317318002/
Just love the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel publishing virulent racism under the guise of fairness.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 2/5/2022 @ 7:16 amJimmy,
I saw the propaganda pushed by the Biden administration. It’s not fooling anyway. They just rewrote the numbers just like Obama did.
Too bad they didn’t give their marching orders out beforehand as the truth got out.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 2/5/2022 @ 7:17 amWhat was false about the jobs numbers, Rob? Is BLS lying?
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 2/5/2022 @ 7:29 amhttps://news.yahoo.com/fear-loathing-ottawa-more-protests-220756585.html
Gofundme is a criminal organization. Time to put them in jail.
Remind me what they did for the BLM groups and CHAZ/CHOP.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 2/5/2022 @ 7:36 amhttps://adpemploymentreport.com/2022/January/NER/NER-January-2022.aspx
Yeah, I wonder why Biden put out his propaganda.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 2/5/2022 @ 7:39 amhttps://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/world-food-prices-accelerate-january-set-record-high
Food prices hit record high. Thanks Joe Biden.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 2/5/2022 @ 7:48 amhttps://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2022-02-03/cnn-staffers-reeling-over-jeff-zucker-resignation
Most unbiased investigation evah.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 2/5/2022 @ 8:02 amOttawa is in Canada which has different laws than the United States about raising money to support antisocial hooliganism. The truckers will just have to get their Russian and Chinese funding through covert sources like the Trump campaigns did. What’s Paul Manafort doing these days?
nk (1d9030) — 2/5/2022 @ 8:08 amPutin’s economic toll in eastern Ukraine.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 2/5/2022 @ 8:15 amAnti-vaccine protest in Canada spurs outrage
………….
Some (protesters) urinated and parked on the National War Memorial. One danced on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. A number carried signs and flags with swastikas.
In the aftermath of Canada’s biggest pandemic protest to date, the demonstrators have found little sympathy in a country where more than 80% are vaccinated. Many people were outraged by some of the crude behavior.
…………
During the demonstration, the statue of Terry Fox, a national hero who lost a leg to bone cancer as a youngster and set off in 1980 on a fundraising trek across Canada, was draped with an upside-down Canadian flag and a sign that read “Mandate freedom.”
“My kids were shocked. Like all Canadian young people, they have grown up with Terry Fox as a hero,” Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said. “This is not the Canada who we want to be. And I really proudly believe, and I know, this is not what Canada is.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he was “extremely disturbed” to see people “desecrate our most sacred monuments and wave swastikas and other symbols of hate and intolerance.”
Rip Murdock (d93e1f) — 2/5/2022 @ 9:25 amThe outburst was seen as so out of character for Canada that one U.S. scientist felt compelled to apologize for what he portrayed as America’s influence.
……….
The most visible contingent of protesters were truck drivers who parked their big rigs on Parliament Hill. Some of them were protesting a rule that took effect Jan. 15 requiring truckers entering Canada to be fully immunized against the coronavirus.
The Canadian Trucking Alliance has estimated that 85% of truckers in Canada are vaccinated.
………
GOP Rep. Thomas Massie attacks Dr. Fauci — by quoting neo-Nazi convicted for child porn
……….
Massie’s remarks, reported by Insider, came in a tweet targeting Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who over the past several years has repeatedly been scapegoated by conservatives over the government’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis.
“You mustn’t question Fauci, for he is science,” tweeted Massie, alongside a cartoon illustration of weary workers holding up a large hand attempting to squash them.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize,” Massie captioned the photo, attributing it to Voltaire.
According to a USA Today fact-check, the quote, which regained popularity last May, has no apparent connection to Voltaire, a major figure of the 18th-century Enlightenment regarded as one of the greatest French writers. In fact, Etymologist Barry Popik has concluded that the maxim likely stems from a 1993 radio broadcast by neo-Nazi Holocaust denier Kevin Alfred Strom, the founder of a white nationalist group called National Vanguard. In 2008, Strom pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography in after being charged, among other things, with attempting to coerce a 10-year-old into a sexual relationship. National Vanguard disintegrated shortly after Strom’s conviction.
In an online post from 2017, Strom confirmed that the quote was his, writing that “it’s pretty clear, even to my critics, that I came up with the idea and the quote — and Voltaire never did.”
One Twitter user, Kendall Brown, also pointed out that the illustration Massie shared originated as an anti-child labor cartoon from the early 1900s, “which is ironic, given Massie’s vote in Dec. to protect importers who use forced labor.”
Indeed, in December, Massie voted against a House bill to blocks the importation of products made through forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. The measure was passed 428-1, with Massie as the sole member of Congress to vote no.
Rip Murdock (d93e1f) — 2/5/2022 @ 9:36 am…………
“Yeah, I wonder why Biden put out his propaganda.”
Your source has 776,000 jobs being added in December, compared to 551,000 by the BLS. What’s your conspiracy theory as to why Biden would understate the figures then?
Davethulhu (17e89a) — 2/5/2022 @ 9:36 amMore voter fraud.
Rip Murdock (d93e1f) — 2/5/2022 @ 9:39 amThulu,
look at the rest of the BLS “adjustments.” They took away over 1M jobs last summer and magically added them to the winter.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 2/5/2022 @ 9:39 amRip,
nice job citing a trash organization that promotes smearing a political opponent due to a common quote.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 2/5/2022 @ 9:41 amhttps://babylonbee.com/news/biden-seen-looking-at-color-swatches-to-choose-next-supreme-court-justice/
Nailed it.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 2/5/2022 @ 9:54 am“look at the rest of the BLS “adjustments.” They took away over 1M jobs last summer and magically added them to the winter.”
I added up the 2021 numbers for ADP and BLS. ADP total jobs added 2021: 6133. BLS total jobs added 6145.
ADP source is your link. BLS source here: https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/ces0000000001?output_view=net_1mth
Davethulhu (17e89a) — 2/5/2022 @ 10:02 amElon Musk: GoFundMe ‘professional thieves’ for withholding $10M from anti-vax rally
Tesla founder Elon Musk slammed GoFundMe for hypocrisy after the fundraising site cut ties with a convoy of anti-vaxx Canadian truckers.
“Double-standard?” quipped Musk on Twitter, while sharing a screenshot of a June 2020 tweet GoFundMe posted in support of Seattle’s lawless CHOP, or the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest, an “autonomous zone” where riots broke out and police were not permitted to enter.
He also called GoFundMe “Professional Thieves.”
Thousands of truckers in the “Freedom Convoy” rolled into Ottawa on Jan. 29, many of them blocking roads outside of Parliament buildings, honking loudly and brandishing Canadian flags and “F–k [Prime Minister Justin] Trudeau” banners.
GoFundMe blocked the release of almost $10 million in donations to the group earlier Friday, in connection with “the promotion of violence and harassment” during the Ottawa protest.
JF (e1156d) — 2/5/2022 @ 10:15 amhttps://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-dutch-reporter-dragged-away-by-chinese-agents-during-live-olympics-broadcast
China doing what China does. Subjugate people and attack freedom.
All while our media begs them for cash and laps at their hand.
NJRob (20fd98) — 2/5/2022 @ 10:30 amI take it that Elon Musk is an expert on Canadian criminal, tax, and charity law?
nk (1d9030) — 2/5/2022 @ 10:36 amMusk is developing a product that will put most long haul truckers out of work. While I’m personally extremely skeptical of his chances for success there, he’s being extremely disingenuous.
Davethulhu (17e89a) — 2/5/2022 @ 10:40 amRip,
nice job citing a trash organization that promotes smearing a political opponent due to a common quote.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 2/5/2022 @ 9:41 am
Are you saying that quote is from Voltaire? Members of Congress have access to the vast resources of the Library of Congress, which has a unit (the Congressional Research Service) devoted solely to researching facts and quotes for them. You would think that in the interest of accuracy Massie could have asked the CRS for a quote making his point, rather than Internet meme.
Rip Murdock (d93e1f) — 2/5/2022 @ 10:50 am@Jim@18 We don’t us it in my district, but some districts do. I read it my senior year in HS.
Nic (896fdf) — 2/5/2022 @ 10:59 amElon Musk is the richest man in the world with more than an estimated $220 billion dollars. Rupert Murdoch, the owner of the NY Post, only has $21 billion, but between them they could send the Ottawa truckers the $10 million themselves and never miss it. Why don’t they do it?
nk (1d9030) — 2/5/2022 @ 10:59 amHere’s the BEA’s “advance” estimate of GDP growth in 2022:
There will be a revised estimate late this month.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 2/5/2022 @ 11:01 am#49 Nic – Thanks. That’s good to know. As you probably guessed, I would encourage everyone to read the book, at least once.
(I vaguely recall reading of a Chinese equivalent, but am drawing a complete blank on details.)
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 2/5/2022 @ 11:06 amThe RNC censuring of Cheney and Kinzinger….calling the events of January 6th “legitimate political discourse”…. is both unprecedented and the final straw. The RNC will also invoke Rule 11 to enable it to fund Cheney’s primary opponent. I wonder if Mike Pence cooperates with the investigation…or his chief of staff….will they be the next to be formally censured. Big tent indeed! As of now, I view the GOP as an institutionally compromised organization….thoroughly.
We’ve had 5+ years and the cancer is only metastasizing, with no evidence of push back or remission. For those that keep saying that the Democrats are even worse, they simply miss the point. I reject the false choice of delusional and corrupt over incompetent and corrupt…that somehow serial lying and weird cultishness are features and not bugs.
I guess we’ll see what happens in 2024….does someone credible step up…..does the conservative media apparatus even allow dissent…..and does the party fracture or continue in lock step? Personally I’m tired of waiting….I would like to see more ex-Republicans hijack a 3rd party to at least offer a normal candidate…..even if the point is to just siphon off a few more nose-holding voters and lodge a more meaningful protest. Some will say, you lost, deal with it. Well, this is certainly one way to deal with it….if the GOP refuses to change….nature abhors the current vacuum of ideas and character….an alternative will arise….
AJ_Liberty (ec7f74) — 2/5/2022 @ 11:12 amFunny how a protest that doesn’t serve the needs and goals of the left-liberal globalist kleptocracy gets so much hate from the marxist-simp media and its useful idiots. It happened with the yellow-vest protests in France, the anti-lockdown protests for months in numerous countries, and now the anti-mandate protest by truckers (who are reason these bourgeoisie urbanites are able to enjoy the lifestyle they do to begin with).
By contrast, a protest movement that empirically burned down businesses big and small, torched police stations and vandalized civic property, killed people, tried to storm the White House, and directly led to the increase in crime in cities across the country had its bail paid for by the current VP and numerous celebrities, many enabled by the very website who shut off the trucker’s fund, while the mass media cheered them on the whole time. And of course, Castro’s Baby Boy squawked the same neomarxist shibboleths and power words in his response before yeeting out of Dodge due to “COVID.”
Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 2/5/2022 @ 11:18 am“Why don’t they do it?”
You don’t get that rich by spending your own money. I remember when conservatives disliked Musk due to his wealth deriving from government subsidies.
Davethulhu (17e89a) — 2/5/2022 @ 11:19 amGreat comment from a thread at The Hill on Pence and 1/6.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 2/5/2022 @ 11:30 amWhy Did These ‘Joe Rogan Experience’ Episodes Get Yanked From Spotify?
Over 70 episodes of the Joe Rogan Experience were quietly removed from Spotify Friday, adding yet another development in the ongoing debate over whether the streaming giant is responsible for monitoring misinformation and harmful content posted to its platform.
……..
It’s unclear why the episodes in question were pulled, and representatives for Rogan and Spotify did not respond to Rolling Stone‘s requests for comments. However, eagle-eyed fans of the controversial podcast on Reddit observed that many of the deleted episodes contained racial slurs, ableist language and other content that could be deemed insensitive. Users noted episodes featuring Tom Segura and Greg Fitzsimmons were likely removed for usage of the n-word……..
Hours after the episodes’ removal, Rogan posted an Instagram video that — while not addressing the specific episodes — offered an apology for his past (and excessive) use of the “n-word” and other racist comments, alluding to the video compilation of Rogan’s saying the “n-word” that went viral. (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who defended Rogan after the podcaster’s first apology video, tweeted Friday, “I was not aware of his N word use prior to my comments, but now I’ve become educated to his complete narrative. Learning moment for me.”)
Calling it the “most regretful and shameful thing that I’ve ever had to talk about publicly,” Rogan spoke about the “out-of-context” videos. “I haven’t said [the n-word] in years, but for a long time, when it came up in conversation, instead of saying ‘the n-word,’ I would just say the word,” Rogan said. “I thought as long as it was in context, people would understand what I was doing.”
Rip Murdock (d93e1f) — 2/5/2022 @ 11:32 am……….
“It’s a very unusual word, but it’s not my word to use. I’m well aware of that now, but for years I used it in that manner. I never used it to be racist, ’cause I’m not racist,” Rogan said. “But whenever you’re in a situation where you have to say ‘I’m not racist,’ you f***ked up, and I clearly have f***ked up.”
……….
A handful of Rogan’s more controversial episodes — like those featuring conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and neo-fascist men’s rights activist Gavin McInnes — were excluded from Spotify shortly after the podcaster launched his partnership with the company in Sept. 2020. According to the website JRE Missing, a total of 113 of the podcast’s 1,770 episodes are now absent from the platform.
……….
I would like to see more ex-Republicans hijack a 3rd party to at least offer a normal candidate…..even if the point is to just siphon off a few more nose-holding voters and lodge a more meaningful protest.
There’s literally no political home for the Bush wing of the Republican party. Libertarians consider them to be war-mongering spendthrifts, Democrats consider them to be useful idiots at best and venal fascists at worst (they always call anyone who doesn’t promote leftism to be fascist, after all), and the Greens are commies. They’re a political anachronism now, just as the Whigs became when the Republicans emerged with the specific goals of ending slavery and polygamy, the “twin relics of barbarism,” or the Federalists when Jefferson’s Democratic-Republicans became the dominant political force in the early 19th century.
There’s no “third-party” movement by this wing that would have any broad appeal to matter. Third parties have ALWAYS, in this country’s history, been borne out of populist resentment, not establishment efforts to restore the former political status quo. So they’ll either join the Democrats, hold their nose and tolerate Republican populism, or simply become a light-voting block of no influence whatsoever.
Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 2/5/2022 @ 11:37 amRe: Joe Rogan:
Trumpworld not amused by his apology:
Rogan – just STOP.
Won’t work. A sign of weakness.
Stick a fork in him…
Rip Murdock (d93e1f) — 2/5/2022 @ 11:41 amBTW, Patterico re-tweeted this excellent thread by Dr. Graham Walker, who did a thorough takedown of Dr. Malone, the guy who spent three hours misinforming listeners on Rogan’s podcast.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 2/5/2022 @ 11:47 amWhy Did These ‘Joe Rogan Experience’ Episodes Get Yanked From Spotify?
He’s the flavor of the month on the internet menu. Why does anybody even care about this guy?
“Klink, who is dis man?!” – Major Hochstetter [Howard Caine] ‘Hogan’s Heroes’ CBS TV, 1965-1971
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/5/2022 @ 12:02 pmCalifornia’s Free-Market Housing Fix
Has California’s housing crisis gotten so bad that the state is willing to try a free-market approach? The recent passage of SB9, also known as the California Housing Opportunity and More Efficiency Act, suggests so.
The new law upends the long-held assumption that elites can allocate resources better than markets. In California, that belief produced zoning overreach, excessive land-use restrictions, urban growth boundaries, endless environmental reviews and further regulation by neighborhood groups and local officials. All that made buildable land scarce and expensive.
Rip Murdock (d93e1f) — 2/5/2022 @ 12:07 pm………
……… Effective Jan. 1, SB9 allows landowners to build up to four housing units on about 80% of the lots currently zoned for only one unit. It allows lot splitting—the conversion of current homes, with some limitations, into rentable units, and new construction of duplexes. We estimate that around 2.5 million single-family detached homes in California could be converted to duplexes. In a best-case scenario, more than 500,000 units would be added over 10 years with benefits accruing to existing property owners and small-scale builders, not large, politically connected private developers.
……….
SB9’s broad applicability may allow for the largest restoration of property rights in our lifetime. In many of California’s 4,000 jurisdictions, the chance to evaluate the effects of best and worst practices at the local level will help policy makers craft solutions for other high-priced communities around the country.
………
Is Vladimir pulling a page out of Adolf’s game book and planning a Polish false flag play?
Very Gulf of Tonkin and WMD of him, too.
… and Putin smiled.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/5/2022 @ 12:08 pmBiden deploys 82nd Airborne elements, led by Major General Chris Donahue– literally last official U.S. troop to leave Afghanistan– to Eastern Europe. Now there’s a confidence builder from Joe for the Poles– and sure to get Vlad shaking in his boots.
… and Putin smiled
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/5/2022 @ 12:21 pmNote to Oklahoma: No, no, no
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/5/2022 @ 12:46 pmMajor General Chris Donahue– literally last official U.S. troop to leave Afghanistan
Better him than the first to leave, which would have been Joe Biden.
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/5/2022 @ 12:50 pmI wonder what Biden’s position was regarding the Rwandan genocide. Or the Cambodian genocide. He seems to be a serial supporter of genocides, except for those he can do nothing about. Then he talks a lot.
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/5/2022 @ 12:53 pm@19. And here I thought she was just a lousy royalist…
Think again, AJ; unlike Joe, who lies about his 18-wheeler experiences, Ol’Liz has actually driven trucks– and can repair them; she served as a mechanic in WW2:
https://www.insider.com/photos-queen-elizabeth-mechanic-world-war-ii-2020-4
“Hard cheese, old boy.” – Raymond Delauney [Terry-Thomas] ‘School For Scoundrels’ 1960
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/5/2022 @ 12:53 pmThey’re a political anachronism now, just as the Whigs became when the Republicans emerged
The Whigs never had any center of belief. They began as anti-Jackson Democrats and eventually split, North and South, just as the Democrats did. Once Jackson was gone from the scene and his goals had been supplanted by other issues (notably how to admit the areas captured in the Mexican War), the issues became slavery and (more exactly) its expansion. At that point they had no purpose anymore and dissolved into a few splinter parties, one of which (Free Soil) became the kernel of the Republicans.
The Whigs are probably closest to what an anti-Trump party would be today, but there are identifiable issues that #neverTrump agrees upon, and there is no overarching sectional dispute like slavery to tear them apart.
Perot’s Reform Party was as close as we’ve seen in living memory to a new major party — it’s positions were not on the fringe and it had a fairly successful first election. It’s failure was due to being based on a person, not a set of ideas, and when Perot bagged it (and he was never really all that intent on winning) it was captured by whackjobs.
It is unclear that a center-right GOP replacement would fail. There is widespread dissatisfaction with another Trump-Biden election.
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/5/2022 @ 1:07 pmGoFundMe blocked the release of almost $10 million in donations to the group earlier Friday, in connection with “the promotion of violence and harassment” during the Ottawa protest.
So, never ever give money to a GoFundMe campaign. Problem solved.
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/5/2022 @ 1:09 pmBTW, “hijacking a 3rd party” doesn’t get you much. It doesn’t get you ballot access in enough states, and it pisses off the people who are registered under that party while repelling voters who know what that fringe party was about.
Let’s say that you hijacked the Green Party for your center-right opposition. Not one Green voter will stand with you, some state organizations will break away (and/or sue), some states may delist your party on the basis of the hijack, and everyone who disliked the old Green Party will have trouble casting a vote for you.
Similarly for the other parties (Libertarian, Constitution, etc)
The good news is that it is not that incredibly difficult to form a new party — Perot did it in all 50 states. Having a centrist platform makes signature gathering MUCH MUCH easier than having whackadoodle beliefs.
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/5/2022 @ 1:18 pm81 million dolts voted for trump. Don’t blame the voters because you don’t like the way they voted. They had their reasons. They hate the same people trump hates. The corporate establishment of both parties and the media. For good reasons. I voted third party ;but I don’t hate trump and would have voted for him over biden if I couldn’t have been able to write in third party candidate thanks to republicans passing ballot access laws to keep third parties in their case the libertarian party ( they failed ) ;but democrat party used the laws to keep green party off ballot alowing biden to win az, ga. and wi. and win the presidency by a combined 43,000 votes az.(10,000) ga. (13,000) wi (20,000) in 2016 trump won wi. by 22,000 votes when green party on ballot (38,000 votes) mi. trump wins by (10,000) green party jill’s stein (50,000) Penn. trump wins by (43,000) green party’s jill stein (55,000) If the green party is kept off the ballot in 2024 republican might not be able to win.
asset (c3ce2c) — 2/5/2022 @ 1:28 pmA mother calling out the child abuse rampant in the public indoctrination system.
https://twitter.com/DailySignal/status/1489316251897942019
Let it be spread far and wide.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 2/5/2022 @ 1:38 pmIts unclear a center right party would fail? It just did fail in 2016 with 16 center right candidates were defeated by a populist. Most republican office holders are center right who haven’t been primaried yet by trump populists. They rightly fear if they espouse center right corporate establishment beliefs they will be voted out by the 80% of the now populist republican party. This for dana or patterico Why don’t you do a side by side difference of populist republican party beliefs and the corporate establishment/neo-cons beliefs. Start with emigration, economic libertarian conservative free trade and interventionist foreign policy and military action.
asset (c3ce2c) — 2/5/2022 @ 1:41 pm#53 AJ_Liberty – Here’s a reason for optimism: The vote against Cheney and Kinzinger was a voice vote. So, if the support for Trump within the Republican Party continues to decline — as I expect it will — individual party officials will be able to claim that they abstained, or even voted “no”.
And I think that’s the reason they had a voice vote.
(There are many other reasons. For example, Chris Christie has said he will be taking on Trump — and Christie is an effective campaigner, who believes in the rule of law.)
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 2/5/2022 @ 1:45 pmIt’s taken Pence how long to make a public stance and say unequivocally that he did not have a right to overturn the election? While I’m glad he finally made it unquestionably clear, he needed to make the statement much, much sooner rather than when he did. I get that he is making a political calculation in having given the speech this week, but I can’t imagine whom he would be impressing by it at this late date. Further, wonder if he will talk to the Jan. 6 commission?
Dana (5395f9) — 2/5/2022 @ 1:46 pm#74 asset – If you want that comparison, why don’t you do it? (It will be taken more seriously if you support your argument with links to credible sources.)
Here’s an example to get you started: Trump: monarchist Trump Republican opponents: rule-of-law republicans.
Then you would explain, with links, why you prefer the monarchist to the rule-of-law people. And so on.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 2/5/2022 @ 1:58 pm#74 asset – Alternatively, you could offer to pay someone to make the comparison for you. (I perhaps should warn you that lawyers generally do not work for minimum wages.)
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 2/5/2022 @ 2:13 pmPete Rose, call your office:
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/5/2022 @ 2:14 pmWhat’s New for This Super Bowl? The N.F.L.’s Full Embrace of Gambling.
One more book recommendation: John Gunther’s Inside U.S.A..
It was first published in 1947, then re-published 50 years later, so you should be able to find a copy on the used market without much trouble. Or get it through your local library.
The timing was fortuitous. World War II was over, and the Cold War was just beginning, and had not come to dominate our politics.
One general observation: The nation was far poorer, race relations were far worse, corruption was more open, and probably worse, vote fraud was routine in some places — and on the whole the nation was brimming with optimism. Rightly, as we now know.
And one quote which will surprise most of you:
Gunther’s description was accurate, though he doesn’t understand the causes of the difference.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 2/5/2022 @ 2:52 pmGov. Ron DeSantis’ Press Secretary’s tweet suggests denial of Nazi protest
In a tweet she posted Sunday night and later deleted, Press Secretary Christina Pushaw responded to Twitter outrage over an Orlando Nazi demonstration by asking, “Do we even know they’re Nazis?”
Her tweet, which offered doubts rather than condemnations of the event, presented the unsupported prospect that those witnessed this weekend on a bridge holding a Nazi flag and shouting antisemitic oaths might have been Democratic staffers in disguise.
………
Although Pushaw deleted that particular tweet, she nonetheless continued to promote the prospect that the Orlando protesters might have been fake.
She liked and retweeted others’ posted tweets that seemed to come to her defense after criticism of her tweet emerged. Pushaw also responded to people who tried to connect the protesters to her boss, with a tweet declaring, “These aren’t ‘genuine questions’. It’s a dirty political smear attempt, and people who say things like this aren’t fooling anyone. Not anymore.”
Rip Murdock (d93e1f) — 2/5/2022 @ 3:06 pm………..
“Yesterday’s disgusting display of anti-Semitism in Orlando does not reflect the values of Floridians,” tweeted Florida Speaker of the House Chris Sprowls, a Palm Harbor Republican. “These thugs and their hateful messaging are not welcome in this state.”
………..
The Governor’s Press Secretary’s tweets, including the one offering a potential denial of Nazi involvement, came after a gathering of about 20 demonstrators reportedly lined a bridge in eastern Orange County over the weekend, hanging the swastika flag and banners — including a banner with the pro-Donald Trump slogan “Let’s Go Brandon” — and yelling profanities and antisemitic slurs at passing cars.
……….
No one will use the term but me, but Will Thomas, the mentally deranged swimmer who calls himself Lia, is clearly a cancer in the locker room. You have an unspecified number if his teammates issuing a letter of support for him, and another sixteen — out of 41 members of the team — calling his participation unfair.
In neither letter did the supporting team members sign their names. For the sixteen who want him off the team, they’ve said that they’ve been told that opposing his presence could lead to being kicked off the team and loss of future employment opportunities. For the “several” who supported his presence, disclosing their names would mean, inter alia, telling the world who declined to sign the letter of support.
The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (732e76) — 2/5/2022 @ 3:12 pmDefinitely not Scranton, and should be called the Detective Foster Award:
urbanleftbehind (c073c9) — 2/5/2022 @ 3:18 pmhttps://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/2022/02/03/council-president-brings-racially-charged-police-trophy-light-wilmington/6655404001/
The left is now DDOSing GiveSendGo for standing up after GoFundMe tried to steal the truckers donations. No surprise that leftist refuse to allow opposing viewpoints and will take any action, illegal or otherwise, to stop their political opponents from speaking.
NJRob (fddc94) — 2/5/2022 @ 3:20 pm@81 yeah, it’s totally crazy to think they’re fake nazis and real democrats
JF (e1156d) — 2/5/2022 @ 3:21 pmFox & Friends preemptively hammered Biden for a bad jobs report. They were only off by 750k jobs.
……..
Fox & Friends opened Friday’s show by preemptively hammering Biden for what was anticipated to be a rough January jobs report.
…….
During an interview with his son Peter, host Steve Doocy cited one outlier estimate that the report could show up to 300,000 jobs lost in January — the consensus estimate was nowhere near that dire — and asked him, “how is the White House gonna put a happy face on that?”
subscription
“If past is precedent, and usually at the White House it is, he’ll come out and he’ll say this is proof that people get to be vaccinated,” Peter replied, prompting his dad to ask, sarcastically, “what vaccine do you get for job loss?”
Everyone then had a chuckle at Biden’s expense. Watch:
Rip Murdock (d93e1f) — 2/5/2022 @ 3:23 pm………
But about two hours later, news broke that the US economy actually added 467,000 jobs in January. A stunned Steve Doocy reacted on air by saying, “How did everybody get this so wrong?!”
……….
desantis is investigating gofundme for fraud
good on him
JF (e1156d) — 2/5/2022 @ 3:24 pm@81 yeah, it’s totally crazy to think they’re fake nazis and real democrats
It would be more believable with evidence. Apparently Pushaw doesn’t have the courage of her convictions.
Rip Murdock (d93e1f) — 2/5/2022 @ 3:25 pm“Apparently Pushaw doesn’t have the courage of her convictions.” But she does have a great name; it’s almost “Pshaw”.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 2/5/2022 @ 3:28 pm@88 she was hammered for simply asking the question, informed by the facts of what happened to youngkin
she’s not a journalist
if they were fake, you wouldn’t care to find out
JF (e1156d) — 2/5/2022 @ 3:30 pmhttps://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2022/02/05/chesa-boudins-office-accused-of-rigging-case-against-cop-n446483
What happens when you elect leftists to positions of power. They oppress the innocent and let the guilty go free.
NJRob (fddc94) — 2/5/2022 @ 3:36 pmThere are many sub-species of Florida Man.
They haven’t dared do that in Chicago since 1980.
nk (1d9030) — 2/5/2022 @ 3:58 pmBreaking News [Breaking Wind to Joe:]
Camilla will be Queen: Elizabeth II uses Platinum Jubilee message to elevate Charles’ second wife – CNN.com
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/5/2022 @ 4:00 pmhttps://legalinsurrection.com/2022/02/biden-waives-sanctions-on-irans-civilian-nuclear-program-in-bid-to-restore-2015-deal/
Congrats to those who support Islamic terrorist nations.
NJRob (fddc94) — 2/5/2022 @ 4:08 pm@86. “Eighty-Six” that:
White House preps for weak January jobs report due to Omicron
White House economic officials are engaging in early damage control ahead of the release of a January jobs report that is expected to show muted hiring growth due to the Omicron variant.
David Kamin, deputy director of the White House National Economic Council, came out in front of the report to insist the labor market is on the upswing in an interview published Monday.
“Forecasters see a large Omicron effect on employment in January, but expect that to reverse in future months as we see the wave beginning to come down,” Kamin told Axios. “That is very different from overall trends in the economy looking ahead.”
The Labor Department’s monthly report is based on responses to a survey of weekly payrolls, which generally includes the 12th day of each month. In January, the week of the 12th coincided with an ongoing surge in COVID-19 infections as the Omicron variant spread across the country.
As a result, the January report will not include hourly workers who were out sick, on leave or otherwise out of work during the week the survey was conducted. Economists project the US economy to add just 178,000 jobs in January, according to Dow Jones data. That would mark a decline from the 199,000 jobs added in a December report that fell well short of expectations. As Axios reported, some economists predict the jobs report could turn negative.
White House National Economic Council director Brian Deese, a top adviser to President Biden, told CNBC last Friday that Americans “need to be prepared for January employment data that could look a little strange.”
“The way that the government samples the data is to take a snapshot in an individual week and survey companies,” Deese said. “And if somebody is out sick for that week — even if they have not been laid off, if they weren’t paid getting paid sick leave — they will not be counted as employed.”
Deese noted an ongoing decline in US unemployment — which hit 3.9 percent in December — as well as the record number of jobs added in calendar year 2021 as proof of a strong labor market.
White House officials will not receive the January jobs report data until Thursday. The report will be released to the public on Friday morning.”
source- https://nypost.com/2022/01/31/white-house-preps-for-weak-january-jobs-report-amid-omicron/
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/5/2022 @ 4:08 pmAJ_Liberty – Here’s a Politico article on the Salt Lake City Republican meeting with some — I repeat, some — support for my optimism.
First, the vote against Cheney and Kinzinger was not “unanimous”; there were a ‘smattering of “no” votes audible’. And, quite possibly, some abstained.
Second, there is significant support among Republican voters, and donors, for the January 6th committee:
And some of those who mostly agree with with “King” Trump think — rightly — that his in-party feuds are damaging the party’s chances in November.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 2/5/2022 @ 4:12 pm@79. Safe bet it’s a nice distraction from headlines of a fired head coach suing the league for racist hiring practices as the day of the big game approaches.
A great day to roll into Ukraine, too– eh Vlad?!
… and Putin smiled.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/5/2022 @ 4:14 pm97, it’s not the somewhat already discredited Parcellian-Belichick network, but the young kid Shanahan-McVay- LaFleur network thats blocking out these days.
urbanleftbehind (c2e573) — 2/5/2022 @ 4:32 pm22- Mattsky
mg (8cbc69) — 2/5/2022 @ 5:00 pmI’ve seen the same on the cape.
Sad.
75 of the top 100 audiences on tv were nfl games. 81 million morons watched.
mg (8cbc69) — 2/5/2022 @ 5:05 pmHawks Are Standing in the Way of a New Republican Party
A painful contradiction lies at the heart of the American right. Even as conservatives are breaking with some Cold War orthodoxies on domestic policy, Republican politicians remain wedded to that era’s violently expansionist foreign policy. They oppose liberal imperialism in the United States —the aggressive push to impose progressive values, often joined to corporate power — while still contriving to spread the same order to the ends of the earth.
It’s a contradictory vision, and for many members of the so-called new right who are pushing for a political realignment of the Republican Party, it presents a major stumbling block. We do not want to see this new vision of conservative American politics co-opted by hawkish ideologues more interested in posturing abroad than in reform here at home. Conservatives must make a clear break with neo-neoconservative foreign policy and instead emphasize widely shared material development at home and cultural nonaggression abroad as the keys to U.S. security.
The crisis in Ukraine illustrates the problem. …….
……..
Today’s nationalist hawks often speak of an obligation to defend democratic allies dotting the peripheries of revanchist powers like Russia and China. But if they had their way, the real-world effects would be little different from those of their hawkish predecessors: protracted and destabilizing conflicts that would distract us from domestic reform — not to mention imperil the lives of overwhelmingly working-class young Americans in uniform.
………
Since the earliest days of our nation, a division has existed between those who argued that America should be an “exemplary republic” and those who called instead for a “crusader nation.” The exemplarist camp figured that America could best serve liberty and self-government by perfecting domestic republicanism — without going abroad in search of “monsters to destroy,” as John Quincy Adams put it. The crusaders sought to expand liberal democracy abroad, partly because they thought this would make America more secure and partly because they believed it was our destiny to baptize all nations in liberal ideals.
……….
Many of today’s Republicans thus came of age at a time when hawkishness on behalf of liberal values was understood as conservative. Yet the values lying at the foundation of that worldview and shaping our institutions are antithetical to everything conservatives claim to cherish: a ruthless market ideology that puts short-term shareholder gains and the whims of big finance above the demands of the national community; a virulent cultural libertinism that dissolves bonds of family and tradition.
What conservatives revile as “woke capital” is just this acidic combination of a market-centric economics and liberal cultural arrogance. ……..
Rip Murdock (da0cad) — 2/5/2022 @ 5:06 pm……….
As Tucker Carlson favorite Glenn Greenwald demonstrates, Greens are more likely to ally with the Trump GOP than they are with any center-right party. Per the horseshoe model of American politics, the isolationist, conspiracy-addled far-left and far-right have always had more affinity for each other than either of them has for the middle with all its mainstream institutions and obligation to govern like adults. But it took a special demagogue like Trump to make far-left positions like Putinism that would have until recently been anathema to anyone on the right but its farthest paleo-con fringes, popular with the GOP rank and file.
lurker (59504c) — 2/5/2022 @ 5:09 pmhttps://twitter.com/ScottWAtlas/status/1488276083707645952?
So thanks to John Hopkins we now know that lockdowns are useless, futile, and do more harm than good.
Sweden was right. We were wrong.
NJRob (fbe422) — 2/5/2022 @ 5:34 pmhttps://mobile.twitter.com/michaelgwaltz/status/1489992217284407300?
Blood diamonds? Nah, straight for the blood money for NBC. Refusing to air an Enes Kanter Freedom ad because it calls out the businesses supporting slavery to make a buck.
NJRob (fbe422) — 2/5/2022 @ 5:38 pm“So thanks to John Hopkins we now know that lockdowns are useless, futile, and do more harm than good.
Sweden was right. We were wrong.”
Nah.
https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-a-preprint-looking-at-the-impact-of-lockdowns-as-posted-on-the-john-hopkins-krieger-school-of-arts-and-sciences-website/
Davethulhu (17e89a) — 2/5/2022 @ 5:58 pm#99 Just another detail in the worker shortage in my area: A small branch of the Bank of America near me has been closed for weeks — I assume because they are short of people. It’s not a big place; as I recall, I used to see three or four people in there on an average day.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 2/5/2022 @ 6:17 pmThulu, trying to dismiss the results because it disagrees with your preconceived notions? How very unscientific, but expected.
NJRob (4eef2f) — 2/5/2022 @ 6:25 pm“Thulu, trying to dismiss the results because it disagrees with your preconceived notions? How very unscientific, but expected.”
Davethulhu (17e89a) — 2/5/2022 @ 6:41 pm@108 This study intentionally excludes all studies rooted in epidemiology–the science of disease.
no, it didn’t
another gem from that same quote:
“Smoking causes cancer, the earth is round, and ordering people to stay at home (the correct definition of lockdown) decreases disease transmission.”
science! take that, flat earthers!
and this:
“But they systematically excluded from consideration any study based on the science of disease transmission, meaning that the only studies looked at in the analysis are studies using the methods of economics.”
because lockdowns have economic consequences and judging their benefits is a question of economics, which epidemiologists have systematically excluded from consideration
JF (e1156d) — 2/5/2022 @ 7:04 pmPerot’s Reform Party was as close as we’ve seen in living memory to a new major party — it’s positions were not on the fringe and it had a fairly successful first election. It’s failure was due to being based on a person, not a set of ideas, and when Perot bagged it (and he was never really all that intent on winning) it was captured by whackjobs.
The Reform Party grew out of a very specific set of circumstances, and was a populist movement, like the Bull Moose Party 80 years earlier. The Bush Republicans have neither the energy nor the mainstream appeal to form a viable third-party after Dubya’s reign of error destroyed the brand for a generation.
the isolationist, conspiracy-addled far-left and far-right have always had more affinity for each other than either of them has for the middle with all its mainstream institutions and obligation to govern like adults.
LOL, “obligation.” Populist movements are a consequence of the failure of the so-called “middle,” with its unwarranted sense of self-regard, obtuseness, and blame-avoidance, to properly govern like adults in the first place. One might think the lessons of the Roman Republic would be instructive here, but people consistently lament the fall without gaining a sliver of understanding of the circumstances that motivated thousands of its own citizens to take up arms against it.
Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 2/5/2022 @ 7:06 pm“science! take that, flat earthers!”
and
“because lockdowns have economic consequences and judging their benefits is a question of economics, which epidemiologists have systematically excluded from consideration”
The report explicitly states “that lockdowns have had little to no effect on COVID-19 mortality”
Davethulhu (17e89a) — 2/5/2022 @ 7:25 pmDo the Swedes think they had the correct strategy against COVID?
No.
And no.
Now, then, why doesn’t radiologist Scott W. Atlas know those facts?
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 2/5/2022 @ 7:31 pmThe report explicitly states “that lockdowns have had little to no effect on COVID-19 mortality”
Davethulhu (17e89a) — 2/5/2022 @ 7:25 pm
“Our study shows the benefits [of lockdowns] — in terms of fewer deaths — are questionable and small.”
“They have contributed to reducing economic activity, raising unemployment, reducing schooling, causing political unrest, contributing to domestic violence and undermining liberal democracy,” the report noted.
meaning, the economic costs are not justified by reduced mortality
is there any other way to interpret that, Davethulhu?
is this the sort of evaluation we typically hear from epidemiologists?
JF (e1156d) — 2/5/2022 @ 7:37 pmWell, Mr. Miller and Mr. Thulhu, if you’re going to put your health ahead of Tucker Carlson’s ratings, I guess there’s noting to say to you, you leftist RINOs.
nk (1d9030) — 2/5/2022 @ 7:46 pm“is there any other way to interpret that, Davethulhu?”
The conclusion follow from the premise, so yes, it is a properly constructed argument. Is the premise correct, though? The page I linked finds fault with their methodology.
Davethulhu (17e89a) — 2/5/2022 @ 8:04 pmMiller: “There are many other reasons. For example, Chris Christie has said he will be taking on Trump — and Christie is an effective campaigner, who believes in the rule of law.”
Christie had a moment in the 2016 campaign to go for the king….and instead decided to pull knives on “little” Marco Rubio….then quickly bent the knee and submitted. Christie was probably one of the smartest candidates in the field….but also had that edge of independence….with many of us not quite forgiving him for the big Sandy-hug of Obama…providing a bipartisan boost that torpedoed Romney’s chances…or appeared to. I’ve softened on him in time, as I had some sympathy for Trump turning him into an errand boy and Lou Costello-like prop piece for Cirque du-Trump. Does a leaner Christie resonate with the current GOP? Do the faithful want a message of competence and policy depth….or do they want season 10 of the apprentice meets Tony Soprano? I suppose there’s a shot….though I would prefer to have a backup plan if Talk Radio, Fox, and Evangelicals sell us out….again.
I still might like to see a Justin Amash lead a serious Libertarian charge…maybe finding a side-kick ex-governor who doesn’t profusely…and weirdly…compliment Hillary Clinton or get high on his own supply….or seem like he was. If it’s Trump v. Biden…what a rare opportunity…maybe even better than Dole v. Clinton. It’s about basic competence, knowledge, and integrity….the bar is pretty low and the nose-holders are a big part of the electorate. I’ve not heard Amash speak recently which still puts him miles ahead of Trump/Biden who rarely say anything that doesn’t have to be corrected, filtered, or unpuzzled…..a lot would need to happen for a Perot-like-event to trigger….it’s a long shot…especially with the whackiness that is 3rd parties….but maybe just enough was learned from the Johnson/Weld-Aleppo crater job. Being groovie isn’t enough…you have to make a prima facie case…..is Amash a good enough lawyer? Unfortunately I do think Amash is smart enough to not just go through theatrics….to just run for the ego pump…so I suspect that…like me…he’s lost faith in the system….in the people…and will keep his gunpowder dry in hope for a revival of sorts. I certainly hope for a revival……
AJ_Liberty (3cb02f) — 2/5/2022 @ 8:13 pmThat’s right, with power comes the obligation to govern as adults. That it’s done poorly doesn’t diminish the obligation. Pre-Trump extremists, on the other hand, were kept a safe distance from power. Their only obligation was to amuse themselves and keep the Cheetos dust off mom’s carpet. Quite the ideological luxury. Untested political philosophies are never wrong.
And no, populism isn’t the consequence of bad governance. It’s the utopian cure for dystopian fantasies that grifters sell to intellectual toddlers with the promise that if they stomp their feet long and hard enough, two plus two will equal five.
lurker (59504c) — 2/5/2022 @ 8:54 pmThat’s right, with power comes the obligation to govern as adults. That it’s done poorly doesn’t diminish the obligation.
If the governing is done poorly, irrespective of whether they think they’re the “adults” or not, they shouldn’t be surprised when they get kicked to the curb.
Pre-Trump extremists, on the other hand, were kept a safe distance from power. Their only obligation was to amuse themselves and keep the Cheetos dust off mom’s carpet. Quite the ideological luxury. Untested political philosophies are never wrong.
“Anyone who disagrees with me is a pro-Trump extremist.”
And no, populism isn’t the consequence of bad governance.
Well, yeah, it is. You might want to crack open a history book sometime. Whether it’s been ancient Rome, the Peasants’ Revolt, multiple revolutionary movements during the Industrial era, the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era, or the Tea Party and Occupy, these movements don’t emerge without cause. That you so stubbornly refuse to understand that doesn’t change that fact.
It’s the utopian cure for dystopian fantasies that grifters sell to intellectual toddlers with the promise that if they stomp their feet long and hard enough, two plus two will equal five.
lurker (59504c) — 2/5/2022 @ 8:54 pm
This is the whelp of a beaten cur.
Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 2/5/2022 @ 9:29 pm“There are many other reasons. For example, Chris Christie has said he will be taking on Trump — and Christie is an effective campaigner, who believes in the rule of law.”
Pffft. Bridgegate and beach whaling aside, this lard bucket is a waddling heart attack.
He’s literally political dead meat.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/5/2022 @ 9:53 pmChris Christie Humiliated After Book Sales Crash & Burn
Christie’s book, in its first week, sold just 2,289 copies. That not only makes it a flop, but a monumental failure.
https://bipartisanreport.com/2021/11/29/chris-christie-humiliated-after-book-sales-crash-burn/
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/5/2022 @ 9:55 pmhttps://republicbrief.com/3417-2/
mg (8cbc69) — 2/5/2022 @ 11:21 pmRepublicans humiliated by democrats, as usual.
Losers, idiots and lazy, the republicans.
106- No prep cooks or dishwashers will close a successful restaurant.
mg (8cbc69) — 2/5/2022 @ 11:26 pmLol. Read more carefully. “Pro-Trump extremist” are your words, not mine.
Anyway, you’re obviously the one who’s blinded by tribalism. As I said in the first comment you replied to, I disdain the extremists on both sides, a view I’ve yet to see you show the tiniest evidence of sharing.
lurker (59504c) — 2/5/2022 @ 11:27 pmhttps://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/02/rino-lindsey-graham-pushes-legislation-allow-government-read-phone-texts-emails-dms/
mg (8cbc69) — 2/5/2022 @ 11:32 pmpar for the course – give that man a dress
cnn has to be the most trusted name in screws
mg (8cbc69) — 2/5/2022 @ 11:36 pmI do have to thank cnn for making wallace vanish.
mg (8cbc69) — 2/5/2022 @ 11:41 pmOur best Amateur athletes are sent behind enemy lines, wonder if they make it back?
mg (8cbc69) — 2/5/2022 @ 11:45 pmhttps://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/02/05/joe-rogan-apologizes-for-being-joe-rogan-begs-woke-forgiveness/#more-226915
mg (8cbc69) — 2/5/2022 @ 11:50 pmlmao at conservatives who listened to this dope.
What confounds me is that the small site where I’ve blogged at is banned here (theforvm dot org), but a low-credibility hack site like ConservativeTreehouse gets a pass.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 2/6/2022 @ 1:45 amIf you want to understand what is happening to both the republican and democrat party watch “what to make of the age of trump” by thomas frank youtube. He rips the democrat party as the party of elites and tells how populist working and the professional class switched parties. I will tell you when I saw it happen when hard hat construction workers in NY beat up anti-war protesters who grew up to be the professional class elites leaving the white working class and their populism out of democratic politics to flounder over to reagan and bush until trump came along to lead them.
asset (08aa81) — 2/6/2022 @ 1:50 am129- More censorship, comrade? Get a grip, I read a lot of crap you people post, censorship is the last thing on my mind.
mg (8cbc69) — 2/6/2022 @ 2:08 amIts not about this guy rogan.
mg (8cbc69) — 2/6/2022 @ 2:12 amIts about stopping his guests from appearing.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/02/avenatti_and_the_media_swindlers.html
mg (8cbc69) — 2/6/2022 @ 2:20 amLawyers just never stop the b.s. Must be the education.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/02/avenatti_and_the_media_swindlers.html
mg (8cbc69) — 2/6/2022 @ 2:58 amAgree.
my mistake on the2x
mg (8cbc69) — 2/6/2022 @ 2:59 amRe your #127, this dude probably did a “Brandon at the Pope”:
https://sports.yahoo.com/dutch-tv-reporter-who-was-dragged-away-during-live-olympic-segment-212647442.html
urbanleftbehind (c073c9) — 2/6/2022 @ 4:57 amA lurker wrote:
No, it’s an obligation to govern as the people who voted for you want you to govern. That you may not see their motives or wishes as ‘adult’ does not change the obligation.
The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (732e76) — 2/6/2022 @ 5:25 amBut will the real life version of the Gonnella Bread Man make it back after this:
urbanleftbehind (c073c9) — 2/6/2022 @ 6:00 amhttps://www.businessinsider.com/nbc-olympics-china-genocide-mention-mike-tirico-uyghur-muslims-2022-2
Anyway, you’re obviously the one who’s blinded by tribalism. As I said in the first comment you replied to, I disdain the extremists on both sides, a view I’ve yet to see you show the tiniest evidence of sharing.
lurker (59504c) — 2/5/2022 @ 11:27 pm
Every so-called “moderate” I’ve ever met inevitably reveals just how tribalistic and provincial they really are, once you get past the platitudes and generalities. Anyone they call an “extremist” is just someone who doesn’t share their political views.
Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 2/6/2022 @ 6:28 amThe European Union gets serious about climate change:
For years I have been saying that, if you think climate change is a serious threat — and can do arithmetic — you will favor increasing our reliance on nuclear power. (By the way, one of the climate change prophets, James Hansen, agrees with me.)
I think it no accident that this decision came after Angela Merkel’s retirement. Early in her career, she had been and enthusiastic supporter of nuclear, but switched, to my dismay. (She has a degree in quantum chemistry, so she is certainly able to do the arithmetic.)
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 2/6/2022 @ 6:38 amPopulism at its heart is about feelings….emotions, not about well thought through ideas. It is both MAGA and BLM…both QAnon and Antifa…..both AOC and Trump. It’s dressed up as the little guy against the big guy….the common man against the elites. On the left this falls prey to the zero-sum fallacy that assumes that I can only have good things if I take them away from you. On the right it’s nativism….and the naked appeal of walls, tariffs, suspicion of trade deals, Muslim bans, and doing the opposite of the elites…..out of reflex and not from careful consideration. Populism is like the drunken guest at a party….sure there’s some truth in his rambling “emotings”, but it’s mixed in with a lot of bad facts and bad assumptions about how the world works and what solutions are practical.
Populism’s black and white views and uncompromising stands lead to a more polarized society. How do you compromise with the enemy? How can you ever acknowledge that the other side has a good-faith point? The answer is you can’t…and you always look for the worst possible caricature. The formulation becomes: Democrats only serve the cultural elites; neocons only serve the business and global elites – so only Trumplicans are the virtuous citizens. What can go wrong with that proposition?! Similar thinking gave us populist icons such as Chavez on one side and Pinochet on the other.
The answer isn’t to enable and embolden poorly articulated positions. Listen for sure and draw out concerns. People are certainly worried about the cost of college, health care, child care, and globalization/unfair economic competition. But what solutions make sense? Does the guy at the end of the bar truly understand globalization or should we pick someone sober?
AJ_Liberty (3cb02f) — 2/6/2022 @ 7:21 amPopulism is like the drunken guest at a party….sure there’s some truth in his rambling “emotings”, but it’s mixed in with a lot of bad facts and bad assumptions about how the world works and what solutions are practical.
More empty platitudes.
Populism at its heart is about feelings….emotions, not about well thought through ideas.
One of the ways that the establishment down-talks populist anger at establishment venality, corruption, malfeasance, and blame-avoidance is to brush it aside as “nothing more than feelings.” It’s the same as neoliberals smirking that working-class right-wingers “vote against their own interests.” It doesn’t have any basis in reality, but it allows the establishmentarians to make themselves feel better about dismissing it.
Similar thinking gave us populist icons such as Chavez on one side and Pinochet on the other.
Pinochet was hardly a populist. He was a military authoritarian who implemented a capitalist economy in Chile, and then ultimately stepped down when the country finally stopped supporting him and elected a new leader.
The answer isn’t to enable and embolden poorly articulated positions. Listen for sure and draw out concerns. People are certainly worried about the cost of college, health care, child care, and globalization/unfair economic competition. But what solutions make sense? Does the guy at the end of the bar truly understand globalization or should we pick someone sober?
AJ_Liberty (3cb02f) — 2/6/2022 @ 7:21 am
Except your side doesn’t have any solutions that work, either, as the last 30 years clearly show. In fact, such blithe condescension towards working-class concerns is exactly why populist anger ends up building. “Oh, we’ll listen to their belly-aching so they think we give a damn, but it’s rooted in nothing more than feelings and doesn’t really matter, so we’re going to go ahead and do what we want anyway. If it all goes pear-shaped, we’ll blame them for not getting on board, and even pick their pockets to bail us out.”
Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 2/6/2022 @ 7:59 amThe 5 year old who fell down the well in Morrocco has passed. Died as he was being rescued, a tough day for us miners.
EPWJ (0fbe92) — 2/6/2022 @ 8:31 amAs I recall, you’re the one who was advocating for a civil war. No extremism there.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 2/6/2022 @ 8:51 amWhich is why, starting in 2015, Trump fans responded to any criticism of Trump with an unusual level of anger.
It’s why fans said things like “There’s nothing he could do that would make me stop supporting him.”
It’s why the 2020 GOP platform was nothing more than supporting whatever Donald Trump wants, on the pretext that whatever he wants is “America First,” a slogan with no specific policy content.
It’s why the GOP is now centered on personal loyalty rather than a policy agenda.
It’s why the people who mostly aligned with Trump on policy, but parted with him when he tried all kinds of tricks to stay in power after losing an election, are condemned as eeevil traitors.
It’s why the Trumpers, while claiming that the GOP was callously indifferent to ordinary Americans until Trump came along, will praise the success of the classic supply-side tax cuts designed by an establishment Republican, but ignore the fact that Trump’s populist tariff regime was a failure. The actual policy doesn’t matter as much as whether it was done under Trump. (The same people, ironically, will claim that their enemies criticize certain actions merely because they were done by Trump — as if dislike of Trump couldn’t possibly be based on anything he does.)
It’s why people made giant “Trump” flags and wore clothes with glorified images of Trump, and why they chanted “Fight for Trump” as they attacked police officers with their flagpoles.
It’s why Trump loyalists believe it when he tells them that any “attack” on him — i.e. any effort to hold him accountable — is really an attack on them. They attached themselves to him at an emotional level, with an intensity I don’t recall seeing before in American politics.
Radegunda (c9718a) — 2/6/2022 @ 9:43 amAs I recall, you’re the one who was advocating for a civil war. No extremism there.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 2/6/2022 @ 8:51 am
No, I never advocated for a civil war. I have supported a national divorce, but that’s not same thing. Seems your memory is fading along with your age.
Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 2/6/2022 @ 9:47 amDoes the guy at the end of the bar truly understand globalization or should we pick someone sober?
But it’s bartender, employed by the ownerr, who peddles the poison– licensed, bottled and bonded.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/6/2022 @ 9:49 amTrump faces MAGA revolt over endorsement
……….
Trump on Tuesday evening endorsed Morgan Ortagus, who served as a State Department spokesperson during his administration and is pondering a run for a Middle Tennessee-based congressional district. The announcement has caused a firestorm, with far-right, high-profile backers ranging from North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn to conservative activist Candace Owens taking to social media to voice their support for Robby Starbuck, a rival candidate who’s been a mainstay of the pro-Trump movement.
……… The gripes have included everything from Ortagus’ support of Jeb Bush in the 2016 GOP primaries to her being photographed with President Joe Biden and having her wedding officiated by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
………
Starbuck himself is far from a sure-fire primary bet: He’s a first-time candidate and a relative newcomer to the district, running in what is expected to be a large field of formidable Republicans, and he has posted lukewarm fundraising numbers. ……..
……….
He released a statement calling the 39-year-old Ortagus, a former Fox News contributor, “an absolute warrior” for his movement and saying she was “fantastic in her role” at the State Department.
“Morgan Ortagus will have my Complete and Total Endorsement if she decides to run!” Trump said.
The pushback was swift.
“Absolutely not,” wrote Ned Ryun, a conservative activist, on Twitter.
“Nope. Trump has this completely wrong,” Owens tweeted.
“Trump is now firmly in the establishment camp,” wrote John Cardillo, another conservative activist.
Within a few hours, (Daniel) Bostic, who was a producer of the pro-Trump documentary “The Plot Against the President,” began pumping out tweets with photographs of Ortagus alongside Biden and Ginsberg while noting that she worked on Bush’s 2016 presidential campaign. The following evening, the Republic PAC Twitter account circulated a TV clip from 2016 of Ortagus saying that she’s “not a Trump fan.”
Within some corners of Trump’s inner circle, there were complaints about what they regarded as an impulsive, poorly planned and unnecessary endorsement, especially given that Ortagus isn’t an announced candidate.
Rip Murdock (da0cad) — 2/6/2022 @ 9:53 am……….
There is also a degree of skepticism within some corners of Trump’s orbit about whether Starbuck would be the strongest candidate in a potentially crowded primary. While Starbuck, whose full legal name is Robert Starbuck Newsom, has developed a reputation as a Twitter personality and has garnered support from out-of-state Trump backers, he has lived in the district for only a few years and never run for office. The primary is expected to draw a number of well-known local officials. ………..
………..
Trumpworld not amused.
This kerfuffle (like the backlash against Trump’s vaccine endorsement) might represent a weakening of the personality-cult stranglehold — except that Trump is being criticized for endorsing a candidate who hasn’t always revered Trump. So the cultists are basically trying to enforce the cult even if Trump himself slips up.
It’s also pretty funny that anyone in Trump’s inner circle would be dismayed that he did something “impulsive and poorly planned.”
Radegunda (c9718a) — 2/6/2022 @ 10:08 amPopulist movements are a consequence of the failure of the so-called “middle,” with its unwarranted sense of self-regard, obtuseness, and blame-avoidance, to properly govern like adults in the first place.
Yep. Can’t image why; it’s only become a deeply rooted tree that’s has been watered for decades and continues to grow due to: the Gulf of Tonkin lies through the Pentagon Papers, Watergate, Iran-Contra, the lack of a peace dividend to the failure of trickdlwn-economics; to no WMD to endlessly meddling mideast wars charged to the nation’s credit card; to 100% means 90%; to $2000 is $1400; to chasing a virus with weak vaccines w/the 1,2,3,4-+ boosters and not ‘shutting it down’ cold; to ‘you gotta pass the bill to learn what’s in it; to ‘you can keep your doctor;’ to trillions spent on a defense structure beaten by 20 guys with $500,000; to spending $15 billion on ships that can be sunk by $2 million missiles– or sold decades later as scrap for one cent; to wrongly declaring Kabul won’t be Saigon then six months later predicting 50,000 will die in Ukraine.
“Flounder, you can’t spend your whole life worrying about your mistakes! You fvcked up… you trusted us! Hey, make the best of it!” – Rush Chairman Eric Stratton [Tim Matheson] ‘National Lampoon’s Animal House’ 1978
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/6/2022 @ 10:23 amConfusion has always been the sharpest tool in the orange toolbox.
nk (1d9030) — 2/6/2022 @ 10:37 am“I have supported a national divorce”
I guess that’s an example of one of those non-emotional, deeply rational, and well thought through populist sentiments.
AJ_Liberty (ec7f74) — 2/6/2022 @ 10:50 amIt’s the same thing, because you’re falsely implying that a majority of Americans would actually want the US to spli up. But extremists like you do.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 2/6/2022 @ 10:51 amI guess that’s an example of one of those non-emotional, deeply rational, and well thought through populist sentiments.
AJ_Liberty (ec7f74) — 2/6/2022 @ 10:50 am
More establishmentarian blame avoidance and obtuseness.
It’s the same thing, because you’re falsely implying that a majority of Americans would actually want the US to spli up. But extremists like you do.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 2/6/2022 @ 10:51 am
Stamping your feet and speculating doesn’t make it so. And you claimed I said I wanted a civil war, which makes you a liar.
Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 2/6/2022 @ 11:16 am“Populist movements are a consequence of the failure of the so-called “middle,” with its unwarranted sense of self-regard, obtuseness, and blame-avoidance, to properly govern like adults in the first place.”
So if you want more responsible leadership…vote for Trump? Vote for Bernie? That’s just giving up. Politics is about persuasion….the Constitution is full of checks and balances to precisely smooth out the passions of the majority….and arrive at consensus. If your going-in play is that the other side is not just wrong…but evil….and you must never miss an opportunity to caricature them and dismiss them….then where exactly do you think that ends? Compromise is at the heart of our system…and the 60-vote threshold in the Senate set an expectation that no one should steam roll the process and that the interests of the minority must be considered because you never know when the roles will reverse. The Democrats were wrong to steam roll Obamacare….and they paid. Bush was wrong to take us into Iraq without a much better plan….and Republicans paid. Globalization has been a boon to some economic sectors and a bust for others. I’m not sure if I want politicians placed more in the position of picking winners and losers.
We need to grow up….and get back to federalism and making more decisions locally. More extremists and more toxic rhetoric may not lead to a national divorce, but it will make us unable to self-govern and susceptible to any numbers of problems that are stuck in gridlock.
AJ_Liberty (ec7f74) — 2/6/2022 @ 11:23 amTrump World adjusts to the growing influence of vaccine skeptics within its ranks
A few weeks ago, Donald Trump decried politicians who did not share their Covid-19 vaccine booster status as “gutless”—a seeming swipe at other Republicans with presidential ambitions, mainly Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who were keeping mum on the matter.
Days later, Trump took the stage in Arizona and didn’t mention his vaccination status or encourage others to get it, as he had at past rallies. He has not talked about booster shots since.
The silence from the former president is not coincidental. Within Trump’s circles, there is a growing sense that encouraging vaccines too aggressively could carry political risks. Like much of the rest of the GOP, the current calculation has been to rail against vaccine mandates but keep quiet on the push for the vaccines themselves.
………
Once relegated to corners of the internet, the anti-vaccine movement has emerged as a force within Republican politics — encouraged by some of the most prominent figures in conservative media and top operatives in the MAGA movement. …[T]hey are forcing GOP lawmakers and top officials to confront a new set of questions: Is being anti-vaccine mandate enough for a Republican with national ambitions, or does one have to show, explicitly or implicitly, skepticism with the vaccine itself?
……….
Chris Jankowski, a Republican strategist and former president of the Republican State Leadership Committee, said “the numbers aren’t there” for a Republican to win a general election while casting doubts on the vaccines.
“There’s not a significant single issue anti-vax vote that makes people fall in line like pro-life or the second amendment. And with President Trump continually saying get the vaccine, that tempers the growth of the anti-vax movement,” he said.
Rip Murdock (da0cad) — 2/6/2022 @ 11:36 am………
….,….[I]n in certain corners of the Republican Party, being anti-mandate is not politically sufficient. Influencers and a subset of lawmakers have argued that the campaign to get people vaccinated and boosted itself is problematic. Their skepticism is driven by a belief that government bureaucrats have grown power hungry and that pharmaceutical executives are trying to line their pockets.
……….
For the Wordle fans.
felipe (484255) — 2/6/2022 @ 11:38 amPopulism is the canary in the coal mine. It’s what happens when the governing class, of whatever persuasion, loses the plot. When people who would rather be doing literally ANYTHING else than politics go into the streets to protest, the political class has thoroughly fracked up.
Sure, it’s a blunt instrument. Often as blunt as “hang them all” — see Sergeant Doe’s Liberia. But the natural reaction of the ruling class (The Wizard of Id’s “The peasants are revolting” or Hillary’s “deplorables”) usually only makes matters worse.
In this case there was, first, a more nuanced and intelligent “populism” called the Tea Party, which the ruling class ignored, demonized and suppressed. The next wave was dumber and coarser, led by an ignorant huckster. That too was deplored and stymied as best the ancien regime could. Their doddering leader attempts to restore the status quo ante, with little success. His approval rating continues to drop.
And the issues that got the people into the streets remain. What the next version of this will take is unclear. It could be someone with ability takes over and leads the mob in a better direction, or it could be that the huckster returns with a mandate and a much angrier mob. He’d win the 2020 election today in a landslide.
The only thing that is certain is that politics are still broken and trying to pretend they are not is whistling past the graveyard. Possibly literally.
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/6/2022 @ 11:57 amIf your going-in play is that the other side is not just wrong…but evil….and you must never miss an opportunity to caricature them and dismiss them….then where exactly do you think that ends?
It’s not a going-in play, it’s an in-kind contribution. I don’t have to indulge people who practice the ethic of “repressive tolerance” and deem any major political setback as the voters “throwing a temper tantrum” or a “setback for democracy.” “Do unto others” goes both ways, you know.
Compromise is at the heart of our system
And if the left has shown that it’s not willing to compromise, I’m under no obligation to meet them in the middle. Funny thing is that whenever I propose actual, tangible compromises to leftists, they immediately shut up, deflect, or change the subject. For instance, I’m willing to go back to Eisenhower-era income tax rates if the left is willing to go back to Eisenhower-era budgets–eliminating all Great Society programs, doubling defense spending, and cutting total per-capita spending back to inflation-adjusted levels. I’m willing to treat firearms like cars, as the left often proposes when it’s pimping firearm insurance or licenses, if we in fact have the same rules for firearms as we do for cars–getting the license is a simple operator exam and multiple choice test, and renewals are based on a mere vision test, just like cars; that I can buy any firearm I want, including past state lines, without a background check–just like cars; and that the license is reciprocal across all 50 states and territories, and is “shall issue,” just like cars. So far, I haven’t gotten any takers on these compromise proposals, and the answer as to why is obvious–these people aren’t serious about anything other than their own will to power.
If they aren’t interested in compromising, why should they expect the right to meet them halfway? Because if they don’t, they’ll be on the “wrong side of history,” or whatever stupid, emotionally manipulative argument they like to trot out?
We need to grow up….and get back to federalism and making more decisions locally. More extremists and more toxic rhetoric may not lead to a national divorce, but it will make us unable to self-govern and susceptible to any numbers of problems that are stuck in gridlock.
AJ_Liberty (ec7f74) — 2/6/2022 @ 11:23 am
What does “making more decisions locally” even mean here? There are plenty of decisions that are made locally, from school boards to city councils, to county commissions and agencies, to state-level legislatures and bureaucracies, and the left STILL bellyaches about “the creeping threat of fascism” whenever their political monopolies are challenged in these arenas. Trying to find compromise with people who possess this sheer level of entitlement is simply a waste of energy. Better to let them know that they don’t have a right to rule just by the accident of their birth and the ideology they chose to adopt.
This might have been mitigate by having a common culture and common sense of identity, but that’s increasingly been “disrupted and dismantled” by the radical left for decades, and the pretense that American culture is “white supremacy” is now the primary commandment of the entire educational-industrial complex, as well as the mass media. Our political balkanization is a direct consequence of this decades-long propaganda effort, not Trump’s antics over the last five years. All he did was bring what was already in place in to sharper relief.
Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 2/6/2022 @ 11:57 amThat the press does not talk about the immigration flood or the economic plight of the common worker or the way the elites have given up on America (and Americans), does not mean that isn’t still going on.
If anything, people are angrier; the whole “Steal” thing is about rampant anger and distrust. True or not, it’s a powerful metaphor for how screwed these folks feel. People worry that Trump will cheat his way back into the Oval Office. As things stand now, he won’t have to, and it won’t be close enough that cheating will stop him either.
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/6/2022 @ 12:04 pmIs there any evidence to support this characterization of people who have gone around to Trump rallies in many states, or who booked hotels in or near D.C. and bought plane tickets or drive long distances to get there, bringing their huge Trump flags and other cult paraphernalia? Or people who have Newsmax or OAN on all the time, or who spend their leisure hours in online political chats and harangues?
It appears to me that the “populists” would rather be doing politics than any number of other things, and that many of them have a fair amount of spare time and spare cash to spend on political activity. They’re not driven into the streets by desperation. Some are rather well-to-do.
Many observers think the Trumpy “populists” are driven more by cultural resentment than by any existential anxieties. Some suggest that many of them are bored and want their lives to be more exciting.
Radegunda (e99c47) — 2/6/2022 @ 12:15 pmIs there any evidence to support this characterization of people who have gone around to Trump rallies in many state
Keep whistling.
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/6/2022 @ 12:21 pmPopulism at its heart is about feelings….emotions, not about well thought through ideas
The feeling is “I’m mad as Hell, and I’m not going to take it any more.” People who feel that they’ve gotten the wrong end of the stick for decades eventually blow up.
The standard of living for the [American] working class in America has declined substantially in the last 30 years. Far more single men, far fewer men or women employed in jobs that will support a family. Oh, sure if you have that college degree, or significant training, but many semi-skilled jobs go to immigrants now. Not every American is college material.
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/6/2022 @ 12:29 pmIs there any evidence to support this characterization of people who have gone around to Trump rallies in many state
More to the point, though, you cannot judge a movement by who shows up in DC. Not 1 in a 100 do that, and those are mostly hard-core activists without day-to-day responsibilities. They no more represent Trump’s voters than Antifa represent Bernie’s. The people who showed up at Trump rallies in Peoria are mostly a different sort. Populism isn’t a fringe movement, pretty much by definition.
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/6/2022 @ 12:33 pmRather than a “national divorce”, which would have strong opposition for valid reasons, starting with national security, I advocate state divorces. California could be spit into 3 or 5 states, each of which would have social cohesion where the current state does not. Illinois and New York are large states where a rural part is dominated by a single metropolis. Florida and Texas have their won cultural divisions. Splitting up large hard-to-govern states also makes the Senate more small-d democratic, and decreases the lumpiness of the Electoral College.
The idea of a national divorce is so terrible that I would nope that those who currently favor the top-down power center of DC would be willing to let go of a bit of it to save the whole. Break up the large states in ways that serve their people and let states be different. Because the current system is brittle, and will break on its own.
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/6/2022 @ 12:44 pmSo the people who are most committed to a movement tell us nothing about the movement? Interesting theory.
You specified people who “go into the streets to protest,” not just people who voted for Trump. Show me the massive Trumpy populist street protests — of what? an election that their guy didn’t win? — in which the participants clearly “would rather be doing literally ANYTHING else than politics,” even though they chose to do politics ahead of literally EVERYTHING else at that time.
Radegunda (e99c47) — 2/6/2022 @ 12:48 pmFor years, Trump and his acolytes have been saying that the size of his rally crowds — including the one on Jan. 6 — demonstrates how much America loves him, and somehow proves that he couldn’t possibly have lost an election. So it’s amazing to see the claim that the active rally-goers are not at all representative of the “movement” that Trump supposedly represents.
No, the “movement” must be all the people who made a choice for one of two highly unsatisfactory candidates, most of whom would never actually go to a rally for the movement’s hero.
Radegunda (e99c47) — 2/6/2022 @ 12:59 pmI first learned of Wordle in a New York Times article in January
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/03/technology/wordle-word-game-creator.html
According to the YouTube video linked at #157 by Felipe, the best first guess is, of all things:
CRANE ?!
E, A and R and also N are among the six or so most common letters, but C??
There must be alot of words on the list with a C, or C is often the remaining one of two choices.
There are close to 6 times the number of possible guesses as the number of possible answers. Every guess must be a real word, but answers are limited to more common words. A few words which should be on the answer list, are not. All the possible winning words are in the source code.
AS for what the New York Times is going to do with this:
They might want to get people to buy the printed paper,like the mini-crossword on page 3, but you can’t play this on paper.
I think they might make variants. Archives are already available – could they try to claim copyright?
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 2/6/2022 @ 1:24 pm165. Kevin M (38e250) — 2/6/2022 @ 12:44 pm
How are you going to get that?
The only way I think you might get a state to agree to split could be over the issue of abortion – well that’s for the more conservative part of the state. What would motivate the other part? Ot would have to be over some issue where they are losing.
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 2/6/2022 @ 1:27 pm113. Davethulhu (17e89a) — 2/5/2022 @ 7:25 pm
That should probably be:
in the long run
Because the lockdowns end, and all a lockdown does is tread water, and also people get more careless after a lockdown ends.
The question is, how many eople get a mild infection?
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 2/6/2022 @ 1:33 pmHmmm, did Queen Elizabeth inadvertently reveal state secrets in her official photo marking 70 years on the throne?
Radegunda (e99c47) — 2/6/2022 @ 1:36 pmMr M wrote:
After the ridiculous sending of ballots by mail to all registered voters, with little security involved, Joe Biden carried Pennsylvania 3,458,229 (50.01%) to 3,377,674 (48.84%) for President Trump; Mr Biden carried Philadelphia 603,790 (81.44%) to 132,740 (17.90%). A victory of 80,555 votes spurred by a margin of 471,050 in foul, fetid, fuming, foggy, filthy Philadelphia.
The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (732e76) — 2/6/2022 @ 1:45 pmYou’re making a distinction without a real difference, FWO, which is not honest on your part.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 2/6/2022 @ 1:45 pmI’ll also note that you spend a lot of time sky-screaming about the ills of this country but offer few or no prescriptions. You just go straight to civil war, because that’s what’ll happen with your so-called national divorce. Like I said, extremist.
Is there any evidence to support this characterization of people who have gone around to Trump rallies in many state
Radegunda,
The following Charles Murray op-ed, from 2016, explains things very well:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trumps-america-1455290458?st=dcg33lkafyatnnu&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
And then the details….
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/6/2022 @ 1:50 pmThe only way I think you might get a state to agree to split could be over the issue of abortion
Sammy, you have no clue about California. There have been a number of attempts to split over the last few decades. There are some fairly clear divides. Some of the splits suggested split on these divides, some seem to be false flag gerrymanders. But the state is unstable. It contains 1 in 8 Americans, and is governed by two cities. The north and central coast, Southern Cal, and the rural interior are all quite different cultures. It will split in my lifetime.
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/6/2022 @ 1:55 pmI read a lot pf interesting stories about Covid in the last week or so. (in brief)
Interesting points: (some of these combine articles)
1) They did a study in which volunteers aged 18-29 who had been vaccinated or previously infected with Covid were exposed. Result: Incubation period is about half of what was assumed – it was around 2 1/2 days.
Problem with that I thought of: They were all exposed to a standard dose of virus. But in real life, it’s not a standard dose.
Purpose of the study was probably to argue for a reduction of the quarantine period.
2) You can test waste water for the presence of Covid – and it can keep track of the presence of the disease or variants. Maybe not much better than other methods, even if there is less of a time lag, because sewage is not usually sampled so regularly.
In New York, they discovered another variant, in more than one place in NYC, which, so far, has not shown up in people. And it should have. Turns out this is probably a variant that only affects rats who live in or near sewers.
3) China keeps pushing the frozen food and other food theory (like fresh food from Vietnam) and this has resulted in peculiar actions – in Beijing the local authorities it came on mail headed to the Olympics. The central government could not disregard this without contradicting their own propaganda.
4) Turns out that there is some immunity from pre-Covid coronavirus infections from coronaviruses that cause common colds.
50 The Spanish flu had a 4th more serious wave in 1920, and the 1957 flue in 1960 and the 11968 flu in Europe – so a variant can get worse.
6) Farr’s Law of Epidemics (which impressed Trump or someone working for him) – which law, according to a book dealing with mathematics by Jordan Ellenberg called Shape should maybe be called “Farr’s” “Law” both words in quotes – does not in real life show a well shaped curve, not even of the second degree (change in the rate of change)
The decline is always slower than the rise.
7) Reported Covid deaths in USA have reached 900.000. Not at all evenly spaced. It was 400,000 on January 19, 2021.
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 2/6/2022 @ 1:55 pmGot today’s wordle in 3
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/6/2022 @ 2:00 pmIF California split into 3 states, two of them would still be in the top 5 population-wise. SoCal, as a state would be #2 behind Texas, with 23 million people.
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/6/2022 @ 2:05 pmKevin, I don’t think the state is going to split. Most of the votes are in SoCal and SoCal needs NorCal’s water.
Nic (896fdf) — 2/6/2022 @ 3:30 pmPopulism is the canary in the coal mine. It’s what happens when the governing class, of whatever persuasion, loses the plot. When people who would rather be doing literally ANYTHING else than politics go into the streets to protest, the political class has thoroughly fracked up.
It’s certainly not a “pursuit of happiness” is it; more like fixing a broken toilet.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/6/2022 @ 3:54 pmKevin M (38e250) — 2/6/2022 @ 1:55 pm:
(California) will split in my lifetime.
Comedy gold! There is no way this will ever happen, and I know California politics. Even the latest attempt to split California into six states and funded by tech billionaire Tim Draper (to the tune $5M+) failed to gather enough signatures to appear on the 2016 ballot.
Further, consent would need to be given by both the California State Legislature and the U.S. Congress to admit the new states, per Article IV, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution. Not gonna happen.
Keep to your fantasy, though.
Rip Murdock (da0cad) — 2/6/2022 @ 3:56 pm‘If you are dismayed by Trumpism, don’t kid yourself that it will fade away if Donald Trump fails to win the Republican nomination. Trumpism is an expression of the legitimate anger that many Americans feel about the course that the country has taken, and its appearance was predictable. It is the endgame of a process that has been going on for a half-century: America’s divestment of its historic national identity.’
Well, well, well; so ‘Mister Murray Went To Washington’ and has finally come around to my POV. A little late to the party, Chuck. But I did enjoy your Apollo book w/C.B. Cox- the only good one you’ve quilled.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/6/2022 @ 3:59 pm@178. IF California split into 3 states, two of them would still be in the top 5 population-wise. SoCal, as a state would be #2 behind Texas, with 23 million people.
Won’t happen any more than your dream of Trump being tried for treason, convicted and executed. About 30 years ago NJ was barking about splitting – North And South Jersey- due to geographical, economic and lifestyle differences. Made a lot of noise; went no place– like Sunday summer traffic on the Garden State Parkway.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/6/2022 @ 4:04 pmdid Queen Elizabeth inadvertently reveal state secrets
Good one, Radegunda!
nk (1d9030) — 2/6/2022 @ 4:11 pmDCSCA accurately describes government:
Yup, and it isn’t just Washington that’s clogged with [insert vulgarity for feces here]. Our state and local governments have been mired in it as well.
We want government to build roads, provide police protection and schools, and otherwise leave us the f(ornicate) alone!
The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (732e76) — 2/6/2022 @ 4:17 pm#176 Sammy – Thanks much for that summary of COVID findings. (I see in this weekend’s WSJ that scientists are thinking of ways to use the mRNA advances to attack a wide range of other diseases, an excellent development.)
(I can’t offer anything as comprehensive, but I did find this summary of the current state of nuclear power in the European Union. In short, the French are doing it right; the Germans aren’t.)
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 2/6/2022 @ 4:18 pmHow a Butterfly Refuge at the Texas Border Became the Target of Far-Right Lies
For nearly two decades, the National Butterfly Center has provided a place of wonder along the banks of the Rio Grande, attracting curious visitors and nature enthusiasts from around the country to watch delicate creatures like the xami hairstreak float over flowers and alight on logs.
……..
In a country where many believe that Satan-worshiping pedophiles run the government and the resurrection of John F. Kennedy Jr. will restore a Trump presidency, the butterfly center has become the latest unlikely victim of wild misinformation and outright lies spreading rapidly online. It has become a borderland version of Comet Ping Pong…….
……
The center and its staff have endured attacks by conservative figures and from Mr. Bannon’s “We Build the Wall,” a crowdfunding campaign that raised millions to construct a border barrier on private land near the butterfly center. ……
Mr. Kolfage repeatedly attacked the butterfly center on social media. “Instead of enabling women and children to be sex trafficked like @NatButterflies, we are taking action! This is a war for control of the most powerful country,” read one post from his Twitter account in 2019.
………
(Marianna Trevino Wright, the center’s executive director) said she began carrying a pistol at work after her altercation in the center’s colorful reception area with Kimberly Lowe, the candidate for Congress in Virginia.
Ms. Lowe and another woman arrived at the center last month, hoping to walk to the Rio Grande. Ms. Wright, after looking at Ms. Lowe’s Facebook posts, barred them from the property and then swatted away Ms. Lowe’s phone when she started filming. After that, Ms. Wright said, she was “thrown to the ground,” her own phone was taken by the other woman, and Ms. Lowe nearly ran over Ms. Wright’s son with her car.
Ms. Lowe denied any wrongdoing…….
Days later, a border security gathering attracted conservative activists to nearby McAllen with speakers like Michael T. Flynn, the former general and national security adviser to Mr. Trump, and the musician Ted Nugent. On Jan. 30, roughly a hundred attendees marched to a section of border wall near the center, some armed with long guns, others singing “Amazing Grace.”
After that, the nonprofit board voted to close the butterfly center, while continuing to pay its staff.
Rip Murdock (da0cad) — 2/6/2022 @ 4:32 pm………
It’s what they do in Texas, Rip.
nk (1d9030) — 2/6/2022 @ 4:38 pmI won’t miss the late terrorist leader, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, for many reasons, but especially this one:
We had him in captivity for a time, before the rise of ISIS, and should have kept him, for the duration of the war on terror or, more likely, until he died.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 2/6/2022 @ 4:41 pmGoing back to Dana’s sixth news item: Someone should explain to Oklahoma state senator Rob Standridge(R) that there are students including, no doubt, a few in Oklahoma, who would find the story I just linked to about the ISIS leader, “anti-religious”.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 2/6/2022 @ 4:56 pmCalifornia county on track to be run by militia-aligned group
………
………[O]n on Tuesday, voters ousted [retired police chief Leonard] Moty, handing control of the Shasta county board of supervisors to a group aligned with local militia members. The election followed nearly two years of threats and increasing hostility toward the longtime supervisor and his moderate colleagues in response to pandemic health restrictions.
……..
The recall is a win for the ultra-conservative movement in Shasta county, which has fought against moderate Republican officials and sought to gain a foothold in local government in this rural part of northern California.
………
“I think it’s going to be a change in our politics. I think we’re going to shift more to the alt-right side of things,” Moty said on Wednesday. “I really thought my community would step up to the plate and they didn’t and that’s very discouraging.”
……… Shasta County has long been a conservative bastion and home to a thriving State of Jefferson movement, which advocates for secession from California and the formation of a new state. But it was also the sort of place where people could work through their differences to achieve common goals, said Moty, who had served as a supervisor since 2009.
……..
Moty and other supervisors were soon subjected to levels of anger and hostility once reserved for state officials, in what Lisa Pruitt, a rural law expert at the University of California, Davis, describes as a trickling down effect.
………
Carlos Zapata, a local militia member who helped organize the recall efforts, in 2020 told the board there could be blood in the streets if the supervisors didn’t reject state health rules such as mask requirements.
“This is a warning for what’s coming. It’s not going to be peaceful much longer. It’s going to be real … I’ve been in combat and I never wanted to go back again, but I’m telling you what – I will to stay in this country. If it has to be against our own citizens, it will happen. And there’s a million people like me, and you won’t stop us,” he said.
……….
Polling numbers on Wednesday showed 52% of voters opted to recall Moty. The success of the recall will likely set up more conflict between the local government and the state government, Pruitt said.
Moty is done with politics, he says. He plans to stay in Shasta county “for now”, but worries for the future of the area and that it could become a haven for those with extremist views. For many Shasta county citizens, he said,
“They’re gonna get a rude awakening.”
Rip Murdock (da0cad) — 2/6/2022 @ 5:11 pm#########
As will the new Board. Governing is hard.
171 184. he red box is empty except for some piece of common literature or two. Maybe for school?
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 2/6/2022 @ 5:20 pmYes, it is better to say something after you’ve gotten some publicity from the Chinese government. Of course, you may not win any medals, and you may have passed your time of maximum publicity. Maybe mention the name of someone who will win medals and later say something – pr maybe even one stage more removed.
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 2/6/2022 @ 5:30 pmSo you, who unfailingly defend one side while excoriating the other, somehow know from your personal experience that people who condemn extremism on both sides are liars. And this of course makes them, not you, the tribalists.
That’s some totally logical, not to mention falsifiable, analysis.
lurker (59504c) — 2/6/2022 @ 5:37 pm15. .Dana (5395f9) — 2/4/2022 @ 11:01 pm
Trump is not wrong like Pence said. He was lying. (about the law)
There is still a problem with the Electoral Count Act even if they enact a few of the proposed fixes.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/05/opinion/electoral-count-act-congress.html
I heard on one of the Sunday interview shows that some guest was told by the Parlimentairn that every (Presidential election) year there are always people who send certifications that they were electors, so they’re always ignored if they don’t come from the right people.
It’s probably best not to define too precisely what constitutes proof that some group of people were the genuine electors. We all would know, in a real situation, or would know if there was genuine doubt – except it’s supposed to be setlwed by the say the Electors votw.
And, pursuant to their oath to support the constitution, expect members of Congress to act accordingly. Or enough of them.
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 2/6/2022 @ 5:49 pmIt’s not Congress’s problem. It’s the several states’ problem to send a slate of Electors that can be counted. However they do it.
At varying points in history, 37 of today’s states did not participate in Presidential elections. If any cannot get their act together to participate in the next one by sending a valid slate of Electors well … they’ll have another chance in four years.
nk (1d9030) — 2/6/2022 @ 6:18 pmNothing in there provides any evidence to back up the claim that today’s populists are “people who would rather be doing literally ANYTHING else than politics” yet are going “into the streets to protest” something or other nonetheless.
1/6 was the biggest MAGA-populist version of going into the streets to protest, and there is no evidence nor any plausible reason to believe that those people really, really didn’t want to do politics — that it was “literally” the last thing they wanted to do — but were driven by desperation to travel to D.C. to “protest” their guy’s loss of an election.
As for what Murray describes as America’s “historic national identity”: that sounds a lot more like classical liberalism than populism. And it certainly doesn’t sound like anything that Trump represented more than all Republicans before him.
Today’s populist New Right identifies classical liberalism with an old, decrepit brand of fusionist conservatism. Many populists favor more economic paternalism and a “national identity” that’s more explicitly religious — and ideally more ethnically homogeneous.
Sure they’ll chant “freedom” when it suits them. But liberty and individualism are not the essence of populism.
Radegunda (e99c47) — 2/6/2022 @ 6:40 pmA central part of the national identity is that we live under a constitution that restricts the powers of governing authorities. In America, the rule of law stands above the president.
Donald Trump, the great populist hero, didn’t particularly respect legal restraints on his power — not even the rule that a losing incumbent must cede power to the winner of the election. He had no respect for the law saying that he was to preserve all presidential records — he routinely tore up documents, sometimes basically shredding them. He didn’t appear to make any effort to understand what the law required him to do and what were the limits on the president’s power.
He obviously wanted to be more like the autocratic rulers of countries very much unlike the United States of America.
If Trump represents the national identity better than all before him, it’s a nation that has become unrecognizable to many of us.
Radegunda (e99c47) — 2/6/2022 @ 6:54 pmPrediction: the “Minor Incursion;” – another Germany. The nostalgic Soviet Vlad ‘splits the difference;’ “liberates” the more Russian “East Ukraine” back into the Motherland and leaves a “West Ukraine” for saber rattling NATO hens and old Rooster Joe to cluck over -and pipeline deals still optional into Europe to keep the capitalists on both sides hqappy. But a ‘Kyiv Wall’ through the city would be a quaint touch– and a nice tourist attraction.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/6/2022 @ 6:56 pmWhatever “populism” might mean elsewhere and elsewhen, when it comes to Trumpworld it means “shiftless” as far as I can tell. They couldn’t win by the rules, and they fared even worse when they broke them. The Triumvirs wouldn’t even have bothered to haul them up to the Tarpeian Rock.
nk (1d9030) — 2/6/2022 @ 7:03 pmI will give Trump credit — when it’s due it’s due — for not going full Jesse Jackson and claiming that he came either first or second in every state.
nk (1d9030) — 2/6/2022 @ 7:09 pm‘I will give Trump credit…’
Reaganomics!
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/6/2022 @ 7:13 pmDeutsche Bank.
nk (1d9030) — 2/6/2022 @ 7:17 pmgofundme:
1. we are stealing your money you donated for the Canadian truckers and using it for something else.
2. oops. we will keep the money but you can tell us where to spend it on a charity of your choice.
3. oops. if you go through this lengthy procedure we will return your money.
4. oops. we will return your money.
Apparently some corporate lawyers are good for something.
Canadian truckers: workers of the world uniting and pissing off a lot of leftists. and apparently some conservatives.
kaf (18f9b1) — 2/6/2022 @ 8:18 pmEven money the Chicoms are behind it. The Ottawa Occupy. They’ve had a hard-on for Canada ever since it detained the Huawei lady, and a Fifth Column everywhere.
nk (1d9030) — 2/6/2022 @ 8:35 pmAnd the IWW were communists.
nk (1d9030) — 2/6/2022 @ 8:44 pmI don’t know what possessed GoFundMe to agree to fund the filthy Chicom fellow traveler scum-sucking anti-vaxxer scumbuckets in the first place. Whatever its rake-off would have been, it’s just not worth descending in that sewer.
nk (1d9030) — 2/6/2022 @ 9:27 pmDoes anyone here know who started the social welfare state and why? I will give you a hint he didn’t care about helping the poor that was a byproduct of protecting the wealthy class, because as he said we can’t shoot them all down!
asset (cc0ee6) — 2/6/2022 @ 10:29 pm#208
If I remember my history correctly (no internet consulted), it was Otto von Bismark. Is that who you have in mind?
Appalled (1a17de) — 2/7/2022 @ 5:47 amI think he (Otto von Bismarck) is more famous for: “A herring? A farshlugginer herring?”
nk (1d9030) — 2/7/2022 @ 6:06 amIt was called noblesse oblige and it was already discussed up above in only slightly more modern terms: The obligation of the ruling class to govern responsibly and to look after their people.
nk (1d9030) — 2/7/2022 @ 6:19 amAnd to keep trannies out of women’s athletic competitions.
nk (1d9030) — 2/7/2022 @ 6:21 am#210 He probably meant Bismarck, but it isn’t hard to find earlier precedents, for example, the distribution of free bread to Roman citizens a couple of thousand years ago.
And I suppose the “gift economy” found traditionally among the San can be considered a form of welfare.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 2/7/2022 @ 6:53 amFive hundred years before Augustus the Athenians had the parasition, the communal dining hall, where every citizen not only could eat for free but was expected to at least occasionally if only to mingle and shmooze a little. And, yes, that’s where the word “parasite” comes from, because some people used it more than it was thought seemly.
nk (1d9030) — 2/7/2022 @ 7:08 am162. Kevin M (38e250) — 2/6/2022 @ 12:04 pm
There’s not a flood; there’s a drought.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/05/us/immigration-census-population.html
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 2/7/2022 @ 7:21 amO think there’s a long standing truce between the Census Bureau and the immigration enforcement people.
The border people agree not to argue economics (although outsiders do) and the Census Bureau agrees not to argue sociology.
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 2/7/2022 @ 7:24 amBismarck is generally credited (by some academics) as having started the social welfare state (more than just free bread) and having set the retirement age at age 65. He did it to fight socialism, and presumably protect the monarchy, and he a;so promoted anti-Semitism in Germany for the same reason.
The peak of anti-Semitism in Germany was about 1893, and it was about 1908 in Austria. It was a whole complicated ideology with a special name.
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 2/7/2022 @ 7:33 amThe populists don’t like immigration. Trump issued various executive orders to make it harder for people to immigrate legally.
MTG said she wanted to build a wall around America and tell the rest of the world to f*** off. This was reported by a super-Trumpy writer, along with the comment “Love her!”
Radegunda (e99c47) — 2/7/2022 @ 7:35 am#176 Two stories to add to Sammy’s useful list of COVID stories:
First, the CDC has numbers on how useful masks are:
(As with the rest of the Post’s COVID coverage, the whole article is “free to access”. There’s a link to the CDC’s study in the first paragraph of the article.)
Second, a study published in the Lancet found that “Covid Is Less Deadly Where There Is Trust”. The authors summarized their work in an article in weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal.
Here’s their most striking finding:
Trusting a nation’s government also made COVID less deadly.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 2/7/2022 @ 7:41 amhttps://nypost.com/2022/02/06/memphis-blm-founder-pamela-moses-sentenced-for-illegally-voting/
You missed this one Rip.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 2/7/2022 @ 7:45 am198. Radegunda (e99c47) — 2/6/2022 @ 6:54 pm
He respected de facto legal restraints, but not de jure. He did not respect truth.
That;s an old story. He used to tear up papers in is private or business life when he was finished with them, and didn’t want to file them, ad he continued to do so in 2017 after he became president, in spite of the fact he was told that any piece of paper that passed the president’s eyes (or desk maybe) had to, by law, be preserved in the National Archives (the same does not apply to the Secretary of State or any other official.)
The White House aides gave up arguing with him and simply taped the stuff he threw into a wastepaper basket, back together. He did not use a shredder. So it was probably not torn into more than eighths, or sixteenths at worst.
If he used a shredder, how could they tape them back together?
Maybe it was destined for the shredder (except his office would not be equipped with one because of the Presidential Recprds Act) and they retrieved it before it went there?
He would rely on his lawyers, and press them to reverse opinions he didn’t like. He didn’t respect precedent very much and wanted everything treated as de novo.
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 2/7/2022 @ 7:45 am219. AS the Washington Post article says:
So you can’t say what the masks did, since people who wore masks (or said they often wore masks) also did other things, like avoid crowds.
And you have the same issue of confounding factors when dealing with trust. Trust itself cannot actually do anything.
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 2/7/2022 @ 7:51 am196 nk (1d9030) — 2/6/2022 @ 6:18 pm
I think that has to be 37 times (sp,e states more than once, and all or most of them states from the old Confederacy, ad maybe some tried but they were rejected by Congress in 1868.)
The problem with that, is that a losing faction in a sate could contrive t==o make the election fail by running out the clock.
It’s supposed to be setlwed by the say the Electors vote, and Congress in 1845 created a six day window t deal with a failed election.
The New York Times says that provision needs reform:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/05/opinion/electoral-count-act-congress.html
Now, no state has a provision that if an election fails to reach an utcome, the state legislature gets to choose, so they’d first have to pass a law giving themselves the power to do so in that 6 day window, And in most states, there would not be a majority to do anything but give the electors to the most probable winner.
These games are most likely to be played in a state when the people playing that game won anyway – but not entirely, Especially since the legislature that would change the law would be the lame duck one.
Courts also actually work very assiduously to determine a winner, although in 2000, lawyerd and courts kept batting things from court to court.
Politico came up with a whole scenario that isn’t valid. For one, if a state disqualified a man named Donald J. Trump from being listed on the ballot (and this could very likely happen only in a state that he would lose anyway) and the Republican Party named a stand-in candidate, the Electors could vote for Donald Trump in the end anyway – except that the Supreme Court after 2016 upheld state laws binding them.
The Politico article foresees a disputed result sent to court, (presumably after Congress counts the votes) and violence, ignoring what would head that off.
In that scenario, fleshing it out a bit, after Trump is chosen by the House of Representatives, someone will go to court and say that Section 3 the 14th amendment disqualifies Donald J. Trump from being president – or holding any other office civil or military, under the United States – interesting, it mentions every office except that of president (and vice president, whose qualifications are stated elsewhere in the constitution to be the same as that of president)
They will argue that, in 2021, Donald John Trump engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the constitution of the United States, or gave aid and comfort to those who did. And then maybe the courts agree and declare him no president.
.
And, pursuant to their oath to support the constitution, expect members of Congress to act accordingly. Or enough of them.
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 2/7/2022 @ 8:25 amWhen the COVID pandemic began, I reviewed books I had read on previous epidemics. Where I could, I reduced my close interactions with others, especially inside. I bought masks almost immediately, and upgraded as better ones became available. I got my initial vaccinations, and the booster, as soon as they were available.
To the extent I can, I encouraged everyone to work together, since we are, after all, facing an infectious disease.
In none of these things did I have any certainty; we never do, in life. But, if we are rational, we follow the odds, as best we can. I believe, with more than a 99 percent probability that the COVID vaccines improve our chances. I believe, with a more than 95 percent probability, that masks improve our chances of avoiding infection. I believe, with a more than 90 percent probability, that higher trust would improve our nation’s response to COVID.
Those who have acted similarly show that, in practice, they agree with me, though they may differ on their degrees of belief.
So, those who quibble about a study should tell us whether they act as if the study were true.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 2/7/2022 @ 8:25 amThat last orphaned sentence means that when in case of a real issue with what slate of electors to uphold, with plausible competing certifications, expect members of Congress to uphold who really won. Or enough of them.
(so I wouldn’t want federal law to really specify who in a state can certify who are the legitimate chosen Electors. That can create a real path for mischief.
It’ll take more tan 4 years for things to really deteriorate.
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 2/7/2022 @ 8:30 amOther evidence shows that masks are a minor help, and staying away from people when you feel sick, ad ventilation are more important. I had the thought masks might make something a minor infection.
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 2/7/2022 @ 8:33 amPelosi must have been shocked and reviled during the 1968 Olympics.
Wordle is great. Too bad it will be monetized by another corporate giant.
Hoi Polloi (15cfac) — 2/7/2022 @ 8:35 amRe; Ukraine The only thing is what Vladimir Putin is really concerned about is threats to his power, or at least to his wealth (the situation prevents him from retiring)
And Putin can’;t say what he really wants because not only are western countries extremely unlikely to do it, but telling us what not to do is like giving us a road map as to how to replace him.
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 2/7/2022 @ 8:37 amKevin, I don’t think the state is going to split. Most of the votes are in SoCal and SoCal needs NorCal’s water.
This seems a non sequitur to me. SoCal get water from other states now.
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/7/2022 @ 8:45 amhttps://nypost.com/2022/02/06/memphis-blm-founder-pamela-moses-sentenced-for-illegally-voting/
You missed this one Rip.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 2/7/2022 @ 7:45 am
Dana already posted it as item 7. See above.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 2/7/2022 @ 8:47 am@224 stop pushing the nonsense that covid reduction is our only metric
forcing children to wear masks in schools is simply child abuse, regardless of its dubious anti covid benefits
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/01/kids-masks-schools-weak-science/621133/
https://healthpolicy.usc.edu/article/mandatory-masking-of-school-children-is-a-bad-idea/
https://www.wsj.com/articles/masks-children-parenting-schools-mandates-covid-19-coronavirus-pandemic-biden-administration-cdc-11628432716
JF (e1156d) — 2/7/2022 @ 8:47 amEven the latest attempt to split California into six states and funded by tech billionaire Tim Draper (to the tune $5M+) failed to gather enough signatures to appear on the 2016 ballot.
Draper’s attempts are mostly gerrymanders. They split the state on lines that are intended to increase Democrat representation in the Senate while doing little to assuage sectional disputes.
See his later plan (3 states) which would have resulted in three Democrat majority states. It didn’t go onto the ballot due to a legal challenge, despite getting enough signatures.
There are splits of the state that serve all interests. Draper’s proposals are partisan false flags.
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/7/2022 @ 8:53 amThis seems a non sequitur to me. SoCal get water from other states now.
No it doesn’t. Southern California receives water from the Owens Valley and the Mono Basin via the Los Angeles Aqueduct, and the State Water Project, and the Colorado River Aqueduct, and local groundwater. No water comes from outside of California.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 2/7/2022 @ 9:01 amThe populists don’t like immigration. Trump issued various executive orders to make it harder for people to immigrate legally.
Yes, but not for the reasons the Left suggests. Immigrants typically take construction or semi-skilled jobs. These displace non-college-bound Americans whose prospects have decreased markedly over the last 30 years. In some places, like SoCal, Mexican Spanish is the language of the construction trade.
No one cared until Trump did. Populism is a pent-up reaction by people who’ve been discarded by the governing class. It doesn’t “just happen.”
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/7/2022 @ 9:01 am…Colorado River Aqueduct, and local groundwater. No water comes from outside of California.
The Colorado River comes from outside California, and CA’s allotment is set in a multi-state arrangement.
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/7/2022 @ 9:05 amSee (Draper’s) later plan (3 states) which would have resulted in three Democrat majority states. It didn’t go onto the ballot due to a legal challenge, despite getting enough signatures.
It didn’t get on the ballot because it attempted to change the California Constitution through a statute and not a constitutional amendment. Draper agreed it should not be on the ballot:
Source
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 2/7/2022 @ 9:06 amThe Colorado River comes from outside California, and CA’s allotment is set in a multi-state arrangement.
Given the fact the Colorado River is drying up due to drought, California’s allocation (like other states along the river) has been curtailed due the drought. California’s allocation is insufficient to support Southern California on its own. The major water rights holder to Colorado River water is the Imperial Irrigation District.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 2/7/2022 @ 9:17 amhttps://www.rebelnews.com/man_charged_in_winnipeg_car_attack_on_convoy_protest_is_radical_far_left_anarchist
I’m shocked to find that the leftist that tried to plow innocent protesters who weren’t blocking traffic is a radical anarchist.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 2/7/2022 @ 9:31 amI’m shocked to find that the leftist that tried to plow innocent protesters who weren’t blocking traffic is a radical anarchist.
So mowing down protesters who were blocking traffic is okay?
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 2/7/2022 @ 9:41 am“Old story” doesn’t make it irrelevant today. I recall reading about the practice awhile back. It’s in the news again, and more information has emerged, such as the “burn bags“:
So, looks like he wanted those docs to be destroyed good and hard.
The Trumpers will probably say he needed to protect himself from persecution by the Deep State, and that his habitual violation of legal obligations takes nothing away from his standing as the Great Patriotic Hero who loves America more than you do.
Where did I say he “used a shredder”? I wrote “basically shredding them,” which does not mean “used a shredder.”
Trumpies kept saying it was a wonderful thing that their hero “isn’t afraid to challenge traditional norms,” as though he’s courageously tearing down pointless impediments to doing the right thing. But it really isn’t a matter of courage. It’s that Trump doesn’t respect any limits on doing what serves his desires and interests. If he remains within the law (just), it’s only because he has calculated that there’s a high chance of being punished for it. If he thinks he can get away with it — and use the power of the presidency to punish anyone who would hold him accountable — he will do it.
Anyone who pays attention to Trump has to notice that his understanding of right and wrong is blatantly egocentric. He put a thin veneer of jingoistic patriotism over it, and it fooled a lot of people who should know better. The more evidence of his amorality and lawlessness emerges, the harder they try to spin it as just another attack on their hero.
Radegunda (04c976) — 2/7/2022 @ 10:03 amhttps://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/kevindowneyjr/2022/02/06/pinko-alert-kindergarten-kids-in-masks-forced-into-blm-school-parade-and-thats-just-the-beginning-n1556687
Send your kids to indoctrination centers and watch what they turn into.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 2/7/2022 @ 10:15 amPopulists don’t simply worry about jobs being taken. They — or a substantial portion of them — object to the changing ethnic composition of the population.
Nationalist populism is not just about jobs, or even primarily about jobs. It’s also, or more so, about cultural identity — which to a large extent means ethnic identity.
Moreover, the Trump immigration restrictions also affected high-skilled people — the kind who might start businesses that employ other people.
That’s funny, because I distinctly recall people writing about it 10 or 20 years ago.
Radegunda (04c976) — 2/7/2022 @ 10:15 amI also recall Trump saying in the first presidential candidates’ debate that “our wages are too high,” and doubling down on it later — before he realized that it wasn’t the way to get a big fan base. It’s funny how Trumpies imagine that he sincerely wanted the working class to be better paid.
I honestly don’t comprehend how it’s possible to believe that Donald Trump — a supremely selfish person with a long history of boasting about and ostentatiously displaying his wealth, and of taking advantage of the less wealthy and powerful (e.g. by not paying them what he contractually agreed to pay) — truly cares about the well-being of average Americans while no one else before him ever did.
Radegunda (04c976) — 2/7/2022 @ 10:22 amIt’s funny how Trumpies imagine that he sincerely wanted the working class to be better paid.
Radegunda (04c976) — 2/7/2022 @ 10:15 am
establishment repubs sincerely care about the working class and immigrants
that’s why they take great efforts to not live near them
think dubya bush
but yeah trumpies are fooled by trump
JF (e1156d) — 2/7/2022 @ 10:47 am“Populism is a pent-up reaction by people who’ve been discarded by the governing class.”
Discarded makes it sound like government’s purpose is to make the economy easy for people and to take care of them. However, that thinking either devolves into democratic socialism on the Left…..or nationalistic trade and immigration policies on the Right. Obviously the Left’s solutions are typically unaffordable, marginally effective, and often introduce unwanted incentives. So what does the tGOP propose? Trade wars, walking away from the trans-pacific trade agreement, pretending that the new-NAFTA is a game changer, and beating on the immigration drum yet one more time, with no real new approaches (say like actually cracking down on businesses that hire illegals and building up the enforcement assets — agents and judges — to change the equation). Instead it becomes about the wall….and all the other myriad ideas and strategies get lost as background noise. Yes, we need to be tough on China….but they too have us by the supply chain balls. There is a degree of smart that is needed….but the tGOP is primarily about theater…and appearing to do something. I get that “he fights” is primarily about the optics rather than the achievements but if a something sounds too simplistic, it’s usually because it is…..
AJ_Liberty (ec7f74) — 2/7/2022 @ 11:03 am“Send your kids to indoctrination centers and watch what they turn into.”
It’s a private school.
Davethulhu (b008b2) — 2/7/2022 @ 11:28 amOne of the most striking things about George W. Bush’s elected career is how he was dedicated to helping working families. He was tough on crime in Texas, recognizing that the principal victims of crime are usually the poor, and, in some areas, the working class. He promoted education reform, with considerable success. (Rich people can afford private schools, the non-rich can’t.)
His federal tax cuts were directed at working families, and made the income tax more progressive. His proposal for social security reform included a supplement for lower income workers.
The Bush administration “clean diesel” regulations made our air safer, for anyone who works or lives near highways.
And, of course, as we all know, he proposed immigration reforms which combined tougher enforcement with paths to legalization for those who had been here many years. Although that did not pass, illegal immigration fell during his time in office, after rising sharply while Clinton was president.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 2/7/2022 @ 11:46 amSo what did he really mean when he said “Our wages are too high”?
Radegunda (e99c47) — 2/7/2022 @ 11:47 amWhat did he really intend when he refused to pay small contractors what he agreed to, saying they would have to sue for it? At least one contractor went out of business as a result.
What did he intend when he conned average people out of their savings with “Trump University”?
What about how the Trump campaign tricked small donors into making repeated monthly donations when they thought they were only making a single donation?
Trump’s own “charity” was shut down because of a pattern of abuse and fraud.
I’ve never seen a shred of evidence of Donald Trump — who boasts about his huuuge wealth — spending his own money to help the less advantaged.
But if it makes you feel better, just keep pretending that one of the most assertively selfish persons in America cares truly and deeply about the well-being of average Americans.
Radegunda (e99c47) — 2/7/2022 @ 11:58 amMy goodness, we can’t let parents have a say in what their children learn!
Radegunda (e99c47) — 2/7/2022 @ 12:00 pmOh wait …
I remember when the activist right-wing derided Bush’s “compassionate conservatism,” which they characterized as socialism-lite and a perversion of true constitutional conservatism.
There’s no doubt that a fair number of those people became Trumpies. And one of the central “intellectual” arguments for Trump was that the whole GOP had become “heartless” and callous toward average Americans, and then along came Trump, posing as a champion of the working class, promising he wouldn’t touch entitlements (i.e. wouldn’t worry about their solvency …), and saying he would replace the ACA with a better national health-care program that would take care of everybody at lower cost. Etc.
It was a stunningly rapid rewriting of history and ideology.
Radegunda (e99c47) — 2/7/2022 @ 12:09 pmSome years ago, I ran into a young man who told me he had attended Texas Ranger games while Bush was running the team. The young man told me that Bush often sat in the cheap seats so he could find out what the ordinary fans thought of the whole experience. (I’ve read that Mitch Daniels does something similar at Purdue.)
On the other hand, the Bush family saw no reason to get close to Donald Trump — wisely.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 2/7/2022 @ 12:12 pm@249 that just went over your head
trump doesn’t care
tell me who does
JF (e1156d) — 2/7/2022 @ 12:14 pmOne of the problems with the state-splitting plans I keep seeing is that they want to preserve county boundaries. But this is nonsense in the case of Riverside + San Bernardino counties — the urbanized areas of those counties (“the inland empire”) are economically and culturally part of the greater Los Angeles areas, while the rural parts have more in common with the desert expanse east of the Sierras. You can’t map actual communities of interest that way. Two other problems arise from the fact that Sacramento is part of the Central Valley *physically* but culturally attaches more to the Bay Area — as, increasingly, do Stockton and Modesto; they’re becoming bedroom communities for people who work in the bay but want large houses on large lots.
Meanwhile, the entire north coast north of Santa Rosa is rural land which would naturally attach to Jefferson (the name the separatists in the Central Valley north of Sacramento use for their region) except that *culturally* they are very, very socially liberal and are therefore a bad fit for the northern Central Valley if culture is what matters. If I were drawing new boundaries, I’d suggest the following four states:
* The coastal counties from san Louis Obispo south, plus the urbanized areas of San Bernardino and riverside counties
* The Bay, plus Monterey County, Stanislaus County, Sacramento County, Yolo County, Merced County, and San Joaquin County
* Imperial county, the rural parts of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, east of the Sierra through Alpine County, the Sierra through Amadaor County, and the Central Valley south of Merced county
* Everything north of Sonoma/Napa/Yolo/Sacramento/Amador/Alpine
In this setup, the bay and the south coast would be deep blue, while the north and the rural central/south would both be red.
aphrael (4c4719) — 2/7/2022 @ 12:19 pm@252 Bush was running the team
he owned the team
i also recall he let non paying fans jump the fence claiming asylum and sit in the owner’s suite, then get an autographed jersey free concessions and stay as long as they liked
JF (e1156d) — 2/7/2022 @ 12:21 pmNo it didn’t.
How about this:
That’s the sort of thing that Donald Trump would never do. He loves being worshiped by the rubes at rallies, but he is not known for wanting to go out among them and talk with them.
You’ve implied that Trumpies aren’t being fooled by Trump — but Trumpies claim that he cares about and empathizes with the average American more than all his predecessors and competitors and critics. It’s a bizarre view of the most flagrantly selfish and assertively arrogant person in American politics.
Radegunda (e99c47) — 2/7/2022 @ 12:40 pmRepublican party announces almost 40 of the 7500 republicans seeking office this year are black! And not all of them are grifters being aid by rich white conservatives to run!
asset (62bd72) — 2/7/2022 @ 12:58 pm247 watch the movie fair game to see how bush “helped” the little people.
asset (62bd72) — 2/7/2022 @ 12:59 pmAbbott and Costello dodge answers about Nord Stream 2.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/7/2022 @ 1:06 pm35,000 US troops already in Germany, Joe. So why deploy more from Ft. Bragg in the U.S.? How much does it cost? WHO pays for this saber rattling?
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/7/2022 @ 1:10 pmHollywood and the ChiComs: Sonny Bunch promotes an important new book.
Hitler’s Germany used similar tactics on Hollywood as the ChiComs are doing, and had success.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 2/7/2022 @ 1:33 pmHere’s a good summary of what most medical professionals think about kids and masks.
Key points:
(Emphasis added.)
There are times when I wonder how many Americans do not accept the idea that most diseases are infectious.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 2/7/2022 @ 1:52 pm‘Precipitous decline’: J.D. Vance pollster issues warning on Ohio Senate race
……..
A 98-page PowerPoint presentation produced by Tony Fabrizio, who has been polling for the pro-Vance Protect Ohio Values super PAC since last year, paints a dire picture of the candidate’s prospects. According to the slide deck, Vance has seen a “precipitous decline” in Ohio’s GOP Senate primary since last fall, when a pair of outside groups backing a rival began a multimillion-dollar TV advertising blitz using five-year-old footage of Vance attacking former President Donald Trump.
“Driving his negatives is the perception that he is anti-Trump. This has only grown since” November, said the presentation, which is based on polling data of 800 likely primary voters conducted Jan. 18-20.
The Senate race in Ohio is a high-profile example of how Trump is dominating Republican down-ballot primaries, and how his support is seen as make-or-break for those seeking the party’s nomination. ……..
……..
……..Fabrizio, who is also a longtime Trump pollster, wrote in the presentation that Vance is “now underwater with strong Trump” supporters “and very conservative voters, groups needed to win a GOP primary.” He added that Vance’s “association as a Never Trumper has only grown since November” and that “being anti-Trump is the #1 reason voters do not like Vance.”
………
“The groups where Vance has improved are those we don’t want him doing better with: Trump disapprovers and moderate/liberals,” Fabrizio wrote.
Vance’s decline follows a $2 million-plus TV ad campaign from the Club for Growth and USA Freedom Fund, outside groups that are backing Vance rival Josh Mandel, which have portrayed Vance as an anti-Trump figure. The commercials, which use footage from 2016, show Vance describing himself as a “Never Trump guy” and calling Trump an “idiot,” “noxious” and “offensive,” appear to have made a dent. According to the slide deck, “anti-Trump is by far the top thing the 50% of voters who have seen an ad about Vance remember.”
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 2/7/2022 @ 1:55 pm………
Sad!
Well Vance can always replace Richard Karn on a Home Improvement reboot. I do wonder if the dirty old man aspect of Trump might be kicking in…he may be greasing the skids for Jane Timken in the OH Senate race in the same manner as he got out there for that Ortagus chick. Bennie Moreno dropped out of that same race
Vernon Jones also wont be in the GA guba primary, instead might go for a congressional seat. Trying to get as many 1 to 1 Trump v. Non or Less Trump races as possible.
urbanleftbehind (030913) — 2/7/2022 @ 2:20 pmAJ_Liberty (ec7f74)
Will you please try punctuation and white-space so us old farts can read what you write?
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/7/2022 @ 2:34 pm–>No one cared until Trump did.
That’s funny, because I distinctly recall people writing about it 10 or 20 years ago.
Sure and Dick Gephardt ran on it in the 80s, until Bill Clinton decided to see if the Democrats couldn’t pander to the investing classes, too. And then everything started to move to China.
The point I am trying to make is that the political classes ignored the American-born working men and women and pandered to Wall Street and no one really took them up on it. Those who did, like Pat Buchanan, generally had other issues that conflicted. Then along comes Trump, and all of a sudden it clicks and his initial successes make him their champion.
I think he’s a terrible champion, repulsive and unable to deliver, but even after he struck gold no one else in 2016 was willing to steal his message.
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/7/2022 @ 2:40 pmJim Miller
EPA study on masks
“Public health experts recommend wearing face masks as tools to protect others from breathing potentially infectious particles. At the request of University of North Carolina (UNC) Hospitals, EPA scientists are working to understand the effectiveness of masks to protect the wearer against the virus through a series of projects in collaboration with UNC researchers. Researchers tested how well different masks and modifications filter out airborne salt particles, which are the same size as the smallest SARS-CoV-2 particles, but are not harmful.”
“They tested the filtration ability of expired N95 masks, N95 masks that had been sterilized for reuse, and dozens of other face mask alternatives. The results show that both expired N95 masks and sterilized N95 masks provided the same level of protection as new N95 masks with greater than 95 percent filtration. Other alternatives provided less protection. For example, surgical masks with ties provided 71.5 percent filtration, while surgical masks with ear loops only provided 38.1 percent.”
“They found that the effectiveness of the masks varied widely: a three-layer knitted cotton mask blocked an average of 26.5 percent of particles in the chamber, while a washed, two-layer woven nylon mask with a filter insert and metal nose bridge blocked 79 percent of particles on average”
steveg (e81d76) — 2/7/2022 @ 2:43 pmOne of the problems with the state-splitting plans I keep seeing is that they want to preserve county boundaries. But this is nonsense in the case of Riverside + San Bernardino counties — the urbanized areas of those counties (“the inland empire”) are economically and culturally part of the greater Los Angeles areas, while the rural parts have more in common with the desert expanse east of the Sierras. You can’t map actual communities of interest that way.
You’ve mentioned this before, and it may have something to do with why you tend towards liberal.
Conservatives always look for simple solutions, easy to explain. Liberals are not happy until they have examined every nuance and entrail. There has never been a Liberal simplification of anything.
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/7/2022 @ 2:44 pmaphrael, my ideal map, although the counties just north of Sacramento might be a bit iffy.
I don’t think 4 states would work, as you need to have exactly +1 Democrat. Less and the Dems will scream, more and the Rs will. So, 3 or 5.
Three (not my favorite) is the above map with the two southern states joined and the two interior states joined. One hard blue, one leans blue and one hard red. The linked 5-state map is color coded politically.
I get it that this isn’t perfect. Maybe you can bolt parts of SB into the central state to inprove access to Inyo and Mono, but one you go past county boundaries there is no end for the perfection-seekers.
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/7/2022 @ 2:53 pmNote that the “3 Californias” map is a +3D gerrymander.
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/7/2022 @ 2:54 pmSeperating LA and Orange Counties means having a state border *literally* running down the middle of streets in the center of an urban area. There’s no other border in the country like it, and it would be extremely difficult to manage well.
The SB/LA county border isn’t much better.
aphrael (4c4719) — 2/7/2022 @ 3:04 pmAlso, I think your map gives two blue areas (LA + the central coast), one deep red area (the north), and two purple-leaning blue areas (the central valley anchored on sacramento/san joaquin/stanislaus/merced, and the south — ventura, san diego, and the inland empire all lean blue now, orange county is right on the line).
aphrael (4c4719) — 2/7/2022 @ 3:06 pm“tell me who does [care about working families]” Well, to begin with, among others, Dana and Radegunda. And it isn’t hard to find other frequent commenters here who do, too.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 2/7/2022 @ 3:06 pm#267 steveg – Good data from what sounds like a reasonable set of experiments.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 2/7/2022 @ 3:11 pmIt is my opinion that the people in government/media who want to mandate masks should be seen everywhere with the best mask available worn correctly at all times.
They don’t and supposedly they are privy to more information than the peasants.
When I must mask, I wear a cloth one. It is one of those 26.5% effective masks.
It is worn so I don’t get scolded by some freak out prone mental patient.
Does anyone out there remember people who bought crystals and wore metal triangle/pyramids on their heads?
Same people.
The American experiment is circling the bowl
steveg (e81d76) — 2/7/2022 @ 3:21 pmSplitting California is a solution in search of a problem.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 2/7/2022 @ 3:25 pm272, uh State Line Road in Hammond IN bordering Chicago proper in it’s most norther stretch and Calumet City IL further south. The latter stretch is populated on both sides moreso than the upper stretch which separates a Chicago City worker haven from large retail area.
urbanleftbehind (030913) — 2/7/2022 @ 3:31 pm@271
“There’s no other border in the country like it, and it would be extremely difficult to manage well.”
It’s more common than you think. There’s a Kansas / Missouri border in Kansas City where the border is literally a street, and it’s a looooooong street.
whembly (7e0293) — 2/7/2022 @ 3:37 pmSplitting California is a solution in search of a problem.
That’s usin’ Ur-kraine. 😉
… and Putin smiled.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/7/2022 @ 3:49 pm@266 Thomas frank (whats the matter with kansas) Does a lecture on the two parties switching interest between the elite professional wealthy class and the working class. Frank in the lecture says it annoyed msdnc so much they stopped having him on their shows (they appeal to mostly white professional women.
asset (39d8c8) — 2/7/2022 @ 3:51 pm@262 we already knew the deleterious impact of masks on child learning and development is irrelevant to mask advocates
JF (e1156d) — 2/7/2022 @ 3:57 pm#281 JF – I am willing to accept that you are not just being a troll, but actually think that masks are harmful to children. Now, would you, in turn, accept that I do not think masks harm children in any significant way? (With exceptions for a few autistic kids.) And that I think that masks help children, and those they come in contact with, avoid the COVID virus, which has killed more than 900,000 in the United States, so far.
According to the CDC, COVID has killed almost a thousand American children, so far.
(And, yes, I know that it is possible to find a few medical professionals who agree with you, emphasis on a few. But most medical professionals don’t find their arguments persuasive, and recommend masks for children over the age of two, in schools, and in crowded places generally.)
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 2/7/2022 @ 4:44 pmThe kids aren’t having trouble learning because of masks. In fact there is a significant benefit in a reduction of drama, since it’s useless to “mean mug” anyone when they are wearing a mask and also useless to mouth rude words to people they don’t like or to their teacher, so kids are benefiting from more instructional time.
Nic (896fdf) — 2/7/2022 @ 4:45 pmThe New York Times headline says it all: “Natural Gas Shipments, Mostly From U.S., Ease Europe’s Energy Crunch”. (My print edition headline says the same thing, but phrases it differently.)
The US is making billions selling natural gas to Europe, at Russia’s expense. (Qatar is also profiting.)
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 2/7/2022 @ 5:02 pmasset – It must be odd typing on a keyboard without all the usual working shift keys.
(I’m quite pleased with my American-manufactured Unicomp keyboard, as I think anyone who learned using the old IBM Model m keyboards would be. Same feel, snazzier appearance. Note that you may have to wait, if you order one.)
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 2/7/2022 @ 5:11 pm…take it away, DCSCA
urbanleftbehind (c2e573) — 2/7/2022 @ 5:14 pm#283 Nic – Does social distancing help in similar ways?
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 2/7/2022 @ 5:21 pm@283 and also useless to mouth rude words to people they don’t like or to their teacher
concerns that come to the fore when you confuse “helping kids learn better” with “making teachers’ lives easier”
you won’t believe this, but there are a lot of kids who don’t mean mouth and aren’t into drama
JF (e1156d) — 2/7/2022 @ 5:33 pm260. DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/7/2022 @ 1:10 pm
Elementary. In order to say that it is temporary and could be reversed if Putin undoes what he did – and also with that. they’re not reducing U.S. troops anywhere.
They noticed that Putin deployed supplies before he deployed troops.
As I said, what Putin is really concerned about is his hold on power ad not anything he is talking about. But he dare not even ask for what he wants because to do so, and to name what he fears would be to hand NATO a roadmap as to how to depose him, and he knows they’d rather like him to go because of all the interference he has done, if for no other reason.
But he hinted: It involves very tough sanctions.
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 2/7/2022 @ 5:39 pmSo you, who unfailingly defend one side while excoriating the other, somehow know from your personal experience that people who condemn extremism on both sides are liars. And this of course makes them, not you, the tribalists.
That’s some totally logical, not to mention falsifiable, analysis.
lurker (59504c) — 2/6/2022 @ 5:37 pm
The irony of this nuclear-level cope is that my wife and most of my friends vote Democrat.
And yes, the condemnation of extremism “ON BOF SIDZ!” is mostly performative. It’s why the left constantly complains about “divisiveness” through their media mouthpieces whenever their agenda is resisted. Establishmentarians are mostly just trying to avoid any kind of fight whatsoever, and think complaining about extremism from the right and left will keep the latter off their backs.
See his later plan (3 states) which would have resulted in three Democrat majority states. It didn’t go onto the ballot due to a legal challenge, despite getting enough signatures.
There are splits of the state that serve all interests. Draper’s proposals are partisan false flags.
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/7/2022 @ 8:53 am
I don’t see why we’d have to stop at just California. Besides Illinois, upstate New York, and most of Oregon excising themselves from the clutches of Cook County, NYC, and Multnomah County, there are entire regions that would benefit from wholesale reorganization.
In fact, the American West as a region would mostly benefit from reorganizing from the Jeffersonian gridlines in favor of their watersheds like John Wesley Powell proposed, and getting rid of prior appropriation (an outdated relic of the California gold rush that’s made water lawyers in the West rich for decades), in favor of a riparian rights system in each watershed. Places like the Western Slope of Colorado could stop sending water across the Continental Divide to Denver, and the greenies would be satisfied because such a system would actually help provide some restoration to wild habitats. You could still keep the dam systems to account for drought periods and for hydro power uses (which the greenies won’t like), but with each watershed maintaining its natural stream flow, water management would be much easier.
Heck, the Colorado River Compact, for example, isn’t even based on good science–the allocations are calculated from limited annual streamflow measurements that took place during an extremely wet period. They don’t even come close to the river’s average annual streamflow, much less during drought periods.
Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 2/7/2022 @ 5:46 pm@282 Jim Miller, no i don’t think you’re trolling, but more children died in car accidents than covid
and unlike masks, child safety seats and restraints don’t impair child learning and development
and unlike covid, comorbidities don’t account for the vast majority of deaths by automobile
but keep asking sacrifices of the young for whatever dubious benefit
it doesn’t sound like you have kids in school
california and oregon mandate masks for children in school, while arizona and texas don’t
yet all have roughly the same cases per capita, except texas which is much lower
so, maybe show your work
JF (e1156d) — 2/7/2022 @ 5:50 pmA haracter in literature whi couldn;t type capital letters:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archy_and_Mehitabel
Somewhat close to thatL
https://faculty.gvsu.edu/websterm/cummings/caps.htm
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 2/7/2022 @ 5:53 pmCalifornia might agree to split if the more rural, smaller population parts took over a disproportionate share of the state debt.
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 2/7/2022 @ 5:54 pmThe hope?
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/01/19/remarks-by-president-biden-in-press-conference-6
— “My guess is he will move in; he has to do something.” – Joe Biden, January 19, 2022
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 2/7/2022 @ 6:16 pmBiden, I think, sort of retracted that comment.
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 2/7/2022 @ 6:24 pm@Jim@287- We already had a hands-off rule before the social distancing went into effect. The reality is that no matter how much you tell kids not to be in eachother’s space, unless you are using draconian methods and a ton of adult presence, social distancing is only a theory for anyone under about the age of 16.
@JF@288 Fortunately, I haven’t confused those things. Kids getting into kid-drama (and spending time out of class sorting through it) or getting into trouble (and needing to spend time out of class either calming down or thinking about their life choices) is not beneficial to their academic progress. More instructional time is beneficial to it. Whether or not having a kid who is hard to manage spend more time in class “makes the teacher’s lives easier” is definitely up for debate.
And since I, you know, work in a school, I suspect I have a pretty good idea of the percentage of students that get into pickles due to poor choice making either by themselves or by someone else (probably abt 20% or so more than once, 5-10% on a regular basis- included in the aforementioned 20%).
Nic (896fdf) — 2/7/2022 @ 6:35 pm@296 And since I, you know, work in a school
oh my
and since i, you know, am a parent… with kids in grade school
i suspect I have a pretty good idea of the impact of masks, remote learning and other draconian measures have on kids, and not from the perspective of what’s best for teachers and school admins
and you don’t
JF (e1156d) — 2/7/2022 @ 6:49 pm@JF@297 Being a parent means you see up to maybe 10 kids on a personal level on a regular basis, maybe up to 20 if you coach, for each of your children. You may be one of the adults who know them best in the world (the younger they are, the better chance of that). However, your sample size is very small and your viewpoint of the impact of masks in the lives of children is most probably specifically only of your children. You have very little idea of the actual impact of masks on learning because your sample is not sufficient to give you an idea of it across the board and your viewpoint is quite narrow. You feel like masks are a problem in learning. They aren’t.
Nic (896fdf) — 2/7/2022 @ 7:26 pm@298 you have no firsthand experience with the impact
none
except with children as statistics and part of a sample size
JF (e1156d) — 2/7/2022 @ 7:37 pm@JF@299 I don’t just work at the DO looking at numbers :P, but whether or not you count working with students as personal experience, it doesn’t really matter. Personal experience may give us a feel for what might be going on, but feelings can be wrong or be based on things other than the reality of what is happening. If you don’t have any facts or statistics to back up what you feel, it’s just feelings and those may or may not have anything to do with reality. In this case, your feelings about what may or may not be happening with your children does not match up with what we see with students in general.
Nic (896fdf) — 2/7/2022 @ 7:58 pm@300 If you don’t have any facts or statistics to back up what you feel
let me rephrase my prior comment
you have neither firsthand experience nor data to back up your position
none
show your work
JF (e1156d) — 2/7/2022 @ 8:15 pm@JF@301 I could tell you that we aren’t seeing significant differences in our district-wide benchmark test scores for Jr. High history or science between this year and fall 2020, which is what what we are seeing (I chose those because they aren’t dependent on earlier learning), but since your default position is that I am not being truthful, I can also provide a study for you by the University of Mount Union
Nic (896fdf) — 2/7/2022 @ 8:45 pmhttps://theaspenbeat.com
mg (8cbc69) — 2/8/2022 @ 3:09 amHaving taken day trips to Aspen many times to ski, these people have been wokey dokey for decades.
Miss you and those daze, HST.
Less distraction?
Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d) — 2/8/2022 @ 3:45 am302, way to go Mount Union…not just for D3 championship college football.
urbanleftbehind (5aa5f4) — 2/8/2022 @ 4:58 am“It appears that there was some cognitive benefit in wearing a mask,” Scanlon said. “It’s not what we were expecting.”
It also explains Muslims veiling their women. It makes them smarter.
nk (1d9030) — 2/8/2022 @ 5:17 amOver at the Bulwark
AJ_Liberty (3cb02f) — 2/8/2022 @ 5:30 amIt seems to me that, yes, definitely, making eight to eleven year year old children a faceless mass, which parrots words the teachers tell them, will give teachers the results they test for. Pretty much an intuitive thing, actually. No test is really needed.
Not that I am opposed to masks. Or teachers. Or children, for that matter. Just self-serving pseudo-scientific bullsh!t.
nk (1d9030) — 2/8/2022 @ 5:54 amMore Manafort detritus.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 2/8/2022 @ 6:11 amnk (1d9030) — 2/8/2022 @ 5:17 am
I read something n a news article.
A 5-year old girl, told she would not have to wear a mask in school any mre told her mother that then her mouth will be naked!
Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d) — 2/8/2022 @ 6:25 amSammy, I also have to wonder what babies and toddlers make of the half-faced big people they see when their parents take them out in public. The ones whose expressions they cannot see like they do their family-members’.
nk (1d9030) — 2/8/2022 @ 6:39 amHere’s one of the best film reviews I’ve ever read (and a brilliant promotion for the movie as well).
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 2/8/2022 @ 9:21 amhttps://www.sciencealert.com/another-study-links-between-severe-covid-and-vitamin-d-deficiency
Think about how many lives could’ve been saved if we just recommended the obvious.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 2/8/2022 @ 10:03 amor if more people had just gotten vaccinated.
Time123 (9f42ee) — 2/8/2022 @ 10:12 amhttps://babylonbee.com/news/here-are-10-famous-songs-spotify-is-removing-for-misinformation
with explanations:
1) “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Deon
Fact-check: false. The heart stops pumping blood as soon as brain activity ceases. Also, you have myocarditis.
2) “All You Need Is Love” by The Beatles
The science is clear – love is not all you need. Food, water, oxygen, and a stable ambient temperature are far more critical.
3) “When A Man Loves A Woman” by Michael Bolton
This song implies there are only two genders. Not good. The year is 2022, Michael Bolton.
4) “Run The World (Girls)” by Beyoncé Knowles
Not true. The vast majority of CEOs and world leaders are male.
5) “This Land Is Your Land” by Woody Guthrie
Elizabeth Warren and many noble indigenous peoples like her would disagree.
6) “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover” by Paul Simon
There are 62.
7) “WAP” by Cardi B
That is not how you spell “wop,” which is a derogatory term for Italians. Do better, Cardi B.
8) “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” by Aretha Franklin
Natural?! I can’t even.
9) “Two Hearts” by Phil Collins
People only have one heart. Phil Collins is an idiot.
10) “A Whole New World” from Disney’s Aladdin
Nope, still earth.
Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d) — 2/8/2022 @ 10:40 amhttps://thefederalist.com/2022/02/07/report-red-state-public-schools-encourage-kids-to-go-transgender-behind-their-parents-backs/
Cultural marxism in public schools.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 2/8/2022 @ 10:46 amSounds like the kid wanted to go transfender and the school supported them.
Time123 (9f42ee) — 2/8/2022 @ 10:55 amComrades who did not click the “one of the best movie reviews” link at Paul Montagu’s 312 don’t know what they’re missing.
Now to try and find in which movie Frances McDormand used a bucket.
nk (1d9030) — 2/8/2022 @ 11:07 amI linked to an URL that has a bad word:
“mucosal immune response” means an immune response in the mucus = where the virus might be breathed in and land first, he vaccine does not do that, because it is injected, but the virus does. A different Immunoglobulin is present there,
It’s an anti-vaccine argument, but at most means it doesn’t do that good a job at oreventing people from testing positive, But you never test positive at the very first exposure. Even with the extremely senistive PCR test the virus has to multiply a bit first.
And then, what innjected vaccine stimulates a “mucosal immune response?” Of course some diseases are not transmitted by breathing, but measles is, and the vaccine works.
Measles, by the way, erases immunity to other diseases, and is the human version of rinderpest, which has been rendered extinct.
Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d) — 2/8/2022 @ 11:11 amNever mind, not worth looking up.
nk (1d9030) — 2/8/2022 @ 11:13 amThe Frances McDormand movie, I mean. What I said about the movie review link still goes.
nk (1d9030) — 2/8/2022 @ 12:17 pm#312
Look, the fine thing about that movie is when Frances McDormand tells the family dog to leave the castle. The pain and contempt she expresses in that simple everyday act…
And then she goes all Joan Crawford about cleaning the floor…
Appalled (1a17de) — 2/8/2022 @ 12:38 pmSome people affiliated with several different parts of Johns Hopkins attempted the evaluate the worth of various non-pharmacological interventions (which, for some reason, they call “lockdowns”) on the ultimate number of deaths from Covid. They collected 1,048 studies on “lockdowns” and decided 34 of them were good enough for their meta analysis.
Now note: they are only talking about official lockdowns, not what people might do by themselves.
In the United States and Europe lockdowns – except that the word lockdowns should be in quotes – only reduced COVID-19 mortality by 1/5 of 1%.
Shelter in place prders were better than that average – they reduced mortality by 2.9% – almost 3%
Limiting gatherings reduced it by 1.6% (this most logically would be because they came to an end. In fact they only considered half hearted lockdowns. Nothing from Australia or New Zealand.)
Birder closures actually were counterproductive increasing mortality by 1/10 of 1% (most logically because they substitued for other measures)
Worst of all were school closures. They increased mortality by 4.4% (by preventing the spread of mild cases?)
This study has come under criticism:
https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/exclusives/97056
The first problem is they weren’t talking about lockdowns. They called everything a lockdown, even mask orders. So they jumbled everything together.
Then tey picked out their own studies.
A 21-part revuew on Twitter
https://twitter.com/GidMK/status/1489744817563136001
Another thread linked to in that Twitter review
https://twitter.com/AndreasShrugged/status/1488993038915489794
Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d) — 2/8/2022 @ 1:03 pmGrim news on COVID:
This is even worse than what I feared might happen, back in December.
I can understand why so many Americans are afraid to face these facts; that’s typical behavior during a pandemic. But we are not doing ourselves, or others, a favor by pretending that everything is OK.
Jim Miller (edcec1) — 2/8/2022 @ 1:22 pmAmong the people who have died from Covid recently are:
1) Karl Rove’s sister, age 65:
https://thehiu.com/requiescat-in-pace-alma-wsj (she had a lower class life)
2) Mel Mermelsten, aged 95, Holocaust survivor of Auschwitz originally from a part of Czechoslovakia that was annexed by Hungary – which saved his family for some years – it’s now in Ukraine – (he’s in a famous picture taken at Buchenwald on April 16, 1945, from when he liberated with Elie Weisel also in the picture) who successfully sued Willis Carto, who had offered a reward of $50,000 to the first person who could prove that Jews had been gassed at Auschwitz.
Carto tried to avoid paying when Mel Mermelstein signed an affidavit that he knew that personally, but his lawyer argued that an exchange of letters constituted a contract, and the judge also ruled at one point that English common law said well known facts did not need to be proven again with original evidence or something.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/01/us/mel-mermelstein-dead.html
3) In Israel, Esther Pollard, wife of Jonathan Pollard, age 68. after a two week illness and a false negative home test – she also had had breast cancer – after the doctors gave up hope and asked if he wanted her disconnected or to fight and he said she had always fought – she died two days later.
https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-695048
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 2/8/2022 @ 2:14 pmThere must be some story with these defective Covid tests.
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 2/8/2022 @ 2:15 pmI’ve not been following the trucker protest up in Ottawa, but this Toronto guy came over and witnessed what he saw. The final paragraph.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 2/8/2022 @ 2:48 pmhttps://twitchy.com/sarahd-313035/2022/02/08/you-love-to-see-it-bipartisan-group-of-virginia-state-senators-just-delivered-parents-and-kids-and-glenn-youngkin-a-huge-win/
Bipartisan group of legislators put power back where it belongs, in the hands of parents of their kids.
NJRob (5e5b2f) — 2/8/2022 @ 3:50 pmThere are some political parallels between the late 1970s and early 2020s.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 2/8/2022 @ 4:04 pmYou know things are going funny when a purported conservative like Carlson has an anti-Cold War left wingers as an esteemed guest.
To put the present GOP in context, what if the dominant percentage of the party was convinced that the answer to Carter was more Nixon?
Huh? What if they could read some history; they had a Ford in their future. The Big Dick was on ice in San Clemente, about to get Frosted.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/8/2022 @ 4:14 pm@163
The problem is that in a global competitive marketplace good jobs go overseas.
Purplehaze (34bae0) — 2/8/2022 @ 4:33 pmHow many people will die this summer and next for New Mexico regulator’s wokeness? After ordering the shutdown of the remaining coal-fired plant and abandoning its share of an Arizona nuclear power plant, the Public Regulation Commission rejected all non-renwable replacements, then delayed its approval of renewable replacements for so long that contracts expired and lead times reset.
PNM, PRC scramble to avoid summer blackouts
The commission blames everyone else for not giving them “enough time” to evaluate all proposals. This is what happens when your state is captured by the radical wing of the Democrat party. Not likely to change since the D+5 state has been so gerrymandered that the Democrats will retain a supermajority in both houses. Wasn’t this way until Donald Trump arrived and made the GOP toxic here.
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/8/2022 @ 5:09 pmThere must be some story with these defective Covid tests.
Yeah, it’s a simple one though. Home Covid tests are cheap tests that are not as good as those done expensively in a hospital laboratory. They have known false negative rates (especially as it is the patient conducting the test, who may not do the procedure correctly).
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/8/2022 @ 5:12 pmThe commission blames everyone else for not giving them “enough time” to evaluate all proposals. This is what happens when your state is captured by the radical wing of the Democrat party. Not likely to change since the D+5 state has been so gerrymandered that the Democrats will retain a supermajority in both houses. Wasn’t this way until Donald Trump arrived and made the GOP toxic here.
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/8/2022 @ 5:09 pm
New Mexico has gone deeper blue primarily because Albuquerque has become increasingly Democratic since 2008, when Martin Heinrich blew out Darren White. It’s not an accident that the state’s recent congressional district maps were drawn up by a commission almost entirely made up of Albuquerque Democrats, who took extra special care to draw up an Illinois-style gerrymander.
The mess with PNM and PRC dropping the ball like that is emblematic of how ugly it’s going to get as Gen-X and the Millennials increasingly take over for the retiring Boomers. They’ve been used to being led by the latter and deferring big decisions to them for so long, they’ve become far too risk-averse to follow through on even basic requirements. When entire generations end up like this, is when complex societies begin falling apart. God help us when the Zoomers, who have mental illness rates that are absolutely off the charts, start moving in to positions of real, actual authority instead of their land of make-believe in the universities and NGOs.
Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 2/8/2022 @ 5:43 pmIn Ukraine itself, there is minimal U.S. military presence. Permanently deployed troops are limited primarily to the military attaché and Marine guards at the American Embassy in Kyiv. About 150 members of the Florida National Guard are in western Ukraine on a previously scheduled training rotation. source, – https://www.npr.org/2022/02/04/1078241901/us-troops-europe-ukraine-russia-crisis
Say it ain’t so, Joe?! Say it ain’t so!!
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/8/2022 @ 6:04 pmFlorida National Guard is probably guests of or in concert with Putin.
urbanleftbehind (7080bf) — 2/8/2022 @ 6:43 pmThe really ironic thing is that NM state finances would be in the crapper, were it not for huge oil and gas separation payments.
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/8/2022 @ 6:49 pmFlorida National Guard is probably guests of or in concert with Putin.
This naive cynicism will be the death of us.
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/8/2022 @ 6:50 pmThe mess with PNM and PRC dropping the ball like that is emblematic of how ugly it’s going to get as Gen-X and the Millennials increasingly take over for the retiring Boomers.
That may be, but NM has a lot of those retiring Boomers. And they are maybe going to exempt SS from state taxes, not that state taxes are all that high.
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/8/2022 @ 6:52 pmThe really ironic thing is that NM state finances would be in the crapper, were it not for huge oil and gas separation payments.
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/8/2022 @ 6:49 pm
Exactly. I believe tourism is their top revenue-generator, but oil and gas isn’t far behind. Unless they’re planning to rake in significant operating fees from the solar and wind companies, their already anemic school budgets are going to take a massive hit.
I was reading a book on Spanish colonialism in New Mexico and Texas a couple months ago, and it mentioned that Spanish officials reviewing the Coronado expedition made the prescient observation that New Mexico was too desolate to ever be a revenue-generating colony, and even occupying it for any length of time would require significant and perpetual subsidies from the crown to even maintain subsistence. That certainly held true through to the territorial era, and other than the brief period when the ATSF was the dominant economic force there, nothing has really changed in 480 years.
Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 2/8/2022 @ 7:07 pmSocial Security, military bases and the bomb factory all contribute as “subsidies.” If only we could find a way to monetize coyotes.
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/8/2022 @ 7:56 pmHow remote and desolate is New Mexico? They had an atmospheric atomic bomb test here, in secret.
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/8/2022 @ 7:58 pmSo, did you know that the official guidance on Paxlovid suggests that the pill be reserved for the unvaccinated?
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/are-pfizers-covid-pills-going-highest-risk-patients-us-rollout-rcna13847#anchor-Whoshouldgettheantiviralsfirst
Kevin M (38e250) — 2/9/2022 @ 1:05 am@336/339. “Advisors”…
Uncle Sam’s been there; done that.
“This letter’s post-marked ‘Vietnam'” – SSgt. Barry Sadler., 1966
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/9/2022 @ 1:41 amhttps://www.miracle-recreation.com/blog/autism-why-playgrounds-matter/
mg (8cbc69) — 2/9/2022 @ 4:18 amMy wife and I are building a park for autistic kids on our property, anyone with experiences and knowledge in dealing with sensory deprived kids and what helps them will be greatly appreciated. My grandaughter Adalynn, thanks you as well. I know there is a lot of smart people on this site.
Awesome mg….good luck
AJ_Liberty (3cb02f) — 2/9/2022 @ 4:45 amThis is the first work of Titania McGrath that I’ve seen outside of Twitter, and she totally eviscerates J.K. Rowling’s “villainy” on trans issues. Good stuff.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 2/9/2022 @ 6:12 amFactcheckers find things wrong not when the facts are wrong, but when they could potentially lead people to “wrong” conclusions as to what policy is best.
https://nypost.com/2022/02/07/facebook-other-tech-giants-censor-facts-about-climate-change
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 2/10/2022 @ 4:44 pm